Here's my favorite announcer quote from round 3,
"...The men tie up. Pacquiao lands a hook, then throws an uppercut. Pacquiao fighting like a 7th-grader who just finished serving three hours of detention. He's bouncing off the walls. Diaz finally standing his ground..."
After seeing Kite Runner (minus the you know what scene) the little guy's been obsessed with kites. Tonia took him to the kite store in C-town. And we're thinking he's going to pick out some fancy kite in the shape of a cartoon character, but nope, he's got classic taste just like mom. He picks a red, diamond shaped kite, with 2 ribbons. He watches Kite Runner once and he runs around with the kite like he's been flying kites forever. This is another Tonia trait, exerting expertise with minimal experience. So talented.
I'm all about the underdog. In the same genre as the autobiographical stories of Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness) and the three doctors (The Pact), Cooked is the story of Jeff Henderson's journey from big time drug dealer, to hard time in prison, to head chef of a preeminent Las Vegas Restaurant.
Jeff Henderson was a major drug dealer in East La during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980's. Between his teens and twenties he lived a lavish life style that included trips to Las Vegas and the Bahamas where he'd blow 30 thousand dollars a weekend. He'd take his homies to Jamaica as a reward for their loyalty and hard work. His goal was to make money and raise his family above the poverty he grew up in. He never equated the lives he affected with the crack he slung on the street.
At age 24 he was handed a 20 year sentence in Federal prison. With nothing but time to contemplate his life choices Jeff slowly realized some major insights that turned his life around.
First, through his interactions with Muslim prisoners he gained an understanding of race relations and Black struggle in White America. He didn't become Muslim but he gained strength, wisdom, and self empowerment through interactions with the prison Islamic community.
Secondly, his interactions with "white collar" crime prisoners he became less xenophobic and gained an appreciation for worldly insights, current events, and business. The stock brokers and accountants that were doing time for money laundering and insider trading respected Jeff's quick wit, doggedness, and intelligence. In turn Jeff felt intellectually stimulated by these upper crust prisoners. His consciousness and aspirations were growing beyond his former ghetto mindset.
Lastly, Jeff was quickly drawn to the prison culinary program where he found great satisfaction in the quick and hard environment of the kitchen. The kitchen was fast paced and pressure filled, but Jeff thrived in the competitive nature of the kitchen and quickly found mentors that nurtured his culinary skills. The pressure, camaraderie, and instant gratification of cooking parallels the skills that made him a very successful drug dealer.
Much like his hard scrabble life, Jeff doesn't pull any punches in his auto-biography.
James Yee was born and raised in New Jersey. His parents and four siblings were a normal Asian American family. Although his mother tried to get the children interested in Chinese culture none of them could speak a word of Chinese. James memorized baseball statistics, had friends, celebrated American holidays like the Fourth of July. He wrestled in high school and excelled academically. He went on to graduate from West Point and proudly serve in the US Military.
After a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia shortly after Desert Storm James discovered the Muslim faith. What began as a casual relationship with Islam turned into a spiritual journey. He studied Arabic and Islamic studies for three years in Damascus Syria. And he returned to the armed forces to become one of the first Muslim Chaplains to serve in the US Military.
His decision to serve as a Muslim chaplain in the US Military occurred years before September 11th, 2001. The tragedy of 9/11 pulled James Yee and his unique vocation as a Muslim Chaplain to serve in Guantanamo Bay at a time when his services were sorely needed and overtly despised at the same time. He was loyal to both the Muslim faith and the US Military. But his military colleagues, influenced by post 9/11 American fervor and anti-Muslim fear, labeled him a traitor. The US government, with spurious evidence, threw him jail and tarnished a career that he held dear.
James Yee's story is a unique look into the Muslim faith. The similarities between Christianity and Islam are simply painted by James. His courage and heroism are a stark contrast to the discrimination, ignorance, and fear displayed by his military colleagues. This book attempts to set the record straight for Captain Yee. He travels from the safety of an American family to the outer fringes of American paranoia.
