08.30.02
MTV Video Music Awards 2002.... Eminem cleaned up for his "Without Me" video. Just let it be known that his video is directed by music video auteur extraordinaire Joseph Kahn. Linkin Park's "In the End" won for Best Rock Video, which was actually directed by band member Joseph Hahn. Dig that.
08.29.02
Margaret Cho on dating in the new issue (October) of Vibe Magazine:
VIBE: What is the worst line to use when picking up an Asian woman?
MARGARET: Any greeting in the language of the country of our origin. "Ni ho ma," "An-nyoung-haseyo," "Konnichiwa." All these get a response of "F-ck you!"
Yeah, you're damn right. (Thanks Ben)
08.29.02
Got this one from Michelle in the land down under: High emotion as boys restore rugby pride The article talks extensively about how this public school is disadvantaged by other prestigious schools who bring in ringers to beef up their rugby team... blah blah blah. Who cares. But then they start talking about how Sydney Boys High's student body has a large percetage of Asians. And check out this quote near the end:
"[Sydney Boys] High prepares you for real life. We have learned how to mix and get on with kids from other backgrounds. The Asian kids contribute in their way, too, if they don't play rugby.
"Everywhere you use brain rather than brawn, High is winning - soccer, debating, fencing, basketball ...and those teams are mostly Asian. Rugby isn't everything."
What the heck? That's racist!
08.28.02
I hate this: Selling wedded bliss is big business in Thailand (Thanks, Allen)
08.28.02
It's a lifestyle: http://no-dairy.com
08.28.02
Aw dang. Looks like there ain't no Jubilee in X-Men 2... according to this Q & A with director Bryan Singer. Check it out: BRYAN SINGER'S X-MEN 2 PRESS CONFERENCE. Still, although not a major character, there's the possibility she may show up somewhere in the movie, like in the first one. They never said she was Jubilee, but discerning fans knew better...
Oh, and here's a little somethin' with Miss Kelly Hu, also in the movie: KELLY HU TALKS X-MEN 2 (Thanks Princess Mononoke)
08.27.02
Thanks to Steven, who alerted me of this disturbing situation, reported at Tolerance.org: TARGET: Retailing White Supremacy. Read the full article.
According to this article, Target was selling a clothing line of shorts and caps emblazened with "Eight Eight" and "88" --the white supremacist code for "Heil Hitler." ("H" is the eight letter of the alphabet. See Tolerance.org's section on Symbols of Hate.)
That was reported yesterday. I found out today. I was just about ready to get crazy, but I got word of Target's response. Before things hit the fan, Target reacted accordingly: Target Pulls '88' Clothing from Stores. Crisis averted. Man, it would've been another looong week.
Read Target's official statement on the matter.
I can't believe such a large corporation like Target would let this slip by. Whether or not their ignorance on the matter plays a part, and whether or not this clothing line has true white supremacist intentions, it was absolutely imperative that Target pulled this product off the racks. I was ready to go to my local Target store and do it myself. Either way, the prospect of this just scares me.
Regular readers of this site are aware. Racism angers me. But white supremacist movements downright SCARE me.
08.27.02
Here's an update on MTV's "Last Fan Standing" contest (I mentioned it briefly on 08.18.02), courtesy of Ray:
MTV is having its "Last Fan Standing" contest for the upcoming Video Music Awards this Thursday (8/29), and the four semifinalists that were flown to NY for the final showdown included Van (Filipino) and Theresa (Korean).††Theresa ended up winning over Van by like 1% of the vote, so she will be presenting at the VMA's along with another girl Tracie, who she picked to present with her.
As another sidenote, Theresa was actually part of the Korean singing trio called KISS this past year.††They hit it pretty big with their first single and accompanying video, which is pretty melodramatic.††You can download it here:
http://solid07.eurohan.com/KISS_Because_(from_solid07.net).wmv
Anyway, due to management issues, the group is on hiatus, and supposedly
Theresa is weighing offers from some US record labels for a possible
stateside career.††The group members aren't featured in the video, but
Theresa is the one singing the majority of the vocals (her voice is much
more recognizable than her other two group members).††I'm sure a lot of
Korean teenyboppers voted for her cuz of her success over in the
muthaland, but hey...having some Asians up on MTV is great exposure,
right?
Aw yeah. Props to Theresa. Represent. Now I'm gonna have to watch this VMA thing. 'Cause it's always good to connect with the kids.
