Snapshots From Asian America IV
August 31, 2007
Asian American Tennis Stars Find Going Tough at U.S. Open; Meilen Tu Advances to Third Round in Women’s Doubles
WILD CARD ENTRANT Meilen Tu, 29, of Porter Ranch, Calif., teamed with Japan’s Akiko Morigami to score first- and second-round wins in women’s double competition now ongoing at the U.S. Open in Flushing, N.Y. Tu was beaten in a close first-round women’s singles match by Israel’s Shahar Peer, 6-4, 7-6. The mixed doubles pairing of Tu and France’s crafty Fabrice Santoro was beaten in the first round by American Mike Bryan and Australian Alicia Molik. Asian American men Kevin Kim and Rajeev Ram were beaten in qualifying matches. Lilia Osterloh lost to the Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis in three sets in her qualifier. Marilyn Abalos profiled the Asian American tennis stars for AsianWeek.
Cruising With The Midnight Ridazz
August 31, 2007
Southern California Asian Americans were among about a thousand bicycle activists who took to the streets Aug. 10 for the Midnight Ridazz Clown Ride. The 17.5 mile ride took cyclists from Hollywood into the Crenshaw district and back, wreaking havoc on traffic and disrupting LAPD Code 7’s throughout the night. The monthly rides are a mash-up of danger, subversive thrills and just plain anarchy. Was that Penelope Cruz in the black miniskirt? The next ride is Sept. 19.
- FIGHT BACK against racist jokes, bullying and discrimination in the workplace. Arm yourself with strategies from Racialicious Carmen Van Kerckhove’s Race in the Workplace.
- FOR MORE THAN A MONTH the children of Kid Nation hauled wagons, cooked meals, managed stores and cleaned outhouses, all in the name of building a society in front of reality TV cameras. Now, the CBS show’s producers are being investigated for skirting safety and child labor laws.
- 420 GIRLS—The content producers over at 420 Magazine have come up with a novel tie-in for the their celebration of marijuana—naked girls, like Keeani Lei, smoking weed (NSFW).
Snapshots From Asian America III
August 24, 2007
NOVELIST MIN JIN LEE got nothing but publishers’ rejection letters for more than a decade. Now critics are comparing her debut work, Free Food for Millionaires, to Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. Read more and listen to the author read from her book.
JAPANESE AMERICAN student pastor Eddie Uyesugi, 22, pleaded innocent to charges of confinement and battery Aug. 11 in Monroe Circuit Court. He is alleged to have beaten an autistic boy, 14, during an attempted exorcism. He surrendered to police last month.
ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL WAN J. KIM was the first immigrant and first Asian American to head the justice department’s civil rights division. After a turbulent two-year tenure, Kim resigned Aug. 23. His boss, embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Kim served with distinction and honor. Others weren’t as generous.
ALTERNATIVE ROCKERS YELLOWCARD have released their sixth album, “Paper Walls.” They are led by vocalist/violinist Sean Mackin, who is of Irish and Japanese ancestry. “Shadows and Regrets” off the new joint.
S.F. BUDDHIST MINISTER HIROSHI ABIKO has been celebrating Obon in the Bay Area for 50 years. Rev. Abiko was one of the early advocates of reintroducing taiko to the yearly Buddhist “day of the dead” in late ’60s, along with Rev. Mas Kodani of Los Angeles.
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE’S DAUGHTER SARAH was married last month to Chinese American Bill Lee. “Bill who?” Lee, 36, was CEO of Usenet newsgroup index RemarQ, which was funded the Sand Hill VC group. Lee cashed out in 2000. Former eBay president Jeff Skoll, producer of Al Gore’s global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, was Lee’s best man.
PROFESSOR IRENE MIURA, chairwoman of the child development department at San Jose State Univ. and a former member of the board of UC Regents, has succumbed to cancer at age 68. Her lifetime of achievement was chronicled by the San Jose Mercury.
Beautiful Bento Boxes… from Ohio
August 17, 2007
via flickr from Sakurako Kitsa
Inside the Miss N.Y. Chinese Beauty Pageant
August 16, 2007
This year’s Miss New York Chinese beauty pageant gave full access to The New York Times writer Brooke Hauser and she responds with “The Rainbow Runway,” a portrait that captures the pathos, rumors, scandals, contradictions of the pageant and how ethnic “beauty contests” reflect the idealized, sometimes skewed dreams of their communities. C.N. Le of Asian-Nation responds with a piece on the pressure to succeed in Asian America. (And don’t miss the NYT’s Miss N.Y. Chinese beauty pageant slideshow.)
Snapshots From Asian America II
August 15, 2007
- Pinkberry’s Shelly Hwang failed a few times before finally finding gold in frozen yogurt. Now, she’s the diva of desserts with plans on expanding her empire of swirly goodness.
- Provocateur-Writer Kenneth Eng was released after undergoing psychiatric evaluation in New York, but was immediately rearrested for threatening classmates and faculty back in his college days.
- War of the Worlds Art Director Al Nozaki was way ahead of his time in envisioning an alien invasion back in the ’50s. Curbed L.A. blogged that Nozaki’s Rafael Soriano-designed modernist home is now on the market in Echo Park. Nozaki died in 2003.
- Homegrown Defender Alex Yi is a mainstay on F.C. Dallas’ MLS pro soccer team. He’s 24, 6-3, 200 lbs and hails from Alexandria, VA.
- Educator Dr. Linda K. Oda has been appointed director of Asian affairs for the state of Utah’s Dept. of Community and Culture.
Whachu Know About Icee Fresh?
August 15, 2007
Asian American Entrepreneurial Phenomenon Calculated to Burn You Up With Gold, Diamonds, Grills & Outrageous Marketing Skills
STRAIGHT OFFA SLAUSON—Yo, check it out! Fuck class. In the hip-hop world, flash and shine represent wealth and empowerment. Ben “Y” aka “Ben Baller” (top) is the gifted front man of Icee Fresh Jewelers, which thirtysomething Korean American cousins Jeff Hong, Steve Her and Yang, have taken from swap meet anonymity to blingy mainstream brand madness without losing a carat of street cred. (More)
S.F. Nihonmachi Street Festival Memories
August 12, 2007
San Francisco’s 34th Annual Nihonmachi Street Fair is taking place this weekend. It’s a great community event that easily rivals L.A.’s Tofu Fest/Nisei Week mashup or others around the country. If you’re in the Bay Area, run down to Japantown and take in the festivities. Some OG’s say nothing better captures the spirit of the Asian American movement which gave birth to the fair in the ’70s than Leland Wong’s lovingly silk-screened Nihonmachi Street Fair posters. From 1974 to 2004, Wong created audaciously themed, dynamically illustrated, vividly colored posters that defined the event each year. (More?)
Snapshots From Asian America
August 9, 2007
August 6, 1945, Unforgettable Fire
August 6, 2007
Richard Sakai: The Simpsons’ Multitasking Juggernaut
August 2, 2007
