Why Mumbai?
November 29, 2008
WHAT THEY HATE ABOUT MUMBAI
“Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim man living in a shack without indoor plumbing what kept him in the city. ‘Mumbai is a golden songbird,” he said. It flies quick and sly, and you’ll have to work hard to catch it, but if you do, a fabulous fortune will open up for you.’ The executives who congregated in the Taj Mahal hotel were chasing this golden songbird.”
New York University journalism professor Suketu Mehta explains why terrorists targeted Bollywood in an op-ed piece printed in the Nov. 28 edition of The New York Times.
L.A. Confidential
November 18, 2008
Photographer Yasumasa Yonehara, MySpace
Hope Out of Gloom
November 13, 2008
Aquila, the Tri-State High School yearbook of 1944 at first glance seems quiet commonplace: goofy-looking faculty, fresh-faced class officers, the prom queen and her court. But there are giveaways. First, Tri-State’s location: Newell, California, but more precisely, Tulelake, California, the infamous World War II segregation center for those deemed disloyal, renunciates and dissidents from the other nine War Relocation Authority internment camps for Japanese Americans during WWII. Even the yearbook’s theme “Hope Out of Gloom” is not the naively upbeat message of a high school picture book. And then there are the subtle depictions of guard towers, machine guns, barbed wire. H/T Mark Frauenfelder, boingboing.
Feelin’ Patriotic?
November 8, 2008
The Devil of SHAMISEN plays in Seattle, WA.
Jeremy Yamaguchi, 19, Wins Placentia Council Seat
November 5, 2008
Orange County, California’s youngest elected official, Jeremy Yamaguchi, 19, was sworn in as city councilman for the City of Placentia on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008.
- Placentia Elects Teen to City Council (Video), KCAL9.com
- 40 Under 40, Jeremy Yamaguchi, OCMetro.com
Election Night Big Win for Multitouch Inventor Jeff Han
November 5, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama wasn’t the only winner Nov. 4. Election night was also a defining moment for entrepreneur and NYU researcher Jefferson Y. Han, 32, and his advanced graphics firm, Perceptive Pixel. Delivering the high-tech television election coverage for CNN, Fox and ABC. Han’s multitouch graphics technology, which allowed TV talking heads to come out from behind their desks to send dramatic graphical images of election data zooming across the screen to their viewers.
CNET spotlighted the Korean American Han and his Merlin-like magic touchscreens in a feature by Michelle Meyers, and you know you’ve made an impact of some kind when Saturday Night Live spoofs you. This is not the first time Han has surfaced on the collective consciousness. He helped to develop the seminal video conferencing software CU-SeeMe while a grad student at Cornell and was named to Time Magazine’s 2008 listing of the 100 Most Influential People in The World.
- Election a win for multitouch inventor/SNL Spoof/CNET/Michelle Meyers, 11.03.08
- Perceptive Pixel Website (relevant linkage)
- Jeff Han—NYU Dept. of Computer Science
11.04.08
November 5, 2008
Mandate
November 4, 2008
Asian America Goes to the Polls (in HD)
November 2, 2008
Nawww, I ain’t got nothing even remotely profound to offer vis-a-vis tomorrow’s momentous election, except that it feels like history is going to be made and that the people have a chance to make a huge impact on the political process, stir things up a little. I love the smell of history in the morning. It smells like… like donuts and coffee.
Back to Asian America, though, there are many, many leading Asian American groups prowling the electoral waters, aren’t there? Sending out press releases, making themselves available to the media. So business as usual on that front.
API this and APA that showing up on TV and radio saying we’re “trending” a certain way because of this, that and huh. Asians in the media have also had a field day, serving up their respective communities for the great white eye in the sky (now in HD). Asian American (National) Journalists Association’s recap will be seen on C-Span, Saturday at 3:45 a.m.
I only know one thing or maybe two. What Asian Americans don’t need in this potentially transcendent moment is for a bunch of slanty-eyed journalists to tell America what we’re thinking. “Now, with a report on the Asian American voting bloc, here’s our Natalie Nissan in Chinatown. Nancy?”
The awfullest stereotypes are being foisted as fact on why Koreans in New Jersey will be Obama’s ace in the hole or that Japanese Americans will go McCain-Palin because they are by far the most assimilated Asian American subgroup with a proud heritage of military service. How about the secret nobody talks about: That Asians are so totally racist, a Bradley Effect will have them going for Mac and Sarah in droves tomorrow.
But it is an exciting time. This is the most exciting political campaign I have ever experienced. I’ll be tracking the Korean vote in Virginia. Nobody’s talked about the influence the church has on this community and whether stands on abortion and the teaching of intelligent design in public schools will color their decisions. How will Obama’s criticism of South Korea’s trade surplus flavor their political bi-bim bap?
Then there are the newly naturalized Chinese and Filipino communities, different as night and day. Nobody’s even mentioned the Southeast and East Asian American communities. Asian American vote? Bah!
And… will our youth go to the polls in large enough numbers to be a real factor? Because they haven’t in my lifetime, even during the tumultuous ’60s and ’70s, when they were conspicuously AWOL.
I am upset with the “No on 8″ folks in California (those seeking to block the religious right-inspired ban on gay marriages) and, in particular, with George Takei for trying to ride the coattails of the Japanese American internment issue in a last-minute desperation move to stave off defeat Tuesday. Shame on you, Mr. Sulu. You almost made me mad enough to vote yes. You abdicated any leadership role in the community through your disturbing appearances on Howard Stern, which were sad and unfunny. And shame on the Japanese American National Museum for allowing itself to be a part of Takei’s gay marriage grandstanding. Bachi ga ataru, yo!
Okay, I gotta split. I’m going out in search of McCain-Palin lawn signs.
Yes/No on Calif. Prop. 8
