THE APPA Newsletter

THE APPA Newsletter

March 16, 2003

See This Weekend

http://www.stpatricksday.org/ South Bay St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival, Hermosa Beach

http://www.stpatricksdayla.com/ The Los Angeles City St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee is proud to present The Fifth Annual Los Angeles City St. Patrick's Day Parade, Wednesday, March 17, 2004 in downtown Los Angeles. The Parade Proudly Announces Jim McDonnell, Assistant Chief, L.A.P.D. as the 2004 Honorary Grand Marshall. The parade starts at 11:30 am. The parade ends at 12:45pm. The parade starting point is at the corner of 4th Street & Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles. The parade ends at 5th Street & Olive in front of the Bilmore Hotel. For parade participation contact: Pageantry Productions at 310/537-4240 or visit their website www.pageantryproductions.com. For additional information contact Emily Guiterrez at 213/485-6285

-----

MISSION STATEMENT:

Promote full utilization of the capabilities of the Enterprise's employees and champion the betterment of the company and community. Promote interest in Asian Pacific issues and culture and act as a bridge to all groups within our community.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

ed. by Douglas Ikemi

(dkikemi@pacbell.net)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The internet site is at:

www.apa-pro.org

Our own domain name, apa-pro.org, stands for Asian Pacific American Professionals. www.apa-pro.org/ gives you a menu of AP organization websites.

Back issues of the newsletter for all of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 are available on the website if you want to look up some past event.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

APPA Board Meeting Schedule for 2004:

Evening meetings open to the public will be at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2100 Mariposa Ave.(corner of Nash)‎‎ 310/726-0100.

(coming soon)

Detailed, updated calendar is available on the internet at www.apa-pro.org in Acrobat and Excel formats . Please send in information on cultural events and news items. Thanks to those who have.

Long range calendar items:

Chinatown Farmers Market Every Thursday, 3:00pm to 7:00pm Chinatown Business Improvement District http://www.ChinatownLA.com/ For Information (213)‎ 680-0243

Feb 2-March 13 Exhibit of 100 new works by Japanese quilt artisans at CSUN Art Galleries, 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge, 818-677-2226

Feb 5 to April 25, 2004. Exhibition - Kamisaka Sekka: Rimpa Master—Pioneer of Modern Japanese Design At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Free with museum admission: $9, $5 students & seniors, children 17 & under free. Hours: Mon., Tues. & Thurs., noon-8 p.m.; Fri., noon-9 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information please contact Los Angeles County Museum of Art Tel: (323) 857-6000. Website: www.lacma.org/

Feb 12-March 14 Kent Nagano leads the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus in Madama Butterfly at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. http://www.losangelesopera.com/production/index.asp?productionid=166

Feb 15 Recent Acquisitions of Japanese Paintings opens at the Pacific Asia Museum. Closes April 11

Exhibition - Portraits: Kabuki. White Room Galerry presents "Portraits: Kabuki," an exhibition by Hiroshi Watanabe, on view form February 28 - April 3, 2004. Watanabe investigates the ritualized world of Kabuki, the traditional national theater of Japan. Though the Japanese revere their famous and popular Kabuki actors, Watanabe has chosen to focus on the anonymous provincial players living far from the spotlight of Tokyo. Influenced by the revealing portraits of August Sander, Watanabe's photographs capture the fleeting moments when these actors lose themselves in the spirit of their character. By waiting for unposed moments, we are given the opportunity to see beyond the heavy make-up and wardrobe, to the place where actors go to prepare themselves for the play. White Room Gallery welcomes you to this latest investigation by a photographer deeply committed to discovering the interface between his native Japan and his adopted home in America. Watanabe has followed the rich tradition of other expatriate photographers, exploring his own culture from the vantage of another foreign country. His work has been extensively published and exhibited in Japan and America, and is included in the collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the George Eastman House of Photography. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, February 28, 6:00- 8:00 pm. 2/28/2004. White Room Gallery, 8810 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069. Free, Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12pm to 6pm. White Room Gallery Tel: 310 859-2402. Email: info@whiteroomgallery.com

Website: www.whiteroomgallery.com

March 5-June 20 The Arts of Japanese Sake at the Pacific Asia Museum.

March 20 Lecture Series - Religion and Myth in Indian Art. The Norton Simon Museum presents "Religion and Myth in Indian Art," a four-session series held in the Museum’s Theater exploring religious and mythological themes in the art of India, with special emphasis on works in the Norton Simon collections.

