It seems that the Minneapolis Police Department is in the habit of giving out medals to officers for stupidity. You might remember the story about the Hmong family whose house got raided and shot up by a SWAT team last December.
Police apparently acted on some bad information from an informant and ended raiding the wrong house, expecting to find a violent gang member. Only this house was occupied by a family. With six children. And a concerned father wielding a shotgun.
35-year-old Vang Khang, believing the gunmen to be robbers, started shooting at the intruders. They fired back, unloading twenty-two bullets before Khang understood who the men were. When all was said and done, the city eventually apologized to the family for their error.
So this week, eight Minneapolis officers received medals in City Hall for their "valor" in the botched raid: Minneapolis police: A mistake, an apology and then medals. You've got to be kidding me. The officers were recognized for performing "bravely under gunfire and made smart decisions." That second part is what really kills me.
Meanwhile, one of Khang's kids apparently still has nightmares about the shooting and needs therapy. The family has since abandoned the house and can no longer afford to keep it. And these guys get medals. Something is seriously wrong in Minneapolis.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War. Yes, you read that right. The Civil War. The resolution represents the culmination of a five-year battle by Rep. Mike Honda to help correct the historical record: Historic AAPI Civil War Resolution Passes in Congress. According to the press release I received:
Historians have recently uncovered evidence that hundreds of soldiers of AAPI heritage fought on both the Union and Confederate sides, continuing a long tradition of significant AAPI contributions to the history of the United States since the Colonial Era. H. Res. 415 posthumously honors Edward Day Cohota and Joseph L. Pierce, both of Chinese ancestry, as examples of this overlooked group of men.
"The history of America would be totally different without the contributions of Asian Americans. From hard labor building the transcontinental railroad linking our coasts, to the academic contributions ranging from philosophy to medicine, Asian Americans have been an integral part of making our country great," said Rep. Mike Honda. "I am pleased that heroes such as Pierce and Cohota will finally take the place they deserve in our nation's memory."
The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 50 legislators from both parties, focuses on the actions of Cohota and Pierce, the two most widely documented AAPI Civil War soldiers. Cohota's comrades gave testimony of the seven bullet holes in his coat during the battle of Drury Bluff. Pierce fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, volunteering for a dangerous assault on Bliss Farm, a bloody no-man's land between the Union and Confederate armies. Both men were Union soldiers.
Despite the sacrifice of hundreds of men such as Pierce and Cohota, the bigoted laws of the day denied them the right to naturalize as U.S. Citizens. Honda said this resolution was the least that could be done to honor their memory.
"As a teacher and an educator of more than 30 years, I believe our students should learn about these exploits in their history books; they should learn that from the start our country's history has been rich in diversity," Honda said. "Also it is very important for our community to see their ancestors' contribution acknowledged. I thank groups such as the Chinese American Citizens Alliance and all my colleagues in Congress who made possible this long overdue resolution."
According to the Library of Congress, H. Res. 415 "recognizes the contributions made during the Civil War by soldiers of Asian and Pacific Islander descent" and posthumously "honors the two most documented of those soldiers, Edward Day Cohota and Joseph L. Pierce, for their distinguished and dedicated service." I remember reading about Asian soldiers in the Civil War, though I must admit, I don't know a whole lot about their stories or contributions. Fascinating. Some more information about Cohota and Pierce here.
Saw this on the AAA-Fund Blog... Check it out this ridiculously racist political cartoon from Rolling Stone. Offensive on so many levels. As much as I dislike John McCain, I don't think it's cool to make fun of his P.O.W. experience in Vietnam—that's despite his professed hatred for "the gooks."
But the cartoon goes even further to gook-ify the Obama, Bush and Clinton caricatures. I know it's trying to comment on the vilification of McCain's opponents, but was that really necessary? Thank you, Victor Juhasz. That's racist! You can send your comments to Rolling Stone at letters@rollingstone.com or (212) 484-1616.
What is up with Michelle Wie? This week, the young golf phenom skipped a major to play on the PGA Tour, which had a lot of her fellow competitors scratching their heads: Wie skips a major, and some wonder why.
Wie, who is managed by her parents, was listed in qualifying for the Women's British Open at Sunningdale. But she pulled out and instead has a sponsor's exemption for the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open at Reno, Nevada. She has yet to win on the women's tour and has never made the cut on the PGA Tour.
It's been a rough professional start for her, but lately she seems to be returning to form (scorecard mishap aside). I'm sure she has a lot of people giving her advice and telling her what to do... isn't anyone telling her she should concentrate on getting back in the game and winning?
Reminder to all you hip hop fans out there. The Asian Hip Hop Summit Tour 2008 kicks off this Friday, August 1st in Salt Lack City, Utah then makes stops in cities across the nation throughout the month of August. Even Bozeman, Montana. Featuring the emcee stylings of Dumbfounded, Chosen One, Lyraflip, Youthinasia and DJ Dstrukt. Yes, it's Asian American hip hop, and I think you're going to like it. For more information about the tour, go here. This website is a proud sponsor of the Asian Hip Hop Summit Tour.
This is a great Los Angeles Times story on Steven Kwon, who quit his job as a Nestle nutritionist and started a nonprofit, Nutrition & Education International, which gives thousands of farmers in Afghanistan a low-risk crop option: soybeans. Kwon has literally, singlehandedly introduced soybeans to Afghanistan: Pasadena retiree fights malnutrition in Afghanistan -- with soybeans.
The organization provides free soy seed, fertilizer and training to farmers and offers to buy the harvest. This takes away most of the farmers' risk, and most keep the soybeans as food for their families.
Over the last two years, 4,400 Afghan farmers in 15 provinces planted 80 tons of seed, resulting in a harvest of 2,000 tons. It's a lofty goal, but Kwon aims to eventually all but eliminate malnutrition in the country. Awesome. It's the power of the soybean.
Okay, I don't know if I'd go that far (is there a place to apply for such status?) but I think you can make a case that he has some cred in this area. As Rep. Mike Honda noted when he introduced the Senator at the event, Obama's family includes Asian Americans and he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. "The son of an immigrant, raised among AAPI's in Hawaii, Barack Obama understands the struggles of immigrants searching for an identity in America," he said.
Obama's 20-minute speech dwelled heavily on immigration and Asian-American issues, as well as his own background. Born in Hawaii, raised for a time in Indonesia, Obama said his first college roommates were Pakistani and Indian. "Most importantly," he said, "I have a sister who is half Indonesian, who is married to a Chinese Canadian. I don't know what that makes my niece."
Indeed, just as Toni Morrison referred to Bill Clinton as "our first black president" in The New Yorker in 1998, in his latest "Asian Pop" column for SFGate, Jeff Yang makes a similar case for our possible first real black president, only this time asking Could Obama be the first Asian American president?
I've never been a big fan of the 'all-my-friends-are-Asian-thus-I-am-Asian-too' line of reasoning, but I am definitely encouraged at the prospect of a President who has some semblance of understanding of my perspective, and where I'm coming from as an Asian American. It certainly beats the hell out of a candidate that would openly refer to someone as "the gooks."
Just a reminder for folks in the Bay Area... This weekend, check out a cool event for a good cause. Over twenty community and professional organizations are partering up with AsianWeek to present help: Benefit Concert for Burma and Sichuan, Saturday, August 2 at Glas Kat Nightclub in San Francisco. Watch a promotional video for the event here.
The event will feature American Idol semifinalist Paul Kim, Burmese-American singer Natalise, and local band Mud, performing a rare acoustic set. All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to UMCOR to provide food, water, and temporary shelter in the most devastated areas of Burma and Sichuan.
Purchase your tickets here. After Friday at 11:59 p.m. PT, tickets will only be available at the door (CASH ONLY) for $40, so make things easier by purchasing in advance. For more info about the concert, go here.
Lots of sketch comedy happening in L.A. this week... 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors ("the world's most psychotic Asian American comedy troupe") presents the world premiere of "Just Like White People," an all new sketch comedy show that is "SAVAGELY FUNNY yet STRANGELY CIVILIZED." I have no idea what that means, but I like it. Come see:
* Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall's lesser known colleague, uh.. What-cha-ma-callit, who studied the crappy Asian ape, the orangutang, while Dian and Jane studied the more glamorous African apes. * The "Ancient Chinese secret" ingredient to all that great Chinese food! * Who saved the most Jews? Oskar Schindler, Chiune Sugihara or Feng Shan Ho? And who won the most Oscars? *If Japanese are the "Germans of the East," and Koreans are the "Irish of the East," then WHAT THE HECK ARE CHINESE AND FILIPINOS? * The great SECRET of SHAKESPEARE! *And MORE! (Note: Suggested for mature audiences!
Written and performed by Junko Goda, Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle, Kennedy Kabasares, Jully Lee, Greg Watanabe and Peter J. Wong. The show runs for a four week limited run, Thursday through Sunday, August 1-24 at The Complex (Ruby Theater) in Santa Monica. For more information, visit the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors website at 18mmw.com.
Meanwhile, Charles from the Asian American sketch comedy troupe OPM (Opening People's Minds) informs me that they'll be performing this weekend at the second annual benefit festival, Tia Chucha's Celebration of Community & Culture, along with a really awesome lineup headlined by Cheech Marin. Sunday, July 3 at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Not only will they be the only sketch comedy group there, they're the only APA group with a multicultural cast and material—all in a predominantly Latino event. Pretty cool. To learn more about the event and OPM, visit the troupe's website here.
And finally, Project Newspeak's The Sketch Comedy Show presents its second annual show this Sunday, August 3 at the historic David Henry Hwant Theater in Little Tokyo. The comedy stage show is a combination of live acts and filmed shorts from a lively group of players. Special guests include comedian and Hollywood Laugh Factory regular, Danny Cho, and singer/songwriter Big Phony, along with guest performers Roger Fan, Dante Basco, Kaila Yu and Karin Anna Cheung. Sounds like a fun time. For more information, go here.
This is really cool animated title sequence for BBC Sports' Olympics coverage, based on the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West, and produced by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the guys behind the virtual band Gorillaz: BBC Sport's Olympics Monkey. You definitely won't see NBC doing anything remotely as cool as this...
That said, along similar lines, here's also a very interesting piece from the Washington Post on the West's fascination and love for all things China. Not the modern, bustling, contemporary nation China is trying to show the world, but the romantic, mysterious, exotic China of the past: We're Still in Love With The Romance of the Past.
It's Shark Week! Everybody loves Shark Week. And Survivor: Cook Islands winner Yul Kwon is getting in on the action. Because he is a badass, dangerous dude. Tonight, he co-hosts the show How Not To Become Shark Bait on the Discovery Channel. Here's the description from the Discovery Channel website:
HOW NOT TO BECOME SHARK BAIT Premiering Tuesday, July 29, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Sharks may have a bad reputation, but you actually have a very slim chance of being attacked by one. A thrill-seeking team with a purpose -- escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, former lawyer turned Survivor: Cook Islands winner and adrenaline junkie Yul Kwon, marine biologist Jeremiah Sullivan and scientist Dr. Marty Jopson -- travel to the Bahamas to test shark attraction theories on lemon, tiger and Caribbean reef sharks, focusing on the sensory perception of sharks including colors, vibrations, smells and other attractors. In the process, viewers learn strategies for staying safe when in the water.
Yul is currently in Korea, and writes this in an email about the program: "I won't be able watch it until I get home next week, so please don't ruin the ending for me (if I get devoured, I'll be bummed)." Indeed, we'd all be bummed. The show airs tonight at 10:00pm ET/PT.
The factory, in Queens—which made women's apparel for Banana Republic, the Gap, Macy's, Urban Apparel and Victoria's Secret—apparently handed out instructions to its workers telling them to give false answers about working conditions when government inspectors visited.
The factory, Jin Shun, sometimes required its 100 employees to work seven days a week, sometimes for months in a row, and cheated its workers out of $5.3 million. The case made by the State Labor Department against Jin Shun is one of the biggest involving back pay that it has ever brought.
According to state officials, most employees, virtually all of them Chinese immigrants, were paid just $250 when they worked their typical 66-hour, six-day weeks, amounting to $3.79 an hour, far below the state's $7.15-an-hour minimum wage. They received more when they were required to work seven-day weeks.
Yes, my friends, that cute little Banana Republic sweater set you bought was made from the sweat of a 66-hour, $3.79/hour workweek.
Harold and Kumar fans, you've got another reason to rejoice. Not only does the hit sequel Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay hit DVD shelves this week, Variety reports that the pot-smoking Korean/Indian American comedic duo will be back for a third installment. Yes. A H&K trilogy: 'Harold & Kumar' set for third puff.
Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg will return to write and direct the movie, and of course, John Cho and Kal Penn are expected to reprise their hit roles (the option was in their contracts). No details on the story. My only questions is, will NPH be back?
I suppose it was inevitable. The series thus far—particularly Guantanamo Bay—has been pretty successful, made with a relatively low budget, and earning a consideratible return at the box office. So it's no suprise they'd return to the well. Where will this next adventure take them? I like both Harold and Kumar movies, but did we really need a third one? No. But hey, why the hell not?
A lot of readers sent me this New York Times story last week: My Son, the Blogger: An M.D. Trades Medicine for Apple Rumors. It's a profile on blogger Arnold Kim, who runs the Apple-centric gossip/news site MacRumors.com. The blog started as a hobby eight years ago, but became so lucrative and successful—it now attracts more than 4.4 million visitors a month—he quit his day job practicing medicine and started blogging full time. How freaking cool is that? Sorry, Mom and Dad. I'm quitting the doctor thing to be a blogger! I love it.
Last week, the San Francisco Giants called up Filipino American relief pitcher Geno Espineli from Triple-A to big leagues: Triple-A manager gives bad news and good news. The Giants purchased his contract and placed struggling reliever Keiichi Yabu on the disabled list with a sprained middle finger on his right hand.
Espineli has had a whirlwind couple of weeks, first pitching for the victorious Pacific Coast League in the Triple-A All-Star Game, then being named to the Olympic team before getting his first big-league call (he was drafted by the Giants in 2004). Now it's unclear whether he'll play in Beijing next month... but it's still pretty cool news.
For theater fans in Chicago, check out Philip Kan Gotanda's The Wind Cries Mary, an Asian American adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. Set in San Francisco, with a backdrop of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement and the Women's Liberation movement, the play tackles Asian American political and civil rights themes of the late 1960s.
The play runs from August 1-24, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 2:00pm. It's directed by Ghuon 'Max' Chung, and features Patrick Doolin, Marssie Mencotti, Mia Park, Allen Hope Sermonia, Joe Yau and Helen Young. All performances are at City Lit Theater in Chicago. General admission is $18, students and seniors $15 and groups of 10 or more at $12.
The Wind Cries Mary is produced by A-Squared Theatre Workshop, the only workshop in Chicago dedicated to the Asian American experience. For more information about the play and its Chicago run, including ticket and venue info, go to A-Squared's Myspace profile here.
Last week in Los Angeles, a jury found former city commissioner Leland Wong guilty of public corruption: Leland Wong convicted on 14 felony corruption counts. Wong, an apppointee of former Mayor James K. Hahn, and a longtime member of the city's volunteer commissions overseeing city contracts, was found guilty on 14 felony counts, and not guilty of seven other corruption charges.
The most significant verdict involved the charge that Wong received $100,000 in bribes in a secret Hong Kong account from Ren-Gung Shyu, executive vice president of Taipei-based Evergreen Marine Corp. The payment was an enticement to get the giant Taiwanese shipping line more space at the Port of Los Angeles. In exchange, Wong exerted his influence as a member of the city's airport commission in order to benefit the firm.
Wong is a second-generation Chinese American raised in Los Angeles' Chinatown who rose to low-profile positions of power. Wong curried enough political favor with L.A. mayors Tom Bradley, Richard Riordan and James K. Hahn to serve for nearly 14 continuous years on the biggest city commissions. He now faces a potential sentence of more than 10 years. Busted.
