03.29.01
The new reality show Boot Camp premiered last night. I didn't watch it, but I'm told there was Asian guy on the show. And he was the first guy to be booted off. That's racist!
03.29.01
Asian man in the safety precautions and procedures video for United Airlines (the instructional video they show you before they take off).
03.28.01
Have you seen the IBM commercial with the two programmers from a parallel dimension looking for help? I think that's an Asian guy in one of the space suits.
03.28.01
This one comes from a close friend of mine:
racist bastards
I was driving to work the other day and was stopped at a light. I look over to the car next to me and see three high school girls making slanty eye faces at me. WHAT THE?! I know it was obviously a joke, but I was ready to get out and have some white meat for dinner. . . alas, the light turned and I drove on. The ironic thing was that they were driving a Honda Accord.
That's racist!
03.27.01
7-foot-1 Chinese basketball star Wang Zhizhi's first game for the Dallas Mavericks could be against the Atlanta Hawks on April 5. Click here for the full story from ESPN. Looks like he'll be the first Chinese basketball player ever.
03.26.01
Check out this ii stix article, "American's Most Wanted" for tips on spotting Asian-wannabe white boys. My favorite: "He could be a Rice-Boy if... He thinks Steven Seagal is "The Man," and Chuck Norris comes in a close second." Hilarious.
03.25.01
It was an interesting night for Asians at the Academy Awards. I was pretty pleased to see so many Asian faces, no doubt in part because of the high-profile success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. First of all, many of the commercials shown during the ceremony broadcast, including Hewlett Packard and Washington Mutual, prominently featured Asians. Interesting. As for the ceremony itself, there was that whole little cluster of CTHD nominee supporters in the audience. That was kind of cool too see. And of course there were the CTHD award winners, who got to make thank you speeches in sometimes not-so-good English. There was Coco Lee, who sang the Oscar nominated song "A Love Before Time," from Crouching Tiger. I must note that I found the dance routine that went on behind her rather unpleasant. Actually, it was pretty much awful. Pretty embarrassing. It hurt me to watch it. Who thought that was a good idea? Ugh. Anyway. Then you've got good ol' Yo-Yo Ma doing his cello thing with violinist Itzhak Perlman, which was quite nicely done Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh presented an award. Last but not least, Foxy Chick was Asian. Foxy Chick is that girl who gets to come out every year, stands to the side and escorts the winners offstage. I don't know how you get this job, but I imagine it's highly coveted. Well this year, Foxy Chick was Asian. That's cool.
Alas, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences just couldn't bring themselves to vote for a Taiwanese director or a Chinese language film. They felt that a Best Foreign Film award would be good enough of a pat on the back for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Of course they couldn't let a subtitled film take their precious top prize! That's reserved for inferior, effects-heavy, blood and guts action spectacles! Gladiator? Best freakin' Picture? That's racist!
At least CTHD walked away with awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Original Score. Well deserved.
03.22.01
Reference about Asians in last night's episode of NBC's Ed... The guy who runs the bowling alley (the manager, not Ed), had people fill out a form to be in a bowling tournament. The comedy: none of the questions related to bowling... they were like, "If the mass of blah blah is blah blah, then what is the blah blah..." Equations and stuff. You get what I'm saying. So the guy filling it out is all confused but the manager keeps on saying to fill it out. Then the guy filling it out incredulously repeats one of the questions—"Asian woman are hot: true or false?" What? That's racist!
03.19.01
Flipping throught the channels tonight. Dante's Peak, that volcano movie with Pierce Brosnan was on ABC. Spotted an Asian dude (Tzi Ma) in the cast. He was a part of their special volcano-watching scientific team. I'm pretty sure I've seen him in other stuff before. That's cool. Also, I watched about 4 minutes of Gilmore Girls over on the WB, and caught a glimpse of that Asian girl (Keiko Agena) who plays Rory's friend. She seems like a pretty cool character. I dug it.
03.17.01
Michael Kim is co-anchor on ESPNews.
03.16.01
I'm not really a huge fan of professional wrestling. It's fake, and it's dumb and it's all that blah blah blah. But being the pop culture freak that I am, I have to at least acknowledge its ridiculous popularity and appeal. Sometimes I do catch the latest edition of "Smackdown! My favorite wrestler is The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson). He's one of the more charismatic, talented and interesting performers in the WWF. He also gives off the least amount of 'white-trash vibe.' That's cool, because as a Pacific Islander (he's part Samoan), he keeps it real for the Angry Media Watch. You can see him in the upcoming The Mummy Returns as the Scorpion King. Apparently, he was so good in this role, the producers are making a Mummy prequel focusing solely on his character. The Scorpion King is currently in production. Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?
