Life

Superstar! You Know You Want It!—Be Seen Onscreen with JET LI in the film "ROGUE"

Picture it: that nightclub scene in the Jet Li film Romeo Must Die. Don’t feign innocence, you know which scene this refers to. Lucky the theatre was dark, no?

Don't be expecting a reenactment of the scene, but how about some rip-roaring fun on the movie-extras circuit by taking part in yet another Vancouver-filmed Jet Li movie, this one called Rogue? It has Jet Li playing an assassin (wow, that’s a stretch) who has caused a bloody crime war between rival Asian gangs. The production is currently SEEKING EXTRAS OF ASIAN DESCENT FOR A NIGHT-CLUB SCENE on APRIL 4th for a 10-14 hours long shoot.

Now, this is no ordinary night club scene; nah, the set is supposed to resemble “a high-end Japanese night club”. And they don’t want you to dress up all Harajuku Girl either. Men must wear “hip, high-end suits” or leather jackets in a “biker mob sort of look”. Girls must be “hot-looking, but sophisticated—not cheap looking,” in heels, mini skirts, hair & makeup ready, and “things must be tight, hip.”

They’re looking for many, many, many extras to fill up the club, so even if your conscious is saying “noooooo,” let yourself slip this once…after all, for a spot of fun it pays $10/hr with overtime…and, oh, what’s this?—“We do have some specific spots for really attractive guys/gals with good wardrobe that pays $20.36/hr.”

You know you wanna do it! If you’re interested, email ALICIA SCOTT @ aliciascott@shaw.ca. In the subject line you must state your name, number and write CONFIRMED!

More:
For the official website of ROGUE, which has more info about the extras casting, click here.

Life

Shalom! It’s the 18th Vancouver Jewish Film Festival

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get mad, you’ll grow some brain cells and learn...who wouldn't after seeing the list of films and documentaries featured at this year’s VANCOUVER JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL which kicks off March 30th through to April 9th, 2006. The lineup of award-winning films and documentaries, including ones about the festival's THEME OF PEACE, will be shown at festival venues across Vancouver, Port Moody, and Victoria.

Highlights include:

PEACE ONE DAY, the documentary of one man's attempts to persuade the global community via the United Nations to officially sanction a global ceasefire day; a day of nonviolence; a day of Peace. An individual can genuinely make a difference: The UN International Day of Peace is now fixed in the calendar every 21st of September.

SAM & ME, a Canadian film directed by Deepa Mehta (Water) which won an honourable mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, tells the story of Nikhil, a young man who comes to Canada from India who ends up working as the caretaker to Sam, an elderly Jewish man.

and

The controversial JESUS IS MAGIC, the feature-film version of comedienne Sarah Silverman’s sold-out one-woman show in New York and LA. Nothing is sacred or against the rules in Silverman's sharp, frequently shocking but always astute comedic oeuvre as she touches on ethnicity, sexuality and race as well as AIDS, the Holocaust and the events of September 11th.

More
For ticket info, film schedules, and more, check out the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival website, here.

Life

So You Think You’re the Next Justin Lin? - The Vancouver Asian Film Festival Calls for Entries

If you know the difference between 35mm, 16mm, and Beta SP exhibition formats, you’re probably itching to showcase your film masterpiece somewhere other than on myspace.com. THE VANCOUVER ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL (VAFF) is inviting submissions for its 10th anniversary festival, November 1-5, 2006. Get your butt on it, since the early deadline is April 30th; with a final deadline by May 31st.

The VAFF is a great venue, considering its Canada’s oldest festival dedicated to exhibiting films and videos by North American artists of Asian heritage, especially those who represent the “often ignored North American Asians caught between two cultures.”

So, whether your genre is narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, or music video style, VAFF will take a peek at your stuff…er, as long as you fulfill the following requirement: All films must include a North American Asian in a key creative role.

More
For submission guidelines, entry forms, and fee requirements, visit the VAFF website here.

GOOD LUCK!

Life

Move Over Matcha — Babaocha (8 Treasure Tea) Could Be the Next Big Tea

We’ve all heard the number 8 is considered lucky in the Chinese culture, so we can unscientifically conclude that anything associated with the number 8 is a good thing. Not to purposely quote Martha, but BABAOCHA (八宝茶) or Eight Treasure Tea is definitely a good thing.

Served in a gaiwan (porcelain cup with lid), BABAOCHA actually has eight little treasures inside: the base of either jasmine or chrysanthemum tea (tea leaves=highest offering), sweetened with rock sugar, and infused with 6 items from the following list (depending on the region): sesame, wolfberry (strength), raisin (abundance), walnut, dried persimmon, longan flesh (longevity), red jujube/dates (passion), honeysuckle, medlar, heart of lotus seed, hawthorn, pine nut (patience), winter melon (sweet memory), or rose (romance).

