The World of Angy Wong

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Great Friends, Merry Christmas

Submerged

Come Down With Me

It has been snowing quite a bit in Vancouver, and as pretty as snow may be, I merely think of it as an inconvenience. I’m probably frustrated with the snow because I still have two more days of work before my winter break, and that means I will be one of many people who will be grumbling all the way to work, all throughout the work day, and all the way home from work. I cannot wait until Christmas Eve, which will be Day 1 of my vacation. Unfortunately, I have to cook dinner for a group of 14 so it’ll just be more work on my part.

Perhaps that was a bit harsh as it’s not an unfortunate thing. Every year since I was in 10th grade, I have thrown an annual Christmas Party for my friends and immediate family, and I loved them for the most part. I grew up watching a lot of western television that emphasized the festivities that surround Christmas and I wanted to recreate that for myself. I wanted the tree, the turkey, the friends and family to all gather around and enjoy this day. Christmas was never about Christ for me, but it was the one day out of the year that we could celebrate the idea of family, friends, love, and appreciation for one another. It may have been that because my family is emotionally reserved, Christmas was never celebrated and so I wanted it to be for myself and for my siblings. I desperately wanted what I saw on television and thus, when I was old enough to really learn how to cook, I began holding Christmas Parties for my family as well as my friends.

A major reason why I hosted annual Christmas Parties was my friends. Many of them shared similar experiences as me – we were second generation Asian Canadians with parents that did not really know or care for Christmas until they immigrated here and gave birth to us. Thus, to keep up with mainstream customs, they would buy the tree, might even pick up some presents but ultimately, the end result never came close to what we felt Christmas should be. So, as an attempt to create what I thought makes Christmas “special”, I hosted dinners,I put up the tree, I cooked the turkey and all the fixings, I gave out presents when I had the monetary means, and I invited all my close friends over for one night of “Christmas”. Many of my parties have been fun; many have been extremely stressful; and a couple have left me wishing I hadn’t bother with it. Yet, at the end of the day, I was happy hosting the parties because I was convinced that I was the glue that kept us all together. I was the reason why all of us can come together for one day of the year, catch up with another, and rekindle bonds that may not have been so strong recently. I love my friends and I wanted my dinners to be my present to them – a night of good food and good company.

I think this year, however, it might be my last Christmas dinner. I think all of us are reaching this age where change is coming faster than we can imagine and my dinners have become rather trivial compared to what’s going in everyone’s lives. My friends are moving forward and it’s more than likely that means we’re also moving farther apart from one another. I think I just have to face the fact that I am not the glue (and perhaps I never was), and no amount of turkey or Christmas decorations could bring us all together when people have other obligations that are much stronger than the one to mine. I just have to come to terms with that, and I think I already have. So, for my last Christmas dinner, I just hope the turkey doesn’t burn, the snow stops falling (so people can get here), we enjoy each other’s company, and make some memorable memories for one last time.

Aurora

Ascertain

Even though I was in a small nameless town in China, I found a Future Shop. The store itself resembled those one would find in any western city – there were many Caucasian employees and the store (besides being divided into 7 floors) sold the same electronics, computers, and entertainment systems. When I had entered the store, the first floor was incredibly busy with employees and customers buzzing around. This was not what I expected as I recalled feeling rather lethargic and wanting a place to just rest.

I climbed up the stairs to the third floor where the CD’s and stereo systems were sold. As soon as I reached it, all the noise from the floors below vanished. The first thing I noticed about the third floor was that there was a counter to the right of the stairwell and a tall lanky guy standing behind it, dusting off some merchandise. I greeted him with a smile and “hello” before surveying the rest of the area. I could tell that the CD selection was slim for there was only one aisle full of CDs. The CD aisle did not interest me as much as what was at the end of it; there were three leather lounge chairs – each with a blue blanket and a pillow. A feeling of exhaustion swept over me as I gravitated towards the lounge chairs and buried myself deep underneath the blanket.

The sales person didn’t seem to mind that I had decided to take a nap in his department. I slept for two hours before the sound of his voice woke me. I opened my eyes and lifted my head slightly to see what he was rambling on about. Apparently, there was a deal going on with Craig Cardiff albums and if I bought two, I could get the third one for free. I nodded in agreement before resting my head on the soft pillow again. This sales guy who, according to this name tag was named “Bram”, walked towards me with the CDs and sat down on the edge of my lounge chair.

Immediately, I became alert as I wasn’t sure of his intentions. I looked up at him and noticed he had shaggy brown hair, long side burns, blue eyes and patches of facial hair. He looked typical enough at first glance, but when I looked into his eyes, I knew there was something devious about him.

He started talking to me but I didn’t hear a single thing he said. All I wanted was for someone to come up the stairs, interrupt us and provide me with an excuse to leave. Nobody arrived though, and I was stuck with feigning interest. Then out of nowhere, he leans down to kiss me which made me jump and turn my head away.

I moved farther from him and asked angrily, “What do you think you’re doing?”

With the sleaziest look ever, Bram replied, “I thought you were interested…”

“No, I’m not. Isn’t this against store policy – sexually harassing a customer?”

He didn’t seem to hear me as he asked, “Well, why can’t we?”

I replied firmly, “Because I don’t like you. I have a boyfriend. Don’t you dare try anything.”

Bram turned towards me quickly and looked as if he was going to deny my wishes outright, but just when it seemed like he was going attack me, he got up, turned towards me and said with a smirk, “who’s going to believe you anyway?”

He leaves and I follow. When we reached the first floor, I was so enraged and promptly approached the young dark-skinned with platinum white hair cashier  to make a complaint against Bram. She looked at me with disgust and said, “Who do you think you are? Bram would never do that. You are so lying.” As soon as she said that, Bram smiled deviously before giving me a wink that I took as his way of saying, “I told you so.”

