My man Greg Pak, director of Robot Stories, now making waves in the comic book world, informs that his short film Super Power Blues is screening online at the Reel 13 website of New York's Channel 13.
The film tells the story of Super Power Go Girl, a superheroine who lives in New York City and deals with endless crises—when all she really wants to do is sleep with her boyfriend.
Check it out and vote for it here. The film that gets the most votes by 5pm next Thursday will be screened on television in New York. Do it for Greg. Do it because the city needs Super Power Go Girl.
I should've mentioned this weeks ago, but it's still May, so it's still technically Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and thus I say it's all good... Check it. In honor of APA Heritage Month, ten Asian American novelists recently banded together to promote more awareness of Asian American young adult literature with a project called Fusion Stories.
These are new contemporary novels by Asian Americans that aren't the typical traditional tales set in Asia nor stories about coming to America for the first time... basically, it's not the same old usually stuff that ethnic literature tends to get bogged down with. Asian American lit has come a long way. There definitely weren't too many books like this to read when I was rowing up.
Fusion Stories calls attention to "a menu of delectable next-gen hot-off-the-press novels for middle readers and young adults"—all by Asian American writers. So far, the list of critically-acclaimed authors include Cherry Cheva (She's So Money), Justina Chen Headley (Girl Overboard), Grace Lin (Year of the Rat), An Na (The Fold), Mitali Perkins (First Daughter: White House Rules), Janet Wong (Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer), Joyce Lee Wong (Seeing Emily), Lisa Yee (Good Luck, Ivy), David Yoo (Stop Me if You're Heard This One Before), and Paula Yoo (Good Enough).
Okay, so Heritage Month is almost over. I totally dropped the ball on getting the word out on this one. But school's almost out, summer is just about here, and these are some great titles for a youngster's summer reading list. Heck, I'm way out of the target age range, and I've read some of these titles and enjoyed them thoroughly. To learn more about books and authors of Fusion Stories, go to the website here.
Still reeling from last night's Lost season finale. Damn you... who? Who do we blame for this? Ben? Keamy? Widmore? Jack? It's going to be a long summer.
Ken informs me that in Seattle this weekend, there will be a special screening of the World War II drama Only the Brave, a story about the brave soldiers of the all-volunteer, Japanese-American 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. The film stars Lane Nishikawa, Jason Scott Lee, Mark Dacascos, Yuji Okumoto, Tamlyn Tomita, Jeff Fahey and Pat Morita, among others.
There will be two screenings this Saturday, May 31 at the new NVC Foundation Hall at 1:00pm and 4:30pm. Tickets are $10, and all proceeds will benefit the Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation. Seating is limited, so you want to RSVP to Dale Watanabe at 206-953-2233 or email rsvp@seattlenvc.org.
See the movie, then buy the DVD. There'll be a Q & A afterwards and signings of all purchased DVDs by writer/director Lane Nishikawa after both screenings. For more information about the movie, and details on the screenings (there's another one in Sacramento next week), visit the Only the Brave website here.
45-year-old Hsiao Hsu, a mother of two, was shot at about 11:40am on March 19 while reporting a burglary. The dispatcher heard two shots as assailants chased Hsu through her gated, high-security mansion. It looks like it was simply a burglary gone wrong.
Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators have arrested 19-year-old Christopher Santana, and three high school students, a boy and two girls. All four were arrested May 16 and have been charged with murder as adults. Investigators believe one of the boys shot Hsu and the girls drove a getaway car.
Investigators are still seeking a fifth suspect, Victor Manuel Maurtua, 19, of Baldwin Hills. Maurtua, a member of the El Monte Flores gang who is known as "Lil Tiny," is 5 foot 5 and weighs 140 pounds. According to authorities, he's considered armed and dangerous. More here: Suspect Photo Released In Slaying Of Woman On Phone With 911.
Tonight in New York, some good folks are hosting a charity event for victims of the earthquake in China, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross Society of China. Details on this flyer: For more information on relief efforts in China, go here.
This email just popped into my In-Box, with the subject "Teen Asian Gunmen," describing a possible gun incident involving Asian students at Manhasset High School in Manhasset, Long Island. Nobody is too sure what's going on right now, but it seems that a student spotted two other students with a gun in the boy's bathroom:
But in the mean time, I thought I'd give you a heads up. One of my coworkers has a brother who's a senior at Manhasset High School in Manhasset, Long Island. Apparently, the school is currently on lockdown because a student found two Asian students in the bathroom with a hand gun. The students are currently locked in their classrooms until they can find the students in question. Apparently they have not been apprehended yet.
Nassau County police are on the scene and investigating. A quick Google search reveals a few postings on this message board about the incident, but it's not much. At least we know that no one has actually been hurt... yet.
Some more information here: Manhasset High School in lockdown. Everyone in the school is apparently on lock down, and no parents are being permitted to enter the building. It all seems to be based on one kid seeing "what seemed like a gun." Better safe than sorry, I guess.
Outside of this email, I'm not sure who's saying that the kids in the bathroom are Asian. There doesn't seem to be any specifics just yet, and I can't verify if this is indeed true. Good Lord, I hope not. But it's strange how the idea of Asian youth and guns now evokes a very specific reaction in our culture. More on this as it develops... (Thanks, Paul.)
UPDATE: The lockdown at Manhasset High School is over: Lockdown ends at Manhasset High School. Authorities searched the school, and and every student in grades 7-12 was apparently searched with a wand metal detector. Nothing, however, has been substantiated.
This morning, an eighth-grade boy went to school administrators when he saw three other older students—all male—talking together in the bathroom. One of them was holding what the eighth-grader thought was a gun. So was it really a gun? And were any or all of the kids involved Asian? No idea.
Lost fans, this is it. The highly-anticipated season four finale is tonight, and I'm nervous as hell. This has been a fantastic season, full of crazy, mind-bending twists and turns. There is no other show like this in on television. True to form, tonight's two-hour finale promises to be a hell of a ride, with rumors swirling that there will be multiple character deaths before the credits roll. I've heard as many as three original cast members will meet their demise, and you all know I'm terrified over who it might be...
Could Jin die tonight? We now know that he does not make it off the island with the Oceanic Six. In the flash-forward future, Sun appears to believe that he is dead. And there's no doubt that he would die to ensure the safety of Sun. He seems like a strong candidate, and I don't like it. Daniel Dae Kim has been one of my favorite actors on television for the last four years. I'd be bummed to see him get the boot from Lost.
Other strong candidates for possible deadness include Claire, Sawyer, and Michael (very likely). I guess we'll have to see. And we sure as hell better find out who's in that frickin' coffin. Stay tuned, Lost fans.
Speaking of Daniel Dae Kim, did anyone catch him on the A&E miniseries The Andromeda Strain that aired earlier this week? It's an adaptation of Michael Crichton's old novel about a lethal extraterrestrial biological microorganism that threatens to kill humanity. If you missed it, I'm sure they'll run repeats. They're also releasing it on DVD next week. It's not bad, kind of creepy.
DDK plays Dr. Tsi Chou, one of the members of an elite group of scientist dispatched to investigate and stop the virus before it can spread. It's revealed that he's a microbiologist who once served as "the premiere biological weapons designer for the Chinese government," but has since seen the light and is now a U.S.-based bio-terrorism consultant.
Funny, after watching Daniel predominantly act in Korean for the past few years, finally seeing him in a part where he speaks perfect English. Oddly enough, they have him playing an expatriate Chinese scientist. I actually only saw the first half, so I have no idea what happened to Dr. Chou. But it definitely seemed like one of those stories where the get characters get killed off, one by one... and he didn't seem like the guy who would make it to the end.
Oh man, it just occurred to me—could Daniel Dae Kim die on TV twice in one week?
In Orange County, for the first time ever, all the candidates vying for an open supervisor's seat are Vietnamese American: O.C.'s 1st District has a first: all Vietnamese candidates. Incumbent Janet Nguyen is being challenged by fellow Republican Dina Nguyen, a Garden Grove councilwoman, and Hoa Van Tran, a political newcomer and the lone Democrat in the race.
The 2007 special election registered the Vietnamese community as a voting force when Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen, her chief rival, took nearly half the votes in the 10-candidate field, upsetting party-endorsed candidates. Vietnamese voters make up only a quarter of the electorate in the 1st District.
Since then, Janet Nguyen has faced quite a bit of controversy in office, starting with a close win decided by a three-vote margin. And now, she's been slogging through a tough and bitter campaign. Her chief challenger, Dina Nguyen, has the backing of Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), the highest-ranking Vietnamese American elected official in the state and something of a political godfather to Vietnamese political hopefuls across the country.
Crazy. Vietnamese American have become a political force to be reckoned with. But when all the candidates are Vietnamese, their ethnic identity is no longer a distinguishing characteristic to voters. So who will come out on top? It's all going down on June 3 in Orange County.
For those of you who missed it New York, here's your second chance to check Arthur Dong's Hollywood Chinese, a documentary on the Chinese in American feature films. It returns for an encore engagement in Manhattan this Friday, May 30 at the ImaginAsian Theater. Come see a fascinating portrait of how the Chinese have been imagined in movies, for better or for worse.
The film will also been opening theatrically this Friday in Southern California, playing at Laemmele's Music Hall in Los Angeles and the Laemmle One Colorado in Pasadena. You've seen Indiana Jones and Crazy Alien Story. Now go see this. Here are the details:
The ImaginAsian Theater 239 East 59th St., New York City Screens Daily, 3pm & 7pm. 212/371-6682
Laemmle's Music Hall 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills Daily: (Sat/Sun 12:40, 3:00) 5:20, 7:40, 9:55
Laemmle's One Colorado 42 Miller Alley, Old Town Pasadena Daily: 1:00, 3:10, 5:25, 7:40, 10:00
Director Arthur Dong is scheduled to attend select Southern California screenings this weekend. Check out the film, and meet the award-winning filmmaker behind such films as Forbidden City, U.S.A. and Licensed to Kill. Go to the Hollywood Chinesewebsite for screening/appearance details.
One of the names the article throws out there is Harold Hongju Koh, Dean of the Yale Law School, an esteemed legal scholar and former human rights official in the Clinton State Department. If nominated, he would become the nation's first Asian American justice.
Of course, this is all just speculation, and he's one of many possible candidates. Still, how cool would that be? Yeah, it's just a dream, and it's definitely a long way off. But hey, it could happen. Read more about Harold Koh here.
Movie fans, gather 'round. It's time for yet another so-bad-it-could-be-real movie pitch from our man Bao Phi. This is the one I've been waiting for since he started the series, based on the awesome title alone. It does not disappoint. On the musical tip:
BAO PHI'S RACIST IDEAS FOR HOLLYWOOD 6: THE GANGSTERS OF PHO STREET: A MUSICAL
THE TAGLINE: Miss Saigon Meets Miss Do-Me Nails!
THE PITCH: Tan Son Nhut is a Vietnamese woman orphaned after a tragic incident at a Paris By Night event involving hair spray and hot stage lights takes the lives of her parents. Raised on the mean streets of Jersey, she is forced into the toxic, exploitative world of nail salons to earn her keep. Her sleazy Vietnamese boss, Mr. Bun Bo Hue, holds out on her tips and forces her to work long, long hours for below minimum wage.
One fateful night, a plastic tub of glitter is knocked into a huge vat of nail polish remover--causing an unexpected but spectacular explosion. The Vietnamese nail workers frantically attempt to escape the rainbow eruption of nail salon materials, their arms stretching towards heaven, as if reaching for a better life... when all of a sudden, a white urban relief worker named Joe Plain, working overtime piloting his helicopter, flies over the ghetto catastrophe, and saves them all. As he reaches down, the first hand he clasps is Tan Son Nhut's--time seems to freeze, lips quiver--and they burst into song.
Will Tan Son Nhut and Joe Plain find true love? Will they band together and help the Vietnamese community rename their street Pho Street? How many lip quivering, wide-eyed songs in the key of Lea Salonga be sung towards the heavens? Featuring the soon-to-be classic songs, Land of 20,000 Sorrowful Featherless Geese Lit Afire By Napalm, OH! You Communist, and Caucasian is the Flavor of My Saviour.
Starring Anjelah Johnson as Tan Son Nhut, Mark Wahlberg as Joe Plain, 50 Cent as Joe Plain's Best Friend Diamond Donutz, and Peter O'Toole as Mr. Bun Bo Hue.
Ah yes, a classic love story for the ages, in the grand tradition of crappy racist poorly-cast musicals. Hollywood, are you reading this? (I hope not.) I can't wait to buy the Original Cast Recording and sing along with "Caucasian is the Flavor of My Saviour." Zing!
Mia Kim is an indie singer out of Philadelphia, now based in Southern California, who is taking on a very interesting approach to producing her upcoming sophomore album, Who is Sukey Rose?
She's created The Sukey Rose Project as an opportunity for indie-music fans to follow the experience of an independent artist as she creates an album from start to finish, while also raising 100 percent of necessary funds through supporters. Basically, she's getting her fans involved by having them fund the entire project and gathering their input during the process.
To learn more about Mia Kim and The Sukey Rose Project, go here. You can also listen to some music at her MySpace. As I write this, she has raised a total of 53 project members who have raised a total of $3590. Her goal is $15,000, and she needs it by the end of June. How about pitching in and helping her out?
At the site, you'll find clips of Mia's newest songs, as well as links for her fans to donate money to the project. If you donate at least $10, you can get the link to her entire demo CD. She's also got a blog, where a recent post ponders possible producers. It's all very ambitious, but I like it.
As everyone knows now, the band found Pineda through the internet, when they saw clips of the 40-year-old singer from the Philippines covering Journey songs in no-name bar bands. The rest, as they say, is history. Pineda undoubtedly has the voice. Hell—dare I say it?—the guy does Steve Perry better than Steve Perry.
Here's a GQ feature on Journey and Pineda's story: HE DIDN’T STOP BELIEVIN'. Plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spolight, the guy is now Manila's number one son. Rock and roll.
UPDATE: Here's yet another story on new Journey front man Arnel Pineda, from CBS News: A Journey Back. Don't stop believin'.
This is something voters in Los Angeles should know about the upcoming June 3 election... In the race for Los Angeles Superior Court judge, if you're not careful, you could be voting for a bona fide racist—a racial separatist who once called for restricting U.S. citizenship to persons "of the European race" and deporting blacks, Asians, Latinos and others who don't meet his racial criteria. The candidate is Bill Johnson: Stealth election.
Under the name James O. Pace, he wrote the racial exclusion as a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a 1985 book supporting it. That's racist! But wait, there's more. Under the name Daniel Johnson, he ran a losing race for Congress in Wyoming in 1989 with a Ku Klux Klan organizer as his campaign manager. As William Johnson, he ran losing race for Congress in Arizona in 2006.
I'm not kidding. This is all true. The guy has a secret racist past, like something out of the movies. And this guy might actually win this judicial race, unless voters in Los Angeles find out who he really is. Do not let this happen. Johnson's opponent is Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner James Bianco. More here: Judicial candidate's racial separatist past exposed. (Thanks, Emi.)
Okay, Houston friends. This weekend, Aurora Picture Show presents the 8th annual Slant: Bold Asian American Images, an eclectic showcase of the best in emerging Asian American cinema. Slant combats tired stereotypes of Asian Americans with quirky comedies, compelling visions, and fresh perspectives on the Asian American experience. Suck it, Long Duk Dong.
Different film programs screen on Friday, May 30 and Sunday, June 1 at Aurora Pictures Show. Friday's program of experimental and narrative films weaves together the humorous and the poetic. Sunday's documentary program tells stories of people holding on even when outside forces try to tear them apart.
On Saturday evening, May 31, Slant presents Getting to Nobu: Show and Tell with Nobu Adilman. Canadian filmmaker Nobu Adilman will present a special show-and-tell screening with excerpts from his TV shows "Food Jammers" and "Invention Nation," as well as a presentation of his short films, among some other surprises.
For a full program listing of all Slant's films and events, as well as ticket information, visit the Aurora Picture Show website here. Also check out the Slant Facebook page here. And definitely be sure to check out the recently released Best of Slant DVD.
Here's another new photo from the upcoming movie Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, currently in the works. That's Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li, looking rather grimy and street urchin-like. I wonder how long it'll take before she dons that ridiculous blue costume from the video game, and what excuse they'll come up with in the story for her to put it on. Expecting the worst...
1-Child Policy Has Exceptions After China Quake: The Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee has announced that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province this month.
Turning Point: Cracking My Family's Mysteries: Here's an interesting piece by Carol Lin for NPR's Day to Day about the long, difficult process—both as a journalist and a daughter—of getting her mom to talk about her past, and uncovering the untold secrets of her family's history.
The Ides of May: With Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in full swing, Jeff Yang's latest "Asian Pop" column wonders whether the Asian American community is out of date, out of touch—and running out of time to bring the next generation of Asian Americans into the mix.
The Asian-American Minority Swing Vote: APAs are the third largest ethnic minority—sometimes stereotypically called the "quiet minority." Making up 5 percent of the U.S. population and as much as 12 percent in states like California, their power and influence remains largely untapped.
Expanded Wing Luke Asian Museum's treasures are its stories: Housed in a restored 1910 social center for Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants, the Wing Luke Asian Museum opens in its new location in Seattle's Chinatown International District on Saturday.
A monument to Japanese Americans in the Antelope Valley is restored: After being vandalized during World War II, a memorial erected in 1938 to honor Japanese citizens who had lived and died in California's Antelope Valley was finally restored and rededicated earlier this month.
