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News & ArtsThursday, August 13, 2009
Housekeeping Morning Mail Bag: Ragin' Asian Edition
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:04 AM
Yesterday brought a letter to the editor from a man named Niko.
To: editor@thestranger.com
Subject: Regarding the past cover storyI just wish to say that a majority of those people at the clubs who are there are idiots and were involved in frats and sororities. These people who go only care about the superficial things in life such as how you look, what clothes you wear, or who you came with for that matter. These people are idiots, drinking Goose cause it said to in their favorite rap songs or Patron for that matter. The whole cliche bout goin out to the club is ridiculous, kids get drunk at home, drive drunk to the clubs, and drive even drunker home. Girls get dressed up like prostitutes (they say they aren't but why are they wearing prostitutes uniforms?) and guys get dressed up like douche bags, we've all seen it.....
Niko goes on for several hundred words that you don't need to read. More importantly, the piece Niko is complaining about—"Seattle's Ragin' Asians!"—was published not in The Stranger but in the Weekly.
However, we're perfectly happy to continue the series.
3
This is hilarious. Perhaps the letter writer had been "raging" the preceding evening before he wrote that? I actually enjoyed both the article and the letter. I have not gone to a club since like 2002- actually, since McLeod's Residence, and this article and following letter made me remember why. Although I should state that its not the Asians who irritate the shit out of me, its the "trendy" hipsters and bros.
4
"The girls throw their purses in the car trunks after emptying their bladders; they don't spend money at the club.
Pham and his friends usually pay for drinks, but they also reap benefits by escorting the girls to Venom. "We bring in so much business that the owners know us and hook us up," Pham explains. He and his friends never pay the $15 cover. Not that it's any sweat off the club staff's backs—the group drops, on average, about $500 per visit on booze."
Okay, so should I be asking for Junior Pham at the door?
Pham and his friends usually pay for drinks, but they also reap benefits by escorting the girls to Venom. "We bring in so much business that the owners know us and hook us up," Pham explains. He and his friends never pay the $15 cover. Not that it's any sweat off the club staff's backs—the group drops, on average, about $500 per visit on booze."
Okay, so should I be asking for Junior Pham at the door?
6
@ 5 No shit, 2-3 BOTTLES of the "goose"? WOW! That is pretty unnerving. Just goes to show what we are up against when night driving. And all the younger girls sneaking into the club? Now I have done worse in my day, but how much do you want to bet that Venom gets busted for allowing underage folks in the club due to this article?
10
2-3 bottles of the "goose" is bullshit. for a group of people most likely lacking acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, 1/2 would be puking puddles on the floor before they left home.
11
@10 although many Koreans and other Northeast Asian ethnicities lack the gene which produces the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme, it's not as prevalent in Southeast Asia, where these gentlemen's ethnic roots trace back to.
14
The Weekly owes you for: thousands of new hits on the story, even more comments (120 and counting), all those readers who come back, and the fact none of your readers appear to have caught on to your parody...Dan, the check is in the mail. Mark.
15
This is funny, considering most of the people who read the Stranger go to clubs and drink.
You just don't like it when other people do it differently than you.
Le sigh.
You just don't like it when other people do it differently than you.
Le sigh.
16
The drunk driving thing is unnerving. Every single one of those douchebags deserves a punch in the face. Irresponsible, boring people living shallow, vapid lives - no wonder they can only enjoy themselves while drunk.
17
@15 If by "do it differently then you" you mean "drive around while extremely intoxicated" then yes, I don't like it at all. Hell, I'm going to Slog Happy tonight, and I will be having at least a few beers, but will I then get in a car and drive? Hell no.
18
To the douche, to the douche, to the motherfucking douche
I thought it was a perfect party
Now it's nothing but Ed Hardy
This party took a turn for the douche.
I thought it was a perfect party
Now it's nothing but Ed Hardy
This party took a turn for the douche.
19
@15: Fuck you. Being a drunk asshole is not a virtue. Being a drunk-driving asshole is contemptible.
20
I don't even have to try v hard to never read the Weekly, but..
..That story caught my eye a week-or-so ago & as I read it, my stomach churned as I agonized through every paragraph.
I was appalled by the thought of this being a reality:
Someone actually published this completely racist, asinine, trite, piece-of-shit, sorry-ass excuse for journalistic prose?! In the city I live in?! As a cover-page headline!? As the Feature Story!?
Eeew-ah!
I still don't know if it was real or tongue-in-cheek. That couldn't have been real?! I'm still just trying to forget about it. Erase it from my memory.
..That story caught my eye a week-or-so ago & as I read it, my stomach churned as I agonized through every paragraph.
I was appalled by the thought of this being a reality:
Someone actually published this completely racist, asinine, trite, piece-of-shit, sorry-ass excuse for journalistic prose?! In the city I live in?! As a cover-page headline!? As the Feature Story!?
Eeew-ah!
I still don't know if it was real or tongue-in-cheek. That couldn't have been real?! I'm still just trying to forget about it. Erase it from my memory.
21
I LOVED this parody when I saw it in the Stranger.
The SW's story on- OMG- Asians in their early 20's who love to party- made me cringe like mad. REALLY. The story documented behavior that is no different than that of other kids of every ethnicity and culture everywhere in the country (or any country that has nightclubs and booze for that matter). SW made it sound like they were documenting behavior most of us have never seen cause it's an Asian lifestyle thing. Nope, anyone who's been young and gone out clubbing has seen or indulged in what the writer so meticulously documented. All I can assume is that SW staff have had limited early life experience, otherwise they would have realized their story was a non-story.
