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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: Slanty

Slanty has been blogging down at Slant Eye For The Round Eye for a little over two years now where he occasionally hypes Asian Americans in the community, music, film, an occasional post on race, but mostly just likes to make random posts about nothing and slip in references to KFC when he can.

Let’s hit the play button… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

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And to celebrate this occasion, those Blue Scholars put together a cool video.

I really like mass transit. Here are some reasons why:

• It’s cheaper than driving.
• You don’t have to worry about finding parking.
• I like people watching and looking at what they’re wearing.
• I can engage in other activities like Sudoku, reading, drawing, listening to music, thinking.

The light rail in Seattle should reduce traffic if more people use it and it will make getting to and from Sea-Tac much easier.

Not to be a downer though, the light rail did cost a bundle of money and as a result of its construction, many people, including this owner of a Chinese restaurant, had to move their businesses and homes. They did get paid, but far below what they deserved. And they say displacement of homes and business only happens in China.

Oh did I mention, the Blue Scholars got signed by Duck Down.

Tags: Mass Transit, Video.

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In today’s mail, I received the following notice about the Altruism Engine:

Due to numerous and repeated abuses, operation of the Altruism Engine has been suspended until further notice. We thank you for your past support of Altruism Engine endeavors and hope you will participate in and benefit from our services in the future, should they resume. We advise that you carefully consider how to apply your altruism now that you may have a sizable excess of it in the indefinite duration of this suspension and refer you to the sources below for responsible management.

Sincerely,
The Altruism Engine Authority

While disheartening, this didn’t come as a complete surprise. For some time now there have been problems with the system we’ve long had to enact altruism. Much controversy and discontent. Read more

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Whoa. Just check it. Cause it is Bruce Lee. The background music is pretty dope too.

http://www.brucelee.com

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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: Charles Kim

All is music, they say. Charles, also known as Chuck, has been on a quest to figure out what exactly that means. His love of music ranges from the rhythmic samba of Brazil, to the swinging jazz of the US, and the dissonant vocality of Korean Arirang. But again, all is music. He finds harmonic beauty in his work as a community-based arts organizer and music instructor. He also finds melodic freedom through the halls of academia. While currently studying the relationship of the aesthetic to the spiritual life, he hopes to one day be a professor who begins each lecture with a Stevie Wonder tune and ends with a mass cipher.

His unauthorized thoughts can be found at: charleskim.wordpress.com.

All is shuffle… Read more

Tags: Shuffled!.

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Bonnibel spoke with Ryan Takemiya at ECAASU 2009. Ryan, who facilitated workshops and represented his arts collective RAMA at ECAASU, passionately shared his perspectives on Asian American arts, identity, politics and culture.

In this podcast, you can listen to the conversation between Ryan and Bonnibel along with clips from workshop regarding the possibilities of an Asian American renaissance.

Also, here are some of Ryan’s ideas about Asian Americans and the arts in his own words…

In my workshops, I ask my participants to imagine the “What if…?” And you’d be surprised at how powerful peoples’ own imaginations have been in getting them thinking outside the bounds of the categories and stereotypes they have been forced into. Up until this moment in history, the general response to Asian American stereotypes and social limitations has been to keep our noses down, work very hard, and excel at all costs in order to gain the respect of other communities in the US. This has most notably been witnessed in the business world where Asian Americans have tried to earn respect by working our way up the corporate ladder, but it can also be seen in the arts and culture. Visual media, for instance, is perhaps the art-form in which this “excel-for-respect” strategy can be witnessed most recognizably. Asian American actors and actresses have long been given dehumanizing roles in White-American media, and our general response to this disrespect has been to continue to demand better roles and to continue trying to break the glass ceiling within this media. This strategy can also be seen in the White-American music industry, where Asian American artists are constantly denied record deals, denied contracts, and constantly overlooked by fans as mimicry, yet Asian American musicians continue to try to ‘break in’ to the White-American music industry.

In a sense, it comes down to the ‘coolness’ factor. Read more

Tags: Asian American Renaissance, ECAASU.

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Eight Questions for… is a new feature that we’re starting on BPRLive. The idea has a kind of “chain letter” feel to it, but don’t let that scare you away. It’s a way of seeing how we’re connected and a way of learning about others in the API* community.

