Christian Metal Band Sues Netflix Over Kpop Demon Hunters

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Christian Metal Band Demon Hunter Sues Netflix Over 'KPop Demon Hunters'

The Christian metal band Demon Hunters is suing Netflix and AEG Presents over the mega-hit animated film KPop Demon Hunters, for trademark infringement and unfair competition, among other claims. The lawsuit claims that the movie has caused “a substantial likelihood of confusion” and resulted in an “existential crisis” for the band, which holds the "Demon Hunter" trademark in several categories.

"In the lawsuit the band have provided some examples of confusion that already occurred, including an email they received in February from a man asking for a refund after he spent $500 on tickets to their gig for his 5 and 6 year-old daughters in the belief he was buying tickets to see the fictional girl band."

I'm sorry, but mistakenly dropping five hundred bucks on Christian metal band tickets, thinking you're getting Kpop Demon Hunters tickets, is a level of carelessness and laziness that defies trademark infringement.

---

Calif. Bill Could Create Designation for Asian-Serving Colleges

A bill moving through the California State Assembly would create a new designation for colleges in the state that serve large numbers of Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Although the bill itself doesn't allocate any money to those institutions, advocates hope that they could eventually use the designation to access funding for initiatives that improve college access, retention and completion.

---

Aoife Hinds & Billy Howle To Lead BBC And A24 Series 'The Ministry Of Time'

Aoife Hinds will star in BBC and A24's drama series The Ministry of Time, based on the best-selling debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. The series is set around a newly established government department that gathers 'expats' from across history to test the viability of time-travel. Hinds plays Sophy, who achieves a hard-fought promotion in the civil service, only to learn that her role is to help a time traveller -- Victorian polar explorer Commander Gore -- acclimatize to the modern world as part of a top-secret Ministry program. The Ministiry of Time is currently filming in London.

---

LEENALCHI: Live on KCRW

I absolutely love this band. Seoul-based LEENALCHI brings their undefinable pansori-infused traditional Korean vocal styling and rhythmic pop rock funk sound in-studio for a Live on KCRW session.

---

Dallas Asian American Film Festival

Dallas film fans! You are invited to the inaugural Dallas Asian American Film Festival, a hyperlocal film festival showcasing Asian American film with an Asian Texan focus, presented by the Dallas Asian American Art Collective. It's happening August 28-29 in the Dallas Arts District. For information and tickets, visit daaart.org/daaff.

Rest in Peace, Wai Ching Ho

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Wai Ching Ho, 'Daredevil' and 'Iron Fist' Actress, Dies at 82

Wai Ching Ho, best known for her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing crime boss Madame Gao in Daredevil, Iron Fist and The Defenders, has died. She was 82. Her Hollywood career spanned over forty years, with roles in Fresh Off the Boat, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, and Turning Red, among many others.

Most recently, Ms. Ho starred in the excellent narrative podcast Aunties. Written by Kevin Yee, and also starring Rosalind Chao and Lauren Tom, it's a fun comedy/mystery series that follows three Chinatown shopkeepers who secretly fight crime and gentrification. I highly recommend checking it out on Audible.

---

What a subway ride with white supremacists taught me about America

"On the Fourth of July, while I was on my way to a party, I found myself riding a Washington Metro train surrounded by hundreds of masked white supremacists. A subway car is supposed to be one of society’s great equalizers. But it was the last place I expected to reflect on what it means to be an American."

---

Dallas man sentenced after admitting anti-Asian bias motivated 2022 salon shooting

In Dallas, a man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a hate crime for shooting three women inside a Korean-owned hair salon. 41-year-old Jeremy Theron Smith pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon classified as a hate crime for firing more than a dozen rounds at Hair World Salon in Dallas' Koreatown in 2022. According to investigators, Smith had apparently "experienced delusions" that Asian people were trying to harm him.

---

San Francisco Chinatown’s historic Great Star Theater seeks emergency funds to stay open

The Great Star Theater in San Francisco is asking for the public's support to stay afloat. The historic Chinatown theater launched a GoFundMe campaign this month seeking $45,000 in donations to cover essential operating expenses. The nonprofit venue, which celebrated its centennial last year, is described as the last remaining Chinese theater in any Chinatown in the United States.

---

Gemma Chan Shares Update On Anna May Wong Biopic: "It's A Really Resonant Story"

Gemma Chan shares that her upcoming biopic on Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American movie star, is "still in development," with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and playwright David Henry Hwang adapting Graham Russell Gao Hodges’ 2012 biography Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend.

Texas father charged in 3-year-old's death

Wesley Mathews initially claimed his daughter Sherin was missing.



In the Dallas area, the father of a 3-year-old girl, who had initially declared his daughter missing, has admitted to forcing milk down his daughter's throat until she started choking and later died.

A father reported his 3-year-old missing. Then he told police he'd watched her die.

