Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. It’s pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desi’s Girl Guide to Life
I haven’t seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream women’s mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. It’s pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desi’s Girl Guide to Life
I haven’t seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream women’s mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. It’s pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desi’s Girl Guide to Life
I haven’t seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream women’s mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
I'm disturbed by the controversy around "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day". Organized in January by the University of North Texas chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT), the game was intended as a protest against laissez faire attitudes around illegal immigration, and a demand for more stringent measures. The game involved a few, white, "illegal immigrants", distinguished by their orange t-shirts reading "illegal immigrant" on the front and "catch me if u can" on the back. Passersby were encouraged -- by bullhorn -- to step up and "capture" an illegal, in game-of-tag style, for a candy bar reward. Rumor had it that the YCT chapter in Austin was planning a similar demonstration for Texas Independence Day in early March, but cancelled the event under pressure from other student groups. Despite the demonstration being cancelled, hundreds of students gathered around the YCT's non-game-playing table that day to protest and harrass the YCT members manning the table.
A mini-furor followed. A columnist in online magazine HispanicVista called the event a "prima facie use of racial slurs against students of Mexican ancestry†and the university officials who refused to proscribe such activities in the future, "fascists". He contemplated following Malcolm X's example of using "any means necessary" to stop such racist demonstrations in the future. A student leader in Austin was quoted in a Pacific News Service article as saying: “The Young Conservative demonstration ... not only made us analyze issues like immigration but also question campus politics and rules about public protests and free discourse.â€
Liberals are questioning rules about public protests and free discourse? Did I just go insane? Welcome to PATRIOT ACT America, y'all, where the inmates are guarding the asylum. Since when does freedom of speech only apply to the left?
This controversy has recalled a similar controversy last year over a YCT demonstration at Southern Methodist University. This demonstration consisted in a cupcake sale to protest campus affirmative action policies, where buyers were charged different prices according to their race. Whites were charged the most, demonstrating that whites were required to show higher qualifications than minorities to get into universities. The cupcake sale was closed down by school officials, in one of the more hypocritical moments displayed by university administrations recently. Why hypocritical? Because the cupcake sale was a riff on "feminist bake sales", a staple fundraiser in student women's organizations around the country since the days of the women's movement. The feminist bake sale charges men 100% of the price and women 70%, or whatever percent of men's salaries women are averaging for the same work. Popular variations on feminist bake sales include pricing according to the earnings of other groups as well, including racial groups. These racially and gender-based liberal bake sales are never shut down.
The purpose of such demonstrations is exactly that: to demonstrate. These activities recognize that politics consisting in words, speeches and abstract concepts have little power to move people. But give them a small--safe--taste of what the feeling of an inequity is for those who suffer it, and you may be able to arouse their interest, if not their passions. They're intended as small teaching opportunities: moments in which a principle can be taught through direct, if artificial, experience. The feminist bake sale is a small, visceral gesture in the direction of economic equity: today, at this table, those who make less will pay less. The YCT affirmative action bake sale made a small, visceral demonstration of what the protesters feel happens every day on their campus: here at this table, as everywhere else, whites pay more.
The problem with this kind of demonstration is two-fold: first of all, it is intended to engage the feelings, the passions, through experience; it demonstrates not facts, but opinions, feelings. Secondly, there is no arbiter of how people may or may not feel about certain political issues. Creative, visceral demonstrations have traditionally been a tool more of the left. From the Biotic Baking Brigade to Billionaires for Bush, our current local and national political scene is slathered with lefty political pranksters, whose underlying message is serious. But they're making fun of the actions and behaviors of the rich and powerful, something traditionally beneath their targets' notice. The YCT, which attracts members through precisely this snarky brand of prankster activism, is making fun of the poor and underprivileged, essentially kicking our society's most vulnerable while -- or because -- they're down. We feel, in our societally Dudley Dooright kinda way, that this is wrong. But is it? Isn't saucy for the donkey also saucy for the elephant?
If you break all of these demonstrations down into their component opinions they'll come out something like this:
1. feminist bake sale: women and minorities are paid less than white men. They should be paid the same as white men.
2. affirmative action cupcake sale: minorities can get into college on lower qualifications than whites. This should not be.
3. capture an illegal immigrant game: we should be more strict with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy.
You may or may not agree with any of the above statements, but would you dispute anyone's right to hold or express any of these opinions? But you know what? I don't even want to argue about freedom of speech anymore, and I'm tired of having to tell people whose politics I agree with to keep the f-word (fascist) off the airwaves, and stop trying to dog-in-the-manger the First Amendment. What I'd really really like to do is spend some quality time picking apart the enormously complex knot of issues that undocumented immigration consists of. I'd like to talk about how illegal immigrants to Texas aren't just Mexican, but also Asian, Central and South American, Arab, and white. I'd like to talk about how our immigrant communities are terribly conflicted about illegal immigration and its implications for them, socially, economically, and politically. I'd like to point out that the racism inherent in opposition to illegal immigration is hard to root out because it's not on the surface. It's buried under layers of politically legitimate conservative opposition to centralization and the social state. I'd like to talk about how liberals aren't allowed to say that uncontrolled undocumented immigration wouldn't be good for anyone, so we need to be very aware of what policies exactly we support and why. There are a bunch of things I'd like to talk about that everyone, myself included, could well have used this incident as a springboard to discussing. Instead, we're name-calling and reconsidering freedom of speech.
Guess the demonstration worked.
Posted by claire at 9:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
I'm disturbed by the controversy around "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day". Organized in January by the University of North Texas chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT), the game was intended as a protest against laissez faire attitudes around illegal immigration, and a demand for more stringent measures. The game involved a few, white, "illegal immigrants", distinguished by their orange t-shirts reading "illegal immigrant" on the front and "catch me if u can" on the back. Passersby were encouraged -- by bullhorn -- to step up and "capture" an illegal, in game-of-tag style, for a candy bar reward. Rumor had it that the YCT chapter in Austin was planning a similar demonstration for Texas Independence Day in early March, but cancelled the event under pressure from other student groups. Despite the demonstration being cancelled, hundreds of students gathered around the YCT's non-game-playing table that day to protest and harrass the YCT members manning the table.
A mini-furor followed. A columnist in online magazine HispanicVista called the event a "prima facie use of racial slurs against students of Mexican ancestry†and the university officials who refused to proscribe such activities in the future, "fascists". He contemplated following Malcolm X's example of using "any means necessary" to stop such racist demonstrations in the future. A student leader in Austin was quoted in a Pacific News Service article as saying: “The Young Conservative demonstration ... not only made us analyze issues like immigration but also question campus politics and rules about public protests and free discourse.â€
Liberals are questioning rules about public protests and free discourse? Did I just go insane? Welcome to PATRIOT ACT America, y'all, where the inmates are guarding the asylum. Since when does freedom of speech only apply to the left?
This controversy has recalled a similar controversy last year over a YCT demonstration at Southern Methodist University. This demonstration consisted in a cupcake sale to protest campus affirmative action policies, where buyers were charged different prices according to their race. Whites were charged the most, demonstrating that whites were required to show higher qualifications than minorities to get into universities. The cupcake sale was closed down by school officials, in one of the more hypocritical moments displayed by university administrations recently. Why hypocritical? Because the cupcake sale was a riff on "feminist bake sales", a staple fundraiser in student women's organizations around the country since the days of the women's movement. The feminist bake sale charges men 100% of the price and women 70%, or whatever percent of men's salaries women are averaging for the same work. Popular variations on feminist bake sales include pricing according to the earnings of other groups as well, including racial groups. These racially and gender-based liberal bake sales are never shut down.
The purpose of such demonstrations is exactly that: to demonstrate. These activities recognize that politics consisting in words, speeches and abstract concepts have little power to move people. But give them a small--safe--taste of what the feeling of an inequity is for those who suffer it, and you may be able to arouse their interest, if not their passions. They're intended as small teaching opportunities: moments in which a principle can be taught through direct, if artificial, experience. The feminist bake sale is a small, visceral gesture in the direction of economic equity: today, at this table, those who make less will pay less. The YCT affirmative action bake sale made a small, visceral demonstration of what the protesters feel happens every day on their campus: here at this table, as everywhere else, whites pay more.
The problem with this kind of demonstration is two-fold: first of all, it is intended to engage the feelings, the passions, through experience; it demonstrates not facts, but opinions, feelings. Secondly, there is no arbiter of how people may or may not feel about certain political issues. Creative, visceral demonstrations have traditionally been a tool more of the left. From the Biotic Baking Brigade to Billionaires for Bush, our current local and national political scene is slathered with lefty political pranksters, whose underlying message is serious. But they're making fun of the actions and behaviors of the rich and powerful, something traditionally beneath their targets' notice. The YCT, which attracts members through precisely this snarky brand of prankster activism, is making fun of the poor and underprivileged, essentially kicking our society's most vulnerable while -- or because -- they're down. We feel, in our societally Dudley Dooright kinda way, that this is wrong. But is it? Isn't saucy for the donkey also saucy for the elephant?
If you break all of these demonstrations down into their component opinions they'll come out something like this:
1. feminist bake sale: women and minorities are paid less than white men. They should be paid the same as white men.
2. affirmative action cupcake sale: minorities can get into college on lower qualifications than whites. This should not be.
3. capture an illegal immigrant game: we should be more strict with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy.
You may or may not agree with any of the above statements, but would you dispute anyone's right to hold or express any of these opinions? But you know what? I don't even want to argue about freedom of speech anymore, and I'm tired of having to tell people whose politics I agree with to keep the f-word (fascist) off the airwaves, and stop trying to dog-in-the-manger the First Amendment. What I'd really really like to do is spend some quality time picking apart the enormously complex knot of issues that undocumented immigration consists of. I'd like to talk about how illegal immigrants to Texas aren't just Mexican, but also Asian, Central and South American, Arab, and white. I'd like to talk about how our immigrant communities are terribly conflicted about illegal immigration and its implications for them, socially, economically, and politically. I'd like to point out that the racism inherent in opposition to illegal immigration is hard to root out because it's not on the surface. It's buried under layers of politically legitimate conservative opposition to centralization and the social state. I'd like to talk about how liberals aren't allowed to say that uncontrolled undocumented immigration wouldn't be good for anyone, so we need to be very aware of what policies exactly we support and why. There are a bunch of things I'd like to talk about that everyone, myself included, could well have used this incident as a springboard to discussing. Instead, we're name-calling and reconsidering freedom of speech.
Guess the demonstration worked.
Posted by claire at 9:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
I'm disturbed by the controversy around "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day". Organized in January by the University of North Texas chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT), the game was intended as a protest against laissez faire attitudes around illegal immigration, and a demand for more stringent measures. The game involved a few, white, "illegal immigrants", distinguished by their orange t-shirts reading "illegal immigrant" on the front and "catch me if u can" on the back. Passersby were encouraged -- by bullhorn -- to step up and "capture" an illegal, in game-of-tag style, for a candy bar reward. Rumor had it that the YCT chapter in Austin was planning a similar demonstration for Texas Independence Day in early March, but cancelled the event under pressure from other student groups. Despite the demonstration being cancelled, hundreds of students gathered around the YCT's non-game-playing table that day to protest and harrass the YCT members manning the table.
