What? A $68 Bowl Of Phở? Dropping Knowledge With Justin Yu + More

Khai Vu www.districtonelv.com/home/

Andrew Le thepigandthelady.com/

Justin Yu https://trexhouston.com/

Kevin Pham www.phobinh.com/by-night

In Case You Missed It: Crazy Rich Asians Trailer

I want to see this. But I'm also thinking about the movie overall and I have expectations and I hope those don't ruin what could be a really fun film that I could really like, because I'm going to be nitpickery for lack of a better phrase.

I hope I can just sit back and enjoy it and take it in for what it is.

Nice Ellen spot btw.

Sometimes I Joke I Can't Tell White Women Apart From Each Other. Is That A Little Racist?

Not all White women of course, but sometimes those platinum blondes - like stand them up side by side and who knows who's who?

I was even watching The Voice and they had these two blonde women on them, and we were trying to figure out who was the famous one and who was the contestant, and I just couldn't help but think they looked a lot a like and it just gets tough to tell 'em apart.

I know - it sounds a little laterally racist (maybe? maybe not?) - but you know - I'm all about starting the dialogue?

88rising + The New York Times

Most likely you've heard of 88rising (if you haven't, I feel for you).

Anyway - there's a really good on article down @ the NYT on them:

In just two years, 88rising, which also has an office in Los Angeles and a small team in Shanghai, has become an authority on how to create Asian and American pop-culture crossovers. The company understands how to sell Asian artists, like Wu, to American audiences. Similarly, it offers a vision of Asian cool to industries—music, advertising, fashion, television—that are desperate to be cool in Asia. Jonathan Park, a Korean-American rapper who performs as Dumbfoundead, has been associated with 88rising since its beginning. “Everybody wants to get into Asia,” he told me. Miyashiro, he added, had been “pulling that card early on and selling people on that Asia dream.”

Probably one of my favorite passages from the article was this:

Miyashiro believed that Wu had a rare chance to penetrate the American rap charts, as long as he was careful. Wu’s team had initially wanted him to appear on shows like “Good Morning America.” Miyashiro told me, “I’m, like, ‘Bro, that’s not gonna mean shit. That’s not gonna do a goddam thing for you, bro.’ ” Instead, he had a strategy for getting Wu all the “dope press looks” at hip-hop-oriented outlets like XXL and Complex.

Because that's what killed Utada's English release (or at least that's what I keep saying to myself).

Finally - more people who agree that going on Good Morning America won't really do much for you.

TV Shows + South Asian American Representation

But while several South Asian-American actors have been cast to play sidekicks on this year’s crop of pilots—and even more of them are playing doctors, another stereotype—other roles are breaking the mold. Mouzam Makkar is a lead on ABC’s The Fix, a traditional law drama from the mind of Marcia Clark. Sarayu Blue leads an NBC sitcom about a video-game storyboard artist trying to “have it all.” Vinny Chhibber plays a gay teacher in CBS’s Red Line. Kosha Patel was cast as a lead in ABC’s “comedic soap” False Profits, alongside Vanessa Williams, Bellamy Young, and newcomer Kapil Talwalkar.

The crop also includes CBS’s Pandas in New York, the rare domestic comedy about an Indian-American family—yes, they’re all doctors—and ABC’s The Greatest American Hero reboot, which has been rejiggered to feature TV’s first female Indian-American superhero, played by New Girl’s Hannah Simone.

Read it in full here.

Random News To Read: Asian American Monuments, Jenny Yang, And Sex Selection

From my news readers to yours:

Asian-Americans, a Sleeping Political Giant

In the last midterm election, in 2014, the nationwide turnout for Asian-American citizens was dreadful — just 27 percent, according to the census. That’s far below the rates for whites and blacks and virtually identical to the Latino rate. In Virginia, however, turnout has been significantly higher — the highest Asian-American turnout in the nation, Desai writes — thanks to a deliberate strategy that has included...

Missouri’s Quiet, Racist Battle to Take Reproductive Rights From Asian American and Pacific Islander Women

Sex-selective abortion bans operate on the racist assumption that Asian immigrants in the United States will exhibit the same sex preferences for male children that may have existed in their countries of origin. The impetus behind this legislation is that Asian American women—in particular, immigrant Chinese and Indian women—will prefer sons over daughters and make reproductive care decisions based on the sex of their child. Not only is this an outdated and dangerously xenophobic belief, it is downright false. In fact, analysis from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum has shown that foreign-born Chinese American, Korean American, and Indian American women are having more daughters than white American women, on average.


