Category: Uncategorized

I’ve had this article sitting in my backlog for a couple of weeks and I thought today would be a good day to set it loose.

My teen years were spent smack in the middle of the Golden Age of teenage coming-of-age movies. One of the classics of this era was Sixteen Candles, which launched the careers of a number of people, including Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall as well as more successful actors including John and Joan Cusack. However, the character in that movie who left the greatest mark on North American culture wasn’t played by any of the aforementioned people. That character is none other than Long Duk Dong, who makes a memorable entrance in the movie:

He’s so memorable a character that when you rent Sixteen Candles from Netflix, it’s Long Duk Dong’s face on the sleeve, not the face of the protagonist Claire (the just-turned-sixteen character played by Molly Ringwald).

Created by taking every bad Asian student stereotype of that era and rolling it into a single character, he was William Hung twenty years before William Hung. “The Donger” was a creation of John Hughes, the man behind some of the biggest teen movies of the eighties, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Hughes’ characters were broad archetypes: the rich kids with ridiculously expensive clothes and cars, the geeks bristling with gadgetry, the jocks with barely three brain cells to rub together and the plucky misfits with more hip quotient than the entire high school put together.

I’ve read that character of Long Duk Dong was ammunition who high school kids who needed a racial epithet to fling at Asian guys. In the NPR article Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes?, many stories about Asian guys being called “The Donger” or greeted with one of his lines from the movie. That’s never happened to me; in fact, I’m quite sure I’ve appropriated his dialogue, especially the lines “What’s happening, hot stuff?”, “No more yanky my wanky!” and “The Donger need-a food!”. (And these days, I’d love it if my entrance into the room was accompanied by a gong.)

Not every Asian guy viewed The Donger in a similar light. Indy comic artist Adrian Tomine, creator of some angsty comics in the same vein as Derek Kirk Kim, provided an interview and a comic for NPR. A small version of the comic appears below; click on it to see it at full size.

Click the photo to see it on its original page at full size.

Great books deserve great covers, and Shepard Fairey’s new cover designs for Penguin Publishing’s editions 1984 and Animal Farm are gorgeous:

Click the photo to see the original article.

Click the photo to see the original article.

[Found via MetaFilter.]

It’s a New Blog!

My friend and b5media co-worker Tris Hussey has started a new blog on the b5 network titled Manscaping 101, a blog devoted to men’s grooming. So far, he’s posted articles on shaving to saving money on razors to styling your hair to cologne to the standard definition of “manscaping” (that is, grooming “below the equator”). Manscaping 101 promises to be a good read for the modern gentleman who cares about his appearance without having to go to ridiculously metrosexual lengths. Go check it out!

Bonus Material

For your amusement, here’s the South Park episode South Park is Gay, the one in which the entire town falls victim to the metrosexual craze, which turns out to be a plot to take over the world.

VidKing, the celebrity gossip and news video site, is the project on which I’m working that’s also the most visible to the outside world (a lot of other items on my plate are still in the “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you” category). There are new videos put on the site all the time, so it’s always fresh. If you like celebrity gossip and are looking for some brain candy to enjoy on your lunch or coffee break, go give VidKing a look!

Some updates on Andrew McCallum, taken from his brother David’s notes in Facebook (for more on Andrew, see here and here):

Thursday, April 10, afternoon — Coasting

No change to speak of, today. Andrew’s nurses and doctors are trying to deal with a fever and keep his temperature at a safe level.

It occurred to me that I may have been a little overzealous with the “thumbs up” news. Andrew is by no means in the clear yet, and I was told that the thumbs up was really just him raising a thumb on command while still being out. This is great news, but he still has a long way to go. Please keep the prayers coming.

I got the CDs playing to him today, and will print out more of your wonderful comments for him. I’m having trouble keeping up with all of you!

Thursday, April 10, late afternoon — Infection

Andrew’s developed an infection in one of his lungs and is now being dosed with antibiotics. You smokers out there, take note: the nurses tell me that smokers are more likely to develop infections in their lungs in critical care, and infections are serious problems in this state.

So, why don’t some of you target your prayers to his lungs, and the rest of you keep focussing on his head? Let’s make sure all of him’s covered.

We seem to have amassed a large group of people who are all directing positive energy towards Andrew, and it’s a very lovely thing. I also realise that there are many others out there also in need of positive energy, and I think Andrew would love to be able to make use of this situation to help others. I can’t ask him, of course, but he’s an upstanding chap and I’ll just assume on his behalf.

If anyone out there has someone in need of prayers and good energy, please post about them on the discussion thread that I’ve started so we can all send some good vibes their way. All of you sending positive energy out, please add these people to your prayers.

Friday, April 11, noon — Stabilizing

This morning, Andrew gave another raised thumb to the nurse, but it apparently wasn’t repeated. She suggested that this may be because he is simply exhausted. Still, we’re taking comfort in this gesture.

He also has a fever that they’re treating, and this too is apparently improving. Little steps for Andrew.

I updated the group description because it was a few days out of date.

A photo collage is being organised for Andrew. If you’d like to contribute, please see the discussion thread about it (which will be created, if it hasn’t already been).

Please keep your prayers coming, and tell your loved ones that you love them.

I’ve done my share of sitting in a hospital, hoping that a family member will recover, so my heart goes out to the McCallum family. Stay strong, folks.

In an earlier post, I wrote about Andrew McCallum’s accident and being in the hospital in serious condition. There were some good signs yesterday afternoon, as reported by his brother David:

Holy crap. According to the nurses, this morning, Andrew gave a squeeze and a thumbs up on command. Holy crap!

Andrew is apparently no longer in a regular coma (whatever “regular” is), but during this brief bout of consciousness he was struggling against the respirator and working himself up into a tizzy, and tizzies are bad for him at this stage. The staff sedated him and he’s now in an induced coma to allow him to rest and heal. I think he is in a lot of pain. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be inside his head right now.

Thank you very much to those who dropped CDs off. It turns out that he now needs low stimulation, but you can bet I’ll be playing those CDs when he’s ready for it.

Thumbs up!

Here’s a message from Andrew’s father:

Saturday, Andrew was in the deepest coma. Today he is not. He has been put into a drug-induced coma to give him rest, because when he isn’t resting he is fighting all the tubes in him. This is a good sign, like the thumbs up he gave the nurse on command this morning.

He is not out of the woods by any means. He needs you to continue whatever it is that you are doing that is washing him in healing light and energy.

Andrew’s friends are beyond amazing. We read your messages to him and they sustain us all. The nursing staff in ICU stop by to listen to your poems, your prayers, your mantras, your chants, news of your prayer circles. One said yesterday, “Andrew must be truly wonderful to have so many people love him so passionately.” The medical staff have been excellent and are to all patients, but I think that hearing your messages makes them go that extra yard for Andrew.

One call I received today told us about a dream this person had of Andrew touching his nose, toes and ears on command and of a floating, glowing golden balloon.

Keep it up. The love of Andrew’s community is powerful and growing and demonstrates a love for each other, a caring supportive community in a world about which we are tempted to be jaded. You prove the power of love.

A very old and dear Iraqi friend of mine called me from England saying that he and his daughter had just arrived back from Dubai in the past couple of days. On the flight back from Dubai, unaware that we were going through this ordeal, his daughter asked him, when were they going to visit the McCallums in Canada. She had met David and Jonathan but never Andrew. His observation about her premonition: “the heart knows, before the mind.”

What your hearts know about Andrew seems to be coming to pass. Make it so.

Get well soon, Andrew.

Here’s an anti-drinking-and-driving poster from Mumbai — you should view it at full size to get the full effect:

Click the photo to see it at full size.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.