Blogcritics Author: Tam Hoang

State of the Warriors: Missed Chances At The Trade Deadline

Tam Hoang — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:28:54 EST

Kobe has Pau, Dirk has Kidd, and even Deron Williams has Kyle Korver. What do the Warriors have?
Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a little peeved at being a Golden State Warriors fan. You might ask why? After all, the Warriors are still soaring following the playoff upset against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs last year and having a superb season despite being in a Western Conference that is, for lack of a better...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Review: Radio

Tam Hoang — Wed, 7 Sep 2005 21:31:18 EDT

There's a segment of the movie-going audience that attends the theater hoping to be entertained. They want to see explosions, death-defying stunts, and any other manner of magic that will keep their butts in their seat and their eyes glued to the screen. Then there's a segment of the audience that wants to see a heart-warming film that will let them leave the movie theater with a fuzzy feeling, and they often don't want to admit it. I'm a sucker for those heart warmers, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Radio was one of them.Okay, so I'll admit, I should have known it was going to be that kind of film already. After all, it has all the prerequisites. It stars Radio, a young, black kid who just happens to be a little slower than the rest of the kids his age and who walks around town with his shopping cart and radio. He doesn't go to school, and he doesn't interact with other people, but what he does do is apparently walk by the football practices every single day without fail. Radio is played by Cuba Gooding, Jr who I really haven't enjoyed in a film since his smash performance in Jerry Maguire. It's also a dangerous role to play since characters like Radio (i.e. mentally slow, bumbling, but generally loveable) have been done before, and have been done very well. It's hard to watch Radio without being reminded of performances by Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) and comparing them. But Cuba puts a nice spin on Radio, and you can't help but feel good as you watch his transition from a quiet hermit to a standout figure in the community. The mentor of Radio is the local high school football coach, Harold Jones (Ed Harris). Harris does a good job portraying the idolized coach. He earns the players' respect by being firm, but also being gentle by taking Radio under his wing. Not all is well with the old coach, however, as we watch him slowly losing a grip on his relationship with his soon-to-be-graduating daughter. Again, it was difficult for me to watch Ed Harris' performance (and it was a good one) without comparing it to Billy Bob Thornton's performance in Friday Night Lights. I found Thornton's performance to be more believable as a football coach trying to deal with the pressures of winning and the responsibilities of raising his players as men, but Harris' overall performance is more rewarding for the audience because we see him as more than just a coach by the end of the movie. He's a father, a teacher, and a mentor, and that's something that you didn't really get a chance to see in Friday Night Lights, at least not in the same light. But to be fair, these two movies are trying to do different things, and Radio is not really about football.With a movie like this, you're going to have conflict and we