"Rock Box" Track of the Day: Aloe Blacc, "I Need a Dollar"

Song: "I Need a Dollar" by Aloe Blacc
Released: 2010
Why's it part of the "Rock Box" playlist?: It's the opening title theme from How to Make It in America, HBO's recession-era New York dramedy (or is it more of a comma?). To promote his new Stones Throw album Good Things, Blacc recently performed "I Need a Dollar" on both Conan and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where it sounded impressive live and won him some new fans at Studio 6A.

My reaction upon hearing "I Need a Dollar" for the first time on How to Make It in America was exactly like my initial reaction to American Gangster's original song "Do You Feel Me," a Hank Shocklee-produced throwback to the sounds of the period setting of the Denzel Washington film that was performed by Anthony Hamilton (and written by, of all people, Diane "My Heart Will Go On" Warren). I wondered, "Whose recording studio archives did they dig up this gem from?" Blacc's vintage soul sound was so convincing in "I Need a Dollar" that I was surprised to learn the track was new.

"I Need a Dollar" is the perfect song for both a show that's like Entourage's cash-strapped, bedbug bite-covered East Coast cousin and these shitty times. Blacc actually wrote it before the recession hit:

Complex: What inspired the concept for "I Need A Dollar"?

Aloe Blacc: No money problems. That was boom time. The housing industry was up. Everybody was happy. I lived in this house that we called the Monmouth Temple on a street called Monmouth in Los Angeles from 2003 to 2008. A lot of musicians tend to live in this house. One of the guys has a really nice record collection, and he gave me some chain gang field recordings of convicts, largely black, from the South, working on chain gangs. This was in my head at that time. It seemed to me a little bit like a spiritual. That's the way I originally made the song. I actually recorded it with my friends in 2007 at the Monmouth Temple when we were just sitting in the front room stomping on the wooden floor and clapping our hands. Kind of like a spiritual you could do it in church. So that's how I always heard it. At least the melody in my voice, that's always remained and it worked perfectly with the music that these guys made in New York.

That spiritual quality in Blacc's voice helps lend "I Need a Dollar" a certain timelessness that will outlast whatever fashion or beverage trend the hustlers in How to Make It in America will attempt to take advantage of all season long.



Blacc is one of many former rappers who have shifted towards more melodic material with tunes like "I Need a Dollar." In his pretty good remix of "I Need a Dollar," L.A. battle rapper Dumbfoundead dabbles with ease in this shift towards sung vocals that Blacc has fully embraced:

The best new TV theme right now, hands down

If you're wondering about that terrific Bill Withers joint that opens episodes of HBO's new Big Apple fashion industry dramedy series How to Make It in America, it's not by Bill Withers. Like all other great TV themes (and most of them these days belong to shows from ad-free HBO, where opening themes are actually allowed to last more than 10 seconds), the tune beautifully sums up the show's premise and tone, even though it wasn't written especially for HTMIIA. It's the very timely "I Need a Dollar" from Stones Throw soul artist Aloe Blacc's not-yet-released album Good Things.


"I Need a Dollar" is also one of the tracks on what has to be a first in both TV history and hip-hop history: a mixtape (instead of an official soundtrack) of a show's featured songs that was circulated by one of its cast members (in HTMIIA's case, Kid Cudi) before the show even premiered. The full version of Aloe Blacc's HTMIIA theme can be heard during "The F Zone" on A Fistful of Soundtracks (Mondays at 4-6am, 9-11am and 3-5pm and Fridays at 5-7am, 9-11am and 3-5pm). To log on to AFOS, hit the "Play" button on the widget on the right side of this blog.

The First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC), Part 2

Previously on A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog: Part 1 of my two-part recap of the AACC.


My bio in the AACC program.

All the pics in this second AACC photo gallery were snapped on July 11, 2009 at the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan's Chinatown with my disposable Kodak, except where noted.


Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima tries to finish a commissioned strip about the AACC. The look on my face says, "You're gonna finish that today? It takes me a week to finish writing a 20-minute script for the Fistful of Soundtracks channel."


Here I am signing copies of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology for my first two fans at the con, Purdue University graduate students/lecturers Kate Agathon and Lisa Hanasono.


At one point, I accidentally mixed up the names of Kate and Lisa (far right) while talking to them from my table. I joked, "I have no Malaydar. I have trouble telling us Asians apart."


From left to right: Kate, some new guy at the Secret Identities Tour and Lisa.


The AACC's Secret Identities signing session marked the first time I ever autographed something that was neither a school yearbook nor a birthday card. From left to right: "Justified" writer Ken Wong, Secret Identities editor-in-chief and AACC co-chair Jeff Yang, myself and "Preface: In the Beginning" and "Peril" artist Jef Castro.


From left to right: Captain America, "Jia" artist Cliff Chiang, "The Hibakusha" and "16 Miles" author Parry Shen and myself.


From left to right: "16 Miles" artist Sarah Sapang and myself, both newcomers who are making our comics debut in Secret Identities, and Tak.


Added on July 22, 2009: I don't know what we're laughing about. Perhaps Rahadyan Sastrowardoyo, who snapped this photo, remembers.


Added on July 22: I like the sight of Chinatown storefronts in the background (photo by Rahadyan).


