AROWANA LIFE

9TH ANNUAL KOLLABORATION

This Saturday in LA there’s this dope concert you shouldn’t miss out on. The 9th Annual Kollaboration at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Kollaboration has been showcasing many up and coming artists in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) American community (gotta be PC). If you have never heard of Kollaboration, you should definitely take a peek. Performs like songwriter Jane Lui, hip hop violinist Paul Dateh, songwriter David Choi, four-sista pop group Jazmin, and my new fav songwriter Kina Grannis will be performing. Along with special guest performances by Kaba Modern and Fanny Pak. You go API! And also International Superstar BOA. We’ve never heard of you, but you must be badass with a name like that.  Read more...

MONDAY NITE @ VC

So a bunch of readers have been asking us what that count down timer is for on the right side of Arowana Life home page. Well Visual Communication, the non profit organization who puts on the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival every year in LA, has asked us Arowana Films, to speak at their upcoming Monday Night filmmakers round table February 23rd. Of course we couldn’t refuse… as long as there is free food.

From what we were told by the moderator Walt Louie, a great friend to us, he will be conducting the panel discussing about indy film making, surviving in the industry, and just shooting the shit, sort of speak. Everyone is invited to join us. I don’t think there’s any entrance fee. Just open minds and please, laugh at all our jokes. Jk. Well not really. But it should be an interesting event.  Read more...

FAST AND FURIOUS FOOTAGE

Here is a video from on the set of Fast and Furious. Look at the chopped up cars. Looks like Vin Diesel lost a bet.

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ODE TO FAMOUS TOKERS

As everyone has probably seen on ESPN or CNN or ANIMAL PLANET, 11 time record gold medalist Olympic swimmer Micheal Phelps got caught with smoking some marijuana at a college party. I love how reporters try and talk about this subject. Almost as if they’ve never tried it before. Come on! “Phelps seen smoking out of a pipe” “Phelps hitting the ganja” “Phelps caught with something pot or pot-like”. Just spit it out. Micheal Phelps was getting fatty stoned with one of the craziest bong EVER! And the cleaniest I might add. Reports say he killed a bag of Funyuns after. That’s how my report would go.  Read more...

DC OR BUST Part 6

And the bus keeps rollin rollin, and rollin rollin, and rollin rollin…take it will.i.am. The next few nights on the trip felt like a sports team on a road trip game. In Boston one day, take off to New York for the next game the next night, and off to DC for the finally road game. Did you ever know that John Madden doesn’t fly? He takes a bus everywhere. Whenever he announces Monday Night football games, him and his bus crew are on the road to the next city. That’s why he never goes to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. But we both are living on the road.  Read more...

DC OR BUST Part 5

Today was full of run and gun shooting. We were on a tight schedule because we had to get to Boston to catch Rick’s son’s basketball game. There were a bunch of places to visit in Indiana where Rick lived when he moved to America. I can’t remember the other place but one was Warsaw. Its actually perfect because Indiana is where basketball was invented, so why not a better place to live. GO HOOSIERS!

But we first tried to interview Cavs star Lebron James before his shoot around against the Chicago Bulls. I keep thinking to myself, it would probably be the best part of the trip if this happens. Big Ben said wassup. Plus I recognized Sasha. But no one else. We were in a time crunch so Lebron didn’t have “time” for us and we had to move on. But I did see him and that’s one huge dude. If I was in the NBA, I’d hate to guard him.  Read more...

DC OR BUST Part 4

Now that I’m back, I’m gonna crank out these last stories of my trip…hopefully. And since I’m fully rested again, I’ll be sure to make them exciting.
So where was I, oh yes, just went thru racist-ville scary town. We arrive to Chicago the next day at about noonish. Steve, our road manager, was able to redirect the blizzard in Chicago and the bus made it in safely. BUT no one told me it was going to be 10 below!!! HOLY COW! It’s boot camp days all over again marching in the snow. Except the list of things I didn’t bring came more to a realization besides my toothbrush. I didn’t really think to bring gloves or a beanie or even boots for that matter. So as we pulled into the Park Hyatt of Chicago, we had about an hour to settle in, shower, go NOT #1, and try to start shooting while there was still light out.

