Congratulations to Audrey reader Alice Han who won our Thank Goodness It’s Free Friday Giveaway for an Allison Dayton silver strung nest necklace with grey pearls!

Audrey TGIFree Friday Giveaway winner Alice Han and her Allison Dayton silver and pearl necklace.

A note from Alice:

Thanks! I love my new necklace. My daughters love it too. They wanted to try it on and I said this one is mommy’s special necklace. It’s beautiful.”

Alice Han and her two "baby birds."

Don’t forget, we have TGIFree Fridays every Friday, so keep checking back. And we’ll be starting up random POP giveaways during the week, just to keep you on your toes!

Are you a part of The Audrey Community? Send us your photo and why you love Audrey and you may find yourself on our website! (And just as incentive, we’ll send you some cool stuff, too …)

MCK Labs M2 Exfoliating Cleanser.

In winter, I pamper my skin. Lots of creams, lotions, masks … it’s a veritable moisturizing love fest at my house.

Come summer, it’s all about the exfoliation boot camp. Kicking the butt out of grime, oil and sweat is my daily mantra.

And MCK Labs M2 exfoliating cleanser is good weapon of choice. Ideal for all skin types, this skin refining gel cleanser combines mandelic and malic acids to gently exfoliate and remove impurities from the skin.

Now, if you don’t know what mandelic and malic acids are, pay attention. They’re essentially alpha hydroxy acids, which means they exfoliate dulling dead skin cells and eliminate the look of damage and discoloration.

But unlike typical AHAs, mandelic and malic acids have a slightly larger molecular structure, which results in slower, more even penetration and less irritation, according to MCK. This allows people who are normally unable to tolerate high concentrations of AHAs (like me) to enjoy the collagen-promoting benefits of M2.

It’s not just a cleanser; it’s a treatment. It’s got plenty of humectants to restore balance, and its natural antioxidant properties also help fight free radicals in the skin, which can contribute to skin damage.

So though I talk big about exfoliating and kicking the crap out of oil and sweat, I’m actually still pampering my skin. I’m just a big softie.

What would you do if America were a Third World country?

This is the question that the Asian American Theater Company‘s (AATC) new play Beijing, California hopes to provoke audiences to reflect on, along with their values and perceptions of other countries.

What would it be like if China took over the U.S.? Find out in this intriguing play, starting July 1.

The play is set in 2050 in an America that has collapsed due to Katrina-like disasters, its economy destroyed by a series of financial meltdowns (sound familiar?). The audience will follow three interwoven plots of characters and stories in the Bay Area over the span of 50 years.

The U.S. and Chinese presidents experience a shift in power as their long-term friendship is altered because of China’s rise over the rapidly deteriorating America. In the second storyline, a family struggles to cope with their economic problems. They find themselves trying to survive on a Third World income and eventually have no choice but to partake in a shocking business decision. The final storyline of Beijing, California deals with a Chinese American translator attempting to expose a terrible crime in a San Francisco that has been segregated into Baghdad-like militarized zones.

In the Year 2050, U.S. President James Cole (Garth Petal) faces off against his former Harvard Law School classmate, Chinese President Zhang Kai (Wayne Lee) in Asian American Theater Company's production of Beijing, California. Photo by Guy Stilson.

Beijing, California’s cast includes acclaimed actors Stephen Hu, Lisa Kang, Tom Lazur, Wayne Lee*, JanLee Marshall, Garth Petal*, Erika Salazar and Jennifer Vo Le. (*Members of Actors’ Equity Association.) Duy Nguyen, co-artistic director of AATC since 2008, is the play’s director.

The play premieres July 1 and will run through July 17, 2010 at Thick House Theater, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. Tickets are on sale now at Asianamericantheater.org.

Shorty Clothing "Le Petite" pouf skirt.

With a delicate A-line silhouette puffing from its slim waistline, Shorty Clothing’s “Le Petite” pouf skirt can be worn during the day for a fresh summer look or at night to give some flava to your evening wear. Lighter colors would definitely pop against this matte gold while darker colors would amp up your sex appeal.

What gets me going about this skirt is that it looks like the designer spun it from gold silk or decided to fashion it with a Hershey’s kiss foil. There’s a careless disheveled quality to it that solicits your attention, and upon closer examination, you can see how well it’s pieced together despite its cavalier look.

Whether you dress it up or down, Shorty Clothing’s pouf skirt give you the perfect sun-kissed look for this summer.

Kaila Yu is the lead singer of the Asian girl band Nylon Pink, and as they like to say, they sound like “Hello Kitty on acid.”

So it makes sense that if Yu is going to venture out into jewelry design for her line Hello Drama, you’d expect nothing less than punked-out cuteness. With a penchant for bloody cleavers, slashed teddy bears and heart-shaped handcuffs, Yu does not disappoint.

Her “Love” earrings are all geometric angles and sharpness, but with a message oh-so sweet. The gold pair is on sale today at AudreyShops.

Hello Drama "Love" earrings.

It’s good to be Jennet Chow.

Or maybe I should say, it’s good to be friends with Jennet Chow.

Not only does the Chinese American own adorable shoe line Jellypop and its sister shoe company Prima Royale, but for her 30th birthday, she decided it’d be a good excuse to give back to her friends and family with a huge Thank You party. Yup, Jennet was hitting the milestone, but she was treating her friends to all manner of sweets (gastronomic and otherwise) at her Southern California home.

From left: Kendra Liu-Ackerman, Jellypop owner and creative director Jennet Chow, Euri Wong, and Kelley Lee Gin, with their Jellypop gift bags.

Flowers by Fleuretica decorated the Chows' home.

For the party, Jennet called in some flavorful favors from friends. Flowers were courtesy of Fleuretica, a company run by two Asian American women, Euri Wong and Kendra Liu Ackerman. And Popisme Dessert Concierge, run by Asian American Kelley Lee Gin, along with Wong and Ackerman, set up an amazing “hanging” dessert bar.

The "floating" dessert bar by Popisme.

Guests noshed on pistachio macaroons, sea salt caramel macaroons, kiwi tarts, white chocolate cream puffs and chocolate chip cookie milk shooters.

Popisme offered delectables like pistachio macaroons and sea salt caramel macaroons.

White chocolate cream puffs by Popisme.

Milk & cookie shooters.

And what’s a party without some gorgeous baubles? Guests perused two jewelry lines, both owned by Asian Americans. Lucky Grace features beautiful jewelry handmade by Grace Lu, and Matt Wang showed off Guy and Eva pieces.

Lucky Grace jewelry by Grace Lu.

And of course, there were plenty of Jellypop shoes to sweeten the aesthetic palate. With dainty floral prints, stripes and wovens, candy-sweet hues, and lacy, ruffled details, the shoes were a perfect complement to the dessert bar and décor.

As sweet as can be, Jellypop shoes and look book images.

Jellypop shoes were prominently on display.

More shoes!

Want a taste of the sweet life? In another post, we’re giving away Jellypop shoes, so scroll down!

Photos courtesy of Jennet Chow.

We just blogged about Jennet Chow, the owner and creative director of Jellypop shoes. She threw quite a party for her big 3-0, and now we’re here to share the wealth with you! We have three pairs of Jellypop “Trendy” sandals for three lucky Audrey readers.

Jellypop "Trendy" sandal in antique gold.

The antique gold pair is a size 8 and comes in a gorgeous shimmery bronze color, embellished with bronze and clear faceted beads, bronze studs and sequins. An easy zip back makes it a snap to wear and elastic sides allow for a comfy fit.

Jellypop "Trendy" sandal in black.

We have two black pairs, one in a 7.5 and one in an 8.5. The black pair is smooth and matte, with jet and blackened silver faceted beading, black sequins and dark studs. It’s also got a zip back and elastic sides. So cute for summer!

So just click on this post’s title and it’ll take you to a page where you can comment to your heart’s content! Don’t forget to tell us your preferred size (you can pick more than one size), and you must have a U.S. mailing address to win.

You have until Wednesday, June 30, 11:59 pm to comment. Good luck!

When I went to Hawaii a couple months ago, I lived in my hat.