A mini-furor followed. A columnist in online magazine HispanicVista called the event a "prima facie use of racial slurs against students of Mexican ancestry” and the university officials who refused to proscribe such activities in the future, "fascists". He contemplated following Malcolm X's example of using "any means necessary" to stop such racist demonstrations in the future. A student leader in Austin was quoted in a Pacific News Service article as saying: “The Young Conservative demonstration ... not only made us analyze issues like immigration but also question campus politics and rules about public protests and free discourse.”
Liberals are questioning rules about public protests and free discourse? Did I just go insane? Welcome to PATRIOT ACT America, y'all, where the inmates are guarding the asylum. Since when does freedom of speech only apply to the left?
This controversy has recalled a similar controversy last year over a YCT demonstration at Southern Methodist University. This demonstration consisted in a cupcake sale to protest campus affirmative action policies, where buyers were charged different prices according to their race. Whites were charged the most, demonstrating that whites were required to show higher qualifications than minorities to get into universities. The cupcake sale was closed down by school officials, in one of the more hypocritical moments displayed by university administrations recently. Why hypocritical? Because the cupcake sale was a riff on "feminist bake sales", a staple fundraiser in student women's organizations around the country since the days of the women's movement. The feminist bake sale charges men 100% of the price and women 70%, or whatever percent of men's salaries women are averaging for the same work. Popular variations on feminist bake sales include pricing according to the earnings of other groups as well, including racial groups. These racially and gender-based liberal bake sales are never shut down.
The purpose of such demonstrations is exactly that: to demonstrate. These activities recognize that politics consisting in words, speeches and abstract concepts have little power to move people. But give them a small--safe--taste of what the feeling of an inequity is for those who suffer it, and you may be able to arouse their interest, if not their passions. They're intended as small teaching opportunities: moments in which a principle can be taught through direct, if artificial, experience. The feminist bake sale is a small, visceral gesture in the direction of economic equity: today, at this table, those who make less will pay less. The YCT affirmative action bake sale made a small, visceral demonstration of what the protesters feel happens every day on their campus: here at this table, as everywhere else, whites pay more.
The problem with this kind of demonstration is two-fold: first of all, it is intended to engage the feelings, the passions, through experience; it demonstrates not facts, but opinions, feelings. Secondly, there is no arbiter of how people may or may not feel about certain political issues. Creative, visceral demonstrations have traditionally been a tool more of the left. From the Biotic Baking Brigade to Billionaires for Bush, our current local and national political scene is slathered with lefty political pranksters, whose underlying message is serious. But they're making fun of the actions and behaviors of the rich and powerful, something traditionally beneath their targets' notice. The YCT, which attracts members through precisely this snarky brand of prankster activism, is making fun of the poor and underprivileged, essentially kicking our society's most vulnerable while -- or because -- they're down. We feel, in our societally Dudley Dooright kinda way, that this is wrong. But is it? Isn't saucy for the donkey also saucy for the elephant?
If you break all of these demonstrations down into their component opinions they'll come out something like this:
1. feminist bake sale: women and minorities are paid less than white men. They should be paid the same as white men.
2. affirmative action cupcake sale: minorities can get into college on lower qualifications than whites. This should not be.
3. capture an illegal immigrant game: we should be more strict with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy.
You may or may not agree with any of the above statements, but would you dispute anyone's right to hold or express any of these opinions? But you know what? I don't even want to argue about freedom of speech anymore, and I'm tired of having to tell people whose politics I agree with to keep the f-word (fascist) off the airwaves, and stop trying to dog-in-the-manger the First Amendment. What I'd really really like to do is spend some quality time picking apart the enormously complex knot of issues that undocumented immigration consists of. I'd like to talk about how illegal immigrants to Texas aren't just Mexican, but also Asian, Central and South American, Arab, and white. I'd like to talk about how our immigrant communities are terribly conflicted about illegal immigration and its implications for them, socially, economically, and politically. I'd like to point out that the racism inherent in opposition to illegal immigration is hard to root out because it's not on the surface. It's buried under layers of politically legitimate conservative opposition to centralization and the social state. I'd like to talk about how liberals aren't allowed to say that uncontrolled undocumented immigration wouldn't be good for anyone, so we need to be very aware of what policies exactly we support and why. There are a bunch of things I'd like to talk about that everyone, myself included, could well have used this incident as a springboard to discussing. Instead, we're name-calling and reconsidering freedom of speech.
Guess the demonstration worked.
Posted by claire at 9:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Saw Michael Kang's The Motel last night at SFIAAFF's closing night. A coming of age tale about a chubby 13-year-old boy who helps run his family's seedy motel. And he hates it.
Also enjoyed this one a lot. As an audience member pointed out during the Q&A, there are a lot of stereotypes in this film -- dorky Asian boy who can't get the Asian girl, stern Chinese mom, hard-drinking Korean man -- but none of the characters came across as stereotypical.
Someone asked me which one I liked better, The Motel or Saving Face. That's like asking which of your children you like better. I enjoyed them both, but they are such different films, how do you even compare?
If you missed any film this past week, the festival continues this weekend in San Jose.
For those of you not in the Bay Area, Saving Face will be showing in cities across the country this summer. Possibly The Motel too, though nothing's official yet.
Posted by Melissa at 3:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saw Michael Kang's The Motel last night at SFIAAFF's closing night. A coming of age tale about a chubby 13-year-old boy who helps run his family's seedy motel. And he hates it.
Also enjoyed this one a lot. As an audience member pointed out during the Q&A, there are a lot of stereotypes in this film -- dorky Asian boy who can't get the Asian girl, stern Chinese mom, hard-drinking Korean man -- but none of the characters came across as stereotypical.
Someone asked me which one I liked better, The Motel or Saving Face. That's like asking which of your children you like better. I enjoyed them both, but they are such different films, how do you even compare?
If you missed any film this past week, the festival continues this weekend in San Jose.
For those of you not in the Bay Area, Saving Face will be showing in cities across the country this summer. Possibly The Motel too, though nothing's official yet.
Posted by Melissa at 3:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saw Michael Kang's The Motel last night at SFIAAFF's closing night. A coming of age tale about a chubby 13-year-old boy who helps run his family's seedy motel. And he hates it.
Also enjoyed this one a lot. As an audience member pointed out during the Q&A, there are a lot of stereotypes in this film -- dorky Asian boy who can't get the Asian girl, stern Chinese mom, hard-drinking Korean man -- but none of the characters came across as stereotypical.
Someone asked me which one I liked better, The Motel or Saving Face. That's like asking which of your children you like better. I enjoyed them both, but they are such different films, how do you even compare?
If you missed any film this past week, the festival continues this weekend in San Jose.
For those of you not in the Bay Area, Saving Face will be showing in cities across the country this summer. Possibly The Motel too, though nothing's official yet.
Posted by Melissa at 3:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Everyone's a critic this week! My turn to weigh in on films I saw this weekend.
On Thursday, I Saw Saving Face which was really enjoyable, though perhaps a little too cute. Her hotness, Joan Chen, plays a widowed and pregnant middle-aged mom who refuses to name the father of her baby. She moves in with her surgeon daughter, who is hiding a secret of her own – she hasn’t come out to her family. Mom is ostracized from the Chinese community and her own family and sits in her daughter’s apartment watching Chinese soaps while she’s off at work. It had some really funny moment, some good lines: "One billion Chinese people. Two degrees of separation." And it's quite an accomplishment for being Alice Wu's first feature film. The movie was billed as the first Asian American lesbian feature-length film. Is this true? I can't believe there hasn't been another one. Maybe it's the first lesbian romantic comedy starring Asian Americans.
On Friday, I saw the much anticipated Grace Lee Project, which I also recommend. The director, Grace Lee, goes in search of other Grace Lees, to find out who Grace Lee is and why so many Korean Americans are named Grace Lee. Grace Lee (in general) appears at first to be the stereotypical Asian American woman – quiet, studious, nice, overachieving, but forgettable. Grace interviews a bunch of other Graces. I enjoyed the journey that the film took us on. It didn't seem to be going in any particular direction, other than the director’s growing appreciation for other Grace Lees, but who cares. It was a fun ride.
Then I saw IQU at Cafe Du Norde. I had seen the band once before, about 7 years ago when I lived in Olympia. I was glad to see they were just as good, maybe even better. And they were awfully cute. It’s been 4 years since they put an album out, and we’ll review the new one, Sun Q, and talk to them too in the next issue of Hyphen.
Saturday, I saw a collection of shorts called Fishbowls and Silent Years named after two of the films. Most of the films shared a quiet, sad quality about them. With the exception of the last film, Fishbowls, the films had very little dialogue. There was a not a bad film in the bunch. Standouts include: Sejong Park's animation Birthday Boy, set during the Korean war, about a little boy pretending to be a solider. Running in Tall Grasses by Howard Duy Vu is also about a little boy during war time, who doesn't understand why his father has been out of the picture. Fishbowls by Kayo Hatta was actually funny, which set it apart tone-wise from the other films in the program, but it adhered to the common theme of that night’s program: isolation.
I also saw Slow Jam King (pictured above) Saturday night. How in the world Steven Mallorca (who wrote, directed, produced, hell he event acted) makes a cohesive story involving a wannabe Filipino American thug, a black father and husband, and a white country singer/perfume salesman is really quite mind boggling. The script was excellent. But it actually took a while for the film to grow on me. I think it needed to be edited some more. Could have been about half an hour shorter.
I had tickets for Chinese Restaurants on Sunday, but didn’t go so that I could work on Hyphen instead. (Damn you, Hyphen!) I’ve heard from several people that it’s really good though. Tonight I’ll be back at the Kabuki theater for another shorts screening…
Posted by Melissa at 1:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Everyone's a critic this week! My turn to weigh in on films I saw this weekend.
On Thursday, I Saw Saving Face which was really enjoyable, though perhaps a little too cute. Her hotness, Joan Chen, plays a widowed and pregnant middle-aged mom who refuses to name the father of her baby. She moves in with her surgeon daughter, who is hiding a secret of her own – she hasn’t come out to her family. Mom is ostracized from the Chinese community and her own family and sits in her daughter’s apartment watching Chinese soaps while she’s off at work. It had some really funny moment, some good lines: "One billion Chinese people. Two degrees of separation." And it's quite an accomplishment for being Alice Wu's first feature film. The movie was billed as the first Asian American lesbian feature-length film. Is this true? I can't believe there hasn't been another one. Maybe it's the first lesbian romantic comedy starring Asian Americans.
On Friday, I saw the much anticipated Grace Lee Project, which I also recommend. The director, Grace Lee, goes in search of other Grace Lees, to find out who Grace Lee is and why so many Korean Americans are named Grace Lee. Grace Lee (in general) appears at first to be the stereotypical Asian American woman – quiet, studious, nice, overachieving, but forgettable. Grace interviews a bunch of other Graces. I enjoyed the journey that the film took us on. It didn't seem to be going in any particular direction, other than the director’s growing appreciation for other Grace Lees, but who cares. It was a fun ride.
