racist cheesesteaks

I still don't get why everyone thinks it's totally ok to be racist towards asian people, just because.

this one restaurant owner, Joseph Groh is the center of controversy because he won't change the name of his restaurant, which is called Chink's Steaks. the restaurant has been around forever and was named after his dad's childhood nickname , Chink, because he had slanty eyes.

asian americans in philly keep demanding that he change the name, but Groh just keeps saying "no" saying that his restaurant is old and he doesnt want to have to change the name, EVEN THOUGH he does admit he wouldnt dare name his restaurant Chinks now if it opened today... and the fat white people keep eating there too!

If I was the pissed off asians in Philly, I'd open a korean restaurant called Joseph Groh is One Racist Bastard SoonTobu House to retaliate and I'd have all my crazy filipina aunties do a sit-in in the restaurant.

(this entry brings back memories of when I went to philly a few years ago for a conference and lost my damn mind and ate 1.5 cheesesteaks in one night at like 3 am after a night of drinking)

tons of well read white people....

Today I decided I didn't give a flying fuck about studying, and made my way to the LA Times Book Festival where I had myself a grand old time!!

Jeff's passion in life is to constantly surround himself with more and more books, so he was having THE TIME OF HIS LIFE today at the book festival.

highlights of my day:
- eating a hot dog for lunch
- eating a hagan daaz ice cream bar
-attending a talk where Michael Silverblatt, host of Bookworm, interviewed Walter Mosely, mystery novel writer and author of Devil in a Blue Dress
- stopping by the Philippine Expressions Bookstand and buying cool books!
- laying on a grassy knoll near the Jans steps like a lazy fat cow for a long time and watching wee little children roll down the hill

Books I picked up:
- Philippine Recipes Made Easy
-Filipinos Everywhere: Displaced, Transported Overseas, Moving on in the Diaspora by E. San Juan Jr
- Overseras Filipino Workers by Freda Editha O. COntreras
- Philip Vera Cruz : A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement by Craid Scharlin and Lilia Villanueva

go ana!

I love Ana Sui because no matter how old she gets, or how successful of a designer she is, she always goes back to her inner BOWL cut, even though the haircut just isnt flattering and makes her look like she has a rounded wok on top her head. it must be some sort of psychotherapy for asians to get in touch with their inner child by reliving the bowl haircuts of their youth. as someone who can't get away from the bowl cut myself, I applaud ana for daring to look like Moe from the three stooges from time to time.

cousin ITT

my hair is getting so long, and i am losing all ability to control it! it's getting to be that time of the year where I start resembling THIS again:

All Power to the People

Yesterday Jeff and I took a lovely trip to the MOCA, Pacific Design Center to see the Emory Douglas exhibit currently on display. Emory Douglas was the Black Panther's "Minister of Culture" and was the artist mastermind that created the Panther's iconic posters. Douglas' artwork combined drawings and collages and powerful anti-colonial statements to advocate for local community control and agaisnt us. imperialism. It was so cool to see posters with Angela Davis and Elaine Brown on them! His artwork really blew Jeff and I away and you should definitely check it out! I managed to take some illegal photos before I got reprimanded by a Filipino security guard.

The MOCA chose to act like a racist fascist pig by relegating Douglas' artwork to its less visited building in the Pacific Design Center around the ritzy part of West HOllywood/Beverly Hills/Robertson, instead of properly showing it DOWNTOWN at the MOCA that everyone goes to. Ironically, Douglas' posters advertised meetings and rallys that the Panther's held in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, and it would have been so appropriate for Douglas' work to be shown downtown, instead of at the PDC, where rich white people flock in droves to Urth Cafe and the Bodhi Tree bookstore.

It really pisses me off that the MOCA will show Robert Crumb's drawings, and Barbara Krueger's feminist artwork as part of the Wack white feminist art exhibit, and will show cute happy Takashi Murakami flowers, but sadly decided to throw this powerful inspiring exhibit showcasing revolutionary artwork by a BLACK ARTIST in its far away annex in Weho. Now that is really fucked up. It's time to support another black artist other than Basquiat people!!! Oh well, here are my photos:

Who you calling a mellow yellow?

In celebration of Asian Heritage Month (and me being done with my labor law final) , I bought this book today from the UCLA bookstore:



So many amazing photographs, quotes, and personal essays from activists of all kind (and not to mention wonderful documentation of 70's fashion). Yay for Filipinos who fought for social justice! Yay for radical Asians!

Good Song!

I don't know why i suddenly got an itching to hear this song: