Sunday, March 01, 2009

Stupid Asian People

Watching The Amazing Race in utter amazement. I love this show, by the way. They pick some interesting participants. Last season featured a mother and her son, two annoying frat brothers, two blonde bimbos, and an older husband and wife who were separated. The mother and son were great in how supportive and patient they were to each other, while the frat boys got more irritating each show, culminating with the most ridiculous military training attempt in history.


This season features an Asian brother and sister who are also lawyers. Clearly Americanized, they appear either Vietnamese or Chinese. As I watch, the Asian guy, Victor, is insisting on continuing to go up the wrong path and follow the wrong signs. "I think we would be making a serious mistake if we don't continue on this path," he says. Meanwhile, his sister, Tammy, is being as patient and mature as she can, and finally just relents, "Okay, Victor, let's keep doing it your way."

Unfortunately, we get to see this team another week as they finished second to last place.

In other news, I went to my writing class, "Movies & Memoir," on Saturday and went through some short 6-minute writing exercises. Afterward, we all read our work and get some comments by the teacher and, later, by the other class attendees.

I had some resistance to going to this class, but only because I've had some bad experiences in the past with going to writing classes. I realize now it's probably because those classes were taught by Asians. I know that's a big statement, but I'm standing behind it.

First of all, if you take a class and see an Asian female playwright named Judy Soohoo, get the hell out of the class. I suspected she had "borrowed" from my work, but when I later interviewed her for a news article on a play she was debuting for a new theatre company, she admitted to borrowing heavily from more famous playwrights, both living and dead. Apparently, she is in the habit of doing this, and it doesn't matter if you've published your work or not. There's just too much of this kind of "borrowing" going around in the publishing world to walk into a class and just give it away to someone who admits to using others for inspiration.

The class I went to on Saturday was filled with white folks, including both instructors in the program. They find terms such as katas and samurai to be exotic, which makes me smile. They are also very good when it comes to analyzing the work.

In regards to my earlier statement on Asian instructors, I also don't recommend going to a class where the instructor says that you "flush" out your work and its characters. You don't flush those things out unless you got shit for brains or are writing about shit.

One last note before I head down to the gym. I got a reuse/holding fee for the commercial I did back in October of 1997. In fact, I'll be getting another in a week or so as it seems the previous reuse/holding check got lost in the mail. I called my old agency and they confirmed there was an outstanding check mailed to me.

So, anyway, at least I'm still in the game. Hardly, but I'll take what I can get. Cheers!

2 comments:

Teddy Zee said...

By the way, those Stupid Asian People won $1 million on Amazing Race. So who's the the stupid one? The one that gives two examples of Asians and thinks that defines not only them, but also all Asians. That is just plain stupid.

LT Goto said...

Thanks for your comment, Teddy. It's been a while since I wrote the original post but it was all in context. Like I said in the post, I love this show. And this season turned out to be one of my favorite BECAUSE OF Tammy and Victor's win.

But if you watched that particular episode, and was as absorbed as I was in the unfolding drama, even you, I dare say, would've blurted out, "Stupid!"

In all certainty, these guys are way smarter and more courageous than I've ever been. And their performance throughout the race was amazing to behold, especially after Victor did a mea culpa with his admission he was not being a good race partner. He was a total class act after that.

And, by the way, as I'm a bit curious, do you not realize I am 100% Asian, hence the title of this blog?