November 12, 2009

Drugstore Recomendations

So yeah, I ain't got the H1 but I have had this lingering cold for way too long (the beginning of October). A combo of stress, insomnia, traveling, shooting football games every Friday night and a Jay-Z concert got me still feeling like shit. Besides gaining ground on my netlix queue, I've made some discoveries that I wanna share.

Delsym! Works better than 'tussin or Vicks 44 for that cough and tastes better. Plus, they got Asian folk on their website.
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NeilMed Sinus Rinse. It's kinda intense but really clears up your sinuses which helps me hear myself when I talk, taste my food and just breath. You literally shoot salt water solution up you nose, but if you do it right you actually don't get that water-the-brain sting.
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I know taking my advice on anything health related is kinda like me listening to my academic college counselor who was in his 7th year in school (wadup Rich Bis!) but I thought I'd put it out there.

November 11, 2009

So Many Docs, So Little Time

Got damn, there's so many documentaries out right now and I haven't seen any of them. Film school apps, work, and this damn lingering cold is to blame. The top of my list is QD3's The Carter which is suppose to drop on DVD the 17th of this month...



And there is just no excuse why I haven't seen the LeBron doc More Than A Game yet. It's only playing in 1 theater in LA now (Beverly Center).

October 29, 2009

Post-Racial America's Next Top Model

T.Y.-to-the-argh uhh, I still don't get the "love" part of the love/hate relationship some of my friends have with her. As problematic and as many issues this clip brings up, Tyra has once again left me starring at my computer screen, disturbed to the point of laughing, unable to articulate anything but "wow...WOW"!

If you don't have that much time to waste just watch the first minute and then jump to 6:00 and see what the Asian sista comes up with...



And if you have a lot of time to waste read this not-so-on-point article by the LA Times' representative of mixed raced residents of Hawai'i. Where do they find these people? Oh yeah, LA.

October 26, 2009

New Moon Soundtrack

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I know how it sounds when people say they read playboy for the articles, but I really do watch some flicks just for the music. As a kid bred on hip hop I rely on films and their soundtracks to introduce me to different artists. Even if the film is not the greatest, the soundtrack can almost save it, especially with those "I have White people problems" type joints, think Garden State or The Last Kiss. So when your 12 year-old cousin asks you to see the new Twilight movie, peep the soundtrack before you say no. Death Cab, Thom, Lykke Li, Grizzly Bear, Sea Wolf..I'm just sayin.

Thom Yorke - Hearing Damage

DOWNLOAD HERE

Lykke Li - Possibility

DOWNLOAD HERE

October 23, 2009

I Heart Hulu

In addition to not being able to wake up and watch football on the weekends, these clips really make me want to get cable (and a HD TV, and a DVR). But Hulu holds me down. These videos are worth sitting through the short commercials, especially if you haven't seen them before:

The Daily Show feature on the new Republican Party website:

The Daily Show: Slim Thug Feels the Recession

The Queen on SNL: Excedrin for Racial Tension Headaches

October 19, 2009

Song Wins Special Jury Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival!

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A Song For Ourselves won the Short Film Special Jury Award last weekend at the San Diego Asian Film Fest. SDAFF has a super official awards gala that Eric Tandoc and I were lucky enough to attend. "Lucky" meaning that the San Diego JACL generously sponsored our tickets and let us sit at their table. Eric made the most of the free beer while I popped an anti-anxiety pill.

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There was a gala after-party which was "cool, but it's not what i'm use too" so i celebrated the night with the homies from AnakBayan LA & SD over some late night carne asada fries:
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Mass Movement in the building! Eric's film Sounds Of A New Hope screened to a packed house.
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October 9, 2009

Screenings in New Orleans, DC and Philly This Weekend

Three big screenings this weekend! All the films that are playing with A Song For Ourselves in these festivals are excellent, please try and catch one in your city. Unfortunately, I'll be stuck in my room working on film school applications.


DC APA Film Festival
Saturday, Oct. 10th @ 12p
Playing with Manilatown Is In The Heart This screening is FREE!


Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Sunday, Oct. 11th @ 1p Playing with Sounds of a New Hope by Mass Movement's own Eric Tandoc


New Orleans Film Festival
Sunday, Oct. 11th @ 5p Playing with A Village Called Versailles (I've heard this film is amazing. This will definitely be a special screening since it will be in New Orleans)

October 5, 2009

Taiyo Na performs "War of the Flea" with Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin in NY

Last Saturday at the Basement Workshop Reunion in New York the homie Taiyo Na performed "War of the Flea" alongside Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin. Taiyo has always mentioned Chris Iijima as one of his biggest influences and inspirations as an artist so I can't imagine how amazing it must have been for him to sing Chris' lyrics with his old music partners.



Listen and download the original "War of the Flea"

Here's the filthy Senz of Depth Remix featuring Bambu off the A Song For Ourselves Mixtape:

October 4, 2009

October 3, 2009

Honolulu Weekly Cover Story

One of the coolest parts of the Hawai'i trip was going to Boots & Kimo's to eat this (banana pancakes swimming in macadamia nut sauce)... Photobucket ...and then walking over to Foodland and seeing this: Photobucket
The small print along the yellow fist reads "Long Live Chris Iijima"!
Read the whole article here.

October 1, 2009

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chee Unit (Blue ScholarsXBambuXCreed)

What do you get when you have a recording studio full of Filipino rappers and a sarcastic Baha'i DJ? Welcome to the OOF! booth. To shoot the "Chee Unit" (Blue Scholars, Bambu, Creed) in Honolulu was dope, but to witness Geo's one-take murder was something special. See for yourself... Oh yeah, the night continued with us getting locked IN the building and having to climb and scale our way out. Photobucket

Flicks from Hawai'i Premiere on Honozooloo

Photobucket I had the privilege of meeting a grip of inspiring and talented people while in Hawai'i and photographer Aaron Yoshino was one of them. I became a fan of his photos earlier this year through his website honozooloo.com. After hanging out with all these filipinos, it was really good to see a fellow buddhahead making a name for himself and doin it big! SEE ALL THE PHOTOS AT HONOZOOLOO.COM Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket

September 16, 2009

Culver City Football Project

Filmmaker Aleks Munoz told me that life is all about "The Three F's"; family, film, and football! This past summer I returned to the field that raised me and began following my old (Culver City) high school football team as they began their 2009 season. I don't know what the end result of this project's going to be, all I know is I'm having a fun. Here's the hellweek trailer I cut last month:

September 4, 2009

The "Hug Song" Video Dir. by Zia Moharjerjasbi

Best memorial video ever! One of my favorite filmmakers Zia Mohajerjasbi made this piece for the memorial service of a close friend. A wise man taught me that good art comes down to: form, content, context. This piece highlights the importance of... context. If you've ever lost a loved one, take yourself back to their funeral and then through your tears you watch this. Brilliant!



Keep settin the bar Zia!

August 11, 2009

Blue Scholars - HI-808 Video

The Scholars just dropped the first video off their new EP scheduled to drop later this month. Besides the fact that one of my favorite groups created an album inspired by one of my favorite places (Hawai'i), this video brings a smile to my face because the Hawai'i premiere/concert of my film A Song For Ourselves is goin down next month! Bambu and Dj Phatrick are already confirmed. Anyone in Hawai'i mark your calenders, it's going down September 24 in Honolulu. More details to come...

August 3, 2009

Arianna Huffington

I'm one of those people who kinda actually really enjoy graduation ceremonies. Maybe because the anxiety that I felt when I was sitting in my own ceremony, is at the same level now some 6 years later. But Arianna is spittin troofs that I really needed to hear.


"I don't see failure as the opposite of success, I see failure as a stepping stone to success."
- Arianna Huffington (wise old white lady)

Bambu's Response to the Phatrick Phenomenon

Bambu's response to the "Introducing MC Phatrick Video"...


Hilarious!

July 30, 2009

AAMMOM (Asian American Male Moment of the Month) - Phatty's Debut

You may have heard the rumors over the last couple of weeks but now you can see it for yourselves, DJ Phatrick will no longer stay in the background while his darker, better looking music partners get all the glory. On 7/18 at the JACCC Plaza in Little Tokyo, his Phatness took a stand, then took the mic...and reclaimed his marginalized East Asian voice...

