OakMonster Extra

FIRST, our Thanksgiving schedule IS we’re OPEN Weds, closed Thurs, and back for more tomfoolery this Friday+Saturday :)

Secondly, ummmmmm…

BIG NEWS (for the 3-4 of you that care).  Here’s an email that literally took me 20+ hours to figure out that mail chimp would REJECT me on sending, but here it is.. and hope you’ll support us and/or come to my/our big party too. Details to come after I wake up from eating turkey on Thanksgiving! :)

THANKS and read below (pretty please?!)

HI, I’m Nguyen Tran! It’s my birthday today, and if you read NOTHING ELSE: hold Sun, Dec. 7th 12-4pm for my “party!” -just unsubscribe if you don’t want to come to the party or hear anything else… even though I told my mom I wouldn’t cry  (I’m the guy in the banana suit below; that’s Mr. T on a unicorn up-top if you “fools” didn’t know)

For anyone that doesn’t know me (or you actually don’t like me and I somehow left you on the list LOL ;p) but you are still strangely interested… who cares, we can be friends now and you should join the partaaaaaay too! :)

POST-FILM/TECH/COLLEGE/HIGH SCHOOL RECAP:  

I started w/ my wife an illegal+underground restaurant in our apartment called STARRY KITCHEN  5.5 years ago, we went legit, we do lotsa (ACTUAL) crazy sh*t and we’re STILL AROUND!! (‘cause the food is kinda DELICIOUS >_<) (pssssssst, we’re currently inside the Grand Star Jazz Club @ 943 N. Broadway in CHINATOOOOOOOWN and it’s doin’ alrighty actually ;D) …AND we’re going to shut this MOTHER F*CKER+ALL OF IT DOWN by the end of January 2015 UNLESS… (wait for it…. WAIT for it) We can JUST do it right  and raise at least $400-700k for our next space via a crazy-a$$ kickstarter campaign we’re launching mid-December.. #sotheresTHAT ^_^ Moving forward we just need our own home, be fully capitalized, pay people back, do it OUR way, not be stressed out all the time about money (i.e. EVERYTHING that comes w/ running a restaurant) and we’re drawing the line NOW for this is our: GO BIG, OR GO F*CKING HOME MOMENT! :) it’s now time for us to do it RIGHT (‘cause frankly we’ve done a LOT in 4.5 legit years) and SHOW PEOPLE it’s not as easy+cheap as people think OR not do it at all.   (and get really hammered w/ the boys of COLOR ME BADD ^_^)

WHAT I REALLY WANT FROM YOU:

Support: support+spread the word to about our tomfoolery EVERYWHERE

COOL SH*T YOU HAVE: if you have anything you can donate that could be a ridiculously awesome (and/or HORRIBLY HILARIOUS) reward to give to donors, let me know

$$: …I mean, only if you want to. :) You could do it as a holiday gift for someone else+get that awesome OR hilarious gift from us… FOR you!

Example: I’m going to get unicorn tattoos for the campaign and put the faces of the highest donors on the bodies of said unicorns.. and who doesn’t want THAT for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza?!?

oh yeah, if you haven’t tried our balls in your mouth yet.. I YEARN for that from you too

I mean these (crispy tofu) balls… of course ;) And that’s kinda IT. I will be throwing a party (location TBD) on Dec 7th BUT that party will serve a dual purpose for a hopefully crazy-ass finale I want to shoot for my kickstarter video.  I hope you’ll join… I’ll most likely bring THE food.  For that like bullet points here you go:

WHAT: Week late birthday party + Kickstarter FINALE video shoot

DATE: Sunday, Dec 7th

TIME: 12-4p

WHERE: I dunno, somewhere outdoors and purdy :)

FOOD: I’ll “probably” bring some

BOOZE: I’ll try

PRESENTS: DON’T BRING ANY, bring your bubbly personalities (or something along those lines)

FUN: hell YEAH its gonna be fun

KICK BALL: I think we’re gonna play that too

ANYMORE: “may the force be with you”

Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Zachary Levi at the Serenity screening in Petco Park. [x]

Watching Serenity on the field of Petco Park is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I thank NerdHQ and the entire crew that made such an amazing idea happen.

We ended up with a front row “seat" and were stretched out on the lawn about 20 feet from Nathan, Alan, and Zachary. They only hung out there for about the first 25 minutes of the movie, but I was close enough to watch their faces as we were watching different pieces of the film. His face was literally like a little kid at the movies and just a joy to experience. The HOLY CRAP moment of “OMG I’m watching Serenity with our Captain" hit me more than once, but what completely destroyed me was the moment in the beginning when ‘Serenity’ painted on the side of the ship comes into view and the violin music starts playing, I glanced over at Nathan and his whole face just…crumbled. I looked over at my friend Carrie and she was like, “I know…I know." and it was just this really beautiful, humbling moment to know how much the entire show still means to him and the memories I’m sure that go with having a show ripped away and then brought back for this film, and JFC when that man cries. Basically like having your heart ripped out. I’ll never be able to watch that scene again without bursting into tears. EVER.