Quantico, a new ABC drama starring the impossibly beautiful Priyanka Chopra, follows a group of prospective FBI agents in training. Its pilot opens with the debris of an explosion, a sweaty jog, then a sweaty airplane ride--but alas/hooray, no gritty realism here. Once in training, the agents’ first assignment is to discover each others’ secrets within twenty four hours. Intrigue! Mystery! Car sex! This show has so many elements of a Shonda Rhimes show, it's a few ellipses away from being a Gladiator monologue. Chopra plays biracial Alex Parrish, an FBI agent in training whose secret features guns and dads (told you this show was Rhimes-adjacent.) The first episodes left me with a few burning questions: who can we trust? Who is the mole? How do I artfully construct a messy bun that will stay in place through an explosion like Priyanka’s?!  And, perhaps most importantly, what shade of lipstick is she wearing in the pilot?!? I need to keep watching to find out. I'm dead serious. This show is not, though, and I love it anyway. ​

KAELA: ​Hey Katrina!  Can you introduce yourself and your work to our readers?

KATRINA: Hi, hello! I’m Katrina Day, a Brooklyn based actor/writer/cat lady. Since graduating from NYU back in 2012, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many young theater and film companies in the city on everything from immersive, site-specific retellings of Greek epics to campy musical cabarets about the history of world religion. But for the last year, my primary project has been Lady Parts (www.someladyparts.com)- a blog and webseries about sexism in entertainment as experienced by early career female actors. ​

KAELA: What was the impetus behind Lady Parts, the blog? What made you decide to write the webseries?

KATRINA: I launched SomeLadyParts.com as something of a Hail Mary pass, to be honest. I’d gotten to a point of such heightened frustration and disgust with all the sexist nonsense I was experiencing on the job that I couldn’t stand the idea of continuing to work in the entertainment industry unless it was possible to do so on my own terms. I started the blog to catalogue and make fun of the ridiculously offensive casting calls I came across on the daily, a move I was fairly convinced would either get me blacklisted across the industry or help me launch the career I’d always wanted. So far so good, though who knows if there’s a dartboard with my face on it in the Actors Access corporate offices. 

I went on to write the Lady Parts webseries in order to address problematic aspects of the industry beyond the casting process. If the blog is collection of heinous casting notices, the webseries takes a look at what happens once you actually submit for one of those roles. I also didn’t want to remain on the sidelines, muttering snarky observations about media makers. I wanted to continue becoming a maker. Moving onto a webseries also gave me the opportunity to transform a one-woman project into a hundred-person operation. I was able to create work for other artists and learn an incredible amount about film production in the process. 

​
KAELA: Lady Parts got funded through an awesome (and organized!) crowdfunding campaign: I think funding is such an important and sometimes desperate part of creating work that artists don't always discuss. What role do you think funding should ideally have in the independent arts world? What role did funding have in the creation of Lady Parts? If you found a gap between the ideal and the actual, how would you fix it? 

KATRINA: A lot of people are skittish about crowdfunding, because it does get a bad rap for being a “desperate” move. I went through the same round of insecurities as I was gearing up to launch our Kickstarter. But ultimately, I had to remind myself that I was asking people to help pay for something they’d expressed an interest in seeing. Having already established a following for the Lady Parts blog really helped with the crowdfunding efforts—not just because there were more people to pitch in, but because everyone who contributed already had a rich understanding of what our project was all about.

I actually think that crowdfunding is a pretty decent way to get started in the indie arts world. It frees you up to create exactly what you want, rather than answer to people who need to make a profit off your work. I’m glad we were able to create the first season on our own terms, with the help of people who cared deeply about the project. Hopefully, that head start will help us get funding for season two from a source other than our viewers. We were able to set a precedent with season one, to make something entirely on our terms. That’s not a bad spot to be in, all things considered.

KAELA: What series, movies, or books are you recommending and why?

KATRINA: I am constantly consuming media, so this list of recommendations might get a little unruly, but here goes. 