Presented by Dr. Louise Yuhas, Chair of the Department of Art History and Visual Arts at Occidental College, these lectures on Buddhist and Hindu art range from pre-iconic Buddhist pillars from Bharhut to Rajput paintings included in the exhibition "Painted Poems: Rajput Paintings from the Ramesh and Urmil Kapoor Collection." Suggested readings will be provided for further study. The cost is $15 per session. Call (626) 844-6980 to register.

Dates and topics are as follows:

• Saturday, March 20, 10:30 a.m.

"Early Buddhist Architecture and Sculpture"

The first session in the series offers a brief survey of the history of Buddhist art as reflected in the Norton Simon collections. Beginning with the pillars from the 2nd century BCE stupa at Bharhut (on which the Buddha is not represented in human form), the discussion continues through the Kushan Dynasty, when the first known images of the Buddha were produced in the Gandhara and Mathura regions, and culminates in the Gupta period.

• Saturday, March 27, 10:30 a.m.

"The Many Faces of Shiva"

The god Shiva has perhaps the richest and most complex mythology and iconography in the Hindu pantheon. This session examines temples dedicated to Shiva at Elephanta and Ellora as well as sculptures in the Norton Simon collections that portray the god symbolically in various ways: through his primal symbol, the lingam; as lord of the charnel grounds, where he dances on skulls; as loving husband; and as lord of dance and music, who simultaneously destroys and creates the universe.

• Saturday, April 17, 10:30 a.m.

"The Goddess"

This session delves into the imagery of the Hindu goddess as a companion of the gods and a figure of veneration in her own right. In turns, the goddess figure can be benign or wrathful, maternal or murderous, a vision of divine beauty or a dreadful hag wearing necklaces of human heads.

• Saturday, April 24, 10:30 a.m.

"Vishnu and His Avatars"

Vishnu is the compassionate god, the lord of “family values,” who preserves the world and rescues it from destruction. Manifesting himself as a cosmic boar and as a lion-man, he subdues demons who threaten the world; as Rama and Krishna, he models universal love and devotion as well as heroic valor.

Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena , CA 91105-1825. $15 per session. Call (626) 844-6980 to register. For more information please contact Norton Simon Museum Tel: 626) 844-6980, Website: www.nortonsimon.org

March 26 International Tea Party fundraiser for the Conversity Youth Scholarship at the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, 1145 Wilshire Blvd., LA, 5-8PM, $15. Raffle at 7PM. Call 213-250-8190, www.apadrc.org.

March 27 Conference - Asian Travel Narratives from Early Modern to Modern At the University of Southern California (USC). The East Asian Seminar of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute presents "Asian Travel Narratives from Early Modern to Modern," a conference at the University of Southern California (USC).

Conference Program

• Joshua Fogel, University of California at Santa Barbara, A Wartime Cinematic Recreation of the Journey Linking China and Japan in the Modern Era

• Susanna Fessler, SUNY Albany, A Letter from the Past and the Present: Tokutomi Roka’s “Autumn in Ryômo”

• Julie Codell, Arizona State University, Indians Abroad in Europe: Modern Indian Identities and the Raj

• Azade-Ayse Rorlich, USC, European Encounters: Muslim Voices from the Russian Empire

• Discussant: Charlotte Furth, USC

10:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Location:University of Southern California (USC)

Trustees Room, Huntington Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089. Free. For more information please contact Tillman W. Nechtman Email: nechtman@usc.edu

April 2,3 Hawaiian Dance Troupe Na Lei Hulu I Ka Weiku perform a the Carpenter Perfomring Arts Center, CSULB, 6200 Atherton St. in Long Beach, 2PM & 8PM, $23-30, 562-985-7000, www.carpenterarts.org

April 3, 2004 Also the Peanut Gallery Series which is especially popular with children two to six years of age is featuring Korean Classical Dance, Saturday Morning 10 am. Tickets $5.50 - $8.00, Armstrong Theatre. The Company performs graceful and elegant ceremonial and social dances that present a stunning vision of traditional Korean art. A thrilling drum dance is featured in a rich and vaired repertoire of exciting dances that are an integral part of the Korean culture.

