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I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t know that Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940. He would have been 67 this past Tuesday. He is arguably the most famous Asian American man (or woman) and martial artist in history. There were probably legions of Asian American folks (okay, probably mostly boys) who idolized Bruce Lee when he was young. To be honest, when I was young, I didn’t really think much of him. For one thing, he died a few years before I was born. And secondly, the fact that people admired him for his aptitude in gong fu and wushu actually made my life more difficult. When I was in elementary school and middle school, a few people thought that I knew “karate.” Of course, I did not and I really didn’t have a desire to learn it, though I thought that maybe that I should learn it, in order to be more “Asian.” I doubt that any non-Asians ever have to think about this issue.

I’m also embarrassed to say that most of my knowledge about Bruce Lee comes from the ridiculous, Hollywood-produced movie “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” (I have a feeling that they made the movie to rewrite history. They often rejected him for leading roles. Now, they’re making money off of him. Stupid Hollywood.) I took much of the film’s contents as fact. For example, I came to believe that there is this Triad-funded secret society in San Francisco’s Chinatown that hosts wushu grudge matches in dark, dank basements. What a naive idiot I was.

Given my complete lack of knowledge of Bruce Lee, I thought I’d do some Internet reading and Googling. There are many good biographies about him which I have already placed on my “To Read” list. Anyway, using the Internet, I have learned that Bruce Lee and I have/had a few things in common. Here’s what I learned.

1. Bruce Lee and I both attended the University of Washington. Of course, he was studying drama and philosophy and he did not graduate. Unlike me, he is listed in a UW publication listing 100 great alumni of the 20th century. (The movie “Dragon” never shows Bruce Lee attending the University of Washington. Something is wrong with that. Seattle is where he met his wife, started his gong fu school. He is buried there. Seattle is a beautiful city. Why did they not show it? Stupid Hollywood.)
2. Bruce Lee and I both were born in the Year of the Dragon. Maybe that’s why his parents called him “Little Dragon,” or Xiao Long. But his official name is Zhen Fan. Of course, he was born 36 years before I was.
3. Bruce Lee and I both learned martial arts. While it is no surprise that Bruce Lee learned martial arts, it is probably some surprise that I tried. In my first year at the University of Washington, I took some wushu, Shaolin style. It was me and some white people. Guess Bruce Lee might have inspired them. Honestly, I was not a very dedicated student and I probably had no talent. I was probably wise to quit, but I’m still not sure why I even tried to learn in the first place. Was I trying to be more “Asian?”
4. Bruce Lee and I both report our height at 5 feet 8 inches where in reality, we are/were probably closer to 5 feet 7.5 inches. Despite his physical prowess, might he have been insecure about his height? Maybe that is an Asian thing.

I found some other interesting facts about him which are not true for me. For one thing, he was hapa! His mother was of Chinese and German ancestry. And I’m still appalled that Hollywood jacked around with him. For example I’m appalled that producers chose David Carridine, of Kung Fu fame, over Bruce Lee for the role of the Shaolin monk in the Wild West. Why? Because the studio believed that a Chinese leading man would not be embraced by the American public. Humph. Some things haven’t changed.

If you forgot to wish Bruce a happy birthday, here is your chance. Happy Birthday Bruce. May you rest in peace.

Tags: Commentary, News.

Good morning all. Long time no hear from.

We here at BPRLive have been trying to give shine to up-and-comers and never-heard-of-before-ers and folks you don’t usually get to peep day to day. But I haven’t been keeping up with the Teddy Zee-like duties on the scene recently, so I’m temporarily throwing yall some info about old friends instead of new ones: Blue Scholars.

First of all, Blue Scholars’ producer/DJ/hypeman/choreographer Sabzi and some of the beats he’s produced recently beat (← slick right?) all comers in the Red Bull Big Tune competition, including big names like DJ Babu, Marco Polo, and many others. As a prize, Sabzi gets to go in the studio with his choice of Talib Kweli, Redman, or Young Buck. No confirmation if and when that might happen, but there are unsubstantiated rumors floating around the non-Internets world. I don’t want to go out on a limb and commit to a prediction, so I’ll move on by saying G-G-G G-Uni…etc. Read more

Tags: Commentary, MTV, News, Video.

I’m still in shock that it’s already holiday season at the mall. And it’s not like holiday season just started, it’s been going strong for several weeks already. It made me a little sad that the transition went straight from scary ghosts and pumpkins to holiday present craziness. What happened to the holiday in the middle where we give thanks for the things we already have?