Books: For the last few months, I’ve tearing through everything that Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have ever written. They are masters of world creation and such poignant, specific, sparingly-hilarious authors. The highlights of this reading spree have been White Teeth (Smith), The Blind Assassin (Atwood), and Americana (Adichie). 

Movies: Some favorites I’ve happened upon this part year are Ida, Obvious Child, and Welcome to Me. Each is of a completely different style, but all feature incredible female characters dealing with Great Big Questions. 

TV: Oh god, so many. Short list: Halt and Catch Fire, Broad City, The Affair, Portlandia, and thanks to Netflix, a couple throwbacks—The X-Files, Twin Peaks, and Battlestar Galactica. 

KAELA: We at 2 Girls | 1 Asian love food and drink as cultural and social centerpieces. What's the best meal you ever had? Where are your favorite places to go in New York?

​KATRINA: The best meal I’ve ever had was at Juuri, in Helsinki. They do Finnish small plates, their own take on tapas, and it was the bomb. My current favorite places in NYC are all clustered in Brooklyn, because I’m loathe to leave Ditmas Park if I don’t have to, but include The Castello Plan, The Farm on Adderly, and Speedy Romeo. There’s also an amazing Tibetan cafe right next to the Cortelyou Q stop that cannot go wrong, in my book. 

KAELA: In the same vein, imagine you're throwing a dinner party for three feminist icons.  Who are they, what will you discuss, and what will you serve? 

KATRINA: OK. Guest list: Gloria Steinem, Malala Yousafzai, Virginia Woolf. Topics of conversation: how badass they are, obviously, but also how to influence change by high brow, low brow, and post-brow means. As for the menu—I would fly them all out to meet me in San Sebastian, where we’d get cozy at a hole-in-the-wall bar, and feast on as many pintxos and as much Txakoli as our hearts desired. Oh, and I’d be weeping with joy the whole time, just for the record.

KAELA: What advice would you give artists looking to create a webseries, blog, or online content in general?

KATRINA: Find the intersection of what you’re passionate about saying and what hasn’t been said yet. Plant your flag there and start waving it with all your might. Accept help from people who share your vision, and ask for help from people who know more than you. But also know when to say “no”, and accept the fact that you’re not going to be able to make everyone happy all the time. Indie filmmaking is scrappy work, and it’s not always going to be comfortable. And as for fear of waking the online trolls, which is a real concern with feminist content, rest easy in knowing that they’re just proving your point with every grunt and and wail of “not all men” or “go back to the kitchen”. 

KAELA: You're a jack of all trades: we at 2g1a have seen you act, sing, write, direct and produce. What projects are you working on now, and how can we view your other work? 

KATRINA: My current project is the world premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus and Live-Source’s The Incredible Fox Sisters at The New Ohio Theatre. We open on the October 30th and run for ten performances. I play Maggie Fox, one of the real-life founders of American Spiritualism. The play is a dark comedy that’s very near and dear to my heart. So come see that, for starters!

And as soon as I hang up my fox tail (Fox Tale?), I’m diving right back into writing the next batch of Lady Parts content. I don’t have a ton of specifics about Season Two yet, but it’s coming! Our first season has already been accepted into some web fests, so just keep an eye on the blog for information about our latest doings at Lady Parts. There’s a whole lot more we have to say.


KAELA: Thanks, Katrina, for all your wise insights (and restaurant recommendations!) To find out more, follow Katrina's blog at someladyparts.com, follow her on twitter (@someladyparts) and like this amazing project on facebook! 

Okay, enough with the life achievements - 

What’s happening with 2 Girls | 1 Asian?!


If you thought the girls couldn’t get themselves into even more trouble than Season One - 

Think again.


In this hilarious and wacky Midseason, Caela and Kelliye rack up another list of embarrassing and ridiculous situations that include dabbling in the occult, hitting on plumbers in the privacy of their own home, and ascetic stoned holiday debauchery that only brings the two girls and their four closest friends closer, which we’re not convinced is a bad thing. We let you decide.


