Jul

14

2008

(52) Comments

Rebuilding the Bridge – Sichuan Earthquake Charity Event

04:10PM by lan

Pictures will be available and added later.

Alvin has already blogged about the most awesome event ever known to man yesterday from an attendee’s point of view, so I thought I would give you an inside scoop of what went on behind the scenes and a detailed version of what went on during the event.

13 Hours Before, there were a lot of issues along the way. With only 3 weeks to plan this event, you can only imagine how much time and effort was put into this. But with the awesome team of event promoters (Nancy Bulalacao, Ron Kim, Phil Lam, Minya Oh, David Hou and Hoc Poeng), the event went really smoothly – well for the most part. All of us who were involved, we all barely had time to sleep and eat. I’m surprised I even had time to shower! Even though I wasn’t one of the promoters, I was still able to help out with the event by designing the graphics and being one of the photographers along with Tina C.

So okay! Finally the morning of the event, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Usually I’m a hard person to wake up but when I realized it was Saturday I got straight out of bed and off to work. After a lot of running around prepping, I was on my way. But of course the work didn’t stop there. While in the car I was still folding program guides, there were over 700 of them! Little did I know that we had a great team of volunteers to help me fold them. Again, I want to thank all the volunteers and Ming Hui for dedicating their time to help out. Without them, we would all lose our minds!

Arriving at the venue (Pace University), there were only the event promoters and a couple volunteers. Funny story, as I walked in I said hello to Phil Lam (who works for Ningin) but he had no idea who I was! He introduced himself and everything until I told him “I’m Lan”. It was really funny but knowing how tired all of are, I couldn’t blame him. Along with everyone else there, I didn’t even realize Ken Leung was helping us! When Nancy introduced me to him, he shook my hand with the most powerful grip I’ve ever felt. I think the shock of meeting him diverted the pain at the time because my fingers still hurt.

Anyways, the flood of volunteers came in along with a few of the performers. Andrew Choi came in with his band to do a test. After finishing the work I had to do, I took a sneak peek of his voice. Even though it was just a practice, his voice sounded so beautiful! I can’t believe I’ve never heard of him before! Along with him came J-Lim. I didn’t realize she didn’t want her picture taken until one of her posse members asked me to stop. I felt so embarrassed but I still got to listen to her sing. She’s also was great and I couldn’t wait to see the two perform later that evening.

Afterwards there wasn’t as much to do so starving Hoc and I went to grab some BK. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hungry in my life! Time passes by and then with a couple hours before the event, it’s show time. Everyone puts their game faces on and gets into action. With the direction from the promoters, everything seems to run smoothly.

We had people arrive early which was great because by the time the VIP reception was suppose to start, there was a really, really long line outside. It was such a great turn out for an event that had just been put together. We sold all the tickets and even had people try to sneak in.

With the event ball rolling, Tina and I run around outside and in taking pictures like there’s no tomorrow which would explain why my forearm is in so much pain. Definitely worth it though! Also arriving with the attendees were the special guests and artists. JYP, Councilman John C. Liu, Ken Leung, Beau Sia and Andrew Choi were all mingling with the attendees and graciously taking photos. I even got a photo with Ken Leung and Beau Sia that had me laughing hard.

The performance event was about to start so all the special guests, Mercy Corp, Museum of Chinese in America’s (MOCA) president and some of the event promoters stood together under the MOCA banner for the press. It was so cool to see the fruits of everyone’s labor paying off. Thinking back now I would want to relive it again, but not for another year!

Everyone moves in to the theater and it becomes packed within minutes. There were two floors and there was not one empty seat in the house. Being a photographer, I got the best seat, right up front and on the floor.

I went back stage a few times only to find chaos. David Hou the stage manager had this biggest headset attached to his face that I’ve ever seen. There were a lot of changes last minute which left David Hou and Hoc Poeng running around frantically. Unfortunately, some of the promoters weren’t able to watch the event due to there being so much to take care of. But we have videos of the event which will be available later.

The performance opened up with JYP and Jackie Chan’s Smile Again, a music video dedicated to the Sichuan Earthquake victims where all the proceeds are donated. It was a heartbreaking video that included clips of the celebrities singing in addition to Jackie Chan’s personally recorded videos of the Sichuan victims.

Afterwards Andrew Choi was up as one of the first performers. He had the crowd cheering. He sang an original song in addition to “Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning”. It was such a great performance and one of my favorites. I should have gotten an autograph.