Speak English, Child! This Is Korea: South Koreans, anxious to ensure their children are well-schooled, and driven by a competitive edge to learn English, spend around $5 billion dollars a year to educate their kids abroad—equivalent to nearly 20 percent of the annual total allocated to education by the government.
Disconnected: According to a 2006 survey of Boston schoolchildren conducted by the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, Vietnamese teenagers are more likely to feel disconnected from their parents and are less inclined to open up to them about their problems than other teenagers in Boston.
Racial Discrimination Has Different Mental Health Effects On Asians: The first national study of Asians living in the United States shows that for some individuals, strong ties to their ethnicity can guard against the negative effects of racism, but for others, strong ties can actually make the effects worse.
Turns out a lot of you out there watch American Gladiators. I heard from tons of people informing of the new season, which started last week, and features an Asian American gladiator named Xin Wuku, aka "Zen." According to his bio on the NBC website:
ZEN brings his own lethal combination of ancient eastern tradition and 21st century battle technique to Gladiator Arena. Born to create chaos, this mysterious warrior uses superhuman speed and highflying skills to dispatch anyone unlucky enough to cross his path before they even realize they’re in danger, and the slips back into the shadows like a ghost to wait for his next victim.
Wow. Definitely playing up that ninja angle. With the hair and all, the guy looks a bit like he jumped out of an anime movie or something. More here: Xin Wuku Confirmed as New American Gladiator Zen. The guy is 5'9" tall, weighs 159 lbs and is a martial arts expert with acting roles in movies, commercials and music videos. I'm told by those who have seen him in action that while he isn't biggest Gladiator, he's got speed.
He's apparently most well-known for this Urban Ninja video from a few years back, which is essentially a 3-minute video of him jumping and flipping all over the place, with a few punches here and there. As Vanilla Ice once said, "Go, Ninja, go."
In China, officials called for the evacuation of 80,000 people in the path of potential floodwaters building up behind a fragile dam created during the earthquake: Officials in China rush to evacuate 80,000. While soldiers carve a channel to try to drain away the threat, emergency workers are trying to rapidly evacuate the area, taking the number of people moved out of the threatened valley to almost 160,000, from more than 30 townships.
The number of deaths from the quake has climbed further toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed and 20,790 were still missing.
Meanwhile, in the United States, some people are using the quake disaster as an opportunity to demonstrate their supreme stupidity. A couple of weeks back, Shanghaiist wrote about the extremist crazies at GodHatesFags.com, the official website of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The "church" has apparently issued a press release thanking God "for the Great Killer Earthquake that He sent to kill thousands of stiffhearted Chinese rebels against God." Sick.
In addition, Westboro claim their prayer "is for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese." Obviously, this is a play for more publicity, and sadly, these people are only further fueled by negative reactions redirected against them. Personally, I'm praying for God to send a perfectly placed lightning bolt to 3701 SW 12th in Topeka.
In other news of stupidity, while on the red carpet at Cannes (where all sage wisdom should be dispensed), Sharon Stone recently described the earthquake in China as "karma": China quake karma, says Sharon Stone. She suggested that the quake that killed 80,000 was karmic payback for "the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans." Basically, the Chinese were "not nice" and thus "bad things" happened to them. My friends, these are the words of a fool.
I've also been told that Whoopi Goldberg made similar comments last week on The View, attributing the earthquake to "karma," and that China was getting what was due to them. It's ridiculous. I didn't see the remarks in question, but if anyone can track a clip from The View (5/19/08), I'll post it here.
UPDATE: Sharon Stone is now facing a boycott of her films in China for her ridiculous "karma" remarks: Chinese cinema to ban Sharon Stone. The founder of one of China's biggest urban cinema chains, UME Cineplex, said his company would not show Sharon Stone's films. UME has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, China's biggest urban movie markets. I have to wonder... how many people in China were actually interested in seeing a Sharon Stone movie in the first place?
Here's a great profile in the Washington Post on actor Ken Leung: Ken Leung: Quiet Actor, Always Kept to Himself... He plays Miles, the guy with some very interesting paranormal abilities, on ABC's Lost—a show you all know I love. The guy is a talented actor whose career I've been following for years, and his addition to the cast of Lost this season has been great.
Ken got a lot of attention for his memorable role as a mental patient during the last season of HBO's The Sopranos. Very intense. His performance impressed Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse so much, they wrote a part a specifically for him as one of the new characters on the show—no audition necessary. How cool is that?
Before his role on The Sopranos, you may remember Ken as the spiky dude from X-Men 3. Or the bad guy thug with blond-dyed hair from the original Rush Hour. And of course, there's his memorable turn as Don the karaoke machine salesman in Edward Norton's Keeping the Faith. Hilarious.
However, my personal favorite Ken Leung part was his starring role as a gangster Lincoln Ma in Sucker Free City. Directed by Spike Lee, it was the pilot episode for a Showtime series on San Francisco's ethnic gangs. It was brilliant, but was unfortunately never able to get off the ground as a series. I highly recommend checking it out on DVD. Anyway, see Ken this Thursday on the highly-anticipated season finale of Lost.
For the many fans of the South Korean romantic comedy My Sassy Girl who were upset over news of the already-in-the-can Hollywood remake, here's some news that may warm your heart. It looks like the remake, starring Elisha Cuthbert as the sassy girl in question, will not be coming to a theater near you. Ever. It is instead being unceremoniously dumped to a direct-to-DVD release: My Sassy Girl direct to video. The movie will hit DVD shelves on August 26.
It seems that the powers that be got the same feeling we did after seeing the awful trailer that hit the web a little while back: this movie sucks. I guess they decided to cut their losses and maximize their money on DVD, rather than spring the precious marketing dollars for a full theatrical release.
I've always thought remaking this movie was a bad idea. Some of the funniest, most charming aspects of the original movie are inextricably tied to South Korean culture and society—things you just can't translate. Hopefully, the remake will now just fade away and be forgotten. You're better off watching the original My Sassy Girl.
Sports Illustrated has named Honolulu's Punahou School the number one high school athletic program in the nation: Fast Times at Punahou. This year's "Best High School Athletics Programs" is in SI's May 26 issue, which hit newsstands last week. Since 1958, the prestigious school has maintained a rich tradition of athletic excellence, racking up 368 Hawaii championships—with 16 state titles and 12 Division I recruits during this school year alone.
Punahou has also generated scores of star figures in a variety of sports at the college, Olympic and professional levels. And many of those kids are Asian Pacific American, in everything from football to water polo to golf, including pro golfer Michelle Wie and football coach Norm Chow.
In addition to its super-sporty former students, Punahou notably gave rise to one very well-known political alum: presidential hopeful Barack Obama, class of 1979. He was a reserve on the Punahou's state-champion basketball team that year. Not only a stirring speaker, but also a baller.
For those of you in Southern California, here's an interesting event happening next weekend: The 3rd Annual Talent 1 Media Film Festival. The festival's goal is raise awareness and focus on issues of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
It's a one-day event that will premiere nine original short films, feature live outdoor music from Slum Peasants and Elements of the Outer Realm, and an Awareness Resource area for partnering organizations. With appearances by Doug Jones (The Silver Surfer!), Billy Zabka (yes, Johnny from The Karate Kid), Jun Kim (West 32nd) and others.
The whole thing is free and open to the public. It's hapepening Saturday, May 31st at the Aratani Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo. For more information about the event, go here. Come take part, and learn about local and global initiatives to fight and end modern day slavery.
Noted fantasy/science fiction author Robert Aspirin has died. According to the official Myth website, he passed away quietly yesterday at his home in New Orleans. He was 62: RIP, Robert Asprin.
I was actually a fan of his work back in the day, and I remember reading and loving his Myth and Phule series in my youth, circa junior high school. I only just discovered that he was half-Filipino. Now that I look back, in his Phule series, he incorporated a Filipino chef character that also taught Filipino martial arts. I remember thinking that was an interesting touch.
I haven't picked up one of his books in years, but his novels always had a geeky, fun balance of fantasy, adventure and best of all, humor. I'm definitely going to revisit them. (Thanks, Klint.)
Here's a recent profile in the Baltimore Sun on Ravens rookie safety Haruki Nakamura, a sixth-round pick for Baltimore in the NFL draft: New Raven Nakamura a man on move. Some interesting facts I learned about Haruki Nakamura:
While there are and have been Asian Americans in professional football, he is currently the only player of Japanese descent in the NFL. At least, he can't think of any others. I can't either.
He graduated in 3 1/2 years from the University of Cincinnati with a major in criminal justice and a minor in communications.
He's 5 feet 10 and weighs 190 pounds.
Haruki's father, Ryozo, was an eighth-degree black belt in judo. His mother, Karen, is a fourth-degree black belt. Haruki and his two older brothers, Yoshi and Mako, have been national champions in judo. Don't mess.
His father never wanted him to play football. He thought it was too dangerous.
Remember James Yee? He's the former United States Army chaplain who was appointed to minister to Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay, then later wrongly accused by the government of spying in 2003. He was charged with sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. After basically dragging his name through the mud, the government later dropped all charges, and he was honorably discharged from the U.S. military.
It was an awful ordeal, but now James Yee is serving his country in another way... last weekend Yee was elected as an Obama delegate in Washington's 9th Congressional District to the National Democratic Convention to be held in Denver: James Yee, Democratic National Convention delegate. He apparently might even get an opportunity to speak at the National Convention. Very cool.
There's been a great deal of speculation on who John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will pick as his running mate for November's general election. After a whole lot of guessing, rumors and denial from all over, it appears that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has indeed made the short list of possible candidates.
According to the New York Times, McCain will be meeting this weekend at his Arizona ranch with at least three potential candidates: Jindal, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney: In US campaign, VP chatter swells. More here: Jindal, McCain's probable running mate. The possibility of an Indian American vice president just got a little more real. Sepia Mutiny called it months ago.
No doubt, Jindal would offer the right kind of youthful balance McCain's ticket needs. At 36, he's the youngest current governor in the United States, as well as the first elected Indian American governor in U.S. history. He's widely viewed as a rising Republican star... and one of the party's very few top elected officials who is not white. Man, if this indeed does happen, it's going to make things pretty damn crazy come fall.
Jindal, who was just elected governor of Louisiana last fall, has consistently said he's not interested in the job just yet. Just last month, he appeared on The Tonight Show, where he once again dismissed the idea. He says he intends to be governor for four years and run for a second term... but he hasn't definitively said that he'd refuse McCain if the opportunity arose. Plans change. And here were are, with Jindal making weekend plans in Arizona.
Still, even now, Jindal continues to play down speculation that he's a serious contender for VP: Jindal trying to quiet talk of McCain's No. 2. Let's be real. You dangle this opportunity in front of a young, up-and-coming politician, and he's going to give it a long, hard look. Either way, make no mistake, this man is the future of the Republican party.
Oh hell yes. Justice. Seattle police have arrested a man in connection with a groping attack on an Asian woman in Rainier Valley on Saturday, and are looking into whether he's behind 22 similar attacks in the area over the past two years. Yes, it seems the "Beacon Hill Groper" may have been caught: Police arrest groping suspect.
37-year-old Darran Bolar of Seattle was picked out of a photo montage by witnesses to the most recent attack. Witnesses offered police a detailed description of the man and said that he fled in a green 1994 Jeep Cherokee.
Police arrested Bolar at 11:30 a.m. today and booked him into the King County Jail. He has been charged with fourth-degree assault for the groping and second-degree robbery, stemming from the theft of a witness' cellphone during Saturday's attack.
Officers have linked Bolar to some of the 22 other attacks in the area since August 2006. As we've mentioned here several times before, most of the victims have been Asian or Asian American, occurring at or around bus stops. If Bolar ends up indeed being the guy, no doubt, a lot of folks will be breathing easier. Gotcha, you sicko.
UPDATE: Wait. After the arrest of Darran Bolar, police say the two-year string of sexual attacks on women in south Seattle appear to be the work of more than one person: Suspect charged in groping. Bolar, a registered sex offender, is being investigated for several attacks, but not all 25 of the reported gropings. Police believe it's not the same person doing all of them. Dammit.
According to a crime analysis released by police on Thursday, the majority of the attacks occurred on weekdays between 5 and 11 p.m. Nearly all of the suspects were described as black men, but in other characteristics such as skin tone, build, height and clothing style, descriptions have varied drastically. A copycat? Another dude out there with a dangerous Asian fetish? The guy is still out there, so stay vigilant.
If you head over to Google, you'll see that today's homepage logo was created by Grace Moon, a 6th grader at Canyon Middle School from Castro Valley, California. She's the winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition, where K-12 students were invited to reinvent Google's homepage logo around the theme "What if...?" Selected from over 16,000 entries, Grace's doodle, "Up in the Clouds" will be seen by Google users everywhere today. Congratulations, Grace. She was featured on the Today show this morning. Here's a story on the talented young artist: 'Doodle 4 Googlel winner kept her sunny side up. View the rest of the finalists here.
Last Friday, I went to see the San Francisco Giants play the Chicago White Sox at AT&T Park in San Francisco. My team lost, but it was still a cool night, because the Giants hosted a very special guest: Masanori Murakami, former pitcher for San Francisco, and the very first Japanese player ever to play for a Major League team. He played for the Giants in 1964-65. He was at the game to throw the first pitch as part of the Giants' annual Japanese Heritage Night. Not only did I get to meet Mr. Murakami, I got his autograph. It was extremely cool.
The National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) recently released Rights to Survival & Mobility: An Anti-Trafficking Activist's Agenda, a new report highlighting the disproportionate impact of human trafficking on Asian and Pacific Islander women and girls. U.S. Department of Justice says that human trafficking is the third most profitable underground enterprise, rivaling the drug and arms trade, and the largest group of persons trafficked into the U.S. are from East Asia and the Pacific.
According to a press release I received from NAPAWF, this is an extremely critical time to discuss the impact of human trafficking on API community, especially in light of the pending reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007, HR 3887, offers extended protections for foreign domestic workers but also attempts to transform anti-trafficking legislation to prostitution legislation. Specifically, HR 3887 expands the Mann Act—a federal law that prohibits the transportation of persons across state lines for the purpose of prostitution—to include prostitution activity within states, and calls prostitution "sex trafficking."
Essentially, this creates a new federal prostitution crime and identifies all prostitution as "sex trafficking," even if force, fraud or coercion is not present. Currently, local and state authorities are responsible for handling prostitution arrests, but with the new definition the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division would be responsible for investigating and prosecuting all of these cases. The concern is, if this happens, there's a strong possibility that real trafficking cases—especially those that do not involve sex—will get lost in the shuffle.
Obviously, this is an issue that NAPAWF takes very seriously. To learn more, visit the NAPAWF blog. And download the report Rights to Survival & Mobility: An Anti-Trafficking Activist's Agenda as a PDF here.
And if you really want to learn more, NAPAWF will be hosting a teleconference media briefing on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 12pm PST/3pm EST to discuss the contents of the report and provide NAPAWF's analysis of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007, HR 3887. RSVP at mnguyen@napawf.org by Friday, May 23rd. Conference Dial-in Number: (616) 597-8000, participant access code: 361684#.
I had a lot of people writing in tell me about the Japanese Office spoof on the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Steve Carell. I honestly don't know what to make of it.
Ricky Gervais, star of the original British series, introduces a fake Japanese "true original" version of the hit TV show, where everything is in Japanese, and the office is filled with all sorts of the usual Japanese stereotypes—karaoke, excessive bowing, giggling behind the hands, even a weird commercial break.
If you're familiar with the show, it's basically a re-enactment of the pilot episode, except it's all in Japanese. They're not in yellowface or anything—everybody's based on the characters from the NBC version (pretty dead-on too). Very odd. Even more confounding is Gervais' comment at very the end: "It's funny, because it's racist." All that said, I actually thought it was funny
Just heard about this interesting discussion happening next week at Asia Society in New York: Shattering Convention: Asian Americans and the US Presidential Election. They'll be talking about the role and impact of the Asian American community in U.S. politics, particularly during this important election year. Panelists will include moderator Mae Cheng, Glenn Magpantay, Vijay Prashad and our pal Carmen Van Kerckhove. Here are the details:
Shattering Convention: Asian Americans and the 2008 Election
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 6:30 p.m. Registration and Reception 7:00 p.m. Program Asia Society 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York
Featuring: Glenn Magpantay Staff Attorney, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
Vijay Prashad Professor and Director of International Studies, Trinity College Author, Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity
Carmen Van Kerckhove Co-founder and President of New Demographic Host of the podcast Addicted to Race
In Conversation with Mae Cheng, Executive Editor, amNewYork former President of Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and former President of UNITY, a coalition which represents over 10,000 journalists of color
Asian Americans are playing an increasingly important role in American political life. What are the most pressing issues facing the Asian American community today? What impact did the community have on the primaries, and what impact might they have on the national election?
Join us in a lively discussion as we analyze the dynamics of ethnicity and the roles of new media and youth as they relate to the Asian American community in the 2008 election cycle.
Should be a pretty interesting talk—though I imagine they'll only be able to scratch the surface of this topic within an hour and a half. Tickets are $10 for members, students with ID and seniors, and $15 non-members. For more information, go to the Asia Society website.
This is really tragic. The daughter of popular Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family's home in Tennessee: Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter killed by car in driveway. 5-year-old Maria was the youngest of three children from China adopted into the Chapman family.
It just appears to be a really terrible accident. Maria was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, who didn't see her playing in the driveway outside their home. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time. No charges are expected. More here: Daughter of Christian Music Star Killed by Car.
The upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie, based on the popular video game, has an official blog. As I've said before, while Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li has considerable potential to be an absolute crazy disaster, I have to admit, I'm gleefully curious about how it'll turn out. It's going to be ridiculous. Can this beat the disastrous 1994 Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme?
At the helm, you've got Andrzej Bartkowiak, director of such masterpieces as Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave. The cast includes Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li, Edmund Chen, Josie Ho, Pei Pei Cheng, and that guy from Black Eyed Peas. No, not the Filipino guy—the weird-looking dude.
That's a photo of Moon Bloodgood (who, by the way, is not only gorgeous, but has the coolest name ever) above as Det. Maya Sunee of Bangkok Homicide (a new character to the Street Fighter universe). Can't wait to see that first photo of Chun Li...
In other Moon Bloodgood news, it was reported last month that will play the female lead in the upcoming fourth installment of the Terminator series: Bloodgood lined up for "Terminator" sequel. Yes, they're making a fourth one. She'll be playing "a no-nonsense and battle-hardened member of the resistance who is carrying a lot of guilt over surviving the nuclear holocaust." Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins is set for a summer 2009 release from Warner Brothers.
Over the weekend, a terminally ill, mentally disabled man was shot and killed by Long Beach police during an altercation with officers: Anger follows fatal shooting by police in Long Beach. Roketi Su'e, 46, was killed on Saturday night as he was walking home from a birthday party. Officers say he was acting erratically and got in a physical altercation with an officer, while witnesses say Su'e was shot as he lay shirtless and unarmed on the sidewalk:
Two officers responded to the area Saturday night on reports of a man behaving erratically, according to Nancy Pratt of the Long Beach Police Department.
A struggle ensued when police tried to arrest the man, she said. Pratt said officers used a Taser on the man and struck him with batons, but he appeared unfazed, causing officers to think he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, she said.
When Su'e tried to take one of the batons away from the officers, they shot him multiple times in the upper torso, she said.
Family members say Su'e was unarmed, had a bipolar disorder, was dying of lung cancer, and had argued with his girlfriend, which is why he was upset. A witness said that officers shot the man six times. Six times!
The fatal shooting has angered a lot of people in the largely Samoan American enclave, and the community wants answers. Su'e's family says it plans to sue the Police Department: Long Beach man's family to sue police over his death.
Aw, dammit. Big bummer on Bravo's Top Chef tonight. Dale got eliminated. I was totally rooting for him, and thought he was one of the strongest chefs on the show, so I was pretty disappointed to see get the boot. In my opinion, he had the chops to make it to the final four, but bad decisions and poor planning got the best of him in the latest elimination challenge.
If you've been watching the show, you know that Dale has had the tendency to come off as cocky, unfriendly and abrasive. He made it pretty obvious from the beginning that he wasn't there to make friends. I actually respected for that—being a chef came first, he wasn't going to take any B.S., and he was going to let his food speak for itself. He's better than some of the remaining chefs, and I'm truly bummed to see him go. Check out video of his exit interview here.
Jessa Dela Cruz, a bus jockey for the Bay Area's AC Transit, is the three-time championship transit operator of North America, having just won his third title at the annual transit "roadeo" in Texas: Top bus driver followed a winding path. He beat out 75 operators from the United States and Canada for the title, maneuvering a 40-foot motor coach flawlessly through an obstacle course in 6 minutes and 33 seconds.
I didn't even know such a competition existed. The contest at the annual International Bus Roadeo, sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, tests an operator's ability to make tight turns driving forward and backward, stop quickly and smoothly, avoid obstacles and pull within a half-foot of the curb. I have been a passenger on many buses in my lifetime, and know for sure that most drivers would not do well in this contest.
For those of you in the Bay Area, Jessa drives the suburban No. 84 line from San Leandro and Hayward in the morning. In the afternoon, he drives the DB line, a cross-bay run between Union City and Palo Alto. If you ride any of these lines, rest assured that your bus is being operated by the best bus driver in North America.
Some details on Kang-Hyuk Choi, the 32-year-old man arrested for murdering three people in their New Jersey home in a dispute over money. The guy was apparently a regular at casinos and known for being an agressive, high-stakes gambler at the poker table, sometimes dropping $10,000 or $12,000 at a time. He also apparently never spoke a word: Suspect in Tenafly killings portrayed as high-stakes gambler. Kind of fitting that he was eventually caught in a casino.
Choi, escorted by detectives from Bergen County, arrived in New Jersey yesterday after an early morning flight from Los Angeles. Held without bail in the Bergen County Jail, he is due in court this afternoon to face three counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of Han Il Kim, 27; Yoo Bok Kim, 57; and Doo Soo Seo, 70.
The article suggests that it remains to be seen whether Choi's gambling has any connection to the dispute that led to the killings. Personally, I think anyone who gambled the way Choi did, and consistently losing and winning that kind of money, is probably headed for some kind of trouble. But triple murder? Dammmn.
UPDATE: Kang-Hyuk Choi pleaded not guilty in Superior Court this afternoon to charges that he murdered Han Il Kim, Yoo Bok Kim and Doo Soo Seo. However, prosecutors say that Choi admitted to the killings when interviewed by detectives after his arrest in Los Angeles three days ago: Accused murderer confessed, prosecutors say.
This is a great segment from NPR's Tell Me More, the first of a series of conversations on things you should "never say" to co-workers about their race, faith, sexual orientation or other elements of their identities. Here, DiversityInc. co-founder Luke Visconti executive Anna Mok discuss some things you should never say to Asian American colleagues in the workplace: Magazine Series: What Never to Say.
Here's the original article from DiversityInc: 7 Things NEVER to Say to Asian-American Executives. It's got the usual offenses, like "Where are you from? No, where are you really from?" and "Oh, you speak English good!" My personal favorite is "You don't act very Asian." I guess that's supposed to be a compliment?
Okay. I didn't watch a single episode of Dancing with the Stars this season. Despite its immense popularity, I've never really been into this show. But I've been hearing for months about how much Kristi Yamaguchi has been kicking some serious ass on the dance floor. Going into the competition, she was clearly the odds-on favorite, being a figure skater and all. My money was on her, and I didn't have to watch a single step to be sure of it.
Tonight, she won: Winner is crowned on 'Dancing With the Stars'. She walked into the finale with a perfect score (60) and left with that ugly-ass mirroball trophy. The former champion Olympic figure skater beat out pro football star Jason Taylor, and broke the string of four consecutive male winners on the show. She was the first woman to claim the Dancing crown since the show's opening season. Like I knew you would, Kristi.
Chicagooooooo! This one's for you. This weekend, do not miss Chicago Kollaboration 5, the annual talent show extravaganza. Come see up-and-coming artists from the community compete in band, dance, vocal, songriter and rap categories. It's like Star Search, only with a lot more yellow people. With special guest performers Far East Movement, and guest judges Michael Kang, Elle Pai Hong, Joshua Lee, Sung Yang and Alice Kim. It's all going down Saturday, May 24 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
Chicago Kollaboration will also be hosting a special drive sponsored by the National Marrow Donor Program on the same day, May 24, from noon to 10:30pm at the Center for Performing Arts. Come on out and get registered. You could save someone's life.
While I'm at it, let me throw a big, big shoutout to my man Paul "PK" Kim, founder and director of Kollaboration. This is the man that started it all. He's being honored this week by the K.W. Lee Center for Leadership in Los Angeles's 3rd Annual Banquest & Silent Auction. You're the man, PK.
In Seattle, the "Beacon Hill Groper" continues his reign of terror on local women... since 2006, this sicko has attacked nearly two dozen women in Beacon Hill and Rainer Valley. That's two years, and no one has been able to catch this guy. However, after the most recent attack, police say they might be just a little bit closer: Latest "groper" attack provides more clues.
The latest attack occurred on Saturday morning in the 7500 block of Renton Avenue South. Witnesses were able to provide sexual-assault-unit detectives with better descriptions of the assailant and the vehicle he was seen driving:
Witnesses to the attack around 10 a.m. Saturday told police they saw a man grope an Asian or Asian-American woman who was walking with a toddler. The woman screamed.
A witness tried to take photos of the man's car and license plate with a cellphone camera, but the suspect knocked the witness down and stole the phone, police said.
The man fled in the green 1994 Jeep Cherokee, according to police.
The man is described as black, about 5-foot-10, with light-colored shaving bumps on the left side of his face. Earlier descriptions were even more sketchy, and no one had previously provided a vehicle description.
Witnesses said the woman ran north with the child after she was attacked. Police have not yet spoken with her and hope that she comes forward.
I hope that woman comes forward. She might be able to provide even more details on the suspect, and help finally get this guy caught. According to police, this was the 23rd known attack on girls and women in the area since August 2006. None of the victims, who range from teenagers to 52, has been raped or critically injured in the attacks. Most were Asian or Asian American.
Police are asking that anyone with information about the suspect or the most recent attack call the department's sexual-assault unit at 206-684-5575.
I recently heard from DJ Phatrick, former DJ for Native Guns, as well as a host and producer of the Apex Express radio show on KPFA 94.1 FM in the Bay Area... He's compiled several of the API hip hop mixes that he made for the show into a mixtape, humbly titled ("for lack of a better name," he says) Asian American Hip Hop for Dummies. Well, I'm proud to say that I am a dummy, and this hip hop is for me.
Lots of great stuff there, with music from the likes of Lyrics Born, Far East Movement, Native Guns, The Pacifics, Blue Scholars, Jupitersciples and more. The mixtape is available for purchase directly from DJ Phatrick's MySpace or in person at any of his upcoming gigs. Just $9.99 including shipping and handling. If people dig it, hopefully it'll be the first of many such mixes. To learn more, go here.
Bruce Lee is coming to Broadway. I remember hearing about the Bruce Lee musical in the works when it was first announced several years ago, and then wondered what had happened to it. Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, a musical telling the story of Bruce Lee's success, will be hitting the Broadway stage in 2010 or 2011: Bruce Lee, Nelson Mandela coming to Broadway. I am so there. It'll be directed by Bartlett Sher, with music by David Yazbek, and book by David Henry Hwang:
The Bruce Lee production will track the kung fu superstar's journey using figures from Chinese mythology to follow his quest and The Monkey King, a warrior god, who becomes his heavenly ally, according to a statement from the production's publicists.
Lee, who died in Hong Kong in 1973, was beloved by fans for martial arts movies like "Enter the Dragon" and "Fists of Fury." At least four documentaries have been produced about his life. He was born in San Francisco in 1940, grew up in Hong Kong and became a kung fu whiz kid by the age of 10.
The show will include martial arts, Chinese opera, modern dance and pop music as Lee struggles to master his skills, purify his spirit and forge a link to unite East and West, the statement said. The lead actor has yet to be chosen.
It will be directed by Bartlett Sher, who directed the current Broadway revival of "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center, and will be produced by Elephant Eye Theatrical.
More details here: Sher Will Direct Bruce Lee Musical, by Yazbek and Hwang, for Broadway. Sounds crazy, but I love it. Let it be known, that aside from Flower Drum Song, I'm generally not a big fan of musicals. However, a musical about Bruce Lee, I will see. Sign me up. Hell, I will watch this thing on opening night. No word yet on who will play the title role... it just better not be a white guy.
I wasn't able to make it to the National Presidential Town Hall this past weekend at UC Irvine. Everybody was there, apparently. Even Kaba Modern! I heard it was interesting event, with Asian Pacific Americans coming out in full force to show they we are, indeed, a political power in this race to be reckoned with.
Too bad the candidates don't quite think so. At least, not enough to carve to out time in their schedules to show up to the event. John "I Hate Gooks" McCain was too busy appearing on Saturday Night Live. Granted, the candidates had representation at the event on their behalf. Hillary Clinton delivered a canned video address. And Barack Obama participated by phone and even took questions. But still, their lack of real presence at the event... it stings a little, doesn't it? How about a little love?
I think Beau Sia's performance at the Town Hall (video above), addressing the candidates, hits the nail on the head. Beau is my hero. And this blog entry by Jeff Chang, once again, is completely on point: The Candidates Have An Asian American Problem.
EDIT: I've been informed by an individual who works for the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs that the House will not be voting on S. 1315 tomorrow. It's not on the floor schedule for the week. So the timing of the message below is off. However, that doesn't mean that you still can't write in to your representative in support of this bill. The voting isn't scheduled yet, but the information still applies.
...
Fellow Americans, it is time to act. For the first time ever, the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill has passed Committee levels of both Houses and has passed the U.S. Senate. The House will soon act on S.1315. I got the following information from my friends at Fallout Central:
Dear Friends:
This is an appeal on behalf of our surviving Filipino WWII veterans. Out of the more than 400,000 listed after WWII, only about 20,000 remain. Time is of the essence as they are in their mid-80s and their numbers are dwindling. In a few years they will all be gone. For the first time ever, the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill has passed Committee levels of both Houses and has passed the US Senate. The House will act on S1315 TOMORROW, May 21.
S.1315 was passed by the U.S. Senate on April 24, and it contains a range of benefits for U.S. veterans, as well as benefits for our surviving Filipino WWII veterans. We must all ask Speaker Pelosi to move S.1315 towards approval and we should contact our U.S. Representatives to support the House version of S.1315 and to ensure that the benefits to Filipino WWII veterans are not amended or removed.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NEXT:
1. CALL SPEAKER PELOSI NOW!! The contact phone is 202-225-0100. Or email her directly here: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/. Tell her: I AM [your name], A VOTER FROM [your home state]. I ASK THAT YOU LEAD THE HOUSE TO PASS S.1315, THE VETERANS' BENEFITS ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007, AND DO NOT AMEND OR REMOVE THE BENEFITS IN IT FOR THE FILIPINO WWII VETERANS.
2. CALL ON YOUR US REPRESENTATIVES, OR TELEPHONE, FAX, OR EMAIL THEM, NOW!! The contact information for your Congressman is on http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/dbq/officials/. Or email your message using the process below. Tell them: I AM [your name], A VOTER FROM [your hometown/city], [your home state]. I ASK THAT YOU SUPPORT S.1315 AND DO NOT AMEND/REMOVE THE BENEFITS FOR THE FILIPINO WWII VETERANS.
I just sent an email to my representative by following along with the very SIMPLE steps below. You should do the same NOW. Do each step as you read it now:
1. Open your web browser and go to http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/dbq/officials/ 2. Enter your zip code and click on GO. You will go to a new page with the list of your elected officials. 3. On the bottom of the leftmost column, click on the name of your U.S. Representative. 4. You will go to a new page with your Representative's photo and contact information. Click on SEND MESSAGE in blue under the photo. 5. You will go to a new page where you will type in and send your message. 6. In the subject box, enter: SUPPORT S1315 AND DO NOT AMEND FILIPINO VETERANS BENEFITS. 7. Click on the arrow on the Issue Area and select VETERANS AFFAIRS at the very end of the list 8. In the message box, enter: I AM A VOTER FROM [your home town/city], [your home state]. I ASK THAT YOU SUPPORT S.1315 AND DO NOT AMEND THE BENEFITS IN IT FOR FILIPINO WW2 VETERANS. 9. Type in your name in the Name box. 10. Complete Part 2 with your contact information. This is important. It will show to the US Representative that you are indeed from his voting district. 11. Make sure the REMEMBER ME box is checked. 12. Click the SEND MESSAGE in blue in the bottom. You will get an acknowledgement page that your message has been sent. 13. When you have sent your message, help each of your family and friends of voting age to do the same thing. 14. Add the web page to your list of FAVORITES so you can use it for follow-up messages later. 15. That is it. If you haven't been following along, go back to step 1, and DO IT RIGHT NOW!
(This is an adaptation of the NaFFAA call to action email.)
There you have it. Simply, step-by-step instructions on how you can help the Filipino Veterans Act get passed, and ensure that surviving Filipino World War II veterans finally receive the recognition and benefits they deserve—benefits that should've always been theirs in the first place.
Here's a great profile on long-time social justice activist Yuri Kochiyama, who turns 87 years old today: Oakland activist keeps spirit of revolution strong. She's definitely one of my heroes, a true inspiration in the fight for justice and fairness for all. What an amazing woman.
Today also happens to be Malcolm X's birthday, and for many, Kochiyama might be most well-known as the woman who cradled Malcolm X in her lap after he was shot, on February 21, 1965, during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Malcolm X's message had a profound impact on her own activist ideology, one of self-determination for all people, and her involvement in African American struggles helped lay the groundwork for the Asian American movement in the late '60s.
Without a doubt, she's a real pioneer. But what amazes me most is that at age 87, she's still going strong, active as ever in social justice causes and passing that fire along to younger generations. Much respect.
Ack. Last week, a New Orleans businessman pleaded guilty to espionage, admitting that he gave the Chinese government highly sensitive military information he obatined from a former Defense Department official: Man Gave Military Secrets To China.
Tai Shen Kuo said in court papers that gave the official gifts, cash and dinners to secure classified projections of U.S. military sales to Taiwan. He was paid $50,000 to pass the materials to his Chinese contact through e-mails and telephone calls to Beijing.
Kuo pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced August 8. Daaaamn! That'll teach you not to spy.
