The Washington Post posted a fan Q&A with actor Michael Paul Chan who plays Lt. Mike Tao on the TNT drama "The Closer".

Chan has appeared on series such as "Arrested Development" and "Robbery Homicide Division," and in films such as "The Joy Luck Club," "Spy Game," and Eric Byler's "Americanese." Interesting factoid: Chan's brother is author Jeffrey Paul Chan, one of the editors of the influential Asian American literary anthology "Aiiieeeee!."

The L.A. Times did an interesting piece called "Twenty-three items about Anthony Kim," the L.A.-born Korean American golfer who is being touted as the next Tiger Woods. It's a nice glimpse into the life of an Asian American athlete who is dedicated - at 16, Kim moved by himself to La Quinta, CA from his parents' Los Angeles home to take advantage of the golf courses there - but also not devoid of a personality:

"In addition to telling Sports Illustrated in May he wants to 'help kids,' reach No. 1 and 'be the baddest person on the planet,' he confessed that in his misguided rookie year of 2007 before he righted his thinking last fall and winter, he sometimes played with a hangover or with 45 minutes' sleep."

TV Guide's list of network TV's fall line-up is looking a bit ... like it does every season.

The Korea Times recently profiled Josephine Lee, a Korean American who is the youngest artistic director of the Chicago Children's Choir, a multicultural organization founded in 1956 during the Civil Rights Movement as a means of fostering cultural diversity and understanding through music.

Cable channel IATV, formerly ImaginAsian TV, has recently revamped its programming lineup in order to draw in its young Asian American demographic and prevent a shutdown similar to that of AZN Television which ended broadcasting earlier this year.

From Indiewire: The 14th annual Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will honor Filipino American actor Alec Mapa as Entertainer of the Year.

Tomorrow, Korean American singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn's album "A Good Day" will be available online and in stores. Her label, Blue Note Records, is home to Norah Jones and the man himself, Al Green. She kicks off her album release with an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on June 11.

The New York Times did a profile on India-born, Philly-raised director M. Night Shyamalan and his tumultuous relationship with Hollywood. Shyamalan, best known for his mega hits "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" (earning $294 million and $228 million in the U.S., respectively), talks about Hollywood's insistence on billing him as "the guy who makes the scary movies with a twist."

Summer blockbuster movie season has already begun, which means another big budget Will Smith movie is headed our way. His new superhero-with-issues action film "Hancock" opens July 4th weekend and is expected to make upwards of a zillion dollars.

The film was written by Vietnamese American writer Vy Vincent Ngo, who
according to a New York Times article earlier this month,
had began shopping around the screenplay (originally entitled "Tonight,
He Comes") nearly a decade ago. The script was praised for its
brilliance by studios but was considered impossible to make, presumably
for its dark, sexual, and complex look at an imperfect hero.

California's overturning of the same-sex marriage ban last week has prompted many gay and lesbian couples to start on wedding plans, including actor George Takei. Takei's role as Sulu in the "Star Trek" series has been an influence on generations of Asian American actors, and with Prop 22 now dissolved the veteran actor plans to wed Brad Altman, his partner of 21 years.

Read George's words on the parallels between racism he has faced as a Japanese American and the legal discrimination he has faced due to his sexual orientation here.

I have the utmost respect for George as he is an activist in both the
Asian American and gay communities. Best wishes to him and Brad.

NPR's Second Stage music section profiles American ex-pat Lizzie Moore who lives in Japan and performs Asian-inflected indie/electro music under the name Eri Chan. Her debut album - entitled Fire Fox - has a lead track "KitsuneBi" ("fire fox" in Japanese) and much of the album explores, in the artist's words, "the thoughts of a girl living in Japan, fascinated by folklore and possessed by a fox."

As Harry mentioned last week, Turner Classic Movies will be airing a month-long retrospective, "Race and Hollywood: Asian Images in Film," this June. I spoke about Asian/American images with the festival's co-host Peter X. Feng who is Associate Professor of film, ethnic, and cultural studies at the University of Delaware and author of the book Screening Asian Americans.

I spent the past week in Chicago for the Association of
Asian American Studies annual meeting, and while I was there working and hence unable to attend the various panels on this year's theme of "Where is the Heart of Asian America?," the week wasn't a complete wash. I stopped by the Hiphopistan performance on Thursday night, which featured a small contingent of South Asian/American rappers from the U.S. and Asia: Abstract Vision (New York City), MC Kabir (Boston), Chee Malabar (New York City), Yogi B and Natchatra (Malaysia), and DJ Rekha (New York City). The venue and crowd were small so some light head nods and strained call-and-response were the extent of the audience participation, but luckily the performers were unfazed.

I have quite the love/hate relationship with Nicolas Cage,
and honestly my use of the phrase, "But he was in Adaptation! Playing
twins!" can no longer justify his work in Next, Ghost Rider, The Wicker
Man, et al.

Ever wonder what it's like to watch grainy 1920s silent porn in a room full of strangers?

Korean and Korean American filmmakers have a strong showing at this year's San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, including Academy Award winner Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa and Cannes Film Festival prize winner Chan-wook Park's I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay.

I was lucky enough to get an early viewing of three cinematic offerings by emerging Korean American filmmakers that will be screening at SFIAAFF which has its opening night this Thursday.

Ukuleles conjure up some distinct images in my mind, mainly the opening credits of Arrested Development, that creepy Tiny Tim, and the cover of "Over the Rainbow" that appeared in every commercial, movie, and hour-long TV drama at some point in the early 2000s.

But I was catching up on some episodes of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and one of last week's musical guests completely upended my view of this four-stringed instrument. Jake Shimabukuro, a 31-year-old native of Hawaii and fifth-generation Japanese American, performed a soulful, melodic cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on an amped-up ukulele with guitar effect pedals.

Feminist blog Jezebel has dug up some disturbing diversity facts from this year’s NY Fashion Week.

Despite CFDA prez Diane Von Furstenberg urging designers to diversify the catwalk with more minority models, “Of 103 runway shows, there were 2,278 chances to feature a model on the runway. Of these, women of color were used 298 times. An Asian model was used 124 times, a black model was used 112 times, and a Hispanic model was used 62 times.”

Wayne Wang, noted director of Chan is Missing, Smoke, and the divisive (at least among some Asian Americans) The Joy Luck Club, has this particular filmgoer wondering about the status of his latest project, Good Cook, Likes Music.

The storyline according to IMDB.com is as follows: “A slacker and lovable loser lives with his mother in a trailer park. One drunken night, he sends away for a mail-order bride, who ends up being a musical prodigy, and together, they change each other's lives.”