The Fairy Princess is home.

As should we all be –  unless we are essential workers.

She did have to go to the grocery store a few days ago, and while she hates to recount it – she was “Karen-ed’ by a lady walking down the other end of the aisle. Both of us in masks, she looked at TFP’s features and yelled “I JUST DON’T WANT TO DIE” when TFP misread the arrows on the floor and turned the wrong way.

TFP was the only AAPI in the store.

There were plenty of men in the store who were breaking all kinds of arrow spacing and the woman didn’t yell at them. It should be pointed out here that none of the other people in the store spoke up to Karen, or advocated for TFP (which yes, included POC) –  TFP realized it was up to her to decide whether or not to ‘clap back’.

Later that trip to the store, the ‘Karen’ herself, turned the wrong way, and TFP just stood in her way and eyeballed her until she ducked her head and whispered “Sorry” and ducked by.

Mistakes can be made.

We are all doing the best we can.

But Karen…

MOVING ON….

The Lucille Lortel Awards were announced yesterday, considered the TONYS of Off Broadway, there were, very rewardingly, POC and Women in many categories, and honestly, Off Broadway is what the world looks like.

Go on, STRANGE LOOP  with your 7 nominations!

SOFT POWER, written by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, received 5 nominations – Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Choreographer (Sam Pinkleton), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical (Francis Jue), Outstanding Scenic Design (Clint Ramos), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical (Conrad Ricamora)!

This is DHH‘s FIRST Lucille Lortel Nomination – so TFP is sure he is feeling pretty great right now.

Francis Jue scored another nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his work in Lauren Yee‘s CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, a category where he is not the only AAPI nominated – also a nod went to Ken Narasaki for his work in GREATER CLEMENTS.

In more good news, Aaron Yoo was nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play for his role in THE HEADLANDS written by Christopher Chen.

Janelle McDermouth was nominated in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical for her work in Young Jean Lee’s WE’RE GONNA DIE.

The ceremony will be presented online on May 3 – Congrats to all the Nominees, especially great to see AAPI stories up there.

May there be many more.

Remember that SOFT POWER is having a cast listening party on 4/17 at 8pm raising funds for the @aaldef & @PublicTheaterNY –

WHICH IS THIS COMING FRIDAY!

Here is some fun, at home, entert-tain-ment that TFP is super excited about –

THE ORIGINAL CAST OF OUTSOURCED IS GETTING TOGETHER TO DO A READING OF THE PILOT ONLINE!!!!

https://bit.ly/2VzRSJk

It has been…wait for it, A DECADE since these brilliant faces have been on the television weekly – and TFP for one, has missed it.

Coming together for charity, in this case, charities, during this COVID-19 crisis are:

Ben Rappaport, Anisha Nagarajan, Diedrich Bader, Parvesh Cheena, Pippa Black, Rebecca Hazlewood, Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Guru Singh, Matt Walsh and Shawn Parikh.

With Directors, Ken Kwapis, Victor Nelli. Co-Executive Producer, Alex Beattie, and Writer, Robert Borden reuniting with the cast to partake in the virtual reading.

That is THIS COMING FRIDAY!!!!!

Mark the date!

A LOTTA LISTENING/WATCHING ON FRIDAY!!!

Outsourced drops on YouTube at 1PM EST, and SOFT POWER At 8pm EST!

Finally, on May 3rd –  during AAPI Heritage Month – Lauren Yee’s CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND will be releasing their Cast Recording on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and wherever music is sold.

You can pre-order it at www.yellowsoundlabel.com

There you go – some fun things to do.

While you cannot leave.

Might as well support!

TFP out.

The Fairy Princess would like to extend her condolences to Actor, Lewis Tan, who lost his Grandfather to COVID-19, may he Rest In Peace.

xxxxxxxxx

The Fairy Princess is not an essential worker, she is able to work from home, and she is going crazy – let’s face it – we all need a little good news right now.

Doesn’t have to be a LOT of good news, we are still sheltering at home during a pandemic of course, but as James T. Early said in DREAMGIRLS, “There’s got to be some good times”.

First up – AAPIs are still being hammered, physically and mentally, over the ‘blame’ of COVID-19 – even though the New York Times today says that scientists have found OUR strain of the virus actually comes from Europe!

Therefore, please join TONY Winning Playwright, TV Scribe, Opera Book Writer and all around good guy, David Henry Hwang in Washing the Hate away.

That bathroom looks very organized!

NICE JOB!

NEXT WEEK – on the 17th, there will be a Broadway Virtual Listening/Release party for the album of DHH’s SOFT POWER, he wrote the play & some lyrics, while the music & some lyrics were by Jeanine Tesori, which has been seen in LA and in NY at THE PUBLIC THEATER, and here is a link to the released video of one of the most moving songs in the show, DEMOCRACY.

