Busy November

Kenyon & Rey having coffee in the MissionNovember is going to be one heck of a month. I can’t even believe it’s less than a week away till Halloween is over, and the presidential election is over. And before we know it, Christmas and New Years will be upon us and a brand we’ll usher in a brand new 2009. Here’s what’s on my calendar for the next four weeks:

  • Oct 31-Nov 2 – Los Angeles for Cindy’s wedding, hanging out with Billy, USC’s homecoming for a hot second, and visiting Ms. Van Hunnick, hopefully
  • Nov 4-9 – Cancun for Shanif’s wedding. Yup. Cancun!
  • Nov 14-15 – College Tour with BUILD sophomores and juniors. We’re going to St. Mary’s, Cal, UC Davis, and Sac State
  • Nov 26-30 – Vegas for Thanksgiving with the family

If you are in a city near me, give me a call or email to get together. If you’re going down to USC’s homecoming, I’m going to try to make it to the tailgate before the wedding, and I’d love to see you!

And by the way the photo has nothing to do with this post, but I figured I would add it anyway since Kenyon and I had a lovely afternoon in the Mission drinking tea and coffee on Saturday.

Thanks for the responses!

I received several responses to my previous post about my dad’s email… even an email from my dad! My next step is definitely to give him a call because emails don’t really get to the heart of the matter.

Here are snippets of some of my favorite responses:

From Billy:

lakdsjfsdlkfjy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Doug:

Start by addressing his cynicism that only rich politicians should be elected. EEEEEK. and, hello, the US political system is very different from that of the Philippines. What’s sad is that he doesn’t believe in the whole system. Does he realize the way the Republicans have basically supported only the very wealthy, have undermined the middle class and the poor, and have exacerbated the inequities in our society and that TRICKLE-DOWN DOESN’T WORK!!!

From Michael:

Rey, you should realize that you are very lucky because even though your dad and you aren’t on the same page, you get to disagree with them.

And many of my one-on-one conversations with people have garnered this common response: “Yea, my parents are voting Republican, too.” At least I’m not alone…

Help! My dad wants to vote for McCain!

The video should be the correct one now…

The video above was actually cut off in the process of uploading to Revver, so I’ve uploaded a new one, but it’ll take a day or so to get approved. Stay tuned for the full video!

Check out my first vlog/video rant about how my dad is a wannabe Republican, and how he is planning on voting for McCain.

Read his emails after the jump:

Continue reading Help! My dad wants to vote for McCain!

Trendspotting: Philanthropic Weddings

I’m going to four weddings in the next nine weeks. As Karla told me, we are coming to that age when many of our friends from high school and college are getting hitched.

I’m really looking forward to Mike and Alex’s wedding this upcoming Sunday because 1) Alex is one of my best friends and we go all the way back to the elementary school days, and 2) they’re employing what I think is a pretty neat philanthropic idea at their wedding.

You know how at the end of weddings, they give out those (usually) tacky wedding favors? Generally it’s a piece of plastic crap that has the couple’s names and the date of the wedding on it. Or perhaps it’s a food-related favor like a bag of cookies or packaged cupcakes. Alex’s idea was rather than paying $3-4 per person for a random wedding favor, she would instead donate the cost of the favors per person to a nonprofit organization that she and Mike valued. She  asked me to help her choose a nonprofit organization or charity that aligned with their values, and after some research, I sent her a list of 17 recommendations, and my opinions of each. The list included some of my favorite orgs like College Summit, Ashoka, and Green for All.

She recently told me that she and Mike chose BUILD (I swear I didn’t twist her arm or anything) as the recipient for the donation, and each guest at the wedding will receive, in lieu of a wedding favor, a little piece of paper describing the organization.

In two weeks, I’m attending Erwin and Coy’s wedding–Erwin is my chorus brother and their wedding will be my first gay one (Go California!)–and they are also employing philanthropy at their wedding. On the back of their invitation, they’ve written:

Because we already have more things than we need, in lieu of gifts we ask for donations to help continue the right of GLBT folks to marry. We encourage gifts to Equality California at www.eqca.org/wedding.

It’s hard not to be cynical at weddings, but given that both of these weddings have the underlying theme of giving back, I think they might turn out to be fun after all.