Maybe next week they will document middle-aged black women who have girls nights out.
Or white couples in their 50's who sometimes get together with their neighbors for a barb-a-que.
Or hispanic women in their 30's who sometimes bump into friends when they are running errands.
You know, that kind of stuff that doesn't happen to all of us.
The SW's story on- OMG- Asians in their early 20's who love to party- made me cringe like mad. REALLY. The story documented behavior that is no different than that of other kids of every ethnicity and culture everywhere in the country (or any country that has nightclubs and booze for that matter). SW made it sound like they were documenting behavior most of us have never seen cause it's an Asian lifestyle thing. Nope, anyone who's been young and gone out clubbing has seen or indulged in what the writer so meticulously documented. All I can assume is that SW staff have had limited early life experience, otherwise they would have realized their story was a non-story.
Maybe next week they will document middle-aged black women who have girls nights out.
Or white couples in their 50's who sometimes get together with their neighbors for a barb-a-que.
Or hispanic women in their 30's who sometimes bump into friends when they are running errands.
You know, that kind of stuff that doesn't happen to all of us.
22
So...if a Caucasian finds Asian women attractive he's automatically labeled a fetishist???
Guess I'll have to add that to my list of fetishes.
Guess I'll have to add that to my list of fetishes.
23
Seattle’s Wylin’ Out Whites
PBR, Ironically liking “hood shit,” and Gourmet Pizza: Welcome to Seattle’s “polar bear” nightlife scene.
By Erik Morales
“I’ve converted everyone to rap,” Stan “The Man” Johnson boasts as he sips his tall can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s the only beer he and his friends drink, even though they can afford better. He nods along to the Young Jeezy’s “My President is Black” blasting on his iPod stereo as he passes drinks to his buddies and yells, “whooooo!”
The high-pitched call, similar in sound and texture to former professional wrestler Ric Flair’s signature slogan, livens up the room. Several “whoooo”s are cast back at Stan, who raises his can and yells “cheers!” to no one in particular.
Seth Bergensen takes a can, downs it in four seconds flat, and greets the next person who walks by, “what’s up jackass?” His friend, Caitlin Beck, smiles and responds, “not much asshole” before they both walk outside for no reason at all.
It’s an episode of Friends cross-bred with an American Apparel ad. The guests are partying in one of Johnson’s parents’ three homes, which he crashes at rent-free in the summer while his mom is out of the country. And everybody’s getting–as he puts it–”fuckin’ wasted!”
Johnson is Caucasian. He’s invited several friends to his North Seattle bachelor pad to pre-funk before going out to one of their favorite Seattle hangouts: The Ram in University Village.
PBR, Ironically liking “hood shit,” and Gourmet Pizza: Welcome to Seattle’s “polar bear” nightlife scene.
By Erik Morales
“I’ve converted everyone to rap,” Stan “The Man” Johnson boasts as he sips his tall can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s the only beer he and his friends drink, even though they can afford better. He nods along to the Young Jeezy’s “My President is Black” blasting on his iPod stereo as he passes drinks to his buddies and yells, “whooooo!”
The high-pitched call, similar in sound and texture to former professional wrestler Ric Flair’s signature slogan, livens up the room. Several “whoooo”s are cast back at Stan, who raises his can and yells “cheers!” to no one in particular.
Seth Bergensen takes a can, downs it in four seconds flat, and greets the next person who walks by, “what’s up jackass?” His friend, Caitlin Beck, smiles and responds, “not much asshole” before they both walk outside for no reason at all.
It’s an episode of Friends cross-bred with an American Apparel ad. The guests are partying in one of Johnson’s parents’ three homes, which he crashes at rent-free in the summer while his mom is out of the country. And everybody’s getting–as he puts it–”fuckin’ wasted!”
Johnson is Caucasian. He’s invited several friends to his North Seattle bachelor pad to pre-funk before going out to one of their favorite Seattle hangouts: The Ram in University Village.
24
@16 Yay for Mark and the Weekly! So many new hits and comments. What does is matter that most are amazed at the shoddy and racist journalism and editorial decisions of the weekly. Of course it also brought out a few racists defending the paper, the type that most human beings in the 21st century would be embarassed to be associated with.
Thanks you Mark and the Weekly, for removing any doubts about what a piece of crap rag your paper has become.
Thanks you Mark and the Weekly, for removing any doubts about what a piece of crap rag your paper has become.
28
Thank you Stranger for printing that. The weekly was begging for mockery and you delivered!
But I'd like to read Hobart's continuing cultural explorations in Seattle. How about an expose on the white yuppie outdoor enthusiast subculture? She could title it "Trailblazin' Caucasians!"
But I'd like to read Hobart's continuing cultural explorations in Seattle. How about an expose on the white yuppie outdoor enthusiast subculture? She could title it "Trailblazin' Caucasians!"
31
Yup. Given that the Stranger is just as white-centric and liberal-racist as the Weekly, the parody is rather ironic. The only thing Asian about the Stranger is some random movie review worshiping a art-house Asian film the reviewer is clueless about, or the Asian escort section in the back, right before "Savage Love". The Weekly and the Stranger are the two great pillars of Liberal Whiteness which keep the white hipster company has they wait for their double tall. They both have nothing to do with Asians and they never, ever will.
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