lover of pop culture responds

artists of a newer & more personal generation: work of art, season 2

2011-12-30T03:23:00.003-05:00

did y'all watch season 2 of work of art, the reality contest show for artists? when i was in new york for the holidays, i saw that kymia's exhibit was being featured at the brooklyn museum, and i decided to watch the new season, which i am so glad to have done!

there are 4 particular contestants that i came to love and cheered on through the end:

kymia is this iranian american artist who saw her father die in a lake and is on the autism spectrum. she was very receptive to feedback and really tried to take the opportunity as one to grow from, which wasn't something that every other artist on the show shared.

dusty is this middle america art teacher who is so removed from what is conventionally considered as "the art world," right? he definitely brings this element of country (as in country music) to the show, and it's very sincere and open-minded. not the bigoted america that we find in middle america politically, but a warm middle america that is genuinely concerned about the day-to-day well being of his community. he made a piece of art that was specifically about the foreclosures across america and collaborated w/ another artist on parenthood. in one scene, he talked about how he's never lived w/ a gay guy, but he did it as a matter-of-fact declaration rather than an anxious confession. i like that. he has a mullet too.

young is this gay korean (?) american artist who's a little quirky but is really thoughtful about his work. i love that he isn't afraid to put himself in his art, and he just really brought his A game to the show. dusty and young collaborated on this really great mural/street art challenge on parenthood and he usually infuses an element of politics and identity in his work, which i love.

sara jimenez is this multiracial artist who is understatedly talented on the show. she didn't have a loud personality but she also really approached her work really thoughtfully. over the course of the season, we saw her really dive into the challenges, ranging from revisiting some painful childhood experiences (and taking risks in her artwork based on that) to exploring new materials in her final collection for the show. i came away from the show really respecting and admiring her.

what i loved about this season is that all those artists made it really far in the season. their work was consistently personal, political, and purposeful. i don't really have an expertise in art but i do understand what it's like to have ownership over your work and i really connected w/ those artists on that level. they understood and were committed to making a labor of love.

there were other artists whom i didn't feel so warm about. i appreciated bayete but i did have to agree w/ bill powers when he critiqued bayete's work as having little substance, even if the subject of the art was more loaded, complex, and controversial. i feel like i should appreciate leon more than i actually did, because his story as a singaporean deaf artist is pretty interesting. tewz was pretty cool, but i didn't think he was as mentally ready to engage w/ the process on the show.

there was one artist who really got on my nerve! lola. she just reminded me of all these "artistic" people i went to high school with. she were certainly talented, but didn't really have this serious relationship to art. it felt like she was still fumbling around a lot, whereas other artists had a sharper focus and process. and she was immature, which is the ultimate pet peeve!

the street art episode was probably my favorite because i really appreciate street art. and this is one of those topics where sentiments really illustrate a lot of underlying assumptions about someone's social consciousness, right? is street art just ghetto? is it deeper? is it respectable? if so, how is it used to offer substance? how you approach the challenge does say something about how you "essentialize" or define the art form.

kymia and sara jimenez collaborated on a piece that illustrated the uprooting of their families from another homeland to america. dusty and young made the piece about losing/becoming a parent. LOVED that. (and from my genuine praise of dusty, i hope you can conclude that i actually don't have this blind, unconditional bias toward the artists of color.)

lola and sarah, instead, made this whimsical piece w/ penises and fantastical animals. it's a cute idea and had little to no substance. and at the critique, lola kept using this motif of street art as mischievousness or illegality in her explanation. it was really shallow an analysis of the challenge and of the art. street art--me coming from a school of thought that respects urban culture as intellectually rigorous--is not necessarily marked by this construction of illegality or even mischievous. to me, it's an expression of public space, of community. it's a stain of an experience. and i'm really glad that the judges chose to critique from that viewpoint.

and china chow. i would just love to sit down and chat w/ her about multicultural america and the art world. i really feel like she must have cultivated this really deep analysis about the world on that sociopolitical level and really embraces the diversification of the art world, not just in demographics but of the range of experiences that are thoughtfully explored in the artwork. we see hints of that here and there, especially when she gets emotional.

all in all, i really enjoyed the season!

songs for me: you da one but i'm the speaker

2011-12-30T02:28:00.010-05:00

i have been on a rihanna binge. i was really reluctant to get this new album because my first preview wasn't so hot. but then i heard "you da one" and started getting HOOKED. it just reminded me of the positivity and youthfulness that were reminiscent of the brilliance of "what's my name." this song follows "what's my name" in that it is making a statement about the wonderful feeling of love, or near-love. love isn't this all-blinding shit of fairy tales, but it can feel REAL GOOD. the tone of the song is grown and there's no confusion about that. there's a bit of uncertainty (can you go downtown w/ me? are you really/do you see yourself as "da one"?) but the risk is gladly taken in the declaration or confession of the song.

the REAL subject

the focus of the song is actually not the "you" directed in the title but actually rihanna, the speaker. the video NEVER shows who the subject of the song is. there is no actor cast. instead, it's essentially a glamor video about the actual declaration by the speaker. it's actually about rihanna communicating the message more than the conventional function of the message, which is to reach the "you" in the title. i love that because the song, then, is no longer a cheesy love song and instead, is about the risk that it entails making that kind of declaration, as substantiated by the line "yep, i'm falling for ya but there's nothing wrong w/ that" as well as the bridge, which goes:

"yes i'm kinda crazy

that's what happens baby

when you put it down

you shouldn't have given it to me

good like that

shouldn't have hit it like that

had me yellin' like that

didn't know you would've had me coming back"

the risk or vulnerability here is more confessional, more embracing of a kind of point of shame or embarrassment, more than an actual validation or affirmation of love.

return to videographic themes

this video is definitely not ORIGINAL. it draws on a lot of known aesthetics, including the mainstream pop aesthetics that you see in retailer commercials and lady gaga's video for "just dance" (a la glamorous party-wear). can't you just imagine rihanna fitting right in at the party looking like this:

the typefaces are also really commercial, straight out of the fonts of shopping bags, shopping mall displays, and even mainstream t-shirts that you find from k-mart and jc penney to express and armani exchange.

(the value of the text, i think, is really in building the confessional nature of the song. the typefaces essentially give flavor to the core idea that this is being expressed, in text and song, and it's not just in some kind of personal handwriting but in a variety of "flavors" or personas.)

black beauty from the recent past

rihanna is a kind of aesthetic butterfly, and she's known to fluctuate and she can play up different styles pretty successfully. her strength is selling IMAGES. and for this video, she returns to a kind of r&b maturity that we don't usually see. she has her hair short and her image up close, and the look is distinctly black, or as i recognize it to be. it reminds me of in the late 90s when i saw many black women on television (and in real life) sporting a short cut as seen in toni braxton's "7 whole days" and other black female singers of recent past r&b.

this style of hair is less common these days than in years past, and i want to acknowledge the aesthetic history of the images. there's also something really particular about the beauty of black women, especially from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, in this:

for me, the projection of the pattern onto the body is fluid enough to articulate a light and non-burdensome quality about love, that no matter how you project the image, it's on her. all in all, definitely, these scenes are not ORIGINAL, but they are still VERY FRESH.

rude boy, part two

i've also noticed that this video returns to two particular cinematographic features of the music video for "rude boy." there's the mirror image:

and then there's the isolation of the lips to accentuate the sexy talking:

and the return, in different tones:

i mean, i love rihanna too but it's interesting that the creative team decided to repeat some of the tricks like this.

do i still love the song? yes. overall, i feel like rihanna delivered an album that was really a departure from the darkness of the past few albums, beginning w/ rated r. i especially love "do ya thing" because it's really confronting conventional/traditional ideas about relationships (can your boo be around other really sexy women?). i also love "we all want love" because why can't we embrace that seeming vulnerable but actually more universal than we'd like to acknowledge concept that we want love? and that's basically why the album and the song "you da one" are so salient for me---it's a big declaration of love, even w/ the risk and vulnerability. that's strength of a different kind.

occupy fairy tales: taking back & reinventing for a new age

2011-12-23T19:09:00.003-05:00

you know how RED RIDING HOOD got this darker "remake" or "update" this past year?

well, i didn't see it so i can't tell you much about it BUT i do remember it as the earliest of this recent wave of entertainment that has returned to the genre of fairy tales--with a new twist. forget disney, forget "age-old" tales that have really messed up gender and sexual politics. there's a new wave of fairy tales that are looking more appropriate for our generation.

i've been HOOKED on ONCE UPON A TIME. the abc series basically opens up the "happy endings" of a bunch of fairy tales and adds nuance to them. i like how they are explicitly making those connections between the fairy tales of some old era to their juxtaposed, contemporary lives. it's cute, it's endearing, and it actually builds suspense to the show. i also love that we get to see snow white as having become this fierce fighter after she got banished into the woods, in one scene giving this robin hood flavor with her green hood. she's not just cleaning after the dwarves. she's an INDEPENDENT WOMAN.

there's also this twist that is reminiscent of both LOST and BUFFY. emma swan, the protagonist, needs to return to this mysterious town of storybrook, maine, to break the curse. we've already seen that w/ how the survivors on LOST had to return and how buffy had to die to save the world. it's a little trite, but okay. are you watching this show? what are your thoughts on it?

the other, i saw the trailer for an update to the actual snow white tale, featuring JULIA ROBERTS. i was surprised, but then the gender twist made it more plausible that she would actually take this role. after winning her oscar, julia roberts kinda took it REAL EASY, but this is a nice reminder that she can be versatile.

i love that this update is heavily about how snow white gets her revenge, that both the main female characters are taking charge of their lives, even if they are making polar opposite choices. also it looks like the dancing scenes may be a bit of bollywood, which is neat. and the balance of comedy, visual appeal, and tradition is reminiscent of the incredible creativity that i value in movies like SHAOLIN SOCCER. definitely want to watch this.

how amazing would it be to see more fairy tales reimagined for the new millenium? in new retellings where not only the women are acting with boldness and clarity but the undersides are accentuated and reconfigured, where characters overlooked are now given more spotlight and perhaps even queer details? i'm liking this trend. let's keep it up.

finding rihanna in a hopeless place: the appeal of wanting to be the only girl in the world

2011-11-25T23:39:00.003-05:00

i've been having conversations with friends about the appeal of rihanna. she just occupies this really great place in the public consciousness--w/ so much style and grace. and yet, she's edgy and cool. the embodiment of an urban chic. and for me, that urban chic entailed a certain maturity derived from urban living, of being a (young) woman or person living in all the craziness that is city living. that maturity often comes, taken a step forward on my own, also w/ a certain disillusionment or riddance of the fantastical, of the ideal. the chic and sense of style--all of it is a response (whether in effect or on purpose) to the childish notions we had as, well, children. so we have rihanna, who talks about "grown folks" things, like being unfaithful, crushes from other women, rude boys, being in an abusive relationship, and sex sometimes disguised as going downtown or s&m plainly relished.

and so with the sobering maturity of the lifestyle embodied by rihanna, we come to shed the fairy tales that we grew up adoring or believing in. and that is why "only girl in the world" is so powerful. it is coming directly from the source that has taught us to believe otherwise.

in the song, asking to be treated as "the only girl you'll ever love, the only one who knows your heart, the only one who understands" is powerful because it immediately makes it inorganic. it makes the dream less commonplace or natural, because instead it is made true, not given. also, being a grown person, we learn that it is clearly a ridiculous idea, because no one person can possibly encapsulate all that for one other person. but to agentively play into that fantasy says more (about us rather than about the fantasy). it suggests that perhaps the image of the urban chic isn't just edge and cool, but also filled with moments of tragedy or struggle, that sobering notions aren't enough to live off from.

this week, i listened to "only girl in the world" w/ a new set of ears and heard just how much depth rihanna is adding to this narrative that she embodies in her style.

the jersey shore i've been waiting for

2011-10-15T22:27:00.003-04:00

these last two episodes of the jersey shore finally showed me what i had wanted to see: how did ethnicity and nationalism play out in these guidos/guidettes visit to the motherland? did we emerge from it with a more complex and thoughtful conception of ethnicity and nationalism? or was it acknowledged as a substantive aspect of the experience at all?

first we saw vinny taking the boys to sicily to see his extended family. and of all the cast members, of course this is vinny's dream. and that was so much about diaspora. he said that he had wanted to go see sicily all his life. and it's sicily, not florence. i love that because it's so identifiably cantonese. it speaks to the particular position of sicilian italians in the american consciousness and global italian diaspora, to cultivate an identity from that kind of social and cultural narrative (as an ethnic other who comes to represent the national body at the global stage). and whatever they show in that episode can easily be juxtaposed for a side-by-side forever-debated and never-settled comparison of what is "authentically" italian.

then we see that there are acts of aggression directed toward the jersey shore cast members, and they are usually filled with shaming remarks. it seems, at the very place where these guidos and guidettes belong (in the eyes of the american), we see these guidos and guidettes "get ghetto" (in its full range of connotations) in response to the "real italians." it's an american bubble about ethnicity and nationalism that gets popped, and readjusted. and on their last sunday dinner, vinny speaks for many other cast members when he says that he is ready to go home. that sentiment of a connection qualified by a disavowal of a foreign ethnic loyalty feels so familiar to many groups of color.

i'm curious to see what mtv cut out because it does seem like the cast members are aware of a kind of backlash against their emergence as public figures, as poor representations of an italian or italian american identity.

asian f to you too! glee, do better!

2011-10-08T02:38:00.004-04:00

i have been looking to glee this season because i cannot wait for the show to play up the other characters, especially mercedes! and then i read that tamlyn tomita is playing mike chang's mother. tamlyn tomita played waverly jong in the joy luck club and inspired the beginnings of my drag persona. and she gives back to the community. just what i need on this new season of glee.

this week's episode, "asian f," plays on the soundbite: "a-? you got an asian f?" i was ready to get into it and really enjoy this show take on a diverse storyline. but i was hugely disappointed! this blog post from 8asians can give you a warm-up to my feelings.

the episode barely featured the storyline. it was dropped in the beginning of the episode w/ some tiger parenting and then wrapped up in one scene. the scene w/ the principal and mike's father was predictable, but i brushed it off because maybe it was an important intro to the asian american studies aspect of the storyline. but then it wasn't really elaborated on. we come to expect more tiger parenting when the mother catches mike in the dance studio, but we get a surprise.

instead, the mother is extremely empathetic, like almost unrealistically so (not due to the acting but to the development). we find out that she had wanted to dance, but gave it up due to her circumstances (i hope it was framed as that rather than as a kind of traditional obedience to parents). it was refreshing because we start to see more depth to this asian mother construction. she isn't some caricature of a parent. she is who she's become because of choices she's made. and her humanity is intact. and we know this because she comes to support her children to make different, more self-determining choices. for me, the extent was a bit far-reaching, to the point of reactionary. rather, i would have wanted the mother to really explicate the negotiations at play, to take a more bruised and less an principled response to it. i'm still waiting for more representations that really give voice and dimension to our immigrant parents without the baggage of the more acculturated 2nd generation. to treat them as equals, with the same compassion.

and with that scene, we are to believe that mike chang will now be free to pursue dancing. and i'm left wondering if we'll really see more from mike's parents. on one hand, i'm thinking we will because of the father's reaction to mike being in the musical. on the other, the storyline was pretty wrapped up. it's a real question because it will really determine whether glee is as groundbreaking in depicting asian american narratives as it's been in depicting narratives about gay youth. kurt's storyline this past season was a tremendous catalyst for me getting into the show.

what about the other characters? while i loved seeing mercedes featured this episode, i was hoping for more of mike chang's storyline. also, was it just me or did the dreamgirls twist (mercedes as effie) a bit of a stretch for you? i'm also not feeling this more aggressive (and at time, seemingly inappropriate) tone toward his students this season. maybe we need to tone this hypermasculinity thing down.

fall season is back!: what i'm watching

2011-09-30T00:55:00.002-04:00

the arrival of fall season premieres usually means the departure of summer shows like weeds. and let me just say: thank you. this season of weeds really took a back step and went back to its roots, which is mocking whiteness. for the past few seasons, weeds took on issues like the drug enforcement administration, latino gangs and mafia, and human trafficking, but now it's back to exposing dimensions of whiteness, especially in the context of wall st. in new york city (#occupywallst). that's one thing i really do appreciate about the show, that it tackles the current political climate in its story direction. excited for next season. :)

and with that, i'm moving into the fall and anticipating the season finales of a-list new york, project runway, and jersey shore. a-list new york is like a bag of potato chips that you just crave but it doesn't really add anything to your life. project runway i'm digging this season. jersey shore has been disappointing in that the show continues to omit any serious diasporic discourse from the episodes. really, mtv? nothing about this experience is putting their italian identities into question? what a privilege. and a missed opportunity. and a snooze.

pretty much all of my shows are back, and i'm excited by them! love that leslie knope is running for office. i can tell the folks at the office are working hard to bring some new energy to the show. community is self-referential as ever. love everything happening on glee, that our supporting actors are getting more of the spotlight. grey's anatomy is warming me up for something. modern family is still so lovely. desperate housewives is looking juicy already. gossip girl is doing some new things. fringe is still this rollercoaster, except i'm not sure if i can keep track as well this season.

and i think i'll make more of an effort to try new shows. just started watching the playboy club and i'm definitely getting hooked. reminiscent of mad men (as a friend had tweeted), it is basically a really exciting piece of historical fiction that reminds us of an american identity and history (especially chicago politics, right?) and builds in some contemporary concerns (queer folks before the contemporary mainstreaming). i'm feeling that. i'm also feeling eddie cibrian. you go girl, leann rimes!

got any good shows to suggest? how's pan-am? i think i might try that next. ugh i also miss brothers & sisters already.

reporting on heritage cinema

2011-09-30T00:07:00.002-04:00

this past weekend, i spent all of my movies budget for the month at the san francisco film society's hong kong cinema program. and i am so glad i did! it was at the new people cinema in japantown so i also got to head over to daiso & the supermarket to remember what i loved about japan! what a great choice of venue for an asian american like me.

the first film i saw was mr. and mrs. incredible. i don't love the title, but it was so impressive! the two leads are played by actors that i recognize from growing up watching movies w/ my parents. and this time, i'm watching it and laughing like we would AND adding this more informed lens. i saw that the film incorporated dialogue that really spoke to a contemporary audience, even though the film is a historical fiction piece. i saw that the special effects referenced mario brothers and perhaps even the twilight/vampire craze. i saw that the story knew it was fresh because it was about superheroes who come out of retirement in ancient china. i love that the husband is called the gazer warrior and the wife is called aroma woman and rescues women from abusive husbands, but i don't love that there's still this man-of-the-relationship/subtly patriarchal quality to their relationship. the humor is exactly what i love about being cantonese, so it's really an apt choice to represent hong kong cinema.

the next day, i watched merry-go-round, which was reminiscent of the joy luck club and snow fan & the secret flower (judging from the trailer) in the use of flashbacks. aesthetically, this film actually reminds me of the quiet and muted shorts from wong fu productions. it's not a busy story, and the filmmakers really tease or chew out the moments. i did appreciate this film too, because it was loaded with nostalgia for hong kong and the memories it occupies, that collective memory. it was very intentional in mirroring the interpersonal as more social and historical, so i was paying attention to that. that this herbalist company had branches in hong kong and san francisco hints at marking diaspora. that two people could have so much history from exchanging comments on a blog marks our own induction into the film and historicizing our own experiences. that eva was learning english, choosing her career over traditional family structures all give us a moving, shifting sense of identity and a continuing nationalist narrative. times were changing and this was we became who we are. my only gripe is the hot ass mess of a young asian american woman who was overdosing and whatnot. i don't mind the drug use or ambiguity around how she can afford to idle around like that ("free spiritedness"?) but i do mind seeing asian/asian american women being represented as weak, lost, submissive, and worst of all, subjected to men. it's just so far from about all asian/asian american women i know. and while there may be asian/asian american women like that, maybe we need to at least stop romanticizing those models of personhood. oh, and one more thing: this film really starts to tease out a toishanese identity that is woven into the fabrics of hong kong and san francisco. as a child of enping, neighbor to toishan, i'm definitely feeling that move. yes, let's complicate that cantonese identity so my people can someday have a discourse going about ourselves.

the 3rd movie was my favorite. all about love, directed by ann hui. one of the most amazing classes i took in college was on chinese cinema, and i love that i recognize her name. i feel like she has this cultural position equivalent to that of sofia coppola. in any case, i left that movie theater having this serious respect for ann hui. she depicted queer families in this homegrown way that felt both real and entertaining. she showed scenes of a lesbian night, conversations among queer women on gender and sexual politics, public demonstrations, organized leftist groups and NGOs, corporate discrimination against unwed mothers, sit-ins, and again, QUEER FAMILIES. and the leads are played by actors i recognize, including from 90s hong kong pop and from the aroma woman from mr. and mrs. incredible. this movie made me all the more curious about the possibilities of a queer, intellectual, progressive community in hong kong. where are they and how can we join that community? so much of this movie is not about imagining, but politicizing, so this community must exist. and i want to know about it. anyway, this movie shows asian women i know, so i'm digging this one.

and after the festival, i looked up all this related stuff on wikipedia. that's part of how we can consume media these days. we can turn all that into quick habits of critical media literacy (loosely interpreted). and now, i feel more encouraged to watch cantonese movies more often. but where do i go?

get ready for it... she came to win

2011-09-27T03:57:00.004-04:00

i am so excited about nicki minaj's new single, FLY ft. rihanna. it is hands-down my favorite track from the debut album. i am so personally invested in seeing this single do well because:

this is the nicki minaj that i LOVE, rather than the schizophrenic caricature.
this is basically the story of my life right now, as i pick myself up and overcome some things.
this is a collaboration w/ rihanna! what a great combo.

a branch of thought: gender expression & project runway

2011-09-17T21:14:00.006-04:00

there is a lot to love about project runway. i've watched every season, even after the move to lifetime. and it's a relationship that i haven't really taken time to consider why i am so into the show. there's the surface level appeal like fashion, reality tv drama, and gay men and asian women on television. and on a related but sharper point, the draw for me is that project runway is essentially about how to be creative in your gender expression.

through the discourse that is represented from the show, we understand that men's wear is different from women's wear, that there are discrete concepts of identity. and that's a huge division that we learn and internalize. through the critiques, we learn to adopt a certain vocabulary about age, status, class, and quality. and we begin to build senses of aesthetics. and because we are given these challenges where we use non-conventional materials and cater to individual clients and styles, we are really shifting perspectives and our conventional frameworks.

for me, that has meant that i pay more attention to the negotiations embedded in my outfits (and on an empty street, my walk!). what styles am i evoking when i dress the way i do? how can i take, for example, a FOB aesthetic and put a modern twist on it, as they'd say on the show? how can i maintain a heritage of dress (not in the traditional garb kind of way, but in the we-wear-old navy-because-we-can-afford-it kind of way) without staying so predictably read? and how can i dress in a way that acutely and perhaps subtly express my genderqueer elements? what details can i take control over in my dress? and perhaps more nerve-wrecking, who will be able to decipher those details? by engaging w/ that process, we are necessarily queering our identities and expressions. we know that there's a feminine and a masculine, but we are choosing to twisting it -- however you'd like.

of course, part of really embodying this love for the show must be sharing it! and so i'm blogging here, inspired in part by this really great companion blog, fashion mole, written by a friend. enjoy!

a day in the life: new narratives for the new majority

2011-09-17T19:39:00.002-04:00

morgan spurlock, the filmmaker who made SUPER SIZE ME, recently launched his internet show A DAY IN THE LIFE on hulu! it's a short, 1/2 hour documentary series on really successful people. the episodes released so far are:

richard branson, chairman of the virgin group
russell peters, comedian
will.i.am of the black eyed peas
girl talk, mashup musician
misty copeland, ballet dancer

in general, they're all really fascinating episodes on how these people grew up and how they understand their successes now. the selection of people is so sharp! these are all people that really speaks to my generation of people. especially as young professionals trying to start or establish our careers, we can find a lot of meaning in these stories. and i do!

one of the biggest questions i'm wrestling with is how to do really great work in my field while staying true to the politics and visions of the world that i hope to live in. especially with so much representation of and concentration on these people as people of color, these stories are really lending more of a backdrop for the reception of people of color as public figures. and its impact more specifically on communities of color -- both for those of us who are upwardly mobile and even for those who "aren't" -- is that there are communities at play, that we aren't so post-racial after all, that successful people can still be tied to their communities and identities.

for me, the episode w/ russell peters communicated two key, baseline points: there's a "getting it right" when it comes to racial humor and you gotta treat your family (chosen or by birth) right. but perhaps the two most memorable episodes so far are the ones on will.i.am and misty copeland.

will.i.am is shown while touring in paris w/ the black eyed peas. he reminisces about the "different versions of success," from the small crowds years ago to the stadiums of now. he also talked about doing fashion as something he had wanted to do even before the fame. and then we see him going to an "inner-city" school in the 20th arrondisement of paris. he talks to them specifically to share his identification w/ their experiences as urban youth color (on a global or at least a western civilization level), that he's excited to see what they contribute to the world. he even goes on to emphasize computer science as a field to concentrate on, because he wants them to contribute more than "music and graffiti." and in the limo, he says:

"when you have an opportunity to go meet or hang out w/ people with similar roots, you have to do that."

here, will.i.a.m is specifically talking about a diasporic identity where race, culture, and class intersect. and he attributes it to his upbringing, his mother. and we see that will.i.am's relationship w/ his mother impacting his lifestyle, his values. that scene becomes an almost exclusive scene for those folks he was already talking to. the reality is that there are some really strong ass women holding down our communities of color, and that's one thing that you can see seamlessly woven into the story. it's like, using a thread from our own stories and weaving it into the dream fabric, so that the dream fabric feels a little more familiar for us to wear comfortably and like it's ours. his story and work all help us to stretch our zone of proximal development and get us to becoming fuller selves.

so much about the episode on will.i.am deals w/ race but not necessarily using explicit terms. if that's not explicit for you, then the episode on misty copeland will be. misty does not shy away from framing the entire episode as a conscious effort to engage youth of color from marginalized communities in ballet and, essentially, in the culture of power. we hear her talking about how difficult it is to be a black woman doing ballet and her earnest desire to see more black women in the field, supporting and creating channels that she wish she had. she's creating a line of ballerina wear designed with diverse women's bodies in mind and her business partner was straight up, "[misty] thinks all these things are parts of the same puzzle to make it easier for black women to dance," from attire to mentoring and more. misty is, in effect, speaking to a systemic and institutional organization that has historically excluded or at least made it relatively (inequitably) extremely challenging for black women to thrive.

as i was watching, i was thinking, more young people need to watch these episodes. this is taking pop cultural figures and removing their makeup to see the artist before and after the show. those are the details that are often more difficult to imagine and fill in for those of us from historically underserved communities/families. and by culturally expanding our narrativity, we can then access those ideas and dreams more hopefully.

would you?: a really good cross-section of a community

2011-09-10T05:20:00.003-04:00

i have previously blogged about 1 girl 5 gays, and it's become a regular show for me this summer. part of the draw is the quality of the questions. they just access different parts of ourselves (humor, terror, vulnerability), and given any 5 gays, you get really great, honest answers.

on a recent episode, a really fun question was: could you date someone w/ the same name as you? i love that question because it is taking what would be a really silly question if posed by a straight person (who is falling back on shallow ideas about the gay community and experience) and turns it into a more internal conversation, into a moment of allowing oneself to embrace that "cute" possibility as queers, negotiated past an anxiety of exclusion/marginalization. to embrace it, then, means you have resolved the anxieties we feel about the appropriateness of our experiences or the too-muchness or ridiculousness of the situation.

another highlight: do you miss anything about high school? jake talks about how he stayed in the closet, even winning prom king, and dean jumps on him to break that link b/t being prom king and be gay. how deep was that scene?! it totally brought out so many anxieties -- again -- about our community. i get dean's intentions but feel as though he mistook jake's point, which is that he played into a traditional narrative of a straight boy then, seemingly fitting into the trajectory w/ fidelity. and that becomes an opportunity where jake situates himself within a generation before the emerging generation.

so dean pushes and tries to make sure that jake isn't saying that he misses living life as a passing gay male/straight male. i feel like dean represents a strand of the community of us who would censor any "backward ideas" about the identity & experience, including any romanticization of a less-than-liberatory age and period. jake stands his ground and clarifies that he misses a period where our friendships aren't so politicized around our identities and experiences. that's a moment of honesty that even i feel uncomfortable owning up to, even though that's kind of a silly road to head down.