In this feature, we’ll start with one person asking another API* person to answer eight questions. After the answerer has composed a response, the answerer will ask another API* person and so on. Each set of questions and responses will appear on BPRLive!

Fun right?

To start things off, I have been selected to answer the initial set of questions. Since there was no previous answerer to ask me questions, the questions here were made by the rest of the BPAC family.

Enjoy!

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Eugene Shih is a graduate student by day and a wannabe artist by night. When he’s not banging away at a computer simulation gone wrong, he pretends he’s a photographer or graphic designer.

After becoming aware of Boston Progress Arts Collective in 2006, he helped to start this lovely blog that you’re reading right now. Since then, he’s pretty sure that there is no other non-profit organization that is as close to nirvana as BPAC is.

1. What is your favorite Taiwanese dish/food?

I think I gave an answer to this question in a previous post about Taiwan. For the record, I miss Taiwanese Night Market food and my favorite one of them all is oyster pancake. Yum!

2. What is your most embarrassing moment?

I have so many to choose from, but I’ll pick an easy one. Back when I was in Junior High, I was kind of a smart kid—if you equate good grades with intelligence. I lived up to all that model minority hype. Anyhow, our school had these award ceremonies where students would be presented with medals and accolades. Medals were presented to the best student in each particular subject: Social Studies, Language Arts, Mathematics, etc.

In my final year of Junior High, I pretty much won all the available awards. Now you might think that I was happy about that… In actuality, I was pretty embarrassed. I mean, back then, I didn’t think it was cool to be smart. And so, every time I went up, I was just thinking to myself about how my coolness quotient was decreasing. To top it all off, I tripped on the steps up to the stage the last time up and I almost face planted in front of all my peers and their families. I think I’m over that today, because I’ve been humbled intellectually many times over. Moreover, I find that these days I derive my identity from factors other than my so-called intelligence.

3. Do you actively call yourself Asian American?

I do not use the term Asian American to refer to myself. In the recent past, I used to call myself Chinese American. I’m also Canadian by birth. These days, I’m hesitant to use any of those labels. Ethnically, I’m Chinese and my demeanor and approach to life is influenced by Chinese customs and traditions (a.k.a. my parents). In addition, I enjoy eating Chinese foods and observing Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year. So that makes me Chinese. On the other hand, I’m not fluent in any dialect of Chinese. My mindset is influenced by Western ideology and Western TV. And when I visit a country in Asia, folks there don’t view me as Asian or Chinese. I have never lived there and some of the customs that are practiced in Asia are likely to be very different from the customs that my parents taught me about. So in that sense, I’m more American or Canadian.

More and more these days, I’m coming to despise these categorizations as they essentialize my identity into a few labels. When I tell someone that I’m Chinese, what do they think that means? It may mean something different to them than it does to me. Oddly enough, the fact that I’m even making this self-centric, though self-reflective statement paints me as a Westerner.

So, I guess the answer is yes and no, but more no than yes.

4. You’re banished to an island. What three things do you bring?

This is probably the hardest question on this list. Read more

Tags: Eight Questions.

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While looking around the Harvard Bookstore today, I noticed that two books in the current Select 70 are by two of my fave API* authors: Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look and The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. I haven’t read either of these yet, but the previous Alvin Ho book was a fun read and Shug enthralled me during part of trans-pacific flight. Yes, these books are classified as being for younger audiences, but the adventures within them are wonderful for readers of any age, culture, gender or technological competence, so long as they read with an open mind and open heart.

Oh, but why, you might ask, do I dabble in API* young adult fiction? Trying to vicariously experience childhoods I never had? I don’t have a straightforward rationalization for this penchant other than declaring it my attempt to find among fiction classified as young adult the amazing literature that tends to get overlooked by older audiences. If you haven’t already, try reading some of these books and then maybe you’ll regret that you scoffed at me and this post. It’s simply wondrous what many API* authors communicate to our children (and all of us) with their unique voices. Now it’s almost appalling to me that most of my friends haven’t even heard of Cynthia Kadohata; her books Kira-Kira, Weedflower and Outside Beauty unfold in stunningly lyrical literary expressions that I will probably only appreciate more with the passage of time.

Who’s your favorite API* author? Please tell us in the comments section! There’s still some summer left — we can build an API* summer reading list here!

Tags: Arts and Culture, authors, Books.

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