Check out the latest TV premieres, The Wonder Girls special, and the best season premieres!

TV PREMIERES

Jan. 11, Wednesday, 8:30pm/7:30c, NBC

Are You There, Chelsea?
Inspired by Chelsea Handler’s 2008 best-selling book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, the show stars Laura Prepon as Chelsea Newman and stand-up comedian Ali Wong as Olivia, Chelsea’s best friend since childhood, who has a healthy love life and dreams beyond a New Jersey sports bar. The series follows Chelsea’s narration and observations of her circle of working-class twenty-something friends.

Photo via businessinsider.com

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Korean American singer-songwriter, Clara Chung, also known as Clara C, is not only making her mark amongst the Asian American talent in the States. Following her first international tour, it is apparent that Chung is spreading her talent overseas—as seen in her recent spotlight in Seventeen Magazine, Malaysia.

Raised in Los Angeles, California, and a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Chung began her musical journey on Youtube and made a name for herself after winning Los Angeles’ Kollaboration 10, KAC Media Juice Night, and ISA 2009.

Chung’s soul-soothing talents stretch beyond her guitar strings.  Though she is pursuing music full-time, Chung also works part-time teaching autistic children.

Clara’s first international tour took her to Asia and Australia where she visited Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Korea, Tokyo, Sydney and Melbourne promoting her debut album The Art in My Heart.

To view the article, visit: http://www.17.com.my/2012/01/youtube%E2%80%99s-sweetest-clara-c/

When the Great Recession hit in 2008, millions were downgraded to part-time, furloughed or simply laid off. But if there’s one thing the recession has proven, it’s that sometimes a downturn in life can be a blessing in disguise.

ISSUE: Fall 2011

DEPT: Features

STORY: Shirley Lau

PHOTO: Kristy Lee & Luke Cho

It’s impossible to look in any direction without seeing someone playing the Words with Friends app on their iPhone or messaging a friend on their Blackberry. Despite government-issued checks being the sole source of income for many, it’s not hard to find restaurants with people waiting in a line that goes out the door, eager to spend their scavenged cash on a nice meal. It may look like the economy is getting better, but looks can be awfully deceiving.

Being unemployed or making a career change during what is considered by economists to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is anything but an anomaly. As of this past summer, the unemployment
rate was nearly 10 percent, about 31 million people. And with constant fears of a possible double-dip recession, it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.

So what is one to do when she’s living off unemployment and sending hundreds of résumés into a black hole? Some may choose to make a career out of being couch potatoes, while others are just trying to stay afloat, holding out for the day when they can make a career out of what they’re most passionate about. And then there are those fresh (and once fearful) faces who’ve changed their lives for the better — and they have the recession to thank for it.

A New Global Perspective

{ Cat Manabat, 25, Filipina American }
Previous job: Copywriter for start-up social media marketing company
Current job: English teacher

As a fresh college graduate from University of California, Irvine, Catherine Manabat wasn’t moving up at the start-up company she was at, despite being there for a year. Her paycheck barely managed to cover her school loans and monthly bills. And she had to sacrifice her freedom — without any residual income to live on her own, she was living back at home with her parents.

“It was very odd to come back [home] and try to assert myself as an adult-child, rather than a child-child,” says Manabat. “It can be a rocky transition for most. The obvious downside was I was still getting bothered almost all the time about going out, being out too much, being asked to run a lot of errands whenever they saw I had any free time, and not really feeling like I had my own space.”

So she decided to make a big move. Not to another state or across the country, but to Korea.

It seemed like the most viable solution to her money woes. As an English teacher in Korea, she has her rent paid for, finally has health insurance, is paid overtime and gets more vacation days.

“Life in Korea is great, and I enjoy my independence and the perspective it is giving me,” says Manabat. “It may be cheesy, but this experience helped me realize this dream, and also propels me to consider the world — and not just my neighborhood — in my future.”

 
Dream Job to Having a Life

{ Celena Cipriaso, Filipina American }
Previous job: Writers’ assistant for All My Children
Current job: Ad sales, freelance writer

It was always Celena Cipriaso’s dream to work for a soap opera, especially All My Children — the show she’d been watching since she was only 5 years old. So when she was laid off as a writers’ assistant after four years, she was heartbroken … and in a financial bind. Her annual income dropped by $15,000 — almost a third of her previous salary.

“I kind of fell apart,” she says. “I totally panicked. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t panic.”

Dozens of employees were a part of the unexpected mass layoff, some who had even been a part of
the show since its inception, says Cipriaso. She planned on making a career out of her job “until I died or [soap operas] died,” she says. Luckily, the show gave Cirpriaso a few gigs as a writer, which helped tide her over as she waited for unemployment to start rolling in. But that position, too, was short-lived — though monetarily it was worth three months of pay doing what she did as a writers’ assistant. “I felt like I was getting laid off for the second time,” says Cipriaso.

In order to pay her bills, Cipriaso took an ad sales job through a temp agency. “It forced me to be
very conscious with my money [and] look at my budget,” she says. Yet despite the smaller paycheck, Cipriaso is more satisfied with her life. At her old job she worked endless hours. “It never used to be daylight out when I got home,” she says. “My husband would be sleeping. I would see my husband on the weekends.” Now that the layoff forced her to find another job (“When I get really comfortable with a place, I love to stay. I never challenge myself for the next thing,” she says), she gets to spend more time at home while she freelances and works a straight 9-to-6 job.

When the Great Recession hit in 2008, millions were downgraded to part-time, furloughed or simply laid off. But if there’s one thing the recession has proven, it’s that sometimes a downturn in life can be a blessing in disguise.

ISSUE: Fall 2011

DEPT: Features

STORY & PHOTO: Shirley Lau

It’s impossible to look in any direction without seeing someone playing the Words with Friends app on their iPhone or messaging a friend on their Blackberry. Despite government-issued checks being the sole source of income for many, it’s not hard to find restaurants with people waiting in a line that goes out the door, eager to spend their scavenged cash on a nice meal. It may look like the economy is getting better, but looks can be awfully deceiving.

Being unemployed or making a career change during what is considered by economists to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is anything but an anomaly. As of this past summer, the unemployment
rate was nearly 10 percent, about 31 million people. And with constant fears of a possible double-dip recession, it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.

So what is one to do when she’s living off unemployment and sending hundreds of résumés into a black hole? Some may choose to make a career out of being couch potatoes, while others are just trying to stay afloat, holding out for the day when they can make a career out of what they’re most passionate about. And then there are those fresh (and once fearful) faces who’ve changed their lives for the better — and they have the recession to thank for it.

Turning Lemons into Literature

{ Kimberly Lin, 27, Chinese American }
Previous job: Hedge fund analyst
Current job: Financial analyst, writer

“You start doubting your own abilities. You always teeter on ‘Am I going to end up depressed and on a Cymbalta commercial?’ But things end up working out in the weirdest ways. You can control yourself; you can’t control the environment,” says Kimberly Lin, who, this year, made the transition from crunching numbers to putting her life down in writing.

Part memoir, part fiction, with a bit of therapeutic ranting, Recession Proof is Lin’s latest endeavor. Inspired by her own life events, Lin writes about her struggles with finding her passion during these tough economic times — all through the fictional character of Helen. It’s a drastic change from working stock market hours and being the only female analyst working at her hedge fund.

After cycling through three finance jobs in a matter of about four years, Lin was at a standstill. She hated her job and couldn’t satisfy her boss’ every whim. At one point during a bout of unemployment, she had to sublet her room and was sleeping on her couch because she couldn’t afford the $1,400 monthly rent, or the $3,000 to cancel her lease.

“I had time to really reflect what it is that I wanted and to reevaluate why was I always getting myself into these situations where I was constantly stressed and chain smoking,” says Lin. Now that the self-inflicted pain has stopped, Lin is able to write while also paying the bills as a financial analyst. Lin even has a second novel in the works, focusing on the trials and tribulations of 30-somethings. “It just never occurred to me that I could make a career out of [writing],” she says. “I look at the recession as a blessing in disguise because I truly believe that I would have not been as motivated to complete my book or had fodder for it had [the recession] not happened.”

– Shirley Lau

Purchase the Summer issue of Audrey Magazine here.

This may be one of the most affective advertisements known to date. Watch it if you need a good sob.

