Woohoo for Woo! Boo for PR Lady

This man is a legend in the film industry.

He is one of the most famous Asian directors with Hollywood leverage. He directed

Face -Off and Mission Impossible 2. He crafted the iconic image of a protagonist jumping out and shooting people with two guns-one in each hand. He is John Woo.

For a guy with such an action-packed resume, you would expect him to be a lot more slicker, harder, tougher, much like the characters in his films. Instead, in person, Woo is a very soft-spoken director with kindly eyes and a constant semi-grin. With a devout Christian upbringing, Woo hopes his films will promote messages of peace and reveal the grim truths of violence and brutality. He wants to educate the youth and help out poor countries. He's like an artsy Mother Teresa. He reminds me of a certain family member. Which one? I'll let you know when the Audrey Magazine blog entry comes out.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him at the lovely Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills last week. This was one interview where I wish lasted longer because I just had so many questions to ask him. Mainly, how he maintains his faith while working in the industry. But time and four other journalists robbed me of the answers.

When the interview ended, I asked the publicist if she would mind if I took a picture of Woo by his poster. The woman said no problem. After I snapped the shot, another journalist, a bearded, chubby white man, asked someone else to take a picture of him with Woo. Seeing that, I immediately asked the publicist if she could kindly take my picture with the director as well.

The publicist did not see the other journalist taking his picture so she said to me, "oh, you want me to take your picture with him? Like, the two of you standing next to each other? No. you can't do that. I know they do that in your country but we don't do that."

Then, she finally sees the other journalist doing EXACTLY that in THIS COUNTRY, no less. Immediately, her tone shifts. "Oh, I guess they're taking pictures. Yea, sure, I'll take it for you." She hurries over to take my camera, snapping this shot.

Everything happened so quickly I didn't even have time to digest the entire conversation until I stepped out of the hotel and into my car.

"Wait a minute, that was racist!" I thought to myself.

Then a million possible comebacks raced through my mind.

"I didn't know people in America didn't take pictures with each other."

"But this is my country."

"Whoa whoa whoa, that's pretty racist, PR lady. Stereotyping that Asian people like to take pictures with other people is kind of bigoted and narrow minded. You should really read my blog entry about that."

It's insulting that we have to face this kind of discrimination in a country we call our home. But I hope with more awareness, like this public blog post, we will face careless, idiotic remarks like that less and less.

Oh, and if you think that PR lady soured my mood, think again! I got to interview and take a picture with John Woo! God loves me.

"And We're Live..."

Would you like to hear the soothing, silky, sexy voice of yours truly for roughly one whole hour? My deliciously girly giggle? My awkward transitions? My dumb gaffs? If so, click below!





The awesome awesome new KoreAm Journal website www.iamkoream.com was even more awesome because they asked me to host the site's first-ever live chat with singer-songwriter, Big Phony.
Even though I had to miss out on a much-anticipated Owl City concert to conduct hosting duties, it was so worth it 'cause, I mean, what girl doesn't like to be serenaded to?

I swear, I'm really happy here.

See? Happy.

But in all honesty, the live chat went really well. We chatted, gave away free stuff, played some sad music, and just got to know the artist known as Big Phony a little better.
On my part, I probably should have done a little more advertising beforehand (like, ahem, on this blog maybe?) but there will be more in the future. Right? Right? Riiiiight.

Thanks for allowing me to show my stupidity all over the Internet, Michelle and KoreAm! Thanks for getting pics, Liz! Thanks for watching, you, you and YOU!

yO Check It

I'm legit, ya hear?

Thanks to Miss Adusumilli, I decided to be a bit presentable by getting these business cards made. It's amazing how much they're still used for social networking. ("You mean you can't just find me on Twitter?") You can get 250 printed for free as well on www.vistaprints.com!

Remember how we used to swap those pictures taken at photo studios and on the back we would pen, "Omg, I look so ugly! Hope you like my picture, KIT!" We should totally do that with these business cards too! Or not...

Working Girl

Mixers, socials, gatherings, and reunions nowadays bring about a slight headache for me. Why? Because of the unavoidable, "so what are you doing now?" question.

Immediate answers that pop into my head range from smart alecky ("I'm breathing, I'm holding this glass of wine, I'm wondering why your breath smells so bad.") to honest ("I am trying to find a job. Can you help me? Offer me one! Please please please! But only if it's a good one because I'm picky! And sensitive! And I want a job that will help me "find myself" and "nurture me" and it has to be fun! And it can't be 9-5! And... and...and...")

But I have found the best and most truthful answer is, "I am between projects."

It's the truth.

