You are currently browsing the archives for February 2011.

No Love for Asians at the Oscars? So What?

  • February 28, 2011 12:34 am

Firstly, I should point out that contrary to what some might think, there were Asian nominees at this year’s Oscars: Cinematographer Matthew Libatique, composer A.R. Rahman, actor Hailee Steinfeld (who’s part Filipina), illustrator Shaun Tan (who won) and documentarian Ruby Yang. My hats off to all of them!

OK, now for the real issue at hand:

Yeah, I get it that the Oscars were pretty white-washed and there was no diversity and that sucks, blah, blah, blah. And my reaction to that is—so fucking what? Come on, this isn’t exactly breaking news, but more importantly, focusing on the Academy Awards as a target of our ire–while symbolic in many ways–doesn’t really do us any good. Why? Because the Oscars are largely reactionary and it’s always more effective to go directly to the problem rather than the reaction to the problem.  Read more...

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SAF Seeking… International Playboy

  • February 28, 2011 12:09 am


“DO YOU WANT TO HAVE ME TONIGHT?”

It was written on one of those bag/wrapper, the kind they give you to at Starbucks when you order a scone. I was confused. Was he trying to give me an extra vanilla petit scone? Or maybe the leftovers of a bran muffin?

I opened the bag/wrapper and only found a wad of used napkin. Then it dawned on me…. “Do you want to have ME tonight?” I looked up in astonishment at the guy sitting 2 chairs away from me at the laptop table bar). He was wearing a smirk.  Read more...

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How to cook bacon, the RIGHT WAY

  • February 27, 2011 7:51 pm

I love bacon. But, when I try to cook it, it’s always a big fail. It’s either too soggy or other times, it’s too cripsy and burnt. Well, thanks to the fine people at Chow, here’s an instructional video on how to cook bacon the right way.

Now, it’s time for me to cook some bacon.

(Via boingboing)

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The Best Picture on the Internet

  • February 27, 2011 7:35 pm

This is from thebestpictureontheinternet. ‘Nuff said.

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What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Week – February 19 – 25, 2011

  • February 26, 2011 12:00 am

What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Week is a capsule of the week’s blogs with sarcastic commentary from Yours Truly (that’s me!).  If you’ve been busy and missed out on a couple of our daily gems, this is a perfect way to catch up.

But seriously – what was more important than reading YOMYOMF?

This week, your favorite online family focuses their energies on love dolls (a lot!); Japanese tiger takedown tactics (alliteration!); and the correlation between animal cuteness and animal taste (I wrote that one!).  How’s that for Variety?

No, I mean seriously – would they link to us?  Have they already?  Okay, I understand we shouldn’t carry on conversations in the middle of a piece but I really need to know.

Sorry, folks – here’s your article!

FOOD+MOVIES=AN ONLINE ORGASM:

“There’s probably nothing we love here at YOMYOMF more than food and movies (well, aside from my thing for hot Vulcans) so the new tumblr site entitled “Snack to the Future” is the perfect internet destination for those like me who’ve wondered what the foodie version of our popular films would be.”

We create the world of the soup.  We bring the subject into that soup and they fill it with their ingredients.

I think I could recite the lines of Insouption off the top of my head too.

SAF SEEKING… THAT.:

“Even Virgin America, the airline for club hoppers and Jersey Shore enthusiasts and who hire the hottest flight crew I’ve ever had the opportunity to spill my tonic water on, couldn’t cheer me up.”

GOD DAMN IT – why did I go with Sky Blue?  Someone needs to tell me these things!  Read more...

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Hope, Hollywood and Smoke Signals

  • February 25, 2011 4:15 am

Film critic Pauline Kael famously wrote that “Hollywood is the one place in the world where you can die of encouragement.”  She’s right.   The town blows more smoke up more asses than a flaming BP rig.

But we who work in the business clutch at that smoke, count on it, inhale it as deeply into our lungs as we can, just to keep us going, even as we choke on it.

In this racket, hope is a very fragile, very thin high wire, and it is razor sharp.

 Read more...

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Real-Life Blow-Up Doll is Korea’s Latest Celebrity

  • February 25, 2011 12:01 am

I think I owe a bit of an apology to my Japanese friends because it appears that they’re not the only Asians with bizarre sexual…uh, interests. This latest news comes out of South Korea where one of the biggest internet “celebrities” is female Chinese high school student Wang Jiayun. And what is it that’s made her so famous? Well, she looks like a blow-up sex doll.

That’s right—she’s famous simply because she resembles a blow-up doll. Her photos have become so popular that last week, her name reached the top ranking on Korean search portals:

 Read more...

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CONFESSIONAL: Every time I look at an animal, I wonder what it tastes like.

  • February 24, 2011 10:19 am

There’s a very good reason why I don’t like going to zoos.  No matter what I’ve eaten beforehand, no matter how much I had to eat and how soon before I had it – I always get extremely hungry.

Now look here: I love animals as much as the next person.  In fact, I have a respect for them that borders on fearful compliance.  Just ask my cousin who owns one of those big dogs that always jumps on you.

The fact of the matter is anytime I see an animal, whether it’s a gazelle on Nat Geo or a pug walking down Venice, I can’t help but think about what kind of taste sensation it would be in my mouth.  I’m not the most worldly person when it comes to cuisine, so maybe this curiosity stems from a need to compensate.  Read more...

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How to Take Down a Siberian Tiger – Japanese Style!

  • February 24, 2011 12:02 am

Shuhei Yamaguchi has what may be the coolest job ever or possibly the worst job—I’m not quite sure which. You see, the Tokyo Zoo conducts an unusual training exercise designed to simulate the escape of a dangerous animal—in this case a Siberian tiger—to measure the staffs’ response to such an emergency. And the 26-year-old Yamaguchi plays a vital part in all of this…he gets to put on a costume and be the tiger.

Check out the video after the jump to see what he has to go through as the tiger stand-in—mainly being chased by the zoo’s trainers who wield nets, sticks and tranquilizer guns (though the report makes it clear that no shots were actually fired at Yamaguchi).

A rep for the zoo acknowledges that there are folks who think this exercise is…well, silly, but I found the whole story to be quite disturbing. Why?  Read more...

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My 8 Most Romantic Movies

  • February 23, 2011 12:09 am

Cinema Paradiso

True Romance—You wait for someone outside his/her window for 365 days until this person falls for you. Cinema Paradiso is probably the most moving, romantic and cinematic movie in my book. And in some way—waiting—is very Chinese except that it’s set in a small town in Italy.

 Read more...

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February 25, 1942: The ‘Real’ Battle of Los Angeles a.k.a. UFOs ‘Attack’ L.A.

  • February 23, 2011 12:01 am

Next month brings the release of the Aaron-Eckhart-starring film Battle: Los Angeles about an alien invasion force that attacks Los Angeles. Of course such a story couldn’t be anything but pure science-fiction…right? Well, flashback to February 25, 1942 when a real event dubbed “The Battle of Los Angeles” involving a UFO and the military took place.

Sixty-nine years ago this week, early on the morning of Feb. 25, a UFO (an unidentified flying object) appeared over the Los Angeles sky. Keep in mind that the nation was at war and this was just months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and less than 24 hours after a Japanese sub had launched an attack against coastal targets near Santa Barbara (remember how on edge we were in the months after 9/11 and you’ll get a sense of what it must have been like back then).

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The Benji Effect

  • February 22, 2011 4:39 am

Did you hear about the vacation boat that sank in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, killing twelve sleeping tourists and their Vietnamese tour guide?  Awful, just awful.  Boat took less than a minute to sink, people screaming as they went to their watery graves.

That’s the kind of stuff I read about, day in, day out.  Y’know, if it bleeds, it leads.

The story was in Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle (yes, I still subscribe to an honest-to-god paper newspaper; I’m also on AOL; and I sometimes listen to music on a compact CD player when I walk the dog.  And it’s not because I’m, let’s just say, comfortably past 30, it so happens I want to do my part to save dying American industries.  But that’s a topic for another time).  Read more...

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