I first heard that there was a toilet-themed restaurant chain in Asia a few years back. I remember thinking that was an interesting marketing concept, but do people really want to eat out of toilets and drink out of urinals (well, beside my fellow Offender Sung with his poop obsession)? The answer seems to be a resounding yes.
I was doing a normal google search for any interesting topics I could blog about (a normal google search in this case meaning I typed in the words: “Asian,” “shit” and “eat”) and came upon this recent piece in the Telegraph spotlighting the Modern Toilet Restaurant chain. The first Modern Toilet outlet was founded by Wang Tzi-wei and opened in Taipei in 2004. Since then, the chain has branched out all over Taiwan and has also expanded to Hong Kong and China. According to the restaurant’s promotional materials: “Our goal is to become The No. 1 Brand in Themed Chain Restaurants. In an era where creative marketing is king, even faeces [sic] can be turned into gold”.
Supposedly, the place is especially popular with the youth and there are plans to expand even further. Could you be seeing a Modern Toilet in your own ‘hood soon? And if so, would you eat there? I guess if the food is excellent and prices reasonable, I might be willing to give it a shot, but check out the photos below…I don’t know—is it me or does anyone else find this a little…nauseating? But on the plus side, if you get sick from the food, at least you don’t have to go anywhere to find a place to…relieve yourself.
Regular readers of this blog know how much I enjoy writing about the oftentimes strange sexual tastes of our friends in Japan. Some of you may think I’m unfairly picking on the Japanese, others may think I’m too obsessed with them, but come on…how can I resist when I see such awesome stories coming out of that country about things like the penis festival or the virgin sex doll with a pop-able hymen? These are fun topics to write about (and by the way our traffic spikes whenever I blog about these subjects, it’s clear you feel the same way, too).
So I have to say these past few weeks have been disappointing…maybe even a little troubling because they’ve been largely devoid of any substantial news concerning anything related to Japanese perversion. I mean it was just a few, short months ago when within a period of a couple of weeks, I was able to blog about the Japanese porn star offering compensation sex to the Chinese, the Japanese masturbating champ of the world and even the Japanese hot dog eating champ (I admit this one’s a bit of a stretch but it’s kinda, sorta sexual!). I felt like we were in a Golden Age of Japanese perversion and that the stories would keep coming.
But then the well seemed to run dry. The bottom fell out. The bubble burst. And there’s been…nothing. It’s been drier than a BP executive’s mouth during a Senate hearing (see how much it’s upset me, I can’t even make a joke that’s timely and relevant anymore). So what happened to all my Japanese perverts? Where have you all disappeared to suddenly? Are you all summering on Martha’s Vineyard? Are you hibernating? What? I miss you. Please come back. Help me find my bliss again. Read more...
Los Angeles’ Chinatown is still one of the most vibrant ethnic communities in the country and holds the title as the first Chinese enclave in the United States “owned” by Chinese Americans. But the Chinatown that we know today may not have existed if it hadn’t been for a woman named Christine Sterling.
Sterling (1881-1963) was a Los Angeles socialite (a.k.a. wealthy white woman with time on her hands) who had a passion for local history. She once remarked: “Los Angeles will be forever marked a transient, Orphan city if she allows her roots to rot in a soil of impoverished neglect.”Read more...
In another instance of “why doesn’t anybody tell me these things before it’s too late,” the Asia Adult Expo took place last week in Macau. Now in its third year, the expo is a three-day affair where sex toy manufacturers from all across the world come to exhibit their wares.
According to CNN GO, this year’s event drew 30,000 visitors, a 20% increase from 2009. Kenny Lo, one of the expo’s organizers, credits the upswing to a huge influx of women. Products geared toward the fairer sex (i.e. vibrators) made up 70% of the sales from the exhibitors. There also seems to be a growing demand in China, where pornography is still illegal, for cheaper sex toys.
According to Lo: “I’m seeing more cheap sex toys being sold at sex shops and adult expos in mainland China. Unlike the average of HK$1,000 and HK$2,000 here at the Asia Adult Expo, they go for a lot cheaper –usually under HK$100.”
I’ve always found it interesting that in the United States, there is still a stereotype of Asians not being particularly sexual (except for our exotic, slutty women) when all evidence seems to point to Asians as being more sexually adventurous and “interesting” than their Western counterparts (as regular readers of my posts probably already know). Read more...
