Rest in Power Grace Lee Boggs

It is with sadness that I have to write that one of my freedom icons has passed away today.

At the age of 100 Miz Grace Lee Boggs has died leaving behind to cherish her memory black activists, Asian activists and a city that is ready to come back from the ashes.

J and I went on vacation in Northern Michigan this past summer and while driving back to Cincinnati we decided to cut through Detroit just so we could see her center. We drove through the city, surprised at all the empty lots and abandoned buildings. When we got to her street we expected to see a sign for her center but the only thing there was a house. We drove away cursing our car’s GPS system. James typed the address into Google Map on his phone which led us… right back to where we were.

I jumped out of the car and asked a woman in scrubs if she knew where the Boggs Center was. She pointed to the house across the street. She noticeably sized me up and told me to go knock on the door, they’d let me in.

“She lives there, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s there. You know we just celebrated her birthday.”

I thought for a second and then shook my head. We did not know the center was also her house. There’s no way I wanted to go knock on the door of an old woman.

“She’s been sick,” the woman went on. “But they’ll let you in.”

I asked for directions to the school and the woman asked me if I had an appointment. Again I said no. We were just passing through and wanted to see it. She gave us directions and we got lost only once.  We jumped out of the car, took a picture in front of the building and talked to the principal.

We didn’t get a chance to see the center or meet her but we were satisfied for the rest of the drive home.

At least I was. Now I wish I had the courage to knock on her door and tell her how much she meant to me.

If you want to know more about this awesome women listen to her interview on Democracy Now or On Being; check out her obit in the Detroit Free Press; watch her film American Revolutionary on PBS or you can always read her books Living for Change and The Next Revolution.

JP Chan is Picturing You… Or Somebody…

I want to see this film.

I probably will eventually find it on Netflix or have to request it as an Interlibrary Loan book before it makes its way to me.  But I am going to see it.

Just for the fact alone that is has a gorgeous AMBF couple in it, which the beautiful Teyonah Parris is a part of.

The movie was written and directed by J.P. Chan.  You may remember some of his earlier work, like Digital Antiquities, which I have briefly written about in an earlier blog.

If you are interested in seeing it just from the trailer then go to their website or like their Facebook page to find out when it makes its way to your city.

And if you go see it and you liked it, leave me a comment in the box.

I really do read them.

 

RIP Brother Fred

h/t to Maria and The New York Times

It is with a heavy heart that I write that musician/activist/matrilinealist Fred Ho has passed away from cancer Saturday 12 April at 7:30 am

Mr. Ho, who was of Chinese descent, called himself a “popular avant-gardist.” He was inspired by the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and by the ambitious, powerful music of African-American bandleaders, including Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and especially Charles Mingus. But he rejected the word jazz, which he considered a pejorative term imposed by Europeans.

Fred Ho, Saxophonist, Composer and Radical Activist Dies at 56, April 13 2014

I have written a couple of times here about Fred Ho, even made him my freedom hero, because I look up to him.  I was happy when I discovered his music years ago and reached out to him, back when you could do such things via the internet.  He responded back and was as kind, humble, and erudite as he came across through his music and essays.

If you want to learn more about him you can listen to this NPR interview and then pick up his books or listen to his music.  For a newbie I would suggest his book Legacy to Liberation.   For music it’s hard for me to choose, but my favorite is still “Yes Means Yes, No Means No, Whatever She Wears, Wherever She Goes“.

His passing is a great loss to the arts/Blasian/socio-theoretical community.  He will be missed.

In preparation of his transition from leaving his corporeal form to become warrior light, Fred worked with a film crew to make a documentary of his last year of light.  Check for it when it comes to your city.

You can also learn more about Fred at the website Discover Fred Ho

Peaceful journey brother Fred.

 

 

 

Battle of the Year Coming in September

It’s not my intention to have a post with Chris Brown so soon after the last one.

But, I had to put this video up. And all those not on Team Breezy are happy to see him take a punch to the jaw, even if it’s fictional.

In the brief trailer it seems that dance instructors Derek (Josh Holloway) and Dante (Laz Alonzo) aren’t happy that Korea is whooping us in dancing.

Before anyone starts to get excited it’s not North Korea. I doubt they have enough energy to get a good two-step going. It’s South Korea, who have swept the floor with us lately in international Hip Hop dancing competitions. Reason why: those crews can move.

Don’t worry; I don’t expect this movie to take any swipes at South Korea since the director is Korean American Benson Lee. Lee’s previous film includes Planet B-boy which is a documentary about the international Hip Hop dance competition. If you are a fan of the dance style and haven’t seen it you should go get this movie. Actually, if you aren’t a fan of the Hip Hop dance you should watch this movie, you will change your mind after viewing the athleticism and creativity of the dancers.

So are you excited about the movie? What do you think?

After Earth Ending Credits for Jay Park

h/t to KoreAm and AllKpop for this article.

Today, Will and Jaden Smith joined rapper Jay Park to announce that he was chosen to sing the ending song for the new Smith SciFi  movie, After Earth.

Jay Park is a former member of the KPop group, 2pm.  Since leaving the group he has released several solo albums and mixtapes.

SciFi nerds, like myself,  have been awaiting this movie for a while now.   Although he’s just singing the song “I Like to Party” as the end credits roll and people leave the theater,  this is a big opportunity for more people to hear Park’s music.

To listen to Parks music check out his webpage or YouTube channel.

Big Ups to Santa Ono

For the last few days I have meant to give out props to the new University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono.  Not just because he was officially installed as the 28th president and the first Asian American president of the University but for his recommendation of freezing tuition and selling the presidential condominium and using the proceeds to endow a student scholarship.  He has also said he will not accept a bonus or salary increase for the next two years.

