At the gracious invitation of David Park, I have begun sharing some thoughts over at Next Gener.Asian Church. You can read my initial post about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month there. NG.AC always hosts thought-provoking, engaging discussions so, hopefully, I can add another perspective to the mix. It is a healthy sign, I believe, to see a spectrum of voices and thoughts emerging in the Asian American church blogosphere.

I will still be blogging primarily here, but I’m excited to contribute to the work of NG.AC.

In a nod to David’s wonderful NG.AC Asian American Surveys on YouTube, here are some AA-related music videos:

+/- (plus minus) was formed by James Baluyut and Patrick Ramos — members of the seminal indie band Versus, who were part of the Ear of the Dragon tour (which I saw during their stop in Philly back in ’95) and compilation disc in support of Asian American indie rock.

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The new Death Cab for Cutie video, I Will Possess Your Heart (creepy!), was directed by Aaron Stewart-Ahn and Shawn Kim (who has worked with the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Blood Brothers and Beck).

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Guitar Hero buffs will already be familiar with DragonForce — a delightfully campy power metal band featured on Guitar Hero III as the bonus song at the end. One of their face-melting lead guitarists is Herman Li, who was born in Hong Kong. My favorite part of their video Through the Fire and Flames is around the 3:25 mark, where the guitarists take turns delivering utterly bombastic, barn-burning solos.

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And, just to cast a wider net, here’s the video for Last Trumpet by Lyrics Born (Tom Shimura), an MC who has risen from the underground Bay Area hip hop scene and recently released a new album called Everywhere at Once.