The Great Gatsby

I wish the film was already out in the theaters since I will be wrapping the novel with my English class next week.

Dr. Horrible

I rarely ever find myself actually paying for anything on iTunes, for most things I want I can get for free and for some reason I still want to own the CD rather than just download it. I'm sure that will end soon since I have no space for anything else in my life, yet I found two things for which I actually bought a season pass: Dr. Horrible and Invincible.

But first let us explore Dr. Horrible. While at leadership camp this past week, one of the few things I had to keep me away from all leadership all the time was my ipod. I was able to get a couple hours in during the 5 days of camp. By far, the best thing I watched was Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible sing-along blog. Most of you may know Whedon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dr. Horrible does echo the Buffy musical episode.

But let us learn more from the actress of the show, Felicia Day, who discusses the short film and working with Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion.





need more to whet your appetite... of course you do... that was only an interview...
so here's the trailer



If you like comics, superheroes, music, comedy, Doogie Howser, this is for you.

The World Felt Right This Past Friday

First of all, happy birthday to the soon papa-to-be Will Tong, whose wife used to claim they would name their sons Sal and Ed... (salad tongs, get it!?!)

Ok, whatever....

So June 27 began with my first summer movie of the year... that's right... I have yet to see Iron Man, Indy, and a host of many others that I need to get to soon. But I've always loved being there to see midnight showing when a film first debuts. I would do it all the time in the 90s but then teaching and whatever Friday night activity (dance, football game, performing arts show, birthday parties, Giants games) kept me away... and that's why I love the Thursday night/Friday morning midnight madness premiere. So S. and N. got me a ticket and asked me to join them watch WALL-E. Now I'm not the biggest Disney fan, but I am a huge Pixar fan. You always know you're in for a treat when you get that opening cartoon that serves as a warm-up for the feature. It was about a magician and it reminded me of the old school
Warner Brothers cartoons with the Carl Stalling scores. Pixar shorts are great and that's why I bought that DVD. Now the main feature, WALL-E. I was curious how I would feel about a mostly dialogue-less film, but the story held strong for the most part for me. The parts that felt the most cartoonish happened aboard the Axiom, whereas the Earth scenes captured a beautiful stillness but depressing image of what humans are doing to the planet. Being a person who loves and hates solitude, I related to WALL-E in the sense of collecting things that have a hidden personal value that maybe no one else can share. WALL-E beheld a beauty in the simplicity of certain objects, though we might consider them to be consumable. These moments remind me of the lessons I have on Emerson's "Poet" and Whitman's "Preface" to Leaves of Grass. The main point of which is to ask the students to think about how particular words came to be and how every name/word was once a poem until it became everyday/cliche. One of WALL-E's treasured items is a VHS tape of a particular musical and it lends a humanity to WALL-E that seems to be waning from the souls of each successive generation (and the film comments on that concept as well). I particularly appreciated the lone survivor archetype (most recently seen in I Am Legend) and the homage to Kubrick's 2001: the music, the steps, the jogging track reference, and the autopilot/HAL character (my favorite Otto/autopilot is still from Airplane! though). I've read a couple of reviews from EW and the Chronicle and I agree with both to a degree. I did feel the movie possessed a soul and was educational without being in your face about it. While WALL-E may not produce the most merchandise ever (I don't know how many parents will buy toys of stuffed fat people in their hover chairs), I expect the film to resonate in viewers and hopefully our next generation will be like the one in the film and learn to value life a little differently.

And that was just the first two hours of my Friday...

The latter part of the evening ended with another set of great friends. For the first time in a long time, my softball team held a batting practice. Usually these sessions go for an hour or so and about 5 people show up. Last night we practiced from 5:00 to 8:30 pm, just long enough for all of us to start freezing our asses off. More impressive, 12 people showed up (nothing like losing your first two games to get people wanting to hit). But the practice felt like old times with a bunch of us cracking jokes ripping on each other (echoing Shaq's chorus to Kobe). Transitionally, we went out to eat at Fung Wong near the Gellert/Hickey 7-11. Often these meals are fun but not always so unified because too many of us are there to sit at one table. Well eight of us went to dinner and it was the best night of bonding and bitching... reminiscing... hopes... family... although not everyone came to practice... and not everyone who practiced went to dinner... the meal felt like a good family dinner... which i think is the most important thing for our team's psyche....

so thanks to all of you for helping have a wonderful summer night

Drumline Battle Answer #11 - Big Trouble In Little China

Here's another one of those films that I just can't get enough of for whatever reason. Kurt Russell is so smug with his quotes. Plus you get to see Kim Cattrall back in her Pre-Sex in the City days and back into her Mannequin days. When I saw this in my youthful days, I had no idea how it was just a taste of what I would eventually see at those Thursday Hong Kong film nights.

