NASA AMES Performance

Looks like we're due for an update. We've had a very quiet summer with few practices and even fewer performances. Things are looking to pick up in the next two months with weddings. Cherng Loong did have a very cool show at the NASA AMES base in Mountain View. I believe it was for a picnic. Two of Cherng Loong's instructors came out of retirement to perform, one of them being me. It was definitely difficult to perform on the benches after three years of no practice on them. The show was a lot of fun and we're thankful that NASA gave us an opportunity to perform for them.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Cherng Loong blog post without some pictures!



Warming up with some music!



This is a great shot of the silver lion.









Original Team A back in action!









Looking strong so far...





Lion going down for the cheng.





Finishing up on the benches. Here comes the the other lions!





Another great shot.





Scrolls come down.



A nice action shot!



Our friend Andrew who works for NASA and was helping us take pictures. Thanks for the support!

Hopefully, this won't be the last time we perform here. Everyone we worked with was really nice to us. Again, thanks for having us and a special thanks goes to Ikai Lan for taking these great photos of us performing.

Chinese New Year Weekend - Sterling, Irving and all else that ends in "ing"

There are SOOOO many pictures from this Chinese New Year. For just the first weekend, I was able to select 75 pictures from Jason's collection of what seemed like thousands. I will try not to post them all on the blog but I'll make them available to view in a picture gallery. Let's get started!

On Feb. 9th, the first Saturday after Chinese New Year, we were invited by Sterling Bank and Trust to perform at four of their bank locations. Sterling has always been a great supporter of Cherng Loong since 2005 and we've helped open up and perform at numerous locations. In between those performance, we were also invited to perform at Designer, the hair salon that a few of the guys including myself go to, Johnny's Burgers, and Lam Hoa Thuan Restaurant, just to name a few. It was quite a busy day and it was great to see everyone come back to help out.

We started the day performing at the Irving St. Sterling location at around 10:30AM.



It's not that early but a lot of us like to sleep in. Just check out how tired we look.



We awakened three new lions that day. My dad came out and helped us out with the eye dotting ceremony and three Sterling employees had the honor of performing the dotting.



If we weren't awake, this long strip of firecrackers were sure to help us.



The lions have been dotted and are awakening. The new lions were really excited and a performance ensued.





We then headed down a few blocks to Designer. They always make it interesting for us with lettuce being hung throughout the place, oranges and extra red envelopes!





Even Paul came back to help us out on the drum.



We're either discussing a gameplan here or just need a quick kiss.



Lettuce and Lai Xi!



Working on the oranges...



... to wish good luck.





I recently got a haircut and they told me the performance was great.



After Designer, we headed over to the Taraval Street Sterling and it looks like Bradford's awake now.





After Taraval, it was about 1:00PM so we headed back to Irving St. to eat at Johnny's Burgers. Yes, Russell, you get to eat a burger too. You can let go of Kenneth now.



Not sure what's going on here.



Most of us ordered regular burgers. Maybe some bacon or mushrooms on some of them. But Bradford, Lerng and Michael saw something else that sparked their interest. When they got their food, we all couldn't help but notice it and looked over.



They ordered the monster 3 patty burgers. You might want to keep scrolling down if you don't want to witness the carnage that is the Johnny's Monster Burger.









Then Douglas "Shredder" Jue decided to show up. He must have smelled the food from his house or something.



He helped us on our way to the next Sterling Bank on Mission Street, where we performed again. This time, with full bellies, some flags and extra drummers.

















Even Justin and Elliot joined in on the fun. Elliot decided to show us exactly how long those pants really are.





The last of the Sterling banks was on San Bruno Ave. Jonathan and Bradford found some time to goof off while we played music and threw firecrackers.









After we finished off the last Sterling Bank, we again went back to Irving Street, where we performed for our lunch spot, Johnny's. Kenneth and Jason suited up for the first time since they were still known as the 2/3 of the Stooges.



Warren showed up after work and missed our lunch so of course he gets to have a burger as well while we performed.





Then we performed for a couple more times to end the day.