Back from a Cathartic Journey

I knew my month-long trip was going to be awesome, but I didn’t really expect it to be as life-changing as it was. I just got home today, and I’ve got a lot more processing to do on the entire trip from LA to North Carolina to New York and then Miami, but let’s just say it was a cathartic and freeing adventure.

I’ll write more about it later, once I get some proper sleep in my own bed (instead of 4 hours a night on a mushy hotel pillow).

For now I’ll leave you with this short review from Steve on our GALA performance of USS Metaphor in Miami: GALA and the Fabulous USS Metaphor.

All I can say is the house was rockin’! It’s an sharply satirical look at the military’s insidiously ridiculous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and it’s available on DVD. I really recommend it for anyone who enjoys a great show, enjoys Gilbert & Sullivan and who understands how stupid the whole policy is.

Upcoming: Elaborate tour of the South and East Coast

I’m really looking forward to a crazy, fun, and travel-filled summer filled with multiple trips to the South, a quick visit to NYC, and a full-circle trip to USC to facilitate a workshop with Karla at our alma mater. I signed up for this new Twitter-like social-networking site called Dopplr, which touts itself as an online tool for frequent travelers. Anyway, if you’re on it, add me, and I’ll see about posting my Dopplr badge on my website (I’ve added the application to my Facebook already, but we’ll see how long it stays on there). It’s a good way to keep track of where I am at any given moment, and to see if there are any locational overlaps between you and your friends (Oh, you’re going to New York then, too? Let’s meet up at Hiro on Sunday!).

Till then, you can see what I’ll be doing / going in the next few months in the table below:

What/Where
Date
Notes
EOY Beach Party with Incubator students in Santa Cruz, CA
June 9
Going to the beach with 50 students… for work! I love this job.
BUILD E2 Orientation
June 10
At the office
Karla in SF
June 11
Woohoo!
BUILD Mentor Appreciation Night
June 12
At the office
BUILD Staff Strategy Retreat at the Headlands Institute in Sausalito
June 23 to 25
College Summit workshop at USC, Los Angeles, CA June 25 to 30 Facilitating a College Summit workshop at USC with Karla.


I’ll have a free night on Sunday, June 29!

College Summit workshop at UNC-Asheville, Asheville, NC July 2 to 6 Facilitating another College Summit workshop at UNC Asheville with Zenia. Never been to North Carolina, but have heard that it’s beautiful.
Quick Vacation in New York, NY  July 6 to 11 Visiting Tony in New York. Finally a vacation!
International GALA Chorus Festival in Miami, FL July 11 to 20 Performing with SFGMC and lounging at the beach, I assume. Bring on the sun!
Back to SF July 20
Back to the city after 3.5 weeks of jetsetting.




I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank College Summit, and particularly Oudete, for rocking out and allowing me the immense privilege and opportunity to be a Rap Director at USC and UNC Asheville. I can’t wait!

On Becoming A New American

My mom called me this weekend, and asked me if I had thought about my application for American citizenship yet. Honestly, I didn’t know and was caught off guard.

The rest of my family got their citizenship earlier this year after over a decade and a half of struggling through the outrageously complicated and inept American immigration system. I can’t believe it’s been about 18 years since I first arrived here in the States. Oh to go back to 1990. Disneyland, Southern California, Fourth Grade, being called “Oriental” and not understanding what that meant. Oh the innocence.

Eighteen years.

I’ve spent 13 of those 18 years in a state of limbo. For thirteen years I felt like neither a citizen of my own mother country (the Philippines) nor a citizen of my adopted country (the US). And through those years, I watched as Americans took that citizenship for granted every single day. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.” But can you imagine living in a state of being where that “liberty” could be taken away at a moment’s notice just because you weren’t born in a certain place? Can you imagine living in fear of having your life as you know it and liberty taken away by deportation?

It’s frightening.

During my senior year in college, INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services–now known as the Dept. of Homeland Security) threw away my application for residency because they thought it was a duplicate of my dad’s paperwork–he and I share the same first name. Prior to this unfortunate incident, I had no concept of our entire immigration process, and I think that was my parents’ call because they wanted to shield us from any unnecessary burden (I imagine it’s similar to not telling your kids about your financial situation so as not to worry them; and for that I thank my parents). Well, soon thereafter I was thrust into the entire immigration debacle because now that I didn’t have an application or any paperwork in process (it was sitting in some garbage bin at the INS office), I was technically not supposed to be in the United States. Here I was during my senior year in college trying to finish my classes after having been through a traumatic car accident months before, and I was meeting with lawyers, appearing in court, and being threatened with deportation. I don’t even know how I managed to finish out that school year.

