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Things that Make Me Hungry

  • May 22, 2013 10:20 pm

Since this week’s flavah topic is “hunger,” I thought I’d make a stream-of-consciousness list of things that make me hungry:

Food.
The smell of food.
Pictures of food.
Pictures of people eating food.
Pictures of starving children in third world countries.
Sally Struthers.
Angelina Jolie.
Fantasizing about Angelina Jolie eating a hot dog.
Fantasizing about my hot new neighbor who likes to undress with her window open and the lights on eating a hot dog—after she’s finished undressing though ‘cause she doesn’t look like she can multi-task.
Hot dogs.
Hamburgers.
The McDonald’s Golden Arches.
Remembering that time when a guy dressed like Ronald McDonald asked if he could rub his crotch against my leg ‘cause he had an itch in his groin and his arms were too short to reach it.  Read more...

Around the Horn: Growing Old as an Artist

  • May 20, 2013 10:26 am

How do you feel about getting old? Maybe not in the physical but in an artistic way… Last Saturday evening UCLA Film & TV Archive did a mini-retrospective of two early features Flow and Drift that I made. I got a Facebook message from a friend who said “Thank you for friending him” as he showed Offender Justin’s and my early shorts in his cable program. In fact, Offender Justin shot “Fall 1990,” a majority of Flow when he was still an undergraduate at UCLA. In fact, it might have been his first and last DP gig. Correct me if I am wrong… my memory is fading!

Honestly I haven’t thought about getting old. I just kept making films the summer I graduated from Berkeley. I’m sure it will be challenging watching my early works and I’ll cringe at all the innocence and the rough edges of my craft. Nevertheless I still have the same enthusiasm and excitement about making films… and I still feel very much a beginner.

Maybe I’m a kid who refuses to grow up. How about you?

I’d be especially curious in hearing how Offender DHH (David Henry Hwang) feels as I was studying David’s works in college—before I became a filmmaker—and now I’ve worked with David and we are on the same blog!  Read more...

Three Hundred Bucks Is Three Hundred Bucks

  • May 2, 2013 5:04 am

Now I first need to say, I’m no sucker.  I haven’t – even fleetingly – considered giving money to exiled Nigerian princes or actual friends whose accounts get hacked and send me notes about having their passports stolen in Hungary.

I’m not, for the most part, an idiot, but a certain “Don Neumann” sent me the following email:

Would You Wrap Your Car in an Ad for $300 Weekly? If you have got a car, truck or a bike you are qualified. The wrap doesn’t damage paint. Reply if interested.

This seems legit.  You are being paid to be a rolling billboard.  Passes the common sense smell test.

 Read more...

The YOMYOMF Network: We’re on a Boat (with YouTube)

  • May 1, 2013 10:56 pm

Regular readers of this blog know that some of the YOMYOMF Network gang are in New York for Digital Newfronts this week—the annual event where the major players in the online world showcase their wares to advertisers. And tonight was what is arguably the granddaddy of all Newfronts events—YouTube’s Brandcast.

Ryan Higa & D-Trix

As YOMYOMF is a part of YouTube’s Original Channels Program, I can’t claim to be completely objective, but when it comes to online video content, YouTube is king (with over a billion visitors every month watching YouTube for a total of 6 billion hours) and they threw the party of all parties to match their status.

The view from Pier 36 as the event starts.

Brandcast took place at a huge warehouse at New York’s Pier 36, which was followed by dinner on board two huge yachts. Yup, we were on a boat.  Read more...

The Billion Dollar Man

  • April 30, 2013 10:36 pm

Congrats to our fellow Offender Justin whose next project—a little film called Fast & Furious 6—hits theaters this Memorial Day weekend. Apparently, according to today’s cover of Variety (aka Hollywood’s Bible), he’s the Billion Dollar Filmmaker.

Which is cool for many reasons, but not least of all for this reason—when I was a kid, I loved Steve Austin aka The Six Million Dollar Man.  Read more...

Looks Like Sailor Moon Needs a Shave

  • April 25, 2013 12:16 am

Meet Hideaki Kobayashi aka “Sailor Suit Old Man.”

Yes, this Tokyo native likes to dress up as Sailor Moon on the weekends and has become somewhat of an internet celebrity in Japan for…well, dressing up as Sailor Moon and doing his thang.

 Read more...

Why Japan is Awesome #848: Beer Made From The Remains of Elephant Shit

  • April 22, 2013 9:53 pm

Who knew elephant shit could be so tasty and intoxicating?

There’s already a Black Ivory Coffee in Asia which is coffee brewed from beans chewed up by elephants and excreted as waste aka poop aka shit. Apparently, passing through the elephant gives the beans a particularly smooth flavor. But why stop at coffee?

Japan’s Sankt Gallen Brewery released their Un, Kono Kuro Beer (loosely translated as “Shit Black”) earlier this month and, yes, it’s brewed from the same elephant excreted beans. So far the reviews for the beer have been positive and it sold out within hours of its release.  Read more...

Who Wants to Split $1 Million with Some Old-Fashioned Racism

  • April 18, 2013 9:26 pm

Hyun Lee, a Korean American woman from Egg Harbor City in New Jersey, is suing CVS for this:

Apparently, Lee placed an online order to print some photos at CVS using her real name, but when she went to pick up her order, the name on the receipt read: Ching Chong. Lee has filed a $1 million lawsuit for the hurt and embarrassment this incident has caused her.

This story raises a lot of questions, but possibly the most pressing and thought-provoking one is this: why the hell didn’t I think of this idea myself?!  Read more...

Fast and Furious 6: Han Flavah

  • April 11, 2013 11:23 pm

Regular readers of our blog already know that today is the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Better Luck Tomorrow. Being reminded that we are a decade older isn’t necessarily the greatest thing, but what is cool is looking back to see how far everyone’s come in that time. And it doesn’t get any cooler than this:

That’s one of the brand new character posters for Fast & Furious 6 featuring my fellow Offender Sung who is better known as Han. To go from a little micro-budget indie to being featured on the poster for a big-budget, Hollywood summer tent pole movie with a hottie like Gal Gadot within ten years is pretty incredible when you think about it. Hell, I’d be hard pressed to think of another poster for a Hollywood flick that prominently features an Asian American brotha front and center beside his a love interest in recent memory. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Who also happens to be pretty funny:  Read more...

Turns Out Size DOES Matter

  • April 11, 2013 5:06 am

The good news: only one in 10,000 men has a penis that is ten inches or longer when erect (I assume measured from the base with a tailor’s tape – god I assume that! – or .0001% of the population).

The bad news: size does actually matter to women.

The good news: when flaccid, if you hit at least three inches, anything over that results in only a small increase in attractiveness to the female.

The bad news: I’m a grower, not a shower.

On Monday, biologist Brian Mautz of the University of Ottawa in Canada published the results of his study on whether size matters in that raunchy rag, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.”  Read more...

Better Luck Tomorrow: 10 Years Gone

  • April 10, 2013 10:58 pm

Ten years ago tomorrow on April 11, 2003, MTV Films released a low budget indie film made by an unknown Asian American director and a lot of credit cards and the rest as they say is YOMYOMF history. The film was, of course, Better Luck Tomorrow, directed by our fellow Offender Justin Lin and its success is the reason why you are currently reading this blog.

Many of the current Offenders, including actors Sung Kang and Roger Fan, first came together because of the shared BLT experience and the soon-to-be YOMYOMF family was born.

And so on this milestone occasion, we’d like to take a moment to look back, remember and just say, “Shit, it’s been ten years already!”

Thanks to everyone reading for your continued support and we hope to be here in another ten years. In the meantime, check out some of our past blogs about BLT:  Read more...

The Wish Tree

  • April 2, 2013 5:28 am

My wife and I and our dog were taking a walk a few weeks ago when we got lost and stumbled upon this:

A pen and cards with string sat in a little basket.  We ran into the owners of the  tree – a sweet couple – and they told us they’ve run out of tags and pens…twice.  From the light to the heavy, people are hopeful, anxious and worried.  Read more...