Posts by claire
Mabuhay! I'm Claire: a bastard, both in attitude and literally - I can be quite flippant and my parents were never married. By trade I am a graphic designer, and by birth a hurler of sarcasm and irreverence. I love books, travel, pop culture, bacon and you!
Born in the Phillipines, A Real American Hero: Major General Antonio Taguba
A few weeks ago, U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba presided over San Francisco’s Pistahan Parade. The Pistahan Parade and Festival is an annual celebration of Filipino culture (and also a clever name since “Pistahan” means fiesta or festival, and thus plays on my people’s love for repetition in naming: Festival Festival!). Pistahan could not have chosen a better Grand Marshall to represent the best of Filipinos and Americans. Filipino-born Major General Taguba served in [...] Continue »
LA Weekly: The Rise of Fil-Am Hip-Hop
LA Weekly features the Filipino-American Hip-Hop movement, and provides an accompanying list of places where you can experience it first-hand. An excerpt: Icy Ice breaks down the rise of Fil-Am hip-hop like this: As hip-hop migrated west in the ’80s, Filipinos in California already had a thriving funk- and R&B-based mobile-DJ scene going on. With infrastructure intact, the Fil-Am party scene moved out of the garage and into the clubs in L.A., San Francisco and [...] Continue »
Mister Wong Launches International Logo Contest
Before you aim the international flame thrower, this post is not going there. We are all going to settle down and make love, not war. Or in this case, we are going to make art, not war. Okay? Okay. Mister Wong, the German-based social bookmarking portal which recently launched in the U.S., is now looking for a new logo. The search is taking place via an international contest open to anyone. Registered users of Mister [...] Continue »
Nearing 4 Billion Asians…There Must Be Some Good Artists
This is the tagline of startdrawing.org, “the Asia drawing portal.” As Ernie said when he provided the link, “who knew such a thing existed?” Prepare to spend some time on the site if you are a fan of illustration. This brilliant portal created by artists Josef Lee and Sam Lay spotlights art and artists from Asia. The founders also often write insightful and informative commentary on the featured illustrations. I began to bookmark some of [...] Continue »
Is too much self-esteem bad for you?
Andrew Lam of New American Media has an interesting article on Alternet about the self-esteem movement that could be considered kind of a counterpoint to J. Peter’s recent post about the sometimes insanity-inducing pressure some Asian kids feel to be academic superheroes. I think both Lam and J. Peter make some good points about two extremes and their consequences. The academic pressure-cooker felt by many an Asian or Asian-American student has seemingly led to incidents [...] Continue »
Quick Link: China Executes Former Food Regulator
The New York Times (along with every other major media outlet) reports that China’s former food and drug regulator Zheng Xiaoyu was executed today, after being convicted of accepting bribes to approve untested medicine. According to the article, the sentence was handed down on May 29. May 29. Just a little over a month ago, one month. I have some food in my fridge that is older than that date. Does China suddenly have a [...] Continue »
So you think you can…BE ASIAN?
Joz just discussed those who wish they weren’t Asian and now Boston Progress Radio (BPR) writes about those who perhaps wish they were. BPR is an online radio station dedicated to featuring Asian-American music, and they recently posted this humorous list of 7 Mainstream Artists You Thought Were Asian but Aren’t. Some artists made the list thanks to rumors, others thanks to their um, paying homage to elements of Asian culture via wardrobe or the [...] Continue »
Peeling Good, Getting Paid: YouTube Elevates Happy Slip to Partner
Mike first wrote about the utterly hilarious Christine Gambito of happyslip.com and her growing YouTube following back in February. Many of the Happy Slip videos highlight Gambito’s Filipino family members (all played by her, in sidesplitting hysterical perfection) and the completely relatable situations all children of immigrants have experienced. “Happy slip” comes from her mother’s Filipino pronunciation of “half slip.” Does anyone even know what a half slip is anymore? I don’t think so. Celebrities [...] Continue »
Overseas Filipino Workers: A Good Provider is One Who Leaves?
Sunday’s New York Times Magazine examined the Overseas Filipino Worker phenomenon by chronicling the Comodases, a Filipino family now spanning two generations of members leaving the Philippines to work abroad, hoping to reach “the ultimate” United States. I read this article with a heavy heart because in it, I see both the best and most frustrating aspects of my people: their balls-to-the-wall-for-family spirit, and the “they speak English and take orders” good little colonized brother/sister [...] Continue »
NPR’s Robert Siegel: Cho Lived and Died as an American
This excerpt of NPR’s All Things Considered makes me want to invite host Robert Siegel over for one of my mother’s homecooked multi-course Filipino dinners; I’m that impressed with what he has to say. I insist that you listen to the whole thing before you read on here. If you don’t have the capability to listen, let me know and I will buy the freaking transcript, that’s how strongly I feel about his commentary. (UPDATE: [...] Continue »
Hot, With Effort: The Advantage of Being an Outsider
I found this article about the pressures faced by overachieving high school girls through this blog, which explored the piece from a feminist perspective. Guess which direction I’m going to go? I am haunted by the quote from the only Asian girl in the article: “It’s out of style to admit it, but it is more important to be hot than smart.” “Effortlessly hot,” Kat added. This girl scored perfectly on her SATs. Say what [...] Continue »
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Feb 16: Adam WarRock and Kirby Krackle: West Cost Tour Dates!!!
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Feb 18: (Stanford, CA) Stanford’s 16th Listen to the Silence Conference- Feb 18: (San Francisco, CA) NAAAP-SF Lunar New Year Gala 2012
Feb 25: (Los Angeles, CA) Past Present I Future Imperatives: Queer Space Time
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