A’s Suzuki Accelerates Big League Arrival
July 27, 2007
The Oakland A’s have long considered Kurt Suzuki to be their catcher of the future. But no one expected the “future” to arrive quite so soon.
In June, Oakland promoted the 23-year-old Japanese American to the big leagues to learn the tricks of the trade from starter Jason Kendall, a former All-Star. Read more
Muay Thai Pulls No Punches
July 27, 2007
Recently, thousands of fans packed Arco Arena in Sacramento to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s pay-per-view event “Stacked.” The success of the event signified the growing popularity of mixed martial arts in the country today. Read more
Arts Briefs
July 27, 2007
Bindle Alley Party
EVENT: “Bindle Alley Fun Farewell Potluck & Party”
DESCRIPTION: Bindlestiff Studios is having a party in honor of Bindlestiff Alley, featuring open mic, comedy and theater.
DETAILS: Free-$3, July 28, 8-9 p.m., Bindlestiff Alley, 505 Natoma St., San Francisco.
CONTACT: gayle@bindlestiffstudio.org, bindlestiffstudio.org Read more
Marine Fights Fog of War, Saves Life of Comrade
July 27, 2007
FALLUJAH, Iraq — On June 7 a roadside bomb rocked the amphibious assault vehicle of Lance Cpl. Daniel Kim, during combat operations north of Fallujah. Read more
My Call to the Wild
July 20, 2007
On my nightstand rests William Poy Lee’s memoir, The Eighth Promise, number one on my summer reading list. The book has it all: there’s a maternal “Joy Luck” vibe mixed in with a touch of murder, some Chinatown gang mayhem and even the miscarriage of justice thrown in for good measure.
I’m reading it by flashlight because for my summer vacation, your columnist — the great indoorsman — has gone camping. Read more
Arts Briefs
July 20, 2007
‘I Bow to You’
EVENT: Traveling exhibition of Buddhist sculptures
DESCRIPTION: Featuring the recent Buddhist sculptures of Thomas Matsuda.
DETAILS: Free, July 20-22, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Palo Alto Buddhist Temple, 2751 Louis Road, Palo Alto; other dates and locations – please check website.
CONTACT: tmatsuda.com
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‘In Focus: A Conversation With Justin Lin’
EVENT: A conversation with the director of Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Finishing the Game.
DESCRIPTION: Moderated by Angry Asian Man blogger Phil Yu, a discussion about Lin’s rise from a student artist to one of the most established Asian American filmmakers in Hollywood.
DETAILS: $8-10, July 20, 6 p.m., NYU Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South, 4th Floor, New York City.
CONTACT: (212) 619-4785 ext. 106, aaiff.org, moca-nyc.org
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‘Delubyo (Deluge)’ At GR2
EVENT: Louie Cordero art show
DESCRIPTION: Cordero’s first solo show in Los Angeles. Paintings depict dead humans mutated into zombies, among other topics.
DETAILS: Free; July 21, 6:30-10 p.m. (opening reception), July 21–Aug. 15 (exhibit); GR2, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles.
CONTACT: (310) 445-9276, gr2.net, giantrobot.com
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‘After the Quake’
EVENT: La Jolla Playhouse presentation
DESCRIPTION: After the Quake is a collection of short stories, each measuring the hidden devastation of people after a natural disaster, woven into a theatrical play.
DETAILS: $28-60, July 24–Aug. 26, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla.
CONTACT: (858) 550-1010, lajollaplayhouse.org
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10-Year-Old Korean American Creates Green Hero
JACKSON, Miss. - A 10-year-old Korean American boy is earning international acclaim for his cartoon creation, GoGreen Man, an environmentally friendly superhero who fights against the forces of global warming.
Jonathan Lee, who says he created the character after watching a documentary on global warming, met recently with Senator and former Presidential candidate John Kerry. In June, Lee was invited to visit Korea by the Korean Forestry Service, where he met with the Korean minister of environment, as well as former president and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Kim Dae Jung.
Lee says he is currently working on a bill with the help of several American senators to increase environmental education for young children. Some of GoGreen Man’s enemies include Dr. Pollution, Petrol Pirate and the Trashinator 2007. Lee posts his latest adventures on a blog he created with the help of his father.
— Korea Daily
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Asian Stoners are Hi-larious
LOS ANGELES — With a few brief scenes in the summer’s smash hit Knocked Up, Charlyne Yi managed to garner laughs and stake a memorable claim in the film by staring glassy-eyed, giggling awkwardly, and making Katherine Heigl’s character uncomfortable.
Only 21, Yi is an up-and-coming comedian in Los Angeles’ alternative comedy circuit. The L.A. Times described her stand-up persona as “a nerdy, slightly spaced-out, utterly disarming, teenager.” The artistic director of L.A.’s Upright Citizens Brigade, Seth Morris, compared her to both Andy Kaufman and Pee Wee Herman.