03.15.01
Last night I caught the premiere of The Job, starring Dennis Leary. Here's the thing. Asians show up twice on the show. One: a small group of Asian men in suits show up at the police station where Leary works (he's a cop). Leary says, "What's the matter? Someone steal your golf courses?" Urgh. But that's not why they've come. These Japanese gentleman have come to instruct the officers on how to identify counterfeit Pokemon cards. POKEMON CARDS. And the men come complete with accents. Urgh. Two: at one point Leary is chasing after a suspect (who is in a wheelchair, no less). An Asian dude delivering Chinese food on a bike gets in his way and knocks him over. Stinky Oriental sauces get all over Leary and the delivery boy yells, "Watch where you going!" Straight up FOB accent. Urgh. Two Asian appearances in one episode and both appeal to some kind of stereotype. That's racist!
03.15.01
I was flipping channels and I caught sight of an Asian dude on some NBC Saturday morning sitcom (a la Saved By the Bell). After some internet research on the NBC site, I found that City Guys is a "half-hour comedy series with an edgy and hip look at urban teenage life." Apparently it's in its fourth season! The Asian dude is Filipino American Dion Basco. He plays the character Al Ramos, "who has the connections for anything you need in the city." Also in the cast is Dawn (Caitlin Mowrey), "who is always concerned about saving something, whether it's a single tree or the whole world." The site also goes on to say that "this season, Al and Dawn discover that sometimes opposites do attract." Can it be? The Asian Man gets the White Girl? Woohoo! Go Al!
03.12.01
Man, I love The Simpsons but they've got some pretty dumb depictions of Asians. Tonight's episode was about Mr. Sparkle, a Japanese dishwashing detergent. They had this FOBby Japanese dude—and I think he was actually voiced by George Takei! And then later on they had these Japanese tourists who called Homer Mr. Sparkle. And they all had that really FOBby look and accent. As much as I love The Simpsons, their Asians are pretty stereotypical. That's racist! At the same, The Simpsons pretty much makes fun of all groups without mercy... So what to do?
03.12.01
Movie site Reel.com has got a feature on the 2001 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. There are reviews for The Flip Side, The Debut and Dog Food, as well as an interview with Flip Side director Rod Pulido.
03.12.01
I just read that David Henry Hwang's The Lost Empire was the lowest-rated TV miniseries in history. Thank goodness. It was an embarrassment.
03.12.01
Hey, maybe you caught Lost Empire on NBC last night and this evening. Playwright David Henry Hwang puts a modern twist on ancient Chinese tales of the Monkey King. I didn't catch it last night, so when I turned on the TV tonight, there was some freaky stuff and I had no idea what was going on. There was Bai Ling, Greg (of Dharma and), a pig man, and Russell Wong as some hairy monkey dude. Just your good ol' story about an ordinary American who fights dragons, befriends a monkey and a pig and loves a goddess. Interesting stuff, to say the least. Those crazy Chinese! So why is it that you have to throw in a white guy as protagonist, even in the telling of a Chinese folks tale? That's racist!
03.06.01
Ms. Sang Cho of Moraga, CA won the $89 million California lottery jackpot. She'll get approximately $31 million after taxes. Whoa. Hope she uses it wisely.
03.06.01
Okay, I've already professed my nerdy love for Star Trek, so here's something interesting. Speculation has been pretty rampant on all the Trek websites about the details regarding the upcoming fifth Star Trek series, now in development. Some say it might be about a pre-Original Series Enterprise. Well, a couple of days ago, someone got their hands on what appears to be a list of cast descriptions for the show, sent out to talent agencies. Of course, many are questioning the list's authenticity, and Paramount is denying the information completely. Still, if it's true, what excites me is the inclusion of an Asian character to the main cast. Here's the description:
Ensign Hoshi Sato: Comm Officer. Japanese. Mid to late 20s. Striking and intelligent, Hoshi has a feisty spirit that often tests the patience of the crew. She's in charge of communications on Enterprise, but she also serves as ship's Translator. An expert in exo-linguistics, she learned to manipulate her vocal chords to emit a range of alien sounds no human has ever produced. She has a natural affinity for picking up languages. Hoshi doesn't like the idea of being trapped in a "tin can" hurtling at impossible speeds. Every time the ship jumps to warp she grips her console and closes her eyes. She's a "white knuckle" space farer.
I don't know. I hope it's true. And even if it isn't, it's sort of nice that some loser out there making up elaborately false Star Trek cast rumors for the internet thought of putting an Asian character into the mix. That's cool, I guess.
03.01.01
Pacific Time is a radio program that discusses the issues and trends that intersect Asia and America. A couple of weeks ago I heard a segment discussing the popularity of boba, and tonight I heard a short overview of the upcoming San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Pretty interesting show. Pacific Time broadcasts weekly Thursdays at 6 PM on KQED 88.5 FM, and you can also catch online at kqed.org. It's good stuff.
03.01.01
Asian guy on the latest Taco Bell commercial.