Even though there is a computer and DSL connection upstairs in the Festival’s on-theatre office, getting there for long enough to do a weblog entry has been a challenge.  So to recap the interesting events of the past week:

Dinner with Ryan and Sabrina

Last Tuesday or Wednesday, so long ago now I can’t remember, I was able to meet up with Ryan (the high school friend with whom I went to Viet Nam a week before coming to San Francisco) and his girlfriend Sabrina.  Ryan picked me up at the Film Festival’s office on Ninth Street and then we met Sabrina at the restaurant, the Cuban tapas restaurant Cha Cha Cha.  Cuban food is one of those “not in Khrungthep” sort of things, so as many trips as I can make there this week, I will.  Sabrina is just really fantastic and it was so nice to meet her.  No pictures to post, unfortunately, but I think they’ll be attending the closing night so I’ll take some then.

Lunch with Bruce and Howie and Paul

On Sunday (or Saturday, perhaps?) Paul and I drove over to Fremont to meet up with Bruce and Howie at one of my favorite Malaysian restaurants, Red Kwali.  “Kwali” is the Malay word for wok and the restaurant specialises in authentic hawker-style food.  In Malaysia and Singapore, there are food courts called hawker centers where each individual stand is owned by a different vendor and his/her family.

The food was good, despite the third or fourth ownership change in the past two years, and it was especially nice to visit with Bruce and Howie. 

They’ve been incredibly busy, Bruce completing his MBA and Howie has finally received his green card!  Yeah, he can now leave the US on vacation with relative ease.  They’re talking about a trip over to Taiwan to visit Howie’s parents and then on to Bangkok this Summer.  It would be so fun to have them visit, so Tawn and I will keep our fringers crossed and hope to see them soon.

Slide Projector Stands

The week before the Festival, I was assigned the task of building stands for the slide projectors.  We use these projectors to show slides of sponsors’ logos and names prior to the start of the show.  Previously, the movie theatre where we operate used slides for their pre-show entertainment, so we could just put our own slide carosel on screen, instead. 

However, AMC went to an all digital pre-show program and the old slide projectors are gone.  The new digital projectors are bolted into place so we can’t move them, and the costs of going digital this late in the game were too high for the Festival.  So this necessitated finding a way to mount our rented slide projectors so they could shoot through the port window in the projection booth.

Digging back into my drafting roots from junior high and high school (thanks, Mr. Geraci!) I came up with a design and after pricing it out, worked with two volunteers to purchase and construct the stands.  The finished product is a bit rickety – I had to buy some additional 1×2’s to add structural support to the stands that are 5 feet tall – but overall they work just fine.

Opening Night

This year’s opening night film was Eric Byler’s “Americanese“, adapted from the novel “American Knees” by Shawn Wong.  Eric did last year’s indie success “Charlotte Sometimes” and is a promising young director.

The Festival uses the charming and historic Castro Theatre for our opening night film along with several spotlight presentations over the opening weekend.  It’s majestic 1500-seat auditorium complete with Wurlitzer organ is a great setting for big events.

My responsibility was to handle crowd control outside the building.  Opening night was sold out and we had a rush line outside (people waiting to see if any seats open up at showtime) and we also had some of the most torrential rain that I have ever seen in San Francisco.  It even hailed for about half a minute.  Yikes!  It turns out that the gorgeous canopy that hangs over the sidewalk, leaks.  A lot.  

In my nice suit with a radio and a secret service style headset, I worked the crowd, getting people inside in a timely fashion and starting the movie only a few minutes late.  And by the end of it, I was soaked.  My jacket was completely soaked, my shoes and socks and the lower half of my legs were soaked.  Wet, wet, wet.

Before heading out to the opening night party I stopped by Anita’s house (thankfully I was staying only a few blocks away) to change into dry clothes.  Otherwise, given the frightfully cold night, I think I might have caugh pneumonia. 

