Saturday, January 5, 2008

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo

Yeah, yeah, I still owe Heidi an Obama post, but this very blog--a groundbreaking melding of Korean and South Asian minds--would be nowhere without the original such collaborators. So, I give you...

4 comments:

E said...

i feel like every korean person i know in nyc - except me - has had a john cho sighting. oh the travesty!

btw, did you know kal penn was teaching a course at upenn (no joke, and maybe pun intended)? why can't asian actors just make lame stoner movies without going to teach about it at ivy league universities? just go ahead and become a doctor already.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1127

PHILADELPHIA - Kal Penn, star of the new film "The Namesake" and known for his role as Kumar in the movie "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," will be a guest instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. He will teach two undergraduate courses in the spring semester of 2008 tentatively titled "Images of Asian Americans in the Media" and "Contemporary American Teen Films."

"The Asian American Studies Program is delighted that Kalpen Modi, a.k.a. Kal Penn, chose our program to host his teaching engagement at Penn," Grace Kao, director of the Asian American Studies Program at Penn, said. "Mr. Modi is one of the leading Asian American actors of his generation and is particularly aware of how his racial and ethnic identification has affected his professional experiences."

According to Kao, the courses will be offered by Asian American Studies, and be cross-listed by Cinema Studies. Both programs are in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences.

Kal Penn's numerous television and film credits include the television series "24" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and films "Epic Movie," "Van Wilder," and "Van Wilder: The Return of Taj."

He currently stars as Gogol Ganguli in "The Namesake" and has just completed shooting on the tentatively titled "Harold and Kumar 2." A native of Montclair, N.J., Penn received his B.A. in sociology with a specialization in theater, film and television from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security at Stanford University.

cold4thestreets said...

Obvs, I knew that. When South Asians appear as stereotype-defying stoners in film and also act all brainiac, other South Asians tend to notice.

Is John Cho particularly visible to Koreans? Weird.

E said...

oh we all look alike to you, eh?

for the record, i also noticed steve park (of in living color "fame") walking around in my 'hood. it's like canadians: all koreans keep a master list of korean celebrities.

E said...

ooh, breaking news:

Asian American Bar Association of New York
NINETEENTH ANNUAL BANQUET
Celebrating the Lunar New Year

Thursday, February 7, 2008
Reception at 6 P.M.
Dinner at 7 P.M.

New York Marriott Marquis
Times Square
1535 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
(Black Tie Preferred)

Scheduled to Appear:

Master of Ceremonies
Yul Kwon
Winner of Survivor: Cook Islands