April 3 Japanese Kabuki and Noh percussion collaborationwith taiko, plus dancers, 8PM at the Japan America Theatre, Little Tokyo, $27-30

April 3, 4 3rd Annual Pasadena Cherry Blossom Festival, Victory Park, Pasadena

Festival Hours: 10 AM - 6 PM. 2004 Senator Daniel Inouye Cherry Blossom Leadership Awards. Cultural parade through Victory Park at 1 PM Sunday. For information on the parade, please contact Kevin Lee at kevindlee@wans.net.

http://www.pasadenacherryblossom.org/parade.htm

April 17, 18 The 2004 Cherry Blossom Festival Committee and the City of Monterey Park are pleased to present the 7th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival at Barnes Park, located at 350 S. McPherrin Avenue; Monterey Park, CA. Entry to the Festival is FREE. http://www.mpkrecreation.com/specialevents/cherry.htm

For further information, please contact Dan Costley, Special Events Manager at (626) 307-2541 or dcostley@montereypark.ca.gov

April 24 Cambodian Ritural through Dance and Song, 8PM at the Japan America Theatre, $20-23. Pre Concert event at 5PM including, dance, food, music, books, arts, and crafts in the JACCC plaza, free.

April 24 Pilgrimage to Manzanar. Since 1969, the Manzanar Committee, a non-profit educational organization, has sponsored an annual pilgrimage to Manzanar. For more information, please contact Manzanar Committee, 1566 Curran Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026, phone: 323-662-5102, http://www.manzanarcommittee.org. Also see http://www.nps.gov/manz/pilgrimage.htm

May 2, 2004 30^th Anniversary Awaya-kai Koto Concert, 2PM, Marsee Auditorium, El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, Ca, $10, call 310-329-5965.

The Pacific Asia Museum (46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, 91101, 626-449-2742) Family Festival schedule for 2004, Saturdays, 1-4:

(coming soon.)

This Weekend (and earlier)

March 17 The UCLA Film and Television Archive presents a screening of the documentary film "Daughter from Danang." This film exposes the emotional drama of identity and the personal legacies of "Operation Babylift," a government program that relocated the children of U.S. Servicemen and Vietnamese women to the U.S. for adoption. After 22 years without contact, a mother and daughter are reunited and find out how deep the wounds of the Vietnam War run. Directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco. (81 minutes, 2002) For additional information, call 310-206-8013. 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM, UCLA, James Bridges Theater, 1409 Melnitz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Free

March 18 The UCLA Department of Information Studies and California Center for the Book, and the Southern California Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America present "The Last Samurai and the Last Book," a Forum for Book Studies lecture by Dr. Adrian Johns, University of Chicago. Professor Johns will discuss an effort in 1980s Japan to replace the existing realm of print with a digital alternative. Led by a charismatic ex-printer who aspired to combine Western entrepreneurship with a revival of Samurai culture, the plan provoked fierce arguments touching on everything from the nature of originality to the alleged piracy of the Japanese language itself. Its story helps us understand just what the digital revolution is – and, no less important, what it is not. Renowned for his work in the history of the book and the history of science, Adrian Johns is the author of The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making, which has won several awards, including the Leo Gershoy Award of the American Historical Association. Pre-event reception at 6 p.m. Please contact California Center for the Book at 310-206-9361 with any questions regarding this event. Parking is available at UCLA for $7 in Lot 3. Please purchase parking from the kiosk at the Wyton Avenue entrance. 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM, Royce 306, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Free

March 20 The Norton Simon Museum presents "Religion and Myth in Indian Art," a four-session series held in the Museum’s Theater exploring religious and mythological themes in the art of India, with special emphasis on works in the Norton Simon collections. Presented by Dr. Louise Yuhas, Chair of the Department of Art History and Visual Arts at Occidental College, these lectures on Buddhist and Hindu art range from pre-iconic Buddhist pillars from Bharhut to Rajput paintings included in the exhibition "Painted Poems: Rajput Paintings from the Ramesh and Urmil Kapoor Collection." Suggested readings will be provided for further study. The cost is $15 per session. Call (626) 844-6980 to register.

Dates and topics are as follows:

• Saturday, March 20, 10:30 a.m. "Early Buddhist Architecture and Sculpture" The first session in the series offers a brief survey of the history of Buddhist art as reflected in the Norton Simon collections. Beginning with the pillars from the 2nd century BCE stupa at Bharhut (on which the Buddha is not represented in human form), the discussion continues through the Kushan Dynasty, when the first known images of the Buddha were produced in the Gandhara and Mathura regions, and culminates in the Gupta period.

