My review (and photos) from last night's show — also at Chop Suey. I'm hoping that it's a little more lucid than the last, if only because I'm writing it at 2 a.m. instead of 5. And though I only caught the last two acts (Rooney and opener Locksley) I'm pretty psyched on the night.
My review (and photos) of last night's show at Chop Suey: Freeway, D.Black, Cancer Rising and Jay Barz. I love 206 proof hip-hop!
My review of tonight's (last night?) concert at Neumos. Hint: the opening bands rocked!
My first Seattle Weekly Slideshow, this one on nightlife. If anyone was wondering what I was doing outside the bars, on Saturday night, here's your answer.
This past Saturday was my second outing with Northwest Riders and the Dashboard Skim Board team, now for the 5th Anual Dash Point Pro/Am Competition. My guys did great — Richard and Issac both walked away with cash prizes! The event itself was a huge success as well; according to a few local experts, events that have been running for decades don't pull the crowds the Dash Point Pro/Am does. I'm constantly amazed at how successful these guys (who barely older than me, mind you) have been and continue to be. Another pretty cool aspect of the comp was the skill and age level. There were divisions for U16, Women, Amatuer and Pro, all of which drawing full and diverse heats.
I shot with my telephoto (70-200 f/2.8 IS) for the most part, but then switched to my wide angle (16-35 f/2.8) toward the end for some experimentation. It was a cloudy day, so I ended up overexposing a lot of my shots which was unfortunate… but on the whole it was a pretty good day.
I just got back from a quick study break at Trabant Coffee and Chai, where my buddy and fraternity brother Jason Barber played a few of his songs at open mic. I popped off a few shots while I was there — open mics are a great chance to shoot live music in a chill setting — and headed back home. For the record, I was actually really impressed, especially with his first song. I'd never heard Barber play his own stuff before, but it's good to know I'm getting guitar pointers from a guy who knows what he's doing. Back to the photos… after a brief interruption by a drunken wrestling match that will surely go down in Xi Deut lore, I decided that editing up a few photos would be a much better use of my time than studying labor history. Screw you Samuel Gompers.
Enjoy.
On Sunday morning, I trekked into Seattle's International District to report on the latter half of the Wing Luke Asian Museum's two-day grand opening extravaganza. Despite the fact that I was (literally) temporarily deafened by the traditional firecrackers that scared the living hell out of me, I really enjoyed the performances outside and the museum itself. This was definitely an experiment in my courage as a photographer; I didn't want to interfere with a culturally important ceremony, but I also couldn't get a shot from the middle of the crowd, so I hopped the rope and perched against the building literally right in front of the dance. The shots that resulted from that move were exactly what I wanted. Below are four of my favorites, in addition to the story I wrote from an amazing noodle restaurant about three blocks away.
The Wing Luke Asian Museum will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, and free for kids under 5. Admission is free on the first Thursday and third Saturday of each month. For more information, visit www.wingluke.org.
ABOVE: A young boy performs a routine with a traditional spear outside the Wing Luke Asian Museum. His routine, along with others, was part of the second day of festivities celebrating the museum's grand reopening.
ABOVE: Four performers dance during a ceremonial Lion and Dragon performance outside the Wing Luke Asian Museum on June 1. Each lion is made up of two people, with one in the head and one in the rear.
ABOVE: A woman dances outside the Wing Luke Asian Museum during its grand opening festivities as a part of the Lion and Dragon Dance performance.
ABOVE: A young girl pets a performer in traditional Chinese Lion costume. Many children were present and the ceremonial dance, and some continued on to the many children's areas inside the museum.
Wing Luke Asian Museum reopens to community's delight
Amid the deafening roar of fireworks, a cheer rang out from the crowd. The Wing Luke Asian Museum was perfectly situated into its new International District home.
On Saturday morning, the first day of the grand opening weekend celebration, supporters filled the block in front of the new 719 S. King St. to hear speeches from local politicians and to see a multicultural drumming performance. The next morning, a similar crowd turned out for a lion and dragon dance performance. As soon as the performances were finished, onlookers crowded to the entrance to catch a glimpse inside.
Joann Natalia Aquino, the museum’s public relations manager, was excited both about the museum’s expansion and the public’s support.
“The community has welcomed the museum with open arms,” she said. “We’re very glad to open and glad that the community has embraced us.”
The museum features peaceful lightwells, children’s areas, historic immersion exhibits, the Tateuchi Story Theater and the unique “George Tsutakawa: The Making of a Fountain” exhibition displaying fountains, paintings and sculptures of the Seattle artist.
The museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, is the only Pan-Asian Pacific-American museum in the U.S. It focuses on three dimensions: contemporary space, historic space and a portal to Chinatown discovery.
Wing Luke was Seattle's first Asian city councilman. Elected in 1962, he served three years before dying in a plane crash after leaving an Okanogan County airport on May 16, 1965. A search, paid for by contributions from friends and supporters, found the plane over three years later in the Cascade Mountains.
Money left over from the search effort was used to start the original Wing Luke Museum, which quickly outgrew its 10,000 square foot original residence. The new location, in the old East Kong Yick Building, is about six times that size.
Originally a boarding house full of small rooms, the East Kong Yick building was often a first stop for those who had nowhere else to go when they arrived in Seattle. It has been mostly uninhabited for years, but after a five-year campaign by the Wing Luke Asian Museum that raised $23.2 million that’s no longer the case.
Architect Rick Sundberg made it a goal to save as much of the building as he could rather than gutting it, and in doing so saved the storytelling ability of the building. Century-old timber, refurbished and repurposed, lines the museum’s walls. Suddenly, the building became a source of pride for the community, combining past with future.
UW student Mitchell Fung, along with about ten of his fellow Zeta Kappa Epsilon fraternity members, helped with event staff to direct guests at the grand opening.
“We’re an Asian-interest fraternity, but for some of our members this is brand new,” Fung said. “This gives us a chance to learn about our culture and do what we can to help the community.
Tonight was the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) Opening Night Gala featuring a debut screening of "Battle In Seattle," a semi-fictionalized telling of the 1999 WTO riot in Seattle. I was granted access into the "Press Pit," which is a glorified (actually, not really) name for the area where paparazzi are corralled while the stars walk the red carpet into the theater. It was my first red carpet, and I literally had no idea what I was doing or what to expect. I will say that this one, compared to many I've seen and heard about, was incredibly low-key. Still — and I won't say never, because that's not a wise thing to do — it would surprise me if I did many more red carpet events in the future. I honestly felt like such a total sell-out and worthless paparazzi, until, of course two things happened. First, I talked to Mike Urban, an extremely talented photographer from the P-I, who was doing the same job. Next, I was literally feet away from Michelle Rodriguez, André Benjamin and Charlize Theron. I don't know if starstruck is the word but... wow.
ABOVE: "Battle In Seattle" star Charlize Theron poses with boyfriend and writer/director Stuart Townsend on the red carped at the SIFF Opening Night Gala on May 22. The film merges dramatic performances with actual event footage to tell a semi-fictionalized story of the 1999 WTO riot in Seattle.
ABOVE: Actress Charlize Theron poses on the red carpet outside McCaw Hall on May 22 at the SIFF Opening Night Gala, featuring her latest film "Battle In Seattle."
ABOVE: Musician and actor André Benjamin poses with SIFF Managing Director Deborah Person (left) and SIFF Artistic Director Carl Spence (right). Benjamin plays the role of Django in the opening night film "Battle In Seattle."
ABOVE: Michelle Rodriguez throws up a peace sign for nonviolence at the SIFF red carpet on May 23. "Yeah, nonviolent protests," she said, responding to someone in the crowd. "That's what I'm talking about."