"You Bring Out the Asian American in Me"

So the great thing about being sick is that I have opportunity to catch up on mundane things like the newspaper and email. So here's the first thing I received and gave me something to smile about...

1. The Giants are hosting their first Filipino night... I'm not getting a ticket because I have one anyways with my season tickets, but those of you who want a collectible T-shirt should go.

Filipino Heritage Night
Wednesday, May 14 - Filipino families and businesses are recognized and welcomed for the 1st annual Filipino Heritage Night at AT&T Park! Be one of the founding fans to attend this new heritage night by coming out to support your culture, your heritage and your San Francisco Giants as they take on the Houston Astros.
Learn more and purchase tickets »


2. Then I read this article on the front of Wednesday's Datebook. It just made me wonder about the status of Asian Americans in all aspects of our society. At today's track meet, a couple of the athletes and I got into an interesting discussion about how hard it is or isn't for Chinese Americans to get into Berkeley. This talk was prompted by the fact our school has been promoting College Awareness Week--complete with speakers from different schools and organizations talking about a variety of topics (financial aid was today's focus).

Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout?

Sandip Roy, Special to The Chronicle

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Asian American Actors

In Hollywood

Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout? (4/23)

Paul Muni and Luise Rainer made a very unlikely Chinese peasant couple in "The Good Earth." But that was 1937 Hollywood. Today, it's hard to imagine, say, Charlize Theron wearing yellowface. Yet there's a different problem. In "21," based on an MIT professor teaching his students to beat the odds in Las Vegas casinos, Jim Sturgess ("Across the Universe") is star

student Ben Campbell. The real-life Campbell was an Asian American named Jeff Ma.

Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout?

Phil Lee, president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans, thinks so. As soon as word got around of the switcheroo, MANAA contacted Sony. But the group says it was rebuffed. Asian hits like "The Ring" and "Infernal Affairs" are routinely Americanized. "But '21' was based on a true story involving a number of Asian Americans," says Lee by phone. "It was a lost opportunity, especially given the lack of strong Asian roles."

More of the same?

For MANAA, it was a sense of deja vu. In the 1970s, pioneering Korean journalist K.W. Lee wrote more than 120 articles that helped free a young Korean American wrongly accused of a gangland murder. That story inspired the 1989 movie "True Believer." But who got to play the heroic crusader? James Woods.

"While '21' is inspired by a true story, the film is fictionalized," stresses Steve Elzer, Sony's senior vice president for media relations. He points out that there are two Asian Americans in the five-member ensemble. "They are prominently featured in the motion picture and they also appear in the trailers, on the posters, billboards," Elzer says in an e-mail. He adds that as a consultant to "21," Ma himself "has vigorously supported the producers' casting choices."

Not everyone buys the colorblind "it's about the best actor for the role" argument. "Are you kidding me? A movie about math, MIT and gambling, and the lead was made white? Have you ever seen the pai gow tables in Vegas?" exclaims Manish on the blog Ultrabrown. "... You can just imagine the studio meeting: 'Asian won't sell. If you want the movie made, we have to re-cast the leads.' "

"This is pretty outrageous, and just as questionable as having Brian Dennehy play Kublai Khan in (Hallmark's) recent 'Marco Polo' movie," writes Alvin on the Hypen Magazine blog.

A two-way street?

But shouldn't colorblindness cut both ways? If Asian Americans want to play Hamlet (Joan Chen's role in "Twin Peaks" was written for an Italian), shouldn't Sturgess have a shot at "21"?

"There are a limited number of Asian roles and plenty of hungry actors," says Arthur Dong, director of the new documentary "Hollywood Chinese." "When a non-Asian gets an Asian role, it's a slap in the face." And when Nicolas Cage parodies Fu Manchu in "Grindhouse" in 2007, it stings even more. "Sure it's satire, that's the excuse," says Dong. "But would anyone dare do that with Amos and Andy?"

Stephen Gong, executive director of the Center for Asian American Media, says stories like "21" don't really surprise him. "Films are constructed to make money," Gong says by phone. "I'm

sure the producers were more interested in making a film about cheating Las Vegas rather than the subtleties of the Asian American experience."