Thank you to everyone who entered last week's Big Fat DVD Giveaway contest. The response was really positive and overwhelming. A lot of you out there apparently like free stuff. To enter, you were asked to do a little research on The Director's Chair website and answer the following questions:
1. In addition to numerous independent Asian American films, veteran filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed several big-budget Hollywood movies. Name the one starring Jennifer Lopez. ANSWER: Maid in Manhattan.
2. In what city did director Ron Morales shoot his debut feature Santa Mesa? ANSWER: Manila.
3. In addition to directing the indie drama Never Forever, Gina Kim has taught as a visiting lecturer at what ivy-league university. Name the school. ANSWER: Harvard University.
We have a winner! Drawn at random from the correct entries. And the lucky name is... Daniel C. of San Jose, California. He wins DVD copies of Finishing the Game, Journey From the Fall, American Pastime, Colma: The Musical and Undoing, as well as a whole bunch of other DVDs I have laying around. Congratulations, Daniel. Enjoy. Everyone else, better luck next time.
Greetings! This weekend, I made the trek to San Diego to attend the one and only 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, where thousands upon thousands of fellow fanboys gathered to worship the forces of pop culture geekness. This was my first time at Comic-Con, and it was truly an overwhelming, eye-opening experience. This was madness. This was Comic-Con...
This is artist Adrian Tomine, the guy behind Optic Nerve, signing at the Drawn and Quarterly booth. He autographed my copy of Shortcomings. I think I might've suprised him when I took this picture.
This Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot fame. He's a true Comic-Con veteran, having done it for like twelve years or something. I ran into him pretty early on, and he gave me some advice: make sure you eat some lunch at Comic-Con, or you might forget and you'll be a mess by the end of the day. Words of wisdom.
Hey, it's actor Parry Shen, helping to promote the indie sci-fi action movie he's in, The Gene Generation. He's holding the tie-in comic book, The DNA Hacker Chronicles. Parry was also scoping out talent among the convention's many comic artists to recruit for his Asian American superhero anthology, Secret Identities, due out in Spring 2009.
I finally got to meet Gene Luen Yang, author of one of my favorite books, American Born Chinese, who turned out to be a really cool guy. He told me for his next project, he's teaming up with Derek Kirk Kim, author of Same Difference—another one of my favorite books. I can't wait!
This is artist Benton Jew, who does comic books and movie storyboards, among other things. I actually wasn't very familiar with his work, but I'd come across his blog a couple of times. I came across his table when I was perusing the artists' aisle, and his sign caught my eye. Couldn't forget a name like that.
Ryan Suda was holding down the Blacklava booth, giving convention-goers some Asian American t-shirt pride. I'm diggin' the new BARACK design. He told a good number of folks actually picked up the Nobody Loves an Angry Asian Man shirt. Go Comic-Con.
Here's cartoonist/actress Lela Lee, rockin' her Angry Little Asian Girl wares in the autograph room. Unlike Lou Ferrigno, she wasn't charging thirty bucks to take a photo of/with her. She's a really cool lady. Now I kind of regret not buying that lunchbox.
Got to meet comic book artist Bernard Chang, who is a fan and reader of this blog. We've corresponded over the years, and he's even sent me some of his work, so it was nice to finally meet in person. He hooked me up with a couple of issues of Wonder Woman, which he recently did the art for. Good stuff.
I managed to make it into the very popular Lost panel, along with about 6500 other conventioneers. This show has crazy fans. During the Q & A, the first question asked concerned the fates of Jin and Locke—will they be back? Without giving much away, producer Carlton Cuse said that Daniel Dae Kim would indeed be back next season. He didn't really elaborate, except to say that "Death is a relative term" on Lost. Indeed.
I also attended the Terminator Salvation panel, giving an early look at next summer's new Terminator movie. No, Arnold will not be back. But Christian Bale stars as John Connor, leader of the human resistance. Mainly, I wanted a glimpse of co-star Moon Bloodgood, who is just super-gorgeous. Unfortunately, from my seat waaaaaay in the back, this shot of the jumbotron was the best I could get.
Back on the convention floor, John Cho and Kal Penn were hanging around to promote the DVD release of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. A camera crew was interviewing them up on this tower thing, and every time they turned around to look down, the crowd went crazy. Lots of random fools yelling "Kumaaaar!" And yes, that's a unicorn.
Finally, I came across this very cool special edition Heroes action figure of Future Hiro from season one, complete with Kensei sword and Masi Oka facial hair. A Comic-Con exclusive. I wanted to buy it, but it was pretty late in the convention, my wallet was getting thin, and I couldn't bring myself to drop $30 on an action figure. So I exercised some restraint. But now I'm looking for it online, and the damn thing is going for fifty bucks! Rookie mistake. Excuse me now as I recover from the madness.
So long, Supreme Soul. All things considered, it sucked to see them in the bottom two, and they certainly didn't deserve to go home—especially with the killer performance that they gave this week. But the competition is whittling down and getting tough, and they were up against Super Cr3w, who aren't going anywhere just yet. If it were up to me, Boogie Bots are going home next. Once again, here are videos of my three favorite crews:
Super Cr3w. A good performance, though certainly not their best.
SoReal Cru. These kids are always a lot of fun to watch. But I'm a little tired of the "my-parents-don't-approve-of-my-dancing" package they seem to run every other week. I know they're trying to go for a good story, but after a while it just gets a little tired.
Fanny Pak. Unfortunately, one of their weaker performances. Seems like this challege was a hindrance to a lot of the crews' routines. Way too many props going on. Fanny Pak usually rocks with the props, but this time it didn't work too well in their favor. Here's hoping their back in form next time. In the end though, at this point in the competition, I'd honestly be happy with any of these three crews going all the way.
The season four finale of Lost had a lot of people freaking out over the possible death of Jin. Is he really dead? Was that the end of his story? A death that happens offscreen isn't necessarily a true death, right? We can hold out with the hope that on Lost, nothing is ever as it seems. It's just that kind of show.
Indeed, there was a glimmer of hope at last week's Television Critics Association Press Tour, Lost producer Carlton Cuse droppped the hint that we will see more of Daniel Dae Kim in series "in some form." What does that mean? What the hell does that mean?! Cryptic, and true to the show. Perhaps we'll find out more this weekend at the big Lost panel at Comic-Con. Stay tuned.
Last week in Oakland, the City Council approved a deal to pay $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by sixteen Asian American women who said a former Oakland police officer, Richard Valerga, groped or sexually harassed them: Oakland will pay $2 million settlement in police groping suit.
We've actually been following this case for several years. This will be the second payment Oakland has made to settle claims involving Valerga, who resigned from the police department in 2005. Oakland paid a $190,000 settlement to two other women in 2006 to settle similar claims. Yeah, the sicko has a serious problem.
Valerga also faced criminal charges in 2005. He pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor civil rights violations. He was sentenced in 2006 to three years probation and six months in jail. This guy sexually targets Asian American women, abuses his authority as an officer of law... and that's all he got. A slap on the wrist. Ridiculous.
A quick wrap-up of last weekend's closing celebration at the Asian American International Film Festival... A the Closing Night Awards Ceremony, AAIFF announced the winners of its Festival Awards. Hosted by Ping Pong Playa co-writer/co-producer/star Jimmy Tsai, with awards presented by director Jessica Yu, actress Michelle Krusiec and actor Ken Leung, the event wrapped up the festival's successful 31st year. Here's the list of winners:
AAIFF08 Award Winners
Emerging Director Award in Narrative Feature HALF-LIFE Dir. Jennifer Phang
Emerging Director Award in Documentary Feature AGAINST THE GRAIN: AN ARTIST'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING PERU Dir. Ann Kaneko
AAIFF08 Audience Award~Narrative Feature KISSING COUSINS Dir. Amyn Kaderali
AAIFF08 Audience Award~Documentary Feature WINGS OF DEFEAT Dir. Risa Morimoto
In addition, the The One to Watch Award, open to all films made by youth in the For Youth By Youth program was granted to Lou Nakasako for his film Batman Not Chinese. Nathan Kitada was named the winner of AAIFF's 8th Screenplay Competition for his screenplay Citizen Kim. For more information about these winning films, check out the festival website here. Also be sure to check out the special podcasts recorded last week at the festival panels. It's good stuff. See you next year!
Gothamist reports on Alessi's Mandarin Citrus Juicer, that pesky kitchen item shaped like a stereotypical Asian caricature, right down to the slanty eyes: Pinkberry Mandarin Citrus Juicer Sparks Outrage. It's been recently spotted at various Pinkberry yogurt locations, where they display comparably "cute" household design items as decor and for sale.
Anger over the Mandarin Juicer prompted some folks to start the Drop the Juicer campaign, which actually appears to be successful. Gothamist notes that Pinkberry claims that the Juicer is now being removed from all Pinkberry stores. Of course, this doesn't mean the Mandarin Juicer will ever really go away.
Longtime readers will remember Alessi's Juicer actually first showed up on these pages about six or seven years ago. It sparked outrage back then too, and after some bad publicity, it seemed like they were being pulled from store shelves... only to pop up again recently at Pinkberry.
The Juicers are like cockroaches. The damn things don't ever seem to die. They just live on to inspire more stupid racist products like this one and this one.
For those of you in Southern California looking for something to do this weekend, check out Ron Oda and Kris Chin's Asian Stories, opening this Friday, July 25 for a one-week run at the ImaginAsian Center.
It's this fun, quirky indie feature that manages to get a lot of laughs out of a very simple production. Which is nice way of saying it looks like they had a low-ass budget, and it ain't bad for what it is. The movie was a surprise hit on the Asian American film festival circuit a couple of years back, and it's finally getting a brief theatrical release, followed by a DVD. Here's the story:
I'll admit, when Asian Stories first started popping up at film festivals, I was a little apprehensive. I hadn't heard anything about it, and to be honest, the story didn't sound all that appealing. And of course, there's the title. Asian Stories is bad enough, but throughout the film's festival run it was called Asian Stories (Book 3). Even worse. It was a hard sell.
But I ended up checking it out, and had surprisingly a really great time. It's far from perfect, but it's a silly movie, with some really funny jokes and a likeable, engaging cast that includes James Kyson Lee (Heroes) and Kathy Uyen. It's a pretty good movie to watch with a big, enthusiastic crowd. Not so fun to watch in an empty theater. So check it out...
On Friday, stars James Kyson Lee, Kathy Uyen, Kirt Kishita, director Ron Oda, and other cast and crew members will attend opening night and will be on hand for a Q & A after the 7:15pm screening. For more information about the theatrical run, visit the ImaginAsian website here For more information about Asian Stories, including the trailer, go here.
Some more Vice Presidential buzz surrounding Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal... John McCain is apparently set to meet with Jindal this week during a trip to New Orleans, according to sources close to the campaign: McCain To Meet With Jindal.
While Jindal has continually expressed that he's not interested in the VP job, we seem to keep coming back to this. As much as the recently-elected governor wants to take care of business in his state, if the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee comes calling, you hear him out.
The meeting with Jindal suggests that McCain is deeply engaged in the process of picking a running-mate, and Jindal—widely touted as the future of the Republican party—is under serious consideration. Could this actually happen? Could we actually be looking at the possiblity of an Indian American nominee for Vice President of the United States?
Let's face it, if McCain picked Jindal it would have a huge impact, not only the race but for the re-branding of the GOP. Jindal would put a whole new face on a party that is widely seen by voters as controlled by old white men. I've recently gone from thinking "no way in hell" to "wow, this could actually happen." We will see.
Entertainment Weekly recently published a gallery of photos in anticipation of this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, where studios will unveil photos, footage and other information from various geek-related genre movies. Among them: Ninja Assassin, directed by James McTeigue, produced by the Wachowski Brothers, and starring South Korea's pop superstar savior, Rain. That's him above, looking like he's had a very bad day. Here are some plot details:
Ninja Assassin will center on, "Raizo (Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them...and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge."
We know a few things about the movie so far. We know that it may or may not be the long-awaited big screen adaptation of the anime film Ninja Scroll. We know that veteran comics/screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski took a shot at draft of the script (and apparently wrote the damn thing in 53 hours). We know that Rick Yune was cast back in May as Rain's rival. We know that Sung Kang and Sho Kosugi are also in the movie.
We don't know, however, if it's going to be any good. The Wachowski Brothers, once considered the best thing to happen to Hollywood after films like Bound and The Matrix, have sort of floundered in recent years. Speed Racer flopped hard, and turned out to be a poor launching pad for what was supposed to be Rain's crossover party. Could Ninja Assassin be the Wachowski's last chance to redeem themselves? Will it be the big stateside splash that Rain has been waiting for? I don't know. But any movie featuring a bloody, barefoot guy holding two big-ass swords is worth taking a look at, in my book.
Just heard about this new book, The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin. The book challenges the idea that most Asian Americans are relatively untouched by racism or focused on issues related to equity. Based on field interviews nationwide, the book describes the Asian American experience in schools, colleges, the workplace and public discourse.
Here's an interesting interview from Inside Higher Ed with co-author Rosalind S. Chou, who responded email questions about the book's findings about college students: The Myth of the Model Minority.
I know there's been a lot of attention and scrutiny on Asian American college students lately, in the media and elsewhere. I guess it's a hot topic right now. But to a lot of us, these issues are really nothing new. We know this is happening, and we're trying to do something about it.
For others—including many Asian Americans, believe it or not—this book is probably going to be eye-opening. Maybe even the title will come off as provocative. Surprise! Asians face racism too! Who knows? I haven't read it yet. The book will available on August 30. For more information, go here.
My man Jack informs me that No Regret, the groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed gay love story from South Korea, hits select theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, July 25. Directed by controversial and openly gay filmmaker Leesong Hee-il, it's described as "a classic romance interwoven with the realistic depiction of class conflict and contemporary Korean gay life." Here's the official synopsis:
NO REGRET marks the first true gay film from Korea, centers on Sumin (Lee Young-Hoon), a poor 18 year-old orphan who seeks his fortune in the bright lights of Seoul. After losing a series of jobs, he is forced to work as a prostitute in a gay karaoke bar. A wealthy and powerful industrialist, Jaemin, (Lee Han) falls passionately in love with the boy and seduces him. Their relationship soon begins to interfere with Jaemin's pending nuptials and his promotion to a high-profile job at his father’s company. Vengeful after becoming ignored, Sumin sets off on a destructive course of action that brings the film to a powerful and emotional moment of truth. "No Regret" is as uplifting and bittersweet as it is compelling and surprising.
I haven't had the chance to check it out, but I'm told by several people who have seen it that it's quite good. Without a doubt, something very different coming out of South Korea. It opens at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood and the Cinema Village in New York, with more cities to follow. To learn more about the film, visit the website here.
This weekend, the center of the geek universe is in San Diego for Comic-Con 2008, the annual ultimate gathering of all things comic book/sci-fi/fantasy/ movie-related. There will be a lot going on, but for now I just wanted to inform you of a couple of film screenings happening tomorrow. Particularly, the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. There are actually quite a few films this year involving Asian American talent.
Good reader William Lu informs me that his short action flick ATF: Asian Task Force will be screening on Thursday, July 24, 1:15-2:05pm in Room 26AB at the Convention Center. If you're going to be at Comic-Con, William is actually offering a free limited edition "ATF" embroidered patches for those who attend the screening. You just have to utter the password "angryasian" to him after the screening. Ooh, secret.
Tran Quoc Bao's Bookie will also be playing in the same program. This has been one of my favorite shorts on this year's film festival circuit. I highly recommend checking it out, either Comic-Con or at a future festival screening.