I mentioned this story a few weeks back, about a special ceremony at the University of Washington to honor Japanese Americans who had to leave the university in 1942 to relocate to internment camps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Over the weekend, more than sixty years later, those former students finally got to graduate: Former Japanese-American students graduate UW after a 66-year wait.
On Sunday, about 200 former UW students—most now in their 80s—or their family members accepted honorary diplomas. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, a former internee himself, was on hand to deliver the keynote address. I'm sure for a lot of folks, it was about damn time. Congratulations to the class of 2008, finally.
Over the weekend, hot on the heels of California's new gay marriage ruling, George Takei announced that he and long-time partner Brad Altman will get married this summer: 'STAR TREK'S SULU GAY MARRIAGE. Boldly going where no two men (legally, in California) have gone before.
Takei first came out a few years back in order to draw attention and speak out against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a same-sex marriage law. Looks like he finally got what he was fighting for. View the announcement on his website here.
In other George Takei news, check him out in the trailer for the indie action comedy Ninja Cheerleaders. Yes, you read that right. It looks like he plays the sensei to the ninja cheerleaders in question. Oh my.
For all my friends in Bay Area, here's something fun to do this Thursday night... help the Center for Asian American Media celebrate APA Heritage Month with Flashing Lights. Music, drinks, friends. What more do you need on a Thursday night? CAAM and Poleng Lounge proudly present the latest installment of the Social Club at Poleng Lounge in San Francisco:
Thursday, May 22, 2008 10PM-2AM, Poleng Lounge 1751 Fulton Street @ Masonic San Francisco, CA 21+ | $10 General Admission
CAAM Members get in free and get access to the CAAM VIP area. RSVP to rsvp@asianamericanmedia.org to get on the CAAM guest list. Should be a really cool party. For more information, go to CAAM website here.
Aw yeah, he's back! It's time for another edition of Bao Phi's Ideas for Racist Hollywood, in which the poet/writer offers a fake movie pitch, so bad it could actually be true. This one, "Immortal Kickboxer," was written in honor of Jet Li/Jackie Chan's The Forbidden Kingdom, with yet another jab at 21, and some Iron Man kicked in for good measure. Check it:
BAO PHI'S IDEAS FOR RACIST HOLLYWOOD 5: IMMORTAL KICKBOXER
Tagline: When you know your fate, high kick. When you don't... high kick anyway.
THE PITCH: Spencer Whidmore is just your average middle-class white Blockbuster clerk with an affinity for anime, Johnny To films, and pad thai from that greasy spoon around the block. But when a mysterious stranger returns a damaged copy of Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak late and forgets to pay the $1.50 re-stocking fee, Spencer chases him down the block, tugs on his shoulder… and is knocked out when the stranger (cameo by Chuck Norris) mistakes him for a mugger and spin-kicks him in the head.
Spencer wakes up to find that he has magically been transported back in time to Thailand, where a cruel warlord named Jo Jafar is oppressing the good, hardworking, pious, humble, communal, defenseless Thai peasants in the kingdom. Spencer is shocked to learn that, at this point in time in Thailand's history, kickboxing has not yet been invented--but the Thai shamans and holy men whisper of a prophecy: a savior will come deliver the good people of Thailand from their oppressors and teach them the martial arts. Conveniently, an emasculinated Asian male buddy named Toofo befriends Spencer for no reason--and as they are cornered in the jungle by Thai ruffians, in a flurry of martial arts mayhem Spencer discovers that HE is the storied hero that the Thai people have been waiting for, that he is the great teacher who brought Thai kickboxing to the Thai people: he is no longer Spencer Whidmore, he is the IMMORTAL KICKBOXER. At first, Spencer revels in his new and wholly un-earned skill in kickboxing, showing off for the locals and enjoying his white saviour celebrity status. But then, when his emasculinated sidekick Toofo returns home to his village without Spencer and is killed in an ambush by thugs, Spencer throws his arms to the heavens over the body of his humble brown friend and screams "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" He has paid a terrible price to learn that brown men must die so that great white men can learn responsibility.
ABOUT THE FILM: The producer of the film claims that there were no qualified Asian actors to be in this film, so they picked a random white guy with no experience for the role and asked Josh Whedon to write in the time traveling plot. When asked about whether or not people would be offended by the issue of appropriation, the producer replied, "well, my best friend is Thai and he took some kickboxing lessons, and he loved the idea and says race is not an issue, so I don't think anyone will have a problem with it."
Ah, once again, why must the Asian man die in order for the white hero to grow a conscience and embrace his destiny? Poor Toofu.
By the way, if you're in Minnesota, you should check out Bao Phi in a new play called Q & A, running three weekends, May 22 through June 8 at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Bao's been busting his ass off to help put this thing together, and it sounds like a really cool, groundbreaking, provocative piece of local Asian American theater. Here's a description of the production:
Q & A by Juliana Hu Pegues Mixed Blood Theater Directed by David Mura
Three Asian Americans: a wanna-be rapper, a pothead, and an intellectual are thrown into a world of speed dating and interrogations. Known only by their numbers, 187, 1/2, and 9066 must answer questions about their racial and sexual identity, moving from the current moment to a future world where government repression spawns an underground resistance. In an unsure time and place where each is suspect, they will have to ask what they are ultimately guilty of, and choose or betray an alliance. Q & A is a funny, fanciful, and frightening journey into the heart of who we are and how we define ourselves in America.
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sunday at 2:00 pm, May 22-June 8 (Previews on May 20 and 21). For more information on Q & A, go here. Also head over to Bao's website to read an impassioned plea where he gives numerous reasons why you should go see Q & A. Good times.
Some photos from the upcoming Dragonball movie surfaced on the internet last week, and I'm sure it's got a lot of fans pissed off: New Dragonball Photos Online. It's a scan from the Japanese magazine Weekly Young Jump.
I think many people have always had it in their minds that the characters were Asian, being a Japanese cartoon and all. (Turns out, they're actually aliens—but that's a long story.) So I heard from a lot of people who were upset when it was announced last fall that many of the movie's characters would be played by white actors—including Justin Chatwin as the hero Goku. I've never been a big fan of the original series, so I haven't been exactly following the Dragonball news very closely... but you've got to admit, something about this photo is kind of ridiculous. The Asian characters on his t-shirt are a nice touch though.
Written and directed by James Wong, and produced by Stephen Chow, the big screen adaptation also stars James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson. It opens on April 10, 2009. I'm not getting my hopes up.
Gruesome. Three people were found dead in a New Jersey house last week, all of them stabbed multiple times, with their bodies decomposing after sitting in the house for about a week: Several Found Dead in New Jersey House.
The victims, who were not identified, included an older man and a woman, and a younger man, perhaps in his 20s. It's all very mysterious. No murder weapons was found, and the house didn't appear to have been ransacked. According to the Bergen County prosecutor, "We do not believe this to be a random homicide."
The bodies were discovered on Friday afternoon. The daughter of the older man, unable to reach her father, sent a relative to the house to investigate. The relative came in through an open back door, found a body, left and called the police.
While authorities have not identified the victims, property records indicate that the house was bought by Yoo Bok Kim in May 2007. Neighbors said they believed the residents were Korean. More news on this case as it develops...
Slant Volume 1 is a collection of short films culled from seven years of Aurora Picture Show's annual Slant: Bold Asian American Images festival, which showcases the best in emerging Asian American cinema. Distributed through Microcinema International, the DVD features some of the coolest, most creative and provocative works I've seen throughout the years, including:
1. How to do the Asian Squat by Daniel Hsia 2. Lilo and Me by Kip Fulbeck 3. Maritess vs the Superfriends by Dino Ignacio 4. A Little Bit Different by Lynn Okimura 5. Profiles in Science by Wes Kim 6. I Pie (A Love Store) by Nobu Adilman 7. How to Make Kimchi According to My Kun-Uma by Samuel Kiehoon Lee 8. Slip of the Tongue by Karen Lum
You may have seen some of the pieces on the internet somewhere. That's cool. I think this is a must-have disc for any Asian American cinephile's collection. The DVD is available at Amazon.com and the usual online retailers. For more information on Slant Volume 1, go here, view the trailer here, visit the MySpace page here, and the Facebook video here.
I love short films. Through my involvement with various Asian American film festivals, I get to see a lot of short films, and I always try to encourage people to check out a short program or two. It's opportunity to uncover some real cinematic gems, and a great place to check out the work of talented, up-and-coming filmmakers. Unfortunately, after most short films work their way through the film festival circuit, they've got nowhere else to go, and they end up a distant memory on somebody's resume. That's why it's so cool to see a compilation like Slant. The short films live on! To be enjoyed and consumed by future audiences everywhere...
And for those of you in Houston, be sure to check out SLANT 8: Bold Asian American Images, happening later this month, May 30-June 1 at the Aurora Picture Show. Learn more about it here and go the Facebook page here.
A couple of weeks back, the Chicago Tribune reported on a racist bootleg "Horry Cow" Chicago Cubs t-shirt design being sold around Wrigley Field, referring to Japanese player Kosuke Fukudome. Cubs officials quickly responded, ordering vendors who sell Major League Baseball merchandise around the park to stop selling the shirts, and getting the company that manufactured the shirts to agree to stop making them.
However, it seems that a large number of the shirts still exist, and the ban hasn't stopped vendors with city licenses to stop selling them: Cubs can't stop all sales of offensive Kosuke Fukudome T-shirt. It seems that a lot of invididuals selling (and wearing) the shirts have adopted the "not hurting anyone" mentality, despite the fact that Fukudome himself has called the shirts offensive.
Unfortunately, while the Cubs forced many souvenir stands to remove the shirts last month, the team has no say over the street vendors, as long as they aren't selling the shirts on club property. You had to figure this was going to happen. Once the damn things became "outlawed," demand for them probably skyrocketed. Ignorance runs rampant on the streets of Wrigleyville. That's racist!
Today at UC Berkeley, protesters picketed the Boalt Hall graduation, demanding that the law school fire Professor John Yoo (boooo!) for his reported authorship of the Bush administration's policies on torture: Protests at UC Berkeley law school graduation. Yoo was not at the graduation ceremony.
Yoo, a tenured constitutional law professor at Boalt, took a leave of absence from 2001 to 2003 to work for the U.S. Department of Justice. During that time, he wrote what critics call the "torture memos," which protesters say outlined the legal basis for the use of torture at the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay military prisons.
The protesters staged a rather elaborate display to make their point, wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods, emulating the infamous photos of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Two protesters knelt in a cage meant to resemble a prison cell, with another dressed in camouflage fatigues and holding a cardboard rifle, standing guard.
They did not, however, disrupt the actual graduation ceremony. According to the article, "Once the graduation ceremonies started, at 9 a.m., the faux prisoners left their cage and went for coffee." That's good to know.
This applies to my Korean American brothers and sisters out there... The USC School of Social Work's Center for Asian Pacific Leadership is currently asking folks to participate in the Korean American National Survey, the first large-scale and comprehensive survey of the Korean American community across the nation. Their goal is collect 10,000 surveys by the end of the month. Here's the official blurb I received from my man, soul brother Je Hoon Lee, Ph. D:
We ask for your assistance in participating and distributing the Korean American National Survey. The online and Korean language media outlet campaign officially launched May 1, 2008 and runs until the end of the month. The goal of the Korean American National Survey (KANS 2008) is to create the first and largest-scale comprehensive portrait of the Korean-American community across the nation with approximately 10,000 respondents!
The survey is completely bilingual and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and covers the following areas 1) Demographics, 2) Economic Activity and Employment, 3) Culture and Identity, 4) Family, Health, and Social Welfare, and 5) Religion and Politics. The resulting database of information will be the largest-ever for Korean Americans and will be made available as open source, impacting scholars, community leaders, non-profit agencies as well as U.S. and Korean government agencies trying to better understand and serve Korean Americans.
Korean-Americans have traditionally been UNDER-counted through traditional survey methods, including the comprehensive US National Census. Having a large-scale database for our community, such as this, will go a long way towards increasing our community?s power to advocate for more federal and state services as well as corporate marketing dollars!
Please assist us by reaching out to your networks and organizations in distributing and encouraging participation in this survey! We can also provide a special "group code" for organizations/groups/churches etc. anyone who has a large enough membership base that they would like to understand better through a completely confidential comprehensive survey. At the end of the research analysis period, we would be able to provide you with information about your group versus the national norms for Korean-Americans.
To encourage participation we have prepared some raffle prizes. One must complete the survey to be eligible and prizes include:
- 2 Free Roundtrip Tickets to Seoul, Korea (1st prize - 1 winner)
- 1 Big Screen Television (2nd prize - 1 winner)
- 1 iPod (3rd prize - 5 winners)
The most easily distributed format will be online but we are more than happy to provide hard copies to those who request them. Please be reminded that 2nd generation and younger Korean Americans are often underrepresented in these types of studies. We hope that the bilingual online format will make it easy for more of you to participate!!
Thank you again for your assistance and let us know if you have any questions. Please contact us for a group code for your organization, if you?re interested!
Je Hoon Lee, Ph. D. Research Associate Professor and Director Center for Asian Pacific Leadership School of Social Work University of Southern California
As it notes, they're particularly looking for participation from second generation and younger Korean Americans, who are often underrepresented in these types of studies. To take part, just follow the link to the survey here. The information the Center gathers will be very valuable and informative, so consider taking some time out to participate.
If you live in the Bay Area, you might be feeling the effects of some extremely hot weather this weekend. So why not cool down with some refreshing frozen yogurt? Better yet, some refreshing frozen yogurt served up by none other than Survivor: Cook Islands winner Yul Kwon? Yes, that's right. My hero served me some yogurt.
Yul—the man, the myth, the legend—just opened up a new Red Mango store in downtown Palo Alto (the first such location in Northern California), serving up tasty frozen yogurt with your favorite toppings. A nice way to hang out on an unusually warm May day. The store officially opened up to the public today, and is located on 429 University Avenue, between Kipling and Waverly. You know you want it.
Calling all APA filmmakers! Check it. Here's some film festival submission information for you and your films... the Japanese American National Museum is now accepting film and video submissions for its first annual ID Film Fest, a new film series dedicated to the theme of identity crisis in the pan-Asia and Asian American communities. Scheduled for September 25-28, the festival will showcase both shorts and features to be screened digitally in the Democracy Forum. For more information on the festival and how to submit your film, go here. The submission deadline is July 1.
I mentioned this before, but it's worth a reminder... the very first annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival is happening this fall, October 24-30 at The Bridge: Cinema de Lux. You have a chance to be a part of history, by submitting your film to the Philadelphia's inaugural Asian American film festival (why should Pittsburgh have all the fun?), so get those entries in! For more information, visit the festival website here.
My friends over at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival implore me to remind you that they're currently accepting submissions for their 12th annual festival, happening in November. Whether it's "obscure experimental works, complex political rants, ironic chop-socky kung fu flicks, deconstructionist mockumentaries, or minimalist GenerAsian-X slacker dramas," they're interested in seenig it, as long as it's "brilliant, creative, weird, or just plain entertaining." The early deadling has passed, but the final deadline is June 16. For more information, go here.
But let us not forget the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Canada's oldest festival dedicatd to exhibiting films and videos by North American artists of Asian heritage, also happening this November. The final deadline is coming up quick—May 31, postmarked, no exceptions. So better get your ass in gear. For more information, including submission guidelines, visit the festival website here.
And heck, while I'm at it, I'll add that you can still make the late submission deadlines for the 9th Annual DC APA Film Festival (May 31) and the 9th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival (June 13). Maybe we'll get to see your film on the big screen. But you'll never know if you don't submit.
She was apparently a popular, well-liked figure in the area, and when her shop remained unopened on Friday morning, neighbors became suspicious that something was wrong. Her body was discovered by a neighbor in the rear bathroom of the store.
UPDATE: A 22-year-old man was arrested Sunday and charged with killing Kyung-Sook Woo, who was found strangled to death in her dry cleaning store: Arrest in Slaying of Shopkeeper. The suspect, Jamal Winter, was arrested at his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and charged with murder and robbery. More here: Arrest in Brooklyn dry clean slay
Who knew sumo wrestlers could be so sexy? This made me laugh. A lot. I guess it's like Dave Chappelle says, everything is always cooler in slow motion.
For those of you who can't make it out to Irvine for this weekend's historic National Presidential Town Hall, but still want to see how it all goes down, the event will be streamed live on the internet to 15 sites around the coutnry, and will also be made available for viewing through APIAVote's media partners, IMDiversity and Punjabi Community Hour Inc. The Presidential Town Hall, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm PST, will be shown at local venues live in the following cities:
Berkeley, CA Boston, MA Chicago, IL Columbus, OH Denver, CO Detroit, MI Houston, TX Miami, FL Minneapolis, MN Philadelphia, PA Portland, OR Reno, NV Santa Barbara, CA Seattle, WA Washington, DC
For information on specific locations, go here. It will also be made available for live-streaming for individual viewing at the Asian American Village at IMDiversity.com and Punjabi Community Hour Inc. at PassionForTruth.com. For those of you lucky enough to attend the event, have fun.
As I Am: Asians in America is a new Asian American radio pilot produced by the Institute for Asian American Studies in collaboration with WUMB Public Radio in Boston. It's an hour-long program hosted by author-activist Helen Zia that examines the American experience—present, past and future—with an Asian American lens, covering politics, arts, popular culture, history and profiles of people in the community.