perhaps the meatiest question of the night: has a fear of getting a sexually transmitted infection stopped you from sleeping w/ a specific person? dean flat out says, "no," which is very characteristic of his values as revealed on the show. in a way, dean represents this ultimate push-back against traditional values. and jake acknowledges the pervasiveness of the fear and situates that -- again -- generationally, hoping that the new generation of the community will rather practice safer sex than to engage in a fearful approach to sexually transmitted infections. he says, "yeah, there's a risk of condoms breaking, in anything you do in life." here, i think he is specifically articulating a sexual world without the stigma around STIs, not the absence of them, to de-elevate the construction of the sexually transmitted infection to the level of any other risk in life, like driving a car or cooking meat.

and breaking into dean's response, jake adds that there may be sexual practice that we refrain from engaging in knowing the sexual history of a partner, naming the example of giving a blowjob given the partner has had syphilis. and dean, with or without intending to ridicule, asks jake if he's given a blowjob with a condom. and jake answers, "yeah, do you want oral herpes in the back of your throat?" that's the beauty of the show, that those competing (for a lack of a better word) behaviors get to interact in this space. the multiplicity of narratives here is so crucial in creating a range of possibilities for queer folks, especially youth, with which to imagine themselves enacting their identities. there are no compromises, just acknowledgment of whatever choices you want to make. i think this is a moment that really fulfills jake's purpose in being on the show, in pushing back against so much of the implicit pressure (again, for a lack of a better word) or narrow range of imaginaries that gay men construct for our/themselves and get constructed by others and institutions.

in a way, this show does heal those of us who continue to unlearn so much of what we've grown up internalizing and to learn how to be our whole selves, on our own terms.

why are you so obsessed with me?: nicki minaj

2011-08-14T19:12:00.002-04:00

this post isn't about how i came to appreciate nicki minaj. rather, it's about how the curiosity developed into this identification with the artist and her body of work. nicki minaj -- the team, not just the artist -- made this documentary, my time now, about a snippet of her journey making her album pink friday and the lead-up to the video music awards in 2010. i watched the documentary after having listened to and fell in love with several tracks from the album, and it felt like traveling to the past to see how the tracks were made and the sort of context (as articulated by the artist, supposedly) that produced the tracks as they are.

the documentary starts with where we find her: hyped up in all the superstardom ways that she is. 6 weeks before her debut album and massive jumps on the charts. there's anxiety over how her debut album will be but also confidence that she will come through.

and then we hear from her: why isn't there a female rapper turned mogul? she poses that question like it's her artist's statement. and the story unfolds. we see her getting ready for the VMAs and we hear her "rough around the edges" new york accent. it signals to us that this is an "authentic" presentation of the artist. and the gem in that moment is when she exposes her vulnerability, that she knows to be strong, if only to defeat the naysayers. doing this art, then, is about struggling through and undeniably rising out of some kinds of confines.

and like every serious artist, nicki minaj is disciplined. she has a regimented routine, down to the work hours and the conditions (cranberries, almonds, water, just the right temperature). it's easy to say that she is being self-absorbed, but as someone who is curious about her artistic development, i'm suspending my cynicism to frame the demands as crucial to creating a context for her artistic expression. perhaps what is feminist about nicki minaj is also that her routine comes from her work ethic and own creative control. she isn't being managed and produced by others a la britney spears. instead, she is more aligned w/ the likes of beyonce, who manages herself now.

this documentary is so purposeful in showing nicki's vulnerability, ranging from defending against suspicions that she lip-synched at the BET awards to going hard to preserve her professionalism. and the film is quick to gender that, to spell out that the narrative of nicki minaj speaks more to the narratives of women more than the narrative of an individual. and i love her for that. it is in line with the honesty around fighting sexism expressed in "fly" (i am not a word / i am not a line / i am not a girl that could ever be defined) and "i'm the best" (i am fighting for all the girls / that thought they could never win). for me, this coupling of vulnerability not for vulnerability's sake but tied to a hint to structural oppression is so refreshing. we are vulnerable not because we all are vulnerable. we are vulnerable because there is something to be vulnerable about and that vulnerability can be negotiated to be liberating.

alter egos are not new to the rap game, but what's curious about one of nicki's alter egos, roman, is that he's a gay boy with violent tendencies. for me, that's a very poignant creation because "gay boys" are often subjected to the violent tendencies of a hypermasculine culture and roman is almost a response to that, almost aligning all gender oppressions against violent masculinity. but roman isn't my favorite part of nicki's dimensions.

the most resonant part for me is her return to trinidad. as we come to learn, nicki minaj is a new american, as in, she wasn't always "american." and she bring that story to the hip hop game, the sociological patterns and migration stories that are embedded in communities of color. in a way, the film offers a representation that people of color film festivals strive to offer their audiences. her description of how she made sense of the united states as a young person in new york city hits me really closely. our stories do not really overlap in their details, but they do feel like books sitting side by side on the same bookshelf. her story links up with mine in this american consciousness about people of color in urban cities. and the return home means -- when we are mega superstars like her -- can really mean buying anything and everything without etiquette type of boundaries. for me, that scene is a response to all the private conversations in the home about how difficult it is to represent your family in the united states and still have to look out for family back in the motherland. that is the vision that we strive for, and the vision can be real, even as disillusioning as the american dream may be. and then she closes the segment in trinidad with a concert performance of her part in kanye west's "monster," which is undeniably the best part of the song.

the later segments hit home the themes suggested earlier. we see nicki minaj talking explicitly about the double standard she experiences as a woman in the industry and the gendered treatments that she gets. for me, there's a parallel here to teaching and expectations. if we get the little things slide, then we're gonna get the little things. we need to be relentless if we want to see better results. and in the segment on the making of the "right through me" video, we see nicki speaking to the craft of acting, which shows her disciplined training and her immigrant upbringing in new york, as a student at laguardia. and she tells us her wisdom: "[being a boss] is being able to bounce back." and here, the resilience she speaks of -- in my interpretation -- necessarily has an anti-oppressive undertone, from the perspective of the oppressed. this is how we can challenge it and make it.

the film closes with this question: what makes nicki minaj happy? and it is set in the backdrop of new york, w/ her going to the closing of a house in long island for her mother and brother (also mentioned in her "i'm the best"). for me, the film concludes that her story is distinctly new york, distinctly urban in its themes of negotiating in a complex social world and building and exercising resilience to impact it in return.

"i'm happy when i'm doing things that i never thought i could do but that i prayed that one day i would be able to do."

nicki minaj could easily be perceived as a flavorful rapper-of-the-moment but this film redefines that. it inserts more depth into the construction or narrative of nicki minaj. and in a similar way, that is my goal for this blog, that we begin to develop more nuanced understandings of the pop culture that really glues together our social world. let's elevate the conversation, and track by track, rise toward a better world.

tiger mom, wesley yang, and the 100 flowers response campaign

2011-07-17T14:04:00.005-04:00

when amy chua's excerpt published in the wall street journal, my facebook newsfeed was filled with the link. then wesley yang published a follow-up in new york magazine, this time incorporating familiar voices (from my alma mater!). and then the enticing tiger mom meme took on a life of its own, including this segment of what would you do?

it was a topic that hit really close to home, and i really wanted to respond to it. tons of responses appeared on 8asians.com and hyphen magazine's blog. it felt like how the hundred flowers campaign during mao's china might have felt like. there were a lot of superficial responses that did not really represent the ideas fairly or that used the post as a departing point for related topics. the critique that stayed on my mind were the suicides committed by asian american women. it's an issue that i have seen kristina wong tackle so well in her show, wong flew over the cuckoo's nest. but other than that, our communities have remained largely silent.

what was my response going to be? as engrossed in the community as i was, as a subject, i was most annoyed with the ways that we -- as asian americans -- have responded to it. this was an opportunity for our community to really take the reins and redefine the discourse that was started by the wall street journal, a trajectory that amy chua has tried to distance herself from. instead of finding our own terms of discourse, we relied on the familiar terms and hyperboles that only conceal the ways that we are privileged, even in our calls for sympathy and healing. instead of riding off the resentment that we might accumulated from our experiences (which i certainly have), i'd rather we critically examine that this discourse has largely excluded our immigrant, non-english speaking parents whose ideas are necessarily misrepresented even when we try our hardest to translated into a different language that lacks the frameworks needed to fairly encapsulate their connotations. this discourse is dominated by a bunch of 2nd generation (not even 1.5 generation folks) asian americans who are engaging in a particular subset of the english language world, who have done well to accumulate the cultural capital to have access to this debate or conversation.

the challenge, then, is: how do we humanize our parents in their decisions? how do we step outside of ourselves and exaggerations in giving voice to their aspirations and hopes for what we would become? in other words, how do we engage w/ this as grown-ups who can actually give props to our parents where they are due?

for me, moving through my twenties has meant coming to see my parents as full and flawed people. my parents had me when they were my age, and that's a detail that cycles through my head. and i do feel the heaviness of being a grown-up, especially as an educator who is constantly working with children and necessarily doing a bit of parenting in the process. if and when we enter an entirely new sociopolitical and linguistic context (which i honestly am not brave enough to do, but that is my privilege too), what decisions do we make to thrive? this question is no longer an abstract daydream but a hard choice that comes with trade-offs however you choose. and if our parents lacked the educational opportunities to make the most informed decisions, how much can we hold against them? i don't know about other children of immigrants, but i'm still reconciling with these questions.

coming across this post from hyphen magazine & huffington post was so refreshing. erin khue ninh does a great job of contextualizing and drawing on the history of work and scholarship that has been done around these issues. let's not just rehash it. let's really go somewhere with it. this is why we need asian american studies. if we're going to talk about healing and coming together as a community, let's really do it in a way that shows how serious we are about moving forward together.

work of art: the next great frontier

2011-07-17T12:42:00.003-04:00

after the success of project runway and top chef, bravo gave us work of art: the next great artist. the concept is really an extension of project runway, but this time focusing on the fine arts. one of its executive producers was sarah jessica parker. sounds good so far, right?

and it is. i saw an episode when it aired last summer, and i finally got a chance to revisit the entire season this summer. i'm so glad that i did because i really enjoyed it! the challenges were pretty interesting and the group of contestants really brought out a lot of tensions around the differences among the artists and presumably in the field.

for example, erik was this contestant who had no formal training at an art school. over the course of the show, we saw erik's insecurities really came out and his interpretation of miles became more biting, boxing miles as this pretentious, tortured artist. work of art is a show that really purports to be about the artist aspect of the show, and erik's comments just became really distracting and unproductive. he basically reverted back to age-old critiques of the art world to defend himself from the inadequacies that he felt in himself for lacking the formal training. it was really unfortunate -- even tragic -- because it could have been so different. as difficult as it might be to "penetrate the art world," to become part of the community of practice, insulting the disciplines and institutions around which the art world is organized -- art history, the creative process -- without acknowledging their values (however limited) was frankly an immature response. to me, it showed his growth and process as being stunted because those anxieties got the best of him.

with that said, i do also acknowledge that the other contestants did not necessarily welcome him. instead, they were in their own processes of imagining themselves as legitimate artists in this creative competition, and in many ways they became vehicles for reinforcing the exclusionary aspects of the art world as they tried to find their own ways. they were riding off discourses they knew or thought they knew. and i say that because some of the contestants did not come off as having a strong sense of their artistry or process. they were shooting somewhere, not necessarily headed to anywhere.

so what does it mean to be an artist? judith's answer seems to be that artists cannot compromise their vision, so commissions were limiting and destructive for her own creative process. nao's answer seems to be that artists follow their intuition, and the vision does not necessarily need to be made explicit or articulated. jaclyn struggled with some challenges because she was looking for an artistic response to the challenges, which sometimes meant that she did not start with a response of her own at the time of the challenge posing. miles struck me early on as an artist in a full sense because he was able to respond to the challenges through artistic means. he was overwhelmed by the senses, so that became part of the response. taking a nap was part of the response or process, not a pretentious act or a break from the process.

i really enjoyed mark, because he was this man of color on the show who stayed true to himself while handling the white context of the show so gracefully and with dignity. in the episode where he collaborates with peregrine, he carried himself and negotiated in this way that i find really resonant with the ways that people of color navigate work (and other shared) spaces in the dominant culture. the modes of thinking embodied by peregrine -- concerned with the creative outcomes -- and mark -- concerned with the interpersonal process -- sparked for me an interpretation in which there is a marked difference in their awareness of their own socio-political positions. many other artists, namely miles, also seemed to trivialize mark's contributions to the show, suggesting that mark's work is cheap (or more commercial). i am encouraged by my reading of this because in his last episode on the show, china chow actually got emotional revealing the elimination to mark and abdi, the two remaining men of color on the show. it was the only episode in which china chow got emotional during elimination! that also made me so curious about china chow -- what her politics are, what her stakes are. after all, she grew up knowing jean-michel basquiat.

abdi is another contestant to look for. if erik and miles are positioned as outsider and insider of the art world, then abdi is our more contemporary figure (arguably in the age of obama). abdi story did not necessarily conclude with him as an artist, but he's managed to be a part of this world. what makes him even more palatable is that he is so grateful for it. he takes the show more as an opportunity than his one shot to make it big. and his respect and admiration for the other artists on the show really distinguish him as a character on the show. he has more admiration for some of the other artists than i do, and that can encourage me to give other contestants more belief in their work. his art is also full of sincerity and authenticity to his own experiences. over the course of the show, i felt like his story really follows a trajectory that i'd like to see for the art world, and especially for the many more artists of color who are struggling to do them and to transform the institution.

i finished the series feeling optimistic. and i wanted to title this blog the next great frontier because shows like top chef and project runway have almost scaffolded the experience for us. as china chow says in her bio, art doesn't have to have this functionality that clothing or food does. and with that comes all the "fluffiness" of art -- which the judges' comments have come to reveal at times. however, i think this show has done a great job of showing how much thoughtfulness and substance the art world does guard. i still remember early in the show, jaclyn got real emotional and said something like, "it's like they want us to explain every choice we have made." yeah, jaclyn, that is the mark of a great artist. it's focused and sharp and intentional. and this show tries to sell that point to us, even if it is drowned in a bunch of other trite expressions ("the art world is fickle"; "art is what works").

beyonce's new album: 4 whom & what?

2011-07-11T00:04:00.007-04:00

after i am... sasha fierce, how is beyonce supposed to and has she continued her body of work? i suppose this short film tries to answer that for us:

in short, the documentary tracks beyonce & team's preparation for the new album. i appreciate it because it centers the work on the artist as well as the creative teams that maintains beyonce's stardom. it shows beyonce's creative journey for the new album, and perhaps more subtly, the vast number of people of color that actively steer and make possible the beyonce (cultural and capitalist) empire. it reminds us that, in constructing meaning, we really can read a racialist (but not racist) subtext in beyonce's sense of her art and self. for bey, it seems that gender, or specifically the empowerment of women, is also another theme (even if you disagree w/ her contributions). evidence is found in her first single off the new album 4 and the formation of her all-woman band, which really is not a necessary detail in our understanding of bey.

in fact, i would argue that, from her experiences being in destiny's child, she grew very acutely aware of her positionality as a woman of color (of the diaspora) and as an influential artist. she seems to demonstrate a growing awareness & embrace of her responsibility as a global figure, and specifically a global woman.

in any case, the documentary represents beyonce as readily identifiable, even as it represented her taking time off to travel and to experience new, humbling adventures. she's not above it. she is like us, but she has the means to actually do what we all would enjoy doing. she even has those candid moments & personal footage that really does make her seem more accessible, even if i find it a bit cheesy & overly done (especially where she is nervous or being poetic), reminiscent of the video for "flaws and all." there's just a limited degree to which i can believe that beyonce and i are the same, even if we do share this kind of universal humanity. still, many of her feelings are easily identifiable for any mature & emotionally attuned grown-up. for me, i appreciated the depth & connections that i have been able to read into her through the short film.

what about the actual album, 4? well, i had a certain open-mindedness and intrigue due to a respected friend's tweet:

i also read justin's blog post about the idolation. the album definitely took some time for me to vibe with. the sound of the album drew from an unfamiliar mix of sources, but there really wasn't any reason for hating on the sound itself. and as i listened, the more that i saw into the ideas encapsulated -- or at least suggested -- by justin's tweet.

there are some solid songs on there. i really liked major lazer's "pon de floor" already, but beyonce's direction w/ "run the world (girls)" combines what had previously felt like discrete genres of music. still, it remains highly contested in its politics.

i really appreciate having these supplementary texts -- the short documentary & the racialicious blog post -- with which to process the music video. while the blog post isn't as focused on critiquing the video as a video (but instead, as an example of a practice situated within an unjust context), it was still helpful in drawing out the specific positionalities that beyonce occupies. i think what the post fails to ignore is that beyonce is specifically a black woman, not just a first world artist. the lens from which that i -- and i'd argue, even beyonce -- read the work is necessarily diasporic in nature. the kind of language around appropriation and privilege of recognition cannot be as tragic as it currently sounds. it isn't a coincidence that the works of the black diaspora infiltrate beyonce, the artistic construction. (and on a sidenote, while major lazer is comprised of two white boys, "pon de floor" is a collaboration with vybz kartel, the jamaican dancehall artist.) and i'd really like more treatment of that in the analysis. still, i want to give credit to the responses that have noted the serious differences in the realities of women from the vision described by the song (namely, this one). but honestly, i see that not as oppositional to the work itself. those responses are merely using the artistic work as a starting place.

i'm less interested in departing from beyonce's work (as a conversation starter) as i am in articulating the process of evolution that i see in her album. it is a process, an aspect of the experience that i'd like to be accentuated in our conversations about beyonce, the artist. so given her prior success, beyonce has reached this comfortable place where people will treat her work with a sense of seriousness. and what we have from her is a mutual understanding. her album is also a serious effort from her to continue her body of work. this is how she has chosen to move forward in her position as one of the top artists of our time and generation and she has chosen well.

i love when artists build and revisit their work, and beyonce's new single, "best thing i never had," does that for me. it is about a word play (best i ever had) and it has all these ingredients from her other hits, like "irreplaceable," "ego," and "sweet dreams." really great concept and very accessible creative decisions. therefore, it makes moves forward the foundation that she has worked so tirelessly to build with us in our collective consciousness, in our cultural marketplace. and aesthetically, it is reminiscent of "halo" and "flaws of all."

i'm not as concerned about the success of "best i never had" because i don't think it is as risky as "run the world (girls)." i am concerned, though, about how much room we'll make for her other songs.

i think of "end of time" almost as beyonce's companion to britney's "till the world ends." they're not even about the same thing but they are so true to the specific artist's style and body of work, while both playing off the same theme. what i love about "end of time" is that it isn't just beyonce who carries the track. the musical accompaniment is just as bold, loud, and assertive as the song deserves to sound. and beyonce delivers the vocals like she probably does at most of her concerts. it's a woman's voice, not a girl's. and there, i think we can certainly say exhibits beyonce's growth as an artist, to be able to identify that quality of performance as a goal and to reach there. i'd say it's there for other tracks as well.

i am probably most impressed with "i was here," which is also the only track that does not list beyonce as a co-writer. it is written by diane warren, who has penned other timeless tracks including "how do i live" (leann rimes), "for you i will" (monica), and "un-break my heart" (toni braxton). in considering what we learned about beyonce's time off, "i was here" is probably the best way to capture or summarize the experience. "i was here" is much like nicki minaj's "moment 4 life," but it specifically describes beyonce's particular trajectory. in this track, beyonce is honest and genuine about what she has come to mean for her fanbase around the world, and she is really taking a bow in the form of a song. it reminds us of the raw and sincere place from which we understand beyonce to enter her profession. underneath the fame and celebrity, the singer just wants to mark her place, to touch hearts. the song also appears on what is probably the most appropriate album of her career, after the hugely successful album, i am... sasha fierce.

beyonce occupies a particular place in my pop cultural consumption. i wouldn't really say that she is a deep artist, like i would so readily say about jill scott, nicki minaj (if you really listen to to her more personal tracks), and perhaps adele. still, beyonce is undeniably GREAT at what she does, and it's really nice to follow the directions that she has taken with her artistry and opportunities. she's contributed a lot through her music, and this album is no exception to the rule.

why are you so obsessed with me?: the voice

2011-07-02T07:03:00.002-04:00

while i had heard some good things (including tweets) about the voice, sylvie kim's post on the diversity of the contestants was just the right pitch that got me to start watching. the content of the post was perfect for the medium, and the post really captures the way that i personally choose the media that i consume. i do want what i'm watching to reflect the social context, in certain ways w/ certain emphases. and so i started watching. and i got hooked.

the digital integration

in the first episode, host carson daly gives a run-down of the digital integration w/ social media, including voting via buying from itunes. i was really curious after reading sylvie kim's post because voting w/ purchasing power is, indeed, authentic to what "casting votes" is supposed to symbolize (admiration, popularity, etc). it also incentivizes people to cultivate a habit of buying music legally. as opposed to voting online or, even w/ some show, paying to vote via calls, this show's votes can come w/ a mp3 (or whatever file it is) of a track by the artist that you are supporting. it's a simple principle made really sensible and practical.

also, the show unabashedly features twitter. there's a correspondent whose job is to track twitter trends that mention #thevoice and it actually seems like the contestants are strongly encouraged to jump on the twitter game. during breaks, we see the twitter correspondent posing questions from twitter to the artists themselves while other contestants look like they are busy responding to tweets on smartphones or the computer. i love it because it is no longer debating whether twitter is worth the viewer's or the non-participant's time. the short answer: get on twitter if you want to get with it! i absolutely agree w/ that. twitter really can and is redefining how the artist relates to his/her supporters, perhaps redefining even the concept of a fan. and we also see the coaches tweet in response to what happens on the show, which is pretty sweet. for folks who are already on twitter (who read tweets and who send out tweets), there's like a real sense of a community of practice. i can live-tweet the show and really feel like #thevoice is a legit hashtag that more than a few of my friends will recognize. this means something:

the upgrade in reality television

more than digitally, the voice is in many ways a huge update from many talent search/contest reality shows. the most visible and similar programs are probably american idol and america's got talent. i know folks from all age groups watch those shows, but for me, they represent a certain family-oriented aesthetic that is grounded and addressed not to me but probably more like middle age and perhaps at least slightly conservative heads of households. it's a highly controlled and standardized (basically, bland) context that is mostly easy to understand and does not betray any principles we may have about meritocracy and talent.

so y'all might know that i love jennifer lopez. and i got into american idol this season mostly for her. i was so glad that new york times has reported on the vastness and deepness of jennifer lopez & serious props for her latest album. in a sense, jennifer lopez is the perfect judge for american idol because american idol produces these projects of idols, not necessarily for this undisputed raw talent. and undergirding american idol is this belief that we buy into that this show somehow represents an authentic search for the best american idol. we all vote in a completely open market for the best -- or most popular -- singer. and it's entertaining because it features laughable contestants. and as much as i love jennifer lopez, american idol's catering to this bland, family-oriented viewership also frames itself as outdated and tired. from its montage to animation to routine, american idol has gotten to be this comfortable standard, to which america's got talent attempts to fill as its lesser polished cousin.

the voice, however, doesn't actually blindly buy into those meritocratic ideas, even if the show is marketed as this clear-cut and simple search for the best voice. instead, it subscribes to other principles. for one, as a friend enlightened, the voice is not premised on a kind of television bullying, where we get to alienate (through intentional editing and introduction) contestants who clearly do not match what we already conceive as appropriate for an american idol (with all of its nationalist baggage). instead, the voice is really about celebrating good and great singers, even offering plenty of opportunities for collaboration (even as they are competing).

that works well for the voice because central to the show is its coaching structure. the coaching structure literally defines the competitive nature of the show. for most of the season, the coaches are the ones who eliminate, and the organizational structure of the show just doesn't back any feigned sense of true or fair competition. but that's the point -- the coaches are the ones to eliminate because this is about being part of a coaching team, much like how drake and nicki minaj have given us a sense of it through their own loyalty to young money. in a way, this is another point of the authentic context that the show offers. it isn't about who the best singer is. it's about which team or record label/family you work for, your community of practice. the voice, if anything, represents a miniature olympics from 4 made up teams, not a serious search for the ultimate winner (though there is one).

as sylvie kim concludes in her post, this show has really taken a departure from the standard singing/talent contest (american idol, and i'd add, america's got talent) and even their extended cousins (america's best dance crew, maybe also dance w/ the stars and so you think you can dance). instead, it is almost a response to the standard. the blind auditions effectively puts an end to the clown-making of the rejected contestants and heightens the seriousness of the show. and the talents prove way more diverse than american idol has artificially come to manufacture, even as much as i love or at least respect kelly clarkson, fantasia, jennifer hudson (even though she did not win), and adam lambert.

the host, the coaches, & the intimacy of artistry

the host is carson daly, who is pretty much a reminder of mtv's total request live & also his own late night talk show. i do acknowledge that being a host can really be a hard job, but he has taken on this strict enforcer on the show whenever the coaches are drawing out their tough decisions. still, he is a really good choice for a host.

and instead of judges, we have coaches: adam levine, cee lo green, christina aguilera, and blake shelton. they make up a really lively and serious group of coaches. and through the montages and feedback following the performances, we come to learn more about how each artist thinks about not just their own craft but artistry in general. and i love it! we walk away getting a rare peek into how these four coaches -- who are so thoughtful in mentoring new talent -- approach what they do, hang out to music, and invest back into the music community. and these all are artists who are respected by any general audience. and frankly, i have gained hella respect for the artists/coaches, especially adam levine and blake shelton (didn't really know/care about them before).

i especially love seeing how the contestants prep with their coaches. the coaches can bring in their advisers, and those advisers include monica and reba. um, wow. and then we learn how monica was instrumental to making cee lo's "forget you" as full of personality as it is. we see some differences in leadership style. blake seems to give more creative control to the artists themselves, whereas the other coaches are firmer on the song selection (especially if they envision a certain interpretation for the contestant). we get to see how these artists make meaning and connections to the songs that they are singing as part of the preparation and to see how the coaches actually have the vision and foresight to guide the new talent/contestants to new directions in their craft. cee lo & nakia. christina & frenchie.

the contestants

the contestants themselves are enough to watch the show. sylvie kim already pointed out how impressive the racial and queer identity breakdowns are. but more than that, the contestants have these really great stories.

frenchie davis makes the perfect contestant for a show that features a blind audition. as does her teammate, beverly mcclellan, a tattooed lesbian artist. and then there's javier colon, who just swept away the entire show with his cool and universally acknowledged as an early and sustained favorite (actually kind of reminds me of how enamored we were with obama in politics). and it's difficult to imagine dia frampton having the room to express herself in her "inventive" performances of kanye's "heartless" and r.e.m.'s "losing my religion" on any other type of talent search show. the voice gave the perfect framing to treat those performances w/ the respect that they deserve. i also love vicci martinez and nakia for being on out and queer and on team cee lo. and i can't wait for xenia to release her own album, especially when she matures more emotionally. xenia just gives me this sense of norah jones and adele, so when blake shelton was talking about how she represents her generation, i was listening and agreeing. there's so much to say about the contestants, but i'll keep it short.

modern identity & industry building

to engage and invest in the voice carries, i think, more meaning than merely enjoying a reality show. it is also about crafting a kind of modern identity through consumption of the show. it's fresh and more importantly, it's legit. it is not a gimmick to get viewers. it is actually about reminding ourselves what the music industry should really be about. the camaraderie on the show is UNDENIABLE and that's really pleasant to see and believe, because we see how team and community building is central to the show's premise and operation. and really, the show is about really great artists coming together and helping each other out to become the best of who they are as artists.

for those of us who grew up with the transitions from cassette tapes to CDs to mp3s, we have a collective of the ways that the industry has evolved with the times (the digital piracy, the paparazzi culture of the 21st century, emergence of social media), the voice represents a kind of calmer and stable form of what we have all been signing up for -- really great music. it is hopeful and looks like something that can and should stick around to strengthen our cultural movements.

for a limited time, you can catch all the episodes for free at hulu.com. get into it!

why are you so obsessed with me?: jill scott

2011-06-21T04:30:00.002-04:00

want a taste of jill scott's latest album, the light of the sun? head over to npr. you're going to want to, because jill scott is dropping a SOLID album. one of the FULLEST artists of our time, jill scott reminds us the range of her artistry and creativity on this album. with this new album, she makes this fan, at least, even more convinced that she deserves the love and admiration she gets from me.

