If I'm interpreting this ad correctly, Bisazza's tiles will:

1) Make you want to find and abduct a geisha to match your pretty new tiles.
2) Tie up said geisha and throw her on the floor.
3) Expose her thigh in a violently sexualized way.
and 4) Take a photo to show how awesome your new tiles look.

Seriously, what is wrong with creative director/advertising firm behind this ad? According to the BBC, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK banned the magazine ad for its implications for sexual violence, following half a dozen consumer complaints.

Last week Jezebel posted a vintage ad for Jade East aftershave from the '50s or '60s, featuring an exoticized Asian girl and the attractive tagline, "If she doesn't give it to you, get it yourself!" Apparently, not much has changed since then. 

The Honorable Sandra Otaka, the first Asian American appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court, and a longtime advocate for the community, passed away on June 6 of natural causes. The third-generation Japanese American helped draft the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance, and served as the Vice-Chairperson for the Cook County Commission on Human Rights.

After hearing so much about L.A.'s latest food fad, the elusive Kogi KBBQ taco truck, I decided to hunt down some mobile kalbi and see what all the hype was about. Taco trucks, I've seen, KBBQ restaurants, I've seen. But a taco truck that sells kimchi quesadillas and spicy pork burritos that even caught the eye of the New York Times? This was worth investigating.

I checked their website yesterday evening, only to find out that Verde, one of Kogi's two mobile KBBQ machines, was over at Santa Monica College. That's only a handful of miles away from me! I could bike over there in 20 minutes and catch them before they left. And, according to their blog, there was no line. Sweet.

But wait! In some serendipitous aligning of the food gods, they were going to be even closer in a matter of hours, with a planned pit stop at UCLA before calling it a night. Forget cooking dinner, I was gonna go get me some KBBQ! So after checking their Twitter for updates, like some sort of desperate kalbi addict, I decided to head over around 7:45 pm. Verde was scheduled to be there at 7:30 pm, but I figured, hey, how many other people could be on Kalbi Watch like I am? The answer is: many.

By now you've probably all heard about the photo of Miley Cyrus pulling a "goofy face," as she called it, better known to the rest of us as chinky eyes. The community reacted with all sorts of outrage, with the OCA issuing a statement that asserts the photo "legitimize[s]
the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent."

But a week ago, one woman went so far as to sue the Disney pop star for $4 billion. Southern California native Lucie J. Kim is taking Cyrus to court on behalf of the million or so Asian Americans in the Los Angeles area, according to a MSNBC report.

Granted, Cyrus' non-apology apology
was pretty lame ("I was simply making a goofy face. When did that
become newsworthy? It
seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me."),
claiming the gesture was taken "out of context." And you'd think
someone who influences a huge number of teens and pre-teens would be
encouraged (at very least by Disney, her employer) to respond with a
little more sensitivity, but is suing the pop princess for
approximately $4,000 a head going to make much impact?

Too many events and stories to round up on this historic day -- below
is a short list of all things political (and tangentially political):

(Photo taken in San Francisco, where folks replaced Bush Street signs with Obama ones. Photo courtesy of 0x000org. Some rights reserved.)

• Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki was confirmed today as the head of the Department of Veteran Affairs under the new administration, vowing to better care for wounded, homeless and unemployed veterans. Shinseki, the highest-ranking Asian American in military history, famously predicted in 2003 that a post-war Iraq would require more troops than the Bush administration had anticipated. (Despite being dismissed at the time, he was inevitably proven right.)
• Along with Gen. Shinseki, five other Obama cabinet members were sworn in today, including Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu.

Quick news, quick links:

Nobel Prize winner and UC Berkeley professor Dr. Steven Chu has been named Obama's new energy secretary. Following the Wen Ho Lee scandal, in which the Taiwanese American scientist was falsely indicted for stealing nuclear secrets for the Chinese -- a manhunt pursued by then-Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson -- some might say this appointment somehow seems redemptive and fitting.

Chu shared the Nobel in physics with three other scientists in 1997 and has been director of the Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004. For more on him, read this New York Times profile.