have plenty of it for Radio. With a big brooding football team you're going to have obnoxious players who want nothing more than to stir up trouble, especially with a kid like Radio who seems to be winning the approval of the coach and of the other kids in school. The star player on the football team (and basketball team incidentally) takes several opportunities to wreak havoc on Radio, but as you would expect the two eventually reach a mutual understanding. We see how Radio is able to connect to people even though he speaks with slurred speech and doesn't always understand what's going on. It just so happens that the player's father also leads the largest opposition to having Radio around at all, for fear that he's distracting Coach Jacobs from leading the school's football team to the state title. There are a few points that seemed to bother me. One is how we never meet Radio's older brother other than a brief mention of him being normal and at one point the older brother is in Radio's house but we never see him. I would think the older brother in this scenario would be a more prominent figure in Radio's life, either in the form of being a helpful older brother who looks after his younger sibling voraciously (of course, if this was the case why would we need Ed Harris right?) or the brother who is tired of looking after his brother and is constantly getting into trouble and needs to be brought back into Radio's life. Neither of these things happens, and we're stuck with an invisible brother who really does nothing in the movie, which I think is a terrible oversight. Thankfully we do get a good helping of Radio's mother, who is played perfectly as slightly overprotective but generally very supportive of her son despite his shortcomings. We definitely get the feeling that she is her son's only protection in the world, at least until Harris' character shows up.All in all, Radio is a very touching film filled with good performances. Similar to Friday Night Lights, we get the feeling that this small town is a people's town, meaning everyone knows each other and speaks to one another, and we also realize how important football is to the people of the town. Not only that, it would seem that football binds this town together, and one of the most enjoyable scenes is when Harris' character walks into the local barbershop where all the other men would be, grab a cup of coffee, and just talk football. It's a scene that probably plays out in a lot of barbershops across the country, and the barbershop is even the setting for an important town hall meeting in the movie (which seemed a little ridiculous to me, but oh well). In a movie like this, you know exactly what's going to happen. Nothing really is a surprise, but the way it's presented to the audience is what keeps the movie interesting. Radio is a generally loveable character that doesn't become too annoying, but it would have been easy for him to start grating on the audience's nerves. The best part for me is that this movie never really slows down and keeps my attention for pretty much the entire length. There are several touching scenes that really make this movie, and I genuinely did enjoy it. The actual football play in this game is OK, but like I said earlier it's not really a football movie. So if that's what you're looking for I'd definitely go watch Friday Night Lights instead. In the end, Radio is a very enjoyable movie with some very good performances and a touching story. It is definitely worth the rent for me.