But where does that leave Asian American actors?

"I'm working, but not much in Hollywood," says Chen, though she sees more roles around than when she started 25 years ago. Then she was offered plenty of "cartoonish chop-chop action movies." "I turned those down," Chen says by phone. "But I regret it a little now. I thought they were mindless, but they were not meant to be serious. I was being too serious."

Something to prove

"As an ethnic actor, you have to work a million times harder than anyone else just to get your foot in the door," says Kal Penn in a phone conversation. Penn balked at playing a character named Taj Mahal in "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." He vividly remembers how schoolmates in New Jersey avoided him at lunch after seeing Indians wolfing monkey brains in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." But a friend advised him to find a dozen cliched scenes he just couldn't stomach and suggest alternatives instead of rejecting National Lampoon. That film

eventually helped him land "Harold & Kumar" and "The Namesake."

In 2008, Sony can say that if there were an Asian American actor with the box-office buzz of Sturgess, Ben Campbell could have stayed Asian. That sounds like the same argument as when Rainer was chosen over Anna May Wong for "The Good Earth."

Dong says it's possible that 1930s Asian American stars like Wong didn't yet have the dramatic chops for a role like "The Good Earth." "But you can argue that she was never given the chance to nurture that talent," he says. "It's a classic catch-22." After all, says Center for Asian American Media's Gong, "I'm sure John Cho could have done '21' in his sleep."

Sidelined in Hollywood, many Asian American actors are eyeing the global market. Bay Area native Daniel Wu is an A-lister in Hong Kong. "He could be the next Jackie Chan," Gong says. "He can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, knows martial arts." And he doesn't have to worry about an accent.

Wu isn't alone. Hawaii native Maggie Q made it in Hong Kong before starring in "Live Free or Die Hard." Lee-Hom Wan of "Lust Caution" was born in Rochester, N.Y.

Asian American actors, once the stepchildren of both Hollywood and Asia, are becoming

"bankable" for American productions by pursuing a career in Asia first, writes the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's Taro Goto. Others like B.D. Wong, Sandra Oh, Vic Chao are popping up regularly on television.

Variety

"It's not just about positive roles, it's about more variety," says Lee of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. That's where he feels "21" missed the boat. But Dong says he worries more about films like "Juno" than "21." In that indie hit, an Asian is shown picketing an

abortion clinic. "She has an accent, I think she's the only Asian in the film, and as I watched it, I thought, 'When that film shows in the Midwest, I'd hate to be the only Asian student in the auditorium,' " says Dong. "That really perpetuates the otherness of Asians. You make sure they are still seen as outsiders."

Video clips

Here are Web sites for video excerpts of some of the movies mentioned in this article:

The Good Earth: links.sfgate.com/ZDDE

21: links.sfgate.com/ZDDF

True Believer: links.sfgate.com/ZDDG

Infernal Affairs: links.sfgate.com/ZDDH

Hollywood Chinese: links.sfgate.com/ZDDI

Lust Caution: links.sfgate.com/ZDDJ

E-mail Sandip Roy at datebook@sfchronicle.com.

extra article link on John Cho in the same paper

John Cho rises to the top, with Harold's help (4/23)

if you are more curious on the topic, you should check out the documentary Slanted Screen.

Drumline Battle #10 - Airplane!

Today was one of those just wanna getaway days...
I've been feeling crappy, exhausted, coughing, congested, so I took time off to recover. Maybe there is some truth in this idea that I work too much... maybe...

All I could think today is that I wish I were on a plane to somewhere exotic and summer vacation had already begun... therefore, this entry is AIRPLANE!

I suppose this film has a lot to do with why I didn't take my first plane ride until I was 20 years old... and it was a 2 part flight... the first 11 hours brought me to Taiwan, where we got to stay overnight... and then the next morning we spent a couple of hours getting to Manila... which deserves a whole chapter in and of itself...

Also, this is one of my favorite comedies. I don't see on cable so much anymore. It used to be on all the time, hmmm.... I like how you can tell what era it's from. It may feel dated to my students, but it brings back memories for me.

Drumline Battle #9 - I cross the line/Tombstone

This entry will upset my brother because it should be his entry in the battle. Tombstone is one of his favorite movies of all time and I found a compilation montage of Doc Holliday scenes. This is probably one of my favorite quotable films.





