Jo Koy is a Filipino American and one of the funniest comedians that I have seen. I’ve watched him on the show “Showtime at the Apollo”, Dave Chappelle Show, VH1’s “I Love the 80’s” and “I Love the New Millenium”. He has always left me crying laughing at his jokes and from his facial expressions alone. Tonight, January 4th at 10PM EST on the Comedy Central, he will be doing a one hour stand up comedy show called, ” Jo Koy Don’t Make Him Angry”. Be sure to tune in and enjoy some bone, cracking, laughing fun!
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Tags: comedian, Comedy Central, filipino, Jo Koy, stand-up, The Jo Koy Show

Over the years I have seen all kinds of musical talents from different parts of the country and the world. I love the ones that bring something new or something old with a fresh twist on it, not straying too much from the origin. One day I came across a guy on a website that was a music artist. He was very different from the average music artists in that he performed without any background music. The music was actually coming from within him. He himself was actually a musical instrument. I was amazed at his talent. He has fresh sounds, you can see the energy popping off of him, and he is fierce. His name is Jason Tom, a beat boxer from Honolulu, Hawaii. I asked him if I could feature him in one of my blogs on this site. He was very shy and he agreed. Here follows his story.
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Tags: beat boxer, Entertainment, Hawai'i, hip-hop, Jason Tom

A few days ago I dropped by my local Block Buster store craving for an action packed movie. I went through the aisles till my eyes finally laid on a movie called The Rebel. The name in itself attracted me to it. It was from Dragon Dynasty and I have not been disappointed by any movies that I have watched from the company. So I decided that I would take this movie home and give it a try.
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Tags: Dustin Nguyen, France, Johnny Nguyen, movie, rebel, Vietnam, war

In watching many Asian film, I have learned the names of many of their actors that have become my favorites and household names. The “best actor of the year” list that I have composed were based on some of the most prestigious and/or popular film award festivals in each country listed for the male categories, although there are dozens of Asian film festivals out there. I have also added a few comments of my own about the actors.
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Tags: Asia, best asian actors of the year, filmography, internatioal film awards, movies

During the days of November 18-21 my school, Fayetteville State University, held the event “China On The Screen” A Chinese Movie Week. We were shown four films: Shanghai Dream, Still Life, The Drifter, and The World in the language lab in our univesity. I attended all screenings and enjoyed the movies. My favorite was Shanghai Dream. The organizers of the film week were FSU faculty and staff. They included my Chinese language professor, Dr. Hongbing Zhang, Dr. Yali Li, Director of our Language Lab, and Yikang Bai who assists Dr. Li in the lab and teaches Chinese language. Dr. Li worked very hard to ensure that the films shown ran smoothly and she was a wonderful hostess during Chinese Movie Week. I spoke with Dr. Zhang a little about the background of China On the Screen.
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Tags: China, Chinese film, movies, Shanghai Dream, Still Life, The Drifter, The World, Xiaoshuai Wang, Zhang Ke Jia

One day I was browsing the web and I was reading up on some Asian American issues. Somehow I came across a link to a film festival in San Francisco. It was called the SFIAAFF which stands for the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival. I also knew of some people in a Facebook groups and some Asian American message boards that were buzzing about it. I read up on it and decided on a spur of the moment to attend it.
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Tags: asian american, Benson Lee, Center for Asian American Media, Planet B-Boy, san francisco

Many people are very familiar with Tim Kang’s face from the various Home Depot and Cingular commercials he has done

Tim Kang is a very busy man these days popping into a dozen or so shows on t.v. I have seen him in the t.v. series Ghost Whisperer, Chappelle Show, Law and Order, Third Watch, and The Unit to name a few.

