tuckergurl

Asians on TV? Yeah, I haven't seen any either!

TVGuide.com reports that TV better serves Latinos but still snubs Asians and American Indians.

Um, yeah! When is the last time you've seen someone Asian as a regular on a TV show?

I watched Aliens in American the other day and there is one guy on that show from Pakistan. (I think?) Then there's Heroes and Lost but that's about it. Better than it has been but still pretty bad.

And well, let's face it. If there was no Ugly Betty, Latinos would be suffering too.

Rosa Rosa

Number 3 on my bucket list is learning Espanol. I know a bit but am not fluent.

Yesterday, I had my first lesson with my friend, Beth, and I accomplished something I could never do in my four years of Spanish classes in high school: I rolled my rs! I learned with the assistance of this classic by Sandro. You've gotta watch it. Truly a video classic.

NYC Shorts

Three years ago, my friends David and Jamie mentioned over dinner that they were starting a film festival. I remember it well. We were all griping about post film school life when they just came out with it.

Honestly, I thought they were crazy. We were busy trying to get our films out in the world. Why in the world would you want to get in the business of creating a film festival?

Sure they had a great argument. They had seen it for themselves. After creating shorts that won festival awards all over the world, other than our Columbia Grad Showcase, their films had a hard time getting seen in New York.

So instead of griping about it, they did something about it.

What I admire most about this endeavor is that they truly created this festival as a vehicle for artists all over the world to show their work. It is not simply a means for promoting their own work. So far they have not even shown their own films (and you guys are missing out!)

I’ve been a juror for NYC Shorts for all three years of the festival’s existence. I started out doing docs and have changed genres every year (comedies, foreign films). What I am always amazed by are the growing number of entries and the quality of the work.

The selection process is that each juror, 18 in total, watches 25 films. We pick our top three and a smaller jury of three makes the final picks. Some of my friends are jurors and every year at opening night we compare notes to see whose films have made it in -- as if who we are as jurors has anything to do with the films that come our way. One friend and fellow juror has never had a film that she has watched get in. Most years I get one or two.

This year I am coming to the festival like any of you. I have not seen any of the films in this year’s program because none of mine made it in -- thankfully, one of my friend's films did -- and I could not be more excited. All I can think is that if my shorts did not get in, they must have a really, really, exciting batch featured in this year's festival. (Ok, I’ve seen: The Danish Poet, winner of the best animated short at the Academy Awards last year and one of the most moving shorts I’ve ever seen. It’s playing in the children’s lineup and I really recommend it.)

So you should join me at this great festival beginning Wednesday (Oct. 24th) and going until Saturday afternoon. The NYC Shorts crew run a classy night and they are getting more press and bigger each year.

Oh, and one last plug: if you have kids, their children’s afternoon is always well regarded.

(Cross Posted on Engine Feed)

Shortcomings

I read this book in an hour.  And tomorrow, I am going to read it all again.  It is called Shortcomings.

Here is blurb from the back of the book:

Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long–term relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it's wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiraling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

I first saw Adrian Tomine's illustrations on the cover of The New Yorker.  Then I saw the cover of this book as an ad in Bust Magazine, cut it out and put it in my idea book for the documentary that I am working on.  (I am really interested in having some animation in the film and was drawn to the image shown in this post.)

Tonight, after a session with my LP, I picked up the book and read it on the one-hour journey from the Upper West Side to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. 

The book is a great page-turner.  It is a simple relationship story with race issues mixed in an ingenious way.

Most importantly though, this book tapped into something that I have come into contact with while I navigate the muddy waters of finding love:  What does who I am attracted to, from a racial perspective, say about me? And how much does intellectualizing it help or hurt things? 

I do not have answers to these questions.  I just enjoyed reading a book that deals with these same issues in a humorous and intelligent way.  Plus, I got a window into how these Asian characters grappled with similar issues.

I am new to the graphic novel scene.  (I should actually call it comics.  Marjane Satrapi said so in the Sunday Times.)  I was not a snob or anything.  I just did not read books with pictures.  But now that I am a bit more involved in it (more on that later), I am trying to read some good examples.

This book got me interested in how one draws people of different races and how, in a black and white book, you show different ethnicities. What features make me African-American?  What features make Townie’s character’s Japanese and Korean?

Also, there is such a specific sense of place in this book and if you check out the site on the book, you can see how he incorporated the places that he likes into the book.  This book takes place in Bay Area and Brooklyn and it is unmistakable from the images included within it.

Reading a good book is invigorating.  It’s corny but I said it.

You should check it out. Off to my next graphic novel, a recommendation from a friend.

Perfect As You Are

This was in my horoscope today:

It may be necessary to examine your life and think about what is truly essential. When you start finding fault with yourself, you might ask yourself the question, “How important is this?” Then you can think about the future and whether or not the issue will matter in a month or a year from now. You will probably notice that the small things you find fault with today usually will not have any great relevance to your life as a whole.

I have been busy in a way that is getting sort of difficult.  Reading this helped put things into perspective.

I am a perfectionist and I just have to let go of that sometimes. 

I am not going to be able to do everything well. 