Added on July 22: I bet I'm the only comic book writer who references Public Enemy in his autographs (photo by Rahadyan).


Legendary sci-fi writer William F. Wu ("Wong's Lost and Found Emporium") and I watch beloved comics author Larry Hama accept the AACC's inaugural Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama Award. Sitting in front of me are guitarist Patrick Moloney and singer Teresa Lee from the New York band PaperDoll, which later performed at the AACC afterparty at the museum (photo by Shawn Smith).


From left to right: Tak, Kate and I (photo courtesy of Kate). Here's to next year's AACC.

The First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC) was also my first book signing

Yep, I got my book signing cherry popped at the AACC.


From left to right: Cliff Chiang (with Keith Chow kneeling down at Cliff's left side), Parry Shen and I sign copies of Secret Identities at the AACC at the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan's Chinatown on Saturday, July 11 (photo by Rahadyan Sastrowardoyo). At the center of the table, you can see a bottle of hand sanitizer, which an unknown person left for us. I guess he or she was inspired by the following photo, which is from the "I Touched You with My Nerd Cooties, Beth Cooper" collection...


... and wanted to make sure we got as much protection from the unwashed masses as possible.

At the next ComiCon, the congoers will have to step through a decontamination shower before they enter, although I think the contestants of Rock of Love: Criminal Intent would need it more.


From left to right: Cliff, Ken Wong, me, Jef Castro and Jeremy Arambulo entertain--or are entertained by--the witty and surprisingly decent-smelling fans at our signing session (photo by Kate Agathon).

In addition to being an exciting and refreshingly low-key con, the laid-back AACC, which was co-presented by the museum and Secret Identities Universe Media, was also a chance for me to meet other Secret Identities contributors I never met before face-to-face, including Parry, Jeremy and Cliff, who signed my favorite issues of Vertigo's much-missed Human Target reboot, which he helped draw for writer Peter Milligan. The thought-provoking Vertigo incarnation was one of my favorite comics, and it appears to be an influence on the upcoming Fox TV series version starring Mark Valley, a.k.a. Keen Eddie, as master of disguise Christopher Chance (Comic Book Resources did an interesting recap of the Vertigo series here).


At the AACC Artists Alley, I shared a table with Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima, whom I was honored to meet at the New York Comic Con's Secret Identities panel earlier this year. In the few minutes we hung out at the NYCC, we chatted about comic strips and our experiences working for alt-weeklies (the paper I used to work for introduced me to Tak's strip and has carried it since its pre-United Features Syndicate days).


If you ever have to share a table at a comic con, make sure you share it with Tak. He's the definition of chill. Nothing seems to faze the always deadline-minded yet easygoing Tak--not even another deadline on the weekend (someone had commissioned him to create an on-the-fly strip about the AACC). He was one of the most approachable guests at the con and found time to talk with fans and sign items for them even while pencilling his strip at our table (photo by Kate). One of my favorite moments of the con was seeing Tak's mom quickly drop off a bag of siopao for him.

Runaways colorist Christina Strain also had a table at the Artists Alley and signed my copies of the digest-sized Runaways TPBs Escape to New York and Parental Guidance. She told me she'd prefer to see unknown teen actors in the Runaways feature film instead of name actors, and she'd like an unknown child actress to be cast as Molly, the youngest member of the series' unnamed band of teen heroes.


No, former Lost staff writer-turned-new best friend of Olivia Munn Brian K. Vaughan wasn't at the AACC. He actually signed Parental Guidance for me a few years ago at WonderCon.


AACC co-chairs Jeff Yang and Greg Pak honored Larry Hama with the first-ever Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama Award for his outstanding writing for the G.I. Joe and Wolverine titles and the Devil's Due satire Barack the Barbarian (photo by Jeremy). Jeff and Greg named the award after the self-published Japanese immigrant cartoonist who created Manga Yonin Shosei (The Four Students Manga), America's first original graphic novel, in 1931.


Hama signed for me all the G.I. Joe comics I bought as a kid, including the issue that I said on this blog was an eerie precursor to the imprisonment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Like everyone else at the con, I admire Hama, but I was actually more enthusiastic about a couple of other veteran Asian American talents who showed up to the con, sci-fi author and guest panelist William F. Wu and longtime Marvel and DC letterer Janice Chiang.

I don't think William gets enough props for his creation "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium," which writer Alan Brennert adapted into a standout episode of the '80s Twilight Zone. I enjoyed William's recollections of the making of the episode. In the comments section of a big WOWO blog post about the original Twilight Zone, I mentioned "Wong's" and said:

When I first caught "Wong's" on DVD, I was stunned to find an actual show from the '80s with non-stereotypical Asian American characters. I was also stunned to learn that the episode was a backdoor pilot for a "Wong's" TV series, which didn't get picked up, of course, because those were the days when networks would only greenlight shows with Asian leads if they involved martial arts or starred Pat Morita.

I was even more surprised to find out from William--who wore to the AACC an '80s Twilight Zone jacket that was a gift from the showrunners--that several years after the Twilight Zone adaptation aired, there was a second attempt to launch a "Wong's" series over at the Sci Fi Channel, now inanely respelled Syfy. Unfortunately, a channel higher-up didn't like the series idea and got his way. SyonUvaBytch.

