Asian American Media's topics - tribe.net

Asian-Americans in hip-hop, my documentary idea

Le4Life — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:41:00 GMT

Thoughts and feedback welcomed for this documentary idea I've had for a while....

http://people.tribe.net/le4life/blog/c735cc0b-249f-4f9a-936c-ba7e63edd7a0

another documentary I want to write and direct someday is one on Asian-Americans in hip hop. In honor of that, here are some of the artists who are contributing to the movement, with links to pics. Read more info at my myspace blog...
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=116932167&blogID=230602282&Mytoken=E7CA7B56-C9D5-45F7-8E889865FE15193512761076

The Invisible Skratch Piklz, pioneers of the team battle and winners (3 yrs in a row in the early 1990's) of the World DMC's. Member Qbert has long been regarded as the best scratch artist on earth, and Mix Master Mike became the DJ for the Beastie Boys. They disbanded in 2000 and are all working separately now. Qbert recently invented the QFO, a single turntable/mixer instrument.
http://www.djtimes.com/original/djmag/may00/images/F1-b.JPG
http://www.hiphopslam.com/news/g/022/phot_Qbert-QFO.jpg

Tyra from Saigon: composer, pianist, guitarist, and scratch DJ, one of the many fine ladies featured on Femaleswitfunk.com
http://www.femaleswitfunk.com/fwf2/bioimages/tfs.jpg

DJ Mike Relm. If you're ever lucky enough to catch him on tour, you'll be treated to some synchronized music and cinematic montage. The fuker sets up a live system where he has edited footage (mostly from random films) that he can manipulate when scratching his vinyl.
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/12/04/lv_clubland20c_at.jpg

Kid Koala, scratch DJ and downtempo producer. I just had to include him cuz I don't know many artists (much less Asian-American ones) who do his style of music.
http://image.listen.com/img/356x237/4/0/7/6/506704_356x237.jpg

Mike Shinoda got his claim to fame with Linkin Park, but then went on to form his own hip hop band Fort Minor, whose debut album featured a track about his Japanese-American family's internment during World War II.
http://www.rafu.com/images/mike_shinoda_2.jpg

Lyrics Born, MC from Berkeley/Oakland (hooray!!!) who has worked with artists and producers such as DJ Shadow.
http://media.musictoday.com/store/bands/926/product_medium/IVCD118.jpg

Native Guns = two MC's and one DJ. In addition to their collaborative album, they also do a lot of community and youth work. And they're in Oakland, yaaayyy!!!
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/beatrock/c74d0ee5.jpg

Chad Hugo is one half of The Neptunes and one third of N.E.R.D. He produced his first song (Rump Shaker) with Pharrell Williams when they were both 18.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/dnaimages/040319/nerd.jpg

If Solow is part of the Southern Cali-based crew featured in Hypen Magazine and the documentary Rize, then he must be a member of The Rice Track, one of the few (if not only) groups of Asians in the underground dance scene known as krumping.
http://www.krumpkings.com/images/bio/solow.gif

Several years back, Jin made his television debut on BET 106 & Park's Freestyle Friday competition and ended up beating seven consecutive challengers, becoming the show's longest running champion. He then got signed onto the Ruff Ryders label but his debut album flopped. He has been releasing albums with other labels since and continuing to win MC battles all over the world.
http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/vlimgdata/4562134332762.jpg

I don't know if these fools are actually with any record label, but if you find any of their albums or songs online (I'm sure they have a Myspace) you might get quite a laugh. Three Chinamen from NYC rapping about the perils of being Asian in America.
http://www.escapist.net/receptacle/images/notoriousmsg.jpg

The Far East Movement, sort of like Notorious MSG but not as much absurdity and they're probably more attractive too. Passionate lyrics about what it means to be Asian-American. They got their first track deal by being on the soundtrack for Fast & the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift.
http://www.theplatform2006.com/photo/random/GROUP1.jpg

Miss Info, radio personality and host who got into an argument on the air with her fellow DJ's at Hot 97 in NYC. The station had recently released a song poking fun at the tsunami disaster which had just struck Southeast Asia. Apparently, she was the only one there who thought the song was too racist and insensitive.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c286/silentkilla_911/Miss.jpg

Jeff Chang, Berkeley graduate and hip hop author/editor. One of his recent books Can't Stop Won't Stop has been hailed as the best scholastic/literary work on this music culture.
http://mcc.studentaffairs.duke.edu/images/cantstop.gif
http://www.giantpeachnews.com/news/db/archives/jeff_chang.gif

posted in Asian American Media - 0 replies

TigerCinema

Ted — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 01:46:52 GMT

When I went to see Red Doors last Saturday, this company called TigerCinema gave out wristbands ('I love Asian film") and tshirts. I'm wondering if anyone here has used their service and if so, do you recommend it?

-Ted

posted in Asian American Media - 1 reply

is Harold and Kumar Asian American media?

nonogirl — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:27:56 GMT

This question came up in our panel, along with a question about is any reporting by an Asian American journalist "Asian American media," with a specific example of an Asian American female sports reporter.

I didn't feel much like getting into a discussion of definition at the time because I felt that we were talking about media that comes out of CONSCIOUS SELF DETERMINATION, stories about Asian America told by Asian Americans.

So niether the sports reporter nor H&K fit my definition. But that doesn't mean they should be discounted! Although written and directed by Jews, casting two leading Asian American men in a film about the munchies contributes to the broader dialogue about Asian American images.

And like Don said, having a woman (and a female Asian American) reporting on sports breaks open pigeon holing assignments and one's individuality and skills.