So, IF you decide that you need to buy things this coming Friday, I figured I’d send out a couple of suggestions to assuage your consumer guilt. If you’re going to buy things, at least figure out how to buy things that support good causes and good people. Here some suggestions for rocking Asian American gifts this holiday season.

Another Calendar?
Tired of giving that same Dilbert or Anne Geddes calendar? Try something with a little more bite, like Lela Lee’s Angry Little Girls 2008 Calendar. People always crack up when see my 2007 calendar hanging in my office. (hint hint)

Something Sustainable
I know that I have been trying to evaluate how my actions impact the earth. Disposable plasticware is such a waste, but I’m never organized enough to bring in my own. This resusable bamboo utensil set is the perfect solution, eco-friendly and produced by WEAVE, an organization which helps to provide opportunities for leadership and empowerment for women and children from Burma.

Something Sustainable and Angry
And, if you want to be eco-friendly and angry at the same time, this bag, again from Angry Little Girls, just cracks me up. (hint hint)

Underwear
If you feel the need to give underwear, try blacklava’s “I Will Not Love You Long Time” briefs (only for girls, unfortunately). I tried, but I couldn’t find any Asian American owned sock businesses.

For Kids
Got kids on your shopping list?

• Try a book from Lee and Low books, an independent children’s book publisher focusing on multicultural stories, such as “Baseball Saved Us.”
• I’m a HUGE fan of Grace Lin’s books, like “Dim Sum for Everyone!“
• For a first lesson in community activism, try Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel, another personal favorite. This book is written in both English and Tagolog!

Gifts that keep on giving
Personally, come March, it’s nice to get a gift that keeps on giving. Like a magazine subscription to Hyphen Magazine, the gift of music, or the gift of time spent with whatever local community organizations you feel connected to. (hint hint) =)

Tags: Books, Consumer, Gifts.

After the Beats, Rhymes and Rice Tour hit Northeastern University on November 8, 2007, Kiwi was generous enough to give some of his time to do an interview. He sat down with our own Jess and shared some of his thoughts.

Quick Facts about Kiwi

1. Perfect Meal – In-N-Out Cheeseburger and Fries
2. Favorite Basketball Team – Clippers
3. L.A. or San Francisco – San Francisco
4. Favorite Rapper – Chuck D.
5. What fruit would you be? – Umm… a kiwi?
6. Pen and paper or the Mic and the stage – Mic and the stage
7. Favorite Season – Winter
8. Favorite spot in the World – Philippines
9. One word to describe Northeastern University – Fun
10. Bao Phi or Giles Li – Bao Li

Who is the real Kiwi?

My primary identity is rooted in the Filipino community. What I write about is based on growing up as a Filipino in the U.S. I am definitely an L.A. cat at heart and that goes with me wherever I go. Though I am an emcee, I have a pretty introverted personality. However, even though I live inside my head sometimes, I feel like that actually helps with my lyrics. I am always processing. Asides from that, I am the son of a single mom, former gang member, and a high school drop out… and I say this not to glorify or tokenize that experience but to acknowledge that it’s what molded me into who I am today.

How did you get the name “Kiwi”?

Well, it’s nothing hella deep or anything. When I was younger, I used to have longer hair, dreads. But one day I cut it all off, and an elder teased me for looking like a kiwi because it was short and fuzzy. That’s where the name came from. My real name is Jack, but I don’t have much of an attachment to it.

What did you want to be when you growing up?

I wanted to be a baseball player, but I had a hard time in academics, so it was hard to stay on the team. Then I wanted to be a skateboarder. Being a rapper was the last thing I wanted to do. As far as hip hop, I actually wanted to be a DJ (like a lot of Filipinos where I was from).

Read more

Tags: Interview.

We’re going to try something slightly different. Up to now, for the most part, whenever we received new music to play, we just loaded it onto our playlist and I wrote a single blog entry about several artists. Sometimes, there was a common theme tying the artists together. Most of the time, there was no common theme. For the next several weeks, we’re going to try and introduce each artist in an individual post, complete with a biography and some words about the songs they’ve offered to the station. We’ll see how this goes. First of up is Goh Nakamura.

Goh Nakamura may live in the Bay Area now, but he lived half of his life in Massachusetts. He grew up in Lexington, MA and went to the Berklee College of Music. Apparently, part of his musical career was spent in Boston where he provided “stunt guitar” work for various local bands.