July 15, 2009

Screening at New York's Asian American International Film Festival

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Song will be playing at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York on July 25th and 26th.

Sat. July 25th - 4:45p
Museum of Chinese in America
*Part of "Life on the Edge" shorts program

Sat. July 26th - 12 noon
Chelsea Cinemas
*Precedes Manilatown is in the Heart: Time Travel with Al Robles

June 26, 2009

Bambu - "Quit" Video

bam's latest video for "quit" off the ...exact change... album. track produced by illmind:



-tadillac

June 16, 2009

Is a $2 Mili Laker Parade Worth It?

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as happy as i am that the lakers have once again reclaimed the nba title, i can't say that this nba season (as great as it was) has gotten my mind of our plummeting economy and cali's ridiculous $24 BILLION state deficit.
i agree that LA desperately needs something that we can collectively celebrate and the lakers championship couldn't come at a better time. but $2 million for a 3 hour parade? i still don't know how i feel about this since our tax money is supposively only paying for half of the $1 million that the city is responsible for (2 hecka rich white men are paying for the other half). read more about the issue here and here.
sportswriter dave zirin gives us another reason why we should celebrate the lakers victory as he exposes the crookedness of the magic's owner and billionaire richard devos.
-tadillac

June 10, 2009

Stop Arnold's Termination Of Cal Grants!


"Grants awarded to 118,000 freshmen starting college in the fall would be canceled"
save cal grants! the governator's plan isn't to cut funding for cal grants, he wants to totally eliminate them. raise college tuition and dissolve finacial aid in order to save a failing economy? great plan dickhead! read la times article here.

June 7, 2009

Introducing Band Of Brothers!

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(from left to right) nick "rock" agtual, mina "the loy" checel, isabel "menace" agtual, jack "mop top" agtual

the 2 year-old music phenom mina loy (who also happens to be my niece) just dropped the first song with her new group "band of brothers". the group is made up of mina's cooler-than-ice cousins isabel, jack and nick. they were just booked for the halftime show at game 7 of the nba finals but since that game is unlikely to happen they have agreed to let mass movement tv premiere their self-titled debut song!

Band of Brothers by Band of Brothers DOWNLOAD
the track was produced and engineered by denis corrupt jones of the band "goth jones".
does anyone else think jack aka mop top looks like a mini version of mass movement's own krissfader?

June 1, 2009

Vote For Bambu on MTVU

bambu's video for "crooks & rooks", directed by patricio ginelsa, premiered this week on mtvU. please click on the banner below to vote for the video to make sure it stays on rotation, it seriously takes a minute, you don't have to sign up for anything:

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May 27, 2009

Top 12 Reasons Against Gay Marriage

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thousands hit the streets of LA last night after california supreme court upheld prop h8 which denies same sex couples the right to marry. my friend regan reposted this list which hit the web in february of '04, the author is unknown to me.
Top twelve reasons homosexual marriage should not be legal:
1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can’t legally get married because the world needs more children.
3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are property, blacks can’t marry whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by people not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
10. Children can never suceed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “seperate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Seperate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as seperate marriages for gays and lesbians will.
-tadillac

May 22, 2009

Fatgums X Bambu Release Party Video

i finally cut some of the footage eric and i shot at last month's release party for fatgums and bambu's "a peaceful riot" ep. as you can see and hear, it was an amazing day at the beatrock store, one of those events that really makes you thankful for the community we've created down here:

May 20, 2009

Under The Influence

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someone made the mistake of nominating me for angry asian man's 30 most influential asian americans under 30, and the angry guy picked me! it's a huge honor to make this list which includes karen o from yeah yeah yeahs and the co-founder of youtube. i really have to thank phil yu (aka. angry asian man) for always covering my back, his blog is phenomenal and continues to inform and unite asian americans across the country.
speaking of karen o, "zero" is one of my favorite songs this year:

May 18, 2009

Remember to Vote Tomorrow 5/19!

