China Celebrates Its Status As World’s Number One Air Polluter
You may have heard of the satirical printed and online newspaper The Onion, the self-proclaimed “American’s Finest News Source.” Well, they also have a satirical news program called the Onion News Network. My friend sent me today this news segment above, “China Celebrates Its Status As World’s Number One Air Polluter.” after I sent him a New York Times article on, “In Beijing, an Air Terminal of Olympic Size.“
The Japanese have some of the craziest shows ever. Distributed by Monster9 whom eventually did Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle Course. And you know it’s definitely a big deal if ESPN picked up US distribution rights for Viking. G4 picked up distribution on Sasuke but gave it the American title Ninja Warrior.
On the twentieth competition which will air here in the States on May 18th, it consists of one hundred competitors that try to battle it out against a four stage obstacle course which consistently gets more difficult at each stage. The course requires an enormous amount of stamina and arm strength along with agility being that there are many things that require balance and I personally couldn’t imagine ever completing.
I will say that there’s definitely a perfect body type and size for this competition. In past competitions, there’s been some Europeans and even a couple Marines that tried their luck at it. But while they conquered the first stage easily, eventually their size actually became a detriment since their arm muscles would have to carry a lot more body mass over the stamina and endurance stages.
A competition of this sort would do very well in the US in my opinion, depending on if someone could get around the liability issue since Sasuke is done with no equipment at all pretty much. Creation of such a course here would definitely bring many to compete along with a huge viewer base for telecast. Think about it, if this was produced in the United States, this challenge in my opinion is actually way more interesting than something like American Gladiators. It also would not be the first time a Japanese show has been redone in the US. Kitchen Arena, anyone? Oh yes. I speak of Iron Chef.
Photo Credit: (ninjapoodles)
I got my copy of the latest May 2008 issue of National Geographic the other day, and the issue is focused on: “China – Inside the Dragon.” As we approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more China-focused special issues, which I think is a good thing, considering American’s general ignorance of people, country and customs beyond its own borders. Here are some selected stories, photographs and videos from the issue:
The guys over at Fallout Central recently got a red carpet press pass to the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards and do what press people do best: interview a bunch of Asian American celebrities about their upcoming projects. Guests included Kaba Modern and Jabbawockiez (as nominees for Best Reality Star, since Yul Kwon can’t win four years in a row) as well as Lucy Liu’s two-episode boyfriend from the now canceled Cashmere Mafia and Indian-Canadian comedian Russell Peters, which led to this gem of an exchange:
Albert, the interviewer: How can I get my Indian accent to be as good as yours?
Russell Peters: Uhm, you know. Just listen when people are talking. What are you, Albert?
Albert: Korean.
Russell Peters: Well, how can I get my Korean accent to be as good as your parents?
Albert: [nervous laughter]
Zing! Also, Ron Jeremy was there, although no one really knows why.
Mild snarkiness aside, former 8A columnist Min Jung and I had done something like this seven years ago, heading down to the LA Convention center to cover the AMMY awards. AMMY, like an Asian Emmy! Except it was the year 2000, which meant that hob-knobbing in the Green Room was pretty much eating snacks and taking photos with the cast of the Joy Luck Club, a pre-Grey’s Anatomy Sandra Oh, and Rufio from Peter Pan. Lucy Liu won all of the awards, where she was promptly whisked away by her publicist afterwards because she was getting mainstream, baby.
And therein lies the thing about Asian awards – because there aren’t a ton of Asians in the media, it’s not so much an awards show as it is for Asian musicians and actors to hang out in Vera Wang dresses. And the winner is essentially the most mainstream person who didn’t play a negatively stereotypical role. (WHICH MEANS YOU WILL NEVER WIN, JACKIE CHAN.) And what exactly IS “Asian Excellence,” anyway? Besides getting a perfect score on your SATs?
The Onimusha series for Sony’s Playstation 2 has had a wide following including the fan girls of Takeshi Kaneshiro. And it seems that with the movie in pre-production status currently, there are few things that we know except for the fact that the protagonist Samanosuke Akechi, will indeed be played by Kaneshiro.
Considering the fact that Samanosuke’s character design was entirely based on Kaneshiro, it was the obvious choice to have this actor play the live-action part. On top of that, Christopher Gans, of the film Silent Hill fame, will be directing. I personally found Silent Hill to be one of the few movies that could stand up to the whole wishy-washy effect of “game to big screen” cheesiness.
Hoping that with Kaneshiro’s fan base, and Gans directing, there will be a lot more people that don’t know the storyline to actually go see this movie. Currently slated for December of 2009.
Photo Credit: (Gaira House)
The 24th Annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival starts today and runs through next Thursday, May 8th, as mentioned in The Los Angeles Times / The Guide, “Evolution of L.A.’s Asian film festival.” Seeing how Hollywood is in Los Angeles, and there are a lot of Asians/Asian Americans in Los Angeles, I find it surprising that San Francisco’s Asian American International Film Festival is the larger festival.
WHERE: Various locations in West Hollywood and downtown L.A.
