On Friday night, I went to the ODC Theater in San Francisco, where performances were held by Facing East Dance & Music, Red Jade Collective (with Jen), and Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble. The event was presented by ODC Theater and Asian Improv aRts (AIR) and was celebrating AIR’s 15th anniversary.
Various factors and incidents contributed to my arrival at the ODC Theater one hour late. A 7+ car accident along 101 South delayed me for 30 minutes (I was taking someone to the San Jose Airport). Next, I mistakenly went to the wrong place in the City for the performance! I originally thought it was being held at Cowell Theater at the Fort Mason Conference Center. Indeed, Facing East is going to be there, but that’s in July, not June! It didn’t help matters that Fort Mason and the ODC Theater were on opposite sides of the City. I was able to get a good photo of the sun setting beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, however, so things weren’t a total loss.
I arrived just at the end of Facing East’s Paper Walls performance. They were the second group to perform, meaning I missed Jen and Red Jade. Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble came on next, and they performed with crisp execution, high energy, and passion. I was able to take a few photographs before being kindly asked by an ODC employee not to take any photos if I didn’t have prior permission. Performance houses are sticky about photographing or videotaping if you’re not in the in crowd. I guess it didn’t help me that I personally knew two of the three groups performing.
While not exactly the same, this situation reminded me of a time at work when I was faced with the decision of (1) asking for permission to do something or (2) asking for forgiveness after having done something without prior permission. Sometimes if you want the right thing done without having to go through a lot of needless and time-consuming red tape, you’ve got to take matters into your own hands and go with the latter route.
After the performance, many of the performers from the three groups went to the King of Thai Noodle House in the Richmond for a late dinner.
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