African-American Sings Enka on NHK’s Kouhaku Utagassen; Named Japan Music’s ‘Best New Artist’
December 31, 2008
TOKYO—Jerrold Jerome White, a 27-year-old African-American from Pittsburgh who learned to sing in the traditional Japanese enka style by listening to his grandmother’s records, was named 2008 Best New Artist at the 50th Annual Japan Record Awards Dec. 31.
And it was a fitting end to a storybook year which saw White, known as “Jero” in Japan, rise from an English language teacher in Wakayama to a household name in Japanese entertainment. Later, that same evening, Jero, a 2003 information science graduate from the Univ. of Pittsburgh, fulfilled a promise he made to his dying grandmother to sing enka on NHK’s fabled Kouhaku Utagassen New Year’s Eve broadcast.
White who traveled to Japan during his high school days to compete in a speech contest, learned the language from his grandmother, in high school and at Pitt. He returned to Japan in 2003 as an exchange student. He later found work as a computer engineer and English teacher.
Jero’s mother flew from Pittsburgh and was in the Kouhaku audience to hear her son keep his promise to her mother who passed in 1998.
- What’s enka? Wikipedia
- Jero Breathes New Life Into Enka, Japan Today
- Jero’s Blog (Japanese)
- “Our Man in Japan: Jero,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Jero, Wikipedia
- More About Jero, Mahalo
SPAMmander-in-Chief
December 23, 2008
- President-elect Obama’s Hawaii Lunch, HuffPo
- Spam Musubi, Asian Week, Phil Taijitsu Nash
- Spam Musubi: Chee, Not Exactly Rocket Science, Univ. of Hawaii, Baron Fujimoto
Nancy Wu’s Tasty Le Chanel Beouf Handbag
December 23, 2008
A wonderful bit of design humor is this stylish handbag from the creative genius of Art Center College product design student Nancy Wu, whose work, including her reimagined sports shoes, is the rage of the Internet. Oh, the bag is made entirely of beef jerky. H/T TasteSpotting.
Asian Americans in Hoop: Wonder Where the Yellow Went?
December 23, 2008
H/T SPORTSbyBROOKS
- Asian Americans Remain Rare in College Basketball, SFGate
- Where Are All the Asian-American Basketballers? SPORTSbyBROOKS
Sands Coffee Shop
December 22, 2008
She smoked unfiltered Pall Malls, drove a green, stick-shift VW Bug she paid for waiting tables at Sands Coffee Shop over on Imperial Highway and she was sassy as hell. How I got into her life I do not know—lies probably.
Previously Unreleased Documents About VT Shooter Seung-hui Cho Published by Student Newspaper
December 22, 2008
FALLS CHURCH, VA—Virginia Tech’s student newspaper Collegiate Times has published previously unreleased documents related to the April 16, 2007 murders of 32 university students and faculty by Seung-hui Cho, 23, including e-mails the Korean American senior wrote professors about his inability to speak in class.
“I don’t know. I’m not all that good at talking. I don’t know,” Cho e-mailed English professor Bob Hicok, Feb. 9, 2006, about his silence in class.
Hundreds of documents, including a campus police report about a complaint filed in December 2005 by a VT coed that Cho, then 21, was harassing her, were published Dec. 19 in the Web edition of Collegiate Times in an article by Editor-in-Chief David Grant.
According to the police report, the young woman said Cho scrawled Shakespearean verse on a marker board attached to her dorm room door on two occasions. The documents show that at least one other female student complained about unwanted attention from Cho.
In response the the harassment complaints, a judge ordered Cho to be treated at VT’s Cook Counseling Center after he was deemed suicidal.
- Documents Shed Light on Cho’s Past, Collegiate Times
- E-mails Reveal Cho’s Troubles at Virginia Tech, Washington Post
- Documents Concerning Seung-hui Cho, Collegiate Times
- Campus Police Report, Collegiate Times
- Virginia Tech Shootings Archives, Washington Post
NBC’s Ann Curry ‘Outs’ Rev. Rick Warren
December 19, 2008
Fall 2008 UCLA Undie Run
December 12, 2008
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Hundreds of UCLA students marked the end of final exams Dec. 10 by dropping trou for the thrice-annual undie run across the Bruin campus in Westwood. The run has lost some of its ribald cache of years past. Local TV stations and even the staid and nearly dead L.A. Times covered the event. Less Asians than years past, but it’s the quality that counts.
Obama Taps Steven Chu to Head Energy Dept.; Miami Heat Regain Winning Form Under Young Asian American Coach
December 10, 2008
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Read More About Steven Chu:
- Autobiography of a Nobel Prize Winner
- New York Times Profile
- Wikipedia: Steven Chu
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Bio
- How Termite Guts Relate to Global Warming, UC Berkeley News
Read More About Erik Spoelstra:
- 1st Fil-Am NBA Coach
- Spoelstra: Sweatin’ the Details, Oregon Live
- Wikipedia: Erik Spoelstra, the early years
- Miami’s Most Eligible Bachelor? miami.com
Obama Picks Shinseki for VA Post; Cao Elected to House Seat; William H. ‘Mo’ Marumoto Passes: Headed Nixon’s ‘Brown Mafia’
December 8, 2008
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Kogi BBQ’s Korean Taco Truck
December 3, 2008
You never know where Kogi BBQ’s elusive Korean taco truck will turn up next, but through the miracle of hi-tech it’s trackable on the ‘Net via Twitter. If you’re trying to avoid foreclosure or the ex or El Jéfe Say you’ve been laid off and you’re squatting in an abandoned and foreclosed condo somewhere in L.A. and you need something cheap and good to eat at 2 a.m., you’d be lucky to stumble upon these nomadic Koreano taqueros in some vacant parking lot on Wilshire or on Sunset Blvd. near Ivar, in the Sizzler parking lot (7th & Western) or next to the after-hours snack spot Hodori at the infamous nexus of Olympic and Vermont. Wondrous stuff awaits, like galbi, bulgogi, spicy pork and chicken tacos, binde-dduk (scallion pancakes), pork belly fried rice, breakfast burritos and Red Bull. This is quintessential L.A. dining at street food prices.
