Monthly Archive for July, 2003

Another great show!

We did it! Another great show! Thanks to everyone who came out tonight to support us!

I am so impressed just how good everyone is. All the stories are really good, and the performances are great.

Dan Kwong performed tonight. His piece was really good (of course). I look forward to our last two shows tomorrow. I can’t believe it all ends tomorrow. I wish we could continue performing our pieces to more people. This is the kind of work I’ve always wanted to do as an actor. It validates why I want to be an actor.

Anyway, till tomorrow…

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Essay #4: Embarassment

“How do I get myself in these situations?” I asked myself. I was sitting on a bed with this girl showing her my modeling portfolio. I wasn’t even attracted to this girl, but I could hear comments from the other room.

“Where’s Dave?”

“I think he’s in the back room with Jen.”

“He’s showing her his “modeling portfolio”"

I felt pretty stupid. I didn’t want it to seem as if I was hitting on this girl because the girl I was actually interested in was in the next room - with her boyfriend.

My dream girl then appeared in the bedroom doorway.

“We’re leaving and I just wanted to say bye.”

I quickly got up from the bed.

“Ok.” I said as I followed her out into the living room.

“I guess I’ll see you Monday.”

I watched as she left with her boyfriend wishing that it was me she was leaving with.

It was now late in the evening and everyone had gone home. The only people that were left were Maggie (the host), her friend (the girl I had been showing my modeling photos to), my friend Denny and me. I don’t even remember how it started, but I think we were talking about martial arts. Denny started bragging about how flexible he was and that he could do a full split.

“Let’s see it then” Maggie said.

Denny got down on the floor and proceeded to lower himself into a split. He was able to go down pretty far, but there were still a couple of inches of space beneath him.

“See!” He said with a big smile.

“That’s not a full split.” I said, challenging him. There are still a couple inches of space beneath you.

“Let’s see you do it then.” He replied.

I slowly lowered my body into a front split. It was a pretty good split. I had studied martial arts for a couple of years and was pretty flexible, but I was never able to achieve a “complete” split where both of my legs are completely flat on the ground. I started to feel a lot of tension in my leg muscles as they were being stretched to their limit. I stopped. There were still a couple of inches of space beneath me.

“See, you can’t do it either.” Denny said, mockingly.

“Watch”, I replied, before tossing away common sense.

I took a deep breath and relaxed the muscles in my leg. My body started to lower closer and closer to the ground.

“Wow” I thought to myself. “I’ve never been able to do this before.”

Suddenly, I felt a weird sensation in the back of my front leg. I could hear it too. It was like my pants were ripping and I could feel it inside my leg.

“Ow, ow, ow” I said aloud as I achieved the full split.

I quickly leaned over to my left side and brought my legs back together.

“I think I ripped a muscle.”

I started to feel a tingly sensation in my ham string and I tried to put weight on my leg.

“Ouch!” I screamed out in pain. “I ripped my hamstring”.

“Sit down, sit down. I’ll get some Chinese medicine” Maggie said as she disappeared in the back room. She emerged with two thin-silver packages that looked like oversized packages of moist towelletts. “What’s that?” I said. “It’s a pad with Chinese medicine meant for muscle strain. It will stick to your body.” I lifted my pant leg and noticed that my leg was starting to turn purple. I opened two of the packages and stuck them to my leg. They started to feel warm. It was like Bengay. Pain started to fill my leg and I realized there was no way I could walk on it.

When I returned home that night I removed the medicated pad to asses my injury. I was horrified to find that the entire back of my leg was deep purple and black from the back of my knee all the way up to my groin. It hurt like hell.

That was one of the stupidest things I have ever done.

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Opening Night!!!

We had a great opening night tonight! The house was 1/2 full but the audience was great! Everybody rocked. It’s been an amazing journey and it’s really cool to see how far our pieces have developed. It’s also amazing to see everyone perform their piece when only yesterday we were still doing revisions on our scripts, working out blocking and trying to memorize our lines. I myself worked out blocking for my entire piece just this afternoon and spent hours rehersing alone to get it right for the show. GREAT SHOW EVERYONE!!!