“Now is the time for UC to send a clear and compelling message to the broader community that our university is firmly committed to keeping costs down for our students,” President Ono informed the board. “This commitment must start with me as president.”

As a mother of two college students, one who is attending UC and the other who will attend fall semester, all I have to say is thanks dude. My husband and our bank account seconds that.

Who Rocks it Better? SHINee or DTMG

I bet you thought I’d never do one of these again.  I wasn’t sure if I would since I haven’t found songs I’d like to compare.

Today, the two songs  we have to juxtapose is an original and a remake.  And this time when I ask “who rocks it” we have a candidate that actually does rock.

First the original: SHINee.

So SHINee comes out strong with their song Dream Girl which reminds me of the Pop-Funk dance music of the early 90s. This song was released about two months ago (19 February 2013).

Next we have the contenders: DTMG featuring Puma Shock.

DTMG took the song in a totally different direction, they threw down the guitars and rocked the song. I also love that they sang the song in the original Korean instead of Sukiyaki-ing it (yes, I made that noun into an verb. What!)

Puma Shock is a favorite of mine, as evidenced by previous blog posts.

Verdict: I can’t decide. I am a big fan of electro pop music so I like the original.

But then I also like rock music and I am so glad that these guys came correct on the song, made it their own without detracting so much from the original that you can’t tell what it was.

It’s hard.

I am going to make this one a toss up. Because really, depending on the day I am into dance or I am into rock.

What is your POV? Leave a comment down below if you have a favorite.

How Do You Say “Hide Your Daughters” in Mandarin?

I am going to set aside that Chris Brown is a man-child who is prone to throwing tantrums in green rooms when people bring up his public behavior.

I am not going to talk about how he, a child of abuse, abused his famous girlfriend and then got back with her to the dismay of nearly all his fans.

Over the last few years those things have been hashed about by better writers than myself, who know more information and follow more gossip rags than I do.  If you are on Team Breezy then there’s nothing I can say to deter you.

But!  I will parse his new video.

First off I’m like…. waaaaah?

We come in on a young Chinese family where the father talks about belonging to a triad (gangsters) but can’t let his daughter date a guy who is young thug.

Shot to the daughter who is wearing a dress that looks like a 21st century cheongsam.

And I ain’t gone lie, I covet that dress.

Up drives Chris Brown in the Back to the Future DeLorean where he steps out looking like he just finished practicing with the Broadway musical, Newsies.

Underlying story, he’s the boy next door, how can he be a thug?

Then, Chris goes into song and dance à la Michael Jackson, “The Way You Make Me Feel“.

If you remember anything about MJ’s song and the context behind it, you will remember it comes at a time before the child sexual allegations but at the height where people were starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with his Peter Pan/asexual imp act. He was grabbing his genitals on stage but hanging out with Emmanuel Lewis and McCauley Culkin, something wasn’t right.

MJ had to change the narrative to make himself seem like a ladies man, which he accomplished by spending 4 minutes chasing after female doppelgänger Tatiana Thumbtzen then one minute to two minutes taking out his sexual angst by demolishing a car.

Yeah, that happened.

So, where MJ tried to cultivate an air of masculinity in the late 80s and early 90s by telling you he’s bad, Breezy is trying to defend his image by allaying your fears.

“It’s alright, I’m not dangerous” he sings. “When you’re mine, I’ll be generous.”

At the end of the video the father comes back to defend the Karreuche Tran look-alike. But really, I don’t think the young lady is supposed to be a stand in for Karreuche or even Rihanna. The person Brown is trying to love but keeps seeming to be taken from him is the public love. Fame is china fine: delicate, expensive, hard to obtain. In the end we have a stand-off between Team Breezy fans, Team Breezy critics who are keeping Brown away from his lady love.

So the question is, was Brown’s song and dance good enough to get back his lady love? Are you applauding it? For a minute we had fun (though we didn’t truly believe) that Michael had fun with Naomi Campbell and Iman in his early 90s music videos. He even went as far as to sell an album as dangerous, although he was singing about a woman.

By the end of the 90s things turned around a lot differently for MJ.

Maybe things are different. Maybe Brown is as innocent and innocuous as his music purports.

And if he isn’t, his fans will have good music to dance to.

Judith Hill on The Voice

I have spoken about Judith Hill before.  She is a talented singer who needs to get more shine.  How can a sister with this type of talent not be a household name?

If you still are unaware of this amazing young performer then you need to watch The Voice. And when you become a fan then vote, not just when she wins the competition (I have been a fan of hers for a few years now so I can’t see why she wouldn’t win this thing) but when her next album drops go out and buy it, because money talks, bs walks.

Hopefully, Usher will be watching her more closely while she’s rocking the stage, too, because how could he not remember her from the Michael Jackson memorial? Well, I guess it was a very sad day.

Here is another song off of Hill’s début album, the movie soundtrack from Red Hook Summer.

Groovin to…

Sweet Dreams by MFBTY

I am a big fan of Korean rappers Tiger JK and his wife Yoon Mi-Rae. Like I said before, they are like the first couple of Rap in Korea (USA parallel are Jay-Z and Beyonce). No one goes harder than these two when it comes to rhyming and they are always creative with music, rhythms and rhyme schemes and bringing Bizzy in on this project called MFBTY (an acronym for My Fans Better Than Yours) is another step they are taking in expanding their talents.

Now, I don’t know when this song will be available for purchase– that is one of the downfalls of being a fan of KPop because not everything is available to American markets. The song is the first off a three song EP. For now, we can only watch the video and wait.