Asian American media? Not in my book, but important to note nonetheless.

posted in Asian American Media - 6 replies

Follow up thoughts to Third Thursdays

gary — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 04:46:28 GMT

Hi folks,

Sorry I've been a bit delinquent from bridging the discussion over from the Third Thursdays event. We had a great discussion around the existing and historical issues around creating independent Asian American media (in addition to some good discussion simply defining it).

I wanted to use the tribe to generate some discussion around what the future brings, and how new media/internet trends are affecting traditional media.

For starters, I thought I'd throw out a link to a recent SFGate column by C.W. Nevius who had a chance to sit down recently with Dave Barry:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/31/BAGMIH06GL1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

<snip>
"It has to start with the kids," he said. "My son is 25. He's been around newspaper people all of his life. He doesn't get the paper. That's the first problem. The second problem is: We can no longer compel people to pay attention. We used to be able to say, there's this really important story in Poland. You should read this. Now people say, I just look up what I'm interested in on the Internet."
</snip>

For me, this quote totally nails it. The way information gets distributed these days is more of a "pull" than a "push". Additionally, we're no longer dependent upon a handful of sources for our information. Today, they come from our friends via email, or IM, text messages on our mobile phones, or via the blogs that we read. Technology has made word-of-mouth communications faster than ever, and a viable mechanism to get up-to-the-minute information.

How do you get your news?

posted in Asian American Media - 3 replies

Come see some films at the SFKAFF starting 2/7

Ben — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:18:18 GMT

The SF Korean American Film Festival is starting, and has some great films.

They're showing two great APA documentaries: The Grace Lee Project and And Thereafter.

The Grace Lee Project was funny and enlightening at the same time. I highly recommend. Drop a note if you're going too!
http://www.gracelee.net/index.cgi

And Thereafter. Story of Korean woman who marries American GI to leave Korea for a better life. Beautifully filmed, and a long deep look at her difficult situation, transition, and family. There was a lot I could relate to; it made me cry.

posted in Asian American Media - 1 reply

Representation vs. Good Stories

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:31:23 GMT

So I'd like to throw out a topic:

Should we support films/entertainment that could help API s (at least in breaking barriers for careers) even when the produce work that isn't very good? Case in point _Annapolis_ (unseen by me, as much as everyone has bashed this film, I don't need to go any further about this movie.) But here's an interesting case study: Aeon Flux. That was directed by Karyn Kusama, graduate of NYU film school; she discovered Michelle Rodriguez in _Girl Fight_.

As we might or might not know, not only is it hard for a API to become a feature film director, but it's hard for a woman to become a director. There's not that many around! As far as Aeon Flux goes--I haven't seen it yet--but let's assume that it's a bad movie...should we go see it to support Ms. Kusama? And to fan the flames even more, it must have been super risky for MTV films to take their chance on Kusama on a potential franchise when she did only independent work.

I have my own opinion why I didn't see the movie, but I'd like to hear other opinions first.

posted in Asian American Media - 0 replies

More about Third Thursdays

gary — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:48:13 GMT

Third Thursdays is a monthly dinner and discussion series that brings together Asian Americans from the for-profit and non-profit sectors to talk about issues related to the Asian American community.

We're an all-volunteer non-profit organization, fiscally sponsored by Asian Improv Arts, and we're very proud to be in our sixth year of hosting these monthly discussions.

The goal of this, and all of our forums, is to create a time and space to talk about issues that we care about.

If you'd like to learn more about us, please come talk to any one of us, or visit our website at http://www.thirdthursdays.org. We're always looking for folks who want to become more involved!

posted in Asian American Media - 1 reply

Welcome!

gary — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 04:13:07 GMT

Welcome to the Asian American Media tribe, created for discussion around the January 2006 Third Thursdays panel: "the asians are coming, the asians are coming".

Let the discussion begin!

"the asians are coming, the asians are coming"

With the recent announcement of its downsizing, AZN TV, the upstart Asian American cable network, joins the long list of promising but unsuccessful corporate attempts to bring balanced images of Asian Americans into mainstream media. 2005 left us with dubious achievements to celebrate in the mainstream media: the missed coverage of APA communities affected by Hurricane Katrina, continued racism on the radio, and Bai Ling's re-emergence on TV and the big- screen.

However, times are changing. Asian American bloggers, filmmakers, musicians, and artists can now create and publish content online on their own terms--independent of traditional media--in a cheap, easy, and unprecedented fashion.

These same online trends are also responsible in part for the steady decline of traditional media businesses. Revenues for major newspapers, record labels, and film studios are declining, as people are spending more time using online resources like MySpace, Craigslist, Netflix, and Google.

Is this an opportunistic beginning of a revolution in Asian American media, or just a momentary glitch in the matrix? Find out as we ask our panelists of APA publishers, artists, and organizers.

Confirmed panelists include:

Melissa Hung
Editor in Chief, Hyphen
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com

Robynn Takayama
Independent Radio Producer
http://www.nonogirl.com

Donald Young
Center for Asian American Media
http://www.asianamericanmedia.org

Moderated by:

Gary Chou
MANJA, http://manja.org
Sr. Product Manager, Tribe.net

January's Third Thursdays is co-presented by
the Center for Asian American Media
http://www.asianamericanmedia.org

Related Links:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/12/08/apop.DTL
http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2005/11/mainstream_melt.html

The title of January's TT comes from a poem by
Beau Sia http://feedbackpoets.tripod.com/sia.html

posted in Asian American Media - 0 replies