Then I saw IQU at Cafe Du Norde. I had seen the band once before, about 7 years ago when I lived in Olympia. I was glad to see they were just as good, maybe even better. And they were awfully cute. It’s been 4 years since they put an album out, and we’ll review the new one, Sun Q, and talk to them too in the next issue of Hyphen.
Saturday, I saw a collection of shorts called Fishbowls and Silent Years named after two of the films. Most of the films shared a quiet, sad quality about them. With the exception of the last film, Fishbowls, the films had very little dialogue. There was a not a bad film in the bunch. Standouts include: Sejong Park's animation Birthday Boy, set during the Korean war, about a little boy pretending to be a solider. Running in Tall Grasses by Howard Duy Vu is also about a little boy during war time, who doesn't understand why his father has been out of the picture. Fishbowls by Kayo Hatta was actually funny, which set it apart tone-wise from the other films in the program, but it adhered to the common theme of that night’s program: isolation.
I also saw Slow Jam King (pictured above) Saturday night. How in the world Steven Mallorca (who wrote, directed, produced, hell he event acted) makes a cohesive story involving a wannabe Filipino American thug, a black father and husband, and a white country singer/perfume salesman is really quite mind boggling. The script was excellent. But it actually took a while for the film to grow on me. I think it needed to be edited some more. Could have been about half an hour shorter.
I had tickets for Chinese Restaurants on Sunday, but didn’t go so that I could work on Hyphen instead. (Damn you, Hyphen!) I’ve heard from several people that it’s really good though. Tonight I’ll be back at the Kabuki theater for another shorts screening…
Posted by Melissa at 1:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Everyone's a critic this week! My turn to weigh in on films I saw this weekend.
On Thursday, I Saw Saving Face which was really enjoyable, though perhaps a little too cute. Her hotness, Joan Chen, plays a widowed and pregnant middle-aged mom who refuses to name the father of her baby. She moves in with her surgeon daughter, who is hiding a secret of her own – she hasn’t come out to her family. Mom is ostracized from the Chinese community and her own family and sits in her daughter’s apartment watching Chinese soaps while she’s off at work. It had some really funny moment, some good lines: "One billion Chinese people. Two degrees of separation." And it's quite an accomplishment for being Alice Wu's first feature film. The movie was billed as the first Asian American lesbian feature-length film. Is this true? I can't believe there hasn't been another one. Maybe it's the first lesbian romantic comedy starring Asian Americans.
On Friday, I saw the much anticipated Grace Lee Project, which I also recommend. The director, Grace Lee, goes in search of other Grace Lees, to find out who Grace Lee is and why so many Korean Americans are named Grace Lee. Grace Lee (in general) appears at first to be the stereotypical Asian American woman – quiet, studious, nice, overachieving, but forgettable. Grace interviews a bunch of other Graces. I enjoyed the journey that the film took us on. It didn't seem to be going in any particular direction, other than the director’s growing appreciation for other Grace Lees, but who cares. It was a fun ride.
Then I saw IQU at Cafe Du Norde. I had seen the band once before, about 7 years ago when I lived in Olympia. I was glad to see they were just as good, maybe even better. And they were awfully cute. It’s been 4 years since they put an album out, and we’ll review the new one, Sun Q, and talk to them too in the next issue of Hyphen.
Saturday, I saw a collection of shorts called Fishbowls and Silent Years named after two of the films. Most of the films shared a quiet, sad quality about them. With the exception of the last film, Fishbowls, the films had very little dialogue. There was a not a bad film in the bunch. Standouts include: Sejong Park's animation Birthday Boy, set during the Korean war, about a little boy pretending to be a solider. Running in Tall Grasses by Howard Duy Vu is also about a little boy during war time, who doesn't understand why his father has been out of the picture. Fishbowls by Kayo Hatta was actually funny, which set it apart tone-wise from the other films in the program, but it adhered to the common theme of that night’s program: isolation.
I also saw Slow Jam King (pictured above) Saturday night. How in the world Steven Mallorca (who wrote, directed, produced, hell he event acted) makes a cohesive story involving a wannabe Filipino American thug, a black father and husband, and a white country singer/perfume salesman is really quite mind boggling. The script was excellent. But it actually took a while for the film to grow on me. I think it needed to be edited some more. Could have been about half an hour shorter.
I had tickets for Chinese Restaurants on Sunday, but didn’t go so that I could work on Hyphen instead. (Damn you, Hyphen!) I’ve heard from several people that it’s really good though. Tonight I’ll be back at the Kabuki theater for another shorts screening…
Posted by Melissa at 1:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
In my six years of going to the San Francisco Asian American film fest, I've developed some bad habits. The first is not buying tickets until the day before the fest starts, even though I'm always a member and get discounts and preorder opportunities. Every year I promise myself that this will be the year that I'll actually get tickets to opening and closing night, and every year I have to hang my head in shame as the box office staffer looks at me incredulously and says, "It sold out weeks ago!"
My second bad habit is a left over from my eighties-era teenaged contrarianism. I have a terrible tendency not to want to see the movies that everybody else wants to see. If I hear a warning that a movie will sell out, I will deliberately not get tickets to it. Let the fashion victims see the popular movies! I'm going there to find diamonds in the rough. hmmmph! As a result I only end up seeing two or three lukewarm movies and leaving slightly dissatisfied.
This year, determined, despite my capitulation to my usual habits, to get the most out of my film fest experience, I bought tickets to see at least one film every day of the festival, to try to overwhelm bad luck and bad habits by sheer magnitude. So far, the results haven't been encouraging.
Friday's temptation, Pink Ludoos, was a cliché-ridden mess whose high drama moments were mostly howlers. By the end of the film, the audience had relaxed and was just treating this South Asian magical realist melodrama as a comedy--it was much more comfortable that way. Aside from a poor script, clunky directing, and smoke-signals acting, I was kinda offended (or at least, intelligence-insulted) by the fact that the culturally enlightened (read: westernized) heroine and hero and spiritual advisor were light-skinned, while the more tradition-bound characters busy holding everyone back were distinctly dark-skinned. Maybe I'm being too hard on an indie flick ... naaaah. It was pretty bad.
Well, so much for the Asian American (or Canadian) narrative flick. I had greater hopes for the documentary I was to see on Saturday, I Was Born, But ..., something of a personal essay around punk rock, the underground scene, Joey Ramone's death, and Seam concert footage. The director of this piece was certainly far more ambitious and sophisticated than that of Pink Ludoos, however, not much more successful. Shots and editing that were meant to be meditative were just excruciatingly slow: why hold a static shot for thirty seconds when ten will have the desired effect without the undesired effect of putting the audience to sleep? The pace was glacial. Speaking of which, I couldn't tell if the Seam concert footage was so incredibly poorly lighted because Seam shows--which I've never seen--are poorly lighted, or because the director didn't know how to light a concert scene, or because he thought it would be cool to make the audience wade through an unedited song's length of murky. I fell asleep. Twice. Worst of all, though, was the fact that this personal essay obsessed on the personal and forgot the essay part: i.e. gave us an undigested sampling of essentially meaningless personal anecdotes, without opening these up to broader connections with the world, the era, the times, the ethos ... ya know, the good stuff. I might have been too hasty, though, in walking out of the theater after an hour. Perhaps all these faults were mitigated by the genius of the last half hour. But if so, the director lost me before he could make his case, and that's a fault you can't recover from.
This afternoon things started lookin' up, though. Even though it sold out, and everyone on the Hyphen staff seemed interested in seeing it, I still gritted my teeth and went to see the popular Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents, a documentary about three Chinese restaurants in Madagascar, Norway, and Canada (which opened with two shorts on Chinese restaurants in England and the States). Chinese Restaurants confirmed my previous experience that documentaries are the best things at the SFIAAFF; full of fascinating historical background, sharp characters, and a great deal of graceful filmic narrative (ya know, the kind that lets gesture, voice and angle speak instead of voice over). I left that theater satisfied and hungry for more. Chinese Restaurants is playing again at the Kabuki on Thursday at 7:15. I definitely recommend it.
So what's the lesson here? Well, for one, buzz has to come from somewhere; it can't hurt to listen to it a little. I'm not saying that you (or I) shouldn't take a chance on an obscure or unpopular film or director. Just go prepared, and leaven the schedule with a heavy dose of the tried and true.
And buy your tickets ahead of time.
Posted by claire at 6:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
In my six years of going to the San Francisco Asian American film fest, I've developed some bad habits. The first is not buying tickets until the day before the fest starts, even though I'm always a member and get discounts and preorder opportunities. Every year I promise myself that this will be the year that I'll actually get tickets to opening and closing night, and every year I have to hang my head in shame as the box office staffer looks at me incredulously and says, "It sold out weeks ago!"
My second bad habit is a left over from my eighties-era teenaged contrarianism. I have a terrible tendency not to want to see the movies that everybody else wants to see. If I hear a warning that a movie will sell out, I will deliberately not get tickets to it. Let the fashion victims see the popular movies! I'm going there to find diamonds in the rough. hmmmph! As a result I only end up seeing two or three lukewarm movies and leaving slightly dissatisfied.
This year, determined, despite my capitulation to my usual habits, to get the most out of my film fest experience, I bought tickets to see at least one film every day of the festival, to try to overwhelm bad luck and bad habits by sheer magnitude. So far, the results haven't been encouraging.
Friday's temptation, Pink Ludoos, was a cliché-ridden mess whose high drama moments were mostly howlers. By the end of the film, the audience had relaxed and was just treating this South Asian magical realist melodrama as a comedy--it was much more comfortable that way. Aside from a poor script, clunky directing, and smoke-signals acting, I was kinda offended (or at least, intelligence-insulted) by the fact that the culturally enlightened (read: westernized) heroine and hero and spiritual advisor were light-skinned, while the more tradition-bound characters busy holding everyone back were distinctly dark-skinned. Maybe I'm being too hard on an indie flick ... naaaah. It was pretty bad.
Well, so much for the Asian American (or Canadian) narrative flick. I had greater hopes for the documentary I was to see on Saturday, I Was Born, But ..., something of a personal essay around punk rock, the underground scene, Joey Ramone's death, and Seam concert footage. The director of this piece was certainly far more ambitious and sophisticated than that of Pink Ludoos, however, not much more successful. Shots and editing that were meant to be meditative were just excruciatingly slow: why hold a static shot for thirty seconds when ten will have the desired effect without the undesired effect of putting the audience to sleep? The pace was glacial. Speaking of which, I couldn't tell if the Seam concert footage was so incredibly poorly lighted because Seam shows--which I've never seen--are poorly lighted, or because the director didn't know how to light a concert scene, or because he thought it would be cool to make the audience wade through an unedited song's length of murky. I fell asleep. Twice. Worst of all, though, was the fact that this personal essay obsessed on the personal and forgot the essay part: i.e. gave us an undigested sampling of essentially meaningless personal anecdotes, without opening these up to broader connections with the world, the era, the times, the ethos ... ya know, the good stuff. I might have been too hasty, though, in walking out of the theater after an hour. Perhaps all these faults were mitigated by the genius of the last half hour. But if so, the director lost me before he could make his case, and that's a fault you can't recover from.
