I haven’t been paying attention to anything about The Carrie Diaries, the CW’s new series about Carrie Bradshaw before the Sex and the City years (which I like to refer to as the B.C.E.–Before Cosmo Era) but look! The trailer is out! And look! There are NON-WHITE PEOPLE IN IT.
Seriously, you guys. How is it possible that a series like Girls, which was deemed to be the most honest, real and down-to-earth portrayal of young women, couldn’t even show off a single minority in their trailer, yet this teen dramedy, destined to be the least honest, most outrageous and materialistic portrayal of young women (as a precursor to all that SATC has doomed us with) in the same city (at least, the tri-state area), manages to show off more than one non-Caucasian girl?
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It looks like McDonald’s has launched a new ad campaign geared towards Americans who often have to work through lunch – encouraging them to take time out to eat lunch by actually going out to lunch. You can see a longer commercial of the same campaign with the same Asian American office worker after the jump.
Shopping With GASP!
The buzz and excitement for Uploaded: The Asian American Movement was tremendous at the world premiere, even before the film began. But I was not among one of them and instead, I was quite the doubting Thomas. I was reluctant to watch this in the first place because I am extremely critical of many YouTube stars but I came down to support the crew team who put more than 8 months of work into this, especially by producers Farah Moriah & Julie Zhan, and the several Uploaded interns I know dearly well. So what did I think of the documentary after it ended? Read the synopsis and review after the jump.
From USA Today: ”For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S,” The Associated Press writes. News from the Census Bureau is “a sign of how swiftly the USA is becoming a nation of younger minorities and older whites.” Census estimates, USA Today says, that: “Hispanics, blacks, Asians and other minorities in 2011 accounted for 50.4% of births, 49.7% of all children under 5 and slightly more than half of the 4 million kids under 1.” According to Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau who is now a sociologist at Howard University, “this is an important landmark.”
We iPhone users are spoiled. I use my iPhone to its fullest, including using the Starbucks app to buy drinks at Starbucks, another app to read magazines… sometimes I even use the magic 8 ball app when I can’t decide an answer to a yes or no question. Now, there is even a more interactive app for people who want to find out more about the hosts of a show they are watching, what the products the show is advertising, where to buy the song they hear on television, etc.
On August 24, 1874, California’s commissioner of immigration Rudolph Piotrowski found 22 women aboard the American Steamer Japan who looked suspicious because they were traveling without families. He called them lewd, ordered a payment of $500 dollars for each woman to disembark (keep in mind a horse was around $20 back then). When the payment demand was refused, he detained the women and ordered for them to be shipped back to China.
A lawyer was hired for the 22 women, probably by Chinese merchants, and after losing at the local and California court level, their case Chy Lung vs. Freeman was eventually won with the Circuit Court and finally the Supreme Court. Fast forward 136 years, and Arizona and other states have passed laws that basically do everything that Chy Lung vs. Freeman had overturned, highlighting exactly why Asian Pacific Islander American studies should be an integral part of the American education system.
UPDATE: Rich didn’t actually know Lynn or Parry before shooting this movie, they were introduced to him by his friend Dave Boyle, after seeing his film and feeling like they’d be great in the roles. The film was actually more than that the originally reported $10,000…it was 30,000. The $10,000 came from the kickstarter campaign, and the rest Rich financed on his own. Finally, Lynn did introduce Rich to Sheetal, but Kerry is an old friend from film school who works as an assistant director, and Rich thought he would be perfect for this role based on their real-life friendship.
This film, Nice Girls Crew was interesting to say in the most. For three normally dramatic actresses to tackle on such outrageous characters with such zeal, I will say that’s the greatest strength Nice Girls Crew has going for it. It was presented as a collection of the first 6 episodes which in itself was more of a sketch than anything substantial.
By the 3rd episode however, the premise wore extremely thin and it became a bit of a slightly amusing chore to watch three characters bicker with each other in different situations, different episodes. The writing was extremely thin so it was only because the three actresses made the absolute most out of the lines that the episodes were amusing to watch.
I wonder if JCP, as in JCPenney, is the new KFC (as in Kentucky Fried Chicken). Ever since Ron Johnson left Apple (former head of retail) to become head of “JCP,” I’ve noticed that the department store has had hipper television ads. In reality, JCP is not the new KFC, but more like the new Target – at least when it comes to pastel colors and hip music. (Before Apple, Johnson had worked at Target.)
The recent suicide in April 2012 of 40 year old Qinggen Wang, a principal software engineer at Paypal, is driving discussions in the Chinese blogosphere about whether it’s worth it to come to the U.S. to pursue jobs, specifically ones that aren’t related to one’s passion in life.
The winner of the 2012 “B A Hero” Hepatitus B Public Service Ad (PSA) video contest was announced, and the above video by Isaac Mejia is the winner. The runner-up is this one by Josh Prasad, and the other finalist is this one by Holvin Louie. For those who don’t know, Hepatitis B is an incurable liver infection that affects one in ten Asian Americans and kills one out of four of those infected. It can be prevented through vaccination and avoidance of the bodily fluids of infected people. For more information, see the Hepatitis B Foundation website.
In the matter of two days, Manny Pacquiao has managed to alienate himself from significant parts of his fan base by stating some rather eyebrow-raising opinions about queer men and same-sex marriage. Firstly, he criticized President Obama’s beliefs about same-sex marriage. Next, it’s now been reported by the LA Weekly that he believes queer men should be put to death.
When I first heard that Mindy Kaling’s pilot, The Mindy Project, was picked up by Fox, I was cautiously optimistic — not because I don’t like Mindy. I mean, who DOESN’T like Mindy? She’s so girly without being SO GIRLY. She’s the gal pal that everyone wants to sit at a coffee shop with for hours and talk smack about everyone who passes by.
In any case, I was cautiously optimistic because I wanted to see her succeed — and it’s pretty difficult to get a sitcom that sticks. Plus, she has some competition with like-minded “girl” shows like The New Girl and Girls. But after watching the trailer for her new show The Mindy Project, I am more than confident that Kaling will finally step out of those supporting cast roles and into that of leading lady.
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- Uploaded: The Asian American Movement Review From 2012 LAAPFF
- Minorities Are Now Majority Of U.S. Births, Census Says
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- Nice Girls Crew Review From 2012 LAAPFF
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Oct 14: (Seattle, WA) From Fields to Family: Asian Pacific Americans and Food
Mar 1: (Atlanta, GA) The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946
Apr 26: (New York, NY) June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square
Apr 26: (New York, NY) America through a Chinese Lens
Apr 27: (Seattle, WA) SEX IN SEATTLE 20: HAPPILY EVER AFTER. . . (the series finale!)
May 24: (San Jose, CA) Sake San Jose
May 24: (New York, NY) A Conversation with artists Arthur Ou, Hai Zhang, and Julie Quon in Conjunction with America through a Chinese Lens
May 24: (San Francisco, CA) Literasians 2012: Writers Converge on the APIA Literary Continuum
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