news from the flip front

we've moved

2008-01-02T17:08:00.000-06:00

Please visit "news from the flip front" at http://flipfront.wordpress.com.

this week in Asian: "special Oriental ingredients"

2007-11-25T00:39:00.001-06:00

Oh. My. God. I never thought I'd see this commercial, a favorite from my childhood, ever again. Thanks, YouTube!

uno singular sensation

2007-11-23T00:29:00.001-06:00

The Queen of Uno
Originally uploaded by R.A.M.O.N.E..

Jeff and Nite had me over for Thanksgiving dinner, which was awesome. We ate, talked smack, played Uno, talked more smack, watched the Tab�?� episode of "The Sarah Silverman Program", talked even more smack, and then saw "The Mist". Which I enjoyed, but still only gets a B from me.

What am I thankful for? That I was able to spend the day with two great guys. Also, that my piece is in Time Out Chicago as of yesterday. Hurray!

Homeless for the Holidays [I, Ramone]
two guys, a girl, and a turkey [flickr�?� - Jasmine]
Thanksgiving 2007 [flickr�?� - Jeff]
The mostest for the hostess [TOC]
"The Mist" [IMDb]
"The Sarah Silverman Program": Muffin' Man [IMDb]

clip show: a flip front thanksgiving

2007-11-22T02:22:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to the tens of you who read this blog.

And if you're reading now, feel free to read recollections of Thanksgivings past. They're the posts with the "Thanksgiving" tag. I like this excerpt from 378, "why can't i touch it?" (Thanksgiving 2005):

There should have been more stuffing. But who knew that the humble stuffing, existing to stuff the 19 pound turkey and nothing else, could become downright ravishing after Jeremy finished tarting it up with oysters? I ate Mike's portion right off his plate as I am shameless and no man shall ever get between me and good stuffing.

In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson: "Good drink, good meat, good God, let's eat!"

this week in Asian: David Chang gets love from GQ

2007-11-20T12:25:00.000-06:00

To taste the consommé at Ko�??made with kimchi and pork�??is to believe that Asian sensibilities combined with French technique might be the future of fine dining.

Dudes, of course. Alan Richman shows the love for David Chang's culinary genius in this month's GQ ("Man Of The Year" issue). Check it out!

Year Of The Pig [GQ]

linkage: i should really be doing work now

2007-11-19T16:41:00.003-06:00

Barack until the break of dawn [YTMND via Chicagoist]
Is Country Music Inherently Conservative? [History News Network]
Giant Robot Celebrates 50 Issues [Angry Asian Man]
Hate Crimes Are On The Rise Officially (But We Knew That, Anecdotally) [Stereohyped]
The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters [Cracked, via Stereohyped and Racialicious]

And if you want more on racist cartoons -- and I can't imagine why you wouldn't -- read up on the Censored Eleven. There will be a quiz next week.

this week in Asian: this week in awesome

2007-11-16T17:35:00.000-06:00

I may have to get this engraved on some business cards and give them to folks who have random kanji tattooed on their asses:

But let's get one thing straight. You ain't almost Asian just cuz you know that the young folk use AZN to show their pride or cuz you spent two years in Hong Kong, most likely butchering the shit out of Cantonese and its eight muthafuzzing tones. You ain't almost Asian cuz you said so or cuz you love rice or cuz you have a few gorgeous, smart, skinny Asian bitch friends.

"DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Less is Moe" [Disgrasian™]

this week in Asian: they're MODELS!

2007-11-16T12:51:00.000-06:00

Gawker got to the bottom of the HaraGossip Girl mystery -- turns out they're models. An anonymous Jezebel reader, who had (unsuccessfully) auditioned for the show had this to report:

They were actually the funniest part of the show - they had these totally bizarre three line conversations at the end of each scene. Unfortunately, for those of us who went in 19 times for every part on the show and ended up coming down to the very end for those roles, the network decided that they had to go "ethnic," and they claimed couldn't find any black or Asian girls who were funny, so they, at the last minute, cast models and decided to just make them sight gags. No joke.

