Video It: Pussy Kills + Rocky Rivera

Kollaboration Star 2014

Six artists. LA. Grand prize of $10,000.



Get info and tix.

Decades Later: Chris Cate

From NBC San Diego:

San Diego has elected its first Asian-American to the city council in nearly 50 years. City Councilmember-Elect Chris Cate won the District 6 seat with 55 percent of the vote. The Republican beat challenger Democrat Carol Kim, also Asian-American [...] Many Asian-Americans in District 6 told NBC 7 they’re optimistic they will have more say in city government with a councilman they believe will represent not only their interests but also that of the surrounding community.

Re: Film List Guest Post

If you are interested in some films from 2014 that I wanted to see check out my guest post down at yomyomf called "To See And Be Seen: Twenty-Six Asian Films Of 2014".

Watch It On Amazon Instant Video: A Picture Of You

Do it now!

It's free!

Cancel your date!

http://www.amazon.com/Picture-You-Jo-Mei/dp/B00OYWTLXM/

Random Thoughts: Whitney, Xtina, Elmo

Sometimes those conversation just happen.

You know...I can't help it.

Like Xtina.

Who doesn't love a little Christmas circa 1999?



Right?

But you know...sometimes in earshot...hmmmm..."How come you like the White Girls so much huh?"

Damn.

"But..It's Christina...It's Christmas...?"

"Uh huh"

"I got Whitney too. Mariah. Alicia on the mix...with Elmo..."

Fake Off Episode #1 + Harry Shum Jr. + truTV

From The Hollywood Reporter

Fake Off is the first of several new shows that, beginning Oct. 27, will come to define truTV and its new tagline: "Way More Fun." It's a far cry from its origins as Court TV, and later, as a network devoted to crime shows that devolved into a mishmash of reality programing. But with its rebrand, truTV's parent company Turner Broadcasting is hoping to create a channel (currently reaching more than 93 million homes — 79 percent of the TV audience) that attracts "funseekers." Fake Off is a strong start. Its setup feels like a broadcast competition series, which makes sense since the show is a pastiche of many successful forebears. As on American Idol and its copycats, there are three judges: visual concept designer Michael Curry (Broadway's The Lion King), Grammy winner and former TLC chanteuse Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and actor-dancer-choreographer Harry Shum Jr., most recently seen on the Fox series Glee. Each judge awards the performances a score from 1 to 10, which are added up and then combined with the audience's score (which is weighted like a fourth judge, a la Dancing With the Stars). The ultimate prize for the winning team (one is eliminated each week starting in the second round) is $100,000.

Cool Down Hawaii

Seriously.

Please.

Cool down.

Take a break.

Have a Coke.

Keep everyone safe.

Random Culinary Impermanence With Edward Lee

Far East Movement: Ktown Riot

Out now on iTunes and Spotify.

Window Horses: Help Fund This Awesome Sandra Oh Indiegogo Project Or Forever Hate Yourself. For Real.

From the Indiegogo site:

WINDOW HORSES: THE POETIC PERSIAN EPIPHANY OF ROSIE MING. In this coming-of-age story, Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. Rosie goes on an unwitting journey of forgiveness, reconciliation, and perhaps above all, understanding, through learning about her father’s past, her own complicated cultural identity, and her responsibility to it. It's about building bridges across generations and cultures through the magic of Poetry.

We hope this film will contribute a little more peace, love and understanding to our increasingly complex and conflicted world through art, poetry, history and culture.

Trailer



Here's a link to good article @ the hollywoodreporter.com:

Both artists welcome the cross-cultural representations of Chinese and Persian cultures in the film via a young Canadian poet in Iran learning about her culture and long-lost father. "I love that she's of Chinese and Persian heritage. If we can't get it [diversity] on TV, let's get it on animation," Oh said.

Still Going On: Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival

From the site:

Asian Improv aRts Midwest, the region's leading presenter of the Asian American cultural arts, is proud to present the 19th season of the critically acclaimed Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival. The festival highlights the diversity of musicians that explore the Asian American experience though music, combining influences that include jazz, blues, rock, hip hop, improv/new music, and traditional Asian musical forms and instrumentation. AIRMW celebrates and documents the historic contribution Asian American musicians and their collaborators make to the Chicago music scene.

Check it out in full here.

Elementary Season 3 Trailer

October 30th on a TV near you on CBS.

Friday 3X: Kina Grannis + My Dear (Full Album Stream) + Write It In The Sky + Echosmith Cover (with Alex G)

Echosmith Cover (with Alex G)



My Dear (Full Album Stream)



Write It In The Sky Official Lyric Video

Big Phat Stats + "Asian Privilege"

Just some random thoughts.

Asian Privilege Lives In My Left Butt Cheek Along With Reverse Racism

I don't even know how this topic gets started, re-started, let's throw out everything we've learned from the application of the model minority and how it obfuscates the inequities that exist for the APIA community, but apparently it's coming up--talk shows, internal conversations, posts, comments, et al.

And I just have to wonder...

What happens when I get poison ivy and scratch by left butt cheek so hard it falls off?

Will my left butt cheek grow back?

Will I need to get therapy for my right butt cheek?

What if it never grows back?

Truly, and with laughable disdain, these are my thoughts on anyone who tries to push the subject that "Asian Privilege" exists.

Household Income Tells Me Nothing Of Racism and Inequality

My income says nothing about the racism that I have to confront, work around, or just hear about in my daily life as an Asian American and Person Of Color. At all income levels there is racism and inequality and that fact can never be denied and it truly is as simple as that.

Fine. Let's Talk Data

You can have four people in your household (related by family or not) where combined, everyone makes 120K. What that number doesn't tell you is the distribution of those funds. One of those people could be making 60K and the other three could be making 20K because they've reached the glass ceiling in their organizations - household income doesn't measure wage gaps by race (or gender) and by industry. At the same time, according to the ACS 2013 report, Whites still make more than any other group on a per capita basis and sure, while someone can argue about the mean versus the median, I can argue back that using this comparison, because of the distribution being the same across all groups (in regard to a calculated average) tells me more than household income, or the median income, about a specific group.

Is it as arbitrary and flawed as throwing out household income when talking about privilege and racism?

Yes.

But that's the point.

Because You Want Your Presidential Diwali Wishes

Twitter Me This Twitter Me That (AKA APIA Male Twitter Love And Stardom)

In their own right you can say that each one of the people on this list is a star, but I thought I'd just check out some profiles and see how many followers they had (as of a few days ago) and wondered what, if anything, that said about their future stardom.

• Aziz Ansari 4.37 Million
• Harry Shum Jr. 1.02 Million
• Kunal Nayyar 955K
• Steven Yeun 628K
• Sung Kang 239K
• Booboo Stewart 192K
• Daniel Dae Kim 156K
• Justin Chon 138K
• John Cho 126K
• Daniel Henney 112K
• Ki Hong Lee 110K
• Ryan Potter 35.2K

Yes btw, Dwayne Johnson has 7.76 M followers, but he's a superduperstar so I didn't type him into this list.

BAAF 2014 Centerpiece Film: 9-Man

PMP Philms + Secret Asian Man + Boston Asian American Film Festival (October 23rd - 26th, 2014)

http://www.baaff.org/

Run Girl Run (AKA Kathy Joo Can Beat You In A Marathon)

Who was the winner at the Long Beach marathon for female runners ages 60-64?

That would be Kathy Joo, a skin cancer survivor from Anaheim.

And yes, she's way tougher than I will ever be.