Several years ago, a video blogger by the name of Josh Wolf was imprisoned for not handing over his video to the federal authorities. The video dealt with the G8 protest in San Francisco, and Wolf wanted to protect the people in the video, so he refused to give the video. He spent seven month in prison before he was released.

His story captured Donna Lee’s attention, and she decided to make a documentary out of it. The documentary is called Adventures of Josh Wolf: Activist Video Blogger. The documentary was shown last month at the Mill Valley Film Festival and received great reviews. This is Lee’s first film project, a project she decided to do for a class.

In the future, she plans to submit this documentary to Korean film festivals next year. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see and hear about this like at Pusan International Film Festival!

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Hope you guys enjoyed your Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Now we’re in the last stretch of the 2008 year. Are you prepared for 2009? Well I’m not. I’m still surprised it’s 2008! When did time pass by so fast?

Well for those of you taking it week by week, here’s your wrap up. More »

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Bad boy Bahamut of the Final Fantasy series will make his debut on the NDS screen.

After a week of a mysterious time clock, Square Enix officially announced the Blood of Bahamut. The game will feature a 3D RPG that can be played as a co-op with 1 – 4 players. It will be presented at Jump Festa expo in Japan at the end of this year.

The story will surround two characters, Ibuki and Yui who live in a fortified city build on a giant (who I assume is Bahamut but looks more like Alexander from FFIX). The giant wakes up during an enemy attack and the heroes must fight to defend the city.

I love Square Enix but why would anyone build a city on a giant?

Official Website More »

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This past week, rock celebrity Gackt Camui released his 28th single “Jesus.” Although highly anticipated by his fans, who have waited for over a year, the CD was not available for sale to the public, but rather exclusively for Gackt’s fan club as a limited edition DVD.

His fan club “Dears” was allowed to purchase the item before the public edition on December 3rd. Both versions will contain the title track and re-working of “Sayonara,” plus the instrumental versions.

The lyrics are very controversial as they describe the descent into someone contemplating suicide, in addition to a rap about instigating suicide. The surreal and dark concept follows a man who is visibly disturbed, which makes this one of Gackt’s best singles. More »

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This past week, rock celebrity Gackt Camui released his 28th single entitled “Jesus”. Although highly anticipated by his fans that have waited for over a year, the CD was not available for sale to the public but only a special limited edition DVD was released exclusively to Gackt’s fan club.

His fan club called Dears was allowed to purchase the item before the public edition on December 3rd. Both versions will contain the title track and re-working of Sayonara, plus the instrumental versions.

The lyrics are very controversial as they describe the decent into someone contemplating suicide in addition a rap about instigating suicide. The surreal and dark concept follows a man who is visibly disturbed which makes this one of Gackt’s best singles. More »

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There’s a lot that goes into the construction of a great anime character - some people might like the nekomimi, the maid costumes, or even the rare glimpses of the 2-5 Split - but if you ask me, the absolutely most crucial part of an anime character is the voice. Don’t get me wrong, all the hair ornaments and knee socks are vitally important, but without the right voice to bring it all together, well, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. After all, you can get all the cute character designs from reading manga - anime is all about the sounds, baby. More »

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Japanese broadcasting corporation NHK will be hosting a whole new level of their annual New Years’ Red-White Battle or Kouhaku Uta Gassen. Even though viewership is slipping, they’ve brought in 53 performers (last year was 58) but all performers are supposedly the best of the best in Japan.

Among that list are SMAP, Koda Kumi, Ayumi Hamasaki and the most highly publicized of all TVXQ. NHK was also able to grab Mr. Children, a long awaited special performance that has failed in previous years. So far things are looking up.

The variety show is consisted of a boy (white) VS girls (red) battle that lasts throughout the evening until midnight. The last three years have been won by the white team, but with the elite of Japan there, the tables may turn. More »

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Wow. What an incendiary topic I brought up. Morning Musume fans gloated. Lazytown fans demanded my head on a plate. Nevermind that I was trying to point out that America had lost a lot of soft power in the world market with a devastating deficiency in the tweeny pop market.

