Staying up late while browsing the web, I stumbled across a YouTube video that caught my attention. “Hi, I’m Dr. HanatewakusoshiseoTadashiteteriyakisuzukihondacivic and I’m going to be making you a little less dumb with every video” Ryan Higa said.
The voice came from a highly attractive, Asian boy with smooth skin, high cheekbones, black, short hair styled with auburn highlights. He wore a black blouse, diamond- studded earrings and spoke behind a white background that gave his phony doctor persona an air of realistic sophistication.
“My goal is to increase the vocabulary of every kid, parent, auntie, uncle, dog, cat, frog, and so on,” Higa said. “Today’s word is the word, ‘Powned.’”
Those who follow gaming or recall the pop-culture word will find the video particularly funny.
The video’s creator, Ryan Higa, has a YouTube audience fan base of over 1 million viewers and over 100,000 myspace friends. He is a Hawaii Native studying film at University of Nevada Las Vegas and has his own video production company.
His YouTube videos are silly, creative concoctions like “How to Be Emo,” “How to be Ninja” and “How to be Gangsta.” Higa and his friends parody video game fighting references, “Mortality,” pop music and whatever else they can get their hands on. Higa lip-syncs to his own Ninja song, creates a dialog between Chris Brown and Rihanna by playing both of them and in a recent video mocks the “Shamwow” informercial.
Check out Higa’s “Nigahiga” Youtube profile at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab5lwgcJRiE
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Easter Sunday
The Vibrant energy of church enriched my spirit as I drove from Hacienda Christian Fellowship in La Puente back to Ontario. It was Easter Sunday and you could feel it in the air-the colorful attire of congregation members, radiant peacefulness of the day, little children with their families. I had attended a sermon on the resurrection of Jesus and felt a little uneasy at times, not because I was there as a journalist, because I was there as a non-Christian.
"I’m going to ask you to mingle with strangers for two minutes” said the first speaker. I shook hands, greeting those around me, opening myself to others for the first minute. After that, I clammed up, and went to go sit down. I felt a few tears coming, but held them back. I was thinking how it was harder for me to open myself up to people than it was for others. It was a powerful worship service, as cathartic as church often is-singing, praying, connecting with others, and word of the divine.
“Most of us see death as the point of no return,” Pastor Romero said. He referenced his exposure to various religions as a professor of religion at Mt. SAC. He said that he did not believe in reincarnation, but that the spirit continues after death in one direction or another. He wasn’t like most reverends I had heard before with his use of humor and highly captivating speech. With his sermon, the modern church band, and a visceral theatrical scene of a turbulent marriage salvaged through prayer and love, it was an intense service.
When I arrived at home, the spirit of Easter Sunday was still with me. From my bedroom, I heard my neighbor playing with a puppy. Should I go outside and make a connection with the neighbors? Should I attempt to step over all the pain and unkind words members of that family had caused me in the past? Should I vulnerably extend my hand forward again, hoping that my good intents will finally meet good ends? My neighbor’s girlfriend was there, so I hesitantly glanced in their yard. No, not this time. I sat down on the porch, warming myself in the sun. I saw the back of her long black hair, and black clothes as she walked around the front of the house.
"I’m going to ask you to mingle with strangers for two minutes” said the first speaker. I shook hands, greeting those around me, opening myself to others for the first minute. After that, I clammed up, and went to go sit down. I felt a few tears coming, but held them back. I was thinking how it was harder for me to open myself up to people than it was for others. It was a powerful worship service, as cathartic as church often is-singing, praying, connecting with others, and word of the divine.
“Most of us see death as the point of no return,” Pastor Romero said. He referenced his exposure to various religions as a professor of religion at Mt. SAC. He said that he did not believe in reincarnation, but that the spirit continues after death in one direction or another. He wasn’t like most reverends I had heard before with his use of humor and highly captivating speech. With his sermon, the modern church band, and a visceral theatrical scene of a turbulent marriage salvaged through prayer and love, it was an intense service.
When I arrived at home, the spirit of Easter Sunday was still with me. From my bedroom, I heard my neighbor playing with a puppy. Should I go outside and make a connection with the neighbors? Should I attempt to step over all the pain and unkind words members of that family had caused me in the past? Should I vulnerably extend my hand forward again, hoping that my good intents will finally meet good ends? My neighbor’s girlfriend was there, so I hesitantly glanced in their yard. No, not this time. I sat down on the porch, warming myself in the sun. I saw the back of her long black hair, and black clothes as she walked around the front of the house.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Still thinking
Behind squinting eyelids, I awoke, lifting my head and looking outside my bedroom window. A single penetrating blue light was surrounded in blackness. Mortality, I thought. What was the haunting apparition? It was the light coming from the apartment complex behind the church across the street. Oh, yeah, that’s right, I’d seen it so many times before.
Lately, the theme of death has come into the forefront, that recurrent chapter in the illusion of life. Seeing the scene of Carlos Sevilla’s fatal accident on Youtube, thinking of my neighbor’s passing again this time of year and the recent passing of a family friend. The details of the friend’s death are not quite clear; a possible heart attack was at work. All the melancholy things I want to say, how we are raised believing life is endless, until we are older and life starts slipping between our fingertips….I want to say how cheated I feel when I realize the harsh reality that it’s all ending, that life is only a brief phase….But I won’t. I’ll stop the impending tears, and breath. I’m breathing right now, but let me speak no more on these things. I’d rather maintain the illusion of life.
Tonight’s dark blue sky, glowing golden moon and grey clouds are haunting. I thought about all that’s been going on lately, the personal account I wrote about the time I was hit by a car. I thought about how my professor told me she was hit by a car, and the story I covered yesterday. Yesterday a female Mt. SAC student was hit by a car and flew three feet. She suffered mild head injury and was flown to USC Trauma Center. Today, I heard from a guy who supposedly held her and attended to her wounds before EMTS arrive, that she was back at home and doing okay. I’m glad for that.
Lately, the theme of death has come into the forefront, that recurrent chapter in the illusion of life. Seeing the scene of Carlos Sevilla’s fatal accident on Youtube, thinking of my neighbor’s passing again this time of year and the recent passing of a family friend. The details of the friend’s death are not quite clear; a possible heart attack was at work. All the melancholy things I want to say, how we are raised believing life is endless, until we are older and life starts slipping between our fingertips….I want to say how cheated I feel when I realize the harsh reality that it’s all ending, that life is only a brief phase….But I won’t. I’ll stop the impending tears, and breath. I’m breathing right now, but let me speak no more on these things. I’d rather maintain the illusion of life.
Tonight’s dark blue sky, glowing golden moon and grey clouds are haunting. I thought about all that’s been going on lately, the personal account I wrote about the time I was hit by a car. I thought about how my professor told me she was hit by a car, and the story I covered yesterday. Yesterday a female Mt. SAC student was hit by a car and flew three feet. She suffered mild head injury and was flown to USC Trauma Center. Today, I heard from a guy who supposedly held her and attended to her wounds before EMTS arrive, that she was back at home and doing okay. I’m glad for that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)