It's strange how sometimes you can do something for one reason, and something entirely unexpected comes out of it. This past Sunday, I attended the aptly-named "The Land of Golden Dreams," a fundraiser for the San Francisco Bay Area Burmese (aka Myanmar) Community Center, as well as a US 2010 Census Promotion. There is no community center yet, hence the fundraiser, and the census promotion is to get Burmese listed as a separate entity on the 2010 US Census. That way they can have a more accurate count of how many Burmese are in the US. At this point, they are lumped in with Chinese, totally incorrect. I was there at the invitation of my friend, activist-writer Randy Wong, and expected a relaxing hour or so eating Burmese food and maybe listening to some music. The fact that buying food tickets was a way of supporting both worthy goals was icing on the kasaba, as they say.
The first thing I noticed when I parked my car on the hill above Capuchino High School in San Bruno where the event was held was a loud and hot sounding rock band. "Cool!" I thought. "Rock music!" Then I realized they weren't singing in English. Even cooler! Once on the festival grounds, I saw there were tents over all the food tables, hundreds of folks milling about, and that rock band playing at the entrance to the school auditorium. I called Randy on his celly and he joined me, showing me around, introducing me to many people. It seemed he knew everyone. I think he did! Interestingly, he told everyone we met that I was a recording artist and songwriter. He suggested I sing with the band, but at first I thought he was just joking.
By now I was famished. Randy insisted I try a few of his favorites: steamed yellow tofu with cilantro and peanut sauce (tasty! and it's tofu! revelation!); what I thought was fried fish but turned out to be fried squash; and faluda, a strawberry custard swimming in ice cream - scrumptious. I made a donation to the fundraiser and bought some food tickets which I presented at a dessert table. $5 netted me two big baggies full of Burmese sweet treats!
We went into the auditorium and looked at some wonderful photographs taken in Burma as well as some beautiful paintings. I was introduced to Valerie, Miss Asia 2004, among many other titles, stunning...As we stopped at tables supporting the census change and highlighting issues in Burma today, I got a quick education in Burmese history. I learned that the yellow handkerchief pictured above portrays one of their most revered heroes - and political martyrs -General Aung San and his cabinet, who were all assassinated in a meeting by mercenaries hired by a British colony, leading to the violence, oppression and suffering that continues unabated in Burma to this day.
The next day the unjust sentencing of General San's daughter, Suu Kyi, was globally condemned. Cutting her sentence in half is not enough. Just like North Korea, Mynamar doesn't give a fuck what the world thinks.
As I was preparing to leave, Randy introduced me to Tomas, who he said was a Burmese pop star. Tomas suggested I sing with the band, if not today, then in a couple of weeks. Turns out Tomas is a well known singer who goes by the name of ZaYanDa, and Randy wangled an invite for me to his video shoot/birthday party next Saturday evening, where I will sing something from my CD, "Second Chance" (live debut of the material) and likely sing with the band, as well as appear in the video.
It's amazing sometimes how you can attend a function just to hang out with a friend and end up having a totally different experience than what you expected. Warm and wonderful people, great music and excellent eats - this was indeed the Land of Golden Dreams!
1 comment:
The event sounds really cool
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