A friend of mine emailed me aboutAsianWeek’s Sixth Annual Comedy Night and as written about in “Laugh Out Loud With APA Comedians:”
“Standing room-only crowds and tons of laughter have become a staple of AsianWeek’s popular free comedy night, which salutes May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The sixth annual comedy night, sponsored by Bud Light, will be no different, as seven talented comedians will be sure to have audiences rolling in the aisles as they humorously share their APA experiences. “Bud Light is proud to sponsor this event for the fifth year in a row,” said Jason Pak, senior director, Asian marketing, Anheuser-Busch Inc. “This is a great way for us to partner with AsianWeek, as well as support and encourage up- and-coming Asian American comedians.”
Where:
The Purple Onion
140 Columbus Ave., San Francisco
Cost:
Free
When:
Two shows:
Friday, May 30, 7-9 p.m. and
10 p.m.-midnight
R.S.V.P.:
Space limited, R.S.V.P. at comedynight@asianweek.com
Subscribe to our mailing list
Get the day's stories from 8Asians.com, delivered to your inbox every evening at 6:00pm PST.
I just heard about this event on hapihour.org:
Yul Kwon and the Asian Americans for Good Government (AAGG) Political Action Committee (PAC) are hosting a welcome reception for Edison (NJ) Mayor Jun Choi and Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon on Friday, May 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Dynasty Restaurant, 10123 N Wolfe Rd. Cupertino.
Yul Kwon is personally bringing Mayor Choi and Councilor Yoon to California to provide our community with opportunity to connect East and West Coast AAPI community and civic leaders.
The reception is sponsored by the following AAGG and community leaders: Yul Kwon, Hsing Kung, Sandy Chau, C.C. Yin, Talin Hsu, Johnnie Giles, James Yu, Albert Chang, Arnie Fong, Henry Yin, Maria Chen, Otto Lee, Gilbert Wang, Christine Young, Paul Fong, Barry Chang, Albert Wang, Joel Wong, Limin Hu, Kansen Chu, Daisy Chu, David Sheen, Lisa Quan, Margaret Abe Koga and others.
Financial contributions in support of Mayor Choi and Councilor Yoon are welcome and encouraged. More details on Facebook here.
As I had blogged before, I had met Sam Yoon a few years ago. Yoon is on the Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee and will be helping to decide how to settle the Florida and Michigan delegates for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Shopping With GASP!
With San Francisco having its first multi-day music festival in Golden Gate Park in a really long time – maybe ever – it would be silly not to mention Bay Area Hip-Hop artist Lyrics Born in the line-up with such heavy hitters like Radiohead, Beck and Lupe Fiasco and Jack Johnson.
While most people know of Lyrics Born – real name, Tom Shimura – from that Adrian Brody Diet Coke commercial or from an EA Game soundtrack. But he has Bay Area roots, living in El Cerrito (where I went to high school) going to UC Davis (where I went to college) and generally repping the Bay Area whether it’s via music store or radio station appearances. (Why yes, that would be the Port of Oakland in the photo above.)
Lyrics Born also just came out with his first studio album in three years, Everywhere At Once
This past Saturday, the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) organized the Presidential Town Hall at UC-Irvine Bren Events Center at University of California, Irvine. The event was not advertised that far in advance. I originally had read about the event early last week on AngryAsianMan, and received an email from the Clinton campaign a day or two before. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain were invited, and Clinton and Obama spoke via satellite television while McCain had a representative speak, as reported in “Clinton, McCain and Obama Reach Out to Asian-Americans:”
“…Clinton appeared on megascreens via satellite feed to answer previously formulated questions regarding topics such as immigration reform and hiring Asian American staff members. Shortly thereafter, Illinois Senator Barack Obama participated in a live telephone conversation in which he responded to similar questions asked by concerned Asian-American community members. Arizona Senator John McCain, who was last to be represented, was not able to attend because he was in New York taping “Saturday Night Live.” California State Assemblyman Van Tran spoke on McCain’s behalf and encouraged the audience to watch the program later that night.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like APIAVote did a good job of organizing this event in advance so that they could accommodate all the presidential candidates and inform interested Asian Americans in time. This event was supposedly streamed live over the Internet, but I can’t find a replay anywhere…
Maybe when we get to the general election, McCain and the Democratic nominee will be open to speaking to Asian Americans. I am sure if this event was sponsored by the NAACP or American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), all three presidential candidates would have gone out of there way to attend. The sad fact is that the Asian American community politically is not as well organized or as motivated to be organized, as other ethnic groups within the United States. Well, that is not something new, but something I thought I would point out again…
Google hosted its first Doodle 4 Google competition, and out of 16,000 entries from K-12 graders nationwide, 6th grader Grace Moon from Castro Valley won, with her illustration above. You can also find it on the Google search page, for today, this art will be seen by 100′s of millions of viewers in one day! Compared to the limited numbers of people who see Mona Lisa, the statue of David in one year…the power of the Internet, Grace’s art will be seen by so many in such a short period.
