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These days, Asian/Pacific Americans, and Asians
in general, are a constant, comfortable presence in mass media, in
the movies, on television and on stage, on TV news, on the radio,
and on the New York Times bestsellers lists. But being from the old
world, when, in the early Sixties, there were virtually none of us
on any of those media, I'm still surprised - pleasantly, of course
- to see, say, a Chinese-American character pop up as a regular person
in a major motion picture. This fall, that character is going to be
me.
The movie is from Cameron Crowe, the writer and director
of Jerry Maguire. He began his career as a teenaged freelance
writer for Rolling Stone magazine, and the movie is based
on himself, following a fictional rock band on tour.
But while he and the band are make-believe, Cameron decided
to recreate the offices of Rolling Stone in San Francisco, and to
cast actors to play three actual Rolling Stone editors, Jann Wenner,
David Felton, and me.
Cameron had told me about this movie after he'd agreed to
write an introduction for my book, Not Fade Away, a collection
of articles from Rolling Stone and elsewhere.
He asked if he could use me as a real-life character in the
movie. I had been the editor who gave him his first assignments
and edited his first cover stories.
Soon after I agreed, I began getting e-mails from various
actors around the country, asking how I looked, dressed, and said
"crazy," a word Crowe apparently had me saying several times in
the script. I used to say "crazy" a lot, as an approving response,
as in: "Ben, I just got an OK to interview Neil Young."
"Crazy."
After a two month search, they found a 20-something year
old, Terry Chen from Vancouver, B.C., who did a great job, and the
film will be out in October.
I can hardly wait to rent the video.
Well, I've had a few other media moments in recent years,
all of them fitting into the theme of convergence. They included
the hosting, for about a year, of a weekly live arts and interview
show on KQED-FM, called Fog City Radio. One clear highlight was
the day Amy Tan came on to discuss a children's book, then, after
a break, came back out and sang the song, "These Boots Are Made
For Walking," decked out in dominatrix gear, complete with biker
hat, net stockings and whip. And don't even ask about the boots.
For the last four years, I've been co-anchoring KTVU's broadcast
of the San Francisco Chinese New Year parade.
I also appeared, this spring, on a syndicated show called
Your
Big Break, in which I was costumed to approximate the mid-Sixties
version of Bob Dylan, and sang "Like a Rolling Stone," faking strumming
on a guitar, while dancers dressed like protestors marched behind
me. It was every bit as weird as it sounds.
But the TV appearance that has stayed with Dianne and me
- and with family and friends who saw it almost seven years ago
- was on Wheel of Fortune.
I'd gone to the tryouts to write about them, wound up on
the show, and, after jawing with Pat Sajak about karaoke, and after
getting in a plug for The Rice Room, I wound up with almost
$99,000 in cash and prizes - mostly prizes, and mostly stuff that
we chose to forfeit, because we didn't want them and didn't want
to pay taxes on them. There were two things we did keep, however.
One was an Acura Legend. The other was a Rolex watch for
Dianne from Van Cleef & Arpel in Beverly Hills. Retail value:
$8,000. So, guess what? I got my gold watch! And it was 1993 - 25
years after I'd joined Pacific Telephone. Well, technically, it
was Dianne who got the gold. I guess I could still try and go back
to the phone company...Any offers?
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