A small set of Pokemon from Gen 2 and 1 are set to be released during special events in Pokemon GO in the near future. For those users that are seeking to fill their Pokedex, there’s also a set of Pokemon that are not able to be caught – but are able to be attained. Four separate categories of Pokemon … Continue reading
Do wireless customers really care about unlimited data on their cellphone plans? Verizon Wireless discovered they absolutely do, as confirmed in the carrier’s financial results for Q1 2017, released today. Turns out, it took bringing back truly unlimited data from the dead to step a gush of subscribers from the network. It certainly seemed like a grudging launch on Verizon’s … Continue reading
Google Home is addressing one of its most criticized features, adding the ability to differentiate up to six people by voice and serve them up their own, personalized results. The smart speaker launched back in May last year as Google’s answer to Amazon’s Alexa and the Echo but, like Amazon’s system, had a big issue for those in multi-person homes. … Continue reading
Chris Pratt might have a new blockbuster movie on the horizon, a snack empire at his finger tips and the uncanny ability to out-charm himself on every subsequent press tour, but it’s his wife, Anna Faris, who stole the show this time.
The “Mom” actress has been an incredibly supportive partner to Pratt over the years, appearing on red carpets with her husband for films like “Jurassic World” and “Passengers” around the world.
For the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” press tour, however, she decided to switch things up and live-tweet two days of appearances, whether Pratt liked it or not.
As hilariously honest as ever, Faris gave her followers a peek into her world for 48 hours, sharing pics of everything from what looks like her son peeing in the backyard to a shirtless Pratt shaving in the mirror. Ah, life is good.
So take a seat, grab your snack of choice and behold Faris’ Twitter adventures below, because we’re going to be here for a while.
Then Faris took a break from tweeting to presumably sleep, but returned to social media the next day for another round of glam in preparation for the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” Los Angeles premiere.
Here we go …
Ta-dah!
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The Tribeca Film Festival knows how to nail a kickoff. By the time the crowd was exiting Radio City Music Hall after the world premiere of the documentary “Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives” on Wednesday night, Jennifer Hudson had paid tribute to Leonard Cohen and Whitney Houston, Carly Simon had sung “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and Aretha Franklin had one-upped everyone in an enveloping white gown that sparkled all the way to the rafters.
Tribeca often opens its annual festival with a glittery entertainment-industry showcase. In 2014, the Nas doc “Time Is Illmatic” led into a full performance of “Illmatic” from Nas himself. In 2015, Ludacris took the stage after the “Saturday Night Live” documentary, because why not? Last year’s premiere of the Met Gala doc “The Last Monday in May” skipped the musical finale, but Tribeca more than made up for it this year, parading out Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick and Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as the aforementioned acts, for an hourlong concert. It was all in the name of Davis, the 85-year-old record impresario who bolstered their careers.
Davis’ pride and joy was always Whitney Houston, who has her own documentary premiering at Tribeca next week. “The Soundtrack of Our Lives,” directed by Chris Perkel, is strongest during sections devoted to Davis and Houston’s devoted professional partnership. Houston, whom Davis signed to Arista Records at age 19, died on the night of Davis’ famous Grammy party in 2012. He had long pleaded that she get help for her drug problems. “I know that Whitney never intended to leave so early,” a mournful Davis said toward the film’s end. “We all thought that she had beat it.” It’s only fitting that Hudson used part of her Radio City set as an ode to Houston. The audience cheered at the documentary’s footage of Houston’s performances, particularly her famous “Star-Spangled Banner.”
But first! First there was Barry Manilow, whose medley included “Looks Like We Made It,” “Mandy,” “Lola” and “Copacabana.”
“What a movie! What a life! And I was there!” Manilow said as the concert began, referring to Davis.
After Manilow finished, we were reminded that Hudson is a master of dramatic entrances. She sauntered out, gently cooing while canvassing the stage, as if the stationary microphone were following her wherever she walked. She broke into “Hallelujah,” putting a soulful spin on the widely covered ballad. Turns out Jennifer Hudson does a mean Leonard Cohen.
Considering the documentary was so Whitney-focused, and given Hudson has paid homage to the elder diva before, the crowd erupted as Hudson launched into “I’m Every Woman,” “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” During the latter, she wanted to dance with Davis, so she wandered into the front rows to find him.
After Hudson said her goodbyes to the crowd, Earth, Wind & Fire, joined by Kenny G, hit the stage. (“From Kenny G to Notorious B.I.G. ― that’s distance,” one Davis disciple says in the movie.) Next was Dionne Warwick, who sang “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “That’s What Friends Are For.” Warwick quoted something Davis told her when she wanted to quit music: “Young lady, you may be done with the industry, but the industry is not done with you.”
