Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A Taste of Home
What home taste like to me…I can name a lot of things I love to eat but I guess three things I can not live without...grandma’s and or mother’s homemade soup, white rice, and instant noodles. Of course, like I said there is a lot more I can eat and love to eat, but I can live off of these dishes anyday! As I grew up there was nothing more filling than having a bowl of soup with rice for dinner, it always hit the spot. And though we drink soup every day (because it’s supposed to be good for our health or something about cleaning out our system or some soups are supposed to help with acne problems and the list goes on for how healthy soup is…) I can never get tired of soup. I love soup! Its one of the only dishes I like and enjoy during Chinese dinner gatherings. White rice is another favorite of mine; sometimes I eat white rice by itself. I remember when I was younger I had a contest with my aunt to see who could eat the most bowls of white rice, and I won because it got too plain for her (haha) but yes, I love white rice. And lastly instant noodle, I cannot live without it. Instant noodle was always a delicious snack and for me and it was always a welcome home meal. Nothing yells home like a bowl of instant noodles. Everytime, when I went away on a trip for more than a day or two; I would always crave an instant noodle and mother knew I always did too. So, once I got home from my trip she didn’t even need to ask me what I wanted to eat. She could already predict it and she would prepare a nice comforting bowl of noodles for me to eat. That was plenty more than I could ask for. Instant noodle is actually a comfort food for my whole family. During thanksgiving break, my family headed down to Los Angeles for the weekend. We spent two days eating amusement park food we couldn’t eat another bite. For dinner that night, we actually stopped by 7-11 to pick up some cup noodles which is the next best thing to instant noodles. It was so satisfying I couldn’t ask for anything better. Healthy or not it hit home for all of us.
Fillmore Karaoke
If you're ever with a group of friends with nothing to do, you should cure your boredom by heading over to a karaoke box to
For my 20th birthday, I went to Fillmore Karaoke (1410 Fillmore St). Since a few of my friends don't ever sing in front of people (booooo!), this place was perfect because the large room included a Wii. Unfortunately, this place doesn't take reservations, so it can be difficult to get a room at a time you want (especially the large room because there's only one). Hoping I would be lucky, I told my friends to get there at 4:00 p.m. (happy hour = 50% off!). I called in at 3:30 and was told that the large room was taken and that I should leave my phone number with them so that they could call me when it's available (by the way, I had to speak in Chinese because the girl who answered didn't seem to understand English very well). Fortunately I did not have to wait too long; my phone rang at 4:15 and they told me that my party can go in.
The room was pretty big and fit my group of 13 people comfortably. I was surprised to see the variety of songs and that, for some songs, had the original music video. If you happen to like the cheesy videos that usually accompany karaoke songs, don't worry. There will be plenty of random images (video clips of a quaint little town during "We Will Rock You"....what?) and other strange videos, such as a female Santa Claus attempting to look seductive.
When the lady at the counter asked me how long I think we would stay there for, I told her two hours. But as our song list got longer and longer, we ended up staying for about four hours. The total was $96 (a bit more than $7 per person for four hours...pretty good deal).
Tak Toyoshima's Secret Asian Man
I know what you want right now: a comic strip with Asian American flare. This comic series, titled Secret Asian Man by Tak Toyoshima, depicts (with humor!) his encounter with eHarmony ads showing couples that were heterosexually and racially matched. Eric McKinley filed a suit against eHarmony in 2005 for failing to provide a same-sex match option. It made sense that there wasn't this option, seeing as the site was created by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and tied in with Focus on the Family, a religious conservative group. He launched a separate site called Compatible Partners: "The site for long-term committed relationships" to avoid a lawsuit. He probably wanted the everybody else's off on a separate site so he could keep his original idea with only the people he wants in it.
Tak Toyoshima blogs about events, issues, technology, and everything else in between. He draws comics when the mood strikes him, and is pretty well known for the series. He also has drawn a cover for AsianWeek, which has long promoted Asian American artists, as shown below.
Tak Toyoshima blogs about events, issues, technology, and everything else in between. He draws comics when the mood strikes him, and is pretty well known for the series. He also has drawn a cover for AsianWeek, which has long promoted Asian American artists, as shown below.
Michelle Wie: Pro Golfer
In 2004, Michelle Wie was 14 and became the youngest ever to play in a PGA Tour, and the youngest woman ever to play on the U.S. Curtis Cup team, giving her the best known trophy for women amateur golfers. Many of those who have played in the Curtis Cup went on to become professional golfers, which was the path Michelle got whisked away in. Now, it was time for the big leagues.
Michelle Wie had reached 6'1" by her midteens, with an average drive of 280 yards. Fred Couples, American pro golfer and former World Number 1 Male Golfer, said, "When you see her hit a golf ball…there's nothing that prepares you for it. It's just the scariest thing you've ever seen."
She entered and dominated a field that was not set up for an Asian American women, and gives great inspiration to a lot of young girls. Michelle Wie became the first female to qualify for a USGA championship in 2005, which is played generally by males. She proceeded to win many firsts for women, and youngest ever, in golfing.
Juban: A Restaurant Review
Scenario: Group of eleven. 9 o'clock on a Saturday night. Hungry at Japantown.
After much indecisiveness, someone finally suggested Juban after discovering that his friend was working there at that time (which means free drinks and whatnot). After entering the restaurant, we were separated into two tables, which, to be honest, made me feel like we were eating as two separate groups. The tables had grills on them, which are meant for cooking your own food. As much as I love eating, I do not enjoy cooking at all, so I ordered a bowl of onmen (hot noodles, spinach, egg and shiitake mushroom in beef broth) while some of the others ordered various raw meats for grilling. Right before the food was served, a waitress came by to light up the grill. My noodles were delicious—the noodles had a great texture and the broth was savory. Two people at my table ordered calamari, which they had fun grilling.
The servers at this establishment were very friendly and polite. No hint of animosity towards their jobs that you can sometimes sense with waiters. I just looked up the restaurant hours and apparently they close at 9:30 p.m., but we stayed past 10:00 without ever feeling rushed.
POP- Producing our Power-Review (Final Journal Entry)
POP, or Producing our Power, was the big, final event that all the ETHS 210 Asian American Culture classes participated in. It was held at Brava Theater in the Mission District from 7 PM-10 PM this past Monday. The students of Irene Duller, Valerie Soe, Isabella Pelaud, and Allyson Tintinangco-Cubales each played a part in the show to represent Asian American culture at its best. Many types of performances were given, including video, skit, spoken word, and dance. Each class had their own unique line of performances to show the audience what message they wanted them to hear.After the event, I was excited and happy to see all the various types of performances that were executed by the classes. Even though I only got to see performances by Valerie Soe’s class and our class because my group and I had to man the food tables, I got a major impression of what Asian American culture was about and what it was like. Asian American culture is composed of such a wide range of aspects that I do not even know most about. There’s food, dance, music, and many, many more. Just watching the performances makes me appreciate my Asian American heritage even more because I found out that Asian American culture is a part of me. I was built from Asian American culture. I am the way I am because of Asian American culture. Basically, Asian American culture has affected my whole life and the person that I am. Without Asian American culture, I would not even be able to imagine what and where I would be right now. I guess that I would live life without ever caring or putting into consideration what and where my roots come from.
POP was amazing and one of the most memorable experiences that I will remember. I have both attended and participated in numerous performances before, such as concerts and plays but this performance for Asian American culture was special and unique in its own way. It stands out from the rest of the other performances I know. This performance blends culture and its other aspects, including identity, diversity, resistance, recognition, and many more. By incorporating all those aspects of culture into a performance, POP sends out a very strong message to the audience and community about Asian American culture. The audience gets a glimpse and a taste of what Asian American culture is about and they will come away from the performance to inform others about Asian American culture.
I was inspired by the performances in POP. I got sort of a reverberating feeling that everyone who contributes to POP was helping to aspire others and make Asian American culture even stronger in the community. Everyone might have done something different and do something little or big, but every little bit counts because it amounts to something so huge and wonderful for Asian American culture. For example, the skits that people performed each have a different plot and message to them, but they all unite under the common goal and theme that Asian American culture is an important representation for our society. As Asian Americans, we already see that, but it is important for non Asian Americans to realize that too.
Valerie Soe’s class did a really nice job of putting on their show. I loved their skits because they were really creative and funny at the same time. For the Harry Potter skit, I was laughing so hard but also thought, “Aww, poor Harry Potter.” I felt sorry for him but then this skit stressed an important point about Asian identity. Asian Ming Ming Potter turning into a white person really did not help him find out his identity. Thank goodness his friends Ron and Hermione helped him find out who he is and appreciate the person he is, even though others mistreated him. The first video of Yuki, an exchange student from Japan, attending SFSU and bewildered by the American lifestyle of hamburgers, silverware, and drugs, was a very realistic depiction of what immigrants and visitors from foreign Asian countries go through when they come to a new country like America. They are confused and do not know what is going on and are uneasy about the way Americans do things. The second video about John Smith and his encounters with people who make fun of him because he is a “twinkie”- white on the inside but yellow on the outside- reminded me of Lindsey Owyang and the conversation that she had with her older brother about the same subject in The Dim Sum of All Things.
For our class, I thought that we were as awesome as well. We just did our performance in a different way. From what I got to witness from our class, we expanded on the Asian American spectrum of performance and style. There’s Skit #1 with different television shows with Asian Americans incorporating Asian American food and how Asian a person is. The Fear Factor thing with eating the bird egg was cool (I actually saw that episode of Fear Factor on television) but then the part of the skit where a non-Asian person makes the transition and progresses to becoming more and more Asian is even funnier. It really shows the many common characteristics of Asian Americans such as being bad drivers and being good at math. Next was the dance group with hip hop, a traditional Filipino dance, and a slow dance. I liked how the dance group connected modern times and past times with dance because it shows how dance has progressed and significantly changed over the years. The Filipino traditional dance reminded us about sticking to our roots and remembering past traditions. Also, we have to keep traditions and culture alive so that future generations will remember and have knowledge about what Asian American culture is all about. Skit #2 gave an insight of what our class did over the semester by the way of blogging, our common source of spreading our word out to the entire world. My poetry group did a poetry skit where we talked about a scene of Koreans being abused by Japanese soldiers and how they resisted the pain and brutality they endured during those rough times. We showed the audience that poetry was another medium that Asian Americans used to get their words out in a creative way. Lastly, there was Ben and John doing an amazing rap and our class commemoration video to wrap our class performance. It was a great way to dedicate our entire class for all the hard work and fun we’ve had together.
Overall, the experience at Brava and my class made me think about Asian American culture more deeply and see its great importance to me. Asian American culture is something that I can’t ignore or run away from; I will always have it forever and I truly give thanks to my class for helping me embrace my culture a bit further. <3 :)
Asians on Video ...
So just a little while back a friend of mine, Anna, told me to watch these videos on YouTube by Kev Jumba and Happy Slip. It just so happens that they are both Asian American and have videos on relevant topics like interracial marriage, family, and Asian ways of doing things. You should totally check them out on their YouTube channels.
KEV JUMBA:Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kevjumba?ob=1
VIDEOS:
“Girls Are Like M&Ms"This video is my favorite and it talks about interracial marriage. Kevin is so right in how Asian parents only want their kids to marry another Asian person and not have mixed babies. Also, at one of the first ASU meetings I went to at SFSU, we had a discussion on interracial marriage and some people had super strict parents which took it a step further and only want them to marry a specific type of Asian, like only Chinese or Korean. So let's take a page from Kevin's book and treat everyone like M&Ms!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhVwaY7EdQ
“Put It In Purse”
Both Kev Jumba and Happy Slip are in this re-enactment of how Kevin learned how to drive stick shift. It involves family and how Asians are kinda cheap (save a couple hundred by not getting an automatic). It also has a little taste of Asian accents and how it can be hard to understand certain words – “purse” = first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWmGbpUKXM&feature=channel_page
Website:
http://www.kevjumba.com/
Happy Slip:
YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HappySlip?ob=1
VIDEOS:
“Boypren”
This video is about how Christine’s cousin Minnie got a boyfriend. Now Christine’s aunt is gloating to her parents, which shows how Asian families are competitive with their children. It also has a little taste of Asian accents and how it can be hard to understand certain words – “boypren” = boyfriend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6GmWPS9EWw&feature=channel_page
“Fragile”
This video is about Christine’s cousin Minnie going off to college and her mother getting someone to watch over her at the new school – enter cousin Christian. This is all about how Asian parents and families are so overprotective and like to be involved in every aspect of their child’s life, like picking what college they go to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3dFBubg7Xc&feature=channel_page
Happy Slip Family: Christine, Dad, Minnie, Grandma, Mom, Auntie
Website:
http://www.happyslip.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