Here’s what I envisioned: A holiday chic look, lounging by an infinity pool or scouring a local handicraft market, with oversized Alexander Wang sunglasses adding an air of mystery and Chanel Le Vernis in Jade on the toenails.

After looking at the photos, here’s what actually was: Pale, pasty, practically all vision obscured by my blah-colored hat. You couldn’t tell from the photos whether I was 36 or 63.

Lesson learned. Next time, I’m going with San Diego Hat Company paper braid hat with extra large brim. The happy, sunny hue alone is enough to liven up any holiday chic look.

San Diego paper braid X-L brim hat.

That, and some serious self-tanner.

Film: Make Believe

Watch it at: Los Angeles Film Festival, Saturday 6/26 @ 5:00pm, Regal Cinemas LA Live, 1000 West Olympic Boulevard

A massive oil spill is destroying the environment. The U.S. just fired one of the guys in charge of the war it’s fighting. Women are still using sporting events as an excuse to wear very little clothing. So why, why, why should we care about some kids and their magic tricks?

We all had friends who did magic tricks, and I–despite being way uncool myself (stuttered, wore big glasses etc) — despised them. First, the ones I knew were all disheveled and sometimes drooled. Then there’s picking cards. I hated picking cards because I knew that somehow, by some hell-spawned pact with Satan, they knew; and even if I forgot, they still knew it was a three of clubs. For some reason, I couldn’t handle that. So while everyone would “ooh” and “ahh,” I would “meh.” Move on. It felt good, purging to my 12-year-old ego.

A decade later, reading the synopsis for Make Believe, I thought to myself: well well. Look who’s come back to play. I chuckled. I stroked my cat, slowly.

It’s a simple plot. Every year Las Vegas hosts the World Magic Seminar, where a popular vote determines the Teen World Champion. It’s the summer Olympics to Michael Phelps, the Pokemon tournament to Ash Ketchum, the World Cup to the world (minus the U.S.). It’s so competitive, yearning magicians frequently take time off from school and college to prepare. Director J. Clay Tweel films six contestants (including two from South Africa and one from Japan (!) more on him later) for over a year. The whole thing would seem pretty mundane to us non-magical folk, except for one simple thing: these kids love magic.

You know how someone can love something so much (swimming, soccer, pokemon etc) that you can’t help but take note? Well, I kind of love magic now too. And I love Hiroki Hana, the film’s card-throwing, kabuki-mask-wearing magician contestant from Kitayama, Japan. There’s a scene where Hana stands atop a classic, karate-master-locale hill in Japan, perfect 360 degree fans of playing cards splayed in each hand, where I realized, I was so wrong about these losers. I mean, magicians.

Hiroki Hana, shiny in real life too. Photo courtesy of Hiroki Hana

So it didn’t help my guilt when, after the screening, teen magician Derek McKee waxed poetic about performing for friends: “They wouldn’t care. I’d bam ‘em, and they’re like “so.”"

“And it took me two years to [be able to] do that.”

Now, I can’t in good conscience take one movie and use it to justify doing something so broad as to “follow your passions.” What if your passion happens to be Bud Light Lime? Yet, after watching Make Believe, it’s hard not to root for these kids and their obsessive, sometimes-strange pursuit of their dreams. Those people who said you can be whatever you want to be, well they were right — every now and then.

Now let’s all take a deep breath, and go back to studying for law school.

The cast and director of Make Believe after a screening at the LA Film Festival

I enjoy movies. I watch them when I can, especially on rainy days, which make the best days for movie hopping. But don’t tell my mother.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen a movie with my busy schedule and whatnot. I believe the last movie I watched was Avatar, which was dope, but pathetic seeing that so many great movies have come and gone since then. New Moon and Sex and the City 2 come to mind.

So when I had the opportunity to go check out the LA Film Festival, something I’ve always wanted to do, of course I was down. Movies galore.

Sunday was my only availability for the week, so I made my way down with my sister and best friend to watch the premiere of South Korean film critic Jung Sung-il’s debut of Café Noir. It sounded promising based on the synopsis, despite the somewhat unfamiliar references to Dostoevsky’s White Nights and Johann Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. It sounded like an epic Korean drama. And besides, I had read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment in high school and Goethe’s play Faust. I trusted my theatre and English double major to take care of the rest.

