He’s Your Polish Dancer, Your Brown Actor for Hire

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Pavani

d.pudi.jpg “Most of the roles you get are not Polish…You don’t seem like a typical Pole,” Jimmy Kimmel joked while interviewing comic actor Danny Pudi on his late night show. The lanky Chicagoan and Polish-Indian American Pudi was sitting in a chair autographed by Rod Blagojevich.

And indeed, his role on the new TV series “Community,” is not Polish either. He plays Abed, a half-Palestinian character.

Pudi, whose mother immigrated from Poland and his father from India, acknowledged that portraying Polish characters was not his “wheelhouse.” Playing South Asian characters is.

“I played three Sanjays…Haven’t played any Polish characters yet.”

You can watch his Kimmel interview after the jump. Continue reading →

Interview with Vik Sahay

Posted on September 18, 2009 by cicatrix

Do you watch “Chuck”? That TV show about the secret, CIA-protected life of a tech dork who works the Nerd Herd desk at a Best Buy like electronics store? The first season was cute, the second sort of lost me, then they got Scott Bakula to play his dad and I’m hooked again. (Quantum Leap forever!)

One of the more amusing aspects of the show is that Chuck’s real world life at the Nerd Herd desk is as drama-filled as his intelligence/espionage secret life — courtesy of a scheming nemesis, Lester, played by desi actor Vik Sahay.

It’s a small role, but Sahay really owns it, milking every line for humor and dimensionality. So when MTV Iggy interviewed him, we vaguely thought he would be this, like, funny cocky guy and we’d edit it down to the best 2-3 bits. We certainly had no idea it would turn out to be one of the most searching, intelligent, thought-provoking interviews I’ve seen in years.

We ended up cutting something like 14 segments because all of it was interesting. That’s a ridiculous number, by the way. No one’s ever gotten that much play. Six clips were aired while we try to figure out what to do with the rest. Continue reading →

Q&A with Himanshu Suri of Das Racist: Part I

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Phillygrrl

Remember Abhi’s post on hip-hop duo Das Racist back in May? He said, and I quote “This track is going to become a favorite of desis of all ages.” (Not sure about all desis, but these little girls certainly enjoyed it.) During the summer, Das Racist received heaps of attention, both positive and negative, from fans, magazines, blogs, etc. I chatted with Himanshu Suri of Das Racist to ask him what all the fuss was really about. Continue reading →

30 Mosques in 30 Days

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Pavani

Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq are taking a journey through New York City’s Muslim communities by visiting a different mosque in the city each night of the Ramadan month. They are documenting the experience in writing and with photos at 30 Mosques in 30 Days.

NYC has over a hundred mosques and the project offers an interesting peek at their diversity, their histories and the communities that gather at each place of worship. It has also caught the attention of TV, news and blogs, but Tariq’s mother wasn’t really into it at first.

“She was like, be careful, the FBI is going to follow you,” he recalls. “I said, ‘don’t worry, mom. Things have changed. We have a black president now. Things are going to get better.'” (NY1) (As it happens, the most recent update on their site notes that someone at a Bosnian mosque asked Tariq for his ID because of an “incident with the FBI.”)

Tariq also told TV network NY1, “sometimes we’re the only ones that are South Asian, and the place will be all Indonesian or all African American, and we’ll walk in and everyone will be very happy.” Continue reading →

Affordable healthcare essay contest

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Abhi

Just a quick note for our loquacious readers (many of whom also enjoy blogging): the Asian American Action-fund blog is sponsoring an essay contest centered around the healthcare debate. Specifically, how do we fix our system? Given the number of healthcare professionals in the South Asian American community I am guessing there are a lot of thoughts out there. Have at it:

AAA-Fund proudly announces its 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Please send us your blog post on the following topic

How can we fix our healthcare system so that everyone can get access to quality, affordable healthcare? Please share your thoughts and personal stories on why we need healthcare reform now (500 words or less).

HOW TO ENTER:

Send your entries to Richard Chen (rchen [at] aaa-fund.org).

But hurry! The deadline: Friday, September 25, 8 pm ET. [Link]

I think I will end up being one of the judges. Prizes are as follows

First Place: One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150), 2 free tickets to the 2010 AAA-Fund Gala (a $200 value), and an exclusive invitation to become a featured AAA-Fund Blogger

Second Place: 2 free tickets to the 2010 AAA-Fund Gala (a $200 value), and an exclusive invitation to become a featured AAA-Fund Blogger

Third Place: Lunch with a AAA-Fund leader, and an exclusive invitation to become a featured AAA-Fund Blogger [Link]

Good luck SM-ers! Continue reading →

It May Only Be A Board Game But He Can Strike Fear Into Your Heart

Posted on September 15, 2009 by V.V.

Do not tell me you thought the Agarwalla brothers were the only brown in town on the Scrabble board! Witness Mehal Shah, he of the deceptively friendly face and evil Scrabble strategery. (H/T to my awesome webmistress, who sent me this link to an Ignite talk, which she got via mentalfloss. They rightly dub Mr. Shah “Jedi Master.” Because of his Jedi mind tricks.)

Watching “Fighting Dirty in Scrabble: How To Beat Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, and At Any Cost” will take only five minutes of your life! Your living room competition will never be the same! (This is an important note: these are not your Stefan Fatsis-level tips; these are for people who, like Shah, “love to play Scrabble and really, really hate losing.”)