Janice, who brought her aspiring video game designer son to the con, wanted me to sign her copy of Secret Identities, and when she introduced herself to me, I told her, "You're a lettering legend. You lettered half the comics I bought as a kid! You deserve a table of your own here."

Hell, I think she deserves a panel of her own at the second AACC. I told Janice I always wanted to be a letterer like her. She lettered my favorite issue of Alpha Flight, in which Madison Jeffries, a mutant who can reshape metal with his mind and merge with a flying robot called Box, realizes he's no match for his mutated evil brother Omega, so he reconfigures Box, which looks like a homosexual Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot, and upgrades its design from a dorky-looking one to a sleeker-looking, more badass one.


Janice gave me some pointers about lettering and taught me about kerning, or adjusting the spacing between letters. I was relieved to know she dislikes how the letter D looks in the fugly and much-maligned Comic Sans font, which was used during our novel's preface by Jeff and Jef (doh!).


Here I am with the first two fans I ever signed books for, Purdue University graduate students/lecturers Kate Agathon and Lisa Hanasono, both passionate supporters of Secret Identities and the AACC (photo courtesy of Kate).


I love this picture of Kate and Lisa posing in the Secret Identities masks that the New Press slipped into complimentary copies of our novel.


Here's me discovering the memory on each of the batteries for my camcorder/still camera is full (photo by Kate), which meant I was unable to use the camcorder during the AACC. The look on my face says "Interesting," but the thought in my head is "Aw, fuck me."

Luckily, I brought a spare camera, a disposable Kodak, which I find easier to use than a digital camera. If the snapshots from the disposable camera look alright, I'll include them on a future post.

Also at the AACC, we Secret Identities contributors signed each others' copies of the anthology.


A couple of artists poked fun at their friends' sketches in my copy of the novel.

Cliff, Ken, Jeremy, Tak, Jef, Bernard Chang, Sean Chen, Alex Tarampi, Paul Wei and Sarah Sapang are far more skilled artists than I am. (I told Alex my hand would sometimes get tired from drawing my webcomic The Palace because I would grip my pen too tightly whenever I wouldn't feel confident about my art.) One fan mistook me for an artist during the signing session, but I drew something inside his copy of Secret Identities anyway: the only comic strip character I can draw, Dick Tracy.


On Jeremy's sketchbook, I drew Dick and Homer for him.

In addition to my first signing session, this trip also marked the first time I ever used the New York subway. I decided to listen to my older brother's recommendation that I save money and forego the cabs I always rode in previous trips to New York. Of course, I got lost on the subway (after a nice night of hanging out with Chelsea-based A Fistful of Soundtracks listener Ben Erwin, his wife Helen and his nephew David) and didn't get back to my hotel in Chinatown until six hours before the AACC's opening at 10am.

Lack of sleep often makes me cranky, but I was so jazzed about meeting the novel's fans and getting the chance to spend some more time with the Secret Identities crew--as well as being part of a history-making day and what Hama referred to in his acceptance speech as the AACC's celebration of community--that the crankiness slipped away. I'm looking forward to the second AACC.

The Anderson Tapes: "America, man! You know, it's so beautiful I wanna eat it!"

I can't think of a more fitting quote to put at the top of this Fourth of July Weekend blog post. It's a standout line uttered early on by Christopher Walken in his big-studio debut, the 1971 Columbia Pictures heist flick The Anderson Tapes.

I finally got around to watching The Anderson Tapes the other day. Before Sidney Lumet's nifty little caper made its debut on DVD in September as part of Sony's "Martini Movies" imprint (uh, Sony, I think you missed the lounge movement by about 10 years), it was on my list of films I--a fan of '70s heist flicks like the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Hot Rock--wanted to watch but wasn't able to because they weren't available on disc.

I always dug the Smackwater Jack version of Quincy Jones' Anderson Tapes theme, which features the late Freddie Hubbard on flugelhorn and a nice harmonica solo by Toots Thielemans. That version of the theme actually never turns up during Jones' unreleased, love-it-or-hate-it score, which is filled with early synthesizer bloops and squeals due to the paranoid film's subject of pre-Watergate (and pre-Conversation) surveillance.


Some viewers find the bloops and squeals to be grating and distracting, while I don't mind them at all. Jones' bloops and squeals--along with the now-goofy-looking Randomatic computer that's used by the film's NYPD officer characters to pull up criminal records--lend The Anderson Tapes a certain analog charm. The groovetastic sound effects remind me of the electronic noises during Roman Coppola's amusing 2001 film about the making of a low-budget French sci-fi flick, CQ, which takes place in the same era.


Sean Connery ditched the 007 hairpiece--or rather, chose a more revealing hairpiece--to star as Duke Anderson, a newly freed, unrepentant ex-con who plots an elaborate Labor Day heist at the ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment building of his high-priced hooker girlfriend Ingrid (Dyan Cannon). In other Connery/Lumet collabos, particularly The Hill and The Offence (when's that film going to hit DVD?), Lumet clearly loved giving Connery speeches that were long and fiery (yet not overwrought). Eager to move past his rather limited 007 persona, Connery excelled at those speeches, and he pulled off another juicy one here, an anti-authority screed that's more Cool Hand Luke than 007, courtesy of Cool Hand Luke screenwriter Frank Pierson ("What's advertising but a legalized con game? And what the hell's marriage? Extortion, prostitution, soliciting with a government stamp on it.").


Anderson's crew includes a younger safecracker known simply as "the Kid" (Walken, whose eccentric line delivery is made even weirder by the fact that he really does look like a kid here), unflappable getaway driver Spencer (Dick Anthony Williams) and gay antiques dealer Tommy (if acting styles were KFC recipes, Martin Balsam's would be Extra Swishy). They'd be the tightest crew in the history of caper movies, if they weren't so oblivious to then-recent advances in surveillance technology, which have allowed government agents or cops to illegally monitor the activities of everyone Anderson comes into contact with, from his associates to his girlfriend. Those lawmen aren't even interested in Anderson's next score. They've been spying on everyone in Anderson's circle because of unrelated improprieties, whether past or alleged. Black Panther-hating Feds are profiling Spencer, who lives near a Panther Party chapter, the IRS is keeping tabs on Anderson's Mafioso benefactor (Alan King), and Ingrid's jealous sugar daddy (Richard B. Schull) has hired a private detective to listen in on her trysts with her clients.

In The Anderson Tapes (which the creatively bankrupt Sony has been attempting to remake, and I hope the box-office failure of their Pelham remake discourages them), it's interesting to see narrative devices and character types Lumet would revisit in later, better-known works. Lumet jumbled the Labor Day heist's time frame--a gimmick the director would re-use in The Offence and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. The flashbacks to the heist are less distracting here than in Before the Devil. The crooked cops of Serpico, Prince of the City and Night Falls on Manhattan are cut from the same cloth as the lawmen who illegally bug or wiretap Anderson's cohorts (the only likable cop in The Anderson Tapes is a resourceful SWAT team leader played by a pre-SNL Garrett Morris). The victims of Anderson's heist get some standout lines and are as fleshed out as Al Pacino's hostages from my favorite Lumet film, 1975's Dog Day Afternoon. The heist sequence's tension is offset by some welcome comic relief from Judith Lowry as an elderly resident who doesn't seem to mind being robbed (Lowry was the same ornery old lady who stole scenes in Norman Lear's not-yet-on-DVD satire Cold Turkey, also released in 1971).

If you can find Walken's obscure 2000 indie movie The Opportunists, in which he plays a world-weary safecracker whose mentorship of a younger crook carries echoes of the Connery character's mentorship of Walken's upstart safecracker, it would make for an intriguing double feature with The Anderson Tapes. Walken's performance in The Opportunists--it's Walken in not-so-weird Catch Me If You Can mode--is one of his most underrated. Too bad The Opportunists is rather listless for a caper flick. Compared to the fun and nail-biting Anderson Tapes, The Opportunists is--to borrow a line from one of Walken's many quotable SNL sketches--a Stiffly Stifferson.

First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC) posts schedule; Jimmy J. Aquino to sign Secret Identities at AACC and refer to himself in the third person

On Saturday, July 11, I'll be in NYC for the First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC), which will take place for only one day because the Man won't give us two.

AACC will mark the first time I'll ever sign anything I wrote. Like Adam West, I charge $45 for an autograph. Make the check out to...

Alright, I'm kidding.

At AACC, there will be lots of interesting panels and lots of instances of me having to explain who I am ("Yeah, I'm the fourth Basco brother. What's crackin'? I'm Ta Basco.").

The organizers of the First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC) have announced the complete Featured Guest list and final Schedule of Events for this celebration of the unique contemporary role and historical legacy of Asians and Asian Americans in the world of graphic fiction, which will take place Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street in New York).


Confirmed Special Guests Include:
• Larry Hama (writer, G.I. Joe)
• Bernard Chang (artist, Wonder Woman)
• Cliff Chiang (artist, Green Arrow)
• Derek Kirk Kim (artist, The Eternal Smile)
• Greg Pak (writer, Incredible Hulk)
• Khoi Pham (artist, Mighty Avengers)
• Sean Chen (artist, Iron Man)
• Christina Strain (colorist, Runaways)
• Fred Chao (writer/artist, Johnny Hiro)
• Christine Norrie (artist, Breaking Up)
• Tak Toyoshima (writer/artist, Secret Asian Man)
• Misako Rocks! (writer/artist, Biker Girl)
• Kuo-Yu Liang (VP Sales & Marketing, Diamond Book Distributors)
• Sharad Devarajan (CEO, Liquid Comics)
• William F. Wu (writer, Hong on the Range)
• The Editors of Secret Identities (www.secretidentities.org)


Other special guests of the con will include: Ben Nugent, author, American Nerd; Hua Hsu, professor, Vassar College; Ed Lin, author of Waylaid and This Is a Bust; Monica Ferrell, author, The Answer Is Always Yes; Monica Youn, author, Ignatz (forthcoming); Vyshali Manivannan, author, Invictus; Paolo Javier, author, 60 lv Bo(e)mbs; Jennifer Lee, former editor, Marvel Comics and DC Comics; Kai-Ming Cha, comics and manga reporter, Publishers Weekly; Aimee Bahng, assistant professor, English, Dartmouth College; Ken Okabayashi, founder of Piggy Back Studios; Tyler Chin-Tanner, artist/writer, American Terrorist; Daniel Ketchum, editor, Marvel Comics; Karl Taro Greenfield, author, Speed Tribes; and Arune Singh, sales coordinator, Marvel Comics.