i definitely remembered seeing her debut album at kmart as a kid and was a little curious about the album. it had this classic late 90s r&b or urban aesthetic that was familiar, curious, attractive to me. still, i didn't really get to know her until many years later. initially, it was just feeling her singles, "a long walk" and "he loves me." i had heard about "golden," too. i think it was from watching the soul train or lady of soul awards. then, i found out that she had penned erykah badu's part in "you got me." that was probably when i realized, this woman is really something! the more that i listened, the more that i fell in love. i think it was summer 2007 that i just completely fell in love with her. (and with new york city. it was the summer of the mothaland sistas! xo)

it was watching some award show that i found out about "golden" because the first jill scott album that i got, beautifully human, was a consequence of that. and i couldn't believe what she was doing. for one, she refers to the jill-tro from her debut album, which means she's consciously thinking about her body of work, words & sounds. also, no one can deny just exactly how she is hitting the notes that she sings. you can think of them like karaoke ddr and jill scott is hitting every single note, to the emotional depth and perfect inflections and duration. and the love songs aren't typical love songs. they're straight up serious ruminations of life and love. this isn't about declaring an deeply attached sense of dependence on a lover. it's about the the aesthetics of love, if it were painted in musical notes, in words and sounds. so you have the standard genre of songs but also a mix of spoken word. "cross my mind" was another breathtaking track. the rawness and honest. the soul. just smeared across the track for everybody to feel. that easy. it's that effortless for jill.

and that same FULL expression of self can be found in track after track, from "the fact is (i need you)" to "not like crazy" to "spring summer feeling" to "my petition." and with "family reunion" she really gave us a scene of the reunion, complete with background noise and a slow and marinated replay of the event.

then i remember talking to a friend in college about her. she liked the debut album who is jill scott? even more than beautifully human, so i had to find out. and i think for some time, i actually did enjoy the debut album more. i mean, how could you not?!?! "do you remember" became the soundtrack of the first video i made on imovie, with loose footage from my semester abroad. and y'all can probably tell that i also have mad love for art that is about building positive identities, which is what "brotha" tries to do ("brotha don't let nobody hold you back, no, no, no!"). and then you have "watching me" which may still be one of her most explicit tracks about systemic oppression. "exclusively" was another reminder of her spoken word roots and skill that literally lingers after play, leaving the listener mid-thought about the conjunctions of past and present, maybe even the future. with "love rain," jill scott shows us that she is also a beautiful storyteller, giving us a romantic narrative of the intersections of love, community, history, and identity.

and then she came out with words and sounds, vol. 3: the real thing.

that album was so heavy!!! it was heart-pouring after heart-pouring. and i loved them! you can find many of my feelings about the album encapsulated in the details of this video:

so i am very excited to share some brief thoughts on her new album. light of the sun is decidedly rooted in jill scott's entire history as an artist. "until then (i imagine)" reminds me of the personal meditations of words and sounds vol. 3: the real thing. "when i wake up" reminds me of the personal mantras/affirmations from "i'm not afraid," but this time, the voice is softer, more sensitive in that wiser kind of way. "blessed" is like a beautiful sequel to "golden," this time positioning her in relation to others, not just as a (younger) individual trying to find her way. i'm also really feeling "some other time," the raw introspection of which brings us back to tracks like "cross my mind" or "exclusively." and then there's the collaboration with doug e. fresh, which she KILLED (and i don't usually use that word). oh and don't forget this album's equivalent universal empowerment anthem:

i should point out that "shame" was filmed at the rec center that jill scott grew up going to, plus it features hella artists who came out of philadelphia, including a personal favorite, eve. plus the subtext around the education system at the end, referring to the overrepresentation of black boys in special education? LOVE IT.

again, jill scott is also just an incredible politically aware, spoken word artist, as you can find from her appearance on def poetry jam. and on this album, she brings that back with "womanifesto" and "rolling hills." the command she has over her expression is rare and truly gifted. if you just sit down with the album and let the voice take over and marinate your spirit, it should be easy for you to experience yourself.

a friendly reminder from beyonce

2011-05-29T03:56:00.004-04:00

in case there was any doubt that beyonce is really one of the most incredible artists of our time, not just for her artistic/performance talent but also for her politics & body of work. i'm not lauding beyonce as a kind of activist artist, but she def. has made her mark on the world as a black woman of immense talent and has done a good amount of "community work."

the movement i feel part of

2011-05-20T01:41:00.005-04:00

now that i'm pretty immersed in my 20s, i'm definitely doing a lot of thinking about what my generation is about. we're all coming to step up in our roles in the world, and i really want to believe that we will do history right. and what i'm about to discuss keeps me excited and inspired about what to offer to the world. we might not know exactly what to offer, but we grew up with amazing role models.

take first lady michelle obama. i mean, no matter how you critique obama's politics and policies, you have to give props to what barack and michelle obama represent as president and first lady. they represent this amazing, incredible model of the kinds of relationships that i would -- as an american -- choose to commit to. at least from afar, and i don't think we're wrong on this, they really do represent the triumph of people of color and of this american ideal that we all kind of understand but still have skepticism about. they represent this really modern, progressive dynamic where we are, indeed, transitioning to a better world. for me, it's super clear that barack and michelle do not have this traditional man/woman hierarchy. i can tell that michelle, knowing the world that we live in, in her wisdom, knew that she would need to take a bit of a backseat to let her husband do his thing, reach his potential. and our president, barack, recognizes michelle's sacrifices. it shows in how he defers to her, like about easter on he knows that she is way more capable than the system allows someone -- a woman of color -- like that to thrive. and yet, michelle obama makes the best of her situation.

it's not a coincidence how her actions and decisions reflects a certain racial politics that i agree with. i completely believe that she is aware of her every move, that she is extremely thoughtful and tactful about her role and contributions to the world. supporting young designers of color is not a coincidence. making let's move! her campaign & working toward food justice not only in communities of color but also rural communities (food deserts) isn't a coincidence. this is her being an incredibly thoughtful and committed woman of color in her particular role, and she navigates all that with extreme caution and skill. she demonstrates for us that being a strongly identified person of color isn't at all mutually exclusive from being a strongly identified american, not in some blind patriotic way but as someone who is engaged in and part of the corpus of people of color -- especially black american -- experiences.

this is why i am completely in love with this beyonce's adapted video for the let's move! campaign. "move your body" is adapted from her much more mature track "get me bodied." so get this: they totally capitalized on the remix parts of the "get me bodied" and turned it into a workout video that can really get young people pumped about exercising. and there are videos of how it's being used by schools to motivate kids to exercise, such as this one w/ a surprise by beyonce and this one w/ our first lady doing the dougie and running man. i mean, all the critiques about beyonce's outfit aside, "move your body" (which includes the contributions of swizz beatz) is completely what i am excited about, now that we are aging into the most exciting time of our generation. it's totally recognize the complexities of students' and young people's experiences and really capitalizing on that.

and it's entirely arguable that all this amazing isn't part of my generation. beyonce? we were born in the same decade but i can understand that she wouldn't be grouped w/ me in it. however, how amazing is it that we have folks like beyonce and michelle obama before us, trying to sustain some kind of consciousness and culture thru art and the public? to me, that's a huge part of what social justice looks like.

so let's take a second here to review the transformation & the brunerian translation of "get me bodied":

i've posted about beyonce in the past, too. the critiques of her are legit but clearly beyonce also has some commitments to "the community" that she is following through with!

being mindful of how "get me bodied" came to be "move your body" keeps me accountable to the ways that we, as culture makers now that we are coming into our prime decades of societal contributions, can really collaborate and redefine that way we do things. we inherit a lot of really heavy stuff, but we can also do a lot of with that. and it's been agency-making, at least, for me to consider that, to welcome myself into that process. i can't say that i always get that feeling now that i am also working my way up in the institutions in my field, but i need to remember the models that came before me. that's really how we sustain legacies and inheritances that really matter, right? not through careful branding a la teach for america movement-calling. as someone who is politically interpellated or triangulated (?), what i have to offer is not foot soldier work but a redefinition of a culture, the shifting of one.

1 girls + 5 gays = brilliance.

2011-04-14T04:24:00.002-04:00

the thing with oppression is that it really messes up the identities of minorities. it's a huge burden and we can't just do our thing like it's nothing. especially with media representation, there are plenty of fine lines to navigate. in turn, our communities then become constructed in these ways aren't really about becoming our most beautiful selves. in that case, how do we justly represent oppressed/disempowered groups, especially in the mainstream?

this somewhat new show 1 girls, 5 gays has managed to do just that. it's an extremely simple idea: 1 girl and 5 gays (males) answer 20 questions about love and sex. the questions are all great, and the show rotates through a larger pools of gay men, who are all different and real in their own way (as part of the community). sometimes they disagree, and sometimes they agree. and from their responses, we see interactions represented in a way that we rarely hear or experience. in the narratives in the media, the representations of gay men are usually as individuals in a diverse world, not as members of a community, and certainly not responding to each other as such. their range of responses and reactions to each other also reveal our own personal anxieties, baggage, and humor. it's emotionally as raw as the premise of the show.

and like a community, i engage w/ the cast with a variation of feelings. and those feelings are complex, not just in these "i'd want to hook up w/ this guy," "what a hot mess," or "he's not very cute" kinds of way. and i love that.

the questions alone are brilliant. i would totally want to watch these with my friends and have all of us answer the questions, do a home viewers version of the show alongside it. some of the questions are just deeply personal, some don't really come up with most friends, and others are just hard to answer! for example, from the most recent episode:

do you have a "one that got away"?
were you ever afraid to go to school?
if you were to create your own fragrance, describe how it would smell.
i would like to see (blank's) penis. [not just a gay question, but a good gay question!]
name a popular love story you don't buy.
who would you do? [2 celebrities that we have equal feelings about]
what's the worst thing you've ever said to your mom? [you know we all have too many of those.]
name an historical event you wish you had attended.
lawyers who defend pedophiles are (blank).
when was the last time your advances were rejected by a guy?
out of all the cast members, who takes themselves the most seriously?
if they asked, would you lend $100 to the person on your left?
can suicide be justified? [stirs up all kinds of feelings]
when did you realize when you were gay?

notice the quality of the individual questions and the different direction flows of the questions as a collection (about each other, about others, about selves). i'm feeling that.

it also makes it juicier that some of them know each other well and it seems to be filmed in toronto. is toronto the canadian equivalent to san francisco? either way, it's not that prominent in my imagination so the setting in toronto (and pittsburg, in the case of queer as folk) expands my sense of the queer diaspora because (as fictional as queer as folk may be) this is a new narrative that is grounding my concept of the the diaspora and identity. the perception of real lives or narratives with relatable negotiations.

for me, this show reminds me of the beauty of the community, because the community is so malleable and offers room for a multiplicity and diversity of narratives. i would love to see more shows like this that feature my peoples being themselves.

(i hope entertainment execs are reading this last bit.)

he is donald, and he is my generation.

2011-04-14T03:17:00.002-04:00

do y'all watch the sitcom community? i don't really know how it's received in the mainstream, but i don't hear much about it outside of my social network so i'm assuming it may not so loved. it's totally one of the best comedies on television!!! you have joel mchale from the soup and veteran comedian chevy chase. but perhaps the freshest thing about the show is troy and abed, played donald glover and danny pudi. want an example of their freshness?

i mean, what was that??! it's an incredibly creative direction to make this scene. the characters are all taking spanish, so the scene begins with a typical study scene. but then, these two characters, whose fascinating brotherhood (a comedic duo, is that what they call it?) is weaved throughout the show, share yet another moment together. they are rapping in spanish, as in, engaging w/ the academic content in a way that is true or authentic to who they are as individuals and as a pair. it is consistent w/ the characterization of these two characters.

here are a couple more great clips:

and they even had a rap with betty white when she appeared on the show:

i actually want to go even narrower in scope. troy is a classic character, and it is because the actor, or rather, the multi-talented artist donald glover, made it so. i've been reading and thinking a lot about donald glover. i love his story, and i've concluded that he represents one of the biggest talents of my generation. recently, i was talking to a friend about how the world has even yet to feel the grasp of our generation. we were talking about the kinds of social and economic change that we are only beginning to effect as not just young people but the driving force of the world. we are becoming the most powerful makers of history because we will really be running the nation and, along with others of our generation, the world.

and i am incredibly proud to share the same generation as donald glover. he is a few years older than i am (we are in our 20s!) and he has so much accomplished. he went to nyu when i was in high school in new york and even the early part of college elsewhere and then he wrote for 30 rock when he graduated. he is responsible for some of the great lines delivered by tracy jordan (played by tracy morgan). and now he's on community. also, did you know he is a rapper by the name of childish gambino?

are you impressed yet? you might also want to check out his remix of adele's "rolling in the deep." and adele, of course, is also one of the early stars of our generation. in doing some research on him, i found his website (which has his tour dates!) and from there, this really great interview w/ jimmy fallon, who is arguably part of an older brother, sort of our generation kind of figure:

and then i got more curious about him. this article mentions both his upcoming college visit at wash u and his background at nyu. and then i thought, i can still remember how exciting it felt to have big time celebrities (estelle, chelsea clinton, wanda sykes, the roots) come to your college, even if that was kind of rare. and i can remember sketch groups being a part of the culture at my school. and on another note, i thought of what his experiences at nyu might have been like. i mean, we shared the same city for a few years, and i've totally walked by the upright citizens brigade theater wondering what or who the long lines were for. so we were having these kind of parallel lives and then that starts to evolve into this artist-fan relationship too.

reading more about him, i just became so convinced that he is someone that i want to say represents our generation. what are our ideologies? here's a sampling in this interview. i love that he critiques the gangsta culture of hip hop (not necessarily the artists themselves but as an industry that is following the capital) and that he drops hella insights on the ways that we consume music, understand creativity, use language for expression, and embody narratives (the narrativity framework i share!). and perhaps the best part is, he's so good at what he does! this interview at spin is a pretty good read, too. we can get a bit more of his personality. and you know, i may not love everything about him, but i i do love a lot!!! and there's so much respect that i have for him. and with folks like adele and donald glover, i have a lot of respect for our generation too.

new directions

2011-04-01T03:35:00.002-04:00

dear readers,

i've recently started a twitter account to integrate into this labor of love for pop culture. this way, i don't feel the need to have to blog so regularly to feel like i'm getting my ideas out there. i can give y'all heads-up for really great popular tv shows to watch. i would love to share with y'all my moments of excitement, disappointment, attachment, pleasure, and whatnot, in more manageable chunks and diverse forms. i'm also just a huge fan of twitter and the placemaking possibilities that twitter offers. by placemaking, i mean y'all can come into my twitter house and we can have a party exchanging ideas about what i'm watching or listening to. y'all don't comment on my blog posts, but maybe the twitter will be a more convenient venue for us to touch base, check in, respond to each other.

there's a sidebar that features my most recent tweets. follow me! i look forward to it!

http://twitter.com/loverpopculture

xo.

what do i do?

2011-03-26T03:03:00.000-04:00

i really don't know if i should be taking this seriously... i can talk about youtube celebrities, school narratives, music consumption in the 21st century and whatnot but first, i need to figure out how i'm feeling about this. lolz

pop cultural fairy tales (of modernity, individualism, love, sexiness, cowriting, agency-making)

2011-03-06T03:06:00.002-05:00

soon after i posted about britney spears, she came out w/ her second single from femme fatale, dropping this month. i've been listening to it & trying to understand why i gravitate toward it, not necessarily why i like it but why i am spiritually or emotionally drawn to it. and i got to thinking about fairy tales. as people coming up in this world, the first textual narratives we hear and learn are fairy tales. i'm talking about cinderella, snow white, beauty and the beast, red riding hood, etc. and quick side note: how awesome is it that these stories have been passed down for CENTURIES? we get this look into the past and, umm, so this is what these previous generations of people gave us? tales of poor people dreaming of riches and love, a world of evil mothers, idealized lovers, and unlikely friends, a beauty meeting a prince under a beastly spell (do i really need to embellish this)? these are the narratives that have been w/ us for the longest. but they aren't really our context now. however we try to relate ours to theirs, we still have to acknowledge the material and ideological differences in context.

so if not cinderella, how do we return to narratives to make sense of our world, to agentively construct the continuity of the my own narrative? which ones do we use? how am i gonna go to the club and know what to do and how to feel? how will i know that i have had a fun time? how will i know that i have embodied my sexualities at the club, if it's understood that those spaces are so sexualized? our pop artists are the ones we turn to for those fairytale narratives/moments.

i'm not interested -- at this point -- to critique or deconstruct those narratives and maybe do some judging of what is appreciated and what is not. i just want to share some of my favorite narratives that feature sexuality & dancing at a club/social space, a theme from britney's new single. they are my favorites for a bunch of reasons.

mary j. blige -- family affairs.

jennifer lopez -- get right

britney spears -- i'm a slave for you

nelly furtado ft. timbaland -- promiscuous

rihanna -- don't stop the music

amerie ft. eve -- 1 thing (had to find the eve version!)

robyn -- dancing on my own

beyonce -- get me bodied

i was going to include madonna's "music" but i couldn't access a video on youtube or vevo that allowed embedding. too bad warner bros. didn't want me to promote their own artist's work. in any case, enjoy!

music lovin' in the 21st century

2011-02-26T03:39:00.002-05:00

for me, part of the motivation to maintain this blog is to celebrate and mark my position within historical continuity. everything about my experiences, analysis, connections are specific to my time period and location. and even the form -- a blog -- is specifically marking the time.

the year is 2011 and i also love the way that we consume digital music. we have officially moved beyond the initial confusion and sorting out around sharing music online. i think -- or at least, i hope -- that the music industry has had enough time behind us to read the illegal sharing as a symptom of a change in lifestyle along with the internet rather than merely as an attack on the industry alone. and new trends in music sharing have emerged.

it's exciting for me to be in the prime of my youth, with the understandings that i have gained over the years, being a part of pop culture in this way, in all of my positionalities. stories & perspectives you probably won't read about and perhaps even unimaginable, known only to those of us who are living those marginalized narratives. and yet, i am there. i am very connected to this mainstream culture that will mark the narratives about our times. and i have evolved with the turns and twists of these narratives.

for example, fans aren't limited to either buying music or secretly hunting for it anymore. we are on twitter, following and responding to artists. we are holding them accountable to building relationships with their fan bases. they gotta show the love, too.

and now we have artists committing to showing us how they do their art. i'm talking about swizz beatz's monster mondays & timbaland's timbaland thursdays, and i'm also talking the other artists who have done these projects in the past.

some particular reasons for this deep appreciation:

we get to know who has been working with whom. it doesn't take a full released album to know what kind of work different artists and producers are making. we can now get add more flavor to news of collaborations because we can get a taste of it, even if we don't get a finished product. and that's really heartening, to know that eve and missy elliott are still making music.

we get to know the artists themselves, what they care about. swizz beatz releasing the mash-up mixtape with fela kuti's work is exactly an example of that. it's not just a simple coincidence, especially since fela! is a successful (and deservedly so) broadway musical funded by his industry friends. and i see the connections as an expression of racial love, which is really nice. another example of insight into the artist is timbaland posting a video explaining his interest in working with joe jonas. it's so rare to hear an artist describe their perception of another artist's work. timbaland reveals a lot about his process in the video that i don't take lightly or for granted.

monster mondays and timbaland thursdays are just two of the current trends that are emerging. with the emergence of youtube celebrities, including my own favorite b. scott, artists are making video logging and multimedia check-ins an integral part of their work. and twitter. i don't need to say much about that! it's now a serious way to establish yourself as an artist. with verified status. timbaland's videos on his site show the intertwining of both youtube and twitter, with some ideas of timbaland's own on where the music world is going.

so sit back, download yourself some free and legal music from the industry's best, and live with the times! :D

in praise of nicki minaj

2011-02-18T03:30:00.003-05:00

my relationship to nicki minaj has really evolved out of the past year or so. i'm not that familiar with underground, indie hip hop artists, so it wasn't until "your love" came out that i really became fascinated with her. there's certainly criticism about supposedly orientalist themes in her videos. while i really appreciate and respect the blogger, i also diverge hugely from her. it's not enough to see it and then call it orientalism. i think there are many crucial factors that complicate that claim, even accusation. what about her identities, as part of the south asian diaspora and as a woman of color? i don't think those identities necessarily serve as get-out-of-jail-free cards, but they do problematize the conventional dynamic of orientalism in its core and substantial definition, no? i mean, to what ends does this representation serve? i don't agree with a simplistic critique, because i think her intentions and impact are all done out of a certain reference or homage and sufficient adaptation that she is not exotifying or even marking/orientalizing asian bodies.

in addition, i do appreciate the way she shows multiplicity and dimensionality to her via the alter egos. part of that is playing with sexuality that i find refreshing and pushing us to a new, queer boundary. there are so many suggestions about her own sexuality (see this and that). there are also other examples of her aligning herself with queer causes in her field (see this and that). it's really nice to see her embrace multiplicities of sexualities without a framework of distant otherness or the destructive import or external force in our communities. it makes me very hopeful about a naturalizing world that supports us in thinking boldly about the intersections of our identities.

and her album is, as she said on one track, crack. pink friday -- as aesthetically of limited refinement as it is -- remains a solid album. this is an album for herself. she is not out to make a generic album. she has a clear set of messages to say:

"fly" featuring rihanna is probably my pep track for, um, life.
"save me" is about feeling okay to be vulnerable, for those of us who have been going hard for a while.
"dear old nicki" is a letter to self that reveals an honest introspection that we should really all be doing more often.
"i'm the best" is perhaps the most autobiographical track, reminding us of her personal history and reminding herself of how much she's accomplished and has yet to accomplish for other women.

honestly, i just don't find it that difficult to understand how genuine her work is. i find it really inspirational, and i really love that about her. and perhaps in her most humbling act, she released "moment 4 life" as though to mark her success and to recognize how rare the opportunity is. the video dramatizes the moments leading up to midnight, but we don't actually find out what happens after midnight. it draws on shared references to cinderella while suggesting something deeper about fame and celebrity. i'm looking forward to knowing what "the other bone" she'd like to pick in her second album, as she suggested in "i'm the best."

also, it helps that she graduated from laguardia high school, which is like a sister school of my high school. lastly, who can deny her talent after her piece in kanye west's "monster"? if you need a reminder:

symbolism of britney

2011-02-18T02:15:00.002-05:00

i have a very special relationship to britney spears. by that, i mean her artistic career, her history, her entertainment persona. the construction of britney spears. i wouldn't say that it's gone unproblematized, but it's definitely gotten more leniency than other relationships i have with other similar artists, like, let's say, christina aguilera. i'm not trying to speak for my generation, but i am curious to understand what the construction of britney spears means for our generation, in all of its dimensions and variations? and by our generation, i mean, our generation. i don't want to put some rigid range of ages or an imposed definition of it. i mean, if you are part of the generation that i'm referring to, you know exactly that i am talking to you. you know yourself best, so you can decide if this is speaking to you or not.

to me, britney's physical alignment w/ a particular construction of beauty has been a defining part of her allure. especially in her older (or younger, in age) iteration of the construction, she matches what many of us accepted as appropriate, or at the least tolerable, construction of adolescence and older childhood. pretty pure. like you can already imagine this childhood that we've been told over and over again in this national cultural consciousness. and her "beauty" makes us buying into this transition from valuing "american dolls" (white girls) to valuing someone like britney. maybe some folks will dispute that many parents were against even the earliest constructions of britney, but i think there's a pretty undeniably open-minded reception of her that was tied to our ideologies around race, gender, and accessibility/innocence/safety.

and what's so wild about that is how quickly it evolved and how our generation grew alongside her. i still remember when oops... i did it again came out and i read in one sunday daily news where they had a centerfold of the album cover that people were surprised by how she "sexed up" for this album, that people wondered if she had plastic surgery because her body appeared more mature. the album dropped in 2000 so that made me a 7th grader. and then we witnessed this -- now in retrospect, rude and invasive -- interruption of an almost slightly older peer. i mean, she's only 5 years older than i am. and as we grew up ourselves, we saw that it wasn't so easy for her too.

that dormant understanding really came out when she made her comeback with blackout and circus. i was supporting her the whole way. i definitely held back and gave her a forgiving welcome back into at least my own consciousness. and i say that because there was a certain generosity about that. i don't think many will dispute that britney now is certainly not britney then, at least in "talent" as defined by ability to dance and other kinds of excitement. britney now is familiar, but almost to her disadvantage. still, i just overlooked that she just didn't excite me anyway. she kept things fresh and alluring, but i was certainly aware of how much i was consciously buying into this iteration of her construction. she's no lady gaga. she's no beyonce. but she's also britney spears. even her talent is questionable, her place in my consciousness is fairly secure.

it's been nice to be there for her comeback. even as a distant listener/follower (a la twitter). we've seen some pretty well-done videos, like "womanizer," "3," and a bunch of other successful singles. it was extra nice to bond over that, via our national cultural consciousness a la glee! the glee episode, i'm thinking, is probably the most telling of all, because people of "our generation" are taking over the reins for driving us culturally. we are the most active producers and influential consumers of pop culture.

so while i would hav appreciate a literal interpretation of "hold it against me," i am really glad that she partnered with jonas akerlund to make the video that it is. i would agree that it's not a very impressive video, but there's a level of thoughtfulness and suggestion about this video, as coupled w/ the song, that is uncommon (though not new). the more subtle suggestions about fame and celebrity -- the most obvious difference between britney and her fans -- is a big departure from "piece of me," and i think that reveals a kind of personal growth that many of us are reaching, too. the question or experience becomes more of a negotiation more than a problem. and reading this about the britney v. britney scene confirms my understanding of the video. against the backdrop of videos of her older music videos, the wreath of microphones, and the theme of markings, and the lyrics of the song, which can easily be extrapolated to being about escape and space-making, britney shows us a more personal way of creating art, of constructing herself. i really like that.

but there's also something bothersome about all that. britney isn't just another artist from my generation, like beyonce is. the construction (and thus, reception of) britney comes from a desirable framework that values -- at the core -- whiteness and a marketed, politicized representation of americana (as a nationalist narrative, not as a musical genre). buying into her -- not that i am going to hold back now -- goes against so many of my feelings as a person of color with a particular consciousness about marginalized narratives and expressions. but someone, i can return to a relationship with britney that i don't have with people who look like britney. isn't that interesting? do you have a response to that?

love that "sunshine"

2011-02-11T20:05:00.004-05:00

just because i love seeing women of color making beautiful music together:

how is this music video anything short of historic and, again, BEAUTIFUL? there are so many things to love about this video:

rye rye. she is only 19 but means some serious business. she can rap, dance, and offer a bold style with her music.
collaborating with m.i.a. another incredibly talented woman of color.
actual song. how many songs can tell us to chill out to music as genuinely as this?
"save the palestine" water tower
summer day @ neighborhood park being the setting
the sunshine theme/color scheme. very appropriate for the last few days here in norcal.
mix of video qualities, like musical genres
and everywhere else! haha

"sunshine" is one of the tracks off rye rye's debut album, dropping this month. she just released a mixtape in time to build some hype for the debut!

noah's arc is amazing

2011-01-16T04:24:00.003-05:00

there are shows that we (as individuals, not the entertainment industry) don't come to appreciate until they are gone. the west wing seems like one of them. boston public probably another. perhaps even alias. i was reminded of this while watching noah's arc: jumping the broom (via logoonline.com). i had heard about the series when it was being broadcasted but never got into it for whatever reason. but watching this movie they had made, i came to crave for it more and more. why hadn't i gotten into it until now?

maybe it was the initial reaction to the aesthetics of the show. it did seem a bit overdone, and the characters seemed like a bit much at times. still, the characters are pretty damn identifiable and i love that they included brandon as this newcomer in the circle. as a new viewer, i very much entered the community through him, learning about their histories which i presume fans of the series already knew. but more than that, we come to see that brandon gets inducted into the family, as he came out to his family. brandon's arc is largely about finding community in noah's circle, and we see that noah does extend his own constructed family to include brandon, a younger queer black man. this element of mentorship or support really gets at the intergenerational dimension of the movie and series. on a more personal note, i especially love that this family of queer men of color includes an academic who, if i understood, made a critique about the political and economic consumption of gay black men somewhere in the movie.

