Breaking News: 2010 Winter Olympics CTV Report

Last I left off, my friend Audrey and I were running into Olympic athletes by the Olympic Village. Well, it just so happens that we ran into a few more.

Canadian Olympic Aerialists

There were a whole bunch of street performances and we bumped into a couple of athletes on their day off. The guys above represented team Canada in skiing and aerials.

My old roommate Matt also kept raving about this delicious hai nam chicken at his friends restaurant so Audrey and I went to check it out.

It was in fact the most delicious Hai Nam Chicken I have ever had!

Hai Nam Chicken

Just looking at it makes my mouth water… =P

So crazy story- The crazy friends I ran into decided to invite me over to their apartment (right over downtown/robson st) to watch the US vs Canada hockey game. This was a huge game. The US started off with a lead and then the score tied, but right before each break the US would be up by 1. As you all know Canadians LOVE hockey and the streets were filled with Canadians (by the way I got love for Canada, but of course we were thrilled to be supporting team USA). We decided to run down to the local bar downstairs with blazing Red White and Blue cheering amongst the “Go Canada” cheers.

USA vs Canada Hockey Game

Well some drunk fans decided to follow us home after we drank our beers at the bar. At first no one else in my party noticed that people were running after us (2 guys and 1 girl.. and the girl was like the first to get aggressive with us) and then as we got to the apartment gate I said hey turn around guys.. as we turned around they slowed their run and then said.. “oh hey, u live here?.. umm you must know the score right?” Anyways, as the conversation progressed it got more heated. In the end the last part of the game was about to start and I told them to relax and and we decided it wasn’t worth it to argue with some drunk people who were looking to start shit. In the end the US won 5-3 and it was an exciting game. My friends had to go catch another game live so right after they packed up and head out. I think if we ran around the streets in hardcore USA gear after that game there definitely would’ve been more heated confrontations. haha all in all exciting day though!

The last day of my trip was a little more calm. Lydia’s mom works for Fairchild Media Group on a radio station FM96.1 and also has a TV show on channel 180 that broadcasts throughout Canada so when we met and she found out about what I’ve been up to lately with wushu and acting she decided to have me on air as a guest.

Here’s a clip of me in the studio.

The interview was mainly in Chinese and it made me continue to realize how important it is for me to practice my Chinese. We also did a separate taping for a TV show where she has guests come in. She has interviewed hundreds of celebrities including DONNIE YEN.. so yeah, I was excited to be a guest on her show! =)

Here is a pic of me and aunt Carmen.

Fairchild Media Group

If you’ll notice my shirt.. it’s pretty funny. I bought it in Vancouver, but its apparently a US brand – called David and Goliath. I bought some shirts for a few friends. Here is a really funny one that I didn’t  end up buying, but I had to take a picture.

gold digger

My return to LA was quite smooth because they check all your immigration information over on the Canada side. That was quite interesting. I’m back in LA for the third time this year and been getting back to work.

Upon my return I immediately jam packed my schedule and met up with a producer friend to watch a rough cut of a pilot we worked on. I was a little afraid of the outcome because it’s supposed to be funny and if I didn’t think it was funny, I would be pretty let down. It’s not done yet, but I was definitely laughing so I am looking forward to the finished version. We have to do some pick ups and film more next weekend, but then it should be done and ready to pitch to some networks in a month or two.

Lastly as a favor to my buddy Andy (CEO of an online gaming company), he asked me to help him get some professional pictures that he could use for newsletters and press releases. I wanted to put my Nikon D60 to use so I snapped away. He seemed pretty satisfied with the results and I feel a lot more comfortable getting the shots that people want and finding a look that people want to see. This is not the final profile shot he chose, but it’s a picture that I could imagine in some entrepreneur magazine, so I went ahead and slapped this picture together for fun.

Alright, that’s it for the epic last minute Olympic Adventure. I will update you on the latest work and business developments next time! Cheers!

2010 winter olympics vancouver

Well, I’m going to keep this entry short but sweet. I’m off to the 2010 VANCOUVER HOSTED WINTER OLYMPICS!! WOOOT! I will be flying in to vancouver Wed. night. Anyone around the van area give me a holler before I head out.