The Mountain I Called A Sushi Bar

Tam Hoang — Tue, 6 Sep 2005 06:25:15 EDT

I'm a proud man, and I know that as a proud man there are certain things that I like to boast about. When I was in high school I knew that I was one of the faster runners on the swim team, so when we did dry land practices before the start of the season I would challenge anyone and everyone to try to finish the three mile run before I could. There would be challengers, of course, and some of them would beat me much to my chagrin. Others would fall to my amazing prowess and outstanding technique that could only be God given. Okay, so that's an incredible exaggeration, but suffice it to say, I was proud to be fast. And I let people know about it.Call it a guy thing, call it ego, call it whatever you want. The point is that we all have strengths that we unleash upon the world whenever we want to feel good about ourselves, and the moral of my next story is that sometimes you fall flat on your face trying.One of the things I'm known well for at work are my huge lunch bags I bring in. I'll routinely walk into the lunchroom of the pharmacy, plunk down in my chair, and watch as my fellow coworkers curiously peer into my bag to see what goodies I will bring out. There really is no secret though. It's always some sort of meat combo (beef, chicken, pork) with a ton of rice, some veggies, and a drink. Many of the women I work with scoff with fury that I could even THINK about eating a meal like that."Oh, the calories!" One woman exclaims, walking out in a huff."I can't believe he's going to eat ALL OF THAT!" Another woman replies, her eyes nearly as big as my appetite."Got room for one more?" A pregnant coworker says eagerly with a fork and spoon in hand.Okay, so the one day my pregnant coworkers had lunch with me was the day I left lunch a little hungrier than usual, but to summarize I have a reputation for eating a lot and not adding the poundage to my slender frame. I stopped to think for a second if this was something to be proud of though. I mean, is it manly to be a pig? Or better yet, does being a man mean that I am a pig?[Insert quiet contemplation here] Confucius say, "Do not confuse pork with Tam. Pork is tastier and more fit!"But it didn't matter how I felt about it, because the feeling of pride swelled inside of me whenever a coworker mentioned what a voracious appetite I had. But now, the ultimate test was coming. As a Friday night excursion, a few coworkers decided to go out to this all you can eat Japanese restaurant, and already the bets were being made. As I got undressed from a day of making IV's in the so-called sterile IV hood and washed my hands, I could already hear my beloved coworkers getting rowdy up front in the pharmacy."I bet Tam eats five plates before the end of the night!" One of my friends boasts."Yeah right, he probably won't get past the BBQ spareribs." Another person contests.I walked over into the conversation with a big smile on my face. By this point about six or seven people had gathered into the discussion, and I felt energetic as I knew I had an audience. I proudly proclaimed that I would eat this restaurant into bankruptcy and that I would eat every different dish they offered.The sounds of laughter and astonishment filled the pharmacy, and I knew that I had bitten off more than I could chew (oh the irony). But common sense leaves you when you know you have an audience and you've got that silly thing called pride riding high behind you. Later that night, the challenge was set and as I arrived to the restaurant I could feel the pressure mounting. There were multiple stations of food I would have to tackle before I could finish my boast, and I could only feel a lump in my throat as I reached for my first plate.I decided to tackle the sushi bar first. After all, they are small, quick and delicious. And eating them also gives me an excuse to say, "Wasaaaaabi" to my friends. But this ended up being my biggest mistake of the night. You see, sushi contains rice usually, and the rice slowly filled my stomach as I went from California roll to Dragon roll to I-Dunno-What-The Hell-Is-In-That-Roll. By the end of my first plate, I was already beginning to slow down.Most of the people at my table were already half way through their second plates already. I began to hear the snickers as my friends knew I would not last the night. And to add insult to injury, one of my coworkers brought their 8 year old daughter who was finishing her second plate and heading for a third.By my third plate, my head was hanging low and I knew I was like George Foreman in South Africa reeling from the stinging blows of Muhammad Ali. I was going down, and I wasn't happy about it. My friends laughed out in chorus as I pushed the plate away from me in disgust, and I knew I would hear the tale about how the great appetite of Tam was done away by some raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed. My bubble had burst and I was stuck with a thirty dollar bill for only three plates of food. Being the cheap guy I am, I immediately ask for a free refill of soda as the waiter presents the plate to me.So that's my story of how I tried to climb a mountain and fell right on my face. It wasn't the first time it happened, and it definitely won't be the last time, but it made me think about what kind of trouble my pride can get me into. When I'm 40 years old am I going to try to race every 17 year old I see at a red light? Am I doomed to try to run alongside the 18 year old thoroughbred track star at the local track when I know I have two bad knees and the stamina of a sloth? I can't answer that accurately, but my pride says yes. And to that 8 year old girl who finished 6 plates of food at the restaurant, I have nothing to say. To her credit, after she finished she offered me some of her delectable little cakes she picked up at the dessert bar. Feeling sheepish and beaten, I took one of the morsels and stuck the whole thing in my mouth. The little girl laughed as my eyes watered from the frozen dessert that caused my mouth to clench as I realized I shouldn't have tried to eat it whole. That's when I remembered one of my biggest weaknesses....Sensitive teeth.