WHEN: Today-next Thursday
PRICE: $8-$10, screenings; $12-$15, seminars; $24-$100, opening night; $16-$20, closing night
INFO: (213) 680-4462, Ext. 68; http://www.vconline.org/festival
I’ve never been on a cruise before (unless you count “The Love Boat” 🙂 ), nor has my mother (she’s been wanting to go on one for a while.) Well, it looks like a lot of Asians haven’t gone either. From the Wall Street Journal article, “Cruise Operators Target Asian Travelers, Pitching Short Trips From Local Ports,” it sounds like there is a huge opportunity for cruise companies in Asia:
“Although Asia accounted for less than 5% of the global cruise market last year, the number of Asians taking cruises annually will swell to 1.5 million by 2010, up 40% from 2005, according to a forecast by Ocean Shipping Consultants Ltd. That’s faster growth than the 30% rise expected over the period in the more mature North American market, which had about 9.3 million cruise passengers in 2005…Teddy Tsang, a 48-year-old publishing plant manager in Hong Kong, took a four-day cruise on the Rhapsody in February with his wife and daughter after seeing “a lot of newspaper ads” in local Chinese-language papers touting the company’s cruises and hearing recommendations from friends. His only previous cruise on a gambling ship had left him unimpressed. “I went a few times to the casino, but I didn’t want to spend the whole day gambling,” he says. But after the latest cruise, which cost around $385 per person, he enthused about a dinner of herb-crusted cod with saffron-champagne sauce and the staff’s swift delivery of extra towels to his cabin.”
One of my mother’s friend’s family has gone on quite a few cruises. I wonder – how common is it for Asian Americans to go on cruises? To be honest, I really don’t know that many people who have gone on cruises. If you’ve gone on a cruise – where did you go? And did you have fun? I’m always seeing those Royal Caribbean tv commercials and have always wondered if people have as much fun as the commercials make out cruises to be (of course, you never see an Asian Americans in those commercials…that’s an untapped market – especially for all those Asians and Asian Americans who like to gamble. :-).
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The White House said it, so it must be true, right?
Please join the artists, cast and crew of the United States of Asian America Festival 2008 for the 11th Annual Gala Opening event. Partake in local food and drinks while sampling some of the festival art and performances offered by Bay Area Asian Pacific Islander artists and organizations.
VENUE: SomArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA
Thursday, May 1, 5 – 8:30 pm
ADMISSION: FREE
For info: (415) 864-4126 or [email protected]
http://www.somarts.org
If you are in the New York area, there are two modern art shows not to be missed. Cai Guo-Qiang’s retrospective I Want to Believe is at the Guggenheim through May 28, and Takashi Murakami’s © Murakami is at the Brooklyn Museum through July 13.
At Guo-Qiang’s show, there are tigers with arrows in them and a canal that you can row through on a boat. Guo-Qiang works with explosives, and there is a video of some “Projects for Extraterrestrials” that he created in Japan, France, and the Netherlands. Watching it on a little television, you can’t help but wish you were there. The postcard attraction is the installation of cars hanging in the center space, in the eye of the spiral that is the New York Guggenheim.
Takashi Murakami is a pop artist who draws from anime and manga. The best part of the show for me was the experience of being in a large room whose walls were covered with his trademark smiling daisies, and another one with eyeballs. If I were a billionaire I would have a room or two like that installed in my mansion. I would also have him install some shiny mushroom stools that I could actually sit on. This art show made me happy.
But two barrages of snail mail junk is absolutely annoying. Korean Air has been pumping their US marketing up in the six months. Just take a look at one of the television commercials that’s playing here in the South. The Color of Perfection:
Now it might just be me, but the beginning of that commercial really doesn’t seem to tie well into the flight attendants in the end besides trying to make a color coordination. Somehow, I just don’t find flying as a “sexy” type of thing nor would I would associate a commercial with almost a designer cologne feel with an airline. Albeit an interesting spin on things I suppose. But I digress.
So about this snail mail spam. Why do I call it spam? It’s a direct mailing list based on your last name. I’m not exactly sure how they determine someone’s last name actually determines their ethnicity since both Chinese and Koreans use the last name Lee, and there are other names out there but it is what it is.
Before someone questions why I’m going off on this? I can’t speak Korean. I don’t read Korean. Heck, I’m not even Korean. And if there’s any sort of marketing that I happen to personally despise, it’s ones that target me based purely based on my last name. I mean, think about it. If my last name was “Lopez”, I seriously would hope that no one would send me mail that was entirely in Spanish unless there was some actual accounting that could show that I actually could read the language.
Photo Credit: (Drewski2112)
I most recently wrote about about Governor ‘Bobby’ Jindal of Louisiana in March in, “McCain’s Surprise: VP ‘Bobby’ Jindal ?” Well, Jindal was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this past Monday night, no doubt to answer the speculations that he may be McCain’s running mate. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him speak – and I have never seen an Indian American with a Southern / Louisiana accent before!
From what I had read and blogged about him (Indian-American Congressman Elected Louisiana’s Governor, In a Southern State, Immigrants’ Son Takes Over, Indian-American to be leading Louisana Governor candidate), he seemed to be quite a bright person, but in his interview with Leno, he also comes across as a regular guy, and I can definitely see how he won over voters.
Wow, I beat out angry asian man out for news on Asian American entertainment… no doubt he will have this info posted soon…So I just found out from my friend who is usually in the know for concerts, etc. in San Francisco that tomorrow is officially Margaret Cho Day:
“Join Margaret Cho and friends at San Francisco City Hall, as Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaims Wednesday, April 30th 2008, Margaret Cho Day! The live event will be taped for use in Margaret’s new show, “The Cho Show,” which will air on Vh1 this summer. The proclamation is open to the public, welcoming family, friends and fans of all ages. All attendees will be required to sign a release allowing the use of their image on television. Below please find important information regarding location and time for Margaret’s big day:”
When: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Please arrive promptly at 4:00pm
Where: San Francisco City Hall
The South Light Court
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett PL.
San Francisco, CA 94102
You can download the official flyer here (.pdf). I’m not sure if I can make it to downtown San Francisco tomorrow, but I imagine there will be a sizable crowd to support this Bay Area native. And my source tells me that Cho will make a special surprise guest performance at a San Francisco comedy club Wednesday night as well…
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