'Gossip Girl' Insider Clears Up The Mystery of Black Girl And Asian Girl [Gawker]

this week in Asian: saved by the chong!

2007-11-14T19:58:00.000-06:00

OMG.

So in tonight's episode of "America's Next Top Model", Tyra reveals that the models not eliminated in tonight's episode will travel to China to continue in the competition.

So how did she tell them? Did she say "Hey, y'all are going to China!" Fuck NO. She had lion dancers come out and dance around, two martial artists comes out with swords, and Tyra herself waved a big-ass fan around. This after a stilted fake-ass conversation with the lion, wherein the lion invites them to China via a number of poses and copious blinking. Did I mention that this week's guest judge, ~~poor man's Tim Gunn~~ Neil Hamil of Elite Model Management, and Twiggy had to wave fuschia flags around in the air while this nonsense was going on? And yes, if you listened in the background, there were gongs. GONGS! I half-expected Tyra to give everybody chopsticks and challenge them to style their hair with them. But maybe that's the next challenge?

I'm trying to remember if ANTM has pulled this kinda shit before. Oh right -- contestants in Cycle 4 had an assignment at a Los Angeles animal park where they posed like animals, right before learning they were going to South Africa to complete the season. I mean, ignorance is nothing new on television, especially in reality television, but COME ON, people. If I wanted ethnicity to be painted as broadly and as badly as this, I'd just ride It's A Small World and be done with it.

[rolls eyes]

Excuse me, I need to go eat some Kentucky Fried Panda now.

giving the stink eye to pink eye

2007-11-12T14:13:00.000-06:00

I have pink eye (I know, ew) so typing this is hard because it hurts too much to keep my afflicted eye open.
In case you were wondering, it's the left eye that's sick.
My good eye can see: the season 2 Project Runway marathon on Bravo. "What happened to Andrae?"
My near-empty refrigerator -- no diet Coke!

things i saw on my walk this morning

2007-11-10T12:05:00.000-06:00

two guys drinking Gatorade and smoking cigarettes, sitting on the bench in front of the corner store on Broadway and Melrose
people on their way to shul
piles of gravel near the Belmont entrance to Lake Shore Drive
wet leaves (which is weird because it hasn't rained recently)
a soccer game in Lincoln Park near Lake Shore Drive and Briar
a mother with her two young sons, sitting quietly on the ground and observing some squirrels
cute bearded guy stretching on one of the fitness apparatuses, this one in the park near Diversey and Lake Shore Drive -- he may or may not have smiled at me.
the Winter Market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
ducks swimming in North Pond
lots of mean wearing lycra biking shorts but not biking
an old lady, riding one of those motorized wheelchairs, walking her dog (she didn't clean up after him!)
the mail lady across the street from my building

my long national nightmare is over.

2007-11-09T20:26:00.000-06:00

Christmas. Ham. Soda.

And it's kosher.

Merry Chrismukkah!

Penguin Dumplings with Shrimp

2007-11-07T17:18:00.000-06:00

Penguin Dumplings with Shrimp from Dragon Place in Causeway, Hong Kong uploaded by happi6url

I am hungry! I want these dumplings which are shrimp dumplings made to look like emperor penguins and not dumplings made from penguin meat. Which to me would be very sad indeed.

news from the flip front 425 preview: someday

2007-11-05T01:48:00.000-06:00

Things we will be discussing when the flip front returns for real:

