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October 26, 2009

Prediction: Denver band Hello Kavita is bound for national glory. Should musicians be praised and have the spotlight shined on them simply because they're Asian American? Of course not. But if some of us AAPI bloggers didn't pay attention to the Asian American artists out there, they may go quietly under the radar and not get any attention at all. Not that we make such a difference -- success in the music biz is such a random, arbitrary brass ring no matter what you are or who you are. That's the conversation I found myself having with Joe Nguyen of asiaXpress.com, the Pho King of the World, Ultimate Expert on all Asian American performers criss-crossing the country, and the ones who hail right here from Colorado, the other night during the Release Party for Hello Kavita's very excellent "To a Loved One" CD at the Hi-Dive, a popular local music club. Actually, this conversation took place before Hello Kavita hit the stage, during the opening act, Houses, which had a keyboard player that we figured for a Hapa, either Japanese or Korean mixed race. The fact that we focused on the guy because of his ethnicity even though he wasn't the main player in Houses got me thinking that it's silly to write about Asian American performers just because they're Asian American. And yet, that's the reason I made my way late on a Saturday night to see Hello Kavita. After a long career as a music critic, I'm not big on going out to clubs to see bands anymore, but this one is special. Joe had been raving about them for a couple of years, and he has good taste. The band's led by Corey Teruya, who's Japanese American born in Hawai'i and raised in Boulder. The music's credited to the entire band, but I'm guessing he's the creative spark that runs the engine under the musical chassis. It's still so rare to find a rock band fronted by an Asian American -- with the exception of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, who paved that road from the Denver area 20 years ago -- that I wanted to make my way out to catch their live show.
October 26, 2009

In Japan, people wear face masks as matter of courtesy when theyWhen President Obama officially declared the 2009 H1N1 outbreak a national emergency over the weekend, I thought, "good. Now it'll force Americans to wear masks when they're sick, or if they don't want to get sick, like in Japan. The Japanese (and other people throughout Asia) have always worn face masks to prevent the spread of illness. It's partly out of personal interest -- so they won't have to breath in allergens, pollutants or other peoples' yucky germs. But it's also out of plain politeness and consideration -- to keep your own damn germs to yourself. H1N1, or as lots of people still call it, Swine Flu, is the first time in my memory in the U.S. that everyone is being reminded of simple ways to stay healthy with hygiene (wash your hands often) and even told how to sneeze or cough (into your elbow). At my office building, hand sanitizer dispensers have magically appeared everywhere from the lobby to the bathrooms. And, there are signs and poster everywhere, including on the door to the bathroom and on the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom, with diagrams showing people how to sneeze into their elbows, and to wash their hands. I always thought it was gross when someone sneezed or coughed into their hands, which was what our parents taught us when we were told to "cover your mouth," but then extended their hand in greeting.
October 25, 2009

Lori and Jackson are an Asian American couple from Long Beach, California who love Thailand and want your vote to win the Ultimate Thailand Explorers contest.Help out a brother and sister, everyone. Lori Fujikawa-Choy and Jackson Choy are newlyweds from Long Beach, California. She's Japanese American; he's Chinese American, and they both love Thailand. They first went to Thailand as "college sweethearts" (awww, aren't they cute!) to do some volunteer work there and fell in love with the country and its culture. They've traveled there several times since then, but now they need your help to go again... as guests of the Thai government. They've entered the Ultimate Thailand Explorers contest, which sounds a little like a reality TV show and in fact would probably make a pretty interesting one. The contest is sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and it works like this: Couples from all over the world (not just spouses, but friends too) submitted applications and a video saying why they should win a trip to one of five destinations in Thailand. A panel of judges sifted through the applicants and chose five semifinalists for each destination. Our intrepid AAPI couple are semifinalists for Phuket, Thailand's largest island in the southern part of the country, and the site of terrible devastation from the 2004 tsunami. To get to the Finalist stage, Lori and Jackson need your help: the couples are judged this round by public votes on the contest website. As of this moment, the two Californians are third behind a French couple and a couple from Oshkosh. Take a look at their profile page (their video entry is above) and give Lori and Jackson your support and vote them to the next round.
October 24, 2009

I know it's several months late, but I didn't see a lot of sites spreading this around. Back in 2007, after the prison in Cebu, Philippines started using dance as a way to rehabilitate its prisoners by having them participate in a group creative endeavor and letting them perform for visitors, a video of the inmates grooving in the prison yard to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" became a runaway sensation on YouTube -- as of this writing, there are a mind-boggling 34,505,236 views and counting. They've danced since then to rock, classical, R&B and Filipino music. The prison's security consultant, Byron F. Garcia, the man who came up with the idea, even has a byronfgarcia YouTube channel where he shares the prisoners' awesome performances. But the coolest and most moving of them might be the above 10-minute tribute to Michael Jackson, which was choreographed and rehearsed in a 10-hour-straight session after the prisoners heard about his death, and performed performed on June 27 (Jackson died June 25 in the U.S., but it was June 26 in the Philippines by then). It's a testament to Garcia's progressive thinking on rehabilitating criminals, that these men (and some women, who are in a separate wing) can pull together and create what are essentially great performance art. Back in 2007, on the video of the Pointers Sisters' "Jump," Garcia notes, "This is a tribute to all Prison facilities in the Philippines (8 and counting) who are now adopting this non-violent approach to rehabilitation! Thank you, inmates deserve a second chance! If we make prisons a living hell for them, then we might just be sending out devils once they are released. Cruel methods to achieve discipline are a thing of the past! So, keep on dancing!" Here are the original "Thriller" video, and a performance of "Dangerous" (you can click to see all the videos of the inmates, and subscribe to them on Garcia's YouTube Channel page):
October 23, 2009

