1 Comment
She’ll probably kill me for posting this, but what the hell: Sam Chanse is a not-so-frequent poster to 8Asians. That being said, she single-handedly has the best reason for not having time to write or do pretty much anything: She’s been writing and performing in her one-woman show, Lydia’s Funeral Video.
A one-woman show. I congratulate myself if I have the energy to go downstairs and take my clothes out of the dryer.
Here’s the synopsis:
In the not-so-distant future, when abortions are legal only within twenty-eight days of conception and Paris Hilton has embarked on yet another reality show, apocalypse-obsessed Lydia Clark-Lin is doggedly pursuing a career in monetary units when a mysterious being claiming to be an hours-old embryo invades her dreams, announces that Lydia is both pregnant and dying, and commands her to create a video to be screened at her funeral before terminating the pregnancy. As the embryonic orders continue (“talk to the celebrity abortion doctor!” “interview your mother!” “do some standup comedy!”) and Lydia seems to be losing her job and her mind, a deadline fast approaches, the end of the world beckons, and hecklers loom on the San Francisco horizon.
Holy shit. Her show runs from Thursdays to Saturdays, January 31 to February 16, 2008 at The Dark Room Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District. There are pages for the event at upcoming.org as well as on Facebook. I’ll tell you know what I think of the show once I go see it, hopefully sometime this week.
1 Comment | Posted in: Entertainment
44 Comments
One of the things I’ve always admired about SoCal schools were their hip-hop dance crews. The closest thing I ever came to one was dancing in the hip-hop suite during the UC Davis Filipino Cultural Night. There were fifty of us, and let’s be honest - if I was dancing in it, it really couldn’t have been that good. (As a side note, I heard that videos exist of me somewhere. If someone ever finds it, can you throw it away? Like, forever? kthxbi.)
So why do I bring this up? Because Kaba Modern, a dance crew out of UC Irvine, are one of the crews competing on MTV’s Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew. These guys are incredibly good, having also won the silver medal at the Hip Hop Internationals 2007:
It’s cool to see something that was once “just an AZN collegiate California” thing broadcast on national television. One thing I did notice, though: their group is a spin-off of Kababayan, the Filipino group at UCI, but their roster on the MTV show looks to have Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese people, but no Filipinos. I mean, what kind of Chinese person would try to join a Filipino club? (That’s sarcasm. The answer would be: me, twelve years ago.)
Update #2: A YouTube video of their performance during their series premiere. Dude, what’s up with the quick edits and bad camera angles? The producers and cameraman seem to notice Yuri a LOT. Lesson learned: human interest story + a pretty girl = HELLA MTV FACE TIME.
Update #3: Kaba’s performance of episode 2 is now online, doing a performance based on a Chris Brown video; it’s the first performance where they recieve a little bit of criticism, but it’s most likely a solid pass to the next round. The producers focus on Jia as choreographer, although that doesn’t stop the cameras from focusing on Yuri every five seconds. (I have no problems with this, mind you, nor does every other male who watches this show - but isn’t the focus supposed to be on the dance crew?)
Update #4: Unfortunately, Viacom is actively blocking any America’s Next Dance Crew videos on YouTube. You can try finding video clips of performances at MTV’s website, although MTV breaks up clips by the time between commercials rather than just the performances themselves. Here is their performance from this week:
Judging from the comments, it looks like it wasn’t a very strong performance. Could this be the end of Kaba on the show?
Final Update: Kaba Modern was eliminated this week. Was the race card played?
(via Angry Asian Man)
44 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
3 Comments
Here’s an internet comedy series from LA based comedian Randall Park (member of MTV’s Wild’n Out) called “Dr. Miracles” about a doctor with certain life saving abilities in his.. um… “DNA”, let us say. This series literally had me spitting up my food, water and blood (the ‘blood’ part not so much literal). From the lines to the intentionally low budget set design and costume/makeup, this show doesn’t seem to try to hide its warts but rather shows them off proudly and makes it an element of its comedy. Here’s an excerpt describing Episode 4 (my favorite so far):
The 14 minute epic fourth episode of the hugely popular internet series which debuts on www.Channel 102.net. Brought to you by comedian/actor Randall Park (myspace.com/randallparkplace), featuring Eddie Shin, Liza Lapira, Ray Lai & Matt Hill. This very special episode features Dwayne Perkins (Conan O’ Brien, Comedy Central Presents), Joshua Funk & Nyima Funk (Wild N’ Out), Johnny Scourtis, Beth Dover & Sekou Kane as Ghostface Killah.
Just be warned, this is NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK.
3 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
23 Comments
The other day, I made a post on my personal blog that garnered a lot of (private) comments. I got a bunch of comments via IM and email, but just a few public comments.
Here’s an excerpt… I was having a conversation with a good friend of my mother’s in Chinglish when she asked me the following:
Mom’s friend: “DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF SEX?” (in English)
“WHAT?!” I asked in Chinese, really shocked by the mention of the subject. (I do NOT talk to my Mom about such things, so I am not going to go talking to her close friend about stuff like this. As far as my Mom likes to believe, I don’t even know what sex is and I’m not planning on changing that perception for a while!)
Mom’s friend: “I said, ‘Do you have a lot of sex?’” (she repeated in English)
Joz: …
I sat there dumbfounded in silence, which is pretty damn unusual for me. What the hell is she bringing this up for?! What the hell am I going to say?! How do I change the topic!?!?! Arrrrgh! So embarrassing!