This Japanese movie poster for the upcoming live-action Dragonball movie recently hit the web. Is it just me, or does this movie look absolutely ridiculous? Personally I prefer the poster that Disgrasian posted last month: Kind of nails it on the head, don't ya think? With every little bit of art and information that comes about this movie, I get a worse feeling. Disaster is coming. You can just feel it. And it's not just the fact that Justin Chatwin is Goku. This is a story that's just not going to translate well to live-action. We've got another Speed Racer-sized flop in the making... and it's going to be baaaaad.
An update on the plight of Juana Tejada. She's a live-in caregiver from the Philippines who applied for landed immigrant status in Canada, having completed all the requirements, only discover during the application process that she had terminal cancer. Thus, the government denied her application due to the financial burden it would put on the health care system. Ridiculous!
Good news, though. Alex informs me that after rejecting her twice, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada has given in to public pressure and has finally allowed her and her husband the right to apply for landed immigrant status: Nanny battling terminal cancer gets reprieve. Perhaps now she and her family can focus their strength on more serious matters... like battling cancer.
Last week in Denver, a federal grand jury returned a 109-count indictment charging 27 members and associates of the "Asian Pride" street gang with conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute and distribution of the drug ecstasy: 27 Members and Associates of Denver 'Asian Pride' Street Gang Indicted.
The arrests were the culmination of a two-and-a-half year investigation by Denver's Metro Gang Task Force into the Asian Pride gang, who are accused of distributing hundreds of thousands of ecstasy tablets in the Denver area.
Okay, first of all, who the hell calls themselves "Asian Pride"? Secondly, seriously, who calls themselves "Asian Pride"? What kind of gang name is that? I shake my head at that. At least they didn't call themselves AZN PrYd. Rest assured, Denver has rid itself of ecstasy. Just in time for the DNC next month. Sorry, it's not that kind of party.
This is a funny cartoon commenting on idiot frat boy Cubs fans who wear stupid, offensive apparel to "honor" Japanese player Kosuke Fukudome. I'm sure White Sox fans got a kick out of this. (Thanks, Derfman.)
Well, John Woo's highly-anticipated Red Cliff, the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made, finally arrived in theaters in Asia, receiving generally positive reviews. After completing an undertaking like that, what do you do next?
Variety reports that Woo will direct the movie adaptation of the comic book Caliber, to be unveiled this week at San Diego Comic-Con. The story apparently sets the legend of King Arthur and his knights as 19th century gunslingers in the Pacific Northwest: John Woo fires off 'Caliber'. I imagine it will involve lots of guns.
However, Caliber won't be Woo's next film. He's stil busy editing part two of Red Cliff (the long-ass epic was split into two parts) for a January release in Asia, as well as a shorter, one-part international version to be released shortly thereafter.
For years, we've heard about a ton of projects that Woo has been attached to direct or produce—everything from Spy Hunter to He-Man—and none of them have really gone anywhere yet. His previously announced projects include 1949, a period romance set during the Chinese Revolution, and a remake of the 1969 French crime drama The Sicilian Clan.
But the project I'm most interested in seeing from John Woo is The Divide, the story of a Chinese laborer working on America's transcontinental railroads in the 19th century. I think John Woo needs to slim down his workload and get cracking on this project, either as director or producer... This is a story that has been neglected far too long, and needs to be told!
Take a look at Jeff Chiba Stearns' animated experimental piece, Yellow Sticky Notes, one of favorite short films from this year's festival circuit. It's entertaining, moving, autobiographical glimpse into the scattered mind of a cartoonist. You have to admire the work that went into creating the piece (only a black ink pen and over 2300 yellow sticky notes!), as well as Stearns' honesty in reflecting on the events of his life. Take a look.
The O.C. Weekly has a lengthy story on the brutal 1996 murder of Thien Minh Ly, and the troubled, hate-filled man who committed the vicious act: When Gunner Jay Lindberg Killed Thien Minh Ly, Was It Actually a Hate Crime?. Twelve years later, a key question about the murder is now the subject of debate. In coming weeks, the California Supreme Court will announce if Ly was really the victim of a hate crime. For the killer, Gunner Jay Lindberg—the first person Orange County sent to San Quentin State Prison's death row under California's hate-crime statute—the decision is a matter of life and death.
A quick-tempered box stocker at a Tustin Kmart with a penchant for picking fights with Asians, African-Americans and Latinos—anyone, really—Lindberg didn't graduate from high school and possessed few social skills but was artistically gifted. He'd converted both a white 2.5-pound Gourmet's Choice fruit container and a cardboard San Francisco 49ers checkers box into storage for his marijuana stash after redecorating them with swirling, hand-drawn psychedelic images of anger, death and Hitler. If pot soothed other people's minds, it only fueled Lindberg's fantasies of becoming, he wrote, "the king of all evil and distruction [sic]."
Lindberg, who also took methamphetamines, never lived up to his narcissistic imagination. During an eight-year crime spree beginning at age 12, he proved himself to be little more than a thug who preyed on the defenseless. His victims included a cop's 11-year-old son, whom he chased and shot in the throat with a BB gun; a day laborer, whom he attacked with a tree limb for the money in his pocket; a skateboarder, whom he repeatedly kicked in the stomach as he stole the board; the peers he angrily chased, firing a shotgun, over a perceived slight; an on-duty prison guard, whom he brutally ambushed; and an elderly woman, whom he pummeled during a home-invasion robbery for drug money.
Minutes later, they found and trapped the unsuspecting Ly, whose last seven minutes of life were the stuff of horror flicks. Lindberg called him a "Jap," demanded his car keys, cursed him, punched him, stomped on his head, kicked his face, slashed his throat and stabbed him 22 times—in part, to celebrate a victory earlier that evening by what Lindberg hailed as "America's team," the Dallas Cowboys.
Among Ly's final words were "What the fuck?"
According to the article, Lindberg's days are now filled with "exercising, writing pen pals, creating art, playing chess, daydreaming about Nordic lore and writing satanic poems that mock Ly's death." I'm not an attorney, but I have a hard time seeing how this wasn't hate crime. The story makes note of the abundance of racist and pro-Nazi art and paraphernalia in Lindberg's possession, as well as the letter he wrote to his cousin detailing how he "killed a Jap"—the letter that ultimately led authorities to him. It goes on and on. This guy is crazy psycho racist.
But during supreme court oral arguments last month, Lindberg's defense argued that two special circumstances the jury found to be true—that the murder was committed during the commission of an attempted robbery and that Ly's race was a key factor in the crime—were, in fact, false, and the death penalty punishment must be overturned. Among his arguments, he told the justices that the evidence presented at trial "did not establish that Lindberg possessed a racial bias," did not prove that he hated Asians or "murdered Ly because of his race."
The article tries to delve into Lindberg's past and upbringing, trying to make sense of what could drive a young person to hold such hateful views and commit such a heinous act of violence. Again, I don't know the minutiae of the law, but it's pretty clear to me that this guy had a lot of hate in his heart, and wanted to inflict as much pain as possible. Thien Minh Ly was a tragic target of Lindberg's mindless, senseless hate.
In the end, none of this can be of much comfort to Ly's family. He was a smart, likeable guy with a bright future and career ahead of him. I remember first learning about this case in the late 1990s when I saw the film Letters to Thien. It was a sober reminder that hate crimes and racially-motivated violence can and still occur, in an instant and without reason.
I recently got turned on to the music of Nashville-based singer/songwriter Steve Lee. So far, his claim to fame is an album of indie-pop kids songs, What Did You Do Today, Stephen Scott Lee?, and damn, it's great.
The album, which takes you through the day in the young life of kid Steve, is cool adventure of fun, catchy tunes. (I love "Grab A Balloon.") At times, it sounds a bit reminiscent of Wilco and Barenaked Ladies. He's a regular dude who happened to write a bunch of kids songs (to impress a girl, apparently). And it's good stuff. You can download it from iTunes or Amazon.com, or buy it directly from his MySpace.
His upcoming album is apparently titled Greatest Animal Hits, a continuation of the first record with a few adult-themed songs kicked in. He's actually got an autobiographical song about being Asian, entitled "Say Herro." Funny stuff. Can't wait to hear the rest. Here's an interview with Steve in KoreAm Journal from earlier this year: Steve Lee - Strummin' tunes for the kid at heart.
Calling all independent film producers in New York... Here's some information about a cool seminar for folks interested in learning some tips and strategies for producing, led by Karin Chien, veteran producer behind independent films like Robot Stories, The Motel and Undoing. Here are the details:
FILMMAKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: SMART STRATEGIES FOR INDEPENDENT PRODUCING Instructor: Karin Chien
Ideal for novices, experienced producers, and anyone who's ever asked:
a) How do I choose the right projects? b) What should this script really cost to make? c) What is the best distribution offer for my film? d) Should I just do it myself?
What does it mean to be an independent film producer today? This seminar examines the most important personal and professional decisions that every producer will face.
We'll address key processes of building relationships, achieving sustainability and making decisions, while discussing strategies for financing, distribution, closing deals, choosing projects, and determining budgets. You'll learn best practices and hear hard-won knowledge. The seminar will include an open Q+A session and conclude with a networking mixer.
Date: Saturday, July 26, 2008 Time: 10am - 6pm Location: TBD in NYC
Price: $215 Regular Registration, $185 Early Registration by July 18 (For Angry Asian Man readers, Wednesday, July 23rd)
To Register contact: Karen Lin 323-610-2413, karen@zuzufilms.com
You read that correctly—Angry Asian Man readers get the early registration rate if you register by Wednesday, July 23. I'm told that the seminar was quite a hit when they ran it back in May. Here's your chance to get some really good producing advice from someone who's been there.
The Washington Post has a transcript from a fan chat with actor Michael Paul Chan, who plays Lt. Mike Tao in TNT's drama The Closer. He's one of those Asian American actors who's been in the business for years, toiling away in all sorts of stereotypical Asian roles that Hollywood threw at him. Personally, I remember him best as Data's father in The Goonies. It's nice to see him finally playing a regular, likeable guy in The Closer. Anyway, read the chat transcript here.
The filmmakers behind Vincent Who?, a documentary examining the impact of the historic Vincent Chin murder case, are looking for images from the era to include in the film. The watershed case was a defining moment for the Asian American community, and they're looking for any kind of images/footage that demonstrate the diverse, national movement behind the case—fundraisers, rallies, meetings or anything from around the country would be great. Here are some details:
SEEKING IMAGES FROM VINCENT CHIN
VINCENT WHO? (48 minutes) - In 1982, Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments. For the first time, Asian Americans around the country galvanized to form a real community and movement. If you have any photos or images from this time period (1982-1987), we would appreciate speaking with you! Please contact us at curtischin@aol.com.
This documentary, inspired by a series of town halls organized by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress on the 25th anniversary of the case, features interviews with the key players at the time, as well as a whole new generation of activists. "Vincent Who?" asks how far Asian Americans have come since then and how far we have yet to go. Featured interviews include: Helen Zia (lead activist during the Chin trial), Renee Tajima Pena (director, "Who Killed Vincent Chin?"), Stewart Kwoh (Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center), Lisa Ling (journalist), Sumi Pendakur (Univ. of Southern California), Dale Minami (civic rights attorney), Doua Thor (Executive Director, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center) and a group of five diverse young APA activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin.
Producer and co-director Curtis Chin (featured in the documentary) is an award-winning writer and producer who has worked for ABC, NBC, Disney Channel and more. As a community activist, he co-founded the Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Pacific Americans for Progress. Co-director Tony Lam is a writer, producer, and director based in Los Angeles. A former Fulbright scholar, he currently produces "Our Role Models" on LA18, where he has interviewed over 100 outstanding leaders and talents in the Asian American community.
Presented by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress in association with Tony Lam Films and Q & A Pictures.
As I've said many times before, learning about this case was an important, defining moment in developing my own political awareness and identity as Asian American activist. Without a doubt, Christine Choy and Renee Tajima's Who Killed Vincent Chin? is a documentary that changed my life. Vincent Who? looks back at the case, its legacy and its relevance to today's civil rights climate. For more information about the film, visit the website here.
It's China vs. America! Cowboys vs. dragons! Breakdancing grizzlies vs. kung fu-ing pandas! It's Yao Ming and LeBron coming together in the name of Coca-Cola.
Over the weekend, in the midst of playing the best golf she's played all year, Michelle Wie was disqualified from the State Farm Classic after breaking one of the game's most simple, basic rules. she failed to sign her scorecard before leaving the scoring area: Wie disqualified over scorecard mishap.
After she'd finished her round on Friday, she left the tent just above the ninth green where players sign their scorecards. She was chased down by volunteers working in the tent, who pointed out that she hadn't signed. Wie returned to the tent and signed the card, but by then it was apparently too late. She had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent.
Tour officials didn't learn about the mistake from volunteers until well after Wie had teed off Saturday morning, so they let her finish the round. Then they pulled her aside and informed her she was out.
It was a dumb move, for sure. And a stupid reason to be disqualified. But what's worse, it happened when it seemed like she was finally hitting stride and living up to her potential, after finishing Friday and Saturday in second place. She was the player to beat this week. That's gotta suck.
Just wanted to remind you all that the Big Fat DVD Giveaway is still on. I'll be accepting entries until the end of today. One lucky reader will receive a huge DVD prize pack of recent Asian American film festival favorites: Justin Lin's Finishing the Game, Ham Tran's Journey From the Fall, Desmond Nakano's American Pastime, Chris Chan Lee's Undoing and Richard Wong's Colma: The Musical. Good stuff, right?
But that's not all. The prize pack will also include a huge, random assortment of (unopened) DVDs I've amassed over the last few years, which includes some Jackie Chan movies, Asian horror, anime, as well as some really scattered stuff. Basically, my DVD collection has grown too large and cluttered to handle, and I'm trying to get rid of my junk. It can all be yours!
To enter for your chance to win, you'll have to do a little research, and answer the following questions:
1. In addition to numerous independent Asian American films, veteran filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed several big-budget Hollywood movies. Name the one starring Jennifer Lopez.
2. In what city did director Ron Morales shoot his debut feature Santa Mesa?
3. In addition to directing the indie drama Never Forever, Gina Kim has taught as a visiting lecturer at what ivy-league university. Name the school.
You can dig for answers in the interviews on The Director's Chair website. Email me your answers, along with your name and mailing address, by the end of today—Monday, July 21. Be sure to include "BIG FAT DVD GIVEAWAY" clearly written in the subject line. I'll throw all the correct entries in a hat, then pick one lucky winner. There can only be one! Good luck.
The movie, starring Jimmy Tsai, Roger Fan, Smith Cho, Jim Lau and Elizabeth Sung, is a fun little indie sports comedy with a lot of heart. To learn more the movie, visit the official website here. For more information about the festival, go here.
Last week, the full United States Senate unanimously confirmed Kiyo Matsumoto to be the next federal judge in the Eastern District of New York, making her only the second woman of Asian decent ever confirmed to the federal bench: New judge appointed for Eastern District on NY.
Matsumoto currently serves as a Federal Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York, where she has managed a docket of over 300 cases for three years. Prior to her appointment as Federal Magistrate Judge, Ms. Matsumoto served the in U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for over 20 years, as Chief and First Deputy Chief of the Civil Division.
In addition to being the second Asian American woman to serve as a federal district court judge, she's the third Asian American federal district court judge outside of California and Hawaii, and the eighth Asian American federal Senate-confirmed judge currently active out of approximately 850 nationwide.
I don't know what to make of this. Singer/songwriter Randy Newman, whose work has been no stranger to controversy, has a song on his latest album called "Korean Parents," which he is apparently pre-emptively apologizing for: Randy Newman salutes 'Korean Parents'. The song is supposed to be a portrait of race relations as played out in public education. Here are the lyrics:
Some Jewish kids still trying Some white kids trying too But millions of real American kids don’t have a clue Right here on the lot We got the answer A product guaranteed to satisfy...