The party itself, held at the Asian Art Museum, was a grand affair spread between all levels of the building.  The galleries were open, so it was a nice opportunity to take in some art in between bites of food and sips of wine.  Housed in the former public library, a Beaux Arts-style building that graces the civic center plaza, the meseum is one of the most beautiful cultural treasures in the city.  Tired and exhausted, I didn’t feel very chatty and so chose to wrap up the evening pretty early.  Especailly since Tawn was back in Khrungthep.  Parties aren’t as fun without a loved one to share them with.

Interesting Festival Events

The Festival has run smoothly with a few interesting events.  Director Abraham Lim, who I got to know a few years ago when his film “Roads and Bridges” played at our festival, was back with his follow-up, “The Achievers“.  Abe’s in post-production, still tweaking this film.  So we had a Friday evening show at a few hours before we didn’t have a copy of the film.  At first, Abe was going to drive up from LA.  Then one of his producers had a backup copy on video that he was going to get to us.  Finally, three or four of his cast members pitched in and bought Abe a plane ticket, and he arrived about 15 minutes before the show with the copy of the film we were to show.

After the show, Abe went back down to LA and spent Saturday tweaking the audio soundtrack, not satisfied with various minor details that appeared very noticable to him but which I think the audience probably wouldn’t notice.  By Saturday evening I was on the phone with him, answering questions about ways we could potentially hook his iMac laptop directly into the video projection system and run a parallel audio soundtrack.

Sunday morning about 5 am, Abe left LA and drove back up to San Francisco, arriving at the theatre about 11.  He met with our video projectionist, discussed some more options, and then spend the next eight hours in one of the offices continuing to tweak and edit the soundtrack.  Our projectionist was getting a bit worried about trying something radically different without the opportunity to actually test it out.  So about thirty minutes before the second showing, Abe finally decided that we’d stick with the tape that was used Friday night.

No Sleep Til Shanghai

One of the more popular films was a documentary by director Todd Angkasuwan about rapper Jin Au-Yueng, perhaps the most popular Asian-American rapper, and his eight-city tour of Asia.  The crowd of young fans was disappointed that the rapper himself wasn’t able to attend, but during the post-movie question and answer session, Todd called Jin on his mobile phone and held the microphone up to the phone so everyone in the audience could hear.  And thus, Jin was able to be there for Q&A.

Don’t Book the Bangladesh Film Festival!

Last night we had a show of “Gaijin 2” an epic Brazillian film about the Japanese-Brazillian experience early in the 20th Century.  The print had been sent to us from the Bangladesh Intenrational Film Festival and didn’t clear customs until yesterday morning.  Upon building up the seven-reel film, another of our projectionists discovered that reels 5 and 6 were from other films.  Yes, not only did they mix reels (which as a former projectionist I can tell you takes a bit of effort) but those two wrong reels were from two different movies! 

Momentary panic ensued but by the time I arrived some sense of calm had been restored, as we had a VHS copy of the movie as a preview tape.  The decision was made to screen the film on VHS and explain beforehand that the quality was not as high as we wanted.  People were offered refunds or the opportunity to watch other films.  In the end, I think that nobody took that offer and everyone stayed and enjoyed this great movie. 

Tawn to Macau

In his first business trip in several months, Tawn arrived in Macau today for an HP press event, acting as chaperone for several members of the Thai media.  He reports that it is cool and overcast and that Macau doesn’t appear to have anything to see or do other than go to casinos.  Smartly, he booked to fly into and out of Hong Kong, which will give him almost a full day on Thursday to shop and sightsee.

The trip report for the journey to Saigon that Tawn, Ryan and I took has been posted on airliners.net. 

You can click HERE to read it.

Last night I went down to the Roxie Cinema in the Mission District and watched a fantastic, thought-provoking film: CSA: The Confederate States of America.  (The flash intro will take a bit to load if you don’t have a high speed connection)

The movie is a faux documentary, supposedly produced by a British broadcasting company.  It takes a look at an America where the South won the Civil War.  The movie is built to look like a film that is being shown, controversially, for the first time on television in the States – complete with the TV introduction beforehand and commercial breaks throughout that serve to drive home the points the real film is making.