So who’s otaku fans can otaku the best? Will it be Jpoppers or Icelander-ers? More »

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Taiwanese Mandopop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林 Cài Yīlín) will be performing live at the San Jose State University Event Center this Sunday, November 30! Ningin’s own Jerry Chen will be attendance screaming at the top of his lungs with his hands in the air.

Jolin has been slowly but surely working to reach out beyond the Cpop market. Last year, she recorded a special duet of “In My Arms”with Australian Kylie Minogue. The song was released on the Asian edition of Kylie Minogue’s “X” Album. This year she released her first all English album “Love Exercise (愛的練習語)”.

Cpop boy band Energy will be opening up for Jolin.

Event organizers and promoters are Star Image located in Fremont, California. They’re mission is to bridge Chinese and American entertainers, performers, and cultures. They’ve put together some great shows in California the past few years to promote Cpop with artists such as Coco Lee, Alex Tu and Wang Lee Hom. (A lot of people think Wang Lee Hom is my look-a-like. I always insist he got the talent, but I got the looks.) We’re looking forward to more events from Star Image! More »

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Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I actually went out to eat dim sum. It was really new experience as I’ve never ate dim sum this way. It was basically a mobile buffet.

Anyways, here’s this week’s round up. Enjoy. More »

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I must admit Thanksgiving is always special to me; it is more just a holiday to enjoy but also my birthday. My family won’t let me escape the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade even if my birthday doesn’t fall on Thanksgiving Day so every year I watch the it like it was made just for me.

This year’s parade featured a brand new float entitled Tokyo Lights by Harajuku Lovers - dedicated to the new collectible dolls of the same name. The float for the parade had a large lighted sign in hiragana with a light up neon colored floor to represent Harajuku of downtown Tokyo. There were also life size dolls of the 4 background dancers that inspired the toy line Love, Lil Angel, Music, Baby and G! who bopped to the beat of Gwen Stefani background music in a ultra kawaii way! More »

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Today I received an email letting me know that Morning Musume’s new album “COVER YOU” is now out. For those that don’t know, Morning Musume is the Japanese female version of “Menudo”.

What’s Menudo?

For those that don’t know, to older Latin American folks, it’s a traditional Mexican spicy soup made with tripe. It’s often used as a cure for a hangover. Sort of like sul lung tang, but not Korean. But to the younger Latin American folks (under the age of 30) it’s the quintessential boy band that just won’t die. Every album has older singers leave (puberty’s over?) and new singers come in. Being a multi-singer group allows some leeway to have more in the looks department than the singing department. After all, depending who you ask, New Kids on the Block only had one or two guys that actually had any talent (once again, depending who you ask and who thought who was cuter). More »

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Hey, Americans, Happy Thanksgiving. That means stuff your face and watch some movies! I’m catching up on film, including The Namesake from 2006. One scene got me thinking about relationships between Asians and non-Asians–how their cultural navigations are portrayed in film. Here’s just a few that stick out–add a few of your own.

In The Namesake, Mira Nair’s adaptation of the Jhumpa Lahiri novel, Gogol (Kal Penn) takes his white girlfriend Max (Jacinda Barrett) home to meet his very traditional Indian parents. Max ignores many of the politely-given instructions on cultural taboos to respect. I cringed. But the real kicker was when she asked to attend a family mourning ceremony. “I wanna go to India with you to spread the ashes!” Good Lord! Gogol’s in mourning, and she’s gripping his arm, wheedling her way into a trip abroad. I know what the white girl wanted….the trip to India would “prove their love.” But it came across like attending a family mourning ceremony was another notch to make in her cultural-experiences belt. That really bothered me. More »

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A man in Iowa has been arrested for being in possessions of “obscene mangas”, those of lolicon and yaoi in nature. His trial will happen on December 2, 2008, and who of all people’s backing him up? Neil Gaiman is, that’s who! He happens to be representing the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund.

Big kudos to Gaiman, who has the strength and the courage to speak out against such violations like these and for supporting someone who’s probably being trialled for all the wrong reasons. Yes, children and youth needs to be protected, but unless this guy actually did molest children and copied the acts he learned from these mangas, by owning such obscene mangas doesn’t automatically make him a “bad” person.

I will admit that I love my yaoi mangas. This news frightens me in ways that shouldn’t be possible. This kind of news makes me realize just how oppressive the world can be on individual freedom. I understand the reasoning for having these obscenity laws. I work with children and youth, so I understand completely! But should they be applied to comics? To literature? To arts?

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The Hana Yori Dango craze is spreading like wildfire with China the next to join in.

It is reported that Chinese network Hunan TV will be doing a remake based on the storyline of Meteor Garden (Taiwan). The producers are hoping to bring on the Taiwanese band F4 in addition to pop stars Hankyung of Super Junior and Yu Haoming in addition to Ariel Lin to play the role of Makino.

While it is all talks, part of me is hoping they’ll do it whereas the other half is like that’s a lot of HYD. The Japanese movie just came only over the summer and Korea has already gone into production with their version. A lot of fans feel the same way but even if they do pull through, it’s not like everyone won’t watch it.

Source: Seoulbeats

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“I dreamed of an international career, but the American and English record companies weren’t going to come to Indonesia looking for a new talent, when there is so much available in their own countries. So, I had to bring my talent to the West.”-says Anggun.

The talented singer, Anggun Cipta Sasmi, was born in Indonesia. Her name means “A grace born out of a dream” which is definitely a true statement about this remarkable singer. More »

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That would explain all these construction workers digging all over Seoul lately! Honestly, couple of Sundays ago, when I went out with my friend, we were in Hongdae, Itaewon, and my neighbourhood, and it was construction hell. Actually, they were redoing the roads, but still. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Korean government decided to dig random holes in the ground to discover more ruins like they discovered this one.

This was discovered, part of the Gyeongbok Palace, a wall or something. Though it doesn’t look like a wall. It looks more like a cobblestone path of some sort. However, if you click on the link, there’s a video at the bottom of the article that shows you more of the discovery.

I think it’s kind of neat that they discovered this. Yet to read that they were so surprised by the discovery . . . it kind of cracks me up!

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Boa’s “Eat You Up” single has been out for a month or so but hasn’t received any air time on the US radios. I’ve heard maybe 2 accounts of this happening but that’s just not enough. So I did what any devoted fangirl would do and tried to promote her.

One of the biggest pop radio stations in the NYC area is z100. Their website allows you to chat with other listeners and the DJ as well as listen to the current music playing. So I thought maybe If I bring up her name casually in this chat, some of these people may have already heard about BoA. Wait, maybe I can even request the song to be played! Well, not really. More »

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On November 24th, it was announced that the male idol group SHINee has been chosen to model for the cosmetic brand “Nanasubi“, and will be modeling it for the next year.

Because of this group’s popularity increasing at a fast rate, in both music and fashion, LG stated that by using SHINee as their models, they have plans to increase sales and popularity of their own cosmetic line.

The campaign that begins in December, will feature SHINee appearing in commercials and photo shoots advertising the “Nanasubi” cosmetics brand for 2009.

In just a short six months since debut, SHINee has been awarded with multiple awards such as “Best Rookie Award” and “Style Icon Award” and show no signs of stopping.

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We now have the new President Elect Barack Obama. I believe that with his victory, our victory, we will see a change to come in this country that has been unforeseen. He is already making waves around the world in regards to equal treatment among the races. For example in France crowds of people were yelling at the top of their lungs “OUI NOUS POUVONS!” Which translates as, “YES WE CAN!” France is now looking very closely at their own poor race relations in their country and they want to do something about it more than ever before.

I am looking forward to such changes in our own country, the United States of America. There are still thousands of cases of blatant discrimination that so many minorities experience at their homes, at stores, or in their places of work. Institutionalized racism is very dangerous in that many times it is very hard to prove and that there is also nothing worse than someone keeping you down on the totem pole due to your race, ethnicity, or nationality making you starve economically. I really have great hopes that President Elect Obama and his administration will not only bring about tidal waves of change for race relations, but also economic, education, and many other types of change that we are thirsting for in the America of the 21st century. More »

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