Stay tuned for more info on this season and be sure to follow us on 
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!


See you soon!
xoxo
Kae and Kel

This morning I had an unfortunate experience on the Manhattan-bound R Train. A seat became available at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and anyone who’s lived in New York for longer than 5 minutes knows that nabbing a seat during Rush Hour is prime real estate. The two vying for this particular seat? An older Asian woman and a teenage Latina girl. As the Asian woman raced to nab the empty seat next to me, the teenage girl (who happened to be closer) managed to sit to there first. Generally, the one who gets to the seat first usually puts their head down in shame, feigns indifference, or tries to hide a victorious grin on their face as soon as they’ve touched their ass to the seat but in this unfortunate case the girl began making fun of the woman who lost the seat. Shaking her finger in a condescending manner and mimicking an “Asian” accent she said, "No running! No running!". This elicited an uproar of laughter from her friends standing by the doors and the teenage girl soon joined. The woman who lost the seat didn’t say anything, she just went back to where she was standing above her three kids as the girl and her friends chastised themselves for not recording the incident and putting it on youtube because, “That shit was too funny!” It seemed as though the woman didn’t speak English or didn’t understand it very well because her eldest child, a girl of about fifteen (probably the same age as the teenage girl who raced to grab the empty seat) just shook her head when her mother asked what the girl had said to her.

I stood there in the middle of it all debating whether or not I should apologize to the mistreated woman on behalf of the rude girl and her friends or school that rude young woman to teach her a thing or two about respecting her elders. Or the consequences of perpetuating stereotypes. Or the consequences of being a rude little bitch…

Instead of choosing I stood there frozen, unsure if it was my place to do either.

If I apologized to the mother, what good would it have done? All I would be doing is admitting that I saw that she was mistreated and I failed to do something about it. If I schooled that rude ass girl about the importance of respecting her elders I would be doing her parents’ job and treading on dangerous territory. Should I have brought up the importance of minorities banding together to eliminate stereotypes? If I had spoken to her in the first place, would she have understood why or how she was wrong by making fun of that woman? Would she have understood that not only is she disrespecting an elder, another minority, but she’s also disrespecting another woman?

Instead of choosing I stood there frozen, unsure if it was my place to do anything.

For the next 7 minutes as the train rattled over The Manhattan Bridge all I did was stare off into space and silently fume. I fought with myself over the right thing to do and as I wasted time weighing out all my options, the teenage girl and her friends got off at Canal Street and my opportunity lost amidst their cackling.

I’d like to think I have the pleasure of living off the last stop on the R Train and that I get to live in a  neighborhood that is populated with family owned businesses, gardens, schools, and people of all races and colors. I’d like to think that I’m lucky to take the R train to and from Manhattan because the diversity of my morning commute is compelling. I’d very much like to think that.

Unfortunately, it’s not always the case. Unfortunately this 38 minute train ride has only opened my eyes to the way people mistreat each other. At this point, I refuse to describe it as mistreatment - it is an injustice. It has opened my eyes up to the injustices, little and large, minorities commit against each other. It has opened my eyes up to the fact that as an ethnically diverse woman I am caught between my conscience and my indifference.

Judging by the way the teenage girl engaged whole-heartedly in making fun of this woman with her friends I can only assume she had no clue. No fucking clue. No fucking clue that her actions were more malicious and demeaning than light-hearted and funny. No fucking clue that as a teenage girl, as a Latina, she is just as susceptible to injustice as me, that woman standing two seats away, or any other ethnic women on that train. No fucking clue that her mother and father may have endured the same shit she gave to that woman she stole the seat from. She has no fucking clue that her words sting in my gut when I think about the history of racism against people of color (black, brown, or yellow) and how the hate from the majority makes me, my people, and my people’s people hate each other and hate themselves. It makes my head swim with “what if’s?” and “why’s?” and “how could she’s?” And when I turn the questions inward I find myself ashamed that I have no answers to “What if I had spoken up? Why didn’t I speak up? How could I not have spoken up?”