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last friday teachers and community members protested LA unified school districts' proposal to lay off 5,400 teachers, staff and faculty. read the LA times article here. our education system is already shit, please support these educators in their struggle to prevent it from getting even worse.
please remember to vote yes on propositions 1A - 1F in the cali special elections tomorrow (May 19). if these measures pass they will free up some money to start repaying some of the public education funding cuts and will help protect schools from even deeper cuts. if both prop 1A & 1B pass it will repay $9.3 billion to state schools and community colleges. read more about the propositions on the california teachers association website.

May 16, 2009

the janelle monae experience

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on thursday cindy and i got to check out janelle monae for free at royce hall. i had heard how amazing she is from the homies kori and phatty, but after giving her ep "metropolis: the chase" a spin, i thought she was a little overrated...but now i totally get it! besides her amazing voice and creativity, janelle is a flat out performer who posses a power that i haven't felt since the first time is saw erykah or bjork live.

if james brown and grace jones had a love child and then was adopted by bjork and andre three stacks, the result would be janelle monae:

Visual Communications Interview

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during their film festival, visual communications (vc) posted an interview with me on their website. i literally grew up at vc as both my parents were working there when i was born and had to take me to the office with them.  

May 10, 2009

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival Part 2

here's more from the LA asian american film festival that ended last thursday. song screened in a very strong shorts program at the festival. from left to right; director of no joke burma li-anne huang, director of parallel adele adele pham and festival director abe ferrer:
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eric answering questions after the world premiere of his film sounds of the new hope:
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eric and his mom:
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cindy, aj from xylophone films, eric and anna at the after-party: Photobucket
thanks to everyone who came out to the "what's the matter with asian american film?" panel. i hope me and spencer didn't offend anyone too much:
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some heavy hitters like scholar oliver wang (talking below) attended and participated in the panel. others who came out were asian american film legends robert nakamura, renee tajima-pena and curtis choy: Photobucket
after the panel - from left to right: jeff liu from vc, spencer, me, lou nakasako, alex tse (writer of watchmen) and dustin nguyen (the asian guy from 21 jump street!):
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May 7, 2009

Next Day Air Opens Tomorrow

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my brother-in-law david checel's new movie next day air is opening in theaters tomorrow. he cut the whole film! its directed by benny boom who's done music videos for everyone including snoop, nas, and 50. if that doesn't sell you then here's the white man co-sign, roger ebert gave the film a great review.
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Filipinos: The More you know PSA

my boy patrick epino's good deed for the year...
check out patrick's upcoming feature mr. sadman -tadillac

May 6, 2009

LA Asian Pacific Film Festival Part 1

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mass movement tv invaded opening night of the LA asian pacific film festival last week. none of the photographers wanted to take our picture in front of the backdrop so we had to ask someone to take one with my camera.
eric nakamura felt sorry for us so he interviewed me for the directors chair site
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dj phatrick and o-dub on the 1's and 2's Photobucket
beau sia lookin hecka hard in a shimmery green scarf Photobucket
e.t. with michael chen the star of the opening night film children of invention directed by tze chun
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sometimes there's a lot of hollywood bullshit at these kinda things, it is LA. but i can always depend on a handful of down-to-earth filmmakers have fun with. from left to right: michael velasquez (who did all the photo effects in song), patrick epino, phuong tang and tim jieh. Photobucket
-tadillac

May 5, 2009

Al Robles Rest In Power

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we lost a true community treasure on saturday. that night, while i was seeing his face and hearing his voice, al robles passed away. i was at the LA asian pacific film festival, eric had just premiered his film and we were watching manilatown is in the heart: time travel with al robles. the film ended with al reading a poem as photos from his life were projected on screen. when the film was over, the lights went on and director curtis choy walked up to the front of the theater and announced that al had just died.
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please visit alrobles.manilatown.org to learn more about this wonderful man and the work and art he brought to his community.
i had the privilege of talking with al a couple of times. the most memorable was when me, eric and my dad were filming at manzanar and al (in plaid shirt) and bill sorro (far left) along with a couple of friends walked up and started taking with us. it was a surreal experience talking to two legends in the middle of the desert. two years later bill sorro passed away and now al is gone.
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rest in power al. thank you for all the inspiration.