First saw this on Slashdot and thought I’d share the story here: a Japanese resort is now catering to men with Virtual girlfriends from the game Love Plus (a trailer of the game is above). Love Plus is a simulation game that lets you develop a “relationship’ with a virtual anime girlfriend, and apparently it has been a hit for its maker Konami. One guy even “married” his Love Plus girlfriend.
One recent sweltering summer’s day, a tour bus from Tokyo pulled up at a sun-kissed beach at Atami, a Pacific coast resort southwest of the metropolis, and disgorged more than a dozen excited, iPhone-clutching young men.
The determined youngsters, paying scant attention to the bikini-clad girls frolicking on the sand, instead headed straight for a bronze statue that depicts Kanichi and Omiya, a couple from an old love story set in Atami.
The focus of the men’s attention — and of their smartphone cameras — was a tiny black and white square, a two-dimensional barcode that, thanks to “augmented reality” (AR) software, brought to life the object of their desire.
“Look, it’s like I’m in a snapshot with her,” said Shu Watanabe, 23, as he showed off his iPhone display, featuring himself next to the image of a doe-eyed cartoon character named Rinko, a smiling high school girl.
Atami has outfitted some romantic locations where virtual girlfriends can appear (via AR software), dressed in casual summer wear. Local souvenir shops sell “Love Plus” themed items. Apparently, the resort town has seen its business decline, and catering to these guys with a virtual girlfriend has helped the local economy.
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If I hadn’t been hosting the Q&A for the L.A. theatrical opening of The People I’ve Slept With on Friday night, then I definitely would have been at Kollaboration Acoustic 4.
Luckily, there’s YouTube and fan-uploaded videos of the show, for those of us who couldn’t make it! Dawen, who has performed with Macy Gray and covered songs by Maxwell, won the night’s competition (and a cool $1,000) with an original song called “Shoes.” Congrats to Dawen and to all the performers!
Thanks to HypnoticAsia for the video!
Shopping With GASP!
You know how your Chinese parents were like, “Carnegie Mellon? What is Mellon? GO TO UC DAVIS. CHEAPER AND MORE FAMOUS.” (What? Just my parents? Alright, then.)
Well, don’t expect that mindset to go away any time soon: according to a list compiled by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Harvard and UC Berkeley were ranked as the two best colleges in the world. The factor used to determine “the best” in this Chinese study? The number of staff or alumni to receive Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals, among other factors. “Our view is – since we have really outstanding humanities here – that if there was a way of including humanities into the ranking, that our relative ranking might even have risen,” said the UC Berkeley chancellor. To which the Chinese respond: “HUMANITIES? HA HA HA THE CHINESE LAUGH AT YOUR HUMANITIES. DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE CALL THAT SHIT? ELECTIVES.”
(Flickr photo credit: Charlie Nguyen)
Archie Panjabi won the Emmy for best supporting actress on Sunday night for her role as Kalinda Sharma on the show The Good Wife. She was born in West London to Sikh parents. This is the first Emmy win for Panjabi, who has also had roles in Bend it Like Beckham, and The Constant Gardener. Panjabi appeared genuinely shocked at her win. She had tough competition including fellow actress Christine Baranski also from The Good Wife. She also thanked Angelina Jolie during her acceptance speech, her costar in A Mighty Heart. The Good Wife was one of my favorite primetime dramas last season and it’s good to see Panjabi recognized for her work on the show. Congratulations Ms. Panjabi!
In this video filmed and edited by The Mighty Fifty, The Bangerz, a DJ collective, perform “Robot Remains” in collaboration with San Jose Taiko at the SubZERO Festival. I first saw this on Angry Asian Man, and thought I should share it here for a number of reasons. First, I think it is a brilliant mix of old and new, Asian and American. Taiko and Turntablism – that’s quite a creative, out-of-the-box combination! Second, it also highlights turntablism, which was heavily influenced by Asian-Americans such as DJ Qbert. I had heard about group DJ performances but had never seen one myself. A third reason is that my nephew, a member of the Bangerz, is in it. I met a lot of the Bangerz years ago when they were in high school, and it is wonderful how to see how they evolved. “Robot Remains” was created in collaboration with the Jabbawockeez dance crew, who have worked with the Bangerz for a long time. The song was released this month and is available on iTunes.
- SPONSORED LINK: AsianFashion.com aims to list the best designer clothes and shoes from leading Asian fashion designers!
- Aarti Sequeira, Bombay Born and Dubai raised food blogger wins the latest season of The Next Food Network Star.
- Filipino-American Republican Tani Cantil-Sakauye is the newest Chief Justice of California, and has the thumbs up from Governor Shwarzenegger.
- Indian Americans and Filipinos are at greater risk of suffering from coronary heart disease, while Japanese and Chinese-Americans have higher chances of suffering from a stroke.
- Top 100 Cosplay Fails.
Ten years ago, in 2000 — when the Internet was “ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US”, YouTube was just the gleam in a douchebag’s eye and watching videos consisted of downloading weird file names for seven minutes, a little video called Tokyo Breakfast hit the Internet: touted as a pilot for a Japanese television show, a presumably Japanese family drops the N word in a parody of American culture, to the horror and/or delight and/or hysterics of college students with Internet access everywhere (okay, me.)
After years of debate as to whether this pilot was Japanese or Chinese (the newscasters are speaking in Mandarin!) thanks to the invention of Wikipedia several years later, we can finally put the issue at rest: Tokyo Breakfast is American, a short film by Filmmaker-turned-music video director Tom Kuntz as “a parody of the Japanese perception of day-to-day doings of an American family, with an emphasis on the skewed emulation of a perceived black culture.” And chances are, you’ve definitely seen some very recent work of his: he directed Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Can Smell Like campaign. NIGGA GONE FISHIN, indeed.
On August 29th, there will be a special concert in Anaheim, CA that will give the audience members, in real-time or on webcast, an inside look on what musicians think about when they write a song. Featuring Connie Lim, Sue Jin Kim, Giana Nguyen, David “Applesauce” Tran, Kristine Sa, and Tony T Nguyen, these artists make up the concert that is known as the Tony T Sessions. It is created by one of the most truly talented and genuine musicians I have had the fortune of knowing, Tony T Nguyen. You can visit here to get more information about the event as well as to purchase your tickets.
What are the Tony T Sessions? Who is Tony T Nguyen? All will be revealed in this special interview with the man himself. An honest, real, and beautiful musician, find out how music came to play such an important role in Tony T Nguyen’s life.
Jeremy Lin’s #7 white home and blue road jerseys are now available in the Golden State Warriors online team store! They can be yours for $55.00 each. Get them while they last!
Sometimes when we protest over API representation in Hollywood, the industry actually listens and sometimes, they actually do something about it. Marvel responded to Racebending’s concerns over their lack of specification in their casting call for the Japanese American character, Nico Minoru, in Runaways.
To address your concern over casting for the role of Nico, as we do with all of our films, we intend to stay true to the legacy and story of the comic when casting these parts. Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly.
You can read their entire post here. Woot! Congrats to the folks at Racebending for their efforts in reaching out to Marvel and continued activism for the API community. Oh, and break a leg to all the API actors out there now vying for the role!
By Anonymous
Having now entered the second trimester of my pregnancy, there really is no denying that I’m knocked up — the belly seems to swell another inch every day and I think I’ve already started waddling. And as any woman who has found herself pregnant, I am now the recipient of an endless flow of advice, mostly unwanted and unsolicited… and as a Korean-American, I get a nice spin of decidedly American and Korean advice, much which entirely conflicts each other. Continue Reading »
How to Achieve Internet Fame; Case Study of lexlib (he’s the one in the back wearing a wifebeater):
- Wear a white t-shirt and get in bed with your 3 besties to watch the 2010 Miss Universe Pageant
- Record your reactions as they announce the Top 15
- Go apesh!t crazy when Maria Venus Raj, Miss Philippines makes it in.
- Bonus: Get Perez Hilton to call the video “One Of The Best Videos Of The Summer!” and have him file it under “Gay Gay Gay.”
When are we going to see the accompanying video of these boys crying when Miss Philippines lost the Miss Universe 2010?! Meanwhile, get ready for an onslaught of parody videos — if Ernie was in L.A., that’s what we’d be doing right now. Of course, we would request that Efren join and make a special appearance, too.
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