boston progress radio

On April 30, 2007, Boston Progress Radio is observing a One Day Blog Silence in honor of the victims of the April 16, 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech.

If you have any further questions, contact the webmaster.

Tags: News.

Where are all the bands fronted by hot Asian American guys backed up by white bandmates? Anyway, in the category of bands fronted by Asian American women, Blonde Redhead is one of my faves. They’re latest album just came out, so check it out.  More information about their upcoming show is available here.

Okay, so I lied. I said I’d recap the Grains of Rice a few days earlier. Well, better late than never right? Anyway. The Ninth Annual Grains of Rice at MIT took place on April 22. Overall, I thought it was a fairly entertaining event. (Although they ran out of Boba Tea by the time I got to the food!) As the largest event put on by the MIT Asian American Association in the 2006-2007 academic year, Grains of Rice featured both contemporary and traditional performances in one three hour show.

The show kicked off with a rousing Korean drum performance from MIT Oori. This was followed by dance performances put on by the MIT Filipino Students Association, MIT Chamak, and the MIT Thai Students Association. I particularly enjoyed the MIT Filipino Students Association’s Tinikling dance, a Filipino folk dance that imitates the movements of the tikling bird dodging bamboo traps. One could describe the dance as double dutch with bamboo sticks instead of jump rope. While two parallel bamboo sticks are moved around, the dancers’ feet flash in and out, carefully avoiding the sticks at all times.

Tags: Recaps.

I love these guys… one DJ and one MC. Maybe it’s because they are from Seattle, home of my alma mater, the UW. Or maybe it’s because they talk about the sights and sounds of Seattle in almost every song they do. Or maybe the lyrics resonate with my social justice soul. Anyway, the point of this blog entry is to tell all you hip hop fans out there on the West Coast to go out and see the Blue Scholars. They’ll be touring with Common Market and Gabriel Teodros.

One bit of good and bad news is that the Blue Scholars signed with Rawkus. That’s good because it means more people will hear about them and they’ll probably tour out here. The bad news for us is that we probably won’t be able to play any of the music off their new album Bayani on this station. According to the Three Imaginary Girls, they are slated to release their first album on Rawkus on June 12. Hopefully, they’ll come out to Boston to do a show. Rock Rock On.

Tags: Commentary, News.

I’ve been listening to Kite Operations‘ first full length album, Dandelion Day, for about a week now, and it continues to grow on me. I have to admit, I was totally intrigued when I read on their website that the band (which hails from NYC) chose its name to invoke “the illusion of control one has over one’s life, mirrored in the activity of ‘flying’ a kite, while one merely holds on to a thread.” Seriously? That’s pretty deep.

Their music is chill kite-flying music. The vocals are simple and not overstated. There are crisp little guitar melodies running through the tracks - accentuated with drums, feedback. Some tracks, like Head of Steam and Hardway are a little more rock, but others like Tracing Paths are perfect springtime music. It’s the kind of stuff I’d like to play on my ipod if I were cruising down by the Charles on my bike, you know, if I did stuff like that.

Tags: Reviews.

Singer-songwriter (and now Bostonian) Magdalen Hsu-Li will be playing a free show at Suffolk University as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebrations there. The show will be held at the C. Walsh Theatre with a talkback in Donahue 403 until 7:00pm.

More information is available here.

 

 Interview with Patricio Ginelsa, Jr. [17:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Patricio Ginelsa, a filmmaker from Los Angeles, CA, was in Boston recently to give a talk at Boston College. He was kind enough to sit down with our own Giles Li and chat about his past and future projects.

Ginelsa is originally from Daly City, CA, where he started making video movies with his neighborhood at the age of 12. It was John Singleton’s 1992 film “Boyz N The Hood” that inspired Patricio to pursue a career in film at the University of Southern California where he graduated with a BA in cinema production. During college, Patricio worked part-time as a segment writer for an American-based Filipino show called “Pinoy Pa Rin” interviewing Filipino community leaders and celebrities.

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Tags: Interview, Podcasts.

SURVIVING THE NIAN
A World Premiere musical
Music and Lyrics by Melissa Li
Book by Melissa Li and Abe Rybeck
Directed by Patrick Wang
Musical Director Juri Panda Jones
Featuring Megumi Haggerty, Abria Smith, Mariko Kanto, Hyunsoo Moon, Gary Ng, Judy Tan

“Winner of the 2007 Jonathan Larson Award for Musical Theater”

I had a chance to check out Surviving the Nian last week - the musical being produced by The Theater Offensive that Boston Progress friend Melissa Li has been working on since she was a teenager with Abe Rybeck. I honestly did not know what to expect: Melissa is an incredibly talented songwriter and musician, but I was only familiar with her music as sung by her from behind her own guitar. To me, musical theater is about as far from catchy folk-rock as you can get.

The audience is brought up to speed immediately, because it’s clear we’ll need the full length of the play for this family to work through its issues. Here’s the nice-and-tidy version: Kaylin Wu (Megumi Haggerty) is bringing her roommate/business partner/lesbian lover Asha - who also happens to be Black - to Hong Kong from Boston to meet the Wu family during the Lunar New Year celebration. Stubborn Mother Wu (Judy Tan), cheerful Uncle Tony (Gary Ng), and Kaylin’s boring and bitter brother Vincent (Hyunsoo Moon) have no idea of the true nature of Kaylin and Asha’s relationship. On top of that, they expect Kaylin to move back to Hong Kong to put her American degree to work helping the family business.

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Tags: Musical, Reviews.