• Saturday, March 27, 10:30 a.m. "The Many Faces of Shiva" The god Shiva has perhaps the richest and most complex mythology and iconography in the Hindu pantheon. This session examines temples dedicated to Shiva at Elephanta and Ellora as well as sculptures in the Norton Simon collections that portray the god symbolically in various ways: through his primal symbol, the lingam; as lord of the charnel grounds, where he dances on skulls; as loving husband; and as lord of dance and music, who simultaneously destroys and creates the universe.

• Saturday, April 17, 10:30 a.m. "The Goddess" This session delves into the imagery of the Hindu goddess as a companion of the gods and a figure of veneration in her own right. In turns, the goddess figure can be benign or wrathful, maternal or murderous, a vision of divine beauty or a dreadful hag wearing necklaces of human heads.

• Saturday, April 24, 10:30 a.m. "Vishnu and His Avatars" Vishnu is the compassionate god, the lord of “family values,” who preserves the world and rescues it from destruction. Manifesting himself as a cosmic boar and as a lion-man, he subdues demons who threaten the world; as Rama and Krishna, he models universal love and devotion as well as heroic valor.

Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena , CA 91105-1825 www.nortonsimon.org

March 20 The Pacific Asia Museum's Authors on Asia Program presents a discussion by Museum curator Meher McArthur and award-winning Warner Brothers animator San Wei Chan of their new book, Michael and the Magical Museum. This fully illustrated children's book, text by McArthur and illustrations by Chan, tells the story of a young boy's visit to Pacific Asia Museum. The story explores the idea that art can "speak" to the viewer in various ways if they are willing to listen. Original artwork from the book will be on display for the program. The book is available to local schools and sold in the Museum Store. 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM. Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena , CA 91101. Free with museum admission: $7 adults, $5 students and seniors, free for museum members and children under 12. 626-449-2742, www.pacificasiamuseum.org

March 20 Performance - Discover Chinatown Lion dancers, puppets, magicians and Chinese musicians will perform in Chinatown's Central Plaza every Saturday in March and April. 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM, 943 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012-1743. Free. 213-680-0243

March 21, 2004 Live at the Armstrong - George Takei. 4:00 pm Tickets $30.

As part of the American Perspectives Series ...Salute to Liberty

Recognized worldwide as a member of the original Star Trek cast, Los Angeles native, George Takei is an actor, community and political activist, author, long distance runner and lecturer. Mr. Takei spent most of his childhood behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps during World War II. His optimistic vision is a world where people from all backgrounds work together to overcome problems. Armstrong Theatre at 3330 Civic Center Drive in Torrance. Questions: 310-738-8011. Box Office: 310-781-7171

March 21 Lecture - The Taste of Rice in Korean Cuisine. The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History presents "The Taste of Rice in Korean Cuisine," a lecture by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, freelance food writer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, and author of the upcoming cookbook Eating Korean.1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Free. For more information please contact UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Tel: 310-825-4361, Email: fowlerws@arts.ucla.edu, Website: www.fowler.ucla.edu/

Last Weekend

March 14 US- JAPAN SAMURAI PARADE and Events at the JACCC Plaza. Location: the streets of Little Tokyo and JACCC Plaza- Los Angeles. See Japanese Samurai in America, 1pm- 2:30pm- Parade, 2:30- Events at the JACCC plaza.This event is FREE to the public. www.usjrf.org

Well, I did make it to this event and it was quite impressive, if not well advertised. I heard it was thrown together rather quickly, but featured a whole afternoon of performances. The samurai horsemen were fairly impressive themselves, charing in turn up and down 2^nd Street in Little Tokyo. One of these days I’ll have to make it to Santa Anita when they charge down the track there.

--------------------------------------------

LA Times: (The Times are requiring registration again, but you might as well sign up for the free on-line access to their articles. This week they may even be accessible without registration)

March 14 PASSINGS

Herbert Choy, 88; First Asian American to Serve as a Federal Judge

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-passings14.5mar14,1,2113545.story

March 14 STYLE & CULTURE

One-woman bridge

Cookie Lommel, head of the Jewish Labor Committee's Western region, wants to build coalitions among ethnic groups.

By Tom Tugend, Special to The Times

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ca-tugend14mar14,1,3963483.story

March 12 OBITUARIES

Susan Okin, 57; Viewed Political Theory Through Feminist Prism

By Elaine Woo, Times Staff Writer