Boom Boom Pow! The Black Eyed Peas in 3-D. Photo by Dimitri Daniloff.

If you’ve never seen The Black Eyed Peas in concert, you are missing out. There I said it. Taboo, apl.de.ap, will.i.am and Fergie know how to get a crowd of thousands jumpin’, turning an entire stadium into a massive, beat-thumping club for just one night. On Tuesday, March 30, the six-time Grammy Award-winning group takes to the stage once more before a sold-out crowd at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Don’t have a ticket? No worries. Continue Reading »

Have a secret stash of stories hidden away in your sock drawer? Tired of seeing all your writer friends find fame and fortune while you toil away as a barista? If you are, you could probably use some cold hard cash, like say, $1,000 bucks in addition to the recognition you so rightly deserve. Here’s the break you’ve been waiting for:

Submission deadline is March 31.

Hyphen magazine and Asian American Writers’ Workshop is putting out the call for the next best Asian American writer. This is no small writing contest — Houghton Mifflin published past winner Preeta Samarasan’s book Evening Is the Whole Day, which was long-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize (and, more importantly, was featured with an excerpt in Audrey, thank you very much). And this year’s judges include no less than Whiting award winner Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh (Picador), and Jaed Coffin, author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (De Capo Press). The winner not only gets one thousand ducats, she (or he) also gets her (or his — hint hint) story published in the pages of Hyphen itself.

But you don’t have a whole lotta time — the deadline for submissions is March 31. Go here for submission guidelines and info. And get writing!

How many times have you heard this one: “Ya know, [insert Asian group here] are the Irish of Asia!” Well, this St. Paddy’s Day, I’m turning this around. The Irish are the Asians of Europe, and to celebrate, we’re making soju cocktails.

Photo by DraconianRain.

We recently got a bottle of Ty Ku Premium Liqueur in the office (strictly for professional test kitchen purposes). Besides its nifty light-up bottle, we were intrigued by the company’s claim that the liqueur only has 72 calories per serving. Now, I’m not the biggest soju fan, but I could get my St. Paddy’s day off to a good start with Ty Ku Premium Liqueur. It’s soju, but it’s mixed with Asian super fruits like mangosteen and goji berry, which are full of antioxidant good stuff. And when you’re looking forward to the one night of the year where drinking is celebrated, you need all the antioxidants you can get.

But the best part is that each Ty Ku cocktail purportedly has just 100 calories per serving. Much better than the pint of Guinness I was planning on nursing the whole of the night. My Asian eyes will definitely be smiling. What are your St. Patrick’s Day plans?

1.5 ounces TY KU Liqueur

0.25 ounces Soju

Squeeze of lemon

Shake in a cocktail shaker and pour into a martini glass.

Continue Reading »

Ever wonder what it’s like to be one of the hottest and most sought-after deejays in the world? U.K., London-based DJ Kayper — whom DJ Jazzy Jeff calls the best female deejay in the world — is giving us a rare glimpse into her world with a series of digital shorts on YouTube called “On My Jacks.”

Photo by Pavla Kopecna.

The shorts take you behind the scenes as DJ Kayper travels “on her own” from club gig to club gig, and everywhere else in between. The first episode is particularly intriguing as DJ Kayper makes her way through some bad traffic (driving herself no less!) to Birmingham club Gatecrasher for a deejay contest. The best part is when she jokingly tries to get away with not having to pay for parking — something I would totally do if I were someone of note.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJvM-8CwS8g[/youtube]

The second episode features an uncut studio interview with pop/R&B star Jay Sean for DJ Kayper’s popular BBC radio program, The DJ Kayper Show.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqUHSoWWFtw[/youtube]

DJ Kayper was awarded the Best DJ Award at the Anokhi “Sexy and Successful” Awards and was nominated for a UK Asian Music Awards for Best Club DJ. See more about DJ Kayper in the Spring issue of Audrey Magazine, now available in AudreyShops.com and on select newsstands.

Last Sunday, the Academy Awards honored the late, the great John Hughes. If you’re of a certain age, I’m sure you agree that no other filmmaker so acutely charted our adolescent lives than Hughes. With one glaring exception — Long Duk Dong.

