Whedonites and Firefly lovers rejoice! The beloved cult TV hit by Joss Whedon celebrates its 10th anniversary and will be doing a special panel at this year’s Comic-Con (which starts today) and I won’t be there (but Moye will)!
I am a huge Joss Whedon fan. I’m mainly a Buffy guy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support his other fine pieces of work, specifically his recent hits The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods. I have yet to dive into the world of Firefly, but it is on my Netflix to-do list.
Hasan Minhaj stars as the Indian Spider-Man in this YouTube Video, proving that there’s a reason why you don’t see that many Asian American caped superheroes out there. We’re either too practical about leaving our day jobs to save the world. And family always comes first! Can you imagine trying to explain to your parents why you couldn’t study/work harder because some complete stranger was in danger?
http://youtu.be/MhaAj62njgs
I’m a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. Usually, it’s really important for me to like a character of a story in order to like the story itself, and I don’t always like characters in Miyazaki’s films, but there’s something about the world created in the films that just draws me into them because there’s so much beauty elegantly mixed in with the strange and frightening.
Normally, I make it a point to read a book first before watching the film if the book came before, but I watched the film Howl’s Moving Castle first before I found out that it was based on a book. I thought the stories and characters were okay, though I fell in love with some of the landscapes created in the animated film. Expecting the story to have more in-depth characters, I dove into the original book by Diana Wynne Jones, but unfortunately didn’t find what I was looking for and wondered what about this book had inspired Miyazaki to make an entire film about it. More after the jump.
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8Asians is proud to be a media partner for Kollaboration Los Angeles. This edition of Kollaboration features a special treat– for the first time ever, David Choi and his father Ray Choi, will be doing a special performance!! Did you know that Ray Choi is one of the best autoharpists in the world? Don’t miss out on this awesome father/son performance!
This year, the best and biggest Asian Pacific Islander talent competition in the country is going to heat up your summer with 7 specially selected artists for Kollaboration Los Angeles 2012!
Watch as the top 7 take the starlit stage of the Ford Amphitheatre on July 13 to compete for the $1000 Grand Prize and join the ranks of Kollaboration L.A.’s superstar alumni (including Clara C, Far East Movement and Dumbfoundead)! Show your support for the API community and participate in choosing this year’s Verizon Audience Choice Award!
– Brooke Taylor
– Ms Laney
– Dave & the Cousins
– Jeremy Crooks
– Kaitlin Obien
– Nate Tao
– St. Andrew
Guest Comedian:
– Jimmy Ouyang
Hosted by PK
Two lucky 8Asians’ readers will each win a pair of tickets to 2012 Kollaboration Los Angeles at the Ford Ampitheatre!
Ok, ok, so you think you’re ready to enter? Read on!
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Soaring and warring kites play out as metaphors for the multiple stories weaved in PATANG: The Kite.
A successful Delhi businessman brings his daughter on a surprise trip to his hometown of Ahmedabad, home to India’s largest kite festival. There he tries to push his fractured family into progress, by wanting them to sell the house and move them into a condo in the city. The idea is met with much resistance of the family members still attached to both the house and the old city.
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After playing the college admissions game, did we win? Was the investment in an admissions consultant worth it? Did the predictions by the admissions officer come true? Did get Number One son and The Daughter get into their dream school? I sum up what happened in this retrospective. Continue reading
Jason Tobin of Better Luck Tomorrow stars in CHINK as serial killer Eddy Tsai. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Lee.
The yellow light of the underground parking lot drowns the whole scene in a stifling plasma, like you’re looking through the eyes of someone that can no longer see the vibrant colors of the world and drifts through it in a sort of monochromatic malaise. In a parked blood-red SUV, a scene is unfolding. Serial killer Eddy Tsai is engaged in his first kill, and after the struggle, his face and the innards of the car are splattered with freshly spilt blood.
I’m on the set of CHINK, the first film ever made centering around an Asian American serial killer. I arrive on site just in time for the first murder scene in the story. More after the jump.
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As a recent father, I want to teach my son that heroes can come in all shapes and sizes. That being heroic can mean being brave on the field of battle but it can also mean doing the right thing, even if it is unpopular. In other words, I want my son to know that there are heroes like Superman but there also everyday heroes in our own community that look like normal every day folks.
Here is my top five unsung heroes from Japanese American history that I think my son (and everyone else) should know, after the jump.
40 year old Cung Le beat Patrick Cote at UFC 148, but when interviewed, did not say that he would retire. The UFC would like Cung Le to fight November 10 at UFC on Fuel 6 in Macau as part of the UFC’s push into China, perhaps leveraging the fact that Le has made Chinese movies. Le’s wife, in this video (which is goes over a number of things, like his appearance in The Man with the Iron Fists), thinks he has a few more fights left in, but then again, she is not the one getting punched in the face.
I’m never too surprised when I hear right-wing talk radio hosts make racists comments, but it is still sad to hear about these incidents, especially when the attacks are against someone I know. Radio talk show hosts Bill Nojay (who happens also to be running for a different public office – New York State Assembly) and Bob Savage of The Bill Nojay Show this past week were reading a local newspaper headline and commenting on Shinagawa’s recent Democratic primary win.
In 2008, this forum asked, “why so few Asian American in MMA? Four years later, Ben Henderson is the UFC lightweight champion, Mark Munoz is headlining UFC on Fuel 4, “Munoz vs Weidman,” Cung Le is on the main card of UFC 148, and Ed “the Filipino Phenom” Yagin recently beat a top contender in the featherweight division. Have Asian Americans arrived in MMA? I took at the UFC’s roster to find out, and here is what I found.
The city of Suwon, Korea has a museum dedicated to the one place where even the Kaiser must sit down: the toilet. Yes, you read that correctly: there is a museum and public park dedicated to toilets in Korea. At least you won’t have to endure long queues between rides since there will be some sort of toilet everywhere, featuring latrines from different cultures and time periods in history.
Oh, Mr. Toilet. What would we do without you? Finished by 2007 and donated to the public in 2009, the toilet-shaped house was once the home of founder Sim Jae-Duck (who actually was known as Mr. Toilet). Sim’s accomplishments include founding the World Toilet Association (not to be confused with the World Toilet Organization).
Asian Guys and that One Long Pinky Fingernail
In a Post-Apocalyptic Zombie World, Asian American Man Gets White Girl
APA Spotlight: Kent Wong, Director of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UCLA
The Difference Between Internment Camps and Concentration Camps
Having An Asian Moment: Rihanna And Her Racist Rice Cakes
Frozen Flower: Reviews via Chat
The Science and History of the Asian Squat
Asians Behaving Badly: Edward Younghoon Shin Alledgedly Murders Business Partner & Blogs About It