By Anne Lee and Queenie Pang

MTV unsheaths its global sword, Kayo Hatta passes away, Grace Lee honored at Asian-American International Festival, Tsunami Song perpetrator gets second chance, and much, much more in this edition of News Bites.

MTV launches first MTV World channel

On July 12th, DIRECTV helped MTV launch their first world channel, MTV Desi, targeting South Asian American audiences. Programming includes both original shows from the U.S., as well as titles from MTV India. General manager and senior VP of MTV World, Nusrat Durrani, states, “MTV Desi will be a platform for artists from these communities as well as those who want to reach it, and bring fresh new influences into the American pop-culture mainstream. Young South Asians in the U.S. will finally be able to see themselves on television.” The company also plans to launch MTV Chi for -- who else -- young Chinese-Americans, and MTV K for young Korean-Americans later this year. MTV Desi will be added to DIRECTV's current HindiDirect package.      

 -- Anne Lee

Picture Bride director passes away

Independent filmmaker Kayo Hatta passed away July 20th in a drowning accident at a friend's home in the San Diego area. She was 47. Hatta's Picture Bride won an audience award for best dramatic film at the 1995 Sundance film festival. Picture Bride documented the life on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations in the early 20th century. Hatta recently shot a 30-minute short titled Fishbowl. She graduated from Stanford with a bachelors degree in English and earned her masters degree in film from UCLA.

-- Anne Lee

Grace Lee wins “Emerging Director Award”

The 28th Asian-American International Film Festival wrapped up in New York City July 31st.  Presented by Asian Cinevision in association with  Asia Society and AZN television, the festival screened both shorts and features, including Grace Lee's The Grace Lee Project, for which she won the Emerging Director Award. Talmage Cooley was awarded the “Excellence in Short Filmmaking Award” for "Pol Pot's Birthday” -- which also screened at Sundance. Steve E. Mallorca's “Got Me Like” won the Michelob Light Music Video Competition, and Rik Codero's “Park, Park” won the “Best Music Video Audience Award.”       

-- Anne Lee

Picture of Katie Leung as “Cho Chang” released in Teen magazine

With the international release of the newest Harry Potter book -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- debate on Asian representation in the novel is once again sparked. Nonetheless, in the fall issue of Teen magazine, we get our first peek of Scottish-Asian actress Katie Leung as Cho Chang in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, along with a snippet of how her love of shopping helped her snag the coveted role.    -- Anne Lee

Nomo joins Yankees

The New York Yankees signed Tampa Bay Devil Rays' pitcher Kideo Nomo to a minor league contract on Wednesday July 27. 37-year-old Nomo was designated for assignment earlier in the month and released by Tampa Bay July 25. After playing at the top levels in Japan, Nomo became the first Japanese-born player to take part in the majors when he was signed to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. That same year he was awarded the title of NL Rookie of the Year by the Dodgers. Nomo holds a career record of 123-109. With four of the Yankees' starting pitchers out due to injury, Nomo's addition would mark the second time within a month that the Yankees have signed a veteran pitcher discarded by the team he began this season with in hopes of finding much-needed replacements to fill in the gaps of its lineup.

-- Queenie Pang 

piNoisepop 9

Those of us who have never heard of the term are probably wondering what is PiNoisepop 9? Sounds like another bad, cutesy screenname ... Actually, piNoisepop 9 is an all-ages Asian-American Festival which comes together once a year to promote and cobble together some of the best independent bands and artists of the Asian-American underground scene. Musicians travel from across the nation to take part in the entirely volunteer-run event. This year, the festival, which is set to take place on August 25-27 at Bindlestiff Studio and the SomArts Cultural Center in San Francisco, was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. With its mission to provide an affordable yet quality performing arts venue and its endeavor to educate the public of Filipino-American culture and the arts, Bindlestiff Studio is the only independent Filipino-American theater space in the nation. Tickets for the event range from $7.00 to $10.00 depending on the location where it is held. Musicians on the roster include locals of Southern California like David Wong of Corona, A Grand Social Club of Long Beach, La Meu Le Purr of Ventura, and Ninja Academy of Rosemead.

For more information go to http://www.pinoisepop.com/

-- Queenie Pang

Wild 94.9 Hiring Causes Uproar

The hiring of a disc jockey by San Francisco radio station KYLD-FM, more popularly known as Wild 94.4, prompted the scorn of audiences across the city. DJ Rick Degaldo, fired from his last job for the use of an anti-Asian song parody, was hired by the KYLD station in July to host its morning show. The decision sent shock waves throughout the Asian community, spurring campaigns for his removal. Degaldo aired the infamous song on New York's Hot 97 in January. The song, which mocked victims of the tsunami disaster through the use of racial slurs, was a twisted parody of the '80s hit “We Are the World”. Though Degaldo and four others were fired and the New York station which they worked for donated $1 million to tsunami relief, Degaldo never personally apologized for the incident. Residents of San Francisco, aghast at the fact that such a hateful and unapologetic personality would once again be working within seven months of the episode and in a city which has long prided itself on its tolerance and diversity, are seeking to inform other minority communities of his background, hoping to reach out to such organizations as APA to prevent any reoccurrence of such an intolerable incident.     -- Queenie Pang

100th Anniversary of Filipino Immigration in Hawaii

Next year marks the centennial celebration of Filipino immigration to Hawaii.It was almost one hundred years ago that a group of 15 farm workers, known as sakada, emigrated from the Philippines to labor in sugarcane fields on the Big Island. Their struggles and perseverance paved the way for waves of immigrants which followed. Today, the population of Filipino-Americans in Hawaii is more than 275,000, second only to that of California, the home of over one million. To commemorate the sacrifice of these early Filipino immigrants and the many doors which they have opened for generations today, the Filipino Centennial Celebration Commission unveiled on July 27 plans for yearlong festivities commencing on Dec. 10. The celebration, which seeks to remind Filipinos where they came from, where they are today, and where the future may take them, includes parades, concerts, cultural exhibits, a film festival and a historical dramatization of the initial arrival of sakada in Hawaii.    -- Queenie Pang

Published: Thursday, August 4, 2005