Hosted by The Public Theater, Funds raised from the virtual listening party, will go to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (www.aaldef.org)

Just so you can give them a hug when we are all allowed to hug again – here are the names of all the cast – thank you all for representing.

The complete cast of Soft Power includes Billy Bustamante (Xuē Xíng Standby), Jon Hoche (Chief Justice/Hālǐ Àohālā/Ensemble), Kendyl Ito (Jīng/Prof. Lǐ Bìyù/Ensemble), Francis Jue (DHH), Austin Ku (Bobby Bob/Jū Míng), Raymond J. Lee (Randy Ray/Yáo Tuō/Veep/Ensemble), Alyse Alan Louis (Zoe/Hillary), Jaygee Macapugay (Betsy/Lóng Lín Kūn/Ensemble), Daniel May (Ensemble), Paul HeeSang Miller (Ensemble), Kristen Faith Oei (Ensemble), Geena Quintos (Airport Greeter/Ensemble), Conrad Ricamora (Xuē Xíng), Trevor Salter (Ensemble), Kyra Smith (Ensemble), Emily Stillings (Swing), Emily Trumble (Zoe/Hillary Standby), and John Yi (Swing).

ALICE WU, director of SAVING FACE, which TFP has mentioned in the past – has a NEW FILM OUT ON NETFLIX called THE HALF OF IT, premiering May 1st – just in time for AAPI Heritage Month

Great things happen when kids start finding their ‘tribe’, eh?

Speaking of which, Auli’i Cravalho, who voice the character of Disney’s MOANA, has come out as Bisexual – so cheers to that.

Answering a fan question as to whether she likes girls, she answered in Tik Tok – which is the new language for anyone under 30, by mouthing Eminem lyrics

Seriously though, jokes aside, how you doin’? You straight?
She said: “No, I’m bi”
She said: “Are you drunk?” I said: “No, I’m high”
I’m checkin’ out the chick, she said: “So am I.”

Well CONGRATULATIONS, LOVE IT!!!!!

Alan Yang’s TIGERTAIL hits NETFLIX on April 10th – which is TOMORROW!!!!

Check out this great interview on Tzi Ma, who is – definitively – one of the greats, pushing that rock endlessly up the hill since the 1970’s for AAPI Actors – go Tzi!

Consequently, KILLING EVE has stepped up it’s release for Season Three to April 19th on AMC and BBC America.

SHOWRUNNER and CMU Alum, Kortney Kang is working on a new show that is a reboot and update of an old show – DOOGIE HOWSER, MD is now, DOOGIE KEALOHA, MD!

Doogie is now a 15-16 year old FEMALE medical prodigy, and is also…mixed race, based on Ms. Kang’s own upbringing in Hawaii.

Nice to see more shows heading to Hawaii, as Hawaii 5.0 bids aloha to the small screen.

and finally, for those who have not seen it, PARASITE, the OSCAR WINNING FILM from this past year, is now streaming on HULU!

Take a watch:

And if NONE OF THAT CHEERS YOU UP…please enjoy Simu Liu from KIM’S CONVENIENCE on Netflix, who is Shang Chi in the new Marvel Reboot – working out.

Listen all – this is hard. Staying home should not be THIS hard, but it is. Be kind to yourself, to your pets, to your kids, and try and keep your perspective as we try and navigate this new normal.

TFP has good days and bad days.

Mostly tied to homeschooling.

It is what it is.

TFP out.

Yesterday TFP read some VERY unfortunate commentary delivered, via article in the Washington Post, by one of the Asian Americans who ran for the Democratic Nomination this past year – and not the good one.

That was Kamala Harris.

Nope – she always makes sense and speaks eloquently on a variety of subjects.

Kamala Devi Harris is a proud graduate of Howard University, and University of California, Hastings College of Law. She is of Indian and Jamaican heritage.and whatever you believe based on policies she was responsible for holding up while Attorney General of California from 2011-2017, doesn’t matter.

She was chosen by the people to uphold the laws at the time, and she did.

She is an effective lawmaker who has been serving with distinction in the Senate – supporting single payer healthcare, paths to citizenship of undocumented immigrants, a ban on assault rifles and much more.

This one, Andrew Yang, is the one in the hot seat today.

The one who makes math jokes and caters to white supremacists. He is a corporate lawyer who grew up in New York, he went to Brown, and then Columbia University for Law.

He worked for a test prep company as an executive, and then founded VFA – which recruits top college grads into a two year fellowship program at startups in developing cities.

