Rafe Bartholomew is a young American author who launched his book, Pacific Rims, a story about the Philippines and Philippine basketball, last June 16 at Barnes & Noble. It’s a gushing tribute to a country he has learned to love during his three-year stay there. He loves the country so much, he learned the language and best of all, in a Filipino accent, as demonstrated on this video.
Others take the arduous “American Idol” route. Charice, the petite Filipina singer, did it the YouTube way. Ellen Degeners discovered her on YouTube, brought her to the States and once Oprah heard of her, well, you know it’s smooth sailing afterwards. After releasing singles, Charice is ready to release her first American self-titled album produced by mentor-producer David Foster on May 11.
Oprah Winfrey, one of the key persons behind Charice’s international career, has booked the singer to perform on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on May 11, a day after she turns 18. Here is a single, “Pyramid” with Iyaz. The song reportedly has 15 club remixes produced by various foreign DJs.
These are currently available for download on Amazon.com and iTunes.Songwriters and other producers who worked on the album are Diane Warren, Sean Kingston, Billy Steinberg (Madonna’s “Like A Virgin,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional”), Josh Alexander (Jojo’s “Too Little Too Late”), Allan Rich (’N Sync’s “I Drive Myself Crazy”), Klaus Derendorf (Josh Groban’s “Closer”), Mr. Fantastic (The Cheetah Girls) and Drew Ryan Scott (South Korean group Super Junior’s “Sorry, Sorry”)
Poreotix from Westminster, Calif., was crowned the fifth season champions of Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew on April 8 on the hit MTV series. The six-member dance crew is composed of three Filipino Americans and three Vietnamese Americans.
Are you ready for an Asian spinoff of MTV’s Jersey Shore? If you’re Asian, are you ready to be stereotyped?
As reported by The Examiner, quoting a recent post on Craigslist, a production company is looking for “attractive Asian-Americans with lively, strong and unique personalities.”
The ad seeks “Interesting, attractive, colorful Asian-Americans to cast in a reality show similar to JERSEY SHORE, REAL WORLD, THE HILLS, etc.”
Now, if that’s not enough to make you worry, The Examiner says, “People who are “obsessed with Asian culture or people” are also invited to apply.
Hmmm, any takers? Or are we cynical enough to think they will get only Asian stereotypes–the geeky Asian guy and the sexy Asian girl?!
Can’t get enough of Asian food? Here’s your chance to enjoy it like it’s going out of style.
Starting April 29, Lucky Rice, an interactive recommendation resource for Asian recipes and restaurants as well a content-rich site featuring food personalities, culinary stories and news, will be hosting an 11-day culinary event for all Asian food lovers. There be parties, seminars, tastings and—Good Heavens, stop drooling—chef dinners.
Highlights include:
• An opening night cocktail party at the swanky Bowery Hotel hosted by Top Chef Masters host Kelly Choi ($50 advance/$100 door)
• A discussion on Buddhist cuisine featuring top chefs David Chang and Eric Ripert, moderated by Buddhism authority Dr. Robert Thurman ($50).
• A family-friendly dumpling making workshop with Rickshaw’s Anita Lo on Saturday morning ($50).
• The Grand Feast at the Mandarin Oriental hotel ballroom, featuring Asian-inspired cocktails, a sake and shochu bar, and food pairings ($150)
• A week-long Asian Restaurant Week, with participating restaurants selected by the LUCKYRICE Culinary Council, offering prix-fixe lunches and dinners. Culinary events will also be held throughout the year in select US cities.
That’s how easy it is. Just don’t forget to attribute the source of your link (be careful not to use photos if it is credited to a publishing or news wire agency). Give your own point of view. And you’re all set. Oh yes, you can post a longer entry than the 8 words here.
The first Filipino-American jazz festival held in New York for the first time last Dec. 11 took so many New Yorkers by surprise. Here’s a jazz review of the concert.
Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxing superstar, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine Asia last weekend. The cover reads, “The Great Hope: Why Manny Pacquiao is more than just the world’s best boxer.”
The most popular Filipino would certainly make a fine product endorser for the Asian American market or multicultural market. He is just as popular with the Hispanic community, having won against the top Mexican fighters. Many say he could have been as popular as Muhammad Ali if boxing was on primetime TV and not in pay-per-view cable.
Manny joins the other boxing greats on Time Mag’s cover. These are Joe Louis, Max Schmeling, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
Currently, Pacquiao is set to fight Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico in an attempt at a world record of seven world titles. This event, “Firepower” is set on November 14 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. A week-long documentary of his upcoming fight is set this week on HBO.
On Oct. 16, Admerasia celebrated Diwali, a Hindu festival of lights celebrated from October to November, with South Asian sweets and snacks served to the staff.
Metro New York published what appears to be a misrepresented image in its story, “Chinese letters reform explodes” on Oct. 21, quoting from another news source, RelaxNews.
The story was referred to us by Admerasia’s Yu-jin Lee.
“From the angle of the photograph, it appears that the Chinese letters were taken from a window, ” observed colleague Kaipo Leung. For that reason, the Chinese letters are inverted and incorrect.
The story delves on Chinese language reform, about simplifying a few dozen ideograms, without giving a point of reference for the word. Merriam Webster defines ideogram as a picture or symbol used in a system of writing to represent a thing or an idea but not a particular word or phrase for it.
In the second paragraph of the story, there are proposals to change 44 characters by “the government.” However, it did not point out which government it is referring to, leaving that hanging and for us to answer for ourselves, according to creative director Tuan-pu Wang.
Metro New York has not yet returned our phone call or responded to our email letter.