Article 002: Maid Aid: San Francisco Bay Area maids raises funds for Japan

A tea set with to bags of loose leaf tea and a "maid" tea cooze that was made by Ami-chan was one of the items up for auction during the "Pray for Japan" Maid Cafe Experience

“Come inside, its cold outside.”

A girl dressed in an extravagant black and white maid outfit beckons to guests as she and another maid hold open the doors to Senzala Brazilian restaurant in Sunnyvale, CA. The second maid asks another guest on how to say “this way please” in Japanese.

“Kochira dozu”, the customer replies. She nods her head and repeats the phrase with a slight giggle.

Senzala was host to “Pray for Japan: Japanese Maid Café Experience” on March 27. The fundraiser was organized by San Francisco Bay Area performer Yukie Dong and Yoko. All of the funds raised during the fundraiser were donated to the Japan Emergency Network to help out the relief efforts in Japan.

The maid café had a lunch and dinner service where guests were treated to an Akiba-style maid café experience where the maids would chat with guests as well as play various board games and even perform different anime and videogame songs. Guests were also treated to the “maid special” which was one of three selected Brazilian dishes served at Senzala.

One of the maids shows her donation to the silent auction as well as explain how to make a bid for an item.

The maids also held a silent auction where they placed some of their own items up for bid. The items ranged from figurines and artwork to a personal phone call from one of the maids first thing in the morning and right before bed.

“It was all pretty impromptu,” said Head Maid Jun Shena

Fellow maids Yukie Dong and Yoko, were the main organizers and promoters of the event. Yukie is a regular singer/performer in the San Francisco Bay Area and her first thought was to hold a charity concert to raise money for the relief efforts after the March 11^th disaster. But she already had held three concerts this past month. Then a friend who co-owns Senzala asked her to perform in the restaurant.

“I thought, why not have a maid cafe event with live shows for charity at the restaurant?” Yukie stated, “So I sent a message to both Yoko and Jun, they both thought ‘it’s a great idea.’”

Yukie was in charge of the promoting and marketing of the event as well as updating the website for the event. Yoko contacted all of the maids to see who could help out with the café as well as the supplies the maids would need. Jun helped out with the guests pre-registration for the event as well as helping Yoko contact the maids.

They were going to give all of the donations to the Japanese Red Cross but as more people heard about the event; some of them questioned their goal. Yukie then received a message from Tokyopop CEO/Founder Stu Levy saying that he was in Japan working with JEN-NPO in Sendai and suggested that they send the donations to JEN-NPO so that the money can help people a lot faster than it would through the Red Cross. So they researched JEN-NPO and decided to send all the donations to them.

“I really want to thank Stu, who helped us connect to JEN, and what he is currently doing deeply touched all of us in US anime community too!” Yukie said.

Most guests heard about the service through Facebook or the Fanimaid twitter feed. A few even came after seeing the flyers that were posted at various locations.

“There were quite a lot of people who pre-registered and we had a lot of contributions,” Jun said.

Guest Pat Arakel heard about the event through the Fanime twitter feed. He was also moved to help out in someway after hearing about the disaster.

“I can’t see how anyone can hear their story and not do anything.”

Other guest had nothing but praise for the event and the organizers. Guests Yoshiaki and Yuka Nagaya from San Francisco said they were both excited to see all the activity. They said that it was good to see all these people coming out to support the Japanese people. Yoshiaki added that there are a lot of ways to support the Japanese people and everyone should do what they can. Guest Elbert Chan summed up the attendees’ feelings.

“It says a lot about the organizers of the maid café generosity and character to give back to the culture.”

Update: The organizers report that the event raised $5,520.45 in total as of April 3, 2011. All the funds will be donated to the Japan Emergency Network. Videos and other photos are available at http://www.yukiedong.com/prayforjapan.html

Bad Puns

It's a really bad pun

Today feels like a good day for some bad puns. Most can be found on sites like the cheezeburger network and stuff like that.

There is even a section that even deals with nothing but puns which I might add is great. You can find it here.

Either way, puns tend to make a cloudy day go by faster. By the way, I came up with this particular one and you can see it here. Please rate it if you like it.

Article 001: SubZero Closes SoFA District

Ben Henderson & Friends on the Main Stage.

Club Goers mixed in with families and art hipsters alike during the 3rd annual SubZero Festival in downtown San Jose June 4th.

The festival item is a part of the 1st Fridays event where all of the downtown art galleries and artist alike open their doors to the public to view new art and various other works on the first Friday of every month.

This year’s SubZero took place in the SoFA district of San Jose. A section of south 1^st street from San Carlos Street down to Reed Street was closed off, creating a pedestrian paradise where music stages and roving performers are free to roam.

Various food sellers, local artisans, vendors, and other organizations also set up shop along side huge art installations such as the 12-foot monster puppet manned by Museum Proper. Passersby could buy hand-made clothes and printed tee-shirts to various kinds of hand-made jewelry to strips of LED lights that they can place on their bike.

Dinosaur Dance Party mingle with the crowd.

Organizations like the San Jose Bike Party, SHARE San Jose and Veggielution also set-up booths to get the word out on their organizations. The San Jose Bike Party even held a bike ride rally at the beginning and end of the festival.