We got some fried chicken as a gift!



And Russell loved it!



After a long day, some of us winded down by playing Street Fighter.



We ate dinner at Lam Hoa Thuan and this has got to be enough pictures for now. Say goodbye, Kenneth and Fai!

Woodside Priory School Performance

Woodside Priory School invited us to perform for their Lunar New Year celebration a couple weeks back. And Jason took a whole lotta pictures. I chose to only post some of them and that's already 20 pictures! I picked up some donuts for the guys before we left for the show.



The school is pretty cool and we got to perform outdoors. We started out by playing some music to get the crowd together. Ming was our main drummer but it was a great opportunity for our less experienced drummers get a chance.







It was a pretty good performance. Russell and Berman was in the red fur lion and Doug and Bradford was in the purple lion.













After we got back from the performance, we had some practice for Russell and Berman to prepare for our upcoming bench performances. Jason just kept the camera going.

Not sure Melany and Pandora were doing here.



Ming and Berman feeling the music. Ming should keep his eyes open or he might hit Berman's head.



Too late... here's Berman returning the favor.



Here's Cherng Loong's future. Brandon, Michael and Lerng training hard.



After all the fooling around, we actually got some work done.







Berman worked really hard on his donkey kick.





Then we finished practice... with family pictures?



I got another post coming soon. This is just the start for the new year!

Cherng Loong Performs at Golden State Warriors Game

Well, Chinese New Year 2008 is coming up and I figured that everyone should know what we've been up to lately. December brought one of our biggest performances ever. Our beloved local NBA Basketball team, the Golden State Warriors, invited us to perform for the opening show for their game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 5, 2007. The occasion was the Asian Heritage Night at Oracle Arena and also marked the first time that new Chinese rookie Yi Jianlian came to Oakland to play.

It was a fun time for all of us and we actually got to stick around after the performance to watch the Warriors rock the Bucks 120-90. Here are some pictures:



It was our first chance to use our new lions. Russell and Berman got onto the benches with our new Gold lion with Red fur and Black underbody. The lion's look is stunning. Here are a few more of the same lion.





There were four other lions on the court. The Purple Batik lion is still one our favorites. We also brought Red, Blue/Silver and a new Gold lion.









Then we also gotta have a picture of our music players.



And to finish it off, a picture of Ming.



What can I say? Ming just loves the camera. The new years is going to be busy. It's probably the busiest we've been since two years ago. I believe we still got some available times on the weekend of Feb. 22-24 for those of you who are looking for some New Year lion dancing.

Look out for some more posts when the new years comes closer. We'll be hard at work so we should be getting lots of good Cherng Loong news and pictures.

Performance for Wedding at Zen Peninsula Restaurant

Wow, it's been such a long time since I last posted on this. It's been about 20 minutes. If you are one of loyal readers that checks everyday, make sure not to miss my earlier post about the Excelsior Festival!

Cherng Loong performed at a wedding at the Zen Peninsula Restaurant this past Saturday. It was actually a referral from a previous client. Thanks Benson Chiu, if you are actually reading this. We arrived early as usual. We had some time to pass so...



Warren waved around the gong stick.



Russell and Berman are mentally preparing themselves for their performance on stacked benches.



Looks like Russell is ready. I don't think Russell liked this picture of him. Oh well.

After that, we waited...



and waited...



and waited!

When we got in, three lions went straight for the head table.



It's been a little while since we've done three or more lions. It looks nice.

Then Russell and Berman stuck around to perform on their benches:



Double leg stack on benches.



Swingy swing.





Donkey!



Dipping low for the Cheng.





Good job guys!

After Russell and Berman finished, the other two lions came back in to finish the performance. They unfurled two good luck scrolls.



Yes, that gold lion was on the floor. That floor being the 6'4" Jonathan Li who power lifted Doug onto his head. It's like they were on benches or something!



We finished the performance with some pictures. It was a nice and long show. The audience was great and was cheering most of the time. We just hope that it was as exciting and fun to watch as it was for us to perform.

Dinner that night: Sushi Zen