This afternoon things started lookin' up, though. Even though it sold out, and everyone on the Hyphen staff seemed interested in seeing it, I still gritted my teeth and went to see the popular Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents, a documentary about three Chinese restaurants in Madagascar, Norway, and Canada (which opened with two shorts on Chinese restaurants in England and the States). Chinese Restaurants confirmed my previous experience that documentaries are the best things at the SFIAAFF; full of fascinating historical background, sharp characters, and a great deal of graceful filmic narrative (ya know, the kind that lets gesture, voice and angle speak instead of voice over). I left that theater satisfied and hungry for more. Chinese Restaurants is playing again at the Kabuki on Thursday at 7:15. I definitely recommend it.
So what's the lesson here? Well, for one, buzz has to come from somewhere; it can't hurt to listen to it a little. I'm not saying that you (or I) shouldn't take a chance on an obscure or unpopular film or director. Just go prepared, and leaven the schedule with a heavy dose of the tried and true.
And buy your tickets ahead of time.
Posted by claire at 6:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
In my six years of going to the San Francisco Asian American film fest, I've developed some bad habits. The first is not buying tickets until the day before the fest starts, even though I'm always a member and get discounts and preorder opportunities. Every year I promise myself that this will be the year that I'll actually get tickets to opening and closing night, and every year I have to hang my head in shame as the box office staffer looks at me incredulously and says, "It sold out weeks ago!"
My second bad habit is a left over from my eighties-era teenaged contrarianism. I have a terrible tendency not to want to see the movies that everybody else wants to see. If I hear a warning that a movie will sell out, I will deliberately not get tickets to it. Let the fashion victims see the popular movies! I'm going there to find diamonds in the rough. hmmmph! As a result I only end up seeing two or three lukewarm movies and leaving slightly dissatisfied.
This year, determined, despite my capitulation to my usual habits, to get the most out of my film fest experience, I bought tickets to see at least one film every day of the festival, to try to overwhelm bad luck and bad habits by sheer magnitude. So far, the results haven't been encouraging.
Friday's temptation, Pink Ludoos, was a cliché-ridden mess whose high drama moments were mostly howlers. By the end of the film, the audience had relaxed and was just treating this South Asian magical realist melodrama as a comedy--it was much more comfortable that way. Aside from a poor script, clunky directing, and smoke-signals acting, I was kinda offended (or at least, intelligence-insulted) by the fact that the culturally enlightened (read: westernized) heroine and hero and spiritual advisor were light-skinned, while the more tradition-bound characters busy holding everyone back were distinctly dark-skinned. Maybe I'm being too hard on an indie flick ... naaaah. It was pretty bad.
Well, so much for the Asian American (or Canadian) narrative flick. I had greater hopes for the documentary I was to see on Saturday, I Was Born, But ..., something of a personal essay around punk rock, the underground scene, Joey Ramone's death, and Seam concert footage. The director of this piece was certainly far more ambitious and sophisticated than that of Pink Ludoos, however, not much more successful. Shots and editing that were meant to be meditative were just excruciatingly slow: why hold a static shot for thirty seconds when ten will have the desired effect without the undesired effect of putting the audience to sleep? The pace was glacial. Speaking of which, I couldn't tell if the Seam concert footage was so incredibly poorly lighted because Seam shows--which I've never seen--are poorly lighted, or because the director didn't know how to light a concert scene, or because he thought it would be cool to make the audience wade through an unedited song's length of murky. I fell asleep. Twice. Worst of all, though, was the fact that this personal essay obsessed on the personal and forgot the essay part: i.e. gave us an undigested sampling of essentially meaningless personal anecdotes, without opening these up to broader connections with the world, the era, the times, the ethos ... ya know, the good stuff. I might have been too hasty, though, in walking out of the theater after an hour. Perhaps all these faults were mitigated by the genius of the last half hour. But if so, the director lost me before he could make his case, and that's a fault you can't recover from.
This afternoon things started lookin' up, though. Even though it sold out, and everyone on the Hyphen staff seemed interested in seeing it, I still gritted my teeth and went to see the popular Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents, a documentary about three Chinese restaurants in Madagascar, Norway, and Canada (which opened with two shorts on Chinese restaurants in England and the States). Chinese Restaurants confirmed my previous experience that documentaries are the best things at the SFIAAFF; full of fascinating historical background, sharp characters, and a great deal of graceful filmic narrative (ya know, the kind that lets gesture, voice and angle speak instead of voice over). I left that theater satisfied and hungry for more. Chinese Restaurants is playing again at the Kabuki on Thursday at 7:15. I definitely recommend it.
So what's the lesson here? Well, for one, buzz has to come from somewhere; it can't hurt to listen to it a little. I'm not saying that you (or I) shouldn't take a chance on an obscure or unpopular film or director. Just go prepared, and leaven the schedule with a heavy dose of the tried and true.
And buy your tickets ahead of time.
Posted by claire at 6:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Little did I know that I am actually Korean and Japanese. Yes: according to Face Analyzer, which “analyzes†a photo of you to ever-so-scientifically determine your real race, I am a mind-boggling 90 percent Korean/Japanese, news I am sure will stun my Chinese Filipino parents.
In addition to the weirdo race calculations, the Analyzer has deemed me Average Intelligence (oh well), Average Ambition, Average Politeness, and Very Low Gay Factor, among other things. The white collar versus blue collar stereotypes are super lame (and what does Gay Factor really mean?), but I’m determined to upload more pictures until I can finesse that hidden and magical combination of races that will explain my true origins.
Perhaps more enjoyable is the wonderful Face Transformer, a java tool which allows you to transform your face into you as a child, as an elderly person, as a manga cartoon, as a chimp (SCARY), as a member of a different race or gender. My “masculine†doppelganger might hypothetically resemble the long-lost cross-dressing sibling I never had, while my African American self was kinda cute.
Click here to see me as a white girl with swirly skin. Eek!
Posted by Lisa at 2:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Little did I know that I am actually Korean and Japanese. Yes: according to Face Analyzer, which “analyzes†a photo of you to ever-so-scientifically determine your real race, I am a mind-boggling 90 percent Korean/Japanese, news I am sure will stun my Chinese Filipino parents.
In addition to the weirdo race calculations, the Analyzer has deemed me Average Intelligence (oh well), Average Ambition, Average Politeness, and Very Low Gay Factor, among other things. The white collar versus blue collar stereotypes are super lame (and what does Gay Factor really mean?), but I’m determined to upload more pictures until I can finesse that hidden and magical combination of races that will explain my true origins.
Perhaps more enjoyable is the wonderful Face Transformer, a java tool which allows you to transform your face into you as a child, as an elderly person, as a manga cartoon, as a chimp (SCARY), as a member of a different race or gender. My “masculine†doppelganger might hypothetically resemble the long-lost cross-dressing sibling I never had, while my African American self was kinda cute.
Click here to see me as a white girl with swirly skin. Eek!
Posted by Lisa at 2:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Little did I know that I am actually Korean and Japanese. Yes: according to Face Analyzer, which “analyzes” a photo of you to ever-so-scientifically determine your real race, I am a mind-boggling 90 percent Korean/Japanese, news I am sure will stun my Chinese Filipino parents.
In addition to the weirdo race calculations, the Analyzer has deemed me Average Intelligence (oh well), Average Ambition, Average Politeness, and Very Low Gay Factor, among other things. The white collar versus blue collar stereotypes are super lame (and what does Gay Factor really mean?), but I’m determined to upload more pictures until I can finesse that hidden and magical combination of races that will explain my true origins.
Perhaps more enjoyable is the wonderful Face Transformer, a java tool which allows you to transform your face into you as a child, as an elderly person, as a manga cartoon, as a chimp (SCARY), as a member of a different race or gender. My “masculine” doppelganger might hypothetically resemble the long-lost cross-dressing sibling I never had, while my African American self was kinda cute.
Click here to see me as a white girl with swirly skin. Eek!
Posted by Lisa at 2:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Earlier this week we had our cover shoot for issue 6. In a tattoo shop. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but I think it will be one of our best covers yet.
Tonight the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival kicks off. Several Hyphen staffers will be seeing the opening night film, Saving Face (pictured above) and attending the gala where Dan The Automator will be entertaining.
The SFIAAFF is one of the oldest and most prestigious Asian American film fests in the country. And this is one of the first times, in my memory at least, that the opening and closing night films are both made by Asian American directors. In years past, the opening night films have been foreign. Last year it was Hero. The year before it was Bend it Like Beckham.
Why is that? Is it because there just aren't enough Asian American films out there? Or is it because Asian films draw in more of an audience than Asian American films? Most Asian American film festivals in this country actually program both American and foreign films. The exception is Chicago's Asian American Showcase, which, being politically minded, decided from the beginning to only program Asian American film. And perhaps the occasional Canadian film. To the general public, there is probably no difference in Asian and Asian American films. They just see Asian faces and think we're all the same. But the stories we have to tell are very different.
I think this year's SFIAAFF signifies that Asian American directors are finally coming into their own. I have high hopes for both Saving Face, by Alice Wu and The Motel by Michael Kang. I’ve shown the student work of both directors at my own Asian American shorts festival in Houston (called Slant) and Wu’s Trick or Treat and Kang’s A Waiter Tomorrow are among some of my favorite short films.
Anyhow, hope to see you at SFIAAFF tonight!
Posted by Melissa at 3:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Earlier this week we had our cover shoot for issue 6. In a tattoo shop. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but I think it will be one of our best covers yet.
Tonight the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival kicks off. Several Hyphen staffers will be seeing the opening night film, Saving Face (pictured above) and attending the gala where Dan The Automator will be entertaining.
The SFIAAFF is one of the oldest and most prestigious Asian American film fests in the country. And this is one of the first times, in my memory at least, that the opening and closing night films are both made by Asian American directors. In years past, the opening night films have been foreign. Last year it was Hero. The year before it was Bend it Like Beckham.
Why is that? Is it because there just aren't enough Asian American films out there? Or is it because Asian films draw in more of an audience than Asian American films? Most Asian American film festivals in this country actually program both American and foreign films. The exception is Chicago's Asian American Showcase, which, being politically minded, decided from the beginning to only program Asian American film. And perhaps the occasional Canadian film. To the general public, there is probably no difference in Asian and Asian American films. They just see Asian faces and think we're all the same. But the stories we have to tell are very different.
I think this year's SFIAAFF signifies that Asian American directors are finally coming into their own. I have high hopes for both Saving Face, by Alice Wu and The Motel by Michael Kang. I’ve shown the student work of both directors at my own Asian American shorts festival in Houston (called Slant) and Wu’s Trick or Treat and Kang’s A Waiter Tomorrow are among some of my favorite short films.
Anyhow, hope to see you at SFIAAFF tonight!