Grace’s Today Show interview this morning can be seen here.
Congrats, Grace! The illustration is beautiful, depicting what the world would look like if we lived in the sky.
As I had mentioned before, I don’t really watch “Dancing with the Stars,” but did know the finals were last night. Well, as I had thought from the beginning, Kristi Yamaguchi wins the competition, as reported in The San Jose Mercury News article, “Local hero Kristi Yamaguchi emerges as ‘Dancing’ champ:”
“All those years twirling and dancing on ice apparently paid off for Fremont’s own Kristi Yamaguchi on Tuesday night’s season finale of “Dancing With the Stars.” From the outset it was obvious she was a contender, and she nailed it in the finale, scoring a perfect 60 and taking home the mirror ball (mirror ball?) trophy. But Yamaguchi was clearly the most talented dancer on this season’s show, even though it’s been hard for women to take the “Dancing” crown. With a viewership that’s 75 percent women – a fact not lost on Taylor and de la Fuente, who never missed an opportunity to show some skin – the show still had plenty of suspense for the final episode.”
I don’t really know who the other “star” competitors were, but come on, Yamaguchi had an unfair advantage from the beginning – that being a former Olympic gold medalist for figure skating! I don’t know how easily figure skating skills can be translated into ballroom dancing, but just practicing routines in both, I have to imagine there is a lot of advantage. An MSNBC Commentary also brings up this point in, “Did anyone really stand a chance vs. Kristi?”
But I guess the audience usually votes not only based on dancing skill, but personality and hot bodies – male bodies that is, given the show’s demographics (the past 4 winners have been men). Though, to be honest, I don’t know if there is audience voting or not (I’m guessing there is). In any case, congratulations to Kristi! Although I think being known as an Olympian is a much greater honor 
I read last week that Yul Kwon, most known as the winner of “Survivor: Cook Islands,” had opened a Red Mango in downtown Palo Alto. Ernie had posted previously that Kwon had trouble opening a Red Mango in San Francisco due to the city’s strict zoning restrictions against chain stores.
I first heard of Red Mango when I had written about Pinkberry being highlighted in an American Express commercial. Being new to the Korean export of frozen yogurt, I decided to drop by downtown Palo Alto Sunday afternoon to try for myself this frozen delight. We’ve been experiencing a heat wave the past few days in the Bay Area, so the store was pretty crowded. I got my original small yogurt with strawberries, and just loved it. The strawberries were fresh and very sweet and a nice compliment to the frozen yogurt. The Red Mango is not too far from the Apple store in downtown Palo Alto, right on University Avenue. I think it’ll be a big hit given its location and tasty treats.
While waiting in line, I saw that the store had a Danoo video screen – the first time I saw a Danoo enabled HDTV screen in a real setting. Danoo is a company my friend co-founded.
As I noted in March, the San Jose City Council agreed to let a privately funded “Welcome to Little Saigon” to go up, replacing the previously named (and later recalled) “Saigon Business District.” On Sunday, the supporters of “Little Saigon” had a celebration, as reported:
“Billed as a celebration of their “Little Saigon” victory, about 2,000 Vietnamese émigrés reveled outside San Jose City Hall on Sunday, but the event also doubled as an informal kickoff to the attempted recall of embattled Councilwoman Madison Nguyen. In near-90-degree heat and shielded by umbrellas, activists pumped their fists and cheered as dozens took the stage during the five-hour rally…”I don’t care about the name,” said Brandon Tran, who along with his wife, Novalee, signed the petition Sunday. “It’s the way she treated the community that is unacceptable. She challenged the Vietnamese community.”