But that’s only the beginning, next up was Beau Sia! I’ve only seen him on Youtube but the live performance was crazy. He not only performed but danced as well. His spoken word performance had everyone laughing, cheering and hyped. I don’t even know where to begin to explain with word how awesome he did but just know that if you weren’t there, you missed something great.

Following him was one of the secret special guests we had. It was NAS with Just Blaze! Not a big hip hop person but even I know how big he is. The crowd didn’t seem like they were expecting it from what I hear. As he was announced everyone was on their feet cheering. Although he didn’t perform, he instead gave us a sneak peek into his new album with the single “Sly Fox”. Also he spoke about social responsibilities and helping the community. It was comforting to know we had his support.

So with Just Blaze and DJ Delinger on the stage, this called for a DJ battle. All of it was freestyle. It played back and forth for awhile but in the end, I would say it was equal. They both did some amazing stuff that kept everyone cheering. Now that I think of it, what did keep the crowd from cheering?

Next up was kpop artist J-Lim. She performed her singles “Imagine” and “Music is My Life” with G-Soul. They were both great, of course. Oh, and this time I could take pictures of her.

All the way from Las Vegas and New Jersey airport came Ryan Leslie. His new single “Diamond Girl” was really good. I know I keep saying how great the performers were but they really were. Oh! And he was the producer for JYP’s debut song. Small world!

Next was the Planet B-boy Battle for New York. I’ve never seen a dance battle in person so this was quite the treat. Unfortunately, my camera was fast enough for their tricks so most of them were blurred. One of the members of Dynamic Rockers and nice enough to sit on the stage and pose. No one was announced a winner but they both were awesome.

Supposedly this was the end of the performances but surprise, surprise! Jabbawockeez show up. For those of you who were so rude to the event promoters, they did come and they were AWESOME! Everyone completely flipped out at their arrival. They spoke on the importance of the cause in addition to giving everyone a free autographed photo and photo op. I took so many photos of them with my dying, memory strained camera that they made fun of me by calling me “rapid fire”. Good times indeed. I didn’t get a photo with them unfortunately but I did get my hands on a personalized autographed photo. Also while I took their photos, Kevin Brewer decided to pose every time I took a shot. It was hilarious! Also, did you know Ken Leung is a big Jabbawockeez fan? When the members found out they were psyched and gave him a free shirt. I was able to get a gangster photo of him posing with his shirt. Talk about Kodak moment.

When we sold all the tickets, people still donated money to Mercy Corp to support the cause. So overall, we raised more than we had anticipated.

It was finally the end, and everyone was leaving. I was a bit sad but overall completely happy that it was over. So much blood, sweat and tears were put into this event that I can’t believe it’s finally over. As I’m writing this I’m feeling nostalgic. It was great to work with all the event promoters in addition to everyone else that helped out. I’m still recovering from exhaustion eating and sleeping as much as I can when I can. Even though it’s all over, there’s still a lot to do.

I hoped everyone enjoyed the event, I know I did.

ALSO! I forgot to mention it how horrible of me. Mercy Corps also presented at the event and told everyone about their Action Center in New York. So you know if you didn’t donate or come to the event, by all means please visit the Action Center and help out in any way you can. Thanks again!

lan said 07/13/08 10:29 PM

KutieKawaii said 07/13/08 10:43 PM

tokawaii said 07/13/08 11:00 PM

Kangta said 07/13/08 11:11 PM

Alvin Lin said 07/13/08 11:13 PM

I☆You said 07/13/08 11:16 PM

bikiniman said 07/13/08 11:31 PM

caro said 07/13/08 11:43 PM

Hoc said 07/13/08 11:46 PM

Miss.Kang said 07/13/08 11:48 PM

yangster said 07/14/08 12:40 AM

armybratkat said 07/14/08 03:54 AM

mabuhay said 07/14/08 07:05 AM

PLam said 07/14/08 07:59 AM

PLam said 07/14/08 09:23 AM

Hoc said 07/14/08 09:37 AM

altercasian said 07/14/08 10:08 AM

khmeresmily said 07/14/08 10:10 AM

Dj Delinger said 07/14/08 10:40 AM

andrewlim said 07/14/08 10:51 AM

PLam said 07/14/08 10:52 AM

lan said 07/14/08 11:31 AM

I☆You said 07/14/08 11:35 AM

PLam said 07/14/08 02:33 PM

lumiere said 07/14/08 03:58 PM