Karolyn Pho Makes Shia LaBeouf All Grown Up

See more images at zimbio.

At least according to the Today article on MSNBC.

And just in case you were wondering - I think Shia LaBeouf looks like the accessory - not the other way around.

Nomin Enkhsaikhan: Missing

Whether or not she's really in any immediate danger or not - although I'm inclined to think that if you're 15 and running away with someone in their possible twenties you just might be no matter what - they have put out a missing teen alert for Nomin Enkhsaikhan who was last seen on Sunday.

It's A Panel. It's Public. It's Free.

No really it is.

The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice will present a public panel on "Fighting to Protect Immigrant Rights: The impact of anti-immigrant measures on Asian Americans" at the Asian American Journalists Association national convention in Detroit, Michigan on Aug. 11, 2011.

Moderated by Rachanee Srisavasdi, communications director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the panel will include Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center; James Ho, partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and former Solicitor General and Niraj Warikoo, religion reporter for the Detroit Free Press who has recently covered racial profiling in the Detroit area by federal immigration authorities. Both the Asian American Justice Center and Asian Pacific American Legal Center are members of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice.

Panelists will address the as yet uncovered story of the impact of anti-immigration initiatives on the Asian American community across the nation, including Arizona's SB 1070 law and similar copycat legislation, racial profiling, attacks against the 14th Amendment's constitutional guarantee of citizenship, and measures pending in Congress like mandatory e-verify legislation. They will also talk about Asian Americans and the role of immigration politics in the upcoming 2012 election.

The event is free and open to the public, and will take place on at 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 11 at the Skyline Room, Level 2, in the COBO Center, 1 Washington Blvd. in Detroit.

http://www.aaja.org/programs/convention2011detroit/panels/

Chicago Tribune + Chinglish

Here's a portion of a review from the Chicago Tribune on David Henry Hwang's "Chinglish":

"Chinglish," surely Hwang's best work since "M. Butterfly," gets most of its many laughs from the mistranslations that invariably accompany any attempts made by Americans and Chinese to speak with each other. These sequences, based on Hwang's own experiences, are exceedingly funny: We watch "my hands are tied" become "he is in bondage" or "travel home safely" get mangled as an instruction to "leave in haste." The Cleveland businessman (played by James Waterston with a deft mix of the bland and the earnest) is actually in the business of making signs for public buildings, which adds another level of absurdity to the amusement.

By necessity, the play is performed in Mandarin and English by a mostly bilingual cast, with subtitles projected on the set. But the savvy director Leigh Silverman makes sure that everything is crystal clear to the audience, even as the characters are lost at sea.

Read it in full.

Thursday BENI: Suki Dakara

Teddy Zee, The Hangover Part 2, And Tossing Some Salad

I'll be honest. I was going to see The Hangover 2. Then I decided not too. Then decided "well maybe" - and then - decided I just shouldn't see it.

At least that weekend.

But I'm still not sure if I should spend my hard eared money (which I get by tossing my parole officer's salad three times a week for a cool $300 if you were wondering, and yes, I know it's not much, but I figure it's a living and it could be worse - I might have to lick what I'd call kind of a nasty ass, and I'd rather cook for him thank you very much you dirty MF's).

Because I do struggle somedays with the roles people play and the images that are out there even though I know no one else is going to put a roof over their heads, buy them dinner, or give them peace of mind for just simple things like making sure they have money for a doctor's visit or a few extra bucks saved up in case of an emergency - when push comes to shove I'm not going to tell anyone they shouldn't be doing what they need to do to survive or to follow the path they believe will make their dreams come true.

Whatever those dreams may be.

But just like I don't have to take a job working for White People who treat me less than human or put up with racism in Corporate America - I do think some roles are just one step away from anti-miscegenation laws (at least in the perceptions they breed).

And I think we all do have choices.

I've learned a few things myself about that. Getting into bed with "the mainstream" at the end of the day might not always be the best thing.

But it's different for everyone - there's a personal tipping scale we all have - and in some ways it's also about whether or not there are real counterweights to the inane and the obscene that we sometimes see when it comes to APIA images and how we're portrayed.

