8 Asians

Like I’ve said, there seems to have been a slew of commercials (Target, CVS) recently with Asian Americans being portrayed as normal Americans, rather than for fodder. Now, Comcast has an ad touting its HD quality compared with AT&T’s U-verse with an Asian dad & son, along with Shaq. If you haven’t noticed lately, Shaq and Ben Stein have been spokesmen for Comcast this past year or so. Anyways, the kid kind of reminds me a little of Russell from Up. [Because he's, you know, Asian. And chubby. -Editor]

A new website for DJs, mixcrate.com, created in part by 8asians alumnus Genghis Mendoza, has a story about how the DJ scene in San Francisco Bay Area became large and influential.  Turntablism is now practiced worldwide, and many legendary DJs like Qbert and Babu are Filipino-Americans from the Bay Area.  CSU Long Beach Sociology professor Oliver Wang did his Ph.D dissertation at UC Berkeley on this subject.  “Spinning Identities:  A Social History of Filipino American DJs in the Bay Area” chronicles the history of the mobile DJ scene.  He has created the web site http://legionsofboom.com/ for sharing this work.

The Bay Area DJ scene definitely has had influence, even in my family.  My nephew Ryan Buendia, who is currently a music producer for the Black Eyed Peas, started out as a turntablist and is part of the Fingerbangerz crew .  This DJ crew has produced a lot of music for the dance crew Jabbawockeez.

As I mentioned, mixcrate.com is a site where DJs can share and promote their mixes.  Created by Bay Area DJs (Genghis is also a DJ), it too is part of the ongoing heritage that Wang describes.

First there was a bizarre Sony HDTV ad that claimed that watching their TV could improve your Chinese, and then there was the cute Asian girl Kylie pitching Microsoft Windows 7. Why not just combine those two? Here’s Kylie helping to pitch Sony VAIO Windows PCs, along with Payton Manning and Justin Timberlake. The only thing that would make this commercial more bizarre if there were a Burger King tie-in.

“Hookin’ Up with Mariko Izumi” is a show about what you see in this picture.  That’s right, that rod she is holding is a fishing rod!   Mariko Izumi hosts a fishing show on WFN, the World Fishing Network channel.   She is daughter of champion angler Wayne Izumi and the niece of angler and TV host, Bob Izumi.  I first encountered the Izumi family when trying to relax by watching guys bash each other on the Versus channel.  I noticed a show called Bob Izumi’s Real Fishing show, and the Asian name caught my eye.   Bob Izumi is a full time professional angler and in addition to being Mariko’s uncle, is an co-author of a number of books and is the chairman of of the Fish for Ever Foundation, a conservation foundation dedicated toward preserving Ontario’s fisheries.

How did these Japanese Canadians get into the fishing business?  It seems that Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians have had some influence in fishing in the US Northwest and Canada.  The fishing technique for salmon called “Mooching,” drift-fishing using only a banana-lead weight tied to a leader with a herring, described here, was said to be invented to by Japanese immigrant fisherman.  The name, according to this account, comes from these Japanese fisherman who did so well that other fisherman would “mooch” their bait to use themselves.  The Tengu fishing derby in Elliott Bay near Seattle was started by these Japanese-American fisherman in the 1930’s.  A “Tengu” is a creature from Japanese mythology whose nose, like Pinnochio’s, grew when it lied, a perfect name for a fishing contest (think “fish” stories about “the one that got away”).  The tournament was interrupted by the Japanese American internment, but has been going on ever since.  Bob Izumi’s father started one of the first fishing tournaments in Ontario.  Japanese-American and Seattle Native Mark Yuasa blogs about fishing for the Seattle Times.

Researching this post makes me want to try fishing some day.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the influence that Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians have had on fishing in North America.  Plus, Mariko Izumi’s show seems like a great and certainly easy on the eyes way to start learning about it!

If you’re able to make it to San Jose on November 20 or 21st, you should make the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors performance one of your stops! The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors are BACK in the Bay Area with a full length show for the first time in THREE YEARS! Celebrate 15 years of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors by enjoying their sketches created and performed in Los Angeles and (mostly) NEVER BEFORE SEEN in the Bay Area!

Sketches include:

• TORTURE!
• ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!
• KOREAN BBQ!
• And more!

The Contemporary Asian Theater Scene presents The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors at The 9th Annual Asian Comedy Night!

Friday, November 20, 8pm (with cast reception)
Saturday, November 21, 7pm and 10pm

San Jose Woman’s Club
75 South 11th Street, San Jose 95112-2018

TICKETS:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/84600
Friday show and reception with cast: $25
Saturday shows: $20

What you could win from 18MMW and CATS: two tickets to either performance on Saturday, November 21.

That’s right! The lucky winner wins a pair of tickets to see 18MMW Saturday night!

How do you enter?
Simply leave a short comment stating why you should win. (Be sure to use the email address you’d like to be contacted at if you’re the winner.)

Hurry, the deadline to enter is: Wednesday, November 18 at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) One lucky winner will be selected and contacted on Thursday.

Rules for entering:

1. Please be in the San Jose area (or willing to travel to SJ on your own dime) and serious about using these tickets; if you’re too busy to use these, please don’t take them away from someone who will!
2. Tickets are non-transferrable; they are good for you and a guest.
3. Contributors to 8Asians and their immediate family members are not eligible to win.

Prizes courtesy of: 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors and Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS).

Back in October, I had blogged about an awesome Target ad. Well now, I recently saw a pretty awesome CVS ad, with a charismatic Asian American mom with her adorable sons. Maybe this ad is only running in California (I hope not), but it’s great to see more and more Asian Americans being portrayed as All-American! If you didn’t grow up in the Northeast, CVS is a chain of pharmacies that has now expanded out to the West Coast with the recent acquisition of Longs Drugs.