Just thought about this, especially since I just realized that I'm the only regular contributor who reps Millie the dancing Barnard bear pride. Our friend Saffiyah Madraswala BC '09 recently started an initiative to make Ethnic Studies a more feasible reality at Barnard. She's been organizing weekly meetings, and a small group of students discuss issues surrounding Ethnic Studies and discuss academic articles.

In other cool APA Barnardian news, Katie Wang BC '10 and Joanne Lin BC '09 have been heading a relatively new committee called Society of Asian American Sisters (SAAS - we know, it sounds like BOSS) where APA women on Barnard and Columbia's campuses conjoin to talk about the intersecting issues of race and gender. There are sometimes also funny, awkward film screenings, like the one where we got together at David and Nhu-Y's suite and watched Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman, which was completely in Chinese so Nhu-Y felt marginalized (even though it was subtitled).

Both these initiatives started in the Fall '08 semester, and both are started by really cool awesome Barnard APA women whom I'm proud to mingle and work with.

Michelle Rhee (see entry title for her job) made the cover of Time magazine! That is an awesome feat. As our crazy friend Joanne describes, "She's a mad woman tearing her way through the school system; the teachers hate her, the principals fear her and I think she's awesome." Thanks, Joanne, we think so too.

This is one that we don't get to hear about very often. Mickey Rourke, that washed up actor from the '80s who has semi-revived his career with Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, was outed by TMZ yesterday. In a post titled "Dim Sumofa Bitch -- Rourke takes a shot as Asians", TMZ writes:

It wasn't just politically incorrect -- things got downright offensive last night when Mickey Rourke told a fan whose camera wasn't clicking, "You're Asian, you're supposed to be able to take pictures."

So I'm a little ashamed to say that I have a lot of double standards, but who doesn't, so whatever. I think (or know) that I have a double standard, maybe because yesterday Tina's comment didn't bother me so much as amuse me, yet Mickey Rourke's comment kind of annoys me. Maybe it's because I think that Mickey Rourke is sort of not worth covering or speaking about, and Tina has actually done something funny with the issue of racial typecasting. Plus, Tina's a woman and she's pulled off the feat of having every guy love her without being Paris Hilton who shoves pineapples up her v-j. Mickey Rourke probably hasn't thought much about race, he's already made the mistake of offending another community (the gay community), he's dating a twelve year old (Evan Rachel Wood), and up until a few months ago nobody cared about what he says. So maybe I'm more pissed that TMZ thinks that Mickey Rourke is worth me getting offended over! Shut up, TMZ.

(Thanks for the tip, Calvin)

You probably heard that Tina Fey (writer and star of one of the Blaaag's favorite shows, 30 Rock) made the cover of Vanity Fair again (her last time was with Sarah Silverman and Amy Poehler as the three funny graces). There's all this hullabaloo about the article's inaccuracies and the controversy of Tina's ugly years, but what really screamed at the Blaaager inside me was this quote:

Fey recalls she was at her heaviest in Chicago and, later, sitting at a desk at S.N.L. “I’m five four and a half, and I think I was maxing out at just short of 150 pounds, which isn’t so big. But when you move to New York from Chicago, you feel really big. Because everyone is pulled together, small, and Asian. Everyone’s Asian.”

Oh, Tina, you're right about New Yorkers being thinner (it's the walking more miles per day than any other city thing), but I'm sure there are lots of not pulled together, not-so-small Asians in Chicago (and New York) too.

As we descend into what is known by Blaaagers as "finals hell" once again, a writer joins our team! Meet Vivian...

Name: Vivian Chenxue (Morning Snow) Lu
School / Year: CC 2010
Hometown: Boulder, Colorado

Favorite class next semester: "Who is Indigenous?" and "Medicine and Power in African History" and "Soccer"

Favorite subscription on Google Reader: I'm not sure how to answer this question.

Favorite racist joke: my blaaag debut was already posted below courtesy of nhu-y.

Favorite weekend haunt: Colorado or walking around NYC
For me, AAAPC is the current campus populasian having conversasians on issues of representasian, marginalizasian, migrasian, alienasian, manipulasian, violasian, enebriasian, collaborasian, decolonizasian, approrpiasian and socializasian of APAs to move collectively through educasian towards liberasian and a (re)creasian of Asian Pacific America for generasians to come.
I'll take my Asian American "Awareness" jokes down a notch.

While we are constantly (re)defining what Asian America means to us as the youth, the new generation - what's going on with our elders?

"NEW YORK – According to a survey recently published by the Asian American Coalition, poverty among elders in the United States is dropping overall, but poverty among elders in New York city is rising, from 10 percent in the 90's, to 22 percent today. The poverty ratio for Asian elders is even higher, at 29 percent. China Press cites that in 1959, the poverty ratio among elders was 35 percent in the United States. After the federal government made efforts to help elders, the number went back down to 15 percent.

This economic crisis has hit Asian Americans particularly hard. Not only are they the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., but Asian Americans are becoming elders faster than any other group. There are currently about 90,000 Asian elders living in New York City and that number is expected to grow to 190,000 by 2020."

China Press

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=1f0ed215534ba053cdae6ec5109058b9

Maybe the only thing that will make your sleepless, working night better is a spoof on Asian toddlers and Oriental products, you say? Well, here you go.

Courtesy of Asian American Alliance Political Committee member, Vivian, via GChat:

Vivian: What do you call a fat chinaman?
me: oh no
what?
Vivian: a chunk
me: LOL
hahahahahaah

And, scene.