Forty-seven years ago today, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech to over 200,000 civil rights supporters that included the now iconic words, “I have a dream…”
For the Rev. Martin Luther King, sing: Read more...
The closest metaphor I can think of is that amazing feeling you had as a child on Christmas morning when you’d jump out of bed, run to the tree and see the presents that Santa Claus left for you during the night. Yes, the thing I was holding in my hand may have just been a standard Fed Ex envelope, but inside was my metaphoric gift from Santa. Inside was a screener DVD of the Japanese film Big Tits Zombie.
Ever since my fellow Offender Anderson wrote about watching this movie at Cannes, I knew that it could very well be the greatest movie ever produced and make Citizen Kane look like Citizen Krap. This is a film about strippers who fight zombies from hell and stars Japanese porn stars Sola Aoi and Risa Kasumi. And it includes classic moments like this:
Are Asian and Asian American men getting the shaft so to speak from our own writers? This isn’t a new question, Asian American writers like Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan have received their fair share of criticism from some in the community for their “negative” portrayals of Asian men in books like The Woman Warrior and The Joy Luck Club. But is “racist love” still alive and well among our writers especially when it comes to the characterization of Asian males? Chinky or not chinky?
The always-provocative MaSir Jones over at his Destroy and Rebuild blog recently posted this entry entitled “Asian-American men get shafted even in literature.” He focuses on a list compiled by a commenter over at BigWoWo (my pick for the most literate Asian American blog) of novels from Amazon’s Meet the Asian American Authors book list. As he explains, the commenter’s purpose for exploring this list was “to find literature where the protagonist and love interest of the story is an Asian-American male. His findings are appalling, yet not all that surprising to say the least.”
So just how appalling were the findings? Check it out for yourself (note: there are a few books on this list I am not familiar with so I can’t vouch that all the information below is correct): Read more...
If he hadn’t died of a drug overdose outside a West Hollywood nightclub at the tragically young age of 23, River Phoenix would have turned 40 this week. He may not carry the iconic weight of an actor like James Dean who also died much too early, but for my generation, he was just as important.
Phoenix was around the same age as me and I grew up watching him in his early roles like Explorers and Stand By Me. Even as a child actor, it was easy to see that he stood out. There was a purity to him; an honesty that made him seem mature beyond his years. When I think of Phoenix, I remember the great director Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) talking about a particular experience directing Phoenix in Running On Empty which captures these qualities:
After an unusually mild summer thus far, the weather’s finally been heating up a bit here in the City of the Angels. And with the rising temperature, my thoughts naturally turn to…ice cream. Regular readers of this blog know that I have a thing for Thrifty brand ice cream and while I plan to remain loyal to the only real friend I’ve had in my life my favorite cold dessert treat, I thought it might be good to branch out and try new things at the same time. So when a friend told me that local favorite ice cream establishment Scoops had a kim chi-flavored ice cream, I was intrigued.
Look carefully at the photos above. Those are two things that should not go together. I consider myself Korean to the core of my very bones so kim chi is as vital to my survival as water, but even I can’t imagine how the pairing of ice cream and kim chi could bring about anything but tragedy. It’s like the dairy product equivalent of the coupling of Romeo and Juliet or Brad and Jennifer…it can only end badly.Read more...
If one or both of you are Korean and your child is about to have his or her first birthday, you’re most likely in the midst of planning a big celebration. In the Korean culture, the first birthday is a major occasion. The Dol or Dol Janchi is important because in the olden days, the infant mortality rate was very high for babies and it was considered a milestone to reach one’s first birthday (the first 100 days were also important) and the special day was marked with a big party.
This tradition still continues and one of the things that happens at this celebration is a ritual called the dol jabi. Here’s how it works–a number of items are left in front of the child and whatever he or she grabs is supposed to predict the baby’s future. Traditionally, items such as a book (to represent a scholarly future), string (long life) or money (wealth) are placed in front of the child. So if the birthday baby chooses the money, for example, he or she is supposed to become rich. More modern items can also be used such as a football (to signify a future athlete), a mouse (future computer genius) or even a movie camera (future filmmaker).
Now I’ve been to a number of dol celebrations recently and while this tradition may be my favorite part of the festivities, there’s one problem with it: It lacks serious drama.