Enjoy Lance!

Ides of April

So today should be all doom and gloom... taxes are due... almost sounds like the Ides of March...
and it start off great... the Giants did recognize the actual 50th anniversary of the first major league baseball game on the West Coast... but unlike that game in which the Giants beat the Dodgers 8-0 against Don Drysdale... they lost today; however, John Bowker, recent call up, in only his third game in the majors, just missed his third homer, but did get his first triple. He is fast becoming a cult hero for this season.



Now, how do I chase these blues away? With two of my favorite films coming out on DVD today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought the 2 disc version of the movie, particularly so that I can get the digital copy of the film on the second disc and add it to my ipod. I also purchased it at Target (Tanforan) in order to get the exclusive script book that came with this edition.

Part of the charm of this film is Diablo Cody's quirky dialogue. Yet, I think the casting is excellent, especially Juno's parents with their idiosyncrasies. I love when Alison Janney rips back at the medical tech and tells her where she can go.

OH! what the heck... here's are some cool lines















Now for the second film in this double feature

I love dark twisted comedies and this is one of them. I read plenty of reviews and many of the critics and cinephiles definitely do not appreciate this film as much as I do.

Although the premise forces the audience to suspend their disbelief, once you follow the Ryan Gosling character deal with his own personal issues through communicating with a "real girl," I couldn't help but feel for the guy. Maybe I relate to the sense of isolation or loneliness he goes through, but I think the true comedy of the film is in how the rest of the town supports his mania. And the real girl "Bianca" becomes more active and real than he ever could be.

Here is a little vid to give you a taste of what I mean...






But the day is not yet over, for there is more to celebrate...

As I was grading, I watched game 4 of the San Jose Sharks vs. the Calgary Flames playoff match up. I admit to being frustrated after hearing about last night's Warriors debacle causing them to miss the playoffs. Calgary scored a goal right before the end of the second period to take some momentum going into the intermission.

The 3rd period was just a great battle of wills. The Sharks seemed to be exerting theirs but could never come up with a goal. With about 5 minutes remaining, Jonathan Cheechoo shoots one into the upper corner from the opposite side of the ice. I can't believe he was able to squeeze the shot into such a small window of opportunity.

The game seemed destined for overtime as the Sharks couldn't get another one into the net because of the ex-shark in goal. Then a shot akin to a hail mary pass in football from a fair distance away by Murray and slight deflection from Thornton just sneaks inside the left pipe to win the game. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat! and I succumb to both on the same day.

On an odd note... I caught a bit of American Idol when I switched there during the Sharks intermissions. I love the fact that Syesha sang my favorite Mariah Carey song "Vanishing," who cares that Simon thought she did herself a disservice by picking a relatively unknown Mariah song. I loved it. I just may have to watch more of this season. Wait... real TV is coming back... so probably not... until the finals...

And the best news of all... MANNY BELLO is back. He is one of the old Spasm gang collaborators from the days when we were young and thought we would succeed at self-publishing. And let me make this clear, we could have if we all wanted that to be our main goal and had more capital. He sent me an email today that his project Dugout is about to be released this summer. And yes, he is a big Giants fan, hence the baseball related project. Woo Hoo!

I truly need to create something for this talented man to visualize.
I love how he said he can't wait for my volume of "subversive verse."

Giants Baseball meets Drumline Battle #8 - Jet Li

Before we get to the next Drumline Battle... my family celebrated Dwight's Birthday and we got to meet his family. Woo Hoo!

I took so much abuse this week about the Giants record and season, particularly at the beginning of the week. Then, the Giants won three games in a row, even the KNBR hosts were wondering if that would even be possible. Well, it happened much sooner than many expected. Yet, many of the people around me said that the Giants were just playing over their heads. It will only last so long. Unfortunately, more of the games will be like Saturday's in which the Giants lose in break your heart fashion. The good thing about that is that there is always a chance they will win the game and not just get blown out like many naysayers suggest.

So I decided with this entry in the Drumline Battle, I would share a clip that shows truly what it means to battle over heads. The scene comes from the first Jet Li I ever saw. Thankfully, my buddy Eric use to take me to the UC Theater in Berkeley on Thursdays, when the theme of the night was Asian films (usually action/martial arts films). Eric helped me to discover Jet Li, John Woo, and Chow Yun Fat long before they made their first American films. In many ways, Eric is responsible for helping me to develop any film sensibility/aesthetic (while an ex-girlfriend also taught me more than I ever expected since she was a broadcast media major), which all has led me to being able to teach film lit. Enough of the Digression....

