Chef Eddie Huang continues his new web series “Fresh Off the Boat” in the San Francisco Bay Area. After his visit in Oakland, Eddie heads across the bay to the Mission District in San Francisco with the girls who run a pop-up, street dining gig in the city, Rice Paper Scissors. Their Vietnamese food is some of city’s best and brings buddies together to cook and hang out wherever they find space, even in the middle of the street. The Rice Paper Scissors girls show Eddie their go-to food spots to prep for their meals, before grilling up octopus, drinking rice wine and talking food as culture’s gateway drug. Nothing like srichacha sauce on the lip of a can of Coke.
Fresh Off The Boat With Eddie Huang: Bay Area Part 2 (contains profanity)
Fresh Off the Boat is a genre-bending venture into subculture through the lens of food. Raw, wild, and heartfelt, Eddie Huang gets down in the underbellies of cities around the world in search of what’s cooking in their back alleys and underground spots. He’s hunting rabbits with biker gangs in Oakland, eating seafood and surfing in Taiwan, hitting low-rider BBQs in East LA, and dining on rice and beans with your drug dealer’s grandmother in Miami.
The 2012 Kollaboration San Francisco, the largest Asian American Pacific Islander entertainment event in the Bay Area, returns on Saturday, September 8, 2012. Hosted by founder and former executive director of Kollaboration, Paul “PK” Kim, the talent showcase will take place at the Zellerbach Auditorium in UC Berkeley.
This year’s diverse guest performer lineup includes both homegrown Bay Area favorites and rising YouTube artists. Among the most anticipated are Seattle based band, New Heights, and acoustic singer-songwriter, Joseph Vincent. They will be joined by comedian KT Tatara, hip-hop dance group VIP San Jose, and the winner of last year’s Kollaboration San Francisco 2 competition, ANAK. Popular spoken word artist, Michelle “Mush” Lee, will also debut a special opening performance for the showcase.
The eight competitors of Kollaboration San Francisco 3 include live bands — Soulfull, Outer Sunset and Monsters Calling Home — and vocalists — Jayne Rio, Dustin Ako and Peter Chung. Team Loopkicks and Crywolffs! Violin will challenge the status quo with their unconventional and innovative talents. These aspiring artists are set to compete for a $1000 Grand Prize, a $500 Audience Choice Award sponsored by Verizon, and the chance to open for Clara C and David Choi at their San Francisco show in the Fall. The winner may also earn a spot at Kollaboration Los Angeles’ November show featuring other winners from across the country.
Judging the talent competition is NBC Bay Area’s anchorwoman Janelle Wang, singer/songwriter Passion, California assemblywoman Fiona Ma, and hip-hop dancer and choreographer Ellen Kim. The evening includes Kollaboration San Francisco’s highly anticipated Freestyle Dance and Vocal Contest, where audience members will be invited to share their talents on stage.
Asian Rock Fest (ARF) returns the San Francisco Bay Area. This year, the concert takes place in Berkeley, California on Friday July 13, 2012. There will be ass-kicking bands from all over the west coast as well as phenomenal solo artists. The show’s annual music festival showcases the best of Asian American bands and artists. Started in 2004, Asian Rock Fest has brought together dozens of amazing bands from all across America, and hosted festivals from NYC to SF. Get ready to rock the night away with this 2012 lineup that includes:
This all-ages event will be for the very first time absolutely FREE to everyone because the organizers have generously donated all the money it takes to rent the space and run the show. All that’s left is to donate a few buck to the artists. Don’t let them go home empty handed after entertaining you all night! Donate here. The donation break down will be 20% of donation for each band (60%), 10% of donation for each solo artist (30%), and the last 10% go towards the flyers we have to print.
It all goes down on July 13, 2012 at the La Peña Cultural Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA).
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the 2012 APAHM tour returns. The much anticipated national APAHM Concert Tour casts the spotlight on none other than Korean-American superstar, Jay Park. The tour will make stops in Washington DC, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Considered by many as a pioneering music artist, Jay Park is a multi-talented entertainer known for his vocals, song-writing, dancing and acting skills. With a growing fan base that crosses global boundaries, Jay Park is also known for his charismatic and confident personality, making him one of the most popular and admired artists of this generation.
Asian American artist will join Jay Park on stage as will. For the East Coast (Washington DC & New York), Dumbfoundead and Viennie V will be the opening acts. For the West Coast (San Francisco & Los Angeles), AJ Rafael and Blush will share the stage with him. Dumbfoundead is one of the first Asian-American hip-hop artists to break the underground hip-hop scene. Viennie V, a rising Asian-American pop singer, is known for her sultry vocals with eye catching music videos. Blush, a five-member Pan-Asian pop group, is known for their #3 Billboard Dance Chart hit, “Undivided feat. Snoop Dogg.” AJ Rafael is best known for his smooth vocals and posting entertaining videos on the web.
