Last night playing with Photoshop again....

Hundreds of Stories Haven't Been Told

I've always been interested in the history of Chinese immigrants in North America. We've all heard stories about how early Chinese immigrants came to North America to work on the railways, but rarely do we hear about their contribution to the American entertainment industry. I didn't realize that Chinese Americans performed in all Chinese vaudeville clubs as early as the 40s until I watched a PBS documentary about twenty years ago. That documentary stayed on my mind ever since.

Just today, my friend David Wells at softfilm.blogspot.com just posted a very interesting article about the Chinese American vaudeville duo Ming and Ling from the 1940s.

So here is my dream for the day: one day I'd love to see a film on the story of these early Chinese American entertainers. There's got to be many wonderful stories that haven't been told. Amy Tan, Wayne Wang, anybody interested?

Getting your first tattoo can be a spiritual kinda thing.....

My Tattoo: Session 5: Final Shading

Session 5: June 6, 2009 (2 hrs.)
Finally finshed!! Last session... to finish the Koi scales, fins, and tail. Took no time to heal. My skin reacted very well to the entire tattooing process. No scabs, skin just flaked off like a sun-burn. Three days later, all healed. Next month I'll go back to have a final touch up. Free of charge. It's part of the service. Very nice indeed! Later I'll take some pics of the back of my arm.

It's quite an experience to walk around downtown in a sleeveless shirt showing the tats. People looked but were afraid to stare. It's not that unusual to have tats these days. I noticed a lot of people, men and women, having whole arms tattooed. However, it's actually not that common to see traditional Japanese style tattoo. Most tats are either old-school of tribal style. I'm very happy with this design. The Koi means "courage" and is a good luck charm. You think my life with change this year? If it does...it will be for the better I hope!