As the train rattled along the subway line and the family got off at Prince Street, I stared at that rude young girl - that rude young woman - and made a vow to myself that next time I would stand up, speak up, and take action with grace, humility, and good intent on my side. This world is too big and too beautiful to allow small acts like these to happen and to be ignored. Between races, between generations, and between women.

Will you hold me to that? Will you hold yourself to that? Let’s make this world a better place by clearing our consciences and standing up for what is right and not what is easy.

Yes, I stole that from Harry Potter - doesn’t make it any less potent or immediate.

1. Cafe Noodle Zen
Nestled in between an Irish Pub and a tattoo parlor (just a few doors down from St. Marks Burgers) this is the cute, little, neon green Japanese place on St. Marks that offers 50% off ALL Sushi and basically has Happy Hour whenever you want it. We went here the other day with a mutual friend and ordered an appetizer, least 5 different kinds of sushi, 2 very strong drinks, AND (new addition to the menu) a Ramen Burger all for $60! (Added a 20% tip on top because the staff are also ridiculously nice.)
Located at 31 St. Mark’s Place, New York, NY 10003

2. Jeepney
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WORTH NOTING ABOUT JEEPNEY IS KAMAYAN NIGHT. Kamayan Night. Every Wednesday and Thursday (make sure you make a reservation) you get the opportunity to properly eat like a Filipino.The word kamayan refers to shaking hands but is simultaneously used to describe eating with your hands - a Philippine tradition.  For $40, a huge plank the size of two 2-tops covered in palm leaves is served with… well, we don’t think we can describe it all, so we’ve borrowed this description from NYC Food Guy: “Our server carefully placed a whole fried fish in the center of the long white mound of coconut milk-flavored rice. Spreading out from both sides of the fish, he symmetrically placed chicken, smoked soft boiled eggs, two kinds of pork (one in a coconut milk gravy, one marinated in Coca-Cola), sweet longanisa sausage, sauteed bok choy, bitter melon salad, piles of fried tripe and fried bread, and grilled green onions...It was at this point that I snapped a few quick photos because as soon as I put that iPhone down, it was time to eat. With only my hands.  For about 30 minutes straight.” See above for pictures from NYC Food Guy and his full review here.
Located at 201 1st. Ave. New York, NY 10003

3. Maharlika
Next door to Jeepney is its sister restaurant, Maharlika, another gem of the East Village. Maharlika’s Dinner Menu is to die for with Filipino Favorites such as Pancit Bihon, Sinigang, and Kare-Kare (it even has balut for those of you who love it or dare to try it), and the Brunch Menu full of hearty and delicious items such as Longanisa, Tocino, and the Dasilog, but what is definitely worth mentioning is the Flip’d Chicken and Waffle on the Brunch Menu! Batterless fried chicken served on top of a purple yam waffle, with anchovy-bagoong sauce and macapuno syrup to start your Saturday morning off right. Affordable and delicious.
Located at 111 1st. Ave. New York, NY 10003

4. Grill 21
Just found this fun little place on 21st between 1st and 2nd Avenue just North of Stuytown. This Filipino restaurant boasts of fresh bitter melons, juicy adobo, and refreshing halo-halo! Everything on the menu is easily affordable (nothing on the menu is more than $17) and there’s outdoor seating for the summer! Also, they cater. Because they know how Filipinos love to eat and share.
Located at 346 E. 21st St. New York. NY 10010

5. Pig & Khao
Amazing Asian Fusion gem on the Lower East Side that offers primarily Thai and Filipino food options. What first caught Kelly’s eye was that they offer chicharron as the first item for appetizers (and really, is there anything better than fried pork rinds and vinegar on the side to start off a meal?) There’s also pork belly adobo - perfectly crispy on the outside and deliciously juicy on the inside. It is a Lower East Side restaurant with great food, a small space, and loud customers - so expect a wait. But you won’t be disappointed!
Located at 68 Clinton St. New York, NY 10002

6.  Vanessa’s Dumplings
This Union Square staple is home to one of the best deals in town: $1 for four dumplings.  Other highlights include $3 Peking Duck-stuffed sesame pancakes, bubble tea, and a small assortment of sushi.  Vanessa’s also sells frozen dumplings so you can eat these in the comfort of your own home!  
Located at 220 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003.  

