Nina & Max Do NYC

29 08 2008

Max and I spent the past couple days venturing through the various NYC boroughs and exploring their tourist attractions (though in a laid-back, New Yorker way, of course). Among our sightseeing activities: we roamed South Street Seaport, walked both ways across the Brooklyn Bridge, sat by the East River at the Williamsburg Reclamation Site, rode the Staten Island Ferry, drank coffee in Battery Park, and ate Nathan’s hot dogs at Coney Island. So if that list doesn’t justify my lack of recent posts, I don’t know what will – except maybe the fact that I didn’t want to see my photo project bumped down from the top two posts?

And now for a series of touristy pictures, courtesy of Max and his iPhone:

view of the BK Bridge from South Street Seaport

view of the BK Bridge from South Street Seaport

We were standing on the pier by the Ice Cream Factory, looking at the BK Bridge waterfall.

We were standing on the pier by the Ice Cream Factory, looking at the BK Bridge waterfall.

As I was typing this post, I realized that the majority of these locations offer amazing views of Manhattan. That is, they’re known for their phenomenal panoramic views of the NYC expanse. I absolutely love the views because they provide a slightly-outside-of-NYC perspective through which I can appreciate both the huge size of the population and the small sized of the actual island. Maybe that’s why some of these places are so popular? What does it mean to overlook/watch the city and its bright lights and skyscrapers from a distance?

View from the Reclamation Site on N.9th & Kent - one of my fave places in Williamsburg

View from the Reclamation Site on N.9th & Kent - one of my fave places in Williamsburg

On the Staten Island Ferry, my hair blowing in the wind, ha.

On the Staten Island Ferry, my hair sexily blowing in the wind, ha.

My first time at a real beach this summer - took long enough.

My first time at a real beach this summer - took long enough.

Pretty picture...too bad the place is pretty grimey.

Pretty picture...too bad the island is pretty grimey.





If you can read this, you’re spying on me…

24 08 2008

After hopping the East River again, I’ve landed north of 14th Street (which is a first), on the eleventh floor of my brand new dorm. It doesn’t quite feel like home at the moment (I almost sound like Josh). That is, Maria and Emily haven’t moved in yet and I’ve put off unpacking because I’m half sick and half in denial. It’s like my body craftily plotted and enacted its revenge for being forced to work nonstop all summer. As for the view from my huge windows? Not bad – the Met Life Tower surrounded by apartment buildings as far as the eye can see (which, in this case, isn’t very far because several apartment buildings are blocking my view).

According to Wikipedia, it was the tallest buildling in the world from 1909-1913.

According to Wikipedia, the Met Life Tower was the tallest buildling in the world from 1909-1913.

Oh, there’s also a poster in a window across the street that reads: If you can see this, you’re spying on me. It makes me think about how many people could be spying on me right now, what with my blinds open and desk light on, while I awkwardly blow my nose and type this entry. Then again, I’m sure I’d be watching my neighbors if I were staring out my window and someone’s light happened to be on. Voyeurism: every New Yorker’s favorite pastime – it’s like live reality TV!

Anyway, I’m going to bed in a last-ditch attempt to sleep off this sickness. Welcome Week officially starts tomorrow, meaning much of downtown NYC will be aflutter with fresh(men) faces as anticipation floats in the air like allergy-inducing pollen. As a rising junior, my plan consists of the following: avoid thinking about my future career while memorizing these new avenue names (Lexington, Park, Madison, Broadway, 5th) and enjoying the remaining days of summer vacation.

Update: some Spybusters (?) dude posted what I wrote about voyeurism in his security blog as the “Quote of the Day – A New Yorker Ponders…Surveillance.”  Internet microfame, here I come, ha.





Like Mother, Like Daughter [Photo Project]

21 08 2008

Here are the final results of the photo project I’ve been working on with Don. Together we recreated three pictures that were taken of my mom in Thailand, circa 1976. She was 21 – less than a year older than I am now. Um, and she’ll probably yell at me when she sees this because I kind of just revealed her age.

She's in Thailand, I'm at the Williamsburg Reclamation Site

How adorable was she?

Considering how much I love my mother and how often people tell us we look/act alike, this project has long been something I wanted to do. And I’m grateful to Don for taking on all the artistic work (shooting/editing) while my duties consisted of nagging him and trying to look pretty.

My favorite of the three.

My absolute favorite of the three.

Fast forward to 2008 and my mom is still pretty cool. While driving to the mall this past weekend, a car kept beeping at us unnecessarily. Pissed off, I rolled down the window and flipped off the driver in true New Jersey fashion. Okay, so she happened to be another Asian woman who was headed to the same parking lot as us. I got a little nervous but my mom was unfazed as she parked the car and coolly declared in Thai, “Come on, let’s go start a fight.” The whole incident only made me love her more, of course.

Brownie points for whoever can identify the guys in the posters behind me.

Brownie points for whoever can identify the guys in the posters behind me.





Introducing…”Samurai Girl”

18 08 2008

I spent this past weekend at home after finally quitting my second job and allowing myself some free time to enjoy the summer. Since I don’t have a television in NYC, I switch into full TV-watching-couch-potato mode when I come home. While being glued to Phelps’s 8th-Gold-winning Olympic race, I saw a preview for the new ABC Family “Original Event” (read: miniseries) called “Samurai Girl.” Based on the book series of the same name, the title character is 19-year-old Heaven, who discovers that her wealthy, Japanese adopted father is involved with both the Yakuza and her brother’s murder. Some ancient-prophesying and samurai-training later, she takes on the Japanese mafia in legend-fulfilling-samurai force. Or, so I’ve gathered from reading various synopses.

Jamie Chung (from Greek & Real World) = the Samurai Girl

Jamie Chung (from Greek & Real World) = the Samurai Girl

It’s always refreshing to see Asian/Asian-American actors on TV: Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy; B.D. Wong on Law & Order: SVU; the Korean couple in Lost; Lucy Liu in, um, lots of things. (And no, that random Asian girl on Gossip Girl doesn’t count because all she does is give scornful looks in time with Blair Waldorf/Leighton Meester). Margaret Cho had a show in 1994 (“All American Girl”) about her Korean-American family but it was cancelled early on.

Look, its B.D. Wong!

Look, it's B.D. Wong!

I’m all for Asians becoming more visible on screen (more AZN celebs/role models, plz!), though it’s a bit annoying that the “Samurai Girl” storyline has to involve ancient prophesies and a martial arts/samurai theme. Also, did I mention Heaven’s sensei is a white guy (her brother’s friend) who she more than likely falls in love with? That makes sense, though, considering there are plenty of white male/Asian female couples these days (um, guilty). But as long as there isn’t another “wax on, wax off” scene, I’d much rather see “Samurai Girl” kicking ass on screen than the usual “Happy Ending Girl” fulfilling creepy men’s fantasies.

Brendan Fehr = the white guy/sensei/love interest

Brendan Fehr = the white guy/sensei/love interest





Shame On You, Spanish Olympic Team

14 08 2008

For the past couple days, the Spanish Olympic Team has been internationally-criticized for the controversial advertisement in which their entire basketball team poses as “slanty-eyed Asians.” Their apology? Well it reads like a stubborn teenager’s diary – i.e. the media’s overreacting and I have Asian friends and our team has a Chinese sponsor so we’re obviously not racist, duhh!

Since this blog isn’t the right place for me to go over the definition of racism, I’ll give my basic opinion: this gesture was incredibly stupid. Stupid and disrespectful. Because I can understand celebrating the Beijing Olympics by displaying the Chinese dragon and wearing red uniforms (the Chinese color for luck), but slanty eyes? Come on. Even if the ad wasn’t intended to be offensive to the host country, this is definitely not a case in which imitation is the highest form of flattery.

And, apparently, “Asia-mocking” (as Gawker called it) is a trend in Spain, because the tennis team thought they’d capture their own “Look Ma, I’m Asian!” picture. Pair this incident with the fact that China is steadily becoming an economic threat and I can’t help but cringe at the yellow peril that seems to be lingering in the western air.





Retro Phones of the Future?

13 08 2008

When I walked into the office this morning, the last thing I expected to see was a landline sitting on Julia‘s desk. Well, not quite a landline, but a landline-reminiscent handset.

Sup, grandma?

Hulger sells the “retro phones of the future” (or so they’re called) – different types of vintage handsets that outlast modern technology in both functionality and personality. They’re kind of like nostalgia for “the good old days” manifested in product form. Okay, so they may defeat the purpose of mobile cellular phones, but at least now I feel like I’m back in elementary school, calling all of my BFFs to watch the latest Clarissa Explains It All while gushing about how Kevin/Kyle/Connor is soooo cute and soooo the sportiest boy in school.

So retro.

So retro.





Long Time No Blog

11 08 2008

Apparently my current writer’s block (blogger’s block?) is a direct consequence of my week-long break from the interwebz and its plethora of daily Facebook-Twitter-RSS-blogging activities. For the first time all summer, I had absolutely NO work to do – i.e. a real vacation! So please excuse my rustiness while I try to recap my first experience in the midwest.

Despite the three hours I spent waiting for my delayed plane at LaGuardia and the fact that planes make me nauseous, I had a really great time in Toledo with Max. We swam in an old quarry-turned-lake, hung out with his friends and family, canoed and laid in the grass at Maumee Bay State Park, shopped and walked around Ann Arbor, MI, ate dinner in Detroit’s Greektown, laid in the grass some more at Belle Isle, and watched glass-blowing in the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion. Yeah, we’re cute like that.

view of Detroit from Belle Isle

view of Detroit from Belle Isle

Some things I discovered on my trip:

  • Suburban Ohio looks exactly the same as suburban New Jersey. Or, rather, suburbia is the same everywhere – strip malls, restaurants, and housing developments, oh my!  [makes me want to sing the Weeds theme song]
  • If I ever want to go to Canada, I just have to cross a bridge from Detroit. Yeah, I didn’t realize that. I mean, when we were on Belle Isle and could see Canada on the other side of the Detroit River, my cell phone registered that it was in “international” territory.
  • University of Michigan is a good school and has a nice campus – maybe I’ll apply there for grad school?
  • Each day I don’t post new entries, I lose more and more readers :( But since last night was my last ever shift at the restaurant (yup, I quit!), I should be able to post more frequently :)

Also, Max and I listened to Noah & the Whale in the car. This song, “5 Years Time,” particularly made us smile and became a sort of theme song for the trip:

Just a heads up: expect a post soon about a personal photo project I’ve been working on with Don. And by personal photos, I don’t mean n00dz – because that would be weird and awkward on so many levels.





Guess Where I’m Going…

4 08 2008

Sorry I’ve been so M.I.A. lately, but I’ve been busy preparing for my trip to Ohio to visit Max.  I’ll be there Tuesday-Saturday, yay!





Thailand & Transsexuality

1 08 2008

I read this BBC article the other day about a northeastern Thai school’s third bathroom facility – for transsexuals. (Note about me: Almost my entire family is in Thailand and I go home to Bangkok every two years. I also speak Thai pretty fluently with my parents and coworkers.)

The 3rd toilet sign; I almost think it should be purple?

Wikipedia states that transsexuality is most prevalent in Thailand than in any other country in the world – a statement that not only confirms my past experiences there, but also forces me to clarify my own understanding of transsexuality in Thailand. Because I’ll admit, I’m never really prepared when someone responds to my “I’m from Thailand” factoid with, “Did you know that Thailand is known for its quality, lower-cost sex reassignment surgery?” Um..yes I did, thanks. I mean, I’ve come to expect the usual reaction – “I LOVE Thai food, omgz aslkgja;wlkrjga!” – so my discomfort probably comes from lack of information on the topic.

The Thai word, “kathoey” (“ladyboy” in English), can refer to either a transgender male who identifies as a female (who may or may not have gotten sex-change surgery), or an effeminate gay male. Growing up, I’ve heard and used the word countless times. From my experience, the term isn’t used in an insulting or derogatory manner so much as it announces a sighting or a giggly revelation that the woman walking by is/was biologically a man. Rather, Thai transsexuals are something of a spectacle – neither completely excluded from the community nor completely accepted.

It makes sense, then, that Thailand is known for its transgender cabarets in Pattaya (a popular beach/tourist city). Actually, my mom’s friend’s father owns one of the two most famous cabaret shows – Alcazar – which bills itself as “The 8th Wonder of the World.” Right – spectacle. In the two times I’ve seen Alcazar, the performers (all transsexual males, many of whom have had genital reassignment surgery) have all stunned me with their beauty and femininity. A literal I-can’t-believe-my-eyes kind of moment.

Kathoeys performing in Alcazar in elaborate costumes & set

Kathoeys performing in Alcazar in elaborate Thai costume/set (they also have a song set dressed up as The Supremes

Sometimes I want to object that these shows unfairly employ the kathoeys as freaks in a freak show. But after considering the role of transsexual individuals in Thai culture, the fact remains that these cabarets help propel kathoeys onto the national and international scene. They’ve become a part of the Thai image, which helps increase visibility and tolerance of transsexuality. Several individuals have used the cabarets as launching pads for greater fame as transgender rights campaigners, singers, boxers, and beauty pageant winners. So no, I don’t consider transsexuality in Thailand to be a freak show – instead, it seems to be about furthering acceptance; by assuming their expected roles as cabaret performers, they can begin to reshape these identities for themselves.

Tanyarat Jirapatpakon, winner of Miss International Queen 2007, a Thai transgender beauty contest

Tanyarat Jirapatpakon, winner of Miss International Queen 2007, a Thai transgender beauty contest