On the same day of my shoot with the DB Skim guys, I got to catch up with Northwest Riders team skater Jake Waldrop at the Mill Creek skate park. The kid's only a freshman in high school, but he can shred. I only got to shoot with him for maybe half an hour, but he was determined to stick a few good ones; it was more about hitting them for him then for me or the camera though, and I respected that a lot. He's clearly a shredder, but he was damn modest about it. He took some pretty rough falls too, especially trying to (I think) crooked that rail in photo #2, but he never bailed on any attempts until he hit it or knew for sure that it wasn't the right day. His little buddy in the third photo, who's name I never actually caught, was pretty impressive too.
ABOVE: Jake attempts a kickflip-to-5-0 grind combo on a two-tier box at the skate park. Though he never actually hit this one, he came real close. I talked with him for a little bit about how it was dealing with an unfamiliar park and how Mill Creek was a little bigger than he was used to (though you wouldn't know that from how he kicked it there).
ABOVE: Jake boardslides a rail over a three-flat-three. He hit the boardslide on one of his first tries, but then had to push the envelope. He probably tried to crooked grind the thing for a solid ten minutes before he hit it, but in the end he stuck it beautifully.
ABOVE: Jake's friend, who I didn't actually oficially "meet" definitely deserved a photo posted up here. The kid, who is trying to get a sponsorship of his own, is a pretty rad skater himself. He hit some 180 kickflips over this two-stair (above), and inbetween Jake's attempts at a kickflip combo on the box, he nailed a few slick 5-0 grinds.
This summer, I'll be interning with Northwest Riders, a clothing company that sponsors a Wakeboard, Skimboard, Snowboard, Skateboard and Surf team. As their photographer, I'll be shooting sponsored competitions, jams with the team riders, catalog items, demos and clinics. My first event — tryout, if you will — was an "urban" skim demo at the "Wake-Up Sale" on Sunday afternoon, co-sponsored by Grizzly Sports and Blazing Onion. All of the team members there were great guys, and some were UW students as well. Unfortunately all but three of the team riders were either hurt or couldn't make it, and there was one mid-demo injury, but the event was clearly a success. The guys (and one girl, who wasn't there) run a sick company called DB Flatland Skimboards that not only makes and sells boards, but also runs instructional camps to get kids into the sport. Anyway, here are a few of my shots from the event; there will definitely be more to come all summer long:
ABOVE: Team rider Isaac Thomas launches off the ramp in the homemade pool constructed inside the Mill Creek Shopping Center. This is probably my favorite shot of the day, with crisp action and a dramatic upward angle. I'd definitely say Isaac was having the best day of anyone out there; unfortunately, he cut his foot up about halfway through the demo, but he literally taped it back together and kept riding. Props.
ABOVE: Isaac Thomas glides above his board at Sunday's demo. At first, I was shooting almost exclusively with my wide-angle lens, but I thought to try different angles with my telephoto — with amazing results. I'm always impressed by the crispness of that lens. I think I stuck with it for the rest of the event.
ABOVE: A young boy watches as team rider Richard Docter walks by after taking a run in the pool. I didn't get a long time to talk to these kids, but there was a group of them that had come down from the skate park about half a mile up the road to watch, and you could tell they were impressed. I just thought it was pretty cool to frame this guy who clearly idolized the team for riding as well as they did and being sponsored on top of it all.
ABOVE: Team rider Richard Docter spins after hitting the ramp. Right behimd Isaac, Richard was probably the second-most on skimmer of the day. I tried experimenting with angles and the telephoto lens, and this was one of the results.
It's been a little while — over two weeks to be exact — but I'm finally posting my May Day Immigrant Rights Rally photos. The rally was an incredible experience... though I'd been to one similar back in 2006 in Wenatchee, this blew that out of the water in every way. Though I haven't heard official numbers, there were definitely thousands upon thousands of people, legal and illegal, black, white, brown and other, all marching for peace and equality. That made me pretty happy. It was the first time I'd ever done anything like it, and I hope it won't be the last. What I do need to improve on, however, is my storytelling ability through photos; for instance, I wish I'd had a chance to talk with the man in the first photo. It all comes back to the idea that "everyone has a story," and the goal of photojournalism is to help tell it. A pretty image only goes so far.
These were all shot with my Canon 40D and 16-35 f/2.8 lens.
ABOVE: This is definitely my favorite from the day. I actually overlooked it when sorting through on deadline for publication at The Daily, but in retrospect this should have been my cover shot hands down. There's one lesson in the way of sorting through frames on a tight deadline. I think it's the cross-lighting that does it most for me, accenting his face and the American flag draped across his shoulders. There's a passion there, and I can feel it looking at this image the same as I could when I was looking at his face that day.
ABOVE: The hard hats and safety vests that a large group of rally leaders wore were really symbolic to me. I liked this image because it was crisp and really froze the action at a time where things were actually moving very quickly.
ABOVE: This is another more standard "chanting and marching" rally photo. Again, I liked that I was able to freeze the action in a very fast-paced moment. Backpedaling to keep up was intense, but worthwhile and necessary. I really like the framing of the man in front between the two behind him.
ABOVE: At the front of the procession, there were several people dressed in traditional outfits beating drums and chanting. Though I don't claim to understand what they were doing, saying or representing, I did realize the significance of connecting with history. On an aesthetic level, I think I liked this photo both because of the bright colors and the mysticism that the incense smoke added.
ABOVE: One of the things that was most interesting to me as a photojournalist was the presence of children at the rally. Though some were barely able to walk and clearly too young to understand what was going on, others (who were still quite young) were incredibly passionate about the cause at hand. This boy's sign reads "I don't want immigrants to leave to Mexico, because I want my family together!" This is actually the only photo posted here that was printed, but I'm glad that it was; I think it represents an important part of the day and the movement as a whole.
ABOVE: This boy was one of my favorites of the entire day. There was definitely a lot of emotion in his face, which I honestly don't think I quite captured, but I did recognize it. My friend David Kasnic captured an amazing shot of this little guy during the actual march.
PHOTO: Fans cheer wildly for hometown heroes Minus The Bear at their North American tour finale on May 8 at Showbox at the Market. The sold out performance was a huge hit for fans and the band with a wide variety of old and new songs.About three weeks ago I hitched a ride with the Husky Snowboard Team down to the Northstar-at-Tahoe ski resort in Truckee, Calif. for the third Red Bull Snow Warz competition. The trip was a blast, and I got an amazing opportunity to work on a few different parts of my journalism game. First, of course, was writing an "embed" type story, which I loved and really want to do more in the future; it was my first "gonzo" type experience, and it really reinforced my desire to pursue this as a career. Second, it was a huge learning experience for my photography. Shooting action sports is tough, and I really forced myself to get up in the action, even if it meant almost getting clipped by boarders on multiple occasions. And, after I had been shooting the jumps for a while, I wandered behind the scenes to look for other types of photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't good about getting names or other caption information... learned my lesson there. Third and final, it was my first time experimenting with audio — you can hear an exclusive freestyle clip from the event's MC below. I've also included five of my favorite photos and the story I wrote.
LISTEN: DUSTIN "DIRTY D" AMATO EXCLUSIVE FREESTYLE
Snow Warz: West coast comp tears up Lake Tahoe
It was time to roll out.
We were in the car, bumping Wu Tang out of a mini battery-powered iHome. The proverbial peace pipe was loaded. The boards were in back and the skis were strapped to the roll bar inside the roof.
It was a snowboard and ski competition. There were 14 hours of driving ahead of us. We were ready for Red Bull’s Snow Warz 2008 at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in Truckee, Calif.
After arriving and getting way too little sleep — the Hammer Award went to the rider who was “the last to stop drinking and the first to stop riding” — it was time for breakfast. There were tall tees and lazy beanies everywhere, and plenty of the riders were hung over.
But it didn’t matter that everyone had too much alcohol and too little sleep the night before; it was a perfect day to hit the mountain.
The sun was so bright and the sky so cloudless that anyone who didn’t have goggles or shades would go snow-blind. The only cold thing was the snow, and spring riding in 70-degree weather is just as good as it sounds.
The course was a legitimate pro construction. Through the gate was a down rail, followed by three jumps and ending with another down rail. It wasn’t huge, but it fit. The course flowed and was well put together, especially considering that the event is only three years old.
Snow Warz originated in 2006 as something completely different, a wakeboarding competition, at Western Washington University. Later that year the decision was made to trade in water for snow, and teams from 16 West Coast colleges showed up at The Summit at Snoqualmie. More than 230 riders registered at the 2008 event, more than tripling the first showing just three years prior.
“It’s grown a lot, and we brought it to Northstar and centralized it,” said Dave Goto, one of the original founders and this year’s organizer of the event. “It’s just huge. Kids are just killing it.”
Goto said he wants to see Snow Warz “taken to the next level” as a circuit for collegiate skiing and snowboarding, with a multiple-stop tour and a national championship. But even as a one-day event, the competition was a great opportunity for West Coast riders to show off their skills.
The day was definitely a good showing for the University of Nevada, Reno, the (almost) hometown heroes. Not only did all three of the school’s teams make it to the final round, but one of the teams, Eat Waffles, snagged the silver. Team Harvard, grabbed the gold, and Montana State University’s team rounded out the top three.
“The competition was off the hook!” said Dustin “Dirty D” Amato, the day’s emcee. “Team Harvard was throwing it down over there. They were wearing suits and ties, putting the cosine with the sine and doing their trajectory. Once they got the tangent lined up they had the right velocity and were just throwing it down.”
Team Harvard — called “Hard Vert” by the judges because of members’ ability to fly off the jumps — came up with its name when registration required a college association. They spent the rest of the trip convincing reporters, fellow boarders and even event staff that they had ponied up the cash to fly from Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, UW’s team Boss Tycoon didn’t fare so well. Though the members had thrown down big the day before at the nearby Boreal Mountain Resort, at Northstar they guys had a pretty weak first run and didn’t show for their second. While there was no Husky presence in the final heats, the team members were satisfied with their work.
“Snow Warz was dope,” said Parker Worthington, a freshman and captain of the UW team. “It was more about hanging out with everyone than the competition. It was like a Snoqualmie reunion. We had a lot of fun and kicked it with the homies.”
Washington’s roots in the competition showed despite the long drive, with three other teams from the Evergreen State making an appearance: Western Washington University, Central Washington University and Gonzaga University.
“It was a long way to go,” said Nathan Brown, a skier for Gonzaga’s team. “It’s a super sick event, almost all paid for, just a big party. It’s the last ski weekend of the year, and we can go out and just have fun out in the sun. You don’t need to be really competitive; we’re just here to have a good time, and everyone’s loving it.”
Even one of their teammates, who won the Tom Broke-Off Award for best crash — which involved him tearing a ligament in his shoulder after overshooting the course’s second jump — won a snowboard deck and seemed to be doing just fine.
The jump that he had an issue with gave other riders trouble as well, though there were no major injuries. Still, it brought light to the fact that there was a wide range of skill levels entered in the competition despite the course’s difficulty.
There was everything from skiers nailing 1080s and boarders throwing down switch backflips to riders who could barely clear the jumps. And, of course, one girl chose to hit the run in a chicken suit. But that didn’t matter; having fun was first priority. As one rider put it, “It was definitely more of a party mission than a snowboard one.”
Hey guys, so I guess my photo of a Korean rights rally last week is making the rounds in Asian interest circles on the internet. It's posted on Angry Asian Man, titled "this photo is awesome" — check it out!
Power to the people!