from what i can piece together, this movie (and series) seems to tackle queer themes explicitly. we know at least one of the characters is hiv+, another character initially identified as straight, and there are multiple marriages that are requiring serious work. this movie has a range of expressions of sexuality that i love. and the idea of marriage and/followed by children is, at the very least, represented without the usual illusory decor. this movie does not suggest the inevitable fallacy of (queer) relationships, but the film does suggest that it requires serious commitment to work through marriage. and it gets better.

much like what i'm about to write on for colored girls, i felt that the movie tapped into its role as a meaningful popular cultural text and infused some sexual health/education in there. there were very clear scenes promoting the use of condoms (in the kitchen in the beginning & in the hot tub later). it's not didactic, it's more like a friendly public service announcement. and it dealt with coming out, too. queer folks of color have often said coming out is just not what we do, and i'm glad that this film extends that conversation. here, coming out isn't one of those universally beneficial or sensible decisions. coming out, then, needs to be a choice that the person makes, which i think is still pretty refreshing and nice (as opposed to traveling social norms).

maybe i'm most intrigued by how the movie (and series) handles gender variance. i had to pause and process the scene where brandon and wade talk about the masculine/femme dynamic in our communities. the response was so unheard of for me, and it just felt so affirming to hear that. throughout the movie, we see how comfortable masculine characters are in their relationships to more gender variant partners. it's so pleasantly jarring to witness that.

it's an extra special scene to see this relationship between two black men. situated within a community of queer black folks. the movie is not shy about accentuating this narrative as one about queer people of color, particularly queer black people. we learn about the title of the movie -- jumping the broom, which is a black tradition going back to slavery (with some ties to perhaps west africa) to mark weddings. it adds a historical side comment on the strength of black love, including queer black love. in another scene, we see voguing, which is clearly a homage to the ball scene. closer to the end, we also see noah doing his partner's hair, which is shot looking like a painting revealing the rawness and politics of black love.

as always, i've been thinking about the intersections of race and sexuality, but watching this movie raised completely new feelings for me. i've felt naive for drawing limits to the kinds of partners that i can see myself having, but this movie support my prediction that love between two queer people of color can be so damn powerful and beautiful. noah and wade's story -- at least at this point of their narrative together -- is deep and desirable. how can we, too, love with our identities, not despite of them?

i could not believe that i was a movie that engaged me in that way, asking these questions that i have had only in private conversations with very similarly minded friends. and yet, this publicized work of art is producing those ideas in very different social spaces now, just by virtue of being so well promoted across lgbtq communities. and yet, i've only come to watch the film now, almost 3 years later. and it's been amazing. i have felt affirmed in so many ways that have felt liberating, and yet, that positive feeling is felt too rarely, as though it were unfamiliar to me. that may reveal more about the strength of oppression, but we are working it out! :D

there was another scene where it would have been so nice to see these two of the characters hook up. but i was torn. i didn't want any melodramatic twist to the movie like that. in this case, it was more of a suggestion than a wrong path. and i realized that my feelings revealed a lot about how much personal stake i came to have in watching the movie, in soaking in its success (and its success stories of queer love). seeing relationships collapse would be too much! i'm glad that the writers made the concluding decisions the way that they did.

now i want to go back and watch the whole series!

not quite opposite day: watching qpoc narratives

2010-12-27T18:01:00.002-05:00

are people really calling this blizzard, the blizzmas of 2010? i had made some exciting plans for today, but they had to be postponed because my family and i got caught in the blizzard! still, there is something nice about having your plans changed for you and then making other plans that would be similarly nurturing. i'm talking about those full-length movies at logo. i have written about them before, but not in this way.

ever since watching u people the documentary off the site, i have been steadily curious to follow the available selection, which has come to include ethnic or queer film festival favorites from recent years. i love those niche film festivals, but i can't always afford the tickets or be available. i had wanted to see both "the people i've slept with" and "east side story" for some time, so that's what i decided to do.

there's something about watching them off the logo site that made the experience so much deeper. it was that i was finding these movies so publicly available, not through some obscure, possibly illegal site. it was that i kept getting these PSAs about healthywithhiv.com, which is geared toward logo's audience. it was that the network's most notorious show is rupaul's drag race, the 3rd season of which is premiering next week! it was also that i was finding these particular films -- about queer people of color -- on a nationally recognized lgbtq network, which seems to have a serious commitment to diverse representations of lgbtq-ness.

as i have mentioned previously, i'm less interested in having a "good" representation of my peoples than i am in having diverse, nuanced, and constantly negotiating representations of them. both the people i've slept with and east side story gave me that.

the people i've slept with was so fascinating to watch. i was totally digging the asian coupling, and i just loved the nonchalant, carefully negotiated way that race and sexuality came up, like the descriptions of the statistics of the men that the protagonist had been with, including race and penis length/girth. i don't love the nods to, what i'd say are, common themes in our communities: filial piety, professional success, obedience, family making. i think those themes are still inadequately and poorly represented and explained, but this movie tries to weave them in without remaining cliche about them. for example, one of the asian male character is nice but boring (already a trope), but we come to realize that he's also got a big package (countering another trope). another asian male character is supremely attractive and cool, but his ass hadn't yet really charted his own course in life decisions. the uneasiness of going too far with our simple associations (for example, of the cool grown up with a great career and sex life) forces us to rethink those associations.

i kept thinking throughout the movie: what about the protagonist's queerness? she hooks up with women, but this movie is centered on the reproductive happenings between a man and a woman. and the film seemed too ready to link up marriage with parenthood. but then the ending confirms for me that this narrative is deeper, that the prevalence of asian male characters in this film is purposeful indeed.

this feeling of being genuinely and pleasantly surprised was even clearer while watching east side story. from the film quality to the content, this film unquestionably takes place in a working class latino context (in setting of story & in community of practice?). and the protagonist is unquestionably marked as a queer person of color, integrating race politics in sexual fantasies. like the prior movie, it draws on familiar tropes without merely reflecting back for an almost acknowledging stare from a (white & perhaps gay) audience. instead, it's almost like opposite day in that all these intersections of race, gender, class and sexual identity are represented in the foreground, whereas i typically need to do more digging or reading because those elements of the narratives about people of color, queer folks, etc., are commonly placed in the background.

to represent the politicization of the queer latino protagonist from his point of view is indeed an overdue and exciting happening. this politicization is clearly defined in east side story against both a certain representation of latinidad and another specific, exclusionary (or racist) representation of gayness. we see the protagonist struggle with coming to terms w/ the intersections of his racial and sexual identities and with building a network of openly gay friends and responding to their microaggressions. and language is certainly a loaded element to the film. what is carried in the evocation of spanish, for different characters? we can also problematize those evocations, but i'm not really interested in dictating who can use spanish and in what context, mainly because i don't come from a spanish-speaking home and there's no clear foul for as much as i remember.

again going back to the context of viewing, i am just so glad to be watching this movie that critiques a mainstream gay culture on a mainstream gay cultural site. it makes me HOOKED on the possibilities with the other films -- brother to brother, the new 20, noah's arc, latter days, strange fruit. i'll keep you posted on them.

the city

2010-12-24T05:14:00.007-05:00

i write a lot about race and whatnot because that's a huge chunk of my lens. these days, i'm also thinking a lot about my identity as a new yorker. let's not call this my geographic or regional identity. i don't find many of those ideas to be that helpful in understanding what i'm talking about. this is not about how i faithfully believe that new york city is the best city in the world, which i do. this is about the relationship we have to the place where we were raised, to this particular place where i was raised.

it's funny because everybody seems to have their own "accurate idea" of what new york is like. it doesn't seem to matter how many hours you spent there or how far you had traveled across the city or what purposes you had for going to specific places in the city. and then there are those of us who grew up there, whose relationship to the city is not just where you went, but where you were. the difference for me is that there exists no framework of a place that you just had this great, timely relationship with. the very construction of self is tied to this city. and in the case of new york, that is a very particular construction of self that is heavily contested, since everybody seems to have this clarity about the city, w/o any serious recognition of the multiplicities of those experiences.

"empire state of mind" -- as a narrative -- doesn't fully resonate with me, but parts of it certainly do. and it was a specific representation created by new yorkers, homegrown & all. it's a very different quality than, oh, say, glee:

i'm not that interested in delineating the differences, because i think they're pretty clear. this is not about who is black, ghetto, hood, what have you. this is a difference about who is, in an imperfect framework, authentic. there's a certain filtering process that boils down to different things. it's not the t-shirts or fake gold chains you got on canal street. it's not the hood look. it's not the surface level diversity you find in the city. it's not even the measurable resources that are concentrated in the city.

it's the more intangible experience of being in the city, or specifically being from the city. (and i define the city in this blog post as encompassing the outer boroughs.) it's that relationship you have with it, from the different feelings you got walking down the street (a la what's my name?) and the evocation or pattern-making of experiences with similar ones from earlier generations. it's this feeling of, you are not just now, but a moment with a broader arc of narratives about this city. you are part of the huge ball of thread. it's the ways that you and the city grow with each other, struggling to figure out which pieces of yourself are worth preserving or fighting for. it's also the magic that happens when you and the city vibe together, creating something wonderful together.

i have been totally fascinated by macklemore ever since one of my closest friends from seattle showed me this:

this video is ALL about love. love of city, love of community, love of hip hop. macklemore has some extra beautiful lines here that really illustrate that kind of relationship:

i carry the torch & what i do w/ that flame is lit everytime that i step on the stage.
the skyline is etched in my veins -- you can never put that out, no matter how hard it rains.
i was just a kid hoping i could earn my spot, try to get some props, meet a promoter who'll give me a shot, to let me get up on stage & get the crowd to rock.
read a page out my notebook, what i thought would be respected, they would connect with it.

there is something really earnest here about honoring your roots. it's about really respecting this community or space carved out in this city (of seattle) and contributing your bit to it. i really dig that vision and relationship to the city. it is so deeper than a simple analysis of privileges and deficits. the reality is that our relationship to place, our sense of belonging are indeed deeper than some "universal" understanding of advantages and disadvantages of living in one place over another. and that relationship doesn't come automatically with time, right? that relationship is agentively evolved out of this engagement with the city. the negotiations are much more complex.

and i try to take that with me. i moved to the bay area this year, and coming home this time has been exactly what i needed to go back and continue what i'm doing out there, getting to know another beautiful city (by that, i mean san francisco, not palo alto!). i'm reminded of the exact ways that i have been challenged and shaped by this city and where i see myself evolving toward. what does reading a page out of my so-called notebook sound, look, and feel like?

all this to say, i'm so grateful for my relationship with the city, and i'm so excited to show what this city has meant to me in my work, in my contributions to the world.

for colored girls, part 1

2010-12-24T04:24:00.002-05:00

in music, a canon describes a piece in which the melody is repeated in a successive and overlapping way. ntozake shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf is like that for me. it's a piece of literature that has repeatedly weaved in and out of my life. before i start talking about tyler perry's recently released motion picture adaptation, i thought i'd detail the ways that i've come to relate to this work, to mark my own positionality.

in 7th grade, a friend of mine reported me to the guidance counselor for having serious thoughts about committing suicide. since reading about the recent string of youth suicides related to perceived or actual sexual identity, i've been thinking a lot about how ridiculous and unfortunate that there must be this seriously thick thread of these experiences in LGBTQ communities, across other axes of identities, including age or generation. returning to my own story, i realized that a pivotal point in turning my life around -- in addition to mental health services -- was having my 7th grade history/social studies teacher talk to me about what i was feeling. she acknowledged that what i felt was real, and she recommended me that i read for colored girls.

it's important to note that she's a black woman. i did not know this until i googled her, but i found out recently that she had performed in a theatrical production of for colored girls herself. all i knew back then was that she had wanted to pursue theater, and took on teaching as a supporting gig. she ended up loving it and had been teaching for over 2 decades when i had her. in any case, she had a tremendous impact on me for plenty of reasons, and for colored girls became this physical manifestation of the bond that we had -- as educator of color to student of color. how did she know that the choreopoem would have an impact on my own life? what was she able to pick up that i had not realized at the time? how does the way we interact offer some enduring understanding or insight that has stayed with me, flowing into the way i'm crafting my own teacher identity? how do i reach students of color and offer some kind of transformative experience for them, much like what i got from the educators of color i've learned from? her recommendation how i came to inherit the choreopoem's power.

i remember reading it in the middle of high school. specifically, i remember taking the d train home from school, coming to the atlantic pacific stop, and pausing to think, wow, what did i just read? is this about abortion? so many of the pieces went over my head, but there were some really wonderful starters, like somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff & toussaint. and in my senior year of high school, i had an "eccentric" (misunderstood?) english teacher who had us remember and recite a poem. he was so intimidating! and i chose without assistance (i wasn't a loretta devine, let me honest about that!).

it's also important to note that he is a black educator, too. i don't think i was thinking about that, but i just knew that for colored girls spoke to me in a way that i couldn't forget. and if i were to perform something, i would be willing to perform those pieces. and after i recited it, i noticed that the teacher responded to me differently, in a much friendlier way. (now that i'm an educator myself, what must he had been thinking when he saw me recite that poem?!) and at prom, i danced with another boy. afterward, he came up to me and said, "do what i couldn't do when i was your age." i remember thinking, "wow, did he just come out to me?" and like my 7th grade social studies teacher, i couldn't forget what we had and shared via this text that somehow brought me closer to educators who were actively engaged in thinking about the personal (emotional, social, physical, racial) well-being of their students.

there is no real question in my head that the way i envision good teaching has to do with the impact that these two educators -- along with this text -- had on me. and now that i am older, i can re-read many of these pieces & pick up the folded corners of meaning that i missed the other times i had read them, and i continue to relate deeply to what the text represents. and that is good teaching to me, when i have offered my students some transformative experience or takeaway that has supported their survival and livelihood and continued to give some beneficial impact on their lives, like furthering their education or becoming active agents of their own lives.

so it was so exciting to hear that for colored girls was being made into a new movie. when it came out, i watched it twice, with different friends -- once in mountain view, and the other time in oakland. very different experiences. but both times, i was thinking: what does it mean that another movie has been made of the play? what does it mean for our current pop culture?

they're coming!

2010-11-29T00:41:00.004-05:00

sometimes, the most personal pieces of writing are the most difficult to write. but they're coming. i want to do it, but i also know that i need to do it fully on my own terms.

that's what good writers do. we negotiate. and know when we cannot.

lil mama vs. willow smith: negotiations of school

2010-11-23T09:42:00.004-05:00

there's the common comparison between willow smith and rihanna, but i have a different connection to make. remember lil mama's "lip gloss"?

LIL MAMA - LIP GLOSS
Uploaded by JNUELZ. - See the latest featured music videos.

it was so cool when it came out! it was so age appropriate and youthful. but then there was a part of me where i was a bit disappointed that the negotiation around being yourself and loving yourself is centered around an external product, like a placebo lip gloss. even with the incredible clap beat rap in the middle of the video, am i really feeling this video? this theme of adding bling or this consumerist mobility or fashioning is a bit excessive for me.

flash forward a few years and we get willow smith doing her business:

this is so much deeper. first of all, there are no lip gloss or accessory gimmicks. it's just you and your hair. whip it real good. and there's a more complex narrative here. the bare and whiteness of the cafeteria comes alive with the power of willow's hair whips. the message in this song isn't just about an individual survival, but a collective call for fighting off haters and whipping our hair real good. thus, we see this expansion of scope to infants to janitorial staff to grandmothers to folks with different lengths of hair. and we also see the appearance of leiomy maldonado, who also appeared in vogue evolution on america's best dance crew. and is a famous figure in the ball scene. even though willow herself is highly stylized, the central theme of hair is not lost.

choosing to center the song on hair is political. there's an extensive history of black women and communities creating art around the politics of hair, including popular examples such as india.arie's "i am not my hair" and chris rock's documentary "good hair." in some subtle way, this song is about resistance not just to school (as the video suggests) but also racial and gender systems affecting both women and men. that's pretty cool.

this piece got me thinking a lot about what songs are resonant for youth people. elementary school. middle school. high school. i feel good that this song is out there, amidst all this abundance of club hits that play during the morning rush hour. i hope it's as meaningful for kids as i find it.

rihanna: that's her name

2010-11-23T08:26:00.008-05:00

(don't you love my titles?)

when you click on your itunes top 25 most played playlist, what numbers do you get? for me, it's funny how some songs will get 60+ plays and others will get like, 2. and my jam at the moment, rihanna & drake's "what's my name," just became my new most played. i was already really into the song when the music video came out. and it was filmed in the lower east side, so you can perhaps imagine how personal it became. i started to get these multi-layered interpretations of the song. falling in love? feeling young & restless? in the city. prospects of intimacy. seductiveness. freshness. in the city.

THAT'S HER NAME

what is suggested by the title? the most literal interpretation is that rihanna is sending drake a text message asking if he knows her name. and even that level can be pretty richly fleshed out, like how names are supposed to embody who we are, so this question of to know her name can be pretty deep. or this expression of expression and agency on behalf of rihanna for challenging drake to recall her own name (vs. to name women). i was digging this lens, and then i watched the video and noticed the undeniable theme of place, or specifically new york city lower east side.

at that point, i started to read the song as a kind of love letter to new york city, like this clarification that my name -- who i am -- is indeed my city. the way that rihanna/i dig drake/you has just as much to do with our being -- or at least mine -- in the lower east side/new york city. and the freshness of the video just made the song feel like it was about falling in love specifically in a city as so concentrated in love as new york city. and when i say that, i don't mean love like romance. i mean like love of others, love of discipline or field, love of family, love of liberation, love of individuality, love of success. like the things coming out of and within new york comes from some kind of intense love. and they make it a city of love, like a labor of love. or even in a purely romantic sense, that this video is about your own emotions and experiences being like graffiti on a wall, with the wall being this body of stories and lives that's taken place in new york city from the beginning of time. either way, the video sparked for me an iconic and deeply resonant quality of the narrative and creative choices.

and then i finally found the line -- hey boy i really wanna see if you can go downtown with a girl like me -- and the lower east side location became a slightly different symbol. with downtown, comes uptown, so the line also took on a cultural/socioeconomic dimension. at the very least, there's a question here about fitting into a place that is coded as different. of course, there's also the anatomical sense of "downtown" more than the geographical sense that may be suggested by the line. in any case, it's this continual unfolding of meaning and experience. can you imagine how beautiful it is to listen with all those interpretations at once?

CONSISTENT. QUALITY. CREATIVE.

"what's my name" is just the latest out of a long string of great singles from rihanna. she has really proved to be this serious artist with a very particular goal of offering really great jams that speak to the span of realities of our generation. not a timeless love story. just stories of like and love. a conversational subtext. a moment of dancelove (as i am calling it). and with every album and every single, she further hones her artistry. to be precise. versatile. thoughtful. even creative (though acknowledging that it's not always original).

"what's my name" gives me the same or at least a similar refreshing quality as "rude boy"

these two videos are probably my favorites. here's my stab at breaking down the aesthetics of this video: with these finer videos, there are only 2-3 coherent themes, backdrops, motifs -- possibly more scenes per motif -- that are chosen and weaved into the video. these are fresh without being overwhelming. but let's rewind back past "only girl (in the world)", "te amo", "hard", "russian roulette", "hard", "rockstar 101", "wait your turn", "take a bow", "disturbia", "don't stop the music". i'm talking about "umbrella," which had at least 5 discrete motifs:

EVOLUTION OF THE ARTIST

as much as i love "umbrella," i have to agree that rihanna's work now is certainly more mature than her work then. so much more suggestive or nuanced. creative uses of language over simplistic analogies (shut up and drive) or antonyms (i hate to love you). if you really want to go there, you can even compare and contrast with her look in "pon de replay."

i've already written about why i loved "love the way you lie." for the same reason that we have enough to make sense of rihanna's creative and personal process, including recovering from her relationship with chris brown, i think that certainly constructs a sense of bondedness between the listener and the artist. that inevitably entails acknowledging the changes we make. even side by side, listener and artist.

so when we see rihanna doing some great work, some of us -- i'm thinking -- also revel in that celebration, success, persistence, thriving. and i think for a relationship to evolve like that, i think props should be paid to the artist for doing some serious artist-to-people relationship building.

(and yet, there's this question of do we really know rihanna that presonally? what is really her legal name? it's not rihanna..)

empowering identities & narratives: her name is keri..

2010-11-17T03:50:00.005-05:00

& she's so very fly. oh my, it's so scary.

let's do a little artist study right now. you know keri hilson? back from "the way i are" w/ timbaland and her debut album, including "turnin me on" & "knock you down." did y'all know that she used to write tracks for britney spears, ciara, usher, and ludacris?! she wrote with this group called the clutch, which is responsible for hits like omarion's "ice box," ciara's "like a boy" (before beyonce!), britney's "radar," and most recently, justin bieber's "one less lonely girl."

now, i want you to pay attention to her new video, "pretty girl rock."

how deep is this video?!?! ok, i suppose you can pick it apart but let's think a little longer about this. don't you feel like this song is especially about black women's beauty? i mean, who did she transform into? according to these two blogs, she is speculated to be dressed as josephine baker, dorothy dandridge, the andrew sisters, the supremes, donna summer, janet jackson, tlc, and keri hilson herself (though i thought maybe monica for a second too). the last 30 seconds of the video is particularly telling -- really highlighting this sense of continuity and historicity of "pretty girls" (or perhaps more appropriately, beautiful women) rocking.

if these speculations are indeed accurate, then this video is not just what the song as a standalone is about. it isn't just about telling, presumably, a man that keri hilson is an attractive woman who's got it together. instead, it becomes a statement about the racialized and gendered experiences of black women, across time in this nation. in fact, it speaks to the difficulty of black women to just do the "pretty girl rock" because of an implied system that makes that as difficult as it's about. the narratives aren't there, and we -- as disempowered (?) minorities -- are left healing with each other.

regardless of the impact, i certainly admire the space that keri hilson's team has carved in our popular imagination. as a widely accessible pop cultural text, it's there for us to tap into, for us to look up on wikipedia who these women are. so we are left now -- as community workers -- to have that conversation. the occasional biopic isn't -- and can't -- be our only way to teaching history. with this song and music video, keri hilson is doing some important work, joining the ranks of jill scott, mary j. blige, macy gray, and many others that came even before them.

it makes me think a lot about what these "empowering" (we can definitely think this word through a little more) songs are doing for us. what role or function do they serve? it brings me back to the string of reported gay suicides in september and early october, which is a topic for another blog post. the emergence of the "it gets better" campaign and even new york times coverage of pop stars releasing songs of consolation got me making this connection that this is the work of so many marginalized communities already. it's not new. it's been happening. and the groundwork is there for us to do the work.

and with this work, keri hilson talks about race without talking about race. in fact, she appears on ustream to talk about how she wants this song to blow up not just among girls and women, but everybody. i'd like to think this is not just a marketing move. it's opening the door for a multiplicity of interpretations and connections (as long as we do not start to equate them, as in, oh, my relation to this song as a queer white person is the same as that of a person of color). and whereas i used to get a sour taste in my mouth about this liberal reading, i am coming around to the idea that the art we produce -- even with a specific audience in mind -- must reconcile w/ the reality that we live in a dynamic, multiracial (though not an equally racializing) one that comes with a following and relating that we had not anticipated.

i'm really interested in thinking about that some more...

far east movement tops billboard: the emergence of the cool asian aesthetic

2010-10-10T04:57:00.006-04:00

these are preliminary thoughts on what i'm tentatively calling the cool asian aesthetic. i think back to that scene in "mean girls" (yes, when it came out in 2004! already 6 years ago!) when cady heron gets a survey of the cafeteria cliques. here, there's a distinction made between the asian nerds & the cool asians.

the cool asians. i think so much of the framing of dominant stereotypes about asians speak to the asian nerd strand, and that's worth investigating. there must be some cultural theorist i can cite here to suggest that maybe it's precisely because we, as a collective people, are struggling w/ the shaming element of racial interpellation (?). i'm impressed w/ that moment b/c while some of us may know it, "mean girls" straight up put a stamp of it on the national popular cultural consciousness. however, for the most part, it seemed to have gone unnoticed. but now, we may be seeing a change.

slowly, we saw far east movement rise to its current #2 spot on the billboard with "like a g6," which actually came out late 2009 in the asian american blogosphere, at the very least. and before that, their song "dance like michael jackson" appeared on gossip girl. i really like their story. i think it's a pretty remarkable moment in asian american pop history b/c you got far east movement in #2 but guess who's #1? bruno mars, who's puerto rican & filipino. multicultural america taking over, for sure! and then you got the veterans -- usher, rihanna, eminem, nelly (welcome back, nelly!) as well as big hitters taio cruz, katy perry, pitbull, flo-rida. that's a great chart for the archives to me!

we can problematize the song easily, like do you really need to bring in "sober girls" to suggest how cool you are? calling yourself gangsta isn't enough? but still, this is actually a really great sound and there's a decent quality to the song that i am clapping for. so did we get here magically?

let's take one step back. remember the ongoing phenomenon of the jersey shore? may i also say that jersey shore is so deceiving a name for the show! the majority of them are from NEW YAWK. in any case, remember the unchartered-no-more territory of an asian version of the jersey shore, called ktown? like, produced by tyrese, too. i didn't know you were thinking about us! even if this is about you pursuing a capitalist venture, i'm slightly touched by that. and then with the role of blogs in our national consciousness, i'd say there's a concretizing of the cool asian aesthetic. how else will you explain this jezebel post on the well-muscled cast? (i hope this show gets picked up, even if only for the sake of asian american studies!)

now, even a step further. remember this rumor about the presence of asian americans on america's best dance crew, which started in 2008? so now, asian american dance crews have performed so well on this technology-driven reality competition that they need to be kept divided so "to give other races a fighting chance"? is that sensible? real or not, it seems to reveal anxieties about and dehumanization (or perhaps more precisely, the categorical impersonalization) of asians within the body politic.

i'm tracing these steps because i think they incrementally complicate narratives of asian americans in popular consciousness. i think this may be progress, and it's hard to tell what exactly will evolve out of this moment.

UPDATED: ny daily news has a related article.

more music talk

2010-09-11T13:47:00.002-04:00

i'm feeling pretty good about the fall tv season coming back, but i'm feeling even better about the music i've been listening to. i decided to download the last individual albums by kelly rowland and michelle williams, and i am loving them! it's about time i sat down and listened to their work on their own terms, not as that 1/3 of destiny's child. it's about de-centering beyonce from the history of destiny's child, right? let's be real: beyonce blew up in a way neither kelly nor michelle did.

ms. kelly definitely caught my eye when it came out in 2007. remember her collaboration with eve? you know that guest appearances with eve mean a good thing:

love the nod to technology. kelly is GORGEOUS. definitely had this song on repeat for a good while when it came out. there are other solid tracks on this album, such as "work," "every thought is you," "better without you," "no man no cry," and "this is love."

i don't even go out that often, but "daylight" reminds me of going out in new york:

on a more personal note, thank you, kelly rowland, for casting asian americans in your videos! i love that we are embedded in these narratives. really! y'all know i LOVE communities of color coming together.

(by the way, are y'all familiar with her single with snoop dogg, "ghetto"? just saw it & it'd be interesting to hear some analysis about the cultural politics negotiated in this video, especially the way that artists like kelly rowland move back and forth.)

michelle williams released unexpected in 2008, with "we break the dawn" as the lead single. i have pretty much always loved michelle's parts in destiny's child songs, because they're so positive and spiritual (thinking especially of "cater 2 u"). this album is a departure from her gospel roots, but it's still bangin' good. i would even say that this is a better song about partying until morning. here's the video:

anyone else find this video to be hella queer? she's the only woman in the video, and she's robed for most of the video. the only people being eroticized are the men, and the degree of showing skin just evokes images of gay clubs. you know, along with the whole crew of men crowding around this fabulous woman, taking her photos, and then we see everyone strutting down a street. totally playing up an aesthetic of fierceness. i think we can really tell what michelle's style is. I LOVE IT!

i also love the remix featuring flo-rida. very fun. did y'all notice that she was rubbing against a NUDE man? not just shirtless! haha

other tracks i love on unexpected? "thank u," "stop the car," "hello heartbreak," and "the greatest," the video for which is:

it's easy to lament and reminisce, but i really do think that there isn't really the same breadth of artistry on the radio right now. most of the songs i hear are club songs, about the act of partying, not even the moment. also, in my own work, i'm about educating the whole child, and i expect the same from artists. i think what i appreciate about destiny's child, and still true for these albums, is this personal quality to their work, represented by either the range of topics and experiences or the emotional impact or content. i'm not saying these kinds of artists aren't out there, but i do think that they're not as visible in the mainstream music marketplace. who is dictating the terms of your work? the cultural limitations or your own creative directions?

maybe that's why i'm so hopeful about willow smith. i think it's a smart negotiation of what sells and what is personal or genuine. mtv.com reports on jay-z signing her to roc nation, and there's a quote about how she strives to be honest and true to herself. this is something that i would introduce to my students. i think art cannot just be for the aesthetic value, right? especially in this world, art can easily become a commercial product. but if art is to be a medium to build relationships, then we need to dig deeper in our art.

you're like a candy store & more and more.. folklore?