The pilot is launching this month, broadcasting on select radio stations nationwide, including KQED in the Bay Area (May 29 & 30), WUMB in Boston (May 18), and WNIJ in Northern Illinois (May 18), as well as a growing list of stations. The pilot is also available for download on the As I Am website.
I've listened to the the pilot episode, and it's great effort—an important program not only for APA Heritage Month, but something I'd like to tune in for year-round. If the show isn't broadcasting in your area, why not get in touch with your local public radio station and suggest that they carry As I Am? And if you're lucky enough to have local station carrying the program, why not write in with a letter of support? I couldn't hurt, and it would help getting this program out there even further.
Goodness. The teaser trailer for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has hit the web. And whoooo. It looks like a doozy. The movie brings back Brendan Fraser as the hero, this time unlocking mystical ancient Chinese secrets and saving the world from an evil Jet Li. Yes, that Jet Li, presumably playing the titular Dragon Emperor.
In the trailer, there appears to be a giant army of Terracotta warriors that have come to life. From what I can tell, Michelle Yeoh then resurrects another giant army from under the Great Wall to fight the first army. Madness! And did I just see a fire-breathing three-headed dragon? I'm sure it will all boil down to Brendan Fraser fighting Jet Li, one-on-one, Chinese gung-fu versus good ol' American brawn.
Conveniently, with the Olympics just around the corner, interest in China is arguably at an all-time high. This giant cinematic disaster-in-the-making is brought to by director Rob Cohen, the guy responsible for The Fast and the Furious, xXx and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Hooray. Looks like it's gonna be another awesome summer. The movie opens in theaters August 1st.
For you readers in New York, here's an interesting event happening next week presented by A3 - The Asian American Association of Time Inc. and the New York chapter of the Asian American Journalists Assocation: American Pop with a Twist: Asian Americans in - and on - American Popular Culture. It's a book signing for Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, then a panel discussion on Asian/Asian American pop culture, featuring a bunch of notable personalities who might know a thing or two on the topic. Here are the details:
American Pop with a Twist: Asian Americans in - and on - American Popular Culture
Monday, May 19, 2008
5:30pm to 6:00pm - Book Signing of the new NYT Best-Seller, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles"
6:00pm to 7:00pm - Panel Discussion, 7:00-7:30 - Q&A
2nd Floor Conference Center, Room 1, Time & Life Building (50th St & 6th Ave, NYC)
Event is FREE
Culture exported from Asia has long been a mainstay of American popular culture (everything from yoga to anime) but a new breed of Asian American tastemakers are appropriating "traditional" Asian ideas and icons and reinventing them for mass market consumption. This panel, moderated by FORTUNE writer and Gen-Y authority Nadira Hira, will explore the way Asians and Asian Americans are shaping mainstream popular culture, and turning it on its head, to the delight of a new, multicultural generation. Panelists are:
Pun Bandhu is an actor and Tony Award winning Broadway producer of Spring Awakening and Glengarry Glen Ross.
Sharad Devajaran is co-founder, CEO and publisher of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, a set of companies he founded with Sir Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
Jennifer 8 Lee is a New York Times reporter and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
N. Rain Noe is the Executive Editor of Theme Magazine and a NYC based multicreative.
Kate Rigg is an award-winning performer, playwright, and part of the urban Asian hip-hop duo Slanty Eyed Mama.
Jeff Yang is the "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, author, and business/media consultant for Iconoculture, Inc.
*Free giveaways during event.
*Copies of Fortune Cookie Chronicles will be available for sale.
Please RSVP to A3_mail@timeinc.com with the Subject: "A3 Pop Culture Panel” and include your full name. Please note that Photo ID is required to enter the T&L building.
That's happening on Monday night. I was initially invited to participate in the event, but wasn't able to commit due to scheduling issues. But the people involved are all really cool, interesting folks whose work I am a fan of. It should be a really cool, informative event. (Thanks, Terrence.)
Check out the music video for Scott Tang's "Sublingual." It's directed by Karen Lin, who did the videos for Kelly Tsai's Bystanding and Seriously's Irony. This one's completely different, but still a beautifully shot piece, with some attractive people, telling a romantic trip through time.
For folks curious about the video's location, it was shot at the historic Chop Suey restaurant in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo. Look for an appearance by my buddy Vince, playing a shady businessman-type character (wearing glasses). Watch the video here, or watch the super hi-res version over at Scott's website.
In Gardena, California, a $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the conviction of two men who fatally shot 51-year-old Hae Sook Roh while robbing her t-shirt shop: Reward offered in slaying of Gardena shop owner. Store surveillance video shows the robbers entering the store, speaking with Roh and then opening fire with a handgun, shooting her at least three times. There's video of the robbery here. It's pretty disturbing.
Roh, a mother of two, had lived in the area for at least 15 years and owned the store for five years. Shot three times in the torso, she died Monday night at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Investigators said the gunman who shot Roh was in his 20s and covered his face with a bandanna. He wore shorts, a black jacket and white T-shirt. The man with him was about 20 and was wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. Anyone with information on the case can call the sheriff's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
Check this out... you could be in the next Transformers movie. Yes, Michael Bay and Co. are currently working on the sequel. It looks like they'll be filming in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania area next month, and they're looking for Asian men and women, boys and girls, ages 7-65, for a scene set in a fictional Chinese city. Here are the details:
TRANSFORMERS 2
Posted on May 14, 2008
Heery Casting is looking for Asian talent for the new DreamWorks feature film, Transformers 2, directed by Michael Bay.
Needed are Asian men and women, boys and girls, ages 7-65, for a scene set in a fictional Chinese city. Shooting will take place in the Bethlehem PA area in the beginning of June 2008.
No acting experience necessary; both SAG and non-union talent will be considered. All roles are paid positions.
In addition to civilian people, we are also looking for any Asian talent with a military background.
If interested and available, please e-mail a picture to Tr2bethlehem@gmail.com. Be sure to include all contact information, union status (if any) and state military experience, if any.
NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.
Contact Details Heery Casting 263. N. Lawrence St Phila, Pennsylvania 19106 www.heerycasting.com tr2bethlehem@gmail.com
Looks like we'll be seeing some Decepticons terrorizing a Chinese village or something. Though I'm betting it's unlikely they'll have any substantial Asian characters. It'll probably be pretty lame, but I'm still curious about it. If anybody out there ends up getting cast as an extra on this set, let me know how it goes, and share any interesting details you can pass along (you can remain anonymous).
UPDATE: Of course, you can't put a casting call out there like this without some idiot making ignorant-ass comments, like on this site, where a contributor wrote, "Round-eyes need not apply!" and "If you switch your R's and L's when speaking, you can be in the next Transformers movie." Tired, and completely unnecessary. That's racist!
Tomorrow night, I'll be hanging out with the cool students at Stanford, giving a talk on Asian images in the media, this website, and all sorts of other fun stuff. Thursday, May 15, 5:30-7:30pm at A3C Ballroom. I'm told there will be free Thai food for dinner.
Based on the flyer above, I guess I'll primarily be talking about pop culture-related stuff. Should be pretty fun. I am a little confused, however, with the Secret Asian Man logo prominently featured in the flyer. I hope people don't show up expecting to meet cartoonist Tak Toyoshima. I mean, he's a cool guy... but I'm not him.
Anyway, for more information on the event, visit the Facebook event page. If you're at or around Stanford, please stop by, take part, say hello. See you there.
Hmong Hip-Hop Heritage: The New York Times has a really interesting video segment on Hmong American history/culture and Tou Saiko Lee, a Hmong American rapper out of Minnesota who shares and keeps his heritage alive through a mix of hip hop and ancient traditions.
Gen. Vang Pao's Last War: Half a century ago, Vang Pao led the Hmong to help the United States battle Communism in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Last the year, the Justice Department indicted him as a terrorist, accusing him of plotting to overthrow the Communist government of Laos. So what happened?
Stories to Explore Someone Else's Skin: Nam Le's debut book of stories The Boat, just released this week, has been receiving an extraordinary level of praise usually reserved for far more accomplished writers, including from highly influential New York Times book critick Michiko Kakutani.
Singer Minh Tuyet dreams big in Little Saigon: Minh Tuyet and her sister once were among the thousands of Vietnamese singers who arrive in Little Saigon in Westminster every year in search of fame and fortune. Now, she's among the top-selling artists on the thriving Vietnamese music scene.
In Custody, In Pain: Yong Sun Harvill has been struggling to obtain care for a long list of medical problems... all while fighting deportation and in the custody of in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
Kim named to head DONE: Last week in Los Angeles, the mayor named BongHwan Kim General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, making him the first Korean American GM in the city's history. He'll be in charge of improving the workings of the city's system of neighborhood councils.
Dice-K 2.0: ESPN.com has a cool feature story on 21-year-old Japanese phenom pitcher Yu Darvish of the Nippon Ham Fighters, a talented, extraordinarily popular player and a very likely candidate to eventually make his way over to the States to play for the Major Leagues. The question is not if, but when.
Kosuke Fukudome Tastes Good: Sports Illustrated recently ran a cover story on this year's big Japanese baseball import, Kosuke Fukudome, who has quickly won the hearts of Chicago Cubs fans—many of whom are hoping he'll help finally break the team's 100 years without a championship.
I saw a lot of films at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival last week, but the one that sticks out, and was easily my favorite of the entire festival, is Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze. It's absolutely brilliant. It's an amazing documentary about the lives and landscapes irrevocably transformed by China's Three Gorges Dam project—a controversial symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. Beautifully shot with an amazing eye for real human drama, it's a stunning portrait of life inside modern China. I was completely sucked in.
I know, I know. A documentary about a river cruise? A hydroelectric dam? It sounds like something they'd make you watch in social studies class. Forget that. It's a fantastic, moving, disquieting story set against the backdrop of the world's largest megadam. Up the Yangtze follows Yu Shui ("Cindy"), who must leave her peasant family on the banks of the River to work aboard a "Farewell Cruise," a weird floating tourist trap servicing Westerners and offering a final morbid glimpse of this world before it disappears forever.
Here's a good indieWIRE interview with the director: "Up the Yangtze" Director Yung Chang. Since its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival last fall, Up the Yangtze has screened at numerous film festivals throughout North America, including Sundance, and received a great deal of critical praise. I'm telling you, I can't recommend it enough.
The film is currently playing at the IFC Center in New York, but will only be there through Thursday, May 15. According to this box office report, it apparently did really well over weekend, earning an impressive $15,851, surpassing the per-screen averages of Planet B-Boy and Young@Heart to become the leading documentary debut for 2008.
In Southern California, the movie opens this Friday, May 16 at theaters in Los Angeles, Encino, Pasadena and Santa Ana. Then it'll continue its theatrical run in U.S. cities throughout the summer. For the full release schedule, visit the Zeitgeist Films website here. To learn more about Up the Yangtze, go here.
I do not know what Yo Gabba Gabba is. Frankly, I don't care. All I know is, this kid Nathaniel is a badass on the dance floor, and he needs to be seen by as many people as possible. Get down, Nathaniel.
Some follow-up on the "nippertipping" incidents that were reportedly happening to Asians up in Canada last year... In small towns around Ontario last summer, there were multiple cases of assault, mischief and theft against mostly Asian Canadian fisherman.
The local youth apparently call it "nippertipping," when they drive around in the middle of the night looking for cars parked near the water, then creep up behind fishermen and show them into the lake. The local police, however, kept insisting that the assaults weren't racially motivated. The local police are also idiots.
This week, the Ontario Human Rights Commission confirmed that those attacks were indeed motivated by racism: Asian fishers targeted by racism, report says. Yeah, I didn't really need a commission to tell me that. Their findings, however, are pretty interesting.
For my people in Philadelphia, mark your calendars... Asian Pacific Americans for Progress and the Democratic National Committee will present its joint Activist Training and Mid-Atlantic Summit on Saturday, May 31st at the U. Penn Law School in Philadelphia. The training will be led by Parag Mehta, Director of Training at the Democratic National Committee; Betsy Kim, Deputy Director, American Majority Partnership; and APA politicians from the region, talking about all sorts of interesting activist type stuff. Here are the details:
Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APAP) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) invite you to our joint Activist Training and Mid-Atlantic Summit on Saturday, May 31st at the UPenn Law School in Philadelphia, PA.
Join Asian Pacific American Democrats and allies from throughout the Mid-Atlantic as we engage in a training led by Parag Mehta, Director of Training at the Democratic National Committee; Betsy Kim, Deputy Director, American Majority Partnership; and APA politicians from the region.
To register, go to: http://apaforprogress.org/wordpress/?p=145
Who: Activists, student leaders, community leaders, volunteers What: Learn the basic tools of political organizing including volunteer recruitment, networking, planning events, targeting, phonebanking and other useful campaign skills.
When: Saturday, May 31, 2008 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Networking and Registration 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Training 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM - Reception/Social with special guests and elected officials
Where: UPenn Law School Gittis Hall Lecture Room One 3400 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Fee(s) - Includes training and reception/social. Students, non-profit and low-income please inquire about scholarships. Student... $25 Regular... $35 Group rate (for 5 regular registrations)… $150 Group rate (for 10 regular registrations)… $250
Parag V. Mehta - Parag is the Director of Training for the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the DNC, Parag served as Deputy Political Director for America Votes, a coalition of 32 of the largest progressive groups in the country who joined forces to register, educate, recruit, and mobilize voters for the 2004 elections. In 2003, Parag was a Deputy Political Director for Governor Howard Dean's presidential campaign, based in Burlington, Vermont. In 2002 he served as Deputy Field Director for former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's U.S. Senate campaign in Texas. From 2000-2002, Parag worked as a speechwriter and policy analyst for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Parag holds a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
To register, and for further information about the event, go here. Asian Pacific Americans for Progress is a national network of progressive Asian Pacific Americans and allies. To learn more about the organziation, visit the website here.
This is unbelievable. In New Jersey, police are investigating a report that a high school student lit a Sikh's teens turban on fire: Teen Accused Of Setting Student's Turban On Fire. And no, it wasn't an accident.
The fire was apparently lit last week during a fire drill. While the Sikh student—one of the two in the school who wear a turban—was talking with a friend, someone lit his turban on fire. Fortunately, the victim was able to put out the fire before any physical damage was done.
According to the story, no charges have apparently been filed. What the hell? No charges? How is that possible? The Sikh Coalition is calling for a full investigation and asking for Highstown High School to do more to combat discrimination against Sikhs.
UPDATE: Garrett Green, the kid who set the Sikh's student on fire, has been charged by police and banned by school officials from Hightstown High School's campus: N.J. student banned in torching of kid's turban. Green won't be allowed to attend prom or graduation. He's due in court today on charges of arson and criminal mischief.
What about hate crime charges? There has to be some level of malicious discrimination involved with setting someone's turban on fire. I doubt this guy would've randomly set fire to someone's baseball cap. There's more to it that just a mischievous kid with a lighter.
Got this email passed along to me, about a friend of a friend of a friend... Michelle Maykin has been battling leukemia for over a year, and now needs to find a bone marrow match within five weeks. Here's the email recounting her situation:
Hello Everyone,
One of my dear friends (Chinese/Vietnamese descent) had been battling Leukemia for over a year. After her 5th round of chemotherapy, her cancer finally "went away." For the past several months she was finally able to live a normal life. However, just this past week, she's relapsed with her blood levels worse off than before. Basically, the doctors have said that she needs to find a bone marrow match for a transplant within 5 weeks. I was wondering if any of you were registered to the donor program already or if you could ask your fellow Asian colleagues, friends, girlfriends, friends of friends, family members, associates, etc. if they've registered.
In the information attached below is a link to sign up for a free take home kit. It takes literally 5 minutes of your time (most of it is spent filling out a form) and a cotton swab of your mouth simply to register. Asians have such a high minority in terms of people in the registry. Finding a match is related to (but not dependent) on specific family ethnic history, and right now alone, odds of finding a match are extremely small. I personally don't like sending these types of E-mails out, especially to my co-workers and associates, but my friends and I are all in panic mode right now and we do appreciate every little bit of help, because it gives us all that much more hope.
She's got a video message asking for your support here. Also, learn more about her story, and how you can help, here. All it takes is a cotton swab in the mouth and a little bit of paperwork to get registered as a bone marrow donor.
Please consider getting registered, or better yet, setting up your own bone marrow drive at your school/workplace/etc. Heck, you can even order a free home test kit from the AADP website. I don't think I have to stress how important this is. Please, get registered.
UPDATE: Here's a Stanford Daily story on Michelle's search for a bone marrow donor: Bone marrow donors sought for Cal grad. Stanford students helping a Berkeley grad! Nice.
I was recently watching music videos on VH1 (yes, between crazy stuff like Flavor of Love and Celebrity Fit Club, they still actually play a few music videos) and came across the video for "After Tonight" by Justin Nozuka. It's apparently been running in the rotation for a few weeks.
He's a 19-year-old singer/songwriter out of Toronto with a very cool acoustic folksy-soul-blues sound. He's kind of got this Jack Johnson/Jason Mraz/Amos Lee thing going on. Today, I read over at the Hyphen Blog that Entertainment Weekly is calling him a singer/songwriter to watch. Cool.
I dug the song, so I checked out the rest of the tunes from his recently-released album Holly, streaming on his website. Good stuff. I liked it so much, I went ahead downloaded the whole album from iTunes. Take a look at the video here. To hear some more of Justin Nozuka's music, check his website here, and his MySpace page here.
