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We’re mad late posting this. But I figured every other API* blog on the Internets had put this video up that there was no need for us to…but it’s just too ill not to shine, so peep this crazy ass video from Deep Foundation with the homie Jay Legaspi making an appearance.

Tags: music, Video.

Last week, Vinh Hua and I meet up at the East Meets West bookstore before Open Orchestra to record a set of Vinh’s pieces for this podcast. Vinh has since set off on his journey across the US to the APIA Spoken Word Summit by various forms of locomotion, including hitchhiking. You can follow his adventures on his blog.

 API* Artists: Vinh Hua (www.vinh-hua.com) [10:50m]: Download

Tags: Podcasts, spoken word.

Shuffled! is a regular column appearing most Thursdays here on BPRLive. Each column, we welcome someone from the API* community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles. (Apologies readers, we are no longer linking to online playlists.)

Today’s Shuffler: Taiyo Na

Born and raised in New York City, Taiyo Na is an MC, singer, songwriter and producer who has performed nationwide at venues such as Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Knitting Factory and many more. Hailed as “undeniably soul-rootsy” with “storytelling through music at its finest,” his critically acclaimed debut album Love Is Growth (Issilah Productions, 2008) features the song “Lovely To Me (Immigrant Mother),” an ImaginAsian Entertainment Original Song Contest Winner.

He is also Artistic Director of the monthly Sulu Series at the Bowery Poetry Club and Entertainment Series host for the PBS-syndicated TV show Asian America. Learn more at www.TaiyoNa.com.

Check the shuffle…

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Tags: Shuffled!.

When I was a little nerd kid (as opposed to big nerd adult) the first thing I really loved about hip hop was its swagger. I know that term has been jacked in 2009, but it was not like that in the late 80s. Cockiness has always appealed to me, from David Bowie to Prince to Usher to Brandon Flowers, I just love performers who think they’re better than you. In hip hop though, what got me about it was the vulnerability embedded in the cockiness. When Special Ed said he “got it made,” he was just a poor teenager from Brooklyn – it was fantasy. When Milk D said he stole your girl while “you were in prison…for MC assault” – as if anyone ever went to prison for assaulting a rapper! My favorite emcees talk plenty shit, but for no grander reason than to show they can.

So, I’m gonna expose myself here and admit my favorite track off Bambu’s last album (read our review here) was “Quit” – not any of the other much more explicitly political songs. The standout track to me was the one where Bam shits all over rival emcees, in case you forgot he could.

So now that his last video for “Crooks and Rooks” is on rotation on MTV (Weird, right?), it makes sense for homie to drop his next video. And which joint did he choose? Yeah you guessed it.

Every other line is Twitter-worthy.

Tags: Video.

Join us at the East Meets West bookstore to share writing, discussion and the company of fellow writers! Bring your own notebook (and lunch, if you’d like).

Tags: Open Notebook.

Hey nerds! You all may have noticed that the Internets have been buzzing with news of a recently published book by Richard Bernstein called East, West, and Sex. Laura Miller took him to task in her review; then over at Hyphen, Claire took her to task for her review.

I been talking with folks on and off about this, and am surprised how often the feedback comes down to: well, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a white man/Asian woman couple, so we shouldn’t judge – because that’s not at the heart of this at all. It’s not my business to go around judging other people’s relationships – and what’s more, I really don’t give a sh!t about anyone else’s relationships. Yall feel free to do whatever you want.

Oh, but if only it were so simple. According to Miller’s review, Bernstein uses European imperialism as the frame to explain why these types of couplings are so popular; he says “Eastern” (generally a span from North Africa to East Asia) women are influenced by European/American imperialism to come to depend on relationships with white men to bring them happiness. Miller disputes this and argues that Asian women choose white men simply because they prefer them. Nary a word about how American and European exploitation of Asian women throughout history have resulted in the “Asian sex kitty” stereotype so pervasive in our society that has done damage to countless people’s psyches.

Both the book and the review seem to assume that in a world that is governed by racist, sexist, capitalist, colonialist values, that relationships between 73-year-old white men from America and 23-year-old prostitutes in Thailand can be healthy. Or at the very least cost-efficient. According to Miller, “Westerners” in poor parts of Asia “makes commercial sex pretty much inevitable. A dollar goes much further there, whether you’re buying hours of someone’s labor at a sweatshop sewing machine or sexual services.”

“Pretty much inevitable,” she says, and leaves it at that. Where’s the critical analysis? Most of the reason why these areas are so poor is tied directly to the presence of these foreigners – the European diplomats, the American GIs, etc – to pretend the prostitute/client relationship anywhere is simply a business one rings false to me. But to claim such a thing as it relates to geopolitics is insulting to those of us with even a little bit of historical perspective.

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Tags: Books, inter-racial dating, Sex.

Shuffled! is a regular column appearing most Thursdays here on BPRLive. Each column, we welcome someone from the API* community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles. (Apologies readers, we are no longer linking to online playlists.)

Today’s Shuffler: Keith Chow

By day, Keith Chow writes textbooks for leading educational publishers. By night, he watches TV in bed and sleeps. When he’s not writing sociology or business textbooks, he’s probably writing about action figures for ToyFare Magazine.

A reformed poet, Keith was able to convince con a couple literary magazines into publishing some of his work (suckers), including the Asian Pacific American Journal. In a former life, Keith taught 10th grade English and Creative Writing at Indian River High School (Alonzo Mourning’s alma mater!) in Chesapeake, Virginia. Somehow, he parlayed that teaching experience into a career marketing comic books to libraries and schools for a time.

Now, Keith’s one of the editors of the upcoming Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology (in stores now!), which is destined to be the greatest comic book ever. He lives in Maryland with his wife, daughter, and dog. Go here to learn more about Keith’s secret identity.

And the shuffle continues…

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Tags: Shuffled!.

This is podcast is at least 95% music! It’s like a mini-playlist with clips of “Temperature” and “Universe” by Thomas’ Apartment and “here to save you”, “the bubble song” and “fireflies” by Stephanie Scarlet. Enjoy!

You can buy music by Thomas’ Apartment from iTunes and CD Baby. I haven’t been able to find out where you can buy music by Stephanie Scarlet, so if you know, please let us know via the comments section of this post!

 Impressions: dreamchasers at heart: Download

Tags: Impressions, music, Podcasts.