President Barack Obama’s speech to 18th Annual Gala of the APAICS

May 10, 2012 | Author: Gil Asakawa

President Obama never fails to inspire with his speeches, and for me, especially his speeches in support of the Asian American community. The video above is from his speech in Washington DC on May 18 at the 18th Annual Gala of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

And while I’m at it, I’m embedding Obama’s historic interview yesterday with Robin Roberts of ABC’s “Good Morning America” yesterday, during which he states that he now fully supports gay marriage. Here’s the entire segment and a transcript.

Although I’m sure he and his staff weighed the political pros and cons of making such a statement and decided the cons may not significantly affect his re-election campaign (it may help it, particularly with independent swing voters), I think it took some guts to say it. And for GLBT people everywhere, I can’t imagine the power such a statement of support from the President of the United States must convey.

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Rocky Mountain PBS Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming

May 4, 2012 | Author: Gil Asakawa

This just in from Joni Sakaguchi of the Japanese American Resource Center of Colorado: Here’s a list of PBS programs being shown for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month through Rocky Mountain PBS. These documentaries appear a bit heavy on Pacific Islander coverage but that’s cool. Especially here in Colorado, there’s a great deal of interest in Pacific Islander history and culture. JARCC is the organization that has a small museum and exhibit space on the 2nd floor of Sakura Square at 19th and Lawrence that’s open by appointment only or on the second Saturday of every month from 11am-2pm (303-650-0708):

Check out Rocky Mountain PBS for their schedule of Asian Pacific American related programs. Enjoy!
- Japanese American Resource Center of Colorado


PACIFIC HEARTBEAT
PAPA MAU: THE WAYFINDER
Sunday, May 6 › 1pm
on Rocky Mountain PBS
In 1974, Hawaiians sailed the traditional voyaging canoe HÅÌkÅ«le’a from Hawai’i to Tahiti and proved to the world that their ancestors had explored the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean by navigating with the stars. Papa Mau: The Wayfinder is the story of critical role that master navigator Mau Piailug played in that voyage, and the rebirth of Polynesian unity and pride that followed. The HÅÌkÅ«le’a was built by members of the newly formed Polynesian Voyaging Society, who dreamed of sailing in the way of their ancestors. Shortly thereafter, a search began for someone who could teach them the art of non-instrument navigation, which had been all but lost until they met Micronesian-born Mau, who agreed to share his knowledge. Follow the remarkable journey of an iconic voyaging canoe and a new generation of Hawaiian navigators who, under the guidance of Papa Mau, revitalized and reclaimed Polynesia’s voyaging tradition. High Definition | Anamorphic Widescreen


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V3con opening night will feature singer-songwriter Connie Lim

May 2, 2012 | Author: Gil Asakawa
Connie Lim

Connie Lim portrait by Shane Sato (courtesy of connielimmusic.com)

The V3 Conference organizing committee got some great news last week, when we learned that singer-songwriter Connie Lim had agreed to be part of the Opening Night festivities for the third conference of Asian American digital media-ites that started as the Banana gathering way back in 2009.

Lim is an introspective songwriter with a mellow voice with a deep and wide emotional range that pulls you in. If you like artists such as Nora Jones and the new generation of atmospheric singers who walk the line between alternative, folk and pop, you’ll like Lim.

She’s been writing music on the piano since she was eight years old, and when MySpace (what’s that?) was all the rage, she obsessively recorded tracks and posted them online. She has a couple of albums including a 2010 seven-track project, “The Hunted,” and a few remixes available for purchase online on her Music page on the website, or visit the Connie Lim Store on Amazon (which includes her edgy, nicely-produced 2008 album, “Shifting”).

I love her music best when she adds an edge to her voice and the production has fuller instrumentation. Although her voice pairs perfectly with just a piano or a quiet art-chamber arrangement, I really get fired up listening to the rocking title track of her “Shifting” album, which closes out the six tracks on the release, where she pushed her voice through a variety of soulful textures from a whisper to a scream.

You can learn more about Lim from this excellent Feb. 2012 interview with AARising’s Nelson Wong.

Lim will perform at the V3con opening reception presented by NBC Universal on Friday, Aug. 24 at the Pacific Asia Museum, and also be a panelist the next day during the actual conference, which will be held at the Japanese American National Museum.

There’s two reasons right there to attend V3con!

Here are several terrific videos from Lim’s official website:
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Final (?) installment of Yul Kwon’s PBS series “America Revealed” airs tonight

May 2, 2012 | Author: Gil Asakawa

Program yer DVRs, folks. here’s an email from Yu Kwon that hints that if enough viewers tune in and let PBS know how cool the show is, the show may get a new lease on life after its mini-series debut:

I’ll no longer be on TV (clothes notwithstanding)

Actually, that’s not technically true, but I won’t be on America Revealed anymore. Tomorrow is the final episode. It’s a really good one – we explore how America builds things like cars, microchips, aircraft carriers, Martin guitars, and social networks. I don’t fall out of any airplanes or dangle off any wind turbines, but I do get my ego crushed by a chess-playing robot. Here’s a preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78EVBWvitcY

I want to thank all my friends for the tremendous support they’ve given me. Filming this series has been one of the highlights of my life, and I’m proud to have been part of creating such a high-quality program. If you’ve enjoyed watching the series and would like to see more programming like this in the future, please encourage your friends to tune-in tomorrow or record it on their DVRs. Unless we get a big bump up in viewership tomorrow, I’m guessing this will be the end of the road for this series. You can also show your support by watching it online (http://video.pbs.org/program/america-revealed/), ordering the DVD on Amazon, or sending a note to PBS (http://www.pbs.org/about/contact/viewer-services/).

I’ll be live-tweeting tomorrow night and answering questions on Twitter (#AmRevPBS) for both the east and west coast airings.

Thanks so much for inviting me into your living rooms this past month, it was an honor going through this experience with all of you.

Yul

Here’s an Angry Asian Man post about Yul and the series before it began.

Here are the first three full episodes:
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Canadian teenage girl rages against South Asians in her town

April 22, 2012 | Author: Gil Asakawa

Last year it was Alexandra Wallace, a UCLA student, who posted an amazingly racist rant on YouTube about all the Asians at her school. The video went viral, led to a bunch of satires by Asian Americans, and she got blasted for her insensitivity. She subsequently apologized for the video, then dropped out of school.

Now, the 2012 sequel to Alexandra Wallace’s video is by a 16-year-old secondary school student in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

This video is outrageously racist. She goes off on the South Asians in her town and at her school, and equates them all with terrorists, calling them “turbanators.” She complains that walking down the hall at school, all she can smell is curry, and ends the rant by urging anyone who’s “brown” watching the video to “go back to your own country. I’m getting really tired of you guys taking over my city.”

The video is so over-the-top, I had to wonder if she was mentally stable. At one point, the 16-year-old spells out her name and invites other white people to connect with her on Twitter and Facebook (I’m not going to use her name here).

Phil Yu of Angry Asian Man posted a full text transcript of the video (some of the audio is hard to understand):
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