Reading for fun: I just don't do it anymore

Tam Hoang — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 10:13:29 EDT

I'm a big fan of reading magazines and newspapers. After all, the articles are fairly short, sweet, and to the point - much unlike the posts that I make. The style and convenience of those two forms of media keep me hooked, and lead me to believe that they are quite out the door like some techno-gurus would like to have you believe. But the one advantage that newspapers and magazines have are that they report on news and events that are happening now. But I asked myself the other day when was the last time I read a book for fun. That's right, for fun. That means reading during my leisure time when I could have been doing something else. I came up to the conclusion that the last one I read for fun was The Masters of Doom, the story of John Romero and John Carmack, the original founders of id Software. That's a non-fictional biography. Where are all of the science fiction novels that I used to read when I was a kid? Where are the simple crime novels I used to borrow from the library, read in two days, and return it in exchange for the next one in the series?Something happens when you get older. Time begins to become a precious commodity and we start assigning importance to all of our daily activities. I think for most people, family and work come first and second (in which order is different for everyone I suppose) while I would suspect leisure activities coming in after. Reading used to be one of my favorite leisure time activities. Why? For one, it was completely free. The local public library became my treasure trove of different books and magazines that I could borrow free of charge and return. But reading for fun has gone the way of the dinosaur for me now. Nowadays I only read materials I have to (textbooks, research journals, etc) or I feel I should be reading like the newspaper. Now I'm trying to find time to fit in reading back into my schedule, but for now, I just wanted to reminisce about some of the books I enjoyed when I was young.The Boxcar Children Those zany boxcar kids were a hoot for me when I was young. They had absolutely amazing adventures that never ceased to amaze, and while I admit that the later books really were starting to stretch the bounds of realism, the first book holds a special place in my heart. I think that's the book where they made a fridge from some source of running water. Young MacGyvers!Ribsy Henry Huggins, where are you? This classic book gave me hours of joy as I read about this energetic dog (on the proverbial search for a family) and his boy owner. Countless sequels kept this dog's adventures going.My Teacher is an Alien Although I preferred the latter books in this series (especially My Teacher Glows in the Dark), this first book is also very good. How many of us haven't had a teacher who was so mean we thought she must be from another planet? Well, in this series it turns out to be true. My Teacher Flunks the Planet made a lot of different philosophical turns and points in the book which sort of zoom over the head of a 4th or 5th grader (the target audience), but all in all, a great series.Goosebumps RL Stine was one of my favorite authors when I was a kid (next to Christopher Pike) and it was this series that really captured my attention. This series was later turned into a kids afternoon show, but it was great semi-horror books based on monsters, witchcraft, and fun. My favorite book had to be Night of the Living Dummy, and Monster Blood was good too (think the Blob). Although RL Stine did a lot of great books other than the Goosebumps series (the Fear street series), I'll always remember this one.Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing I was Peter Hatcher when I read this book. As a fourth grader who didn't quite have an identity yet and had younger siblings that drove him crazy (although Fudge is especially wild, not to mention a great nickname), I really felt for Peter and I loved the books, including the spin offs Fudge-A-Mania and Superfudge. There are wildly loveable characters and there is a certain charm to the everyday antics the kids get themselves into. Just great fun all the way around.

Living the Virtual Dream: Vol 1

Tam Hoang — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:39:22 EDT