tetsuwan_atomu_1_21Astro Boy," the new American computer-animated version of the Japanese comic and cartoon that launched the revolution we now call anime, opens today. I'm more than a little nervous about seeing the movie, since it may not resemble the Japanese cartoon I grew up with, and because Hollywood really screwed up "Speed Racer" when they decided to turn that classic anime into a big live-action spectacle. (The following text is a re-worked version of a pre-blog Nikkei View column I wrote back in 2003.) Astro Boy, called "Tetsuwan Atomu" in Japan, was originally introduced in 1952, as a manga, or comic book character, and later turned into an animated television series. Created by the pioneering Japanese comic and anime (animation) artist Osamu Tezuka, his name stands for "The Mighty Atom," an image still vivid in the minds of millions of Japanese who had lived through the end of World War II just seven years before, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The cartoon character is best-known in the US for the English-dubbed versions of the "Astro Boy" series that first aired in 1963 and then was re-launched with a new series in 1982 and resurrected in a computer-animated film opening today, featuring the voices of Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy and Samuel L. Jackson. The story line is a spin on Pinocchio and superhero comics, mixed with a dose of Steven Spielberg's film "A.I." (actually "A.I." borrows more than a dose from Astro Boy). When the kindhearted Dr. Boynton's (Professor Tenna in the Japanese original) son is killed in a car accident, he invents an atomic-powered robotic replacement only to discover that there's no way that the android can truly be human. The mechanical boy was born on April 7, 2003 -- the far future -- in the original manga.
October 22, 2009

Racist "Fee Ling yu Variation of the racist "Fee Ling yuI'm starting to dread Hallowe'en. It seems like every year, there's some new offensive costume that makes racist fun of Asians or perpetuates a racial stereotype. I wrote about this back in 2002, when a really sick costume called "Kung Fool" was sold. Today I read AngryAsianMan.com and saw that mainstream America once again thinks it's cool to manufacture a caricature of Asians into a mass-market costume: One that's even available on Amazon.com. The Fee Ling Yu mask is disgusting -- the mask itself is bad enough, but there are variations being sold and shown online that include a different cap and thick round glasses. I grew up with this image of myself and others like me. It's incredible and sad and horrifying... downright scary... that I still have to see this now, decades later. Some of the annual parade of costumes simply perpetuate a stereotype, like geisha costumes and wigs that are standard fare.
October 21, 2009

MyFoxNY newsman Ti-Hua Chang reports on a video that shows a New York City traffic agent -- a parking enforcement officer, I think we'd call her in Denver -- who can be seen intimidating, allegedly cursing and making racist statements and possibly striking a Chinese man, in Manhattan's Chinatown district. I saw this first in an email, then on the new AAPI social news site, Rice St. The agent gave a parking ticket to the man, who claimed to Ti-Hua Chang he tried to explain that there was still a minute left on the meter (ain't that everyone's nightmare of a parking ticket?) and that his wife was down the block paying for more time.
October 21, 2009

Kabuki is one of the most dynamic and interesting theatrical forms in Japan.Like any school kid, I loved going on field trips when I was young, But, since we lived in Japan until 3rd grade, my earliest memories of field trips weren't the typical ones that American kids remember. I remember looking out of a school bus and seeing steaming lumps of sticky rice being pounded into mochi for New Year's celebrations, for example (I think we were on the way to a shrine where we learned about Oshogatsu, or Japanese New Year, traditions). And, I have a distinct memory of going from Green Park Elementary School, on a U.S. Army base in Tokyo (it's no longer there), to a grand old theater in the heart of Tokyo to see a form of traditional Japanese theater, kabuki. A lot of Americans probably know the word "kabuki" because it's been used for restaurants and hotels and other products. Like "Sukiyaki," "Mikado" and other words, they've become shorthand for "something Japanese." But many Americans who've heard the word probably don't know that kabuki is a cultural treasure in Japan, an artform dating back to the early 1600s that's a bit like a mix of stylized Chinese opera and melodramatic Western-style opera. The Japanese government is hoping to change that, and make more Americans aware of the traditions of kabuki. They're sponsoring a U.S. tour of a lecture/performance called "Backstage to Hanamichi," starring two of Japan's kabuki masters, Kyozo Nakamura and Matanosuke Nakamura (no relation) from the world-renowned Shochiku Company. Denver gets its introduction to kabuki this Saturday, Oct. 24, at the June Swaner Gates Concert Hall at Denver University, 2344 East Iliff Ave. (303-871-7720 for the box office). The performance costs $25. I have vivid memories from my childhood field trip: