Lion Dancing in the Year of the Rat

On the first day of Chinese New Year one does not lion dance as that is considered a day to rest,celebrate and eat!!  we went to Dragon River on Geary Blvd.  It is a Hakka style Resturant.  The food is tasty without too much oil or heavy gravy.......that is the sign of good Hakka Food.  The next day though I am off early in the morning to Burlingame with Corey, we will be performing at McKinley School.  Marvin and Ryan also join me to help Corey and Kei Lun Lion Dance Team.  Keith met us at the School.....he and his nephews will be dancing the Lions......Alec and Austin will be dancing the junior Golden Lion...they prove to be the hit of the season!  I will be the Buddha to lead the lions.  Keith brings his Zhang Fei Lion....a green and black lion representing one of the Heroes of the Three Kingdoms.  Each of the Heroes of the Three Kingdoms had a lion associated with them......Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Kwan Gung.  The Lion Dance is in the School Yard with parents, neighbors and school watching.......we are a big success .....as everyone has a great time!!   Afterwards, it's off to eat downtown..........we go off to Crepevine to eat pasta and crepes....the plates are huge and yummy.  On the way back to the car we stop by the Apple Store to look at the new Mac Air Laptop,  It is an amazing laptop.....so light and thin, excellent display...and I like the fact the keys glow in the dark.  But I don't think it's the laptop for me......it has no superdrive.....so you can't watch dvds..........it's a 3lb machine that will need 7lbs of equipment...I would rather have a MacBook Pro.....The Mac Air also does not have an optical drive.......and does not have enough inputs...only one usb slot........

Our next Lion Dance is on sunday....it's up to the wine country in Napa.  We perform at the Ox Bow Public Market.  We do a grand opening for a tea shop there and then a parade to all the nearby stalls and stores.  The market is a very unique place with the food items all being organic,  fresh and,  green!  The Organic Three Twins Ice Cream was excellent...very creamy ...almost like a gelato.  While, I was sampling the dim sum at the TillermanTea House....I realized that many of the audience had never tried it before.  So I stood for a while explaining to the audience what they were eating.  Sometimes, when you are from the Bay area you take diversity for granted...actually even in many parts of California people are not familiar with other cultures.......lion dancing serves as a good introductory point to Chinese Culture and History.  This performance was by our own team members...and some of Jared's girls......they are going to UCB now.......so we'll being seeing more of them.  In the past women were not allowed to touch the lion....it was considered bad luck.........that however, has changed with modern times.....many women now participate in lion dancing..........especially if sifu's ended up having daughters rather than sons.......haha..........times have changed this tradtion for the best.  This then ended our first week of Lion /dancing for the Year of the Rat.  But next week there is still more! Ok cya for now....

Here I am at Mckinley School doing the Buddha.....behind me is Keith's Zhang Fei Lion. After dancing we went to Crepevine to eat and relax......this is their Club Sandwich...it was

 huge!

I decided on the Huevos Rancheros..excellent good flavor.....but I would prefer the eggs over easy and not scrambled! San francisco Wushu Team guys enjoying a well deserved meal.

Kei Lun Martial Arts and SF Wushu Team chow down!

Sf Wushu Team at the Ox Bow Market in Napa.  No rain and lots of sunshine!

This time I was the Gong player, in front of the  TillermanTea House stall inside the Ox Bow Market.  We had a blast...lots of people , good food...great audience.