My First Murder performs outside the Metro Offices.

Other groups put on demonstrations and some even held classes during the festival. Capoeira Irmandade held a demonstration with a live band playing in the background. Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School held a live drawing class of the various performers who participated in the festival every half-hour.

San Jose District 3 (Downtown) Councilman Sam Liccardo checks in with the crowd before San Jose Taiko and The Bangerz take the stage.

SubZero also featured local bands of every genre from heavy metal, folk and techno. The acts were spread among three stages placed down 1st street.

The Bangerz end the festival with a collaboration with San Jose Taiko.

The main attraction of this year’s festival was a collaborative performance by San Jose natives The Bangerz and San Jose Taiko. They were the last act to close out the festival which ended about midnight.

The Bangerz & San Jose Taiko

2nd clip

Wow Short 11: This means something…

Katie: Omelet - Prevail...

Mondegreen: A series of words that result from the mishearing of a statement or lyric, creating an often humorous new meaning for the original phrase.

There’s a bathroom on the right = there’s a bad moon rising – Credence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”

The Free Dictionary – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/archive.htm?d=10/16/2009

Nancy was on her way to the kitchen to get something to eat when she was distracted by an odd sound. It was more like a nonsensical sentence. Nancy glanced around the room to find Katie playing a video game. Katie’s voice grew louder as Nancy came closer to Katie.

“And you eat at a spoon fair!” screamed Katie

Nancy encountered Rachel and Al as a loud explosion and light occurred from where Katie was playing her game.

Nancy glanced around the room before asking if Katie was talking to her. A red tinge spread across Katie’s cheeks as she snapped out of her trance and shook her head.

“Sorry,” Katie said, “I like to sing along with the songs in the video games when I play them. But I often sing what  hear instead of learning the actual lyrics. It’s a little more fun that way.”

Nancy stopped to think about it for a few minutes before she adjusted her glasses out of frustration. Katie shrugged and returned to her game as Nancy walked off towards the kitchen.

“Mongreens make people say the strangest things,” Nancy muttered to herself as she checked the refrigerator.

Wow Short 10: Battle!

Cathy judges the battle between Nancy and Mary.

Flyting: a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form

In the first flyting in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice wittily responds to Benedick’s line “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” with “Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet/ food to feed it as Signior Benedick?”

Merriam-Webster OnLine – http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Nov.17.2009

Boredom causes people to do strange things.

Especially when there is cake involved. So when it came down to deciding who would get the last piece, a contest was chosen.

They decided to hold a sudden death rap battle…

After half an hour, the contest was down to Nancy and Mary. Both stared down the other as Cathy refereed the match. Nancy knew that she could win this without a scratch. The tension thicken with each passing second. The audience held their breath, awaiting the reckon. Mary’s nerves caused her fist shake. Setting her whole body to vibrate. Cathy remained sedate. Choosing to sit and wait. She will be the one to decide the fate. Of the cake that sitting on a neighboring plate.

That is when Katie arrived in a haste. Informing the others that Al had found the cake and in one bite, laid it to waste.

And the lesson for the day was that Flyting is only good as long as the prize security withstood.

Katie: "I hate to state that nothing left but the plate."

Wow Short #9: Rainy Day

Rachel: "It looks pretty bad out there."

Disinclination: A certain degree of unwillingness

There was nothing to be done; a circumstance that happily suited our disinclination to do anything.

2009 word of the day calendar, October 21, 2009

She hated the rain.

Rachel watches from the observation deck (i.e. front room window) and frowns as the rain keeps transitioning from light sprinkles to heavy down pours without stopping.

The rain didn’t seem to stop.

Memories of the past flood into her mind like the pounding rain. Soaking every inch and causing her soul to shiver. Memories she would like to wash down the storm drains along with the rain. Lost loves, missed opportunities, unfortunate accidents all in the rain. She despises the rain.

Work grows as time stops.

The call Rachel received minutes ago seemed  important. The errands she was going to do continue to pile up. Her own schedule resets itself with every passing minute. She is starting to think that she is going to miss the movie date she has with Al. A light smile crosses her delicate lips as the rain pours down from the skies once again.

The rain gives her a suitable reason for her disinclination to do anything that day.

Rachel: "There's always tomorrow."

Wow Short #8: Drama Queen

It's just a prop...

MacGuffin: an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

The missing document is the MacGuffin that sends the two spies off on an action-packed race around the world, but the real story centers on tension between the main characters.

2009 word of the day calendar, October 12, 2009

The world is a stage and we are merely actors trotting upon it. Rachel loves to set up scenarios for the others to play out when ever she is bored. Though these scenarios only take a few hours to plan, they might last for days. She even has enough props stored somewhere that she is running adjacent story lines at any given time.

And the scenarios always start off with an unusual item placed in a normal setting. And then there are those times when she starts the entire act herself by handing over a simple prop or making a request.

Today is murder mystery day or was it horror  day? Either way, the rest of the group is not in the mood for the scenarios so they try to ignore Rachel as much as possible.

But Katie is having trouble with ignoring the MacGuffins that Rachel leaves out.

Maybe that is part of the scenario…

Nancy: "Just ignore her..."