#chris iijima

[sarahthecoat]

Daytime Revolution

if anyone here has Kanopy through your library, go on it and look up Daytime Revolution and watch it. It's a documentary made in 2024, about the week in Feb 1972 that John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted the Mike Douglas show with Mike, and brought on a lot of very interesting, YOUNG, guests from the counterculture movement, including Ralph Nader, Nabuko Miyamoto (singer/activist), Gary Schwartz (Biofeedback researcher), George Carlin, Hilary Redleaf Stillman (macrobiotic chef), Bobby Seale (Black Panthers), Jerry Rubin (Youth International Party), Chuck Berry (one of John's R&R idols, this bit is <3<3<3), David Rosenboom (avant garde musician), Vivian Reed (amazing voice!!). Also commentary by Ernie di Massa, who was a young producer on the show at the time. SO MUCH APPLICABILITY. there are clips of what was in the news at the time as well, so you have some context. I'm halfway through a re watch, will have to finish up in the morning. wow.

I would have been in school when this aired, so I didn't see it back then, but I remember several of the names, and a lot of the news. It's absolutely brilliant that this documentary was made, and is now available on kanopy.

[honghongyue]

In MDZS (and much of other Chinese media), we see our main characters use instruments as a way to advance the story. While the use of instruments, especially in xianxias, stems from Taoist and traditional spiritual beliefs, the presence of instruments as a method of change is a very significant phenomenon in Asian diasporas. Like how chengqing became a symbol for the yiling laozu’s defiant presence, Asian American diasporas have used music as a way to initiate communal change.

Because of this, I wanted to start a short blog series exploring different musical movements used in Asian diaspora history !! Music, culture, and politics are huge interests of mine so… hehe.

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1– A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle of Asians in America

Released 1970’s in response to the decade’s ongoing Asian American Movement

One of the most prominent examples of Asian American musical movements and recognized as the first album of “Asian American music,” Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and William “Charlie” Chin created songs to demonstrate the struggles of Asian Americans at the time. From songs like We are the Children, which explained the artists’ ancestry and “othered” identities in America, and Yellow Pearl, a reference to the Yellow Peril and societal oppression, the album challenged Asian American oppression and vocalized emotional struggles faced by diasporas throughout the nation.

Musically, traditional instruments (like the oh-so-familiar dizi!) were occasionally woven into an American, jazz-and-folk style of song.

In addition to connecting to their own culture, these artists used their music as a way to protest against war and advocate for ethnic studies. In pan-asian ethnic enclaves (ie. Chinatowns), they organized in support of locals, small businesses, and established art workshops and social service centers. They went on to inspire other artists through live performances, such as filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura, and each artist would go on to establish their own projects. For Miyamoto, it would be the Great Leap Inc., a community performance organization in Los Angeles. For Chin, it would be New York’s Chinatown History Project, which would become the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. And for Iijima, he would go on to become a lawyer for Native Hawaiian rights.

[vickihuang]

a song for ourselves 

[amer-ainu]

In 1973, three young activists in New York City recorded A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America. Singing of their direct lineage to immigrant workers as well as their affinity with freedom fighters everywhere, Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and William “Charlie” Chin recorded the experiences of the first generation to identify with the term and concept Asian American—a pan-ethnic association formulated upon a shared history of discrimination. They sought a connection to their cultural heritage; to claim their historical presence in the United States; to resist their marginalization; and to mobilize solidarity across class, ethnic, racial, and national differences. Music provided a powerful means for expressing their aspiration to reshape a society reeling from a prolonged war, ongoing struggles against racial inequity, and revelations of the Watergate cover-up. As writer and activist Phil Tajitsu Nash would state many decades later, A Grain of Sand was “more than just grooves on a piece of vinyl,” it was “the soundtrack for the political and personal awareness taking place in their lives.” Equal parts political manifesto, collaborative art project, and organizing tool, it is widely recognized as the first album of Asian American music.

A Grain of Sand was produced by Paredon Records. Over the course of 15 years, Paredon founders Irwin Silber and Barbara Dane amassed a catalog of 50 titles reflecting their commitment to the music of peace and social justice movements. In 1991, to ensure its ongoing accessibility, Silber and Dane donated the Paredon catalog to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, through which these recordings and their original liner notes remain available to the public.

THE MUSIC While the message of the album was by no means mainstream, the music through which Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie expressed their political and social convictions was reflective of the popular genres of the period. The 12 songs on A Grain of Sand were shaped by the American folk music revival, blues, soul, and jazz. For instance, “The Wandering Chinaman” is in the form of a traditional ballad. “We Are the Children” is more of a folk-rock anthem. “Divide and Conquer” and “Free the Land,” with their bass and percussion lines, are driven by a soul groove. “Something About Me Today” and “War of the Flea,” are instrumentally stark, emphasizing Nobuko’s voice against the counterpoint of Chris and Charlie’s guitar lines. All of their songs are notably written in the first person and directly encourage the listener to action: “Hold the banner high...”; “Will you answer...”; “Take a stand....”

Intending to take their music on the road, they kept their instrumentation simple—two guitars and three voices. For the album and in some performances, they were backed by conga and bass, and other instruments such as the di zi, a Chinese transverse flute that Charlie played.

A Grain of Sand was mostly compiled over a two-day period from first or second takes. Charlie compares their 4-track recording process to more technically sophisticated commercial productions as the difference between “a folding chair and a Maserati.” And perhaps because of these conditions, the recording is animated by the spontaneity and energy of a live performance. Arlan Huang, who created the artwork for the album jacket, remembers, “It was fresh as can be. There was nothing else like it. The power of their lyrics was aimed at people like me. They were saying things that I had thought about but hadn’t put into words or painting. And they were GOOD. It wasn’t like seeing your buddies at the neighborhood hootenanny strumming a guitar. Nobuko could actually sing.”

THE ARTISTS Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie, who were in their twenties and thirties in the early 1970s, arrived at their collaboration via routes that reflect the legacies of migration and exclusion.

Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto (b. 1939). Nobuko’s mother was born in the United States, the daughter of Japanese immigrants; her father was the son of a Japanese immigrant father and a White Mormon mother from Idaho. The family was living in Los Angeles when World War II broke out and all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their communities. To get his family out of the Santa Anita racetrack where they were initially confined, Nobuko’s father volunteered to harvest sugar beets in Montana. From there the family moved to Idaho and then to Utah before they were allowed to return to Los Angeles after the war. Despite this instability, Nobuko was encouraged by both parents in her study of music and dance. By the 1960s, she had been a scholarship student at the American School of Dance in Hollywood; performed with Alicia Alonso’s ballet company; and performed in the original Broadway production of Flower Drum Song, as well as in the film adaptation of West Side Story, where she was cast as one of Maria’s Puerto Rican dress-shop companions. She had also discovered the limitations of being an Asian in the mainstream entertainment industry. In 1968, she helped Italian filmmaker Antonello Branca to document the Black Panther Party for his film Seize the Time. Through this project, she met Yuri Kochiyama, a Harlem community activist and friend of the late Malcolm X, who subsequently introduced Nobuko to civil rights organizing in the local Asian and African American communities.

Chris Kando Iijima (1948–2005). Both of Chris’s parents, Americans of Japanese ancestry, were originally from California but raised their family in New York City, where they resettled after their World War II incarceration. Their example and consciousness significantly contributed to A Grain of Sand. Chris’s father was a musician and choirmaster, who took his children to the 1963 March on Washington. His mother—inspired by the educational and cultural activities integral to the Black Power movement—co-founded the organization Asian Americans for Action (Triple A) in 1969 to instill the same kind of pride in local Asian American youth. Chris attended the High School of Music and Art in Harlem, where he studied French horn, though he also played guitar.

Chris and Nobuko met in Triple A; and they wrote their first song and performed together in 1969 at a conference of the Japanese American Citizens League, where they joined other young people in urging the organization to oppose the war in Vietnam. Nobuko recalls, “We sang a song that was the collective expression of our Asian brothers and sisters to stop the killing of people who looked like us. The electricity of that moment, the realization that, until then, we had never heard songs about us, set the course of my journey.” When they returned to New York, Chris and Nobuko wrote more songs and began to perform locally and in California. A year later they met Charlie Chin.

William “Charlie” Chin (b. 1944). Charlie’s father came to New York City from Toisan, China; his mother, who was of mixed Chinese, Carib, and Venezuelan ancestry, was born in New York but raised in Trinidad. Growing up in Queens, Charlie’s musical upbringing was comprised of the Trinidadian forms played by his mother’s relatives and those emanating from the American folk music revival. Inspired by Pete Seeger, Charlie took up the banjo, but he also played cuatro, auto harp, and guitar. In the late 1960s, he toured the country with Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys. After he left the group, he returned to New York, where he worked as a bartender. In 1970, he ended up backing Chris and Nobuko by chance at a performance for a conference of new Asian American community groups, student organizations, and activists at Pace College. He recalls, “I’m at the conference, and all the things they are talking about—Asian Americans, how history impacts us, how we have been apologetic about being Asian. And there’s been this hanging question for me, ever since I had taught Appalachian 5-string banjo at a folk music camp, ‘Where is my history? Where is my culture?’ So I go on with them. And I��m listening—I have never heard this stuff before. This is amazing. So the first time I ever hear them play, I’m playing with them.”

For the next three years, the trio performed at Buddhist temples, churches, colleges, community centers, coffeehouses, rallies, prisons, and parks in New York and across the country. “We became like griots,” Nobuko says, “Moving like troubadours from community to community—we’d say, ‘This is what is going on in New York…and we have this Chinatown health program going on,’ and we would carry this news to Sacramento and L.A. and Stockton and San Francisco. And then we’d gather stories from there and carry it back to New York. We were like the YouTube of the times—spreading the news.”

THE MOVEMENT Coming of age during the civil rights and anti-war movements, the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants unleashed a whirlwind of grassroots activism beginning in the late 1960s. Around the country, they protested the war. They demanded ethnic studies curricula. They organized against urban renewal projects that displaced the residents of old Chinatowns and Japantowns. They formed literary workshops, art collectives, and social service centers. A Grain of Sand was a direct extension of Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie’s collaboration in the Asian American Movement.

