What is not to love about Ryan? Check out that hair! And the boy is one of 14 finalists on "So You Think You Can Dance" -the dancer's version of "American Idol."
Continue reading "Another Asian Reality Hottie"
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This post, from DC craigslist, will give you great instructions for getting revenge on those ignorant, racist mofos who are scared of brown people since 9/11. Yee haw!
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Asian American wimmin rule!
Continue reading "AA Grrrl Takes Down Pervert"
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The I-Hotel reopened yesterday, 26 years after elderly Asian American immigrants were literally dragged from their apartments and the building was demolished. All for the rising properly values in the Financial District. Lawsuits ensued, protestors and senators got involved, and now a 15-story building is opening in the old Manilatown. It not only has low-cost senior housing, but a community center and a rooftop garden. Sounds really nice. Has anyone checked it out yet?
Read about the I-Hotel here in today's SF Chronicle.
The East Bay Express has some coverage on two Asian American music acts this week. First, a story on Golda Supernova, in all her superb divaness. The story also goes a bit into the Pinoy arts scene, the efforts of Bindlestiff to become a bonafide nonprofit, and why some people (Golda included) would rather it not.
The same writer also has a story on Bento, a local alternative rock band that apparently has a devoted following of swooning girls. If the name sounds familiar to you, maybe it's because we reviewed them in issue 6. You can swoon over them yourself Sunday when they play at the Oakland Chinatown Street Fest.
Posted by melissa at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
As I venture through the city I notice an increasing amount of stencil work upon the walls and sidewalks. I've had the chance to talk to some of the people who align themselves with this fad and asked them what they term their activity. Some of them call it graffiti, while others call it art. Some straddle the line and consider it both. Rare are those who are honest about it and call it what it is; stenciling. So I post this question to the dedicated readers of this blog forum...
What do you consider it?
I think by calling it graffiti art, they discredit and insult both the graffiti subculture as well as those who consider themselves artists. Are they artists, really, or merely glorified tracers who "cleverly" speak in bumper sticker catch-phrases in an attempt to make some sort of witty social commentary? I think they need to stop fooling themselves. If we call stencilers artists, in my opinion, we might as well start considering someone who uses a copy machine to be Michelangelo incarnate.
However, I must admit there are some exceptions to this. There are some innovators, such as Robert Banks, who effectively use stencils to enhance their art and to communicate messages to the populace. Unfortunately individuals such as he are just that; exceptions. The bulk seem to be imitators or...duplicators? *Gasp*
I suppose it was merely a matter of time before the cut and paste mentality that is imbued in many art and design courses permeated society at large. Maybe what they do is art after all...just really bad art...
Posted by claire at 4:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Yesterday I received a surprise gift. (That's the best kind, the surprise kind.) It was green totebag with two badminton rackets. It says "badminton" in a curly script, just so no one gets confused about what's going on here and mistakes it for some other racket sport. Now, I don't have any special affinity for the sport. I think I tried to play a game once some 15 years ago. Basically I know nada, so I thought I'd do a little reading up in case anyone asked me "why badminton?" (Why not?!)
Turns outs that Asians rock this sport. Two Asian Americans, Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach just won the World Badminton Championship in men's doubles. Bach is a SF local too and grew up in the Tenderloin. The US team beat out the Indonesian team to grab the title. (Gunawan is originally from Indonesia and is a celebrity there.) The list of winners is a list of Asian names. Indonesia's Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat won the men's singles and China's Xie Xingfang won the women's singles.
Continue reading "Badminton Badasses, a Pinoy Rocker & the Crazy Lady"
Posted by melissa at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Hey Bay Area folks, piNoisepop the Asian American underground music fest starts today at Bindlestiff Studios. Three days of music coming your way. Kris Racer of Chicago, whom we reviewed a couple issues ago, will be playing tonight. Tomorrow night at SomArts Cultural Center another band we wrote about, Say Bok Gwai (that's Canto for "Damn white guy"), takes the stage with local luminary Golda Supernova. From Monument to Masses and The Skyflakes play Saturday.
Read about piNoisepop here in the San Jose Mercury (You have to sign in. Boo!)
Continue reading "piNoisepop 9 Starts Tonight"
Posted by melissa at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Most of you probably know by now that Hyphen is an all-volunteer effort. Yup, all the writers, editors, photographers, business staff, the folks who mail your subscriptions -- they all have day jobs (if they aren't in school or in between jobs.) But some of us have better day jobs than others. Take our contributing music editor, Todd Inoue, who works by day at the San Jose Metro. OK, I know that it's not every week that an alternative newsweekly can afford to send Todd to review a bunch of spas. But still, how can we not be totally jealous?
Posted by melissa at 10:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Have you ever noticed that you notice more than white people?
Continue reading "Asians Are More Observant"
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Do you have any idea how excited I am about Issue Seven?
Continue reading "Random Ramblings on Proofreading 'n' Crap"
Posted by claire at 11:36 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
So, I was home sick from work yesterday and ended up watching The Fabulous Life of Celebrity Weddings on VH1. I attended FOUR weddings this summer and am now well-versed in the intensity and craziness that is an Indian wedding. The term BLING was created for Indian nuptials. My boyfriend and I were joking about how these Hollywood types don’t have shit on Indians and how the real show would feature fabulous Indian weddings, complete with horses and elephants and a bride worth her weight in gold. And then – it happened! This show featuring Christina Aguilera’s engagement ring and Donald Trump’s wife’s $200,000 wedding dress, featured an Indian wedding held at Versailles this June – which was apparently the most expensive wedding ever. This wedding was held by Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, whose net worth is somewhere in the ballpark of $54 billion, for his 23-year-old daughter Vanisha. Apparently, the wedding of the universe was all over the British and Indian media. As excited as I get to see South Asian culture getting props on MTV and VHI, I have to admit that this opulence makes me feel pretty disgusted.
