Release: Owl And The Sparrow

Just wanted to make sure to let you know that Owl and the Sparrow, directed by Stephane Gauger, will be getting its broad USA release date this month.

Here's a list of the following dates and venues where it's going to be released:

January 16, 2009
Los Angeles - Laemmle Sunset 5
Orange County - Regal Garden Grove 16
Orange County - Irvine Westpark 8

January 23, 2009
San Jose, CA - Camera 12

February 6, 2009
Houston, TX - TBD
Dallas, TX - TBD

February 13, 2009
San Francisco - Sundance Kabuki Theate

Film Synopsis

Thuy, a scrappy ten year old runaway, forced to survive on her own, sells postcards then flowers on the streets. Lan, the flight attendant, who is having a secret affair with the airline pilot. Hai, a zookeeper living on the park grounds in a shack, is nursing a broken heart after his fiancé left him. In four days, the young runaway will play matchmaker to these lonely hearts in hopes of forming a surrogate family. The only problem that might stop her is the city authorities that want her in an orphanage and an overbearing uncle tracking her down in the big city.

For more on the film go to the official site.

And Yi Be Gone

After two back-to-back 20/20 games and on his way to a 3rd, Yi Jianlin - who's been finding his way nicely with the New Jersey Nets, and is 3rd in the All-Star voting for Eastern Conference Forwards - is out with a broken pinkie for about 3-4 weeks.

Damn.

Bad timing is everything isn't it?

Asian Americans In Virginia: Getting Involved

I saw this headline at the Richmond Times-Dispatch and wanted to re-print up the article in full as it has a good amount of information on a series of forums that are being held across the state - that you can get involved in - helping to look at public policy in regard to the Asian American community in Virginia:

Asian Pacific Americans hope a statewide series of forums starting with one Thursday in Richmond will help highlight policy needs and strategies for the growing population group.

The fifth annual Asian Pacific American Policy & Resource Forum will be held Thursday from noon to 5:30 p.m. at the Bank of America building, 1111 E. Main St., 18th floor. It is free to the public. The public hearing by the Virginia Asian Advisory Board will take place from 1 to 3 p.m.

The forum brings together an alliance of more than 20 Asian Pacific American community groups.

Other hearings will be held in Tidewater in March, Roanoke in April and Northern Virginia in May, said Vicki Mirandah, chairwoman of the Virginia Asian Advisory Board.

"We hope to gather a comprehensive body of information that will help the elected officials to understand the needs of our communities and to direct policy changes to meet those needs," Mirandah said.

From 6 to 8:30 p.m., the APA Policy & Resource Forum will host a reception at the SunTrust Bank building, 919 E. Main St., 24th floor, where statewide elected officials, cabinet members, legislators and APA community groups will mark the Lunar New Year.

Judy Chu’s Bridge to Victory

Got this link sent to me from Gautam Dutta with more news on Judy Chu who I mentioned down in a previous post:

Major news from Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. Yesterday Judy Chu’s main opponent, State Sen. Gloria Romero, announced she would not run for Congress. Instead, she announced she would run for State School Superintendent in 2010, and endorsed fellow State Sen. Gil Cedillo for outgoing Rep. Hilda Solis’ congressional seat.

[...]

What’s more, top Latino leaders strongly support Dr. Chu, because she has been a bridgebuilder throughout her 23-year political career.

Check out the AAA-Fund Blog for the full article.

Stage Notes: The National Asian American Theatre Company & Leah’s Train

Caught this down at the NYT and wanted to repost it up here:

The National Asian American Theater Company will present “Leah’s Train,” by Karen Hartman, directed by Jean Randich, Feb. 6 through 28 at the TBG Theater, 312 West 36th Street, Manhattan. This is a first for the 20-year-old company: a world premiere of a play about a non-Asian culture, performed by an all Asian-American cast. Ms. Hartman’s play is about three generations of women from a Jewish family. The cast will include Jennifer Ikeda, who was in last season’s Broadway production of “Top Girls” and is appearing off Broadway in “Women Beware Women.”

For more on the National Asian American Theatre Company check out their site here.

Planet B-Boy on MTV

Hey Slanty peeps - this is a little late, but still worth the mention. If you haven't seen Planet B-Boy yet (or even if you have) MTV will be playing it on the following dates/times starting today:

All the airing times are EST.

