"...the Asian man isn't as respected in our society as he should be... He is often ridiculed, but rarely taken seriously," Daniel Negreanu said.

Those who know me know that I like poker. I've been playing since I was a kid when I'd hang around watching my uncles play stud - later I learned draw and even lowball. But I never took it seriously until the poker explosion a few years back, no doubt brought on by the Net and Chris Moneymaker's win in the WSOP main event.

Most think that Vegas is the capitol of poker and rightly so, but what's significant is that LA is a major location in the poker world. As such, it's a huge contributor to the phenomenon of so many good Asian players in the poker world, what with such a high percentage of Asians to begin with here. The first time I walked into the Commerce Casino, reportedly one of the largest poker palaces in the world and one of the major stops in the poker world, I couldn't believe it; table after table with Asians, all grinding away (that didn't come out right, but for those unfamiliar, it's poker parlance). On top of that the vast majority of dealers are Asian, male and female.

Which is all prelude to the following article by Daniel Negreanu, who's one of the poker world's most respected players and a good guy that everyone likes. Since I've been watching poker on TV I've always thought like Negreanu in terms of (Indonesian-American) John Juanda - the guy's a consistently remarkable player and the fact that Negreanu wrote what he did about Juanda is really cool. The fact that Negreanu's one of poker's elite players and wrote this is pretty amazing.

Oh, and I could be wrong, but I believe he has a thing for Asian women. But anyway...

From Card Player, no date; see hyperlink.
Asian Poker Players

I grew up in Toronto, which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. It was common in a classroom of 30 kids to see 20 countries represented. While growing up, I saw that racism was virtually a non-issue. If you watched the news, you'd see a Jamaican woman doing the weather, an Indian woman covering entertainment, a Chinese man covering business, a black man doing sports, and the anchors were from Greece, Italy, Russia, or Israel. Talk about a melting pot, Toronto was like a utopia of peace and harmony among cultures. I'm so proud of my hometown, and I know for a fact that it's had a very positive effect on my view of the world.

Having said that, in the poker world today, I'm not so sure that I see the same respect for other cultures that I did back in Toronto. I think the most neglected group of poker players are the Vietnamese. When I say neglected, I'm referring to the amount of media attention they get for their accomplishments. There are two exceptions, of course, Scotty Nguyen and Men "The Master" Nguyen. They garner their fair share of attention because both are very colorful characters. I could provide you a list of Vietnamese players whom you rarely hear much about who play much better than many of the players that ESPN spends a lot of time covering. Nam Le, Hung La, David Pham, John Phan, J.C. Tran, Can Kim Hua, Minh Nguyen, Vinnie Vinh, Tuan Le, and so many more that I could fill the rest of a page. And I didn't even touch upon the great side-action players, such as Ming Lau, Chau Giang, Danny Dang, and others.

So, why is it that we hear more about Dutch Boyd on ESPN than we do Minh Nguyen? Well, the answer should be obvious to most: It's all about marketing. American culture doesn't embrace Asian heroes very readily. You can look at Hollywood as a perfect example of that; you don't see many Asian actors headlining blockbuster films (outside of Jackie Chan, of course).

Overall, the Asian man isn't as respected in our society as he should be, in my opinion. He is often ridiculed, but rarely taken seriously.

Oftentimes, the language barrier is a big reason why it's hard for us to relate to the Asian poker player. Many of the successful Asian players on the tournament circuit speak broken English, and that doesn't necessarily make for "good TV," which is what it's all about these days.

Perhaps the most underrated and neglected superstar in our game today is John Juanda. Without question, John has been the most successful tournament player in the world over the last five years. His consistency is unrivaled. If you had to pick one guy to make a final table, your best bet would be John Juanda, hands down. Yet, I'll often read the message boards on the Internet and notice that John's name is rarely mentioned among the lists of greats. Those lists are often laughable, obviously, but John's name should be a mainstay on any list of "superstar" players. His results speak for themselves.