In addition, the following creators will be participating in the AACC’s Artists Alley, and will conduct signing and sketch sessions throughout the day. Each artist will also donate an original sketch for AACC’s silent auction, proceeds to benefit the nonprofit Museum of Chinese in America.


• Jimmy J. Aquino (writer, “Sampler,” SECRET IDENTITIES)
• Jeremy Arambulo (writer/artist, ROGUE SOUP & BUG)
• Bernard Chang (artist, WONDER WOMAN)
• Sean Chen (artist, IRON MAN)
• Tyler Chin-Tanner (writer/artist, AMERICAN TERRORIST)
• Robin Ha (writer/artist, THE MAGIC 8-BALL)
• Dongyun Lee (writer/artist, ZOOM)
• Yali Lin (writer/artist, SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO & JULIET)
• Jerry Ma (art director, SECRET IDENTITIES)
• Allan Norico (writer/artist, THINGS I’VE SEEN AT SHOWS)
• Khoi Pham (artist, MIGHTY AVENGERS)
• Misako Rocks! (writer/artist, BIKER GIRL)
• Sarah Sapang (artist, “16 Miles,” SECRET IDENTITIES)
• Christina Strain (colorist, RUNAWAYS)
• Alex Tarampi (artist, “Gaman,” SECRET IDENTITIES)
• Tak Toyoshima (writer/artist, SECRET ASIAN MAN)
• Paul Wei (writer/artist, THE ADVENTURES OF MAXWELL & GRANDMA)
• Ken Wong (writer/artist, SCHRODINGER’S CAT)


COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
The event will be divided into three tracks: Reading Comics, Making Comics, and Creator Spotlight. Each track includes a diverse range of interactive and immersive panels and workshops, featuring leading Asian and Asian American figures from comics, literature and academia.


Reading Comics


How do we read comic books today? This track answers this question by putting comic book artists at the same table with novelists, professors and industry professionals. A mash-up of fan convention, Asian American studies conference and literary festival, this one-of-a-kind series of panels and readings confronts pressing issues, such as the globalization of pop culture, the representation of Asian Americans in comics, and, of course, the nature of nerdiness.


Sessions Include:


· Nerdpop: The Rise of the Nerds!: Asian Americans have long been stereotyped as “nerds,” but nerdiness has become something to celebrate. With the rise of digital culture and the mainstreaming of comic books and other once nerdy genres, nerds have gone from persecuted minority to masters of the universe. This panel examines the historical development of nerd identity, particularly among Asian Americans, and the aesthetics of nerd pride. Moderated by Hua Hsu, professor, English, Vassar College, featuring panelists Ben Nugent, author, American Nerd; Derek Kirk Kim, artist/writer, Same Difference & Other Stories; and Keith Chow, senior editor, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

· Every Comic Is Asian American: The most prominent Asian American comic characters have typically been slanty-eyed sidekicks and supervillains, speaking in broken English and colored the shade of school buses. This panel starts with an all-star line-up of novelists and poets re-imagining their favorite comic book characters as Asian American and continues with a panel of professors, artists, and journalists discussing how Asian Americans have been represented in graphic novels. Moderated by Ken Chen, executive director of The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, featuring panelists like Ed Lin, author, Waylaid and This Is a Bust; Monica Ferrell, author, The Answer Is Always Yes; Monica Youn, author, Ignatz (forthcoming); Vyshali Manivannan, author, Invictus; Paolo Javier, author, 60 lv Bo(e)mbs; and Karl Taro Greenfeld, author, Speed Tribes

· The Asianization of Pop Culture: The rise of the graphic novel could really be described as the Asianization of American pop culture. In fact, the graphic novel renaissance has in many ways been powered by the popularity of manga, Japanese comics that still account for half of the new comics released in the America today. Panelists discuss the influence of manga, manhwa, and anime on American comics and American pop culture more generally. Moderated by Kai-Ming Cha, comics and manga reporter, Publishers Weekly, featuring panelists Aimee Bahng, assistant professor, English, Dartmouth College; Kuo-Yu Liang, VP, Sales & Marketing, Diamond Book Distributors; Ken Okabayashi, founder of Piggy Back Studios; and Misako Rocks!, artist/writer, Biker Girl

· The New Villains: Muslim insurgents. Chinese spies. North Korean dictators. Is it just us, or are Asians increasingly being cast in the role of the global evildoer? What’s the history of the portrayal of villainous Asians in comics and cartoon art, how does that history shape what we’re seeing in those fields today, and what does this mean for Asians and Asian Americans in the real world? Moderated by Jeff Yang, editor-in-chief, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, featuring panelists Larry Hama, creator, G.I. Joe mythology; William F. Wu, author, Hong on the Range and The Yellow Peril; Tyler Chin-Tanner, artist/writer, American Terrorist; and Sharad Devarajan, CEO, Liquid Comics


Track Two: Making Comics
This track focuses on the art and business of making comics— from alt-comics and literary graphic fiction to mainstream superhero books and syndicated strips. Featured workshops will include a hands-on demonstration by leading creators; explorations of the business side of comics; and other sessions highlighting comics as a profession, a discipline, an art form and a commercial landscape.


Sessions include:


· Writers’ Bloc: Writers of indie and superhero comics and a syndicated comic strip discuss the craft of scripting sequential art and their strategies for tackling everyday creative challenges. Moderated by Greg Pak, writer, The Incredible Hulk and War Machine, featuring panelists Fred Chao, artist/writer, Johnny Hiro; Larry Hama, creator, G.I. Joe mythology; Christine Norrie, artist/writer, Cheat; and Tak Toyoshima, artist/writer, Secret Asian Man

· Visual Storytelling—The Art of Collaboration: Top graphical storytellers share their experiences and tips for making the most of the challenges and opportunities of collaboration between pencillers, inkers, colorists, and writers. Moderated by Greg Pak, writer, The Incredible Hulk and War Machine, featuring panelists Sean Chen, artist, Iron Man; Daniel Ketchum, editor, Marvel Comics; Derek Kirk Kim, artist/writer, Same Difference & Other Stories; Khoi Pham, artist, Mighty Avengers; and Christina Strain, colorist, Runaways

· Visual Storytelling—Hands On: A diverse group of acclaimed artists sketch in real time as they discuss their different approaches in making creative choices. Moderated by Greg Pak, writer, The Incredible Hulk and War Machine, featuring panelists Bernard Chang, artist, Wonder Woman; Fred Chao, artist/writer, Johnny Hiro; Cliff Chiang, artist, Green Arrow/Black Canary; and Misako Rocks!, artist/writer, Biker Girl

· The Business of Comics: For anyone who’s ever dreamed of joining the comics world, here’s your chance to get an insider’s look at the commercial side of graphical storytelling. Comic book pros from every corner of the biz introduce their fields and discuss breaking in, maintaining a career, and keeping up with what the future has in store. Moderated by Jennifer Lee, former editor, Marvel and DC Comics, featuring panelists Bernard Chang, artist, Wonder Woman; Fletcher Chu-Fong, manager, Events & Retail, DC Comics; Kuo-Yu Liang, VP, Sales & Marketing, Diamond Book Distributors; Arune Singh, sales coordinator, Marvel Comics; Tak Toyoshima, artist/writer, Secret Asian Man; and Sharad Devarajan, CEO, Liquid Comics


Track Three: CREATOR SPOTLIGHT Sessions
In this track top comics creators paired with interesting counterparts (outside of comics) for one-on-one discussions covering craft, inspirations and influences, shared themes and future collaborations.


Sessions Include:


· Similar Differences—SPOTLIGHT on Derek Kirk Kim: A candid discussion with the brilliant author and artist of Same Difference and Other Stories and co-creator, with Gene Yang, of the new graphic novel The Eternal Smile. Moderated by Jeff Yang, editor-in-chief, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

· From Chop-Chop to Silver Samurai—SPOTLIGHT ON: William F. Wu: A guided tour with science fiction legend William F. Wu, as he shares samples from his collection of thousands of comics depicting Asian images…good, bad, and definitely ugly. Moderated by Jeff Yang, editor-in-chief, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

· Hama Time!—SPOTLIGHT on Larry Hama: Catching up with comics pioneer Larry Hama, creator of the G.I. Joe universe and winner of this year’s KIYAMA AWARD! Moderated by Keith Chow, senior editor, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

All tracks are open to all AACC registrants; however, to manage traffic flow and seating, we will ask registrants to tentatively identify which sessions they intend to join upon receiving confirmation of their attendance. Space for some sessions is limited, and will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, with VIP Pass holders receiving priority.


Tickets for the nonprofit Asian American ComiCon are $15 for students, $25 for adults (18 and older), and $75 for a special VIP Pass, entitling the bearer to priority reserved seating at all panels and workshops, a complimentary Asian American graphic novel, signed by its creators, and an original sketch from one of the artists participating in the event’s Artists Alley. Registration will be limited to 250 attendees, and is available in advance through the following link: https://www.nycharities.org/event/event.asp?CE_ID=4187


In addition, DISCOUNTED ADMISSIONS are available through the following sponsoring organizations. TO REGISTER AT DISCOUNTED RATES, CALL BEATRICE CHEN at the Museum of Chinese in America, 212.619.4785 x104 and provide an authorized discount code. Note: All passes may sell out before the day of the event.


For more information, please visit www.aacomicon.com

Tribeca: Jimmy J. Aquino's Lacuna Matata, Part 1

This is the first in a series of posts I'm calling "Lacuna Matata," in which I attempt to preserve the fading memory of TV shows (or in some cases, comic books) that no one except me remembers watching because the networks somehow Lacuna'd these things from everyone's noggins.

Buried somewhere in my old VHS collection at my parents' house is a tape in shabby condition that contains the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode that guest-starred Harrison Ford and the first two episodes of Tribeca, a pretty good, rarely seen 1993 anthology series that was filmed on location in New York and lasted only seven weeks on Fox.

A decade before Robert De Niro and his Tribeca Productions business partner Jane Rosenthal co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival, the two producers used the Lower Manhattan neighborhood as the setting for what was essentially a throwback to the highbrow '50s and '60s TV dramas that were made during "a time when socially-conscious New Yorkers ruled the airwaves," as Maclean's' Jaime J. Weinman describes the New York-centric early years of scripted TV. That somber, East Side/West Side-esque approach meant this anthology drama, which focused on a different Tribeca resident or two each week, fit right in on the Simpsons and Married... with Children network's schedule about as well as Carrie Prejean at an opposite couples pride parade.

There are two things I saw while growing up that made me think to myself, "Wow, despite the cockroaches and occasional muggers, New York ain't such a bad place after all and I want to move there someday": Ghostbusters and Fox's Tribeca. The show also gave me my first glimpse of Kevin Spacey, who guest-starred as a suicidal singer/songwriter--and got to show off his singing voice--in an episode that reunited him with Tribeca showrunner David J. Burke, who previously co-created the classic Wiseguy arc that gave Spacey his big break. Burke's taste for downbeat, untidy endings--a frequent element of his writing on Wiseguy--also gave Tribeca at the time a certain edge over network dramas not called Homicide.

Though it was an anthology show, Tribeca had a two-man regular cast (Philip Bosco as a kindly coffeehouse owner and Joe Morton as an equally kindly patrolman who looked like he came from Law & Order: Mounted Police Unit) and some nice bits of continuity (a character like a homeless war vet played by Stephen Lang would briefly appear one week and then turn up as the main character the following week). Like many other anthologies, Tribeca didn't always hit one out the park, but when it did, it was network TV at its best. The series' strongest episode was the first one, "The Box," which featured a standout Emmy-winning performance by a fresh-off-Boyz N the Hood Laurence Fishburne as a plainclothes cop who's obsessed with both finding the mugger who killed his stockbroker brother (Carl Lumbly) and opening a puzzle box that his brother gave to him before he died.

With its all-black guest cast, "The Box" is also a great 45-minute argument for the need for more network drama series with casts that consist mostly of actors of color. It's a shame that the five networks have been willing to take a chance on all-black sitcoms but not all-black dramas, possibly because of the low ratings of past dramas like Avery Brooks' A Man Called Hawk, James Earl Jones' Under One Roof and Blair Underwood's City of Angels. Sixteen years after its initial broadcast, "The Box" is sadly, still a rarity rather than the norm.

I remember seeing the reclusive De Niro make a surprise appearance in a Fox promo a la John Wayne's 1955 Gunsmoke series premiere intro to get Fox viewers to tune in to his show. No such luck. One other thing I remember about Tribeca was its cool opening and closing theme, an instrumental version of "Keep It Goin'," a James Brown-sampling 1992 track by largely forgotten alt-rap artist and A.V. Club "Least Essential Albums of the '90s" nominee Me Phi Me.

Tribeca is such an obscure series that there are no YouTube clips or .jpgs from the series online (the only pictures that turn up in Google image searches for Tribeca are pics of either De Niro or the neighborhood skyline). So as you listen to the Me Phi Me tune (that is if you can find it online), just stare at the photo of the Tribeca skyline at the top of this post, and you'll get a pretty accurate recreation of the Tribeca opening titles, which consisted of nothing but whip pans across the Tribeca streets and skyline. If you want to see whip pans, just hit yourself in the head with a skillet.

Unemployment Olympics

There needs to be a West Coast version of these games, which were held for the unemployed at Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan today. I'd sign up for them in a heartbeat:

Four events were planned: "Pin the Blame on the Boss," a "You're Fired" race, piñata-bashing and the highly anticipated fax machine toss, which had to be nixed at the last minute, to much heartbreak. The parks department balked at the idea of having office equipment hoisted aloft ("dangerous," said a spokeswoman) and then smashing to the ground ("which is essentially littering," per the spokeswoman), so Mr. Goddard substituted "Office Phone Skee-Ball," which also involved hurling office equipment about, albeit equipment of a smaller sort.

I have an idea for an Unemployment Olympics event: "Diversion." The competitors have to come up with the cleverest way to get rid of an annoying chatterbox co-worker who won't leave their cubicle.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993-2009)

I remember first becoming a fan of Late Night with Conan O'Brien--despite its tired gags about docile Asian (or rather, gaysian) male hookers--back when Conan and Andy did a clever series of shows called "Time Travel Week," and during a reenactment of a Civil War battle on Civil War Night, they brought out ultra-frail Civil War veteran Carl "Oldy" Olsen (a character who was retired in 1998 after the actor who played him died). That's how old of a Conan viewer I am.

Everyone's chiming in with their favorite memories of Conan's Late Night run (the Masturbating Bear, Triumph at the Attack of the Clones line, the Walker, Texas Ranger Lever, the writers' strike shows), and sure, those are all amusing moments, but I'm more fond of the weirder, lesser-known bits that haven't been featured in any of the clip montages that Conan has shown during his final Late Night week, like "Time Travel Week" and the following:

- The Hunky Newcomer, an O.C.-ish intern who squints his eyes and pouts to the accompaniment of Simple Plan's "Welcome to My Life."

- Conan experiments with having an all-kid studio audience for an entire show. Whenever the testy six- to eight-year-olds express their boredom with guests Dave Foley and Myron Kandel from CNN, Conan either brings out the Boredom Monster to entertain the kids or gets the CNN financial expert to stand up and do the Chicken Dance.

- "Max on Max," a porno video of a naked Max Weinberg humping a naked Max Weinberg.

- A lengthy parody of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same and its dream sequences, in which the pale Late Night host proceeds to blind viewers' eyes by unbuttoning his shirt and imitating Robert Plant.

