School of Rock
Three, Shirley Choi’s line of backpacks and messenger bags for kids and kids-at-heart, was created “for the inner rocker in every young woman.” The collection features hand-stitched detailing and too-cool-for-school embellishment, all at very child-friendly prices. Get 30 percent off and a free gift with purchase at www.threeusa.com. Use code THREE30 by June 30. (“Sleek” messenger bag, $29.99)
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By Oliver Saria
After nearly two decades in show business, the 41-year-old comedienne Margaret Cho still manages to surprise. And that’s saying a lot, given her penchant for raunchy, diarrhea-of-the-mouth overshare. In Cho Dependent, her new album of comedic songs, something else escapes her mouth besides her trademark explicit rants and shrill imitations of her mother. Who knew the diva of the disenfranchised had some pretty legit vocal chops? It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a few rock n’ roll luminaries as friends. Her list of collaborators on the album include Tegan and Sara, Fiona Apple, Ani DiFranco, Ben Lee, Grant Lee Phillips, A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers, and Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs. The result is a delightfully exuberant album that includes melodic drug-inspired pop (“Calling in Stoned”), a club-thumpin’ dance number about sperm donation, a Dylan-esque folk anthem for head lice, a perfectly titled torch song (“Eat Sh-t and Die”), and a lush, “wall-of-sound” ode to cock. Overall, Cho Dependent delivers both musically and comically. (Unlike, say, Eddie Murphy’s ill-conceived R&B album, How Could It Be, which was laughable and not in a good way.) Margaret manages to do justice to both. And if her fans have their way, the album could land her on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Cho Dependent drops on August 24, and her nationwide tour kicks off in Portland two days later. We caught up with Margaret while she was in Atlanta shooting Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime), currently in its second season.
Who’s the lucky bastard whose junk you’ve immortalized in the song “Your Dick?”
It’s not about a specific person per se, and it’s not even necessarily about a man either. Because you know what lesbians get to do? Lesbians get to actually go shopping and purchase the dick.
The production on that song is so grand.
It’s a huge song for a huge topic.
I think the song “Gimme Your Seed” should be pumped in the lobby of every sperm bank in the nation. How did that song come about?
I was doing a song with [producer/musician] Meghan [Toohey]. Meghan is trying to have a baby with her girlfriend, so they wanted to write a song about it. And Meghan suggested the idea of doing the song “Gimme Your Seed.” So I basically just lifted the lyrics to an already written song called “Semen” and brought them into the session. But then at the last minute I switched the lyrics because it was so raunchy. Sometimes I get real Korean and Christian. Sometimes I will write stuff and then I’m embarrassed to do it onstage.
Wow, I think people would be surprised to hear that you ever hold back, especially since fisting is a frequent on-stage topic for you.
Yeah, I have a real Korean side to me sometimes.
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South Korean rocker Shin Joong Hyun has been compared to Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. So why have so few heard of him? A recently released anthology aims to rectify the oversight.
by Christina Lee
In 1972, Shin Joong Hyun wrote the song that ended his career.
“Beautiful Rivers and Mountains” is a 10-minute procession, though Shin and his band—simply called The Men—sound bleary-eyed at first. A bass guitar trembles on its own pulse to a militaristic beat, and Shin practically whispers as he and bandmate Park Guang-su sing (lyrics here are translated from Korean), “Blue sky, white clouds / A light breeze fills up my mind.” Shin’s guitar then blares and quickly disperses like radio signals as The Men depict the countryside they’re seeking: the brilliant red sun, the salty ocean waves. “We will live together in the far future / forever here with new dreams / I want to make that happen,” Shin and his band sing.
This was more than just a call to return to greener pastures. Between the lines, then-South Korean President Park Chung-hee and his authoritarian government heard fighting words from Shin. A few weeks prior, Shin had declined two requests from the Blue House—South Korea’s White House—to write propaganda anthems praising Park’s dictatorship. Instead, Shin wrote and recorded “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains,” a paean to the country’s natural beauty, and premiered it on national television.
Park’s government acted swiftly. Even though Shin, then 34, was one of South Korea’s biggest rock stars, his music was decreed too vulgar or noisy, and he was banned from performing. Then, in 1975, Shin was arrested for marijuana possession, taking him out of South Korea’s burgeoning rock scene.
After his release, Shin fled the country. But first, he sold his instruments to support his wife and kids. “I felt like I was giving away a piece of my skin,” the musician, now 73, recalled in an email interview from Seoul, where he resides.
It would turn out that he lost even more than that.
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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