In my excitement to blog about Kevin and Michael in the latest season of CBS’s The Amazing Race, I overlooked the dynamic doctor duo friends team of Nat & Kat: They are both anesthesiologists. Kat’s hometown is Santa Monica, California. You can read up on Kat in her official Amazing Race bio, but unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of other information out there on the web on her. From the first two episodes thought, Kat looks pretty buff. But I don’t know how long Kat and her friend Nate are going to last – they came in last at one task trying to sell sun glasses in an African market. They were pretty lucky to get a cab driver that drove literally like a mad man looking for a death wish to come back from behind.
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The Simpsons. Remember them? Popular animated series, culturally relevant ten to twenty years ago? On yesterday’s episode, the opening sequence was storyboarded and directed by none other than pop-culture graffiti artist (and object of affection for Chinatown merchants) Banksy, which takes a dark turn and comments about the Simpson’s production methods — the use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming to make episodes cheaper — and uses that as a springboard to comment on cheap, cruel, mass-produced Asian labor, complete with beheaded dolphins and tortured pandas and unicorns.
As to why this wouldn’t get the immediate stamp of disapproval from FOX, the blog 21st Century Boy points out a tweet by Johnathan Gray on twitter, which leads to a possible explanation on his blog: “FOX can’t decide what goes on The Simpsons. James L. Brooks negotiated a “no notes” policy into the show’s contract, so FOX can either play something or cancel the show; they don’t get to nit-pick.”
To quote Alex Choi on Twitter: “we don’t have Pandas in Korea, but yes, we do have unicorns.” Indeed.
[UPDATE: Fox has taken down all YouTube clips, ironically enough, so we're using a Hulu embed instead; apologies for people viewing this blog post outside of the United States!]
Shopping With GASP!
Gay.com’s “Writes of Passage” project is a part of their work for National Coming Out month. With the recent spate of gay suicides in the news, Noel Alumit — American novelist, actor, and activist and one of the Top 100 Influential Gay People according to Out Magazine — wrote the following letter to his teenage self. Oh, and yeah, that’s is a pic of him in high school (with a perm). [Reprinted with permission.]
by Noel Alumit
Dear Noel at 17,
I’m writing you this letter in a hotel room in Orlando. The hotel is packed with gay men. I have a view of trees and a lake, and I’m sitting on a queen size bed with big fluffy pillows, wearing a comfy bathrobe. I’m going to be living at this hotel for a whole week, doing some much needed work. All expenses paid.
You might be wondering how we ended up here? How did a gay Filipino kid, ashamed of being who he is, end up in Florida surrounded by homosexuals? Well, you made some interesting choices, young man. But more on that later.
I’m writing you because I know you need a friend. I know you’ve just gotten off the number 10 bus, leaving the inner city of Los Angeles to stand on a corner in West Hollywood.
I’m writing you because I know you’re sad and lonely, incredibly so. Sometimes these feelings get so bad, you just want to crawl into a dark cave and die. Hold on. There are a few things that I want you to know: Continue Reading »
Behold, Filipino Foods, a YouTube video by Don Angelo ft Cristian Garcia. Two observations: One, I didn’t know about drinking coke from a plastic bag — what if something spills? Two, holy crap, now I’m hungry.
On the occasion of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, Google released an animated logo– but at 8Asians, we share a video of Esna Yoon, Dawen, and actor James Kyson Lee from last month’s AAPI Rock the Vote.
The other day I was at the mall, passed an Omega store and noticed that Zhang Ziyi was a spokesperson for the Omega brand. After Googling her to see what she’s been up to, I also discovered that she is also going to be staring in an English language, live-action film version of Mulan. Having seen the Disney animated version of Mulan, I’m excited to see that a live action version is being filmed – no less with Zhang Ziyi! The independent English language film will be directed by Jan de Bont (Speed, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). Production starts this October, but no release date has been announced.
The 3-day 2010 ID Film Fest kicks off tonight in Little Tokyo and it features a weekend of Asian/Asian American films and workshops. Opening with the Los Angeles premiere of the critically acclaimed film Kit Hui’s Fog (starring Terrence Yin and Eugenia Wan), the festival will also feature Hirokazu Koreeda’s much talked about film Air Doll is as the festival’s Centerpiece film. Ian McCrudden’s The Things We Carry will close out the three-day movie feast. Continue Reading »
A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 9th Annual Voters Education and Candidates Forum at California State University, Sacramento at the student union sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA). APAPA had organized free bus transportation from all interested parties from Palo Alto as well as downtown San Francisco up to Sacramento and back. Free lunch was also provided. You can read about my experiences after the jump. Continue Reading »
This years Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this Friday to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist currently serving his fourth jail sentence in China. The award sparked immediate reaction from the Chinese government condemning the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the immediate censoring of the news from web searches and web sites accessed from within China.
In addition, overseas news broadcasts (like those from CNN) have been censored and removed when broadcasting news of the Nobel Peace Prize award within Chinese boundaries. The news is getting out slowly in China as CNN comments:
An increasing number of mostly young, tech-savvy users, however, have learned to rely on proxy servers to circumvent the censors and log on to banned sites like Twitter, where the mood was ecstatic Friday night.
Liu’s wife, Liu Xia commented to CNN: “People who want to find out the news will be able to do so.”
A few weeks ago, the first “Asian American, Pacific Islander Rock the Vote” (AAPI Rock the Vote) was staged in Los Angeles, featuring many amazing performers and artists who reminded us of the importance of voting.
It was a star-studded event emceed by Lisa Ling, who said, “Asians are overachievers — you know that when you got an A- you were like ‘What the!?’ But as a group Asians get an F in voting.” According to the Asian American Justice Center’s 2006 American Community Survey, though nearly 7 million APIAs are eligible to vote, only half of those– about 3 million APIAs actually voted in 2004. (More AAPI Voting Facts in the US from an APIAvote.org Fact Sheet)
We also heard from her sister Laura Ling– who was captured and detained in North Korea for nearly five months– about her views on freedom post-captivity. There were also great performances by Esna Yoon, Dawen & actor James Kyson Lee (who sang a moving rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’), Twilight actor Justin Chon, the band Satellite, and America’s Best Dance Crew winners Quest Crew brought down the house with their amazing moves.
But even with all these exciting performances, one of the highlights of the evening was “Check Yo Self!” by spoken word poet Beau Sia, who really made the audience think. The audience reaction in the video from the night is so loud that we actually lose bits and pieces of Beau’s performance, but the overall message still comes shining through– we all have a part in making our government work and it starts with our votes.
From Beau Sia:
i wrote and recited this for a “get out the vote,” event on sept 17th, 2010, in los angeles, ca. though performed in front of an audience primarily of asian descent, the content of this piece is for everyone to become more involved making their government reflect their needs. there are too many people to thank for this. for supporting my voice. for making this video. for putting together the event in which it was filmed. for working so hard to build a better world for something greater than themselves.
Remember: in order to vote in the election on November 2, you must register to vote by October 18. Find out more at Rock the Vote.
Yoshiki stands in his rightful place setting the stage for X-Japan
The second last stop of their first North American tour, X-Japan rocked Toronto’s Massey Hall last night.
I’ll admit, I know very little about X-Japan. What I do know is that they are huge superstars in Japan: frontman/vocals Toshi and drummer/songwriter Yoshiki knew each other since school, where they played together in a band which eventually evolved and lead to the wildly successful X-Japan. What followed was a band break-up, the death of a fellow bandmate, then a reconciliation and a reunion. Drama aside, their North American tour while highly publicized, didn’t make a much of a blip outside the fandom within the mainstream. But that’s not the question.
With the competition becoming increasingly dense with musicians being able to self-produce and distribute, does X-Japan need to appeal to the masses to become successful in North America?
More photos from the concert after the jump. Continue Reading »
Producing, directing, filming and editing an original web series isn’t easy work, and that’s why filmmaker Andrew Chung needs your help. They’re currently on Kickstarter to help find $8,000 in funding for their new web project, MILLIONS, a series that follows a group of Asian North American friends who form a pact to become millionaires after the death of one of their own. It’s an intriguing story that you can learn more about in their trailer above, but they can’t complete their project without help.
Of course, just donating even a small amount won’t go unnoticed. Those who add to their fundraiser will be treated to special perks, from watching behind-the-scenes videos, original art and more. Get more info on their official Kickstarter page and good luck to the team behind Millions on achieving their dream!
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