Does all of this matter in the bigger scheme of things? No, I guess not. But it has always bothered me when soft-spoken, well-mannered poker players aren't recognized for their ability and are pushed to the back, while the loud and boorish take center stage. Now, John Juanda is hardly soft-spoken! If you know John as well as I do, you know that he is a master in the art of the needle. He is an absolute joker at the poker table, needling anybody and everybody. His humor is always good-natured, of course, but I personally don't think John's personality has really shone through on television the way it should. That's too bad, too, because John has really come up with some zingers!

On another note, it's very hard to ignore how successful the Asian players are in tournament poker. Of the top 20 in Card Player's Player of the Year Standings, nine are Asian (eight are Vietnamese and one is from Indonesia). So, what is it about the Vietnamese that makes them so good? Is it in their blood? Are they naturally smarter than people in most other cultures?

John Juanda came up with a theory that I thought was very profound. He explained to me that when he first came to this country, he spoke little if any English. So, when he played poker, all he did was watch the action and study people's body language. If someone was talking to him, he couldn't understand what the person was saying, but based on body language and facial expressions, he would make educated guesses as to what the person was saying. John went on to say, "You learn a lot more by listening than you do by talking." Think about that for a moment, as I think it's a great life lesson.

I have asked others for their opinions as to why Asians seem to do so well as a whole in poker, and have heard a wide variety of answers: "They are hungry. They work hard because they know they have to." "They don't take things for granted." "They have a lot of heart." All of those responses seem to be reasonable explanations, as far as I'm concerned.

More specifically, there is yet another group of totally neglected poker players in our society - Asian women. If you look around the high-limit sections in either L.A. or Vegas, you'll see that the limit hold'em games are chock-full of strong, aggressive Asian females. In the ladies event this year at the World Series of Poker, there were four Asian women at the final table: Huong Doan, Millie Shiu, Tracy Phan, and Karina Jett. Where did they finish at that final table? First, second, third, and fourth, respectively.

For Ladies Night II on the World Poker Tour, a tournament was held with more than 300 players for the last seat in the televised event. Who won it? Lavinna Zhang, who'd been playing for just six months. Then, at that WPT final table, she played brilliantly and easily could have hit the parlay, coming in second to Isabel Mercier.

I'm not really sure the rest of the world is noticing how strong the Asians are in the poker world, but I'm writing this column to let everyone know that I've sure noticed!

The Mads of March

Those of you who don't speak Hoopanese, I apologize, but I'm gonna talk a bit - just for a bit - as the second round of my favorite sporting event is ON.

First, the bruins looked really shaky yesterday. Going into this match, the first time I've seen Kelvin Sampson outside of Oklahoma, which is weird in itself, I didn't know anything about the 2007 Hoosiers. But I've always respected Sampson - a player's coach who always produced solid defensive teams.

The Bruins eventually found some of themselves in the second half but for 2/3rds of that game it was a defensive doo-doo fest. Luc Richard was a stud as usual, but Shipp was invisible and Afflolo didn't play up to his Pac 10 Player of the Year status. Mata was Mata. Collison found some of his stuff in the second half, but the Bruins are FAR from playing championship caliber ball. One of the big problems on offense is that they stumble against the zone. Another is that defenses are - if they're smart - keying on Afflolo. The Bruins must have more balanced scoring, and desperately need Shipp to step up and produce 12-16 -- NOW. I think he needs to average 14 here on out for us to have a shot.

On the plus side, I thought the Bruins, particularly Afflolo, did some good things at the right times, by driving to the basket and forgetting about these 18-20 footer low percentage shots. This saw Afflolo getting to the line, where he's solid. And that strategy's crucial in crunch time.

Sweet 16 is Howland's old school, Pitt, a #3 seed, and the bookies prolly have this as UCLA giving 3. I have it a coin flip.

