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!

Tags: california, donna lee, g8 protest, josh wolf, korea, Korean American, mill valley film festival, pusan international film festival, united states

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.
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Tags: News, ningin, weekly wrap up

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
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Tags: blood of bahamut, japan, nds, nintendo, square enix

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.
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Tags: dears, gackt camui, jesus, single

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.
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Tags: anime, kugimiya rie, louise, moe, nagi, seiyuu, shana, tsundere, voice acting

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.
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Tags: kouhaku uta gassen, new years, nhk, performance, red white battle

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?
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Tags: Lazytown, Morning Musume, Otaku

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!
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Tags: Energy, jerry chen, Jolin Tsai, Kylie Minogue

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.
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Tags: Ayumi Hamasaki, micky, Morning Musume, Perfume, UVERworld, yunho

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!
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Tags: gwen stefani, harajuku lovers, parade, thanksgiving, tokyo lights