1. Blog Wow..it's been since December of 2009 that I entered anything on this blog. Do you know how many blogs I have out there? I don't know neither! Everytime I log onto to something and if they have a blog available...so I just start another blog. My main blog is http://www.xanga.com/lelandwong
2. 100 Happy Chinatown Children Mural The most recent biggie for me has been the 100 Happy Chinatown Children mural I did as a part of the SF Art Commission's Art In Storefronts program. It's located at 840 Washington Street, the old Nam Yuen restaurant. It measures over 40' wide and about 12' high...taking the whole exterior of the storefront. It involved painting a background scene, photographing over a hundred Chinatown children, digitizing the images and sticking the images onto the wall. The stipend was only $500. I was raise funds to make it all happen. A special thanks to the WGUISFCT group on Facebook. 90% of the donations came from there. See the above photo.
3. United State Postal Service Is the postal service getting unreliable or is it my imagination. I made a payment by check, sent it via postal service and now the recipient say that never received the payment and I owe a fat penalty. I've been receiving other people's mail for another address. I've been receiving mail and packages with a note to send it to the right address. Is it because they have cut their staff and now they got workers doing the job of other workers as well? Is this the decline of the postal service in face of online payments, email, everthing moving to the internet?
4. Eight Tigers I've been the growls of the eight tigers. They are lurking in the brush...amongst the tall grasses. Just waiting....just waiting for the right moment to pounce.
5. I-Hotel I did fourteen illustrations for Karen Tei Yamashita's book, I-Hotel. I think I finished about mid-January. I used sumi ink and wash technique for the first time as finished illustrations.
6. We Grew Up In San Francisco Chinatown WGUISFCT is a group I casually began as a Facebook group. Ever since I started that group, I have connected with a lot of people. Many other members have connected with friends whom they have lost contact with. If you're a Facebook member and Chinatown has played a role or left a big impression in your mind...Please JOIN! ...and if you want an official WGUISFCT t-shirt or hoodie...let me know! atowngraphics@yahoo.com
7. Wedding Photography This has been a zero wedding photography year for me. The wedding photography business has really disappeared for me. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm still a wedding photographer. Do I blame it on the sucky economy? The proliferation of cheaper digital cameras? Newbies entering the business and charging very little since it's just a hobby and they have a regular job? Consumers thinking that anyone holding a camera can get good photos?
8. Angel Island Immigration Station The immigration station at Angel Island just celebrated their 100 years. I first visited that immigration station about 1985. The place was dilapidated and was planned for demolition. On the walls are carvings of Chinese poems by detainees in the barracks while they waited for their determination as to whether they can enter the US or be deported. Records were very sketchy in those days when there was a very weak central government in China.
My father spent three months at Angel Island, waiting for his fate to be determined at the age of twelve. This was in the shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. While many immigrants went through there, the Chinese bore the brunt of the interrogations and detainment. My father was always bitter when Angel Island was mentioned. He blamed it on the weak Chinese government and American discriminaton.
Thanks to historians and preservationists, the station has been restored as a historical site. It was heavy thinking about what my father went through as a child there...what he did, what he saw, talking to fellow detainees...
9. Frozen Chubs of Ground Chicken The MIL has been giving me these chubs of frozen ground chicken which she gets from those free food giveaways. I have to get creative as to what to do with them. So far I've used it to make spaghetti sauce, chili con ground chicken and taco filling. I want to make Gai Krapow, but the slugs have eaten all my spearmint leaves in the back.
10. Ice Age Is this one of the coldest summers in San Francisco or what?