But I thought about all of the Americans taking their citizenship for granted, and told myself that I would never settle and take things for granted like them. If I had to work twice as hard, ten times as hard, or even a hundred times harder, I would do it. After a half dozen court appearances (I will never forget that judge accusing me of lying on my college application about being an American citizen, and my parents and I literally running to USC’s admissions office between court sessions to get a copy of my application to see whether or not I did. Luckily, I left that question blank; I thank universities for admitting undocumented students and staying out of this country’s bullshit immigration policies), I proved to the judge that I was a real person (and not just a fake person trying to sneak into the country) and my residency was granted–a full year after my family’s was.

But words could not really convey what a nerve-wracking year that was. To have your life and liberty hanging on the very words of one judge is a torture I would not wish upon anyone. It was so nerve-wracking and disenchanting that as soon as I received my green card, all I wanted to do was leave the United States. So I left and went to Japan for a year.

And here I am now. Eighteen years since my arrival. Five years after receiving my residency. And I’m faced with another choice.

Do I want citizenship to this country? To the country that didn’t even believe I was a real person? To the country that wouldn’t give me financial aid for college? To the country filled with (and not dealing with) underlying race and class issues? To the country that educated me and gave me opportunities to grow and develop to be the man I am today?

I think a part of me hesitates because my lack of national identity has allowed me to identify as a citizen of the world–I like telling people that I’m NOT an American citizen. I like seeing the surprise and shock on their faces.

But I think I am ready now, and I want to be part of this mess that is America. I want to vote, and maybe I want to run for governor of California one day (I can’t run for president because you have to have been born in the States. Who came up with that silly rule?). I want to have an American passport so that I don’t have to apply for visas just to visit my relatives in Australia.

I want to be able to really bring America into my identity not because of convenience. Not because the rest of my family did it. Not because millions of people would kill for this spot. But because when I first came here, it wasn’t my choice. This time, it is my choice.

Come December 19, 2008, you will probably be looking at a brand new American.

Our Rising Up

Yes, I am a chorus widow

Here’s a letter I wrote to some friends who attended our SFGMC concert last Friday, May 16, 2008.

Hey all,
I just wanted to send thanks and love for attending my concert and supporting my little hobby. It really made a difference to know that you all were sitting in the audience, and I felt like I was singing for you (even though I couldn’t see you… wasn’t wearing my glasses!).

I hope you left the concert inspired and moved. I know after singing the entire concert, some of the words of the music really started to sink in to me (“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.”). And with the recent ruling regarding same-sex marriage in CA, I feel like there was even more relevance to the concert, and I was so
happy to be able to share it with you all.

Thanks again for joining me last evening, and I hope you’ll continue to join me in this movement!

With love and respect,
Rey

PS – Here is a great blog entry from an award-winning songwriter about Safeer El-Layl, one of our songs from last night (it certainly moved him, me, and I’m sure many others!):

http://bonusroundblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/ilyas-work-of-art.html

Thanks Coy for the awesome picture of us at the concert above. And as a bonus, songwriter Steve Schalchlin, snuck a camera into our rehearsal on Friday, and recorded us singing “My Rising Up,” which is a song he wrote. I’m in there somewhere, wearing the red shirt.

An Invitation to Two Spring Events!

Dear Friends,
Hi, how are you? Oh, you’re doing well? That’s great. 😉 Me? Oh, busy as usual. You know, work, singing, traveling, eating, etc. Thanks for asking. Oh, you haven’t seen me in a while? Yea, I know. Apologies! May’s going to be a really event-packed month for me, too, so we’ll just have to play it by ear. I want to see you though!

On that note, I wanted to invite you to 2 of my bigger events this month:

Continue reading An Invitation to Two Spring Events!

Weekend with the Family in Las Vegas

My goddaughter Bea is here for about a month, visiting from the Philippines, and we rendezvoused in Las Vegas to hang out with my family and hers. It was great to see my family, although after a couple of months of traveling, I’m ready to settle down for a bit again.

King & BeaBea Monster

 

Left: Me and Bea. Right: Bea Monster happily eating chow mein.

Check out more pictures after the jump.

Continue reading Weekend with the Family in Las Vegas