Rice Rockets

Yo, this is Abby. Today I’mma be blogging about rice rockets. I remember Irene telling us this could be a potential journal topic. So here it goes!

Rice rocket is a slang term that applies to Japanese made-sports bikes or motorcycles. The term comes from the origin of the vehicles, usually and most likely from Japan, which in their culture, and in every Asian culture, rice is important. And from the speed of the motorcycle, which is just like rocket. Most of us know the term as an imported Japanese car like the most common ones such as Toyota, Honda, and Acura, which are highly modified and customized within its body. The cars are usually lowered, has a body kit other than the stock body kit it comes with, large spoilers, lighting modification, changing the exterior paint and the decal signs, rims, and the loud mufflers.

Lately, I’ve been hearing the term “rice-rocket” as a stereotype for Asian men who actually drives rice rockets or just for an Asian man just because other people thinks that having a rice rocket is an Asian thing. I can say that is not true. I have a friend who is not Asian and has a rice rocket. His car is totally modified including turbo, which increases the car’s speed. I’ve also seen non-Asian drivers who have rice rockets for cars. I really think it’s because of the term, having the word “rice” in it.

I feel as though rice rockets started coming out after the movie “The Fast and The Furious”. Cars were more modified so they could be like the cars in the movie. I remember my guy cousin talking to me about fixing his car up. Not necessarily like the cars in the movie, but in a different way. I never really understood it because I had no interest in it. I drive a G35 now, and though all my guy cousins tell me to fix it up, I don’t want to. I’m fine with the way my car is now. In my opinion, I don’t need to do any modifications to my car. I have seen girls who drive rice rockets also. They have their Honda and change their exterior paint to candy pink or purple, even have matching pink or purple rims. At first it’s cute, but to me, it’s odd. They are very bright colors, and would easily stand out when speeding. I’ve seen rice rockets being used in street races. I have guy friends who fix up their cars on their own, and race them. I’ve always asked my one friend why he races. He always replies it’s the feeling it gives him, the speed, and knowing he is racing his own work. So in a way, it’s like showing off what he has done with his car.

CPG & Kamikaze's Cultural Guerilla InvASIAN Skit Midterm

Restuarant Review- Bistro Luneta

Hey guys, it’s Abby. I’mma be doing a restaurant review on Bistro Luneta.

Bistro Luneta is a Filipino restaurant that is located in San Mateo, 615 3rd Avenue. Although it is mainly Filipino dishes that are served, there is an American twist to each dish that made me question if I liked it or not. I went to Bistro Luneta a couple months ago for my boyfriend’s birthday. We had lunch there with his family. This place was suggested to his sister so we decided to give it a try. We went on a Saturday. So I assumed it would’ve been busy, or at least had a couple customers other than us there. But turns out to be, we were the only customers there. The design of the restaurant is very kool, very modern. They have large pictures of Luneta Philippines hung on the wall. You can see the kitchen from wherever you are sitting. It is open to the public- so the whole time, I was watching the chef cook. The menu, in my opinion, was typical Filipino food that you would see in any other Filipino restaurant. But prices were a bit high. It was family-style, but portions were very little. When the food was first served, I seriously did not know which was which. The pancit looked like a special combo of chow mien, the bistek was a big piece of steak that probably could feed about 3-4 people, but in our case, it fed 7, which was not enough, but was alright. We also had crispy pata, which is a pigs hind leg, but is deep fried and flavored. Aside from those, we had chicken, which was also deep fried. Just like I said in the beginning, these dishes were typical Filipino dishes, yet had an American twist to it. In my opinion, they were very Americanized. The taste tasted very different. In all Filipino restaurants that I go to, I always compare to my mom’s cooking, because my mom cooks very well. Others suggested that she should open up her own restaurant, but never did. I don’t know how it is like during dinner, but I would like to experience it to see if it’s any different. Anyways, Bistro Luneta was something new for me. I enjoyed the presentation of each dish- they were very unique in its own way. And the service was excellent, being that we were the only ones there. I would suggest this restaurant to anyone who is down to drive to San Mateo and would like to try Filipino food in a different way, and wouldn’t mind the prices!

