american

Twinsters!

Posted on by elemonated

I interrupt this regularly scheduled program to announce that Twinsters is coming! I loved Sam Futerman when she started her YouTube channel, and even though the series of events that led to this documentary put her on basically permanent YouTube hiatus, I’m so glad this crazy, wonderful thing happened to her and that she’s turning it into this beautiful-looking documentary.

To be adopted and meet your twin sister after all this time, I’m sure the feeling is indescribable. I’m looking forward to watching it unfold through video this time, and while I can’t make it to SXSW, I’ll gladly pay to watch this somewhere online.

Fresh Off the Boat

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/the-terrible-questions-journalists-have-been-asking-the-cast-of-fresh-off-the-boat/384666/

I found this article which better describes some of the stuff I put in my last post, except in a much nicer, neater, non-emotionally charged way. I’m with a lot of the comments I’ve seen from fellow immigrant-Americans, and Nahnatchka Khan herself:

“When I read his memoir, the specifics were different to my growing up experience, being Persian American and him being Taiwanese American, but what I related to was the immigrant experience of the show, being first generation and having parents who weren’t born here. And that, to me, was my access point. When you take something from the source material that’s such a strong voice and make it into an 8 p.m. family sitcom on broadcast TV, you need a lot of access points.”

Some people criticized the story for being all about that 拉面 and not so much about 냉면 or ラーメン or even like, Maggi. And I understand that how that must feel, truly. But I also agree that the slippery slope is real; if this is accepted into media, and it doesn’t even have to be embraced, but if it gets, say, two seasons, then introducing other perspectives and other cultures and making them the heroes and the protagonists instead of the sidekicks and villains becomes one hundred percent plausible. If the networks see the money, then there’s a huge potential to expand into.

Yes, I’m biased because Fresh Off the Boat reflects my experience as an ABC (haha, ABC, get it? Because the network…It’s really early in the morning…) but I want to see all of my minority friends get their own on the screen without producers having to resort to placing everyone back in their respective countries (or fantasy countries; I’m looking at you, Disney) and their historical timelines that aren’t here and now. If this goes better than All-American Girl, we might actually get somewhere meaningful.

With this show I get to cheer on little Eddie Huang as my little brother if my little brother was awesome (just kidding, my actual little brother is pretty cool too) and as an extension of myself as I lived (R&B and hip-hop, Asian underachiever, strict parents, realization that I might not be worst off), not some random sword-wielding girl I can’t love like a younger OR older sister because she doesn’t exist as far as my reality schema goes.

You know who actually exists? Sophia and Louisa Chua-Rubenfield! The Fung Brothers! Joe Jo! David So! Bart Kwan! Olivia Thai! Ryan Higa! Freddie Wong! Anna Akana! Eddie Huang! David Chang! Ming Tsai! Dale Talde! Hung Huynh! Anita Lo! (if you recognize all or most of these names, we should be friends. Also, I present to you basically all the media I digest regularly. And literally.)

And ME! I EXIST!

Maybe it’s just because it’s really early in the morning, I still haven’t gotten anything done, and I’d really like to sleep, but I swear if ABC takes it off the air too soon, I’m going to send so many passive aggressive tweets, you won’t even recognize my Twitter feed.

Academic freedom

Posted on by elemonated

My law professor is so bad at enforcing academic freedom. As defined by Stanley Fish during that seminar that I attended for him and a bunch of presidents/deans, and presumably in his book that I never bought (though I’m tempted to), academic freedom is the ability for academia to traverse all routes of truth with their students with the condition of refraining from affecting where those students go with their thoughts. And seriously, we can’t get through a class without him stating his views under guise of showing us where he’s coming from. It’s just unnecessary all of the time, and this is coming from someone who agrees with him.

Then again, we are studying law which is inherently political, unlike English, which is and was Professor Fish’s realm. My professor seems to think confirming his views over and over is necessary for some reason. It skirts dangerously close to making the classroom a sound board though, and I think all of the men sitting in that seminar would agree. They have, and would, all take a more way conservative take on teaching, even if it seems like the majority of them identify as perhaps middle-left, or middle-right. They would be authoritarian and respectable where my vegan, leftist professor is very conversational, even a little bumbling in a charming way. (He literally just said he was vegan.) I can’t imagine him being okay with the constraints Fish sets for academic tutors and for their pursuit of academia. It’s hilarious thinking about Mr. Fish trying to convince him that his teaching methods aren’t respectable, but I guess that’s why he teachers at my school and not at NYU or Yeshiva.

Olfactory symbolism

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15638746/ns/business-us_business/t/perfumes-tied-film-do-not-all-smell-well/#.VKd0rCvF8WI

I just realized Thierry Mugler offered a coffret of 15 scents to go along with certain parts of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer in a promotion for the film (which I have yet to watch, forgive me, I’ll get to it.) I can’t. I’m a little ready to cry. Not that I would have had the money or interest back when the movie came out, since I wouldn’t have started high school yet, but the knowledge it existed and I missed it feels like a grand joke. And no one’s selling the full thing anywhere, which is to be expected.

Oddly enough, this discovery is what drove me to actually filling out applications today. I was so distraught that I was not rich or powerful enough to have this, I was determined to try and start being goddamn rich and powerful.

My priorities, ah.

I’ve always been struck by the “soft talking, big stick carrying” lilt of effective, ruthless power though, and generally wealth and power are conveyed through resins like amber or labdanum, but that signals brute force to me, not the more interesting duplicitous nature of a politician. Something that appeals to the majority, with something kind of off about it

In fact, I only discovered the coffret after searching for a realistic bloody floral (I’m not British. I mean copper, magnesium, skin, salt: blood) after a description of President Snow in The Hunger Games intrigued me. His signature was blood and roses, which would be intriguing enough, but not only can I not find an approximate for blood and roses with notes and reviews that reflect what I’m looking for, I would actually like to find a white floral mixed with blood. I’m on that jasmine kick, remember? It’s a scent reference, so I’m into it on principle. It would have been bomb to see Jennifer Lawrence at least wrinkle her nose in the new movie during those scenes, but I guess I can’t expect that much from snack food YA.

I’ll just content myself with another movie quote of her’s, probably one of my favorites from a new movie:

“There’s this top coat that you can only get from Switzerland and I love the smell of it. I’m running out of it and I don’t know what to do. The top coat, it’s like perfumey, but there’s also something rotten. I know it’s crazy but I can’t get enough of it. Historically, the best perfumes in the world they’re all laced with something nasty. It’s true! Irving loves it. He can’t get enough of it. Sweet and sour, rotten and delicious. Flowers, but with garbage.”
– Rosalyn, American Hustle

(By the way, if you haven’t seen American Hustle, I highly recommend it. It makes New Jersey relevant. Kind of.)