One important community that provided support and inspiration for A Grain of Sand was Basement Workshop, an Asian American collective in New York’s Chinatown. Formed in 1970, they ran a creative arts program, a resource center for community documentation, and a youth employment program; produced a magazine; and offered language and citizenship classes. In 1971, Basement Workshop undertook a project to illustrate and publish the music of Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie. Titled Yellow Pearl, after one of their songs, it grew into a larger compilation of writing, art, and music. Public artist Tomie Arai emphasizes the importance of Basement and A Grain of Sand during this period: “You have to understand. There wasn’t anything at all out there. There was no music. No published poetry, music, recordings. Nothing. It was through Basement that people began to refer to themselves as artists. I didn’t know any artists. I wanted to be one—but I didn’t know what that meant.”

Fay Chiang, who served as director of Basement for 12 years, recalls that for their programs and direct actions, they also looked to the examples of other communities: “We were influenced by what was happening in the Black and Puerto Rican communities. Why not us? Who are we? It was very basic: Who are we? There was a hunger, a need to figure that out, where we felt like it was a matter life and death. The second and third generation Japanese Americans had come from the camps—and this feeling of not belonging in the society, racism, and displacement was visceral.”

Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie’s association with activists in other communities was reflected in their music. For example, “Somos Asiaticos” was inspired by their involvement with squatters’ organizations Operation Move In and El Comité. These activists opened a coffee shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Dot, which was regularly visited by singers, performers, and poets from Cuba, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The Asian Americans who had taken over a storefront for a drop-in center down the street also congregated here. Nobuko recalled, “We were all there—artists and poets—listening to and influencing each other. We had a whole set, five songs, that we did in Spanish. One year, I think it was 1973–1974, we did more gigs for Latino groups than for Asian groups.” In fact, their first recording was done for a Puerto Rican company, Discos Coqui. Invited by two Puerto Rican Movement singers, Pepe y Flora, they recorded “Venceremos” and “Somos Asiaticos,” which were released as a 45 disc in Puerto Rico. Later, they were invited to perform at Madison Square Garden for Puerto Rican Liberation Day.

“Free the Land,” another song on A Grain of Sand, was written by Chris for the Republic of New Africa. This organization, established by a group of Malcolm X’s associates after his 1965 assassination, was the first group to call for slavery reparations—in particular in the form of an all-Black homeland in the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Atallah Muhammad Ayubbi and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, both Republic of New Africa members, performed on A Grain of Sand. Atallah worked in the Black and Puerto Rican communities in the Bronx where he grew up. He was also a conguero and sometimes accompanied the group in live performances. Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who is the godfather of Nobuko and Atallah’s son, provided background vocals on the album. He often played the album at home, and his stepson, the late rapper Tupac Shakur, grew up listening and singing along to it.

Of this time in the early 1970s, Nobuko recalls, “It was like jumping into the pool of revolution…. Every day there was organizing going on at many different levels. It was powerful. You see something wrong, you have an idea how to fix it, you put it into practice.” And about this period living on the Upper West Side, she says, “that was the first time I ever felt like I was part of a community. You would walk down the street and see people you knew, and they would ask if you were going to be at such-and-such event and could you bring food or perform. It was a dynamic moment. We were crossing borderlines, and the music helped us to do that.”

THE LEGACY The intensity of purpose and activity during this period succeed in reshaping academic, cultural, and political institutions. It also gave rise to ideological conflicts and violence that sometimes destabilized organizations and efforts. For instance, Basement Workshop was shaken internally by the accusations and criticisms of members of the Communist Workers Party. And several months after A Grain of Sand was recorded, Atallah was killed in an ambush at a Brooklyn mosque.

Charlie remembers, “We were all moving so rapidly…. Everyone believed that things could be changed if you worked on it. We in our very young innocence thought that there actually would be a revolution in this country. I assured people it would happen. And when it didn’t, I felt bad: ‘Sorry, man’, ‘Sorry, dude.’”

By late 1973 when A Grain of Sand was released, Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie were beginning to hone their sense of purpose in ways that drew them in different directions. And the album marks, in effect, one of the group’s final collective efforts, though each in their own way continued the work they had started together.

Nobuko returned to southern California. In 1978, she established the organization Great Leap, Inc., through which she initiates multicultural community performing arts collaborations in Los Angeles, as well as nationally and internationally. She continues to perform, lecture, and provide workshops based on her new music as well as on reinterpretations of the songs from A Grain of Sand. In recent years her residencies and special projects have focused on facilitating dialog across spiritual differences and on environmental issues. Active in the Senshin Buddhist Temple, she has composed music and dances that are now a regular part of the annual Buddhist observance of obon (Festival of Lanterns) in temples from California’s Central Valley to San Diego and nationally.

Charlie focused his attention in New York’s Chinatown, becoming involved in the Chinatown History Project, which became the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. He later apprenticed to a master Chinese storyteller, learning the traditional teahouse style, which he has adapted and continues to perform throughout the country. In 1991, he moved to northern California, and he now works for the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco, driven by the conviction that “we know that people can be whipped into hysteria and xenophobia—we’ve seen it happen before, and it could happen again. And the only thing you can do is be vigilant and educate, educate, educate.”

Chris directed his energies to New York’s Upper West Side, where he had grown up. After 10 years of classroom teaching at Manhattan Country School, he studied and practiced law, and later became a professor in Hawai`i, where he fought for Native Hawaiian rights and mentored a generation of social justice–minded law students. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 57.

