You have to wonder if Clinton might be starting to make the same mistakes Giuliani was making that eventually left him bowing out of the race (believing too much of his own hype and not preparing for the competition) - or how much it even matters - has the Obama train, now that it spurred ahead in yesterday's primaries, just picked up too much steam?
Or will it go on as usual - each candidate winning small victories hoping to cling to the front-runner status?
The Illinois senator racked up sizable wins in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, besting the former first lady by a margin of 2-to-1. He also narrowly pulled ahead among delegates for the first time in the contest. He did so by winning over many of the voters who form the core of Clinton's political base.
While Sen. John McCain was inching toward the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama staked a claim as the Democratic front-runner. Obama's wins in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia primaries propelled him past Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for delegates. According to CNN calculations, Obama has 1,215 delegates to Clinton's 1,190.
If you want to perform - and have some talent - Columbia University is looking for you to get your audition on and perform in their annual Asian American showcase cultureShock:
The Asian American Alliance is auditioning student acts for it’s annual performance of cultureSHOCK, a showcase of talented Asian American performing artists. This year’s theme is exposure.
This year, we’d like to feature more student acts. Please come prepared with a 2-5 minute preview of whatever you think is best for our show. cultureSHOCK prides itself on a medley of diverse and interesting acts. In previous years we’ve had everything from spoken word, slam poetry, power ballads, cello/electric violin-rock, stand-up comedy, hip hop, interpretive dance, theatre… Rather than draw all our talent from independent groups across the nation, we’d LOVE to tap into Columbia’s fresh, innovative and amazing talent and bring YOU to the stage!
Both cuts should get you going - even if in different directions.
Kaba Modern
If you haven't been watching MTV's America's Best Dance Crew you'll definitely want to check it out and see the AA group Kaba Modern from UC Irvine who have some serious skills.
Here's a Q & A with each member:
TONY TRAN, 20 - WEST COVINA, CA What do you hope to gain from your 'Dance Crew' experience? Just having fun is all I need.
MIKE SONG, 21 - TORRANCE, CA Is there anything else that we should know? My first freestyling in front of a big audience ended up being one of the most viewed online internet clips of all time. I got served when I first got up to freestyle on a big stage. (Look up "Robot dance clip" or "elsewhere" and you'll see me when I was fourteen.)
YURI TANG, 22 - IRVINE, CA What other talents do you have? I'm a professional at living out of my car, eating a lot, and enjoying life!
LAWRENCE KAO, 22 - HACIENDA HEIGHTS, CA Who are your own dancing idols? I don't really have any specific dancing idols, but any dancer who passionately explores the art form despite their capabilities is in itself worth idolizing.
CINDY MINOWA, 20 - MICHIGAN Is there anything else that we should know? I would like to give a quick shout-out to my mother for the extreme struggle she had to go through to support and raise me. I wouldn't be dancing if it wasn't for her, perhaps not even made it alive if it wasn't for her. She has taught me how to be courageous, encouraging, fighter and a hard worker. She is my best friend, ex-roommate (shared a bedroom before), financial partner, mostly my hero of life.
JIA HUANG, 24 - ARCADIA, CA What is a source of inspiration for your dancing career? I dance because when I hear a funky beat, my body can't help but start moving to the beat. It makes me feel free and alive. All I want to be able to do is dance til I am old and gray.
Eli Stone
Read a good post about the new show Eli Stone, and the Asian American character Dr. Chen who goes in and out of having an accent in the scene below:
This story has to make you wonder if the next incarnation of a film like The Host, won't actually be coming out of Japan:
Some part of waste dump areas in the Sea of Japan designated by the South Korean government overlaps with the continental shelf area and thus the exclusive economic zone of Japan. Unaware of this, South Korea has dumped waste in these areas for the past 15 years.
Bollywood's taboo-breaking blockbuster celibate yogni actress Mallika Sherawat (aka Bollywood's Bardot) will be starring in an upcoming Hollywood film about Jesus Christ called The Aquarian Gospel, where she'll play the character Saraswati, a loyal friend of Christ, when he travels through India - and like some of her other roles, this one's starting to make conversation too.