Just wanted to give one last wrap-up shout-out to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, which closed out last Thursday with a bang. Director Sarab Neelam and his debut feature film Ocean of Pearls took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature Film, while the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature Film went to Doan Hoang's Oh, Saigon. Ocean of Pearls also nabbed the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and Christine Choy's Long Story Short took home the Audience Award for Documentary Feature. Great stuff. Here's the full press release:
"OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "OH SAIGON" TAKE GRAND JURY PRIZES AT 24TH LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL
AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO "OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "LONG STORY SHORT" WHILE SHORT FILIMS "TAILORMADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILOR" WINS GOLDEN REEL AND "SWEAT" WINs NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VISIONS AWARDS
LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 8, 2008 - Director Sarab Neelam and his debut feature film "OCEAN OF PEARLS" took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda and produced by Visual Communications as announced at closing night. Neelam, one of the few, if not the only Sikh filmmaker in the U.S., made an impressive directorial debut with a story of the Sikh experience in America with a script written by Veerendra Prasad based on a story by Neelam and Prasad.
The Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature Film went to director Doan Hoang and her film "OH SAIGON" - which tells her story of being airlifted from Vietnam in 1975 and arriving in the US to begin again, and going back 25 years later to follow up with the family and people she left behind. Moving and compelling the film illustrates the often unspoken effects of war on people.
Audiences at the festival agreed with the jurors and voted "OCEAN OF PEARLS" with the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and embraced the non-fiction film "LONG STORY SHORT" from director Christine Choy and written by Jodi Long with the Audience Award for Documentary Feature.
Short films are a very important part of the Fest, and the Golden Reel and New Directions/New Visions awards reflect the best of these films. This year, the Fest awarded the Golden Reel to "TAILOR MADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILORS" - directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry, while the New Directions/New Visions accolade went to SWEAT from director Na Hong-Jin.
The entire list of awards is as follows:
NARRATIVE FEATURE FILMS
GRAND JURY PRIZE: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad
AUDIENCE AWARD: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad
BEST FIRST FEATURE: Always Be Boyz, written and directed by John Kwon
TECHNICAL ART AWARD: Option 3, directed by Richard Wong with screenplay by HP Mendoza and Richard Wong
OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER: JIMMY TSAI - in the film Ping Pong Playa, directed by Jessica Yu with screenplay by Jimmy Tsai and Jessica Yu
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS
GRAND JURY PRIZE: Oh Saigon, written and directed by Doan Hoang
AUDIENCE AWARD: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Up the Yangtze, written and directed by Yung Chang
HONORABLE MENTION: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long
SHORT FILMS
GOLDEN REEL: Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors, directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry
NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VOICES: Sweat, written and directed by Na Hong-Jin
HONORABLE MENTION: Sweat, written and directed by Josh Kim
This year's judges included:
SHORT FILMS Roger Fan - actor (Annapolis; Better Luck Tomorrow; Finishing the Game) Maysie Hoy - film editor (Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns; Joy Luck Club) Eric Nakamura - founder and publisher Giant Robot Suchin Pak - news reporter MTV NEWS
DOCUMENTARY FILMS Tracie Lewis - programmer, Film Independent Ada Tseng - director, UCLA Asian Pacfic Arts Online Magazine Win-Sie Tow - manager, Sundance Documentary Film Program
NARRATIVE FILMS Julie Asato - producer (Finishing the Game; Better Luck Tomorrow; Ethan Mao) Brian Hu - film critic/professor Cal State Fullerton David Maquiling - filmmaker/writer/professor - University of Southern California
Known globally as Southern California's largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda launched the celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year's slate of over 160 films and videos from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international directors from over 17 countries including the U.S. The festival was established in 1983 by Visual Communications - the nation's premier Asian American media arts resource center.
Another great year. I highly recommend checking out any of these films, because they represent some of the best stuff going on right now in Asian American/Canadian cinema. A lot of them are still pretty early on in their festival runs, so you've got a good chance of seeing them if/when they make it to your respective cities.
First Burma, now China. By now, you've heard about the massive earthquake that has devastated the region around Chengdu in southwest China. The 7.9-magnitude quake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants, killing about 10,000 people and trapping many others in the rubble of its destructive wake: China quake death toll rises to nearly 10,000.
The news and images I've been seeing all day have been absolutely crazy... They've got a whole bunch of updates posted throughout the day over at Shanghaiist. This is the worst quake China has seen in over thirty years. More here: Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands.
Reporters from NPR's All Things Considered were actually in Chengdu preparing for a special series when the earthquake struck. They've got some amazing coverage, including audio from an interview they were recording at the exact moment when the quake hit. Check it out here: Chengdu Diary.
Meanwhile, here in the United States, in communities like the San Gabrial Valley, where many Chinese immigrants are from the affected areas, many anxiously wait to hear from loved ones in China: In the U.S., anxious Chinese immigrants follow news of quake. Stay tuned.
More bumps in the road for the Martin Luther King memorial, currently in the works for the Washington Mall. As you know, there has been quite a bit of controversy swirling over the selection of Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin to design and create the sculpture of the civil rights leader, with critics insisting that the commission should have gone to an African American scultor.
Now, the United States Commission of Fine Arts has asked the creators of the memorial to change it, saying that renderings of the sculpture made Dr. King appear stiff and "confrontational." The commission recommended that the sculpture portray Dr. KIng as a more sympathetic figure: Design Change Sought for King Memorial.
Personally, based on the photos that I've seen so far, I kind of agree. The sculpture design looks rather... Lenin-esque. More here: Time To Start Over on MLK Statue. I guess it's back to the drawing board.
Not sure who's really going to care about this news... but it's official: CW has canceled the sitcom Aliens in America. The comedy, about a Pakistani Muslim exchange student adjusting to life and high school in a Wisconsin town, got rave reviews when it debuted last fall, but never really caught on with viewers. Thus, the network is giving the show the boot: CW Axes Aliens in America. While I was always thought it was a funny idea, I never got around to checking it out. It seems a lot of people never did either.
No worries for star Adhir Kalyan, who played Raja. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that he's landed a recurring role on FX's Nip/Tuck. He'll play 16-year-old Dr. Raj, "a Doogie Howser-like character who studied plastic surgery": Aliens in America's Raja joins Nip/Tuck. You'll see him in the next new episode of the series set to air sometime this fall.
I heard about this several weeks ago, but forgot to post something about it until now... A documentary series on addiction is currently doing research to find subjects of ethnic populations, traumas and/or addictive behaviors that normally don't get exposed in the media. Maybe you or someone you know has a story that needs to be told. Here are some details:
Do you, or anyone you know, suffer from an addictive behavior?
Our documentary team is looking for individuals who are currently struggling with addictive behavior (drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, steroids, gambling, video games, shopping, etc.) and are willing to open a window into their lives. Participants will be asked to share their personal journeys with us, from the physical highs and lows, to the periods of happiness and misery, and the fleeting moments of frustration, hopelessness, and some times, hope, that emerge along the way. Our philosophy is to treat each addict, family member, and story with love and understanding, and we expect it to be an incredible learning experience for everyone involved. If this interests you, please send a brief summary of the situation you or your loved one is facing to the following email address: mydocstory@gmail.com. Please write "SUBMISSION" in the subject heading of the email.
Please -- don't give up... Write to us. There are so many that want to hear your story.
I know that the producers of this documentary are highly concerned about handling its subjects with sensitivity, and are trying to avoid the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. This could be a really interesting opportunity to highlight and examine some of addictive behaviors our community grapples with, though I understand how difficult it might be for individuals to expose their struggles on camera. Still, it might go a long way towards the model minority myth that haunts Asian Pacific American populations.
A lot of folks have been writing in to tell me about some weird Quizno's commercial. I finally saw it on TV tonight. And yeah, it's weird. It features an elderly Asian lady working at laundromat... who eats a five dollar bill. (I love how there's a little disclaimer at the bottom: "Dramatization. Do not attempt.") The point is, it would probably be a better idea to spend the five bucks on a sandwich and eat that instead. View it here.
At first, it doesn't necessarily strike me as racist. Just strange. But then, I start to wonder what went into the decision to cast an Asian lady for this commercial... and it makes sense. Those crazy Asians! They'll eat anything. Even legal tender! It's also odd that she doesn't say a word, and merely gestures at the sandwich at the end of the commercial. How inscrutable.
UPDATE: The Chicago Sun-Times' Lewis Lazare comments on the 'Laundromat' spot, and he doesn't have many nice things to say about it either: Quiznos spot adds insult to injury
This is a news story out Fort Worth about a donut shop robbery attempt in which the suspect ended up shot and killed: Fort Worth Donut Shop Robber Shot & Killed. The shop owner, Chong Im Randal, says that a masked robber, Richard Lane, broke into her store around 1:30am with what looked like a rifle. He stole money from the cash drawer, beat Randal up and tried to steal her car. Meanwhile, her neighbor heard the commotion next door, grabbed his shotgun and ran over to help. He ended up shooting and killing the robber.
I'm glad Ms. Randal survived the robbery. What bothers me about this story is how she's depicted as such a stereotypical victim. Asian donut shop owner attacked by would-be robber, saved by her shotgun-toting white neighbor. That's Texas justice, baby. They even have a quote from the D.A. proclaiming "John Wayne in our blood." And of course, the news story is littered with Randal's broken English quotes: "I say you not to shoot. Okay, you kill me I'm going to heaven. You go to jail." Argh. (Thanks, Victor.)
As we all know, Rain made his Hollywood debut in the live-action big-screen adaptation of Speed Racer, which opened over the weekend. The high profile role, along with his recent heralded dance battle on The Colbert Report, has set the stage for his career crossover into the United States. Unfortunately, for some people—including one of America's mostly widely-read celebrity magazines—he's just another random Asian face...
In the latest issue of People, they've got a brief interview and profile of Rain, talking about his role in Speed Racer. Too bad the guy in the accompanying photo is not Rain. Not even close. That's actually Karl Yune (brother of Rick), who also has a small role in the movie... but is clearly not the South Korean supermega pop star in question. Ouch. You gotta love it: Rain, is that really you?
Colossal mistake. Alas, it seems that all Asians do look alike. Or at least, some editorial staffer at People thinks they do. That's racist! This is what happens when there aren't a lot of Asians in media/entertainment—when you actually get one, nobody knows how to handle it. Let's face it, this was probably way less likely to happen with a white celebrity. I expect Rain's publicity people are going nuts over this, and not in a good way.
As I recently mentioned, the very first AAPI National Presidential Town Hall, presented by APIA Vote, is happening this weekend, May 17 at the University of California at Irvine. It's going to be a historic event, with over 2000 community leaders, elected officials, voters and students representing our diverse community from across the country expected to participate.
They've extended invitations to the three presidential candidates. It's not going to be a debate, but this could be a really interesting opportunity for the candidates to address the APA community, and hear our issues and answer our concerns directly.
I've heard a pretty reliable rumor that the Clinton campaign has confirmed their participation for the event, but the organizers have yet to hear from the Obama and McCain campaigns. Dude, they better be there. Barack, where you at? And McCain, if you are indeed interested in courting the Asian vote, it might be a good idea to show up... this is Orange County, after all.
When is the Town Hall going to get confirmations from the two remaining candidates? Maybe they need a little push. If you or someone you know has been working on the various campaigns supporting Obama and McCain, it might be a good idea to make some calls and write a few emails urging them to participate.
A little grassroots pressure never hurt anyone. This is an important, historic event, and if the APA vote is indeed as important as everyone seems to be indicating, it would be a mistake for these candidates not to participate.
People will be traveling and flying in from all over to attend the Town Hall. It's going to be big. However, if you can't make to Irvine this Saturday, you can watch a live stream from the event on your computer: Electronic Presidential Town Hall. For more information on the National Presidential Town Hall, go here.
I recently heard from Mynette Louie, who producing the feature film The Kids Are Alright, based on Tze Chun's 2007 Sundance short Windowbreaker. I really loved that film, so I'm really happy to hear that Chun and Co. will be expanding and elaborating on that story. Here's the synopsis:
After being evicted from their home, the Cheng family finds that times are tighter than ever. Hardworking single mom and recent Boston transplant ELAINE (35) tries desperately to find the means to support her young children, RAYMOND (10) and TINA (6). They move illegally into a model apartment in an unfinished building, but try to maintain a normal life. While Elaine juggles a number of jobs, Raymond and Tina become latch-key kids, taking care of themselves and finding amusement in building childish inventions. When Elaine is arrested for unwittingly taking part in an illegal pyramid scheme, things take a turn for the worse. Nobody knows the kids are home alone, and they are left to fend for themselves. Without any communication from their mother, little Raymond hatches a plan -- to take the long trek from the suburbs to downtown Boston, withdraw his family's life savings from the bank, start a business selling his inventions, and take care of his sister.
Based on Tze Chun's own award-winning short film, Windowbreaker, which screened the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, The Kids Are Alright is a drama about the influence of an adult world on children, the immigrant mentality, and shortcuts to the American dream.
I normally get a little tired of all the casting stuff that comes my way, but I really like the sound of this project. They're hoping to shoot the film in New York and Boston this summer, and they're looking for fourteen speaking roles for Chinese/Chinese American actors (or actors who can pass as Chinese American). Here are some details from Mynette:
Hey Asian Am film people + people who might know AA/kid actors + people who might have seen a movie lately with good AA actors:
I need your help with casting.
I'm producing a film, Tze Chun's "The Kids Are Alright," based on his Sundance 2007 short "Windowbreaker." We're hoping to shoot the film in NYC (and a little in Boston too) this July and/or August. The film has 14 (yes, FOURTEEN) speaking roles for Chinese / Chinese American actors (or actors who can pass as Chinese American).
If you know any NYC-based folks who would be great for any of the roles (Chinese or not), or can recommend any NYC-based casting directors who could help for a small fee (particularly w/the kid actors), please let me know. (Just so you know, we've also already contacted like every school in NYC with 60% or more Asian kids, so we've been having and will continue to have these open auditions at the schools--but if you can recommend any professional kid actors or any Chinese kids you personally know, lemme know.)
I've attached a character breakdown with actor submission instructions plus an overview of the film. You can also check out www.tkaa-movie.com for more info.
Thanks! Mynette
And here's the character breakdown for the Chinese roles. I imagine the success of this film will be largely dependent on the performances of the two kid actors:
[TINA CHENG] Girl, 5-9, Chinese American: Looks up to her brother. Very talkative around people she knows, shy around people she doesn't. Speaks fluent English.
[ELAINE CHENG] Female, 30-35, Chinese: A determined single mother. Tenacious. Won't take no for an answer. Immigrated 12 years ago from Hong Kong. Speaks with a slight Chinese accent. Speaks fluent Cantonese with no accent. Is hard on her kids at times, but does everything for them. A survivor.
[MICHAEL LEE] Male, 40s-50s, Chinese: A sweet businessman. He's active in the community and always trying to find ways to help people. Probably immigrated from Hong Kong, China, or Taiwan in his twenties. He's the kind of guy who started with nothing and built his business brick-by-brick.
[CHARLES CHENG] Male, 30s, Chinese: Raymond and Tina's absentee father. He lives in Hong Kong, and communicates with the kids long-distance. He's got a temper. Speaks fluent Cantonese with no accent.
[DORIS] Female, 50s, Chinese: Elaine's mother-in-law. Used to a comfortable life. Is protective of her grandchildren, and doesn't think Elaine's a good influence. Speaks fluent Cantonese with no accent.
[GREAT GRANDPA] Male, 70s, Chinese: Raymond and Tina's great-grandpa. He's thin, kind, and has Alzheimer's. He speaks very little English. He spends most of his life in his tiny Chinatown apartment, living in the past. Ability to speak Taishan or Fukian dialect a plus.
[LINDA GAU] Female, 50s, Chinese: Linda is down-to-earth and pragmatic. She wants what's best for her kids, but sometimes has trouble saying no. She's seen a lot in her life, and she always approaches personal and business interactions with a healthy bit of distrust.
[SUSAN GAU] Female, mid-late 20s, Chinese American: Susan and her mother live in Castle Square, the Chinatown projects. She went to local college, got married, and has a young child. She has bills to pay and wants to make money very very quickly. She's a bit more naive about the way the world works.
[NANCY] Female, late 30s-40s, Chinese: One of Elaine's co-workers in the pyramid scheme. High-strung. Competitive.
[ROSEMARY] Female, 40s, Chinese: One of Elaine's co-workers in the pyramid scheme. A smart, savvy, businesswoman. Dresses and acts very Chinese, but able to work with Americans.
[MRS. CHOW] Female, 50s, Chinese: New immigrant to the US. Came over to be with her son, who works in finance. Not happy with the weather and lifestyle in the US. Constantly bickering with her husband. Speaks fluent Mandarin or Cantonese with a Mandarin accent.
[MR. CHOW] Male, 50s, Chinese: New immigrant to the US. More reasonable than his wife. Speaks fluent Mandarin or Cantonese with a Mandarin accent.
[FELICIA] Female, 20s-40s, Chinese: Works as a real estate broker. The kind that is constantly showing houses but never selling or renting anything. We get the feeling she's just trying to get out of the house. (We are looking for a character actor here, someone compelling and quirky, who we can get to know in just one short scene. We are less concerned with a specific physical 'type.')
They've also got roles for non-Asian actors, as well as additional speaking roles and a need for extras. To submit, email your headshot and resume to tkaa.casting@gmail.com. To learn more about the film, visit the website (not much there right now) here. I can't wait to see what happens with this movie.
