Kimchi Mamas

Premiere of “The Air I Breathe”

My friend, Jieho Lee, director- and screenwriter-extraordinaire, sent an email out this weekend with details of his film’s premiere. So without further ado, an introduction in his words:

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Dear Friends,

I hope this email finds you all well and starting off 2008 on a great note. As most of you know, my first feature film “The Air I Breathe” will be hitting theaters soon and I just wanted to give you all a warm shout and ask you to please come out and support the cause — and of course, to help spread the word!!

The film is a low budget indie — but we were able to wrangle a pretty talented cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emile Hirsch, Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Kelly Hu, John Cho and Clark Gregg.

Putting PR people on notice

In the "State of the Momosphere" session on day 1 of Blogher07, I listened as not one, but two PR guys smugly stood up to tell us mothers how proud they were of their strategy to "hook" moms into trying their products by pretending to read our blogs (so we'll trust them) before offering up whatever it is that they'd like us to blog for free.

And I fumed.

My hand shot up and Jory passed me the mike, and I told them (essentially) to stop treating us all like we're stupid.  We all know PR people don't read our blogs.  I mean, if one more PR person starts and email with, "Hey! How was Hawaii!" because a quick glance through last month's posts mentions my trip, I'm gonna scream.

I also told them that even though I get pitches everyday at CityMama, over at Kimchi Mamas we get none.  Not a one. Ever.

Because people of color do not matter to advertisers.

To his credit one of the PR dudes came up to me after the session and asked "How should we pitch to mommy bloggers?"

And I said, "Tell me you looked up my stats on Alexa. Tell me you picked me because you *think* I may be influential. Tell me that you know mombloggers get pitched to all the time but that you'd *pretty please* like me to listen to you.  Just don't bullshit me by telling me 'you read my blog.' I know you don't."

Then he admitted, "You're right. We don't pitch to bloggers of color."  And here's the money quote: "We just don't know what to do with them."

Yes, I did thank him for making me feel like a second class citizen.

But the most important thing I forgot to say as I was giving the PR dude that smackdown was that when the BlogHer ad network was starting and Lisa Stone asked me if I'd like to join it, I said, "Sure, but I'm also starting this blog called Kimchi Mamas with some other moms..."

Without hesitating, Lisa said, "Great. We'd love to have you all, too."

I didn't have to qualify. I didn't have to explain. I didn't have to pitch. I didn't have to justify. And because of that, I remember her words.

She just GOT IT. No further questions asked, and Kimchi Mamas has been part of the ad network since the Day 1. That right there is why I have so much respect for BlogHer.

So why is it that no PR people will pitch to us?

When I pointed out sarcastically that maybe it's because "Asians don't clean," (since I do get an extraordinary amount of cleaning product pitches) an Asian sistah from the back of the room added, "Yeah, we just do laundry."

This brings up so many issues for me.  Like, why are all the people in commercials white? And why aren't there any sitcoms about Asian families? (Where are the Asian Huxtables or Waltons?) Why are we so invisible in the media? Why is it that when I see an Asian couple (or even rarer) a mixed-race couple on TV, I secretly take pleasure in it even though the novelty and tokenness of it pisses me off and then I get angry at myself for feeling happy in the first place?

What are these people saying about me if I'm desirable as a "CityMama" and not as a "Kimchi Mama?"

What we as BlogHers—as humans—going to do about it?

photo: Jupiter Images

[cross-posted on CityMama]

—Stefania Pomponi Butler/CityMama

Brought To You By Your Friendly Neighborhood Korean

I get very nervous and uncomfortable by attention directed at me. (Yes this is weird considering I blog but I never said I wasn’t nuts.) So my first post here is an attempt at deflection.

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I have two congratulations/advertisements in regards to two (Korean) high school friends:

Jieho Lee, an up-and-coming director and more importantly, one of the nicest guys I know, recently debuted his film—for which he directed and co-wrote the script—The Air I Breathe, at Tribeca Film Festival. I’ve been bugging him about its nationwide release date which is still TBD. I’m sure you’ll hear about it as it’s been well-received thus far and stars several heavyweights such as Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon and fellow Asians Kelly Hu and John Cho. (I’m dropping names here because I’m especially lame and he’s especially cool with access to, you know, celebrities.)

Halfmama Blogs for Parenting Magazine

Halfmama, a Korean-American mother of (gorgeous!) twins who's been reading and commenting here for a while, just got a gig blogging for Parenting Magazine. Congratulations, Halfmama. And the rest of you, go check out her first post, about how she turns into "Mama Kim Jong-Il" when her daughter acts up in the supermarket.

--The Kimchi Mamas

Kimchi Mamas in KoreAm Journal

  Congratulations, Kimchi Mamas! We're in the current issue of KoreAm Journal (along with fellow blogger MetroDad)!

(And so is Kimchi Mama Nina!!)

Kimchi Mamas featured on Pacific Time

Update: The piece will air Thursday night at 6:30PM and 11:00PM on KQED radio 88.5 in San Francisco. Check their website for broadcast times in your area. The program will be archived and available for podcast as well.

A couple of days ago I was contacted by a producer of Pacific Time, a public radio program about Asian affairs produced by KQED in San Francisco.

She wanted to know my thoughts on Yul Kwon winning Survivor and if I would be willing to record something for the show. She had read my recent post about James Kim surviving because he was Korean and wondered how that point-of-view would apply to Yul.

From the very beginning we Kimchi Mamas have been rooting for "Team Yobo" (Becky and Yul), and I think I speak for everyone here when I say we knew a Korean would win. Why? Because he's Korean. That's the gist of the piece I recorded on behalf of the Kimchi Mamas for Pacific Time today. (I hope it comes off as tongue-in-cheek.)

I went down to the local public broadcasting station here in Honolulu where I'm spending the next three weeks. They put me in front of a mic in a sound-proof room and by the magic of radio technology I was connected with Pacific Time producers in San Francisco.

I read my piece a couple of times and even got to say, "For Pacific Time, this is Stefania Pomponi Butler in Honolulu." That was fun.

I'm not sure if they will use it, but if they do, you can listen to a podcast by checking out Pacific Time's site.

—Stefania Pomponi Butler

[photo credit: AP]

Kimchi Mamas: Read all about it!

Since we unofficially launched Kimchi Mamas a week ago, we've received some very kind attention (and about 1500 hits at the time of this writing!) from around the blogosphere.

• Karen Walrond (who knows from collaborative blogs) talked us up on Blogging Baby.
• Mary Tsao, who blogs Mom Writes and for BlogHer, wrote us up on the eve of our launch.
• Daddy in a Strangeland gave us a nice shout-out on the excellent Rice Daddies site. And, really, what goes better with kimchi than rice?

Thanks, friends!