Youtube Video of the Week: Scarface!

I thought my parents were pretty liberal for letting me and my friends watch Revenge of the Nerds during my second grade sleep-over party but parents and teachers of these kids are way cooler! Fudge the Little Mermaid, we gonna do Scarface in this Son-of-a-bee!

John Wall & Derrick Rose Beasting in High School

Since Kentucky got bounced I've had to get my John Wall fix through these High School highlight tapes. It's reasons like this that I LOVE youtube!



Derrick Rose in High School ain't too bad either...

Erykah Badu - "Window Seat" Video

Badass Erykah!!!!! Here's the first video off Ms. E. Badu's New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh) due to drop on March 30th.



The "Inspired by Matt and Kim" credit in the opening of the video is in reference to the "Lessons Learned" video by Matt and Kim. At least Badu didn't try to hide the fact that the idea is off the bit. As much as I would rather watch Erykah over and over again, the filmmaker inside of me can't help but admit that the concept and execution is done better in this one...


*pause* Maaan, what the hell am I talking about! I'm bout to watch Erykah again!

Future States at SFIAAFF

While I was in the bay last week the homie Kori (the Cheddar Path) asked if I wanted to hit up the "Future States" short program at the San Francisco Int'l Film Fest. Not being a sci-fi dude at all and remembering that the last time Kori talked me into going to something I ended up wasting a day in NYC looking at unicorns and dragons in a museum, I was skeptical. But unlike the Mythical Creatures exhibit, I dug it.

ITVS got 11 youngish filmmakers and asked them "to take the current state of affairs in the United States, and extrapolate them into stories of the nation in the not-so-distant future." These three were my favorite...

PIA by Tanuj Chopra


Mister Green by Greg Pak


Silver Sling by Tze Chun

Otayo Dubb - So Opinionated Mixtape

Beatrock Music just released this free mixtape by Otayo Dubb titled So Opinionated.

-CLICK COVER ART TO DOWNLOAD-

-CLICK COVER ART TO DOWNLOAD-

Paul Valery Music Video by Blue Scholars

Fresh off their recent shows at SXSW, Blue Scholars just put out a video for "Paul Valery", a track they dropped last week. You can download the track here.

AOKI at SFIAAFF

The homie Ben Wang and co-director Mike Cheng's film AOKI is screening this week at the San Francisco Int'l Asian American Film Fest. The documentary is about Richard Aoki, a Japanese American who was one of the founding members of The Black Panther Party. Much respect to Ben and Mike for telling such an important story, staying true to the movement and their city, and pulling off a feature length doc as their first film.

Watch Ben and Mike talk about the making of AOKI:

Thanks Dave

Less than half way into this month and it's already been a crazy one. I entered my 30's, got rejected for the second time by the school I was raised to love, got accepted by the school that I was born to hate, and was presented with a possible opportunity that could shape the next 2 years of my life. I definitely feel like I'm at some kind of crossroad in my career path and it's been met by more anxiety than excitement.

Even though I heard about how amazing Dave Chappelle was as a guest on Inside the Actor's Studio back in '06, I never got around to watching it. Kinda like The Wire, I had slept on one of the most phenomenal things to happen to TV in a long time. But in a way, I'm glad I hadn't seen it until last night because I doubt the impact and inspiration that I got from Dave's words would have been as high if I wasn't at this crossroad.

If you've never seen this before or haven't since it came out, do yourself a favor and watch it:



Thanks Dave!

Offical Video for "Slow Down"

Here's the final cut of Bam's video that I did a behind-the-scenes piece for a while back. Props to Cinematographer Anthony Ignacio for making this video look so clean. Too bad all the homies who thought they were gonna make their video hoe debut got left on the cutting room floor.

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Here's a couple of photos from the March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Public Education:

Rallies, marches and building takeovers popped off in cities and campuses all over the country. I took a long lunch break and hit the streets of Downtown LA:


Met up with director Eric Tandoc and the Shining Sons, a rap duo (and twin brothers) who attend Long Beach Poly HS.


As always, the homie Bev and the rest of the AnakBayan LA crew were holing it down:

Thanks For The Love Claremont!

I've presented at the Claremont Colleges three times now and each trip has been worth that long ass drive. Last week I presented a workshop on "API Youth Cultures and Empowerment" at their Asian American Students Spring Conference. I got to build with a room full of students as we watched and listened to the evolution of API cultural workers from Chris Iijima to Faith Santilla to Hari Kondabolu. After the conference we all met up at Bambu's album release party.

The homies from the Claremont Colleges (and a couple of alumni who still think they are students):

Rest In Power Loni Ding

Last week we lost a true legend when pioneering filmmaker, teacher and mentor Loni Ding passed away at age 78. Asian American Cinema would simply not exist if it were not for Loni and the handful of filmmakers of her generation. As an Asian American documentary filmmaker I can only hope to influence and inspire a portion of the people she was able touch. Please learn more about Loni here and here.