In the years just before Chris’s passing, Tadashi Nakamura, a young fourth-generation Japanese American filmmaker, began producing a documentary about him, A Song for Ourselves: A Personal Journey into the Life and Music of Asian American Movement Troubadour Chris Iijima. His film is an inspiring and melancholy portrait of Chris, covering his participation in A Grain of Sand, his reflection on his life as he confronted terminal illness, and the impact he had on others. For the film’s premiere in 2009, Nakamura invited Nobuko and Charlie to perform—and he also enlisted several young hip-hop artists. He explains: “Grain of Sand paved the way for many progressive Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders [API] to not only become musicians but cultural workers—artists who use their creativity to further a political movement. I feel very much a part of a present-day movement of API artists that are trying to document, articulate, and tell the stories of their people through their work. A talented new set of artists—such as Geologic and Sabzi of Blue Scholars, Kiwi, Bambu and DJ Phatrick—are creating the soundtrack to my generation’s movement. They are continuing the work that Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie started back in the 1960s. So when I premiered my film, I invited them to perform. I wanted to show that the legacy of A Grain of Sand is very much alive today.”

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

Imperialism Is Another Word for Hunger · Chris Iijima, Nobukoo Miyamoto & Charlie Chin

[bacteriaseas]

top 10 songs i'm currently obsessed with

I was tagged by @skatalite

- Roisin Murphy - “We Got Together”

- Mari Iijima - “My Best Friend”

- Sun Ra - “Bassism”

- Mylene Farmer - “Psychiatric (New Beat Version)”

- Omni Trio - “Renegade Snares”

- MC Yallah x Debmaster - “Dunia”

- Slapp Happy/Anthony Moore - “Johnny’s Dead”

- Chris Korda - “Victim of Leisure”

- Steely Dan - “Brown Cow”

- Icy Spicy Leoncie - “Sex Crazy Cop”

It’s too hard to keep track of who still uses this site, so if we’re mutuals consider yourself tagged

[18mr]

"A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America" is considered to be the 1st album of Asian American music ever produced. 

The album was recorded in 1973 by activists Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and William “Charlie” Chin. Their songs encouraged political resistance to racial oppression and claimed a cultural legacy as Asian Americans. 

A Grain of Sand was inspired Chris, Nobuko and Charlie's work within the Asian American Movement as well Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements in NYC. Political prisoner, Mutulu Shakur, can even be heard performing on the album. 

Learn more about A Grain of Sand, the lives of Chris, Nobuko, and Charlie, and their impacts on radical history here.

[historyhermann]

Why "Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story" Is a Must-See Anime

Eve is an underground golfer who competes to support street orphans, using her skills to destroy the spirits of her opponents. One day she meets her match, a Japanese girl who is just as skilled as her... and the match is on!

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the thirty-seventh article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on May 14, 2022.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is sports anime directed by Takayuki Inagaki. It centers on Eve, a girl who golfs illegally to raise money for three orphans, in a European county, Nafres, and the rich Japanese girl who matches her skill and determination to a tee.

As a warning, this recommendation discusses spoilers for the first six episodes of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story.

Eve and her friend Lily outside of their residence in the slums

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is much more than a common sports anime story. The latter is very popular. Some consider it an "outstanding" subgenre within shonen. Fans cheer for specific teams and become entranced in the plays of their favorite characters.

Eve (voiced by Kito Akari) is a scrappy, spunky teenager. She often works alongside her friend and caddy, Lily Lipmann (voiced by Akira Sekine). Eve uses her masterful golf skills to earn money through underground golf games. She strives to ensure that she, Lily, Klein Clara (voiced by Kinoshita Sayaka), Lily's sister, and Klein's three adopted children can continue living in their hovel in the slums.

This all changes when she meets Aoi Tenwa (voiced by Asami Seto). Aoi is a Japanese girl who likes playing golf for pleasure rather than for money. She is immediately impressed by Eve's golf drives and challenges her to a game. Their talents collide. Eve, nicknamed the "Rainbow Bullet", uses her skills to face off against Aoi, learning the pleasure behind golf itself.

Mafia bosses Catherine, Rose Alleon, and Nicholas, have dynamic personalities. The same is the case for Aoi's caddy and adviser, Amane Shoijo and Rose's right-hand woman, Anri. Aoi's mother, and CEO of Tenwashi Group, has a strong personality as well. The famous underground golfer, Vipère, also known as the "Grim Reaper", and junior golf champion Helene Robert leave a lasting impression.

The series also features characters such as Eve's former golf "master", Leo Millafoden, wanna-be professional caddy at Raijin Girls' Academy, Ichina Saotome, Raijin Girls' Academy adviser Reiya Amuro, and hard-working golfer at Raijin Girls' Academy, Kinue Jinguji. Skilled voice actors such as Shuichi Ikeda, Saki Fujita, Toru Furuya, and Nakahara Mai voiced these characters.

