Gizzy and I went to the annual festival held at Long Beach, California for the first time this year! The festival was a small event, but everything I basically expected-- the same crowd who attends the Renaissance Faire dressed as pirates, booths after booths of useless pirate merch, and in general, just kitschy, nerdy fun.



While we were there, the better entertainment was a band on stage. The band was pirate themed, of course, providing the audience with some fun, pirate rock music. Gizzy definitely appreciated the physiques of the members; and their music wasn't bad at all! Although, I didn't care enough to actually try and remember the band's name... Oops. Either way, I totally appreciated their tribute to They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard-- who knew I'd hear this song performed live? Ha!



We also tried the food there and was greatly disappointed at the meal we ended up purchasing. There was a booth serving all kinds of birds– chicken, quail, turkey... the quail wasn't bad, though it was pretty dry. The chicken leg we had was definitely dry without much taste. The sides of spanish-artichoke dip and rice were pretty bland as well. I wished I had tried the crepe booth instead! The festival's website promised BBQ type food, but there was none. We did try the funnel cake and that wasn't half-bad, though how can you really go wrong with fried desserts?

The food choices were definitely disappointing overall, which puts a damper on any event for me!



We were there for a couple of hours and on the way out, we stopped by the campsite for the Port Royal Privateers. These pirates were more hardcore, setting up an overnight camp on the beach and creating their own pirate-y characters. I thought they were really cool and we considered joining this camp party one day. It'll be fun to be overnight pirates at least once!

To wrap this event report up, let's not forget... the obligatory photo with Jack Sparrow (there were at least five of them at the festival that day).





For more photos, visit my flickr set!!!

Labels: event, pirate festival, pirates

I went to watch the documentary called Food Inc., which I will have to HIGHLY recommend for everyone to watch.

The movie presented a lot of eye-opening facts about this country's food industry. I hope everyone is already aware that the food we are eating these days are hardly manufactured to be actually nutritious. I know a lot of people are already aware of the animal abuse that is going on with our cows, pigs, chickens, etc. I know everyone is aware of something that is "wrong" in the food industry, but we all tend to turn a blind eye a lot of times.

Heck, I know I do! I love food to the umpteenth degree and I'll shovel anything in my mouth as long as it tasted good! I'm guilty of financially serving these corrupt food corporations!

After watching this movie though, I can no longer completely feign ignorance to the truth and what is REALLY going on with the production of our food. The inhumane treatment of both animals AND people.

It's sick.

It's not even just about our meat products-- even our greens and everything else is affected and tainted. If not with e coli, it's affected by horrifying greed and corruption. The utter carelessness from the people making all the money and to what they are feeding us-- and how our farmers are truly and sadly affected by the crisis.

Eating "cheap" has a price, people. We have kids dying from e coli on a regular basis. That should NOT be the case in the 21st century. We are moving backwards and all because a select handful are making billions feeding us absolute shit.

I can't present all the facts myself in this blog entry, but I just hope to convince more people to go and watch this documentary if it happens to be playing close to you. There is a feeling of enlightenment at the end of it. Trust me. You WANT to know where your food is coming from.

Labels: documentary, movie, review

I attended the opening party for CUTE AND DANGEROUS, an art show at Seven Degrees at Laguna Beach. Thanks to Mandy of Zippercut who invited me to the event! The turn out was good and the event was pretty fun. I was expecting a little more, but I wasn't really disappointed since so many of the people I invited to go ended up going!

Plus... there was free food that lasted throughout the whole night! Which surprised me because free food is always the first to go at these events... but there was plenty to be served all night long.

The art were all so much fun too!
There were also a group of girls who were in lolita or cute outfits that went well with the theme of the night. It gave the party the "spunk" that it needed.

I didn't win any of the raffle prizes though... sniff.







Check out my flickr for more photos!

Labels: art, art show, cute and dangerous, event

What could be more perfect than walking into a Mitsuwa store and finding a takoyaki stand has been set up inside for the day?










The answer is, nothing! Nothing is more perfect than freshly made takoyakis right before your eyes! Best. Thing. EVER!

Labels: food, mitsuwa, takoyaki

I saw the new Star Trek film last week. I'm not well versed in the Star Trek mythos. My fondest memories of it is watching the original series in the afternoons one summer during high school. I don't know why I started watching it, there probably wasn't anything better on tv, but it sucked me in. I loved how camp it was and yet how important some of the messages were.

In between episodes they'd run interviews with the cast, and they would reveal what it was like to work on and how amazing it was during those years, when the whole world was in turmoil and this show was trying to find meaning in it all.

Over the years I've tried watching various re-incarnations, but I always felt like they'd missed the whole point. In fact, I feel like most science-fiction these days miss the point. Now it's all about spectacle but there was a time when science-fiction was about gaining perspective on issues that plague us now. It allowed writers to present us with a story that was familiar but so far removed from our daily knowledge that it didn't offend our sensibilities but let us think outside of the box. I think that's missing these days.

But, I'm getting side tracked. My point is, I haven't followed with the more modern Trek tv shows, and I haven't seen any of the films except Star Trek Nemesis (which was weird). So, in many ways I'd hoped this was the first Star Trek film I'd really get. And, I sort of did. I knew the characters well enough to love seeing them again on screen, even with new actors.

I think Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zachary Quinto (Spock) were amazing. In fact, Quinto was so good at being Vulcan, he made the other Vulcans appear too emotional. Pine had the toughest job, from what I could see. He had to play an arrogant bastard and make you like him. I think he did this well.

The rest of the cast I enjoyed just as much, with one exception. I liked Chekov on the TV show, but for some reason it didn't translate well in the film. He was just so over the top and so unnecessarily there, he felt really tacked on. He didn't even get to have a Monkees hair cut.

Story-wise, it was ok. There was a lot of set-up to get through and some really unnecessary chase sequences (bigger fish! and BIGGER FISH). I felt Eric Bana was bland. He was an insane evil bastard and they gave him backstory which basically didn't change the fact that he was an insane evil bastard. I really wasn't all that bothered by the plot, to be honest and got most of my amusement from Scotty.

My one irritation with the story really surprised me. It was that the writer assumed too much knowledge on the audience part. They had little to no explanation to Romulans vs Vulcans and still at this point all I can determine is that Romulans are Vulcans with tattoos and anger management issues. I can understand not wanting to patronise Trekkies, but come on! Throw me a bone here, guys. Is it that hard to have some red shirt ask "What's a romulan?" or something?

But, I'm looking forward to more and that the writing will improve now that introductions are out of the way and we're comfortable with our new crew.

Labels: movie, review, star trek

I hate it when people fight the wrong fights.

It really gets to me when there are more important things in this world in terms of Asian racial issues in the world, but everyone is focused on Hannah Montana taking one picture making "chinky" eyes with her friends. Even though an Asian boy was present in the photo even, clearly making it a "goofing around with friends" photo.

I totally get how this could be "damaging" since Hannah Montana is a popular idol among children. I get how we should be concerned how young people who looks up to her are going to may be get the wrong idea on how they should act around their little Asian friends. I get it. But Hannah Montana isn't responsible for how these children are raised. It is up to their parents to teach them enough to differentiate from right and wrong... it's not the job of a fucking Disney show!

But blowing this out of proportion is NOT the answer. Miley Cyrus may be a gazillionaire, but she is a kid. Kids are allowed to do stupid things, and it's awful for people to punish a kid over one small mistake, one sign of dumb goofiness. If that's the case, can I get thousands of dollars for every single offense I've felt from the whole of humanity, please?

Lucie J. Kim, why don't you use your resources on more important issues? Get out of the wacky celebrity realm and do something meaningful for the Asian community.

Margaret Cho, stop getting so offended over everything when you yourself make a living out of offending people. Hypocritical, much?

I'm rooting for you, Hannah Montana!

I'll make my eyes chinkier in your honor!

Labels: asian, celebrity, rant, stupidity

It's a little bit worth noting that now, Myspace offers the NON-FUGLY button on their website! I've had a myspace profile for awhile now and lately, I haven't really touched it at all. I've moved all my online networking to facebook because I prefer facebook's aesthetic's over myspace's-- where there one too many profiles full of sparkles and giant photos that stretches your browser!

Come on, people! Do you really enjoy having your page look dumb in other people's computers??

Now, check out my profile! myspace.com/diavana

How crazy cute and nice looking is that?

You can move the different modules around now anywhere you want to on the page, choose different layouts for them, REALLY be able to customize your profile without having to insert random HTML or CSS coding all over the place...! I'm really seeing this website in under a new light now!

Good for you, myspace! Your aesthetics is finally starting to catch up with your popularity!

I still like facebook better though. Just saying.

Labels: facebook, myspace, social networking