- Conan and Andy can barely keep their composure while a robot shits into a toilet during one of their "Staring Contests."

- Conan realizes the stupidity of his campaign for a 10th anniversary rerelease of Dirty Dancing after he plays back Jennifer Grey and Jerry Orbach's unintentionally funny crying scene (which Conan later reenacted with Orbach when he guested on the show).

- The search for Grady from Sanford & Son.

- Andy's little sister Stacy, who's obsessed with Conan. (She was played by a pre-SNL Amy Poehler.)

- The audience's horrified responses to Mick Jagger and Uma Thurman's "If They Mated" baby. The kid has such a disgusting-looking face it makes the V lizard baby look adorable.


- Years before Conan found comedy gold in the immensely popular Walker Lever, Polly the NBC Peacock shows Conan a clip of a badly aging Chuck Norris as part of a jab at craggy old CBS. The elderly Norris impersonator's fighting moves are priceless.

- Wrist Hulk.

- After a sketch in which Superman flies home to find Lois Lane in bed with her lesbian lover and he starts to masturbate, the camera cuts back to the actor who's playing Superman. He's still rubbing his chest long after the sketch ended, and a mock-disgusted Conan runs over to stop him.

- Conan and Andy watch a clip of the new Ninja Turtles ripoff Embryonic Rockabilly Polka-Dotted Fighter Pilots.



- Conan shows a blooper montage of Mr. T cracking up during the taping of a classic remote in which they went on an apple-picking field trip. T's pig-snort laugh is so bizarre and hilarious that viewers ask Conan to air the blooper montage again.

- The day after a fire chases Late Night out of Studio 6A, Conan tapes an entire show outside the building, near the Rockefeller Center skating rink. Left without a clip to plug guest Samuel L. Jackson's The Long Kiss Goodnight, Conan has to rely instead on a flipbook of the scene they were going to show. Then when people walk onto the makeshift set without realizing Conan and Andy are taping, Conan says, "It doesn't get any crappier than this."

- Though a 2003 New York blackout forces 30 Rock to turn to reserve power, Conan and announcer Joel Godard attempt to do the show with only flashlights to light the studio. But after about 15 minutes, they give up, turn off their flashlights and cut to a rerun.

- A forgotten uncomfortable moment, and it's not exactly funny or a favorite moment, but it's interesting because it shows how closely tied Conan is to SNL, which gave him his big break as a TV writer: in 1998, he asked Chris Rock about his upcoming projects, and Rock joked, "I'll be in Lethal Weapon 4, starring Brynn Hartman." Then the audience booed. (Brynn Hartman was Phil Hartman's wife. She killed her husband and then herself a few months before Rock made the joke.) Conan tried to defuse the situation by saying, "It's okay. We knew them. We can joke about it."

- "Clutch Cargo" Bob Dole (voiced by Robert Smigel) longs for his previous life as a pirate: "Oh, how I miss Squawky."

Oh, how I miss Late Night with Conan O'Brien already.

NYCC bound

From February 5 through 8, I'll be making my first visit to the New York Comic Con to get interviewed by the Comic News Insider folks and to meet other comics writers, as well as artists who are way better at this drawing thing than I am.

This will be my first trip to NYC since 2005. On my old jim.aquino.com site, I posted a gallery of snapshots I took of Manhattan when I hung around there in '05. Because jim.aquino.com is no longer on the Web, I'm reposting some of my favorite shots from my NYC photo gallery, as well as the original gallery text, which is in italics.

-----

From 2005:

I flew to New York in early October for a long-overdue break from work and radio projects. During my brief trip, I enjoyed my first-ever egg cream (do believe the hype) and checked out both the first annual New York Television Festival in Chelsea and a screening of the controversial Korean movie The President's Last Bang at the New York Film Festival (a terrific film--my favorite politically charged dark comedy since Three Kings). I would love to live in New York someday. It's my kind of town. I wonder if there are any Fistful fans in NYC. If you're a New Yorker who tunes in, next time I'm in town, holla at me. However, I'm an Internet radio show host, and we're not quite known for having recognizable faces, so hollering at me can be kind of tricky.


The East River, where hundreds of disobedient Mafiosos are dumped each year.


King Kong climbed this and got killed. Sixty-seven years later, that guy from Rage Against the Machine pulled a King Kong onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards, and it was his band's career that got killed.


Who's this handsome fella?


Too bad I wasn't there the day those guys in Stormtrooper costumes goosestepped all over Times Square to pimp some new Star Wars PS2 game. When I saw that Times Square Stormtrooper photo online, I thought it was some archive photo from 1999 showing how Giuliani enforced his homeless policies.


Hey, it's Robert Blake on the NBC Astrovision. And even when Baretta's face is as tiny as it is in that photo, he still creeps me out.


I don't know why I like looking at this billboard. Can someone find out why?


"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the parasites known as the tabloid press and the jurors who'd rather not be there. These are their stories."


"Shame on you when you step through to the Ol' Dirty Bastard, Brooklyn Zoo!"


The Sung Tak Buddhist Temple. Wow, I didn't know BJs are that cheap in Manhattan.


Hey, young Meredith Baxter, easy on the cigarette. It's only a Marlboro, not Tommy Lee's cock.