Welcome

I walked into the Student Advice Center.  I had already phoned in, and asked to schedule a meeting with a ‘person that knows about housing.’  I was ushered to go in to the office in the corner.

A man with greying hair who looked good-natured greeted me; the kind of guy that you would like to run into if you were lost in a dark forest.

“So, what can we do for ya?” he asked, as he leaned onto his chair comfortably.

“Well,” I started hesitantly, “the house I was renting caught fire, and I was wondering about the legal process.  Such as, how much would housing insurance cover.” 

Without changing his expression – I was pretty sure he had heard some pretty weird stuff working there – he continued to explain that that the issues involving law wasn’t really his speciality, and that I should talk to other people in the center.

Not wanting to leave empty-handed, I asked what I was curious about.  I asked what kind of queries he got the most often then.

“Well,” he said, as he slumped on the reclining chair, “you know, you get your usual shady landlords trying to rip-off students that don’t know any better.  I then have to go check the houses and stuff.”

“And then, what happens?”

Lou Ye’s Reputation According to Chris

Given the reputation of Lou Ye, I had to be in a certain frame of mind when attending the film screening. Mr. Lou has left me quite bewitched, bothered and bewildered twice before with his “Suzhou River” (2000) and “Summer Palace” (2006). Don’t ask me to tell you anything about “Suzhou River” because I cannot remember much, except I discovered the luminous actress Zhou Xun (周迅) and could not help falling in love with her and her mermaid outfit. The image of Zhou’s free falling into Suzhou River lingers and is a classic. Then came Hou Lei (郝蕾) of Summer Palace, Lou’s creation of a free- spirited Chinese woman in the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen student protest is refreshing to watch. Her character is truly a French woman trapped in a Chinese body. The film followed Hou Lei into the forays of love, sex and betrayal. Oh! Did I mention the sex scenes? Delightful when Hou Lei’s intercourse partner is the super dreamy Guo Xiaodong (郭晓冬). There you have it, Lou Ye 101 in one paragraph. Please take note Lou Ye is not a Chinese Porn director.  Lou Ye is a Gen. 6th Chinese Director who has two films exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival. I think Lou Ye is a French man trapped in a Chinese body.

Kelvin from SFGAM.COM interviewed participants at the San Francisco Pink Party.  This event is part of  2010 SF Pride.

For some Bollywood actors, I don’t mind watching their films twice: Shahid Kapoor is one of them. To write this review, I watched Chance Pe Dance on DVD again to refresh my memory. The film was as entertaining as I’d first watched it a month ago.

Shahid plays Sameer Behl, an aspiring actor who moves from Delhi to Mumbai to pursue his dream. But four years have passed and he’s still juggling between his courier job and auditions. His only so-called big break is a forgettable TV commercial; it helps him to pay for a second-hand car but the exposure did not get him anywhere. When a famous director promises him to be the hero of his next film, Sameer did not expect that chance to slip away too – just like all his other auditions. It is another big blow to him after losing both his job and accommodation. Despondent but not giving up, he joins the Star of India contest with encouragement from his choreographer girlfriend, Tina (Genelia D’Souza). Again, bad luck follows him like his shadow: a nationwide crisis in Delhi forces him to return home and separates him from Tina and his dream.

Bo talked to Asian American Theater Company Artistic Director Duy Nugyen about his role in Asian American Theater Company as an Artistic Director.

I went for a NOH8 photoshoot today with my bandmates. It was organized by Daryl Dyck, a Vancouver photographer. The band has been a proud supporter of the local gay community for years, so it wasn't a vanity project - it was something we felt we needed to do.

The original NOH8 is an ongoing campaign founded in early 2009 by American photographer Adam Bouska. So far, over 3500 official and non-official photos have been taken in support of the campaign. While its main motivation was California's Proposition 8, the campaign speaks not only for gay marriage, but also for what appears to be the never-ending battle for equality for gay communities everywhere.

Because of the Christmas holiday, fewer doctors and hospital staff were on duty.  John was taken to the emergency room, where a neurosurgeon awaited him with a smile.  It was the first time I had ever been to an emergency room in the States.  The room looked a lot smaller than I had expected, and not every doctor looked like Dr. Greene or Dr. Carter on ER.  Everybody looked “normal,” maybe too normal. We were led into a private room where the neurosurgeon and a nurse were busy preparing for the procedure.  John was surrounded by all sorts of machines that were making rhythmic noises.  The neurosurgeon began to inform us of what he had found on the MRI.