Korean parents for sale You say you need a little discipline Someone to whip you into shape They’ll be strict but they’ll be fair
Look at the numbers That’s all I ask Who’s at the head of every class? You really think they’re smarter than you are They just work their asses off Their parents make them do it...
It's funny that this song should pop up amidst all the discussion lately about heavy Asian American enrollment in competitive schools and colleges. I haven't heard the song, but the music apparently comes off as "stereotypically Asian," according to Newman.
Who comes off looking worse in this song? The lazy "American" parents who don't know how to discipline their kids? Or the strict Korean parents who whip their kids into shape? Either way, he makes one hell of a generalization... and it looks like he knows it. Thus, apologies in advance.
Extremely surprising turn of events on America's Best Dance Crew this week. After weeks of dominating the competition, both SuperCr3w and SoReal Cru found themselves in the bottom three of America's votes. What the hell happened? I don't know. And in an odd reversal, Fanny Pak deservedly ended up as one of the top vote-getters, after weeks scrapping and battling it out at the bottom.
In the end, it was Super Cr3w vs. A.S.I.I.D. I don't think there was much doubt that Super Cr3w would come out on top (I'm betting they'll make it all the way to the end). A.S.I.I.D.'s run has been energetic and inspirational—particularly because of the presence of crew member Joey, who is hearing impaired—and they've gained a lot of fans, but it was just their time to go.
This weekend in Seattle, to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Bruce Lee's death, the Bruce Lee Foundation is hosting a three-day celebration of seminars, an exhibit, screenings of Enter the Dragon, a graveside memorial and more, taking place at various venues in his adopted hometown: Bruce Lee 35th Anniversary Celebration.
Lee's wife, Linda Lee Caldwell; his daughter Shannon Lee; and Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), are scheduled to attend. The family will also unveil its proposal to build a $50 million Bruce Lee museum in Seattle. For more information, visit the Bruce Lee Foundation website. More here: SAM event one of many tributes to Bruce Lee.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee fans are marking the anniversary of his death with an exhibit featuring 800 items—movie posters, magazine covers, books, letters—all about the action star: Exhibit marks Bruce Lee's death. After all these years, people are still crazy about Bruce!
I recently heard from Jonald Reyes, director of the indie documentary That Asian Thing. It's a film that explores the issue of "low Asian American influence" within mainstream America. Basically, it asks why are there so few Asian Americans in arts and entertainment. A question we ask frequently around here.
For the past few months, That Asian Thing as been part of an online film competition through the Independent Features Film Festival, where the top 21 films would participate in the festival and compete for viewer awards. Through a massive campaign of email, listserves and Facebook/MySpace hype, The film won entrance into the festival and will screen later this month, July 27, at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York. For tickets, go here.
I had the chance to take a look at the film, and to be honest, it's not very strong and needs some work. It's pretty rough. But it does raise some very interesting issues, and at the very least, it's a good conversation starter. Plus, it's obvious that Jonald has put a lot of his heart into this documentary. To learn more about That Asian Thing and the screening, go here.
We first heard about the Samurai Girl project sometime last year when it was reported that ABC Family had ordered the pilot for the series. I've been starting to see lots promos and commercials for it, advertised as an ABC Family "Original Event." It's scheduled to premiere over three nights, starting Friday, September 5. I'm assuming if it does well, it'll end up as a full-fledged series. There's a bunch of content on the Samurai Girl website here.
Based on a series of popular young adult novels, Samurai Girl stars Jamie Chung as a 19-year-old Japanese girl named Heaven who discovers that the wealthy businessman who adopted her as an infant is really the head of the Yakuza(!) and had her beloved brother brutally murdered. She breaks from her family and begins training to become a samurai, and with the help of a group of new American friends, sets out to take down her father's evil empire.
Just the kind of feel-good show I like to watch on the ABC Family channel.Of course, in order to learn these sacred, ancient ways of the samurai, dear Heaven must train under the wise tutelage of her sensei... a white dude. Well, I guess that makes sense. Somehow. Jack Yang, who might forever be known as the guy who kissed Lucy Liu on Cashmere Mafia, is in the pilot as Heaven's brother... but as we already know, the brother dies.
I've heard from several fans of books, who say the story is pretty good. While I hope for the best, I get the sinking feeling that this show is going to stink. Why does every other Asian-related Hollywood project involve secret samurais and ninjas and yakuza clans? Don't get me wrong—I love a good samurai/ninja/yakuza story like the next guy. But when you have ABC Family rockin' the samurai stuff, to me, that's a red flag. We shall see.
NPR's Tell Me More has a really wonderful interview with Norm Mineta, as part of its "Wisdom Watch" series: Norm Mineta on Pioneering Career, America's Future. It's about seventeen minutes long. I really recommend giving it a listen.
A trailblazing public servant, he was the first Asian American to serve in a presidential cabinet, and bears the distinction of being the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He was also the first Asian American mayor of a major city, San Jose, where the airport is named after him.
In the interview, he talks about everything from his experience of being sent to an internment camp as a boy during World War II, to serving as Secretary of Transportation during 9/11 and its aftermath. He's had an amazing life and career. I'm with Michel Martin—this man needs to write a book! Not for his sake, but for ours.
This week at the annual E3 summit, Nintendo announced the latest edition of Rockstar's popular Grand Theft Auto game, titled GTA: Chinatown Wars, will be coming exclusively to the DS: Nintendo announces GTA: Chinatown Wars.
Not too many other details, except that it's a wholly original game, and it's set in the familiar locale of Liberty City. But with a name like Chinatown Wars, you can probably start imagining what the game's going to look like. In true GTA fashion, expect a game of gangsters, thugs and guns... Chinatown style.
Asian triads come to Nintendo. I'm guessing this could be really awesome or really awful. More here: GTA Chinatown Wars Release Window. The game is slated for release in North America and Europe this winter. Nothing yet on the official site except for the logo, above.
As part of its "How I Got Here" series, The Wall Street Journal has an interesting interview with Glenn Kaino, Co-Founder and President of Uber.com, a publishing Web site for visual artists, photographers, writers and musicians: Glenn Kaino, Co-founder, President, Uber.com. (Thanks, Dennis.)
Up until I read this interview, I'd never heard of Uber.com, so I took a look. In the crowded, competitive world of social networking sites, it looks like it has a unique foothold. I like it. By the way, check out Lisa Ling's website, powered by Uber.com.
If you're like me, you've been following along with the ongoing saga of Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive of Yahoo!, and Carl Icahn, the activist investor who is trying to oust Mr. Yang and the Yahoo board so he can sell the company to Microsoft. It's been a long, drawn-out struggle over the fate of the company that Jerry helped build from the ground-up.
With the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight opening in theaters on Friday, we're probably looking at one of the biggest box office weekends of the summer. I have seen the movie, and it's pretty freaking fantastic. If you liked Batman Begins, this one's going to blow you away. That said... the movie wouldn't quite be complete without a few Asian bad guys.
SPOILER WARNING: Don't read the rest of this post if you don't want to know anything about the movie. Nothing major, just a few words on the fate of a minor character.
Yes, continuing the tradition of Ken Watanabe as faux-Ra's Al Ghul in the first one, Batman fights some more Asian foes in The Dark Knight. The movie briefly takes some of the action to Hong Kong, with a plot thread involving Chin Han as Lau, a shady business/mob guy who controls Gotham's gangsters' money. Yay.
But no worries, you will see, as he ends up being no match for Batman. There's a good scene where the Caped Crusader breaks into a building and beats the crap out of a bunch of Asians thugs to get to Lau. That's always fun. (I don't think I'm giving anything away here—we all know the movie's villain is the freakin' Joker, not shady gangster Lau.) In the end, he just winds up as another weak-ass Hollywood Asian guy. Saw that coming.
Oh yeah. I should mention that Hong Kong actor Edison Chen also pops up in the movie for about 4.3 seconds. Blink and you'll miss him. I'm presuming this was filmed before his amateur porn stash scandal hit the news, and he went underground. Good times.
The 9th Annual DC APA Film Festival, coming back this September, has teamed up with Scion Motors again to bring you the 2008 DC APA Film Festival Trailer Contest. They're asking folks to create a thirty second trailer that captures the awesomeness and promotes the 2008 DC APA Film Festival.
You don't have to be a filmmaking professional, or even a film student to submit a trailer. All creative personalities are invited to participate. You just need a camera, some willing friends, and a halfway decent idea. Get it on tape and mail it in by August 20, 2008. The public will vote on the three top finalists.
This year, submissions will be judged by an expert jury panel featuring veteran filmmaker Grace Lee (The Grace Lee Project, American Zombie), producer Karin Chien (The Motel, Robot Stories), and up-and-coming filmmaker Tze Chun (Windowbreaker)—all of whose work have screen at previous DC APA Film Festivals.
The winning trailer will be featured in promotions leading up to the festival as well as during the festival itself. The grand prize winner will also be awarded a $600 cash prize, $200 to the first runner-up. For contest rules and details, go here.
Tomorrow night, the Asian American International Film Festival screens its Centerpiece Presentation, the U.S. premiere of Ed Radtke's The Speed of Life. Thursday, July 17 at Asia Society in New York. I know next to nothing about this film. What's it about? Here's the short version:
The award-winning THE SPEED OF LIFE, directed by Ed Radtke, follows Sam, a 13-year-old boy, who escapes the streets of New York City by stealing video cameras from tourists. While his friends are content with simply pawning the stolen goods for spending money, Sam secretly keeps the tapes. He watches the footage, fascinated by far away places and seemingly happy lives. Wavering between fantasy and the harsh reality of life in Brooklyn, he soon discovers that cameras can fly-even if people cannot. Entirely shot in NYC, THE SPEED OF LIFE builds around the idea of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
Director Ed Radtke will be in attendance for a Q & A after the screening. Audience members are also invited to attend the M.A.T.H. Club's Centerpiece AfterParty at M1-5 Lounge. For more information about the film, go here.
Looking back, when I was growing up, Michael Chang was definitely one of the most influential Asian American athletes of my generation. Because there really weren't many. But to see this 17-year-old Chinese American kid rise up and win a Grand Slam title? Awesome. He's a true pioneer in tennis, and it's a well-deserved honor.
There are certain things I assume I will be unable to do when I reach my 70s. It kind of goes without saying that skydiving will be one of them. But maybe not. On Sunday, in Oregon, 71-year-old Kazuko Renes jumped out of an airplane. Not only is she 71, she's blind! She was out to prove that she can do anything. I think she proved it: Blind skydiver, 71, inspires people. That's freakin' awesome.
Renes began to lose her sight in her twenties and says she let her blindness discourage her. But a few years ago, after a seminar with the Oregon Comission for the Blind, her outlook changed, and she decided to take life head on. She wasn't going to let a silly little thing like age or handicap get in the way of completing a lifelong dream of skydiving. See news video of her jump here.
Bravo's Project Runway returns tonight for a new season. Sixteen designers compete for the chance to show their own line in front of audience of fashion industry movers and shakers at New York Fashion Week. Man, this show has a lot of fans, myself included.
Among this season's group of designers is 32-year-old Jerry Tam of Butte, Montana. According to his bio, he's been working in the fashion industry for seven years, and launched his own label, FORM, three years ago in New York City.
Jerry, I don't know much about you. I hope you do well. But I'm okay if you don't. You can even be boring. I only ask one thing of you: please don't embarrass yourself, as many in reality television are prone to doing. That's all. Good luck.
UPDATE: Jerry was the first designer eliminated from the competition! For his challenge, he made this nasty, shapeless raincoat thing. It wasn't meant to be. Jerry, we hardly knew you.
From time to time, I read the blog of screenwriter John August. He's responsible for writing such movies as Go, Charlie's Angels, Big Fish, and The Nines, as well as a whole bunch of other projects, both credited and uncredited. Think whatever want about his work, but it's a really interesting, useful blog, with lots of great tips on screenwriting, cool anecdotes, and general insights on the film industry.
Recently, he wrote a really good post on how actors of a certain age, especially ethnic minorities, are becoming more and more scarce, and points out that the film industry could be addressing issues like this in its negotiations with SAG, but aren't: Writers need actors.
When the economic realities of the industry force actors out, the diversity in the acting pool shrinks, and it starts to become impossible for your casting director to find that old Chinese woman you need for an episode. And a lot easier to just rewrite it for a younger, white actor. This situation isn't necessarily causing the lack of diversity in television, but it sure as hell makes it harder to combat. (Thanks, Vicky.)
Here's good interview Nam Le, whose book The Boat has been getting a lot of attention: LAist Interview: Nam Le, author of The Boat. By the way, it's not a novel, as some have mistakenly been led to believe. The Boat is a collection of short stories. And you can read the first story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," here. Still haven't picked this book up yet, but with all the positive hype it's been getting, I'm planning on reading it soon.
Mark calendars, hip hop fans of America. Next month, the Asian Hip Hop Summit Tour 2008 is coming to your town and situation. New York, Florida, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Georgia... all over the place! It's happening throughout the month of August, in cities all over the country. Featuring some of the best and brightest of underground Asian American hip hop, including Dumbfoundead, Chose One, Lyraflip, J Natural and DJ Dstrukt. Things kick off on August 1st in Salt Lake City. For more information about the tour, go here
Asian behaving badly... mail fraud edition! Julie Lee, a "political powerhouse" in San Francisco's Chinese American community, was found guilty last week by a jury in federal court of supplying false information and trying to tamper with witnesses after learning of inquiries about how she spent state grant money: S.F. political activist found guilty in federal court.
Specifically, the panel found Lee guilty on two counts of mail fraud in connection with canceled checks mailed in 2004 to an administrator at the state Department of Parks and Recreation and an auditor at the state Controller's Office.
Lee's nonprofit organization, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center, received a $500,000 grant in 2000 through the Parks and Recreation Department for planning and development of a community services facility in the city's heavily Chinese American west side. According to prosecutors, Lee laundered $125,000 of the grant through six intermediaries into Kevin Shelley's successful 2002 campaign for secretary of state.
The jury also found Lee guilty on three counts of attempted witness tampering, based on recorded conversations she had in 2004 with three of the intermediaries and their trial testimony for the government. Lee remains free on a $25,000 unsecured appearance bond pending sentencing September 23. More here: S.F. fundraiser Julie Lee guilty of fraud
The battle over race in college admissions continues... Federal authorities are investigating an allegation that Princeton University discriminates against Asian American applicants by accepting black and Hispanic students with lower entrance scores: Princeton is accused of anti-Asian biases.
How does a school form a racially diverse student body? Should a college consider race when choosing a class? If so, how? The Supreme Court has ruled that race can indeed be a factor in the process, though racial quotas have long been declared unconstitutional. Princeton denies using quotas.
In case your wondering... Yes, the federal review at Princeton was sparked by the complaint filed by Jian Li. He's the applicant who claims he was rejected by the school and other elite universities despite graduating in the top 1 percent of his high school class, getting a perfect score on the SAT, and earning numerous other academic accolades. (He ended up doing okay for himself, enrolling at Yale that fall.)
Last week, everybody's favorite band Journey, with new lead singer Arnel Pineda—already a legend—started their U.S. Tour with a sold-out show in Denver, capacity crowd of 17,916. With some pretty big shoes to fill, Arnel apparently kicked ass: Journey @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre. A couple of nights later, they played another sold-out show in Salt Lake City: Journey's new singer has fans 'Believin'.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the guy does a better Steve Perry than Steve Perry! Here's some cruddy YouTube video footage from the Denver show: Journey - Don't Stop Believing at Fiddler's Green 7/9/2008. It's taken from the nosebleed seats, but you can definitely hear the audio and the size of the crowd. It's on, baby. America has Arnel Fever! To find out when Journey is coming to your town this summer, go here. (Thanks, Lillian.)