7.  Congee Village
There’s nothing that says home to Kaela like a warm bowl of zhook, also known as congee or rice porridge.  This comfort food is showcased at Congee Village on the Lower East Side-- along with youtiao (Chinese donuts) and amazing Chinese-American-restaurant style decor (indoor trees! weird lighting! neon!)
Located at 100 Allen Street New York, NY 10002.



8.  Pho Bang
Craving Vietnamese noodle soup? There are few better places than Pho Bang, a little Vietnamese hole-in-the wall in Little Italy.  You can buy a huge bowl of pho for $6.50 ($7.50 if you upgrade to the large size!), and they also have good Vietnamese coffee.
Located at 157 Mott St New York, NY 10013  

9. Central Buffet
We won’t lie; we had to Google search real hard for the name on this one: Central Buffet is a hidden Chinatown gem that will give you five delicious selections of dishes to go, including rice, for four dollars.  $4.25 will get you the same amount of food to eat in.  The rotating selection features tea eggs, whole fish, bean curd dishes, an assortment of vegetables, and even dessert.  Kaela has been frequenting for five years, so she’s a more than little sad to divulge this information to the public.  
Located at 195 Centre St New York, NY 10013

10.  Fay Da Bakery
This Chinese bakery, featured in Episode 3: “Eviction,” is one of Kaela’s favorite places to get cha siu bao, or barbecue pork buns.  In fact, Fay Da carries all kinds of baked goods, from coconut cream buns to hot dog buns and back-- and with most of them priced at under one dollar, you can’t lose. 
Located at 191 Centre St New York, NY 10013 (right next to Central Buffet, above!).  Other locations throughout Chinatown, SoHo and Queens. 

A while back, I end up on a first date at this comedy club on Bleecker Street in New York’s West Village.  In an odd turn of events, comedian after straight white dude comedian gets up to explain how he definitely doesn’t hate “the gays,” holding for the audience to applaud his halfway-decent actions.  One such comedian, so un-homophobic it almost hurts, segues from the subject of gay-marrieds (“they’re totally fine by me, dude!”) into his own recent marriage.  “Marriage is stupid because having sex is like trying ice cream, dude,” says he.  “See, my wife is vanilla-flavored ice cream.  I love vanilla.  I’m totally happy with vanilla.  But what happens if, theoretically, twenty years from now, I want to try another flavor of ice cream? Say, Asian?”

The club erupts in white guy comedian laughter.  Even my date, neither white nor a comedian, is laughing.  “Oh, I mean, uh, green tea ice cream!” the comic adds, and everyone laughs harder.  

If you’re reading this, Anonymous Comic, I’m not sorry for the dirty look I shoot as you retreat to your lone seat.  First of all, there’s got to be a funnier metaphor for having sex than “trying ice cream, dude.”  Secondly, not to be cruel, but it’s pretty clear why you showed up sans wife to your set.  I’m guessing--hoping--that your wife would take issue with your material: first at being literally objectified into ice cream, then at being deemed “vanilla.”  Can’t a white girl at least be peach flavored?   But hey man, at least you totally definitely don’t hate the gays cause you're such a Stand Up Guy (cue snare drum)(cue applause at what a great guy you are.)

The reason that bad comedian’s bad joke bothers me so much?  It is based on a reality I live in, but it only perpetuates the stereotypes I see in the world instead of turning them on their head.  When first researching this series, I google image searched the word “half-Asian.”  What returned was page after page of scantily-clad mixed-race Asian ladies.  I was dismayed to find that with no modifiers signifying gender or sex, I was still served a full plate of adult images featuring female breasts, thighs, abdomens, as if every half-Asian is a woman, as if every half-Asian woman is perpetually in a state of undress, as if half-Asian women are solely meant to be consumed. Now, I’m no Puritan.  I support everyone’s right to be photographed in a thong!  But with its passive voice, even that last sentence implies the photographee as object-- not inherently problematic, but frequently so.  

