Hey everyone! Especially you Bay Area cool kids! Philip and I will be speaking on a panel at this years San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival! Along with Nigahiga, Kevjumba, and TimothyDeLaGhetto! The best part, is we’ve worked with all of them! It’s gonna be YouTube madness. We’ll be talking about our “paths to success” and “social marketing” Sounds kinda fancy but I’m sure it’ll just be nice casual fun ol’ time. The festival lasts till March 21st but here is some information on our event, called: CHANGING DA GAME. See you there!

American Idol is like a pretty popular show, have you heard of it?

To be truthful, until this season, I have never watched one full episode of AI. Not even the opening episodes that have all the crazy weirdos. I just couldn’t get really invested in any of the singers. But THIS season… this season is different, because our youtube peer and buddy Andrew Garcia is on the show.

I first saw Andrew in Cathy’s video last summer when they did a duet cover of “Knock you Down”.

I was instantly a fan of his voice. His sound was so unique. A few months later, we had the pleasure of meeting him at a big hangout when a few other youtubers were in town.

And now…a few months since then, he’s on national tv, millions upon millions of people watching him kick butt on the show the past few weeks as he makes his way to becoming a household name.

I’m swear I’m not trying to be biased… but he seriously is the best one on the show. He’s the most unique, AND his voice is above and beyond all the others. To me it’s a no brainer that he’ll make it to the end. But really, a lot of us who are rooting for him wouldn’t be sad if he didn’t win the GRAND prize, because it seems that the runner ups always do better. heh. In any case, it’s been so fun watching him so far, and I can’t wait to see the rest of his journey. He’s on today… be sure to vote for him. It really takes 2 seconds. You call the number, and that’s your vote. Nothing else. So watch and call. Even if you don’t watch tonight, just know that he was probably the best. lol, and you should vote for him. It’ll be a win for all of us. =)

That is the face of a man on a mission.

This past Saturday was the annual Asian American talent show “Kollaboration”. They do a lot of shows around the country, but the main one, the biggest one is held every year in LA. This one was special because it was the 10th show. That’s 10 years. Congrats to PK (the founder of the show) for creating a great event for up and coming AA talent to be seen and heard, and making it last a decade!

Kevin(jumba) was a guest judge, so we, along with David and Kina, decided to go support him and the show. Also got to meet Michelle Phan, who was also a guest judge. Congrats to Clara for winning the competition. You may remember her as the winner of our ISA talent contest last Sept! Was a fun night of which I have no pictures to show for sadly. There were a bunch of photographers there, strangely enough, can’t find anything online. haha. Maybe our attendance just wasn’t press worthy. haha. Thankfully our friends at Pacific Rim Video are diligent with their media updates and I found a video of our interview with them. We’re horrible with these types of interviews, so please excuse our awkward attempts to be cool. If any pics surface, I’ll update.

(note: Ted couldn’t make the show)

Follow us as we finish a week full of production goodness.  We’re working on our soon to be released web series with Kevjumba (link)!  Lots of special guests you might recognize in this video including David Choi (link), Kina Grannis (link), Chester See (link), and NDTitanLady (link).

Past Wong Fu Weekends?

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 4

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 3

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 2

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 1

It’s been a week of shooting. Kevin was back in town (5th trip down) and we shot a few more scenes to this web series that, on your end must seem like is never gonna be finished. lol. Sorry. It’s taking so long because we can only work on it a few days a month when Kev’s here. You understand right? aww, thanks. I’m glad we can communicate. aii, too much 1am rambling…

So yesterday we were graciously allowed to shoot at CCM again. California College of Music (link). It’s this really cool music college in Pasadena, and they’ve already let us shoot there before. This time around, they let us use their studio recording room for a scene. Pretty sweet huh?

If any of y’all out there are interested in music as a career, this could be the spot for you. I mean look, it even has David Choi as a teacher!

ok, jk, David doesn’t really teach there, but he acted as one…in this scene. I’m convinced.

Anyway, thanks again to CCM! Check them out HERE, there’s a lot of international students that go there which was pretty cool too. Maybe I’ll also take a few classes there someday when I decide to pursue my rap career in my 40s. (foreshadowing like you won’t believe…)

more photos and video of the past few days’ shoots to come…

And so, as time cannot be stopped, another week has passed, and another Wong Fu Weekends has arrived!
So as you know we’ve got a new office, but…there’s no furniture in it yet. So where does everyone go first? IKEA! We just went to scope things out, get some ideas of what we wanna do. Didn’t get that much work done because really… IKEA is too much fun.

Past Wong Fu Weekends?

