what happened to the images in my AHSC posting?

Asian Heritage Street Celebration

Hey...Howzit going?

I got an email from a staff person of the Asian Heritage Street Celebration, an event I have been attending and enjoying since the beginning eight years ago. She wrote me about a blog entry I made in May 2009 following a bizarre incident which the stage staff of the event made false accusations at me.

Here is the entry: http://lwongphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/asian-heritage-street-celebration.html

Since that traumatic experience, I have volunteered to photograph officially out of fear that such an incident will not happen again. I volunteered for this year as well. I got the following letter from the organizer:

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Hi Leland, 

Thank you for your interest in photographing our event! Before we move forward in having you volunteer, a few years ago there was an unfortunate incident with you and some of our street fair volunteers which you blogged about it on your website: http://lwongphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/asian-heritage-street-celebration.html. I am sorry you had a misunderstanding and bad experience at the festival. Would you please remove the post and all associated photos? Our concern is that it brings negative publicity to the street fair and is counterproductive to our mission. 

-(name withheld)

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In no way did I say it was the entire event that was responsible for what happened. In fact I stated in the blog entry, "Please don't get me wrong, I believe this is a great annual event. I'm just sad that they have to involve such people to run this event. They have to educate people about photographing in public places."

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I do not intend to take down my blog entry. This incident is reported as is. I did not make this up. I want this to continue entry continue to educate photographers of their rights. And also to educate people about photography in general. These individuals of the stage staff continue to be in charge of the stage to this day.

Art in Storefronts: 740 Washington – Leland Wong

Art in Storefronts: 740 Washington – Leland Wong, originally uploaded by arts.commission.

i'm a jive politician!

At the old JAM...1982

Ten Things That Randomly Pop in my Mind

1. Creative Work Fund: I got the Creative Work Fund Grant...now what to do. I think I'm supposed to work with a youth group to come up with a series of posters concerning anti-violence.

2. Art of H*stle I just took a three part series concerning the business side of art with KSW hoping that it would help me in reinventing myself due to the bad economy and lack of business. It cost me $75. Did I learn anything? It was mostly a refresher course in small business management. Geared toward people going into it. The internet and social network marketing was interesting.

3. Sleep: My average sleeping hours....9AM to 3PM.

4. UCSD: My son transferred to UCSD. I drove him and his bike down. Now that will cost me $30,000 a year!

5. WGUISFCT: Had a great time coming back up from San Diego on my own. I connected with a handful of people of WGUISFCT in San Diego and Los Angeles. It's interesting how WGUISFCT has effected my life.

6. Canceled: CNSC gave me a last minute 500 T-shirt job with one week. They didn't have the artwork set and undecisive on the artwork. I began doing the artwork for them. Only to be told they cancel.

7. Panels: I bought ten 4' x 4' birch panels and plan to paint nine dragons by January for an art exhibit in Sebastopol. So far I haven't painted anything. I hope to sell them.

8. J-Town Arts: J-Town Arts got evicted from our space at the old YWCA building in Japantown. The rent was only $225 a month for like a 750 square feet space. We couldn't even come up with that. I feel so disappointed. I've taken a hiatus from the group.

9. Deep Roots New Shoots: That is the name of the exhibit that is currently on at the National Japanese American Historical Society's gallery which I am a part of. It has two panels of my mural on exhibit.

10. Pheonix Rising Mural: I painted this 8' x 20' background for the Cherry Blossom Festival...did I mention that?

Photos of Mikoshi at Cherry Blossom Parade

My thirteenth time carrying the mikoshi at the Cherry Blossom parade in Japantown. I've gotten to know a lot of the people in the SF Taru Mikoshi group.

I used my DSLR Fuji S3 with the 12-24mm lens. I didn't dear use it while carrying for the fear of getting it wet. I'm not as satisfied with the photos this time. Here's a few.

We Grew Up In San Francisco Chinatown 1st Anniversary

I don't know recall exactly what day I began this group "We Grew Up In San Francisco Chinatown" group on Facebook but I recall it was somewhere around the end of October sometimes around 5am. After posting several posts at the "We Grew Up In San Francisco" group about Chinatown and getting minimal response, I decided to start a group for people who grew up in San Francisco Chinatown.

Right after I began the "We Grew Up In San Francisco Chinatown" group. I messaged all my Chinatown buddies on my friends list...one person told another person and then another person and the group grew from there. Today the group is close to having 800 members...not counting the many lurkers who just read our stuff.

The timing was right for a group like this to form since most people who grew up in Chinatown are now close to retirement, retired, their kids have grown up, their houses are mostly paid for or paid for, many have moved out of Chinatown and now it is a time to look back, reflect on their childhood, reconnect with people whom they grew up with and talk about our unique experiences growing up in Chinatown.

There are thousands of groups on Facebook but very few are real live breathing groups like ours. We have lively discussions, postings, photos, etc. We have had regular gatherings in restaurants in Chinatown.
I can say starting this group has really changed my life. As I walk around, total strangers would come up to me to thank me for starting this group. They find our photos and discussion topics very interesting. I have met many great people. It has gotten me doing more things and speaking for the Chinatown community. [lw_posters22] For this I am producing a limited edition of 1st anniversary WGUISFCT commemoration t-shirts. They are available on November 21, 2010 at our WGUISFCT event at New Lun Ting Cafe (Pork Chop House) 7pm. For $15 it includes a dinner and a t-shirt...how cool is that? It's like buy a t-shirt from me and I'll buy you dinner.

Because this is a small restaurant, we have a limited seating capacity for 45 guests only. If you would like to attend, you must RSVP at the events page. We plan to begin selling this shirt at the event. We may have some leftover.

The design is originally from a poster I did in 1974 for the opening of the Jackson Street Gallery. This poster became a part of a bicentenial poster exhibit called "Images of An Era; The American Poster 1925-1975 and was featured with the likes of Andy Warhol and Peter Max. It was organized by the Smithsonian Museum and exhibited internationally.

I was going to print this t-shirt as a part of this exhibition I had about three years ago at the Chinese Culture Center called "Icons of Presence" but didn't get my c-fut going on this. Which explains why my signature is so big in this design.

So with a box full of blank shirts sitting in the basement for a couple of years, design all separated on films, I decided to finally print this shirt to especially celebrate our WGUISFCT first anniversary by just adding the text on the top and bottom.

The design is of a frustrated student standing in front of the iron gates of my old high school, Galileo. The red image is of a courtyard scene at the school I photographed while in my senior year. Four years after I graduated from Galileo I guess still had an axe to grind about my bittersweet experience there. So I designed this for the Jackson Street Gallery grand opening poster.

I plan to only print 72 pcs and do not plan to print anymore afterwards.