Sunday, Jan 11 - 11am
Sunday, Jan 11 - midnight
Wednesday, Jan 14 - 1:30am
Wednesday, Jan 14 - 8:30am

And on another note, just in case you were wondering, Planet B-Boy made Moviefone's top 50 films of 2008.

Cool.

Thanks Jong!

Best Promos For An Asian American Channel That Closed Its Doors

AZN TV

What would a year in review be without talking about AZN TV shutting their doors? While it seemed like there was always talk that they might be closing down - as early as 2005 - backed by the largest cable provider in the country they kept on weathering the storm, even getting into the blogging game shortly before going off the air last April (here's a link to Beau Sia making the announcement on the station).

And while I could go more into how AZN TV shutting down was only the first of many announcements we'd hear about Asian American media and their fight for survival in 2008 - instead - I'd rather leave you with some promos for AZN TV when they made the switch from the International Channel.

To be honest I'm not exactly sure why I ended up saving all of those early promos and shows (and unfortunately not all of the promos I had were able to get clipped in here).

Maybe I knew I was seeing something important at the time and I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget about it, that I had a record of it, to be able to look back and say it really did happen.

Maybe I just liked the music and the images.

Or maybe, just like in one of the promos, I couldn't help but think to myself,

Those are my people.

MV: Random Jay Chou

Mr. Magic

YouTube: From The University

Here's two videos I found on YouTube from Asian American Studies classes that I wanted to post on up as I found them interesting.

Each title links to the YouTube video so you can get more information.

Model Minority Myth Documentary



Eyes Wide Open Commercial

And That's A Dumbass Comment

I just felt like posting this comment because really (as you should have already figured out by now) occasionally I just like to highlight the truly inept our world has to offer if only to make you and I feel better about ourselves.

Here's a comment left on a previous post You Can't Defend The Racist Magic Negro Song, So Stop Trying:

From cognitis

As a Japanese-American this blog's name offends and injures me. No Japanese writer before 19th century described Japanese eyes as "slanted", and I don't have "slanted" eyes. Who first described Japanese eyes as "slanted"; and in whose interest did these first writers use "slanted", your interest? Since these first writers intended to injure Japanese with such descriptions, why would a Japanese or a Chinese continue to use terms intended to injure him? Are you stupid?

This particular blog doesn't serve "asian" interests by attacking African-American insults. Do you regard Africans as so weak that they can't defend themselves? Isn't Saltsman just a Jew? Why should you care about Africans and Jews attacking each other? Who cares?

This blog is rash, errant, aimless.

Let's be honest - I am errant, rash and aimless - in fact I sometimes take pride in that (because we all need to be good at something), and sure, you might be deeply offended by this blog's name, but you also probably still wet yourself at the dinner table too - but to each their own (and while I could say I won't judge you, I actually already did, so there's no use in me saying anything different).

That's just having some fun with cognitis though - it's the portions in bold that really beg the following questions:


Would any of us really mind if racist Asian Americans like cognitis got rounded up by the LPGA and put in a dark room until they could learn to speak non-racist English?

And two - this is probably the most important - aren't sex-offenders not supposed to have access to the Internet?

I mean seriously - isn't there a law about that?

You Still Chose The Racist?

Interesting article I caught down on the AP about a study that looked to see how racism really bothered some people.

Think you wouldn't tolerate a racist act? Think again, says a surprising experiment that exposed some college students to one and found indifference at best.

Here's the scene: Researchers in Toronto recruited 120 non-black York University students for what purported to be a psychology study.

A participant was directed to a room where two actors posing as fellow participants — one black, one white — waited. The black person said he needed to retrieve a cell phone and left, gently bumping the white person's leg on the way out. The white actor then did one of three things: Nothing. Said, "I hate when black people do that." Or used the N-word.

Then a researcher entered and said the "psychology study" was starting and that the student should pick one of the two others as a partner for the testing.

Half the participants just read about that scene, and half actually experienced it.

Those asked to predict their reaction to either comment said they'd be highly upset and wouldn't choose the white actor as their partner.

Yet students who actually experienced the event didn't seem bothered by it — and nearly two-thirds chose the white actor as a partner, the researchers report Friday in the journal Science.

Damn.

Two-thirds chose the racist white guy?

Well...maybe I'm not really that surprised after all.

Asian American: Liberate

I caught this up on YouTube which was posted out a couple of month's ago, but if you haven't already seen this - it's not bad (although I don't think I could ever realy liberate myself from television). Here's the description:

Directed by Calvin Sun.

Originally conceived as the intro video for the annual cultureSHOCK Fall 2009 show for their theme "Liberate," this ended up being a standalone film that calls for all Asian Americans to be themselves and liberate themselves from society's demanding expectations.

Jason Fong's "Bite Me"

Saw some news about this film so I thought I would post on out the trailer as it definitely looks interesting (vampires, Asian Americans, and dating). Check here for more info on the film.

UTADA: Come Back To Me

Check it out here and get on the mailing list.

Nice.

If No One Was Listening: Zhang Ziyi

h/t Disgrasian

The Most Racist Statements Made By A White Celeb Or Politician In 2008

Geraldine Ferraro



I have to admit that this was a tough call and one that I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks now because there were just so many viable candidates for this award. As I was looking through the list of posts for the year in review I just couldn't help but think to myself that "Damn - I have my work cut out for me".

I mean you had Amy Winehouse and her cracked up "Blacks, Pakis, Gooks and Nips" lullaby, Sharon Stone saying that the earthquake in China and all the people who died was "karma", Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland calling the Obama's uppity, Mickey Rooney forgiving all of us Asian Americans who took offense to his role in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Pau Gasol thinking it was absurd that we got offended by the Spanish Chinky Eye team, Charlie Sheen going on a racist rant but saying he really isn't racist, Gov. Don Carcieri's wife comparing teenagers who criticized her husband to suicide bombers, John McCain for still being in love with the word Gook, and - well - you get the picture (and really, this list could have gone on and on).

But for me at least, above everyone else, I had to go with Ferraro because she didn't just come out with racist speak just once in saying that Obama was only where he was because he was black - getting her ass handed to her by the Clinton campaign - but she couldn't let it go after that.

She couldn't just fade away.

Instead she took up the fight for the "reverse racism" crowd. She tried to lump every one of my white peeps who are down with the brown into the "Obama's playing the race card" contingent. She decided to get into the same fear and hate mongering tactics that others have been using in this society since the day it was bred and that people like George Wallace used as the foundation of their campaigns.

She was everything you just never imagined she would be.

--

Here's a previous post on Ferraro from earlier in the year that helped solidify her place as the winner of this category.

Geraldine, The Race Card, and Clueless White People

While I can't discount some of what Geraldine Ferraro had to say in her recent Boston Op-Ed concerning aspects of sexism in the current Democratic Primary -- because all you have to do is look at every president we've ever had in our history, as well as the candidates who've run, to know that sex has mattered and continues to matter in who as nation we elect -- I just can't believe she's talking about race and racism again after she went completely batshit in March and then got her ass canned from the Clinton campaign.

I mean did Geraldine feel that demoralized (as she should have) from being called a racist that she now has to take up for clueless white people who think Obama is playing the race card, and are worried about "reverse racism" because she thinks it's going to vindicate her?

Apparently so.

The Race Card

I'm not saying the race card doesn't exist. Because it does.

It's nothing more than an ad hominem argument when a person is on the side of a losing battle, and even though there's absolutely no legitimacy to the claim of racism whatsoever, it's used so they can slither their way out alive.

But let's get it straight in saying that when people usually say someone is "playing the race card", that when the majority of pundits use that term, it's simply done because they can't see or won't admit to the real and legitimate part that racism has and still plays in our society; that many times it's people's own racism, indifference to racism, or simply a defense mechanism (because it's too hard to look at themselves) that makes them use that term in the first place.

It's an easy bandwagon for people to jump onto, and one that Ferraro seems intent on fueling.

The fact that she wants to be talking for the people who think Obama has been playing the race card throughout the campaign, and are frightened because no one's "calling him on it" is just mind-boggling, because Obama has every right to talk about race and racism in this country and how it can also affect his bid to be the Democratic candidate and President of the United States.

Just look at the white only club, good or bad, that has taken office, or the history of racism and equality for some that has permeated our nation, or simply a recent Washington Post article about the racism that his street teams have encountered.

Saying that Obama is playing the race card is like saying Sharon Stone really had something important to say when she said maybe it was karma that killed all the innocent people in China during the recent earthquake.

It's just fucked up.

I've heard that before

Ferraro also claims she and her new found supporters aren't racist but they just have "racial resentment", and that their fears of "reverse racism" are justified because Obama said "Our Time Has Come" and because essentially they're white and he's black, and because white people can't open up their mouths without being labeled a racist.

Are you kidding me?