Why? Because every item the baby can pick represents something “positive.” So let’s say that he or she chooses long life over money…is that really a bad thing? Nope, what we need to do is introduce a sense of danger to this ritual to make it more interesting by including items no Korean parent would want their kid to ever choose. Along those lines, here are some suggestions for things that you can include to increase your dol jabi drama…
A few years back, some Japanese dancing dude in a stormtrooper costume became a viral sensation for…well, being a dancing dude in a stormtrooper costume. And just as George Lucas himself went back many years later to “improve” the original Star Wars trilogy with enhanced CGI effects, so has it been done to the dancing Stormtrooper. You may have seen the original video where he’s simply dancing with himself, but now he’s joined by two mini-stormtroopers plus everyone’s favorite droid:
Wish they could’ve also added Princess Leia in her slave outfit. Every video needs their dancing hos. Oh well…but if you prefer dancing stormtrooper’s non-CGI, old school antics, check them out here: Read more...
Earlier this week, the story broke about this 31-year-old Asian dude named Michael Kevin Lallana of Orange County, CA, who was accused of ejaculating his semen into a female co-worker’s water bottle—not once, but (at least) twice. The woman got sick after drinking the water, sent it to a lab to get it tested and the semen was discovered which they matched to Lallana’s DNA.
OK, the story is a little disgusting and this Lallana guy obviously has issues, but otherwise, I didn’t really pay much attention to this news. But then a curious thing began to happen. I started getting emails from friends that went something like this:
Yo, I bet you’re already writing a blog about that Asian guy who put his semen into his co-worker’s water bottle. Damn, that is some wild shit! I can’t wait to see what you have to say about it. I bet it’ll be crazier than the actual story itself. Peace!
People I know occasionally send me links and ideas for potential blog topics so I ignored the first couple of emails that I received like the one above. But then they kept coming—all day and en masse. And that’s when the reality hit me…I think I’ve become the Asian American go-to blogger for any and all things related to “perverted” Asian sex. An Asian dude shoots his load into a woman’s water bottle and, of course, I’m expected to blog about it.
If you are a heterosexual male and you saw the Julia Roberts-starring film adaptation of the best-selling novel Eat Pray Love this past weekend, it most likely meant you were dragged to the theater against your will by your wife, girlfriend, date or some other woman that you are, or hoping to be, knocking boots with (if there’s another reason why you saw it, uh, I don’t want to know).
Yup, Eat Pray Love falls into the category of film referred to (sometimes derisively) as the “chick flick.” These are the movies no self-respecting heterosexual guy would be caught watching. These are the movies that a guy will only agree to see if there is a chance it will lead to post-chick flick sex. And if any woman doesn’t realize this or believes her man when he claims this is untrue, well, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
But the problem is that more often than not, there is no post-chick flick sex. There’s only a handshake, a “we should do this again sometime” and the guy madly dashing home (with an optional stop at the market for lotion and tissue) to scour the internet for a porn star who resembles his date so he can properly, er, finish off his evening. But I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be this way. Read more...
The good folks at Next Media Animation are back to tell us the story of Google’s latest woes in the way that only they can. Glad to see the devil make a return appearance. Enjoy:
I’m sure that anyone who’s attempted a Google search is aware of the search engine’s practice of suggesting possible search topics based on the initial letters or words you type in. So for example, if you type “I am e”, Google will offer you these suggestions:
Yup, not only is “I am extremely terrified of Chinese people” one of the top search choices but it was one of the top ten trending topics on Google Trends on Monday night (in fact, Google sends many readers who search for this phrase to our very own blog on a regular basis).
So how does Google select what phrases to suggest? Well, they’re based off the most popular searches that readers like you and me have done. So somewhere out there are a lot of people who are deathly afraid of Chinese people.
Huffington Post has collected a few of the more “interesting” Google suggestions so you can check them out after the jump. All I can say is—there are some wacky people out there searching for some wacky things. Enjoy: Read more...
In the ongoing dialogue about what we, as a community, need to do to advance the Asian American film movement, the talk usually centers on the role of the artists (improving the quality and quantity of our filmmakers) and the audience (the need for our peeps to more fully support the work of our artists), but there is almost never any mention of the critic.
So what? I hear some of you thinking. Who cares about critics anyway? They’re just frustrated artists who think they’re intellectually superior to the masses. Besides, they’re going the way of the dinosaur. No one really listens to what critics have to say anymore and their influence is quickly diminishing with each new Adam Sandler flick that tops $150 million.
But before you dismiss the significance of the critic, let me add this thought into the mix: a truly vibrant Asian American film movement will never exist without the contribution of “real” critics. They are just as vital and necessary as the artist and audience.Read more...
So yesterday afternoon, I make plans to meet my friend Bob for coffee. Now, Bob’s a good guy—one of the nicest dudes I know—but I can’t say he’s the most attractive man. It’s not a knock on Bob ‘cause I know he’s reading this right now and he’ll be the first to tell you he was born on the dark side of ugly. He often refers to himself as an obese yeti so hopefully that’ll give you a proper mental picture you can employ while reading the rest of this blog because it’s important to understanding the events that are about to unfold.
I meet Bob in front of the coffee shop next to where a homeless man has set up camp. The homeless guy is pretty dirty and smelly and looks like he hasn’t changed his clothes in decades (his Mondale/Ferraro for President t-shirt is a tip off), but he seems harmless enough. He asks me if I can spare any change. I reply, “I’m sorry.” Then, he turns to Bob and says, “can you suck my dick?” Bob’s reply: “Uh…sorry, dude, but I’m married.”
Bob and I take a seat on the outdoor patio to enjoy our iced mochas. But then I notice a curious thing. The homeless guy is asking everyone who walks by if they could suck his dick. It doesn’t matter who they are—male or female, ugly or good-looking, straight or gay, white or black or every color in-between—he asks them all. At one point, I think he even propositions a passing dog that promptly lets out a series of barks before running off.
Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert and Texas State Rep Debbie Riddle (both Republicans) have been actively sounding the alarm this week about the imminent threat to the U.S. from terror babies.
For those unaware of this latest threat to our freedom, here’s what it is in a nutshell: Al Qaeda or some other Muslim terrorist group sends pregnant women to America on tourist visas and these women give birth to their children on our soil which automatically grants them U.S. citizenship status. Then, the babies are whisked back to the Middle East where they are trained to be terrorists who will come back to the U.S. in 20 or 30 years (their citizenship allowing them to do this) to carry out some nefarious plot against America. Both Gohmert and Riddle said they obtained this information from retired FBI agents (Gohmert also told Fox News that he heard of this plot form a “Hamas-loving grandmother” aboard a flight).
The only problem with these claims? There’s no evidence to back them up.Read more...
Because you demanded it (well, some of you at least), we are extending the deadline to submit to our INTERPRETATIONS Film Initiative to 11:59 PM PST on Sept. 15 to accommodate all the awesome shorts we know will be coming our way. Thanks to Toyota and all our sponsors for supporting us as we “move forward.”
We already have a good number of submissions and we invite everyone to click here to check out the films, register, comment and be an interactive member of the INTERPRETATIONS community. In the next week, you’ll also see new INTERPRETATIONS blogs including a Q & A with juror/producer Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes, Terminator Salvation) and the transcript of our New York INTERPRETATIONS panel featuring our awesome MC Jennifer 8. Lee (author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles), Offender Elaine Chin and two of the filmmakers we commissioned to direct sample shorts for INTERPRETATIONS: actor Ken Leung (Lost) and Arowana Film’sEvan Leong. So check back to the site often as there will be a steady stream of new and cool stuff.
Speaking of New York, here are more photos from the INTERPRETATIONS panel courtesy of Bobby (Chien-Pai) Lin: Read more...
The good folks at Next Media Animation (NMA) in Taipei have been busy this past week with more animated versions of the top news stories of the day (see below). I have to say I’m beginning to look forward to these with as much anticipation as a kid at Christmas. Special thanks to Emily at NMA for reaching out to us and keeping us in the loop. You guys rock!
Here’s the Jet Blue flight attendant who had the meltdown:
I was doing a normal google search for any interesting topics I could blog about (a normal google search in this case meaning I typed in the words: “Asian,” “shit” and “eat”) and came upon this recent piece in the Telegraph spotlighting the Modern Toilet Restaurant chain. The first Modern Toilet outlet was founded by Wang Tzi-wei and opened in Taipei in 2004. Since then, the chain has branched out all over Taiwan and has also expanded to Hong Kong and China. According to the restaurant’s promotional materials: “Our goal is to become The No. 1 Brand in Themed Chain Restaurants. In an era where creative marketing is king, even faeces [sic] can be turned into gold”.
