UPDATE: The winner is Ally!
There is no shortage of things to do in L.A. this Friday night: Kollaboration is the largest Asian Pacific American (APA) talent showcase in North America that has been active for 11 years and has grown into a massive grassroots movement within diverse APA communities. Kollaboration is bringing its Acoustic 4 show back at the Ford Amphitheatre for this annual talent competition.
Date: Friday, August 27, 2010
Time: 8:30PM (Doors Open 6:30PM)
Venue: Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd, East, Hollywood, CA 90068
Purchase Tickets Online: $15 General Admission, $25 VIP Admission (preferred seating)
Headliner: Marié Digby
Competitors:
Alex & Jackie (Alex Hwang & Jackie Kim), Justis Kao, Esna Yoon, FlowEthics, Sorah Yang & Brian Fang, Peony (Judy Lee), Hippie Hippie Hoorah, Lily Bee (Lilian Bui), Johnny Le & Iris Leonardo, Misscarolinexoxo, Dawen
Special Performances by: ChannelPKTown
Guest Judges: Marié Digby, Big Phony, Travis Wong, Shinae Yoon
So do you think you’re lucky enough to win these tickets?!
What you could win from 8Asians:
A free pair of tickets for Kollaboration Acoustic 4 on August 27, 2010!How do you enter?
All you have to do is to leave a comment saying why you want to go and ONE lucky winner will be selected to go!What’s the deadline?
ASAP!Rules for entering:
1) Please be serious about using the tickets– unused free tix suck!
2) Contributors to 8Asians and their immediate family members are not eligible to win.Prize courtesy of: GW, a supporter of Kollaboration and a friend of 8Asians.
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We’ve been unabashed fans of the sex-comedy The People I’ve Slept With even before Koji joined our ranks, so it’s with great pleasure that we share the news that the film will be opening in Los Angeles this weekend (starting Friday, August 27th) at the Laemmle Sunset 5. (And if you’re not in L.A., Bay Area folks, it’s coming to you next!)
Yours truly, on behalf of 8Asians.com, will be hosting a special Q&A with the filmmakers and cast, following the 10pm show on Friday, August 27. The People I’ve Slept With is fun, funny, and features many, many crushworthy folks. If you missed the sold-out screening at the 2010 L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival, then this is your chance to see it in the theatre and to meet some of the cast & filmmakers.
People Pictures is proud to announce the Los Angeles theatrical release of The People I’ve Slept With, directed by Quentin Lee (Ethan Mao, Shopping with Fangs) and written by Koji Steven Sakai. The film is self-distributed by People Pictures and will open exclusively August 27, 2010 at Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatres in Los Angeles.“I am thrilled to be opening The People I’ve Slept With in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Sunset 5 Cinemas. It’s an indie filmmaker’s dream come true,” says director Quentin Lee. “With the film playing at both LA’s Fusion and the LA Asian Pacific Film Festivals this year, I feel Angelenos will enjoy and support the adventures of the film’s heroine.”
The People I’ve Slept With is a sexy, romantic story about Angela (Karin Anna Cheung of Better Luck Tomorrow), a young woman with a zealously active sex life, who after every sexual conquest, makes keepsake “baseball cards” of each of her male conquests. One day, Angela finds out she is pregnant and begins a quest to find the identity of her baby’s daddy. Together with her gay, best friend and co-worker Gabriel (Wilson Cruz of He’s Just Not That Into You, My So-Called Life), the two go on a comical and raunchy hunt through her past hook-ups and dates. But as Angela peels back the layers of her frisky past, she begins to realize that the answers she is looking for, reveal themselves in surprising ways.
Featuring a sparkling and daring performance by Karin Anna Cheung, The People I’ve Slept With co-stars Archie Kao (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Lynn Chen (Lakeview Terrace, Saving Face) and screen legend James Shigeta (Flower Drum Song, The Crimson Kimono). The film has found strong support with sold out festival screenings including San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, along with being selected as the official Closing Night Presentation of the 2010 New York Asian American Film Festival. The film is set to open theatrically in Los Angeles at Laemmle Sunset 5, August 27, San Francisco at the VIZ CINEMAS, September 3, and in New York at Clearview Cinemas on August 13, 2010
You can buy your tickets online: Laemmle Sunset 5 (8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, 90046. 323-848-3500). See you there and come say hi!
