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Last week, I attended the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), a production of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). It was great to catch up with old friends and just hang out in drizzling San Francisco, one of my fave cities ever. SFIAAFF is a staple of the Asian American film festival circuit, and really kicks off the festival season, showcasing the latest works from Asian American and Asian International filmmakers.
As if the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (with music & lyrics by U2’s Bono and the Edge) wasn’t facing enough troubles of its own, it appears that the next season of Sesame Street will also find the Muppets getting in the act with their own spoof entitled SpiderMonster, the Musical! Check out the preview here:
DOMINIC
Dominic Mah is a writer/director/nerd from Berkeley, CA, living in Los Angeles. He has a leaked, albeit completely made-up, version of the Spider-Man musical script at www.dommah.com, as well as a bunch of thoughts on Robotech and casinos. He has a long history with both superheroes and rock musicals. Mispronounced in the right way, his name is a strong Vietnamese curse word.
Last week the Broadway Powers That Be announced that the Spider-Man musical is back on track for a December opening in New York. For those of you normal citizens who didn’t realize that such a thing existed, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is an oft-delayed, utterly expensive stage musical to be directed by Julie Taymor, with songs by Bono & The Edge from U2. You really cannot make stuff like this up. Being a mighty nerd for comics, theater, and 80′s rock, on my scale this event is somewhere between Titanic and The Perfect Storm (my scale’s rating system consists entirely of nautical movie titles). I mean just look at this epically unlikely trifecta:
- Spider-Man: Possibly-overexposed comic book hero with own line of films, cartoons, lunchbox thermoses
– U2: Post-gigantic rock band that seems a little too serious to be into comic books
– Julie Taymor: Polarizingly audacious director responsible for the stage version of The Lion King and films featuring Frida Kahlo, Shakespeare, and the Beatles, and who for that reason also seems like she would not be into comic books; favors visual grandeur and some questionable cultural appropriations
…Well OK. Some could say this is a recipe for disaster, but that all depends on one’s definition of “disaster,” doesn’t it? True, it seems at first glance an unwieldy mix of aesthetics on which to spend a $50 million budget. But I believe a Spider-Man musical could still have a larger purpose: I’m thinking that a large-scale superhero musical is just what we need to counteract this trend of nerd icons becoming cool. Seriously, it’s gone too far, and it’s got to stop.
Unlike my fellow Offender Roger, I didn’t fear Filipina girls when I was growing up, but I don’t think I personally knew too many of them either (or I simply assumed they were Latina). So when this Filipina girl I liked (let’s call her Holly) agreed to go to a movie with me, it was my first real exposure to anything Filipino. Which is to say I expected them to be like the other Asians I knew at the time—studious, repressed, etc… Man, was I wrong.
The first sign that my preconceptions would be smashed took place as I was walking up to Holly’s house to pick her up. I could hear the sound of music—Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” to be precise—blaring from inside. When I knocked on the door, I was greeted by a 50-year-old Pinoy gentleman (Holly’s father) who grabbed my arm and implored me to come in and join in the “family dance time.” I entered to see Holly and her family—siblings, mother, grandparents and various cousins, aunts and uncles all singing and dancing to Stevie Wonder in the living room for no apparent reason except…they wanted to. I had never met another family who did anything like this, but I have to admit it was pretty cool.
I later asked Holly if that was a common occurrence in her household. “You mean do we break out into song and dance for no reason?” She asked. “Of course, we’re Filipino.”
And that was the first time I was introduced to one of the most common stereotypes pertaining to Filipinos—that they are naturally musical and have great musical ability. Or to put it simply—they can sing and dance better than the rest of us. Today, I present some of the “evidence” I’ve collected including comments that you sent us via email, Twitter and Facebook so you can decide for yourself if this is Chinky or not Chinky?
Guten tag from Berlin! I’m currently wrapping up my annual jaunt at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). Watched a lot of films and warming up my lower extremities because of one of the coldest winters in Berlin in a decade. For such a well run, beautiful place with rich history, their city services in salting sidewalks and streets is left to be desired. The sidewalks are ice rinks and many people have slipped and fell around the festival. A poor Indian film buyer actually broke his leg on his first day at the fest and had to travel back to India the next day because he was immobile.
"Long Story Short" San Diego Repertory Theatre
One of my best friends was in a play called LONG STORY SHORT about the 50 year love affair of two individuals, an asian-american woman and a jewish-male. (Yes, white man, asian woman. Get over it. It’s just a play.) The girl was more cynical about love; the man was a hopeless romantic who -upon meeting her- was talking about how wonderful it would be “to watch our grandchildren playing in the yard”. My best friend who played the female lead, after doing the show for many weeks, came to me with this advice, “Love is about taking a leap of faith.”
