December 6, 2011 tournament at P.S.77 had a great turnout in which over a hundred kids attended to play chess. Check out this video and see what went on at Lower Labs School PS 77 for gifted and bright children.
Watch exclusive interviews from parents and children that talk about their first time at NYChessKids tournament and how much they love chess.
I am proud to present these bright, wonderful children in a web video produced by Together visuals.
Reni Mimura Maid Cafe offers a menu similar to those of more typical cafés. Customers can order coffee, other beverages, and a wide variety of entrées and desserts. However, in maid cafés, waitresses service customers with a Moe attitude which adds to the image of the waitress as an innocent but pampering maid. For example: Everyone is greeted with "Welcome home, Master (Mistress)" (お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様！ Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama).
About 40% of customers where female. The rest were young men. The average age was about 20 years old. Everybody sits down at small tables with a drinks to watch Reni Mimura sing and dance with her partners. There is lots of audience participation with Reni Mimura as well as other customers. Games and activities include:
Thank you for being born (Celebrating birthday of the month)
Welcome to the Maid show (Welcoming new guests)
30 second speech time (Guests can promote their talent, work website whatever)
Congratulation Achievement (Guests can announce their achievement)
Moe Moe Jyanken (Cute Akihabara style of Rock, Paper and scissor and a winner gets a free gift)
Customers attending Reni Mimura Maid Cafe participate in the performance. In addition to food and beverages, the audience participates in the show. Everyone has opportunity to introduce himself to the audience, sing and dance with Reni Mimura.
The performance included the hit "My Shy Master."
Maid cafés were originally designed primarily to cater to the fantasies of male otaku, obsessive fans of anime, manga and video games. Otaku (おたく / オタク?) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, or video games.
The image of the maid is one that has been popularized in manga and anime series, as well as in gal games. Important to the otaku attraction to maid cafés is the Japanese concept of moe (萌え, pronounced "moe") , which generally describes a love for anime, manga or video game characters. More specifically, moe refers to adoration for young or innocent-looking female characters who are adorable and cute in appearance.
Another song I like is Shining Star.
DNA Song
Visiting a maid cafe in Tokyo not convenient for most people, but now everyone attend a Reni Mimura Maid Cafe in New York City.
Today, the maid café phenomenon attracts more than just male otaku, but also couples, tourists, and women. Though the waitresses at maid cafés are sometimes interpreted as objects of romantic or sexual desire, they can also be viewed as simply aesthetically appealing figures. One female patron of maid cafés explains, “Sitting here and admiring how pretty the girls are is like admiring a flower”.
If you have never been to a Maid Cafe, then you must experience Reni Mimura Maid Cafe at least once in your life. If you are visiting New York a tourist, Reni Mimura Maid cafe is an act that your whole family will enjoy. Especially teenagers who are fans of anime and manga.
Reni Mimuraperforms every month at Amber Cafe in West Greenwich Village of New York City. She has been in New York since 2009 and is the only Maid Cafe show in New York.
Nina Sophia Mojares performed at Asian & Pacific Heritage Festival 2011 in Union Square Park. Her performance was amazing. She is only 12 years old!
Click image below to view movie.
The other members of the group include
Genna Rae Basalatan
Jill Lugtu
Gabriel Basalatan
Morgan Taylor Lopez
Mattie Lopez
About the Event
The 32nd Annual Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Festival was held on May 8, 2011 at Union Square Park from noon to 6 PM. Organized by Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA) since 1979, this annual festival is the longest running and largest event celebrating Pan Asian heritage on the east coast. This year's festival is themed around the journey that Asian Pacific American ancestors have taken to bring us to this moment that celebrates not only the value of families but also our heritage that make us proud to be Asian Pacific Americans.
More than 20,000 visitors are expected for an impressive line-up of performances, fun activities for children and adults alike, and savory samples of Asian cuisine. Numerous Asian American organizations will be present to inform visitors about useful services, volunteer opportunities, and resources to get involved in the community.
The executive director of Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans is Stephen Chen.
Japanese tradition by Soh Daiko, critically acclaimed taiko group, specializing in Japanese drumming technique and other unique instruments. Also performing will be Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center and Taikoza.
Asian Traditional folk arts presentation by Rose Sigal-Ibsen, Kavita Vyas, Ye Xun, Jampa Youden, Doung Trung, and Ming Liang Lu.
I was commissioned to do a video shoot about 3 hours before the event.
I arrived at the site five minutes before the start time. I was able to shoot
about 45 minutes of video before camcorder battery died.
The show was still going on, so I decided to shoot still photos. I was in
a pew in second column on left side of church. I could not move from
the position without disturbing the patrons watching the concert.
So instead of using a stand, I quickly used the video tripod as a stand.
Strobe setting for second curtain flash to capture motion of musicians.
Used an bounce flash technique I learned from Niel Van Niekerk.
Strobe was bounced of a white area of stone wall on camera left.
Furthermore, the strobe was gelled to match the hot lights on the subjects.
Ambient light was measured using a light meter and off camera strobe
was used as fill light. Shutter speed was very low, under 1/15 second,
but compensated by camera's image stabilization.
Flash triggering was done using camera's built-in wireless triggering
instead of radio triggers.
Light level was so low, camera could not auto focus. All shots
were take with manual focus. Luckily, the viewfinder has focus
confirmation indicator.
Camera was set to auto white balance and corrected in post processing
using Olympus Viewer2 software. In addition fine tuning of exposure,
contrast, picture mode and lens correction was also done in Viewer2.
New York Arabic Orchestra raised over $1600 in donations to help victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Japan relief.