This week in Kalispell, Montana, two men were charged with felony malicious intimidation after a racially motivated confrontation targeting Asian workers: Race conflict an isolated incident, says sheriff.
Edward Lee Hubbs and Daniel James Devine, both white, are accused of assaulting a group of Asian mushroom pickers who have been camped west of Kalispell near the community of Marion.
The incident started at a convenience store parking lot, where the two men began threatening the mushroom pickers and shouting racial slurs. The mushroomers, "in defense and in fear," tried to leave, and one finally fired a couple rounds from a gun into the air to drive Hubbs away.
The situation escalated when Hubbs grabbed his gun, got some friends, and went to the campground where the Asian pickers are based. Some of the people he attacked weren't even any of the guys at the convenience store. I don't know what happened to spark all of this, but by the end of the night, this guy Hubbs was out to hurt some Asians. That's racist!
A&E's new drama The Cleaner, starring Benjamin Bratt, premieres tonight. The show is about William Banks, a recovering addict who is on a mission from God to help others get clean by any means necessary. The lovely Grace Park, from Battlestar Galactica, is in the starring cast as Akani Cuesta, one of the members of Banks' team. Here's her character description, from the show's website:
Akani Cuesta is the exotic beauty on William's team who is just as much one of the boys with her hardened street edge. A bit of a wild card, she enjoys her job and is good at it, but resents being monitored by William, with whom there is a hint of a past relationship. Akani doesn’t need anyone’s support, especially that of her wealthy estranged father, but sometimes it seems she longs for a more settled, domestic life.
"Exotic" beauty? Come on. Why can't she just be a regular beauty? Anyway, just based on the first episode, she seems like a interesting, complicated character with some reckless tendencies and daddy issues. Hopefully the show will take the opportunity to flesh out her character. At the moment, she's mainly there to look hot. Because, well... she is. The Cleaner airs Tuesday nights on A&E.
The site kicked off with some promise, featuring a handful of interviews and features, but then just kind of sat there for a while, untouched. I was pleased when the finally updated the site with a lot more interesting content, including interviews and videos, just in time for the Asian American International Film Festival in NYC: The All-New 2009 Toyota Matrix Takes Asian American Films for a Test Drive. (The interviews are conducted by Giant Robot's Eric Nakamura.)
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I'm bummed that I couldn't make it out to AAIFF this year. As a consolation, I want to make one of you readers out there happy with some free stuff. Because I love Asian American cinema, and I love giving stuff away. And because I need to clean out my closet.
One lucky reader will receive a gigantic DVD prize pack of recent Asian American film festival favorites: Justin Lin's Finishing the Game, Ham Tran's Journey From the Fall, Desmond Nakano's American Pastime, Chris Chan Lee's Undoing and Richard Wong's Colma: The Musical. Good stuff, right?
But that's not all. The prize pack will also include a huge, random assortment of (unopened) DVDs I've amassed over years, which includes some Jackie Chan movies, Asian horror and anime. Okay, basically, my DVD collection has grown too large, and I'm trying to get rid of my clutter. It can all be yours!
To enter for your chance to win, you'll have to do a little research, and answer the following questions:
1. In addition to numerous independent Asian American films, veteran filmmaker Wayne Wang has directed several big-budget Hollywood movies. Name the one starring Jennifer Lopez.
2. In what city did director Ron Morales shoot his debut feature Santa Mesa?
3. In addition to directing the indie drama Never Forever, Gina Kim has taught as a visiting lecturer at what ivy-league university. Name the school.
You can dig for answers in the interviews on The Director's Chair website. Email me your answers, along with your name and mailing address, by the end of Monday, July 21. Be sure to include "BIG FAT DVD GIVEAWAY" clearly written in the subject line. I'll throw all the correct entries in a hat, then pick one lucky winner. Good luck.
Check it out! Yahoo! Movies has posted the trailer for Jessica Yu's sports comedy Ping Pong Playa. It's a fun little indie movie, but I'll be honest—this trailer is rather bad. It definitely lays on the wacky cheese factor really thick, starting with that awful voiceover. Ugh. Try not to let that discourage you from watching the movie. View the trailer here, and see photos from the movie here.
For those of you in New York, Ping Pong Playa will screen as the Closing Night presentation this weekend at the Asian American International Film Festival. I saw the movie earlier this year at SFIAAFF and enjoyed it a lot. For the rest of you, the movie will be released theatrically this fall from IFC Films, starting on September 5 in New York and Los Angeles (and presumably more cities after that). For more information about the movie, go the official website here.
This being an important election year, there's been a lot of talk about the growing influence of Asian American voters and the important role we could have in electing the next president. But what does that actually mean? Super Tuesday showed that we can have an impact, and we certainly possess the numbers and momentum. But how do we keep it going where it matters?
Yes, our influence is growing, but more can still be done to increase voter registration and citizen rates in our community, according to a recent analysis conducted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the UC Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Initiative, and the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics.
The report, based on 2006 U.S. census figures, charts Asian American electoral trends in the context of population growth, demographics and immigration status and highlights the challenges of translating Asian Americans' growing numbers into strength at the polls: INFLUENCE OF ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS INCREASING IN STATE, U.S. ELECTIONS.
Rocky Aoki, founder of the ubiquitous Benihana Japanese steak house chain in North America, died last week in New York. He was 69: Benihana Founder Rocky Aoki Passes Away. No cause of death was specified, but he had been battling diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and hepatitis C.
Aoki was a former wrestler on the Japanese Olympic team, but apparently couldn't compete at the 1960 games in Rome because he was over the weight limit. He found his way to New York City in 1964, where he opened the first Benihana... a restaurant chain which has grown to about 90 restaurants worldwide.
The concept for the restaurant was inspired from specialty restaurants Aoki knew of in Japan where patrons sit around a communal grill as chefs prepare meals with a flourish (thus, the acrobatic knife performances). He chose to serve food Americans were familiar with, such as chicken, steak and shrimp.
The guy led a very crazy, colorful life, which included financial run-ins with the law, competing in a number of cross-country and cross-ocean races, and three marriages (three of his seven children were apparently conceived in a single one-year span by different women). His kids include model/actress Devon Aoki and Dim Mak Records CEO Steve Aoki. More here: Hiraoki 'Rocky' Aoki, 69; former Olympic wrestler founded Benihana restaurant chain.
The following email was sent to the organizers of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships by Francis Hsueh, who attended the Brooklyn Regional last week. Basically, it highlights some racist remarks made by one of the idiot judges at the competition. Read on for details:
Dear US Air Guitar Organizers:
Last night, a group of us attended the show in Williamsburg to watch our friend Jonathan Mendez perform in the competition. The Bee Gees metal band was amazing, and the opportunity to step back and enjoy a bygone era was fun and nostalgic.
It was a great time until the judges started talking.
Many of us were shocked and astounded that US Air Guitar would allow one of the judges (the man on the right) to spew racist comments about Asians (apparently referring to Japanese or other Asian contestants as "nips" and "riceballs"). The gist of his rant was that Americans had to defend their honor by not letting Asians dominate the competition, especially by not letting the Japanese, who "gave us Pearl Harbor", to continue dominating the competition. Ironically, there appear to be NO Japanese or Japanese-American contestants in the Hall of Fame. They have Korean or other Asian last names.
And yet, we can only imagine what would have happened if he had said something about African-Americans or any other race. Clearly US Air Guitar must be above this double-standard?
I myself am a guitarist and really looked forward to last night's show but I had to be reminded yet again that people like myself are not always welcomed at these events or in that world.
We only wanted to be able to rock out like everyone else and not be subjected to racist taunts for once. Is that too much to ask for?
Francis Hsueh and Steven Hahn Jimmy Lee Christine Lee
What the hell? It seems that anywhere you go, or whatever arena Asians are trying to make a difference in—even air guitar, where several Asian Americans have dominated—there's always going to some racist ass who has to shoot off his mouth like this. Never mind the fact that former champions David 'C-Diddy' Jung, MiRi 'Sonyk-Rok' Park, and Fatima 'Rockness Monster' Hoang are all indeed 100% American. That judge needs to get his head out of his ass. That's racist!
Next month, tourists from all over the world will visit Beijing for the Olympic games. I'm sure many fearful and reluctant foreign diners will be happy and relieved to hear this news: Dog meat off the menu during Beijing Olympics.
Dog meat has reportedly been removed from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs.
Then again, tourists who are actually looking forward to trying dog dishes are going to be disappointed. According to city tourism bureau Vice Director Xiong Yumei, waiters and waitresses should "patiently" suggest other options to diners who order dog. Nice try, Beijing.
Last week, 32 Japanese Americans from the era were honored at a luncheon and at an evening ceremony before a minor league Sacramento River Cats game. Now in their 80s and 90s, they were remembered for their contribution to baseball—a sport that didn't always welcome them.
Bay Area friends, mark your calendars... here's another cool event for a good cause. Over twenty community and professional organizations are partering up with AsianWeek to present help: Benefit Concert for Burma and Sichuan, Saturday, August 2 at Glas Kat Nightclub in San Francisco.
The event will feature American Idol semifinalist Paul Kim, Burmese-American singer Natalise, and local band Mud, performing a rare acoustic set. All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to UMCOR to provide food, water, and temporary shelter in the most devastated areas of Burma and Sichuan. Purchase your tickets here.
The Center for Asian American Media has narrowed down the pool of contestants for the Toyota Matrix Free Your Story Contest to seven semi-finalists. Six of these filmmakers will advance to the final round where they'll compete to be the grand prize winner. It's up to you to determine who moves to the next round. The winner will win a brand new HD camera and one year Supporter level membership to CAAM. Vote for your favorite filmmaker here. Voting ends on Monday, July 21 at 5:00pm.
The 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout Awards are happening today, 12:30pm at Asia Society in New York. The Shootout Awards are presented with Asian Cinevision as a special program of the Asian American International Film Festival. Find out who will be in the Top 10 Films, who will be Best Of, who will win the Chinatown Award, who will claim the Audience Award, and who will be crowned Grand Prize Winner.
Oh, the suspense! I went to the awards presentation last year and had a really great time checking out all the films. It's amazing what you can accomplish with some very specific restraints. To purchase tickets, go here. Immediately following the awards, there will be a hors d'oeuvre reception at Stir NYC. Receive a free beer with your ticket stub compliments of Singha Beer (while supplies last). And who doesn't love free beer?
UPDATE: Here's the list of winners from the 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout Awards, presented July 13, 2008 at the Asia Society in New York as part of the Asian American International Film Festival:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER Team Big Egg "No Holding Back"
1ST RUNNER-UP Team Fish Grenade "Drain"
2ND RUNNER-UP Team Color TV "Cold War"
TOP TEN FILMS (Alphabetical Order by Team Name)
Azn Rejects "Suspense’s How to Jedi Mind Trick the B*tches"
Big Egg "No Holding Back"
CinemAsia "Say Goodbye"
Color TV "Cold War"
Fish Grenade "Drain"
Inspirasian "First Goodbye Cleaning Agency"
Last Minute Films "Killer Headline"
Sans Humor "A First Goodbye"
Vision "Say Goodbye"
White Rabbit "Miles Apart"
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Best Actor Rain Noe Team Color TV, "Cold War"
Best Actress Tess Paras Team Color TV, "Cold War"
Best Cinematography Nara Garber Team White Rabbit, "Miles Apart"
Best Direction Derek Shimoda Team Fish Grenade, "Drain"
Best Editing Derek Shimoda Team Fish Grenade, "Drain"
Best Story CinemAsia, "Say Goodbye"
Most Original Use of Theme Presented and Sponsored by Aspire Asian Film Circle Team Color TV, "Cold War"
Audience Award Presented and Sponsored by NINGIN.com Team Grace, Wtf, "Discard"
Chinatown Award Presented and Sponsored by Museum of Chinese in America's Chinatown Film Project and Deluxe Team Zeitgeist ArtWorks, "Spofford Alley"
John Woo's long-anticipated epic movie Red Cliff opens this week in Asia. It's been a long, hard road for the project from the start, filled with major cast dropouts (then drop-ins, then dropouts again), a massive ballooning budget, and even a death on the set. But the movie has finally arrived, and according to the one person I know who's actually seen it, it's "spectacular." Could this be John Woo's return to glory? The world will soon find out: 'Red Cliff' ready for its closeup.
Red Cliff, adapted from China's classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is over four hours long. It's one of those big-ass costume action spectacles. For Asian territories, the movie is being split into two parts, with the first released yesterday in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. Audiences outside of Asia will get a single movie, expected to be 2 1/2 hours long. We'll get to see it stateside here in January.
The story is set in the final days of the Han Dynasty, in the year 208, covering the war that established the Three Kingdoms period, when China had three rulers. The movie stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Lin Chiling. Yeah, it's a big deal. Watch this 9-minute promo reel above to get a glimpse of the scale and scope of the production. Sorry, no English subtitles. But you get the idea.
Oh, how I want this movie to be good. I want to see the John Woo that made Hard Boiled and The Killer, not the John Woo that made Hard Target and Paycheck. I want Red Cliff to be awesome, and not a big, fat, four-hour piece of stink. I want a lot of things. Anyway, TIME recently did an interview with the director, featuring reader-submitted questions: John Woo will now take your questions. And here's video from the interview: 10 Questions for John Woo.
The show revolves around Cho's real-life parents (a frequent source of material for her stand-up) and her 3-foot-10-inch assistant Selene Luna. She describes it as "kind of a cross between Madonna's 'Truth or Dare,' 'Joy Luck Club' and 'Little People, Big World.' What the-!?
In truth, the series follows Cho and her family as they improv their way through scripted situations. During the first episode, Margaret tells her parents that a magazine has named her "Korean of the Year," and the show follows the family's trip to San Francisco, where she'll accept the award. More here: Margaret Cho says new 'Cho Show' promises tomfoolery.
I'm very intrigued about this show. Hopefully, it'll be so awesome, we'll all forget the suckiness of 1994's All-American Girl, Margaret's first attempt to bring the Asian American family to television. Those were dark years. The Cho Show premieres on August 21 on VH1.
Phil informs me of the L.A. History Project, six new plays about the city of Los Angeles and its rich history. Presented by Edge of the World Theatre Festival, the Project features workshop productions of six new plays by six L.A. theater companies including Lodestone Theatre Ensemble'sMy Man Kono. Read on theater fans:
MY MAN KONO (Act One: The Chaplin Years) Written by Philip W. Chung (THE GOLDEN HOUR) Directed by Jeff Liu Featuring: Garrett Wang (STAR TREK: VOYAGER) as Toraichi Kono with J. Stephen Brady, Paul Byrne, Elizabeth Ho, Stephanie Lincoln, Nghia Luu, Donovan Oakleaf & Ryan Wilkins
The story of Toraichi Kono, who worked as movie star Charlie Chaplin's personal valet for 17 years before being arrested as a Japanese enemy spy on the eve of World War II. This is an off-book workshop presentation of Act One of the play which covers Kono's years with Chaplin.
FREE ADMISSION and PARKING NO RSVP required.
Sunday, July 13 at 3:30 PM Autry National Center of the American West (in L.A.'s Griffith Park, across from the L.A. Zoo) Wells Fargo Theater Griffith Park Campus, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90027-1462 Info: information@edgeoftheworld.org Info about the Autry Center including map/directions: http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/visit.php
For more info about Kono: www.myspace.com/toraichikono
Other plays include Tom Jacobson's The Chinese Massacre, based on the first race in Los Angeles history, and Judy Soo Hoo's At Risk, which explores the history of United Teachers of Los Angeles. For more information on all plays, go here.
Not the strongest week for America's Best Dance Crew. Most of the teams did decent jobs, but ultimately the speed-up challenge tripped a lot of people up. It doesn't seem like it should be so difficult—dance slow, then dance fast—but it definitely proved to be a challenge. My three favorite crews:
Fanny Pak. Easily the best performance of the night. From the very beginning, Fanny Pak have been the scrappy underdogs of the competition, but they've managed to hang in there, winning over more and more fans along the way. They totally killed this challenge. Go Cara.
