Our Emmy award winning Ben Fong-Torres weathers his 12th year as co-host of the SF Chinese New Year Parade televised broadcast and finds a silver lining with the weather forecast for rain - Ratings!

You know how, sometimes, those meteorologists on TV get their weather forecasts a tiny bit wrong?

Hard to believe, I know, what with all their computers and radars and satellites and fancy Doppler maps and storm tracking weaponry.

Cindy Cheung, Jennifer Ikeda, Julienne Hanzelka Kim, Alfredo Narciso, Debargo Sanyal, and James Yaegashi are featured in I_NY by Ma Yi at TADA Theater.

From November 7-23, Ma-Yi Theater Company presents I __ NY , a workshop production by Loy Arcenas, Lonnie Carter, and Ralph Pea at TADA! Theater, 15 W. 28th St. in New York. Directed by Loy Arcenas, I __ NY , features contributions from castmembers Cindy Cheung, Jennifer Ikeda, Julienne Hanzelka Kim, Alfredo Narciso, Debargo Sanyal, and James Yaegashi.

A dynamic collaboration among the MAGNO RUBIO creators with contributions from the cast and crew, I __ NY is a daring exploration of some of the finest, brightest, heartbreakingest and funniest New Yorkers, some born and bred, some newly arrived, some fresh off Cathay Pacific. In English with bursts of Bengali, Japanese, Mandarin and Espagnyol, I __ NY is a special mosaic of New Yorkers you rarely, if ever, see on stage.

TADA! Theater
15 W. 28th St.
(between 5th Ave. and Broadway)
Dates: Nov. 7 - 23, 2008
Time: Wed-Sat @8PM, Sun @ 3PM

Tickets are $15. Call (212) 971-4862 or visit www.ma-yitheatre.org, TDF vouchers accepted.

Our very own Renaissance man Ben Fong-Torres was the co-host of the Emmy award-winning telecast of the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade the largest parade of its kind in North America.

When he is off-camera, Ben is very busy working on his new books soon to be released.

The guy does take a break every now and then - you might be lucky to spot him in a jam session on the second Tuesday of each month at a local hang-out in San Francisco.

In the following feature, Mitzi Mock writes of her close encounters at the All-Star Jam session.

This time out, I'm giving my space over to Mitzi Mock , a student journalist at San Francisco City College. She showed up at the monthly All-Star Jam that I visit, at El Rio in the Mission District, and wrote it up as an assignment for class. I thought she did an excellent job capturing the quirky scene, that she came up with an excellent lead paragraph -- a skill that's vital for news writers -- and did a good reporting job, talking not only to band members, but also to patrons of El Rio. I told her she deserved an "A" (which she got from her professor) and a larger audience (which her teacher could not give her). So I'm proud to present...Mitzi Mock.