[insert menacing music here]

Yes, who can forget (and not cringe) every time someone mentions Asian American actor Gedde Watanabe’s infamous role as the happily clueless and fobby foreign exchange student in Hughes’ Sixteen Candles. I have such a love-hate relationship with this movie. Love love love Molly Ringwald’s unrequited crush-love on the quintessential high school heart-throb Jake Ryan. Hate hate hate the bad stereotypes that come packaged with “The Donger.” (Sorry Gedde!).

Well “Donger,” meet “Jimmy.” Filmmaker Dave Boyle’s unlikely hero from his endearing comedy White on Rice, which just opened at New York City’s Big Cinemas Manhattan (formerly The ImaginAsian).

Hiroshi Watanabe (Jimmy) on the left and Justin Kwong (Bob) from Dave Boyle's "White on Rice."

Jimmy makes for a nice bookend to Hughes’ Long Duk Dong — fobby, but in the best possible way. Jimmy, played with particular exuberance and heart by Japanese actor Hiroshi Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Ima), is 40 and finds himself having to share a bunk bed with his 10-year-old nephew Bob at his cousin Aiko’s house. Fresh off of a divorce, Jimmy earnestly sets out to find a new wife when he runs into his brother-in-law’s gorgeous niece Ramona (Lynn Chen of Saving Face). Sadly, Ramona has eyes for Jimmy’s way cooler coworker Tim (James Kyson Lee of “Heroes”). Jimmy wages a love war on Tim (who doesn’t seem to realize that) in an effort to win Ramona’s heart.

Dave Boyle's hilarious comedy "White on Rice" at NYC's Big Cinemas Manhattan (formerly The ImaginAsian) this weekend.

The film has won over critics both stateside and abroad in Japan. The SF Guardian says Watanabe does a “perfect job,” while Jeff Yang in a review for the San Francisco Chronicle calls the move “a cinematic milestone.”

The film is in a very limited theatrical release and only few DVD copies are available on the website. Visit White on Rice online for details. In the meantime, here’s taste:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/5719208[/vimeo]

Crystal Chiu and Michael Chen in Tze Chun's "Children of Invention." Photo by Will Serber.

Though we’re just a few months into the Year of the Tiger, I’m already getting a case of deja vu. From that guy who “made off” with everyone’s money to the mortgage fallout, the end of the last decade’s financial scandals are being resurrected in several films this year. But none takes these heady issues and turns them into a touching and at times heartbreaking story about a couple of the cutest kids ever than Tze Chun in his debut feature “Children of Invention.” Like lambs wandering a financial post-apocalypse, Raymond (intelligently played by Michael Chen) and his little sister Tina (the adorable Crystal Chiu) are forced to fend for themselves after their immigrant mother Elaine (Cindy Cheung of “The Lady in the Water”) is jailed on charges of working a Ponzi scheme. (I wonder who the lambs are supposed to be in this filmic metaphor?)

Cindy Cheung plays immigrant mom Elaine in "Children of Invention." Photo by Will Serber.

Since its Sundance premiere last year, “Children of Invention” has gone through the indie film festival circuit collecting award after award. Beating the odds, it’s finally getting a national — albeit limited — theatrical release. New Yorkers and Los Angelenos, block off March 12 when Tze Chun’s “Children of Invention” hits a theater (somewhat) near you. In the meantime, fall in love with these cute kids:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdZKPcT_3Ko[/youtube]

Though there are signs of a recovering economy, like so many crocuses poking their colorful petals out of the frozen ground, as a certain overweight rodent tells us, it’s still pretty blustery out there. Everything tells me to pull the covers over my head and stay in bed for a spell longer. But, if I were in New York City, I just might be persuaded to grab a few gently used items from my closet and head on over to Asian Women Giving Circle’s fundraiser, “Sip, Shop and Swap.” Held together with Circle of Sisters for Social Change of the New York Women’s Foundation, the idea is to shop your — or as in this case, someone else’s — closet for a good cause.