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 3

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 2

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 1

The past few years I would say that I have probably flown a lot more than the average person. Usually because of tours to different parts of the country, or even short trips to visit home, I’ve become quite familiar with being on airplanes. And after being on so many flights, I’ve noticed something…during take off, most of the heads in the plane turn towards a window to look out. Young or old, cool guy or geeky girl…when the plane is going up, peoples’ heads turn out.  Peering through the little oval of plexiglass to see themselves lift off from the ground, and the buildings and roads get smaller and smaller. They always look. And I believe this is because humans inherently desire to wonder.

Airplanes taking off is a perfect example to prove this. I mean, how often do we get to travel hundreds of miles an hour and actually elevate thousands of feet into the air. Not often. How often do we get to look at skyscrapers like they’re toys, or see cities and mountain ranges like little cracks and bumps on the Earth. Rarely. And so, when we get the opportunity to actually experience these things, we peek, we lean over our seats, we push our face against the glass, just to catch a glimpse. Because we’re curious, because we wonder.

Usually though, as we get older, we suppress this desire to explore, to see new things. Sometimes it’s because we try to act like we’re above it, only kids get excited over a window seat. Other times it’s because pressures and stress from work, family, LIFE bring us down and make us too tired to even open our eyes. I’ve experienced both. But I think the plane is the one most common place, where everyone can’t hide it or fight it… we want to see the view from 30,000 ft. We want to feel free, flying through a cloud. And that’s when our inherent desire to wonder is exposed.

And this is why, despite the fact that I’ve been on countless plane rides…I’ll still opt for a window seat, and I’ll still snap pictures, even though I’ve seen the same views and sunsets so many times. Simply because…dude, c’mon it’s cool!

Leaving the Bay. I see this the most, and I still always find it awesome.

Somewhere over the Pacific.

Los Angeles (not as pretty as SF huh?)

Keep that sense of wonder.

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 3

Right on schedule. Not bad eh?

Natalie Tran, you all know her has the incredibly sarcastic and witty CommunityChannel, was in town recently. Silly her, she decided to use her one free day to meet and hangout with us. haha, what a waste. ok jk. We actually showed her a pretty good time I’d say. All day she kept saying all she really wanted to do while she was in America was get a Churro. She also kept griping about how cheap our electronics are here. (ipods over there are over$100 more expensive). So being the smart kids that we are, we decided to kill two birds with one stone…COSTCO. churros, and cheap stuff. From there we went onward to Target for some more cheap stuff. Her reaction to seeing $1 Churros is priceless.

We’ve blogged about her how many times now? You really really needa go subscribe to her and watch her stuff!! (link). She’s working on a new website, can’t wait to see how awesome that’s gonna be.

And if you missed last week’s episode… right down there.

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 2

WONG FU WEEKENDS: EPISODE 1

Your FM update. Recently the guys from Far*East Movement have finished up a nationwide tour with LMAFO and Lil Jon, performed at the X-Games, had their music featured during the swimsuit round of Ms. America…oh, and they got signed.

Last week something truly momentous happened. Our brothers/good friends Far*East Movement, aka FM, signed a record deal with Cherrytree Records! In case you don’t know, Cherrytree is an imprint (division) of Interscope Recrods which focuses on new artists with growth potential. They obviously saw something special with FM and realized the huge potential/talent they possess, something that we’ve seen the past few years working with them. Finally, after several months of scoping them out, working closer and closer, they reached an agreement, and FM is now signed to a major label. They’re label mates with freaking Lady Gaga, good lord. Click here (link) for the whole story, very moving in fact at how their path to this point has really come full circle.

I can’t say it enough. These guys are so inspiring. They believed in themselves, devoted their lives to it, sacrificed so much, worked their butts off, hit lows, hit highs…and it’s paying off. I know this is just the beginning of a new journey for them, but in my eyes, they’re a success story already. Truly an example that we can all look up to, that hard work pays off. Success isn’t easy, and you must stay driven and dedicated. Furthermore, how many Asian American hiphop-pop mainstream artists are out there right now? Yeah, this is a big win for our community too. Be proud.

Congrats to FM. They’ve got big big news up ahead, and you know you wanna follow along their journey. FM’s twitter @fareastmovement. Go send them a congratulations.

A little delayed with this post, but wanted to share.  CCM (California College of Music) recently posted some pics from our shoot there in December. Check out the article here (link).
Remember the behind the scenes clip we showed of all the kids and David Choi singing Taylor Swift songs? We shot that scene at CCM which is located in LA, Pasadena to be exact. Very cool spot to study if any of you out there are aspiring musicians. Actually… how many of you are musicians? What do you play?

I’m gonna go out on a limb, and guess that Piano is gonna win. Personally I play piano, guitar and violin (if 2 yrs in elementary school count)

We’re excited to be returning to CCM to finish up shooting in early March. Maybe I’ll stop by for an extra lesson on the side.

UPDATE: 2/19
I’m really surprised that Flute/Clarinet beat Violin. What?! Even guitar beat violin? Our readers always surprise me. =)