If I'm talking to you at a dinner party, most likely I'm not preparing questions for an interview with a famous director, or reading up on how to transfer from Blogger to Wordpress (which is coming soon!) or memorizing lines for an audition, or studying for my real estate exam. Most likely I am in between all those things. "Projects" because I get paid for some, some may lead to future employment, some are just for fun but all are for my personal growth and development.

One of these projects I had busied myself with the last two weeks have been auditions. It was surreal going back to the craft I had spent most of my childhood perfecting; headshot in hand, energetic smile, the hopes of making an immediate good first impression, the toleration of waiting, so so much waiting. During these auditions, many with kids younger than me, watching the stage moms busying themselves with making sure their (often miserable-looking) offspring look their best, act their best, fussing with makeup or hair, I thought to myself, "whoa, that was me a couple of years ago."

But it paid off! I booked my first audition and landed a role in a 2010 US Census commercial. Fame, glory, privilege, luxury, and (most importantly) riches, you are all mine for the taking! (Jk, I'm just happy to be making a little cash).

Here is how shoot day went down:

Woke up before the crack of dawn. 4:30 AM to be exact.

Arrived at the pitch dark set.
Got hair and makeup did and changed into wardrobe.
Then arrived at the actual shoot location and waited. Aspiring actors, you must know that a big part of the job is waiting. Waiting for your big break, waiting during auditions, waiting for callbacks, waiting on set. Why else do you think the biggest side job for actors are as... waiters?
A most amazing thing happened. When I was at the fitting a couple days before, I stepped out of the bathroom and spotted the backside of a girl who looked oddly like my very close high school friend, Debster. "Debbie?" I timidly called out. The girl turned around and it was indeed her! It turns out she would be a part of the commercial too! She and I are respectively playing the Korean and Chinese versions of the same character! When Debs and I were younger, we always joked that we would be famous and work on projects together. I guess the day has finally come! Hopefully, there will be more projects looming ahead.
Fancy shmancy shooting equipment.
After having filmed half of our scenes. Lunchtime rolled around. The entire day was horrible for my weight-watching (I have an upcoming photo shoot), craft food service table, you are the bane of my existence!

Lunch was especially delicious. I've had lunch on big budget blockbuster sets, cable television sets, indie film sets, but this set was the most delicious of all! Especially the bread pudding topped with vanilla bean ice cream.
We blew off all the extra sugar we inhaled during lunch by posing for silly pictures with each other. Here I am with one of the sweetest girls ever, Karen. I met Karen at the callbacks for this audition, where we both waited four hours before auditioning (I guess it paid off for the both of us?) Anyway, this girl is super-cute and has my dream job; as a Disney Channel movie surfer. I can't even be jealous of her because she is so humble and just gosh darned cool about it!
Here I am jumping for joy with my co-star, Grace. I'm so glad I got to work with such a professional, gregarious, talented chick! She is working so hard to get to where she needs to be and seems to be enjoying every moment of it. Watching her interact on set motivates me to up my ante. Plus, she's got awesome taste in music! (Jason Mraz FTW!)

Grace and I on-camera. Scary place to be.

Especially when all these people are watching you, making sure you don't screw up.

Watching very closely...

This is why they pay us the big bucks. Before the cameras started rolling...

...and Action! We're good, right? Agency information available upon request.

After an exhausting 10 hour day, I joined the rest of the working world stuck in 6PM traffic.
It felt nice to be a productive member of society again, if only for one day. :)

The Face of FUNemployment

My friend and I are talking on the phone one day, telling each other, "we have to catch up! We have to go grab dinner! We do! We do!" but we haven't (in a year!) yet. And then my friend (aka "shorty" 'cause he my homeboy and totally not because he is vertically-challenged) says, "I want to hear all about your life. It sounds so great."

Me: Err...what? In what ways?
Shorty: You know, it's outside the corporate world.
Me: You mean, like, unemployed?
Shorty: No. There are two types of unemployed. One is unemployed and the other is FUNemployed. You're the latter.

What exactly does FUNemployment look like? Let's take a look...

And so much more. Tears and laughter with mommy (and daddy) dearest. Working out parts of my body I didn't even know existed. Hurrying to my car so I can drive and listen to Ira Glass on podcast. Prayers. Prayers. Prayers. Just because I don't have a full-time job right now doesn't mean I'm going to be moping at home waiting for the days to go by. This time is here for a reason and I'm going to make damn sure I spend it well.

How would you spend your FUNemployment time? Looking for a job? That's so passe. (Joking, please hire me.)

Yup, That's Me!

The facade that I have been masquerading around as a "journalist" who's "on assignment" and "working" finally comes off as my editor sent me an email with an incredulous, "is this you?" on the subject line and this picture attached.