The number 1 seed Ohio State (like UCLA, another former #1 during the regular season) number 9 seed Xavier game was a HEARTBREAKER... X had a NINE POINT LEAD WITH ABOUT 3 MINUTES... I was pulling so hard for X who then had a 2 point lead, seconds left, and were at the line with Justin Cage shooting... made the first, MISSED the second... and Ron Lewis hits the 3 ball to send it into OT - the first of THREE OT games for Saturday...

At that point, I was reminded of Joe Peci's Joey Lamotta, watching his brother Jake/Deniro on TV fighting the great Sugar Ray, and saying, "That's it." And then Ray moves in for the kill...

Little Miss Sunshine

Because of its charm and guise as a "comedy" - as satire or black comedy, depending upon who's commenting - Little Miss Sunshine has so far failed to gather the kind of commentary I think it rightly deserves.

I was lucky enough to see a screening of LMS with Mitchy, where after the screening writer Michael Arndt came out and interviewed with Jeff Goldsmith of Creative Screenwriting. He seems like a cool guy and was insightful as to his process and intent, and, as a bonus, your hero answered one of the pre-screening trivia questions and won a one sheet which was to be signed by Arndt afterwards. (Q: What movie did Alan Arkin star in along with Art Garfunkel, Charles Grodin and Orson Welles? A: Catch 22 - and talk about a star-studded cast...)

At this point, let me just say that it's rare that I think a movie's worth writing about, let alone seeing again. But there was - and is - something about LMS that haunted me after that first screening. I'm serious.

So I rented it and showed it on separate times to moms, Cooky and Fish. I wanted to find the key, and about half way through the second viewing it fell into my lap - it was so clear.

In all of the gushing about LMS it's telling, I think, that there is no discussion of theme. There's plenty of talk about what happens, ie: plot. And there are the usual obvious takes, such as it's about a dysfunctional family that finds a dysfunctional way to bond. And it's interesting that in the following months I saw, read and heard Toni Collette as well as directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton - but none of them, including Michael Arndt, revealed the theme.

And here it is; it's about illusions. In fact, I can't think of a film in recent years that embodies its theme in so rich and rewarding a manner as LMS. You'd probably have to go back to the 60's or 70's to find something comparable.

What's interesting about LMS is watching the characters interacting with the theme, each in their own different way. In so doing LMS's sad and yet triumphant characters reveal how life isn't about objectivity at all - it's about breaking through our own illusions and the illusions that others impose upon us.

The theme is so tightly integrated into LMS that it's embodied in visual metaphors and staging throughout the film. I don't want to talk about individual examples, because part of the viewing enjoyment is in discovering those "hidden" moments.

It really is brilliant and has become one of my favorite films. I've already seen it 5 times and moms is crazy about it. During the first week of the DVD release she came over at least three times and bugged me: "I wanna see Little Miss Sunshine!"

Last, and I know my boys will give me shit for this, but it really is a film with heart. As fucked up as these folks are, as cruel as they can be to themselves and each other, they also find ways to break through that shit too. The LMS cast is a mirror that has a few blemishes, but unlike contrived studio fare with its artificial sweeteners, Little Miss Sunshine's beating, painfully human heart is the real deal.

ps: I never did get my poster - I completely mis-read Mitchy and thought he wanted to go after Arndt had been speaking for a while. So despite Mitchy saying it was ok to stay, we left. Damn.

Colonize This

Just a quickie on this APA gal who works nearby at a restaurant. She's really good looking - and knows it. She feigns modesty and, during discussion, I asked if she partook of a particular "delicacy" native to her heritage. She screwed up her mug and said no, and that she didn't speak her "mother tongue" either - but I didn't ask. She then went on to say, with conviction, that she grew up around whites and, get this - "in a lot of ways, I identify more strongly with whites..."

I happened to be in the company of one of my co-workers - who is white - and smiled as if I had received that comment in the way that she meant it. My co-worker, btw, didn't bat an eyelash at that remark...

