Asian Festivals Galore. Atlanta Next!

My company, Inquirer.net, had a booth at two Asian festivals last month in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. We baked in record temperature weather in San Francisco Civic Center –Little Saigon and the next day in Sacramento, Old Sacramento district.
You can read my complete festival news stories on:
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20090522-206481/20000-join-Sacramentos-Pacific-Festival
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/features/features/view/20090525-207041/Filipinos_join_San_Francisco_Asian_Festival

I attended similar cultural events before for fun. Professionally, I managed and worked the Sega of America booth at professional trade shows such as the Licensing Show in New York. Totally (first time typing and saying "totally") two different scenes, environments and subcultures. I definitely found the Asian festivals more fun so it didn’t feel like work.

I interviewed two professional athletes, Mark Munoz (“Philippine Wrecking Machine”), an up and coming Mixed Martial Arts (MMA 6-1) sophomore fighter from Northern California and Kevin Johnson, Sacramento’s first African American Mayor and former Phoenix Suns Guard.

Munoz, a NCAA Wrestling champion, entered the world of MMA just under two years ago

. MMA incorporates the various styles of boxing, wrestling, karate, muay thai and jiu-jitsu. The sport is gaining more popularity (thanks to television cable support), almost putting boxing to shame. Munoz' garnered a lot of attention in his short rise. That attention may have gotten the best of him when he lost at his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut in March against UFC veteran and Ohio native, Matt Hammill, “The Hammer”. “You have some jitters stepping in there. I never thought it would happen to me but it happens and it’s real. And I don’t think people understand, you know, like I’ve worked pretty much all of life to be at a stage at UFC. I’ve wrestled since I was thirteen and now I’m at the highest stage of mixed martial arts,” said Munoz who had a booth at the Fifth Annual Pacific Heritage Month festival in San Francisco.

The other fascinating athlete I met retired his basketball for public service. Kevin Johnson grew up in a poor neighborhood of Sacramento and raised by his mother but he was able to follow his dreams. Honestly, I know more of him during his Mayoral term than as an athlete, seeing him conducting interviews on the cable news networks about local and state politics. He attended the 17th Annual Pacific Rim Festival in Sacramento for the first time.

For someone of his stature, he was very gracious, accommodating and professional when I approached him for an interview. I’ve interviewed governors, senators and mayors but not an athlete turned mayor so I wasn’t s

ure if he was going to have that star jock status air about him. Nada. He didn't have a large entourage with him and he posed with smiling locals of all ages for the cameras without hesitation. In comparison, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom didn't show up at San Francisco's event but I heard he attended last year. Newsom's probably working on his Governor campaign.

The rest of the summer will be spent sponsoring more cultural festivals; most are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Later this week, I’ll be in Atlanta, GA to attend the National Ethnic Media Expo/Awards Ceremonyhttp://expo.newamericamedia.org/. I’m really excited about that event, since I’ll meet online, print, television and radio ethnic press. Plus, I’ve never been to Atlanta. I won’t have much time to enjoy my host city but hopefully I can absorb as much of the south as I can.

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