From The Teddy Of The Zee

I got an e-mail from the Chief Social Capitalist down at Privy directing me to a blog post by Teddy Zee (which after reading apparently spawned this post) who's responding in part to an article by Jeff Yang.

So I thought I would post up a snippet of it here.

Having actors like Ken Jeong, Jamie Chung and Mason Lee appearing in a film that will earn enough money to break into the top 100 box office hits of all-time is certainly noteworthy. There’s no way that I would have wanted Warner Bros. to make the film in Brazil or Amsterdam and avoid any potential stereotype making situations. The benefits of having the film take place in Thailand far outweigh any of the emotional costs to our community. I know there are instances in the film that prompted negative reactions from Asian Americans. But taken as a whole, I would rather see the glass as half full and not half empty.

The first hurdle Asian Americans face in Hollywood is getting the opportunity to work in mainstream media. One of the biggest issues we face as a community is seeing our image reflected on the screen in film and television. It might not be the image you’d like to see, but being an integral part of a big hit comedy is a worthy step in the right direction. If I sound like a cheerleader, it’s because I want to support the Asian American artists in Hollywood who are pursuing their dream, who try to bring integrity to each and every job, role and project.

I guess that's it.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Locating The Sacred + Asian American Arts Alliance

I got word sent down to me from Kevin Huang (Asian American Arts Alliance) and wanted to make sure and post up here on their festival "Locating The Sacred".

Locating the Sacred is a 12-day, city-wide festival that will be held in New York in fall 2012. The festival will match artists to spaces regarded as sacred, where they will collaborate to produce their own events. Through these events, we will explore the meaning of the word “sacred” to our communities, and showcase Asian American artists as agents of change.

Twelve Days? A city-wide festival? Asian American artists of change?

And you can be a part of it too via the Kickstarter campaign?

Oh yeah - I'm definitely down for this one.

Alfa Goes Cross Country At The First Sight Of Land

Smooth song. Smooth voice. Smooth video.

What's not to love?

Mondega: Wish You Were Here

The Time Is Close: Ed Lin + Meera Nair

I've posted up on this before from the AAWW - but just in case you forgot.

Hope you're enjoying the summer heat! Still not sure where to go next with that short story or novel you've been working on (or not working)? Enroll in our fiction writing workshops before it's not too late! Author Meera Nair's workshop starts this Tuesday, July 5. She'll teach you how to write scenes that tug the reader forward with suspense. And novelist Ed Lin's workshop starts on July 10. He describes writing as a bizarre musical instrument that no one's ever played before. Sign up before all the slots get filled!

July 9th, No Look Pass, Outfest 2011 And I Want To Really See This MF (A Lot)

From the site:

NO LOOK PASS is an identity quest film that follows Emily Tay's transition into adulthood between her senior year at Harvard (where she ranks 23rd nationally for assists thanks to her signature move, the no look pass) into her first year playing professionally in Europe. Emily's Buddhist parents risked everything to emigrate from Burma in 1980 to Los Angeles' Chinatown and expect Emily to return home after graduation and comply with an arranged marriage. But Emily must follow her own American Dream, which means moving to Germany and falling in love with a U.S. servicewoman living under Don't Ask Don't Tell. After feeling like an outsider her entire life, Emily struggles to become a leader, not just a star and faces the terror of telling her parents who she really is.

The storyline of Emily's tribulations and history is told in parallel with her pursuit of two consecutive championships. Basketball is a means to an end greater than simply winning games, it is the stage upon which she works through, and ultimately declares, her strength and inherent self-worth.

Emily relies on her best friend and teammate, Katie, who follows her across the Atlantic. A white, 6'3'' diva from Maine, Katie is the yang to Emily's yin and provides considerable comic relief. Emily's two coaches — at Harvard and in Germany — likewise add color, drama and humor to the film.

NO LOOK PASS is a story about opportunity and identity, the loss that accompanies growth, and the courage required to live the life you imagine.

Get your tickets to see the World Premiere down at Outfest 2011.

Cool.

Visual Communications: Armed With A Camera Fellowship

From the good folks down at VCC.