Super Cr3w. After last week's shows-stopping performance, this one was a little underwhelming. Just a little. Still, there's no doubt that these b-boys are the top contenders in this competition.
SoReal Cru. There's really no one better in this competition than SoReal when it comes to doing the slow and smooth. They have it perfected. It's the second half where they sort of stumbled. Not their strongest performance, but how can you not like these kids?
This week in Atlanta, a Pakistani man was charged with killing his daughter because she wanted out of an arranged marriage: Dad charged with murdering reluctant bride. In his first court appearance, 54-year-old Chaudhry Rashid was somber and tearful as he told the judge that he had done nothing wrong. A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for July 24.
Chaudhry's daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, had recently wed in Pakistan in an arranged marriage. But she apparently wasn't interested in remaining married to her husband, which caused a great deal of friction between her and her father. According to police, she and Chaudhry were arguing over the marriage, and at some point during the altercation he ended up killing her.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame the arranged marriage for the murder. And it's certainly not a Pakistani thing. Let's face it, this news story has a tinge of sensationalism to it, discussing "honor killings" and all that. But what really killed this woman was domestic violence, which cuts across all communities.
Damn, now that is a beautiful man. Takeshi Kaneshiro is the new face of Armani. The half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese heartthrob will reportedly be appearing in Emporio Armani Underwear's fall 2008 ad campaign alongside the likes of David Beckham: Meet Emporio Armani Underwear's First Asian Model.
That makes Takeshi the first Asian model to appear in one of Armani's major ads. I know you like that. Having starred in more than 30 Asian films since the 1990s, Takeshi's got crazy fans. So it's nice to Armani adding a little color to their advertising. Maybe some day we'll actually get see an Asian American male star or two shilling for high-end fashion lines. But one thing at a time.
At some point, we've all gotten a kick out of sites like Engrish.com, which point out examples of poorly executed English signage in Asian countries. For the past 18 months, teams of "language police" have been scouring Beijing on a mission to wipe out all such embarrassing mistakes before the world descends on the city for the Olympics next month.
But what if these sentences aren't really bad English? What if they're actually evidence that the English language is simply evolving into an entirely different, alternative language without us? This Wired article offers a very interesting theory: How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand.
Thanks to globalization, the Allied victories in World War II, and American leadership in science and technology, English has become so successful across the world that it's escaping the boundaries of what we think it should be. In part, this is because there are fewer of us: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language. Already, most conversations in English are between nonnative speakers who use it as a lingua franca.
In China, this sort of free-form adoption of English is helped along by a shortage of native English-speaking teachers, who are hard to keep happy in rural areas for long stretches of time. An estimated 300 million Chinese -- roughly equivalent to the total US population -- read and write English but don't get enough quality spoken practice. The likely consequence of all this? In the future, more and more spoken English will sound increasingly like Chinese.
It's a fascinating thought. With huge, growing numbers of Chinese continually learning to read and write English, but without enough quality spoken practice, the language could very well take on a life of its own... and eventually look very different from our "proper" version. Hey, it could happen.
My man Tak Toyoshima, the guy behind Secret Asian Man, could use your help. The San Francisco Chronicle is currently running a vote, asking readers to help them choose some new comic strips. SAM is one of the strips being considered. Vote for Secret Asian Man here. Can you dig it?
They can even comment as to which strips they like and why. The paper is currently publishing a test run of eight comic strips they're considering for its comics page, including Secret Asian Man: Your vote on comics will count. I think Chronicle readers could really benefit from a comic strip like SAM, which is sort of an underdog compared to some recent industry darlings. So vote! Tak thanks you.
Lots of folks writing in to tell me about Katee and Joshua's Bollywood-inspired routine last night on So You Think You Can Dance. Very impressive. The routine was choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan, and the song is "Dhoom Taana" from the Om Shanti Om soundtrack.
They totally knocked it out of the park. I don't regularly watch this show, nor am I an expert on Bollywood dance... but damn, this looks pretty good to me. Which two contestants will go home tonight? It better not be these two. I'm totally rooting for Katee now.
ABC News has a really interesting story on Tony Hsieh, the CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos: Shoe-ing Away Convention. The company, headquartered in Las Vegas, is basically doing for shoes what Amazon did for books. This year, nine years after going into business, Zappos is on track to sell $1 billion worth of shoes.
It also sounds like a really fun place to work, maintaining a cool company culture while avoiding the careless excess of pre-bubble burst startups. It helps that the CEO is setting an example by making a lower salary than some of the call center employees. $36,000 a year, apparently. Downright revolutionary.
But he can afford it. Just a few years out of college, Hsieh sold an internet company to Microsoft for $265 million. So I think he's doing okay. In the meantime, he'll continue running a kickass company and building his footwear empire. I wonder if friends and family bug him for free shoes. I would.
In Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and Indian American restaurant owner is claiming that the city council has been biased in its consistent denials of the restauraunt's liquor license: Restaurant owner claims discrimination in Monroeville. Because sometimes, you want a little vino with your vindaloo.
Shingara Singh, owner of India Garden Classic Cuisine, said the council asked him questions regarding his immigration status—questions completely irrelevant to his eligibility to receive the license. That's racist! The council apparently raised a number of concerns over granting Singh the license, including the restaurant's "proximity to churches, residences and schools," and while those concerns might be relevant to this community, they have nothing to do with when and how Mr. Singh came to the United States. So why ask?
Mr. Singh was naturalized as an American citizen last year and has lived in Pennsylvania as a lawful permanent resident with a green card since 1994. Not that it matters. This man and his restaurant have been unfairly denied!
Next week, ImaginAsian presents the Los Angeles premiere of Mighty Warriors of Comedy, Sung H. Kim's Emmy-winning documentary about the groundbreaking Asian American sketch comedy ensemble 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors. Featuring insightful interviews and performance footage, the film follows the troupe in the Bay Area as they struggle for success and deal with the ups and downs of life.
The film will screen on Thursday, July 17 at the ImaginAsian Center in downtown Los Angeles. The event will include Tamlyn Tomita as emcee, a live performance by 18MMW, and a special collaboration with Tuesday Night Cafe featuring Keiko Agena, Alison De La Cruz, Shin Kawasaki, and traci kato-kiriyama. Portions of the proceeds will benefit the Little Tokyo Recreation Center. Should be a fun time. Order your tickets online here.
This is an interesting Los Angeles Times story on how social service organizations in Orange County—home to the nation's largest Vietnamese population—are finding more effective, culturally sensitive ways to provide health care advice to clients with different values and traditions: Orange County social services reach out to Vietnamese community.
It isn't quite as simple as translating brochures and hiring native-speaking staff. Agencies are now seeing a need to craft programs that reexamine the subtle parts of Vietnamese culture, including food and lifestyle habits as well as cultural taboos. It's a more nuanced, culturally relevant approach to conveying some very basic information.
For instance, it's probably not the best strategy for Planned Parenthood to start yelling out, "Free condoms! Free condoms!" at an information session with recent Vietnamese immigrants, no matter how strongly you feel about the practice of safe sex. Bad idea, which they apparently learned the hard way.
Good people of New York! This is it. The Asian American International Film Festival kicks off tonight with the Opening Night presentation of Wayne Wang's The Princess of Nebraska, a complex drama about the conflicted emotional landscape of a young woman at a crossroads. Based on a short story by award-winning writer Yiyun Li, the film stars newcomer Li Ling in a stunning debut as Sasha, a pregnant teen who travels alone from Omaha to San Francisco for an abortion.
The film screens tonight, 7:30pm at Asia Society, followed by the Opening Night Gala. Director Wayne Wang, cinematographer/co-director Richard Wong, and star Ling Li will be in attendance. For more information about the film/screening, go here. Also read this cool interview with Wayne Wang here.
AAIFF runs tonight through July 19, featuring an amazing, diverse lineup of programs with a little bit of something for everyone. Narrative features, documentaries, shorts, music videos—it's the best and brightest of Asian American independent cinema. For more information about the festival, including tickets, venue info and the schedule of events, visit the festival website here.
Ah, another beauty queen engaging in some very un-ladylike behavior. Some rather embarrassing candid photos of Miss Washington 2007, Elyse Umemoto (previously mentioned here), recently ended up the on the internet, causing a bit of a stir: Elyse Umemoto Photos Spark Latest Beauty Queen Scandal. Does anyone really find this very shocking?
Scandal! Nothing too graphic, just Miss America's second runner-up taking part in your usual run-of-the-mill drunken party photo behavior—beer pong, flipping off the camera, oral sex simulation. Bet she's wondering right now which of her "friends" fell short in the discretion department. You know, there are few things in life that are certain, but one thing is for sure: whenever there is a camera present at any situation involving alcohol and revelry, those photos will eventually find their way onto the world wide web. Guaranteed.
What's the big deal? Twenty-something beauty queens are human too. It's ridiculous and naive to hold them to a higher standard. But as you can imagine, pageant officials weren't too happy with dear Elyse, who competed in Miss America on a platform of "promoting diversity and women's empowerment." Here's the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization's response to the photos: Statement From Field Director of Miss WA Pageant.
I'm not exactly well-acquainted with the Toronto Asian theater scene... but I was pleased to learn that Nicco Lorenzo recently won a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in the Carlos Bulosan Theatre Collective's People Power. I'm told that the Dora is Toronto's equivalent of the Tony, and to have a male Asian lead win the award is a pretty big deal. (Thanks, Alex.)
I just heard that journalist Lisa Ling will be joining ABC's Nightline as a contributor this summer with a series of special reports. The first one explores the concept of aging and the challenges the elderly face in their golden years, as well as the growing trend in luxury retirement communities, It airs this Thursday, July 10. Here's the news release that was forwarded along to me:
LISA LING JOINS ABC NEWS "NIGHTLINE" AS A CONTRIBUTOR THIS SUMMER
FIRST REPORT ON AGING AND RETIREMENT LIVING TO AIR THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2008
ABC News "Nightline" announced today that journalist Lisa Ling will contribute a series of reports to air on the leading late-night news program this summer.
"I have wanted to work with Lisa for a long time," said James Goldston, Executive Producer of "Nightline." "She is a terrific journalist with a very distinctive style that fits really well with the Nightline sensibility."
In her first report for "Nightline," Ling explores the concept of aging and the challenges the elderly face in their golden years, as well as the growing trend in luxury retirement communities. She visits one high-end retirement complex in Northern California, where the residents speak candidly with her about the challenges of losing a spouse, the desire to live independently, and the fear of loneliness.
Lisa Ling is a special correspondent for the National Geographic Channel and the "Oprah Winfrey Show." Ms. Ling has had a distinguished career covering international social and humanitarian issues, including stories about the Lord's Resistance Army and the crisis of AIDS orphans in Uganda, rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and bride burning in India. Prior to becoming a host of "National Geographic Ultimate Explorer," Ms. Ling was a co-host of ABC's "The View."
Lisa Ling's report on the challenges facing the elderly airs on ABC News "Nightline" Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 11:35pm ET/PT.
Go Lisa. I've always kind of liked her, and thought she was way too cool for The View. It's good to see that she's leveraged her stint as a co-host on that show and gone on to do some really awesome things as a journalist. Represent.
This Friday, Joseph Fox's film Passing Poston opens for a limited theatrical run at the ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles. It's a documentary that tells the moving and haunting story of four former internees of the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona during World War II, struggling to reconcile this painful part of their past with their identities as Americans. Watch the trailer here.
Here's a Los Angeles Times article on the internees from back in February: Celebrating a shared history. The film opens on July 11, for a one-week run. For showtimes, go here. The director and the featured Poston internees present for a Q & A after all shows on Sunday, July 13. For more information about the film, visit the website here.
Earlier this year, we heard about plans for an opera based on The Fly, with music by Howard Shore, libretto by David Henry Hwang, design by Dante Ferretti, conducted by Placido Domingo and directed by David Cronenberg. One could only imagine what such a bizarre spectacle would look like.
Last week, an eclectic audience gathered in Paris for the world premiere of the musical version of the creepy classic 1986 film: The Fly lands on Paris stage as a Cronenberg opera. It apparently features lots of gore and a singing teleport machine. Huh? The show is set to have its U.S. premiere at the L.A. Opera in September.
Just heard about this cool art show opening this week in Hollywood. Entitled CRAZIANS!, it's showcasing over 30 super talented Asian American/Canadian artists with a fun theme of crazy art. Featuring original works by Aya Kakeda, Dave Chung, David Ho, Daniel Hyun Lim, Derek Yu, Egomochi, Eric Toyofuku, Howie Tsui, Julienne Hsu, Lawrence Yang, Mari Araki, Mari Inukai, Martin Hsu, Michael C. Hsiung, Ming Doyle, Motomichi Nakamura, Nanospores, Skye Hwang, Steve Kim, Taiyo La Paix, and more. From the press release:
With the ongoing prevalence of Asian culture in America, "the most common misconception is that this is all new, crazy and edgy," says Moye Ishimoto. "On the other hand, most Asian Americans feel like we've already been there and done that." World of Wonder invited a group of Asian American/Canadian artists to showcase their response to their culture's transformation into American pop.
"We're constantly inundated with our own culture as interpreted by the West," Moye continues. "This show is our blatant response about taking ownership of our cultures--and to show that we can do more than just draw oversized anime eyes." The exhibition features over 30 established and up-and-coming artists, photographers and sculptors from around the continent, exploring their ethnic backgrounds in American culture.
She adds, "I was also blown away by the wide range of art in our community: we've got innovative paintings, traditional photography, etchings, comic art and ceramics. This won't be your room full of Memoirs of a Geisha fan art."
The show also features a piece by the late Michael Cho, the art student from UCLA who was tragically shot to death by La Habra police on New Year's Eve. As you may know, this case has sparked quite a bit of outrage in the community over the circumstances surrounding Mike's death. (For more information, go here.)
The show opens this Friday, July 11 with an opening night reception at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery, and runs four weeks through August 8, Tuesday through Saturday during daytime hours.
The Washington Post has a story on the growing number of law students jumping into the burgeoning field of immigration law, a trend that has been fueled by the ongoing immigration debate: Law Students Rush to Meet Needs In Booming Field of Immigration. Thirty years ago, the subject was a secondary technical field delegated to adjunct professors. Now it's apparently a booming, high-profile subject in law schools across the United States.
Thank you to all who entered the NY Asian American International Film Festival ticket giveaway. I got an overwhelming response. Apparently, people like free stuff. Alas, only five could win. If you didn't hear from me, it wasn't you. The lucky winners, whose names were drawn at random, are:
Wai-Yean L. Stephanie S. Mi Hyun Y. Byron C. Kristina P.
Congratulations. They each scored themselves a pair of tickets to see John Kwon's Always Be Boyz this Friday, July 11 at Asia Society. For the rest of you, tickets are still available. The Asian American International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow night! For more information about the festival, go here.
I saw this over at Poplicks and thought it was pretty cool. It's the teaser for a travelogue video, Have Food Will Travel, by Leonard Shek. In it, he travels to the Pearl River Delta to learn something about Chinese food and the stories from where it originates. It's a really interesting, well-made piece on food and culture. And it made me hungry. Watch the embedded video above or check it out here.
I've never thought much of Eva Mendes as an actress, and this doesn't do much to change that... but it does raise her stock several points in my book. In the latest issue of Interview, she comments on the sad state of diversity in Hollywood, and the lack of roles for her as a Latino American woman... but makes note that it's even worse for Asians. Read about it here.
Mendes also says being a Cuban-American actress has helped her career " but Hollywood executives are slow to realize that ethnic diversity is "the future" of America.
"We are the future," she says. "I mean, we're all just mixing together that much more. We are the future in that sense. I don't mean Latinos, I just mean ethnic diversity."
