Win a pair of tickets to Kollaboration Acoustic 5

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Kollaboration Acoustic 5

The first reader to comment on this blog post will win a pair of tickets to Kollaboration Acoustic 5, a competition of the best young acoustic Asian American talent. The show is Friday June 17 at the Ford Theater in Los Angeles.

The competitors include Alexa Yoshimoto, Chrizle, Ensemble Memo, Jason Yano, Lindsey Yung, The Mood Junkies, Nessa Rica, Teesa and Tranley. The night also features performances by comedian KT Tatara and special guest, singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn.

Wish I could be there, but I’ll be stuck in Denver. If you’re a lucky reader in LA, or will be travelling to LA that weekend, be the first to post a comment (be sure to enter your email address) and I’ll get you on the list for two.

Here’s a preview:

Nikkei Nation: An experiment in web-based news for Japanese Americans

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Nikkei Nation Logo

I have to hand it to George Johnston, a Japanese American journalist and entrepreneur who is a veteran of news media.

After he got laid off from the Hollywood Reporter, where he’d been web editor, he launched Nikkei Nation, a site that features news about Japan and Japanese Americans, in categories from Arts & Entertainment, Sports, Events and Science & Technology to Japan & Asia, Community, Obits and Obon Schedules. He has a partner Susan Yokoyama handling the business and marketing side as Associate Publisher, but this is a one-man band, editorially speaking.

Johnston serves up the news several ways: Original reporting (he’s a fine straight-ahead reporter as well as a seasoned columnist), repurposing of press releases and aggregated links to many other sites with headlines and brief descriptions, such as these for yesterday:

Obama, Kan to meet on Thursday (Sun., May 22, 2011)
U.S. President Barack Obama will hold talks with Prime Minister Naoto Kan on May 26, the first of a two-day Group of Eight summit meeting in the French resort town of Deauville, the White House says. (Japan Times)

Hawaii’s Rep. Mazie Hirono announces U.S. Senate bid (Sun., May 22, 2011)
HONOLULU — The democratic field to replace retiring Sen. Dan Akaka doubles as Rep. Mazie Hirono announces her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. (KHON2.com)

Budokan lease approved, fundraising is next for Little Tokyo sports complex (Sun., May 22, 2011)
The Budokan of Los Angeles gets final approval to move forward after the Los Angeles City Council voted to grant a long-term ground lease to build the $22 million sports and activity center in Little Tokyo. (Downtown News)

Obama’s appeals court pick Gordon Liu blocked (Sun., May 22, 2011)
WASHINGTON — President Obama lost his first vote on a judicial nominee, as Senate Republicans derailed the nomination of a liberal professor who leveled acerbic attacks against two conservative Supreme Court nominees — both now justices. (Boston.com)

I included George during my panel last month, “From Newsprint to New Media: The Evolving Role of Nikkei Newspapers,” because he’s diving headfirst into an online-only business model. This month he took the bold step of announcing the free email subscriptions many of us have been receiving for months with daily roundups of all his news headlines will end, and if we want his news, we’ll have to pay for it.
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From Newsprint to New Media: The Evolving Role of Nikkei Newspapers

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I had the pleasure in April of giving a presentation, “From Newsprint to New Media: The Evolving Role of Nikkei Newspaper,” followed by a panel which I moderated, looking at the vibrant history of Japanese community newspapers. The program, which was organized by Discover Nikkei, was held at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Discover Nikkei is a project of JANM, and hosts its own very cool website that showcases the Nikkei experience from people of Japanese descent all over the world.

Like the newspaper industry in general across the U.S., publications that serve Japanese communities — both Japanese-speaking and English-speaking Japanese Americans — have suffered from tough economic times, falling advertising dollars and declining readership. But also like the rest of the industry, Nikkei newspapers are evolving to suit the needs of the future.

That’s the framework I wanted to establish in my presentation, which I’ve embedded above. I followed my talk with brief introductions by four panelists describing their history and various current approaches to Nikkei media, and then a panel discussion about what’s in store for the future. I’ve embedded videos of the entire program below, which was shot, edited and assembled by the Discover Nikkei staff as an album of video clips on this page.
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Interview Boxed: Discussion on WorldCompass.org about the “Arab Spring” and social media’s impact

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This was fun: Boston-based public broadcast company WGBH has added semi-regular brief conversations between several people on specific topics on its World Compass website. I was included on a recent “Interview Boxed” segment which was conducted via web video with me in Colorado, author, artist and host Damali Ayo in LA and journalist/activist Simba Russeau in Cairo, discussing the democracy movements in the Middle East and social media’s impact on these tumultuous changes.

This segment was actually the second one I was involved in. A month ago, WGBH videotaped a conversations between me, Ayo and New York-based spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the world’s reaction to the disaster. For whatever reason it was never posted on the site (there were a lot of technical problems because it was the first time they attempted the show).

I like this because it’s a harbinger of a new form of broadcast media — low-fi “talk shows” with people scattered all over the world weighing in on issues. It’s like a more democratic, low-budget version of cable news networks trotting out their expert talking heads every hour.

Mudra Dance Studio showcases its students in “Utsav IV” recital

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Watching this 10-minute documentary by Los Angeles filmmaker Geeta Malik about our favorite Indian dance troupe, Mudra Dance Studio, reminds me how talented and dedicated the group is, and how thrilling it is to attend their every-other-year spectacular performances.

Since they performed “ILLhaam… Cycles… ILLumination” last year, we’ll have to wait until 2012 for the next big show. But this weekend we have the opportunity to check in and see an equally thrilling, if less produced, performance, “Utsav IV,” an annual recital of the students of all ages in the troupe, starting as young as 2 years old.

The show will be held at the Lakewood Cultural Center off Alameda and Wadsworth, 470 S. Allison Parkway at noon and again at 4 pm on Sunday, May 22. You can buy tickets for $15 online or at the door.