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR 2011-2012
ARMED WITH A CAMERA FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship Cultivates New Generation of Asian Pacific American Filmmakers
Applications Due July 29th

LOS ANGELES - Visual Communications is now accepting applications for its10th annual Armed With a Camera Fellowship. The fellowship fosters the education, training and professional development of up-and-coming Asian Pacific American filmmakers. In doing so, it seeks to shed light on the experiences of communities traditionally underrepresented by visual media.

The fellowship is open to filmmakers under 30-years-old of Asian Pacific descent. South Asian, Southeast Asian and women filmmakers are strongly encouraged to apply. From November 2011 to March 2012 Visual Communications will provide the support and resources for ten fellows to each to create a five-minute digital video. These resources will include:

1. $500 cash grant
   
   
2. Training, workshops and mentoring from industry professionals
   
   
3. Opportunity for collaborative work with other fellows
   
   
4. Access to equipment and editing facilities
   
   
5. World premiere of completed film in the “VC Digital Posse” showcase of the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
   
   
6. All-access pass to films, panels and events of the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
   
   
7. Opportunity to network with professional filmmakers and Visual Communications staff and supporters

In the past decade, Visual Communications has supported 70 filmmakers through the fellowship. Last year’s portfolio represents a characteristic diversity of topics. One documentary traces the disappearance of a Filipino-American R&B star. Another tells the emigration story of a filmmaker’s Vietnamese father. Several narrative works explore family relationships. In one, a South Asian lesbian woman spends the Hindu New Year with her partner. In another, a Japanese woman questions her marriage to an American. Settings range from a World War II battlefield in France to a sci-fi future.

Applications are available at www.vconline.org.

The Armed with a Camera Fellowship is partially funded by the James Irvine Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the Morgan Stanley Foundation.

About Visual Communications: Founded in 1970, Visual Communications has a long and prominent history promoting intercultural understanding through the creation, presentation, preservation and support of media works by and about Asian Pacific Americans.

Please contact Daina Solomon (daina@vconline.org or 213 680-4462 ext. 30) for more information.

Rocky Rivera Goes Slick Talk

Nice.

Dia Gets Second Place In NBC's The Voice

Just caught this on a-tunes (missed the show) and wanted to post up a piece of it here:

In a tough and close results show, Dia Frampton unfortunately lost the title to the first ever season of NBC’s The Voice to veteran singer Javier Colon. It was a well deserved win for Javier but we can’t help but wish that Dia had won top honors. Needless to say, she’s had an incredible run, beating out many other singers and earning herself a world of new exposure and fans. We commend and applaud her for her efforts and hope that this experience will only strengthen her career along with her band, Meg & Dia. Don’t forget to catch her and the other top 7 competitors on tour!

Tour?

Yes - you do want tickets.

Transgender, Transsexual, Just Voting, And Is It Really A "Gripe"?

I don't know about you, but isn't a vote a vote? And as long as someone is voting does it really matter if your national identity card doesn't match what you look like now?

It's kind of like the guy at the airport who took a look at my passport and then took a look at me, and then took a look back at my passport, to which I said "That's me", and then said back:

"It was once."

Not matter.

I still got to fly.

Economy of course.

"It is the latest in a series of gripes among members of the Trans-Female Association of Thailand which groups transgenders and transsexuals known collectively as "katoeys" or "ladyboys."

We have a big problem when we use our identity cards in banks, schools, hospitals and now when we vote," said Yollada Suanyoc, president of the 2,500-strong organization.

"The picture may show a woman but it says 'mister' on the card. Or the picture may show a teenage boy and the person now looks like a woman."

Everyone in Thailand has to carry a national ID card with them at all times from the age of 15. It is renewed every seven years [...]

But Yollada said the government had been slow to accept them and accused society of grouping transgenders, transsexuals and homosexuals as one and the same when each group had its own issues.

"The government says if they change our title and sex, it's going to make society confused," she said. "The government worries that they won't know about our past."

Read it in full.

And As A LowNote

When I hear people use the word "gripe" in describing someone else - who is talking about their own marginalization - somehow - it just seems demeaning.

Vote KERO ONE

Really. Just vote.

It's Friday...

I just felt like posting that.