Or if you can’t make it until Saturday night, then check out their 7:30pm screening with the Q&A hosted by Angry Asian Man’s, Phil Yu. After that, you can party with Angry Asian Man and Audrey Magazine at Libertine on Sunset, where Audrey will be hosting an intimate afterparty with the cast & crew.
Shopping With GASP!
At this point, some of you may be aware of the controversy surrounding the “Ground Zero Mosque” and the high emotions that are surrounding this construction. There have been many different viewpoints and opinions on it, with many of the public attention being paid toward FOX News and their rather sensationalist perspective on the matter.
After conducting some research as well as several wonderful friends who gave me information on what is really happening, here is a fact list to let you know what is simply the truth of the matter. Continue Reading »
The other night, Stephen Colbert reported that a Japanese hacker by the name of Masato Nakatsuji had been arrested for writing a computer virus that replaced all the files on a person’s computer with images of squid – infecting an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 computers. Now I can understand why a hacker would want to write a virus or worm to steal passwords or someone’s files, but WTF – replace files with images of squid? Talk about a total waste of time and effort.
A recent report by the Wall Street Journal reveals that non-white births accounted for 48.6% of all births in the United States between July 2008 and July 2009. Not just in California, New York or even Texas, but the entire United States. If this continues, nonwhite births will grow beyond 50% in a very short time — and possibly as early as next year. Expect a multi-racial future with some immediate conflict ahead: “The median age of the white population is older than that of nonwhites, and thus a larger share of minority women are in prime child-bearing years. In addition, white women are having fewer children than nonwhites, while the growth in mixed marriages has led to more multiracial births.”
Shingo Annen (aka Shing02) is truly a man of the world and has been an influential presence in the underground rap community as an MC and producer in both Japan and the U.S. since the early 90′s. As one of the few truly multilingual rappers on the international stage, Shing02 is best known for his unique musical style, blending traditional Japanese tunes with new age hip-hop rhymes and lyrics. Currently touring for his new Japanese album “Y-Kyoku”, he is envisioning and producing new music as a member of the Kosmic Renaissance trio and is continuing to revolutionize the underground rap/ hip-hop community.
You might have caught our previous interview with him on channelAPA, so I decided to do a follow up in order to find out how Shingo’s passions, goals, and life lessons brought him to where he is today.
This video collaboration is not only just a look into his personal life, but also a dedication in memory of Tokyo based hip-hop producer and DJ Nujabes, with whom Shingo has collaborated on multiple occasions (most notably “Battlecry”, the theme song of the hip-hop influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo.) The mutual respect and love we both share for Nujabes was one of the key reasons for producing this video, and we wanted to continue to preserve his memory forever.
For those that have never really caught it before, yes, I am in an interracial relationship. So understanding quite well that I too am a part of this Pew statistic where one in seven new marriages are interracial or inter-ethnic, I thought it would be fascinating to throw in my two cents on why this is happening instead of speaking on the statistical study itself.
So apparently, the NBA runs a Rookie Transition Program for newly drafted NBA players. Guess who the NBA is highlighting the other day–Golden State Warriors’ Jeremy Lin! The NBA had a camera crew following Jeremy in Times Square, hanging out with some friends and checking out what’s going on, including a brief appearance with the infamous naked cowboy. I guess it’s a good idea that the NBA has a transition program given how many professional athletes in general wind up broke after 5 to 10 years after retiring. But even Jeremy Lin was getting some photos taken and shaking some hands when they found out he was an NBA basketball player with a camera crew following him around. Check out the video yourself!
Last night, Miss Mexico won the Miss Universe pageant, but anyone who watched the show knew that from the auditorium full of Filipinos to host Natalie Morales’ exasperated “Wow, it looks like all of the Philippines is cheering her on tonight!” it was really Miss Philippines’ contest to lose. And lose she did: after sailing through the final five category, Venus Raj horrified the final judging panel by answering that in her 22 years, there is nothing “major major [she] has done in her life” when asked if she’s made any life mistakes. And all the sudden, it is possible for a Mexican to beat a Filipino in Las Vegas! HEY-YO!