Folklore has it that drinking BABAOCHA can clear the liver and eyes (from the after effects of all night drinking, perhaps?), and disperse chills and lower fever (ColdFX has met its match?).

But you don’t want to try BABAOCHA because it cures what ails you…nah! You want to try it because BABAOCHA is piaoliang (beautiful)! This once exclusive tea that only touched the lips of the hoity-toity set of China, can now be enjoyed by your VIP-highness at Shao Lin Noodle House at 548 West Broadway in Vancouver. Here, the tea waiter will pour your cup of BABAOCHA from that infamous long-spouted teapot while he dazzles you with his Crouching Teapot/Hidden Tea Leaves moves, such as the “spread eagle” or the “dragon asking for direction”. Don’t expect VIP treatment or even the gaiwan, but just asking the tea waiter to do the “spread eagle” for you should be payment enough, don’t you think?

More:
To buy BABAOCHA, click here.
To try out some other traditional Chinese teas with such names as “Monkey’s Pick,” “The Fragrance of My Concubine,” “Snow Over Jade Pond,” “Fireworks in Your Glass,” and “Immortal’s Tea,” visit the Moonstruck Chinese Teahouse in Coal Harbour. For their website, click here.

Life

Obrigado, Deus! : Césaria Évora - The Queen of World Music - in Concert

You wouldn’t normally think attending a concert headlined by a whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking grandmother would be that enticing…unless, of course, the grandmother in question is World Music superstar CÉSARIA ÉVORA! She of the soulful voice that “even audiences who do not understand her language [Portuguese patois] are held spellbound by the emotions evident in her performances.”

Born in the former Portuguese colonial islands of Cape Verde, off the northwest coast of Africa, CÉSARIA ÉVORA is known as both a Diva and a Queen -- but not in the Mariah or JLo tantrum way. She’s called the "Barefoot Diva" for performing shoeless in symbolic reference to her empathy for the under-privileged women of Africa; and the "Queen of Morna," for singing in the soulful Creole-Portuguese genre which expresses longing, sadness, nostalgia, and regret, tinged with the breezy island vibes of Cape Verde. CÉSARIA’s morna is typified by tearjerk lyrics like this: "walking alone/with the breaking sea/crying at our separate fates". Ouch, feel that twinge in your heart?

Now, now, it’s okay if you’ve never heard of CÉSARIA ÉVORA — Cize to her friends. All you have to do is get chummy with Cize in a hurry by catching her heartfelt emotional voice in concert at The Orpheum Theatre on Sunday, March 26th at 8:00pm, sponsored by the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society .

For a taste of CÉSARIA ÉVORA’s beautiful, haunting music, click on the following samplings:
Listen to a sample of PETIT PAYS
Listen to a sample of MISS PERFUMADO
Listen to a sample of CARNAVAL DE SAO VICENTE (upbeat)
Listen to a sample of FALA PA FALA (Remix).

CÉSARIA ÉVORA in CONCERT
March 26, 2006
Orpheum Theatre
8:00PM
Tix: $55/50/45 (plus service charge)
Info: 604-872-5200

More:
For tix, click here or here
For Césaria Évora’s bio, click here or here

Life

Domo Arigatou, Mr. Sushi Samurai – An Online Game to Satisfy Any Sushi Connoisseur

With a tagline like “Honour is Your Appetizer”--(Ken Watanabe, watch out!)--SUSHI SAMURAI is as addictive as...well, as very fresh sushi can be. Oh, hamachi, anyone? SUSHI SAMURAI IS THE PERFECT ONLINE GAME, albeit for kids (don’t let it phase you), TO APPEASE YOUR SUSHI CRAVINGS when you’re too lazy to get your ass off the ergonomically correct chair.

You’ll ultimately bond with SUSHI SAMURAI for hours, while helping him score big, make countless sushi rolls, and paralyze the “evil” TOFU, SHITAKE MUSHROOM, DAKON RADISH, and BLOWFISH enemies trying to thwart SUSHI SAMURAI from making his sushi. Folks, I’m not making this up!

How can you not love an online game where our hero, SUSHI SAMURAI, uses balls of WASABI to paralyze his enemies? The game even lets SUSHI SAMURAI collect "ginger" for extra points; "soy sauce" for an extra life; and "miso soup" to temporarily freeze his enemies.

You got to love this stuff. Arigatou!

WANT TO PLAY? Click on SUSHI SAMURAI

Life

Multicultural Junk Food : Frito Lay Introduces Asian-Inspired Snacks

Snacking is a pastime for many, and those who haunt Asian supermarkets know that SNACKS like Pocky sticks, haw flakes, namkeens, dried seaweed or those puffy shrimp chips make up one of the major food groups. So, it’s no surprise that the higher-ups at Frito Lay put their noggins together in an attempt to win the snack food dollars of Canada’s largest ethnic groups by introducing limited-edition WASABI and SPICY CURRY LAY'S® POTATO CHIPS.

The promo-speak states Lay's® Tastes of Canada™ potato chips celebrate the “diversity, tradition and rich cuisine that come together to make this country a great place to live in”. Before you wonder how the flavours would go over in, say, Spuzzum, the bags of WASABI and SPICY CURRY-FLAVOURED POTATO CHIPS will only pop up on shelves in TORONTO and VANCOUVER. If the flavours sell well in these urban markets, Frito Lay plan to go national: “There are Canadians who don’t know what wasabi is, so we’ll teach them,” says a Frito lay spokesperson. Heck, if sushi can become a staple word in our food lexicon, surely wasabi potato chips could be the next big thing! Nevermind that Frito Lay targeted their marketing for these flavours at Chinese and Indo-Canadian media outlets, when wasabi isn't part of either group's cuisine repertoire.

In their attempt to become the Benetton of the junk food world, Frito Lay apparently created and tested 40 "ethnic" flavours including seaweed, cucumber, and green tea before choosing WASABI and SPICY CURRY. It would've been an interesting job to taste-test them all, although not sure how cucumber is considered “ethnic”...

More
Read The Globe & Mail's article "Frito Lay Perks Up Chips" by Andy Hoffman, here.
Take a look at Frito Lay's website, here.

Life

Three Times: pool, tea and sex

Three times in one darkened theatre, with three other people, all in one sitting. Oh yes, it's true, I watched everything. Crowned prince of Taiwanese art cinema, Hou Hsiao Hsien, does it again with his ode to love, Three Times.

The film is composed of three different love stories, set in three different eras, but starring the same actors - the luscious Shu Qi and 2046's Chang Chen. Each story is structured much like a poem, with titles in the vertical Chinese format, a languid pace of quiet moments and an exquisitely subtle interplay between lovers: every look, every gesture is a sonnet.

Continue reading "Three Times: pool, tea and sex"

Life

Kama Sutra Set to Music? : Juno Award-winner Kiran Ahluwalia in Concert

Just another love song? Not if Juno Award-winning vocalist KIRAN AHLUWALIA can help it. Perk up your mojo by learning a thing or two from this Indo-Canadian musician, who’ll be performing in concert at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on Friday, March 17th. Ahluwalia sings a form of classical Persian poetry called ghazal, which explores “the many moods of love, from the ecstatic to the despondent, from pursuing the beloved to feeling the restlessness of unrequited love”. Ahluwalia herself describes ghazals as “highly-literate pick up lines”!

After studying with a ghazal maestro in Bombay, Ahluwalia began to compose her own repertoire of sensual, boundary-pushing contemporary ghazals, first released in her 2001 CD, Kashish (Attraction). Last summer, she released a third CD full of re-mixes and collaborations, including new songs with Cape Breton fiddler, Natalie MacMaster. And just in case you fear ballad overload, Ahluwalia will also perform some fun, upbeat Punjabi songs.

Get in the mood by listening to samples of Kiran’s sensuous ghazals by clicking on the titles below (Requires RealPlayer):
Koka (Nose Ring)
Vo Kuch (Passion)
Meri Gori Gori (Yellow Bangles)

COASTAL JAZZ & BLUES SOCIETY presents KIRAN AHLUWALIA IN CONCERT
With Rez Abbasi (guitar), Narendra Budhakar (tabla), Ashok Bidaye (harmonium).
Venue: Norman Rothstein Theatre, 950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver
Show Time: 8:00PM
Tickets: $20/$18, buy here
Call the Jazz Hotline: 604-872-5200

More
For Kiran Ahluwalia’s official website, click here.
For Kiran's concert info for Victoria, BC and Gibsons, BC, click here.
Review from the Toronto Star, click here
Interview with Kiran Ahluwalia from 2003, prepared by CBC broadcaster Adam Goddard, click here

Life

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day! On March 8, 2006 the world will celebrate International Women's Day (IWD), an event officially sanctioned by the United Nations in 1977. Although the occasion has been marked since the early 1900s many North Americans are not aware of the event; however, there are many activities you can do to commemorate the day.

I first became aware of this event a few years ago when my colleague, Belinda LaMoca and I were part of the Women's Committee on the Diversity Council at BMO Financial Group. We came across some powerful images of women making changes all over the world.

Check out these powerful images from BBC News (more BBC News in Pictures) and Reuters.

We did our tiny little part and quickly organized a few events internally to mark the occasion... causing quite a stir amongst our male counterparts.

Here at Schema, I'm proud to be part of a group of writers, collaborators and influencers that are predominantly female... and like many of you, we talk amongst ourselves on the state of the world and how we, as women and Canadians, can make a difference.