Posted by Melissa at 3:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Earlier this week we had our cover shoot for issue 6. In a tattoo shop. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but I think it will be one of our best covers yet.
Tonight the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival kicks off. Several Hyphen staffers will be seeing the opening night film, Saving Face (pictured above) and attending the gala where Dan The Automator will be entertaining.
The SFIAAFF is one of the oldest and most prestigious Asian American film fests in the country. And this is one of the first times, in my memory at least, that the opening and closing night films are both made by Asian American directors. In years past, the opening night films have been foreign. Last year it was Hero. The year before it was Bend it Like Beckham.
Why is that? Is it because there just aren't enough Asian American films out there? Or is it because Asian films draw in more of an audience than Asian American films? Most Asian American film festivals in this country actually program both American and foreign films. The exception is Chicago's Asian American Showcase, which, being politically minded, decided from the beginning to only program Asian American film. And perhaps the occasional Canadian film. To the general public, there is probably no difference in Asian and Asian American films. They just see Asian faces and think we're all the same. But the stories we have to tell are very different.
I think this year's SFIAAFF signifies that Asian American directors are finally coming into their own. I have high hopes for both Saving Face, by Alice Wu and The Motel by Michael Kang. I’ve shown the student work of both directors at my own Asian American shorts festival in Houston (called Slant) and Wu’s Trick or Treat and Kang’s A Waiter Tomorrow are among some of my favorite short films.
Anyhow, hope to see you at SFIAAFF tonight!
Posted by Melissa at 3:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Hey Everybody! Asian Americans now have their own Lorena Bobbitt! (read article 1, below)
Initially, my first read of the story immediately raised some questions:
How did they find the penis in the sewer? That takes some dedication from the municipal utilities workers. (And hey, how do they know they found the right one?)
And how is the appendage doing now that it's reattached? I mean, how healthy is that? not to mention, would it still be, you know, alive?
But then, upon further research (read article 2) I have even more questions.
What on earth is this woman thinking, having an affair with her uncle? Is she just plain old crazy?
And, is it really true that there have been Kim Trans before who've cut off their man's member?
So a quick google search yields stories of Kim Trans --though who knows if they're true. Maybe this is the latest urban legend: watch out for women named Kim Tran!
This one, a Canadian mother of six, did the deed with a meat cleaver after she discovered his affair with a younger woman. And guess what! It says she flushed it down the toilet too!
The second one, in Australia, is only referenced in more recent stories--can't find independent verification, even in the newspaper databases. So who knows how much of this is a bunch of hooey?
I could try to say something deep and meaningful about this, but i'll let the stories speak for themselves. At least two Kim Trans cut off their man's penis. Nuff said.
Article 1
Alaska Woman Charged in Genital Amputation
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
(02-23) 10:13 PST Anchorage, Alaska (AP) --
A woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police said. Utility workers recovered the severed organ Sunday and surgeons reattached it.
Kim Tran, 35, was charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She was jailed at the Anchorage Jail with no bail set.
Police spokeswoman Anita Shell said the injury to the 44-year-old man was "brutal, brutal."
At arraignment Sunday afternoon, Tran requested a Vietnamese interpreter. Magistrate Brian Johnson continued the arraignment until Monday with no bail set.
The couple was arguing Saturday because the man, whose name was not released, wanted to end the year-old relationship, Shell said. The pair decided to have sex, and the man agreed to have his arms tied to a window handle above their bed. The woman pulled out a kitchen knife and severed his penis, police said.
After flushing the organ down the toilet, she drove the man to the hospital and helped him to a nurses' station, Shell said. Police, summoned by a hospital worker, found Tran at the couple's home cleaning up the blood, Shell said.
Water utility workers retrieved the penis, and police said surgery to reattach it was successful.
Shell said investigators gave no indication in their report whether Tran showed any remorse in driving the victim to the hospital. "She decided to just go home at that point," Shell said.
Article 2
Monday, February 21, 2005 - by Angela Unruh
Anchorage, Alaska - A woman is in jail and a man is recovering at Providence Alaska Medical Center after a Saturday night attack in which the woman is accused of severing the man’s penis. A love triangle involving the accused attacker, her aunt and the aunt’s husband appears to be the motive behind the brutal assault.
Kim Tran, 35, told police she had been having an affair with her uncle
for about a year. His refusal to leave his wife apparently provoked the attack during which he was mutilated.
"The law says that you cannot have sexual contact with another person,
in this case hand-to-penis contact, without the consent of the other person," said Judge Brian Johnson.
Tran appeared in court and was charged with first-degree assault, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree sexual assault. Police say it all started in South Anchorage, at 7925 Moose Run Circle.
Charging documents say Tran and her 44-year-old uncle got into an argument Saturday night at Tran's home because he wanted out of the relationship. Those documents say Tran asked her uncle to leave his wife, and that's when he told Tran that he was only interested in having sex with her.
Tran told police they then started to "fool around" and she tied up her uncle to a window handle above her bed. "At that point, she pulled a knife on the man and severed his penis," said Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell.
Police say that after the attack Tran rushed her uncle to Providence Alaska Medical Center, but not before flushing his penis down the toilet.
"Officials from the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility were able to come out to the home," Shell said. "They pulled the toilet from its base and tipped it over into the bathtub and were able to recover the man's body part, and police officers then brought it into the hospital for re-attachment."
Once at the hospital, police say Tran told hospital staff she was going to park the car, but instead she drove home. Police say they found Tran at her home, cleaning up the crime scene.
Today, a car with blood stains on the passenger door sat in Tran's driveway. At Providence hospital, doctors reportedly were successful at reattaching the man’s penis, but his condition remained unknown Monday night.
Tran remains at the Anchorage Jail until her bail hearing Tuesday. She faces up to 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines.
Charging documents say that, after Tran tied up her uncle, she tried to talk about their relationship. The documents say she wanted her uncle to marry her and have children with her.
Police say the uncle told Tran he couldn't have children because he was too old and had had a vasectomy. The documents say Tran felt used and angry and that's when she pulled out the knife.
The best known similar case occurred in 1993, involving John and Lorena Bobbett. Police say such attacks are not that uncommon. In researching this story, we found two other cases of women named Kim Tran who were accused of the same crime, and a third case of a woman with the last name of Tran. These cases occurred in 1996, ’97 and ’98, but are apparently not related to this latest incident.
Posted by jennifer at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Hey Everybody! Asian Americans now have their own Lorena Bobbitt! (read article 1, below)
Initially, my first read of the story immediately raised some questions:
How did they find the penis in the sewer? That takes some dedication from the municipal utilities workers. (And hey, how do they know they found the right one?)
And how is the appendage doing now that it's reattached? I mean, how healthy is that? not to mention, would it still be, you know, alive?
But then, upon further research (read article 2) I have even more questions.
What on earth is this woman thinking, having an affair with her uncle? Is she just plain old crazy?
And, is it really true that there have been Kim Trans before who've cut off their man's member?
So a quick google search yields stories of Kim Trans --though who knows if they're true. Maybe this is the latest urban legend: watch out for women named Kim Tran!
This one, a Canadian mother of six, did the deed with a meat cleaver after she discovered his affair with a younger woman. And guess what! It says she flushed it down the toilet too!
The second one, in Australia, is only referenced in more recent stories--can't find independent verification, even in the newspaper databases. So who knows how much of this is a bunch of hooey?
I could try to say something deep and meaningful about this, but i'll let the stories speak for themselves. At least two Kim Trans cut off their man's penis. Nuff said.
Article 1
Alaska Woman Charged in Genital Amputation
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
(02-23) 10:13 PST Anchorage, Alaska (AP) --
A woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police said. Utility workers recovered the severed organ Sunday and surgeons reattached it.
Kim Tran, 35, was charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She was jailed at the Anchorage Jail with no bail set.
Police spokeswoman Anita Shell said the injury to the 44-year-old man was "brutal, brutal."
At arraignment Sunday afternoon, Tran requested a Vietnamese interpreter. Magistrate Brian Johnson continued the arraignment until Monday with no bail set.
The couple was arguing Saturday because the man, whose name was not released, wanted to end the year-old relationship, Shell said. The pair decided to have sex, and the man agreed to have his arms tied to a window handle above their bed. The woman pulled out a kitchen knife and severed his penis, police said.
After flushing the organ down the toilet, she drove the man to the hospital and helped him to a nurses' station, Shell said. Police, summoned by a hospital worker, found Tran at the couple's home cleaning up the blood, Shell said.
Water utility workers retrieved the penis, and police said surgery to reattach it was successful.
Shell said investigators gave no indication in their report whether Tran showed any remorse in driving the victim to the hospital. "She decided to just go home at that point," Shell said.
Article 2
Monday, February 21, 2005 - by Angela Unruh
Anchorage, Alaska - A woman is in jail and a man is recovering at Providence Alaska Medical Center after a Saturday night attack in which the woman is accused of severing the man’s penis. A love triangle involving the accused attacker, her aunt and the aunt’s husband appears to be the motive behind the brutal assault.
Kim Tran, 35, told police she had been having an affair with her uncle
for about a year. His refusal to leave his wife apparently provoked the attack during which he was mutilated.
"The law says that you cannot have sexual contact with another person,
in this case hand-to-penis contact, without the consent of the other person," said Judge Brian Johnson.
Tran appeared in court and was charged with first-degree assault, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree sexual assault. Police say it all started in South Anchorage, at 7925 Moose Run Circle.
Charging documents say Tran and her 44-year-old uncle got into an argument Saturday night at Tran's home because he wanted out of the relationship. Those documents say Tran asked her uncle to leave his wife, and that's when he told Tran that he was only interested in having sex with her.
Tran told police they then started to "fool around" and she tied up her uncle to a window handle above her bed. "At that point, she pulled a knife on the man and severed his penis," said Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell.
Police say that after the attack Tran rushed her uncle to Providence Alaska Medical Center, but not before flushing his penis down the toilet.
"Officials from the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility were able to come out to the home," Shell said. "They pulled the toilet from its base and tipped it over into the bathtub and were able to recover the man's body part, and police officers then brought it into the hospital for re-attachment."
Once at the hospital, police say Tran told hospital staff she was going to park the car, but instead she drove home. Police say they found Tran at her home, cleaning up the crime scene.
Today, a car with blood stains on the passenger door sat in Tran's driveway. At Providence hospital, doctors reportedly were successful at reattaching the man’s penis, but his condition remained unknown Monday night.
Tran remains at the Anchorage Jail until her bail hearing Tuesday. She faces up to 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines.
Charging documents say that, after Tran tied up her uncle, she tried to talk about their relationship. The documents say she wanted her uncle to marry her and have children with her.
Police say the uncle told Tran he couldn't have children because he was too old and had had a vasectomy. The documents say Tran felt used and angry and that's when she pulled out the knife.
The best known similar case occurred in 1993, involving John and Lorena Bobbett. Police say such attacks are not that uncommon. In researching this story, we found two other cases of women named Kim Tran who were accused of the same crime, and a third case of a woman with the last name of Tran. These cases occurred in 1996, ’97 and ’98, but are apparently not related to this latest incident.