A scene from the deliberat, frustrating, excruciating "Cafe Noir."

Wrong.

Wrong wrong wrong.

The movie took on the bold task of being a double adaptation of both White Nights and The Sorrows of Young Werther, which resulted in my not being able to fully appreciate the struggle of Young-Soo, the music teacher protagonist, in his search for love and a place for himself. Much of the significance of the movie’s beautiful scenes were lost on me as I wrestled through a duration of three hours to understand why the opening shot was of a girl methodically devouring her cheeseburger as she cried, or how Young-Soo had jumped off a ferry only to stand before an aquarium to have a conversation with a mermaid in a wedding dress who only spoke sign language. And what was going on with the constant repetition of “You can’t go on like this?” Why did the movie cut to black and white for the second half, and why did that girl have a 10-minute monologue?

Needless to say, my sister and friend were bored out of their mind. At least I had my theatre and English background that had equipped me with some analytical tools and I had seen enough abstract theatrical performances to try to impose some meaning on the movie. For them — they’d come along to watch the movie for sheer pleasure — the movie was dull, long and unnecessary.

For those who are simply moviegoers, I think this sentiment is viable. Young-Soo never truly accomplishes anything. His mistress unceremoniously dumps him, he fails to kill his mistress’ husband, and a potential lover dashes his hopes to the ground when she finds herself back in the arms of her old lover. Young-Soo sucks as a protagonist.

Young-Soo in his search for love.

Fortunately, I got a little more out of it than just anxiety and a headache. Although the meaning, the story and the philosophical questions it posed were hard for me to grasp, I was able to appreciate the slow scenic shots that, for whatever reason, Jung had taken. I knew I wasn’t completely getting the point, but I could tell that the shots were carefully chosen, and it was a breath of fresh air from the typical million shots a minute I usually see in an action-packed film.
The acting in the film was also interesting because it wasn’t necessarily naturalistic as you would normally see in a movie about a young man searching for love. There was a deliberate quality to it that made it natural because it wasn’t trying to be everyday, it was everyday. It reminded me of a Chekhov play, and at the closing credits, it listed Anton Chekhov and Bertolt Brecht and some others for something that skipped by too quickly.

Although some of the spoken words were long, most of the dialogue was short and simple. Though few, I found them very poetic and discovered that what wasn’t said actually held the most significance. It was in the way the character faced each other, or looked away, or turned as the words that were said and weren’t said that depicted the most meaning, that revealed the underlying emotions and tensions of the situation or the relationship.

I also thought that whatever the story was, Jung had done an excellent job in causing the audience to feel something throughout the movie, genuine feeling. Throughout the movie, I felt myself anticipating action. I was waiting for something to happen. From the get go, Jung creates an uneasy suspense: something is about to happen, going to happen, must happen. This feeling is largely unfulfilled, which was frustrating. At various points in the movie, he would take his time with shots, allowing the camera to take in the landscape, and I would feel agitated, waiting for the shot to end. Young-Soo feels a sense of helplessness as the women he gets involved with him leaves him without any qualms, and he loses them without any say. The viewers go with him on this ride of helplessness as we are made to watch the scenery go by.

"Cafe Noir"'s helpless protagonist Young-Soo.

There were multiple times when Jung would film Young-Soo, or a girl, or both walking next to a wall or a river. Sometimes these shots would go on and on and on. And after the first minute or so, it would get uncomfortable, especially when these shots were in black and white. Nothing was really happening. But this was deliberate. None of Jung’s shots had been arbitrary although they seemed like it. They were too choice and particular to have it be random. The characters were usually walking right along the wall, nearly pressed up against it, or the river would be looming largely in the background. Most of the characters were seen in profile or squarely facing the audience, both strong images. Jung was intentionally pressing the wall and the characters onto the viewers, demanding that they look and listen. Even if we didn’t want to.

And we did. We did look. Watch. Sigh out loud. And even laugh at poignant moments.

It wasn’t the movie I had anticipated walking into the theatre. But it definitely made me think about the way in which film can be created to lift its 2-D self off the flat projection screen and press itself into my brain.

Check out the trailer and let us know what you think: