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Normally, our Shuffled! column appears on Thursdays. Well, Thursday came and went. Shuffled is enjoying the holiday season. Shuffled will return again in the New Year. Happy Holidays!

If you haven’t watched Blue Man Group in any city showing this high energy drumming sensation, get those tickets now, especially if you live in Boston. The Blue Man Group at Charles Playhouse will be seeing Bhurin Sead’s last performance on January 4.

Sead began starring in Blue Man Group in March of 2008 and has recently relocated to Boston. The weather maybe hard to get used to because he is from Houston, Texas, but he spent sometime in New York City, so the Northeast coldness is not a complete surprise. Sead is a second generation Thai-American who struggled to have his parents understand the art direction he is taking. They finally did when they saw him perform in Orlando. He is a human biology expert through his studies at University of Texas (home of the Longhorns,) but realized his passion did not lie in carrying out science experiments. Sead took a leap of faith to try something outside of his professional calling. The rest is Blue Man history.

Even with the state of his Blue Man career, Sead is still staying positive, “”I’m still hopeful that… the spirit of the character, show, and community will stay alive through these tough economic times.  But for now, its time to go find other things to cause mischief in.”

JM: Is there ever a time when you’re like, “Man, I have to do a show tonight.”

Bhurin Sead: I’ve generally been really excited everyday I’ve worked, which is really cool because working at the lab. There’d be days where I’d wake up and I’d say, “Oh man the next nine hours I am here.”

JM: Have you ever thought or heard it’s easier to pick you out or tell you’re Asian even with all of your make up on?

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Tags: Interview.

Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome someone from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

“Raw, evocative, insightful…Kelly is a contemporary visionary who is helping to change the world, one poem at a time.” — Celeste Hamilton, Action Without Borders/Idealist.org

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who fights for cultural pride and survival through how she spits and how she lives. Touring extensively worldwide, she has featured at over 300 shows across the continental United States, Hawai’i, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Kenya, and the Netherlands.

Kelly has rocked stages at venues like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and three seasons of “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” She has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli, DMX, Michael Eric Dyson, Wyclef Jean, Tracy Morgan, Amiri Baraka, and many more.

Past projects include her award-winning spoken word video (“By-Standing..” dir. by Karen Lin) and her viral spoken word video (“Black, White, Whatever” dir. by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson), which was featured on Youtube.com the day before Barack Obama’s historic election and quickly garnered over 200,000 hits. Her poems and essays can be found in We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists (Seal/Avalon), We Got Issues! A Young Woman’s Guide to a Bold, Empowered and Courageous Life (Inner Ocean) and The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (Sourcebooks).

For poetry, calendar, mailing list, and online store, check out Kelly’s website, Youtube channel, myspace, or Facebook.

Now we shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

As an American, I don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to news going on in East Asia. When I’m not being a full-time student, maintaining BPR or just living life—you know eating, breathing, and sleeping, I’m just trying to chill. Last night, as I was headed to bed, I was listening to the BBC and heard some news about what’s going on over in East Asian.

The first news item I heard about concerned the gifting of pandas from the Chinese government to the Taiwanese government. Apparently, these pandas were offered as gifts before, but were rejected by the previous government leaders, headed by that one badass Chen Shui-Bien. And believe me, he is one badass. He was arrested recently on charges of corruption. He apparently stole millions of NT dollars while in power. Here’s a view on the Chen Shui-Bien scandal from a Taiwanese American.

Now, Mr. Chen claims that he is the target of a witch hunt, that he is being targeted by the current president, who apparently hates him more than he hates clogged toilets. Moreover, Mr. Chen claims that Ma Ying-jeou is being cheered on by the Chinese government. Wow, talk about conspiracy theory. It is no secret that the former president was not well-liked by the Chinese government, so it is possible.

This news is pretty messed up, but in some ways is comforting in light of the recent news about Senator Stevens of Alaska, Senator Wilkerson of Massachusetts, Governor Blagojevich of Illinois—politicians in the rest of the world love scandal and corruption just as much ours do. Isn’t that comforting? Read more

Tags: News.

After we swept, vacuumed, threw out trash and organized the East Meets West bookstore, Dave said I should co-host the next East Meets Words open mic with Long. I was immediately enthused and nervous about that. Despite being psyched to engage the audience, I wondered just how I would do that. I’m usually soaking in the vibe at open mic, absorbed in the performances, at times left stunned and dazed by the artists, only days later ready to put the experience into words. And yeah, this was pretty challenging as a bunch of powerful young voices unleashed intense spoken word performances that thundered through the space.

Thanks to students brought by a high school teacher of Sejal’s, students from UTEC, and college students coming for our feature Tu Phan, we had a great list of open mic sign-ups. The strongly delivered imagery of Joey B.’s love poem once again astounded me; Scott’s parody (and critique!) of Adam Sandler’s musical (and other) abilities tossed us into fits of roiling humor; Pushkar delivered a fierce perspective on US occupation of Iraq. There was no lack of empowerment that evening. Subjects within and among performances enfolded us in an incredibly diverse spectrum of ideas and emotions as we heard about all the activities and situations a brown paper bag can be a part of, the tragedy of beauty chosen over intelligence, unrestrained expressions of passion, secrets kept when love is so powerful it’s overwhelming and much more. The energy of each artist and the entire audience was beautifully palpable. I’m surprised their echoes aren’t still reverberating in the bookstore space. Read more

Tags: Open Mic, Recap, spoken word.

Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome someone from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Theo Gonzalves

Theo Gonzalves is an Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where he teaches courses on Filipino/American studies and cultural/performance studies. A musician and composer, Theo has led his own combos. His latest recording with his Honolulu-based trio will be released in 2009. He recently completed the original musical soundtrack to Celine Shimizu’s documentary, Birthright.

Theo has also served on the advisory board for Bindlestiff Studio, a San Francisco performing arts venue; co-founder of Jeepney Dash Records, an artist-run recording label; keyboardist for the Legendary Bobby Banduria; and musical director for “tongue in A mood” Theatre. Gonzalves’ musical work has been featured at concerts such as the Asian American Jazz Festival and theater & music festivals at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He has also written, produced and performed several scores for independent film projects.

Gonzalves has received a Meet the Composer Award, was named a Visiting Artist and Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, and traveled to the Philippines as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. For more information, visit theogonzalves.com.

Now, on to the shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

There isn’t snow in Boston yet, but the temperature has been excruciatingly cold. To get out of the cold and into the heat, come join Boston Progress Arts Collective at another East Meets Words Open Mic at East Meets West Bookstore (934 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA). East Meets Words is simply the most awesome Asian American open mic ever. Yes. This month’s feature is Tu Anh Phan.

Inspired by hip hop, spoken word, and literature, Tu has been writing for about 5 years now. He was a part of the first ever Boston Youth Poetry Slam Team that competed with 40+ teams in the nation this past summer. That experience alone has transformed Tu into a better writer and has helped him focus on writing and performance. He is constantly growing and learning as a being and YOU are vital to his existence. Tu loves it when people speak their minds especially when it comes to working class struggles, environmental justice, international affairs, and the NEED FOR POETRY and other arts. His daily life consists of appreciating the power of vibrations, living and breathing in the NOW, being an impatient freshmen at Northeastern University in Human Services & International Affairs, traveling to meet beautiful people who are never seen, and most importantly exiting his self and detaching from his ego. If you are caught in the hands of a gorilla, his only advice, which works in most situations is to, “Be.”

The open mic is open to all ages. Bring $3, a warm jacket, and an open ear for listening.

Tags: Open Mic.

Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome someone from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Scott Kurashige

Scott Kurashige is a college professor, a community activist, writer, public speaker, blogger (on Huffington Post), and occasional performer under various guises. He teaches history and ethnic studies at the University of Michigan and is the author of The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles (Princeton, 2008).

Currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History during academic year 2008-09, he is editing and co-authoring a book by Detroit-based philosopher/activist Grace Lee Boggs on “the next American revolution” and working to complete a manuscript titled Neighbors in the ‘Hood: Asians and the Reconstruction of Community in America, which situates Asian American history and social movements within the multiracial politics of urban space in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

Now, shuffle on to the shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.