I didn't get very many good photographs of Kahlo's fourth birthday today. The event was so grand that no one picture could fully capture the essence of this toddler birthday party. It was a mesmerizing, controlled, chaos. When Tonia has a vision for an event it is often a very grand vision. Tonia advertised the party to parents at Kahlo's school as a simple get together. I have never known Tonia to do anything simple. I spent the last two weeks hunting down wizard hats on the Ebay. I downloaded Harry Potter theme music from Amazon. I bought some speakers for our Ipod. Tonia recruited her grad school classmate, Mark, to play the role of Professor Dumbledore. Mark is a good friend. The type of friend who'd do anything for us. Add that to his type "A" personality, and the fact he came from Tonia's Art Therapy program, and the full-on Dumbledore costume, the result is one very enthusiastic and hilarious wizard. Mark approaches deadlines just like Tonia. He crams for them like the night before a test. And like Tonia, he's so brilliant he can pull it off. He spent a few hours practicing how to make balloons the night before the party and viola, he's pumping out four legged balloon creatures to a horde of toddlers the very next day, "dog for you", "giraffe for you", "sword, no problem". Even more impressive was the fact he was at a magic store a few hours before the party learning magic tricks. The kids loved the, "What's that coin doing in your ear?" trick. Mark is ridiculous. But he had my mom clapping for him, and her favorite form of entertainment is WWF wrestling. Mark also recruited his home girl who happened to be a professional children's party planner. You add Tonia + Mark + Professional Party Planner and you get a heck of toddler party.
I spent the morning picking up balloons, Vietnamese sandwiches, and Kimbap. By the time I got to the party the kids were seated and Dumbledore facilitated a Harry Potter "hat sorting ceremony" where each child was sorted into their wizard "house" and given a wizard hat, robe, "harry potter" glasses, and wand. Other details included:
- Gold coins from Gringotts Bank
- Magic tricks (invented by Mark)
- Magic potion making (pop rocks and water)
- Wizard owl in an ancient Chinese bird cage
- Birthday cupcakes decorated with flying broomsticks and lightning bolts
- A wizard hat shaped pinata
Any doubt about the success of Kahlo's party were put to rest by the many interesting quotes from the parents.
"How am I supposed to throw a party for my son now? No one can compete with this..."
"This was the most amazing children's party I've ever been to"
"I had to take my son outside. It was too stimulating"
"As usual, incredible job Tonia"
"Thank you so much for inviting us. We were honored to be at such a grand event. My daughter can't wait to go to school and see Kahlo again!"
Yes, this toddler event was grand. And the end result was a happy young wizard, whose imagination, and pretend play rival his mother's vision.
My man Dale introduced Halo Halo to the Top Chef judges last night. I was waiting for him to bust out some Pilipino cuisine. Although, in my opinion, Halo Halo is more "assembling" than "cooking". This dessert didn't win him the Quick Fire Challenge, but the guest pastry chef judge deemed it one of the top three desserts.
In the early 90's I took a class at San Francisco State University entitled "Asian Americans In The Mass Media". The purpose of the class was to show the limited exposure of positive images for Asians in Hollywood compared to Whites and other ethnic groups. Since the inception of television images of Asians have been relegated to the exoticised china doll images, the emasculated Asian male, and not much else. (Although Bruce Lee put the hurt on, Hollywood never let him portray a love interest). Simply put, the percentage of Asians seen on American film is far less than the percentage of Asians in America. The same can be said for African Americans and Latinos. For decades we as minorities and people of color turn on the tube and only see the Whiteness of America and none of ourselves in Hollywood's America.
Yep, all these thoughts of racial politics spun through my head while I was channel surfing last Thursday evening when I noticed the flood of Asian diversity that was coming out of my mainstream TV. First there's American Idol finalist, Ramiele Malubay, the pinay singer from Florida. Then there was MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" with the San Diego dance crew, JabaWockeez, who are composed of Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and African American b-boys. Lastly on Thursday was the Top Chef contestant (who is Pinoy), Dale, on Bravo. Holy crap, I thought to myself, what's up with the networks? All these Asian Americans on one night of prime time TV. And to top that off on Saturday was the Manny Pacquiao fight. The pre-fight documentary featured Black Eyed Pea's apl.de.ap chillin' with Manny and rapping a few versus in Tagalog!
Let's see. Within a span of 3 days Hollywood media featured images of Filipinos as great singers, dancers, cooks, and fighters. I'm hoping that these reality shows influence Hollywood to cast more Asians in non-reality shows. I'd like to see an Asian lead character playing a doctor, or lawyer, or urban hipster type. Somebody funny, engaging, and heroic. Obviously, the "real" Asians are all of those things.
Recent Comments
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boyatomic said:
[this is good]Cool. Did you get dizzier capturing this? read more
on Kahlo + Disneyland = :) -
flipjive said:
Oh yeah dude, AtomicBoy tipped me off in his blog about Arnel Pineda: http://boyatomic.vox.com/library/post/the-new-lead-singer-for-journey.html.Crazy. Maybe Run DMC should look for... read more
on Pinoys on Prime Time -
Indian Stallion said:
Hey man. I took a similar class taught by Francis (Wong) at Santa Cruz. It was pretty cool. Did you... read more
on Pinoys on Prime Time
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Thanks. Wish you guys were there. read more
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