Some companies make it easy for you to commemorate IWD and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home:

L'Oreal Paris has launched their Women of Worth campaign where you can send the fabulous women in your life an e-card.

Or invite your girlfriends over to watch Corus Entertainment's W Network as they present two special documentaries for IWD.

But whatever you decide to do to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, take a few minutes out to recognize all the extraordinary accomplishments women have made around the world and reflect on all the work that still needs to be done on behalf of women to make this world a true place of equality. As I ponder who my personal female hero is, I look to the everyday women that make life look so easy... my mother, sisters and wonderful female friends and colleagues who face challenges on a daily basis and do it with class, dignity and perseverance.

Enjoy your day, you have earned it!

More
www.piercemattie.com - blog on L'Oreal's Women of Worth
The International Labour Office (ILO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
From Women's Global Health Imperative, San Fransisco
CBC Award-Winning Documentaries

Life

Ibiza for One Day: A True Legend of House Music - International DJ Satoshi Tomiie in Vancouver

Oh sure, it must be nice to kick off your world tour in New York and criss-cross the globe to mix beats in Tokyo, to Miami, all over Europe, onto Africa, back to L.A. – and then to...Vancouver?! You heard right. Who’s the globetrotter gracing us with his presence? -- DJ SATOSHI TOMIIE, arguably Japan’s most successful international DJ and House music producer.

Let him entertain you into the wee hours on TUESDAY, MARCH 7th at Club 696. Tuesday?! WTF? It will be worth it, tell you why:

(1) SATOSHI TOMIIE, now based in New York, has repeatedly been voted into the DJ magazine's Top 100 DJs charts – he’s currently #30 in the world.

(2) With a career in house music spanning over 15 years, it’s been said SATOSHI puts the “progress” in progressive house. His reputation is based on “ripping out clean and precise grooves," combining classic house with influences of hypnotic, acid, electro & tribal house.

(3) Going way back, in 1989 SATOSHI collaborated with Frankie Knuckles (“The Godfather of House”) on the classic “Tears”. He soon became an integral member of the acclaimed Def Mix crew, remixing and working with the likes of U2, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Simply Red, Misia, etc.

(4) SATOSHI is famed for his blistering productions and remixes. In 2000, he wrote and produced his debut album entitled “Full Lick” featuring Kelli Ali, former lead singer of Sneaker Pimps, in the record “Up in Flames”. Recently, SATOSHI launched his own label "SAW.RECORDINGS"

(5) Listen to samples of SATOSHI’s beats: the metallic house of “Yeahdancetomyrecordbitch”; the jazzy techno house of “Piano Track”; now click this and imagine it live.

Now, pre-time your coffeemaker and leave out the aspirin bottle for Wednesday morning...so what, you'll be a few minutes late, it's Vancouver, just blame it on the traffic!

More
CARGO presents SATOSHI TOMIIE EVENT
WHEN: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 = 9:30 PM - 2:00 AM
LOCATION: Club 686, 686 West Hastings, Vancouver
PRICE: $30.00
MIN. AGE: 19+

Life

Memoirs of a Geisha this Ain't! - World Premiere of New Film by Midi Onodera

This Saturday, March 4th, the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters and Cineworks present the WORLD PREMIERE of Toronto writer-director Midi Onodera’s feature-length experimental narrative, I HAVE NO MEMORY OF MY DIRECTION at SFU Harbour Centre Terasen Cinema. Don’t miss out on the Q&A chat session with Midi to follow after the screening.

There’s an old Japanese proverb “Juu-nin to-iro” (literally “10 people, 10 colours”) which translates into “different strokes for different folks.” This concept will undoubtedly make an appearance in I Have No Memory of My Direction. The film’s narrator, a Canadian-born Japanese woman, dreams her way through Japan as she searches for an emotional connection with her aging father while contemplating her own inherited cultural and familial touchstones.

Onodera's work includes 25 independent short films, notably The Basement Girl. Her work has been screened at, oh, prestigious film festivals you might have heard about in Toronto and Berlin.

Midi's interpretation of her films: "Being a third-generation Japanese Canadian, being a woman and being a lesbian are all things about me that come together in my films. They all have a personal edge."

As an added note, how can you miss a film like I Have No Memory of My Direction, which was shot with an enviable array of gadgets!? – digital video, super 8, Lomographic Supersampler, Barbie Wireless Videocam, Intel Digital camera, Tyco and Trendmaster toy video cameras.

SCREENING: Saturday, March 4, 7:30 pm
SFU Harbour Centre Terasen Cinema
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

ADMISSION: $8/$5 Praxis and Cineworks members + students (tix at door)

More
Contact Sarah for more info: sarahmuff@cineworks.ca
Learn how to mess around with lomography, here