Check out this podcast by Arun Rath at Studio360 looking at why "Harold & Kumar" is so popular and why two Asian American potheads make such great underground heroes.

Tired of staring at commercial billboards while you're waiting for Muni? I am. So, it's time to take those doodles off your notebook and put them on the wall, through the Central Subway Public Art Program run by the SF Arts Commission. The Central Subway Program is looking for local artists to shape the aesthetic of a new underground, light-rail system that will serve a vibrant stretch of neighborhoods spanning Chinatown and SOMA, downtown.

The Asian American Arts Alliance celebrated its 25th anniversary with a star-studded gala, GALAXXY. Since 9/11 the AAAA has reached out to community organizations to help in rebuilding Chinatown. Karma paid them back, with plenty of big names coming out to the AAAA gala to support their efforts on behalf of artists. Hyphen's Rikki Massand reports from the Tribeca Rooftop on Tuesday, October 16th, while enjoying sushi and an open bar.

Willa Kim was also honored by the AAAA. One of the foremost costume designers in ballet, theatre, opera and TV, Kim has been honored many times since 1964 including Emmy, Tony and Obie Awards.

Margaret Cho watches the presentation from the front table with Knox Chandler.

Gala co-chairs B.D. Wong and Nusrat Durrani take the podium at the beginning of the presentation.

San Francisco’s own favorite son B.D. Wong, the accomplished Broadway and Hollywood actor who currently stars in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, said he is encouraged to see the progress made by Asian Americans in the arts. Hyphen's Rikki Massand chatted with Wong at the Asian American Arts Alliance Gala this October.

James Kyson Lee, who plays Ando Masahashi on NBC’s television series Heroes, attended the Asian American Arts Alliance's 25th gala. Here's a chat Hyphen's Rikki Massand shared with Lee atop the TriBeCa Rooftop in New York City last month.

Hyphen correspondent Jesse Zitrin had a chance to catch up with the A’s Hawai’ian-born rookie catcher, Kurt Suzuki, on the field before a game against the Chicago White Sox. Suzuki’s 2-run home run the previous day, with Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums in attendance, had been the difference in the A’s victory. Hours later, Suzuki would finish the evening with a tenth-inning, three-run home run to win another game for the A’s.

A month earlier, iron man catcher Jason Kendall was traded to the Chicago Cubs, paving the way for Kurt to become the A’s new starting catcher. Kurt first spoke with Hyphen’s Julia Chang as a member of the Stockton Ports, for Hyphen’s Body issue (no. 7) in 2005.

First off, congratulations. Yesterday’s game was a lot of fun!
KS: Yeah, it was an awesome game – very exciting. Any time you can win the first two games of a series it’s nice. It’s just [about] winning games right now, just win as many as you can, and see where that puts us at the end of the year.

Do you always like to hit your home runs in front of the mayor?
[Laughs.] That was nice, any time you can do that – especially in a big situation. The team gets the win, and you get a good feeling.

Tell me about Sid Fernandez (a Hawaiian pitcher who spent 15 years in the Major Leagues.) Do people still talk about him back on the islands?
I really don’t know any information on that. I mean, I know he’s a great pitcher, but I didn’t really know him at all.

Is there anyone who’s seen as a hometown idol there, other than maybe your self?
Uh, no. I just like watching good baseball. There’s no really idol or anything – we just like watching good baseball.

Last night, I saw "Avenue Q" at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. It was a great show: whimsical puppets, funny lines, a well-developed plot surrounding believable characters, and catchy music.

One of the best pieces of the show is "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"-- a riotous song that hooks the audience with lines like, "Ethnic jokes might be uncouth, but you laugh because they're based on truth." There's no doubting it's a hilarious song and it tore the audience apart. But, of course, "Avenue Q" also uses the song to establish an environment where racial and other off-color jokes can be made.

Christmas Eve, the Oriental Asian American character, joins in too, when her fiance, Brian accuses her of being racist: "Yes, I know. The Jews have all the money. And the whites have all the power. And I'm always in taxi-cab with driver who no shower!"

As a bit of a cosmonaut (astronomy dilettante) and tree-hugger, I was interested to discover that the senior NASA scientist responsible for substantially contributing to substantiating the Climate Change hypothesis is a Filipino American, Dr. Josefino C. Comiso. Cosmiso and his team's findings were critical in helping to over-turn one of the primary arguments against to the Climate Change theory.

In Stockton, California, a community group is fighting to restore and preserve Little Manila, one of the oldest Filipino immigrant communities in the US.

The Little Manila Foundation aims to raise $2 million to purchase several buildings that constitute historic Little Manila. The first on their list is the Mariposa Hotel, a former "residence hotel that also served as a headquarters to labor unions and other organizations when Stockton was home to the largest population of Filipinos outside of the Philippines," describes the Recordnet. They hope to convert Mariposa into a community space and museum, then preserve the only two other remaining buildings of historic Little Manila-- the Rizal Social Club and the Emerald restaurant.

Featured in our music issue last year were the Native Guns, consisting of radical Pinoy emcees Kiwi and Bambu and Chinese American DJ, Phatrick. The group has since parted ways to pursue solo careers.

Bambu’s second solo album, I Scream Bars for the Children, which we review in our upcoming issue, was released at the end of April. The video for its lead single, “Pull it Back,” directed by Erica Eng, just dropped…

A LiveScience article reports on an interesting, new study finding that interracial couples invest more resources on their children. The study posits that the trend can be explained as compensation to balance social prejudices.

So-called biracial (aka interracial or multiracial) parents are more likely than their "monoracial" counterparts to provide their children with a home computer, private schooling and educational books and CDs and to make sure they participate in reading activities, dance, music or art lessons outside of school and get trips to the zoo, library and other cultural venues.

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Virginia v. Loving Supreme Court decision, striking down a state law prohibiting interracial marriage between whites and individuals of other races. Since 1967, the number of multiracial couples in the United States has more than tripled, as Asia Nation highlights, particularly among Asian Americans.

The study notes that the findings on an advantage for children of multiracial parents only holds when comparing the biracial couple with respective monoracial couples.