Whoa. Now this is an interesting development... It looks like they've caught the man who is suspected of attacking a Japanese food deliveryman in Brooklyn earlier this week: Jealous hubby knifed delivery guy - cops.
Turns out, it wasn't a robbery by some random thug, but the jealous husband of a woman Zheng was allegedly having an affair with. Drama! Definitely not your average deliveryman attack.
Zheng Hai Qing confessed to knifing Guant Zheng on Monday after he found out his wife was cheating on him. He lured the the victim to a fake address where he thought he was delivering a $17.90 order of two California rolls and two eel rolls. Instead, he was viciously attacked—stabbed in the back and chest. Damn.
All right. It's been a good week at the 24th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. It's been a whirlwind, but I've seen a lot of great films, and hung out with some very cool people. I got to see stuff like Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze, Ron Morales' Santa Mesa, and Amyn Kaderali's Kissing Cousins, as well as a whole bunch of short films. Wonderful stuff, all around.
Things wrap up tonight with the Closing Night presentation of Tony Ayres' The Home Song Stories, starring Joan Chen (and you know how much I love Joan Chen). The evening's festivities include the film, presentation of the festival's awards, and a big fun party. Come on out, bring your friends, and support Asian American cinema. Well, I guess in this case, it's Asian Australian cinema. Either way, it's Joan Chen, and I can dig it.
In Seattle, a University of Washington senior resident physician suffered life-threatening injuries during a fight, and now Seattle Police are asking the public to help find the man who assaulted him: Doctor injured in Belltown fight.
36-year-old Peter Choi was walking around Third Avenue and Cedar in Belltown with friends when they came across two men who made a racial comment toward the whole group. Choi got upset and started arguing with them, but the attacker punched him, causing him to fall and strike his against the sidewalk. Then the assailant and several witnesses ran away before officers drove up.
According to police, the racial comment that started the fight doesn't automatically make it a hate crime... which is ridiculous to me. Must an assailant be shouting racial slurs while he's throwing the actual punch in order for it to qualify as a hate crime? This is a hate crime. That's racist!
The main assailant is described as a Hispanic male, 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, 22 to 29 years old; he was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. The second man, a possible witness, is a white male who was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. Help the police find these suspects!
Asian Behaving Badly... weather man edition. It's not all smiles and sunshine over at the Weather Channel. According to The Smoking Gun, a former anchor, Hillary Andrews, has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her colleague, Bob Stokes: Weather Channel In Sex Storm.
Andrews claims Stokes repeatedly tormented her with crude, sexual come-ons, including once allegedly asking her, "Will you lick my swizzle stick?" She also claims Stokes followed her into the women's dressing room, quizzed her about her sexual relationships, and pleaded with her to say she found him attractive. The guy sounds like a real winner.
I got to catch a screening of Speed Racer last night. On IMAX, no less. Based on the classic Japanese anime series, the live-action Hollywood feature film version is everything the frenetic trailers promise—a crazy visual assault. At times, I felt in danger of suffering from a seizure. They were definitely going for that live-action cartoon aesthetic, where everything and everyone is highly stylized, colorful, and nonstop. Is it a good movie? Hardly. But I had an okay time.
As we all know, everybody's favorite Korean pop star Rain is in the movie as Taejo Togokhan. He actually has a pretty substantial role in the story, and speaks a fair amount of (heavily accented) English. Pretty good performance, but he's definitely not the hero.
Also in the movie with relatively significant parts are Hiroyuki Sanada as Mr. Musha and Chinese actress Yu Nan as Horuko. Also keep a sharp eye out for Joon Park, Karl Yune, Togo Igawa, Ramon Tikaram and Shaft. Oh, and some ninjas.
Roy Pearson, would you please just give it up? Just go away, dude. As you may remember, the former DC administrative judge made headlines last year after suing the Chung family, owners of Custom Cleaners, for $54 million over an alleged missing pair of pants. He lost.
Not too long after that, a city panel decided not to reappoint Pearson after his term expired. My guess, it probably had something to do with the fact that his judgment was now severely under question after filing a ridiculous lawsuit like that. So he go the boot.
However, true to form, last week Pearson filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing city government and others of an "unlawful demotion and subsequent termination": Judge in pants lawsuit sues to get job back. Dude, Roy. You lost your job because you're a fool. Give it the f#@% up.
Been getting a handful of emails about this, but I first spotted it over at Disgrasian... It seems that it's all about the dance battles lately.
Here's the situation, as I understand it. A few weeks back, Step Up 2 the Streets director Jon M. Chu and actor Adam Sevani assembled a crew together, ACDC (Adam/Chu Dance Crew), to challenge Miley [Cyrus] and Mandy [Jiroux] to "The Biggest Online Dance Battle in YouTube history." Impressive.
Shortly thereafter, Miley and Mandy (M&M Cru) responded with a crazy battle video of their own. With even an appearance from Step Up star Channing Tatum. Slick. The video becomes a YouTube sensation of sorts.
Well, last week, ACDC shot back with another video... and it's downright epic, featuring a legion of dancers of all sorts, including the JabbaWockeeZ, Hok Konishi... and, um, Adam Sandler. Wow. Things just got out of hand. Is this what it looks like, to get served?
Clearly, these people all have waaaaay too much extra time on their hands.
What is the most dangerous job in New York City? It sounds ridiculous, but lately, I'd probably put Chinese food delivery near the top of the list. From the New York Post, we get another story of a brutal attack: DELIVERYMAN BRUTALLY STABBED. In Brooklyn, 26-year-old Asian-food deliveryman Quang Zheng is on life support after being stabbed during a robbery attempt on Monday night. He was making a delivery in Sheepshead Bay when he was accosted by a "thug" and stabbed repeated in his stomach with a sharp object. Delivering somebody's freakin' dinner should not be this hazardous to your health.
Mark your calendars and set your Tivos for this very cool broadcast event. In June, Turner Classic Movies is devoting the entire month to an extensive, in-depth look at how Asians have been depicted in film with Race and Hollywood: Asian Images in Film. It's part of an ongoing series of such examinations, first with African American images then gay images in film. Now they're looking at Asians, with a month-long marathon looking at everything from racist yellowface Charlie Chan stuff to more contemporary representations like The Joy Luck Club. It's like big, fat classic film festival—the good, the bad and the ugly.
The 35-film retrospective will be co-hosted by Dr. Peter X. Feng, scholar and author of Screening Asian Americans and Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video. In addition, a number of notable personalities will take part to provide personal insight into Hollywood's depiction of Asians, including filmmaker Wayne Wang, actress Ming Wen, writer Amy Tan, actress Rosalind Chao, actor George Takei, actress France Nuyen, actress Nancy Kwan, actor James Shigeta, actress Miiko Taka, film scholar Elaine Mae Woo, film producer Janet Yang and actress Lauren Tom. The festival will take place on Tuesday and Thursday nights in June, with each night's collection of films centering on a particular theme. Check out the schedule:
Tuesday, June 3 Silent Films
8 p.m. The Cheat (1915) followed by Filipinos Retreat From Trenches (1899) 9:45 p.m. Broken Blossoms (1919) 11 p.m. The Dragon Painter (1919) 12 a.m. Mr. Wu (1927) 1:45 a.m. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)
Thursday, June 5 Anna May Wong
8 p.m. The Toll of the Sea (1922) 9 p.m. Old San Francisco (1927) 10:45 p.m. Piccadilly (1929) 12:45 a.m. Daughter of the Dragon (1931) 2 a.m. Shanghai Express (1932)
Tuesday, June 10 Asian Crime Fighters & Detectives
8 p.m. Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936) 9:30 p.m. Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) 10:45 p.m. The Scarlet Clue (1945) 12 a.m. Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937) 1:15 a.m. Daughter of Shanghai (1937)
Thursday, June 12 Pearl S. Buck
8 p.m. The Good Earth (1937) 10:30 p.m. Dragon Seed (1944) 1 a.m. China Sky (1945) 2:30 a.m. First Yank Into Tokyo (1945)
Tuesday, June 17 The Legacy of World War II
8 p.m. Go for Broke! (1951) 9:45 p.m. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) 11:15 p.m. The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) 1:30 a.m. Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
Thursday, June 19 Interracial & Intercultural Romance
8 p.m. Bridge to the Sun (1961) 10 p.m. China Doll (1958) 12 a.m. Sayonara (1957) 2:30 a.m. The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
Tuesday, June 24 Race Consciousness and the Civil Rights Era
8 p.m. The Crimson Kimono (1959) 9:30 p.m. The Mountain Road (1960) 11:30 p.m. Flower Drum Song (1961) 2 a.m. Enter the Dragon (1973)
Thursday, June 26 Contemporary Asian Images
8 p.m. Rush Hour 2 (2001) 10 p.m. The Joy Luck Club (1993) 12:30 a.m. The Killing Fields (1984) 3 a.m. Mr. Baseball (1992)
For a huge film buff like me, this is fantastic news. With appropriate historical context, it provides the opportunity to see a lot of stuff we normally don't get a chance to see, like the early silents and the Anna Mae Wong films. Really could've done without Rush Hour 2 though. But I'm particularly interested in seeing Walk Like a Dragon, Bridge to the Sun and The Crimson Kimono—all starring James Shigeta, and none of which are available on DVD. I'm going to have to free up some room on my DVR. It's all happening next month on TCM. For more information, visit the website here.
This is pretty cool stuff... To celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Asia Society has joined with YouTube in a call-out initiative asking people everywhere: "What does being Asian American mean to you?"
The video above features folks like Sandra Oh, Lisa Ling, Hung Huynh, George Takei, Kal Penn, Yul Kwon and even YouTube founder Steve Chen, all asking you to speak out and share your story. You could even win an iPod Nano—the video with the most views by 5PM Eastern Time on Saturday, May 31st wins. To respond, go here. To see more videos, go here.
This is for all my people at UC Davis... the 5th annual Asian American Association Film Festival is about to go down, running May 6-16. The event includes six feature films over six nights, as well as shorts, music videos, guest speakers and a student film contest. Things kick off tonight with a screening of Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza's Colma: The Musical. They've got a kickass lineup of works I really respect and love, including Journey From the Fall, Lead Role: Father, Windowbreaker, Pilgrimage and American Pastime. Here's the full slate:
MAY 6TH - TUE (7:00pm - 9:00pm) - OPENING NIGHT Short Films: SMALL AND SHY; LOST SOLE Feature Film: COLMA: THE MUSICAL
MAY 8TH - THUR (7:00pm - 9:00pm) Short Film: GIRL WITH A WALKMAN Feature Film: DARK MATTER
MAY 9TH - FRI (8:00pm - 10:00pm) Short Film: FORTUNE HUNTERS Feature Film: JOURNEY FROM THE FALL
MAY 13TH - TUE (7:00pm - 9:00pm) Short Films: LEAD ROLE: FATHER; WINDOWBREAKER Feature Film: NEW YEAR BABY
MAY 15TH - THUR (7:00pm - 9:00pm) Short Films: MISS CHINATOWN, USA; UMBILICAL Feature Film: TIE A YELLOW RIBBON
MAY 16TH - FRI (8:00pm - 10:00pm) - FINALE Student Film Contest: TBA Short Film: PILGRIMAGE Feature Film: AMERICAN PASTIME
Best of all, everything is completely free. I attended the festival a while back, during its inaugural year, and was really impressed with whole event. The entire thing is student run, and they managed to put together a really awesome program for the UC Davis community. If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking it out. For more information on the festival, visit the website here and the Facebook group here.
While our nation examines the possibility of its first female or black President, there's also another historic political race going on in Portland. This year, the city will elect its first gay or first Asian American mayor. Whoever gets elected—Sam Adams or Sho Dozono—it's going to be a very big deal: Mayor's race will make history. But while this is historic for the region's Asian American and gay and lesbian communities, as this editorial points out, neither candidate wants to be pigeonholed as "the gay guy or the Asian American guy."
So we've been following along with ongoing Rain/Stephen Colbert "feud." The rivalry began a few years back when the Korean pop star defeated Comedy Central's faux news host in TIME's annual online poll of the world's most influential person.
In some of his most inspired bits, Colbert shot back with various pokes at Rain, including his own K-pop music video. Recently, Rain talked a little smack back, advising Stephen not to quit his day job. As it happens neither of them actually came out on top in the poll this year: Colbert, Rain Not Most Influential.
Ultimately, Colbert challenged Rain to come on the show for a "dance off," so their struggle for world dominance could finally be settled. Would it happen? There were some rumors rumbling last week that Rain was spotted in and around the Colbert Report studio, getting folks excited about the possibility.
Well, the showdown happened last night, and indeed, it was a true battle for greatness. It didn't happen on the live show, but in the "after-hours," apparently: Rain Dance Off. Hilarious. Colbert, you got served.
With Rain trying to take his mega-pop stardom into the United States, including his upcoming appearance in Speed Racer, this is fantastic exposure. And he seems pretty good-natured to play along. The feud with Colbert might end up being the best thing to happen for Rain's future in America.
A.R. Sakaeda has a really interesting essay over at the Chicago Tribune blog about Asian Americans, the model minority stereotype, and how that perception is a complete load of crap: Rejecting the model in 'model minority'. She touches on a lot of issues that many of us can probably relate to, and a lot of the ideas I grappled with when I created this very website (I should note, I get name-checked near the end of the piece). I liked this part:
When people talk about the model minority, "model" is code for never making other people feel uncomfortable about racism. "Model" means not being like all those other troublesome people of color. It means keeping your mouth shut and your eyes lowered. It means smiling brightly and nodding along. Yes, sir! Whatever you say, sir! It means never complaining.
Members of the model minority often are used to shame other people of color. They can do it, why can't you? If you would only have those same close-knit families. If you only valued education more. If you only worked harder. Racism is a thing of the past.
Holding up Asian Americans as a model divides communities of color, making it difficult for us to see our commonalities.
"Model" too often means you don’t have to ride in the back of the bus. You can ride near the front of the bus, but you have to be very, very careful never to say anything about the people forced to ride in back, as writer David Mura notes. But being silent means being complicit and I can not afford to be either.
Being the model minority means never speaking out against racism. I once launched into a tirade against white co-workers who repeatedly used the N-word. Perhaps the reason they felt free to use it was because they considered me to be more like them. But after my tirade, they probably presumed I was part black. The angry Asian American isn't a stereotype, at least not yet. But we are out there and racism makes us angry.
She hits the nail on the head. Part of the problem with the model minority image is that it paints Asian Americans as a quiet, passive, compliant community. We're supposed to be the good ones, refusing to rock the boat and unwilling to speak out and stand up for social justice. What's worse, there are Asian Americans among us who have bought into this myth. It's this perception—of apathy and complacency, basically—that allows the injustices to occur in the first place. Thankfully, some are willing to get a little dirty, and angry. Model minority, my ass.
One film I'm really looking forward to seeing is Tarsem's (yes, just "Tarsem") The Fall. You may remember his movie The Cell, a really underappreciated serial killer thriller starring Jennifer Lopez, from a few years back. Kind of short on story, but absolutely crazy insane awesome visuals. The Fall looks even more stunning, and I can't wait to see it. Watch the trailer here (make sure you view it in HD format), and check out the official website here. The Fall opens in select theaters this Friday, May 9.
Here's a statement released last week from Senator Barack Obama, commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month:
Dear Friends,
The month of May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – a time to honor and celebrate the extraordinary contributions of the nearly 13 million Asian and Pacific Americans (APA) who have helped build a strong and vibrant America. The APA community represents many ethnicities and languages that span across generations, and their shared achievements are an important part of the American experience.The APA story and community are also personal to me. Members of my family are of Asian descent and it is a community that I became a part of while growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia and living in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. APA Heritage Month reminds us of our commonalities in history, the values that bring us together and how Asian Pacific Americans will shape America's future.
Beyond acknowledging the contributions of the APA community, APA Heritage Month is also an opportunity for us to recognize the challenges we still face. Our nation is at war, our planet is in peril, and for increasing numbers of Americans of Asian and Pacific descent, the American dream is in danger of slipping away. As President, I will work with the APA community to ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable and portable healthcare that will also reduce the language and cultural barriers that limit access to our medical system. We will make sure the global economy works for APAs by fixing our public education system, making college affordable through an annual $4,000 tax credit, and equipping our workers with the skills and training they need to compete. We will invest in renewable energy, which will ease our rising fuel costs while also saving our planet. We will do more to support small businesses, including strengthening programs that provide capital to minority-owned businesses. We will develop comprehensive immigration reforms that strengthen our security while affirming our heritage as a nation of immigrants, and reach. We will restore our Constitution and the rule of law, including our commitment to human rights abroad and civil liberties at home. Finally, we must forge a more effective regional framework for collective security in Asia and the Pacific to promote political and economic stability, confront transnational threats like terrorism and influenza, and collectively address environmental concerns.
With your support, I am confident that we can address these challenges. I am thankful to the many leaders, campaign organizers and grassroots volunteers of Asian and Pacific descent across the country, who have registered thousands of new voters, conducted phone-banking, organized canvassing trips, hosted political events, translated campaign materials into numerous Asian languages, and much more. By reaching out directly to the APA community, we can ensure that APAs are well represented in this national conversation about our future and the movement to write our destiny.
So, as we celebrate APA Heritage Month, let us honor the achievements of Asian Pacific Americans who have contributed so much to the success and prosperity of our nation, and who must be a part of our effort to change America.