Next, she’s in Will Ferrell’s film Semi-Pro, and she’s written and produced a pilot called The Doo Doo Show.
—Asia Pacific Arts
Case Study: Chiang’s Rapid Reponse
July 20, 2007
In the end, it was John Chiang who came out on top, winning the state controller race and becoming the highest-ranking APA office holder in the continental US.
As a tax attorney and an expert in financial policy, Board of Equalization member Chiang was perceived as more experienced than his Republican opponent in the controller race last November. Chiang nabbed more newspaper endorsements and was better at fund raising. His supporters said he’s simply better at controlling the state’s purse strings.
Chiang ended up with 51 percent of the vote to Strickland’s 40 percent, but on the dawn before election day, Chiang’s victory was not so easy to predict, despite an apparent shift toward Democratic candidates.
A last-ditch and pricey attack campaign was launched against Chiang’s campaign by Indian tribes with casino interests and a software company, just weeks before the vote.
Suddenly, a low-profile race was highly publicized.
Six tribes set up a $10 million independent expenditures committee, and began spending with a $1 million television ad campaign praising Chiang’s opponent. The move was seen as payback for the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which blocked major casino concessions that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was behind. Apparently, it didn’t matter to the tribes that Chiang had nothing to do with the legislative move.
Banking on Racism
July 20, 2007
Asian American banks are under attack — where’s the Asian American response?
For centuries, virulent anti-Semites have groused about “the Jews owning all the banks.” But, in recent years, equally unfair allegations have been leveled against banks originally established to serve the Asian American community.
My first experience with this was in 1993, when I served as campaign communications director for Michael Woo, the first Asian American to run for mayor of Los Angeles. Woo was also the first – and so far the only – Asian American member of the Los Angeles City Council, serving from 1985-93.
Woo’s grandfather and father were instrumental in founding Cathay Bank, based in L.A.’s Chinatown, in 1962. The first Chinese American bank in California, it was established to help recent immigrants who were underserved or denied credit altogether by mainstream banks. In 1985, Cathay opened a representative office in Hong Kong, and in 1987, it established an office in Taiwan.
Our opponents seized on his family’s connection with this institution to wage a negative, racially tinged campaign against Woo, a native-born, U.S.-educated American who didn’t even speak enough Chinese to order at a Chinese restaurant. In the runoff election, Richard Riordan’s campaign pumped out ads and mail pieces falsely insinuating that Hong Kong banks were illegally financing the Woo campaign. They included a gratuitous color photo of the Hong Kong skyline, and they outrageously accused Cathay of being racist because it made most of its home loans to Chinese-surnamed customers.
Hotel Tomo’s Grand Opening
July 20, 2007
San Francisco’s first J-pop hotel, Hotel Tomo, celebrated its grand opening on July 12.
Located in Japantown and inspired by the vibrant, manga/anime-style artistic energy that fuels Japan’s youth culture, Hotel Tomo has been designed to blend the attributes of a premier Japanese-style boutique hotel with a unique and whimsical creative sensibility. Read more
Inclusion and Exclusion
July 20, 2007
The Associated Press issued a terse summary on June 25 of an encounter that had taken place that day: “President Bush was presented with a letter Monday, signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program, urging a halt to ‘violations of the human rights’ of terror suspects held by the United States. The White House said Bush had not expected the letter but took a moment to read it and talk with the young woman who handed it to him.”
The story behind the story is that this was no ordinary group of students, and this encounter was organized by a young female Asian Pacific American high school student.
According to an interview on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! radio program, Mari Oye of Wellesley, Mass., and the other 140 Presidential Scholars were in Washington to be honored for their academic and leadership accomplishments. Instead of accepting their awards and moving on to a life of privilege, Mari and another student wrote a letter that was co-signed by almost a third of America’s top high school students attending the ceremony urging the President to “stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.”
Mari handed the letter to President Bush at the official ceremony, and when he read the part about torture, he looked up and said, “America doesn’t torture people.”
Movie Musical Lifts the Fog About ‘Colma’
July 15, 2007
Once upon a time, two college students shared a common bond in an uncommon love: musicals.
This month director Richard Wong and writer/composer H.P. Mendoza’s surprise indie hit Colma: The Musical will show in San Francisco theaters for the first time since becoming the darling of the 2006 S.F. International Asian American Film Festival.
What’s so special about the perennially foggy peninsula borough? Read more
Sicko Racism
July 13, 2007
I’ve always believed my father didn’t die from hardening of the arteries, but rather from the hardening of society. That is to say, it wasn’t just the pork butt in the adobo that got him. Read more