Chào Tạm Biệt (Goodbye) was a going-away party I threw in my backyard with the help of my friends.
I wanted to mash up Việt Nam with early 2000's San Francisco aesthetics, which I felt represented the two worlds I was crossing between.
I made a website and flyer for the event.
At this time I was getting pretty tired of all the electronic techno shows that people were throwing. They were cool but I wanted something that connected to San Francisco's DIY and indie / punk roots.
Nothing more DIY and indie than a backyard rock party right? I cut up some cardboard boxes to cover up my window and partially taped up the vents with garbage bags. You'll see later why I did that.
These are my friends J. R. and Andrea from Nun-Fiction doing sound check.
My friend Mark was the head chef, leading roomate Chaya and friend Dai in making Yakitori.
Connie helped me so much with all the halloween decorations. Most of these decorations were borrowed from an algorave event for halloween.
People were rolling in pretty early during sound check. I did some projector tests here too.
Chris was our first performer, and unfortunately had to deal with all the technical issues we faced. There was tons of feedback because the sound was bouncing off of the giant building behind ours.
But he did so great and brought the energy! If you look in the back, I created the visuals for Chris' performance.
My friend Kyla and Kail were invited to sell their clothes at the party. We made a few signs for them, as well as for the toilet and food table.
Chris actually bought this jacket from Kyla!!
I installed my game, "And You'll Miss It" in the back for people to play. People kept coming up to me and saying, "Henry I hate you for making me cry at your party!"
Joe Baker installed the lights and decorations above.
Mark's Yakitori was a total hit!!
I told everyone it was a late halloween party, but only Melody came in with a costume on. Thanks for committing, Melody!
I'd been trying to convince Kenny for such a long time to perform. Kenny has suuuuch a nice voice. Actually, Kenny, Ben and me were supposed to form a band named "Squidlips." It never happened, but since we had one member from Squidlips perform I decided to call it "Squidlip$" with the S crossed out.
Entropics and Anthony Tesija performed live visuals and rapping for the show. Since they were the only ones with computers, we totally screwed up their setup by not having desks for their laptops. They were able to come up with a quick solution which was to use the wooden blocks we set aside for seating. Hell yeah to them for being able to come up with this on the spot.
Alex Togashi put on such an amazing performance! Alex is a multi-talented artist with the most experience in live performances than any of us this night. He also didn't know anyone in the crowd except for me, which probably made it harder for him. He pulled through though and I got chills from his performance. I think Alex's music is very quintessentially everything cool about the Bay Area and I was so honored to have him perform for us that night.
For this show, I created interactive visuals that people can control with on their phone.
The idea is an extension of an app that I made for my previous parties. Since we don't have a doorbell, we needed a way for people to alert us that they're at the gate.
For one of my parties, I had a website with a button people can press to play a doorbell sound on speakers in the background.
I then realized that I could add more things people can do after they've rang the doorbell, such as upload a picture of themselves!
I applied the pictures they uploaded onto butterflies on the screen.
And then I added a controller tab for people to control their butterflies.
Then we can have a virtual moshpit!
I feel like a lot of live coding and new media work has mainly been connected to electronic music... But I think there's so much potential for it to be incorporated into indie and punk rock. These were my efforts to do something I wasn't seeing too much of.
And it turned out fucking dope!
The headline of the show, Nun Fiction, freakin' killed it! I still have chills from how well they performed while rewatching these videos.
Dude yeah... Chills.
At the end of the event I gave a speech and played for all of them this video.
It's officially been one year since I've moved to Việt Nam.
There are times when I do feel homesick and I miss the city. I miss riding my bike through the parks and having coffee dates with my friends. The decision to move to Việt Nam wasn't because I felt the need to run away from something, but instead to embark on a new adventure while I still have the time and energy to do so.
My year in Việt Nam has led me to grow in crazy and incredible ways. I've ridden the up-and-down rollercoaster of San Francisco and now I'm riding the up-and-down rollercoaster of Sài Gòn. I've met a ton of beautiful, talented, and compassionate people in Việt Nam. I love life. I love Việt Nam. I hope to pay tribute to you some day.
...But I can't forget any of the people who brought me here.
I carry you all with me.