Also appearing in the series is golf ace Mizuho Himekawa, a golfer who works with Mizuho at Nadanan Sports Girls' Academy, Kaede Oikawa, a high-ranked golfer at Kaoran Girls' High School, Kaoruko Iijima, Kaoruko's golfing pair, Kuyou Iseshiba, a skilled golfer at Raijin Girls' Academy, Haruka Misono, an injured golfer named Chris Christie and Aoi's father, Kazuhiko Hodaka. Yukari Tamura, Yuu Kobayashi, M ・ A ・ O, Satomi Arai, and Kiyoko Yonekura voice these characters.

The series theme song, composed and written by Kohmi Hirose, and arranged by Suketo Makusu, is full of energy. It makes you excited about watching each episode. Hirose, on the show's official website, said that she arranged the song with "raw strings" and that she sang it with all her heart, hoping to give "more momentum" to the series.

Unlike other anime, diversity is central to Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story. In fact, a scene in the theme song hints that a Black female golfer, whose character has not been introduced yet, will appear in a future episode.

That is unique because anime and Black characters have a "sketchy past". Even with some amazing Black characters in the past, Black characters are "a little under-represented" in anime.

Although their names and voices are not yet known, Klein reveals, in the show's sixth episode, that her three adopted children, orphans who she took in, will be deported if she, Lily, and Eve are evicted from their home. The complexions of these cute orphans are shades of light to darker brown, implying they could be from countries in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.

Even though the orphans seem to bond more with Lily, than with Eve, they don't ignore Eve. In fact, in one episode, Eve misses her match with Aoi, due to a late-night match with Vipère (voiced by Kaori Nazuka), a golfer contracted by Mafia boss Nicholas.

The orphans approach her in a childlike way, getting her out of her funk and pushing her to not wallow in her sorrow. This leads her to begin a virtual reality golf game later in the episode.

At the end of the fifth episode, and a major plot point in the sixth episode, is the issue of "urban renewal" and corrupt politicians. The former indicates racial injustices which are part and parcel of the system.

The neighborhood where Eve and her friends live is hinted to be a "dangerous" place, with shootings, corruption, and a presumed thriving black market. Even so, this is portrayed as a cold, hard reality, as part of a system imposed upon them.

There is more than political bribes, assassinations, and a Mafia-backed "redevelopment" plan in Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story. This show's off-the-wall logic and over-the-top melodrama come to the fore with the scheduled demolition of Eve's home. It is the opening salvo of gentrification, necessitating evictions and the destruction of residences. In their place will be a casino and the "necessary" accouterments.

There is debate on whether gentrification is a "process of change" creating conflict between new arrivals to a neighborhood and long-time residents or a process in which an influx of middle-class or wealthy people stream into a poor area of a city, rebuilding and renovating businesses and houses, often displacing the poorer residents. In any case, if the development plan is successful, the slum will be turned, over time, into an "upper-middle-class playground".

Although some episodes of City of Ghosts, an all-aged animated series, talk about gentrification in San Francisco, this anime is different. It smacks you in the face with its focus on inequality, immigration, deportation, and political corruption. This anime makes clear that some, like Mafia bosses, will do anything to get what they want, rigging and manipulating the political system for their benefit.

With Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story, you can't ignore, look away, or push off these themes as something that only exists in a fantasy world. They are something that the characters have to confront. After all, Eve's determination to face Aoi in another match resulted in Catherine (voiced by Umeka Shoji) using underhanded methods to get her into the U15 Women's World Championship.

This led Eve to unknowingly trigger the Mafia-backed slum redevelopment plan. The area, including the hovel where she, Lily, Klein, and Klein's three adopted children, is being demolished, along with other illegal shops, as part of a racially tinged "urban renewal" plan.

This makes her feel guilty and furious with herself, and with Rose (voiced by Toa Yukinari). After training with Vipère, who has become her friend-of-sorts, she sides against Catherine and Rose. She plays on behalf of another Mafia boss, Nicholas, and against Rose, her former mentor.

Future episodes of the series, with a possible 12-episode order, will shine a light on this subject. It is a topic that I've never seen any other anime focus on. It is something that Western animation would shy away from, wanting to be "kid-friendly" and appeal to network executives.

Aoi and Eve together in a virtual reality golf game both in costumes

The official site of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story declaresthat this is the "first original anime series" which focuses on women's golf. Whether that is the case or not, girls' love, i.e. yuri, is a central component in the story. In fact, Briana Lawrence's article for The Mary Sue, entitled "There’s No Heterosexual Explanation for the Golf Girl Anime" inspired me to start watching this series in the first place!

Whether or not Eve or Aoi are a canon romantic couple, there are clear yuri vibes. This manifests itself in their interactions with one another. Both are excited to face each other in golf games and care about each other on some level.

From the get-go, Aoi is impressed with Eve's golf style, after she sees Helene (voiced by Minami Takahashi) walk away in defeat, complete with "Blue Bullet[s]" and other magical girl-esque golf drives. Eve is amazed at Aoi's developed golf skills. All the while, Amane (voiced by Ami Koshimizu) repeatedly fails in attempts to make Aoi "forget" Eve.

Aoi's mother (voiced by Yuko Kaida) even investigates Eve after Aoi gushes about her when returning to Japan. After it is clear that "Eve Aleon", her "official" name during the U15 Women's World Championship, is not real, she determines her to not be a threat.

