Virginia band Tim Be Told playing Denver, Colorado Springs on national tour

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Tim Be Told, led by singer-keyboard player Tim Ouyang, center

Colorado music fans can get a taste of an up-and-coming Asian American indie band from Charlottesville, Virginia next week, when Tim Be Told comes through Colorado Springs and Denver during their national tour. Tim Be Told are alternative rockers led by a young, multi-talented Chinese American singer, songwriter and keyboard player named Tim Ouyang. The other members are Korean American guitarist Andrew Chae, Vietnamese American guitarist and backup vocalist Luan Nguyen, Filipino American drummer Jim Barredo and European and Native American bassist Parker Stanley.

Their sound is rooted in unabashed pop, with well-crafted melodies polished off with a shiny veneer of tight harmonies. You know the genre: think Maroon 5, and Denver’s own Fray. Ouyang brings a wide sonic palette to his songs, from simple, piano-based arrangements to full-on rockers. His voice cuts through even the densest wall of sound with an amazing clarity and power — you can imagine his soulful, gospel-drenched vocals taking the finals at American Idol, or the show-stopping spotlight in a Broadway production.

Ouyang hails from New Jersey and had already written dozens of songs by the time he was out of high school; Tim Be Told came together when the members were all students at the University of Virginia. They won the UVA Battle of the Bands, and have since become regulars playing the college circuit. The group released a debut album, “Getting By” in 2007, and they’ve recently released an EP, “From the Inside.” You can download the song “Analyze” from the new EP for free below.

It’s worth knowing that the band’s popular within Christian rock circles, but their music isn’t overtly Christian in tone or message.

You can catch the group during their Colorado swing on Feb. 9, 3pm at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Feb 10, 7pm at the Chinese Evangelical Church of Denver (1099 Newark Street in Aurora).

Download “Analyze” here, or check out some more songs on Tim Be Told’s MySpace page:

Here’s the band’s full upcoming schedule as they criss-cross the country (note that they’re back in Colorado to play at Denver University on May 12): Continue reading →

Meet Adam Schrager, author of “The Principled Politician”

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The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story," is a biography of Colorado governor Ralph CarrErin and I are trying something different from our visualizAsian.com interviews with Asian Americans, and hosting a conversation with our friend Adam Schrager, the author of “The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story.”

The interview is scheduled for Wednesday, February 24 at 6 pm PT (7 pm MT, 9 pm ET), and like our other talks, it’s a free call held over a conference line and webcast, so you can listen via phone (long distance charges may apply) or online (free). Just register for the call, and you can also submit questions both before and during the interview on the webcast page, and we’ll pass them along to Adam.

This is a good time to revisit Adam’s excellent biography of Ralph Carr, which was published in 2008. The paperback edition has just been released, and Day of Remembrance is coming up on February 19.

OK, you say, what’s Day of Remembrance, and who’s Ralph Carr, anyway? Continue reading →

Call for Asian American artists to exhibit during AAPI Heritage Month

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Kate Agathon is organizing an exhibit in Indiana for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Kate Agathon, a grad school instructor at Purdue University and producer for photographer William L. Snyder (who took the portrait above, which was used originally on AngryAsianMan.com in a profile of Kate), is taking on a big art project and she needs your help. She’s organizing a show called “ImaginAsian,” and inviting anyone who is interested in submitting artwork to celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, to get the art by Feb. 28.

You don’t have to be an “arteest.” You just need to fit an image or statement about the Asian American experience into an 8 1/2×11″ space, and submit it with a mere $5 donation as an entry fee. The project is a fundraiser for Purdue’s Asian American studies department, which is just getting started.

The exhibit will be on display at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation in West Lafayette, Indiana, from April 2-May 9.

Agathon explains the concept very eloquently: Continue reading →

Will people in Japan be able to pronounce “iPad?”

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Japanese have trouble saying certain English consonants and vowels. Will they be able to say "iPad" and keep it different from "iPod?"

Like a lot of geeks and a lot of people in journalism, I paid close attention to the weeks of hype and rumors, and then the official announcement yesterday, of Apple’s potentially “game-changing” new tablet computer, the iPad. For weeks, the tech media have passed along rumor after rumor about the device and its features, but the most vexing of all rumors was the name. Blogs tracked down trademark filings and obscure documents and the main contenders for the name were “iSlate” and “iTablet.” At the last minute, “iPad” was proposed.

And during Apple’s hour-and-a-half media event unveiling the gadget, Steve Jobs immediately announced it would indeed be called the “iPad.”

Then I immediately thought, “Wow, I wonder how the Japanese are going to deal with this name?”

The iPod has been long-established in Japan as the premiere digital music player, as it is all over the world. I saw “i-pahd-do” everywhere in Tokyo, in shop windows and being used by music fans, with those iconic but crappy white earbuds.

Now comes the iPad. And I predict there will be some major consumer confusion stirred up in Japan. Continue reading →

Retired sumo champ Akebono on Japanese promo for “Glee!”

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I saw this on Angry Asian Man and it made me smile, both because Erin and I really enjoy the Fox series “Glee!” and because it’s good to see that Akebono, the sumo wrestler who sings “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the commercial, is still a star with drawing power in Japan.

You might notice that for a sumo wrestler, Akebono sings the Journey chestnut with nary a Japanese accent. He may not be a great singer (ahem) but his accent is American. That’s because he was born in Hawai’i, and his real name is Chad Haakeo Rowan. In 1993, he shocked Japan and the sumo establishment by becoming the first foreigner ever to win the coveted title of Yokozuna — Grand Champion.

I remember my mom, who’s addicted to watching sumo via NHK satellite here in Colorado (her schedule revolves around being home for the matches, or as a last resort videotaping them), expressing her amazement and incredulity: “Hehhhhhhhhhhh? Hahhhhhhhhhhh? He’s not Nihonjin!”

Akebono was Yokozuna for eight years and won 11 championship tournaments during his reign, and became a Japanese citizen in 1996 before retiring from sumo competition in 2001 to become a coach.

He probably relished the chance to sing a Journey hit for the commercial (the song was part of an episode of “Glee!” last season). Akebono was born in 1969 and grew up in Hawai’i — he played basketball and football in high school — so he may have been a young fan of Journey when the song was a huge hit in 1981.

The commercial is an interesting cross-cultural artifact on several levels of the ongoing give-and-take relationship between the United States and Japan. And, it made me smile. Rock on, Akebono!

UPDATE: Japanese TV viewers can expect to see more of Akebono in a series of promos for “Glee!,” which debuts its first season Feb. 11 (with subtitles), while we in the U.S. wait until April for the start of the series’ second season. Here’s another spot, with Akebono playing a salaryman: