On October 14th, Project Ethos’ pink-themed event, in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, was a night filled with entertainment from art to music to fashion. Held at the House of Blues, guests were welcomed to take photos on the pink carpet and invited to sign the Ink It Pink wall, where for every signature, a dollar was donated to the cause thanks to Sharpie.
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What better way to celebrate Christmas than with some Christmas music? Celebrating their newly released Christmas album, the YTF team would like to invite you to their very first Christmas Party hosted by Blended. The party will be held tonight, Saturday, December 10, 2011 at the J Restaurant & Lounge in Downtown Los Angeles. Featuring two of the most subscribed YouTube personalities, Ryan Higa and Kev Jumba, as well as Dominic Sandoval (better known as D-Trix; So You Think You Can Dance), Andrew Garcia (American Idol), Victor King (America’s Best Dance Crew), Chester See (Disney 365) and JR Aquino (American Idol), this will be an evening of music, dance and good company to lead up to the holiday season.

Come meet the members of YTF tonight at this party that will feature music, cocktails and live celebrity performances!
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Seeing one music video from JIN Akanishi was all the test drive I needed to confirm that this top-selling Warner Music artist, Japanese vocalist, musician, and actor has taken the U.S. by storm.

Akanishi’s single, “Test Drive featuring Jason Derulo”, which debuted on November 8^th, is currently at the #1 spot on the iTunes Dance Album Chart.

“I’m so grateful for all the overwhelming support from my fans,” says Akanishi, “It’s wonderful to know that they enjoy my new music.”

What sets JIN in the driver’s seat, aside from his good looks, luscious locks, and undeniable talent, is the apparent drive and determination that his character displays.

On the day of the debut of his single in the US, JIN arrived at The Beverly Center in Los Angeles where he was greeted by 300 eager fans gathered to help celebrate the release of his single hosted by KIIS FM On-Air personality, Jesse Lozano.

After a live performance of “Test Drive”, JIN was asked, “What kind of influence do you want to have on the kids in the U.S.?”

“I want them to pursue their dreams,” he responded.  “Never give up, and smile, because we were born to smile.”

It looks like JIN’s fans will be smiling into the New Year, as he is currently working on a full English album set to be released in March of 2012.

John Cho’s lighting up the holiday season with his new movie, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.

Audrey Magazine got to interview the actor during his LA press tour and you can catch his article published in the Winter Issue of our magazine (featuring cover girl Mindy Kaling). Purchase here.

Below, the rest of our chat.

How was it going back to the franchise?
I love coming back to this guy. I have a lot of affection for Harold as a character. i know guys like Harold, I [actually] know Harold Lee, whom the movie was based on, so I love it. Now I’m friends with the writers and Kal so it’s a real privilege, particularly given how nomadic the actor’s life typically is, it’s cool to have this constant.

What do you think makes a franchise work?
No idea. If I knew, I’d be rich.

When is it not working?
When you have a clay penis? [Chuckles] When you have to resort to that? I don’t know. I’ve always been of the “more is better” school just from the fans side. Even when the quality [of a film] degrades, I tend to enjoy it. The more Rocky movies the better, you know? Continue Reading »

Chaos Theory Music is proud to present Z&I, a benefit show for Zandi De Jesus, on December 10, 2011 at Cafe Bleu, 3470 West 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90010, from 8pm-2am. The show will feature popular performing artists and a DJ spinning music throughout the night. Continue Reading »

I think Joy Osmanski is one of the most talented comedic actresses around (no, she’s not bribing me with chocolate cupcakes everyday — just every other day).

This hilarious video of our favorite quirky gal palling around with the guys from National Film Society kinda makes us giggle. A lot.

We hope you enjoy as much as we do!

THE FIRE WITHIN: In Samuel Park’s debut novel, This Burns My Heart, reviewer Susan Soon He Stanton finds the post-Korean War protagonist, the long-suffering Soo-Ja, a complex character whose one mistake leads to a lifelong slow burn.

ISSUE: FALL 2011

DEPT: Plugged In

STORY: Susan Soon He Stanton

Perhaps it goes without saying that much of the recent fiction depicting life in post-war South Korea has been understandably bleak. However, Samuel Park’s This Burns My Heart is an understatedly brilliant tale of middle-class dysfunction told with Chekhovian aplomb. Inspired by incidents in Park’s mother’s life, the story follows the beautiful Soo-Ja, a student activist with a bright future. The day before her wedding, Soo-Ja declines a surprise proposal from an enigmatic doctor and unwittingly chooses a life of stifling customs.