She declares that since Eve is an underground golfer with ties to the Mafia, working for a crime syndicate obsessed with golf, she is not a "threat". While this going on, Eve, dressed as a catgirl, meets Aoi in a virtual reality golf game frequented by Japanese players. After Eve apologizes for missing an early morning golf game with Aoi, both play a round of virtual golf together.

Steve Jones, writing for Anime News Network, states that like any other sports anime, the rivalry Eve and Aoi have is romantic, as much as "anything else". This would be the case even if the series implies they are half-sisters like Cassandra and Rapunzel in Tangled.

Jones argued, in another review, that Eve dismisses Vipére's flirtation, declaring that Aoi's name is "already inscribed in her heart". He rightly described this as an example of a "real disaster lesbian hours". He adds that even if these romantic tropes are only a device to add more layers to the story, it "doesn't make it any less gay." I can't agree more!

The series has been received positively by fans on Twitter and elsewhere. Some have shipped Eve and Vipére, noted beautiful female characters, and said the show is amazing, and a masterpiece.

The Eve and Vipére ship has some basis in the show. Both train together for the upcoming match between Eve and her former mentor, Rose. The game, taking place in the next scheduled episode, will decide the fate of her home at a special golf course owned and operated by Catherine, a shrewd Mafia boss.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is more than "golf yuri" as Jones describes it. Rather the series is energetic, gleefully weird, and almost makes golf something that is cool and fun to watch, even if the sport itself is boring (in my opinion).

Accounts focusing on yuri anime news and anime fans have flocked to the show. Some have stated that the show has a lot of "girl bosses" and is "lesbians playing golf with mafia and explosions". Others love Eve as a character and declared that the anime is full of "hot ladies."

The three yet-to-be-named orphans of Klein are immigrants and will be deported if they are evicted from their home in the slums

You could recognize, as Jones did, that the series takes place in the Madlax cinematic universe. This could imply that the fan servicey yuri drama, Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid, and this series, are in the same universe. He argues that the writing of Yousuke Koruda has a lot to the ridiculousness of this anime, making it feel, as Jones put it "so special and stupefying."

All in all, there is no doubt that this anime is much more mature than Western animations, like The Owl House or The Ghost and Molly McGee. It has explosions, death, violence, blood, and all the rest, almost akin to Helluva Boss at some points. Even so, the orphans add a degree of cuteness to the series making you invested in the characters.

In fact, in the sixth episode of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story, Eve revealed that she has no memories of her past beyond a few years ago. She tells Vipére that she had some sort of special golf abilities, implying that she is a golf supersoldier. This could be hinting that she is a long-forgotten half-sister of Aoi. In any case, human experimentation will likely be a future theme.

Episodes in the rest of this season, and a possible second season, may tackle Eve's often-overconfidence, determination to do anything to beat her friends, and reckless golf playing. Such passionate playing got her involved in some shady dealings. It also resulted in her becoming a walking advertisement for certain products, as she was at the U15 Women's World Championship.

There may be more rigged games too. After all, during the golf tournament, Anri (voiced by Omikawa Chiaki), at the direction of Rose, pointed a laser in Aoi's eye so she would miss the shot. In another episode, Vipère used a poisonous scent to throw Eve off her game. It remains to be seen if Eve escapes the web of Mafia control.

I'm not a big sports person myself and dislike the whole sports culture. Previous sports anime I've watched, like Kandagawa Jet Girls and Tamayomi, were only mildly interesting. Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is different. I liked it a lot better than I thought I would.

Eve might travel to Japan, meet Aoi, and challenge her to a game. She might continue underground golf games and intense training with Vipére. Her shady, underground dealings may pull in her friends. Again, golf matches will continue to "solve" disputes. Although Eve has put Aoi in the back of her mind as she fights to save her home, they will cross paths again in the future.

Those who work on this series are a talented bunch. The show's director, Takayuki Inagaki, worked on Rosario + Vampire and Chio's School Road. Kuroda, the show's writer, wrote for Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and My Hero Academia. A professional golf coach named Toru Inoue and the Global Golf Media Group worked with the show's staff to make sure it accurately portrays golf games.

If Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story ever gets a dub, Black voice actors may voice some of the orphans and the Black female golfer. This would add to the growing roster of Black voice actors for anime dubs.

The series is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. The next episode, entitled "Aoi-colored Bullet", will air on May 17.

Go watch this anime!

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[boba-t-butch]

"The responsibility of being oppressed is first to survive then to resist."

Reparations and the "Model Minority" Ideology of Acquiescence by Chris K. Iijima

[sorcjapan]

☆FOR SALE☆   CHRIS KANDO IIJIMA, JOANNE NOBUKO MIYAMOTO, CHARLIE CHIN/A Grain Of Sand: Music For The Struggle By Asians In America   「詩を読む」か...というのでこの一枚も是非。サイケ感やアシッド感もあり、特に女性ヴォーカルの曲はレア盤に入ってそう！というデキです。アジアンルーツのアメリカ人によるアルバムは、もう少し「詩」も理解したいところ、という事で。   #sorc #レコード #vinyl #records #LP #黑胶唱片 #音乐 #vinyllover #vinyljunkies #vinyladdict #vinylcollector #recordsforsale #vinylforsale #recordstore #recordshop #中古レコード #名古屋 #覚王山 #レコードショップ #レコード好き #レコードが聴ける店 #音楽はスピーカーで聴こう #CHRISKANDOIIJIMA #JOANNENOBUKOMIYAMOTO #CHARLIECHIN #AGrainOfSand #MusicForTheStruggleByAsiansInAmerica (SORC 60's-70's Used Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAIEHZRpat-/?igshid=1gdxcki7eg9dy

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA/JAPAN: Akira Tana & Otonowa-Love's Radiance (Ai San San) (Vegamusic-Usa 2019)

A third offering from this group that cleverly and creatively reinvents beautiful Japanese melodies in an acoustic jazz setting.