Could I have found the last refuge for dorks and losers everywhere? (to steal a trademark from Tan the Man)I'm not talking about the Star Trek conventions, the three-month long camps outside of theaters to watch Darth Vader put on his famous mask, or even the midnight release of the newest TI calculator.Ok, so that was a little too much. Actually, everything in that paragraph was an exaggeration. Not everyone who watches Star Trek or Star Wars is a nerd, and I don't know anyone who gets excited about a new calculator, but I have discovered a new world where people have taken refuge from the outside world.The popular term for it is a MMORPG, or a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. If you haven't heard of it, you must have been living underneath a rock for quite awhile, because they have spawned an unbelievable following starting with the game Everquest. These games are played over the internet where you take the lead of a character who explores a virtual world. You determine your character's name, appearance, allegiance, his or her profession and their ultimate destiny. It's almost like you're raising a child, including the terrible teen years when you realize how much of a hassle it is to take care of this kid but you can't quite let him go yet. Just kidding. If we backtrack a little bit, we'll come to find that these MMORPGs have not just come into existence recently. It's not like we needed the internet to pretend that we were someone else in a far off land. In fact, MMORPGs find their roots in tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, much like traditional roleplaying games. But what roleplaying games lacked before the advent of MMORPGs was human contact. Most of these games rely on the idea of advancing your character, getting the so-called "uber" loot (that's netspeak for really cool equipment, like a Holy Sword of Ultimate Awesomeness) or that next spell that will allow you to kill any monster the game developers could throw at you. There's always that proverbial carrot dangling in front of you, tempting you to play for just one more hour with the chance that you might land that one rare item that will drop from killing that level 20 black dragon of doom. So what's stopping this virtual world from taking over everyone's lives? It's quite simple - a monthly fee. At least in my mind, this monthly fee keeps a lot of people from signing on because from my perspective if I'm paying for something every month I'd better use it. This game is not like cable television or your cell phone service - things you're likely to use everyday. On top of the monthly service fee for logging onto the game, you're going to need an internet connection of course. Internet service cost + MMORPG service cost = not worth my hard earned money.For some players, at least, this is the case.This was proven wrong by Everquest, which at its peak had over 600,000 active subscribers in 2004. But match that to games with even more international success such as Lineage, which had a max subscriber number of 3.2 million in 2003 due to its enormous success in the Asian market such as Japan, China and of course, Korea. Now MMORPGs have gained even more success, especially with games such as World of Warcraft and City of Heroes. World of Warcraft currently boasts over 2 million active subscribers worldwide, which will continue to increase due to its recent release in China, as well.Of course, success breeds clones. With the success of Everquest followed a gluttony of clone MMORPGs which didn't come close to emulating Evercrack's success, but with all of these games charging service fees players can only pick one or two games they really want to play while the others are left to fend for themselves.But perhaps a new game model has arrived that can change that. Guild Wars, created by the ex-Blizzard producers who also helped create the Diablo series, does not require a monthly fee. This should not be surprising since it's coming from the same people that allowed Diablo and Diablo 2 to be played multiplayer free of charge, but this completely goes against the MMORPG model that has been established. What's more is that instead of sure-fire revenue coming in from monthly subscription fees, Guild Wars relies on making money the old fashioned way - from selling boxes. They plan on releasing two expansion sets a year, hoping to keep players interested and their wallets interested, to help offset the cost of keeping servers up.So I've taken the plunge. I bought Guild Wars last week for $39.99 at Target, which is the most I've paid for a video game in years. I'm ready to step into this virtual wonderland and see what all the hub-bub is all about. I'm ready to be bombarded with countless players, endless quests, and maybe I'll even get a marriage proposal out of this.Or not. After all, you can't find true love when there's no subscription fee involved, can you?