My friend has a business called Beard Head and due to various circumstances was unable to go sell his product in vancouver, so he is having me and a few other friends help manage the sales in vancouver. Meanwhile we should be staying at a pretty cool condo near the olympic games and hopefully checking out some cool events and parties. This will be my first olympics and its also been quite a while since I was in vancouver… though I was just in Toronto not too long ago.

As I said, short but sweet. See you all at the games!

beard head

Cheers to Beard Head for making this awesome trip possible. Please check out these awesome beard caps at www.beardhead.com.

I think the title of the post says it all.. but just to announce it, I got my FIRST DONATION today!

THANK YOU TIGER SHARK! YEAR OF THE TIGER! Woot!

first donation

When I first set up my blog, I found this donation tool and put it up, but then after a month or so I took it down because I thought, who really cares about donating to me and it’s probably a stupid idea… and in fact!.. just a few days ago I was upgrading some plug-ins on the blog (just to make sure its spam and virus FREE!) I saw this “donate tool” O_o…. so I thought, I’m pretty unemployed; it couldn’t hurt to put it back up.

…and u know what miracles do happen. A few short days after I put the donate tool up, I got my first donation.

I want to say THANK YOU again.

I think these contributions big or small are helpful to me because for one thing.. I am unemployed. haha. I am not saying that I will starve, but when you give up stability for an unstable but passion filled future the more financial support you have, the easier it is to keep your wits about you and help you stay focused on purely doing what you do and achieving those goals. It shows me that people who are following my journey support what I am doing. To me, it means that I have made a connection in some way whether it’s just an entertaining post, an inspirational beam of hope, or a reflection of someone else’s life and goals. It helps me continue on my path towards success in business, entertainment, and martial arts. It helps me continue writing this chapter of my life’s story.

I don’t think I have mentioned this phase in my life yet.. because I probably didn’t feel it was relevant until this post.. BUT.. what are my plans if and when I achieve these goals I set out to do ?

I would like to re-focus my energies on creating a charity or foundation to spread good. I have not thought that far ahead as to what specific aims this foundation would focus on because its too far forward right now and things always change… I feel that when that time is near I will be inspired by something in my life and know what the focus should be on. In a general picture I think I am always in support of medical research, children, and the environment.

I guess I am just talking out loud again, but yeah, in addition to helping me “make it” in these goals I have.. I see it that anything that helps me and my businesses succeed is something that also helps my foundation succeed. I know that it is pretty presumptuous to think that I will be so successful that I can actually create such a foundation or non profit organization, but these are just my plans and I am verbalizing them. I don’t know what the future will bring I can only gravitate towards my goals and make them known so that if there are like-minded people our efforts can be in unison.

Enough philanthropy talk. Time for me to go train. =)

Vietcong on Deadliest Warrior Season 2

I’m an extrovert so I gather my thoughts by talking or thinking aloud… so this post is to help me gather my thoughts. It’s been a few weeks since I got back from Asia and since I did my demo for Jackie Chan and all this excitement has sort of died down.

As I mentioned before I’ve been training more san shou lately and also getting into some tricking. I train basically 6 days a week. I still do wushu once or twice a week. I get this itch to want to compete still, but at the same time I want to focus on movies and learning more applications/styles of martial arts to become more well rounded. I think I am pretty sure now that I want to hit up my business ventures hard for another 2-3 months and then turn most of my focus on acting / stunts / entertainment for 2010.

Speaking of business wushukicks is doing well. All administrative paper work is done. Finances and accounting are clean and ready to go for 2010. Sales are also off to a great start. Have to file taxes in March. Merchant account is set up and been working smoothly this month. Saw an all time high of traffic this month as well which shows that more and more people are discovering the site. Wushukicks supplements are in a few locations in LA now. The last thing on my 2009-2010 to do list for wushukicks was to do a layout revamp. I am going to get on this in the next week… oh and also business cards. That shouldn’t take too long though. After those 2 things are taken care of, I will be quite the happy camper.

AngelsTea is doing well. We are in process of doing some redesigns on the tins and packaging. It’s going to look good when it’s done. The one thing with AngelsTea that I’ve come to realize is that it’s going to be a big project (big but fun) and I will probably have to finish up with the wushukicks to do list before I am able to shift major focus to this.

In TV and entertainment news – I worked on Season 2 of Deadliest Warrior. There was a joke on set that I was going to be a running gag where I just appear on every episode. (Since I was on the shaolin monk and samurai episode last season). The show is always pretty strict on revealing information and I don’t wanna accidentally violate the non disclosure agreement, but basically I was on the show doing some stunts and some shootouts and fighting occur (like on all episodes). DY was also on this and we had some laughs about being the only wushu guys on set. haha! Anyways, look forward to the episode airing when season 2 of the deadliest warrior comes out.

Aside from that, I’m going to start training even more. Hopefully I can get a cork and an arabian soon. I also want to shoot a few small projects where I can get some good fight scenes in and get a better understanding of angles, editing, choreography, etc.

For the first time ever I have my stunt resume finished, professional headshots printed out, and an updated demo reel.. so I think Im ready to start doing things right, hustling more, and submitting myself to more projects.

Cheers to 2010 – My year for film and entertainment.

So if yall remember my previous post with the Pacific Rim interview and wushu challenge for the awesome Heavy Impact you might remember seeing a little move at the end that was featured on their live show at ABDC America’s Best Dance Crew Season 5.

Here was the interview done a few weeks back.

Then… here is their performance for the West Coast Regional part of America’s Best Dance Crew.

Awesome performance!

and lastly we got the POST DANCE PERFORMANCE INTERVIEW by the lovely Angelica Alumia

Feels awesome to have made an influence on this awesome dance crew’s choreo and performance on America’s Best Dance Crew!

Hope my boys Heavy Impact continue to rock the rest of the season! H.I.!!

Alfred Hsing with Pacific Rim Press put on a little first challenge for the West Coast Reps of ABDC America’s Best Dance Crew (Season 5) Heavy Hitters aka Heavy Impact! This was a really fun interview that we did after the Lucratif Street clothing shoot!

ABDC Americas Best Dance Crew Heavy Impact Wushu Challenge!

Check out Heavy Impact’s first wushu challenge!

Some more pics from the day.

Pacific Rim Press, Alfred Hsing, ABDC Heavy Impact

Another group pic.

Pacific Rim Press, Alfred Hsing, ABDC Heavy Impact

I taught them some wushu so they had to teach me some dance moves.. aka how to groove it out. (That’s my groove it out face.)

Gettin some dance tips from Heavy Impact on how to Groove It Out

and now some pics of the Pac Rim Correspondents…

Pacific Rim Press New Correspondent Team Goofin Around

Cheezin it!

Pacific Rim Press Team

Alfred Hsing signing off!

So I’ve been branching out from purely wushu training now and going into san da and tricking/parkour. My roots are of course in wushu, but its totally fun to branch out and practice other styles.

Check out my first tricking compilation where I attempt my first “cork” – which is sort of like a reverse butterfly twist in some ways. Anyways, I got a few tips and bits of advice from Steve Terada and Travis Wong… so just sit back, relax, and enjoy my cork face plant  =P

The gym floor is very forgiving. I was also excited that I pretty much hit the rotation on my 720 butterfly twist, 720 jump outside kick (720 TKBL), 720 jump inside (720 XFJ). I think the tricking stuff will get better as I practice more and get that muscle memory and timing down. =)

Great tricking session!

get lucratif street

I did a photoshoot over the weekend for a street wear company called LUCRATIF STREET. Their motto is “making something out of nothing”. I met and interviewed the owner of this brand through Pacific Rim Video. It was a very laid back shoot. I actually taught some dancers some wushu right before the shoot. I will post the video soon! But anyways, the shoot was fun and that grey jacket I’m wearing is quite comfortable. I like the material it’s made out of. Here’s some more of the pics. You can also find them on their blog: http://getlucratif.wordpress.com/

get lucratif air!

get lucratif wushu kicks

get lucratif aerial

get lucratif pacific rim interview

New Boyz get lucratif for their single "Tie Me Down" feat Ray J

Hey wsup yall! It’s Alfred Hsing with Pacific Rim Videooooo! Haha, that’s my intro to this video / blog session.

I recently connected with Pacific Rim Video - an online channel that promotes asian and latino artists in entertainment, fashion, and that whole industry.. Let me give you guys the story on how we all met in the first place.