2010-09-11T03:45:00.005-04:00

i'm looking forward to nicki minaj. after seeing her in mariah carey's "up out my face" video, i have developed a bit of curiosity about her. and this song totally won me over. i'm convinced that this song is about fantasy, or the fantastical/nostalgic/delirious nature of desire and infatuation. we see all this amazing fan-blown drapery, with nicki minaj performing in an contemporary eastern/oriental fantasy with samurai and geisha gear. even the bleeding in the end is "draped." the color palate is very dreamy, which is the spirit of the song, as constructed in part through:

a comparison to a candy store & a creative reading of toddler for rhyme -- though it's arguable that toddler is read toddLOR intentionally to connote a child-like perspective, like when learning to read
a nod to adam & eve, which is perhaps one of the earliest story of a couple for many kids raised in a certain religious tradition.
subtle reference to superman & the heroism of saving your lover
an extended reference to die hard & bruce willis, back to the 1990s

the mention of samurai & geisha is fascinating to me, because however brief the few lines about asian-ness were, she was able to tap into an asian american studies 101 discussion on stereotypes & diversity within the community, via this jewel:

anyway i think i met him in the sky
when i was a geisha & he was a samurai
somehow i understood him when he spoke thai

it's not that deep but it's still playful and incisive. indeed, she is making a distinction here between japanese and thai, while making a rhyme, while fantasizing. in fact, this imagery becomes the point of departure for the theme of the video. thus, we see the martial arts training, the bridge over a river, the flow of which is represented also through fan-blown drapery.

on a side note, how awesome would it be to use this as a text in courses or community programs on youth empowerment, media literacy, social justice, identity development, etc.?

i don't know about you, but the playfulness of the song and video make me want to be IN it. and that's enough for me to LOVE it.

love the way you lie & represent

2010-09-11T02:47:00.007-04:00

let's back track a little. remember when "love the way you lie" came out? were you or were you not wondering like, why is rihanna up on this track? is there a behind-the-scenes storyline about how she wants to address all the public sentiment around her relationship with chris brown? her lines on this track are so powerful, really illustrating this sense of illusion and almost stupor. watching the video convinced me even more.

i mean, we first see rihanna w/ red hair, standing in front of a fire. both tender and intense as it can get. and then she moves up her lips (how do u describe that action?) just a bit rough at the end of singing "love the way it hurts." in fact, this first chorus is really raw and emotional. for me, i really sense a real person saying all that, even if it isn't rihanna. if she's just acting.

and boom, we see eminem, in a classic music video imagery: rapper in a field, like an isolated moment of expression. with some theme of light glares. and then we switch to megan fox and dominic monaghan, who are actually great actor choices for this video. megan fox, who is like a common straight guy's fantasy girl, and dominic monaghan, who has a record of playing this category of bad asses w/ different hearts, like charlie on lost and simon on flashforward. we see them getting into make up sex, connoting the passion, and we see why megan fox would be so perfect for this. who would want to imagine having make up sex with megan fox? listeners of eminem. maybe even eminem himself.

and then we see this symbolism in fire, as we see the characters burn into space, including eminem but curiously not rihanna. all in all, i really love the video, for the flavor of classic and cultural significance that we have here.

returning to an earlier point, was this a form of rihanna's response to public scrutiny of her relationship w/ chris brown? remember when oprah got involved with it? i love mtv.com for doing the research/record production work for us:

apparently, her fans think the video is about chris brown. an interview w/ rihanna actually lays it out and frames the conversation on her own terms. the professional conversation over the artistic collaboration lends to personal experiences w/ domestic violence -- "on different sides, different ends of the table." she appreciates the way it deconstructed the cycle of domestic violence, "something that a lot of people don't have a lot of insight on." what a classy response, rihanna! very diplomatic. art not as a transmissionist message but instead, as a medium for unpacking and perhaps even intervention.

the video has become a contested/contexted (dang!) piece of work, too. mtv.com has dominic monagha n talking about the seriousness of abusive relationships, not trying to glorify the violence. there's even an article that connects the video's topic of domestic violence to a real-life resource. and while recognizing the parallels, the director gives the "official" word that the video is not actually about eminem or rihanna's histories. joseph kahn just recognized that it's one of those cultural event videos. and tells us a little more about why megan fox & how well the actors performed.

i'm really fascinated by kahn's point about cultural event videos. it's one thing to hear about people seeing certain oldie videos for the first time. but it's another to be on the older side reminiscing about now-historical cultural event videos, like britney's "i'm a slave 4 u" and more recently, lady gaga's "bad romance" or "telephone," or beyonce's "video phone."

this is a moment to remember, y'all. and a pretty awesome cultural moment of history about how art is political.

excerpt from dawson's creek

2010-09-07T15:02:00.005-04:00

was dawson's creek a part of your middle school experience? it was for me. i dropped it when the characters went off to college and i started high school. now that i'm in grad school, i finally finished watching the series this summer. i thought this excerpt -- if accurately transcribed -- is something that i will take with me -- for my work as an educator, as someone inheriting the world from those before me, and as a part of a social world.

hi amy, it's mom.

well, by the time you see this, i won't be here anymore,

and i know how much that sucks for both of us,

so seeing as how i won't be around to thoroughly annoy you

i thought i'd give you a little list of the things i wish for you:

well there's the obvious -- an education.

family. friends. and a life that is full of the unexpected.

be sure to make mistakes.

make a lot of them, b/c there's no better way to learn and to growth, alright?

i want you to spend a lot of time at the ocean,

b/c the ocean forces you to dream

and i insist that you, my girl, be a dreamer.

god.

i've never really believe in god.

in fact, i've spent a lot of time & energy trying to disprove that god exists,

but i hope that you are able to believe in god.

b/c the thing that i've come to realize, sweetheart,

is that it doesn't matter if god exists or not.

the important thing is for you to believe in something.

because i promise you that

that belief will keep you warm at night

and i want you to feel safe always.

and then there's love.

i want you to love to the tips of your fingers,

and when you find that love,

wherever you find it,

whoever you choose,

don't run away from it.

but you don't have to chase after it either.

you just be patient,

and it'll come to you, i promise.

and when you least expect it,

like you,

like spending the best year of my life,

with the sweetest and the smartest and the most beautiful baby girl in the world,

don't be afraid, sweetheart.

and remember, to love is to live.

what i'm following this summer

2010-08-12T01:30:00.003-04:00

jersey shore (in miami!)
mad men
project runway (via lifetime)
rupaul's drag u (via logo)
weeds (starting next week!)
the lxd (via hulu)

thank you, summer programming.

listening to destiny's child as an adult

2010-08-06T17:07:00.003-04:00

destiny's child blew up when i was going through middle and high school. and then their destiny was fulfilled and beyonce blew up even more. and now, i ask my younger cousins, including one in middle school, if they've heard of destiny's child, and their answer is a categorical no. and frankly, i have rarely returned to their music since they broke up. i like my beyonce tracks, i like my kelly rowland tracks, and i like my michelle williams tracks. but at different times, on different days.

but then i had a conversation that brought up "bugaboo." and then i realized that i was listening with different ears than i had when i was in high school, which is obvious in the abstract sense but totally overwhelming in the lived sense, at this particular moment.

for one, it has always confused me that so many of their songs are about working class, lower middle women and yet they're megasuperstars. and weren't they in their late teens, early 20s when they wrote bills, bills, bills? how did they do it?! and now i feel like i have a way more real (as in real numbers) connection to the experiences in these songs than before. like we are encountering real-life bugaboos. or got some real bad habits of our own. and, definitely true in my case, going through this parallel process of finding myself in all of my identities, narratives, & communities and seeing the world with a certain political consciousness.

and i started thinking about the cultural impact of destiny's child. especially w/ recent headlines wondering if lauryn hill -- i still remember when it came out in middle school -- is making a comeback, i got to unpacking the cultural presence of destiny's child from my own positionality. i definitely appreciate their artistry so much more now that i can articulate my thoughts with a stronger vocabulary to make sense of everything.

for example: remember when "cater 2 u" came out? there was so much talk about this song being a departure from the usual destiny's child precisely for its gender relations. for once, it seemed, destiny's child was not bashing men for trifling. and i was really fascinated in the gender politics of it. the pushback was that this went too far, and little did i know it, i did a close reading of the song. i remember hearing both sides when i carefully teased out that beyonce, kelly, and michelle all had different approaches to "catering to a man." beyonce talked about rewarding her man for this one day to show her appreciation. kelly deferred herself to her man in a more (way more, in my opinion!) traditional model of gender relations. michelle is about recognizing and reciprocating the spiritual strength that she has gotten from her man. i think as a feminist text, there are different experiences that are articulated, right? in any case, returning to their body of work, i'm actually really impressed by the range of situations and narratives that are illustrated in their songs.

as my prior posts have revealed, i am all about this idea of narrativity, that at least my relationship to pop culture and media is that through the narratives that surround us that we come to understand the world that we do and to live in the ways we do (in the same/similar way that we come to understand and perform gender). yes, we may have some innate personalities and whatnot, which is why we negotiate narratives differently, but there is a common way or process of relating that happens in the world. it's not a simple question of life imitating art or art imitating life, but more of this text and countertext relationship (a new framework introduced to me this week). so what does destiny's child offer exactly?

i won't go into every song, but i'm definitely hearing a lot of ideas about affirmation, honesty, reflection, vulnerability, dignity, sisterhood, community, and perhaps most importantly, resistance. resistance in the ownership of language. resistance in the narratives they proclaim on their terms (or so we hope!). resistance in the actions they take in relation to their bodies, their beings. all this while doing it to the some of the catchiest and most evocative beats and styles. i can really respect that. and i am so honored to have grown up with the relationship that i have to their music, like the warmth from hearing the lucy liu shout out on "independent women." (interracial relations are so deep and complicated, but i proudly and gladly hold onto these nuggets of people of color solidarity, however commercialized and superficial.)

in my teacher education program, we're encountering lots of big questions about how to work with our students, how to sensitively respond to their negotiations of the worlds they live in, and i can't help but hope that they have an even more wonderful world to live in. i hope that they get all the highlights i've had and then more. like growing up with the first black/biracial president of the united states. and the first time that there are 3 women on the supreme court. and that there will better times, like a cultural renaissance, a renewed faith in our government, and with that, a more responsible elected governing body.

so thank you, destiny's child, for doing you and helping me to clarify how i want the world to be for the next generation.

bao phi on the legacy of sun & jin

2010-07-04T11:08:00.003-04:00

i want to direct your attention to this great post by bao phi on the legacy of sun and jin. it brings up many of my own sentiments about the show, or more particularly, about sun and jin. they were a huge reason for me tuning in, and it's been so mesmerizing to follow them through the series.

take a read! i wonder if we'll be seeing more couplings like that soon.

mad men & articulating pleasures

2010-07-04T10:58:00.002-04:00

i finally started watching mad men! especially with july 4th around, i'm thinking a lot about nationalism, and this show brings up so much americana. i'm still getting my head around what i think about the show, my connections to the narratives and details. it's certainly attentive to detail and beautifully woven. it challenges us to revisit many ideas that we take for granted now.

this post from george packer of the new yorker is a start for that conversation. if you know of other posts about the show, please send over!

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (hello goodbye)

2010-06-13T02:02:00.003-04:00

wow this is it!!!!!

1:22
last dramatic title shot: betty getting hit by soil. in the rain. :D

2:35
so happy alec mapa got a role on the show! w/ an episode dedicated to his character's background.

2:43
love the kitchen mittens w/ the mexican flag colors!

3:05
that was a hilarious bit comparing countries via food

5:10
marc & wilhelmia has a really special relationship. it may sound obvious, but this scene really shows that.

7:59
uh oh! daniel knows! and wait, was wilhelmia dreaming or was that really connor?

10:12
i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that wilhelmia has a happy ending.

11:30
omg i still can't believe amanda put her dog in the freezer.
also, are betty and amanda really friends? that last bit gave me 2 different conclusions.

13:29
did daniel just realize what he was doing mid-way into the act? awkward.. or was that a reversal of roles? daniel as clumsy and betty as suave?

15:50
i love this hallway at the mode office. a fan site should display screen caps of all the different appearances of the hallway!

17:26
lolz marc & the love/hate relationship with betty. also loving the suddenness of the scene transitions. reminds me of other season finales for the show. heightens the dramatic effect.

18:25
omg daniel just told her!!!!!

20:34
LOVE this sister-to-sister moment. really interesting that this issue is raised but what's even more interesting is betty encouraging hilda to pursue her dream, move out of the family nest. i think it shows either that betty has always had these ideas about advancing her dream career or that betty has come to know what she wants in her career. i doubt that betty suarez of season 1 would have made the same decision w/ the same gust and confidence.

22:12
in the last episode, we see more and more of a softer wilhelmia. gushing out like never before.

26:11
in the original colombian series, yo soy betty, la fea, betty and her boss become more than a professional couple. throughout the series, i was hoping against the same fate for our betty and daniel. it's nice to throw in moving to london to the mix because this twist directly addresses that anxiety i have about them. mostly, i'm tired of seeing every straight man and straight woman couple up like that. let's imagine it possible for them to be just friends!

betty looks so different now than she did four seasons ago! we can differ in interpreting this situation. should we feel happy for betty after her 4-season transformation? or lament how much betty has had to work (and perhaps even assimilate) to get to where she is? no matter how we may or may not like what's happening, we have to admit that it's pretty powerful to have on u.s. primetime television a series in which it ends with the white guy wanting a latina woman. plus, we have seen this young latina lady develop into a woman.

28:25
justin is the wisest young person i know. also happy that marc is finding a boo.

30:05
wilhelmia and betty. another relationship i really love about this show. reminds me of the bechdel test:

33:40
wow serious transitions at mode!

34:54
"betty, you're moving across an ocean, where you'll have no family, no friends. you won't know the city. i know what that's like, mija. when your mommy and i left mexico and came here, we were so afraid. but it was the best decision we made our lives. something tells me you'll look back and say the same about this move." enough said.

39:00
omg they need to stop crying!!!! i'm gonna cry too!!!

42:52
that was a cute ending! but what's gonna happen between betty and daniel? :T

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (the past presents the future)

2010-06-10T03:00:00.002-04:00

the penultimate episode :)

00:29
omg is that really how betty looked like a few seasons back?!?!

03:13
i love these mentoring moments between justin & marc.

05:39
hahahahah betty's drunk dial call includes her burping! of course.

07:26
wilhelmia is so good at what she does. i will miss this. she just made buying tyler's shares like a magnanimous thing. and concludes the conversation by playing her role -- as tyler's aa sponsor. loves it!! very detail-oriented.

08:04
can someone write about the rarity of drunk dialing coming up in primetime please?

08:39
is this a real conversation that can be found in our reality? daniel's a pretty accessible character, right? either way this conversation reminds me of how much i love or have grown to love the characters.

09:33
omg a younger person's new yorker. great idea. i would totally read that. i kind of feel bad about the new yorker being kind of inaccessible or over my head even though i have friends who love it.

also, shrill american enthusiasm? :D

10:01
that was a really cute scene transition w/ the british flag.

10:13
hold up did hilda just say what she said?! #whyiloveher

11:10
"i hate all fish colors."

11:34
"there's nothing i love more than backhanded compliments."

wait did we ever find out for sure who amanda's dad was? or is this just a twin moment?

13:18
that was a really sweet scene w/ henry! i love that they're bringing characters back!!! i'm totally digging betty's situation because i'm also about to make a big move!! i love parallels. :D

15:06
um, i love hilda and bobby!!! hilarious couple. "omg that austin kid has got my baby hooked on drugs?!"

by the way, hulu needs to make its skip feature more versatile!

15:29
omg hilda knows!!! she didn't look as mad as some others i know! haha. um, how many shows can we have this moment with? other than glee?

16:30
i finally got me a 5-hour energy to try after seeing so many hulu ads for it. dang it worked!

17:23
"he's not my kid." that's right, betty!

18:09
i really liked the way betty ended the breakfast like, i'm outta here, i'm not having this! hahaha! it's so betty to be so tactful about still visibly annoyed about it.

also, can we talk about the color scheme of this opening second of this scene w/ hilda? it's like i'm watching a toothpaste commercial. hilda looks so refreshed! haha

19:00
i'm so glad that claire is onto wilhelmia!

19:43
"we know you're gay and that's okay!" um, future leaders of pflag!!!! love it!!! diversify that org!

20:00
"gays don't have a favorite color. they like them all!" this is hilarious!!!

20:07
they just gave pflag + glsen a shout out. this is amazing.

23:49
i hope daniel doesn't have feelings for betty...

24:54
nooooo is this a clue about the finale?!!?!?!?!

25:43
it is so heart-warming to see justin w/ his boo!!!! i feel like justin also reminds me of jenny humphrey (of gossip girl), but i love justin whereas i don't like jenny at all.

29:14
omg they brought back ignacio's girlfriend!!!

30:24
justin's suit is beautiful!

32:11
this is an incredible coming out pep talk. i wish i had that!

34:00
who didn't love vanessa williams's dramatic shocked look just now? :D

34:53
"sometimes it's hard to know when to take the next step."

this is so precious! they're going thru similar struggles and questions.

"you're the bravest kid i know."

i think we need to really acknowledge how powerful that statement is.

37:07
"don't cry. it makes you look like a girl."

I'M ALREADY THERE!!!!! the best coming out scene i have ever seen didn't even have a coming out dialogue. we're now in the business of imagining coming out as empowering, not as a confession.

i'm especially touched by justin's coming out because at my senior prom, i was dancing w/ a guy and one of my english teachers came up to me and said, "do what i couldn't do when i was your age." queer diasporas, y'all. it's real.

40:18
i love that marc isn't trying to fool around.

42:55
omg this show is tempting me to watch the finale right now.

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (london calling)

2010-06-05T12:31:00.003-04:00

we're getting to the end! only 3 more episodes left :(

00:45
there's your dramatic beginning. loves it!!! soo predictable but still endearing.

1:14
i love that betty is a blogger! what other shows integrate blogging into their stories?

1:59
let's talk about this moment. betty's plan for hilda's bachelorette's party is an after-hours champagn party at the met. there's this conglomeration of race, class & culture (not only ethnic culture but also professional/educational).

2:40
i like that bobby's trying hard to be a good father to justin. even though justin isn't really concerned with bobby, bobby is reflective and looking out. something to be said about this representation of masculinity, right?

5:14
how do you feel about this more childish side to daniel? to me it's kind of nice but when i'm his age, i hope i'm not acting like that! i've been thinking about models/narratives of being in my late 20s and sort-of early 30s. it's scary!

5:16
taking a stab at bayonne mall! :D

8:00
london!!! i was kind of hoping how betty would have planned a bachelorette party in nyc though :(

15:43
loving this montage!! haha. is that supposed to be lady gaga sitting next to betty?

16:17
wilhelmia is so evil!!! hahaha. even though the storyline is pretty telenovela/soap opera-like, the show's aesthetic feels more... as nina garcia would say, expensive (code for american?).

19:04
i really do appreciate abc for having multiple shows that have multi-dimensional queer characters & their relationships to each other.

21:29
omg that WOULD happen to betty.

26:03
i really like gio. i'm glad they brought him back!!! he was my fave of betty's boos. did we ever figure out if he's latino? or italian, like bobby?

27:09
ENGAGED?!?!?!

28:05
oh so gio represents betty's past with all her so-called naive ambitions and dreams? or like ghost of betty past?

29:11
i'm not loving this scene only because it dichotomizes betty into a betty who's gotten comfortable in a field and a betty who's not about fashion. why can't betty have come to appreciate fashion and still maintain these bigger dreams? betty isn't still trying to survive the field, in my interpretation.

32:40
betty and christina's friendship is really fascinating to me. as a recent grad, i'm still struggling with how to think about my friendship with folks who aren't within 2-3 years of my own age. i think it's nice to see how easy it seems to have the kind of friendship that betty and christina have, even though they have all these differences too.

32:54
BEYONCE TICKETS!!! omg what an awesome dad.

33:46
it's surprising to me that justin feels like he can't openly talk about his burgeoning sexual identity with his family because they have consistently supported his self-expression throughout the series. i suppose it reveals or reminds us that coming into one's sexual identity is, indeed, deeply personal.

35:07
noooo!! they're diluting the experience & the moment!!!

41:10
uh oh! the build-up to the series finale continues!!!

41:43
whoa! is everyone gonna leave mode?!?!

42:53
is henry supposed to be the love of betty's life? in any case, i appreciate all these characters are reappearing on the show as it is ending! reminds me of lost..

how to fill your tv void during the summer

2010-05-31T17:44:00.003-04:00

what are you doing to fill the tv void this summer? i can't remember what i did last summer, but i do remember watching hulu. i'm not sure what i'll do this summer because all i got are old movies and documentaries and some sitcoms on my playlist left!

a couple years ago, alex jung (some of whose writings you can find: here, here, here, here, here, and here) introduced me to pot psychology, a web series from jezebel.com. loved it for rare space that it is. and i've been returning to it. maybe you'll want to add this to your queue.

"How Should I Celebrate The Birthday Of Someone I'm Casually Dating?" from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

there's also logoonline.com, which offers an extensive rotation of feature movies and their shows. shouldn't jersey shore in miami be premiering this summer? maybe it's time to start watching those canto dramas again!

UPDATE: i'm finding other web series that i may check out this summer, including ktown cowboys:

or this fabulously queer series drama queenz:

UPDATE: apparently, there's an "out of the box lgbtq web series festival." thanks for the tip, lyell!

the miley cyrus syndrome

2010-05-30T21:06:00.003-04:00

we already know that miley cyrus has said some silly things in the past. the singer of "party in the u.s.a." admitted to not having listened to pop music though she makes it. now, she's ridiculing the hit show glee.

why are we still paying attention to celebrities like miley cyrus?

i'm not against the idea of having popular teens like justin bieber, but then there are examples like miley cyrus who convince me that these teens just don't have the maturity to be in the spotlight. they make really offensive and immature statements that ultimately humiliate themselves, not anyone else. i'm literally shaking my head as i re-read her quote:

"honestly, musicals? i just can't. what if this was real life and i was just walking down the street on rodeo drive and all of a sudden i just burst into song about how much i love shoes? it would get you hits on youtube."

i don't even know where to begin with her. she is on some other wavelength about what glee is supposed to represent, what embracing glee is supposed to mean, and even what youtube means for people outside of the media industry. i'm glad that the post added that glee actually featured one of miley's songs as well as songs by lady gaga, whose work miley does like. i wonder how miley feels about gaga's recent tweet about glee.

ugh, what a nightmare! shouldn't she have a team of people advising her to avoid these outbursts?

get a mac if you are cool

2010-05-30T13:01:00.007-04:00

i'm glad that apple has decided to change it up and abandon its longtime mac vs. pc ad campaign. initially, i thought they were refreshing, but they got increasingly tasteless. ever since i got my macbook in 2007, i would go to the soho apple store to do work every now and then and i'd find the ads playing in between workshops they have on apple-related software. i saw a good number of ads that played on social anxieties around being fashionable, attractive, and cool. and even though mac does kind of represent that in popular imagination (at least according to the mac fam, right?), i don't want the brand selling itself as such. let's just keep it simple. i'm cool with these:

okay, so macs are simpler.

okay, so macs don't crash as often.

okay, so macs don't really get viruses.

okay, so macs are easier to use because you don't have to clear security.

okay, so macs are more encompassing in capability.

okay, so macs offer more support. but notice the line at the end about loathing macs.

these aren't necessarily in chronological order, but here's this evolution in message though. in some of the better ads, the personalities of the pc guy and the mac guy are tempered by the actual points around the technological value of a pc and a mac. but then some ad team decided it would be a good idea to flesh out the laughable personality (and social constructions) of the pc guy while championing the mac guy. case in point? check these out:

okay, so playing around with gender -- and we don't know if pc intended for this or not -- is pretty much not so "professional" and certainly less natural in metaphor.

okay, so pc doesn't really know how to make friends. especially with an attractive asian woman.

okay, so pc isn't really to be trusted. that's pretty deep, right?

okay, so pc is dwight and mac is jim from the office. need i say more?

yeah, pc is looking like he has some issues to work out and mac is the bigger man.

okay, so it's not just that mac gets great reviews. pc feels this need to make up lies to protect his vulnerable dignity.

let's just say that i'm glad apple is sticking with these:

i don't really need to see anyone's faces, just the changing hues of the hands holding the ipad. honest! let's just stick to the topic of conversation, which is your technology. that's what i'm primarily looking for when i'm at your store.

new music: robyn - dancing on my own

2010-05-30T04:12:00.006-04:00

Robyn 'Dancing On My Own' (Official Video) from Robyn on Vimeo.

robyn has a special place in my heart. i remember feeling connected to a friend in elementary school because we discovered that we both liked robyn when she came out with "show me love" and "do you know what it takes." looking back, it marked my participation in an american/western pop culture. this was 1996, only a year after my family came to the united states. i was still a budding english language learner. and this friend, also my first in the u.s. and closest at the time, had little in common with me. in a way, isn't this so appropriately american/induction into western pop culture (w/ full recognition that robyn is swedish!)?

in any case, i'm really digging her comeback. loved her last album, robyn, and it seems she'll be dropping a multi-part collection, body talk. "dancing on my own" is the new single and i love it! really appreciate the song in itself. the video is subtle but definitely well crafted. love the blurrily violent/harmless dancing choreography to match the emotional depth of the song.

what i did not appreciate was finding this awful post on the entertainment weekly blog. i know that some bloggers need to be snarky at their job, but i can't tell if this guy is serious or not. stalking? i'm not sure if that was the point of the song. or if the post was worth reading to begin with. since the author is a guy, the whole post just started to feel like yet another scenario in which guys feel this need to legitimate their disavowal of emotion or vulnerability whereas women should feel bad about their ownership of emotion or vulnerability.

in any case, i hope this song does well.

revisiting taylor swift the product

2010-05-30T02:27:00.013-04:00

do you remember earlier in 2010, taylor swift won album of the year at the grammys, beating out lady gaga? then came this blogospheric divide between those who thought taylor deserved it and those who thought gaga was robbed. in effect, there became two camps: lady gaga v. taylor swift. as you can guess, i'm feeling the gaga camp. and this post captures exactly why.

again, it isn't so much a question of who taylor swift is but rather what she, as a cultural phenomenon, represents. as with most things, this question is more than the question itself. what are we feeling as a cultural body, as signified through taylor swift winning album of the year over lady gaga? the pause to question, i think, already implies the legitimacy and impact of lady gaga on our imagination (or, at least mine). remember, it isn't just the grammys. it's also the mtv video music awards, which is another big award show for somewhat of a different crowd. from my point of view, her wins are surprising because her peer nominees are strong. lady gaga. beyonce. not your average/mediocre cultural figure. these women & their artistry are moving us culturally. taylor swift? didn't think so much of her more homemade, small-scale appeal. and let's be real: her appeal as well as her support is hella racialized (not even necessarily in demographic but in narrative).

for me, taylor swift (as a cultural phenomenon) represents a tired story of a white young woman with a good heart and message catching a break in the entertainment industry. like she's supposed to be accessible in some way to the popular imagination, as though she were this good-natured suburban neighborhood kid that no one has a reason to treat her wrong. (by the way, she ain't 16, y'all. she's actually 20! did you thought she was younger too? i thought that was telling!) her work does not really challenge our ideas about love, life, etc. in fact, it confuses or casually throws around literary references.

on the other hand, lady gaga does challenge my and our ideas about fame, pop culture, love, politics, etc. remember when "telephone" dropped? the whole blogosphere was crazy about it, including friends of mine. whereas we get a good-natured singer with taylor swift, we get a sensory feast with gaga. on top of that, she ties the personal with the political. gaga is highly outspoken/visible in mainstream lgbt struggles, and there are active questions about what gaga means for gay women & youth.

that brings me to my most vocal point of difference. beyond the artistry, there's something substantially and critically different about the artists' relationship to their fans. from my point of view, taylor swift has a pretty conventional "artist and her bajillion fans" narratives which take fans for granted whereas lady gaga has a more refreshing "we built this success together" (a la haus of gaga) narrative. i mean, her speaking for lgbt rights is undoubtedly tied to having a strong gay fan base before blowing up in the mainstream. in fact, my first exposure to her was at the trannyshack (i think!) in san francisco, a few months before "just dance" blew up. and thus, these artists put forth messages that reflect these narratives.

have you seen the sony digital camera commercial ft. taylor swift?

right. so taylor swift (or on a phenomenon level, artist) is in a meeting with sony about new technology that can capture her fans. digging a lil deeper, we don't really know what that suggests about her relationship to her fans. does she want to capture them for her keepsake? is it for her fans? it's unclear. and for kicks (how racialized is that concept, huh?) the commercial throws in a particularly so-called obsessive male fan. let's not even try to deconstruct this concept of "obsessive" within a fan culture context. once this guy is forcefully leashed away, you can find our artist giving this extremely telling frame:

traditional narrative of fan & her mass of fans, including some crazies who are too into the artist.

i started noticing lady gaga's profound appreciation of her fans early on, but you need not look too far for evidence. shall we do a comparative study of twitter accounts? (granted, my selections may not be the most neutral selections)

lens #1: relationship to fans

gaga:

taylor:

lens #2: where have you been?

gaga:

taylor:

lens #3: what do you do other than the musician thing?

gaga:

taylor:

remember, they're only 3 years apart. who do you think is more successful at cultivating a fan base via twitter? my guess is gaga and here's why:

it does not take much to distinguish which artist talks with you and which talks to you. there's nothing inherently bad in taylor's act or tweets. i just don't think she can really compete with lady gaga in substance. to me, lady gaga is so much more thoughtful about her artistry than taylor swift seems to be, so as you can probably imagine, it gets pretty frustrating to find out that your teenage girl cousin is still a huge fan of taylor swift but not of lady gaga. beyond considerations of artistry, there's something significant here about the differences in their relationship to their fans.

we live in an age where all this technology enables us to pretty much re-define power relations. why are we still holding onto the familiar but tired ideas about purity and singers when we can engage in some serious pop cultural consciousness? isn't it time that we begin to view successes as always beyond a single person (as in, lady gaga would not be such without her haus of gaga, a point she proactively proclaims)? indeed, success comes from concerted and sustained efforts and requires continued recognition for it to last. within the limiting and unchallenging narrative of taylor swift, the comfortable tale of an artist and her mass of fans, there's less room for a more collaborative and active relationship between artist and fans. and really, who wants to be lazy in their relationship to pop music?