How I am truly a jackass when it comes to boys. As in, I looked at the messages in my old "boys" e-mail folder, and they were all messages from guys who were interested in hanging out and/or dating me. And what did I do? Exactly nothing.
How I really need to stop fucking around and start eating well. Because it's hard to escape your own expanding ass when your studio apartment has more mirrors than anyone should expect and the diabetes is not going to magically go away just because I feel okay most of the time.
Ditto working out.
The random paltry shoe selection at the new Loehmann's on State Street.
How my Saturday with Nite and Jeff was fucking awesome.
How much I miss talking to you, esp. Hil, who deserves a special prize for being an awesome reader.
How I might possibly be going bald.
How the H&M on Michigan Avenue might be staffed by racists.
How "douche" is my new favorite word.
How I should never doubt the benevolent power of old college classmates as it applies to my writing.
Facebook -- my new favorite hobby. Only don't get carried away with the "Compare People" application because before you know it that app could end up notifying a former crush with whom you shared the second most awkward kiss of your college career that, given the choice between him and Carl Kasell, you would still totally do it with him.
How I ordered 30 Mr. T holiday cards for this season and I might actually have to order more.
How charming and mean I can be.

honey + butter = magical deliciousness

2007-11-03T13:34:00.001-05:00

honey + butter = magical deliciousness
Originally uploaded by jasmined.

You heard me. Homemade honey butter slathered on a baguette for breakfast is, like, the best idea I've ever had.

home cooking: frito pie

2007-11-03T13:03:00.000-05:00

Frito pie! ($2.00) from jasmines Home Cooking in Chicago, Illinois uploaded by jasmine

this week in Asian: I'm too sexy... or am I?

2007-10-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

While Maxim has released a list of the five un-sexiest women in the world, Entertainment Weekly is publishing their 25 hottest women ever. Both lists, when examined, seem to agree that any hint of ethnicity (except from a few Latinas) is not sexy. Via the always-excellent Jezebel:

In fact, of EW's twenty-five "Ultimate Hotties," the only ethnic ones are Latina: Half-Bolivian Raquel Welch, Mexican Salma Hayek, half-Mexican Jessica Alba, and half-Spanish Rita Hayworth. What about Rachel Weisz? Angela Bassett? Lucy Liu? Or, really, anyone who doesn't inspire girls to ask for nose jobs, $300 highlights or eyelid-surgery for their sweet sixteens?

Maxim, Entertainment Weekly Agree: Jews, Blacks, Asians Not So "Sexy" [Jezebel]

this week in Asian: "You dont' have to be Asian to call!"

2007-10-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

Haragossip Girl Watch: The ladies strike again with a brief (though no less deadly) dissection of this week's episode of "Gossip Girl". [Disgrasian�?�]
A Case for Hipsters (of color?): Special correspondentWendi Muse muses (heh) on hipsterdom (and how it ain't just for white folks anymore). [Racialicious]
Be Asian for Halloween: Dude, if only being Asian could be so easy as putting on long red nails, waving a fan through the air, and pimping myself out with all manner of "Asian accents. Oh wait, when I said "Asian", I meant "crude racist sexist Asian stereotype". Sorry! [Angry Asian Man]

style for Saturday

2007-10-13T00:38:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's worth staying up late on a Friday -- you can read the Sunday Style section of the New York Times as soon as it gets posted early Saturday morning. Usually it's a slideshows of presentations from whatever fashion week is currently going on, maybe a piece on "modern love" going wrong the same way that "classic love" (?) has gone for the ages. It's not often there's anything that might have some "ethnic" content for when I'm feeling feisty, but then I get rewarded with this article on the (not surprising) lack of diversity in the the models you see in runway shows.

Just one image of a black model appears in the issue, midway through a 17-page article photographed by Miles Aldridge and titled the �??Vagaries of Fashion.�?? In it, the glacial blond Anja Rubik portrays an indolent, overdressed Park Avenue princess with a gilded apartment, a couture wardrobe, two towhead children and a collection of heavy rocks. The sole black model in the pictorial is more modestly attired, in an aproned pinafore.

See? Interesting stuff. I know that it may seem like there should be a big "Obvious" tag somewhere -- standards of beauty are upheld by the fashion industry, these standards call for a skinny white girl, blah blah blah -- but I never thought the discussion would come up again, and not in the Times. There's been a lot of attention paid to the on-going discussion of weight and whether or not it's responsible to hire models who may be suffering from eating disorders, but it never seems to get farther than a wire piece that gets a few days in the news cycle, picked up by the tabs, and then discarded until the cycle starts all over again. Here's hoping that a real discourse on race and fashion is sustained until some new ideas and solutions are emerge.