I do not have to play a central role in everything. 

Sometimes I have to just stand back.

Because there are some things that I do not do well that I should really put some time into.  Things that are important to me to improve.  Things that could make my life better, richer.

(Thanks for reading this cryptic post!  Hopefully something resonates.)

Lately ...

I've been to Kentucky for my cousin's wedding. It was amazing and complex all at the same time.

I've travelled to my 35th state, Indiana. I casually mentioned to my Aunt that I wanted to go to all 50 states. She asked me which states were missing and when I mentioned Indiana, we hopped in her car and drove to a casino in Elizabeth, Indiana.

I've been to San Francisco for a shoot. The interviews went great. I think my film is coming along.

I've sprained my ankle on that same shoot.

I've been wondering why dating is so hard.

I've been making an effort to have new experiences.

I've been too distracted to finish the book I am in the middle of.

I've been giving dailies, contact lenses that you take out each day, a try.

I've been overwhelmed by the number of projects I want to do and the lack of time.

I've turned a corner with my cute godson/nephew. He likes me. He really likes me.

I have not been cleaning my apartment.

Thanks for the memories!!

Oh Wenty. It's not you. You are as pretty as ever.

We've just ... grown ... apart. I was watching Prison Break tonight after a long day at work and I just thought to myself: The last thing I want to do right now is watch some guy get tortured or beat up. Maybe if it did not feel like the first season only dirtier, I might feel differently. But it all feels just the same.

So goodbye Wenty. I will keep up with you on Just Jared. I will begin to accept the lingering (and probably true rumors) that you are gay. We can be friends. You are a smart, serious and hot guy. We both love Beloved. We should be friends.

Goodbye Prison Break. I am going to spend my Monday nights at 8pm with my new crush with a bad haircut, Zachary Levi, aka Chuck.

Something I Am Loving

VH1 Soul is having a marathon of videos from The New Jack Swing Era in honor of their upcoming Hip Hop Honors.

Here is their definition of New Jack Swing:

These days hip-hop and R&B are kissing cousins. It wasn't always that way. Thirty years ago, the two genres were seldom mentioned in the same breath.

But in the late '80s, during the era of high-top fades, and parachute pants, producer Teddy Riley and label boss Andre Harrell successfully fused and marketed the two sounds in a sexy, exclamatory music that critics termed New Jack Swing. It sparked a revolution.

"Rappers and singers didn't want anything to do with one another," Riley told The Source. "Singers were soft, rappers were street. But New Jack Swing showed that it was okay for a rapper to have feelings, and that it was cool for a singer to have a little bit of thug in him."

It was a more innocent time: Whitney and Bobby were still respected music-makers, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were bona-fide stars, and Will Smith was still calling himself the Fresh Prince. Riley's blend of sweet melody and big beats was so pervasive that it characterized the period; ultimately its sound touched everyone from Keith Sweat to Michael Jackson.

This "era" was during my teen years during my musical coming of age. I put era in quotes because that word seems a bit strong to use. However VH1 uses it often in their promotional materials and are presenting the pioneers of this movement awards at their upcoming ceremony. As I write this, I wonder what makes a musical era. Did I put era in quotes because the music was so light and fluffy that I see it as having less merit or gravitas as other types of music? Can Guy's "Groove Me" and Another Bad Creation's "Playground" be part of a musical era? Or am I feeling strange about being old enough for a time when a style of music I loved is seen as a past era.

New Jack Swing was really huge when I was a teenager. I was into hip-hop and R&B mainly because it all resonated so much more with me then. Now, I suppose I have lost my innocence. Or music sucks now. Who knows?

One thing I have noticed so far about New Jack Swing's songs is that, much like the music of a modern day child of New Jack Swing, Timbaland, each artist has one beat that they begin almost all of their songs with. (Take BBD's I Thought It Was Me or Poison) Then the songs morph into slightly different songs that all sound a bit the same. I am not hating on this style. A good beat is a good beat, even if you use it a 100 times.

The marathon is from A-Z and I am cleaning my apartment (and blogging) to Al B. Sure's Night and Day. I had a massive crush on him. I still have the audio tape of his first and biggest album.

Top 100 Docs

IDA has listed their top 25 documentaries.

Personally, I 100% agree with Hoop Dreams as the number one documentary of all time. The number two choice, The Thin Blue Line, was the film that made me want to make documentaries. I was in high school and an active member of Amnesty International. We were part of a letter writing campaign that along with the film helped to successfully release Randall Adams.

The rest of the list has some great choices (Capturing the Friedmans and Sherman’s March); some I am not sure I agree with (Fahrenheit 9/11) and some I haven’t seen (Night and Fog and Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance).

What do you guys think? Who do you think is missing?

Cross posted on Engine Feed.

My Kid Could Paint That

I wrote a nice long entry and my computer died. I can not replicate all of the previous insight so I'll just mention this one thing:

See My Kid Could Paint That this weekend!

First weekends matter, especially in documentary film. The more money you make, the longer your film will be released. So try to see it this weekend!

My friend made this. I have not seen it yet but it is getting decent reviews.

So see it and tell me what you think.