Now here's the rub: That was last week, and after a few more visits, she somehow knows that I see through her. Although I've never said a word, am always pleasant and smile at her. However, inside, I'm all, "Tsssssssssss." LOL.

The New Trinity: On Community Building, Sustainability and Green Tech

A lot of talk is going 'round about "sustainability" these days along with "green tech." Already I can see the potential for some confusion, but in their simplest forms, sustainability is a moniker that denotes whether a particular method is able to be readily replenished and ideally environmentally friendly. I say it has a deeper, wider meaning, but that'll be fleshed out below. Green tech is the noun, the thing, whether a hybrid engine, waterless urinals or low wattage light bulbs.

I'm going to go on record here and say that I think we're in the dawn of something. If you noodle enough on the Net you'll see what I mean. There're a couple of caveats...

Sustainability is more than a technology's abilities to replenish - it has to be human as well. It encompasses the revolutionary microlending of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and Vinod Khosla who are empowering the lowest of the low economically. Think about it like this; any system as brutal as capitalism in its present incarnation that spurns certain people for whatever reasons (race, gender, socially constructed/specific notions of ugliness, etc etc) and rewards certain others is simply not sustainable. At least theoretically, there has to be an end, because what happens when there are no longer any poor mud peeps to exploit? Then what?

Big question, eh?

The other point that must be made is that this new dawn is not fully fleshed out - again, it must incorporate humans beyond market economics. This time, it means community-building. Enough of this myth of the individual and praying to the mold of "individualism" and all of that myth crap which just serves to benefit the status quo. I mean, so much of that doo-doo on a stick I demystify in my own work with filmmakers but it's perfectly analogous because, whether it's the race to become a millionaire or to be a studio filmmaker, unless you've the connects, it ain't happening. And it's sad that I have to spell it out here, but what I mean is the rule, not the exceptions. If you still want to get all anecdotal and pull the exceptionalism card outta the deck, go ahead. See if I care.

So basically, I have this to say to the exceptionalists: Ayn Rand can go to hell.

No, my way of seeing it is a trinity: community building, sustainability and green tech. It's a pyramid with people and community-building at the top.

I'll no doubt expound on this in future posts, but I have to get to something else. Suffice this for now: I'm working on a project that has to do with this triumvirate and it's pretty exciting - I can see it, but making vision into reality is a lot like filmmaking - there's a lot of green in between, as pool players say when a ball's a long way from it's mark.

I'll leave you with this for now; I believe that the following interview of Tom Friedman by John Doerr is a seminal piece in this new dawn. I won't say why for now, but one of the biggest clues, and keys, is there. You just gotta listen.

Press "play" (the arrow in the bottom left-hand corner of the "TV frame" below).

Dig.

La Cebolla: Norah Jones Releases Debut Album For Third Time

La Cebolla is funny. Consistently funny, as in, "Thousands More Dead in Continuing Iraq Victory: America marks three and a half years of winning in Iraq, and nearly 3,000 victory deaths" funny. I love the fact that they've skewered the latest queen of sleep, Norah "zzz" Jones. Jesus, her and that other annoying snore fest Corinne Bailey Rae ought to team up and put each other to sleep. I'm also annoyed that both of them happen to be the kind of sistas that howlees love to fall over themselves about.

Norah Jones Releases Debut Album For Third Time

March 1, 2007 | Issue 43•09

NEW YORK—With critics hailing its sound as "reminiscent of a young Norah Jones," Norah Jones' third album, Not Too Late, features the singer-songwriter performing mellow, acoustic pop songs with soul and country-pop tones.

"This third album is a great first effort," said Billboard columnist Emmanuel Stevens, adding that he looks forward to watching someone with such raw potential mature as an artist. "Hopefully, she won't suffer from a sophomore slump seven albums from now."

In the weeks since this year's Grammy Awards show, many fans have expressed outrage in online forums that Jones was "snubbed yet again" in the Best New Artist award, which she hasn't won since 2003.