Racial resentment is just a nice white way of trying to cover up being a racist.

Being afraid of Obama without any justification simply because he's black and their white is like trying to justify the lynchings of black men because they dared to look at a white woman.

You can't.

It's rhetoric like this that also gives power to the notion that if a person of color is prejudice against someone who's white (wrong as this is), that this in some way is the same as the systematic racism that's been going on for hundreds of years when clearly the two aren't even close, even though we like to throw around the term "reverse racism" as if they were; in effect minimizing institutionalized racism.

At the same time, Ferraro tries to lump the segment of the white community who's educated themselves about race, and who aren't afraid to have real and courageous conversations about something like white privilege and who work to help end racism in this country, into the same boat as the people she's speaking for and supporting, even though each are at opposite ends of the racial awareness spectrum.

Put it all together and it's the same type of fear and hate mongering and obfuscation of truth that has been going on for years, and that's been the foundation for every piece of oppressive legislation against people of color since our inception as a country.

Did Geraldine think people really wouldn't notice that?

TEDTalks and Jennifer 8. Lee

Just watch the video. You'll like it.

Best South Korean Movie With A Maggie Gyllenhaal Doppelganger

Forever The Moment



You can call me crazy if you want too, but Kim Jung-eun (on the left) in the film Forever The Moment was like watching Maggie Gyllenhaal except in Korean. Maybe it was the look of Jung-eun in the film, or maybe it was just the character that she played, but by the end of the movie I just couldn't help wondering if Gyllenhaal knew of Jung-eun, and if she didn't, maybe she should catch up on some of her SK movies and dramas to see her Korean twin.

And yes - I do realize that Gyllenhaal could actually be the facsimile of Kim Jung-eun and not the other way around - but really - I just kind of liked the title for this post (and we all know I'm a hack so you shouldn't be surprised that I didn't try to come up with something more clever for the reverse affect).

P.S.

If you're wondering about the actual movie, it's about the '04 handball team who won the silver medal at the Summer Olympics - and if that sounds a little dry to you - it's really not. Forever The Moment was one of ten best movies I'd seen all year and if you like movies where you're rooting for the underdog you'll like this film (it also took the South Korean box office by storm as the #4 best selling movie of the year).

Judy Chu And The 32nd District

I happened to catch this article down at Politico.com about the prospects of Judy Chu in Congress and I couldn't help but wonder - is it good or is it bad in regard to racial representation with 2/3 of the population being Hispanic/Latino - or because it has a 20 percent Asian American population does that matter as much? As long as it's a person of color is that all that really matters?

A splintered field of Latino candidates could lead to the election of an Asian-American in Southern California’s majority-­Hispanic 32nd District, leaving Hispanics with one less voice in Congress at a time when their share of the population is growing.

In the special House election to succeed Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.), who was recently tapped to become the Obama administration’s labor secretary, former Monterey Park Mayor Judy Chu stands to gain from a potentially crowded field of prominent Latino officeholders that could divide the Hispanic vote and enable her to capture the solidly Democratic, East Los Angeles-based seat.

All the candidates will run on a single ballot in the special primary election. If any one of them wins a majority of votes, that candidate takes the seat outright. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters will square off eight weeks later in a special general election — essentially a runoff.

While the racially diverse district is about two-thirds Hispanic, it also has an unusually large Asian population — roughly 20 percent. As the only prominent Asian candidate in the race — and one who has drawn support from Hispanic voters in the past — Chu could benefit from a concentrated Asian vote to make it into a special general election if the Latino vote is divided among several candidates.

Check out the full article here.

Sanjay Gupta: You Could Be The Next Surgeon General (And The First Asian American One)

On my way home last night I ended up catching the news about Sanjay Gupta who was approached by President-elect Obama about becoming the country's next Surgeon General and from what everyone said - he would be the youngest Surgeon General to take the position, and according to aaa-fund.com he would also be the first Asian American appointed to the position.

Here's a little more on Sanjay Gupta from Wikipedia:

Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an Indian-American physician and a contributing CNN chief health correspondent based in Atlanta, Georgia. An assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, he is also a frequent guest on the news program Anderson Cooper 360°. "Charity Hospital" won a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast. From 1997 to 1998, he served as one of fifteen White House Fellows, primarily as an advisor to Hillary Clinton. Gupta currently publishes a column in TIME magazine. He is also host of House Call with Dr Sanjay Gupta. His book Chasing Life was a New York Times and National bestseller.