At the same time, after winning the UK Celebrity Big Brother and getting kissed by Richard Gere (that picture still makes me queasy) - it seems one of the next stops for Shilpa Shetty is in the next James Bond movie Quantum of Solace where it's rumored that her role will be more like Madonna's in Die Another Day.
The Seattle Times on the life of Ben Woo, and how he helped create a space for Asian Americans:
If a person's life can be measured by grades of community betterment, then Ben Woo's 84 years would have to be at the top of the charts.
The Wing Luke Asian Museum; the Chinatown-International District Preservation and Development Authority; local activists and politicians; even mushroom enthusiasts — all were touched to the core by Mr. Woo, who died Feb. 8 after suffering a stroke this past November.
While his passing is a loss to Seattle and particularly the Asian-American community, the way he lived his life ought to serve as a beacon of inspiration for future generations.
Pictured above is Allan C. Jackson - I hope I look that good at 104 - who was in attendence for the showing of the documentary, The Wisdom of Our Years: Stories of African American Utahns, taking a look back at some of the stories that have encompassed the African American experience in the state.
Here's an excerpt from an article about the documentary from the Salt Lake Tribune:
Eva Sexton's late husband worked as a waiter at a restaurant called the Coon Chicken Inn that featured a sign with a cartoonish black man with exaggerated lips. Her grandfather was a slave.
Frank Satterwite spent a career in the U.S. military defending his country yet could not live in many places in Ogden. And James Green, 104-year-old Allan Jackson, Florence Lawrence, Anna Belle Mattson and the late Dovie Goodwin all experienced the kind of Utah racism that forced them to sit in the balconies of Utah movie theaters, refused them service at many restaurants, only opened a public swimming pool to blacks in Ogden on the day when the lifeguard was off duty, and forced them into taking jobs well below their education.
Yet, if the 40-minute movie that premiered before a multi-racial crowd of hundreds in the Calvary Baptist Church gymnasium Sunday conveyed one message, it was one of hope.
Check out R&B singer Ailee down at her MySpace page if you're looking for some new tracks (Undeniable and No One are two standouts), and then go on over and vote for her in the Hottest Undiscovered Talent contest where she's competing against six other contestants (via the Maury Show). Vote as much as you want and don't let the Maury set fool ya - Ailee's got skills.
As Lipstick Jungle already seems to be an afterthought, it seems fitting then that Lucy Liu and Cashmere Mafia are still getting favorable writeups - and Joyce Tang wonders if Lucy Liu is the New All-American Girl:
Over the past few decades Asian Americans have been slowly eking their way into casting rooms and onto sets in Hollywood. (Think Lost, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes, Entourage, Gilmore Girls, etc.). Exposure is a good thing, but Asian Americans for the most part are still relegated to ancillary roles.
In Cashmere Mafia, Mia isn’t immediately identifiable as the protagonist via voiceovers a la Carrie Bradshaw, but she’s clearly the leader of her pack. And Liu has first billing (plus the most star power out of the cast).
Here's a shout out to legendary musician Herbie Hancock for taking away the Grammy last night for Album of the Year, and also to Recording academy president Neil Portnow who had this to say on the win:
I don't think sales has anything to do with what the academy decides in awarding albums or records. It's about excellence in music.
At the same time as winning the Album of the Year, Hancock also joined up with Hong Kong piano virtuoso Lang Lang for their take on George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" - which proved to be one of the best duets of the night receiving a standing ovation.
Check out a good article down at The-Review on Cindy King, chair of the Alliance YWCA Black History Committee:
Cindy King, chair of the Alliance YWCA Black History Committee, believes the process to end racism has to start within each person. So, she helps plan YWCA events for Black History Month. And she does not stop there. She promotes the organization's work on racism in Alliance all year round. She is also a mediator and uses those skills to problem solve on racism-related issues throughout the community.
So in a recent AsianWeek column (put out today), they decided to go with a theme for Valentine's Day specifically targeting Asian American men - and I just have to ask myself what type of myopic people write columns like this?