I found a Walgreens right at the corner of our hotel and I got me some gloves and a Chicago beanie. No boots but hopefully I can survive. As I was purchasing my stuff, the register people saw my camera and asked what I was doing. I told them I was running around Chicago today filming Rick Fox. They laughed at my California, so spoiled life. Luckily, they gave me the advice to buy some hand warmers. They said to put in inside my gloves and my socks. OH BOY, did that advice pay off later.

So our goal for Chicago was to hit up Obama’s house, Grant Park, and whatever else we can squeeze in. First stop, Grant Park, where Obama gave his acceptance speech…4 months late. We open the doors of the van and BOOM, the place is covered in 3 feet of snow. First thought, dude its freezing. Second thought, damn NO BOOTS! and of course to get the best angles and the great footage the crew trek into the middle of the park. Frostbite galore. Heat pack, please save me.

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GUNG HAY FAT CHOY

Or should I say Happy Chinese New Year. It really feels more like the real New Year’s since January has come and gone so fast. With the exception of a couple years ago, Chinese New Year’s always occurs in the months of January or February because its based on the first day of the first lunar month. Confusing huh. At least the world uses the Gregorian calendar and not just USA like all the other measurements we follow.

This year is the year of the Ox. The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. Ox’s are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint. Sounds like we need more Ox’s in the world.  Read more...

DC OR BUST Part 3

Exhaustion is kicking in as I write this. Few hours of sleep a night, long hours of running around in the snow carrying a heavy camera, and just always being alert can make a mind shut down. But I shall make my best attempt to write part 3.

We left Denver with our heads high accomplishing pretty much everything we set out to do. Though our schedule is so jam packed, we luckily are making perfect time to each destination. Chicago is our next stop and with the blizzard warnings, we’ve asked our trusty road manager, Steve Masi, to make the blizzard go away. Steve is a cool cat whose been our the block when it comes to tour managing. He’s done greats like Ziggy Marley and currently The Offspring. So stories comes a plenty when it comes to him. And stories is what we need on long bus rides.

Another interesting way we’ve been passing the time is that Rick has started podcasting from the bus. The podcast actually hasn’t come out yet due to lack of strong internet signals but they have been fun and amusing because Rick interviews the crew (us) and it feels like talk show radio. Of course I share some Navy stories and whatever else sounds interesting but hearing the other crew’s point of view on topics such as politics, music, and women makes the trip go by a bit faster.

We detoured through Kansas I heard to get to Chicago to avoid any huge snow storms and we stopped at another Flying J. Our first Flying J experience was very pleasant where the workers greeted us very humbly and we learned that many musicians and athletes stop here like Linkin Park and Karl Malone. But this Flying J was quite the opposite. Perhaps it was the location, maybe the state, or even the time of day. They were very against our presence there with cameras and quickly shut us down. But no one said we could film outside the Flying J.

As we were about to leave, two buses full of kids pulled in coming back from a concert they had just performed. Rick thought to just play it cool and see if anyone would recognize him. After a handful just walked by, finally a true Laker fan took notice. After that, it was mob city. But Rick being the great samaritan signed shirts and took pictures with them making their bus ride home an unforgetable experience. I especially thought that was pretty awesome because I can always remember way back when I was a young lad myself and saw someone famous but decided to ignore their fans. It does make an impact to a kid when they are young whether you judge celebrities as humble people or just rich, stuck up jerks.

Lastly, on a not so brighter but eye opening note, I mentioned before that the NUMBER ONE RULE ON THE BUS IS NO NUMBER TWO.

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DC OR BUST Part 2

So we arrived in Denver at about 11pm and what do you know, we pull into the Ritz Carlton…wha wha! I guess after busing it for the last few nights and thousands of miles on the road, the Ritz was in order. Of course I assume since its quite the pricey lodgin, I would be bunkin with someone. The audio guy, JR, whose a music producer/band member/audio guy from Baltimore or my boy Jason perhaps. But no, a big, gigantic, king size bed room all to myself. BOO to the YAH!  Read more...