Ramos' mother was a singer; his father taught him the uke. The family lived on Oahu during World War II, running a pool hall in downtown Honolulu and Kakaako. After the war they returned to Kalaheo, Kauai, where dad opened another pool hall.

In 1947, the 5-year-old Ramos and his sister won the KGMB Amateur Hour with his ukulele playing and her singing. Two years later, the lad from Waimea appeared in the film "Pagan Love Song" starring Esther Williams. That year Larry also won top honors in a statewide ukulele contest organized by Arthur Godfrey, who took the boy to New York to appear one of his national radio and TV talent shows. (Among Godfrey's discoveries were Pat Boone, Steve Lawrence, Roy Clark and Patsy Cline. Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.)

Later in Hollywood, Ramos won the part of the Crown Prince in Rodgers and Hammerstein's touring musical "The King and I," starring Yul Bryner. The boy from Kauai went on to perform with the New Christy Minstrels (after being discovered at a South Gate coffee house) between 1962-66 before joining The Association (after their hits “Along Came Mary” and “Cherish”) in 1967 and co-singing the lead on two all-time classics, "Windy" and "Never My Love."

LARRY RAMOS

He joined the Association one year after he quit the "Christy's" to spend time with his wife and twin baby girls. He was singing background for a friend in a recording session with an Association member who asked Ramos to accompany The Association on tour. Note: The Association's original lineup featured Gary Alexander (lead vocals), Russ Giguere (vocals/guitar), Brian Coles (vocals/bass), Jim Yester (vocals/guitar), Ted Bluechel (drums) and Terry Kirkham (keyboards). They were one of the most popular pop-psychedelic harmony groups of the mid-60’s that represented that era’s “Four Feshmen” or “Hi-Lo’s” and was vocally comparable to the “Beach Boys” and “Mamas and the Papas” The Association opened the first Monterey Pop Festival.

"I didn't know anything about the show they were doing," Ramos said. "It was crazy." The bass player damaged his hand after the first concert and Ramos explains, "They handed me a stack of albums and said 'Go practice.'" He rehearsed alone two hours before the show. "I never got off the stage after that." He eventually replaced lead singer Alexander and became part of a music success story.

GAIL KIM

GAIL KIM

Gail - who went by the ring name of La Felina - is a stunning Toronto native beauty who has been wrestling for two to three years and got her start at Ron Hutchison's School of Wrestling in Toronto.

She later appeared in stints with independent companies like Apocalypse Wrestling Federation, Michigan Championship Wrestling, Maximum Pro Wrestling, Universal Wrestling Alliance, Border City Wrestling, Insane Wrestling Federation and Foxxy Ladies of Wrestling.

In the beginning, her love of wresting and wanting to have a career involving being athletic or physical, she saw an opportunity upon visiting AWF's Web site.

GAIL KIM

She then trained passionately at Toronto's Squared Circle Training Gym in Toronto. After a lot of hard work, training and perseverance, she entered the world of wrestling.

Originally wrestling under a black mask, Felina's career actually took off after she lost a big match. One of the stipulations of that match was that she would have to reveal her face if she was not victorious. When the mask came off and Felina's beauty was finally revealed to the fans, everything changed for her. Fans everywhere suddenly wanted to see more of the sexy new grappler...including top executives of World Wrestling Entertainment.

MICHELLE WIE

MICHELLE WIE

Many call Michelle Wie a prodigy, a phenom and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. She is like the Tiger Woods for Hawaii. She put women’s golf in Hawaii on the map. She has the support of her peers and of the Korean/Korean American communities.

Michelle Sung Wie, the 6’ 160 pounds Honolulu HI native, is the latest rage on the women’s golf tour. Wie, a Korean American, had said she admires other women golfers of Korean descent, such as Pak, Grace Park and Mi Hyun Kim, but it’s Woods she idolizes because he’s “good at everything.”

Michelle is not some rich man's daughter. B.J. (Byung Wook) Wie a professor of transportation studies at the University of Hawaii after receiving his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and supervises her practices and other aspects of her golf regimen – including being her caddy. Bo (Hyun Kyung) is a realtor and former amateur golf champ in South Korea (won the Korean Women’s Amateur) who taught her husband how to play and the primary breadwinner.

B.J. came to America in 1983, Bo in 1987. They were married a year later (1988) in Los Angeles and moved to Honolulu, where Michelle, their only child, was born a year later, making her a U.S. citizen.

Wie started playing at age 4, and she shot a 64 at Olomana Golf Links when she was 10. The next year, she won the Jennie K. — the most prestigious women's event in Hawaii — by nine strokes and was winning nearly every junior event she entered by the age of 11.

Her practice routine includes spending four hours every weekday at Olomana Golf Links on Oahu doing 45 minutes of putting, 30 minutes on the short game, 45 minutes on the range and nine holes of play. Wie spends seven to eight hours practicing on the weekends. Michelle Wie works with swing instructor Gary Gilchrist of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Buddy Kiawa, a California-based teacher, oversees her putting stroke.