The story of the APA community is quintessential American story about drawing strength from our diversity to achieve extraordinary things. With your continued energy, enthusiasm, passion and activism, the change we seek is within reach.
Sincerely, Barack Obama
In case you didn't know, I'm supporting Barack Obama for President of the United States.
Not all nail salons are Vietnamese-owned... but man, there certainly are a lot of them. In California, Vietnamese Americans make up an estimated 80% of nail technicians, according to the industry's trade publication. Nationwide, it's 43%.
Here's a very interesting Los Angeles Times article offering something of an overview of the huge number of Vietnamese manicurists in the United States, and the impact of their massive presence in the industry over the last 30 years: Vietnamese nail down the U.S. manicure business.
In a way, Vietnamese Americans have changed the nature of the manicure industry, transforming it from a luxurious indulgence into an affordable American routine, thanks to all the crazy competition driving prices down. I had no idea it all started with actress Tippi Hedren...
I swear, this news is true. In Vancouver, police arrested a man dressed as a ninja who tried to break into a house: Police bust a wanna be Ninja thief. The man is now being held for a psychiatric assessment before facing weapons charges. Ninja weapons charges.
According to police, the man was wielding a long Samurai sword when he tried to enter the home on Saturday. The frightened owner managed to close the door just as the ninja dude was coming through. The would-be ninja thief then tried to break in through another entrance, but was arrested after police arrived. Not very stealthy, Mr. Ninja.
Somebody has been watching too many Sho Kosugi movies. The funny thing is, there were reports of another ninja costume-clad thief breaking into homes in New York earlier this year. Except he used nunchucks. Something tells me this is not the same guy. (Thanks, Frank.)
The above photo was taken in the fall of 1941 at the University of Washington before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the time, they were UW's single largest ethnic group. But by spring, they were gone, shipped away and incarcerated in internment camps. Now, 66 years later, the University plans to issue honorary degrees to all those Japanese Americans forced to leave campus in the months after Pearl Harbor: For former WWII internees, UW degrees come after 66-year wait. It's an unprecedented move for the UW, which has issued just 11 honorary degrees since 1885.
The ceremony will take place on May 18, with keynote speaker Norm Mineta, former U.S. transportation secretary (who was also an internee). For more information about the event, go here: The Long Journey Home: Honoring UW Nikkei Students of 1941-1942. 66 years is way too long to for such an acknowledgement. But at least it's happening. This sounds like a really great way to draw attention to this part of history and make sure it isn't forgotten.
I've heard from several students in East Asian Language programs at UC Berkeley who say their programs are now in danger due to budget cuts. Basically, state-determined budget cuts are reducing the East Asian Language programs (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) to half of what they currently are, resulting in numerous layoffs and huge cuts in the number of students who can take East Asian classes.
What's most disturbing about this development is that Korean Studies, already a small, historically neglected program at Cal, is apparently in danger of being completely eliminated, with a cut of 66%. Here's some information passed along to me from Christine, a member of the ad hoc "Committee to Save Korean Studies at Berkeley":
UC Berkeley Students Protest Cuts to East Asian Languages
Korean Cut 66%, Chinese Cut 54%, Japanese Cut 40%
Thousands of UC students are protesting the drastic cuts made to East Asian language education at UC Berkeley. According to the projected budget figures for the next academic year, 66% of Korean language classes, 54% of Chinese language classes, and 40% of Japanese language classes will be eliminated. As a result of the cuts, more than 1500 students currently taking East Asian language classes will no longer be able to continue their studies.
The cuts will have devastating effects on Chinese and Japanese language studies, but they threaten the very existence of Korean language studies, which were in a precarious state even before the announced cuts.
The negative impact of the budget cuts extends well beyond just the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC). The department has announced that students from other Colleges and Schools will be barred from taking East Asian language classes (http://ealc.berkeley.edu/message.htm). As a result, hundreds of students in engineering, economics, law, business, history, and political science will be unable to pursue languages critical to their future careers.
Students at UC Berkeley are using all channels of protest, both traditional andinnovative, to oppose the cuts. In addition to meeting with administrators, circulating petitions, and writing letters to campus officials and state politicians, various student groups have turned to blogs and Facebook to organize protest efforts and disseminate information. These sites and groups include savekoreanstudies@blogspot.com, 'Save Korean Studies at UC Berkeley,' 'Object to East Asian Language and Cultures Budget Cuts' and 'Support East Asian Language Education.'
The cuts to East Asian language education at Berkeley are particularly shocking given UC Berkeley's role as a flagship campus on the Pacific Rim. Nearly 45% of UC Berkeley's students are of Asian descent. For many students, Berkeley is the only place where they can receive formal instruction in their heritage languages. Demand for East Asian languages among both heritage and non-heritage learners has skyrocketed over the past decade, and even before the cuts, hundreds of students were turned away or wait-listed from East Asian language classes.
There's a currently mass email campaign being waged, a press conference happening on Wednesday and a rally on Thursday in Berkeley to address the budget cuts. To learn more about the effort to Save East Asian Languages and Korean Studies at UC Berkeley, including links to the various Facebook groups and online petitions, and—most importantly—what you can do to help, visit the blogs here and here.
On Sunday, Anthony Kim became the youngest winner of the PGA Tour in more than six years when he clinched a five-stroke victory at the Wachovia Championship: Anthony Kim Becomes Youngest PGA Tour Winner In Six Years. He earned $1,134,000, winning in a near-flawless performance.
At 22-years-old (he turns 23 next month) he's been described by fellow players as "Tiger-esque." Though, it should be noted that defending champion Tiger Woods wasn't able to play due to knee surgery. More here on Kim's win: Kim becomes youngest PGA Tour winner in six years with easy Wachovia win. Ah, to be young and awesome at golf.
These crazy, gravity-defying photos are by Chinese artist Li Wei, an attempt to convey "his continual sense of lost gravity." Read all about it here: The amazing pictures of an artist dangling horizontally out of a skyscraper. How does he do it? Sometimes, he apparently puts himself in real danger. Photoshop would probably be a safer option.
Had a great time last night at Opening Night of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. They know how to throw a party. This is coming together kind of last minute, but I'll be participating in a festival panel discussion on Saturday called Media Messengers: Asian Pacific Americans and Our Political Voice. The seminar was originally supposed to be feature Eric Byler and Annabel Park, but it seems they can't participate due to scheduling conflicts. So I've been asked to take part, alongside some cool other "media messengers." Here's the program description:
Where are Asian Americans in the election process and how will our voices count? Come join filmmakers Eric Byler, Annabelle Park and other special guests for an exciting discussion on how Asian American filmmakers and actors are taking it upon themselves to activate the Asian American voter bloc. Whether its championing a presidential candidate or appearing in a Get Out the Vote campaign, learn how they are embracing media tools and the Internet to level the political playing field and ensure that our voices are being heard.
It's happening on Saturday, May 3, noon at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood. If you're in the area, come on out and sit in on the discussion. And if you're hanging around the vicinity tonight, check out some of the screenings and programs like Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn's Pretty To Think So, Alexi Tan's Blood Brothers, and Gina Kim's Never Forever. For more information about the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, visit the website here.
The photo above was recently snapped by a keen-eyed reader at a McDonald's in Durham, North Carolina. Best way to advertise your totally awesome "Asian Salad"? A stereotypical Asian chef caricature in your window, of course. At least he doesn't have buck-teeth. But dammit, just once, could someone draw an Asian person with some real frickin' eyes? That's racist! (Thanks, Daniel.)
Well, it's May, and we all know what that means. It's Asian Pacific Amercian Heritage Month! Whoo. Well, around here, it's APA Heritage Month every month, but I guess everywhere else it's been relegated to the month of May. So be it.
This year actually marks the 30th anniversary of the first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. The U.S. first celebrated the occasion in 1978, thanks to the efforts of Representatives Norman Mineta and Frank Horton, and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga. Now we've got the whole month dedicated to the celebration of our community and heritage.
Here's an informative statement from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, released yesterday:
CAPAC Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Washington, DC – Congressman Michael Honda (CA-15), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) released the following statement today in celebration of Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month, which takes place May of each year:
"Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is a time for us to take pride in the diversity of our nation, celebrate the contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islanders to this nation, and reaffirm our commit to the promise of America’s future for all Americans.
"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. Our country first celebrated this opportunity for reflection in 1978, thanks to the efforts of Representatives Norman Mineta and Frank Horton, and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga. Now an annual event, the month of May gives both Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and non-Asians around the nation a chance to celebrate the rich heritage of our community, reflect on the challenges overcome in our past, and look forward with hope and optimism toward our future.
"The first AAPI settlement in this country dates to 1763, when Filipinos escaped imprisonment aboard Spanish galleons and established a community near New Orleans. Chinese and Japanese immigrants likewise started communities in Hawai’i and California, where they sought labor and agricultural opportunities.
"From the time of these first settlements, AAPIs have experienced dual currents of discrimination and assimilation. In the difficult times, Asians were singled out for persecution by such acts as the Exclusion Laws of 1882 and 1924, and the Alien Land Act of 1913, which prohibited AAPI property ownership.
"From the legal fight against internment championed by Fred Korematsu, to the efforts in response to the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit, to the current fight for full benefits for the thousands of Filipinos who fought for our country during World War II, the national AAPI community has stood ready to rally for justice and equality.
"Rather than withdraw, grow embittered, or be cowed by discrimination, the AAPI community has embraced and actively participated in American society. In addition to the tireless commitment of many AAPI families to raise their children as positive contributors to their various communities – by investing in education, businesses, and opportunities for the future – individual AAPIs have distinguished themselves for their service and vision.
"This list of notables includes Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianole, who in 1903 became the first Native Hawai’ian and Pacific Islander to serve in Congress; Dalip Singh Saund, who in 1956 became the first Asian American elected to Congress; Hiram Leong Fong, who in 1959 became the first AAPI member of the United States Senate; and Patsy Mink, who forty-three years ago became the first Asian American woman elected to the Congress. Congresswoman Mink’s historical efforts for educational gender equity through Title IX continue to make us proud of our history.
"Today this legacy continues. Under the Clinton Administration, Secretary Norman Mineta became the first AAPI appointed to a cabinet-level position and is the first AAPI to be a cabinet member under two different administrations. Congressman Robert Matsui was a member of the Democratic leadership serving as the highest-ranking AAPI in congressional history. Congresswoman Matsui now carries on the great work of her late husband. Congresswoman Mazie Hirono of Hawai’i joined our CAPAC ranks last year. On the gubernatorial front, former governor of Washington State, Gary Locke, the first AAPI elected as governor on the mainland, commands national attention. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal followed suit last year, when he was elected as the first person of Indian descent to serve as governor of a state, and the first minority governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction.
"Today, we celebrate not only the individuals that have forged milestones throughout our proud history, but we also celebrate our growing community. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are a critical part of our nation’s growth and success. With more than 15 million Americans identifying themselves as Asian American or Pacific Islander, this community is one of the fastest growing in the United States. The individuals of this American community make up 16 major ethnic groups, speak over nine different languages in the U.S., and belong to a number of different religions and cultures. Their diversity reflects the richness and strength of our country.
"We are thankful to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and our current Democratic leadership, who have been vocal supporters of the AAPI community and recognize the contributions we have made and the struggles that continue.
"With increasing diversity, there are significant challenges due to cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic barriers. As Chair of the Congressional American Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), I am proud of the fierce advocacy of our Caucus members on important issues affecting the AAPI community. Through our CAPAC Task Forces, we have targeted such goals as eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities, protecting voting rights for racial, ethnic, and language minorities, enacting comprehensive immigration reform, fighting to create jobs, providing educational opportunities for the underserved, and ensuring full equity for the Filipino veterans who proudly served under the American flag during World War II. On the issue of the Filipino veterans, we have in the Senate, made great strides in securing the promised benefits for these brave veterans. Now is the time to fully recognize the services of these soldiers who fought for us in the Pacific theatre. I call on my colleagues in the House of Representatives to take urgent action and provide these veterans with the recognition and benefits they deserve.
"CAPAC has had the privilege to work with our colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Native American Caucus to advance the dialogue on these important issues.
"The many AAPI communities participating in this year’s APA Heritage Month should be proud of our diverse heritage. I look forward to continuing our work together as we remember where we have been and celebrate where we are going."
It's official—we're awesome. And we're celebrating it. All month.
This week in Honolulu, a group of Native Hawaiians locked the gates of Iolani Palace, the former home of Hawaiian royalty, and took over the grounds, saying they were reclaiming land of the Hawaiian monarchy that was stolen during the overthrow of the kingdom more than 100 years ago: Hawaiian sovereignty seekers take over palace grounds.
The group, Hawaiian Kingdom Government, said it would occupy the palace grounds—a major tourist attraction—indefinitely and start carrying out the business of what it considers "the legitimate government of the Hawaiian Islands." Unarmed security guards from the group blocked all gates to the palace. The group's leader, Mahealani Kahau, says the group does not recognize Hawaii as an American state, and had no intention of leaving the grounds.
But after more than six hours, the protesters agreed to end the blockade. No arrests were immediately made, but state officials said the protesters could still be charged. Protest leaders had said they were prepared to be arrested and would go peacefully.
I will not pretend to know where these people are coming from, but I understand the situation. And they need to do what they have to do. This is certainly a way of drawing attention to their cause. However, I'm not so sure it's going to be effective in achieving what they ultimately want.
All right, what is up, my playas? This is for all my people in Southern California. The 24th annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is on! Eight days dedicated to showcasing some of the best feature narratives, documentaries and shorts reflecting the visions and voices of Asian Pacific peoples and heritage. Here's a Los Angeles Times article on this year's festival: Evolution of L.A.'s Asian film festival.
Things kick off tonight the Opening Night presentation of Jessica Yu's indie sports comedy Ping Pong Playa. It's a fun film with a great cast and a lot of heart. here's the plot synopsis, according to the festival catalog:
PING PONG PLAYA Christopher “C-dub” Wang is a suburban guy who sports an urban swagger, waxes political on all things Asian American, and clings to pro basketball pipe dreams. Blaming genetics for his failure to make the NBA, C-dub squirms in the shadow of his older brother, Michael, a doctor and ping pong champion. With a family-run store devoted to ping pong and a mom who teaches it at the local Chinese Community Center, the Wangs’ entire world revolves around the sport. When his mom and Michael are hurt in a car accident, C-dub is forced to take over his mom's ping pong class of misfits. C-dub starts to appreciate the benefits of ping pong when he uses the class to make some extra money on the side and befriends one of the kids who happens to have a beautiful older sister. But when the family livelihood is threatened by a rival player's attempts to lure the kids away, C-dub begins to take things seriously. With the National Golden Cock Tournament coming up and an injured Michael unable to defend his title, C-dub must become the player he pretends to be and defend his family’s ping pong dynasty.
The cast and crew will be present at the screening tonight, including Jessica Yu, Jimmy Tsai, Roger Fan, Peter Paige, Scott Lowell, Smith Cho, Elizabeth Sung and Jim Lau, among others. Good times. It's all going down tonight, May 1 at the Directors Guild of America in West Hollywood.
The festival runs May 1-8, at locations around the city: the DGA, Laemmle's Sunset 5, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, Aratani/Japan American Theatre and Imaginasian Center. For more information, and to see the full schedule of events, visit the festival website here. Check out a program or two. You're gonna love it.
I've been seeing this series of idiotic commercials for Six Flags, featuring a barking, accented Asian man. There are a whole bunch of these commercials floating around, like the one above, and they're basically all the same—the crazy Asian man's head pops up to tell you what is fun (Six Flags) and what is not (i.e. puppet show). "More flags! More fun! Six Flags!"
It's no coincidence that this crazy dude happens to be an Asian man. The campaign was apparently designed specifically with an Asian guy in mind. A little while ago, I actually heard from one reader who went out on an audition for this commercial:
Recently there has been a Six Flags commercial where they show an Asian man randomly speaking in a stereotypical Engrish accent. I, in fact, did go to the audition for that a few months ago. The casting call said nothing about speaking in a fobby accent. When I got there, the casting guy said stuff like "think about those Charlie Chan movies" "talk like your grandfather." My grandfather was born in the United States! I was so disgusted that I left midway.
Charlie Chan? Your grandfather? What kind of ridiculous stereotyping is this? Because, you know, shouting Asian guys are funny. It kind of reminds of that Hot Pockets Dojo campaign from last year. It also reminds me quite a bit of that Banzai show from a couple of years back, the one where the bald Asian dude had a similar schtick. And we all know how awesome that was. That's racist! (Thanks, Douglas.)
Everybody's complaining about gas prices. Forget that. What about the price of rice? $38 for a 50-pound back of long-grain rice? Are you out of your mind? Because you know I need my rice. There has apparently been a crazy run on rice in Asian communities, which has sent prices soaring: A Run on Rice in Asian Communities.
Though federal officials say there is no rice shortage in the United States, but people seem to buying rice like we're running out, and stocking up in anticipation that the price will jump again. Across San Francisco, where a third of the population is of Asian descent, shopkeepers are apparently reporting that runs on rice have depleted their supplies. And it's driving the prices way up. It's like a crisis!
Meanwhile, yesterday the prime minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, said that his government would try to create a cartel of rice-producing countries in partnership with Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos: 5 Asian Nations Are Weighing a Rice Cartel. The five countries will help each other in trading rice on the world market. Kind of like OPEC, but with rice.
next week. It's not bad, kind of creepy.