A frail Carly Simon, clad in a floor-length green smock that would have won her friends in Haight-Ashbury circa 1967, snapped her fingers to “Come Around Again.” Reader, maybe you knew that Simon recorded “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in 1987, but I did not. Therefore, imagine my surprise when Simon introduced a chorus of schoolchildren to join her for a lilting rendition of the nursery rhyme.
“Sometimes you don’t realize where inspiration comes from,” Whoopi Goldberg, who emceed the concert, said after Simon’s performance.
In the end, all of these folks were an extended warmup for one of Davis’ other signature acts, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin. Commanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T and then some, Franklin entered wearing a showstopping fur coat, which she quickly dropped, and a billowing white gown that seemed to follow her across the stage.
Now 75, Franklin has said this will be her final year performing live, even though she sounded fantastic belting out “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Freeway of Love.” In between the songs, she apologized for any shortness of breath, saying she’s been fighting an upper respiratory infection. But to my untrained, “Divas Live ‘98”-obsessed ears, Franklin sounded as accomplished as ever.
What a night.
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Last week, a New York Magazine piece by Andrew Sullivan received legitimate blowback for a final paragraph that described Asian Americans as “among the most prosperous, well-educated, and successful ethnic groups in America.”
As NPR’s Kat Chow pointed out in a response, Sullivan’s assertion lumps together a hugely diverse population, equating the experience of a Filipino-American with that of a Japanese-American when research refutes the assumption. Chow condemned Sullivan’s continuation of the “model minority” myth, which congratulates Asian Americans for overcoming discrimination and systemic oppression to achieve “the American Dream,” therefore relieving white America of responsibility and placing the burden on minorities, like black or Muslim individuals, who might not be viewed culturally with the same high regard.
Lonnie Lee, curator and owner of Vessel Gallery in Oakland, has spent the past two years thinking about the stereotypes, generalizations and myths that commonly manifest in discussions about Asian-American identity ― and Asian-American art. The resulting group exhibition, “Excuse me, can I see your ID?,” complicates and disrupts the stale narratives that persist both inside the gallery space and beyond it.
Inspired to organize a show featuring entirely Asian-American artists after then-President Barack Obama declared May to be Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Lee struggled to create an identity-oriented exhibition that expanded understandings of Asian Americans rather than affirmed or constricted them. “I was looking for artworks that portrayed the identity of Asian Americans as something different than what we’ve seen in the past,” Lee told The Huffington Post. “I was really seeking statements about identity that went beyond Asian-ness.”
Race plays a critical role in how we understand ourselves and each other, but for Lee, it was important to her that participating artists had the freedom to express aspects of themselves that have nothing to do with where their lineage leads. “I was excited to portray a real diverse array of artists who happened to be Asian-American,” she said. “Identity is a construct, made from many different components. Each individual artist understands identity differently. I am hoping that visitors question their social conditioning and see the individuality of each of the various artists and their narratives.”
This expectation that identity boils down to race, at least for everyone who is not white, extends to the art world as well. So often, Lee explained, artists of Asian descent are expected to make art about their Asian-ness, preferably using traditional Asian techniques.
Lee’s daughter, Jasmine Lee Ehrhardt, who curated a film program to supplement the exhibition, agrees. “The art world is dominated by white people,” she said. “For artists of color, you have to talk about race and ethnic identity, but not in a way that makes white people too uncomfortable. This show is not intended for the white gaze. It was curated by an Asian-American curator, featuring Asian-American artists. It’s not about self-cannibalizing the work that’s expected from artists of color, putting themselves on display explicitly to be consumed by the viewer.”
“Excuse me, can I see your ID?” is diverse not just in terms of the artists it represents but the work they create ― from technique to media to style. “They are not just performing race,” Ehrhardt said, “they are dealing with all these different, complex issues that I think the art world doesn’t often reflect.”
The exhibition got its name because, as Ehrhardt put it, “Asian people are presumed to be perpetual foreigners.” The curators were specifically interested in this idea of physical documentation and how it dictates who is allowed to move freely through this country. “There are a lot of undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders in America right now,” Ehrhardt said. “It forces us to consider how Asian Americans can and cannot move through space. We’re interested in the tension between these actual papers and the feelings we have inside.”
One featured artist is Dave Kim, a Korean-American man raised in Los Angeles and based in Oakland, whose large-scale paintings revisit moments in his childhood and adolescence. As a teenager, Kim joined a Filipino gang called the Maplewood Ave Jefrox, despite the fact that Kim himself was not Filipino.
Kim’s experience shows a convoluted composition of identity in flux, at any given time a cluttered collage of people, places, influences and urges. As Kim explains in his artist statement: “Even though we’re Asian, we took on the characteristics of Latino gangs in every way, from claiming a neighborhood, to the attire and even the language we used. I think the thing to remember is that I joined it not to be violent or become a criminal, but to be a part of something, to find belonging, importance — find purpose.”
In the painting “Flea,” Kim creates a portrait of a friend who died from an overdose, shown staring at the viewer, tattoos covering his bare chest.
“This is definitely not the ‘model minority’ we often hear about,” Lee said.
Another artist complicating predominant stereotypes is Omid Mokri, who, trained in traditional Persian miniature painting and art conservation, currently makes work while serving a 12-year prison sentence in San Quentin State Prison, for what the artist describes in his statement as an “unjust, forced sentence” for self-defense. (Lee is not familiar with the specifics of Mokri’s charges or arrest.)
Mokri and his family fled Iran during the 1979 revolution. He then earned degrees from both the Rhode Island School of Design and California College of the Arts. As an Iranian, Mokri diverges from the “typical” image of an Asian American. In a time when Islamophobia runs rampant, he is certainly not immediately assessed as a “law-abiding, peace-loving, courteous [person] living quietly among us.”
For his artwork, Mokri gathers the scant materials available to him in his circumstances: recycled bedsheets serve as canvases, pulverized colored pencils as paint, hair affixed to plastic spoons serve as paintbrushes. “I’m including this work because it’s incredible what an artist can do with such humble materials,” Lee said. “I am interested in presenting his art because I am curious how the judicial system was shaped by his face, how he looks. If he was white, what would his sentence have been?”
Each artist featured in Vessel Gallery’s exhibition brings a similarly compelling narrative and utterly singular perspective to the space. Both Lee and Ehrhardt hope the exhibition sparks dialogue that diverges from the typical conversation topics.
“Talking about ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is interesting, but that’s not the only issue affecting the community,” Lee said. “We want to expand the conversation, address the hard topics and offer other views of what it means to be Asian-American.”
She hopes to stage an entirely Asian-American exhibition every other year during Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month moving forward. This year, however, the show feels particularly necessary.
“The administration has created this sense of urgency,” Lee said. “People recognize that this is a shared struggle, a place upon which we can build solidarity. The show is not an attempt to derail larger conversations, but to say, ‘This is our stake in it.’ This conversation is also important.”
“Excuse me, can I see your ID?” features work by Cherisse Alcantara, Rea Lynn de Gusman, Dave Young Kim, Hyeyoung Kim, Kyong Ae Kim, Omid Mokri, Juan Santiago, Sanjay Vora, and Evan Yee. The show runs until May 27 at Vessel Gallery in Oakland, Calif.
Welcome to Battleground, where art and activism meet.
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Although an investigation into his alleged sexual harassment has led to Bill O’Reilly’s dismissal from Fox News, the right-wing media personality will still have a platform, courtesy of his book publisher.
Publisher’s Weekly reported Wednesday that Henry Holt ― an imprint of Macmillan ― “has no intention of altering its support of the bestselling author.”
Just last month, O’Reilly released a commercial successfully book through Henry Holt called Old School: Life in the Sane Lane. The book ― a sendup of progressive values, from trigger warnings to safe spaces ― begins with a quiz, wherein readers can determine whether they’re “Old School,” or a “Snowflake.”
Questions range from the politically divisive (“If someone wishes you ‘Merry Christmas’ what’s your immediate response?”) to the smug (“If you happen upon a raging warehouse fire late at night, do you: a) Hope the firefighters are safe and express concern for the people who work there during the day. b) Get out of your car and take a selfie with the fire in the background?”)
Henry Holt has an unnamed September release co-authored by O’Reilly; so far, the publisher says “plans have not changed” for the title.
The imprint’s other recent releases include Elizabeth Warren’s This Fight is Our Fight and Coretta Scott King’s My Life, My Love, My Legacy.
It’s unclear whether the publisher’s decision to keep O’Reilly on its list is inspired by commercial or ethical aims. Publisher’s Weekly points out that O’Reilly was the bestselling adult nonfiction author of 2016; his book Killing the Rising Sun sold over 1 million copies in print. With the ability to tout his titles on his show, he had the sort of built-in fan base that a debut author might not. But, a book market expert predicts that his sales will decline, especially from casual fans and women readers.
On the other hand, free speech organizations such as the National Coalition Against Censorship ― which stood by Milo Yiannopoulos’ book before the title was pulled ― would likely argue that cutting ties with O’Reilly would be a violation of his rights.
Yiannopoulos’ book was cancelled after the “alt-right” personality made a comment condoning pedophilia. Either the statement was finally an ethical breach the publisher was unwilling to accept, or it turned Yiannopoulos into a long-term financial liability. Most likely, it was some combination of the two.
Regardless, O’Reilly’s charges seem not to have warranted such action just yet.
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