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New Girl Crush: Academy Award Winner Audrey Marrs
'Inside Job' director Charles Ferguson and producer Audrey Marrs
10 reasons to love Inside Job producer and Academy Award winner Audrey Marrs:
- The first documentary she ever produced, No End in Sight, was nominated for an Academy Award.
- The second documentary she ever produced, Inside Job, won an Academy Award last night.
- Before she was a documentary producer, she was an art curator.
- Before she was a curator, she was a riot grrrl who played in Mocket and later Continue reading New Girl Crush: Academy Award Winner Audrey Marrs
Filed under: 83rd Annual Academy Awards, Academy Award Winners, Alt Girls, Audrey Marrs, Beautiful Ladies, Best Documentary, Documentaries, Documentary Producer Audrey Marrs, Girl Crushes, Hapas, Inside Job Documentary, Japanese-Americans, Leona Marrs, Little Black Dresses, Mariko Marrs, Mixed People, Mixed-Race People, No End in Sight Documentary, Oscars, Pacific Northwest, People Who Are Cool as Fuck, Punk Rock, Riot Grrrl, Riot Grrrls, Winners
ROCK OF ASIAN: Hayley Kiyoko, Star Of The Disney Channel’s Forthcoming “Lemonade Mouth”
Does the world need another high school musical? No. Yes? I dunno–it depends on how you feel about that sort of thing. But after Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens broke up last month–or did they?–because “they just grew up,” and with Zac graduating to new man roles like his part in The Lucky One, for which he put on lots and lots of man-muscle in order to play a war veteran with a manly albeit curious Southern accent–Get it people? Zac Efron is a man, now, okay?–something must be done to fill this terrible, awful void. Plus, high school musicals move nail polish units, apparently.
Enter Lemonade Mouth, brought to you by Disney Channel Original Movies–producers of HSM–the plot of which sounds something like The Breakfast Club meets School of Rock for the Belieber set. In other words, it will be awful! And, in other words, I will be watching it late at night on my DVR when I can’t sleep and am particularly vulnerable to bad TV starring teens with impossibly good skin who will make me feel only more wretched and old than I already do!
I will also be watching Lemonade Mouth for Hayley Kiyoko (pictured, center), who plays one of the lead misfits. Because the 19 year-old of Japanese descent is crazy talented. She plays the drums, keys, guitar, and writes her own music. I’m particularly partial to the song “Lungs” on her MySpace (listen here). She’s also in a girl group called The Stunners who opened for the Biebs last summer, not that you care (I mean, I don’t). And she’s so pretty in a tomboyish way-Hayley played Velma in both Cartoon Network Scooby Doo movies–she kind of demands your attention. Added bonus: she’s goofy as hell, as witnessed by this YouTube video she made last summer, when she and girl-groupmate Lauren Hudson, who’s also Asian, got stuck in the back of their tour van:
Filed under: Asian-American Singers, Beliebers, Cuties, Disney Channel, Disney Channel Original Movies, Glee, Hayley Kiyoko, High School Musical, High School Musicals, Japanese-Americans, Justin Bieber, Lauren Hudson, Lemonade Mouth, Mixed People, Scooby-Doo, Teen Talents, the Biebs, The Stunners, Tweens, Vanessa Hudgens, Vanessa Hudgens Naked Pictures, Zac Efron
AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Mike Shinoda
Name: Mike Shinoda
Age: 33
Hails from: LA-ish
Occupation: Artist, musician, record producer
Known for: Staying busy. Shinoda is beloved by some for his decade of rockstardom with rock-hop (hip-rock?) band Linkin Park and side project Fort Minor. Others hail him for his music producing achievements, which include tracks and albums with the likes of Busta Rhymes and X-Ecutioners, and a slate of remixes from Depeche Mode to Metric.