Crippled by her own acute awareness that she is superior to her excruciatingly substandard life, Soo-Ja takes comfort in her only daughter and struggles to find a place in her husband’s household. In a foreboding scene, Soo-Ja’s husband Min whispers his thanks on their wedding night. “‘For what?’ Soo-Ja whispered back. Min turned his back to her. ‘You’ll find out soon enough.’”

From that moment on, the next 20 years of Soo-Ja’s life progress not with a bang but a whimper, and the ambitious girl becomes trapped in a corrosive house where her in-laws administer death by a thousand cuts. Isolated from the world, Soo-Ja watches as the South Korea she wanted to build flourishes without her while her marriage festers under a veneer of polite disappointment.

Although a sympathetic character, Soo-Ja suffers through the novel like an ingénue trapped in a haunted house — just get out of the house! But for one seemingly good reason or another, she does not, cannot, and through the passage of her life, despite great displays of bravery and personal strength, the emotion you will most acutely feel for Soo-Ja is pity. However, the story is not without humor or hope, and Yul, the mysterious doctor from Soo-Ja’s youth, reappears on the horizon like a harvest moon. The introduction of Yul’s wife and Soo-Ja’s abiding honor hinder the possibility of an easy solution.

Park’s narrative has an epic quality although not much happens — ordinary lives fallen apart at the seams. Although well executed, at times one might be left hoping Park would widen his scope to write more extensively about the state of South Korea outside of his cast of characters. Much of the novel is organized around a singular, Jane Austen-esque notion that Soo-Ja’s life would have been perfect if she married the right man. All of her problems — love, money, happiness — hinge on a single mistake made in her youth. It would be fine if Soo-Ja alone naïvely believed this to be true, but the novel asserts this belief as well and the
plot serves as a cautionary tale against a bad match. Nonetheless, Park’s skill with creating fully realized
characters, especially some of the more unlikable ones, such as Soo-Ja’s rivals (her mother-in-law and Yul’s wife), keep the story lively and acerbic. Although Soo-Ja plays the martyr, Park is aware of her flaws and keeps her character complex enough to hold interest. Park’s representation of life and customs in a Korean household, including a visiting matchmaker, religious holidays, and most notably Soo-Ja’s traditional wedding, are appealingly true to life; his economic prose never devolves into the exotic ham-fisted flourishes occasionally found in lesser works of the genre. Although an exciting and potentially unfamiliar world to his reader, Park does not forget he is telling the story through Soo-Ja’s perspective, and she has seen it all. Through Soo-Ja’s eyes, Park beautifully evokes 1960s war-torn South Korea, a country struggling between conflicting impulses to preserve or rebuild.

Written with clarity and elegant restraint, This Burns My Heart is sure to engage.

– Susan Soon He Stanton

More stories from Audrey’s Fall issue here.

After two seasons on the hit FOX series Glee, Jenna Ushkowitz is hitting all the right notes.

ISSUE: FALL 2011

DEPT: Cover Feature

Photographer: Diana King

Wardrobe: Lyndzi Trang

Makeup: Allie Lapidus

Hair: Gaelle Secretin

Photo Assistants: Kevin Burnstein, Kevin Kozicki

Styling Assistant: Jacqueline Nguyen

Location: Park Plaza Hotel

Story: Janice Jann

Two years ago, when I first interviewed Jenna Ushkowitz, she was in the middle of shooting the first season of Glee, an innovative new show with a lot of promise, hype and a heart-stopping cover of “Don’t Stop Believin.’”

Jenna was excitable and chatty, like any other 23-year-old with her first big break would be. I had asked her then if she was prepared for her impending fame.

Jenna replied, “We can just take it step by step. Do we feel that [the show’s] special? Yes. But I don’t think any of us are thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to be so famous.’”

Flash forward to the present. How things have changed. If Jenna didn’t think she was heading towards fame back then, she has to face that she is indeed famous now. Glee has become a cultural phenomenon, nominated for 19 Emmys and four Golden Globes, its songs topping iTunes every week. Chris Colfer has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Important People for his portrayal of gay teenager, Kurt Hummel. And Jenna, along with her on-screen boyfriend played by Harry Shum, Jr., are two of the most recognizable Asians on television.

The now 25-year-old Korean American, raised in New York by her adoptive parents, realized this when the cast headed to the Big Apple to film an episode last season.