Fellow 8Asians blogger Rosemary best said it best on her Twitter: “Oh, Miss Philippines. By holding on to cultural conventions — saving face on national television — you completely sucked ass at answering the question.” But no Asian Americans can relate to that, can they? (Holding on to cultural conventions; not losing Miss Universe.)
There are a lot of Asians in the gym where I work out, and I remember one in particular. He would do intensive cardio, and after getting hot and sweaty, he would try to cool off by pulling his shirt over his belly. It wouldn’t be so bad to see his sweaty abs if he had a six pack, but he had only a one pack. A fairly big one pack.
If that image disturbs you also, you are not alone. Many in China don’t like it either. This article from the LA Times says a campaign there is trying to stop men from becoming “bang ye” (“exposing grandfathers”), as those who expose only their bellies are called. Apparently, many Chinese men would take off their shirts in hot weather, but a campaign to stop that practice left them to expose only their stomachs. Some of the men tout the health benefits of doing this, but one Eastern Medicine practitioner disputes this. “Exposing one’s belly has nothing to do with Chinese medicine’s theory about maintaining a person’s health. People chose to expose their belly because they feel too hot in summer but feel embarrassed to take off their shirts completely.”
A comment on the article argues that since people don’t have problems when women can show their midriffs, why not men too? I don’t know. I changed my workout time, so I don’t see the “bang ye” guy anymore. I don’t miss him or his one pack.
Last weekend, I had the great fortune to cover the 2010 National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) national convention in San Francisco. I’ve already blogged about the keynotes by Chairman, CEO & President of Sybase John Chen as well as CIA Director Leon Panetta, as well as Comedian John Ki. I did also have a chance to sit in on a panel discussion, as well as cover the awards ceremony and fashion show.
I had the opportunity to meet NAAAP members and attendees from all over the United States, including those from New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington state as well as from Vancouver, Canada. I even bumped into some volunteers I knew. Some had been active NAAAP members for years while others wanted to see what NAAAP and the national convention was all about. Generally, the make up of the attendees were professionals in their late twenties to their late thirties. I was impressed with the turnout (of over 600+ people) at the stunning Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco. Some of the speakers were truly fantastic.
Hear more about my experiences, the NAAAP Awards and fashion show after the jump.
[Indiana University professor Jonathan] Plucker recently toured a number of such schools in Shanghai and Beijing. He was amazed by a boy who, for a class science project, rigged a tracking device for his moped with parts from a cell phone. When faculty of a major Chinese university asked Plucker to identify trends in American education, he described our focus on standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing. “After my answer was translated, they just started laughing out loud,” Plucker says. “They said, ‘You’re racing toward our old model. But we’re racing toward your model, as fast as we can.’ ”
As mentioned in the comments on Tim’s post on choice, Asians have long been pigeonholed as uncreative automatons, who are lacking in innovation. This article from Newsweek mentions how schools in China are working to eliminate “drill and kill” style learning to encourage creative problem solving. At the same time, American creativity seems to be declining because of excessive video game playing, teaching to standardized tests, and lack of emphasis on creativity. It also goes over some interesting results from studies that show creativity can be taught.
Flickr Photo Credit: vaxzine
The authors of the article define creativity as “production of something original and useful.” I really like the part where they talk about the “arts” bias. There is a tendency to say that only people in the arts are “creative people.” While many Asian and Asian-Americans artists and designers are extremely creative, as an engineer and researcher, I have found it annoying and condescending the way that some people in the arts say since I am in a technical field, I am not creative. Asian inventor Dr. Nakamats is certainly creative.
The Newsweek article does have a bit of a yellow peril bent in its “look where the Chinese are going and look where we are going” observation. While the article criticizes American kids in general for spending too much time playing video games, they don’t point out that some Asian kids often spend hours in front of video games too. Lots of Asian and Asian-American parents still push doing lots of rote work.
Still, I think the article has good points to make. It was left me saddened about the direction of education in the United States. From situations where it isn’t safe to go to school to the movement to a rote, teach to the test educational model that Asian countries are moving away from, I am not left optimistic.
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