NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog

visualizAsian.com interview 3/16 with Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot magazine

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:24:18 +0000

How cool is this? The March 16 visualizAsian.com show is going to be a conversation with Eric Nakamura, the owner, publisher and co-editor of Giant Robot magazine. Our call with Eric will be at 6 pm PT on Tuesday, March 16! From movie stars, musicians, and skate-boarders to toys, technology, and history, Giant Robot magazine covers [...]

CU Independent student news website launches “Speak Out Campaign,” organizes beats to cover racism, other “isms”

Gil Asakawa — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:10:47 +0000

Three years ago this week, a student news website at the University of Colorado sparked a firestorm of protest. The website posted a column by a student, Max Karson, which ineptly tried to address racism on the CU campus by poking fun at Asian stereotypes. The column, “If It’s War the Asians Want, It’s War [...]

New visualizAsian.com interview: Meet Dan Kuramoto, founding member of Grammy-nominated group Hiroshima

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:29:21 +0000

We’ve taken several months off, but Erin and I are ready to resume our series of interviews with inspirational Asian Americans for 2010. We’re especially proud to be able to speak with Dan Kuramoto, one of the founding members of the fusion jazz group Hiroshima, because the group has been nominated twice for a Grammy [...]

Lunar New Year isn’t just for Chinese

Gil Asakawa — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:43:30 +0000

As a kid in Japan, we always celebrated New Year’s Day, or Oshougatsu, on January 1, just like in the United States, but with different traditions than in America. Japanese clean the house like crazy leading up to the day, and New Year’s Eve isn’t the big party that it is in the U.S. Instead, [...]

Atlanta changes its “Yellow” train line to “Gold” after Asians complained

Gil Asakawa — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:42:10 +0000

Chalk this up in the victory column. Sometimes, just pointing out something that’s offensive can make a difference. Earlier this week, Asian American bloggers like 8Asians (where I borrowed the great graphic) and Slant Eye for the Round Eye, among others, pointed out that the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, had named [...]

Jake Shimabukuro interview from TED conference

Gil Asakawa — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:35:40 +0000

The social media blog Mashable snagged a pretty cool interview with Hawai’ian ukulele maestro Jake Shimabukuro at the annual TED conference (TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” and it’s a chi-chi invitation-only think-tank gathering of great minds) after his performance yesterday, which drew a standing ovation. I’ve written about Shimabukuro before, and I’m glad he got [...]

Download Kina Grannis’ free single “Valentine” & pre-order her new CD “Stairwells”

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:58:47 +0000

I downloaded my copy. You should too. Kina Grannis is letting you download a free copy of “Valentine,” the catchy folk-pop track that’s captured in the lyrical video above, as a preview of her new full-length album, “Stairwells,” which is available for pre-order. You can get a signed copy of the “Stairwells” CD, which officially [...]

Virginia band Tim Be Told playing Denver, Colorado Springs on national tour

Gil Asakawa — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:45:15 +0000

Colorado music fans can get a taste of an up-and-coming Asian American indie band from Charlottesville, Virginia next week, when Tim Be Told comes through Colorado Springs and Denver during their national tour. Tim Be Told are alternative rockers led by a young, multi-talented Chinese American singer, songwriter and keyboard player named Tim Ouyang. The [...]

Meet Adam Schrager, author of “The Principled Politician”

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:27:40 +0000

Erin and I are trying something different from our visualizAsian.com interviews with Asian Americans, and hosting a conversation with our friend Adam Schrager, the author of “The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story.” The interview is scheduled for Wednesday, February 24 at 6 pm PT (7 pm MT, 9 pm ET), and like our other talks, [...]

Call for Asian American artists to exhibit during AAPI Heritage Month

Gil Asakawa — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:55:31 +0000

Kate Agathon, a grad school instructor at Purdue University and producer for photographer William L. Snyder (who took the portrait above, which was used originally on AngryAsianMan.com in a profile of Kate), is taking on a big art project and she needs your help. She’s organizing a show called “ImaginAsian,” and inviting anyone who is [...]