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Lifelong Japanese Scholar Becomes Japanese
This is kind of cool: Lifelong Scholar of the Japanese Becomes One of Them. Donald Keene was introduced to Japanese literature when he was eighteen years old in 1940 and found a translation of the...
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Information in the Information Age, and how Obama won
How did Obama win? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/obama-campaign-clawed-back-after-a-dismal-debate.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0 That was just one of several ways that Mr. Obama’s...
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Francis Tsai
I read on Jeff Yang’s Facebook that artist Francis Tsai has Lou Gehrig’s Disease. For those who don’t know, Lou Gehrig’s disease is one of the most terrifying diagnoses a person can receive. There is...
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Look-isms
Interesting: Book Awards Seek a Bigger Splash, Red Carpet and All. The National Book Awards in recent years has been attended mostly by industry insiders, so in order to jazz up the party, they’ve...
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Movie weekend: Lincoln and Red Dawn
I’m usually only able to go to movie theaters when seeing kiddie movies, but if I were able to make it to the movie theater for a more mature film, I’d want to see Lincoln. I read the book Team of...
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Psy rapped about killing Americans–Gagnam style?
Psy Hoo brah, it turns out that internet sensation Psy has spit some serious political lyrics in the past. This, of course, was right before we saw him in a steam room rapping about Gagnam Style. 싸이...
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Ravi Shankar dies at 92
Ravi Shankar with George Harrison Rest in peace, Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar used his sitar music to create bridges between East and West. He taught his Indian music to Western notable musicians such as...
View ArticleArt prodigies
In the video above, two young Asian American art prodigies are killing it. The art is probably a bit too esoteric for me, but I applaud the effort and success. (Thanks, to JSS for the vid.)
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Starting your own MFA program
Saw this video on FB, where artist Yumi Sakugawa talks about a DIY MFA program. Her whole group is Asian! I love the idea though, and I think it’s probably as good as any MFA program. I’ve heard that...
View ArticleThe Grandmasters
Wong Kar-Wai’s film The Grandmasters is finally coming out in Asia. It’s the story of Yip Man. From the trailer, it looks a lot better than Donnie Yen’s Ip Man. My friend Darren is a kung fu master...
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Eric Jacobus is Stryker
Check out the trailer above. Longtime bigWOWO commenter and podcast guest Eric Jacobus is Stryker in the new Mortal Kombat movie. We’ve been following Eric’s career ever since we met online years ago...
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The Art(ifice) of Promotion
Continuing our discussion on chess and learning, I’ve been reading The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. I’m almost done, although I’m not sure I’m going to commit to finishing it. Josh Waitzkin, as...
View ArticleRIP Roger Ebert
Film critic Roger Ebert passed away today at the age of 70. It was cancer. We’ve talked a lot about this before, but gatekeepers–including critics, publishers, film producers, and other...
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Chinese movie tastes not always in line with Hollywood
Robert Downey, Jr. in China (Photo credit: Andy Wong/Associated Press) Chinese movie viewers are turning away from Hollywood and instead opting to view their own domestic movies, which is a cause for...
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The Association of Asian American Studies and the boycott of Israeli...
Photo credit: Reuters I recently received an e-mail from Dr. Jonathan Marks, who wrote an article in Commentary Magazine about the Association of Asian American Studies and its boycott of Israeli...
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Music and the people
Photo credit: Alamy. From the Guardian. Here’s an interesting news item from the NY Times, not Asian American related, but we can think about it from an AA perspective. In Northern Mali, Islamic...
View ArticleInterview with Darren Leung about The Grandmaster
Darren is a friend of mine from college. He was Tony Leung’s trainer for the Wong Kar Wai movie The Grandmaster. Darren’s father Duncan Leung is one of the world’s top authorities on Wing Chin and has...
View ArticleSupercapitalist on Hulu
If you’re low on funds and need a date movie this weekend, Derek Ting’s Supercapitalist is free on Hulu. (I’m assuming this means he’s raking it in…in most cases, Hulu is much more prestigious than...
View ArticleWang Lee Hom and Soft Power
Thanks, N, for posting this video. It’s a speech about the power of pop music and pop culture. Wang Lee Hom is an Asian American from Rochester who immigrated to Taiwan and became a big pop star. In...
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Back to the Motherland! (Podcast)
This is a record–TWO YEARS since our last podcast. Man, have we been slacking. Well, here is the long-awaited “Back to the Motherland!” podcast. We recorded it on Thursday night, last week. It comes...
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