What won’t he do? No cheating, no stealing tiles–but I’ve gotta laugh when I hear Shah talk about aggressively making up words. I haven’t forgotten that a certain British relative of mine made up T-R-A-X a few years ago when I wasn’t looking. (“It means… You know. Trax,” she said when I looked again.)

I will admit, I am part of the Scrabble Rabble. With the demise of Scrabulous, I took to Scrabble Beta over Lexulous, and I play “live” whenever time permits. (As fate would have it, this week I am teaching Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to my contemporary political fiction class at the University of Michigan. Scrabble even makes a fateful appearance in that novel! It’s a good board game for some literary analysis.)

Now, how much of what Shah says is applicable beyond the board? I tremble in fear. 🙂

Follow Shah on Twitter

Previous word nerd coverage here. Continue reading →

There Once Was a Man From Tajik

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Taz

Whaaaaat! Watch and be amazed.

Who is this Tajik Jimmy from Russia?

The rise of Mr. Allaberiyev, widely known as Tajik Jimmy, a migrant worker in a provincial Russian stockroom who delivers astonishing renditions of Bollywood musical numbers, is one more testament to the strange power of the Internet. A little more than a year after one of his performances was filmed by a co-worker with a cellphone and posted online, Mr. Allaberiyev cannot walk through a crowd in the Russian capital without being stopped by fans.nyt

I once had an older Vietnamese colleague sing me a Bollywood song, a remnant from her childhood of being raised in Vietnam before she escaped. I was stunned that Bollywood had reached so far in such a restrictive country. Seems like Bollywood to Russia took a similar path. Continue reading →

The New Wave of Filmmakers in Bollywood

Posted on September 15, 2009 by cicatrix

Oh, sh*ts. I’ve been remiss about so much. I’ve got a backlog of things both shiny and smart to share with you, so please bear with me as I suddenly haunt the mutiny.

The first thing on my list: MTV Iggy’s special feature on Bollywood’s “new wave” of filmmakers. The idea is that, much like the French new wave of the 50s, Indian cinema is facing a radical change, with auteur directors leading the way with a new influx of talent, money, professionalism and creativity. And the audience in India is ready for it. Anuvab Pal (friend of Sepia alum Manish Vij) is now a screenwriter in Mumbai, and his funny, engaging, and very revealing article is a must read:

In fall 2003, I was asked by a friend of mine, the director Manish Acharya, to co-write a film with him. It would be about a Bollywood singing contest in New Jersey. We were influenced by the movies of Christopher Guest and Woody Allen, and had lived in New York for a numbers of years. At some point, in various coffee shops in Manhattan, as we wrote, I asked Manish who our audience might be. He intelligently remarked that we shouldn’t write with audiences in mind but just try to tell a good story. That’s the sort of answer auteur film directors give at film festival Q&As and grave audiences nod in agreement. It had a sort of nobility to it. I was far more interested in a petty middle-class answer.
“Still, who?” I insisted.

“Whom” he corrected, adding, “New India. This is a film for new India.”

Continue reading →

Q&A With Jen Kwok: “Where My F&@Kers At?!”

Posted on September 15, 2009 by cicatrix

Ahn nyoung, dear Sepia Readers (and Arrested Development lovers)!

Sorry for leaving you for so long — I’ve been tasting the kimchee over at MTV Iggy, immersed in all things Kpop (don’t knock it ’til you’ve read about it Abhi!) and other global music/pop-culture stylings for kids who were born in the 90s, IYKWIM?

So anyway, I ran over here because I saw how much you enjoyed the “Date an Asian” video by Jen Kwok, and thought you might like to know more about the girl, the video, the cute older man in the sandwich made of sexy, and, of course, what her real dad thinks about all this:

What got you thinking about Asian men and dating? This is a topic I’d always wanted to address in my comedy, but wasn’t quite sure how. Last summer, I heard a joke on network television that was anti-dating Asian men. As an Asian, I was kind of pissed that this was broadcast as mainstream entertainment. As a comedian, I took it as inspiration to put a positive spin on the subject.

Continue reading →

Meetup Hits Bean Town

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Taz

Why, hello Boston. Home of Haaaarvard, Dunkin Donuts, Jhumpa Lahiri and the Red Sox. And brown people. Boston is home to plenty of South Asians.

How is it then that Sepia Mutiny has never hosted a Boston Meetup?

It’s about time to flip the script. So how about it? Let’s all get together for Boston’s first ever Sepia Mutiny Meetup?

Join Ravi, Phillygrrl and Taz Friday, September 25th for the best brown event to blast Boston. I’ll be visiting from LA, Phillygrrl is flying in specially from Philly, and Ravi is the ‘local’ hosting it all. It will be a first meetup for Phillygrrl and Ravi, and I promised them I’d make it just as good as the ones I’ve hosted in the past. Bostonians, don’t let me down.

DATE: September 25th, Friday
TIME: 5:30pm – 8:00 pm
WHERE: All ages dessert spot, Finale in Harvard Square
RSVP: In the comments below. Leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if things change.

Mmmm, chocolate. And brown people. Can’t wait. The location is tentative – we were looking for a place to congregate around happy hour time that would also be all ages. We also are not sure if they will take reservations for bigger parties. We chose Harvard Square area to accommodate students. If you have another location that you’d like to suggest, please drop it in the comment section as well. I also kind of wanted to check out DJ Kayper later that evening.

Don’t be skerred. Meetups are fun. You get to meet new people, make new friends, and I may even turn on Sepia Destiny full force so you can get a date out of it. Meetups are open to everyone – from the adamant commenter to the quiet lurker. ALL are welcome! COME! Continue reading →