“We thought we would go shoot and a couple of fans would be there,” Jenna remembers. “It was insane. Hundreds and hundreds of kids showed up. There were barricades everywhere. It was overwhelming, amazing and kind of wakes you up, going, ‘holy crap, this is my life now!’” For Jenna, life over the past two years has taken her from bartending to singing on Broadway’s Spring Awakening to playing goth-girl Tina
Cohen-Chang on one of the most influential shows on primetime television. And yet Jenna maintains she’s still the same. “Your life doesn’t have to change if you don’t want it to,” she says. I sat down with Jenna at Los Angeles’s exclusive members-only Soho House (one indication of how life has changed — Jenna’s a member),
catching her in between shooting the show’s season 2 finale and the Glee summer concert tour. Just like I would with any girlfriend, we chatted about boys, clothes and Glee.

Audrey Magazine: Life seems to be going very smoothly for you right now. Can you take us back to a time when this wasn’t the case?
Jenna Ushkowitz: In 2007/8, before Spring Awakening, I had just graduated from college and was bartending. I was really unhappy and was like, “I need to be getting a job right now singing and dancing and not slinging drinks,” you know? I was with my friend at lunch in New York one day and he asked, “What do you want to do?” I was like, “I want to be on a TV show and I don’t want to have to give up theatre.” And here I am. It’s weird. I will never forget that.

Because I did it. I don’t understand people who can just sit and be comfortable and not do something about it when they’re unhappy with their lives. I was always, “Get whatever you want, when you want it, and if you’re not happy, change it.” Life’s too short, why not be happy every single day? That’s why I was like, “I have to do this.” Even if it takes years just to get a show.

AM: We’ve heard some of your co-stars’ crazy Glee audition stories. (Lea Michele’s car crash minutes before her Glee audition.) What was yours?
JU: The whole cast [of Spring Awakening] basically went in and read for Glee. AlI I had to do was say “w-w-we’re d-d-d-dooomed” with a little bit of a stutter and Tourette’s. I didn’t realize I had to say another stutter line and they were like, “OK, do the other line.” So I was like, “Uh, yeah ….” I walked out of the audition and was like, “I didn’t get that.”

A month later, Ryan Murphy was in town and they asked me to sing and improvise for them. He asked, “Who do you think Tina is?” I did this whole improv in the stutter about how my mom thought glee club was a really good outlet for me and Ryan said, “I liked how you kept her really positive.” I passed and went to test for the network in L.A. I had to take a red eye and I couldn’t sleep, I was anxious. I had never been to L.A. by myself before. Two hours [after auditioning], they said, “you got it!”

I called my friend and she said that’s amazing [because] her boyfriend had just gotten a [beer bottle cap] and it said “Never flee from glee.” I framed [that]. It’s all about syn- chronicity; it was the right place at the right time. [In] two years I had gone from bartending to Spring Awakening to Glee with no breaks in between. I’m going in the right direction right now, I know that.

AM: I thought one of the breakout moments for Tina in the show was when she made the speech about how there were no Asian sex symbols to look up to, so she wants to become one herself. Did you realize that speech is just as relevant to Jenna Ushkowitz as it is to Tina?
JU: Now that I think about it, yeah! Subconsciously, it’s totally true. When you are a minority, especially in this show, people focus in on that and I’m glad I got that storyline. I never really thought about it, but my idols were Lea Salonga and Sandra Oh and they’re Asian, too! It wasn’t, “they’re Asian so I idolize them.” It’s just that they are amazing and broke barriers and are who I aspire to be. We are the few in Hollywood making a name for ourselves so I do think about young girls who aspire to do what I’m doing now.

We’re acting, but we’re also making a difference and I never thought I would be able to do both at the same time. To make sure that arts in education is pushed and the message that different is beautiful and good. Be who you are and never be ashamed of it. We’re showing the world what most schools are like and what kids in schools are like. Not the Gossip Girls, not the 90210’s, with more of the glamorous lives. I love those shows, but kids are more like, “you were me in school, you’re representing me.” So it’s cool we’re lucky enough to do that.

AM: You seem to get along well with the rest of the cast, always saying, “We did this and we did that.”
JU: We’re a family. We came up creating this thing with Ryan and we did it for ourselves, basically. It’s our baby and now we’re sharing it with the world. We really do love each other. We all hang out, we all go to dinners. We have wonderful relationships outside the show.

AM: Has the dynamic changed now?
JU: We’ve only gotten closer. We now know each other really well. We know how we work, we know what clicks. We’ll have tiffs, we’ll argue, but in the most lovely way. Literally, we are each other’s cores. They’re my family and I’ll be sad when they all go away ‘cause I won’t be able to see them every day like I do now. We’re all lifelong friends.

AM: Who are you closest with?
JU: I have different relationships with everybody. Those girls are my sisters. Kevin [McHale] and I are peas in a pod. We get each other. We finish each other’s sentences. We’re all extremely close. It’s weird, I know people say, “You guys are just faking it, you all hate each other” and the tabloids try to do weird stuff, but it’s just this organic thing and I think that’s why it’s so successful. The chemistry worked, you know?

AM: Speaking of chemistry, let’s talk about Tina’s rela- tionship with Mike Chang.
JU: Mike Chang is amazing. We’re the longest standing couple on Glee now. Not everybody lasts on Glee, as you’ve seen. But I love working with Harry and we have a great time together. I would like to see Tina and Artie get into it. Not necessarily get back together, but we never really resolved [the breakup]. I still feel unresolved about it and I don’t know if they’re doing it on purpose. I’d like to do a triangle, [but] I couldn’t pick which one to be with ‘cause I think they’re both great.

AM: What is it like kissing Harry?
JU: [Laughs] A girl never kisses and tells!

AM: What else is off-topic for you?
JU: Relationships. Off-topic. My family, I won’t talk too much about. You can hit on me all you want, but don’t touch my family. I try not to talk about them too much ‘cause that’s my safety zone. When you go home, nothing changes.

You want to share things with the people who know and appreciate you. I’m a pretty open book. But my personal life is my personal life. The tabloids have plugged me with Kevin and if you don’t give them anything, it just becomes boring to them and they kind of leave you alone. That’s why we Twitter, to let people see a little more into our lives rather than reading a tabloid. We prefer that, saying I had a lovely dinner with my friend rather than the tabloids saying, “walking into a bar drunk.” Once you get to the top, people love to bring you down. I don’t think we should give them a chance to do that.

AM: Do you even have time to date?
JU: Not really. In New York it was a lot easier ‘cause I had a lot of friends. Here it’s really hard — I didn’t even have friends. So to meet a guy? It’s just hard. Especially now. You have to be careful when you meet people and be aware of what they want. You never know. I’ve finally met some friends of friends.

AM: What kind of guys do you like?
JU: I said I would never date actors, but that’s a lie. Who else do you meet then? I’m a very honest and open person and I just hope someone will give the same to me. You don’t have to be successful, you just have to know where you’re going.

It’s weird, I thought I would be married by 26 when I was younger. Now it’s like, “Oh my god, no way.” Just a good person. Someone who makes you laugh every single day.

AM: Speaking of people you like, you’ve mentioned how you idolize Sandra Oh.
JU: I watch Grey’s Anatomy for Sandra Oh. She’s my favorite. She can do no wrong in my eyes. I still haven’t met her, but I’m dying to. I’m trying to get her on my show. As crazy aunt Sandra or something. She plays crazy so well.

AM: Are you hoping for a similar career path?
JU: I want to be remembered as an actor who really cared about her craft and her work. I want to do what Sandra has done, which is make herself an actress and not an Asian Amer- ican actress. And doing great work and people seeing past the, “Oh, she’s not blonde and blue-eyed.” I want to be able to break those walls and make it socially wanted — not “acceptable” ‘cause I think it is acceptable — to see an Asian girl on the cover of any popular magazine. That’s where I want to go.

Purchase Jenna Ushkowitz’s Fall issue here.

BuddhaX is a new exercise concept that combines breakdance with power vinyasa yoga to create breakflow, a unique series of integrated dance moves and yoga poses. When done at a continuous, reasonable pace you can burn between 500 and 1,500 calories per hour (not to mention, look really cool doing it). Here, co-founder Japanese B-boy A.T.S of Rock Steady Crew demonstrates the BuddhaX CC Push-up, a core-focused movement that works out every single muscle. Try it — he swears anyone can do!

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With the ridiculous stalemate in Congress and the bitter rhetoric starting up again as presidential election season approaches, it’s far too easy to retreat into our cynicism, holed up within the ramparts of apathy. Why bother, right? Everything sucks right now.

Then I heard a story. Out of a mundane request for yet another holiday gala, something else arose. A cup of coffee. A conversation. A moment.

This is the result. A little known bill in Congress, a South Korean pastor sacrificing to save North Korean refugee orphans. And a star who, instead of schmoozing with yet another group of corporate sponsors, chose to spend her time in this earnest plea. Sometimes we can make a difference.

Please help us pass the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act here. It literally only takes a minute.