Thai Life Insurance makes a dramatic and overwhelmingly heart-wrenching advertisement titled,There Is No Perfect Father which makes an effort to teach us about the quality of life. It tells a story about a father’s unconditional love for his daughter despite his imperfections. Furthermore, the clip highlights the struggle of communication between parents and their children. Although many young adults may feel subjected to unusual and seemingly unfortunate circumstances at home, in reality nothing is that unusual in any familial household. We all struggle to find a common thread with our parents in many cases and will continue to do so. But in order to maintain a healthy relationship with each other we must try to understand one thing; parents may be imperfect but their love will remain unconditional and eternal.

That is a perfect way to love, if you ask me.

I heard somewhere that up to 70% of people receive gifts they don’t really want for Christmas. I know a gift is a gift but for those that are pretty practical, it causes the extra headache of re-gifting (which has to be very strategic, mind you) or returning or exchanging.

So the Asians may be onto something when we give money in red envelopes to celebrate our holidays.

This year, the lucky rabbit makes way for the prosperous dragon as more than 14.7 million Asian-Americans^[1] prepare to celebrate the Lunar New Year on January 23rd.  To mark the “Year of Good Fortune,” American Express is offering a limited-edition Year of the Dragon Gift Card that features the traditional depiction of a dragon.  This is another step by American Express in celebrating and embracing diversity.  The limited-edition Year of the Dragon Gift Card from American Express follows the success of last year’s Year of the Rabbit Lunar New Year, Diwali and ¡Felicidades! Gift Cards.

Take a look… isn’t it festive?
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Before I went to see A Noise Within‘s (ANW) production of Eugene O’Neill‘s Desire Under the Elms, I bought a copy of the play and read it. Though I initially found it difficult to read because of the ambiguous country dialect the characters speak, I found the play to be fascinating. It had all the key ingredients of a good, tragic read: pride, envy, greed, a juicy incestuous love triangle.. I was curious to see how the actors would tackle the difficulty in the unusual vernacular and how the larger-than-life, nearly archetypal Greek characters would be portrayed.

Eben (Jason Dechert, middle) with half-brothers Simeon (Christopher Fairbanks, left) and Peter (Stephen Rockwell, right)

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If you’re looking for some laughs this week, then head on over to Koreatown this Thursday night to the 1st ever Koreatown Comedy Festival! Along with hosts PK and Dumbfoundead, it features an all-star line-up that’s sure to liven up the night. And best of all, all proceeds go to LINK (Liberty in N. Korea) & KOLLABORATION (Empowerment Through Entertainment). So help a good cause and help yourself to a wild night!

Tickets: Presale – $11, At the Door – $15
To purchase tickets, click here

See you there!

Shay Mitchell on Seventeen Magazine via Seventeen Magazine

The Pretty Little Liars actress, Shay Mitchell graces the cover of the renowned Seventeen Magazine for the January 2012 Prom Issue. Mitchell, previously featured in our Fall ’10 Issue, models fabulous designs by Jovani whose prom line commonly consists of animal print, loud vivacious colors and bejeweled trims.

Mitchell does a great job in displaying the dresses as fun, youthful and suitable for dance-floor activity; an indirect antithesis to earlier years’ trend of puffy prom dress disasters. ABC Family’s sexy Filipino and Scottish/Irish actress cites her prom photo mantra as “always have fun,” because a smiling face always looks good on camera. With these dresses, young teens everywhere will want to do nothing else but that. At least, that is what Mitchell makes us believe with her very charming and flirtatious photo spread.

Project Runway, make room for 24 Hour Catwalk. Lifetime’s hot new reality show for fashionistas everywhere has designers scrambling to put together an entire collection in, you guessed it, 24 hours. The show is hosted by the lovely Alexa Chung, who is famous in Britain but is known as a television personality, model and writer all around the world.

Born to a three-quarters Chinese father and English mother, Alexa started as a teenage model but then went on to become a presenter on Popworld and other UK pop-culture shows. Before 24 Hour Catwalk, she hosted MTV’s Gonzo and It’s On With Alexa Chung. In 2011 alone, she appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar UK, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, British Vogue, Vogue North Korea and Teen Vogue, proving how much of a global style icon she has become. Her distinct fashion is sure to make an impact US audiences, who can see her tonight on Lifetime at 10pm.