This scene from The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk introduced me to Jet Li and just how much fun and how different foreign films can be than the usual Hollywood fare.




In much the same way, Jet Li fights for pride (and a possible bride) because he is young and talented, yet he discovers he has much to learn and ultimately loses the battle. The Giants may not be choosing to lose, but they will be learning from their mistakes. As long as the games are close as they have been, they will be entertaining. Hopefully, more fans will show up to the park rather than just us true fans. The attendance this week was the lowest in ballpark history.


138 Aside:
I can't believe that during Friday night's game there were some people mad at me for not moving out of my seat for their friends because they assumed I was in their seats. They looked at me dumbfounded that I would deny their request. I stared back and said NO! I am a season ticket holder and my butt has been on this seat since 2000. I'm sorry you assumed your friends had my seats but you're wrong. They all eventually moved a few rows in front of me.

Second horrible thing to happen in 138 Friday night was some fans several feet away from me tried to start the wave. About a dozen people kept getting up trying to begin their wave. However, my section finally shaped up to true Friday night form and booed them down. My 138 family around me made them sit down as we yelled at them that the wave is not San Francisco, but an East Bay or Southern California mentality so go back to from whence you came.

Later we began a Let's Go Giants chant, and those fans who booed sarcastically said "ewww... we don't do that here! we don't cheer for our team!" Those fans are lucky that none of the stupid drunk fans that tend to show up were there and make the situation a bit unruly. It disgusts me when fans who show up to 1 or 2 games a year come to the ballpark and disregard ballpark etiquette and proceed to try to dictate how the regular hard-core fans should act. How can they yell at me and say I'm not a real fan? I haven't seen their faces there before, and I have been to a few hundred games in the last decade.

Drumline Battle Answer #5 - O Captain, My Captain

Well, Lance is now posting his answers to the battle. He actually explains how all this started better than me. He went straight to his all-time favorite speech in a film. Therefore, I have no choice but to place my favorite finale to a film (Cinema Paradiso, The Empire Strikes Back and The Usual Suspects rank right up there though). The movie that helped make me what I am.



I remember watching this movie in the theater towards the end of my sophomore year in high school. I think E, M, C, LL, and Emo were with me. I hated the movie when it first began because the Chem book kept popping up all through the film and it was the same text we used in our Chem H class. But the movie brought everything from my Freshman year English class full circle. I knew writing a poem helped me rediscover my identity, yet this film helped me realize I could also reach out to others.

Drumline Battle Answer #4 - My Name is Inigo Montoya

I think this movie has some of my favorite scenes and lines that I can't help but quote. But the famous line here is by far the best. Out of nowhere I'll just start repeating it. Sometimes I will even use it as a mantra when I pitch and I desperately need to get the batter out. This whole movie should be included. I definitely love this movie more than Drumline and the scenes are much more memorable for me -- plus Andre the Giant (just wait until I start picking famous scenes from wrestling).



I particularly also like the battle of wits.

Or how about this tribute video done in lego.
I love lego as much as the next kid in my generation but I've never been able to do this. I was amazed at all the videos done in lego that can be found on youtube.

Drumline Battle Answer #3 meets Lip Sync Rally - Joyful, Joyful

So some of my students asked for suggestions as to what performance they should do for the lip sync rally. Well, the seniors took what of my suggestions to heart and I know many of the teachers loved it, because my young staff grew up with this movie, while most of the students in it were just starting kindergarten.

This scene also happens to be another one of those films my siblings will stop to watch, especially when it gets close to the finale as you will see here.

here's the students version first




and now the scene from the movie




i swear the students should have performed this last. It was my favorite lip sync routine of the whole rally, although the Freshmen composed themselves quite well.

Lance and Derek Drumline Battle Answer #1 - Babysitting Blues

So as Lance and I began the game of what's better than Drumline, there were only a couple of obvious responses in terms of movies. You'll notice that many of them are musical numbers from some of the movies that have embedded themselves into our childhood/adolescent psyches.

I remember trying to hook up my Sony Walkman recorder to my old VCR to record the audio output. We would listen to some of our favorite movie scenes this way, especially on road trips.

So here's one of the first clips we were obsessed with (oh, and for argument's sake, we didn't allow Star Wars into the discussion for it would have been too obvious).




Enjoy the flashbacks!