Here’s the 2012 APAHM Tour Schedule:
May 19 – Washington DC at Fillmore Silver Spring
May 20 – New York at Best Buy Theater
May 25 – San Francisco at Regency Ballroom
May 27 – Los Angeles at Club Nokia
If you can’t make it out to the show, don’t worry. You can still meet Jay Park at the following events:
Meet & Greet Schedule:
WASHINGTON DC
Tyson’s Corner Mall
8078 Tyson’s Corner Ctr, McLean, VA 22102
MAY 18, 2012 at 5PM
NEW YORK
34th St
134 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001
MAY 21, 2012 at 3PM
SAN FRANCISCO
Market St
768 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102
MAY 24, 2012 at 5PM
LOS ANGELES
Western
3785 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010
MAY 26, 2012 at 4PM
Food is the next rock n’ roll. From celebrity chefs to food trucks, our culinary culture is exploding with innovative new tastes and eating establishments, and many of the must-try offerings in the Bay Area are Asian American restaurants and pop-ups. In this salon, two of the hottest local chefs will discuss their experiences and food while they create a dish live with the audience. Consult your recipe box or app and come to share food ideas!
Featuring:
Preeti Mistry, Chef, Juhu Beach Club, Top Chef Alum
Beverly Kim, Chef De Cuisine, Aria Restaurant Chicago, Top Chef Alum
FRIDAY, MARCH 9 | 9PM | MIGHTY 119 UTAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO | 21+
From electronic pop to new school hip-hop, Directions In Sound 2012, A CAAM presentation of the 2012 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, in conjunction with SoundTracking, delivers a genre-bending showcase featuring emerging artists and established vets. Join them on a trip through the future-forward music scene that’s blowing up the Asian American underground. Don’t blink…You might miss the next big thing!
DJ NEIL ARMSTRONG
Neil Armstrong has come a long way since his humble beginnings in New York’s hip-hop underground. A mere ten years into his career, Neil finds himself as the Global Music Ambassador for Adidas and as Jay-Z’s tour DJ (from 2008 to 2009). Catapulted to the highest-regard in hip-hop, Neil is instantly becoming the most sought-after DJ in the world.
BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD
Blackbird Blackbird is the moniker/musical outlet of San Francisco wunderkind Mikey Maramag, whose deep, textured, and hypnotic pop songs have captured the ears of Pitchfork, Transparent, Prefix Magazine, The Fader, and other musical taste-makers alike.
HOPIE
Rising Bay Area female emcee Hopie has powers on the mic and beyond, with a doctorate from U.C. Hastings and skills in everything from violin to spoken word to guitar. Her debut album, Diamond Dame, garnered national attention and a nomination for URB’s Next 1000, immediately making Hopie an artist to watch.
MICROPIXIE
Made in Bombay, born & raised in the U.K., and based in San Francisco, Micropixie (aka MPX) is an experimental recording artist whose style can’t be confined to any one genre. Described as sensuous and textural, look out for her new album, “The Good, the Beige & the Ugly”.
DJ TAP.10
DJ Tap.10 is the official DJ/Remixer of the heavily buzzed-about Honor Roll Crew, a Bay Area collective of rappers, producers, DJs, and singers. He has been spinning coast-to-coast with the hottest selections, putting it down with his own brand of R&B soul, progressive hip-hop, and original tracks.
SATURDAY, MARCH 10 | 6PM | SOM BAR 2925 16TH STREET, SAN FRANCISCO | 21+
THE GROOVE SALON
SFIAAFF has long celebrated the contributions of Asian American artists to the fabric of musical life. In the Groove Salon, we bring together two Directions in Sound artists to go beyond performance to talk life and shop. Hear DJ Neil Armstrong and HOTTUB meet up in conversation/collaboration to create a song with the audience. They are from different parts of a musical spectrum but both are innovative musicians that challenge the boundaries of hip-hop. During the salon, they will play samples of their work, speak about their experiences as musicians, and give the attendees a taste of the creative process. This is a participatory event, so come prepared to ask questions and contribute to the song!
Featuring:
DJ NEIL ARMSTRONG // (previously described)
HOTTUB // LeHeat Records / Members: Coco Machete-vox, Ambr33zy-vox, LoliPop-vox, Jaysonik-producer, Funky Finger Mark-keyboards
Oakland based quintet HOTTUB has been busting out jams since 2005. HOTTUB draws from dancehall, punk, Miami Bass and girl group pop to create their hype sound, and their live show is full of crowd antics, makeshift slip & slides and tricked out, thrift-store-fabulous outfits.
Moderated by:
Jeff Chang
Writer, Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts + Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University.
FRIDAY, MARCH 9 | 9PM | MIGHTY 119 UTAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO | 21+