This band tours areas of Japan still recovering from devastating Earthquakes and Tsunami's from 2011. Otonowa was founded in 2012 by four American musicians of Japanese descent in response to the Great Eastern Earthquake/Tsunami of March 2011 that devastated coastal regions of Northern Japan (Tohoku) claiming over 20,000 lives. Our mission is offered as an homage and in respect to the victims and survivors to that event. On this, our third collection of songs released on CD, we have continued to expand our interpretation of songs related to Japan, both traditional and popular, in the American jazz tradition. The songs on this CD include themes from Japanese film and television shows to traditional, folk and pop melodies that go back decades. There is also one original composition that pays tribute to a pioneer in the Asian American Movement, Chris Kando Iijima. We have made several visits to Japan, sharing our music with the people of the still rebuilding areas, letting them know that their collective and individual suffering and losses are not forgotten. We hope our music plays some small part in bringing people together and healing some of the wounds inflicted on the communities of Tohoku on March 11, 2011. Thank you, Akira Tana Tracklist: 1. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Antagata Dokosa 2. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Ai San San 3. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Hinokuni Ryojo 4. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Habu No Minato 5. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Mura Matsuri 6. Art Hirahara;Masaru Koga – Hamabe No Uta 7. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Summer 8. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Taiyo Ni Hoero 9. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Tsunagareta Tairyo-Bata 10. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Kando 11. Akira Tana;OTONOWA – Peace ON YT

via Blogger https://ift.tt/34v8N3E

[kuciradio]

MADE IN ABYSS: Journey's Dawn (Red Carpet Premiere Review) 3/16/19

If you’ve kept up at all with anime in the past 2 years, you’ve likely heard of Made in Abyss. It premiered in 2017 from Kinema Citrus, an animation studio spawned from former members of studios Production I.G. and Bones, and saw critical acclaim immediately. It drew high praise for the story’s sense of adventure, balanced pacing, and outstanding soundtrack from Australian native Kevin Penkin. This resulted in awards from streaming service Crunchyroll for Best Anime of 2017 and Best Score, not to mention countless positive words from the anime community at large.

Fast forward to 2019 and though we don’t have a sequel yet, we DO have some good news in the form of two compilation films: Journey’s Dawn and Wandering Twilight. The former, which adapts the first 8 or so episodes of the anime, recently premiered at a red carpet event at the Los Angeles Regal LA Live Theater, and yours truly was lucky enough to attend the high-profile event. Director Masayuki Kojima, producer Shimpei Yamashita, music producer Hiromitsu Iijima, and composer Kevin Penkin all held a brief Q&A after the screening to give some insight into the film’s development: a rare treat for the sold out crowd.

As for the movie itself,I feel that this compilation is generally a good adaptation with some (understandable) stumbling points. The beginning of the film has slight pacing issues, and throws terms, phrases, and character names around in a way that may make it difficult for newcomers to the series to fully grasp. In time this is sorted out, as more exposure and exposition clears up what the whistles signify, what the Layers are, and other such points of confusion. There are a few moments when the animation quality degrades a bit on the big screen, but beyond that, creator Akihito Tsukushi’s artistic style translates as well as can be. The soundtrack by Kevin Penkin works just as effectively as it does in the anime, and hearing those gorgeous compositions on movie theater mega speakers only strengthens their emotional impact. And of course the story of Riko and Reg’s one-way journey down the Abyss is as captivating as it ever has been.

My biggest qualm with the film is that, by nature of being an anime compilation film, it is exceedingly difficult to construct a three act movie. In particular, the climax of the film happens well before the credits roll, meaning all the events afterwards have significantly less tension or impact.

That said, all in all, I of course loved my time spent in the Abyss. However, I can’t see this film as being a strong standalone. The following film, Wandering Twilight, was released only two weeks after Journey’s Dawn premiered in Japan. This shows how closely entwined the two parts of the anime are, and watching that second movie will certainly add plenty of levity to the story. For now, I can give a hearty recommendation for watching MADE IN ABYSS: Journey’s Dawn, but expect to be craving more shortly afterwards.

- Chris Torrey (Marmar Tha Midboss)

[aabany-group]

A 2017 Joint Conference Announcement & Call for Papers

The Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty & The Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference

proudly present

Law, Intersectionality, and the Next Wave of Social Movements in the Trump Era

June 2-3, 2017

Brooklyn Law School is proud to host the joint 2017 Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty and Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.  The theme of this year’s conference is “Law, Intersectionality, and the Next Wave of Social Movements in the Trump Era.”  The conference will take place on June 2-3, 2017 at Brooklyn Law School in vibrant, diverse, trendy downtown Brooklyn, New York.