Bistro Luneta
615 3rd Ave
Unit D
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 344-0041
www.bistroluneta.com

My Experience on the Cultural Guerilla Invasian Midterm

When I first saw pictures from last semester’s cultural guerilla invasion midterm, I thought it would be easy, but at the same time, I was kind of hesitant. I know performing is not my thing. So when my midterm group chose to do skit, since we didn’t want to do fashion, we were all wondering what we could do to link struggles from 40 years ago to now. So we all decided to perform on Wednesday, but I personally feel as though that was like our run through. People, myself included, were smiling and laughing, and was yelling out irrelevant things. I thought we didn’t take it serious enough. The main problem was the whole laughing issue. So last minute, we decided to change so one person wouldn’t feel as though he was being attacked and being put on the spot, to the group being protesters. We decided to perform again on Thursday which was much better. We felt a lot more confident because we had the whole class there watching us, as to Wednesday, people walking by would just look over and just continue walking. Watching my group perform felt as if we were 40 years back. From the moment we stepped out of the building, began chanting “On strike, we gotta shut it down..”. It really felt as though we WERE on strike, we WERE living our past. Thursday’s performance was also much better because of the location. It was outside of Malcolm X. Much more people stopped by and actually watched both groups perform. All the protesters in my group voiced out their opinions about AAS classes being cut drastically and how it will affect everyone who is taking AAS classes. Watching all the groups video’s made me feel proud of our class and what we have become. We all put our hard work and effort into this midterm, and cannot imagine what we can possibly do for our final!

-Abby Burgos

Midterm Reflection-Alvin Yu

This midterm was without question, one of the funnest and most significant activity, which drew much attention. Throughout this experience, yes, we failed to complete it the first try. This first try failed due to our laughing and goofing around. But the very next day, we united as a class to perform our skit in front of malcolm X plaza, which was extremely successful and motivating. I foudn this actviity not only interesting but it sparked my influence on the budget cut and cuts on the ethnic studies department. I believe the cuts is demoting our diversity around SFstate. And also, this is disrespecting and disregarding their actions of students and faculty 40 years ago who were involved in the strike. And 40 years later, they want to cut our classes and diversity? That will not happen!

I-Hotel-Alvin Yu

The I-hotel was one of the most influenctial events in history of those movements. During this urban renewal and redevelopment movement in the 1960s, the hotel was targeted for demolition. The first force evacuation was issued to residents in 1968. However, nine years of litigation, public protests, and disagreements between and among activists and public officials ensued. The residents were evacuated on August 4, 1977. In 1978, then the local Mayor created an International Hotel Citizens Advisory Committee, which was unable to separate between low-cost housing and the property owner. The building remained empty but was finally demolished in 1981. Countless international immigrants were forced to evacuate the hotel and live homlessly aroudn the streets. This video hit me hard as it demonstrated the struggles of international citizens as well as the unfair actions towards them.

40th experience by leslie lau

Expierience on the 40th
My experience with the 40th is probably very unique. I would have never thought how significant our ethnic studies was to the school. Before, I would be one of those students that would pass by the protesters or ignore the people who are trying to pass out flyers. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t care, but it didn’t really involve me or didn’t have time to stay and listen. I would just focus on my classes and shit. But this project help me open my eyes to a lot of things. Now when I walk by people who pass out flyers, I would take it and try to read and understand what they are talking about.
Although our initial skit attempt was tragic, the second skit was a lot better. There were a lot of laughing. I agree with some of my group members in which it was kind of hard to be the opposing side. And with the limited resources and time that we had, it made it even harder.
When we were doing the skit, (part 2, not part 1 lol) I felt a sense of pride when I am playing my part. I thought to myself, maybe that’s how they felt back then in the 40th. It was kind of cool how serious everybody was about the protest. How police was actually going to respond to our “demonstration”.

40 years later...

Hey everyone, it's Angelie. I apologize for not having my blogs up, but I finally found some time to do so. We only got about 3 weeks left until our big final and I must say we've covered a lot in this class despite only meeting 2 days out of the week. From being iron chefs to cultural guerillas, this class truly embraced the art of experience. Thanks to Irene and Lawrence for being great teachers that looked past the paper and pencil and into the heart of the matter!

40 years later...
In 1968, various student associated ethnic organizations came together to form the Third World Liberation Front to protest their rights and presents their demands. The SF State campus was shut down due to many altercations between students and police and reopened after 5 months. The longest campus strike in our nation's history resulted in the creation of a College of Ethnic Studies.

40 years later, our Ethnic Studies class commemorates the struggle through the forms of visuals, fashion, skits and poetry. As Cultural Guerillas we invaded the SFSU campus to put forth our opinions regarding the budget cut issue of today while remembering the demands fought for in '68. As the skit group, my group the CPG and Kamikaze, tried to reenact the TWLF Student Strike and include relative concerns of today. Our first attempt showed that we weren't too prepared since practically everyone smiled and laughed when we were supposed to be serious. I figured it was going to be tough without any support and seeing people pass by us with confusion. For our second attempt, we changed the whole skit completely and had people give mini speeches instead of Q&As. The outcome was a 360! Having the whole class there, going after the fashion group, and chanting "On strike, we're gonna shut it down!" helped make the performance feel more powerful and real. I honestly had chills seeing the looks on my classmates' faces and how passionate everyone was whether they were up on stage or in the crowd.

Given the news that our Ethnic Studies department was going to have to cut classes due to budget restraints made this assignment more significant. Learning about the history of different races and the stories of the people from the past is essentaial, especially when our campus has a load of diversity.

Inspiring. Empowering. Our Cultural Guerilla InvAsian was more than just a mid-term...

Props to everyone!

the experience

hi guys, it's ria and i just got home from our asian american culture class. on my bus ride home i did a lot of thinking with my headphones on blast just muting the whole world so i can find some sense in my life. and to be honest you may or may not be interested in what i say but i'll just be rambling about a lot of shit, so be prepared. okay, so we recently finished our midterms and i thought everyone done a great job. even though our first run wasn't as successful at least we gave it a good try. however, the second attempt was pretty nuts. like i honestly felt like we all forgot about the midterm and was fighting for something real. and in realism we were dealing with current issues with the budget cuts for our ethnic studies. the whole experience has made such a big impact in my life and i'm not even exaggerating or trying to sound cliche. but since day one this class has opened my eyes to new things and helped me experience new things. i never thought i'd be apart of a strike, so that was pretty cool. just feeding off of everyone's energy it felt so real to me. like right before i was about to make my speech i start bugging out. i'm not use to voicing my opinion to a crowd i've always kept it to myself or a minimal set of people. but you know deep down inside of me i wanted to do it like the beginning of this midterm i planned to be the camera man. so just being out there was just a whole new experience. it actually makes me want to get out there and support other shit you know. like ghandi said be the change you want to see in the world. i remember all through out out middle school and high school years we were experiencing so many cuts with teachers and classes. and the only teacher i truthfully believed i gained the most knowledge was from my middle school teacher ms. hughes who was a history teacher. but she was so dope no doubt, and i swear she reminds me of irene so much. she was all about the experience too like she dropped a lot of knowledge but she also taught us so much about ourselves. like she found beauty in culture, youth, history, etc. she was just so deep about everything touched every part of my soul sincerely. and you know what's some real bullshit she was one of the teachers that got cut and that took away a big part of me. like i was really hurt with their decisions because she loved her kids. she was all about empowering us to become the solutions to this fucked up world you know. and i feel irene is the same in so many ways. so i'd be damned if she got cut too. i just hate the fact that there's this "value" on our our education. because teachers like irene do so much more for us than they can imagine. like i feel they should be giving us more money to help eduate the youth after all we are the fucking "future". ahhh! okay this shit just got me hyped and i apologize for all the cussing haha. i'll leave this blog on this note. . .

"the problem with this song, is it's not long enough to say
how fucked up it is that we living this way
nothing is alright, but everything is okay
so we plan for tomorrow, but we live for today" --murs