How one Asian-American woman’s comedy dreams came to be

In her comedy, Yang asked the audience two questions. In the first, she asked audience members to consider their typical response when someone asks what career they would like to pursue after finishing college. Second, she asked what they would pursue after finishing college if they felt no worries regarding money, skill sets, the expectations of others or time [...] “She brings a very unique Asian-American, female perspective to comedy that you don’t typically see,” said Asian-American studies professor Gena Lew Gong. “I think it’s good to put voices like hers out so more people – like students – can hear from other voices.”

Trump Administration Backs Asian American Students In Lawsuit At Harvard?

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about this, or what it could mean ultimately for anyone (because don't you think just a little bit that there could be something else behind this?) - but I'll at least throw it out there for the sake of news:

The Trump administration threw its weight Friday behind a student group that says Harvard University discriminates against Asian-Americans in its admissions process, urging a federal judge Friday not to keep years' worth of admissions records under wraps.

The move by the Justice Department forecasts the emerging fault lines in what could serve as the first major affirmative action case of the Trump administration.
The fight surrounding the secrecy of the Harvard's competitive admissions process stems from a 2014 lawsuit brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit organization that argues race-conscious admissions policies are unconstitutional. The group includes over a dozen students who claim they were rejected from Harvard because the it engages in "racial balancing" by capping the number of Asian-Americans it admits each year.

Something to ponder?

Fiction & Other Realities + Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

While I can't be there this year to attend the LAAPFF, you can, and you should get your tickets early so you can check out Bobby Choy AKA Big Phony's new film and music "Fiction & Other Realities".

From the Kickstarter PR:

Hi Everyone,

It’s Springtime and we are in the final days of completing our film. I want to thank everyone for your incredible patience and understanding over the past year. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get here, but I’m happy to report that we have created something extremely unique and special together. I cannot wait for you to see this film...

I’m thrilled to announce that we will be having our World Premiere of Fiction & Other Realities on Saturday, May 5th in Los Angeles - presented by Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF). They’ve chosen Fiction & Other Realities to screen as their Saturday night Centerpiece Presentation, at Aratani Theatre. A beautiful 880 seat theater in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles. We hope you can join us.

General Public Ticketing will start on April 6th at 5PM PST - After Party venue TBD.

I’ve reached out to our backers with the option to attend a premiere in Los Angeles, New York, or Seoul. Please do check your Kickstarter inboxes if you haven’t yet. We’ve also added San Francisco as we will be screening at CAAM Fest Friday, May 11th - two screenings (time & venue TBA).

All other Kickstarter backer rewards have been sent except for those who have yet to respond to reward surveys. I’ve only heard recently that some backers were finding their KS emails in their junk mail folders. Please do check your Kickstarter accounts for messages and surveys. The only other outstanding reward should be the Original Soundtrack download. Sorry for the delay on this as we are finalizing details/dates for when best to make available based on our film's eventual worldwide release.

More news to come soon, including the release of a new Big Phony EP & 2 new music videos this month. Thank you for your time, everyone. Hope you enjoy your weekend and till next time.

All the best,

Bobby Choy

This Is Why I Won't Watch Roseanne...(Pot Shots At Fresh Off The Boat And Blackish)

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/roseanne-showrunner-explains-that-black-ish-and-fresh-off-the-boat-jokeL

"What time is it?" Dan says. "Did we miss dinner?"

"It's 11 o'clock," Roseanne says. "We slept from 'Wheel' to 'Kimmel.'"

"We missed all the shows about black and Asian families," Dan says.

"They're just like us," Roseanne responds.

She's a Trump supporter, so you can say what you want, but I'll take it the way I'd take it from Trump supporters - of which Roseanne actually is.

Just like anyone else she has the right to make her show - and I have the right to not watch it.

And forbid it in my household.

Yup. I'm Selling White People On The Internet. Word. #GetYourWhitePeople.com

That's it.

Get Your White People.

Jeannie Mai Shows Off Her Breast Workout Tricks

So this happened a couple months ago, and just the fact that Jeannie Mai has come up so far - definitely putting in her dues - has been awesome enough, but seeing her
doing some workout tricks with the boobs - and getting everyone else to do the exercises?

Priceless.



Let my Viet peoples shine in all their glorious ways!

Cause you know - we down like that.