so yall already know this, but i just found out. (thanks jason and erika). one of the final contestants from project runway season 8 is Lao! represent!! anyway, he didn't win, which means that there ain't 2 project runway winners from Laos. a previous winner from season two, chloe dao, is from Laos, although she is ethnically viet. andy south woulda really begun a Lao dynasty of winners for ths show! (a big number 2!!!)
well, like i said, he lost. and he also lost the rest of his name. apparently, he used to be andy southiphong, but he or somebody else trimmed off the last two syllables of his name and tossed it to the floor like discarded scraps of cloth from one of his project runway creations.
but i guess he stayed true to Lao culture and all things Lao by ordering cloth from Laos for his final creation and dedicating it all to his mother. i've never watched the show, but it seems pretty interesting. they make clothes out of nothing, (or something in this case) and here is how andy's final line turned out, and at the bottom of the page you'll find a recap of the final episode -
it is pretty amazing that anyone would vote for sharron angle over harry reid (searchlight in the house! or the senate in this case.) she continues to open her mouth and reveal her stupidity, (much like palin of snl-fame.) here is her latest: she told a group of latino students that she doubted that they were all "hispanic" because, "some of you look a little more asian to me!" which was met with gasps from the kids. wow.
and in trying to describe the melting pot that is america, she went on to make this incomprehensible statement: "i've been called the 'first asian legislator' in our nevada state assembly." melting pot or smoking pot? not sure which fits her better... wow #2.
and this alongside juan williams anti-muslim remarks on fox news. i was really sad to see him fall from grace (dropping from the sky like middle-eastern missile.) i guess the take-away lesson for juan is that fox news brings the crazy out of all of us. see you later juan. npr fired you, which means i will never hear your voice again, because i sure as heck ain't watching you on no fox news.
i attended a great fundraising event on saturday in graham washington. jai lao foundation works to build schools for elementary-age children in Laos. they've had some great success already, with more to come! great job yall!!!
jai Lao supporters and officers outside of thai mekong restaurant in graham.
jai Lao made padek to sell and it all sold out... i didn't get none. which aint right.
to find out more about jai Lao and their mission, visit:
this is the funniest thing i've seen in a long time:
but... (and i shouldn't have an opinion on this, but i do,) ...the only problem is the country is not really called "Laos" either; it is Lao. the country is Lao, the language is Lao, the people are Lao. (unless they're hmong, mien, khmu, thai dam, thai deng, akha, leu, kalom, prao, prai, lahu, then they're not Lao.)
the country name, "Laos," is a french construct where the "s" would be silent, unless followed by a vowel, rendering the pronunciation as "Lao." (i made a post on this some months back.) so if somebody says, "i am Lao from the country of Laos..." well, aint that wrong too? so they might as well get it all lined up: "i am Laos, from Laos, speak Laos, eat Laos food, (padek!) and i like the old Laos flag, not the new one." (and by the way, i am the united states of america.)
so despite the perfectly sound rationale of the above video production, i propose that if you wanna say you're Laos, then say that then; claim that "s," be all you that you can be, be a country.
i sometimes get asked where to find good thai food. (and the answer: thailand.) i'm kinda joking - seattle does have a couple of good places to get thai. but a lot people going for thai food just end up ordering pad thai; so if that's the case, it doesn't really matter where you go. in fact, just make it at home: get some noodles, mix it with cat sup and maybe a little bit of egg, peanuts and bean sprouts, and save $10. but that's not what this post is about. it's just that i've been wondering if the popularity of thai restaurants and thai food may have opened up this small space for "thailand" in american popular culture. thailand has been a vacation destination for some time, and its also known for its kickboxing, islands, elephants, and temples. but in the past 10-15 years, more people seem to be aware of thailand (and are even able differentiate it from taiwan. my mother got these two confused on occasion.)
recipe books, chang beer, survivor: thailand, and remakes of thai movies (bangkok dangerous, shutter, the eye) all seem to follow this trend. but here i list two thai references in american pop culture that really need a thai horror-movie-style exorcism to rid us of them.
first: nicki minaj, a rapper/singer of indian and african descent, is all up over the place, (and she aint even released an album yet!)... she's in the young money song (featuring lloyd,) "bedrock" and in trey songz's new club number, "bottoms up." and now she has this new song, "your love," with an asian theme. see below:
nicki does a rap on this song, and she raps herself into a corner saying something like, "i was a geisha, he was a samurai," so she has to follow it up with a rhyming line something like, "i understood him when he spoke thai." (did she mean japanese???)
well, as long as it rhymes, i guess it don't matter, right? (her lyrics are of very low quality, so if you don't wanna watch the whole video, just ffwd to about 2:15 in, and you'll find the aforementioned segment.) but in the end, nicki really does owe an apology to thai people everywhere.
second: sanuk shoes (sorry, not shoes, sandals...) i don't wanna hate on the shoes, even though they're overpriced and fit small. but the name? sanuk is a thai word meaning "fun, happiness!" well, how do you pronounce it? the sanuk website has a help up in the right hand corner! you click on it, and they have someone saying "sanuk" for you! well, the voice seemingly belongs to some sun-soaked surfer of suspicious character. and he clearly is not thai. the pronunciation is all wrong. he says the second syllable like "nuck" (rhymes with "duck.") the word should really be sa-nook, the second syllable sounding like "nuke." c'mon shoe people! if you're gonna name your shoes a thai word, and then go through the trouble of having a pronunciation guide on your website, could you at least make it correct?
did he really say that? (rick sanchez tried to defend his anti-semitic rant on jon stewart and the "jewish liberal media" by using the classic phrase.)
and then my other favorite line: in defending his assertion that jon stewart is a bigot, he says, "well, that's what happens when you watch yourself on his show everyday, and all they ever do is call you stupid." (in case it doesn't make sense to you either, it seems like rick thinks that because he's latino, if someone says he's stupid, then that person must be bigoted.)
see rick run, see rick open his mouth and insert foot, see rick lose his job at cnn. well, one of my best friend's is is jewish too (jon stewart) and i am blown away by this hot mess of an interview that rick sanchez did on pete dominick's radio show.
dr. laura, move over, here comes the new crazy: rick sanchez. listen to him self-destruct below:
