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Bruce Lee

Hey, I’m updating with pertinent “race and culture in entertainment” news! It’s been so long!  Well, let’s get down to it, shall we?

With this being Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, the Democrats have put forth a Bruce Lee resolution to honor the actor and philosopher’s teachings and his ability to build connections to both American and Chinese cultures. According to The Hill:

H.Res. 654, offered by Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), recognizes the “immense impact that Bruce Jun Fan Lee had on American and global popular culture and the important role he played in creating a bridge between cultures, championing values of self-respect, self-discipline and tolerance in our nation, and pioneering and cultivating the genres of martial arts, martial arts films, fitness and philosophy in the United States and the world.”

Check out The Hill and Angry Asian Man for more on this wonderful resolution. Congrats, Bruce! Your legacy of building a cultural bridge between cultures is what I, as well as many others around the world, aspire to achieve.

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Tom and Jerry: Around the World. Available now!

Synopsis (WB):  Tom and Jerry travel the globe by land, sea, and air in this collection of 22 hilarious adventures. From Broadway to outer space, hitch a ride with your favorite cat and mouse for non-stop fun and action. Whether the furry duo is running from an erupting volcano on a tropical island or conducting an orchestra in Hollywood, you can count on laughs the whole way. Sword fights, magic spells, and treasure maps fill these delightful escapades and will have you climbing on board for more expeditions. So grab your luggage and bring the entire family along for a boisterous trip around the world and beyond.

My thoughts: I thought I was a fan of Tom and Jerry until my brother came along. As a kid, he used to watch Tom and Jerry for days, beating out the record I thought was impressive.

This new DVD of the famous cat-and-mouse chase has a great collection of 22 vintage and recent Tom and Jerry episodes, including episodes that feature many of my favorite sidekicks, such as the mischievous baby, Tom’s dog enemy Spike and his son Tyke and more.

This DVD is great for vintage animation lovers as well as children of all ages. If you are like and you have a huge Tom and Jerry lover in your family, make sure to get this DVD for them.

Tom and Jerry: Around the World

Available now (buy from the WB Shop)

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Happiness Is…Team Snoopy.  Available on DVD  now!

Synopsis (WB): Batter up with Peanuts and celebrate their greatest sports moments in this all-new collection. For Charlie Brown, a new baseball season equals new hopes of winning. Unfortunately, one player just isn’t measuring up, which makes the team decide that Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown. Then suit up for a triple-header of laughs with The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. In The Pelicans, Charlie Brown gets stuck with mascot duties while Peppermint Patty is on the road to victory with her baseball team. Great Pumpkin finds the Peanuts gang visiting the bowling alley in hopes of teaching Charlie Brown a new sport with hilarious results, and it’s game on as the neighborhood cat meets his match when Snoopy’s older brother Spike trots into town. It’s time to catch the winning spirit and share these tales with your teammates, since happiness is what Team Snoopy is all about!

My thoughts: There’s a lot that changes about life–I’ve learned over the course of my 23 years that a lot of your childhood favorites end up disappearing, either for a while or for good. However, the one thing that has been consistent is Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. It’s good to see that nothing ever really changes about Peanuts. This new DVD manages to capture all of the charm and whimsy about the original Peanuts specials into a fun tale about Charlie Brown’s adventures in trying to win a baseball game.

Recent Peanuts cartoons have looked, well, new. They haven’t really captured the classic feel of the original animation. But Happiness Is does capture it extremely well. Also captured very well is the voice acting. One of the best things about the original Peanuts cartoons is it made history for actually using children voices. Happiness Is continues that trend, finding children who sound very similar to the original characters.

If you want to feel comforted by nostalgia, make sure to get this DVD. It’ll really make you feel like a kid again.

Happiness Is…Team Snoopy

Available Now (buy from the WBshop)

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Again, sorry for being MIA with virtually everything on this site. Everything’s happening at the same time, everyone! Aside from graduations, Ashley and I are facing the huge task of moving to Miami in July. That requires time and money (the money part is what has kept me extremely busy as of late). So you’ll have to bear with me and the lack of updates on this site.

Also, speaking of Ashley, she was the speaker at her college graduation today! It was a very good speech, and I’m very proud of her success.

I say all of this to say that you’ll have to be patient with The DowntonCast. We are still going to do the show, but we’re more than likely going to switch to attempting to do the podcast every two weeks instead of every week. We have tons of stuff to do as of late, and we barely have time to sleep, let alone talk about Downton Abbey. I hope you understand!

Show Notes (although we only mentioned a few of these articles in the show):

Some famous quotes from the Dowager Countess

Vanity Fair’s nterview with Lady Mary Crawley, Michelle Dockery

Dame Maggie Smith’s BAFTA nom for the Dowager Countess

Downton Sixbey portraits

Benedict Cumberbatch criticizes Season 2 of Downton Abbey

(SPOILER) Lady Edith gets married!

What we hope happens in Season 3

*Theme: “Suite for Strings Op. 40 Prelude Allegro Vivace”, Edvard Grieg (uploaded by ccradiocc-classic-morning)PreludeAllegro Vivace” (ccradiocc-classic-morning) / CC BY-SA 3.0]

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I’ve got some new products to show you!

My sister Ashley has made these Army-inspired “I Am Not A Stereotype” shirts, which you can see below:

i am not a stereotype–organic by moniqueblog
Use Zazzle for photo t shirt printing.

And I have made some new “I A Not A Stereotype” buttons, based on my original shirt design.

I Am Not A Stereotype Button by moniqueblog
Learn about making buttons at zazzle.com

i am not a stereotype tee by moniqueblog
See other Stereotype T-Shirts

I have also done the reverse and created shirts based on my “Multiculture = American Culture” bumper sticker:

Multiculture=American Culture (Women’s) by moniqueblog
Create a personalized t shirt on zazzle.

Multiculture=American Culture (Men’s) by moniqueblog
Create unique personality shirts from Zazzle.

Make sure to click the Moniqueblog Merch tab at the top of the site or click here to see some more products. You can also see other products not listed on the site at my Zazzle storefront.

Credit: Sony Pictures

Even though I’ve kept the site updated with a few new stories (well, I guess three), I’ve actually been quite MIA. I’ve already said, but I’ve gotten a lot more stuff on my plate as of late. It’s all good stuff, let me assure you. In any case, I’m going to do better about being organized, but for right now, I’ve got some Notable Links for you guys. Better late than never, right?

As for the standout links this go-round:  I’m glad Todd Brown at Twitch has written a piece on Think Like a Man that echoes what I said in my review. Kudos to you! Also, friend to the site Aneesh Sheth posted the trailer to her film My Inner Turmoil on her Facebook page, and I’ve got it for you below.

Anyway, enjoy the links below and remember–the opinions in the linked stories belong to their respective authors.

What Hollywood Needs to Learn From Think Like A Man

NSI signs 3-year deal with NBCUniversal Canada in support of Aboriginal training courses

My Inner Turmoil trailer– Synopsis:

Priya faces angst as she navigates living life in 2 genders. The film explores her emotional hardship of switching genders on a daily basis and her inability to be her true self, brought in by complications of immigration, employment, culture and her family’s incomplete acceptance. The film is a snippet of her interaction with Rahul, an empathizing friend from India, over a two week period as she faces angst and yearns for complete support.

Blackness is the fulcrum

An Artist’s Rare, Intimate Conversation About Black Masculinity (VIDEO BELOW)

Ashton Kutcher ‘Brownface’ Controversy: Actor’s Parody Dating Ads For Pop Chips Draw Criticism 

Aboriginal Actor leads new transmedia TV series for Syfy channel

OU Professor publishes book to modernize view of American Indians

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I apologize for this podcast and The DowntonCast not being put up on time. Things have been really hectic as of late–I’ve gotten several new responsibilities, Ashley’s about to graduate college, and both of us are about to move to Miami in July. So things might stay hectic for a while. But I do have The InazumaCast up now! Check out what we’ve talked about:

Current Inazuma update from Jasmine (about the current season and/or why she quit watching it)

Episodes 2 and 3–the battle with Occult Junior High, Gouenji joins the team, Pink-haired dude develops Dragon Wave kicking technique after feeling inferior and “prince of all sayians”-esque (must bring up the bit about the girls doing the laundry)

Monique’s rant–the melodrama and old-looking children

Crazy Inazuma Fan Moment of the Week–Anime Boy’s Thomas/Inazuma Eleven Parody – Duck’s Departure (fansub)

Also, apologies for any bad editing; I tried to edit it as best as I can under the circumstances.

