Donate to put “Beyond the Bad & the Ugly” conference streamed online
Here’s a conference I wish I could attend, but my schedule and budget don’t allow a weekend trip to LA on Saturday, March 23. Organized by the tireless Jeff Yang, who has a long history as a chronicler...
View ArticleNaomi Hirahara, author of “Mas Arai” mystery novels, comes to Denver for a...
I’ve always been a fan of detective and crime mystery fiction, starting from my earliest days devouring the Hardy Boys and Three Investigators books when I was just a kid. I graduated to author Agatha...
View ArticleRapper Jason Chu’s “Much Love” gets in your head
Nice work by hip-pop rapper Jason Chu. Memorable wordplay, beats and melody, and a video that appears to be one remarkably loooong camera shot following Chu from a fashion shoot in a warehouse to an...
View ArticleWhy Roger Ebert will always be remembered by Asian Americans
I’m glad Colorlines, via @Katchow, posted this clip of film critic Roger Ebert from 2002. I was going to track it down and post it myself, but they did the work for me. Ebert attended the screening at...
View ArticleJennifer 8 Lee’s TED Talks video explaining how most “Chinese” food we know...
Jennifer 8 Lee, a NYT reporter who wrote a wonderful book about the origins of Chinese food (specifically the fortune cookie, which is Japanese, not Chinese) called “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,”...
View ArticleKarami: A new product that’s an old Japanese American twist on salsa
Forget Pace Picante Sauce, which used to make a big deal of being made in San Antonio instead of phony salsas made in New York City. Forget San Antonio as well as New York City. Look no further than...
View Article“The Red Kimono” captures the tragedy of internment, and the larger context...
For a long time, there were painfully few novels that were about the experience of Japanese Americans who were put into concentration camps during World War II. “Farewell to Manzanar,” by Jeanne...
View ArticleHip-hop artist Jason Chu’s spoken-word tribute to Asian American Pacific...
Powerful stuff: Hip-hop artist Jason Chu has posted “A Thousand Names,” a spoken-word tribute to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month that’s worth seeing more than once to absorb the flow of...
View ArticleCity of Los Angeles produces racist “geisha” video abt recycling water
Wow, seriously? Who came up with this brilliant idea? Then who worked on it and who the hell approved it?Related Posts:Rapper Jason Chu’s “Much Love” gets in…Advice for mid-career journalists &...
View ArticleBravo to Bravo for stopping use of “JAP” for Jewish American Princess in...
Bravo to the Bravo TV network. And Bravo to Michael Yaki, a former City of San Francisco supervisor who is now a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. When Yaki wrote to the network to...
View Article“Where are you from?” conversation put on video by Ken Tanaka
It’s amazing how many Asian Americans I know have had to suffer through this stupid conversation. In fact, I’ve met very few Asian Americans who haven’t heard the question, “where are you from?” or...
View ArticleJason Chu’s “Battle Scars” powerful music video about bullying, violence and...
Bullying, guns and violence in schools isn’t just an Asian or Asian American issue. It’s am across-the-board societal issue, and Chu’s message of love, although maybe idealistic, is a good start,...
View ArticleActors from Ken Tanaka’s “What Kind of Asian Are You?” video read comments...
Here’s a P.S. to my post featuring the spot-on video of the “Where are you from” conversation that Asian Americans know too well.Related Posts:“Where are you from?” conversation put on video…Advice for...
View ArticleMuseums — even tiny ones — are where our collective culture is stored
I visited the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland, Oregon last week while on a business trip to the northwest, and I was struck at how important organizations like it, and the museum it operates...
View ArticleDale Li vividly brings to life Japanese American tragedy in ‘Dust Storm’
Colorado’s first Asian American theater company, Theatre Esprit Asia (TEA), has launched its debut season with a pair of one-person plays in repertory, and I was fortunate to see one of them, “Dust...
View ArticleRacist trolls come out from under their rocks following Asiana plane crash
I shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed anymore, and accept the fact that there will always be idiotic people in the United States who probably function perfectly normally most of the time, and then...
View ArticleYou gotta love it: “Asians eat weird things” by Fung Bros. w/ AJ Rafael
Brilliant, smart, funny, right on and righteous. Makes me wish I live in LA, and could shop at 99 Ranch anytime I want. I love this video. I love all the food in this video (will have to try the couple...
View ArticleOffensive “Asian Girlz” by Day Above Ground angers Asians with sexual &...
Los Angeles-based rock band Day Above Ground made a big deal of its July 27 debut video release of “Asian Girlz,” but it’s backfired and led to intense condemnation from Asian and Asian American groups...
View ArticleSusane Lee’s “Dream Big” video is a funny, biting, truthful look at how...
Asian American actress Susane Lee has had a number of roles mostly in theater and television, including series such as “Gilmore Girls” and “Young and Restless.” She’s also performed in a handful of...
View Article“Voice” star Judith Hill’s cultural mashup combines African American &...
I was lucky enough to see Judith Hill perform during the 2010 convention in Los Angeles of the Asian American Journalists Association, when she played a set for opening night. Hill had a unique story...
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