In other news, the new FOX show Secret Millionaire will feature San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal tomorrow night. On the show, the Indian American "300 Million Dollar Man" and other self-made men (and women) set aside their suits and SUVs and venture to working-class neighborhoods -- working for minimum wage and living in tiny rentals -- to see how the other 99 percent lives. After that, they give away money. A reality show, yes, but a heartwarming holiday reality show. Might be worth checking out.

In a move that signifies a marked break from the outgoing administration, President-Elect Obama has tapped General Eric K. Shinseki to head the Department of Veteran Affairs. Gen. Shinseki openly criticized the Bush Administration's postwar strategy in Iraq, publicly clashing with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over how many US troops would be needed to occupy the country. In the years following the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent "surge," it has been generally accepted that Gen Shinseki was right, though he allowed himself to fade out of public view and retired from the Army. Shinseki is the first Asian American four-star general. For more read the full New York Times story.

My Mom Is A Fob is the new Postcards From Yo Momma. Launched by Teresa Wu and Serena Wu (UCSD and UC-Berkeley juniors, respectively) over the weekend, the blog shares cute, interesting, and sometimes poignant (but mostly unintentionally hilarious) emails from our first generation mothers. To share your own, email mymomisafob [at] gmail.com.

Here's a sample conversation:

Roadtripped over the weekend to the annual San Diego Asian Film
Festival, a jampacked event that boasts a slate of both Asian
and Asian American features, animated shorts, documentaries and short
films. I managed to catch a few words with Jimmy Tsai, co-writer, co-producer
and star of this year's highlighted feature, "Ping Pong Playa," a comedy about a glib b-ball-playing slacker who suddenly has to defend his brother's (Roger Fan) table tennis championship after a wrist-breaking car crash.

When asked how similar his views are to his character's, the often aggressive advocate of Asian American identity Christopher "C-Dub" Wang, Jimmy replies laughingly, "C-Dub's definitely a little more militant than I am, but you know, he's just informed on his issues, and he uses his ethnicity as both a shield and a bludgeon." The character, a hypercompetitive could've-been-but-never-was basketball star who peaked in grade school, laments the lack of Asian Americans in the NBA and is quick to give his opinion on Asian American women who date white men.

So I read this story in the Washington Post yesterday about the continuing trend -- and something of which most Asian Americans are at least tacitly aware -- of Westerners still liking their Chinese stories ancient and mystical, with a dash of opium, despite all the modernization China has undergone in recent decades.

Described by the New York Times review as "somewhere between 'Flower Drum Song' and 'Scooby-Doo,'" "Three Delivery" promises to deliver. Apparently, the storylines and characters are set in Chinatown, San Francisco, featuring two boys and one girl who were orphaned and now work at a Chinese delivery (bear with me), but their Asian background almost seems incidental.

The kids speak with American accents and aren't pigeonholed into the usual "cute Asian," "nerdy Asian," "thug Asian" stereotypes. They surprisingly seem portrayed as -- well, normal Asian American kids growing up in the Bay Area (who happen to fight evil). And according to the NYT reviewer, all the show's writers don't seem to be Asian American. Huh.

Just caught a teaser clip or two on YouTube, and it doesn't look too bad. Sure, it employs all that exotic, ancient Chinese kung-fu mystical magic potionry hoo-ha, but hey, the main characters' names are Sue, Tobey and Sid. I'll give it a chance. Baby steps, baby steps.

"Three Delivery" will air regularly on Nicktoons, Fridays at 7:30p.m. EST.

Just read this report from the New York Observer, which says Indian American MTV writer Aziz Ansari has been cast in the new spinoff of NBC's "The Office." Ansari is currently an executive producer, writer and performer on the MTV show, "Human Giant," and has made cameos in shows like "Flight of the Concords." According to Variety, the "Office" spinoff may borrow minimally from the current cast, instead introducing characters on "The Office" before moving them on to the new show.

The spinoff's writing team will also include Alan Yang, "South Park" comedic writer, according to the Observer. You can read more on Aziz Ansari in this Gelf Magazine feature story.