“Asian” is one of the most-searched porn terms in America, as if race was, indeed, a sexual ice cream flavor that one could try.  This fetishization of Asian peoples, particularly women, has its roots in Orientalism and colonization.  It finds its base in the obsession with the other, with the unknown, which, again, is not inherently wrong; it simply leads to debasing and dehumanizing patterns of interpersonal behavior, some of which are chronicled in Kristina Wong’s awesome xoJane article.

We wrote about some of this in episode 2 of our series, “What Are You?,” an almost-verbatim recreation of a night when two grown men approached Kelly and me with the titular question of that episode. They insisted on guessing our ethnic makeup, an interesting tactic that, unlike the Bend and Snap, has a 0% rate of return on a dinner invitation because it’s seldom used appropriately.  I don’t necessarily mind being defined by my race, but may object when my race solely defines me, or worse, solely defines my desirability.

Our series name, 2 Girls | 1 Asian, is a racial equation which describes my co-creator and I in light of the ever-present “what are you?”  My co-creator Kelly Colburn and I are each half-Asian; together, there is one whole Asian between us.  Our title is meant to add us together, to place us in light of our friendship, something unfortunately rare in current mainstream media.  Together as 2 Girls | 1 Asian we are better than our individual parts. (Unless you put us in a bar; then we’re just drunker than our individual parts.) As some have inquired, our title is also a double-entendre, referencing an infamous and, from what I understand, less than savory (sorry!) pornographic video.  But contrary to what our spoof title may suggest, the actual content of our series is fairly PG-rated and fairly feminist.  Kelliye and Caela are portrayed with regards to their relationships and their accomplishments (or lack thereof) rather than their sexploits or sex appeal.  They audition together, they drink together, they wait tables together and, as you'll see in the upcoming Episode 6: "Model Minority," they eat kale chips together.

With our title, we ultimately hope to address the most important part of the show: our friendship. Along the way, we hope it is a reclamation and lampoon of the excessive sexualization of mixed-race women, particularly women of Asian descent.  If you can’t beat ‘em, parody ‘em, right?  Because making this webseries, at least for me, is like eating ice cream-- the further I get into it, the happier I am with the choice I made.

A few weeks ago, we shared our ten favorite female hapa celebs with you. In the spirit of gender equity and equal objectification, we now present to you our ten favorite male hapa celebs!

Adrian is a three-time Olympic gold medalist who first debuted his banging body and 6’6’’ frame at the 2008 Summer Olympics. With abs like that and those beautiful Asian eyes... How can we resist? And who ever heard of an Asian taller than 5'7''? (jk jk jk jk..... not jk.)

Criss is one of our favorite Hollywood heartthrobs who first graced us with his presence to international acclaim starring as Harry Potter in A Very Potter Musical. But more likely, you know him from Glee.

Daniel Henney is an actor/model-- you may recognize him from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Last Stand, or your dreams. 

We love Keanu!  From Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures to The Matrix to his standout turn in Emma Thompson+Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado About Nothing, Keanu can do no wrong.  And just look at that face.  

What do we admire more in Mark Dacasacos: his martial arts film career (including a movie literally titled Dim Sum) or his stint as the Chairman on Iron Chef?  Whatever, we’re not choosing.

~*~*Omg wHo kNeW ZaCk MoRrIs WaS AzN!?*~*~

Eight-time Olympic medalist Apollo Ohno is a national treasure, both in speed skating and in looks. And Kaela once saw a segment where he did yoga with Gracie Gold and he was good at that too.  #Sochi2014

The director of HBO's True Detective, Carey Fukunaga has both brains and beauty. 

We'll just leave this picture of Jamaican-Panamanian-Chinese model Tyson Beckford using chopsticks here. Don't bite your lip at us in that seductive way, Tyson! Ok. Do.