Since dropping out of the Presidential nominee process, he has been somehow dubbed as the ‘go to’ guy for Asian American commentary – which is ludicrous, because we have Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, ReAppropriate.com, CAAM, CAATA, EWP, PAN ASIAN REP, MA YI, SILK ROAD – a bunch of folks who have been doing this their whole lives, and who can speak on the day to day of AAPI issues.

People tracking the violence which grows day by day!

MOST recently, as in within the last day – he has been talking about how Asian Americans – not even halfway through the anti-Asian sentiment and attacks due to the POTUS’s racist remarks while telling the nation about COVID-19 – need to ‘prove’ that we are more

American than anyone one else.

Because that will stem the tide of racism.

Which makes TFP – who has, yes, been verbally attacked both prior to COVID-19 and since, wanna go…

Let’s first get something out of the way- ‘we’ do not have to ‘prove’ anything.

To anyone.

If someone attacks you, if someone calls you a slur – you are NOT responsible for what that person decided to visit upon you, based solely on your appearance.

Andrew Yang has some  issues, that is for sure. Take a look at this quote from the article:

Why would you allow yourself to feel ashamed of a virus?

It’s a virus, you idiot.

Viruses can and do start anywhere there are conditions available for animal to human transfer.

Mike Masaoka, part deux is something that the AAPI community does not need right now, ANDREW….

Thankfully, TFP is watching AAPIs clap back at him – both on her private social media and her public one – but still…this is infuriating.

‘You have the right to defend yourself against hatred and self-hatred‘ is the tagline from THE SENSEI a film by D. Lee Inosanto.

Hold on to that, Folks, because apparently defending ourselves against FOX Viewers is not enough, we have to look to our ‘own’ to keep us down, keep us ‘kow towing’.

STOP TALKING YANG!

STOP TALKING!

ANDREW YANG IS UNINVITED TO DIM SUM, Yum Cha, Sushi, Hibachi, Korean BBQ and anything else – because you know what – ‘we’ are not apologizing for racists acts enacted upon us.

WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLENCE DONE TO US.

WE DO NOT HAVE TO TRY HARDER TO BE AMERICAN – HOW ABOUT THE RACISTS TRY HARDER TO BE HUMAN!

YOU HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH AND WALK WITH PURPOSE,

YOU DON’T APOLOGIZE TO ANYONE!

Not for your existence. Not for your Asian-ness. Not for your Sexuality. Not for how your Identify. Not for whom you Love – none of it.

And certainly not for your American values – of which you embody every single one.

YOU ARE GORGEOUS, YOU ARE PROUD, and NO ONE ‘created” this VIRUS on purpose – it just happened, because pandemics and viruses just happen – and it is how you handle it that makes it better or worse.

Clearly, Andrew Yang errs on the side of making it worse.

TFP out.

The Fairy Princess is not an ‘at home’ drinker, she’s a social drinker – although if she lived near master chef, Ina Garten, she would be over in a flash to borrow a cup of Cosmos because Common Core Math is ridiculous…

Although TFP is pretty sure Patti LuPone must live somewhere close to Ina…

TFP agrees with Ms. LuPone that this may be her best basement work – EVER!!!! Of particular fascination is where she keeps that turban and caftan…is that on a whole other level of the house? Is it housed in the basement as well?

SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.

First – some GOOD NEWS –

KIM’S CONVENIENCE has been renewed for two more seasons!!!!!

That is correct – Seasons 5 and 6 have been greenlit and Season 4 is available today, across the world on NETFLIX!!!!!!

SHABLAAAAAM!

Sadly, the news from Scotland is not so great – The Edinburgh Festivals are one of the many victims of COVID-1 – with both their International Festival, their Fringe Festival, and their Book Festival being cancelled.

Going to Edinburgh is considered quite the feather in an Artist’s cap – whichever one the Artist gets to play – and TFP is sad about it – because the International scope of the Festivals is vast and inspiring.

She hopes this is a cancellation for this year only – and truly has empathy for those who were planning to hit the Scottish town and earn all the accolades.

Her thoughts too are for the town of Edinburgh, who plan their year’s calendar with this influx of Artists and Audiences, and depend on that pound being spent.

May the next round keep your coffers full…and hopefully next season we will all “Go Lassie Go, and we’ll all go together…”

TFP is tired today – so she will just leave you with some encouragement from Ms. DOLLY PARTON, who donated $1 Million Dollars today to Vanderbuilt towards COVID-19 research and that is going to be it today, Folks

Let’s hope Ms. Parton is correct – she usually is – that there can be some sort of speeded up timeline, because if homeschooling continues much longer...TFP gonna be..