Blog Archives - oblivious nerd girlhood chronicles

Happy Birthday Oblivious Nerd Girl Hood Chronicles!

2/21/2014

I received this lovely email from tumblr today. It's been a year since I started my journey blogging as Oblivious Nerd Girl. And while I'm no longer at hoodnerdgirl.tumblr.com, I appreciate the message from tumblr. Hoodnerdgirl began with me sharing stories of my oblivious past. Dropping the hood part of the handle was hard because it seemed such an integral part of my stories, but I've come to see how my Oblivious Self is what really holds everything together.

Thank you to everyone who's supported Oblivious Nerd Girl this past year. To more Oblivious years to come!

Oblivious hearts Alfie Ebojo

2/20/2014

Alfie is my fellow Virgo sister. She's the historian of our group of friends, always taking pictures and documenting our lives. When Strawberry Farm Boy Mike and I got married and we needed pictures for our slideshow I told Mike he could simply ask Alfie for them because she had so many!

I heart this woman so much. She's an amazing artist who has a show, "All The Right Weaponry/She Verses I" opening up this Friday, Feb 21st at The Artform Studio (701 E 3rd St, Ste 120, Los Angeles, CA 90013).

She took time out of her busy schedule to do an Oblivious Interview! Check out Oblivious hearts Alfie Ebojo

Oblivious meets Maya Santos

2/18/2014

I met Maya when she moved to LA a few years ago. She was friends of friends and Strawberry Farm Boy Mike mentioned that she was a part of Isangmahal, this spoken word collective we were both fans of, which was based out of Seattle. At Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Maya's work with Form Follows Function was screened in the program "Remapping LA." Remapping combined Maya's architectural background with visual storytelling. The results reminded me of the architecture books I would thumb through as a barista at Borders. Beautiful buildings captured in film form with the added bonus of the history and people surrounding them.

Maya and our friend Joel Quizon, who was one of my early Oblivious Interviews, have a kickstarter campaign (The Cotabato Sessions Kickstarter Campaign) to complete their latest project. They are four days away from raising their $15,000 goal! Check out the Oblivious Interview: Oblivious meets Maya Santos to learn more about Maya and this beautiful project.

Filipinotown: Voices from Los Angeles

2/14/2014

I am a valley girl and will represent for the 818 forever, but the place I call home now is Historic Filipinotown or as I like to call it "Hi-Fi." While the Valley for many of my peers was our families first steps into the States, 40 years ago Hi-Fi was the same place for that generation of Filipinos. Growing up I had a shared experience of being with kids who's parents were new immigrants. There is a whole generation of baby boomer Filipinos who experiences the exact same thing in a different time. These stories have been gathered and published in the book "Filipinotown: Voices from Los Angeles."

There will be a book launch this Saturday, Fabruary 15th from 10 to 2pm at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) 3200 W. Temple St, Los Angeles, CA (Historic-Filipinotown) 90026. (The event was extended with recent additions to the program!)

Check it out and pick up the book at the event or on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

It's Flipping Tonight!

2/13/2014

Totally stoked for tonight. It's going to be an awesome night!

Flipping The Music Video
Thursday, February 13th
8-10pm
Echo Park Film Center

1200 N Alvarado St. (@ Sunset Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA 90026

Music Videos, panelists, live performances
Light refreshments
$5 suggested donation
Proceeds to benefit The Harmony Project & Sessions LosAngeles

Tumblr Flipping!

2/12/2014

If you are out of town or unable to make it to Echo Park Film Center Thursday night, you can follow Flipping The Music Video on tumblr. The lineup will be posted tomorrow evening. The videos we screen will be posted after the event. This way Flipping The Music Video can be viewed and shared by everyone!

Also this project is meant to continually showcase Filipin@ artists. If you know of a music video that should be highlighted you will be able to submit suggestions to the site.

Flipping The Music Video
Thursday, February 13th
8-10pm
Echo Park Film Center

1200 N Alvarado St. (@ Sunset Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA 90026

Music Videos, panelists, live performances
Light refreshments
$5 suggested donation
Proceeds to benefit The Harmony Project & Sessions LosAngeles

Oblivious meets Yumi Sakugawa

2/11/2014

I first met Yumi when she was volunteering for Tuesday Night Cafe. It wasn't until years later that I found out we had a random connection. She actually was in a Asian American theater group with my bff Jen called LCC.

I've been a big fan of her work for quite some time. In fact I didn't know this but I had a piece of hers hanging in our staircase/art gallery section of our house. I won a painting of Yumi's through a Tuesday Night Cafe silent auction! She's an awesome artist who's currently on a Valentine's Day book tour for her book "I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You." The book is amazing and you should definitely pick it up at your local bookstore and mayhaps an Urban Outfitters!

Without further ado here is my Oblivious Interview with Yumi Sakugawa!

Flipping The Music Video is this week!

2/11/2014

Flipping The Music Video
Thursday, February 13th
8-10pm
Echo Park Film Center
1200 N Alvarado St. (@ Sunset Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA 90026

Music Videos, panelists, live performances
Light refreshments
$5 suggested donation
Proceeds to benefit The Harmony Project & Sessions LosAngeles

Oblivious meets Mark Villegas

2/6/2014

Mark and I were once co-directors for the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC). I think he was just starting his Ph.D program and I remember thinking HOLY CRAP, that's a lot of school. More power to this brother for pushing through and being almost done with his program! Mark is a co-editor with Kuttin Kandi and Rod Labrador of the recently published, "Empire of Funk: Hip Hop and Representation in Filipino/a America" The book sounds awesome and I can't wait to pick up a copy. Mark will be at the SCPASA Summit at UC Riverside this Saturday. SCPASA Summit participants get a 10% discount on Empire of Funk.

Check out the latest Oblivious Interview with Mark Villegas!

Oblivious loves SessionsLA

2/5/2014

On Monday I came home from a meeting and found this waiting for me. Initially all I saw was "Thank you Lainey" It took some prodding from Strawberry Farm Boy for me to take a second look at the whole message. "Thank you. Lainey (loves Drake).

I shook my fist in the air and swore on the SessionsLA instructors who most likely wrote this on my indiegogo funded mixtape. When I stop by to hang out with the kids and sometimes provide college counseling I may have mentioned that I enjoyed Drake's latest record. That stupid "Hold On, We're Going Home" is freaking catchy! And this video? OMG, it is RIDICULOUS. Like what is happening in this video? The song doesn't come in until 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the video! There is straight up exposition being shown to you in those 2 minutes and 30 seconds! Drake is partying with his boys. Life is good, right? No, no it's not good. While Drake is celebrating with his boys, his gal is getting ready in sexy lingerie and then gets kidnapped?! What club has phones? How is he getting this phone call? Drake then saves her in a cinematic gun battle that reminds me of the movie Heat. LIke in what universe is this possible? Apparently in Drake's universe it happens.

Drake tangent aside, SessionsLA continues to do work with youth. I'm happy that a portion of the proceeds from Flipping The Music Video will support SessionsLA. These programs are few and far in between. SessionsLA is run by good people (minus the Drake messages!) and puts out good music. And as I've mentioned in previous posts is founded by Strawberry Farm Boy Mike. Who knew having turntables in Mike's old SIPA office could turn into the amazing program that SessionsLA is today.

Flipping The Music Video
Thursday, February 13th
8-10pm
Echo Park Film Center
Music Videos, panelists, live performances
Light refreshments
$5 suggested donation
Proceeds to benefit The Harmony Project & Sessions LosAngeles