Still others gasp at Shinoda’s art (he’s an Illustration grad of Pasadena’s Art Center, and created a scholarship there five years ago), which is integral to LP’s visual identity. Continue reading AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Mike Shinoda
Filed under: Art Center, Artists, Asian American Artists, Awesome Dudes, Busta Rhymes, Californiasians, Depeche Mode, East West Players, East West Players 44th Anniversary, Eric Nakamura, Fort Minor, Giant Robot, Illustrasian, JANM, Japanese American National Museum, Japanese-Americans, Linkin Park, Metric, Mike Shinoda, Musicians, Record Producers, Scholarships, Solo Exhibits, Visionaries, X-Ecutioners
Huh? Meredith Vieira Calls Kristi Yamaguchi A “Hoochie”
Dear Meredith Vieira,
Kristi Yamaguchi is a lot of things. An Olympic gold medalist. A mother. The season 6 winner of perhaps the most squeaky-clean show on television this side of Lawrence Welk, Dancing With the Stars. The daughter of a dentist. She is, at once, both a paragon of achievement and of normalcy, which makes her, like, super-Asian. That is why, to many of us, Kristi Yamaguchi is something of a national treasure.
She is not, however, by any stretch of the imagination, a “hoochie.” As interesting as it might be to think of Kristi having some secret life as a slutty hot mess, that skate just doesn’t fit. That’s like calling you, I dunno, a “hard-hitting reporter”?
Peace Out,
Jen
[via The Daily Beast]
Filed under: 2010 Winter Olympics, Asian Athletes, Dancing With the Stars, Gold Medalists, Hard-Hitting Journalists, Hoochie Mamas, Hoochies, Japanese-Americans, Kristi Yamaguchi, Meredith Vieira, National Treasures, Olympians, So-Called Journalists
AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! David "Mas" Masumoto
Name: David “Mas” Masumoto
Hails from: The Central Valley, CA
Occupation: Organic peach farmer and author
Known for: In the culinary world, Masumoto peaches are synonymous with the best. The heirloom variety Masumoto Elberta peach, in particular, is prized by chefs, but it’s so delicate, it can’t travel to market. Devotees of the Masumoto Elberta must, instead, adopt a tree for a year and harvest it themselves, usually in late July to early August.
But the history behind these peaches–and the nectarines and grapes the Masumoto Family Farm produces just south of Fresno–is as extraordinary as the fruit itself. The Masumotos first arrived in California in 1898 and have been farming the Central Valley for over a hundred years. Patriarch David “Mas” Masumoto is not only a 3rd-generation farmer but the author of eight books that weave together stories of food, farming, family, and Japanese-Americans (the Masumotos were interned during WWII). Masumoto’s latest, Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies from the Land, debuts this month.
Do you dare eat a peach? If it’s a Masumoto, the answer’s yes. Tom Colicchio’s Craft restaurant in Los Angeles is currently offering an all-Masumoto Elberta tasting menu–it’ll set you back $100–through early September.
[Masumoto Family Farm website]
Filed under: California's Central Valley, Californiasians, David Mas Masumoto, Farmers, Japanese Internment, Japanese-Americans, Masumoto Family Farm, Peaches, Special Fruit, Stone Fruit, WWII
BABEWATCH: Utada
Name: Hikaru Utada (aka Utada, Hikki)
Age: 26
Hails from: NYC
Why She’s a Babe: Because the Japanese-American pop and R&B singer is one of the most successful recording artists of all time in Japan. And as a New Yorker who lives in Tokyo and records in two languages, she’s a citizen of the world. Also, homegirl likes food, and we love a girl who eats. We love her new short crop, too.
Listen to Utada’s latest single, “Come Back to Me,” here, from her English-language album This Is the One, which drops in May.
Source
Thanks, D!
Filed under: Asian-American Singers, Big in Japan, Hikaru Utada, Hikki, Japanese-Americans, This Is the One, Utada
Quantum of Solasian
Meet the real Bond Girl: Satsuki Mitchell.
She’s American, a film producer, of Japanese descent, and engaged to Bond, James Bond.
Right about now, all my gay friends are tearing out their hair and shrieking, “She ain’t all that!!!” But that’s just cuz she gets to slap his balls and they don’t.
Oh, jealousy.
Filed under: Ball-Punching, Ball-Slapping, Bond Girls, Daniel Craig, Gay Icons, James Bond, Japanese-Americans, Mixed People, Quantum of Solace, Satsuki Mitchell