Since I didn’t answer for a bit (maybe like 10 seconds, which is an eternity, especially for a blabbermouth like me), she asked the question again:
Mom’s friend: “Did you hear what I asked?” (in Chinese)
Mom’s friend: “Do you have a lot of PRESSURE on you?” (in English.)Joz: “Pressure?” (in English)
Mom’s friend: “Yes, pressure. STRESS. Do you have a lot of STRESS?” (in English)
OMG! She was asking me about STRESS, not SEX! Thank god!
Joz: “Pressure? Oh yeah, I have lots of that. You know that.”
Mom’s friend: “You shouldn’t worry so much, try to relax and not to take on so much pressure. It’s not good for your body.” (in Chinese)
Joz: “Yeah, I know.” (Joz changes the subject quickly)
Ok, embarrassing story aside, I gotta ask you what you think of the scenario. Did I totally overreact by thinking that my Mom’s friend was asking me about sex? Do you talk to your parents about sex? What about other family members? Who do/don’t you talk about sex with? Why is that?!
For me, the thought about talking about sex with my Mom or my uncles/aunties is absolutely mortifying. Once my Mom made some comment about conceiving my brother and my head just about exploded.
Is this an Asian/Asian American thing? Because in my experience, a lot of my non-Asian friends don’t have trouble talking about sex to their parents.
Oh and for me, the taboo subject matter is not just about ME having sex… it’s about sex in general. Like other people having sex is not a topic I want to discuss with my Mom. I actually want to pretend like the word/subject doesn’t exist when it comes to my Mom. And my Mom and I talk about pretty much everything. Well, except sex.
Now your turn… dish!
23 Comments | Posted in: Lifestyles, Observations
5 Comments
New to sushi? Want to make sure you eat it properly? Watch this.
In case you didn’t get it, this is comedy. Japanese comedy at its best. It was created by the Japanese comedy troupe The Rahmens. (Get it? The Rahmens? HA! Oh man that cracks me up.)
If you’re familiar with Japanese customs, you’ll find this even funnier. I didn’t know this at first, but a friend told me that traditional Japanese restaurants will place a bowl of salt outside the door to ward off evil spirits. Knowing that little bit of culture will make the closing scene that much more funnier. Hehe.
“Maa maa maa maa”
“Oh toh toh toh”
“Maa maa maa maa”
“Oh toh toh toh”
5 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment, Food & Drink
4 Comments
The relatively anonymous illadub sent me an e-mail telling me about Asia Cruise, a multi-ethnic [Asian, Native American, White] Jacksonville Pop/R&B artist signed onto Jive Records. The way she was marketed was interesting - her music was leaked first onto MySpace with music, but without any photographs - only a female silhouette with a title, “who is Asia Cruise?” and a countdown to her video. Bloggers questioned her identity - at least until the video that came out for her song, “Selfish”:
She talks about her initial identity being a mystery on her MySpace page:
I know some of you are wondering why the big mystery. Well, to be honest with you, it really didn’t start that way. The whole “Who Is Asia Cruise” was more of a question to myself. When I started working on the album, the main question that kept poppin up was “Who is Asia?” I really wanted to pick songs that reflected me and who I am…so when you listen to the album, you’ll definitely get a sense of who I am. Then I wanted everyone to like me for my music instead of my image. That was really important to me. So, we decided to take a risk and not put my face out there and GUESS what? Ya’ll love my music!!
Okay, so I’m 31 and her links to teenmusic.com make me feel incredibly old, but the A&R guy in me believes Asia Cruise actually has a fighting chance of being a successful artist. The Asian activist in me wonders if the marketing of her music before her video is to prevent her from being typecast as an Asian artist, which haven’t had much success in mainstream radio. Nonetheless, I’ll be channeling the sixteen year old girl inside me and listen to this song repeatedly the next time I go through a break-up.
4 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment, Music
13 Comments
‘And this is when my mom kicked me under the table when I mouthed off to my dad.’
Jack Yang and Lucy Liu show each other’s war wounds in Cashmere Mafia.
Last nights IM conversation with Will-W.
willw: omg cashmere mafia went there!!
willw: good for them
xxxtine: went where?
xxxtine: what’s going on?
willw: lucy liu!
willw: dating an asian guy!!
xxxtine: OMG!
willw: u’re missing out
xxxtine: I’ll find a torrent tomorrow!
willw: so fresh! love it
xxxtine: who is he?
willw: no idea
willw: omg the men on this show is hot
willw: are hot
willw: they’re so hot they make me have bad grammar
The tall drink of water is Jack Yang and according to IMDB … he lasts for 3 episodes. Still … ROWR!
13 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
1 Comment
Sunday night was the finale for the 12th season of The Amazing Race. I had blogged about the Chinese-American father-daughter team of Ronald and Christina at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, Ronald and Christina came in second place, although throughout the many legs of the competition, they did come in first. At the end of the day, The Amazing Race is a combination of luck and skill, and unfortunately Ronald and Christina came up short. You can read the recap of the finale here.
However, out of all the teams, one could really see that Ronald and Christina over the period of the season really grow closer. Ronald, the father, was a stereotypical overbearing Chinese father who would always be telling Christina what she was doing wrong and being impatient, as well as Christina being a little deferential to her father, even though at times, she needed to be more assertive because she was right. Ronald, to his credit, became quite self aware and began to change, becoming more patient and encouraging while Christina also took a little more initiative.
1 Comment | Posted in: Current Events, Entertainment, Observations
Blog RSS Blog Comments RSS
