Moving over to a new Blogger host

Dear Readers:

Slant Eye For The Round Eye is making the move to blogger.com where it will now be hosted. While WordPress has proved a great host and service up until now, moving over to blogger will allow some extra content features (different types of video feeds), easier mobile blogging, more customization, and some other new features.

Slant Eye For The Round Eye DNS records have been updated and readers should be directed over to the new host without any problems in the next few hours, however please note that some hiccups may occur (the domain www.slanteyefortheroundeye should direct readers seamlessly though once the DNS has propagated). Some links and feeds however may need to be updated (especially for individual links), so please update them where necessary. Links to the Feedburner RSS feeds and e-mail sign-ups have been removed here and will be back up on the new site once the transition has taken place. 

Thanks for reading – and see you at the new Blogger home,
Slant Eye For The Round Eye 

Newsbits: Olbermann, Nguyen, Asian Health

Some links and stories from around the web and blogosphere:

Olbermann Slams Malkin for Daring to Question Clinton Straw Donors

MSNBC’s Keith “Chicken & Waffles” Olbermann attacked conservative blogger Michelle Malkin for “ethnic profiling” of Chinese restaurant dishwashers in New York City who donated to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Of course, running off of the liberal Media Matters script, Olbermann failed to note that Malkin’s problem is not with the donors’ ethnicity per se, but that it’s highly suspicious when low-wage earners pony up a few thousand to give a political candidate.

‘21 Jump Street’ star Dustin Nguyen is back in action

Flash back to 1987. “21 Jump Street” was one of the hottest new shows on television, showcasing the talents of young heartthrobs Johnny Depp and Dustin Nguyen. For Depp, already a rising star, it would be a launching pad for enormous big-screen success. For Nguyen, who played Officer Harry Truman Ioki, it was a rare opportunity in the national spotlight during a time when there were hardly any Asian Americans on television or in the movies.

Coverage, Access and Quality | Asian-Americans Express Concern About SCHIP Veto, Program’s Future

According to recent U.S. Census Bureau data, 15.5% of Asian-Americans and about 21.7% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are uninsured. Other Asian-American subgroups such as Korean-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans also have a large percentage of uninsured. However, because some subgroups have relatively higher incomes and education levels and are labeled as the “Model Minority,” the groups’ need for access to health care often is overlooked, the Pacific Citizen/New America Media reports.

Halle Berry caught making racist Jewish joke on Jay Leno – and Leno tried to cover it up

Well – not only is she an Academy Award winner  - the first black actor to win the Best Actress award – but now you can add racist joker to her resume as well. On a recent stint on the Jay Leno show while showing distorted pictures of herself in a comic routine, when she came to one of the pictures of her with a magnified nose she said it made her look like “her Jewish cousin”.

That was nice Halle.

And you almost got away with it too, because according to reports you asked Jay Leno to take it out for the actual television showing – which he did – but audience members leaked it out.

So not only was there a racist joke made at the expense of Jewish Americans – you know – those people with big noses who control all the media and never were involved in something called the Holocaust (because you probably think that’s a sham) – but you also had your friend Jay Leno – the man who likes to let comedians rip on Asian people – try and cover it up for you.

Next time maybe you can do some photos of you with some slanty eyes with some chopsticks and a laundry ticket and start sputtering out stereotypes and latent prejudices about Asian people too?

Please? Pretty please?

Then maybe Jay Leno can try and cover that up as well.

B.D Wong B-Day

Just a quick shout out to actor B.D. Wong who had a birthday a couple days ago, and who’s been doing it for years now making it look easy and putting another cool Asian face on the screen for everyone to see.

Daniel Dae Kim DUI video footage

By now you’ve heard of Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim and his arrest for a DUI in Hawaii yesterday – apparently there was a camera outside which caught DDK coming out of the Big House so we can see him in action as he tries to cover his head so the camera can’t get a shot of his “I was just busted for a DUI” mug.

Next time take a taxi DDK.

“Lust, Caution”: Lots of lust but no love? Banned from the Oscars, and Too Chinese?

While Ang Lee’s film Lust, Caution has been getting great reviews and doing extremely well at the box office internationally and in limited release in the states - there’s been a lot happening lately with the film – and not all of it great either - some of it seeming to have more to do with politics and being myopic than anything else.