Tim Kang was born in San Francisco, California and he studied acting at Russia’s Moscow Art Theatre School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University

Tim Kang plays as agent Kendall Cho who works for the CBI, California Bureau of Investigation, alongside Simon Baker, the star of the new show The Mentalist. It comes on every Tuesday night at 9pm eastern on CBS. Tim Kang is a regular cast member of The Mentalist and that’s really good, because we need more Asian men beaming into American households on a regular basis.
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Tags: agent, Asian men, california, cingular, harvard, home depot, rambo, san francisco, the mentalist, Tim Kang, two weeks notice, uc berkeley

Brian Tee who has starred in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, is going to be a regular cast member in the series Crash on the television station Starz. He plays EMT Eddie Choi, who is caught between the Korean gang world he left behind and the mainstream medical world where he wants to fit into in Crash.

Crash is based on Crash, the movie of the same name, that came out in the year 2004 that followed the lives of everyday people in the city of Los Angeles that eventually intertwined together.

The first show airs on Starz, October 17, this Friday Eastern Standard Time. I watched the first two episodes earlier tonight here: http://www.starz.com/originals/crash/screeningroom

The first few minutes of the show is sure to grab your attention. The characters have a lot of flavor and they also were able to make you place yourself in their shoes, feeling their pain. They also made me yell a few times at the screen at them either in fear or anger.
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Tags: Brian Tee, cops, Crash, gangs, Korea Town, police, Starz, T.V., Tokyo Drift

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/09/05/samurai_girl_fights_with_might/

I watched this miniseries this weekend all by myself in my living room. I was skeptical of it at first sight due to the murder of Jamie’s brother Jack Yang. I was like “oh here we go again, someone who could of served as a strong Asian male character was murdered within the first 15 minutes of the show yet AGAIN”. After that I wanted to grind my teeth out of my head. I proceeded to watch it moaning and groaning. Then I found out my mind was getting very biased, so I tried to make it as unbiased as possible.

So the plot involves what they call a “Japanese princess” whose destiny is written from a 500 year old scroll to become a sort of savior. She was adopted into a family that turns out to be warring with a rival Yakuza clan, equipped with a ninja assassin army. How many of us haven’t seen a ninja, samurai, or yakuza movie in our time? BUT it’s all about delivery. I feel that this mini-series wasn’t delivered well at all.

It left me feeling empty. I did enjoy some of the fighting scenes. I did not like the fact that her savior had to be someone non-Asian who happened to know all about the arts of the shinobi. He trained her to be such an excellent warrior. *rolls eyes really slow* Yeah, I’ve seen that before a blue million times. *yawns* What also pained me was that her “yakuza groom” to be was such a schmuck. He was annoying and uncaring. There was a part in the movie where he told her that he wished he was a better man. He said he was too selfish and weak for her. I was like omg! That certainly didn’t go over well for me with how an Asian male would/should be portrayed in the media. Her father was also uncaring and just about every Asian male on the show, save for her family’s driver, Sab Shimono.

Last mini-episode airs tonight.

Tags: abc, jack yang, jamie chung, japanese, martial arts, ninja, samurai girl, san francisco, yakuza

Taiyo Na, a 25-year old renaissance man of word, sound and action, released his first full-length solo album Love Is Growth in March of 2008 through Issilah Productions.

Influenced as much by Curtis Mayfield as it is Nas, Ben Harper or Chris Iijima, Love Is Growth is a blend of gritty New York hip-hop and classic American soul. Featuring collaborations with singers Vudoo Soul, Conchita Campos and Emily C. Chang, rapper/producer Koba, jazz violinist Jason Kao Hwang, guitarists Minimum Tek of Outernational and Mark Concerto of P.I.C. and more, the album is composed, arranged and produced entirely by Taiyo. Socially conscious, often funky and always personal, the album showcases the artist’s urgency, scope and depth through songs such as the champion’s anthem title track, the pulsating introduction “One More Time” and the ethereal rock-soul ballad “Take My Breath Away.”
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Tags: acoustic, asian american, beau sia, blues, emcee, Entertainment, hip-hop, ishle yi park, music, new york, poetry, singer, songwriter, soul, taiyo na