Posted by jennifer at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Hey Everybody! Asian Americans now have their own Lorena Bobbitt! (read article 1, below)
Initially, my first read of the story immediately raised some questions:
How did they find the penis in the sewer? That takes some dedication from the municipal utilities workers. (And hey, how do they know they found the right one?)
And how is the appendage doing now that it's reattached? I mean, how healthy is that? not to mention, would it still be, you know, alive?
But then, upon further research (read article 2) I have even more questions.
What on earth is this woman thinking, having an affair with her uncle? Is she just plain old crazy?
And, is it really true that there have been Kim Trans before who've cut off their man's member?
So a quick google search yields stories of Kim Trans --though who knows if they're true. Maybe this is the latest urban legend: watch out for women named Kim Tran!
This one, a Canadian mother of six, did the deed with a meat cleaver after she discovered his affair with a younger woman. And guess what! It says she flushed it down the toilet too!
The second one, in Australia, is only referenced in more recent stories--can't find independent verification, even in the newspaper databases. So who knows how much of this is a bunch of hooey?
I could try to say something deep and meaningful about this, but i'll let the stories speak for themselves. At least two Kim Trans cut off their man's penis. Nuff said.
Article 1
Alaska Woman Charged in Genital Amputation
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
(02-23) 10:13 PST Anchorage, Alaska (AP) --
A woman upset about an impending breakup with her boyfriend cut off the man's penis and flushed it down a toilet, police said. Utility workers recovered the severed organ Sunday and surgeons reattached it.
Kim Tran, 35, was charged with first-degree assault, domestic violence and tampering with evidence. She was jailed at the Anchorage Jail with no bail set.
Police spokeswoman Anita Shell said the injury to the 44-year-old man was "brutal, brutal."
At arraignment Sunday afternoon, Tran requested a Vietnamese interpreter. Magistrate Brian Johnson continued the arraignment until Monday with no bail set.
The couple was arguing Saturday because the man, whose name was not released, wanted to end the year-old relationship, Shell said. The pair decided to have sex, and the man agreed to have his arms tied to a window handle above their bed. The woman pulled out a kitchen knife and severed his penis, police said.
After flushing the organ down the toilet, she drove the man to the hospital and helped him to a nurses' station, Shell said. Police, summoned by a hospital worker, found Tran at the couple's home cleaning up the blood, Shell said.
Water utility workers retrieved the penis, and police said surgery to reattach it was successful.
Shell said investigators gave no indication in their report whether Tran showed any remorse in driving the victim to the hospital. "She decided to just go home at that point," Shell said.
Article 2
Monday, February 21, 2005 - by Angela Unruh
Anchorage, Alaska - A woman is in jail and a man is recovering at Providence Alaska Medical Center after a Saturday night attack in which the woman is accused of severing the man’s penis. A love triangle involving the accused attacker, her aunt and the aunt’s husband appears to be the motive behind the brutal assault.
Kim Tran, 35, told police she had been having an affair with her uncle
for about a year. His refusal to leave his wife apparently provoked the attack during which he was mutilated.
"The law says that you cannot have sexual contact with another person,
in this case hand-to-penis contact, without the consent of the other person," said Judge Brian Johnson.
Tran appeared in court and was charged with first-degree assault, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree sexual assault. Police say it all started in South Anchorage, at 7925 Moose Run Circle.
Charging documents say Tran and her 44-year-old uncle got into an argument Saturday night at Tran's home because he wanted out of the relationship. Those documents say Tran asked her uncle to leave his wife, and that's when he told Tran that he was only interested in having sex with her.
Tran told police they then started to "fool around" and she tied up her uncle to a window handle above her bed. "At that point, she pulled a knife on the man and severed his penis," said Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Anita Shell.
Police say that after the attack Tran rushed her uncle to Providence Alaska Medical Center, but not before flushing his penis down the toilet.
"Officials from the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility were able to come out to the home," Shell said. "They pulled the toilet from its base and tipped it over into the bathtub and were able to recover the man's body part, and police officers then brought it into the hospital for re-attachment."
Once at the hospital, police say Tran told hospital staff she was going to park the car, but instead she drove home. Police say they found Tran at her home, cleaning up the crime scene.
Today, a car with blood stains on the passenger door sat in Tran's driveway. At Providence hospital, doctors reportedly were successful at reattaching the man’s penis, but his condition remained unknown Monday night.
Tran remains at the Anchorage Jail until her bail hearing Tuesday. She faces up to 20 years in jail and $250,000 in fines.
Charging documents say that, after Tran tied up her uncle, she tried to talk about their relationship. The documents say she wanted her uncle to marry her and have children with her.
Police say the uncle told Tran he couldn't have children because he was too old and had had a vasectomy. The documents say Tran felt used and angry and that's when she pulled out the knife.
The best known similar case occurred in 1993, involving John and Lorena Bobbett. Police say such attacks are not that uncommon. In researching this story, we found two other cases of women named Kim Tran who were accused of the same crime, and a third case of a woman with the last name of Tran. These cases occurred in 1996, ’97 and ’98, but are apparently not related to this latest incident.
Posted by jennifer at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Yay! New California Media has a two part article on Hollywood's top 25 APA blunders. This week's is only the first 15 (or the last 15.) You'll need to tune in next week for more.
Artist Wendy W. Fok calls for poetry, fiction and nonfiction on the subject of "Dualism in America" to accompany her window installation of that title at the Tenement Museum in New York City. You must be a resident of New York City to submit work. Deadline is March 18. Check out the call for submissions here.
Wow: New California Media reports on a poll of Asian Americans in California regarding the tsunami. Results include a total of $200 million (yes, million) in donations, most AAs reporting that it was the worst natural catastrophe of their lifetime, and a significant portion (a quarter, and almost a half of Indonesians) saying it was a message from God.
In the small news, Andre Agassi was outed to those of us (me) who didn't know he was Iranian American in a news item from a German newspaper that was reposted all over the place by Agassi fans. Apparently, the poor guy was quoted as saying that he wanted to visit Iran "eventually". Headlines screamed "Agassi plans to visit Iran!" Who'da thunk?
A Korean American (1.5) soldier was killed last week in Iraq. He was the second Korean-born American to be killed in this war. The tragedy is that he joined up to serve in South Korea, but was re-routed to Iraq, where so few want to serve. Wonder why. Maybe the death toll of 1500+ American combantants so far?
It sounds like a bad joke gone wrong: three teenagers kill a teenaged Chinese deliveryman for money to buy Air Jordans. The Chinese language press is up in arms. You have to wonder if the attitudes toward "chinks'" and "chinamen's" drowning deaths on Hot 97 are just the the tip of an iceberg that only breached the surface of the mainstream with the undeniably egregious tsunami song.
Posted by claire at 12:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Yay! New California Media has a two part article on Hollywood's top 25 APA blunders. This week's is only the first 15 (or the last 15.) You'll need to tune in next week for more.
Artist Wendy W. Fok calls for poetry, fiction and nonfiction on the subject of "Dualism in America" to accompany her window installation of that title at the Tenement Museum in New York City. You must be a resident of New York City to submit work. Deadline is March 18. Check out the call for submissions here.
Wow: New California Media reports on a poll of Asian Americans in California regarding the tsunami. Results include a total of $200 million (yes, million) in donations, most AAs reporting that it was the worst natural catastrophe of their lifetime, and a significant portion (a quarter, and almost a half of Indonesians) saying it was a message from God.
In the small news, Andre Agassi was outed to those of us (me) who didn't know he was Iranian American in a news item from a German newspaper that was reposted all over the place by Agassi fans. Apparently, the poor guy was quoted as saying that he wanted to visit Iran "eventually". Headlines screamed "Agassi plans to visit Iran!" Who'da thunk?
A Korean American (1.5) soldier was killed last week in Iraq. He was the second Korean-born American to be killed in this war. The tragedy is that he joined up to serve in South Korea, but was re-routed to Iraq, where so few want to serve. Wonder why. Maybe the death toll of 1500+ American combantants so far?
It sounds like a bad joke gone wrong: three teenagers kill a teenaged Chinese deliveryman for money to buy Air Jordans. The Chinese language press is up in arms. You have to wonder if the attitudes toward "chinks'" and "chinamen's" drowning deaths on Hot 97 are just the the tip of an iceberg that only breached the surface of the mainstream with the undeniably egregious tsunami song.
Posted by claire at 12:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Yay! New California Media has a two part article on Hollywood's top 25 APA blunders. This week's is only the first 15 (or the last 15.) You'll need to tune in next week for more.
Artist Wendy W. Fok calls for poetry, fiction and nonfiction on the subject of "Dualism in America" to accompany her window installation of that title at the Tenement Museum in New York City. You must be a resident of New York City to submit work. Deadline is March 18. Check out the call for submissions here.
Wow: New California Media reports on a poll of Asian Americans in California regarding the tsunami. Results include a total of $200 million (yes, million) in donations, most AAs reporting that it was the worst natural catastrophe of their lifetime, and a significant portion (a quarter, and almost a half of Indonesians) saying it was a message from God.
In the small news, Andre Agassi was outed to those of us (me) who didn't know he was Iranian American in a news item from a German newspaper that was reposted all over the place by Agassi fans. Apparently, the poor guy was quoted as saying that he wanted to visit Iran "eventually". Headlines screamed "Agassi plans to visit Iran!" Who'da thunk?
A Korean American (1.5) soldier was killed last week in Iraq. He was the second Korean-born American to be killed in this war. The tragedy is that he joined up to serve in South Korea, but was re-routed to Iraq, where so few want to serve. Wonder why. Maybe the death toll of 1500+ American combantants so far?
It sounds like a bad joke gone wrong: three teenagers kill a teenaged Chinese deliveryman for money to buy Air Jordans. The Chinese language press is up in arms. You have to wonder if the attitudes toward "chinks'" and "chinamen's" drowning deaths on Hot 97 are just the the tip of an iceberg that only breached the surface of the mainstream with the undeniably egregious tsunami song.
Posted by claire at 12:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A few quick announcements and random things:
Protest Hot97 Today Hey New Yorkers, there's a rally this afternoon to protest Hot97. Union Square, 3-6 p.m. Slam poet Ishle Park (who read for us at the very first Hyphen fundraiser--she was amazing) will be reading. Click here for details.
Laying Down The Law We never said we weren't big nerds. This weekend our own Chris Fan will be hanging out at the the Eleventh Annual National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy (NAPACLPP). He's got Hyphens to hand out. So stop by and chat with him. The conference features a performance by Vienna Teng, and lots of notable speakers. It's today and tomorrow in Cambridge, MA. For more info, go here.
Year of the Monkey Sucked A little story of personal trauma at the Onion.
Posted by Melissa at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A few quick announcements and random things:
Protest Hot97 Today Hey New Yorkers, there's a rally this afternoon to protest Hot97. Union Square, 3-6 p.m. Slam poet Ishle Park (who read for us at the very first Hyphen fundraiser--she was amazing) will be reading. Click here for details.
