30 Seconds to Mars in Hawaii May 16, 2007

This past weekend I went to see 30 Seconds to Mars at Pipeline. When we first purchased the ticket I wasn’t anticipating it to be sold out.(I heard a little about the band via the fame of Jared Leto-who will always be Jordan Catelano from “My So Called Life” to me.)  They sold out so fast for the original Sunday night concert, that they had to do another show on Friday.  We arrived at 7pm (when the show was supposed to start) and were surprised to see a line wrapped around the whole building.  After waiting for another half an hour they started letting people in while the first band was playing. I didn’t catch the name of the opening acts, but I couldn’t believe there were two bands. Then after an hour of mediocore music, we waited through another half hour of “Greatest Hits from the Cure.”(You only see this kind of pompousness at arena style concerts. However, U2 did have Pearl Jam as an opening act so it was like 2 awesome concerts in one.) Then finally they entered the stage at about 9:30pm (Divas!).  Jared Leto came on to the stage with his “hot topic” style pants (zippers included), all in black and black eyeliner. They started off pretty okay, but then he started to spew profanity saying things like he ”f**cken loves Hawaii” and that we were all “motherf**ckers”. (Repeatedly, also forgot to mention that it was an all ages show, so we did see a lot of teens with their parents.) I mean don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a little profanity every now and then, when it merits context like: NIN “I want to f**k you like an animal” or She wants Revenges “I want to f**cken tear you apart” but it’s in the songs not in abusing the audience, these performers are often polite to their audience. (She Wants Revenge was lovely) I mean how much more should an audience take after waiting 2 1/2 hours to see a mediocore band? He then proceeded to tell the audience to start a mosh pit, and then climbed a railing and jumped into the audience.  Deja Vu swept over me, was I still trapped in the 90’s? Bottom line I felt the whole experience was not about the music, but about the esthetics and certain person’s rock star ego.

What did I miss? May 15, 2007

I’m back from vacation and am still catching up on my RSS feeds and emails. But here’s what has caught my eye so far.

From Publishers Lunch:

Film
Lois Lowry’s THE GIVER, set in a utopia gone wrong, a boy, realizing the price of a pain free world, challenges it and runs for his life, to Warner Bros., for producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher, by Don Laventhall at Harold Ober Associates.

From Buzz Girl we finally learn what Fourth Comings is about:

Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty. The 4th in the series that started with Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings–starring Jessica Darling who has now graduated from Columbia and moved in with three other girls, all of whom are moving reluctantly, “kicking and screaming,” into adulthood.

Has anyone picked up the paperback of Charmed Thirds to read the Fourth Comings excerpt yet? This description is making me even more wary.

Entertainment Weekly’s Kids’ Corner gives Beige by Cecil Castellucci an A-.

Also from EW, the CW is expected to pick up Gossip Girl.

Perks of Being a Librarian May 14, 2007

One of the perks of being a librarian at my branch is watching movies that I wouldn’t normally watch.  If you’re like me, you probably don’t have much time to watch movies.  However, I watch movies when my job necessitates it.  For example, when someone brings in a dvd and says that it’s playing strangely.   Someone at the library has to check it out.   I’ve gotten to watch a couple of movies that I’d been meaning to watch but never had the time to like Little Miss Sunshine and In Her Shoes.  Now if only someone would bring in Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, I’d be a happy camper.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms Out There! May 13, 2007

One of my favorite tv moms is Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls.  I am sad to see the series end, but all good things must come to an end, right?

What do you want to see in books with an Asian American protagonist? May 12, 2007

Here are some individual thoughts on what we’d each like to see in books with an Asian American protagonist.

Trisha:

A character who just happens to be Asian-American. Why does race always have to be the point of the book? I want to read about a character:

1. whose family has lived in America for more than two generations;

2. who is not discriminated against or bullied because of their race;

3. who is not ashamed of their heritage/culture;

4. whose purpose in the book is not to “discover” their heritage in order to impress someone or by traveling to the mother country;

5. whose parents do not oppose them dating a haole(white) guy, or a Chinese girl, or basically anyone whose family was originally from another country. Don’t Asian-Americans have the highest rate of interracial marriage in the country?

It’s hard enough finding a book that meets just one of these points. How long will I have to wait for a majority of books meet all five?

Jolene would like to see:

a.) Who is not a sexually stereotyped portrayed in these ways:
1.) Not repressed
2.) Would like to see more diversity in sexuality in Asian characters. Asian American authors rarely address homosexuality, bi-sexuality, or transgender in their protagonist’s development. (Only books I think of that express these ideas are Margaret Cho’s autobiographies.)
b.) Would like to see more Asian characters in a fantasy fiction genre(other than Kung-Fu Master or Samurai Master.) Where are the Asian fairies, vampires, werewolves, magicians, or witches?
c.) Would also like to see characters in typical teen stereotypes like: Punk, Headbanger, Goth, or even Country/cowboy-cowgirl. (Other than Asian characters trying to be All-American by joining the Cheerleading Squad or Sports team, or being a great musician.) I remember reading the “Pen Pals” series by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and one of the main characters was Asian, and she had an obsession with Joan Jett.

Gayle would like a protagonist:

1. Who uses cultural references without qualifying them;

2. Who feels comfortable in his/her skin, hair, eyes;

3. Who is not ashamed of his/her parents;

4. Has real character flaws and not only those of stereotypes;

5. Is a librarian or aspires to be a librarian.

So all you writers out there, we’ve made it easy for you with our laundry list. With that said, we’d better start working on own next great Asian American novel.

Asian Pacific American Book Festival May 11, 2007

If you’re in the Los Angeles area check out:

The Asian Pacific American Book Festival 

Free Admission

Saturday, May 12, 2007
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Japanese American National Museum and
the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy

369 East First Street (corner of 1st and Central in Downtown LA/Little Tokyo)

Asian Pacific American Book Festival Confirmed Participants
Noel Alumit / novelist
Teena Apeles / nonfiction writer
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard / fiction writer
Victoria Chang / poet
Alison De La Cruz / multi-disciplinary artist and cultural organizer
Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla / novelist
Sesshu Foster / poet
Linda Furiya / food memoirist
Tracey Gee / coeditor
John Hamamura / novelist
Denise Hamilton / mystery author
Naomi Hirahara / mystery author
Toyomi Igus / children’s book author
Cynthia Kadohata / children’s book author and novelist
Blossom Kan and Michelle Yu / chick lit authors
Traci Kato-Kiriyama / inter-disciplinary artist
Ketu Katrak / UC Irvine professor and nonfiction writer
Shishir Kurup / performance artist
Dan Kwong / performance artist and author
Ann Le / writer
Lela Lee / creator, Angry Little Girls
Philip Lee / cofounder, Lee and Low Books
William Poy Lee / memoirist
Sunyoung Lee / editor, Kaya Books
Russell Leong / editor, fiction writer and poet
Claire Light / speculative fiction writer and cofounder, Hyphen Magazine
Aimee Liu / memoirist
Pooja Makhijani / children’s book author
David Mas Masumoto / memoirist
Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong / co-editors of Giant Robot magazine
An Mai Nguyen / publisher
Rick Noguchi / poet and children’s book author
Angela Oh / memoirist
Mae Respicio / nonfiction author
Nina Revoyr / novelist
Luis J. Rodriguez / memoirist
Brian Ascalon Roley / novelist
Icy Smith / publisher
Eileen Tabios / poet
David Ulin / editor, LA Times Book Review
Denise Uyehara / performance artist and author
Amy Uyematsu / poet
Patricia Wakida / former editor, Heyday Books
Duncan Williams / UC Berkeley associate professor and nonfiction writer
Paula Yoo / television writer and children’s book author
Charles Yu / short story writer
Phil Yu / blogger and creator, Angry Asian Man
Sandra Zane / agent, Global Literary Management

Gretchen Yee in Fly on the Wall May 11, 2007

I’ve enjoyed books written by E. Lockhart such as The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall.  Trisha and I really dug that Gretchen Kaufman Yee was cool with being half Chinese.  I especially like that Gretchen collects beancurd babies–that sounds like something someone I know would do. 

We probably haven’t done Fly on the Wall justice with this post so you’ll have to read the book.  I also enjoy reading E. Lockhart’s blog so you might want to peruse there too.

Gayle: Did her Asian-ness really matter though? I totally forgot she was Asian in the course of the book
Trisha: No, but that’s one of the things I liked.  It wasn’t a big deal.
Jolene: Sorry, I haven’t read the book, what’s it about?
Trisha: A girl who becomes a fly on the wall of the boys locker room at school for a week. There’s also an Asian-American guy in the book.  One of the minor characters.
Jolene: How does her Asian-Americaness show through in the book? Are there sterotypes?
Trisha: Nope.  She’s hapa, and I don’t remember race ever being a big deal in the book.
Gayle: Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal. She just so happened to be hapa.
Jolene: Maybe we should define Hapa=Hawaiian slang for half races. Like the Japanese slang for “Hafu.”
Gayle: Hapa pretty much means of mixed race, so you can be hapa-haole (half-white) or hapa in general just means mult-racial.