His work as an individual artist didn’t really begin until he moved back to the west coast. He likes to think of himself as a combination of John Lennon, John Cusack and John Coltrane. (Why three Johns? I don’t know!) However unholy this trinity is, it seems to work (at least in his head).

For the last 3 years, he’s been playing his original songs as well as an eclectic spectrum of covers at assorted venues throughout the SF Bay Area.

Goh Nakamura’s debut album, “Daylight Savings”, was named one of the Top Ten Local Albums of 2004 by the San Jose Metro. We’re playing several of the tracks from his album on our radio station.

I’ve been listening to his CD over the past couple of weeks. When I first listened to his music, I thought it was kind of somber. I wasn’t paying close attention to the lyrics so I decided to check out his lyrics to see if the words were as depressing as the music sounded. And I guess the verdict is yeah, kind of. The songs are definitely bittersweet. Tune into our stream and and judge for yourself. We’re playing a fair number of tracks from his album, including the song for the video, “Embarcadero Blues.” It is a song about a food service worker who barely makes anything but is happy to have someone special in his life. Apparently, the video has been getting tons of hits on Youtube.com.

Tags: CD, featured artist, Love, Online Radio, Video.

November 2007’s feature was F. Omar Telan, a spoken word / performance artist from Philadelphia, PA of Filipino heritage. I’ll admit that I arrived a little late for the performance, but I was happy to catch all of Omar’s set. Here’s a little bit about Omar from his own website. Add 100 to all the years and you’ll get the right dates. Read his biography to get a taste of his poetic style.

F. Omar Telan was born in Industrial Philadelphia during the 1876 centennial. With his decidedly halo halo background, Omar adds a singular perspective to Asian American expression. Influenced heavily by Neo-Surrealism and absolutely suburban fabulous, Omar appeals to his fellow artist who understands how satire sometimes involves eating children. Bombastic and introverted, he fascinates the casual audience with his ability to plumb the underbelly of his own psyche while simultaneously appreciating delicious, chilled plums…

Later moving to Boston in 1894, Omar enrolled in the fledgling school of oratory known as Emerson College. To further pursue his own deification and immor(t)ality, he moved to New York City in 1897. But then came the Great Exodus of the Aughts when many fled the Naked City for greener pastures such as the City of Brotherly Love. As of 1907, he has made his home in the Sylvania. Omar has challenged audiences ranging from the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Philippine Embassy with his brand of humor, social commentary, and gulliness. Word.

Read more

Tags: Boston Progress, Open Mic, Recaps, spoken word, Video.

The Beats, Rhymes and Rice Tour made their way to Northeastern University and hit the Boston area by storm on November 8, 2007. It was the second show on the BRR Tour and it was a privilege to have Giles Li, Bao Phi and Kiwi on campus. Giles and Kiwi have performed at Northeastern in the past, but it was the first time for Bao. The night was filled with laughter, great poems and great music. It was the first time that I ever watched Kiwi perform live and he was everything that he was advertised. He was energetic, passionate and his rhymes were dope. With songs like “Good Music,” “Right Here, Right Now,” and “Turn It Around,” it was great just to listen to real Hip Hop and listen to lyrics that matter. I had watched Giles and Bao perform on the stage at UMASS Boston back in the Summer. It’s been months and when they get together this time, it’s like they didn’t miss a beat. They fed off each other and was the dynamic duo that they are. Giles performed “Crappy Xmas Poem in 7 Parts,” the crowd favorite “WHAT YEAH OKAY!” and a cover of “HEY YA!” Bao continued his “Nguyen” series and also read a poem that he wrote recently. The three artists were just awesome, keeping the audience entertained as well as inspiring them with their words.

Personally, this show was something that I always wanted to happen. When the opportunity arose, I jumped on it with the big help of Delia (Thanks!). It was hard work but it was worth it. I just want to take time to thank all the people that showed up and to all three artists for enlightening the Northeastern Asian American community with their words. For the students and people out there that think there are no talented Asian American artists or not a lot of Asian American heroes out there, well three were on the same stage that night at Northeastern University.

Tags: Concert, Recaps.

 

 Interview with Suz and Emily of Exit Clov [14:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

After Exit Clov rocked the house on November 4th, I had the good fortune to sit down with front-women Emily and Susan Hsu. The ladies waxed philosophical on several topics including music making, government mind control, and being nerds. Take a listen after the jump!

Tags: Interview, Podcasts.