the following preview has not been approved for appropriate audiences

so i got some questions about the last short movie i posted. it was made by this Lao film company, Lao new wave cinema. they had a movie in the luangpraband film festival and i've posted the preview for their entry below. and although the first 40 seconds of the preview don't show you nothing but who made the film, let me warn you: the 10 seconds after that is a little much. in fact it explodes into a scene of violence reminiscent of some korean films i've seen. and then the preview drops into the usual thai drama fare: scenes of pretty people in everyday situations, a car chase, and someone crying - all with bad pop music overlaying it all.

well, i first heard about the movie from thaan thout karen's blog. link below. she couldn't stay for the whole movie, but she hopes it comes out on dvd because it looked as "slick and professional as anything coming out of hollywood." (i would agree that it mos def looks better than the princess movie... although it ain't outa hollywood.)

http://usambassadortolaos.tumblr.com/

so hurray for Laos! and watch or don't watch. but it ain't approved for all audiences.

a little change movie

now this is what i'm talking about... i'm liking this short film a lot. i only wish the subtitles were better. (baan nok shouldn't be translated as dummy, dummy.)

king of the crawfish

so this is my second time to this restaurant - in the east side of chinatown on lane street. (725 s. lane st, seattle, 98104) and i was liking my dinner a lot more than the first time i went. i got the boudin balls and the crawfish etouffee. it is vietnamese-owned and operated, and they know what they are doing up in there. maybe it was cause i just got back from louisiana, but i was loving my dinner.

here is my one complaint - the first time i went, they served my jambalaya (which was pretty okay) in a to-go container. it was like they were telling me, take your food and leave. i couldn't really enjoy it. i felt like i should have been eating it at home in front of reruns of csi maimi. (and i hate that show and all it's kissing cousins.)

the restaurant looks real nice inside, but to the owners: seriously yall - if you see this, stop cheapening up the experience by giving me my food in a plastic to-go container. by the way, they didn't give me none this past time, but i saw the containers on other patrons' tables. weird.

here is the link to the place:
http://www.seattlecrawfishking.com/

i went with anthony, a friend of mine, and he got the fried softshell crab and the cajun fries, and i don't think he liked his as much. he said it was salty, so he had to dip his crab in some sauce (or was it sweet tea?) in order to tone it down. but that said, i don't like crab (unless it's the fake crab - because that stuff be slappin!)

well, this ain't the only asian-run louisiana-styled restaurant in the area. there is this one - cajun crawfish, and its good too, but lacks the atmosphere of the first. but i did like the crawfish; felt like i was home at a crawfish boil, (although we never had any in my home.)

http://www.thecajuncrawfish.com/

and then there's this one restaurant in renton, called casian grill, but it seems more of a kid-drink-beer hangout than a restaurant (and they didn't have no crawfish when i went there; all out!) but they do try to mix it up: two distinct menus featuring vietnamese and southern food. kinda like a kfc/tacobell, or a tacobell/pizza hut, or a pizza hut/a&w, or a wendy's/pet-smart. i get the idea, but once you sit down in there, you feel a little bit anxious that the cajun food will never be good enough because maybe the cooks are spending too much time worrying about the asian food.

but that said, here is the link anyway:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Casian-Grill-Restuarant/127520717258505

and this guy liked it:

http://photofoodblog.com/2011/10/casian-grill-renton-wa/

but in the end, if there is a war between these three restaurants, crawfish king really is king. check it out. they won't mind.

10 things i hate (& love) about louisiana

so i am back in seattle again. why do i do this to myself. well, in memoriam of this past trip home for christmas, i composed a list of things that made me sad while in louisiana. and then i thought, what the heck... there is a ton of stuff that made me happy, so i should really intro each one of these bad things with something good. so here it goes, my list of ten things, happy and sad...

1. no need to tell yall, but one of the best things about louisiana is the food!!!! zapp's potato chips! gumbo! po' boys! cane's! jambalaya with beans and shrimp creole on the side! biegnet's at cafe du monde! wooo hooo! really ain't nothing like it:

2. nothing can live forever, but i don't often think about that in terms of trees. well, my home in baton rouge has lost a lot of trees over the years, and this is one of the most recent, knocked down during a storm. i liked this one a lot. raccoons used to live up inside it. sad:

3. look at this thermometer! temperature right about 74 degrees just 4 days before christmas. that is a reason to love louisiana right there:

4. along with trees dying... a lot of stores and shops and malls and what-have-you have shut down. economic downturns, shifts in the population of the city... a lot of reasons. but none is sadder to me than this one right here. the broadmoor theatre. i seen so many movies in this theatre. my mom would drop us off on a saturday and we'd spend the afternoon watching re-releases of jungle book or song of the south. and that little old lady that worked there - i miss her too, may she rest in peace... well here it is:

for more on this, see this blog:
http://abandonedbatonrouge.typepad.com/abandoned_baton_rouge/

5. we went to new orleans the friday before new years and had a great time. street performers were everywhere, and i got a kick outa hearing this very loud band in the french quarter right under the nose of the st. louis cathedral with it's no noise sign:

6. i'm sad to see the crime in new orleans still going up and up post-katrina. and not just in new orleans, but baton rouge too. and with all the convictions of police officers for unjustified shootings after the hurricane, trust aint very high, as you can see from this graffiti. there was another one that was much more succinct scrawled on the pavement by this one; it had much courser language, so i'm posting this one here:

7. of course, probably the best part of a trip home to louisiana is when you get to see family... so here are my nieces right here:

8. and of course, the worst part of a trip home is that you have to see family... so here are my nieces right here:

9. something else i loved about being in louisiana - seeing real rain and real thunderstorms - like this one brewing to the west. don't see nothing like that in seattle:

10. but the saddest part of all... leaving. here is the view of my plane out the lobby window, readying itself to take me to atlanta where i got a connecting flight back to seattle:

so until i make it back there again, i have this blog post to look at. louisiana: you're the best. and the worst, apparently.

bungle in the jungle

i got this forbes magazine link, "bungle in the jungle," from a guy that used to be in one of my high school groups. what a mess. can somebody cut Laos a break? ugh. and boo to the person(s) building all the casinos in vientiane and savannakhet. yall suck.

http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0808/companies-laos-china-economy-gambling-gangsters-bungle-jungle.html

check out this link too:

http://timfranco.com/blog/chinese-in-laos-part-two-casino-rubber/

mixed reviews: Lao princess

as much as i love Laos, i really don't think i will be seeing this movie.  watch the trailer for princess of Laos below and you'll see why pretty durn fast:



bad.

but what's good is reading all the crazy youtube comments under the preview.  many of them are just people of differing opinions fighting back and forth, but the best ones are the comments from the filmmaker, mychal mitchell, and wow... so many things get lost in translation.  i am going to post a few here, and so if you happen across my blog and see your comment... well, then you and you're comment are crazy. 

i will start with this -- many of the comments noted that the girl playing the princess looks mixed Lao/african american.  see some of them below:

I am not a racist person, but isn't the princess in this movie black? doesn't make sense to me. Laos is in Southeast Asia, not in Africa.

Laos in Asia not in Africa, we have no black people here.

Actually..Lao woman is Beautiful more than women in this Video^^

now just read a few of the many many responses by the filmmaker:

i just googled Laos and i found out it is in Africa.

i filmed this movie, i wrote it, i have been married to my Lao wife for 23 years......then someone who doesn't know anything about making a movie says to me (as if i'm stupid) "Laos is not in Africa" because the lead actress appears to be African American....so anyone with half a brain would think i made a movie with over 50 Laotians, have been to Wat Lao 100 times, and think i don't know where Laos is? In the words of Monday Night Football crew C'MON MAN!!!!!!!!

and

ur a 26 year old dummy go watch a show thats more befitting to your intellect like Jersey Shore

if you're trying to promote your movie, why would you go the sarcasm route? and did you really just try to say you understand Laos because you found a Lao woman who'd put up with you for 23 years? or even better: "i'm not racist, i cast 50 Lao people in a movie."

now look at this comment from a youtuber:

I'm very interested in seeing this movie but this trailor gives me a headache trying to sum up what the whole meaninng of the film is about. How is she a princess who inherited a Kingdom when there iz no more Royal Family in Laos. Was this supposed to all happen before the end of the Vietnam War Era... How come my contact Prince Solivang Sovang never mentioned anything about this history? This must be fairytale for entertainment reason, but all in all it should be an interesting watch.

here is the filmmaker's response:

Headache? The story is fiction/drama, i hope that clears your headache. Its a movie just like when you went to see Avatar the flying blue alien. The story is modern day. The untold story is the fact that the lead actress is INDEED the great granddaughter of a woman once married to Kind Sisavangvong around 1910. You can meet her family by visiting the website for the movie www.princessoflaosmovie.com. Im glad you want to see the movie. Have the prince contact me please.

here is one more from our dear filmmaker in answer to a question about when the movie would be released. this comment was coupled with a criticism that the movie was "embarrassing" due to its fictional content:

why do you want to know when an embarassing movie is coming out?....when the movie comes out just stay at home

so my point is this: now i'm not seeing this movie based on my dislike of the guy that made it. mr. mitchell - seriously, why go through all the trouble to make a movie and then bash on people for their crazy comments?  at some point, you must have realized that not everyone is going to like your film; so why not just answer all inquiries gracefully?  or next time, instead of making a film, you might want to just stay home.

but one more comment from a youtuber. i like this one - not because he still doesn't get it that this girl could be mixed-race of an african american father or mother, but because he has such a good explanation as to why she is dark-skinned:

Can a Cambodian/Khmer guy like myself try to explain this. Many peeps here can be shallow. History revealed that the first Lao Kingdom was built by dark skinned Khmers. So there you go.

Also..., during colonial times Laos has 2 kingdoms. Laung Prabang and the lesser known Champasak. The Champasak kingdom was a minor kingdom in the south. And you know how south Laos is, the lower you go the darker the skin. SPOILER ALERT: The girl is most likely from the NaChampasak Royal Lineage.

nice.

a christmas carol

so i made it home to louisiana for the holidays! my step mom led the choir singing christmas songs at church on sunday, and she was real nervous, but i thought it turned out alright... kinda like gift giving: it's always been the thought that counts. but here is the one problem with the ward choirs - there ain't a tryout or nothing. so inevitably somebody gets in there that sounds a little less extraordinary than what you wish they did, and the rest of the choir is left teeter-tottering between the howl of a farmhouse hound and the grace of a Higher Power to pull them to safety. in this case the offending party was... well, i won't say his name, but b.h.h. (bless his heart,) he really got all into the christmas spirit, when the other 20+ people up there were wishing he'd gone a bit more scrooge and shut up. my father was one of them people. somehow my dad ended up right next to him when they got up to sing, and i could just see his face trying to remain neutral - but how do you stay neutral when you got that sound blaring in your ear? one woman in the alto section couldn't stop chuckling when he'd hit some real bad notes. well, luckily - there were enough parts when only the women were singing and enough other parts where it was all in unison, so that it weren't too bad. 'cause even the worst of singers do pretty okay during the unison parts.

but my point here - i do like me some christmas music, and they sang some good ones. i know a few of yall get all uptight when the radio goes all christmas, (and i do try to use terms like "holiday tree," and i try to remember to say "happy holidays" to people instead of "merry christmas," cause i know that the latter can be kinda isolating if you ain't somebody that celebrates christmas,) but i really do like this time of year. and especially here in louisiana; manger scenes everywhere, store employees saying merry christmas in the shopping malls (they ain't never heard of a non-christian down here), and 70 degree weather too. yeah, i can get behind a christmas like this one. (last year was in Laos, and the weather was even warmer than this, but there wasn't no christmas tree out in the village where i was staying.)

so here it is - my favorite christmas albums. and i don't care what anybody says, these are the best. (and the harry connick jr album is real bad, so don't even come up to me with that mess.)

5. the forbidden carols, michael mclean (i know the album ain't called that. but i call it that for obvious reasons to anyone that has heard the whole thing. and the story book that goes along with it is really awful. it's this whole mess about john the revelator flirting with this woman who ultimately cries "the day (she) takes the tree down," so i know that i shouldn't include the album on my list...but i can't help it. i still like it... i just do.)

4. our finest gifts, the nw boychoir and vocal point. i guess you can't buy this one no more, but they got a bunch of others; just go to their website. (i found this album in a 2nde hand shop in the university district, and then i looked em up online to see when they'd be performing. so i ended up seeing them back when their concerts were free; now they cost too much, but this is the best alternative. besides, who else can justifiably sing little drummer boy?)

3. the andy williams christmas album (he just sounds better than the rest. he sounds better than bing crosby, harry connick jr, michael bubbly, frank sinatra, adele, and any other similarly-styled singer living or dead.)

2. home for the holidays, amy grant (this might be an unlikely choice, but seriously, the album adds two songs to the bonafide christmas season staples. and also amy grant really believes in christ. some of the other singers only sing about christmas for the money.)

1. a christmas portrait, the carpenters. (i've never heard the original lp release, just the cd version. but that said, it's amazing; the album plays as one complete piece. and of course this is karen carpenter we're talkin bout here, with some unidentifiable input by her brother richard, i'm guessing. but by far the best christmas album of all time, hands down, 100% sure.)

the battle rages on...

i am an outsider; i almost feel like i am watching two students fight on the first day of high school. i don't know who they are, but the joy of watching them punch each other is still the same. only i can't say this is joy that i am feeling. well, below is the clip - posted on youtube of course - and i encourage you to go to youtube's site, (well, maybe the word encourage is too strong. maybe i'll just say "you can go to the site if you'd like,") so that you can read the comments posted underneath, (even after the person that put up the video requested that no hate speech be posted.)

but let me explain: some amount of controversy exists over the present-day borders in southeast asia.

and so the war goes on and on. i've heard this for years: thailand took Laos' land and cambodia's land, and they are still trying to claim the khmer temples as their own. cambodia's land was taken over by the vietnamese. the vietnamese stole land from the cham. well, here is an animated map that shows the rise and fall of these kingdoms from 100-1550 ad. and the video is unbiased - it proclaims the map is based on historical fact. watch those early kingdoms move all over the place. it looks like something from the weather channel when a scary storm front is moving in...



but back to the comments... all that swearing? is it really necessary? be nice to each other. if i've learned anything, it's that southeast asians have much more in common (including ancestry for many of them) than what they have in differences. but for now i guess i'll just sit back and watch.

heading home to louisiana for christmas...

hell yeah

woo hoo! this is the best thing ever. finally an easy to follow recipe for the best Lao dish ever: tammakhoung. and yes, she does use padek! Jai Lao padek to be exact. buy your padek on the Jai Lao website! anyways, this makes me very happy. and la is funny too; juicy papaya salad means your husband loves you hahahahahahaha!



hell yes.

hole-in-the-wall review:

this is actually a complimentary review of northend seattle's semi-new Lao/thai restuarant, savatdee. i have posted on this before, so see what all i wrote here and here

but, the part of the seattle weekly article that gave me pause is where the reviewer called the place a "hole-in-the-wall." seriously? what does that phrase even mean if this restaurant is a hole-in-the-wall? erik, laura? jeannette? somebody back me up on this, please. but maybe i'm all offended because it's late at night and i should be in bed rather than reading restaurant reviews... but look at the comment posted by some reader at the bottom of the link; sounds like something i shoulda said.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/11/save_a_seat_at_savatdee.php

you need me to repost it, don't you? well, here is the comment in case you are too lazy to click on the link:

hole-in-the-wall? if this place is hole-in-the-wall, then i don't know what that phrase means. i guess you are used to eating a ruth's chris or some other nasty-tasting high-end chain restaurant. weird. and if you call Viengthong, the only real Lao restaurant in seattle a hole-in-the-wall, i will accuse you of being elitist/racist/etc (because you are only calling it that because it's in south seattle.) so you can't win, so don't try. but i do agree: the food at savatdee (not welcome, more like hello) is awesome.

wow... the person making that comment is even meaner than me.  but look at these pictures and decide for yourself if he/she ain't right:

black friday monk

my friend, kone, sent me this picture he took while shopping at 4 am this morning. he included the caption: black friday is for everyone! yup, even the monks know when to get in on the action.

hope yall got everything yall wanted this year. black friday is my favorite holiday - the one holiday that hasn't lost its true meaning.

Laoz really isn't the biggest language

so earlier this week i was looking through facebook and blogs, and i found this link posted on jai Lao's fb page; it is a blog by roland drake who is going to Laos - i think to the village where Jai Lao just built their most recent school - to work on a water sanitation project. here is the link:

http://myjourneytolaos.blogspot.com/

his blog is very earnest and sincere, and very much void of the sarcasm and meanness that i got splattered all over mine... and that being said, here i go again; (on to what i really wanted to post about:)

i found this youtube video on roland's blog and it is the best thing since i first ate padek. watch the video, then read my review...



so the wonders of the Laoz language, with its 5 tones, (ain't there 6?) i think that the real difficulty here is that you most likely got an american-born kid teaching people how to speak some basic Laoz. i'm guessing he must be in the mid-west somewhere by himself (without a large Lao community around him,) and so he ain't aware that he don't know Laoz all that well. otherwise he'd never had the courage to post this. in my job i run into quite a few Laoz young people, and they're overly aware of their deficiencies in the language and would never post something like this, even though some of them speak Laoz really well.

but if you're still reading this critique, the main problem (besides the lakone thing: nobody really says lakone unless you're singing a cheesy Lao break-up song; and the inconsistent romanization of Laoz words; and the fish, aunt, and crazy comparison: fish and aunt start with a different consonant (p) than crazy (b); and the coughing up phlegm on camera thing; with all the jump cuts, that could've easily been removed, right?) is what is in the cage behind him? is that a dead hamster back there???

and i know this is mean of me... i really shouldn't say nothing at all, because look at all the comments on youtube from other Lao-american kids who also don't know Lao! so all said and done, props to this kid for putting himself out there and teaching us all something about the Laoz language. (or as they say in Louisiana where i'm from: bless his heart.) and he even has a couple of good jokes: sabaidii does sound a lot like somebody, especially if you can't speak Lao all that good.

bussing it by air in Laos

the Jai Lao Foundation just completed its mission to Laos to build its fourth school in baan hat kham, and while they were in Laos, i really enjoyed checking for the facebook updates - pictures, stories, etc, posted by the mission participants.

if you don't know about Jai Lao, read my previous posts (see labels on sidebar) and go to their website (linked above) and donate!

but one of the facebook posts by the board president included this picture, taken on a flight from Laos to thailand (i think!) with the following caption: Lao airline's new airbus plane. we got to be one of their first flyers on its third day of operation. YAY!! so beautiful and my favorite green color!!!

the plane looks amazing... but seriously? airbus? why not a nice big boeing plane made right here in washington state? maybe if they put that green papya color in their airplanes then Laos might buy one from them too. here is a link to the article about the new airbus planes in Laos. i guess they're getting a second one in december.

http://www.aviationrecord.com/FC/FCnews/Lao-Airlines-receives-first-Airbus-3024.aspx

importance of ichiro

i've been meaning to post this link for sometime; (well, since the summer when jacob sent it to me...) and even though baseball is over for the year, this is an excellent article about ichiro... or to take it from the writer's caption:

ten years after ichiro suzuki broke into the majors, a reflection on the 2001 mariners, jackie robinson, the four noble truths and the cultural impact of baseball's most enigmatic player.

here is the link to the article by jay caspian kang:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6626419/importance-ichiro

how i miss those 2001 mariners...

all dogs go to heaven

a real nice picture montage of pet rescues during the recent floods in thailand. thank you wl for sending me this link...



the pictures are real sad... and adding insult to injury, they're paired with one of the worst songs to come out of thai pop music in a long time. unless you believe that all songs of thai pop music genre are the wosrst. was this particular singer drunk/high/drowning when she sang this? tavern karaoke at 2 am sounds better. and for those that might be wondering, this song roughly translates as "thanks for not throwing me away or abandoning me..." (or eating me, in this case.)

dengue fever

dengue fever is heading to Laos as a part of their tour of southeast asia. i saw them a couple years back when they came to seattle, and they are just as good as i thought they'd be...

but to see them in Laos, that would be really good. and if you aint heard of them, check out their second album, escape from dragon house.

if you are down that way, here are the tour dates and a link to their website:

11/12 @ FCC, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
11/13 @ Epic Arts Center, Kampot, CAMBODIA
11/15 @ Hotel De La Paix, Siem Reap, CAMBODIA
11/16 @ Venue tbd, Battambang, CAMBODIA
11/18 @ Diamond Island Building, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
11/23 @ Venue tbd, Vientiane, LAOS
11/26 @ American Club, Hanoi, VIETNAM

http://denguefevermusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/dengue-fever-confirms-se-asia-dates.html

halloween head:

just in time for the 31st. thanks susan for the picture.

smart and loving it in seattle:

exactly one week after returning from louisiana, i find this opinion post in the seattle times newspaper:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2016506914_guest15diaz.html

for those that didn't click on the link - it is a piece written by john diaz, (seattle police chief) and sue rahr, (the king county sheriff.) they are plugging early intervention programs as the way to deter crime. there is no mention of money for more police anywhere in their piece, and instead they list research and statistics about the social and financial benefits of early childhood programs.

after reading the previously linked article from the baton rouge paper, i am very pleased to see something like this in the seattle times. and to express my gratitude, i won't say anything bad about the seattle or king county police departments for at least 1 week.

i like how they end their article:

"we would much rather invest in educating kids than pay much more for additional prisons. congress should continue to make early childhood development a priority so today's most at-risk children don't become tomorrow's most wanted adults."

stupid and loving it in baton rouge:

some of yall already figured this out, but i am home in baton rouge for a visit right now, and i'm having a pretty good time... but sunday morning i woke up to find this article on the front page of the advocate - the only newspaper here after the state times went the way of all the earth. see the link below and then read my comments.

http://theadvocate.com/home/985563-79/tracking-street-gangs.html

i'm just a bit surprised that the assistant district attorney otha nelson is making these type of comments:

"i wouldn’t say that the problem in baton rouge is extreme,” nelson said. “we have not seen a situation where the public at large is at risk. but we need to get on the front end to ensure it doesn’t get worse.”

nelson seems to imply that as long as it stays within the gang community, then the problem is not extreme. this seems like a white-washed sanitized version of what you'd expect to see in the comment section of the article from the ignorant and prejudiced folk: "as long as it's those black kids, then who cares?" or "let them gang members kill each other - then they'll be less of them!"

in seattle, the murder rate is so much lower. and even though i don't completely agree with how mayor nickel's youth violence initiative has played out (i.e., who got the money, and that it's the exact same thing as before only a different name,) at least the public officials had something more progressive in mind than what they are doing in baton rouge: putting a mother of two juvenile offenders in jail for 30 days; this mother is undoubtedly lacking the resources to parent her children, so i'm not sure this backwoods idea of justice helped any.

i love my city, but i'm disheartened to hear the public officials comment and attempt a definition of gangs - calling them "factions," or spending time and money chasing them down on facebook. they really sound disconnected and sophomoric. just look at this quotation from DA nelson:

we were seeing young men being arrested for violent crimes and then we were seeing deaths,” nelson said. “there were coincidences that made us realize we were dealing with something here.”

is just it possible that he's trying to sound stupid? i thought they'd figured out they were dealing with "something" back in 2009 when this video hit the streets:



it might be nice to hear more about their prevention efforts. so my hat's off to people like arthur reed, who are trying to do this difficult work.

by the way, for those keeping score, the advocate has a nice "murder map" so we can tour all the sights of this year's murders in baton rouge! or maybe even sit back in our easy chairs with a cold drink and a bowl of zapp's potato chips while watching our 46-inch tvs and collectively say aloud, "glad all that s*** ain't happenin' in my hood!"

http://theadvocate.com/multimedia/homicidemap

hanging in the treme

dis is where i'm at! nuff said...