Literary Mixture

Every once and awhile my compartimentalized life comes together. My literary, theatrical, non-profit, and pop-culture lives melt into one. That happened last Saturday, October 7th, during "Quest," a signature event of the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team that promotes transgedner awareness and advocacy through the guise of a pageant. That's the nonprofit part. I wrote most of the script and invited writer friends (Fred Smith and Clint Catalyst) to judge. That's the literary part. I played "skybox commentator" during the pageant--that's the theatrical part. I invited Jenny Shimizu, arguably the most successful Asian American model to have ever lived, and Nick Verreos from Season Two of Project Runway to also judge. Clint Catalyst is also a writer and Associate Producer of American's Next Top Model (currently on strike). That's the pop-culture part.

This is me and fellow performance artist Kristina Wong.

Author Fred Smith's next book "The Right Side of the Wrong Bed" will be out in 2007. He judged this year. He had so much fun he wants to judge next year!

Frontiers Magazine editor Alex Cho (in white) with his friends. Alex also judged and his magazine was our media sponsor.

My fellow "commentor" Elizabeth Mediano.

Buds Sanjay and Ericson also judged.

Jenny told me she had a blast. I'm glad. I hate asking people to donate their time and energy and then have a crappy time doing it.


Clint had this outfit made especially for the evening. The red fur is detachable.


Nick Verreos is just the sweetest guy. I was thrilled that he agreed to judge the event.


In the end, a rush to congratulate the winner Maria Roman (in orage with a crown on her head). The final question--which I wrote--was: if you had one minute with President Bush, what would you say to advocate for your community. She said, she would ask him not to cut AIDS funding, because we desperately need the funds. I knew she nailed it.