Too Chinese?

Apparently the head of the production company that made Lust, Caution is weary of expanding the film in the U.S. because it’s a “very Chinese” film. Huh?

So martial arts and anything having to do with geisha is O.K. - but an art-house romantic war epic featuring Asian people might be too much for the general public to handle. 

Banned from the Oscars

Even though Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had few Taiwanese crew and actors associated with the film, it was still allowed to be nominated for the U.S. Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category – but this year – Taiwan’s Foreign Language Film Award Selection Committee was notified that Lust, Caution would not be allowed to compete in the category because it didn’t have enough Taiwanese crew working on it who were in “lead positions”.

So the director – famed director Ang Lee – and the screenwriter who are both Taiwanese aren’t “lead position” enough? Because one of the actors is from mainland China (Tang Wei) and they had a Mexican cinematographer and French composer it still can’t be a Taiwanese film? 

It isn’t foreign language enough?

No Hong Kong Film Awards – Mostly

It seems HK is no different either. Because there weren’t enough people from Hong Kong working on the film – versus mainland China – the movie won’t be eligible for numerous awards, however it still will be able to compete for the best Asian film category at least – which allows any Asian film, regardless of how many people from HK worked on it.

Brenda Xu Unplugged

From singer/songwriter Brenda Xu, this is a video that was shot for a promotional piece for the San Diego Asian Film Festival music event, Blowfish: Unplugged.

From her site:

Taking piano lessons from her mother at age 10 was almost enough to scare her off music forever. But San Diego’s Brenda Xu said that within a few years she’d rekindled her love for the music.

Today, the UC San Diego grad is devoting her energy and time to her budding career as a singer-songwriter.

The native of Harbin, China (next to Russia’s southern border), Xu came to the United States at age 5 to live with her grandmother in the L.A. area. At 10, her mother was able to join the family here —- and it was then she decided that Brenda should learn the piano.

But Xu said the lessons didn’t go very well.

To learn more about Brenda Xu and pick up her CD check out her MySpace page.  

Reader Love: Tucker Carlson, Cinema Seoul, and sex and the Asian male

Check out some of these great articles/blog posts for some worthwhile reading:

• Tucker Carlson and the “New” Face of Racismfrom Oh No a WoC PhD.
• Saving cinema’s Seoul by Jeff Yang
• Sex and the Asian Male at Tripmaster Monkey

Take a music ride with Foxxi misQ

Being in the music scene for about a year now, the trio has been publicized as kind of an Asian Destiny’s Child. Check out their video for one of their earlier tracks Ultimate Girls.

Star Rising: Telly Leung and Rent

It seems that not only are Asian-American males getting more play in television and movies these days, but also on Broadway too. Case in point is Telly Leung, a 27 year old actor who is playing the role of Angel in the hit musical Rent.

Some of the national shows that Telly has played in (including Rent):

RENT (Angel / Steve and Others)
WICKED – Chicago Shiz Co. (Boq)
PACIFIC OVERTURES (Boy, Oberserver, Sailor)
FLOWER DRUM SONG (Ensemble, Ta u/s

At the same time Telly is also working on a full length feature album for release on MoppTopp records. To learn more about Telly Leung visit his site.

Rudy Giuliani keeps on hiring racists

After deciding to hire racist Arthur Ravenel, Jr. for his South Carolina Campaign Chair already noted in a previous blog post here, Rudy Giuliani has apparently decided to keep on hiring racists like Richard Stanek who has a history of racially charged remarks (to put it bluntly).

In 2004 he had to resign from his post as MN’s public safety commissioner because as noted in a deposition, he apparently liked to sling around racial slurs - you know – words like n*****.

While you hate to see people like this get attached to a presidential campaign in any form - if anything – at least it makes everyone else look that much better…

Just another reason to vote for anyone not named Rudy.

Where is that little old racist cop now?

If you remember this post from late August – When police officers get racist – and then post themselves on YouTube - you’ll also remember that the cop never actually got suspended but just got pushed over into desk duty.

Well she’s in the papers again - and you’ll be happy to know that she’s resigned amid controversy – but she still can’t believe people would call her racist because she was only trying to do some good.

Here’s her quote from a recent article:

“You try to do something you think is good for America [...] and then someone turns around and they go to the lowest level and try to say you’re a racist,” Purtee said. “It was a shock, it never entered our minds.”

It never entered their minds that people would call them racist when they said everyone who wasn’t white was “filthy”?

Imagine that. 

Prince and Purple Rain voted Best Soundtrack

Who knew that a guy who liked to show his naked butt in public and change his name to a symbol for a while would beat out four Londoners known as The Beatles for Best Soundtrack ever as voted on by Vanity Fair?

Man of color – sweet funky R&B heavy riff guitar OMG did he really do that color – beats out four hard rockin’ change the game it’s never been done like that before white dudes.

And Yoko.

Why Bai Ling is Film Cool and the rest of us are just her minions

If you watch Penélope Cruz in any of Pedro Almodóvar’s films, or a movie like Belle Époque, you get a very different feel from her as an actress versus if you watch her in something like Vanilla Sky or Bandidas. This isn’t saying that there’s anything wrong with those movies, but in films like Volver and All About My Mother there is more depth, more added layers to not just the characters, but also in how Cruz portrays them and brings them to life on the screen. There’s a dichotomy between the two Cruz’s. If you only know her from her more American films, you may not realize the full depth of her skills as an actress and an artist.

The same can be said for Chinese actress Bai Ling, where in the states she is sometimes mostly known not for her film roles, but rather her outrageous dress, her spot on the reality show But Can They Sing, and getting cut out of Star Wars: Episode III which coincided with her posing for Playboy.

But just like Penélope Cruz is more than her American roles, there’s more to Bai Ling as well.

That’s a lot of hardware

Bai Ling hasn’t just been awarded one Best Supporting Actress Award – she’s won two - for her work in the segment Dumplings from the film Three… Extremes  at both the Golden Horse Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards.  The U.S. National Board of Review also gave her the award for Female Breakthrough Performance for her role in the film Red Corner (which also garnered her a Female Discovery of the Year award).

Shanghai Baby and Shanghai Producer

In addition to acting in a plethora of movies, she also serves as the executive producer on one of her latest films Shanghai Baby. 

The Beautiful Country, The Crow, She Hate Me, Dumplings

When you’ve been in these movies – ultra cool movies – it says something about your work as an actress – past, present, and future. And with 45+ film and TV credits to her name she won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Is that network TV?

Wasn’t that Bai Ling on Lost? Network TV Lost? Multicultural it’s great to see another Asian face Lost? Just so there’s no confusion – that would be yes.

Because she’s not a docile-feet bound-her lips shut-bowing to the masses Asian woman

The bottom line is that Bai Ling does it her way. She doesn’t conform to any views of what people sometimes expect an award winning Asian actress to be; rather than just keep quiet and nod her head and comply – she does the exact opposite.

And is that any different from any of the other actresses out there? Didn’t Angelina Jolie wear a vile of blood around her neck, profess to be a nymphomaniac, and kiss her brother in a pseudo-sexual way? Wasn’t that Vanessa Williams who was involved in a nude photo scandal? Didn’t Marilyn Monroe have an affair with a U.S. President?

But aren’t they still deemed great actresses (or at least good ones)? Icons even?

Why is it that Asian women in the media seem to get held up to even higher standards than their non-Asian counterparts? Why can’t they be smart, flaky, trashy, demure, serious, introspective, self deprecating - anything they want to be - all at the same time, on and off the screen, and still be considered great actresses?

The answer is that they can – and they should.

Random YouTube Asians

Angry Silence

There’s really not much to say here…literally – just twelve seconds of angry Asian silent goodness

Charlie Wong

Because you just can’t get enough of Asian guys licking their own hands pretending to kiss a girl. Check out the Beau Sia spoof – nice

Asian Standup 

Anzu Lawson performing at the HA HA Cafe. Be warned that there are some hand movements that might be better off viewed in the safety of your own home versus say your office cubicle

Disoriental

If that picture doesn’t interest you in the sketch comedy group Disoriental – it begs the question of what will get you out to see them this October 26 & 27 along with the Pork Filled Players at the Theater Off Jackson in Seattle.

Here’s some more info on the trio and the show:

Since winning the People’s Choys Award at the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre SKETCHOFF!#$%!! in May, Kristal Yee, Edwina Cheer & Brandon Barton (who all met while filming Off Centre Television) have been busy writing, rewriting, performing, and rewriting again [...]

Presented by and performing with the Pork Filled Players, Disoriental is a trio of Canadians thrown into a car and told to drive to Seattle [...]

Disoriental’s shows are at 10:30 pm, on a twin bill with the Pork Filled Players’ new show, Lard & Order: Pork Filled Intent. Tickets are $10 General/$8 Student or Senior and are available for purchase online at www.ticketwindowonline.com (206/325-6500). For more information on Disoriental’s US debut or about the Pork Filled Players, email oink@porkfilled.com or call 206/365-0282.

Check out their MySpace page here.

Korean star Rain joins with MTV to help campaign against human trafficking

If ever there was a good cause to spotlight and campaign against - it would be human trafficking - and half of all the people trafficked are from Asian countries, so its great to see someone as influential as Korean star Rain working with MTV to help in the cause. Here’s some more information:

MTV, one of the world’s largest and influential television network, has launched “End Exploitation and Trafficking” (EXIT), a global campaign to raise awareness about human trafficking. Along with Thai star Tata Young, Korea’s pop singer Rain has joined in the action as the front man for the Asia Pacific region.

Read more here.

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian two of the stories to watch for in the NBA this season

As the official start of the NBA season approaches, ESPN and their analysts are predicting all the stories, the drama, the teams, and the players to watch out for – and two of them are Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian.

John Hollinger – ESPN’s resident stats man and forecaster - is predicting Yao Ming will have the best Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in the league this year above players like Dwane Wade, Lebron James, and Kobe Bryant. For those of you that don’t follow basketball too much (or the stats) - that just means Yao is predicted to be one of the best players in the league this year.

Pretty cool.

Yi Jianlian, while not as impressive, is still being mentioned in the top 10 of first year players who may be in the running for the Rookie Of The Year award (although mostly due to more guaranteed playing time than anything else). Whether or not he’ll wither from the cold weather in Milwaukee versus LA where he was training for six months, and garnering a base of rabid female fans, might end up being more of the story.

Dean Cain flying into “Five Dollars A Day”

Dean Cain (aka Dean George Tanaka) – after flying back onto Smallville where he played the villian Dr. Curtis Knox this month - will also be in a new movie called Five Dollars A Day starring Christopher Walken, Allesandro Nivola, Amanda Peet, Peter Coyote, and Sharon Stone due out in 2008, which is about a conman and his son who go out on the road together after the father has just gotten out of jail (it’s not apparent what role Cain will be playing in the movie though).

And if you couldn’t get enough of Dean Cain – and who can’t really – check out the Dean Cain News blog…

Hot track: 2Backka and Bennie K – Home

The MV for the Japanese band 2Backka’s new single Home released this month, featuring the female duo Bennie K

Devon Aoki and the Mutant Chronicles

This looks like it could be interesting – slated to come out in 2008 called Mutant Chronicles- where Devon Aoki will star alongside Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, and John Malkovich.

Check out the movie’s official site here.

Shorts: Racist Nobel Winner?, Bombing in Manilla, Teacher Nabbed, China Olympics 2008

• Apparently you can be really really smart – as in winning the Nobel prize in 1962 for deciphering the double-helix of DNA – but still be really dumb as well. Case in point is Dr. James D. Watson winner of the aforementioned prize who also apparently likes to infer that black people aren’t as smart as white people - and are problem workers too. Hmmm….so much for those museum appearances. But he is trying to apologize and says his comments were not read as he intended them to be. It seems even Nobel winners can get tongue tied..
• The news coming out of the capital Manilla isn’t looking any better with police saying that they’ve found traces of plastic explosives tied to the mall explosions. As of right now there are eight confirmed deaths along with seventy wounded and general alerts have been issued for the rest of the city as well as the international airport.
• Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian teacher was just picked up for sexually abusing underage Southeast Asian children (he posted some of the pictures on the Internet which helped with his arrest). Hopefully this will be a wakeup call to other people like Neil that Southeast Asia isn’t a place you can go and get away with molesting underage children and treat them like disposable paper plates and get away with it.
• You knew this was going to start sooner or later – the politicizing of the Olympics in China ‘08 - and it’s already starting to get heated with warnings being thrown out on both sides including organizations like the Human Rights Watch. This is going to be one of the most interesting Olympics in years.