08.27.02
08.26.03
In addition to Kelly Hu as Lady Deathstrike, next summer's X-Men sequel will include Jubilee as one of the featured members of the team... Long time readers of Angry Asian Man will recall she is one of my favorite X-Men with Sucky Powers. So hooray for that. She will played by Kea Wong. (Thanks Zach).
08.25.02
Here's the previously mentioned Asian dude in the Skechers commercial: find your groove. Cool shoes. (Thanks, Phil)
08.25.02
Interesting article/transcript from a panel at this year's AAJA conference a few weeks back: Neal Justin: Can race be a laughing matter?
08.24.02
From Jodinand:
this morning i was watching a rerun of "SCTV" (Second City Television) - it
was the canadian equivalent to Saturday Night Live. There was one skit in
particular that made me ANGRY! "Chinese Fairy Tales with
Lin Ye Tang" which was basically this white dude, actor dave thomas, dressed
in a chinese robe complete with bowlcut wig and painted on slanty eyes. and
of course, he made no sense with his sing song speech as he performed some
sort of puppet show.
Just thought this was interesting because i was aware of john belushi's
samurai skit on SNL and ms. swan of MAD TV... but i had never heard
anything about yellowface on SCTV. it just sucks that this shit is still
being played and re-played.
I hate yellowface. That's racist!
08.24.02
Jet Li video game: Sony Computer Entertainment Collaborates With Jet Li On New Video Game (Thanks, Zach)
08.23.02
Yao makes a good showing: Yao earns respect:Chinese center shows NBA stars he's legit No. 1
08.23.02
Another Asian man sighting in a commercial, courtesy of Steve:
I wanted to tell you about a new commercial I saw for Skechers shoes. It has a hip Asian guy in sort of '70s garb and long hair, if I remember correctly, and he's playing Dance Dance Revolution in an arcade. The slogan is something like, "Find your own beat." Very simple commercial, part of a series of them apparently. I saw it during American Idol. So there, I just admitted I watch that show. Sometimes.
Yes. Steve watches American Idol.
08.22.02
Yao Ming, welcome to America: 2002 World Basketball Championship: Yao showing a penchant for being pushed around
08.21.02
Awwww yeah. Asian men and dating shows. Check it out, courtesy of Dave:
Last night I saw the 'Fifth Wheel,' a sort of elimidate/blind date kind of show. There was an Asian guy who was heavily making out with a blonde -big time. Actually two other white females chose another white guy but our man walked off when the hot blonde chose him!
To top it off, previews for the next show also showed another Asian dude! With more blonde babes! This was on last nite @ 1:00am in San Fran on channel 5, I think that's abc.
Channel 5 is actually the local CBS affiliate. Whooo. That's not your everyday dating show action... Thanks, Dave.
08.20.02
Okay, now Jo is giving me a hard time. She says: "Dude, I've been tellin you about the PG&E commercial FOR EVER." Actually, I think she has. Oops. Sorry, Jo. I'll make it up to you. She writes:
...There's a commercial featuring the same family where they're all asleep but it pans through the house and you can tell they're asian, and the voice over talks about how you should turn down your a/c at night or something.
Hooray for the Asian PG & E family. They conserve energy.
08.20.02
International scientific espionage plot, my ass. Here's some justice, suckas: Researcher not guilty of stealing lab secrets / Gels were in freezer of UC Davis worker
08.20.02
More about the PG & E commercial:
I see the commercial all the time here in Bakersfield, CA. No one in the
family speaks with a strong accent and there isn't much dialog. When the
grandfather opens the door and sees his grandson he smiles and says "There
he is!" Then the little boy does the running through the house/turning off
lights thing. The father, the PG&E employee is standing with the grandpa and
says, "That's my boy." The music is upbeat and funny and the boy is
adorable. Even though I've seen this commercial at least a 1,000 times, it
never fails to put a big smile on my face. I'm a sucker for cute kids and
you don't get much cuter than this kid. They seem to play this commercial
during reruns of "Everybody Loves Raymond" on our Fox affiliate here and I
see it at least once a day.
Thanks, Danielle.
08.20.02
Victor notes something he saw on TV:
A recent PG&E commercial features a small Asian boy, what appears to be
his grandfather, and an Asian PG&E employee (rare in real life I'm sure).
The little boy runs around the house turning off all the electrical
appliances as his grandfather and the PG&E employee watch proudly.
Unfortunately, I had the volume on mute so I couldn't tell if they had
thick accents or anything, but from what I got from the commercial it
looked to depict Asians in an unusually average American light. Thought
you'd be interested.