I was performing for Jackie Chan at The Spy Next Door demo and then one of the correspondents was there interviewing Jackie, Billy Ray Cyrus, George Lopez, etc at the red carpet. Then a day later after the event I was browsing some videos online and came across their channel.. and long story short we realized we were both at the same event and they thought it would be cool to do an interview with me. I said yes and then… here’s what happened..

Watch!

I gave a little shout out to CMAT the “Cal Martial Arts Tournament” which is probably the US’s largest wushu tournament in terms of numbers of attendees and the scale of the organization. Aside from the official US National Wushu Team Trials, the CMAT tournament probably has the highest caliber wushu athletes overall. As for the entire interview- correspondent Angelica Alumia who used to work for MTV was too cool and fun to get along with that I couldn’t resist joining on board as a correspondent. It just so happened we ended up doing a couple of other interviews that day.

…one of which was totally unexpected – Singer T Lopez came in to the office building we were at to meet up a fashion designer Delise Ana who was giving her a fitting for her dress that she is going (or currently wearing this second) at the Grammy Awards. A quick little background on Cash Money Records Artist T Lopez – She says she is a latino influenced pop singer. She is coming out with an album that’s got T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Colby O, and many other artists featured on her tracks. She was pretty cool because we asked her to sing on the spot and she just busted out into song straight up… and when she hit those high notes.. anyways check it out for yourself.

Here is Delise Ana talking about her fashion spread magazine and her thoughts on her inspiration for her dresses that will be seen at the Grammy’s.

another version of my comp card. i made this one for fun

Lately I’ve just been settling back down in LA, catching up with a few friends, and mainly working on the biz side of life. Here’s what I’ve been up to the past 3 days.

Business
I finished incorporating my business, setting up a merchant account, getting a federal tax ID number for the corporation aka EIN, transferring all biz related payments from my sole prop acct to my new biz acct, applying for a business credit card to be used only for business – this way I will be able to keep clear track of spending, getting quickbooks for accounting, organizing recent orders and making new bulk orders, following up with clients, finishing up some marketing materials, creating additional business cards, working out a pricing sheet/sales forms, confirming site redesign layout, following up on packaging price quote, and talking with a franchise owner in LA Fitness.

Martial Arts
Been training about 4 times a week. I train san da once or twice a week – I got some 16 oz gloves and been working on the bags as well as doing other kicks (non standard wushu kicks), pure wushu once a week, and gym/lifting or possibly tricking once a week. It averages out to about 4 times a week. I’m going to start training people again for private lessons. Don’t want to make it a full time thing so probably will accept a max of 3 students for now, but it’s something I enjoy and it’s a good to get a little income as well. I created a lesson plan involving cardio, fitness, conditioning, wushu, kick boxing, pad work, and partner training.

I plan to keep 4 days a week of training if not more because it’s just so fun. Also, this UFC gym opened up near my place, so I might check it out. It would be good to work on some brazilian jiu-jitsu as well. Did I mention I joined LA Fitness? I’ve been meaning to go swimming there. The pool looks very clean and inviting, but so far I’ve mainly just got around to using their bags and weight machines.

Entertainment
I did a demo for LA Wushu / Coach Tim Storms at LAFA’s Annual Food Fights event. It was at the Diavolo Dance space in downtown. It was a fun charity event that featured a bunch of the stunt/fight groups in town and we all gathered and put on a show to raise food for those without. That was fun and got to see some buddies from The History Channel Art of War project. I also re-realized how much I freakin love performing and doing demos. It was an event for a good cause and I just overall had a good time / felt good afterward. =)

I am supposed to call back an editor from Inside Kung Fu tomorrow so we will see how that goes. I hope something works out with them because when I was in high school I remember reading their magazine and to be in it, would be awesome. Then there’s this Pacific Rim online press that covers a variety of celebrity and entertainment news. I may be doing an interview with them next week or the following week.

Aside from that, I made a comp card (which I am still working on), I majorly cleaned up my film resume, I submitted to a few productions, and I am having headshots professionally printed this week to attach with my resume.

Misc
Getting some house work done. I’ve been cleaning the house like mad and I cleaned my room. I’ve also brought in a contractor to help redo/fix the front patio area but its been raining so its really messing things up. This is something I’ve really been needing to do. Hopefully I wont have to do anymore renovations/repairs for a while.

To Do
Set up virtual terminal / payment processing
Repair/replace cell phone
Recycle bottles
Revamp website