From LGBTQ rights to DREAMers to the Movement for Black Lives to new forms of labor organizing among precarious, low-wage, on-demand workers, the social movements of today are increasingly operating at the intersections of multiple communities, identities, and structural injustices.  This in turn has created a unique confluence of alliances, collaborations, and common purposes in addressing underlying structural exclusions, inequities, and imbalances of power.  Yet as the 2016 election revealed so starkly, these movements for equality and inclusion have also provoked a virulent reactionary populism and counter-reaction.  

What are the opportunities, challenges, and implications of these 21st century movements?  As scholars and activists, what role can we play in forging new alliances and strengthening existing ones, advancing the goals of these social movements, and furthering longer-term political and social power? How do we encourage even more conversation between scholars and activists to effect real change? How do we ensure that these new alliances among multiple communities advance common goals without obscuring real differences? And how should we understand and gird ourselves against the various forms of counter-reactions, including counter-reactions based on the fear of a majority-minority America?  These are just some of the questions this conference hopes to address.

CALL FOR GROUP PANELS AND INDIVIDUAL PAPERS

GROUP PANEL PROPOSALS: We encourage the submission of group panel proposals relating to this year’s theme, “Law, Intersectionality, and the Next Wave of Social Movements in the Trump Era.”  A group panel would consist of 3-4 panelists.  We are especially interested in proposed group panels that feature both legal scholars as well as activists and/or scholars from other disciplines.  Panels might address questions such as (but not limited to):

How are current social movements challenging long-standing inequities? What are the opportunities, difficulties, and implications of these 21st century movements?

How have these movements (successfully or unsuccessfully) built longer-term political and social power?

How might we situate these movements in context of current law, courts, and political institutions?  

Are these 21st century movements different from previous waves in American history? Or are they better understood in a historical tradition of racial, social, gender justice?

How should we understand the various forms of counter-reaction against these movements and the broader vision of a majority-minority America?

If you are interested in proposing a group panel along these lines, please email Professor Sabeel Rahman at sabeel.rahman@brooklaw.edu with a description of your group panel, including the names of the panelists you have enlisted, by February 28, 2017. Please write “CAPALF-NEPOC Group Panel Proposal” in the subject line of your email.

INDIVIDUAL PAPER PROPOSALS: We are also interested in individual presentations and papers.  These presentations may be on any topic, i.e., they need not be on the theme of the conference.  That said, depending on the number of individual paper proposals we receive, preference may be given to papers that are more closely tied to the theme of the conference.  After reviewing the individual paper proposals, the conference organizers will group the individual papers into panels based on subject matter.  If you are interested in presenting an individual paper, please email Professor Bennett Capers at bennett.capers@brooklaw.edu with a description of your paper by February 28, 2017.  Please write “CAPALF-NEPOC Individual Paper Proposal” in the subject line of your email.

CALL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

CAPALF and NEPOC support and nurture the careers of law professors at every stage.  Your proposal for a workshop can involve one or multiple presenters or organizers.  Please list all names in the proposal.

If you are interested in proposing and leading a professional development workshop, please email Professor Sudha Setty at ssetty@law.wne.edu by February 28, 2017. Please write “CAPALF-NEPOC Professional Development Workshop” in the subject line of your email.

CALL FOR WORKS IN PROGRESS

Works in progress are sessions devoted to giving authors helpful feedback on their writing projects in a safe and supportive setting.  The topic of your work in progress can be about any topic and does not have to relate to the conference theme.  If you are interested in presenting a work in progress, please submit a 1 to 2 page abstract and/or a draft to Professor Deseriee Kennedy at dkennedy@tourolaw.edu by February 28, 2017.  Please write “CAPALF-NEPOC WIP Submission” in the subject line of your email.

If you are interested in serving as a Lead Commentator for a work in progress, please also email Professor Deseriee Kennedy at dkennedy@tourolaw.edu by February 28, 2017 and state your areas of expertise.  Please write “CAPALF-NEPOC Volunteer Commentator” in the subject line of your email.

CALL FOR AWARD NOMINATIONS

Each year CAPALF and NEPOC recognize the achievements of outstanding teachers-scholars-activists of color in the legal academy.  Last year the Haywood Burns-Shanara Gilbert award went to the Northeast Corridor Collective of Black Women Law Professors.  Please consider nominating someone(s) for the following awards:

Haywood Burns-Shanara Gilbert Award for Outstanding Activist – Teacher - Scholar

Professor Keith Aoki Asian Pacific American Jurisprudence Award

Professor Chris Kando Iijima Teacher and Mentor Award

Professor Eric K. Yamamoto Emerging Scholar Award

Please submit your nomination to Professor Elaine Chiu at chiue1@stjohns.edu by February 28, 2017.  Be sure to include a brief supporting statement and to write “CAPALF-NEPOC Award Nomination” in the subject line of your email.

PROGRAMMING FOR NEW AND ASPIRING LAW PROFESSORS

This year, we hope to include some programming specifically targeted to new and aspiring law professors, including the opportunity for aspiring law professors to do mock job talks.  So please share this announcement with new and aspiring law professors!

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

Yellow Pearl · Chris Kando Iijima, Joanne Nobuko Miyamoto, "Charlie" Chin