Though Mendes " who stars in the upcoming films The Women (September) and The Spirit (December) " thinks "being a woman in Hollywood is a big enough challenge" because of "the lack of roles," she says she is often passed over for roles.
"What makes it frustrating is when a director or a studio head doesn't see me for the same part that they'll see, let's say, Drew Barrymore for," Mendes says.
"Drew's a great friend of mine," Mendes adds. "But it's like, 'No, we want more of an American type of girl.' And it's like, American has opened up. I'm an American girl, born and raised."
But Mendes doesn't consider it a challenge and thinks it's harder for Asian stars: "We have so many Asian girls in this country, and they're so not represented up on the screen."
Tell us something we don't know. Unfortunately, no one gives a damn. Most people will probably just dwell on her stint in rehab and be done with it. Still, it's kind of nice to see someone, anyone in mainstream media comment on this and give the issue a little attention. If only we could expect the same of Lucy Liu.
We all know there is a large concentration of Asian American populations in the United States on the East and West Coast. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, et cetera, et cetera. We know this. But did you know that the Asian American population is rapidly rising in other, more unlikely areas as well?
This decade, the Asian population has grown at a faster rate than that of the Hispanic population in 14 states—including Nevada, Arizona and Texas—as well as Washington D.C.: In a twist, USA's Asians are heading to the Mountain West.
Contrary to historical settlement patterns, growing numbers of Asian Americans are beginning to leave the traditional main gateways to the west, like California and Washington. Blame ridiculous home prices, poor schools, jammed freeways and/or persistent crime. Whatever the reason, they're packing up and moving to other spots in the west, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, hoping for better lifestyles.
Take Nevada, for instance. Since 1990, the state has had the most rapid growth of any state in the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders. According to Census Bureau estimates, he number jumped 174% in the 1990s and 67% so far this decade to about 211,000. Asians now make up about 8.2% of Nevada's 2.6 million people—a higher percentage than the national share of 5.4 percent.
Cool! The billionaire owner of Bruce Lee's final home in Hong Kong is planning to build a museum dedicated to the martial arts legend, opting not to sell the multi-million dollar property, and instead giving in to fans' desire for the site to preserved: Tycoon to turn Bruce Lee's last home into museum. (By the way, that's not Bruce's house pictured above.)
Philanthropist hotel and real estate tycoon Yu Panglin had put Lee's two-story, 5,699 square-foot town house in Kowloon up for sale but changed his mind, saying that he would donate the property to Hong Kong's government for use as a museum and memorial to the icon. He's apparently got big plans for the space.
According to Yu's property consultant, he wishes to retain the house as it was, while expanding the property to 30,000 square feet to include a library, a martial arts centre and a movie house to showcase Lee's martial arts philosophy. That's awesome. If this indeed happens, I promise to one day visit this museum and pay homage to Bruce.
Eight years ago, Chiman Rai paid Mississippi hitmen $10,000 to choke and stab his daughter-in law to death in her apartment while her seven-month-old daughter was nearby. Why? 22-year-old Sparkle Michelle Rai married his son, Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai, who is Indian. And she was black: India native accused in death of son's black wife. It's pretty damn appalling.
Just a month after the couple were married, a contract killer showed up at their door and viciously murdered Sparkle. She was stabbed at least 13 times in the back, neck, chest and ribs. She was strangled and her throat slit. Savagely murdered, because Chiman Rai apparently didn't approve of his son marrying a black woman. Sick.
Last month, Rai was sentenced to life in prison without parole for ordering the hit: Jury chooses life without parole in contract killing. Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty. This was indeed a hate crime, and Rai now has the rest of his life to rot in his cell and think about what he's done.
Over the weekend, golfer Anthony Kim became the first American under 25 since Tiger Woods to win at least twice in the same year on the PGA Tour, winning the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club: Kim first American since Tiger as players under 25 to win twice in year. Just two other players under 25 have done it.
With three birdies over a four-hole stretch in the middle of his bogey-free round of 5-under-par 65, Kim took the lead after his 11th hole and never let go. After taking the trophy, he got a call from Tiger himself: Kim Wins AT& T, Looks Set for More Challenges.
Bay Area friends, our friends at Hyphen are throwing a party. In honor of Issue 14, they're inviting you this weekend to a release party: Spaces. Saturday, July 12 at 111 Minna in San Francisco. Here are the details:
SPACE out!
Come celebrate the release of Hyphen magazine's Spaces issue and rock out to a live set by 80s cover band, Budabelly, with eclectic beats by DJ Esquire, DJ Mel, DJ Rav-e and Nako.
***raffle and win a Nintendo Wii!***
saturday, July 12, 9-2a @111 minna gallery < http://www.111minnagallery.com > 21+ w/ID 9-2a | $10 cover ($20 with subscription @ 50% off price list!)
featured LIVE set by: Budabelly (SF's ultimate 80's cover band)
eclectic beats by: Nako DJ Esquire (rebel click) DJ Rav-E (non-stop bhangra) DJ Mel (Segue)
Be sure to pick up a copy of the Spaces issue to check out our stories on Asians behind bars, John Cho, the Filipino comic invasion and much more of the art, literature and cultural reviews you can't live without.
It's going to be a fun party. And the flyer has Space Ghost on it. That is cool. Have you read the latest issue? Maybe you should subscribe. Hyphen actually has a friends and family discount going on right now through July 11. Just click here. You get 4 issues for $16 or 8 issues for $28. It's a solid Asian American magazine, and you should be reading it.
Calling all Filipina writers! I recently heard from Amee Velasco, who is in the process of putting together the first issue of Diwa: Illuminating Pilipina Voices, a multidisciplinary publication for Filipino women. They're looking for writers, artists, professionals and service providers in the community to contribute writing, art and advertising. Here's some basic information:
Diwa [Tagalog]: "essence," or intrinsic nature of things; "soul," or cause of inspiration and energy; "spirit" or a human being's moral, religious or emotional nature; "thread" or main thought that connects different parts; "sense"; "consciousness"; "gist"; "meaning"; "idea". (Leo James English, Tagalog-English Dictionary)
Through the written word, artistic endeavors, and scholarly research, Diwa: Illuminating Pilipina Voices is a multidisciplinary publication that aims to augment the visibility of the Pilipina by providing an avenue to explore diversity amongst Pilipinas (or Filipino women); highlight Pilipina achievements in the community; create dialogues on Pinayism or Pilipina feminist paradigms; educate and provoke critical thought and discussion; bridge issues about the Pilipina in the Philippines, the U.S., and the larger global scene; and bring awareness about the Pilipina community to youth and adults within general and professional audiences.
Issue #1: "INVISIBILITY"
DEADLINE: August 4, 2008
Filipinos have long been known as the "invisible minority" within the Asian/Pacific Islander community as well as the greater community at large. Diwa's first issue will explore any aspect of the Filipino woman's experiences regarding this "invisible" status. We strongly encourage contributors to think beyond cultural representation and also highlight subpopulations, issues, and people or artists in the community that have been stigmatized and/or given little exposure. Some topics could explore issues pertaining to older Pilipina adults, "mail-order brides," domestic violence between Pinays and Pinoys, the LGBT community and definitions of femininity/masculinity, experiences of Filipino women overseas, indigenous forms of spirituality, Filipino women who are biracial, etc.
Although the subject of Diwa focuses on Filipino women, we welcome contributions from any individual regardless of race, ethnic or national origin, gender, or religious affiliation.
The deadline is August 4. For more details, including important submission guidelines and requirements, visit the Diwa MySpace page here. This sounds like a really great opportunity for new writers trying to get their voices out there (outside of their blogs).
Big, big props to Slant Eye for the Round Eye for spotting this... Last week on Last Comic Standing, comedian Heath Hyche busted out some serious Yellow Face in his act, imitating a Japanese World War II fighter pilot and wearing—I kid you not—Chop Suey Specs and a wack fake Japanese accent. What an idiot.
Anything for a laugh, right? You have got to be kidding me. What year are we living in? What comedian in their right mind thinks they can get away with something like this on national television? And yet there he is, making an ass out of himself with this tired garbage excuse for comedy. That's racist!
Thankfully, the judges apparently weren't having it, and gave Hyche the verbal beatdown he deserved. Slanty (that's what he calls himself) has the lowdown, plus screenshots, here. I also came across a YouTube clip of him doing this racist bit on another show here. Sadly, the audience eats it up.
Asians behaving badly... crazy random shooter edition. Another one of these guys! In Texas, police arrested Thai-An Huu Nguyen for committing a three-day shooting rampage in Garland, Mesquite, Richardson and Plano: Man accused of shooting at motorists confesses. Nguyen was arrested last week after reports of a sixth shooting outside an Asian restauraunt. He apparently confessed.
Nguyen has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of deadly conduct by Garland police. Police in Richardson have filed one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, nobody has any idea why he did it in the first place.
For those who don't follow basketball and aren't aware of this news... The Milwaukee Bucks recently traded former first round pick Yi Jianlian of China to the New Jersey Nets: Bucks trade China's Yi to Nets.
This might be a pretty good move for both Yi and the Nets. Since joining the NBA, Yi has always expressed interest in playing in a major North American market, but let's face it, Milwaukee isn't really known for its massive Asian American population. New York, however, easily has one of the largest Chinese populations in the United States, and Yi would certainly boost the Nets' fan base. So long, Milwaukee: Bucks hardly knew Yi.
Of course, they've already kicked things off with a Kung Fu Panda tie-in, featuring this commercial with two kids kung fu fighting over a McNugget. It's kind of stupid. But, you know, I guess kids do that in China. And we all know a Chicken McNugget is worth kung fu fighting for.
Speaking of Kung Fu Panda, they apparently really dig the movie in China. They like it so much, some Chinese artists are actually criticizing their own film industry, calling for fewer government controls on culture, and wondering why China itself was incapable of producing such a film: "Kung Fu Panda" prompts soul-searching in China.
Reading this article actually prompted me to finally bite the bullet and check out Kung Fu Panda this weekend. As you all know, I haven't been too thrilled about this movie, but after all the good stuff I've heard about it, I figured I'd give it a chance. And I'll admit it—I thought it was pretty good. It was silly, but I found myself really enjoying it. Curse you, Dreamworks, for making me laugh at kung fu-kicking animals.
Oh, how this news brings a little bit of joy to my day... New York radio station Hot 97 recently fired morning talk show host Tarsha Jones, aka "Miss Jones" and replaced her with another host: Hot 97 Fires Miss Jones. She should've been fired a long time ago.
If you recall, Miss Jones and her crew were embroiled in that "Tsunami Song" debacle a from a few years back, when they recorded and aired an awful parody tune mocking the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster. People got mad, there were protests, the show was suspended for a few days. A producer or two got fired. And that was it. Miss Jones has been doing her thing as usual since then. But hey, that's morning radio. You can piss on the memory of more than 200,000 dead people and no one gives a damn.
I guess I'm happy to hear that she's getting canned, though it's for entirely different reasons. (The article doesn't indicate why the station fired her.) Good riddance. Unfortunately, Miss Jones will now be exclusively heard on the airwaves in Philadelphia. Sorry, Philly. (Thanks, Jason.)
Saw this interesting statistic in the Washington Post... It seems that this fall, Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the region's most prestigious and competitive public magnet school: At Magnet School, An Asian Plurality.
More than 2,500 applicants applied for 485 seats at the school. Asian American students got 219, or 45 percent of the total, while white students got 205, or 42 percent. About 38 percent of the school's students were Asian American in the past school year. Fewer than one in 10 residents in the Washington region is Asian American. Though in Fairfax, where most of the school's students come from, people of Asian descent account for 16 percent of the population, according to census data.
The story explores some of the possible reasons for this demographic shift, as well as the rising debate at colleges and top magnet high schools as the number of Asian American applicants continues to rise. Sooner or later, you're going to come across the growing sentiment that there are "too many Asians at this school." This isn't the first time the issue has been raised, and it sure as hell won't be the last.
For all my friends in Southern California, another cool event for a summer night. Kollaboration is back with a little something different: Kollaboration Acoustic 2, a toned-down, chilled-out, unplugged version of the world-famous talent show, with "a focus on musical pieces that incorporate vocals, acoustic, guitar, and other non-electrical instruments." Saturday, August 2 at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Mark your calendars, because it's going to be a good time.
Twelve talented, up-and-coming Asian American acts will be performing and competing for a cash prize: The Ken Oak Band, Jane Lui, Lady Danville, Richey Lam, Jennifer Chung, The Shinobies, Sam "Geunjin" Kang, Million Dollar Babies, Benny Mao, Tier2, Jaewon Choe and Jason Armoto. With guest performers Paul Dateh and Ken Belcher, and guest comedians Edwin San Juan and Ali Wong. Come on out for an evening of music under the stars. To learn more about Kollaboration, and to purchase tickets, go here.
Here's a New York Times book review of Personal Days, the recently published first novel by Ed Park: Cubicle Rats. Based on the review, and some of the other things I've heard about the book, it sounds like a really funny, witty observation on contemporary office work/life. Anyone who has spent any miserable amount of time making a living in such a setting (myself included) will probably be able to relate. Another book to add to my list.
Author Ed Park is the a former editor of Voice Literary Supplement, a founding editor of The Believer magazine and the creator of the e-zine the New York Ghost. Here's a recent interview with him I came across in LAist, which describes Personal Days as "Office Space + shades of The Good Shepherd with a dash of invasion of the Body Snatchers tossed in": LAist Interview: Ed Park, founding editor of The Believer and author of Personal Days.
You freaking idiot. In the latest news involving disturbed, potentially violent Asian guys... Last week, 19-year-old Hwi Lee, a University of British Columbia student, pleaded guilty to two counts of threats and two counts mischief that twice led to the partial shutdown of the university back in January and February: Student pleads guilty to threats against UBC. He now awaits a pre-sentencing report and a psychiatric evaluation, and will appear in court for sentencing in September.
On January 29, authorities were notified of an undisclosed threat directed at the UBC biological sciences building on campus, which put the premises on lockdown for several hours On February 6, a less specific threat was made to the university by telephone, which closed down the biosciences building again for the day. No one was harmed in either incident. More here: Student, 19, pleads guilty to making threats in UBC lockdowns.
Lee has been described as a bright kid, and a "talented and hard-working student." The news stories don't really give much indication as to what drove him to make these threats. I guess we should be thankful that he didn't actually go through with anything, and hope that he gets the help he needs...
I thought he retired. Once again, Takeru Kobayashi competed in the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island. He was hoping to reclaim the title after a disappointing three-dog loss last year shattered his six-year winning streak. Alas, he came in second again: Chestnut wins hot dog contest after eat-off.
It was a good try, but Kobayashi ultimately lost to rival Joey Chestnut after first tying with him by eating 59 dogs in a 10-minute chow-down, then getting beaten in a five-dog eat off. Oh well. It was not meant to be. There really is nothing you can say to a guy who comes in second in hot dog eating contest. Because when you eat that many dogs, and lose, you really really lose.
Here's a cool profile on Kim Ng, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers: Can Kim Ng break the gender barrier? According to the story, she's one of only two women who hold the title of assistant general manager in baseball—one of three ever. She's pioneer, no doubt.
At 39, she has advanced on the job for 17 years, the last 11 seated at the right hand of general managers for the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. A handful of women have become major-league owners and team presidents, but no woman has risen to lead an organization's day-to-day baseball operations. But she could be the one. Not that it's going to be easy.
You might recall that incident back in 2003 involving New York Mets special assistant to the general manager Bill Singer, who openly mocked Ng's Chinese background at a hotel bar during general manager meetings in Phoenix. He asked her who she was, why she was there, about her heritage... and then threw in some mock-Chinese gibberish for good measure. Singer was subsequently fired for his remarks. Damn right.