Wesley Mathews had previously claimed that his daughter Sherin, who was adopted from India, went missing on October 7 after he sent her alone into an alley as punishment for refusing to drink her milk.

But on Monday, he changed his story. After authorities had found the girl's body in a nearby culvert, Mathews provided investigators in Richardson, Texas with an "alternate statement of events."

Texas teen arrested for bringing homemade clock to school

Police say the device -- in the hands of a brown Muslim kid named Mohamed, no doubt --- looked like a bomb.



Okay, this all kinds of levels of bullshit. This week in Dallas, a teenager was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school. The kid made the clock because he is smart. He was arrested because he is brown.

Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'

14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman at Irving MacArthur High, is the kind of kid who tinkers with electronics and makes his own radios and stuff. He's a nerd. Nothing wrong with that -- he's just one of those guys who would make a homemade clock and bring it to school to impress his engineering teacher.

His teacher was not so impressed. His English teacher was even less impressed. She confiscated the clock and informed the principal, who contacted the cops. Ahmed was pulled out class and interrogated by police officers. To them, the homemade clock, especially in the hands of a brown-skinned Muslim teen named "Mohamed," looked too much like a bomb.

Disoriented Comedy Goes South: Texas Tour 2015

May 7-10 in Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio



Get ready for some laughs, Texas. Disoriented Comedy is coming to get you! This week, the first-ever nationally-touring stand-up comedy showcase featuring the fresh and diverse voices of Asian American female-identified comedians is embarking on the "Disoriented Comedy Goes South" Texas Tour. Four cities, five shows, all Texas. It's happening May 7-10, with stops in Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio.

Here are some more details. Follow the links:

First known U.S. Ebola patient identified as Dallas nurse

26-year-old Nina Pham contracted the virus while treating 'patient zero.'



The first person known to contract Ebola within the United States has been identified as Nina Pham, a 26-year-old Texas nurse who was infected while caring for the first person to die of the virus.

Dallas Nurse With Ebola Identified

Pham, a critical care nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, is one of at least fifty people who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who contracted the disease in Liberia and then traveled to the U.S., where he first started showing symptoms. He died last Wednesday.

Pham is reportedly in stable condition. It's possible that there may be additional cases among the health care workers who treated Duncan.

Banh Shop to change red star logo

Vietnamese American community complained the design was too reminiscent of the Communist red star



Well, that was quick. Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, has announced that it will change the logo of its recently launched bánh mì concept in Dallas, following complaints from the Vietnamese American community that the design was too reminiscent of the Communist red star.

Yum Brands will change Dallas Banh Shop's red star logo after complaints

In a letter posted on the Banh Shop Facebook page, Yum Brands Senior Vice President apologized to the Vietnamese community for the design, announcing that the company would change the logo and remove the red star from all materials and signage from the restaurant by the end of the day.

You might want to reconsider that red communist star logo

Taco Bell's parent company opens bánh mì restaurant with the worst logo possible. So much fail it hurts.



File under awful marketing... Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, recently launched a new bánh mì concept in Dallas called Banh Shop. Which is... neat? Interesting? Inevitable? I do love me some bánh mì, but the people behind Taco Bell better make one hell of a sandwich to get me to abandon my favorite bánh mì joint. But who knows? Maybe it tastes okay. That's not the problem.

Taco Bell's Parent Company Opens a Bánh Mì Shop...with Communist Star in Logo

Somewhere along the way, the minds behind Banh Shop designed the restaurant's logo with the stupidest choice possible: a Communist star. The five-pointed red star is a widely-recognized symbol for communism -- and a sure-fire way to get thousands of Vietnamese Americans really, really angry.

Dallas bar accused of racist business practices

Former employee says she was instructed to turn away customers who "sounded ghetto or too Asian."



In Dallas, an uptown bar is facing allegations of racist business practices, as some minority customers say they were denied entry based on a dress code, while white customers weren't held to the same standard. And according to a former employee, she was instructed to screen potential customers based on their ethnicity.

Former employee claims reports of racism at Kung Fu Saloon accurate

Stephanie Guidry, a former employee at the Kung Fu Saloon (yeah, seriously, epic eyeroll), says that she was told by managers to discern over the phone -- based on perceived accents -- whether customers attempting to make reservations "sounded ghetto or too Asian." If so, she was supposed to say the bar was booked.

store owners victims of repeat attacks

This is absolutely heartbreaking news out of Dallas, from last week... On March 7, eleven months after an assault at his liquor store left him in a coma, 70-year-old Huot Seng La died. Just two hours after his death, at the same liquor store in South Dallas, his wife Suon Xieu was shot during a robbery. Thankfully, she survived.

"Wife shot hours after husband dies from previous attack.

Who the hell shoots a 70-year-old woman? Cowards.

Unfortunately, this was only the latest in a series of violent incidents at this store.