Laying Down The Law We never said we weren't big nerds. This weekend our own Chris Fan will be hanging out at the the Eleventh Annual National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy (NAPACLPP). He's got Hyphens to hand out. So stop by and chat with him. The conference features a performance by Vienna Teng, and lots of notable speakers. It's today and tomorrow in Cambridge, MA. For more info, go here.
Year of the Monkey Sucked A little story of personal trauma at the Onion.
Posted by Melissa at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A few quick announcements and random things:
Protest Hot97 Today Hey New Yorkers, there's a rally this afternoon to protest Hot97. Union Square, 3-6 p.m. Slam poet Ishle Park (who read for us at the very first Hyphen fundraiser--she was amazing) will be reading. Click here for details.
Laying Down The Law We never said we weren't big nerds. This weekend our own Chris Fan will be hanging out at the the Eleventh Annual National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy (NAPACLPP). He's got Hyphens to hand out. So stop by and chat with him. The conference features a performance by Vienna Teng, and lots of notable speakers. It's today and tomorrow in Cambridge, MA. For more info, go here.
Year of the Monkey Sucked A little story of personal trauma at the Onion.
Posted by Melissa at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I was out on a First Date last night and I think maybe the guy was somewhat intimidated by me. (I hope not. But I got that feeling anyhow.) At one point in the conversation he commented, "Wow, you know a lot of people," and my response was that it's my job to.
As someone who's been involved in the Asian American community, I have (over the years) become less shy and more comfortable with networking (schmoozing). I still think of myself as being shy and quiet (like when it comes to "boys"), but when I'm in my "element"... Watch out! I'm a handshaking, Crest smiling, business card exchanging, joke making fool. I think of it as making new friends (because I do end up being friends with a lot of the people I meet in the community).
However, sometimes you meet people in the community and you make nice, just to make nice. You exchange business cards and shoot the shit, but you know (in the back of your head) that most likely nothing will come of it. Case in point, a couple weeks ago I met the publisher of a soon-to-be-released Asian American male magazine. Think the APA male version of Maxim. It's called SAM. I'd been hearing rumors about this magazine coming out, because a friend of mine was interviewed for their "pilot" issue. I was under the impression that the acronym stood for Single Asian Male.
I found out it was actually Successful Alpha Male. (I am stifling laughter.) I thought it was an interesting concept--I read Maxim from time to time. Scantily clad hotties on the cover of any magazine will fly off the newsstands, that's for sure. But what really bothered me is thinking how scantily clad, hot Asian babes on the cover of a magazine is such a lucrative thing to push--especially for those with the Asian Persuasion.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. I'm not being a "hater" or a hardcore femi-nazi, or anything. I'm just being honest.
The other day one of my best friends, S, emailed me the Friendster profile of a new South Asian male magazine, Masti magazine. Apparently February was the month to "make masti" ("masti" means mischief), as they had various East Coast launch parties to inaugurate their publication.
As someone who has an Asian American women's fashion magazine named after her (hahahaha!) and who has been involved with various independent publications, I am not knocking anyone who enters the field of publishing. It's a hard industry, especially since people seem to read less and less, or online is where it's at. I'm a firm believer in grassroots media, because there's always an audience, and we (those of us who don't see ourselves represented on the newsstands) need to create masti on the newsstands, malicious or not.
Posted by Audrey at 8:51 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
I was out on a First Date last night and I think maybe the guy was somewhat intimidated by me. (I hope not. But I got that feeling anyhow.) At one point in the conversation he commented, "Wow, you know a lot of people," and my response was that it's my job to.
As someone who's been involved in the Asian American community, I have (over the years) become less shy and more comfortable with networking (schmoozing). I still think of myself as being shy and quiet (like when it comes to "boys"), but when I'm in my "element"... Watch out! I'm a handshaking, Crest smiling, business card exchanging, joke making fool. I think of it as making new friends (because I do end up being friends with a lot of the people I meet in the community).
However, sometimes you meet people in the community and you make nice, just to make nice. You exchange business cards and shoot the shit, but you know (in the back of your head) that most likely nothing will come of it. Case in point, a couple weeks ago I met the publisher of a soon-to-be-released Asian American male magazine. Think the APA male version of Maxim. It's called SAM. I'd been hearing rumors about this magazine coming out, because a friend of mine was interviewed for their "pilot" issue. I was under the impression that the acronym stood for Single Asian Male.
I found out it was actually Successful Alpha Male. (I am stifling laughter.) I thought it was an interesting concept--I read Maxim from time to time. Scantily clad hotties on the cover of any magazine will fly off the newsstands, that's for sure. But what really bothered me is thinking how scantily clad, hot Asian babes on the cover of a magazine is such a lucrative thing to push--especially for those with the Asian Persuasion.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. I'm not being a "hater" or a hardcore femi-nazi, or anything. I'm just being honest.
The other day one of my best friends, S, emailed me the Friendster profile of a new South Asian male magazine, Masti magazine. Apparently February was the month to "make masti" ("masti" means mischief), as they had various East Coast launch parties to inaugurate their publication.
As someone who has an Asian American women's fashion magazine named after her (hahahaha!) and who has been involved with various independent publications, I am not knocking anyone who enters the field of publishing. It's a hard industry, especially since people seem to read less and less, or online is where it's at. I'm a firm believer in grassroots media, because there's always an audience, and we (those of us who don't see ourselves represented on the newsstands) need to create masti on the newsstands, malicious or not.
Posted by Audrey at 8:51 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
I was out on a First Date last night and I think maybe the guy was somewhat intimidated by me. (I hope not. But I got that feeling anyhow.) At one point in the conversation he commented, "Wow, you know a lot of people," and my response was that it's my job to.
As someone who's been involved in the Asian American community, I have (over the years) become less shy and more comfortable with networking (schmoozing). I still think of myself as being shy and quiet (like when it comes to "boys"), but when I'm in my "element"... Watch out! I'm a handshaking, Crest smiling, business card exchanging, joke making fool. I think of it as making new friends (because I do end up being friends with a lot of the people I meet in the community).
However, sometimes you meet people in the community and you make nice, just to make nice. You exchange business cards and shoot the shit, but you know (in the back of your head) that most likely nothing will come of it. Case in point, a couple weeks ago I met the publisher of a soon-to-be-released Asian American male magazine. Think the APA male version of Maxim. It's called SAM. I'd been hearing rumors about this magazine coming out, because a friend of mine was interviewed for their "pilot" issue. I was under the impression that the acronym stood for Single Asian Male.
I found out it was actually Successful Alpha Male. (I am stifling laughter.) I thought it was an interesting concept--I read Maxim from time to time. Scantily clad hotties on the cover of any magazine will fly off the newsstands, that's for sure. But what really bothered me is thinking how scantily clad, hot Asian babes on the cover of a magazine is such a lucrative thing to push--especially for those with the Asian Persuasion.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. I'm not being a "hater" or a hardcore femi-nazi, or anything. I'm just being honest.
The other day one of my best friends, S, emailed me the Friendster profile of a new South Asian male magazine, Masti magazine. Apparently February was the month to "make masti" ("masti" means mischief), as they had various East Coast launch parties to inaugurate their publication.
As someone who has an Asian American women's fashion magazine named after her (hahahaha!) and who has been involved with various independent publications, I am not knocking anyone who enters the field of publishing. It's a hard industry, especially since people seem to read less and less, or online is where it's at. I'm a firm believer in grassroots media, because there's always an audience, and we (those of us who don't see ourselves represented on the newsstands) need to create masti on the newsstands, malicious or not.
Posted by Audrey at 8:51 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
According to a poll of Asian American Californians commissioned by New California Media, 70 percent of those who responded made a contribution to the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort; 64 percent donated money.
Only 33 percent of adults in the general population contributed to the relief effort, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
I know here in the Bay Area there have been many fund-raising events held by Asian American organizations, so everyone who gave should be commended.
Posted by harry at 3:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
According to a poll of Asian American Californians commissioned by New California Media, 70 percent of those who responded made a contribution to the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort; 64 percent donated money.
Only 33 percent of adults in the general population contributed to the relief effort, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
I know here in the Bay Area there have been many fund-raising events held by Asian American organizations, so everyone who gave should be commended.
Posted by harry at 3:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
According to a poll of Asian American Californians commissioned by New California Media, 70 percent of those who responded made a contribution to the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort; 64 percent donated money.
Only 33 percent of adults in the general population contributed to the relief effort, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
I know here in the Bay Area there have been many fund-raising events held by Asian American organizations, so everyone who gave should be commended.
Posted by harry at 3:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The cholesterol drug Crestor can cause muscle damage, and the Food and Drug Administration says Asian Americans are especially susceptible. New warning labels are being required.
Posted by harry at 1:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The cholesterol drug Crestor can cause muscle damage, and the Food and Drug Administration says Asian Americans are especially susceptible. New warning labels are being required.
Posted by harry at 1:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The cholesterol drug Crestor can cause muscle damage, and the Food and Drug Administration says Asian Americans are especially susceptible. New warning labels are being required.
Posted by harry at 1:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
It was a pretty good night for people of color at the Academy Awards. Chris Rock got to say the names of lots of black people who didn't even go on stage --Denzel, Oprah-- and Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx swept up the little statuettes.
Catalina Sandino Moreno was up for best actress for "Maria Full of Grace" --even though she spoke in Spanish for most of the film and Hollywood tends not to notice subtitled actors.
Plus, the beautiful song Al Otro Lado Del Rio, from Motorcycle Diaries, won. (Antonio Banderas' rendition was awful --listen to the real recording which is so gentle it breaks your heart.) Selma Hayek pointed out it was the first song in Spanish to be nominated, ever.
But my Asian faces, where were they?
How long til a song in Hindi, or Mandarin, or Thai, do you think?
There WERE some Asians and Asian Americans honored in the glitz fest, mostly in the background. But at Hyphen we put Asians in the spotlight, so here's my list of those who made us proud --feel free to add to it.
Sandra Oh. Stunning in red, she glowed --even though she wasn't up for an award and Sideways only won for its screenplay. Plus, she was included in all of the red carpet fashion reviews and got some screen time. And ABC ran several ads for her new show, "Grey's Anatomy."
Zhang Ziyi. She was a presenter with Jake Gyllenhaal (why? very weird pair) and spoke the most english I've ever heard her utter. Which was about 10 words. But she's gorgeous.
Zhao Xiaoding. Nominated for cinematography for "House of Flying Daggers." I don't even know if he was there, and he didn't win anyway. But hey, keeping us on the map.
The rest of the this list are all the people who didn't even get to go on stage, --with the new award-in-the-aisle system the winners barely left their seats. tacky. anyway...
Sejong Park. Nominated for his animated short film, "Birthday Boy" about a Korean kid playing war as his dad fights.
Ashvin Kumar. Nominated for his short film, "Little Terrorist" about a Pakistani boy who loses his ball in a minefield at the Indian border. And he looked really cool.