Throughout that whole ordeal, Ng kept her cool. You've got to respect how far she's come despite all the racist and sexist obstacles in a traditionally male-dominated field. She's built a solid resume and reputation in baseball and now stands among the most capable of candidates among the next generation of baseball's general managers. I guess it's only a matter of time now.
Gruesome. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed four capital murder charges against a man and his alleged accomplice who are accused of using a samurai sword and a baseball bat to chop and beat to death the man's ex-wife, her two children and a relative: Ex-husband, alleged accomplice charged in Quartz Hill killings of 4.
Jae Hwan Shim and Steve Kwon are accused of killing the victims and then setting fire to a house to cover up the bloody scene. The pair were taken into custody last weekend after Mexican police found them near the border. They were charged with four counts of murder, burglary and special circumstances of multiple murder and murder in the commission of a burglary.
It's a Rock Bank Party, y'all. If you're in Los Angeles, here's a cool event going on next weekend, for a really good cause... Some folks are throwing a Rock Band Tournament at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown on Saturday, July 12. And you know you wanna get in on this.
Folks can come out and sign up with their "bands" for a fun, chill night Rock Band, DJs and dancing. Players will also get a chance to compete against some real, actual rock bands, like Thomas' Apartment, Big Phony or Black Party Politics. The first place band will go home with a Rock Band game system for Xbox 360, and of course, supreme bragging rights.
All of the proceeds from the event will be going to a Mercy Corps program called Comfort for Kids. It's a great program working with kids in earthquake-affect regions in China, helping them deal with the psychological effects of the earthquake through the use of writing and arts. How cool is that? For more information about the event, go here and here.
In a recent survey of NFL head coaches, Ward received the most votes when coaches were asked to name the smartest offensive player in the league. Among the non-quarterbacks, he was apparently the clear choice. I'm not exactly sure what criteria they used to come to this decision, but I guess that's why I'm not a football coach.
On Tuesday night, I attended the taping of this week's episode of America's Best Dance Crew (it tapes on Tuesday, airs on Thursday). As a big fan of the show, it was a real treat to see it all happen live. Without giving anything away, here are a couple of observations on the taping and the season thus far...
My favorite three crews going into this week: SoReal Cru, Super Cr3w and Fanny Pak. All three teams delivered amazing performances—the best of the evening, in my opinion. This week's theme revolved around the interpretation of song titles, and they busted out some really inventive, show-stopping stuff. Skills.
See ya. I have absolutely no problem with the team that gets eliminated this week.
The dancing is waaaay better live. One thing I really hate about the MTV broadcast is that the editing really diminishes the full impact of the choreography. All the cuts and angles usually obscure parts of the crew's routine. Seeing it live just confirmed this gripe. It's annoying, but that's MTV, I guess.
Not my generation. I'm not an old geezer, but I ain't so young anymore either. I've certainly grown out of MTV's target demographic. Sitting there in the studio audience... I felt old. And struck by the realization that the bulk of the audience was born in the 1990s. Wow. But that did not stop me from enjoying the show.
Asians, represent. We've already made the interesting observation that there's at least one Asian American member in every remaining crew. Do they realize the kind of impact they're making? I actually had the chance to go backstage and meet some of the crews. I briefly talked to SoReal Cru and told them I really appreciated what they're doing, and how they're holding it down. Continue to expect great things from them.
I guess that's all I can say, before I start giving away what happens. You'll have to find out for yourself. The show airs on MTV tonight. Watch and vote for your favorite crew. To learn more about America's Best Dance Crew, go here.
UPDATE: This week's performances from my favorite three crews, courtesy of YouTube:
Oh, what the hell is this? The above comic strip is yesterday's edition of the nationally syndicated strip Curtis by Ray Billingsley. Great. The weird kid who loves math just happens to be Asian. Why? WHY? He had to go there. Another cheap laugh at the expense of Asians. (Thanks, Henry.)
This week at the U.S. Olympic trials, 28-year-old decathlete Bryan Clay achieved a record-setting score of 8,832 points (his personal best), paving the way for him to compete in Beijing this August. And he's going to kick some ass: Clay's furious five-event finish pushes him to decathlon win.
During 11 hours of grueling competition, Clay burned roughly 8,000 calories and lost roughly 15 pounds as he ran hurdles, threw a discus, vaulted over a pole, heaved a javelin and ran four times around the track. Daaaaamn. It won him his third U.S. title: A Tired Clay Rallies, Clinches Olympic Bid.
Clay also set the Olympic trials record and posted the highest total for an American in 16 years and the highest in the world for the last four years. His previous best had been 8,732 points in 2005. More here: Bryan Clay leaves doubts in the dust. He's definitely one to watch this summer.
She definitely represents an aspect of Obama's background and identity that makes him unique as a presidential candidate. I'll admit, their relationship and his multicultural upbringing is part of what makes him appealing to me. That said, I really do hope that Obama steps up his efforts to reach out and court the Asian American vote. So far, his sister seems to be doing an okay job.
Way big props to longtime reader Ritchie, who knew I'd get a kick out of this news... Last weekend, G.I. Joe fans gathered in Texas for JoeCon2008, the Hasbro International G.I. Joe Collectors' Convention. Yes, this was no doubt an ultra-geeky event, but that would never stop a true Joe fan.
Among several big announcements made at the convention, Hasbro unveiled several new figures of old fan favorite characters... including Quick Kick, apparently as part of the "Pyramid of Darkness" Enterainment Battle Pack. The figure has received a bit of an update, but has unfortunately retained all of the character's stereotypical features—barefoot, no shirt, headband, throwing stars, etc. View some photos of the new action figure here and here.
As many readers know, years ago, I adopted Quick Kick as an unofficial mascot of sorts for this website. My original intention was to periodically switch out images for the opening splash page... but for some reason I really liked the Quick Kick action figure, and it just stuck. Now I really want one of these new ones. The figure is scheduled for release in October.
Oh boy, this ought to be interesting... Lionsgate Films has acquired a pitch by writers Jason Filardi that will ofer a "comedic look at a Korean wedding": Jason Filardi to pen Korean comedy.
What's sort of different about this movie is that it takes an original movie concept from the U.S. for production in Korea, as opposed to the usual reverse remake situation. Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee (the remake guy) and Doug Davison will produce, along with Miky Lee and Ted Kim of Korea's CJ Entertainment. It sounds an awful lot like My Big Fat Korean Wedding:
In the vein of "Meet the Parents" and inspired by real events, the pitch follows an American guy who falls in love with a Korean woman while teaching English as a second language. He proposes marriage and she says yes, with a condition: Her Korean family must approve and they must have a traditional wedding in Korea. So the groom makes the trip with his family in an effort to marry his true love.
The story's apparently inspired by real events. I have to wonder what was on Filardi's cousin's wedding video that made him see movie potential. Heck, I know people—in my own family—who have had courtships and weddings like this. This movie, which does not yet have a title nor a script, sounds like it has the potential to be a real disaster. But I will withhold judgment until we actually see something. (Thanks, Phil.)
This is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot the believe the lengths people will go to demonstrate the ignorance, intolerance and xenophobia. In Louisiana, school officials in Terrebonne Parish are considering a policy that would require all commencement speeches to be in English only. The proposal comes after the two Vietnamese American co-valedictorians at Ellender High School delivered part of their commencement address in Vietnamese last month: Calls in Louisiana to Require English at Commencement.
Last month, cousins Hue and Cindy Vo honored their parents for their sacrifices by briefly incorporating their native Vietnamese language into parts of their commencement speech, but also translating the words into English for the general audience. Now the school board is looking at this ridiculous English-only policy, apparently pushed by irate idiots who can't bear to hear any language spoken other than English. More here: Valedictorian's speech sets off call for English-only at graduations.
Let's be real. This proposal is not motivated by a desire to see America more English-proficient, as many English-only proponents generally argue. I'm going to guess there's something more sinister and intolerant at work here: a desire to suppress the diversity and multiculturalism of this school and community, which has a growing and flourishing Vietnamese American population.
Cindy said one sentence in Vietnamese, dedicated to her parents. The line, roughly translated, was a command to always be your own person. Hue spoke more at length in Vietnamese during her speech, expressing gratitude to her parents for the hardships they faced as immigrants. Would anyone have raised this kind of stink if the language in question had been French, Italian or Latin rather than Vietnamese?
There's no question these kids are proficient in English—they're the frickin' valedictorians! Bi-lingual co-valedictorians. In fact, it's a testament to their education that they come from family backgrounds where English was not the first language. The school board seems to have forgotten who the commencement ceremony is really for—the students and the loved ones that got them there. Did Hue and Cindy really go too far in trying to personally honor their parents for their sacrifices and struggles?
We should be celebrating these kids and how much they've accomplished. We should be proud and happy alongside their parents, who overcame a great deal to get to this moment. We should not be drafting discriminatory policies to stifle a graduate's culture and heritage. These words, from Hue's speech (in English), now ring rather ironic: "Ellender is very diverse. We have many cultures there. They encourage us to be an individual. That's why I love Ellender. It helped me be an Asian American and not be ashamed of it because no one judged me."
Last week, federal appeals court reviewing evidence at Guantanamo Bay compared a Bush administration legal argument to one made by "a hapless dimwitted character," from "The Hunting of the Snark," a 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carrol. Huh? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit cited the poem in ruling that the military improperly labeled a Chinese Muslium as an enemy combatant: Judges cite nonsense poem in Guantanamo case
It was the first time a court has reviewed the military's decision-making and considered whether a detainee should be held. And damn, they busted out the super-obscure literary reference to do it. The ruling provides guidance to federal district judges, who are about to begin reviewing dozens of such cases now that the Supreme Court says detainees can challenge their detention in federal court.
This particular case pertains to Huzaifa Parhat, one of a group of Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, being held at Guantanamo Bay. Their case has become a diplomatic and legal headache for the United States, which has tried to find a country willing to accept the Uighurs even as it defended its decision to hold them as enemy combatants. The Justice Department concedes that Parhat never fought against the U.S. and says it has no evidence he was planning to do so. So what gives? It's the hunt for the Snark.
This is some horrifying news out of Washington... Police say a pregnant woman was killed after being stabbed multiple times in the chest and her nearly full-term baby was cut from her womb: Police say Wash. woman's baby was cut from womb. Sick. The baby boy was hospitalized in Spokane in critical condition.
According to court documents, 27-year-old Araceli Camacho Gomez had her hands and feet bound with yarn and suffered "massive trauma to her stomach area" late Friday night. An autopsy showed she died of the chest wounds, but had other wounds "consistent with the cutting of the body to remove an unborn child." Her body was found early Saturday in a local Park.
23-year-old Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong has been arrested for investigation of first-degree murder and is accused of trying to pass the infant boy off as her own in calls made late Friday night to emergency dispatchers. She was being held without bail Monday, with another court appearance scheduled Wednesday.
Gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, a baby bottle and baby socks were apparently among some of the items found in Sisouvanh Synhavong's purse. It's seriously disturbing. What could compel someone to do something like this?
Saw this commercial on TV last night, for Skittles. It's just weird. Who thinks up something like this? And does their vision require a mustached Asian dude as "Sour Man"? Or did that decision come later, in casting process? At some point, somebody had to say, hey, inscrutable, gibbering, gesturing Asian men are funny! And eureka. Sour Man.
Another win for Scotty Nguyen. Yesterday, the veteran poker pro won nearly $2 million at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, taking down a field of 148 players, beating out 23-year-old Michael DeMichele and emerging from the final table with his fifth gold bracelet: Nguyen wins $2 million at World Series of Poker.
Nguyen won the final hand Monday at limit Hold 'em, pushing DeMichele all in with an ace and a 10. DeMichele, far behind in chips, called with an ace and a three, and Nguyen's 10 gave him the win when both players paired their aces. DeMichele won $1.24 million for his second place finish. Not too shabby either.
Scotty, the self-styled "Prince of Poker," has an official website here.
This is pretty cool. My man Patricio Ginelsa, the do-it-yourself indie filmmaker behind films like Lumpia and the music video for Black Eyed Peas' "Bebot," won big last week at the Los Angeles Film Festival Canon BRING IT 72-Hour Film Competition. After being chosen on June 18 to be one of four filmmakers to take part in the competition, he took home the prize with his film Being Reel.
The filmmakers were all required to write, shoot, and edit a short movie about "festival stories" in just 3 days. The process apparently took a lot of Patricio, as he fought a sore throat, lost his voice, and shot the movie in the middle of a summer heat wave. Ah, the things an artist will do for his craft. In the end, he barely made it to the finish line with only 6 minutes left on the clock. But he won! The audience at an industry event voted his film the winner. For his efforts, he won a brand new HF10 Camcorder, and supreme bragging rights.
You can follow along with the entire grueling process of making the film, as well as the prize-winning finished product, over at the KidHeroes website here. Nice work, Patricio. And congratulations.
Okay. Make your plans for this event, NYC. The Museum of Chinese in America presents Rebuilding the Bridge: New York to Sichuan, a benefit for disaster relief funds established by the charitable organizaiton MercyCorps, featuring a performance from America's Best Dance Crew winners the JabbaWockeeZ, hosted by Hot 97's Miss Info, and with special guests Ken Leung (Lost), Park Jin Young (JYP), and NYC Councilman John C. Liu. Here's the info (which is all basically on the flyer above):
MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA
presents
REBUILDING THE BRIDGE
New York to Sichuan
A benefit for disaster relief funds established by the charitable organization MERCYCORPS.
Please join a ground breaking coalition of Asian American performers and not-for-profit organizations as we raise awareness and dollars to help rebuild China's Sichuan region after one the most devastating natural disasters in recent memory. Proceeds will go to the special disaster relief funds established by charitable organization Mercy Corps.
DATE: Saturday July 12th 7:30pm-10:30pm
LOCATION: Pace University Michael Schimmel Center for Performing Arts 3 Spruce Street, New York, NY 10038
HOSTED BY: Minya Oh, Miss Info of HOT 97
PERFORMANCES BY:
JABBAWOCKEEZ America's Best Dance Crew winner
RYAN LESLIE R&B Artist
BEAU SIA Spoken Word Artist
ANDREW CHOI Vocalist
VIP RECEPTION SPECIAL GUESTS: Ken Leung (ABC's LOST), Park Jin Young (JYP), NYC Councilman John C. Liu
MEDIA PARTNERS: World Journal, HOT 97, Theme Magazine
COMMUNITY PARTNERS: A/P/A Institute at NYU, Asian American Arts Alliance, Asian American Film Lab, Asian American Writers' Workshop, AsianCinevision, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, Asia Society, Bosco Design Group, Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Ma-Yi Theater and New York Chinese Cultural Center
More performers and sponsors to be announced.
This sounds like an amazing event, benefiting a great cause. And dude, it's the JabbaWockeeZ. Dancing for disaster relief. Mark your calendars. It's going down Saturday, July 12 at Pace University in New York. For more information about the benefit, go here.
This is an extremely stupid story that's over on CNN, about a Japanese cafe with a very unique service: Cafe provides royal treatment. Basically, Japanese women came come to the cafe, escape the oppressive doldrums of their daily lives... and get their tea served up by a shining white western knight. And they love it. Every Japanese girl's dream! Ugh.
I just shake my head at this. But the more I thought about it, I realized the concept could be interpreted in a couple of different ways. There's the idea that Japanese women fantasize about having a western prince sweep them off their feet (which literally happens in the segment). Yuck.
Then again, I realized there is a bit of a role reversal happening here—instead of the subservient Asian woman, we're seeing the white man in the servant role. And that's hella fantasy. Perhaps it's actually a little bit of both. Either way, it's a really stupid idea, a stupid story... and nobody comes off looking very good.
hit DVD shelves this week, Variety reports that the pot-smoking Korean/Indian American comedic duo will be back for a third installment. Yes. A H&K trilogy: 