UPDATE: at the cma music festival, taylor swift spend 14.5 hours signing autographs, going over the 13 hours she initially signed up for. then, she did what any celebrity would have done -- she tweeted about it, including this photograph:

can we get some visual analysis up in here?? so it's awesome that she's displaying all these wristbands she got from her fans, but what's up with writing the number of hours she spent signing autographs? here's what she tweeted:

i didn't claim so much that taylor didn't care about her fans. instead, i questioned the artist-and-fan narrative she constructs via her tweets and commercial deals. while the writing on her arm is more collaborative in nature, the tweet above doesn't address fans together as a shared group. possibly or arguably addressed to just twitter users, not primarily her fans. therefore, my feelings haven't changed much, though i do acknowledge it's awfully sweet of her to stay an extra 90 minutes for her fans. or is it? what do you think?

e! online also posted this about celebrities using twitter to thank their fans for their award wins.

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (million dollar smile)

2010-05-09T03:04:00.002-04:00

first of all, let me know point out that the hulu ad is for burberry sport. the new fragrance for women and men.

00:53
betty is getting her braces off! oh girl i've been going through some changes w/ my teeth, too! 3 wisdom teeth taken out. apparently it takes 2 months to fully recover.

1:23
hilda reminds me of one of my coworkers!

3:52
tickle his ginger lolzz

4:48
i can't imagine having doctors who are so talkative. that'd be so annoying! let's keep it professional.

5:20
i love the style of transitions. they're so... shape-based? there must be some film studies/technical term for it. it's like shamelessly dramatic.

8:17
amanda torn between half-brothers. that's pretty dramatic, right? telenovela, korean soap opera status. but it doesn't feel so ethnic or foreign. the cultural frame is still american. the frame right now is like so modern urban american, no?

9:05
photoshopping your id photos! i wanna try this.

9:21
i love the finished product tho! on its own..

10:05
this moment struck me as a rare one. do they always talk to each other like this? i'm surprised that betty felt okay to just be like, taylor?! i think my perception was that it was a pretty inequitable relationship between daniel and betty, with daniel being babysat by betty in some other moments.

10:28
wait so this is our betty? YOU ROCK???? YOU ROCK HARDER???? sometimes i can't tell if betty suarez and i would be that compatible as friends. there are inconsistencies here in narrativity, i think.

12:27
this is betty, four years later at mode. she can fight her way past security and get kinda sassy! she wasn't like this in season 1!

13:27
where else on primetime tv can u find an episode where getting your braces off becomes a central episode theme? oh, maybe modern family, but not much elsewhere!

13:37
by the way, the burberry sport ad was totally devoid of substance.

14:48
OMG THAT'S NOT BETTY'S HOUSE!!! that's hilarious writing!!!

18:40
this is so a conglomeration of a christmas carol, modern day fairies a la tooth fairy, and sci fi possibilities of alternate universes.

19:07
betty dating derek jeter!!!!! HAHAHA I LOVE IT!!!

23:01
throughout the series we see these specifically racialized moments of women of color gelling or pseudo-solidarity between betty and wilhelmia. and here, they are bonded through their perceptibly constructed taste for fashion (but some may argue that they are actually not so purely mean-spirited but rather, critical out of a survival history of navigating identity politics and oppression?). funny that we see them fist pumping -- a la michelle obama -- at the end of the flashback of this alternate reality.

28:12
how do titles work at publications? managing editor v. editor? etc.

30:45
hilarious taco joke!!! i want some tacos too.

32:11
again, i LOVE the dramatic tone!

34:46
so in the show's reality, betty strips wilhelmia at the guggenheim, which is hella embarrassing! and then to top it off, so you know this is the awkward betty we all know, betty knock her head into the protected bra! and her braces are stuck!

39:18
they just showed betty licking and brushing her teeth w/ a finger.

43:01
love justin's storylines

checking in

2010-05-04T13:13:00.003-04:00

it's been a month since my last posting! i'm still catching up on my hulu, and i go through my queue according to expiration date. hulu just extended the ugly betty episodes to september, so i'm debating if i should get through all the current shows first and savor the last ugly betty episodes for later, or should i just be done with it?! after all, it seems like everybody has already seen the ending! i really enjoyed this racewire posting on it by jorge rivas. excerpt of five reasons ugly betty was a big deal:

"No. 1—It was real. Networks are increasingly targeting Latino viewers, but "Ugly Betty" was the first primetime show to address real issues Latinos in the U.S. face—like immigration laws and trying to assimilate to U.S. culture. Lisa Navarrete, a vice president for the National Council of La Raza says "the plot line illustrated the complexity of the lives of many undocumented immigrants who are otherwise integrated into American life."

No. 2—Betty Suarez was no Jennifer Lopez. And she was the first TV Latina who lived in "both" worlds—the white professional Manhattan world and a Mexican working class home in Queens, NY.

No. 3—It was queer. Betty's family accepted her brother Justin's love for musicals and fashion from a very young age and never discouraged him from following his interests—which included Austin, his boyfriend. The show also provided a compelling and human portrait of Alex Meade, who transformed into Alexis.

No. 4—It opened other closets, too. Ignacio Suarez's undocumented immigration status had its own storyline. That's a coming out tale for 2010.

No. 5—And still, it was a family affair. "Ugly Betty" did all of this while still bridging the generational divide. Tias and Ninas alike were glued to Betty La Fea."

meanwhile, we have seen the conclusion of the second season of rupaul's drag race. finally, rich juzwiak (of fourfour & pot psychology) covered it! his reviews of america's next top model are HILARIOUS. too bad i'm not too big on the show! anyway, you can catch the review here. i'm working on a post of my own about the show, and i'd love to get a sense of what other bloggers are saying about it! i'm noticing a lot of peers watching it, but not as much blog buzz.

also brainstorming for a post on taylor swift's new sony cam commercial.

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (all the world's a stage)

2010-04-03T18:45:00.002-04:00

yes, i know i'm a few episodes behind, so let's get started! :)

00:30
this new storyline with amanda being in the middle of daniel and his half-brother is so interesting. the way that daniel is trying to hold onto amanda yet claiming this non-relationship. should we be reading daniel as someone who should really be looking for something deeper?

4:00
hilda and betty are both talking about white men. isn't that interesting? i thought bobby was biracial but he's just southern italian! and betty talking about this white playwright aka potential new love interest? with hilda & bobby, i think there's something to be said here about constructions of the outer-boroughs, no? wait, but are there a lot of italian americans in jackson heights? i thought they were mostly in brooklyn & staten island.

9:45
OMG BETTY!!!!! she just kissed him!!!!!!

11:30
"In fact, I'd say the only thing brighter is his dashing smile." lolzz

11:46
anyone noticed the way that betty's glasses are awkwardly positioned in close-ups as though to suggest that she's still "ugly" or unstylish?

13:43
doesn't amanda present a necessary question for feminism? obviously, amanda isn't just a bimbo. we see her rationalizing, negotiating, feeling. it's just that we may have different priorities or weigh factors differently from her. ex: "on one hand, i've known daniel for years. but on the other hand, tyler's a model. so it's kind of even, right?"

16:08
nah uh, he better not play our betty!

19:07
the bumblebee that needed glasses, by betty suarez. possibly fan fiction?

also, it's so awkward to hear betty say that she can't believe he's into her because as a viewer, i feel as though i'm supposed to feel that. but as someone trying to claim my own shit, i want to push against that. like, of course, betty, he's into you. let's see if he knows why he's into you. or how he's into you. make this on your terms, girl.

22:05
amanda: "aren't there state laws against going from one brother to the next?"
marc: "probably in texas, 'cause you're not allowed to do anything there."

is that new york or just liberal america? lolz

26:53
queer mentoring & talking about love. even if at this moment, we are to believe that justin does in fact have a crush on this girl lily. marc's repeated this motif of being alone (& lonely) several times this episode, too. making me think about queer love & the aspirations we have for it, however seemingly out of reach.

28:08
ouch! so heartbreaking. i almost wanna say that it's more heartbreaking in this case b/c betty was dating a white guy. not to say that heartbreakers are more prevalent in our communities, but for me at least, i'd say that it'd take more to invest myself emotionally in a relationship w/ a white guy than w/ another person of color. but then that begs the question: why do or should i have an easier time investing emotionally in a relationship w/ a man of color? racial bonding as insurance? if our love is false, then at least we got some racial connection going? lolz wtf?

29:44
justin looks so fly! i need to take some notes myself! let's talk about young people driving fashion trends, shall we?

33:28
yes, betty. punch his face. what is that being spontaneous crap? are you really trying to manipulate her? that's so disrespectful! the punch was pretty telling here, right? it's like, actually, what betty wants to do is keep her self-respect, leave your ass, and punch your face. BAM!

35:03
well, THAT wasn't MY first queer kiss! :(
but it was pretty magical!!!! i hope all the kiddies are watching at home.

37:13
"every time i feel like i'm moving forward, someone reminds me that i'm still just the dork, with glasses and braces."

i love this line because it resonates with me. not in the sense that i was the said dork with glasses and braces but in the sense of the dork as a construction, one that does not deserve something better. i think this is a really raw moment because underneath all the personal push to strive for our best versions of ourselves, to claim what's been denied of us, there's still that anxiety or insecurity, that even though i deserve to be happier, i may not get it.

as betty pushes back on hilda: "what if nothing changes?"

37:52
can we talk about how amazingly wise hilda is? & the beautiful way that the show is interweaving justin's and betty's struggles? so what does this acceptance/embrace of our selves leading to reinvention look like?

40:14
oh no, is wilhelmia gonna go all out now that the series will be ending? :( i was hoping for a different direction.

41:00
yes, homegirl is turning down this boy. for herself.

ricky martin & queer narrativities

2010-04-01T01:09:00.002-04:00

ricky martin came out! just wanted to bring your attention to this fabulous post by lorenzo herrera y lozano, on why ricky's coming out matters:

"My coming out process was stumped by the fact that I could not even imagine my queerness, let alone live it. At the time, the saturation of gayness was mostly strictly white. It wasn’t until queer brown men like Jaime Cortez and Emanuel Xavier fearlessly (or perhaps fearfully) exposed their work and their bodies to the sun of public criticism, that I was able to imagine myself."

for more reactions, check out this post.

countdown liveblogging: ugly betty (fire & nice)

2010-03-26T02:17:00.002-04:00

have i mentioned that one of my favorite 2 shows of all time is ugly betty? for so many reasons. i am so sad that abc has decided to continue end the series after this season. but let's talk about that situation for a second.

my other favorite show of all time, felicity, created by j.j. abrams before alias & lost, suffered a similar fate! first season was hella strong, and then ratings fell. and the network showed it on ridiculous nights (like the weekend), so of course the series did even worse, to the point of no return. (w/ felicity, some people linked its cancellation to keri russell's haircut too. can we get some analysis about women & bodies in the media please?) i think it's fascinating (really!) that beyond their similar histories on air, both shows are about young women coming into their own. in college. and in the beginning of her career. despite the difference in gender and body, they reflect(ed) my place in life!

after this season, i won't have ugly betty either. will have to buy the boxset but won't get to make new memories anymore. however, i am hoping that there may be an ugly betty movie. after shows like sex & the city have found their revival in the movies, this may not be such a crazy idea after all.

in any case, to honor the series, i will be liveblogging my reactions as i am watching the last episodes from here on out. it's a private and special viewing relationship i have with the series, so i want to share that with y'all. love, tobes. :)

00:10
love the dramatic title bits! and the face match bit.

00:43
are teenagers as in love with lady gaga as my friends and i? i've been tutoring these middle schoolers and this boy just told me that he started listening to and likes justin bieber's songs. like do they really love (or only like) lady gaga? and if so, on what levels? the contents of her songs? the way she projects this eccentric and unbelievable persona? the way she manipulates pop culture in her music videos & new media like her twitter to cultivate a fan culture? or just for the pure visual imagery? i mean, there's this whole artistic & theoretical conversation about her work (another blog post i found about "telephone")!

1:08
hilda just explained that she has clients coming to betty's apartment so she can charge manhattan prices. is anyone paying attention to these little details? they're genius! what other show on tv do you see people talking about this? either in documentary form about the economic hierarchy of new york city or in dramas/comedies? this is a new yorker 2 new yorker moment. (felicity was set in new york, too.)

1:38
in the series, betty lived on her own for a while, moved back home, and started living on her own again. however, her family's house burned down, so they're living together in betty's manhattan apartment. betty just left the house. girl, i know how tough it is to live with your fam once you've had a taste of freedom!

2:04
don't you think daniel feels less of a grown than he should be on paper? like eric mabius is playing him mad young in persona. like equals with betty. so awkward. their relationship is so fascinating, but i'm not interested in commenting on it.

2:16
i love america ferrera but it's difficult for me to pinpoint what i love about her. it's totally out of respect for her as an actor of color but i don't know how to describe much else beyond that. this scene in the hallway reminds me of why. she infuses this bit of personality in her reaction in her facial expression that i really got a sense of betty as a persona. or character.

2:42
let's mention that i love the ways that we have seen wilhelmia get vulnerable and strengthen emotionally, personally. and we learn that she has had to suppress her old self to become the person that she is. and yet, we see wanda popping out every now and then! i love it!!!

3:26
racial politics moment here. wilhelmia trying to get down with this guy from her past as wanda. she actually went, heyyyy! see marc's confused reaction? this is some racialized scene! wanda assimilates into the white-dominated professional world & now wilhelmia is trying to reclaim her old self to connect with this guy from her past!

4:47
marc sat justin down ready to talk about first queer sexual experiences but then realizes that's not what justin is here for! lmao.. hilarious sneak-in about mentorship in our queer communities. yup, just for us who are part of them or thinking about it.

5:29
amanda just projected an imagined soap opera storyline to what papi was gonna say. there's a nod to telenovelas & the frankfurt school's (adorno?) work on media effects.

6:11
hilda and bobby in the car talking about who burned down her house. i love these moments and conversations that are marked as "queens" (or "other"). it's so cleverly displayed. we understand these moments to be "over there" or "ethnic" but not necessarily positioned as such. very double consciousness, right?

8:38
omg that is so embarrassing!!! betty is giving a less than stellar presentation and she opens her laptop and has to clean off this gelatinous dessert on her keyboard! she would!!!

9:11
justin's video is exactly what i want to do.

11:25
wtf why is this fireman so awkward?! queens lolzzz

16:07
why is betty always dating white guys?! even the guys she meets from queens are white! wack. but i do love the cattiness of this moment between marc and betty! ahaha

17:53
amanda: "they don't have girls like me ANYWHERE." yes. digging that line!

18:15
watching vanessa williams bring back wanda. omg she is hilarious!!!! she got the racial hang ups bit down! <3 her.

22:18
one day i'm gonna watch the whole series and write something about wilhelmia and betty's relationship as women of color. this is too good!!! but the asian restaurant? i could do without.

23:26
wilhelmia struggling as wanda: "well, you know, haters love to hate." U KNOW WHAT I MEAN?!??!! LOL

25:12
bobby is italian? i thought he'd be black, or black & white. interesting difference in racial identifying, right?

27:04
wilhelmia just referred to justin as a "she." this isn't comical. it's critical. as a text.

the commercial for google goggles takes place at washing square park. this is quite a new york city experience.

31:18
wilhelmia: "no, betty suarez is not my friend. and i'm not going back to some tenement mudhut in little mexico!"
betty: "i live in chelsea.

LMAO

34:39
this is so fascinating. everyone else, including the viewer, sees (or is supposed to read) justin as gay or queer but justin himself does not. he has a crush on a girl named lily. getting the viewer to engage in a moment like this, like having to think about sexual identity markers, is a rare moment in primetime television, don't you think?

41:02
omg hilda and bobby!!!!!! too cute!!!!

the necessity of logo & other identity-based platforms

2010-02-17T00:44:00.007-05:00

this is not a defense of logo & other identity-based cultural platforms, but a declaration of their necessity. i hear a lot of artists who resist being neatly categorized by their niche (in another word, identities). and i hear the ways that we as a mainstream consuming audience disregard channels like oxygen or lifetime with a certain condescension or lesser legitimacy. and i think about the failure of mtv chi, desi, and k (thank you, ecaasu). i'm less interested in establishing a need for a corporate-run channel for queers (in those specific terms), against some complexities of that whole structural mess as i am in discussing why i do love logo and similar platforms for cultural work (a ground-up view?).

in other words, i'm less interested in teasing out the industrialization/corporatization of the queer community or the tokenization of logo as a channel (& associative websites) among channels. (also i want to emphasize here that i'm actually largely talking about the logo tv website because i consume my "television" primarily via the web.) in any case, instead of all that, i'm interested in what role logo plays in sustaining an active imaginary and offering us texts and narratives with which to consider and perhaps even perform our identities and relationships. what does and can logo mean for queers?

i'm really attracted to a theory of "narrativity" when it comes to talking about how our lives are mediated by, well, mass media. i've written a bit about it before. and i think what logo enables us to do is to expand our range of narratives, to provide more possibilities for queers to imagine themselves as queers, as other kinds of people, as lives. not from an identity-blind marketplace but specifically within a queer context. and i think the power of that is that it enables queers to begin piecing together their identities and narratives in a more cohesive way. underlying in that analysis is this willingness to de-essentialize identities while fully recognizing the ways that we understand and work with identities. so identities are basically referential points with lived dimensions. that may be a poor definition but i think it works here.

and obviously, we have to make room for the ways that queers piece together these narratives. nothing is absorbed at face value, or so i'd like to believe. too often, the objection i hear from bloggers of color criticizing certain unpleasant representations of people of color is that the representations are racist and will perpetuate this direct behavior. case in point: rosie making ching chong speech. it's wack but we can't just reduce the issue to the possibility of having more people imitate ching chong speech. beau sia did a great job of addressing the specific incident, but there is still more to address. there are more dimensions to oppression at work.

in the field of educational studies, i have found anne dyson's the brothers and sisters learn to write to offer some useful insight here. it documents the different ways that young children make use of the "textual toys" around them, like gospel and pop songs, movies, and other expressions (mass media offers textual toys most influentially these days, right?). what i draw from her work is that there are complexities to the ways that we play with the "textual (& narrative) toys" that we have and deal with. the narrativity lens offers room for that negotiation. if i am a queer, how will i play with performances such as wearing a&f and narratives such as finding a boo at the club and engaging in a sexually active relationship? it's obviously not just a simple 1:1 ratio, though i'm sure it does happen. i may choose to adopt narratives of wearing brands that are more reflective of my racial and socioeconomic class and live in a way that plugs into a certain legacy of activism as demonstrated by queers of color. as an example.

all this is partly to say that there is something really deep about this cliche thirst for representations that are reflective of who we think we are. there is something really powerful about spaces like queer or asian american film festivals. yes, there's certainly a practical element of providing a channel of distribution for indie work that is for us, by us. but many of these film festivals are community events, not just industry. i appreciate them for the ideological context of viewing these films or shorts as part of a festival, as part of a program, for their place within a cinematic heritage of our community and its narratives. and yes, there is certainly a process of producing nationalism here, and i love that. we need it.

what about people say we are or should be reaching toward a post-racial society? much of the response i've encountered is: "we are not post-racial because there is still discrimination." as in, a lived substance that suggests this. yes, that's a fine response to suspicions of a post-racial society. but let's be real. underneath that post-racial talk is this understanding of racial identification as a deficit (we know what you mean, chris matthews). or really, any social identity. as in, "i'm gay but i'm just like anybody else. it doesn't define me" (anyone else watching real world dc?). i'm tired of seeing that. i want to see more people saying, "being asian defines a big part of me and in a positive way." sort of like ewan mcgregor talking about his latest film being gay and good, not "good and not just gay." i'm interested in this ideological element.

the post-racial issue strikes me ideologically, because we still gravitate toward identities -- racial or otherwise -- to understand folks. why else would straight people be so damn concerned about who's queer and who's not? who's really black and who's not? knowing someone by their identities helps us to locate them in our "matrix of intelligibility," but we have to also make room for queering that shit up! i think these identity-based platforms like logo are political in that they explicitly rearrange the game to say, "these are our different experiences, and with all of our queerness, not despite of it." they begin to offer a more nuanced negotiations of identity, and ultimately, of themselves, because the narrativity frame (or i guess the matrix of intelligibility too) is enlarged and given more dimension. so logo helps us to read people in more nuanced ways (even if still more broadly considered as "lgbt") and to help us understand ourselves. how do i understand myself in a queer relationship? it's totally related to my love for sade.

the pressure is still on to produce really compelling cultural work though. this is actually what led me to write this entry. i was able to come across some really amazing work on logo's site. rupaul's drag race (entry to come on season 2!). u people (must see!). east side story (which i discovered via latino and queer film festivals). and other full length movies.

why are u so obsessed with me?: sade

2010-02-13T12:48:00.004-05:00

you know what to know why i'm so in love with sade's music? here's why:

i've been thinking a lot about represented/lived narratives of personhood, like specifically around how we embody the different identities that we take on, and the extension, of relationships. as in, is the way i understand myself necessarily centered on a certain identity lens, like race? or like, if i am committed to living as whole, with all of my complexities and identities, then what does that narrative of personhood look like? and specifically in cultural work, like television shows and music, if the artist's work is a reflection of themselves, then what does, let's say, asian american cinema looks like? the criticism is often that much of ethnic and queer media (films, music?) suck because they're so overly concerned with these questions of race or sexuality, that they rob the personas of depth. so if we are concerned with giving depth of persona & still embodying these critical issues of identity, then what kind of narrative of personhood do we get?

in the process of making meaning and art production, can we tell stories of oppression, survival, and empowerment in simple love songs? in our mainstream media, are we really receiving just sorta race-neutral art or are we receiving art that is actually talking about oppression and a certain experience of marginalization (i wish i can articulate a better term for what i mean!), that acknowledges systemic oppression? i think sade gives us a really good case about this.

i'm defining mainstream media as in, the corporate entities and their extensions -- i suppose this includes many mainstream, white-sphere (?) blogs too. maybe perez hilton, under (legal or ideological) extensions? so in the case of erykah badu, or jill scott, they are in the mainstream every once in a while but still only to a certain level of inclusion. we probably did not hear access hollywood or e! plugging their albums, right? the coverage is still pretty white except for certain people of color (maybe denzel, will smith, george lopez, jennifer lopez?). and in most cases, they're still other-ed (white family vs. black family, latino family, asian family) or doing race-neutral/safe things. so we don't really hear about critical artists in these top mainstream media sources.

(and it's not that artists like erykah badu or jill scott are always producing work that explicitly speaks to people of color experiences, like via racial terms, but their work often does in content and sentiment.)

the way i discovered sade was actually via access hollywood, when "by your side" came out in 2000 (noting my entry into american pop cultural memory as a 1.5 generation baby growing up). i didn't know how to find my niche media or whatever (like ethnic media) at the time, so i was consuming mostly american mainstream pop media. and i remember liking the song so much that i downloaded her whole album. it slowly grew on me, and the more listens i gave to the album, the more meaning i made of it. and now, ten years later, she comes out with "soldier of love," and i'm seeing this whole other dimension to her work.

"soldier of love" is, as many bloggers/tweeters have noted, HOT.

"i've lost the use of my heart
but i'm still alive
still looking for the life
the endless pool on the other side
it's a wild wild west
i'm doing my best

i'm at the borderline of my faith,
i'm at the hinterland of my devotion,
in the frontline of this battle of mine
but i'm still alive"

i think in the mainstream audience, the interpretation is primarily that the lyrics has a very vivid metaphor of love (as we understand it via mainstream artworks, primarily or probably as between two white, straight people). but it's not just hot because it has this catchy theme going. in fact, i think this song deals with fighting for social and economic justice, from this place of (radical?) love. i mean, reading the lyrics in written form makes me think of langston hughes and maya angelou's work. or lorraine hansberry. and "soldier is love" can be interpreted to talk about survival via the ways that we empower ourselves and struggle through our oppression, even in the ways that we love other people. as alanis morissette has done with her work, the message blurs the personal and the political ("the micro is the macro") because they are intertwined.

so actually, sade's work is political. without using what is commonly perceived and understood racial markers, like racial references, and without neatly fitting into genres. it's political beyond the calm she creates amidst a lot of the loud music that we get, as fourfour talks about. in intensity and content, her songs show a certain context that comes to life for many marginalized folks, especially those working toward a certain vision of justice or love.

which other songs off the new album is banging? um, all of them. here's why:

the moon and the sky. i love this song because it makes me think about the ways that we come to feel attracted to certain people. it isn't always this irrational, romanticized infatuation that we understand from taylor swift. the meditation that sade offers in this song is so rarely subtly demonstrated in love songs.

morning bird. makes me think about the way we consent to power in a relationship. the way we invest in one and the reluctant way that we stick to it.

safest place. evokes a clear sense of protection and love. reminds me of "the sweetest gift" from by your side. it has a sense of mysticism and faith that demonstrates the way that love can make us believe in a certain spirituality or divinity, beyond the scientific world (not trying to use these as religious terms).

be that easy. love is more than, well, love. this makes me think about the ways that love can manifest in a relationship. "that's just like you to tell me, i've nothing to fear." this song acknowledges that our lives are more than the love that we experience. could she be alluding to the ways that we struggle through personal and systemic oppression? and even so, love is real and has a role, especially between two who go through it too or together. and sade didn't have to say much about it.

babyfather. beautiful. more convinced that her songs are political. a mother is telling her child about how the parents met. the narrative style is gradual and, again, meditative. i think this song really speaks to those of us who have questioned the way we interpret love and history, really many folks of color. like what does love really look like in our communities? how is it not like a fairy tale? the parents may or may not be together (legally or emotionally). but there's no bitterness there. like almost because we need to remember love. for our families. for our communities. for resilience? i mean, sade pretty much sums it up with this line: "it's only love, love, love, love, can make you feel this way." like even if it wasn't love (and it could very well be that), love will have me telling this story in this way. love is like draped all over this song.

in another time. i could have used this song about a year or four ago. this song speaks to a very precise feeling and moment. it reminds me of mariah carey's "h.a.t.e.u." because it speaks to a personal process of transition. like you know you can do better, that it's just the context, that you can grow from this. you're kinda dwelling on the moment, and you just have to start moving on, looking ahead. this song is all about the potency (and complexity) of rebirth, closure, and survival.

long hard road. the spirit of this song reminds me of the freedom songs. i'm not saying that this is a cousin form of a freedom song for our time, but i think it can act with a similar (though not the same) purpose through the mass distribution, capitalist system through which we receive music. the context that i'm creating for this song is that for some, this is a song about how life can get tough, but for others, this song is about, our lives are indeed tough, and we just got to remember to keep struggling.

bring me home. i don't have much a connection with this song, but i do appreciate the imagery. listening to it makes me want to sit with this song some more.

skin. what a beautiful closure song. makes me think about the way that we wear our histories. and investments. and love. i actually don't want to talk anymore about it because you should just experience it on your own.

i'm not sure how sade articulates her experiences beyond what we can base from her songs but i don't think it's necessary for her to have an academic/intellectual analysis a la audre lorde to produce work that allows us to have this meaningful spiritual connection. all this to say that i love sade's particular prominence in the mainstream media or sphere, because i think she has a lot of substance behind her work. also, i love the migration flows (hers, mine, the music) that make this relationship the way it is.

i hope i've convinced you to get her music. it's totally worth it!

liveblogging: b. scott interviews mariah carey!