Name Me Nobody May 10, 2007

Name Me Nobody by Lois Ann Yamanaka is probably my favorite Hawaiiana book.  The reasons why I like it are that Yamanaka manages to capture what it is like to grow up in Hawaii.  Although there is no ethnic majority in Hawaii, it is still far from a utopian melting pot.  Yamanaka effectively translates into writing the sentiments felt by many a teenager growing up in the islands.  She has been harshly criticized before for her stereotyping. However, there is something intangible about her writing that seems to transcend mere stereotypes.  

In recognizing Asian Pacific Heritage Month I don’t want to omit any Pacifc nations so the following are a couple of links on resources on Hawaii and the Pacific that we use at our branch:

Marco Polo by Lena Kanemori of the Hawaii Department of Education: A great resource on Hawaii related topics.  We’ve used this at our library for many a primary school project.

PREL.ORG Pacific Resources for Education and Learning: Another great resource for somewhat hard to find information on Pacific Island nations.  You might need to do a little bit of digging, but the information is in there especially on the Pacific Service Region link. 

The following is an excerpt from our chat about Name Me Nobody.

Gayle: Name Me Nobody’s a tough one though, because it takes place in Hawaii.  The Hawaii factor seems to skew it a bit,
Jolene: Yes she is. It’s probably the best interpretation of what happens when generations assimilate in an island state.
Gayle: Her being Asian is no big deal except for the fact that she doesn’t like being associated with the preppy Japanese kids.
Trisha: Because race is mentioned, but race is not the point of the story.
Gayle: It’s not. I do think Yamanaka effectively captures what it’s like to grow up in Hawaii. There are definite cultural overtones throughout the book.
Trisha: Which I’d love to see in more stories about Asian-Americans.  I’m sick of books with characters who are ashamed of their heritage or discriminated againts. Not necessarily the set in Hawaii part, but the race-as-not-a-big-deal thing.
Gayle: Yes, that’d be great.

Docu-Dramas That Are Worth Watching May 10, 2007

Here’s a list of Docu-Dramas that may make you think, laugh, cry, and inspire you to think about life in a different way!

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is an poignent story about a bohemian who develops a special relationship with a flock of wild parrots set loose in urban San Francisco. This film will make you laugh, cry, and think about man’s relationship with nature. 

Why We Fight is a thought-provoking essay on why America has gone to war in the past and present. The director formulated the idea after watching a farewell speech done by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who talks about the Military Industrial Complex.  This docu-drama will give you another view on why America is at war in the middle-east. 

 

Mad Hot Ballroom is an inspiring film, which follows several New York public school students as they practice for a citywide ballroom dance competition.  The often humorously candid and real life perspectives of the students and their teachers will give viewers an inside look at the multi-cultural life of New York.

Hobart’s Shakespeareans is an enlightening film about how a love for Shakespeare and a dedicated teacher can make a difference in our cynical world.  Rafe Esquith is an inner city elementary teacher in LA, who inspires his immigrant students with his love for music and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  This documentary will inspire educators or anyone working with the youth of America.

Asian Americans in YA Literature Stereotypes Part 2, Positive/Negative Depictions May 9, 2007

I’ve been quite disturbed reading some of the posts on American Born Chinese featured on MySpace. How in the world do people tie together a mass murderer with a totally unrelated graphic novel? I feel bad for Gene Yang for being a public figure in this ignorant time. But as librarians I do feel it is our duty to promote better understanding and more knowledge. Perhaps if more people were exposed to people from different backgrounds and places we’d get along better. To quote Rodney King, “can we all just get along?”

More excepts from our chat:

Trisha: So are we including books in which the Asian-American isn’t a protagonist but is an important character?
Jolene: Yeah, why not? Just as long as the character is a positive rendition of Asian-Americaness.
Trisha: Does the character have to be a positive one?
Gayle: Nope I like evil Asian characters
Trisha: One of the reasons I liked Haters is because the evil bitch is Asian-American.
Gayle: Cool.
Trisha: Jessica Nguyen. Richest, prettiest girl in school, who’s also a motocross champion. And eeevil.
Jolene: I need to read that book. Angry little asian girl.
Trisha: Although her mother, at least, is an immigrant.
Jolene: Totally breaks the stereotype.
Trisha: Also Paski’s neighbor’s are a Japanese-American woman and her hapa sons (African-American father). The mother, Melanie, becomes Paski’s father’s love interest. She can speak, or at least understand, Japanese, which I found hard to believe, but at least Paski didn’t assume she spoke Japanese.

* Come back in July, when we review Haters! Can’t do it next month because we’ll be reviewing Carolyn Mackler’s upcoming book, Guyaholic.**