The “cause” can be any number of worthy efforts — all Asian American women-led. Proceeds from the fundraiser go into one big pot of cash that AWGC then awards to a community-led social change project. Since its founding in 2005, the nonprofit says it’s awarded about $270,000 to Asian women. Now that’s a stimulus we can all get behind.

DETAILS: March 17, 2010, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Bridge Gallery at 98 Orchard St. RSVP deadline March 12.

Women in Kuala Lumpur. Photo by Jaroslavd.

Happy International Women’s Day! Though the United States is among a handful of countries that don’t officially recognize the nearly 100-year-old day for women, Americans still use the occasion to bring women’s issues to light. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle celebrated with a reception at the White House. The guests were a varied group, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and even actress Kerry Washington. Obama even gave kudos to current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for adding, as she said on the 2008 Presidential campaign trail, a million more cracks in the glass ceiling. Nonprofit organization Women for Women International drew millions of women at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and London’s Millennium Bridge in its “Join Me on the Bridge,” a symbolic event with Project Runway’s Tim Gunn to show the world that women are the bridge to resolving many of the world’s problems. And the International Museum of Women is celebrating with a new online global campaign called Women on the Map.

But the day also had its critics, namely in the voice of Somali nomad-turned-supermodel Waris Dirie who said the day was meaningless because there’s still inequality and injustice in the world against women, according to a Reuters report. And of course, she’s right. Poverty, illiteracy and violence are just a few of the issues that unequally afflict women around the world, especially in Asian countries. But there are glimmers of light. Women in Haiti are rolling up their sleeves to start anew in the wake of a devastating earthquake. Meanwhile, in Cambodia women like parliamentary member Mu Sochua are single-handedly bringing women’s rights into the national vernacular, earning one vote at a time to regain her seat in a male-dominated society. Here in the States, American women for the first time in history make up half of all the workers in the U.S. In nearly 4 in 10 families, mothers bring home as much as or even more of the bacon than their spouse, all on their own. And, the 82nd Academy Awards crowned its first female “best” director in the figure of Kathryn Bigelow, a fitting bookend as ex-wife to Avatar director James Cameron, who, when he won best director for Titanic, cried out: “I’m king of the world!”

Well, it looks like it’s the queen’s turn.

Photo by * etoile.

I’m sensing a trend here. Cities all over the country and the world participate in some kind of sister city program. Los Angeles is sister city to several other global towns, among them Mumbai in India, Guangzhou in China and even Makati in the Philippines. But some cities are taking it even a step further.

New York City’s Carnegie Hall is already sending out huge press kits about its upcoming JapanNYC program, a citywide celebration with a Southern Cali counterpart scheduled to kick off late this year. Massachusetts-based Peabody Essex Museum is also gearing up for its April “Sensational India!” fest, featuring filmmaker James Ivory. The San Francisco Bay Area, meanwhile, is celebrating all things Shanghainese with a citywide “Shanghai Celebration,” a festival of sorts with films, concerts, art and all kinds of other special events all about Shanghai.

"Shadow in the Water" (detail), 2002-2008. By Liu Jianhua (b. 1962). Installation with porcelain and light. Collection of the artist. Asian Art Museum's Shanghai exhibit.

The cornerstone of this celebration is the Asian Art Museum‘s grand Shanghai exhibit. With more than 130 paintings, revolutionary posters, fashion and even movie clips from U.S.- and Shanghai-based museums, the exhibit attempts to cover the rich history of that most cosmopolitan of cities.

"Nanjing Road," 1947. By Ni Yide (1901-1970). Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Asian Art Museum's Shanghai exhibit.

"A Prosperous City That Never Sleeps," 1930s. By Yuan Xiutang (dates unknown). Chromolithograph on paper. Collection of the Shanghai History Museum. Asian Art Museum's Shanghai exhibit.

The Asian Art Museum’s Shanghai exhibit runs now through September 5, 2010.

DETAILS: Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco.

Here They Are …

The Miss Los Angeles Chinatown contestants!

The 2010 Miss Los Angeles Chinatown contestants.

This past Saturday, 16 young women strutted, posed and expressed their views on everything from the environment to the Tiger Woods scandal at the 2010 Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Pageant, held at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

Continue Reading »