Pure Imagination

"Politics"

Why do we need to label and place people into categories? If I'm not a democrat, then I must be republican. If I'm not right-wing then I must be left-wing. conservative. radical. liberal. fuck that. I'm none of that. Even those that refuse to belong to any political party has a term made for them: independent. Well I guess if you're going to make me label myself, then yes, I'm an independent (not to be confused with the Independent Party, sneaky fucks). A friend of mine was told he was a republican because he questioned the health bill. I was told that I was conservative because I question whether or not this current widely accepted mitigation approach towards global warming is the right way to go about it. Well, I'm also a huge supporter of gay marriage, I believe in free trade, and I'm all for legalizing marijuana. Am I still a conservative now? Because the guy next to you just called me a liberal for believing that people should be able to live their lives the way they want. And my favorite line yet: "you're such a crazy liberal san francisco hippie." Well shit if being liberal means being an openminded person from a city filled with diversity and culture, then put that shit on a bumper sticker and slap it on my forehead. I think the problem these days is that people are so afraid of being labeled a certain term or placed into a certain group, that it prevents them from actually listening to both sides of the argument and choosing a stance of their own. Rather than standing up for what they believe in, they end up choosing a certain side in an effort to avoid being placed on the other side. this is backwards. if anything, it should be the other way around. Decide on what you believe, then find others that feel the same way in hopes that you will be able to get things done through power in numbers. I think this was the original purpose of forming these affiliations. These days, people throw these terms around as if they were synonymous with right and wrong, cool and uncool, acceptable and unacceptable. Since when did being democrat/republican/left-wing/right-wing/conservative/radical/liberal imply being good or evil? And what do these terms really even mean these days? I don't believe there's such a thing as being a "pure" democrat or republican, conservative or liberal (and since when did liberal become widely used as the opposite of conservative? shouldn't that be radical? things change...?). I think the majority of those that come off as a complete, 100% (insert political party or ideology here), is either closeminded or misinformed. In a sense, the discussion on politics has slowly come to parallel the discussion on religion...both involving ignorance...but that's for another blog.

For the Record:

DJ Neil Armstrong




is




the




shit.





http://hypebeast.com/blog/djneilarmstrong/
http://neilarmstrongpodcast.com/
http://www.5thplatoon.com/html/5th_platoon_neil_armstrong.html

Favorite Mixtape: Bittersweet

Mixing is one of the most difficult and underappreciated elements of music. It is an art that few actually do, yet many think they do. Steve Wonder over the clipse, Sade's Kiss of Life over pharell's frontin', Janet Jackson over usher, Bobby Brown's Tenderoni over Busta Rhymes...The day I can make a mixtape as amazing as one of DJ Neil Armstrong's, I will be satisfied with my accomplishments in life.

Chan is Missing

So I finally watched the film Chan is Missing from CCA's own, Wayne Wang, and I regret having waited so long. This movie makes me want to watch more movies (though I am hesitant to call it a movie and am more inclined to call it a film, as if there was a difference...). At a time in which big time blockbusters and 3-D effects dominate the box office, this film serves as a reminder that you don't need much to tell a story. Made on a budget of just $20,000--12,000 times less than that of Avatar--the film was far ahead of its time and is still far ahead of ours.

On the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown and its surrounding areas (of course we had to make an exception for the bridge), two taxi cab drivers--Jo and his nephew Steve--go on a search for a missing man, Chan Hung, hoping to track down their missing cash. The simple storyline to Wang's insert into film noir is irrelevant, as it is used simply as a tool in Wang's attempt to paint a representative portrait of Chinese Americans in San Francisco. Wang had a message and a mission, which he accomplished with a handful of amateur Asian American actors/actresses, a cheap camera, and a beautiful city.

Who is Chan and where is he? There is no Chan. Chan is an embodiment of the identities and potential identities that most chinese americans have battling within themselves at some point in their lives. Chan is every societal stereotype and every example that disproves each of those stereotypes.

"I've already given up on finding out what really happened to Chan Hung, but what bothers me is that I no longer know who Chan Hung really is. Mr. Lee says Chan Hung and immigrants like him need to be taught everything as if they were children...Mr. Fong thinks anyone who can invent the first word processing system in Chinese is a genius...George thinks Chan Hung is too Chinese and unwilling to change...Presco thinks hes an eccentric who loves mariachi music..."

Chan himself is a contradiction. There is no Chan. There is no "authentic" Chinese American identity. The true topic at hand: What is Asian American? Am I it? Do I want to be it? Though it was made specifically about the Chinese American Community, Wang's piece addresses the questions bobbing in the minds of every young Asian American since before the disco '70s--during which the movie was filmed--to the current "hip hop generation," with a simple answer: yes. You are It. You are the one defining the culture and mapping the identity, placing meaning to the term Asian American with each action, decision, thought, and preference. With each dim sum luncheon and hip hop concert. Each hong kong shoot-out and tarantino slaughterfest. Stop searching for that "true" identity. Stop searching for Chan because there is no Chan. He started off as a yellowface caricature and grew into an art-loving, tribe-called-quest-bumpin' hip hop connoisseur, a wine-drinking socialite, a tight-jeaned rockstar, a doctor, an artist, an accountant...a cloud of confusion. He stands for everything an Asian American could be, but nothing an Asian American has to be. He is Chan and he is missing because he doesn't exist.

Confirmation from Mr. Wood Moy himself: