boston progress radio

Happy New Year! I think that 2008 will be an exciting one for Boston Progress and Boston Progress Radio. As always there will be the open mic, but hopefully, there will be fresh new things happening too. Before we move forward to 2008, let me bring you back to the second half of 2007. You can read about the first half here.

July

A lazy month in Boston, July brought to East Meets Words the spoken word performers, Catzie and Michelle of Yellow Rage, who are less angry as interviewees than as performers. I was happy to be in the audience when they featured because they offer a good perspective on being an Asian American woman. Since I’m not a woman, listening to their point of view is character-building and educational.

August

The feature for August was the talented musician Melissa Li. Her most recent claim to fame was writing the musical “Surviving the Nian” [read Giles’ review], which I also got to see when it played at The Theater Offensive. I also found that she’s a pretty good teacher. The day after the open mic, she taught this musical dunce how to compose music with GarageBand.

Prior to the August EMW, I traveled to the Big Apple to attend the 2007 APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit. Surrounded by so many amazing spoken word artists, musicians, and performers, I felt like it was 1995 and I was back in Taiwan’s Shìlín Yèshì (Shilin Night Market) surrounded by amazing and cheap Taiwanese food, drinking and dancing the night away. Okay, that’s only a half-truth. Of course, I also had a chance to explore parts of New York I had never seen and spend time with people I care about.

The last time I was in New York City to visit was 1996. I was pretty much a wide-eyed tourist. Traveling with a friend from Taiwan, we hit almost all the major tourist sites: the Empire State Building, the MOMA, and the Statue of Liberty. The highlight though was watching #2 seed Michael Chang, perhaps the hardest working man in professional tennis, at the U.S. Open in Flushings “Xiao Taipei”, NY. Not only does he have amazing stamina—if he can do that on the tennis court, imagine what else he can do—but I believe he is the highest ranked Asian American male tennis player ever. And the youngest player ever (at age 17 years and 3 months) to win the French Open. And because of that, I liked him. Yeah, I like supporting Asian American athletes too.

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Tags: Boston Progress, Commentary, Open Mic, Reviews, Year In Review.

Shuffled! is a new feature on BPRLive, in which we ask some of our favorite people on the scene to set their mp3 player of choice to random, and tell us about the first few songs that they hear.

Today’s Shuffler: Christine Miguel.

Christine Miguel has lived, laughed and loved film, television and music since she was a young girl listening to her dad’s 8 track cassettes filled with Teresa Teng and Chinese Opera while watching poorly dubbed kung-fu films. A former entertainment editor for an Asian culture lifestyle magazine, she co-hosted an Asian pop radio show for CKLN 88.1FM in Toronto for 5 years. She has also been featured on CBC Radio twice as one of the many voices in contemporary Asian culture. These days, she blogs both for her own blog POP 88 @ Popcast88.com and 8Asians.com.

She can also be found writing reviews for Suite101.com and recently contributed to the first anthology of Asian Canadian cinema: “Reel Asian: Asian Canada on Screen.”

Obsession du jour are all things Korean: music, food, film and even television. Her Chinese parents from the Philippines are worried.

Name: Christine Miguel
Nickname: Xxxtine, Eggy
Chinese: 陳清美 Hangul: 천청미
Birthdate: July 12, 1978
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Star Sign: Cancer
Zodiac: Horse - Earth Horse to be exact
Blood Type: B+
Height: 164 cm
Never leave home without: Cellphone, Camera
Theme song/Anthem: “Yeah …” by Park Jung Ah (박정아)

Now, on to the shuffle. Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

You know how at the end of every year, news magazines, newspapers, TV shows, bloggers, and radio personalities make a list of the Best _________ of the Year ______. I thought it would be cool to write my own version of that. Unlike some Year In Reviews though, I won’t be talking about books you should read or CDs you should buy. (I do have some in mind. We are a radio station after all.) Instead, I’m going to tell you all a little bit about my first year of volunteering for Boston Progress Arts Collective. Actually, this article is the first of two about me and the year 2007.

Starting in December 2006, I became, not just a consumer of Boston Progress events, but also a volunteer for the cause. I attended my first Boston Progress meeting (actually, it was a East Meets West Bookstore meeting, but I did not fully understood the difference at the time). I had low expectations for the meeting. It would be an understatement to say that the whole thing was an awakening for me. For perhaps the first time in my life, I felt that I had found folks of Asian heritage that didn’t get together simply to have dim sum or to talk about gadgets or to have bible study or to talk about pop culture (though most of those things can be enjoyable or community-building in different contexts). Instead, we got together to make a space for Asian Americans, to talk about community activism and to talk about art and music. I think I volunteered to put some ads in some local free newspapers to advertise the open mic.

The year 2007 rolled around and I started volunteering at the bookstore. I learned very quickly that I was a very bad cashier. I had a lot of trouble operating the register. Actually, I still have trouble with the cash register. The January open mic features were Janet Kim and Marie Avetria, two spoken word performers from NYC. I remember that day not being very cold, unusual for a winter day in New England. Maybe it was the hot Chai and good company that I had prior to the open mic that warmed me. Or maybe it was the words of the performers that stimulated my mind.

I also went to my first art gallery opening, “Transitions,” featuring oil paintings by Sophea Khem. I still really like the big painting that he’s selling for a bajillion dollars. He told me that the painting costs so much because a) it so large and b) it has special meaning to him. No wonder I dig that big one so much. You can see that painting and some others by Khem in a number of photos here in this post.

I think I also played my first game of Boggle that weekend of the open mic. A bunch of Boston Progress folks were gathered at Theresa’s home to watch a bit of football and to play a little Boggle. I remember meeting Giles there. Can you imagine playing Boggle with a bunch of poets? Talk about unfair advantage. Good thing we weren’t playing for money, because I would have had to bring out the wordsmith in me. (No, not really.)

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Tags: Boston Progress, Commentary, Community, Love, Online Radio, Open Mic, Reviews, Year In Review.

This happened about two weeks ago - or for the literalists, last year - and we didn’t post it up cuz it’s a personal thing. But seems like enough time has passed and the word is out.

So there’s really no better way to start a new year: Congrats to Brother Bambu and Krish.

And peep bambu.la to download “Cake in 08,” featuring Bam ripping the “Roc Boys” beat to shreds.

Best wishes to everybody, hope we’re all in a better place one year from now.