Being the Perfect Citizen

Tam Hoang — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:27:26 EDT

I'm going to admit up front that I don't have perfect etiquette. Sometimes when I'm eating I'll make a comment when I still have some food left to be chewed that I shove off to the side of my mouth. Other times I change lanes in the freeway without signaling, not quite cutting someone off, but I think to myself maybe they would have appreciated some warning. So what does it take to be the so-called "perfect citizen?" Maybe I should start with what it means to have that prestigious title, at least in my eyes. I guess it starts off with being something called "considerate."As an example, I went to the local YMCA in my hometown this morning to swim a few laps and at least pretend like I was getting in shape. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning and I was heading towards the door when I noticed this woman holding a baby and trying to get her two younger children through the door. She had her hands full, what with the baby trying to sliver out of her grasp and the required baby bag with essential goodies also strapped around her other shoulder. Add to that the grappling younger siblings, the consistent "Mark, Melissa! Stop that!" warnings and the baby beginning to wail out loud, and you basically had a scene developing outside the YMCA.I was probably no more than 10 feet away when I noticed at least three men before me rush through the door before her, trying to get away from the stampede. Whatever happened to holding the door open for a lady as you're walking in? Granted, this was a somewhat special case, but I went ahead and held the door open for her so she could wrangle her group into the building while another woman passing by offered to help carry her bag as she went into the YMCA also.What exactly are the rules behind holding the door open for someone? Does it have to be a woman? Does she have to be amazingly beautiful? I'm not telling anyone how they should act, but there are certain circumstances where I think I should always hold the door open for someone else. One is for an elderly individual, especially someone who looks particularly frail. They always appreciate a helping hand, especially for those doors that don't open automatically and tend to be particularly difficult to swing open. I also always open the door for someone who happens to be in a wheel chair or crutches, or who would appear to have difficulty opening a swinging door. In general, I hold the door open for anyone who is a few feet behind me and appears to be heading to the same place I am. I think it's just a nice gesture, and usually if you don't the door seems to slam even faster and you create more work for the person behind you to 1) catch the closing door and then 2) open it back up which always seems to take more strength than if the door was closed to begin with due to the changing momentum.While I think most people do this, I have seen so many instances where doors were basically shut in people's faces. We're all in a hurry and we all have places to go, and sometimes we're not in the optimum state of mind to be thinking about these little things, but when you open a door in a public venue would it be courteous to look behind you for one moment to see if you could hold the door open for someone? It's almost second nature for me at this point. How about when people are driving on a busy street and it's a green light, yet you can't move forward past the green light because there's so much traffic in front of you. Let's take a quiz on what you would do. Would you:a) Wait patiently at the green light for traffic to flow forward b) Curse silently and turn up the volume on your Kenny G CD to help ease your nerves c) Honk your horn endlessly to no avail (and to no use) to get traffic to move forward d) Drive past the green light anyways, blocking the intersection for crossing traffic as they get the green light and ignore the inevitable honking hornsI think I do a combination of (a) and (b), while (c) gets no love from me because my horn doesn't sound vicious enough and the sound would annoy me. But the people that do (d) really strike me as being inconsiderate. And I know we've all been in this situation, and sometimes factors are out of control. Sometimes cars will use the fact that we're stopped at a green light to try to turn into our lane, and cars will continue to follow suit unless you're aggressive to get in front of them. But barring that, why would you block an entire lane of traffic that wouldn't otherwise be blocked? Now you're holding up everyone, and what purpose is that serving?Is the prevailing attitude in this case that, "Well, I'm being held up, so you guys might as well wait too?" I was stuck in a situation like that the other day, and the woman that was blocking me from crossing (as well as probably ten other cars behind me) simply glances at me and holds up her hand nonchalantly, making a poor attempt to say she's sorry. You're sorry? What good is that going to do? You're already holding traffic up, you knew exactly what was going to happen, and on top of that you don't even look remorseful. That's when I really wish I had a button that would stamp the words "Bad Citizen" on her car. Yeah, that would show them! But seriously, it's little things like that which really make me wonder whether we let the fact that we're having a bad day affect other people. All we have to do is to keep in mind how our actions will affect others before we act and we could avoid making our bad day into someone else's bad day. Bottom line is that being considerate isn't always recognized. Actually, it's a down right thankless job. But people always remember the jerks who block the intersection, who slammed that door in our face, and who forgets to flush the toilet in the public restroom after they have unleashed the unholy armies of Hell onto that seat. But that last one is a story I'll save for another day. I'll just end by asking......so how do you want to be remembered?

Finding New Faces in Today's Films

Tam Hoang — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:42:53 EDT

Can anyone tell me the last time you remember an Asian actor or actress taking the starring role in a film? Let me rephrase that. Can anyone tell me the last time you remember seeing an Asian actor or actress in starring role who wasn't playing a martial arts cop (See: Jackie Chan), or a beautiful, but deadly assassin (See: Lucy Liu). Chances are that you can't, because I had a hard time naming one. But I'm left wondering if the public thinks that's a problem. One of the reasons studios don't take a chance on Asian actors and actresses is that they are afraid a film will lose its pull on the audience because they won't feel comfortable with a leading role being headed up by someone like Jackie Chan or Jet Li if it isn't Romeo Must Rumble In the Bronx II. I'll admit that when I see a movie that isn't headlined by someone I think is an A-list actor I automatically don't feel compelled to really see that movie. Let's face the facts: big name superstars drive us to the movies as much as the movies themselves. Who wants to see Ming Na as the leading actress when you could have someone who will drive people to the theatres like a Nicole Kidman or a Jessica Alba? Here's another interesting question: do you know who Ming Na is?She was actually the starring actress in the Joy Luck Club, an asian centered drama based on the best-selling book by Amy Tan. She was also a recurring character on ER and is in a new series on NBC called Inconceivable where she plays the lead character.Two points for you if you knew all of that. Which interestingly means that I only get one point, because I didn't know all of that either. And so I sit here wondering, "Why not?" Have I been sucked into this Hollywood vacuum where I see shades of white and black, but often times nothing in between or a little off the spectrum?Another problem with these scenarios is that parts aren't being written with asian actors and actresses in mind. Ming Na is a very competent actress, but you can't plug her into the role of Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain. After all, Kidman was playing a Southern Belle in the middle of the Civil War. For some reason I think the writers would have a difficult time writing Ming Na into that one. Are parts being written for asian actors and actresses? Maybe the bigger question is whether the public WANTS to see movies with asian stars in it that don't involve huge sword battles or warriors flying through the air. What about a romantic comedy or a drama starring a leading asian man or woman? Would it work?One problem I think I have sometimes is that the relationship dynamics of an asian actor with another actor who isn't asian. Would a romance between Russell Wong and Jessica Alba in a movie be believable? Why can't Russell Wong be Mr. Fantastic in the Fantastic Four (aside from the fact that Mr. Fantastic is a white character...but that never stopped comic book movies before. I could have sworn the King Pin was white also, but Michael Clark Duncan changed that)?I just don't think the audience would buy it, and the main reason being is that they aren't used to seeing it. And it doesn't help when Hollywood does put two of them together and it just doesn't work. Lucy Lu and Antonio Banderas? Seriously? This phenomenon, if you can call it that, isn't limited to the Asian-American population. Black actors and actresses suffered from the same sort of problem in the last century. Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for best Male actor in 1963 for his role in Lillies of the Field, yet it would probably be another 20-30 years before we saw black actors and actresses getting mainstream attention for their roles in major Hollywood productions. And we're still waiting on getting more black producers, directors and other roles in Hollywood. It's definitely slow going, but I think there was a push from the public that, yes, we accept black actors and actresses as leading characters and we want to see them. Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, and Wesley Snipes are all leading role getters that we accept and go watch. How long until we see the same treatment for Asian-Americans? In the end, I don't think it's just film and television where this lack of attention for Asian-Americans can be found. It's also easy to find in mainstream sports as well. All of the well known Asian athletes all have some sort of gimmick that lets you remember them. Yao Ming, center for the Houston Rockets, is a 7'5'' giant. The fact that he's 7'5'' is an easy reminder of who he is, but the fact that he's about two feet taller than your average asian person makes it even easier. Michelle Wie, a 15 year old golfer from Hawaii, gets a ton of attention because of her age and her propensity for ignoring the LPGA and continuing to try to make the cut on the men's tour. But what about all of the unknown athletes who are also very good but get no recognition because they don't have a gimmick? Dat Nguyen, middle linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, is known for his hard work and hustle on the field. I don't remember too many deodorant commercials coming Dat's way. What about Ichiro Suziki, arguably one of the best hitters in baseball today and one of the most talented and gifted fielders, yet he won't get a headline on a newspaper unless the man hit .500 for the season or finished a game hitting for TWO cycles. Yes, it would take that much. Hell, even Sammy Sosa would get a headline if he hit .300 for a season. Maybe Ichiro should try hopping up and down when he hits a single.I know things will change eventually, because there's too much talent in the Asian community to be lost in our mainstream media forever. There's also too much talent in the Hispanic community and Black community to not allow them to progress either. This, like all other things culturally related in our country, will just take time or maybe a firm push on our parts to show the media what we really want to see - diversity.

Video Games: 30 Years Later

Tam Hoang — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:03:58 EDT

It was less than two decades ago that I was enjoying the simple pleasure of plugging in my Nintendo Entertainment System and booting up a session of Super Mario Brothers 3. Back then, the kind of violence you would see in a game like that would not exceed jumping onto the heads of a red goon called a "Goomba" and whacking the nonsense out of a turtle-like enemy with the end of my racoon tail. Nowadays, the violence found in video games mimicks the level of violence found in movies and television shows, and perhaps in a more immersive environment.Case in point, just this week the video game developers Rockstar/Take Two Interactive was forced to change the rating of their video Game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from Mature to Adults-Only due to code in the game that allowed you to have virtual sex with another female character in the game if you unlocked the secret.Wait...did he say "adults only?"That's right, as in only individuals 18 and over can purchase the game. Twenty years ago anyone could purchase a game if you had the cash, and most likely you were younger than 18 unless you were buying it for your kid. The issue here is not Grand Theft Auto, although it happens to be the whipping boy of the video game craze that politicians and law makers seem to love to loathe. The greater issue here is that video games have evolved faster than anyone could have expected, and we don't know how to control it or regulate it. People ask, "But how could anyone have known?" Admittedly this evolution of the home console did sneak up on most of us, the warning signs were always there.It wasn't more than ten years ago that a quaint arcade fighting game called Mortal Kombat entered the lives of the teenage gamer. It sported realistic characters that were digitized into the game (unlike the cartoony fighters found in rival games such as Street Fighter), and showed blood when a character hit another character. To top it all off, characters had the option of executing a "fatality" when they defeated another character. When I was a kid, Mortal Kombat was THE game. My friends would drool over the so-called "more realistic game," since of course it showed blood when you hit someone and was so "hella-cool-awesome" because you could kill your opponent. This is the same "realistic" game that sported such physics as launching your opponent in the air when you uppercutted him and allowed you to juggle him in the air (I am not kidding) with additional punches when he was in the air (I am still not kidding). The response from most adults (and law makers) was that video games were ruining our youth and that regulations needed to be put into place to make parents more aware of what their kids are playing. That was the birthplace of the modern day rating system we have of video games today. Under pressure from parents and politicians, Nintendo decided to not have real blood in the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat, instead showing the blood in grey rather than red. Sega's console, the Sega Genesis, did not follow suit, and kept their version as bloody red as the arcade.Ten years ago we had the warning signs that video games were becoming more and more violent...and more realistic. Ten years ago we realized the need for regulation and education for parents about what their kids were playing while they were in their bedrooms. Ten years ago we should have known what video games could bring to the table ten years later.All of this is just filler for an issue that has been ongoing for decades - is entertainment influencing the way we behave and act? Television was once under the same scrutiny, as was movies and even radio. What seperates all three types of media is that none of them are as immersive as a console video game. In Gladiator (starring Russel Crowe), you are watching him disembowel countless other soliders and gladiators with impunity. You are watching him cut off a man's head with two swords with one swing. In Grand Theft Auto, you are controlling your character to run over a poor, unsuspecting pedesterian. You are ordering your character to perhaps fire that bazooka at the oncoming police car.Does anyone else see the difference?Are video games just games? Are they nothing more than a modern day play on the classic cops and robbers roleplay we acted out as kids on the playground? Or can they change the way we see the world and alter our perceptions of what right and wrong is, or what is acceptable behavior and what is not?Video games have changed so much in the last 30 years that it's difficult to predict what they will be like in another 30 years. Perhaps they will be virtual worlds, so realistic they mimick real life, much like the holodecks portrayed in Star Trek. These games are already taking over some lives, as certain multiplayer roleplaying games such as Everquest (or Evercrack, as some have so lovingly endeared it) have done. Ultimately, the responsibility of these video games will be left up to ourselves as parents and as players. When we stop seeing the line between game and reality, between pretend and portray, is when we need to take a step back and realize the effect these games can potentially have. I know I will be watching carefully when my son or daughter picks up that copy of Grand Theft Auto X: Wyoming. But maybe I'm being cynical. After all, I am an avid gamer, and in fact, my copy of Grand Theft Auto is sitting right next to me. I remember playing Mortal Kombat a decade ago, executing fatality after fatality, and then stopping briefly to write a paper on the moral implications of World War 2. Perhaps as video games are evolving, so are we as video game players. I guess we just need to catch up. ED: LH