This was without a doubt the craziest weekend of the year! Kollaboration was incredible on Friday! From all the awesome performances to the vibe of the crowd, the night was ridiculous!  Thanks to all the judges Marié Digby, Bobby Choy aka Big Phony, Travis Wong and Shinae Yoon for voting me the Grand Prize Winner! Big props to Roy Choi and PK for the opportunity, as well as the whole Kollaboration staff!   Special shoutout to my awesome bro George for his unparalleled dedication and spreading the word! To Traci and my TNP family, and to the NU crew: i love you guys! And last but certainly not least, thanks to all my friends, fans and supporters for coming out in full force! There was such crazy love up in the Ford Amphitheatre.

A few pics from the night!

Kollaboration producer and host Roy Choi kicks off the evening (Photo by Nathan Nowack)

Me singing my new song ‘Shoes’ written just for the Kollaboration Acoustic show! (Photo by Nathan Nowack)

I was loving the vibe from the crowd! You guys were so awesome I thought I was gonna fall over from the roar!

Hippie Hippie Hoorah! These guys were awesome with their chilled out rendition of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” (Photo by Steven Lam)

FlowEthics doing their thang!

Marié Digby, the headliner and guest judge! She performed originals as well as a cover of Beyoncé’s “Sweet Dreams.” Awesome.

Ah! Craziness. They announced I won and I thought, “Awesome. This is going to next month’s rent and a new microphone!” lol. (Photo by Alexander Siu)

Roy, Christine and I! This check is now sitting in my room. Can you imagine bringing this thing to the bank?! (Photo by Alexander Siu)

The finale. We all sing a rendition of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” What a crazy night.

The afterparty at Blue Goose! Thanks to the Kollab staff and all the awesome people I met through this whole experience.

Outside with Austin, Hippie Hippie Hooray, Esna, Geo, and Bart and Joe from JustKidding Films!

** Went to bed at 5am! Later I would wake up 3 hours after to embark on a weekend long bachelor party for my college buddy. I’m happy to say I survived this insane mega weekend!

Hey folks!

Many of you may already know but I’m competing in this year’s Kollaboration Acoustic 4! It’s all going down Friday August 27th at the Ford Amphitheatre, next to the Hollywood Bowl. Tix are only $10 if you buy them before the end of TODAY! Click here to purchase tickets: http://kollaboration.org/dawentickets

I’ll also be debuting a brand new song that I’ve written especially for my Kollaboration performance. Come hear me perform my new single for the first time!

Kollaboration has been something I’ve wanted to do since 2003 when I went to my first Kollaboration show back in Chicago. In many ways competing this year fulfills a dream I’ve had for a while. Please come out and support me and all the other amazing musicians. It’s gonna be an awesome night!

The results are in! The Asian Pacific Community Fund made #107, comfortably in the Top 200 charities in the Chase Community Giving Contest on Facebook. Thank you everyone who clicked and helped APCF win $20,000. They are truly a great cause and because of you, they now have funding to distribute to 29 other organizations!

Special shoutouts to Mista Cookie Jar, Sam Kang, Connie Lim, Chris and Nathan from Seriously, Megan Lee and DanakaDan from afterschoolspecial, as well as George and the whole team that put together our PSA last week! It’s all about community!

Hey folks,

It’s time for another great cause! This time it’s the Asian Pacific Community Fund. Check out the PSA I made above. They need your vote on Facebook as they compete with other charities for $20,000 as part of the Chase Community Giving Program. All it takes is just 1 click and you can help them win!
VOTE HERE:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/954257997-asian-pacific-community-fund-of-southern-california

APCF is an umbrella org that supports 29 different non profit API organizations in Southern California. The orgs involved range from helping victims of domestic violence to providing educational resources for low income communities. More info at: www.apcf.org. Thanks for your help! Voting ends July 12!

Critics and viewers agree: this movie SUCKS! Angy Asian Man puts it best when he says, “this movie could boycott itself!” Regardless of whether The Last Airbender makes a lot of money, or whether the 2nd or 3rd installments get made, I think we’ve made our point and the studio heads will have to take note. Racist casting and poor directing did this film in!