Despite her golf practices, she still maintains straight A’s. Her last report card was superb: all A's except for a B-plus in Chinese at Punahou School (an elite prep school known as the best private school on the Island whose graduates include AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case where 99% of the graduates attend college and whose students score 1307 – or 287 points above the national SAT national average of 1020). Her favorite subject is math. Her goal is to get her Ph.D. in business or finance.

	x
MICHELLE WIE

“A friend of mine told Michelle, "You’re the next Se Ri Pak (LPGA star from South Korea),”’ said her father. “She was kind of frustrated. She wants to be the next Tiger Woods.” She wants to attend Stanford before turning pro - just like Tiger. It is hope that Woods’ ever-presence will infuse the Wie home with the secrets of his success. She decides she wanted to become a pro-golfer after watching Tiger Woods play.

Fifty million dollars in five years - that's how much Wie could earn in endorsement deals, says Jane Blalock, LPGA Senior Tour president and a former LPGA star who now runs her own Boston-based golf marketing company. At the present time, Michelle’s parents spent $50,000 last year on Michelle's golf, and $70,000 in 2003.

Michelle’s ultimate goal is to play in the Masters. If successful, Wie -- unlike Martha Burk -- would be welcomed at Augusta National Golf Club, tournament and club chairman Hootie Johnson said. Asked about the possibility of a female competitor at the Masters, where the host club has no female members, Johnson said: "If we have one to qualify, we'll sure send an invitation. And that could happen."

Michelle (like most kid prodigies) imagine themselves doing unprecedented and extraordinary things long before they actually do them. She is a talent with imagination, bound together by self-belief. Her parents have long noticed how she will float through a tournament until a gallery builds or a TV camera shows up. "Then it's birdie, birdie, birdie," Hyun says with a laugh. "Then the camera goes away. Bogey next hole!"

A brief overview of some of her milestone achievements include being the youngest player to qualify in a USGA amateur championship event at the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links Championship, Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship's youngest winner, Jennie K. Wilson Invitational's youngest winner, youngest player ever to qualify for an LPGA tournament at the LPGA Takefuji Classic, only female golfer in the Hawaii Pearl Open, the youngest player to make an LPGA cut, the only female in the field at the Canadian Tour's Bay Mills Open Players' Championship and the only female in the field at the Nationwide Tour's Albertson's Boise Open.

 

LYNN CHEN

Lynn Chen

WHITENESS STUDIES
"Whiteness Studies" is based on a left-leaning interpretation of history by scholars who say the concept of race was created by a rich white European and American elite, and has been used to deny property, power and status to nonwhite groups for two centuries.
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IMPORTANCE OF ORAL HISTORY
In Asia, UNESCO honored six masterpieces oral history: Kunqu opera (China); Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre (India); Nôgaku theatre (Japan); royal ancestral rite and ritual music in Jongmyo shrine (Korea); the Hudhud chants of the Ifugao (Philippines); the cultural space of the Boysun District (Uzbekistan).
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DOUBLE STANDARDS IN SPORTS
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"le thi diem thuy" - VIETNAMESE WRITER
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SARS - EPIDEMIC OF FEAR
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NBA 2004 PRESEASON GAMES IN CHINA
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BONZAI ON FOX
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DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY
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HERITAGE TOURISM IN INDIA'S "GOA"
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KELLY'S A BUSY "X" ACTRESS
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FOX'S YELLOWFACE CHAN MOVIES
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EWP EVENTS
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BOLLYWOOD AWARDS 2003
A packed audience attended the Bollywood Awards 2003 at Trump Taj Mahal arena. Honoring outstanding achievements brought out top stars such as Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Karishma Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Akshay Kumar, Esha Deol, Aftab Shivdasani, Sukhvinder Singh and Alabina.
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CHINESE IN THE MISSISSIPI
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NBA AND DIVERSITY
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COLUMBIA ASIA BACKS STEVEN CHOW
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U.S. WON'T RELEASE WEN HO LEE REPORT
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YAO'S POPULARITY IN CHINA
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B.D. WONG COMES OUT
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STUART ISHIMARU & EEOC
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PAUL KARIYA'S CHARACTER
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RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER
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HISTORICAL MUSICAL RACISM
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ALL GIRL MUSLIM PROM
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YIMOU'S HERO CUT TO 95 MINUTES
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DAVID KIM RECEIVES AWARDS
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BETTER FUNDING FOR UT'S AA STUDIES
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ESUN HOLDINGS PURCHASE MEDIA ASIA
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PANGS' "EYE"
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APA COMMUNITIES' COMPLEX MAKE-UP
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"THE GRUDGE" HAS BUYERS
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HOLLYWOOD BUYS KOREAN FILM "JUNGADOK"
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FORTISSIMO BUYS ZHANG'S "SUNFLOWER"
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HK DIRECTORS FILM SARS SHORTS
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SHINSEKI RETIRES
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UPCOMING APA DIRECTORS
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CHEN KAIGE'S "TOGETHER"
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SERVANTS TO ENTREPENEURS
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RACISM & ADVERTISING IN LATE 19TH CENTURY
Between 1870's to 1890's , "trade cards" or "advertising cards" (a post card, printed with decorative images which directly or indirectly promote a commercial product, service, or event were widely used. Many contained racist depictions of Chinese and Chinese Americans.
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