Excerpting from the film’s website:

“Beginning with the British and French forces joining the battle with the Confederacy, thus assuring the defeat of the North at Gettysburg and ensuing battles, the South takes the battle northward and form one country out of the two.

“Through the use of other fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, news breaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country which, in many ways, frighteningly follows a parallel with our own.

“After victory, President Davis brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them. Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Cuba, Mexico and South America.

…

“Through it all, we follow a political dynasty, the Fauntroy family, who lead the country through its triumphs and tragedies.

“We arrive to a today that, in many ways, we recognize. Although a nation that is content and prosperous, there is a tremendous divide within and suspicious eye without. Current politicians refer to us as two countries and perhaps, other than geographically, there is no difference between Red and Blue or North and South states. We have always struggled as to whether we are the United or Confederate States of America.”

Really, it is a shocking film because it takes something that we might initially dismiss as a preposterous thesis, and thinks it through very carefully.  The end result is that we’re able to look at many of the stands our country takes, ostensibly on the moral high ground, and recognize that there is a veneer of hypocrisy to them. 

I’d encourage you to see the movie if it is playing at a cinema near you.

This morning I received a call from my sister, who on Sunday gave birth to my second niece, Ava.  While my sister has been released from the hospital, Ava is still in neo-natal intensive care.  It seems that she is experiencing a problem with the valve from her stomach into the rest of her digestive track.  Basically, the contents of her stomach aren’t draining as quickly as they should.

Doctors are trying different things, looking for a non-surgical solution.  One is low doses of a muscle relaxant, in the thought that the muscle that controls this valve may be spasming. 

Another option is to go in for surgery, but of course this would be after non-surgical options are attempted.

While Jenn didn’t remember the name of this ailment, it is “not uncommon” in baby boys but is more uncommon in baby girls.  Nonetheless, the primary doctor handling the case has seen it before.

So that’s the factual side of things.  On the other side, Jennifer is worried, of course.  But at the same time, looking at the challenges that some of the other infants in ICU are facing, Ava is in much better shape.  It is frightening, though – you come to expect a perfectly healthy baby and you feel so powerless because there isn’t a thing you can do to help her.

Aside from that, Emily (niece #1 just a few days shy of 3 years old) is very unhappy that her mother hasn’t had much time for her as of late.  Without a doubt, she’ll face some continued disappointment at not being the center of the universe.  But she’ll get over it in time.  I’ll be there later in the month and will make it a point to spend some time with her so she knows how special she is.  And also, maybe take on some babysitting duties so Jenn and Kevin can get out of the house.

San Francisco continues to be unbearably cold.  The rains picked up again this afternoon after some beautiful sun and blue skies.  But the wind has been gusting all day and the windchill is now at freezing.  Yucky.

Brad sent a picture this evening of his two children, Evan and Cara, wearing the t-shirts from Jim Thompson Company that Tawn and I bought for them.  Trying to figure out what size t-shirts to buy was a major challenge, but it looks like the fit alright.  The theme: elephants.  What else?

I spent the morning working from Anita’s house on projects for IKON.  There is a major deadline looming over me and the documents I’m creating seem to take much more time and energy than I’d like them to.  But then, if I want them done correctly, I guess I have no choice but to put the necessary effort into them.

The afternoon was spent at the office of the SF Int’l Asian American Film Festival (click the link on the left side of this page to learn more) helping prepare for next week’s opening night.  The challenge of the day: we need to mount four slide projectors in the projection booths at the theatre so the sponsors’ slide can show on screen.

So this means we need some sort of stands on which to place the projectors.  Nothing pre-made seems to be meeting the unique space requirements of the Kabuki Theatres’ cramped booths, so I sat down with a pencil, straight edge, and paper and tapped into my long-dormant drafting skills.  The initial design, once I went to the lumber store to calculate costs, was a bit pricy, about $80 per stand.  A radical redesign, with less structural integrity, whittled the price to about $35 per stand.  Hopefully it is sturdy enough to survive a week.  I’ll construct them on Friday with the help of an intern.

Really awesome photo of a United B747 at Narita on Airliners.net – small version of it is here but you can click here to go see the full thing.

Brendan Vanderwerf took the photo and not only captured amazing lighting and color, but also the clarity of the picture is amazing!

I’m very excited to report that Sunday evening, halfway through the Oscars, my sister gave birth to her second child, Ava Elizabeth.

Ava was 18″ 6 lbs, 7 ounces (45.7 cm / 2.92 kg) at birth and both mother and niece are doing well.  This morning niece #1 is going to go visit Mom and kid sister in the hospital.  Jenn’s done a lot of work trying to prepare Emily for her new sibling, so we’ll see how Emily reacts.

On other news, I arrived in San Francisco on Saturday morning after a relatively painless 20-hour journey from Bangkok.  I was fortunate that on both the BKK-NRT and NRT-SFO legs of the trip I had friends from UA working the flight.

Actually, BKK-NRT was someone I had only heard about from Tawn, but had never met: a former regional flight attendant who moved to the Narita base many years ago.  He had heard my name, and recognized me on the passenger manifest.

On the NRT-SFO leg, I was very fortunate that another friend swapped his schedule to work the trip, since I was seated in Economy class.  Using classy discretion, he made sure that my wine was from First Class, warm nuts appeared with that wine, and my breakfast before arrival was a nice fruit place that had come from a galley further forward in the plane!  Thanks!

Of course, my preference would have been to have Tawn on my flight – but since that wasn’t possible, I’ll settle for other friends instead.

The weather is wet and rainy here in SF, and while I’m glad to be visiting I sure wish I was back in warm Bangkok!

Tuesday evening, Ryan’s last day in Bangkok, we met up with a friend from Airliners.net, Jack, and went to Vertigo – the rooftop bar and restaurant on the 69th story of the Westin Banyan Tree hotel.  It was a swanky place to take in the view and enjoy lychee martinis, celebrating Ryan’s trip and also having a chance to meet Jack for the first time.  Jack (sorry, no picture to post) is Thai but graduated from KU and still lives in Kansas City working for Sprint.  Of course, I only met him after I moved to Bangkok so was unable to take advantage of his Thai restaurant recommendations in KC while I lived there!  For all of you still in KC, Thai Orchid is the place to go, not Thai Place.

Ryan made it to the airport in one piece, I believe, although I haven’t heard from him yet so don’t know if he really is back at home or got stuck in Taipei.  It was nice having him in town and getting to spend more time with him than I have in a decade or more.  I’ll look forward to meeting his girlfriend, Sabrina, when I’m in SF.

Yesterday was my final examination for Module 3 of Thai language classes.  Knowing that I was going to repeat the class anyways, I didn’t bother pressuring myself over the test.  Quite relaxing to walk in and not have any beads of sweat on my brow.  Other students who will also repeat the class didn’t even show up for the test: there were four absences in a class of 12.  Sure enough, I knew what I knew and didn’t know what I already knew I didn’t know.  And now that I know what is on the test, I’ll be able to better prepare over the next two months for it.

After the test I met up with Dave and Monty, who are back in town after visiting Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Ko Phiphi.  Mentioning them previously, they are friends of Tod’s and another Thai guy in SF that Tawn knows.  They’re a great couple and I’m glad we had another chance to hang out before they return home to SF on Saturday.  Sounds like Chiang Mai was fun but their Phuket and Ko Phiphi experiences could have been more enjoyable. 

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) I fly out bright and early to San Francisco.  I’m spending three weeks there working with the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, followed by one week back in Kansas City so I can see my family and my new niece or nephew who should be born any day now.

So that leaves today to get everything done: packing, laundry, pick up dry cleaning, water plants (and hope Tawn remembers to keep watering them!), purchase a replacement water filter for the clothes washer, etc.  Busy!