Theme Song: “Vuvuzela [Creative Commons]” by Oscar TG is licensed under a Creative Commons License

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Tom and Sam get caught canoodling by Sam’s brother and sister. Credit: NBC

UGH! Smash  is turning out to be just as annoying as Pan Am! Karen’s turning out to be even more Mary-Sueish than she was at the beginning of the season as well as being a bad girlfriend. (Yeah, I know Dev cheated on her, but she was being selfish and non-comforting to Dev in his hour of need, causing him to run to R.J.! Is it any wonder why he cheated?! He’s a good guy–all he needs to do is find the right girlfriend! “I’m in tech”? Whatever, Karen.) Eileen is even more useless and clueless, Ivy is even more brooding and a shadow of her former self from the pilot, and even Derek is traversing in the perilous Unlikeable Valley. (WHY HAVE AN AFFAIR WITH UMA THURMAN’S CHARACTER!? I know he’s the type that “falls in love” with whoever his leading lady is, but even that seems like a little bit of a stretch for his character.) The whole Julia thing is getting a touch annoying (and their son is so weirdly deadpan). In fact the only thing good about this show now is Tom and Sam’s relationship. And that leads me to the newest thing Smash is doing right:

Accepting parents. Even better than that is that accepting parents are Sam’s parents. Why is this great? Because the parents of black gay men are hardly ever shown on television. And when they are shown on television, they are hardly ever accepting of their son. There’s usually some kind of a-ha moment that has to happen, and by having these portrayals of black parents–especially black fathers–with their gay sons perpetuates the stereotype that all black families dislike their gay offspring.

However, there’s also the real-life problem of many black people believing in only one type of manhood. In general, many black families think one aspect of being a “proper” man is, of course, being one that is married to a woman. Couple that with strict religious teachings, and you have the recipe for many in the black community ostracising their gay black men. This homophobia also leads to the phenomenon of men on the “down low.”

Thankfully, Sam’s parents–particularly his dad–are more worried about his career choices than his partner choices. In fact, his parents and siblings are perfectly all right with him being who he is. All his dad wants for him is a stable career, and arguments about careers are what most kids have problems with when it comes to what their parents want for them.  I almost forgot to mention that Sam’s dad even likes Tom! Hooray for Sam’s dad!

Hooray for the only thing good about last week’s episode “Tech” aside from Tom and Sam’s relationship in general! Now that the new showrunner is on board, GET THIS SMASH TRAIN MOVING! Take out all of the unnecessary home life stuff, only keep the little about the relationships that we need to know about, and keep the focus on Bombshell! And make Karen become a person and give Ivy that starring role as Marilyn so she can feel complete!

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Pandit and Manasi Parekh in Leelai.

For months, I’ve been trying to find the Bollywood actor who is young enough to play an adult Hadji if the rumored Zac Efron/The Rock Jonny Quest movie ever came to pass. Of course, the film will probably involve different people now, bu the search for Hadji will still be tough. In any case, the right guy seemed to have just fallen in my lap!

I happened to be goofing around on Pinterest, and then I found the guy: Shiv Pandit. It was only then I realized that I somehow got on Pinterest.in, not just Pinterest.com.

Anyway, Shiv Pandit meets all of the requirements! He’s young (he was born in ’87, one year before me!), he’s good looking, and, to me, he’s got just the right face. Here’s another picture of him.

What do you think?

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Pixar delves into Dia de los Muertos: Finally! Pixar is shaking things up by addressing some world culture. According to CinemaBlend, Pixar is set on creating a film based around the popular Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Hooray! The Hollywood Reporter also has a story on the upcoming film. 

Kevin Hart’s career: Slate has a very interesting article about Kevin Hart, titled, “He’s the most successful stand-up comic in America. Why isn’t he more famous?” The article addresses the race line in the comedy world, but it’s also about more than that. Check it out.

Kreayshawn on being white: Colorlines has an article about rapper Kreayshawn’s feeling about being a white rapper and the criticism around not noticing the concept called “white privilege.” The article quotes Clutch Magazine, which stated:

It’s ironic how the White girl mimicking Black culture has been viewed as quirky, cute, and interesting in the past. But sisters who fashionably rock bamboo earrings, gold nameplate necklaces, and blonde streaked weaves, will inevitably be considered “ghetto” by society. It’s equally problematic that every female emcee post Queen Latifah and MC Lyte who has had massive mainstream success all had to sell sex.

You can read about this article by clicking the link above.

Archie #632 preview: If you want to see some of Archie #632, the next part of the “Archie Marries Valerie” miniseries, click here to get to Newsarama’s preview page!

The rest of the articles don’t really need me to summarize them; the titles are rather straightforward. Again, all stories listed on this post have the opinions of their respective authors. Enjoy!

Woman creates Tourette’s superhero to heal and educate

Sequel Bits: ‘Black Dynamite 2’ Shoots Later This Year, According to Michael Jai White, Plus: ‘Smurfs 2’, ‘Underworld 5’, ‘Before Sunset’ Follow-Up

The Help Director Tate Taylor Up For The Jury

Why We Should Thank Linsanity for Making Pro Basketball Fun Again

‘Smash’ Taps ‘Gossip Girl’s’ Josh Safran as New Showrunner

Johnny Depp as Tonto: I’m still not feeling “honored”

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