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Esther Wong, the 'Godmother of Punk, died on Sunday at age 88. She showcased acts like Oingo Boingo, the Police, X, the Ramones, the Motels, 20/20, the Knack, the Know, the Textones, the Go-Gos, the Plimsouls, the Nu-Kats, the Bus Boys, Plane English, the Naughty Sweeties and others at her club, Madame Wong's. Obituary here in the L.A. Times
Posted by melissa at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I never quite understood exactly how it works between the native Americans and our government --casinos, reservations, census data? But at any rate, some Native Hawaiians are fighting to get similar status. Listen the the NPR story here.
Continue reading "Sovereign Hawaii"
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Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth this weekend at the Nihonmachi Street Fair in J-town, especially those of you who supported us by buying an issue or subscription. It was not as sunny as we would have liked. In fact, it was kind of cold and foggy -- not great conditions for tabling outdoors. But we still had a good time talking to folks about Hyphen. We even sold one of our famous duct-tape wallets. Yes, I'm sad to announce that the "Heiress" wallet, featuring many windows & compartments, is no longer available and was snatched up by a passerby. But many other duct-tape wallets, lovingly made by Hyphen staff, remain. You can check them out at any of our events. Maybe we will get around to putting them up on the website one day soon.
Continue reading "Lumpia in the White House and Air Guitar Battles!"
Posted by melissa at 12:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Get used to it, Americans who weren't born in the US. (Come to think of it, that includes me.) This naturalized Indian American found out what "security" means in terms of getting his damn driver license renewed. Good for him for speaking up!
Posted by claire at 7:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Within a month Hyphen's Body Issue (Issue #7) will be out and you'll be able to read about new research on a variety of diseases affecting Asian Americans, especially those associated with poor diet: cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Although all Asian Americans continue to be neglected by the medical research establishment, this article suggests that South Asian Americans may be disproportionately affected by the physical consequences of assimilation.
Continue reading "Indian American Health"
Posted by claire at 11:16 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
The cover story this week in the East Bay Express is about Eddy Zheng. Read it here. He recently got married and his new wife is petitioning for his residency and trying to keep him from being deported.
If you don't already know who Eddy is, read this blog entry from a couple months ago.
Posted by melissa at 2:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Have you guys seen this article in the New York Times from two days ago? The Syrian-born naturalized Canadian citizen who was snatched in Kennedy airport and deported to Syria to be tortured because the US gov't decided he was a member of Al Qaeda is suing. The government is now arguing in court that "Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food." For some reason, it's the last item that gets to me. Denied food? Why would you want to do that?
Posted by claire at 12:51 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Back when I was an idealist, living in the boondocks of Japan, I wanted to share the world with my students. Most of them lived in very small towns; the nearest movie theater was 1-2 hours away. McDonalds had yet to arrive.
Life is surprisingly traditional there; gender roles are well-defined, formal rituals observed. Most housewives still get up at 5 am to make breakfast and box lunches (obento) for their family, and women are looked down upon if their obento lack sufficient artfulness, if they don't have the right balance of colors, don't have rice balls decorated like soccerballs and sausages fried into cute mini octopus shapes.
Continue reading "Giving Sight to the Bigoted"
Posted by jennifer at 3:17 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Chen Xianzhong is the owner of a Chinese restaurant in Baghdad, and, for some very compelling reasons, has recently made the decision to only offer takeout. After all, he can only afford so many bodyguards.
Posted by chris at 3:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Lucy Liu may be slated to play the lead in a revival/update of the Charlie Chan universe.
Continue reading "Is Charlie Chan Back?"
Posted by claire at 6:38 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
I don't have much comment about this story, because it just makes me too angry and sad. These three Iranian brothers, one of whom came to the U.S. for his education and the other two who came over to escape the revolution, were caught in the triple bind created by our government's "war on terror", often actually a war of terror on our own residents. They've just recently been released after being detained for more than three years. Horrifyingly, their release was only secured by an investigation into the beating of one brother for standing up for an ailing fellow detainee. I love my country, but I am so ashamed of this government we allow to act in our name.
Continue reading "Iranian Americans, Know Your Rights!"
Posted by claire at 1:07 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium released a report today highlighting problems that Asian Americans faced when they went to the polls during the November elections.
Continue reading "Access to Vote? Depends on Where You Live"
Posted by melissa at 2:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Back when I was in a Duncan dance company (Isadora, that is,) we needed to raise $$ to go to Hungary. We had a couple garage sales, we put on a few performances, we were thousands short of our goal.
Continue reading "Korean American Adoptee Is Making a Movie"
Posted by jennifer at 3:22 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
To follow on the ever-present discussion about white men-Asian women couples (last seen on our post about Bitter Asian Men) here's a controversy brewing in Oakland:
There's an art show up at the Asian Resource Gallery in Oakland called Not So Lang (pretty): Why Two Chinese-Cali Artists Don't Date White Boys. Haven't gotten down there to see the show myself, but apparently there is a T-shirt in the show with "I Don't Date White Guys" stenciled on it. This upset some people.
Continue reading "No White Boys"
Posted by melissa at 4:30 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
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