Byambasuren Davaa. A Mongolian filmmaker nominated for her documentary film "The Story of the Weeping Camel" that everyone says should've won. She's strikingly pretty, too.
Takuo Miyagishima. A really nice looking old Japanese guy, who won the Gordon E. Sawyer award for lifetime achievement --he's designed a bunch of lenses and an eyepiece leveler (whatever that is), in his many years at Panavision. (He's one of the people who got his award the night before from Scarlett Johannson and was relegated to the balcony (the BALCONY!) during the show.)
Well, that's all I spotted (I did fast-foward through it --thanks Tivo!). A pretty short list. Let's do better next year, team.
Meanwhile, go watch the films, buy the eyepiece leveler, or support your starving actor friend lunch.
Posted by jennifer at 11:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
It was a pretty good night for people of color at the Academy Awards. Chris Rock got to say the names of lots of black people who didn't even go on stage --Denzel, Oprah-- and Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx swept up the little statuettes.
Catalina Sandino Moreno was up for best actress for "Maria Full of Grace" --even though she spoke in Spanish for most of the film and Hollywood tends not to notice subtitled actors.
Plus, the beautiful song Al Otro Lado Del Rio, from Motorcycle Diaries, won. (Antonio Banderas' rendition was awful --listen to the real recording which is so gentle it breaks your heart.) Selma Hayek pointed out it was the first song in Spanish to be nominated, ever.
But my Asian faces, where were they?
How long til a song in Hindi, or Mandarin, or Thai, do you think?
There WERE some Asians and Asian Americans honored in the glitz fest, mostly in the background. But at Hyphen we put Asians in the spotlight, so here's my list of those who made us proud --feel free to add to it.
Sandra Oh. Stunning in red, she glowed --even though she wasn't up for an award and Sideways only won for its screenplay. Plus, she was included in all of the red carpet fashion reviews and got some screen time. And ABC ran several ads for her new show, "Grey's Anatomy."
Zhang Ziyi. She was a presenter with Jake Gyllenhaal (why? very weird pair) and spoke the most english I've ever heard her utter. Which was about 10 words. But she's gorgeous.
Zhao Xiaoding. Nominated for cinematography for "House of Flying Daggers." I don't even know if he was there, and he didn't win anyway. But hey, keeping us on the map.
The rest of the this list are all the people who didn't even get to go on stage, --with the new award-in-the-aisle system the winners barely left their seats. tacky. anyway...
Sejong Park. Nominated for his animated short film, "Birthday Boy" about a Korean kid playing war as his dad fights.
Ashvin Kumar. Nominated for his short film, "Little Terrorist" about a Pakistani boy who loses his ball in a minefield at the Indian border. And he looked really cool.
Byambasuren Davaa. A Mongolian filmmaker nominated for her documentary film "The Story of the Weeping Camel" that everyone says should've won. She's strikingly pretty, too.
Takuo Miyagishima. A really nice looking old Japanese guy, who won the Gordon E. Sawyer award for lifetime achievement --he's designed a bunch of lenses and an eyepiece leveler (whatever that is), in his many years at Panavision. (He's one of the people who got his award the night before from Scarlett Johannson and was relegated to the balcony (the BALCONY!) during the show.)
Well, that's all I spotted (I did fast-foward through it --thanks Tivo!). A pretty short list. Let's do better next year, team.
Meanwhile, go watch the films, buy the eyepiece leveler, or support your starving actor friend lunch.
Posted by jennifer at 11:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
It was a pretty good night for people of color at the Academy Awards. Chris Rock got to say the names of lots of black people who didn't even go on stage --Denzel, Oprah-- and Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx swept up the little statuettes.
Catalina Sandino Moreno was up for best actress for "Maria Full of Grace" --even though she spoke in Spanish for most of the film and Hollywood tends not to notice subtitled actors.
Plus, the beautiful song Al Otro Lado Del Rio, from Motorcycle Diaries, won. (Antonio Banderas' rendition was awful --listen to the real recording which is so gentle it breaks your heart.) Selma Hayek pointed out it was the first song in Spanish to be nominated, ever.
But my Asian faces, where were they?
How long til a song in Hindi, or Mandarin, or Thai, do you think?
There WERE some Asians and Asian Americans honored in the glitz fest, mostly in the background. But at Hyphen we put Asians in the spotlight, so here's my list of those who made us proud --feel free to add to it.
Sandra Oh. Stunning in red, she glowed --even though she wasn't up for an award and Sideways only won for its screenplay. Plus, she was included in all of the red carpet fashion reviews and got some screen time. And ABC ran several ads for her new show, "Grey's Anatomy."
Zhang Ziyi. She was a presenter with Jake Gyllenhaal (why? very weird pair) and spoke the most english I've ever heard her utter. Which was about 10 words. But she's gorgeous.
Zhao Xiaoding. Nominated for cinematography for "House of Flying Daggers." I don't even know if he was there, and he didn't win anyway. But hey, keeping us on the map.
The rest of the this list are all the people who didn't even get to go on stage, --with the new award-in-the-aisle system the winners barely left their seats. tacky. anyway...
Sejong Park. Nominated for his animated short film, "Birthday Boy" about a Korean kid playing war as his dad fights.
Ashvin Kumar. Nominated for his short film, "Little Terrorist" about a Pakistani boy who loses his ball in a minefield at the Indian border. And he looked really cool.
Byambasuren Davaa. A Mongolian filmmaker nominated for her documentary film "The Story of the Weeping Camel" that everyone says should've won. She's strikingly pretty, too.
Takuo Miyagishima. A really nice looking old Japanese guy, who won the Gordon E. Sawyer award for lifetime achievement --he's designed a bunch of lenses and an eyepiece leveler (whatever that is), in his many years at Panavision. (He's one of the people who got his award the night before from Scarlett Johannson and was relegated to the balcony (the BALCONY!) during the show.)
Well, that's all I spotted (I did fast-foward through it --thanks Tivo!). A pretty short list. Let's do better next year, team.
Meanwhile, go watch the films, buy the eyepiece leveler, or support your starving actor friend lunch.
Posted by jennifer at 11:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
I haven't been happy with the state of hip-hop music lately, Asian American or not. I've been finding solace in my Neil Armstrong mix-CDs, Sweeet, Bittersweeet, and now WarmFuzzy. They are staples in my car and on my iPod.
On Saturday I went with a friend to a hip-hop show. I hadn't been to a show in a while (when you put together parties/shows, ironically you don't have the time to go to others). I saw Black Sheep at the Red Devil Lounge in the city.
Black Sheep was great! I didn't expect to see so many "random" people: Fratboy-looking types and Asians. I felt like an old lady, because I swear the average age in the club was well under 25. I was thinking, How old were these people when "The Choice Is Yours" came out? (At least people knew enough to sing along to the words of "Strobelight Honey.")
The three opening acts before Black Sheep were a big reminder of why I'm waaay over my underground hip-hop days (I leave that to the Backpacker crowd): No originality, wack beats and production, and biting other people's styles. I realized that many of the "random Asians" I saw at the club were probably there to support one of the opening acts.
Believe me when I say you probably won't ever see me at another hip-hop show like that again. If you do, I'll only show up ten minutes before the headlining act. Or at a Massive Selector party. I've become a music snob, especially when it comes to hip-hop.
On the flip side of things: You definitely won't see/hear any wack hip-hop at MY event on March 12th. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, or you're an avid NAATA film festival-goer, then please check out Directions in Sound My friend Dan put together the punk/indie rock night at Cafe Du Nord (Friday, March 11th), so you should check that out too!
I'll be around the festival, so feel free to say Hi or chat me up. If I'm drunk enough, maybe I'll drag you to karaoke or to do shots at Dimples--we will be in Japantown, after all!
I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go!
Posted by Audrey at 8:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I haven't been happy with the state of hip-hop music lately, Asian American or not. I've been finding solace in my Neil Armstrong mix-CDs, Sweeet, Bittersweeet, and now WarmFuzzy. They are staples in my car and on my iPod.
On Saturday I went with a friend to a hip-hop show. I hadn't been to a show in a while (when you put together parties/shows, ironically you don't have the time to go to others). I saw Black Sheep at the Red Devil Lounge in the city.
Black Sheep was great! I didn't expect to see so many "random" people: Fratboy-looking types and Asians. I felt like an old lady, because I swear the average age in the club was well under 25. I was thinking, How old were these people when "The Choice Is Yours" came out? (At least people knew enough to sing along to the words of "Strobelight Honey.")
The three opening acts before Black Sheep were a big reminder of why I'm waaay over my underground hip-hop days (I leave that to the Backpacker crowd): No originality, wack beats and production, and biting other people's styles. I realized that many of the "random Asians" I saw at the club were probably there to support one of the opening acts.
Believe me when I say you probably won't ever see me at another hip-hop show like that again. If you do, I'll only show up ten minutes before the headlining act. Or at a Massive Selector party. I've become a music snob, especially when it comes to hip-hop.
On the flip side of things: You definitely won't see/hear any wack hip-hop at MY event on March 12th. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, or you're an avid NAATA film festival-goer, then please check out Directions in Sound My friend Dan put together the punk/indie rock night at Cafe Du Nord (Friday, March 11th), so you should check that out too!
I'll be around the festival, so feel free to say Hi or chat me up. If I'm drunk enough, maybe I'll drag you to karaoke or to do shots at Dimples--we will be in Japantown, after all!
I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go!
Posted by Audrey at 8:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I haven't been happy with the state of hip-hop music lately, Asian American or not. I've been finding solace in my Neil Armstrong mix-CDs, Sweeet, Bittersweeet, and now WarmFuzzy. They are staples in my car and on my iPod.
On Saturday I went with a friend to a hip-hop show. I hadn't been to a show in a while (when you put together parties/shows, ironically you don't have the time to go to others). I saw Black Sheep at the Red Devil Lounge in the city.
Black Sheep was great! I didn't expect to see so many "random" people: Fratboy-looking types and Asians. I felt like an old lady, because I swear the average age in the club was well under 25. I was thinking, How old were these people when "The Choice Is Yours" came out? (At least people knew enough to sing along to the words of "Strobelight Honey.")
The three opening acts before Black Sheep were a big reminder of why I'm waaay over my underground hip-hop days (I leave that to the Backpacker crowd): No originality, wack beats and production, and biting other people's styles. I realized that many of the "random Asians" I saw at the club were probably there to support one of the opening acts.
Believe me when I say you probably won't ever see me at another hip-hop show like that again. If you do, I'll only show up ten minutes before the headlining act. Or at a Massive Selector party. I've become a music snob, especially when it comes to hip-hop.
On the flip side of things: You definitely won't see/hear any wack hip-hop at MY event on March 12th. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, or you're an avid NAATA film festival-goer, then please check out Directions in Sound My friend Dan put together the punk/indie rock night at Cafe Du Nord (Friday, March 11th), so you should check that out too!
I'll be around the festival, so feel free to say Hi or chat me up. If I'm drunk enough, maybe I'll drag you to karaoke or to do shots at Dimples--we will be in Japantown, after all!
I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go!
Posted by Audrey at 8:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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