Runways Fade to White (NYT)

this week in Asian: I'm awesome.

2007-10-10T15:44:00.001-05:00

I hepped the ladies at Disgrasian�?� to a Salon story on Penn Masala, and their awesome song, "The Facebook Skit".
I couldn't make myself watch A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, which premiered on VH1 last night. I said a few days ago that she's taken the place of Kim Jong-Il in that she is the person who makes me feel ashamed to be Asian, but I want to step back (if only I can give more thought to the question). But the real debate is: who is the Vietnamese American Gallant to Tila's Goofus? My nominee thus far is Project Runway season 2 winner, Chloe Dao.

Protesting at H&M

2007-10-06T12:47:00.001-05:00

Protesting at H&M
Originally uploaded by jasmined.

Frannie Richards, a Filipino-American woman, was harassed based on her ethnicity and gender by an employee at the H&M store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

This morning, I joined a peaceful protest with Filipinos, friends of Filipinos, and other supporters. Check out my pictures!

On a personal note: I was a few minutes late, but I got a sign and jumped right into the line. More than protesting H&M's intolerance and ignorance, we were celebrating our strength, and showing support for a woman who did the brave thing and went public with what was done to her. Sometime it's seems like it may be easy to just swallow the bullshit and try to forget about the slights and mistreatment from others. But it's always worth more to do what is right.

And if what we're doing is celebrating our ethnicity, we really should have had some lumpia. Would this have been the first protest in Chicago history to feature snacks?

today in Asian: "Finishing The Game" opens today in NYC

2007-10-05T12:03:00.001-05:00

Seriously -- I couldn't be more excited about "Finishing The Game", which opens today in New York at the IFC Center. Holy balls -- the trailer I've seen looks awesome, so I can only imagine that the movie will be fantastic.

Angry Asian Man has posted more info about the movie -- where it opens in coming weeks (not Chicago -- boo!) and how you should be able to get it on-demand from your local cable provider.

Philippine Medical Community 1, Desperate Housewives 0

2007-10-04T12:10:00.000-05:00

Hung Wins 'Top Chef 3' (Angry Asian Man): Yay! I didn't catch the whole ep, but I saw the announcement of the winner, and I actually cried a little bit, I was so elated. Hung look ecstatic, as did his fellow finalists Casey and Dale. A great trio, to be sure, but Hung was my fave. He appeared on WGN Morning News here in Chicago, making a delicious-looking stir fry and being utterly charming.
'Desperate Housewives' Filipino joke draws ire (LAT): ABC may actually edit the episode to remove the offending dialogue.
Woman Says She Was Harassed For Ethnicity At H&M (CBS2 Chicago): Protest is Saturday morning at 10:00 AM in front of the store. Contact me for details.

linkage tunnel

2007-10-04T10:26:00.000-05:00

A Peek Inside Myanmar's New Capitol: Come see the capitol built by the apparently paranoid (though not superstitious) junta responsible for the arrest, abuse, and deaths of Burmese monks and civilian protestors for democracy (AP via NYT)
Ethan Hawke's Terrible New Movie: Not Hot: Another addition to my list of best movie reviews ever, a list currently topped by The New Yorker's Anthony Lane's immortal review of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" (TNR, New Yorker)
"Our Man in PyongYang": Speaking of The New Yorker, any guy who can be described as "Kim Jong-Il's man in New Jersey" is definitely worth writing about. (New Yorker)
Pushing Daisies -- "Pie Lette": To inaugurate a new thread on this blog that I will call "Go Plug Yourself", I wrote an awesomely detailed recap of the series premier of "Pushing Daisies". Please watch this show, as it is funny, sweet, whimsical, beautifully written, and perfectly cast. (Recapist)

Linkage Tunnel: Burma

2007-09-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

As they marched through the streets of Myanmar�??s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.

What Makes A Monk Mad (NYT)
Also: US Campaign for Burma