Not one to give up so easily, I found the manager walking towards me. He was a stout bald man and was named “Don” which I learned when we made our introductions. I explained to him my situation and he apologized profusely for what happened. HOWEVER, he could not reprimand Bram until the whole staff believed my side of the story; thus, he had to hold a staff meeting.

He told me to wait outside of the staff room as they held the meeting. By this point, the store had already closed. The cashier glared at me and said underneath her breath, “this is so typical of middle-class status.” I was infuriated by her comment (even though I did not know exactly what she meant), went up to her, gave her my meanest glare and said, “I don’t know what your problem is, but my behavior in wanting justice is not ‘typical of middle-class status’ but is typical of my character!” She rolled her eyes at me, but I could tell she was going to keep her comments to herself from then on.

Everyone disappeared behind the door for the meeting and I waited nervously outside. I had a feeling that the manager had absolutely no control over his employees and sure enough, the manager rejoined me after 10 minutes. Apparently, he was not allowed to vote and I knew right then and there that I was not going to get any justice.

Right before I woke up I remembered feeling so angry about the situation. I was angry at Bram for his actions, at the unfair process of deciding whether or not he was guilty, and at my general feeling of helplessness. My dreams will never actualize into reality but somehow, I have an inkling that I may be faced with a situation which could stir up similar emotions. If there’s one thing I learned from the dream, however, is that it is “my character” to always fight for what’s right and I intend to keep doing just that.

Biased Reflection

Wiki Search: California Dreams
Synopsis: “California Dreams was about a multi-ethnic group of teens and their band. The show’s plots combined real-life issues with zany adventures. It covered a range of topics such as fear, using drugs for a competitive edge, falling for scams, letting greed overtake friendship, accepting a divorced parent dating, forgiving others for past wrongs, and dealing with general teen social problems.”
Cool Rating: 4 out of 5 surf boards

I was born in the 80’s but I am definitely a 90’s child; and my boyfriend knows that all too well as he has suffered through my countless butchering of songs found only on cheesy 90’s TV show. I’m not tone deaf, and I do recognize that these songs are poorly written and are worse than the manufactured crap by the late 90’s boy bands and girl groups, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about these songs. I mean who can resist the sultry looks Uncle Jesse throws at the camera while singing the No. 1 song (in Japan), “Forever” , in a mock MTV music video on Full House or not get just a bit teary when watching Jesse and Slater’s rendition of Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” in the Prom episode where Kelly and Zack breaks up because she likes that douche bag, Jeff? As much as I loved Jesse and The Rippers and Zack Attack, there were no better songs than those by the California Dreams.

So, I decided to wiki (yes, I use “wiki” as a verb) California Dreams. I was particularly interested in what happened to cast since as we all know, most actors from these NBC Saturday morning TV shows end up going nowhere in their career (i.e. Dustin Diamond). Here are some facts I found on some of the actors:

• To date, the only member of the cast to continue a steady acting career is Kelly Packard (who played Tiffanie Smith), who was cast in Baywatch and Ripley’s Believe it or Not!.
• Jennie Kwan, who played Samantha Woo the female lead singer from Hong Kong , is actually Filipino American. She was also in the short-lived 90’s girl group, Nobody’s Angel, which made a cameo appearance in Justin Timberlake and Kathie Lee Gifford’s made-for-TV movie, Model Behavior.
• The Fonz-like character, Jake Sommers aka Jay Anthony Marke, is an accomplished musician that played all his own music on the show. However, whenever he “sang”, he was actually lip-syncing to Zachary Throne (an actor hired to be the “singing voice” of Jake. Jay is now a quality assurance engineer at a computer gaming company.
• The shy and often geeky cousin of Sly Winkle, Mark Winkle played by Aaron Jackson has been in a several forgettable films. He also lip-synced on the show and his character’s singing voice actor was Barry Coffing. Aaron was also a contestant on the dating game show Bzzz! I totally remembered watching this game show too, which was so bad that it was almost good. Click on the link and you’ll know what I mean (notice how Steve looks like Steve from Dream Phone’s game board!).
  
• Heidi Lenhart, the actress who played Jenny Garrison (character that I thought was entirely bitchy and basically the show’s version of 90210’s Brenda), has been in a series of television shows and movies playing notable characters such as “Subway Girl” in Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane. I’m not going to harp on her too much however because she’s the step-daughter of Haim Saban who created the Power Rangers!
• After leaving the show, Brent Gore aka Matt Garrison, went onto have a music career… sort of. He recorded 6 EP’s but have not found notable recognition for any of them.

The other actors had very slim wiki-pages, which are not worth wasting space on. It’s quite sad (although not surprising) to learn that most of their careers has gone to the dumps and especially since most of them must have thought that California Dreams was going to be their big break. This wiki-search was not a complete waste of time however, as I did find one piece of information that might make one of my long-time dreams come true.

“It was announced on the 6th of December 2008 that Brent Gore is trying to bring the first two seasons out on DVD. He is also trying to arrange all the cast for interviews and special features. If he succeeds, the DVD should be out by the end of 2009.”

Hopefully, Brent Gore will succeed and I will finally own California Dreams on DVD! This has been something that I’ve been waiting for since TBS stopped showing reruns of it. When they do come out, I know I will be the first one in line to purchase my own copy, much to the dismay of my boyfriend. Here’s a video to tie all you California Dreamers over. It’s Mark singing “It Must Be Love” to none other than Tara Reid! Notice how Mark drinks as he serenades Tara Reid – he must have figured out early the kind of guys she’s attracted to.

Also, if you want to listen to all the songs by California Dreams, you can find them at the fan site Then and Now.