Hug Yellow People

"For Asian American men, AznLover feels like a kind of parallel dimension, where their status is inverted: Rather than being exiled to the margins, Asian males are at the center of this particular universe; not just 'accepted,' but revered. 'I love the fact that people on the site acknowledge the beauty in Asian men,' says Harry Li, a Malaysian American member living in Texas. 'Society still makes women feel self-conscious about saying they like...

The Visitor (2008)

In short, this is a film about immigration and the travails being in this country but always under the threat of deportation. The first half of this movie set up an interesting situation, wonderful dynamics, and allowed the charisma of its stars to shine through. While I kept thinking this movie was a little too conveniently simple, it did seem to have something fresh and interesting.By the second half of the movie though, everything devolved into...

Team Zissou

This just moved to the top of my list for reasons to visit Japan -- barely edging out sushi and ramen. The Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa has a tank large enough to house four whale sharks. I'll let that sink in a little before you check out some videos. It's freaking ridiculous. And I thought seeing sunfish at the Monterey Aquarium was pretty cool.Of course, it might be easier to just go to the aquarium in Atlanta and pay $300 for the privilege...

Movie Smash

I've been avoiding movies for about a month in an effort to concentrate on writing. Plus most of the films I wanted to watch were only hop worthy. Seven plus hours in a theater later and I'm basically caught up with everything the summer has presented so far. First we watched the Incredible Hulk, which was arguably better than Ang Lee's version although I much prefer his daring stylistic choices to this one. I'd actually rate this sub-par if...

Banner 17

Finally. Since I've had no children, and may never, I think this could go down as the greatest day of my life. Yeah, yeah, it's so pointless/shallow to have such an amazing feeling stemming from a sporting event -- one that I clearly didn't play in -- but listen, I've been waiting for a Celtics' championship my entire life. They may have technically won championships in the Eighties but I was just a kid then. I have no memories of watching any...

Do-Gooders

"The ancient Aristotelian idea of friendship is that friends bring out the best in each other. Friends might have common backgrounds, similar affinities, like interests, but at its highest level friendship is about the formation and elevation of good character. Friendship that brings out corrupt or otherwise bad ends is, ipso facto, not true friendship.Real friends, good friends in the Aristotelian sense, confer benefits on one another; or as Aristotle...

How Ya Like Me Now

What a roller coaster of a game. This was easily the greatest sporting experience of my life. Never had I dreamed that the Celtics could go up 3-1 against the hated Lakers, and in such spectacular fashion. The greatest Finals comeback of all time.After a close loss in Game 3, I was sad but satisfied. There was no way the Celtics wouldn't win at least one game in Los Angeles right? Even playing like utter crap, they were in it near the end. ...

Don't I Know You?

"[The People You Might Know feature] messes with the whole evolution of your social networking identity. There's a period at the very beginning of your Facebook life, after you first sign up, when you're madly friend-ing everyone in your address book. It's the needy phase: You're trying to establish and legitimize yourself as a user. Then you mature to a more placid state -- you stop accepting application requests. Maybe you even stop playing Scrabulous....

Dance Like I'm Watching

America's Best Dance Crew is back. Has a show ever ended and then geared up for another season in two short months? Well, it's a great decision by MTV because ABDC was such a phenomenon. Here's the problem though: The show has already jumped the shark. You're not going to get much better than Kaba and Jabbawockeez. This isn't like American Idol where there are millions of wannabe singers. Only a few cities/areas can pump out decent dance crews....

And we're off...

As I watched the Celtics' game, I was sure that my presence was screwing them up. As my team floundered, I had to change the channel. After watching the most futile first round of Jeopardy ever, "Wizard of Oz" appeared as a Double Jeopardy category. Most of the answers were pretty easy.This song won an Oscar despite almost being cut from the film. (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow. These were sold at an auction for $666,000. Ruby slippers. Buddy...

It's Go Time

Here we go, it's all happening. Celtics versus Lakers, Round 11. It's the matchup we've been waiting twenty years to see. For being such a big Celtic fan, I've never actually never seen the Celtics play in the Finals. Their last trip was in 1987, when I was nine, and they lost to the Lakers. Still, I feel like I was there when Magic flipped in his little baby sky hook. That shot crushed me and I can't bear to watch it on highlight reels. It's...