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Essay #3: Joy

Dress rehersal tonight!!! and I still need to memorize my piece! and my car is still broke!!!! Anyway, here is my third essay from the workshop. I was watching Def Poetry Jam while writing it, so it has a sort of spoken-word flavor:

The Talent Show
By David Chiu

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

I could hear my heart beat in my chest like a bass line stolen from the sounds of new jack swing.

There I was, standing offstage in the latest street fashions complete with polka dot socks and striped shoes.

There I was, standing offstage with something to prove.

I was waiting to prove that there was more to me than meets the eye.

That I was more than just that Asian student in class who was always quiet and shy.

I was filled with a nervous determination to blast through stereotypes and misconceptions.

I wanted respect, attention, and most of all validation.

For the past two weeks prior to this show I had spent every waking moment planning how all of this would go.

I carefully selected the music. I wanted something sexy but strong. So I selected “I wanna get with U” by Guy one of their hit songs.

Then I spent every day sketching out choreography on paper. I used stick figures to represent moves that I would have to practice later.

I also wanted to use lights for a dramatic effect so I had the theater pitch black before I would start my set.

The curtains would be closed but as the music started, they would slowly open until fully parted.

Finally, on the first downbeat of the song the spotlight would instantly turn on, and then follow me around for the rest of the song.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

I could hear my heart beat in my chest like a bass line stolen from the sounds of new jack swing.

That’s when I hear “next up is david chiu performing a dance routine.”

Now I will admit. When I heard those words, I was scared. I was scared as hell,

Cause the auditorium was packed with hundreds of teenagers who booed people offstage when they didn’t do well.

I walked onto the pitch black stage behind the curtain not quite sure what was going to happen for certain.

Then the music started and the curtain parted.

When the downbeat hit so did the spotlight.

This was it. If I get booed off the stage I will be scarred for life.

I started my choreography with as much energy as possible

Although inside I felt completely naked, and the most vulnerable.

But then something happened that was magical.

I started to hear the audience chant my name. “Go chiu, go chiu, go, go, go chiu”.

In that single moment I had transcended all stereotypes and blew them away.

It was the ultimate high that has kept me driven to this day.

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Car plows into crowd

A car plows into a crowd in Santa Monica critically injuring 10 people. Details can be found here: http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2337407/detail.html. My thoughts and prayers are with those who are involved or have friends or family that are involved.

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Car + Broken = Expensive

My car is broke. It overheated yesterday in the California heat and highway, and now I’m told it’s leaking coolant out of every orifice. A $700 job to fix. And it’s our ONLY car.

Now I need to find some freelance to make up for this expense.

Damn I hate these curve balls life throws at ya!

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I WANT THIS!

It would be nice if a very kind soul got me this for my upcoming 30th birthday: The Archos AV320.

It’s a portable video player that plays movies, mp3’s, can record audio and video and take 3.3 megapixel pictures. Everything I need to distract myself from doing any real work!

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Hollywood is turning Japanese?

Ever heard of Manga or Anime? This is the name of comics over in Japan. The market for these comics is $5 billion a year and is interesting the appetite of Hollywood. Here’s an article from the Hollywood Reporter about it all.

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Celebrities playing in video games

Caught this article in the Hollywood Reporter about David Duchovny joining Adam West and Eve as the cast in the video game XIII. I looked at the website and trailer clips and the game looks AWESOME! Very stylized and cool. Kinda reminds me of Oni but much more advanced.

Hollywood + video games = The Next Big Thing!

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A robot for my birthday!

My birthday present from my wife came today - a Roomba! Roomba is a vacuum cleaner robot with artificial intelligence. It will periodically vacuum a room covering every inch going over any kind of floor surface, under furniture, around furniture, following walls, etc, all without human intervention. It’s a robot with Artificial Intelligence dreamed up by former students at MIT

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