The anti-Madison Nguyen movement has also started the recall process for Nguyen. To get the recall on the ballot, proponents need 12 percent (3,162 signatures) of the registered voters in Nguyen’s district (District 7) bt September 13th to make it on the ballot for November.
Personally, I don’t care whether or not if a section in San Jose is called “Little Saigon” or “Saigon Business District,” (though I do think “Little Saigon” sounds better), nor am I sure if most San Jose residents care. But it is pretty clear that a vocal minority (and possibly a silent majority?) do care. I think though that there are probably more important things that the Vietnamese community could do to be more active in local politics that are on the minds of all San Jose voters (like possible budget cuts on education, etc.).
After the decision by California to allow same-sex marriages last Thursday, hundreds of queer couples are planning to get married, including George Takei and his partner, Brad Altman.
In his announcement on his web site, George Takei notes parallels in the struggle for same-sex marriage to the struggle for redress for Japanese Americans who were placed in concentration camps during World War II, noting that it took the federal government nearly 60 years to finally compensate those who were placed in these camps. Japanese Americans were seen as the scourge of World War II simply because of their race (and despite strong evidence to the contrary that they were the least likely to betray the American government); the queer community is likewise seen as a scourge by different populations because of who we love, and like him, I hope such discrimination is simply seen as lessons to be learned and to wonder what the hell people were thinking.
On a tangent, I still find it quite hilarious that it took Takei until 2005 to formally come out, even though his presence and support as part of the queer Asian American community was well known for decades beforehand. I remember being on the board of directors of Los Angeles’ Gay Asian Pacific Support Network back in 1997 and seeing him attend all of their major functions with his partner. George was known as a strong supporter of GAPSN and other queer Asian organizations around the country, so it was a bit of a surprise that most people didn’t know that he was queer when he actually came out 8 years later.
One other hilarious thing happened when he was inducted into the National Japanese American Hall of Fame about a month before George Takei came out in ’05, and for a musical dedication, a girl sang “Over the Rainbow,” causing stifled snickers and outright laughter from us queer folk, and confused looks from everybody else, since George Takei wasn’t born yet when The Wizard of Oz came out.
Congratulations to George and all the other queer couples who are planning their marriages!
This past Saturday, Steve Carell was the guest host on Saturday Night Live. Ricky Gervais, the star of the original British sitcom presents the “actual” inspiration for The Office in SNL’s “digital short,” which takes place in Japan with some of the typical stereotypes of a Japanese office, done with the best of intentions with humor – which I found hilarious, especially since I am a fan of NBC’s The Office. At the end of the digital short, Ricky Gervais says “It’s funny because it’s racist.” Do you think the video is racist?
When I first wrote about former Dartmouth professor Priya Venkatesan and her plan to sue her students for “intellectual distress” (which is funny, because I get “intellectual distress” every time I read some of the comments on here–OH SNAP! Just kidding. No, really. I’m kidding. Please don’t flame me.), all I wanted to do what hear from this lady herself, just so that tiny sliver of hope in my stone-cold heart wouldn’t die. You know, maybe this lady really did have a point? I mean, I heard that Dartmouth kids are pretty snarky and rude. Maybe Venkatesan was a true victim in our academic world. Right?
Luckily for me, the Dartmouth Review posted a 2-day interview (yes, two days. This interview took TWO DAYS because the poor student ran out of tape.) with Venkatesan and let me just summarize the huge transcript for you. This lady is C-R-A-Z-Y.
Not only does she repeat herself a billion times, which explains why the interview process took 48 hours, but she absolutely makes no sense. Here are my favorite parts:
In reference to her claims that her students were discriminating her:
I think that right now because there are so many laws out there, slavery is outlawed, we have the Civil Rights Act, we have all these laws in place to protect minorities, to protect women, to protect the elderly, so we have these laws in place. No one made a comment about my ethnicity. That did not happen, and I have to say that it did not happen. So what is the basis of my claim? I think that the basis of my claim is that the behavior, like I said in which the tables were turned around, was partially motivated by race.
Whaaaaat? But more specifically,
I think at one point when I was reading a paper during the writing workshop, there were two students, they were actually the more obnoxious students in the class, they were the impolite ones, who would have a little conversation about how geeky or how socially inept an Indian student was. You could tell that it was an Indian because the name they mentioned was South-Asian, and I know that, because I can recognize South Asian names.
Note to self: gossip among classmates does not equal racial discrimination.
Here’s the best part, where she describes how one particular girl attempted to undermine her teaching by constantly asking how to spell words:
PV: One time Tom Cormen was sitting in the class, and she asked me, how many T’s are in Gattaca. This was the kind of question she was asking, “how many T’s are in Gattaca?,” and I was about to answer her and Tom Cormen pre-empted me, “two t’s.” I’ll leave you to interpret it.
TDR: No. No, I don’t understand that.
PV: I have to tell you: it means tenure track.
TDR: Oh, okay.
PV: Because I wasn’t tenured track.
TDR: Oh, okay, yes.
PV: They were trying to intimate that I wasn’t ready for tenure track.
TDR: Yes, okay, I didn’t realize that’s what that meant.
Hmm…Here’s what I want to know. Gattaca, like the movie with Ethan Hawke? What does that have to do with anything?
The New York Times article “Koreans Agog as Off-Screen Soap Becomes Courtroom Drama” brought to light a Korean law I was unaware of, that extramarital affairs are considered illegal in South Korea. Park Chul, a Korean actor, pressed charges against his wife, Ok So-ri for having an affair with his friend. The defendant/wife, in a brilliant counter-move, led a very public press conference announcing she did have an affair with her husband’s friend, claiming 1) she and her husband only had sex ten times in eleven years, and 2) the law is outdated and should be changed anyway.
The article also points out that incest is not illegal in Korea but extramarital affairs are. I can’t help but wonder if there needs to be some major changes in legislation.
The clincher? The amazing quote that ends the article, attributed to a female student at Ewha Ha Ji-Eun, which is telling of perhaps many conservative views of women and men who believe this law has its protections:
“Korean men, many of them still get away with adultery because women are weak,” Ms. Ha said. “It was as recently as during my grandparents’ days that men brought in concubines and kicked out their wives. If this law is abolished, I am sure women will suffer more.”
Custom Search
Recent Posts
- Asian American Commercial Watch: May Is Blooming At JCP
- Suicide Prompts Chinese To Reconsider Coming To U.S.
- Winner Of The 2012 “B A Hero” Hepatitis B PSA Video Contest
- Manny Pacquiao, Filipino Homophobia And Masculinity
- The Mindy Project Makes Mindy Kaling Even More Hilarious
- Yes, We’re Open Review & Interview From LAAPFF 2012
- President Obama At Asian Pacific American Institute For Congressional Studies Annual Gala
Recent Comments
- : The referenced article interviews and talks with Chinese citizens who say they are reconsidering jobs in the U.S., and that's actually the point of the... – Suicide Prompts Chinese To Reconsider Coming To U.S.
- : I'm not sure if mr. wang's suicide has any correlation to chinese people in general being more cautious in coming to the US for jobs. wang picked his engineering... – Suicide Prompts Chinese To Reconsider Coming To U.S.
- : I usually think really hard when I decide on who to vote for at each presidential election, but this year is turning out more and... – President Obama At Asian Pacific American Institute For Congressional Studies Annual Gala
- : What about Jerry Sandusky? THAT OLD WHITE GUY IS FUCKING SICK! – Manny Pacquiao, Filipino Homophobia And Masculinity
- : Yeah I have the same feeling. However, I'll watch the first few episodes and hope I can be made into a believer. – The Mindy Project Makes Mindy Kaling Even More Hilarious
APA Events
Oct 14: (Seattle, WA) From Fields to Family: Asian Pacific Americans and Food
Mar 1: (Atlanta, GA) The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946
Apr 26: (New York, NY) June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square
Apr 26: (New York, NY) America through a Chinese Lens
Apr 27: (Seattle, WA) SEX IN SEATTLE 20: HAPPILY EVER AFTER. . . (the series finale!)
May 16: (Seattle, WA) May SpamORama
May 24: (San Jose, CA) Sake San Jose
May 24: (New York, NY) A Conversation with artists Arthur Ou, Hai Zhang, and Julie Quon in Conjunction with America through a Chinese Lens
Staff and Contributors
- Editors
Moye Ishimoto
Co-Editor, Editorial
Jocelyn "Joz" Wang
Co-Editor, PR & APA Outreach
- Founder
Ernie Hsiung
Founder