2010-01-24T16:07:00.009-05:00

meant to do this last month, but youtube suspended b. scott's channel so i had to wait for its reappearance. i will be blogging through the video instead of offering a necessarily cohesive analysis.

00:15
ooh, that is so interesting. b. scott and mariah talking about negotiating biracial identities!

00:27
b. scott froze on mimi and nick cannon's reactions to his question about having kids. nick looks so into it but mariah looks like she just rolled her eyes. uh oh!

00:49
is the b. scott a personal project or a deal with someone? either way, this web-based show is totally cool! are we seeing a new development in new media?

01:15
"that's just our thing," says mariah carey on their crazy hello. so being friends with mariah can get you personalized acts of greeting (no handshakes; just diva performances!). always being creative, our mimi.

01:26
being friends with mariah also means getting to hear her vocalize expressions or titles in song, such as "with you again." sounds good to me! rich juzwiak, i would probably try to make a hilarious video of the one-liners from this interview. i'm thinking of this one in particular.

10:53
in the middle of her thought, mariah realizes that she is taped and then proceeds to point out that camera should not focus on her nails because they are hideous. this is a true diva. always ready to keep her reputation polished and tabloid-free.

11:06
mariah talks about having chipped nails as "vamp" back in the day and b. scott likens it to tru blood. i don't think that's what she meant but she goes, "yeah!" anyway. i'm a little confused, but we didn't really need the awkwardness!

11:50
i love that both mariah and b. scott bonded over "it's a wrap." specifically when they're setting up the situation about a partner who comes home late and pretends nothing is wrong, like "heyyy. you still up?" hah!

12:29
mimi is holding herself back from revealing details about the memoirs remix album! i love witnessing this torture she is going through! oh and i loved when she was like, "he said sexual, i said sensual" like she was gonna dapple some perfume on herself.

12:58
i love the commitment to music that mariah demonstrates through talking about the jodeci remix of "impossible." it really shows me how passionate she is about it.

UPDATE: i just realized that some of my comments didn't come through! mainly the comments after 13:00. womp womp! will try to catch these things in the future!

miley cyrus's betrayal: pop culture bust!

2009-12-23T04:02:00.009-05:00

i've been thinking a lot about my role as a consumer of pop culture, and that thinking includes a certain degree of ambivalence about the term itself. consumer of pop culture. what is my relationship to pop culture, exactly? a fan seems like an elementary, reductive (although obvious) answer. isn't it deeper than that?

remember the news story that revealed that miley cyrus has actually never heard a jay-z song? and worse, she made these following statements:

"I didn't write the song - I picked that song because I needed something to go with my clothing line."

"I don't listen to pop music, that's not my style of music."

"It turned out for the best. It was really unexpected."

wow. can you believe it? i felt so mad at her. we were already on pretty shaky terms from the wack chinky eye photo. first, it was discovering that she's really immature. now it's discovering that she's not even a real artist. it's one thing to reach that opinion on your own, but when it is proven by the singer herself, it's material for this blog.

the quotes from that interview on "party in the u.s.a." are absolutely hilaridiculous (yes, both hilarious and ridiculous). i really hope her publicist gave her a lot of crap for saying it. in this case (unlike racist ideas), banning her from saying it is enough. i don't need her to change her opinion. i just want her to stop embarrassing herself and everyone who participated in a fan culture around the song. other than making her look like a poser, it makes me feel ridiculous for participating in the fan culture around the song. i was willing to overlook past differences in the name of celebrating our shared love for pop culture.

i like the song. the song itself is a celebration of pop culture, nationalism, and youthfulness. that is a pretty rare and positive song. in my book, it is a great life accomplishment. whoever wrote that song should feel proud of marking history with a decent song that is not playing on cliche or trendy themes or messages. i mean, the song is about being young, putting yourself out there, and enjoying your position in a greater legacy or historical process (a.k.a. nationalism). a nod to united states pop culture, despite the wackness of its history. it makes a special mention to jay-z and britney, and their names have certainly become iconized references, marking an evocation of time and space (turn of the 21st century u.s.a.).

returning to the quote, i want to summarize her offenses:
1. lying to the entire pop cultural community, which is way bigger than her.
2. trivializing the relationship between artist and artwork.
3. dismissing the merits of her own song by attributing its success to luck.

other than miley being young and, sadly related in this case, naive, why does she suggest that her music isn't pop music, thereby not pop culture? does she really think her music must be boldly categorized as rock? do we really need to reinforce the genre distinction of rock like it's that special? really? if i were her, i'd be the first to stick with those who say genres are wack and unproductive.

as a consumer, i am disappointed that she has never listened to a jay-z song. to me, she lied about it and that is unacceptable. especially as one artist to another (reactions from jay-z?). that line from her song means something to its listeners. it creates a bond among listeners of jay-z's music, which she claims but falsely. i mean, so many of us can trace our lives according to our consumption of pop culture. i'm not jay-z's #1 fan but my participation in pop culture includes me being introduced to him via "hardknock life" in 1998 and learning that he's from brooklyn. to mock that relationship, to fake that emotional investment in a culture feels hurtful. it is manipulative and it cheapens our experience. if you are going to claim that you are so separate from pop culture (which, she isn't), then at least do us the decency of respecting cultural boundaries (beyond those around rock) even in choosing your records.

okay, fine. miley is not a fan of pop culture. but does she even know what a fan of pop culture is? it seems like to me, she is not aware even of the ways in which fans, consumers, lovers of pop culture come to their relationship to the artist. it is more than just a hit record. it is the emotional exchange that happens. britney means a lot to her fans, because we have evolved together. her music became part of my upbringing, even through college, while she went through all that personal drama and worked her way to a comeback. i mean, i do notice her being much lazier with her choreography, but i still love her records. that is the relationship that miley should be aiming for. if only she really knew what pop culture is about. that pop culture kind of devoted love, you certainly want to have. mariah carey knows that (more on her soon!).

what i do appreciate about this song is that it really gets going an internal conversation about national identity, and hopefully for others, the process of nationalism. when we do hear a jay-z or britney song, what emotions does it evoke and in which contexts? how do we carry personal memory of it? and yes, jay-z and britney have consumers all over the globe but the distinction is that we are living and breathing the same national culture that produced it. it's a shout-out, but it feels more special than if jay-z were to give a shout-out to brooklyn on stage at a concert. it's actually a shout-out that happens via the relationship that we have to the song. it's an abstract shout-out, in a collective or shared consciousness. in this collective consciousness, our domestic pop cultural sphere gets a shout out as part of a national state and its process. on another level, such as with international listeners, the u.s. of a. gets a shout out as part of the global cultural community. that's pretty neat, no?

in any case, i hope miley cyrus learned her lesson. there are some serious artists out there, and it may be worthwhile for her to get more critical about her art instead of trying to grow a commercial empire. i know the bucks speak loudly but hasn't britney's "oops i did it again" taught her anything? oh wait, maybe she wouldn't know!

how to determine which albums are timeless.

2009-12-19T20:16:00.003-05:00

i have only one real criterion to determine which albums are worth my emotional investment. basically, i know it's worth it when the album evolves with me. my first several listens usually yield a particular bunch of songs as speaking to me on this deep and spiritual level, and then my subsequent waves of listening yield different sets of songs, with new meanings and connections. it becomes ever-so-clear that we have a relationship going when i find myself thinking, oh wow, why haven't i noticed this song before this moment?

how many albums can you really say that about? keep a tally, folks! i should, too. :D

what i've been watching, part 2

2009-12-15T02:44:00.002-05:00

what else have i been watching? here's some more:

community

wasn't sure how i felt about it until like episode 3 or 4. ecletic characters somehow all interacting at this community college, which totally fits the freshness of the premise. it's like a hilarious experiment. amazing cast who represent their characters so well. some of the episodes so far have been confronting jeff's egotism/elitism which definitely extends to common social values, which makes it pretty subversive. and i love that in the way that these hilarious (but not tokenizing) characters of color are central to the show, that different kinds of personalities otherwise deemed lame or wack are so centrally featured. like the socially "charming" white man (how do u articulate that? like the successful (white) narrative) is not all that and a bag of chips. lots of smart racial/ethnic/cultural politics.

the office

by now who doesn't love the office? it's so freakin' good. folks i know have raised some dissatisfaction with some aspects of the show. but after so many seasons, i have mostly love for the show. i love that i got to watch through the romance between jim and pam. and i love the supporting characters, like oscar and phyllis. there's def also movement in the show, as in jim's promotion this season. love it. keep it up.

parks & recreation

i'm sad that i didn't catch the first few episodes of the series back late last spring. and then i saw it this fall and thought, ok, great premise but was kind of a combination of 30 rock and the office. like a jack donaghy-like boss and rashida jones' persona on both shows. love her, but she's just like the sane woman in a relationship. and videowork too. but still, i love it. amy poehler is hilarious and the rest of the cast is great. i also appreciate the details of the work, like even to the picture of madeleine albright in leslie's office. and the office building's racist paintings. oh and i love tom haverford, played by aziz ansari. also kinda crushing on chris pratt, who plays andy dwyer. definitely appreciate this show for the social and political commentary!

ugly betty

what other show follows a latino family from jackson heights? this show is a freakin' landmark in american pop culture. this is like the adult version of dora the explorer, you know? totally touching hella people like dora does for tons of young kids (of color). love the details, like that betty graduated from queens college, and i love all the politics of the show, except for an earlier storyline about affirmative action. that was handled poorly. and i am totally with betty's growth because i totally identify with her!!! <3 her.

not sure what i'll do in the next couple of weeks while my shows are on like their winter break hiatus. maybe new shows? like for the love of ray j or jersey shore? will keep you posted.

what i've been watching, part 1

2009-12-13T02:34:00.002-05:00

i admit. i've been lazy with the blogging. i had several ideas but they didn't go very far. and now we're going into the mid-season breaks. i just thought i'd do a run-down of what i've been watching, by order of day of week that it airs. not that i watch it on tv. i <3 hulu. here goes:

the simpsons

i feel like i watch this show out of habit. i grew up watching it, stopped for a while, and now i'm doing it because i've always sorta done it. out of ritual. i don't really hate or dislike the storylines, but i don't love them either. not a great range of emotions when i watch it. consistency is commendable too, right?

the cleveland show

wasn't a huge fan of family guy, but this is different. maybe because i spent the past summer in the virginia-maryland-d.c. area and features p.o.c. characters centrally. while kind of twisted and problematic, the politics of the show is still amusing if i think of the politics as a conversation between text and reader rather than as a yet another way that folks are brainwashed into participating in racism. definitely appealing that nia long is in it, but was disappointed to find hella white folks doing the voices and production. was hoping for a fubu situation; that'd make me love it.

brothers & sisters

never thought i'd love a show about all upper middle class white folks as much as i do. this show is SMART with the capital S. reminds me that partisan politics can be exciting if both sides are arguing intelligently and not via lowly and distastefully. love that this family varies in partisan affiliation, that they argue about on the show, that rob lowe plays a decent and smart republican (are they out there?! and i don't mean sexy older men), that they've brought refreshing storylines about the iraq war/veteran recovery, alcoholism and drug addiction, same sex marriage, adoption, cancer. the kinds of love that this family illustrates so poignantly gives me hope for living and for social justice thinking.

gossip girl

i'm not sure how i relate to the show as a viewer. i definitely love the cheesiness/guilty pleasure narration. i definitely love the actors. and bits of wealth that it represents. like if shows are recognized as collective imaginations, then i really love this imagination's creativity and ability to run with it. within the parameters of this concept of the rich life. but if this shit is real, then dang, i kind of need help understanding that.

heroes

why am i still watching this show? i just saw a blog post today that shows the declining representation of people of color on this show with every season, too. at first i was all into this supernatural storyline, like these folks are just getting in touch with their powers. but then they got all weird and crazy!!! and now it's hella convoluted and mysterious, but in like an annoying kind of way. also, i have found new shows that are kind of way better! but i am kind of a loyal viewer, so i hope this gets canceled soon (ain't that deep?).

america's next top model (the short model cycle!)

wow, i am so proud that i got through a whole cycle of antm. for some reason a lot of people assume i watch it. like how one of my professors thinks that i'm into trashy reality television when i said i like watching tv shows. gay interpellation? i tried watching a few times so i've been bits of a few seasons. in the past, i liked the show but found the drama to be too much. it's too weird to watch a show that so heavily dramatizes drama between 2 women. i like to watch drama, but that made me feel so gross watching it like that. but, seeing as how this cycle is about short models and features an asian american contestant (um, i was sad to have missed the season with sheena!), i couldn't resist. after all, the stampede incident during the auditions period did hype it up. so i watched and just kept watching. the drama was still wack, but i did enjoy challenges and the feedback portions. also, justice was kind of served when both the final two weren't really wack.

modern family

i applaud the creators of the show. it is so smart! i love social commentary, and this show is all about it, even from the premise. you got a typical white suburban family, a gay couple with a transracial adoptee, and an interracial couple in which there is an older white man and a younger immigrant woman of color. for some, it may be a little hard to swallow at first, but then you realize it's delicious! love the depth and humanity they give to the characters and the different relationships. if need to sum up in one word: fun.

glee

it's not my favorite show but i love it a lot. brings up a whole bunch of issues, ranging from masculinity, coming out, sex education, social identity development, and elements of race. the musical numbers are usually exciting. love the potential of the diversity. hasn't loved all of what we have seen though. and i love that eve was on the last few episodes! <3 eve. the last episode got me so emotional, watching the group evolve.

project runway (the inaugural cycle on lifetime!)

totally watched this because i'm a loyal viewer and i'm really into the design competition. i love that it features the drama minimally and is more focused around the content of the competition. didn't love the personalities, but i guess it's impressive that the top 3 designers were all women (though it should more common!). for the most part, i didn't love the designs either. i miss the christian siriano talents, you know?

it's always sunny in philadelphia

heard a lot of buzz about it. wanted to watch it because it was set in philadelphia, but never got into it. until now. watching it over the summer with a particular group of friends, i was surprised at how it was nothing like i remembered and have made it one of those shows i put on the background or when i'm looking for something amusing. i like it, especially how d-baggy the guys are, but it's not like my thursday sitcoms on nbc.

grey's anatomy

definitely a loyal consumer situation. but i do love it. the emotional heartstring pulling works for me, and i don't hate meredith as much as many other consumers do. i love eric dane. i also love sandra oh and chandra wilson, so if they go, i will probably go too. love the way they covered queer women, especially with dr. torres's new relationship. glad that izzy is gone. i love the depth they show in the relationships, how we get bit by bit. i don't think i love this season's twist with the merger, but i'll keep watching.

flashforward

at first, i was kind of turned off. already found fringe, so it felt like a cheaper knockoff. however, they got me hooked with this relationship between the characters played by john cho & gabrielle union. love both of them and everything that their on-screen relationship means. also love that one of the agents is queer. oh and the storyline is pretty fascinating.

fringe

i totally loved pacey, which led to a huge teenage infatuation with joshua jackson. and this doesn't help because it makes me love him more! this show got me into sci-fi. i never claimed that i was into sci-fi just because i loved lost. but this show sealed the deal. every episode is exciting. the story arcs are fabulous and will get you hooked. i'm still trying to figure out half the broader story arcs they got going on. love it. wish it success. at this rate, definitely see me staying excited for a few more seasons. of course, it helps to have been created by j.j. abrams, whose work i have loved since felicity.

30 rock

amazing cast and writers - tracy morgan, alec baldwin, etc.! have loved tina fey since mean girls. loves liz lemon and her appetite for meat. came to really appreciate the smartness of the show in the episode in which tracy morgan invited this porno video game and the story was constructed like the movie amadeus. and i love that the secretary is the same south asian actor as in weeds! ugh i feel like i can't tell you exactly how much i love it right now. great one-liners! definitively hilarious, except for a couple of bad asian jokes. also love the guest stars.

more on community; the office; parks & recreation; ugly betty... in part 2!

REPOSTED FROM CLUTCH MAGAZINE: a different reality (on nyc prep)

2009-11-05T21:51:00.002-05:00

i have notes here and there that lists the topics that i want to blog about. among them are responding to a couple asian american blog entries criticizing the bollywood and martial arts weeks on america's best dance crew + teasing out the difference in my reaction to gossip girl versus nyc prep. but it's been a while since i jotted those notes down.

i was pleasantly surprised to discover the following post. written by eva mckend (fellow swattie!), it confronts the reality of the processed representations of subcultures such as this one of the nyc private school elite. it deals with an angle that is different from what i had intended to address, but it still addresses an important element of the prep school scene. my exposure to the scene was largely through programs such as prep for prep, as in trying out for it (and not getting it!) and meeting folks who graduated from those programs.

anyway, enjoy :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A DIFFERENT REALITY

by Eva McKend
Clutch Magazine, July 2009

In the first grade, I sat on Ms. Spuches’ infamous tooth chair as I tried to flatten my large Afro with my fingers. “I want my hair to be straight like yours,” I said to Diana Ross, at the time one of the mothers of a classmate and friend. Her hair wasn’t exactly straight, but mine wasn’t either. In my eyes, it was worse—a thick tightly-coiled Afro that I would have given the world to change. By the fifth grade, with my fresh perm, I often voiced that my nose was too large and that when I was of age, I would be getting surgery to alter the size.

Thankfully, my God-given brown-skinned wide nose is still in its rightful place. However, as I reflect on some of the most difficult years of my life, the time I spent in a predominantly white affluent Jewish New York City private school, I am dumbfounded by our society’s relentless fascination with Gossip Girl and its now-staged reality version, NYC Prep.

There are a handful of Black students in each school. Some of us are wealthy like our white counterparts but many of us are not. Some of us live in luxury Manhattan apartments fully equipped with maids as we jet off to our Hampton vacation homes, but most of us do not. Some of our parents have the extraordinary means to spend $30,000 a year for this pristine education, but many of us are on scholarship funneled into these institutions through programs like A Better Chance, Early Steps and Prep for Prep. Our reality is not made for TV as we seldom frequent the same exclusive clubs and restaurants. In certain instances, we travel from outer New York City boroughs into Manhattan; for some, it’s a nearly two-hour commute.

With the installment of Bravo’s reality-series NYC Prep, there has been a swift response of embarrassment from Upper East Side parents as well as the home institutions of some of the teenagers featured on the show, one of which is my old stomping grounds. The show profiles six white teenagers and their lavish lifestyles, in all its excess. It’s safe to say that chickens are coming home to roost. I am grateful for the many opportunities private school afforded me, but during my youth, it taught me to hate myself. For thirteen years, accompanying every stage of my adolescent life, I was an outsider, desperately yearning for what everyone had around me. I learned to be embarrassed of skin tone, hair texture and address. As my white girlfriends went on their first dates, I was constantly met with the rejection of white males from whom I wrongfully sought validation.

“Have you seen it yet?” I asked my girlfriend. “Yea,” she responded. “I only wish we could’ve lived so carefree,” she added. As I started to talk to my friends, many of whom formerly attended these institutions, we all had the same question, “Where are all the black people on NYC Prep?”
Even though our realities are vastly different, they are still thronged with dramatic events. Imagine the life of a little black girl growing up in a predominantly white environment. Naturally most of her friends are white but as she grows older and the realities of race and class start to set in, the very same people who were her friends during her elementary years might pass her on the street without so much as a hello. Envision a beautiful black male, also growing up in this private school environment. He becomes a well-respected teenage fashion model and although he is tormented by the racist remarks consistently made by his peers, he doesn’t speak out in fear of complicating his comfortable social (popular) status, which all but erases his class differential. He consistently confides in the black girl previously mentioned, but their friendship is somewhat secret; he can’t be seen fraternizing with her—social suicide. Or how about a black girl with just as much, if not more, wealth, power and influence as her white counterparts forming a strong black female identity, despite not growing up around black people. Or we could envision a boy, raised in public housing by his mother, consistently allured by the lifestyle of the privileged, all the while never fully understanding that his actions will not be met with the same consequence. Black people represent New York City prep too but Bravo and NBC Universal do not want to invest in our reality.

Because no actual recording is permitted in any of the private schools that the students attend, much is missed. Many students of color attend these institutions not to make friends or engage in mindless frivolity but to get into good colleges. If we feel as though we did not achieve this primary goal by the journey’s end, it is as if we have failed, not only ourselves but also our families.

Rather than introduce new narratives, Bravo perpetuates white standards of beauty and superficial definitions of wealth. We don’t really understand anybody’s reality as the teenagers profiled are clearly coached and the scenarios staged. I challenge the American media to take on the story of students of color in New York City private schools but only if to do it justice. Rather than a reality series plagued with falsified interactions and artificial dialogue, I call for networks to purposefully and passionately script our stories. Sit down with black New York City private school students, both past and present. We have experienced a different reality. We too, have compelling stories to tell, unless of course our realities are too real for America.

REPOSTED FROM NYT: frank rich: in defense of the 'balloon boy' dad

2009-10-25T13:03:00.002-04:00

IN DEFENSE OF THE 'BALLOON BOY' DAD
by FRANK RICH (new york times)

FOR a country desperate for good news, the now-deflated “balloon boy” spectacle would seem to be the perfect tonic. As Wolf Blitzer of CNN summed up the nation’s unrestrained joy upon learning that the imperiled boy had never been in any peril whatsoever: “All of us are so excited that little Falcon is fine.”

Then came even better news. After little Falcon revealed to Blitzer that his family “did this for the show,” we could all luxuriate in a warm bath of moral superiority. No matter what our own faults as parents, we could never top Richard Heene, who mercilessly exploited his child for fame and profit. Nor could we ever be as craven as the news media, especially cable television, which dumped a live broadcast of President Obama in New Orleans to track the supersized Jiffy Pop bag floating over Colorado.

Or such are the received lessons of this tale.

Certainly the “balloon boy” incident is a reflection of our time — much as the radio-induced “War of the Worlds” panic dramatized America’s jitters on the eve of World War II, or the national preoccupation with the now-forgotten Congressman Gary Condit signaled America’s pre-9/11 drift into escapism and complacency in the summer of 2001. But to see what “balloon boy” says about 2009, you have to look past the sentimental moral absolutes. You have to muster some sympathy for the devil of the piece, the Bad Dad. And you can’t grant blanket absolution to those in the American audience who smugly blame Heene and television exclusively for the entire embarrassing episode.

It would be lovely, for instance, to believe that cable audiences doubled in size that afternoon because they were rooting for little Falcon’s welfare. But as Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler would say on Weekend Update at “Saturday Night Live,” “Really?!?” Many of those viewers were driven by the same bloodlust that spawns rubberneckers at every highway accident: the hope of witnessing the graphic remains of a crash, not a soft landing.

It would also be nice to think that the “balloon boy” viewers were the innocent victims of a dazzling Houdini-class feat of wizardry — a “massive fraud,” as Bill O’Reilly thundered. But even slightly jaundiced onlookers might have questioned how a balloon could waft buoyantly through the skies for hours with a 6-year-old boy hidden within its contours. That so few did is an indication of how practiced we are at suspending disbelief when watching anything labeled news, whether the subject is W.M.D.’s in Iraq or celebrity gossip in Hollywood.

“They put on a very good show for us, and we bought it,” the local sheriff, Jim Alderden, said last weekend, when he alleged that “balloon boy” was a hoax. His words could stand as the epitaph for an era.

In this case, the show wasn’t even that good. But, as usual, the news media nursed it along, enlisting as sales reps for the smoke and mirrors. While the incident unfolded, most TV anchors hyped rather than questioned the aeronautical viability of a vehicle resembling the flying saucers in Ed Wood’s camp 1950s sci-fi potboiler, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” But no sooner had the balloon been punctured than the press was caught in another flimflam. Reuters and CNBC delivered the bombshell that the United States Chamber of Commerce had abruptly reversed its intransigent opposition to climate-change legislation. The “spokesperson” source turned out to be the invention of liberal activists who had attempted to stage a prank press conference at Washington’s National Press Club.

Next to the other hoaxes and fantasies that have been abetted by the news media in recent years, both the “balloon boy” and Chamber of Commerce ruses are benign. The Colorado balloon may have led to the rerouting of flights and the wasteful deployment of law enforcement resources. But at least it didn’t lead the country into fiasco the way George W. Bush’s flyboy spectacle on an aircraft carrier helped beguile most of the Beltway press and too much of the public into believing that the mission had been accomplished in Iraq. The Chamber of Commerce stunt was a blip of a business news hoax next to the constant parade of carnival barkers who flogged empty stocks on cable during the speculative Wall Street orgies of the dot-com and housing booms.

As “balloon boy” played out, the White House opened fire on one purveyor of fictional news, Fox News, where “tea party” protests are inflated into a national rebellion rivaling the Civil War and where Glenn Beck routinely claims Obama is perpetrating a conspiracy to bring fascism to America. But the White House’s argument is diluted by the different, if less malevolently partisan, fictions that turn up on Fox’s competitors. On CNN, for instance, Lou Dobbs provided a platform for the nuts questioning Obama’s citizenship. When an ABC News correspondent insisted that Fox was “one of our sister organizations” in an exchange with the president’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, last week, he wasn’t joking.

Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking. Norman Lear, about the only prominent American to express any empathy for little Falcon’s father, vented on The Huffington Post, calling out CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS alike for their role in “creating a climate that mistakes entertainment for news.” This climate, he argued, “all but seduces a Richard and Mayumi Heene into believing they are — even if what they dream up to qualify is a hoax — entitled to their 15 minutes.”

None of this absolves Heene of blame for the damage he may have inflicted on the children he grotesquely used as a supporting cast in his schemes. But stupid he’s not. He knew how easy it would be to float “balloon boy” when the demarcation between truth and fiction has been obliterated.

There’s also some poignancy in his determination to grab what he and many others see as among the last accessible scraps of the American dream. As a freelance construction worker and handyman, he couldn’t find much employment in an economy where construction is frozen and homeowners are more worried about losing their homes than fixing them. Once his appetite had been whetted by two histrionic appearances on “Wife Swap,” an ABC reality program, it’s easy to see why Heene would turn his life and that of his family into a nonstop audition for more turns in the big tent of the reality media circus.

That circus is among the country’s last dependable job engines. More than a quarter of prime-time broadcast television is devoted to reality programs. And so, with only a high-school education, Heene tried to reinvent himself as a cable-ready tornado-chasing scientist. Robert Thomas, a Web entrepreneur who collaborated with Heene on a pitch to ABC for a science-based reality show, saw the “balloon boy” stunt as a sad response to his economic plight. “I think in this case the desperation was too much for Richard to bear,” Thomas said in an interview with Gawker.com. (It’s no less desperate a sign of the times that Thomas insisted on being paid for his interview.)

Heene is a direct descendant of those Americans of the Great Depression who fantasized, usually in vain, that they might find financial salvation if only they could grab a spotlight in show business. Some aspired to the “American Idol” of the day — “Major Bowes Amateur Hour,” a hugely popular weekly talent contest on network radio. Others traveled the seedy dance marathon circuit, entering 24/7 endurance contests that promised food and prize money in exchange for freak-show degradation and physical punishment. Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel memorializing this Depression milieu was aptly titled “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

In 1939, the year that John Steinbeck published “The Grapes of Wrath,” his Depression classic about dispossessed Dust Bowl sharecroppers migrating to California’s Salinas Valley in search of work, Nathanael West published “The Day of the Locust,” about those equally destitute Americans who traveled to Hollywood hoping to land in the movies. “They have been cheated and betrayed,” West wrote. “They have slaved and saved for nothing.” He could have been describing Americans who lost their jobs, homes and 401(k)’s in our own Great Recession.

The role models for today’s desperate fame seekers are “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” not Gable and Lombard. But even if they catch a break, as Heene did on “Wife Swap,” they still may end up betrayed by a stacked system. As The Times reported in August, many reality shows are as cruel as the old dance marathons. The usual Hollywood workplace rules allowing breaks for rest or meals often don’t apply. Nor, sometimes, does the minimum wage. Let ’em eat fame.

If Heene’s balloon was empty, so were the toxic financial instruments, inflated by the thin air of unsupported debt, that cratered the economy he inhabits. The press hyped both scams, and the public eagerly bought both. But between the bogus balloon and the banks’ bubble, there’s no contest as to which did the most damage to the country. The ultimate joke is that Heene, unlike the reckless gamblers at the top of Citigroup and A.I.G., may be the one with a serious shot at ending up behind bars.

putting the community in community college (u saw it coming!)

2009-10-23T22:14:00.004-04:00

is anyone watching the new nbc sitcom, community? it follows this ecletic group of folks who are going through community college. at the center is (host of the soup) joel mchale's character, a former lawyer who got disbarred because of his not-so-legit college degree. not exactly my favorite part of the show, but he's a looker (first time using that!).

the group forms to study for spanish. spanish class is taught by senor chang, played by ken jeong. i love his role for the same reason that i love the show -- its racial (or more broadly, identity) droppings, meaning the references or play with race and other social identities. ken jeong is a comedian and his performance is so refreshing! he twists this mainstream perception of asians (or perhaps more appropriately, chinese folks) as wacky and inscrutable a la perpetual foreigner characterization found in crash + other hollywood productions, the internet hits (like the airport lady, the sf muni lady, and in some ways, mymomisafob.com), and even margaret cho's impersonation of her mother. this time, it's with humor and on the offense. the asian is not powerlessly inscrutable, but is fiercely articulate (as least by contrast!), equipped with a consciousness about the dominant representations of him/herself. so why teach spanish? precisely played on the show, linking it to folks' (the viewers, in a moment of viewer-as-other-characters) curiosity regarding why isn't he teaching math... or martial arts. that's pretty neat, in my book! i do have to admit, it's curious to see him being well-received by the same bloggers who also complain about less-than-assimilated/ing representations. i love that he's not some hot stud, but rather, he appeals to the viewer from a point of personality rather than from physical charm. i think that strengthens his performance, because given our (socially informed) public imagination, not-so-attractive asian folks just make more sense being kind of inscrutable and, relationally, other-ed.

i've been thinking about the unique concept of the show. the title is pretty telling. pretty much reveals the vision here to offer a constructed community, at a community college. how did they come up with it? i imagined the conversation to begin with the ideas to identify an unexplored territory in sitcom comedy, to incorporate an eclectic bunch of characters, and of course, to employ adult actors. the relevance is marginal, but aren't you curious too?

it didn't take me long to come to love the abed and troy duo. abed, the south asian character, played by danny pudi, is pretty eccentric and troy, the african american ex-football player, is pretty charmingly ordinary. together, they have given us some incredible ending sketches. they include rapping in spanish, krumping, messing around with the loudspeaker and encountering a matching racial pair of security guards, not-so-secretly making fun of people & being called out on, and sticking pencils in their mouths.

i especially love abed because his sorta special ed performance is complex! and he had this great line this week about playing low that cuts across our consciousness about the story and the show. in other words, it checks us on the different ways we engage w/ the show - as a viewer of the sitcom and as a listener/absorber/imaginer of the narrative or representation.

other great moments? i did not anticipate the show taking on the storyline of abed's exploration into filmmaking. you have a common struggle of a child of immigrant having to compromise his "passion" (as perceived by an assimilated lens) due to the parents' insistence on their child choosing a more comfortable and stable life path. pushing against this (i suppose from an assimilated lens) boring storyline is britta, the show's featured blonde woman, also a left-leaning liberal who is the most "activisty" of the bunch. she pushes back against abed's father by asserting her womanhood, her democratic nationalism (the liberated trying to show what liberation is). the playline is best captured as:

"oh, i get it. because i'm arab, i must hate women."

they come to share their viewpoints, which i appreciate. i don't see a lot of immigrant narratives out there. and as discouraged or disappointed as some of my peers may still feel, i'm going to believe that there were some thoughtful folks who were challenged by it, mainly because they were not directly challenged. haha! egos get in the way, especially with the privileged!

this episode was particularly great. i loved the bathroom storyline, as summarized by this clip. yvette nicole brown, who's been in a whole bunch of things before, plays shirley, an african american divorcee trying to get her life back on track (paraphrasing). her facial expressions capture so much range and her character exhibits great insights into human relations, as revealed by this storyline as well as the previous on getting along with jeff, which is joel mchale's character. she teaches britta about the uniqueness of the ladies' room, as a site of sisterhood, vulnerability, and support.

two specific reasons why i loved it:

it was a fubu - for us, by us - moment, or so i interpreted. it was framed and spoken by women to women, with us other folks listening from the margins. it was an important scene for me because it made me think about how the "routine" of women going to the ladies room together has been framed and, in this storyline, reframed. here, going to the ladies room was not about being girly, excessive, something inherent about women. it was not something to be tolerated (by men --> reflective of the lens bias), but rather, about women celebrating this space together, as women.

the other reason for loving this bathroom storyline is its ability to capture importance of having a relational space in relationships (incl. friendships!) for vulnerability and softness, as they say on the show. britta and shirley's first moment in the bathroom involved shirley talking about her mother's visit and getting makeovers, to which britta responded in a complaint about the socialization of women as "pleasure units" in need of new paint jobs and then went on to criticize the cosmetics/beauty industry as being male-owned/dominated. for me, that has particular relevance because, as much as i love my friends, some of y'all need to stop killing conversations with that systemic analysis! haha. the message here is, we need to make ourselves happy along the way to changing the world. i don't think it's as obvious as some of us may think.

for me, these racial droppings in mainstream, popular productions make me happy. in particular, there's a scene this week in which jeff tries to persuade troy to play football in community college. without giving the entire context, i want to draw attention to this incredible dialogue:

jeff (white guy): "it's in your blood"
troy (black guy): "that's racist."
jeff: "... your soul."
troy: "that's racist."
jeff: "... your eyes?"
troy: "that's gay."
jeff: "that's homophobic."
troy: "that's black."
jeff: "that's racist."
troy: "dang."

dang is right! that was a great moment in television. captured so much with so little. another racial dropping was the episode's search for a mascot, the human being, without being too racially insensitive. the task became creating a mascot without stereotypical racial signifiers, such as the pan-asian eyefold, irish chin, women's breasts, russian ears, and sticky fingers (all featured as posters in a strategy session). they also had a poster of human color, ranging from seal to seal's teeth, to which jeff responded:

"i think not being racist is the new racism."

yeah, how great can one-liners be? as an aspiring educator, i subscribe to the belief that we learn by resolving cognitive tension (or dissonance?). so in this case, folks are probably gonna reword it, process it, and maybe grow from it. that's the hope!

as for those interested in intersectionality, the episode ends with the dean and the older white man (both white) revealing the new mascot and congratulating themselves on solving racism and considering doing something about "little people" next.

as a recent grad, i feel some slightly nostalgic resonance with some of the show's storylines and moments. for example, shirley and britta explore what being involved in activist causes feels like. britta also cheats on a spanish test so she goes through the college judiciary committee. the group looks to an easy professor's course. many of you know (the latter applying to high schoolers too)! haha.

i think it's important to remember that the representations may be somewhat simplistic, but the dimensions of the references are purposeful for accessing the broader uenducated viewership. i think that's a more calming framework because we can begin to play with the boundaries more, like a la the constructionist (?) view.

so i hope you're watching too, because this community college's pretty top-notch hilarious!

why are u so obsessed with me?: mariah carey

2009-10-19T02:03:00.003-04:00

due to some technical difficulty, i was not able to post the original post about my love for mariah carey. what's left of that post just did not do her justice. so i'm doing what mariah would want me to do: start over!

i'd like to start a blog series called "why are u so obsessed with me?" it will be all about my faves (and in some cases, raves!), and it will basically embody all the tones and connotations and spirits of that expression, such as spoken from a place of playful infatuation to a place of serious confusion over its prevalence in my life.

let's start with *** mimi ***:

it's been more than 3 weeks since i've been listening to mariah carey's memoirs of an imperfect angel. i do this thing where i devote my music time to an album for a time. and it'd be all i listen to. at home. on the subway. before this album, it was whitney houston's i look to you album. but lately it's been mariah's memoirs. and three weeks? that's a record.

so who doesn't love the title? memoirs of an imperfect angel. that is like, every self-indulgent early teenager's fantasy. don't we all go through this phase of imagining ourselves like the narratives that we see? felicity did that for me. and a little bit of memoirs of a geisha. not gonna lie, that movie had some aesthetically beautiful ass scenes. and my personal philosophy is that we should not be denying our pleasure for what has become problematized in cases outside of my own body, as in our nation, asian america, what have you. the answer is not to deny the accented representation, but to deny the de-narration (& monolithizing) of representations. anyway, i embrace how mimi is unafraid to take on her own vision, unfiltered, and literally put it out there as it is. (other album title examples? rainbow + butterfly)

this album is meant to illustrate the different (and not necessarily sequential) stages of love that we experience. and in the process, they also will show just how imperfect we all really are, in love (see "betcha gon know"). this is the interpretation that i have. so far, we have heard two periods: "obsessed" and "i want to know what love is." i love both. and you probably do too, so i don't have to explain. but what else? my top 3:

angels cry.
i love the flow but mariah's greatness isn't just her voice or the musical merits. it's also her lyricism. it's not deep but, rather, has this really raw, diary-like (not just colloquial) quality to it. and she is really able to carry the emotional state into the projection of her voice. i love the regrettable feeling that i get from this song, esp. when she ends it with an exhausted "i feel the angels cryyyyyyy." it was also a very motivating cry when i was on the elliptical at the gym.

up out my face.
easily my initial favorite of the album. just taking a look at the lyrics with the music on will do the trick. this is a poignant ass song, because i feel like this song or spirit is basically this strand of feeling that we try to hide or suppress. like wanting to just be NASTY after an awful history with someone. like i WILL go crazy if u fuck this up. favorite line?

"if we were 2 lego blocks, even the harvard university graduate class of 2010 couldn't put us back together again."

speaks to her ability to joke and connect to her fans and the pop culture stream of consciousness. she basically just turns it into a freakin' amazing song. and with this strand of feeling, she just brandishes it like a sword. by the way, i can't believe she gave harvard class of '10 a shout-out!!!

h.a.t.e.u.
i saw homegirl perform this on the today show and fell for it right then and there. i had seen the title in her tweets (there should be like a citation here for why twitter is awesome!) but i had no idea what the song would be like. i didn't know that it would be this sensitive and vulnerable reflection. for me, mimi's ability to pinpoint (literally) the exact moment of internal struggle is crystal clear here. i love how raw this moment is and how i am basically sharing it with mariah. it's a very resonant feeling, to bond over this feeling of knowing that you just need to get over something but am finding it so hard. and i love how she ends it, though it's kinda too faded:

"i can't wait to h.a.t.e.u.
'cause right now i need you
can't wait to break you down"

not just a simple hate you, but h-a-t-e u. she didn't forget that the storytelling is still an art form and therefore needs a certain versatile aesthetic. girl is paying attention to her art, u know what i mean?!?!

if we were creating a national time capsule, i'd put this album in there. her genius deserves historicizing. everything aspect of her work - the music, the tone, the language, the beats, the flow, the emotions - are so markedly contemporary, so HERE & NOW.

some people are reminiscent haters, and they don't love mimi's rebirth/emancipation/comeback, preferring mariah a la visions of love. but i do. i also did not know the early 90s mariah.

our relationship to pop culture is often not just a simple relationship based on love or hate for it, but rather, a bundled expression of our place in history (possibly could be defined as the convergence of place and the time?). for me, it's marked by my family's immigration into the united states and our subsequent social position, including our access to streams of consciousness. so i only started to know mariah around the butterfly album, followed by the rainbow album (where my love for her peaked for the first time!). and then i saw her go through ups and downs and then coming back hella strong with the emancipation album. and my love for her now definitely draws upon my supportive following of her personal struggles.

anyway, i feel like my love for her has taken on this full bloom, where i'm relating to her work more and more deeply, with growing layers of meaning and emotion like the formation of rose petals (that's the image i have in my head!). i mean, her last 3 albums have consistently given us some BOMB ASS songs, even if they were not all played heavily on the radio.

oh and i love that she's with nick cannon, though i did really enjoy seeing her with derek jeter. even though i was young, i remember being pleased, like imagining that they would be bonding over being biracial. hahaha. if you haven't, you should definitely check out nick cannon's video of himself buying like 10 copies of mimi's album on the release day. at best buy. and encouraging his blog readers and twitter followers (citation/suggestion 4 fan culture + new media, please!) to get the album too.

clearly, our love for our divas also takes on this dimension of how we relate to them as people, interpersonally, too. it's why i feel so excited for her new movie, precious! she looks great in it, and the movie is a great contrast to glitter (though not trying to judge, just trying to illustrate range).

not sure how to end this, since my love for her ain't over! after all, i AM obsessed! :D

(i guess that could be my ending line hahaha)

too in shock right now.

2009-09-30T04:47:00.001-04:00

WHAT THE FUCK.

I JUST WROTE A WHOLE EXHAUSTIVE ENTRY ON MARIAH CAREY AND IT LOGGED ME OUT.
AND THEN WHEN I LOGGED BACK IN, I COULDN'T GET THE LAST THIRD OF THE ENTRY :(

XO

will the real wall-e please stand up?

2009-09-22T11:29:00.002-04:00

it seems like everybody loved wall-e. after all, it received both the golden globe and academy award for best animated feature in 2008. wall-e, as i'm sure you know, is a robot that basically cleans up the earth by compressing trash. to my understanding, it's a ridiculously cute and appropriate film because it teaches young kids to value green practices to take better care of the world. also, it helps to have a rare (albeit typically hetero) narrative of robots falling in love. what is also unique in the film is its careful use of dialogue, as in, there is not much of it. body language speaks loudly in this film.

in my mind, the film does not occupy only within the confines of a film. watching wall-e pick up trash and basically pick up recyclable or compressible materials reminds me too well of the chinese women and men -- often older -- who roam the streets of new york city digging through garbage cans and trash on sidewalks looking for aluminum cans and glass bottles to recycle. they may not be machines, but they will work for the measly 5 cents that they get for each item. have you seen these men and women? they go all out with it. some got a straw hat on, with a wheeled cart and large black (and presumably durable) garbage bags.

this is an uneasy connection to make. getting everyone to be on the same page about the inherent value of greening our world is difficult as it is (yes, global warming is real, even if you neutrally refer to it as climate change). but how do we consider what's going on along with economic structures that make even picking up trash for 5 cents each worthwhile for certain marginalized people? how do we reach a version of ourselves where folks like van jones, whose vision of a green economy we so need, are not personally attacked and persecuted for being a responsible citizen and holding his government accountable in other aspects of his life? for me, the representations and messages in wall-e become sobering when i ground it in the realities of our times.

are we supposed to reframe wall-e the movie as a teachable moment, and how? how do we begin to move from a robot doing a job that no human being is presumed to want to do (as suggested in the film) to the many elderly chinese immigrants who actually do almost the same job in our own lives? how do we talk about the abstract as well as the lived and humanized dimensions of the analogy? if not a teachable moment, how do we channel these thoughts and connections? what am i supposed to do with this uncomfortable link between a cutesy animation and a common phenomenon, peopled by those who look like me, those who look like my own grandparents and elderly relatives? i'm asking not because i'm interested in merely intellectualizing the situation, but rather, i'd like to know. my only guess so far is to break down all the conglomeration and start processing the economic structures, racial paradigms, culture war, and more.

wong fu productions, asian america, and the visioning of a community

2009-08-23T19:32:00.001-04:00

the above is cnn's recent coverage of wong fu productions, but that was not the first time i've heard of them. some time in early college, i heard about their popular short, yellow fever. everyone is into interracial dating, or at least into talking about it, huh? granted, it was a well-intentioned attempt at having a productive conversation about white male, asian female couplings, but it kind of annoyed me in different respects.

for one, it plays up a racial hierarchy. the narrator investigates how can asian guys get an asian girl, and maybe even a white girl (sorry, other women of color). at the end, he kind of satirizes the exploration by having the white guy, who can easily "score some asian chicks" (in the spirit of the masculinist discourse?), fret over the unbeatable appeal of black men. even if the white folks aren't on top, it's still a racial hierarchy that is largely problematic.

an analysis based on a racial hierarchy is pretty unproductive, albeit understandable. so much minority cultural production falls into this trap of talking about race relations between the specific minority and the "powered" majority (in this "toward the center of power" thinking). instead, i'd like us to move toward a representation that considers the entire racial landscape as it is -- a landscape. once we do that, we can begin to de-center the majority culturally and to create alternative models of relating, such as people of color with other people of color. in my mind, it is as full of potential as creating models of funding and membership in navigating the nonprofit industrial complex or working toward grassroots change outside of traditional routes, such as elected office or policy lobbying (though i would also argue that the choice is never one or the other).

also, the film does not actually investigate the issue beyond an individual level. yeah, i get that the analysis here isn't geared toward claims of systemic racism, but it's not enough to just say, many asian guys have been pantsy with women. all the what-ifs regarding context, audience, and messaging aside, this framing of the issue places the liability/responsibility/fault (?) entirely with asian men, which lets off the systemic emasculation of asian men. there are many structural factors and socialization issues here that are completely omitted. instead, it employs a liberalist (?) rhetoric that ignores power differentials. yeah, it begins to look into differentials in standards of masculinity (like the prevalence of hair and linguistic oppression), but it stops short of making a bold conclusion. on a sorta sidenote, i'm bothered by its racial categorization of asians, namely that the conclusion of the film distinguishes indians from the broader category of asians. still, i guess i can appreciate it as a conversation starter and as an attempt to offer a reframing of the issue. this video was from 2006?

the cnn coverage brought me back to wong fu productions for a longer engagement with their work. it seems like in these last few years, wong fu productions has also matured not only technologically but also in content (as have i, as a consumer?). this time around, i'm watching with these questions in mind, and offering some thoughts on some of their work:

how do these films contribute to constructing the asian american community? what kinds of relationships or emotional matter does a community entail?
how do these videos challenge or participate in community-wide conversations, such as about ethnicity, race, and gender? how do these filmmakers negotiate the very positionality of these videos and themselves?
how does wong fu productions interact with the broader asian american community? how does it work toward a small-scale economy within its work in addressing some of issues related to asian american representation and entrepreneurship?
what does it mean for an east coaster like me to interpret the imaginings of the west coasters like them, especially about our ties to ethnicity/minority culture/assimilation?

one of the first things i noticed about them this time around is how chinese they are. i caught references to vitasoy and chinese restaurants (not the take out ones, but the ones with lots of chinese characters!), and i found "a peace of home," a musical short that follows a young chinese american woman as she collects sights and sounds into little bottles to bring with her to the suburbs, where she's moved to. i thought it was so endearing because it totally respects the attachment/signification that we give to ethnic enclaves. this short disrupts the otherwise normalized sequence of assimilation that suggests that moving to the suburbs is necessarily a celebratory occasion, that it is a sign of success. this short offers a different take.

i have also picked up another theme in their work -- reframing the issue. "just a nice guy" is a short series that follows an asian american guy who is always so dependable and "nice" such that he never gets the girl. instead of engaging in a cliche exploration of if nice guys indeed finish last, the series actually reframes the conversation into more about how to keep attuned to the cues around you and to stay true to your (nice) self. in the end, the protagonist rejects taking on a hypermasculine performance to appeal to the girl. in the end, it's just about being honest and taking a chance. cute and affirming message, right? i like that they're not afraid to go there.

because so much of their work revolves around (asian american, including hapa) boy-girl relations, i also started to think about why it means so much to so many of us to see these couplings. watching "you've got a friend" reminded me a lot of the impression i still have of brown sugar, except there was no grounding of the story on hip hop (or any particular art form). it reminded me that in constructing the community, we do need to have narratives such as these, that deal with interpersonal relations within the community, especially those that span our lives. historical continuity offers the imagination room for lasting and evolving relationships, and in turn, feels more real and relatable. i'm also reminded me of black ice's def poetry jam performance of "imagine," where he critiques, in part, the normalization of incomplete communities that lack the full range of relations, that this lack in fact consequentially perpetuates the destruction of our communities.

for me, "you've got a friend" also conjures (perhaps) mythologies i hold about growing up in california. this is where perhaps the representation ends and the fiction begins, but it was pretty powerful to see images of presumably asian american baseball little leagues, outdoor bars frequented mostly by asian americans, young asian americans occupying humble (not the fusion kind) asian restaurants, and of asian american multiplicity in general. these images follow a theme (or curiosity for me) that runs through many of their videos about california. what does it mean for a new yorker, who understands my own ties to a vibrant chinatown as carving our own place in an otherwise black and white racial paradigm, to consume videos that illustrate a place where the ethnic enclave for me is not so confined? but rather, it is moreso embedded into the landscape alongside other ethnic communities?

"up in da club" is another example that illustrates this multiplicity of representations. the asian american characters make up a wide range of personalities, even if they are somewhat simplistic. still, i appreciate that instead of taking on an assimilationist agenda that would suggest that those asian americans not down with clubbing should learn to get with it, the story actually offers a different message -- that it may be better to admit that you are just not a big clubber and to seek common ground through other interests, such as legos. this is an important message because it challenges us to be braver than to go with the flow, than to engage in an adult version of "popular." and unfortunately, oppression is real, and manifestations of that kind still pervades our community, as recent conversations with a friend have concluded at. maybe we don't need to be go to atlantic city and take photos to prove we are there, or throw upscale-wannabe house parties where you won't even serve guests the better alcohol. i trust that we can grow from that petty living.

for me, wong fu productions is looking more like a group of asian american brothers bonding and processing like a theoretical frat but without the frat culture. filmmaking (straight) asian american men producing work that deals with relationships and identity. and they have also begun to go beyond themselves, collaborating with far east movement (asian am. hip hop group), david choi (youtube celeb musician), and others. i would even say that they are creating a sort of economy within their work, which incorporates asian american businesses (as film settings), asian american designers (tshirt/dvd/online store + wardrobe/accessories in shorts), and asian american musicians (soundtracks). if coordinated and shifted further to the left, this could be some powerful stuff. the american cancer society has already recognized this, as it has already tapped them to create a short, "the turn off," to help promote their anti-cigarette smoking campaign. the short doesn't lose the juice of their work -- navigating relationships.

in "give and take," the boys are not afraid to perform a masculinity that is not gender-oppressive or homophobic. they consider the addition of a giant teddy bear into their apartment (note: not deemed a bachelor's pad) and the objections are more practical than masculinist. in fact, they grow to hold a pretty serious attachment to the bear haha. if we're talking about symbols and representations as the basis for these conversations, then their shorts really do offer new food for thought.

the sort of transnationality found in several of the shorts is also a source of appeal for me. this overlaps with the earlier point about what california offers to asian americans, or chinese americans in this specific case. in "break up back up," the protagonist brings his guy friend along to break up with his abusive girlfriend. in this mom and pop restaurant, we hear teresa teng's music. but that's only the beginning of it.

in fact, they have made several shorts during their time in hong kong, called the "one days in hong kong," which are presumably completed within a day's time. there are several, but some of them are here, here, here, here, and here. i love them because they do a great job of capturing locals and their interactions down to the their backgrounds. the shorts raise a series of issues, including the hustle and bustle of hong kong, the waves of young people sent overseas (to england, mostly) to study, the prevalence of international schools, and even the linguistic particularities of cantonese and mandarin. found in these shorts are, obviously, representations of masculinity that do not wrestle with the same factors and considerations that we find here in the u.s. these guys are securely masculine without being masculinist, if that makes sense. and i love that they are making those connections as chinese americans. there is so much significance to that because by linking them, we are not only offering more complex narratives of gender performance but also historical (or perhaps more accurately, geographical or racial?) continuity of representations. for me, they are saying: we, as chinese americans, derive from a history-in-the-making, and thus, we must negotiate our identities and performances with all these factors and histories in mind.

a message that wong fu has also reiterated in the notes to their videos is that anyone can really take on projects like theirs, and that brings me to my last point. if systemic oppression is screening and managing representations of people, especially of the lesser privileged, then new media has had the incredible power to really alter the system. related to my analysis about approaching media analysis beyond a hierarchal or a majority-minority framework and more toward the possibilities of an encompassing racial landscape framework, new media offers a whole new way of relating and connecting. this is obviously not a new thought, but i do think that in this case, wong fu really runs with it and offers a compelling example.

i survived a japanese game show: revisited

2009-06-23T21:49:00.003-04:00

i was just going to catch up on lost but when i got to abc.com, i found out that there is a new season of "i survived a japanese game show." last summer, i had written a little about it and i've decided to share my thoughts on the new season. frankly, i was surprised that there was a new season of the show because i thought so much of the hype the first time was about the novelty of it. once americans have seen it, the show probably won't be so interesting, right?

it's so fascinating to me to be watching this show - especially as a chinese american. on one level, i've seen this kind of wacky variety show before - in hong kong, the super trio series is precisely what this "japanese game show" concept is. instead of americans who have never been to japan, the show features celebrities. and i loved it because the sense-making and conversations from the show are so very much tied to the cultural and linguistic specificities of my dear cantonese upbringing. on another level, i'm watching this u.s. reality show on an u.s. television channel, which is also tied to my upbringing. what's new about the show for me is also the behind-the-scenes portion, the u.s. twist, if you will. we get to see the dramatic unfolding that is so characteristic of reality t.v. shows in the west, if you will.

so what does this second season bring for us? what kinds of remarks, racial framing, and other kinds of craziness and nation-building are we seeing this time?

well, there's the absence of the japanese american host from first season, who added a different tone to the show that was less east/west, and rather, more transnational (?). instead, the japanese gameshow host is the first familiar face we see. but the host is so coded as so distinctly japanese that my craving for borderland spaces and figures is left unfulfilled. once again, our perceptions and narratives are dichotomized, it feels.

in any case, we did see the return of mama-san, the homemaker. for some reason, all the participants were in a frenzy when they saw her, so ready to embrace this maternal figure. it made me wonder why. how much enthusiasm is too much? some dude even compared her to "warm japanese sunlight" or something to that effect. so puzzling to me!

i don't think there has been an asian american contestant on the show - which i find to be so telling. it's almost like a safer decision, to prevent complex, perhaps "distracting" questions regarding nationalism and racial politics. this sort of racial sterilization/simplification is so wack because it would actually be interesting to see how folks receive asian faces on this "japanese game show." an all-too-common, missed opportunity. let's construct those moments of conceptual tension for people! we all need the stimulation, don't we?

elimination is always so painful to watch. once again, women of color bear the burden. one black woman from philly and one latina from the bronx battle it out even though there were certainly other (white) folks who performed at the same, poor level. but obviously folks also pick and choose their assessments so that they were seen as the weakest or most disadvantageous of the bunch. if you watch closely, you can tell that it's really not a coincidence.

what's also fascinating about this arguably nationalistic reality show is that the punishment is go to back to the united states. unlike other reality shows, such as survivor, the difference between life over here vs. over there is NOT about "civilized" or industrialized environments. w/ this show, the difference is straight up modern nationhood/nationalism. the center of all this is tokyo - hella urbanized, hella industrialized. and we do see contestants expressing all kinds of frustration and reluctance about going home, though nationalism is never at the forefront of the conversation and their relationship to japan (not just to the money prize) is never fully articulated as a critique of the united states, if at all. the framing here, then, is not about surviving purely out of an individualistic pursuit, but rather, about surviving another national context and expatriating your own.

alas, i will not be talking too much about the actual challenges because they're really fun and you should watch them yourself :P