Obviously, I can't pretend any longer and say that I had been hard at work reporting and observing this particular wedding ceremony when it is plainly shown here that I have sipped a little too much gin and tonic at the open bar (and thus resulted in that unfortunate, "too cool for school" face) and is actually just dilly-dallying, jumping and jiving with the bride's little sis and a particular Asian acting wonder.

It would be nice to be a full-time wedding correspondent. Then I could do this all day. Sigh... I think I dream about that career more than I dream about my own actual wedding!

Ready, Set, Go!

After nearly a month and a half of being "funemployed" (and lemme tell ya, it sure was fun), I'm slowly starting to buckle up and crawl my way to my career goals.

Today, I readied my first batch of hard copied applications to be sent to four (very lucky) news stations in America. Though I've already applied to a couple stations on-line, it's always best to also mail applications in, especially when dealing with reels and what not.

Whewph, the hard copied applications took quite a bit of time to prepare! Much like cooking, you have to get all the ingredients ready, prep it, let it simmer and wait for the results.

After spending over $70 on office supplies (printer ink costs a pretty penny), I was ready for the prep. I think after awhile, the applications will be quicker to send out because I'll have adopted an assembly-line-styled system. Then, news stations all over America, watch out! I'm coming for ya!

Working...

Since quitting my job, I have been keeping myself preoccupied with an abundance of activities. Ballroom dancing (finally got my dance shoes, yay!), gym (muscles shown upon request), job hunting, chinese learning, family bonding, website-building, Jesus-learning, the list goes on and on.

The past month has taken me on some pretty interesting adventures.

I was this close to getting a job with a top-notch, He Who Must Not Be Named celebrity gossip website. I got asked to be on TV twice, once for Extra and once for a Korean Home Shopping Network, both of which I happily obliged (hey, gotta practice that anchor voice somewhere), I was almost going to tutor the child of one of the richest families in show biz (and that's... pretty rich), I have 90% of Guang Liang's beautiful song, Tong Hua memorized, and there are more projects coming but I'd rather disclose them at a later time.

Yet, none of these things brought home any bread for my family and shoes for my (imaginary) children. None of them qualified me as contributing to the society.

Oh--one did. A little. I freelanced. I freelanced as a journalist for KoreAm Journal and Audrey Magazine.

This is where I worked...

...Okay, so no. I didn't exactly work at the famous CAA building in Century City.
More like I worked in the amazing park outside the building. Nicknamed the "Savannah" by my working galpal, the savannah is by far the prettiest park this side of town (save for the Getty) and a completely zen and tranquil location to get some writing done.

I wrote about events I went to, people I spoke with, things I saw. All of which shall be published in the upcoming weeks and which I PROMISE YOU I shall upload to this blog soon. (In fact, just made an appointment to go into the office next week to get digital copies of my work so stop fidgeting impatiently already!)

But something I don't really get to write about in those articles, but which I do get to do plenty here, are what I learned from the events I went to, people I spoke with and things I saw.

what I learned:

I learned about the precarious nature of balancing being an artist and a "celebrity" from Linkin Park and Fort Minor frontman, Mike Shinoda. I had always been aware about the dangers of fame and the blurriness of mixing art with commerce but with the recent temptation of almost working for that famous celebrity blog, I almost tossed out my morals and personal beliefs just so I can receive a regular paycheck every month. Well, not tossed out exactly, but altered it drastically. That was a big NO-NO and I have Mike Shinoda (and JCrisman) to thank for reminding me that.

I also got to check out some of his awesome artwork. His exhibition Glorious Excess (Dies) runs at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, LA until early October.

I was humbled and inspired to learn of White on Rice actress Lynn Chen's battle with eating disorders. As a former fat kid, most of my life consisted of fad diets and exercise regimes, overreating and complaints about my figure. I would always distastefully joke that I didn't have enough will power to develop a eating disorder but deep down, I knew that I do have one, as small as it might be.

The fact that Chen, as opposed to other actors and actresses who make remarks like, "oh, I had anorexia, like, five years ago" or the even worse, "I eat whatever I want. I'm just naturally skinny," is so open about her battle with anorexia and bulimia and has even taken to blogging about it to combat her addictions is admirable. It also gives me hope that not everything and everyone in Hollywood is as awful as my jaded view of the business might assume.

There are more. There were weddings and cute boys and "society girls" bonding time and oh yea --the realization that as amazing, free-ing and nourished I feel when I write and report, I don't think I could ever become a professional/full-time freelancer.

I would write for free if I could afford to but my parents don't really dig the idea of their college grad eldest daughter lounging around in pajamas, laptop permanently attached to her wrists.

So let's wait and see what else is in store for me...

Thanks Liz for the Shinoda and Chen snapshots!