Here's one of my major complaints from the article which reads:
Asian American men in this country have historically gotten the short end of the dating stick. In addition to being subjected to the inaccurate but pervasive stereotypes about being small, nerdy and effeminate, they must also face the reality that Asian American women have among the highest out-marriage rates for women of all races and ethnicities.
Let's get this straight - so AsianWeek is saying that Asian American woman should only be dating Asian American men - that Asian American women, because they decide to go out with whoever it is that they want too - they're one of the problems for Asian American males that can't get themselves a date?
I wonder if the staffers down at AsianWeek think that Asian American women should basically be at the beck and call of Asian American men - to be their playtoys - just because they're Asian American?
Or rather do the staffers down at AsianWeek think Asian American men should only be dating Asian American woman because of some sort of "purity" standard?
Is the AsianWeek staff afraid of some mudbloods?
What's funny about this AsianWeek column is that at the end of it, the staffers down at AsianWeek say:
Finally, we hope that in the future Asian Americans will craft a dating method centered on mutual respect between the sexes — free of outdated stereotypes, misogyny and notions of "the game" — and based on love for our community, cultures and traditions.
I think AsianWeek should be taking their own advice.
Hopefully you didn't catch the premiere of Lipstick Jungle - because I did - and it was an hour of my life that I wish I could get back. I'm all for having Asian American faces on the TV, but let's at least give them a show that might not get cancelled in a few weeks (and yes - it will get cancelled).
So I've been listening to the rhetoric (and that's what it is) since Super Tuesday and listening to how everyone has been rationalizing how the Asian American vote helped Clinton versus Obama - and really - it's just a lot of excuses from the Asian American segment that are Obama supporters.
But that's to be expected a little isn't it?
I mean, everyone wants to support their candidate - and that's great, because you should - but while discussing reasons why Asian Americans voted for Clinton versus Obama - a lot of Obama supporters also ended up trashing the segment of Asian Americans who decided to vote for Hillary instead of Obama.
Here are some of the dumbass statements and inferences from the Asian American Obama support clubs and article writers after Super Tuesday:
Asian Americans who voted for Hillary are like sheep because they follow their community leaders blindly, who ended up giving their support to Clinton
Yeah that's spot on. I guess we really are all a collective who can't think on our own. Oh wait, maybe that's just the people that bought into one article by Jeff Chang as the reasons for people not voting for Obama - because you know - he's like God.
Asian Americans didn't vote for Obama because he was black
As much as #1 relegates Asian Americans who voted for Clinton to being sheep - this inference - and it has been inferred - is that Asian Americans who voted for Hillary only did so because they didn't want to vote for a black candidate.
Yeah - this is just sewage being spewed from people who can't wrap their plebian-like minds around the fact that maybe, just maybe, these Asian Americans liked Clinton's overall experience and platform to that of Obama's.
But then again what do I know?
I'm probably just a racist Asian American guy who doesn't like black people (oh wait - don't I do this blog where I post on race and racism for all people of color...hmm - I must be more messed up than I thought).
Asian American's who voted for Clinton are just immigrants with accents who don't really know any better
I love this one - because a lot of the rhetoric that's come out from Obama supporters on why certain Asian American groups voted the way they did, or on Asian American voting coverage, do in fact infer this.
So let me see - I'm an immigrant who's lived here the majority of my life, and I know other immigrants who happen to have accents - I guess that means regardless of who we might vote for, that we don't really know any better because well - we're just dumbass immigrants?
And an accent makes someone even less intelligent?
Because someone wasn't born in this country that somehow makes their choices - no matter who they voted for - less than those Asian Americans who were born in this country?
What? Immigrants can't read?
I mean seriously - are these Obama supporters in the Asian American community such incredible poor ass losers (on ST) that they couldn't help but denigrate the Asian American community that did in fact vote for Clinton in the states that she won - all because their candidate didn't?
Vote for whoever it is that you believe in - that's your right - but don't trample over other Asian Americans like you're a racist white guy, just because they didn't vote the same way you did.
