Nov 05, 2013 Introducing the Save Music in Chinatown Project
In this blog, I typically share cool stuff that friends are doing. So please humor me this time as I blab about a project that my wife Wendy Lau and I are starting.
In August, our daughter Eloise began attending kindergarten at Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown. It is neither a magnet nor a charter but a straight-up inner-city public LAUSD school that caters mostly to first- and second-generation immigrant kids who speak Cantonese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, and Spanish. Even so, the students are quite motivated and test quite well. There is also a very cool, very successful dual-language Mandarin program that Eloise is taking part in and thriving in.
That being said, there is no budget for music education. As a result parents are being asked to raise $100,000 to pay for this year’s program (which is being taught on an I.O.U.) as well as make sure that next year’s program is accounted for from the beginning.
My first thought was crap! There’s no way the local parent base can raise that kind of dough and lot of the underserved students really need the exposure to performing arts as well as a creative outlet. Then I realized that L.A.’s Chinatown has an unbeatable tradition of music and a current community of thriving art galleries, and that the typically nocturnal participants of either don’t have many chances to mix with the locals. Yet given an opportunity to be involved and help out, they would surely and gladly reach out.
After 16 years of dabbling in art and music at Giant Robot magazine, I am hoping that I can help build such a bridge and I’m stoked that friends at Human Resources have volunteered to provide gallery space for our first fund-raising concert on December 8 with invaluable support from The Ooga Booga Store.
The tentative bill is a mix of the past and present, guitars and electronics, raw and refined… Bob Forrest sings for Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle Thief with members of the Circle Jerks, Weirdos, and Red Hot Chili Peppers among others, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the famously chatty singer referred to the Hong Kong Cafe and other fixtures of early L.A. punk between songs. Forrest’s recently published autobiography Running with Monsters is actually book-ended by childhood trips to Hop Louie, and his views on the healing power of music are very relevant to the cause as well.
Co-headliners Lucky Dragons perfectly represent the Chinatown of today. The experimental and highly prolific art duo plays, creates, and collaborates in the area, as well as deejays a weekly show from the locally based KCHUNG Internet radio station. Meanwhile, Luke Fischbeck and Sarah Rara’s playful spirit and encouragement of audiences to participate in the musical and creative process make them ideal contributors as well. While the show isn’t catered to kids, the matinee timing makes it conducive to them, and Lucky Dragons can be inspiring to all ages.
Wendy and I are still figuring out many details–ticketing and perhaps other ways to raise money such as raffles and silent auctions, for example–since we’ve never done anything like this before. We’re also relying on friends for their help and expertise. But I’m excited and I think it’s cool that I might parlay my journalistic past into something practical, tangible, and hopefully impactful on our daughter’s education and the neighborhood’s well-being as well.
But enough about us. Here are our friends’ videos to get you amped about the all-ages matinee on Sunday, December 8. Look for further information about ways to attend and support to come…
…and more shows with other pals’ bands in 2014.