Among B-Boys, Travel In Spirals, Hmong Hip Hop, And Boom Bap Village

Friday, July 1st
“Among B-Boys” Movie Screening

2 p.m.
Hamline University: The Hub (in the same building where the Student Center Ballroom is located)
1536 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104
Boom Bap Village 2011

… In conjunction with…

"Boom Bap Village Breakdance Competition"

Friday, July 1st · 5pm - 10pm
Hamline University: Student Center Ballroom
1536 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104

$5 Entry Fee

Boom Bap Village is an all ages Hmong Hip Hop event that will take place on July 1st during the first day of the annual Hmong Sports tournament at Como Park in St. Paul. The name Boom Bap Village comes from how Hip Hop has uplifted refugee and immigrant communities that may have originated from villages. It reflects how Hip Hop has helped these members establish a voice, as well as a creative means of self-expression.

Saturday, July 2nd
Screening of “Among B-Boys” and “Travel in Sprials”

6 p.m.
FREE ADMISSION
Buetow Music Auditorium
Concordia University
275 Syndicate St. N.
St. Paul, MN 55104

Concordia University will be providing screenings of the following documentaries: “Among B-Boys” and “Travel in Spirals.”

Among B-boys was initially created as a short film. Director, Christopher Woon, has since turned this into an hour long feature documentary focusing on two main story lines, that of B-Boy Sukie and the Velocity/Soul Rivals and twin brothers, Bboys Mpact and Villn of Underground Flow. The documentary takes us geographically from Merced, Fresno and Sacramento in the California Central Valley, to Long Beach, California to as far as Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s a multigenerational view of the impact B-Boying has had on the Hmong American community, the contributions made by these B-Boys, and the identities they are seeking to forge. For additional information, please visit the following webpage at: http://www.amongbboys.com/.

Travel in Spirals tells the story of Hmong hip-hop MC, spoken word poet, and community organizer Tou SaiKo Lee and his journey back to his birthplace of Thailand. Born on the Nongkhai refugee camp, his parents fled Laos after the Vietnam War and came to America when Tou was two months old. Taking its title from the spirals in Hmong paj ntaub, Travel in Spirals documents Tou’s journey to the source of himself and his heritage almost 30 years after he left. For additional information, please visit the following weblink: http://www.travelinspirals.blogspot.com.

Vincent Chin. (Fort Minor Remix By Model Minority)

June 23, 2011 - the 29th anniversary of Vincent Chin's death.

A Detroit auto industry worker, Vincent Chin was beaten to death on the night before his wedding by two men. As they shouted racial slurs at him, blaming the Japanese (Chin was Chinese) for stealing American automotive jobs.

The men were later sentenced by a judge to 3 years' probation and a fine of $3000.

http://www.facebook.com/themodelminority
Video clips - "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña.
Instrumental - "Kenji", by Fort Minor.

Save That Date: 18th Annual Pistahan Parade And Festival

Yup. Never too early to start planning for August (because as you well know July is already spoken for by booze, little miniature bombs, hot dogs, and a sprinkle of nudging the drunk people making out on the blanket next to you because you realize they're actually having sex).

The largest celebration of Filipino Americans in San Francisco is back and bigger than ever featuring the return of the popular Adobo Cook-off and balut eating contests, delectable Filipino cuisine and desserts, cultural exhibits, and the 3rd annual San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival. Experience the best of Filipino art, dance, music and food at the 18th Annual Pistahan Parade and Festival on Aug. 13-14 at the Yerba Buena Gardens.The two-day event is expected to draw over 60,000 people.

The Pistahan Parade will take place Saturday Aug. 13 and features beautifully themed floats and an estimated 100 colorful and entertaining contingents. The parade will begin at Beale St., march down Market Street, make a left on 4th Street, and end on Folsom St.

To commemorate the 150th birthday of Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, this year's theme is "Celebrating Heritage and Heroes" and the Pistahan Parade and Festival will honor everyday heroes who have and continue to make a positive impact in the community.

...

About the Pistahan Parade and Festival

The Pistahan Parade and Festival was founded in 1994 and has been consistently held in the oval gardens of the Yerba Buena Center. The Filipino American Arts Exposition, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that contributes to the artistic and cultural pride of the Filipino community, organizes the annual event. http://pistahan.net/