Alec Baldwin joined dozens of Hamptons residents at a town hall meeting to voice outrage over the racist, sexist writings of a community newspaper columnist.
Many of the 60 people demanded editor Rick Murphy be fired from the Independent Newspaper Group for columns written in the supposed voice of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
If I was Rick Murphy, I'd step on down now because the next thing you know, first it's a voicemail detailing out the dates and times Alec's going to come down to kick his ass, and the next thing you know - it's a roundhouse to the head.
If you're a fan of reality tv and tattoos, a few of the shows you've probably been watching are TLC's Miami Ink and TLC's new series LA Ink - and if you've been watching, you probably also know about the bad split between Ami James and Kat Von D where the latter ended up getting fired from the shop - only to later get her own show.
So what's happening now? Isn't it all good in tattoo land?
According to recent reports, before Kat Von D left, she handed another artist from Miami Ink (Chris Garver) an autographed photo of herself with some anti semitic comments on it - all of which were handed over to a handwriting analyst who said there was a 99% probability that Kat Von D wrote the message, and then over to TLC.
After receiving the letter and info from a Miami Ink lawyer, apparently TLC wrote a letter back that simply acknowledged getting the information, and then said "We trust that this information will be kept strictly confidential.”
Artist Kat Von D denies that she wrote it since it's made the news, blaming it on bad blood between her old shop (see video) - and TLC had this to say in a PR statement:
A publicity photo was brought to the network's attention eight months ago that contained extraordinarily offensive language. A full investigation was immediately conducted to determine whether anyone associated with the network was involved. Kat vehemently denied authoring the text and after completing the investigation, it was determined that insufficient evidence existed to conclude that she had. Therefore, no disciplinary action was taken. The network always takes these matters seriously and follows what we believe to be an appropriate course of action as dictated by the circumstances and available information.
So when two of the stars on a network's show bring something like that against a new star of a show the network's currently promoting (but which had yet to premiere) - what do they do?
From all accounts, it seems like they pretty much just swept it under the rug.
Out on the road with filmmaker Melissa Li as the duo Good Asian Drivers, Kit Yan is helping to break and broaden what it means to be an Asian American:
Two years ago, Yan joined a national slam team and won the world’s largest individual slam competition and he hasn’t stopped since.
Now 23-years-old, Yan is taking his poetry on the road with award-winning composer, singer-songwriter and lesbian filmmaker, Melissa Li. The duo performs under the moniker Good Asian Drivers (goodasiandrivers.com) to confront negative stereotypes. Next month they hit the road on a cross-country tour through 30 states that they hope will raise awareness of queer Asian Americans. Capitalizing on Li’s filmmaking skills, they are also videotaping weekly video blogs, “to sort of take everyone with us,” Yan says.
Interesting article on the Asian American population and advertising:
According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Asian Americans represented $253 billion in spending power in 2001, and this number is projected to reach $528 billion by 2009. While Hispanics make up the largest minority in the U.S., there are 13.5 million Asian Americans (residents who say they are Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races) according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau findings. This group comprises 5% of the total U.S. population. There is also a sizeable proportion of Asian Americans who are business owners and entrepreneurs.
Rather than an afterthought, Asian Americans should be of special interest to marketers. While Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco have the highest Asian populations, other cities are increasingly becoming urban hubs. According to a 2005 report titled "Asian Americans in the U.S." written by Dr. Robert Brown and Ms. Ruth Washton for Package Facts, specific goods and services, including computers and Internet services, home electronics, and automobiles are more likely to be owned by Asian Americans than other ethnic groups.
The slantyapolis/seftre blog has served millions of views trying to help in its own way, to give voice to the Asian and Asian American community, as well as document it, over the last 18 years. Sometimes op-ed, sometimes straight news, sometimes off the beaten path--the continued impetus remains that there's power in sharing voices and in sharing your own voice and reflecting that back into the communities you belong to.
If you're looking for the 2008 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).
2007 In Review Posts
If you're looking for the 2007 In Review Posts, the link list has been moved out, but you can still get to them all by following this link which pulls them up by label (they'll be in reverse so go to the oldest post to read them in order).