Interesting... I'd like to see this commercial.
08.20.02
Michelle Yeoh's latest movie gets a so-so review from Time Asia: A Touch Familiar
08.18.02
Lucy Liu is on this month's cover of Maxim. And she's looking pretty good.
08.17.02
Props to Monolid Magazine. Just got the new issue in the mail today... Good stuff!
08.17.02
We've finally got an Asian American contestant on Survivor! Shii Ann Huang, 28. An executive recruiter from New York. I must admit, I've never followed any of the previous seasons of the show, but perhaps this time I will check out Survivor: Thailand. However, chances are, she will be voted off right away... The new season begins September 19.
08.16.02
Went out of town for a few days.... Some stuff:
Emil Guillermo's article in SF Gate about the state of Asian Americans in journalism: I was the Male Connie Chung. Good read. (Thanks to everyone who sent this one in)
Check out The Transporter, directed by Corey Yuen, featuring the lovely Hsu Chi in her first Hollywood role... Looks like it could be good, or just really really bad. Lots of action! Yay. I'll probably end up watching it either way. (Thanks, Zach)
Trailer for Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Looks kinda cool.
Trailer for The Tuxedo, starring Jackie Chan. With Jennifer Love Hewitt. Yeah.
Van and Teresa are semi-finalists for MTV's Last Fan Standing! Vote for them.
HBO's Hard Knocks features Dat Nguyen in the Dallas Cowboys Training Camp. (Thanks Phil).
The New York Korean Film Festival begins today. Check it out.
08.12.02
David points me to a Chicago Sun Times article by Mike Houlihan, briefly profiling the Korean community in Chicago: A community celebrates diversity
08.09.02
Check out up-and-coming R & B singer Amerie. She is half black, half Korean.
08.08.02
Kick his ass, Lucy! Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
08.08.02
Continuing my streak of keeping up with the crap on TV, last night I watched the USA Network's premiere of Red Skies, the John Woo-produced martial arts action pilot. Eh. I have to admit, I got sort of excited about it. Reminded of the feeling I got the first time I watched Vanishing Son. I was like, ooh, Asians on TV! Then it all quickly began to sink in. So what's it about? Martial arts, Chinese crime lords and illegal immigrants. Lots of martial arts and shooting. Everybody seems to know martial arts. Of course, all the Chinese people know martial arts. The white FBI guy knows martial arts. Even the bad blonde chick knows martial arts. I guess that's because it's an action show with Asians. The bad guys are your average Chinese crime lords. Cookie cutter. Chasing the bad guys, we have Li (Vivian Wu), officer from China. She teams up with a ragtag bunch of American agents: Cross (the sensitive white guy who is proficient in martial arts and for-some-mysterious-reason-to-be-explained-later doesn't carry a gun), Kadeem Hardison (Yes, Dwayne Wayne. Shooting two guns at once, John Woo style), young African American lady agent (the rookie straight out of the academy who wants to prove herself), and this big Pacific Islander dude (with like three lines). Interesting, but you've seen it all before. Lethal Weapon 4. Rush Hour. Vanishing Son. Heck, Nash Bridges too. I suppose fresh moments are hard to come by in this genre. Still, I really appreciated Vivian Wu's pro-China officer character. If this becomes a series, I hope they focus on her, and not sensitive white martial arts man. All in all, it's a pass.
08.07.02
Big props to Dorothy, who won $636,000 by winning The Mole 2.
08.07.02
Yes, I watched The Real World Movie: The Lost Season. Why? Because I'm an idiot. Anyway, it was all fake of course, but the cast featured an Asian guy as Keith. This dude totally got the shaft. He was like the most boring character, and without going into all the cruddy details, the guy got the boot right away. The first Asian guy ever on The Real World, and it happens to be a fake Real World (that doesn't even make any sense). Not only that, but they make him boring as crap, and he gets "killed off" right away. That ain't right. No respect. Why? That's racist!
08.06.02
Just thought I'd bring to your attention something going down on the other side of the Atlantic: Making It, some sort of talent search show on the BBC. I don't much about the details, but it's a reality show where ten finalists are competing to hopefully win a chance to be a presenter on CBBC --which I'm assuming is pretty prestigious. Aaaaanyway, one of the finalists is an Asian fellow, Mark. I've talked to him before. Pretty cool guy. Check out his site here. He's gonna be on TV. I'm told there aren't too many Chinese guys on British television. Pave the way, man.
