The author of this New America Media commentary mentions that her father, a South Vietnamese Army Veteran, contracted liver cancer and points out that while studies have been done on the effects of Agent Orange on American veterans, the effects of Vietnam War defoliant on Vietnamese Americans have not been studied to the same extent. House Bill H.R. 2634, introduced by Representative Bob Filner, attempts to rectify this and other problems caused by Agent Orange. It calls for aid to victims of Agent Orange, and also calls for more studies specifically of the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans. Studies have linked Agent Orange exposure to cancers, birth defects, and other illnesses.
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Don’t think of this as “Asians Behaving Badly” as much as it is “Asians talking about Asians who act like behave badly.” Here, the National Film Society (which, contrary to logic, are two Asian guys with a YouTube channel, not a Washington DC based film archival lobbyist group) talks about the classic 80s Asian bad guy heroes and their sweet mustaches: “We both grew up watching tons of movies in the 80′s, and we kept seeing the same Asian bad guys over and over again.” They also talk about Yoda, which is slightly inaccurate as Yoda is more a bad-ass than bad. Yoda was, however, Asian the same way Jar-Jar Binks was black.
Shopping With GASP!
Last week it was announced that Brenda Song and Trace Cyrus will enter the world of matrimony — and to that, I have to say “YAY!”
What better way to announce the engage than via social media. Trace tweeted the following:
I am very excited to say, last week I asked my girlfriend Brenda Song to marry me and she said YES! We are both very excited to be engaged!
After the whole episode of “Is she or isn’t she impregnated by Miley Cyrus’s bro” I was getting worried that we were running dry on Brenda Song news. Now, with this engagement announcement, Song is back into the Asian American entertainment limelight.
It’s October, which means it’s finally cold enough to pull out our leather boots and put away the shorts. Autumn always seems like a more subdued season, which is why this Grey Leather Strand Wrap Bracelet ($225) seems like the perfect accessory at the moment. The fairly hefty price tag will prevent you from making other impulse purchases for the month, and the mix of grey leather and sterling silver will remind you that your bright colors will be hidden away until Spring. On the bright side, this bracelet is also neutral enough to go with every outfit–even in Spring.
UPDATE 11/2/11: Congrats to our Ultimate Prize Winner: Gondica who gets the whole she-bang!Congrats also to our runner-ups: Frank Huynh, Kao S., Nate, mwei, Anthony LaPaglia, Maureen C., Steve H., Linda B., Michelle V, Dave Seto who all get posters!
Harold & Kumar are back! John Cho and Kal Penn reprise their title roles in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the third installment of this franchise which opens November 4th.
Six years have elapsed since Guantanamo Bay, leaving Harold and Kumar estranged from one another with very different families, friends and lives. But when Kumar arrives on Harold’s doorstep during the holiday season with a mysterious package in hand, he inadvertently burns down Harold’s father-in-law’s beloved Christmas tree.
To fix the problem, Harold and Kumar embark on a mission through New York City to find the perfect Christmas tree, once again stumbling into trouble at every single turn.
The Ultimate Prize Package includes:
- Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle Blue-Ray DVD
- Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Blue–Ray DVD
- A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas T-shirt
- Official Full-sized Poster signed by the cast
- Wind-up Wafflebot
Also, 10 runners-up will win a full-sized poster.
Ok, ok, you just want to know how to win? Read on!
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HBO has a new show in the works! The title of the show is China Doll (that’s ALMOST racist, right?). As much as I want it to be about Asian drag queens, it’s not. Apparently it’s “about an interracial family and their humanoid robot” — and by interracial they are referring to “a successful California construction subcontractor” (most likely white — not confirmed yet) and “his Asian American wife who is a university professor, and a robot”.
Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the creators of the popular polygamous HBO drama, Big Love are the minds behind this Small Wonder-esque series. But instead of portraying the family-friendly comedic hijinks of a girl robot named Vicky, the show will explore the family’s attempt to “straddle both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents.”
Halloween is coming up and while most of us use this holiday as an opportunity to dress like sluts, a select number of people like to use it to dress up in the most offensive outfits. No, I’m not talking about Nazi uniforms or aborted baby costumes (though I would like to see a aborted Nazi baby one day). I’m talking about those horrific “Asian” inspired Halloween costumes that make your blood boil and your eyes roll. I compiled some of my favorites after the jump.
The generally accepted Japanese American narrative goes something like this: We came to this country. There was discrimination. Then Pearl Harbor happened. We went peacefully to the concentration camps and then while there we remained docile and peaceful. Some fought bravely in Europe and helped win the respect of the country which 50 years later resulted in an reparations and an official apology.
While a lot of that is true, there was also a group of people in the 1940s that decided to fight for not only their rights but for all Americans. They questioned the constitutionality of what was going on and by doing so many of them were jailed and ostracized, especially within the Japanese American community. Unfortunately, their story remains relatively unknown. That’s why Frank Abe’s documentary, Conscience and Constitution, about the brave people who were willing to stand up for their rights, is so important.
Funny, after I said I had not seen that IKEA commercial on TV that I had blogged about, the next day, I saw the commercial. I haven’t seen this latest Las Vegas commercial that I saw on a website, so that probably means any day I’ll see the commercial, about a kind of dorky looking office worker reliving his weekend in Las Vegas partying up. The guy kind of reminds me a little bit like McLovin from the movie Superbad.
UPDATE 10/20/11: Congrats on our first batch of winners! Komo, laughingluna, Vincent, and Annie!
Patrick Takaya Solomon’s Finding Joe is an enlightening and entertaining exploration of famed philosopher / mythologist Joseph Campbell’s studies and their continuing impact on our culture. Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life—or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”. (See Dino’s review on his personal blog.)
The film features interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields including Deepak Chopra, Mick Fleetwood, Tony Hawk, Rashida Jones, Laird Hamilton, Robert Walter, Robin Sharma, Catherine Hardwicke, Sir Ken Robinson, Akiva Goldsman and many more.
While studying myths, and writing on the human experience, Joseph Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College for 38 years. His seminal work, “A Hero with a Thousand Faces” was published in 1949 and greatly influenced generations of artists and writers, including Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Jerry Garcia and others.
If you’re in the Bay Area, why not catch it in the theatres?
Landmark Theatres Engagements run through Thursday, October 27, 2011 at:
- Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 267-4893
- Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704. (510) 464-5980
Ok, ok, you just want to know how to win the tickets? Read on!
Continue Reading »
Even in an area as progressive as the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s not unusual for my family to get a second look when we’re walking into a restaurant, store, or other public area. My family is both mixed race and same sex. So we probably get double the stares of just a mixed race family. I’ve been luckier than some mixed race families in the U.S., in that I’ve never actually had someone ask me if my daughter was actually my child, unlike other families where the child is noticeably a different skin color than the parent or even where a set of twins might have completely different skin color.
Who wrote a book that sold at over a million copies in one month, with hard copies gone before the end of the first day and averaging online at more than 1 a minute? You might be forgiven for thinking JK Rowling or Dan Brown, but the truth is the title goes to a Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Continue Reading »
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