By Director/Producer Steve Nguyen
To be given the opportunity to direct a youthful and vibrant talent such as 15-year old YouTube singer-songwriter Megan Lee has been one of the most rewarding experiences to date. Our commitment to making a piece that would encapsulate everything about Megan was always the number one priority going into this piece. Even when we had first introduced ourselves, it took almost a year to figure out how our styles would mesh.
There aren’t that many Asian American singers and songwriters in the media these days. Actually, I don’t think Asian Americans get all the much recognition because they’re considered the underdogs of music.
As I was sitting at The Coffee Garden in Sacramento on a Friday night, I stumbled into a live show by an Asian American acoustic musician from New Mexico named Daniel Park. I sat, listened and was blown away at his talent. A one man band who records his instruments and loops them, using no additional band members other than himself. The singer humored the audience with jokes about his life in New Mexico and his inspirations for his songs. If records were sold based on raw talent alone, Park would be in platinum status; however, the industry does not work that way. I felt compelled by his voice and his natural talent on stage.
One song in particular stood out called “Sparks Fly”. I imagined sitting by a train station watching the fireworks go off in the summer sky.
Throughout the night, Park did top 40 covers and interacted with the crowd like they were guests in his home. After the show, I went up and introduced myself and asked for an interview via email. Find out what Daniel Park had to say after the cut.
http://youtu.be/2-0kg-VCW_8
Okay, so YouTube sensation Maria Aragon is a Canadian, but I caught the most recent HTC commercial the other day and noticed the 10-year-old Filipina Canadian at the tail end on American television. Earlier this year, Lady Gaga tweeted about Maria’s performance of her song “Born this Way” on YouTube and the video went viral. You can catch her full performance and HTC footage of “Wavin’ Flag” by K’Naan here (which is also Maria’s piano rendition playing in the background during the commercial) after the jump.
The LA Times reports that the site where Riverside’s Chinatown once stood could be the home of a new medical building, and activists are fighting to turn the lot into a memorial park: “They say it should honor early Chinese pioneers and stand testament to the prejudice that led to the birth and demise of this Inland Empire Chinatown…Most of the old Chinatown, including the remains of a temple, is entombed underground. A partial excavation of the site in 1984 yielded three tons of artifacts that were put in museum storage, including delicate ceramic vases and opium pipes.”
Dear Sassy Chinese Male Cheerleader,
We here at 8Asians would like to salute you, male cheerleader from China’s Shandong University, for not only working it out during your recent video of a dance routine and having it appear on Gawker, but for also chest popping and doing the split in the mini-skirt better than the twelve girls around you. (Girl, don’t deny! You loved that shit.)
But lest you think you are the first Asian male has been videotaped doing high kicks in mini-skirts in the name of cheer, you may want to meet some people I know here in San Francisco.
A variation of this piece was originally written for AsiansOnYouTube and has been reposted here with permission.
By AsiansOnYouTube
I covered the Top 5 Hottest Asian Female News Anchors on YouTube a couple of weeks ago, so it’s only fair to write a post for the guys. Some criteria I had to follow: 1) must be or have been an anchor, not just the roving reporter 2) English speaking 2) must be hot. This list will be updated constantly, so please let me know if I am missing anyone.
From MSNBC: While California has been battling over a proposed shark fin ban, today Hawaii started to enforce its own ban that was passed into law earlier this year. “Restaurants serving fins will have until next July to run through their inventory. After that, those caught with fin will have to pay a fine between $5,000 to $15,000 for a first offense. A third offense would result in a fine between $35,000 to $50,000 and up to a year in prison.” Starting now, Hawaii means business.
http://youtu.be/axGYCBagNHo
OK, so boxer Manny Pacquiao isn’t an American, but I caught this television commercial for the HP Veer smartphone running webOS for the American market. If you don’t know anything about the HP Veer, it’s a very small sized smartphone, and this is reinforced by the undersized but overpowered Pacuiao pitching the device.
The Chinese taxi driver had a big incredulous smile plastered over his face. “Where are you from?!” he asked, hardly containing his laughter. To any ordinary foreigner this is an ordinary question. But to a Chinese Australian in China, the question contains an unintended implication which stings, just a little.
While some Asian Americans/Canadians fish for recreation, others fish in order to use their catch to directly feed their families. The Sierra Club is publicizing a study showing how mercury pollution in fish is affecting Hispanic communities, with some Hispanic anglers exposed to almost twice the levels of mercury recommended by the EPA. A blog post from New America Media states that certain Asian Americans are exposed to even higher levels of mercury, twice as much as Hispanics. The post cites this study from UC Davis that finds that Southeast Asians in the California’s Delta, and Laotians in particular, do extensive amounts of subsistence fishing and thus have significant mercury exposure. Some of the mercury in the Delta is natural, while some comes from mines created during the Gold Rush.
APA Spotlight is a weekly interview of Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIA) community leaders. It is a spotlight on individuals who have dedicated their careers to issues surrounding the APIA community with the goal of bringing much deserved recognition to their work and cause(s).
Aldous Davidson is an NYU film graduate who has been acting and directing for the past 10 years and his recent short film How to Greet the Dead was an Interpretations Film Award winner. He is currently a co-manager of the Asian American Film Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Asian Americans find film and acting resources in the New York City area.
What is your organization’s mission statement?
The AAFilmLab is a collaborative non-profit organization of New York based Asian American filmmakers, writers and actors who meet twice a month to hone their craft, share resources, educate, challenge and support one another. We organize monthly script readings and screenings with constructive feedback as well as industry meet and greets.
Just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you can go anywhere you want. Actress Michelle Yeoh discovered this after she was deported and blacklisted from Myanmar for her role in the upcoming movie about Suu Kyi: “The Malaysian actress arrived in the country’s main city, Yangon, on June 22 and was deported the same day… a government official said… But Myanmar’s repressive government has routinely rejected visa requests of journalists and perceived critics for years. The Luc Besson movie about Suu Kyi’s life, The Lady, is due out later this year, and Yeoh has said she hopes her portrayal of Suu Kyi will raise awareness about the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s story.”
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Review of Netflix Japan’s “Our Secret Diary”
Filipino Kinship Terms and their Confusing Translation into English