08.05.02
News/stuff to read:
Noticed that there are a lot of Asians in sports? It's true: Asians entering, playing U.S. pro sports at a fast rate (Thanks Danny)
NY Times article on pioneer Asian American photographer Corky Lee: Getting Asian-Americans Into the Picture
Michelle Kwan wins Choice Female Athlete at the Teen Choice Awards (what?): Wow, she looks pretty good in this photo
We've got an official cast for the Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song: A Cast of 24 to Perform 'A Hundred Million Miracles'
(Those last three come courtesy of Eugenia.)
Signs pretty much cleaned up at the box office this weekend. Writer/director M. Night Shamalayan should be pleased. That guy is golden: 'Signs' Takes No. 1 Box Office Spot
08.05.02
On Tuesday, MTV will broadcast The Real World Movie: The Lost Season. I know we got some Real World junkies out there, myself included. According to MTV, the Real World: Vancouver season was terminated midway through production, due to unforeseen circumstances. And now they're presenting the footage. Anyway, one of the cast members, Keith, is Asian --the first Asian man ever on The Real World. But there's a catch. SPOILER: The Real World: Vancouver is all fake. Completely fictitious. And at some point, Keith (played by Peter Shinkoda) is killed. And it sounds weeeird. See it for yourself, I guess.
08.04.02
Article on Eurasians in Hollywood: I'm Mixed, Like the Guy in The Matrix (Thanks, Zach)
08.02.02
I have never seen How High, starring Redman and Method Man, nor do I ever intend to. The visionary cinematic genious of it all would probably just be too much for me. Anyway, the film features Trieu Tran as "Tuan," and judging from the commercials and previews I've seen, his characterization is in the true spirit of Long Duc Dong. My, look where we have come since Sixteen Candles. That's racist!
08.02.02
"Maybe they figured I'd just look good in the suit."
Here's a little sumthin' sumthin' on Kelly Hu in X-Men 2: NeXt Men
08.02.02
I'm told Tuesday will be the finale of ABC's The Mole 2: The Next Betrayal. We will apparently find out who "The Mole" is. I have never actually seen a single episode of The Mole or its sequel, so I have no knowledge of how the game works. All I know is, they're down to the last three contestants, and one of them, Dorothy, is Asian American. Could she be The Mole? I certainly hope not. Those inscrutable sneaky Asians!
08.01.02
Signs director M. Night Shamalayan is on the cover of the latest issue of Newsweek. It reads: 'The Next Spielberg.' Yikes, that's a pretty bold distinction! Read the cover article here: Out of This World. Signs opens on Friday.
08.01.02
TV tidbits: Be on the lookout for The Chang Family Saves the World on ABC. It's an action drama in development for fall that chronicles a modern-day family of "ancient" temple warriors who battle evil. Hooray, another Asian martial arts concept. Be on high alert for this one. On the one hand, it'll be the first network series since All-American Girl to feature an Asian American lead cast. But at what price? More kung fu fighters. Because we all know kung fu, you know.
Ooh, the return of Russell Wong! The WB has ordered six episodes of the hour-long drama The Black Sash for midseason. Russell Wong stars as a cop who opens a martial arts school. Wow, more martial arts. I just can't get enough.
Oh yeah, next week on the USA Network catch Red Skies, an action dramedy pilot executive produced by John Woo. Vivian Wu stars as a young Chinese cop with solid martial arts training who comes to Southern California on a hunt for a high-profile criminal from mainland China. After being arrested for entering the U.S. illegally, Wu is adopted by the FBI regional office in San Diego and becomes a member of its team. Martial arts again. Plus, illegal Chinese immigrants! The fun never ends.
Michaela Conlin will play Maggie Yang on MDs, ABC's new hospital drama set in San Francisco. This is not to be confused with CBS' Presidio Med, the OTHER San Francisco hospital show. If these shows are set in SF, where the heck are all the Asian doctors? It's a question for the ages. No it's not. That's racist!
08.01.02
View the trailer for Shanghai Knights, starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson and Fann Wong.
08.01.02
Had a pretty good AIM conversation with Sonny Kang, the Korean American guy featured in MTV's documentary on the ten-year anniversary of the L.A. riots. He's currently an actor who's pretty fed up with Hollywood's perceived ideas of how Asians should be depicted in media and entertainment. Another brother in the fight, if you will. Unsatisfied with what Hollywood has been dishing out, he and some associates took matters into their own hands and shot a pilot for a Korean American series. Check out the trailer here: Love Among Us. Props, Sonny.