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....July 21, 6:44 PM |
| Japanese R&B Powerhouse
Tomoko
Home: Astoria Age: 24 Height: 4’ 7’’ Weight: 120 Stats: 34-26-34 Seven years ago, Tomoko moved from her home in Japan to pursue a career as a professional singer. Now she believes she is the best Japanese R&B singer in New York. Even though the market for Asian performers still remains underdeveloped in America, Tomoko says it is primed to explode. And when it does, she plans to be at the forefront of the movement. “How many successful Asian singers can you name that have made it in singing in the United States? “Everything is about timing, and now’s the time. People are ready for someone like me. If I don’t do it, somebody else will.” Although a born singer, almost all performers today must be well rounded in both modeling and acting, Tomoko said. Modeling was at first just a way to pay the bills, but she has since grown to love being on both sides of the camera. “It beats other stuff like catering or something like that,” Tomoko said. Modeling, acting and performing all require the same demeanor, she says: "being oneself, showing attitude, and being aggressive." While growing up in Japan, Tomoko said she always felt like a foreigner in her own county. When she arrived in New York, it immediately felt like home. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t adhere to her culture. One of her favorite ways to relax is enjoying a fine meal at any good Japanese restaurant in the city; at home, she always takes off her shoes. Right now Tomoko is finishing recording an album and trying to put together a musical production company. The company, Far East Soul Entertainment, will have a Web site coming out soon. She hopes it will help break ground for other Asians in the music business like her. “Right now, (being Asian) is sort of a disadvantage, you could say. But when it happens, it will be a huge advantage.” |
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Vandal Busted By Straphanger Cell Phone Queens Small Biz Hurt By Credit Crunch State Senate Race: The Final Lap? A Visit From The Mets Nine Charged In $1.4M Mortgage Scheme Inside The Board Of Elections: State Senate Votes Prompt Race Debate MTA Changes Expected Councilman Stable After Car Accident Queens Weathers Economic Storm Hospital Welcomes ‘Miracle Babies’ Home Queens Law College Ranks In Diversity Queens Arm Wrestlers Take Home Top Prizes Second Attempt For Greener Taxis Triborough Bridge Now The RFK Opponents Flip On Willets Point Plan Recount Get Underway In Tight Senate Race Return To Jail Likely For Con Freed In Hoax City Officials File Suit Over Term Limits Audit Finds Water’s Edge In Too Deep Celebs Cut Ribbon On New Garden Liu Fixing Broken Meter Rule New Test For 8th Graders Unveiled Parkway Hospital Closes | |||||||
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| Green Mountain Parakeet?
A reward has been offered for any help finding a Hungarian speaking parakeet from Queens Village currently on the loose in Vermont.
According to Carol Mezofi the bird got loose July 5 at the family’s summer home in Vermont, when a door was opened and Peetuka (Hungarian for Steve) flew away. Mezofi said her 86-year-old mother, Queens Village resident Anna Boehm, taught the blue, white and gray bird the language after she would sit and talk to it for hours in her native tongue. “This little bird spoke so many words, it was unbelievable,” Mezofi said. “My husband said we didn’t lose a bird – we lost a little person. When you heard him talking in the car it was like there was a little person hiding somewhere in the car.” The family is offering a reward to anyone near (of all places) Jamaica, VT, to who finds “Steve.” |
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| Hall Of Fame?
He was with the Redmen – that’s what they used to call St John’s before the politically correct police raided the Queens campus. He was with the New York Mets. He won the Cy Young Award and he was a World Series MVP. But how many people actually remember that Hempstead native Frank Viola was with the Minnesota Twins?
Apparently a lot of people in Minneapolis, that’s who. This week the Minnesota Twins inducted Frank Viola into their Hall of Fame. After going 10-0 with a 0.87 ERA in his senior year with SJU, he was signed by the Twins and went 24-7 in 1987, earning himself the Cy Young Award. He started in games 1, 4 and 7 of the 1987 World Series sealed the deal for Minnesota to win its first title since 1965. In 1989, he was traded mid-season to the Amazin’s where he was an All-Star in 1990 and 1991 before movin on to Boston, Cincinnati and Toronto. |
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| Benedict Simmons?
Hip-hop mogul and Queens native Russell Simmons, whose recent foray into politics has usually leaned to the left, blew off a meeting with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to meet with his counterpart on the GOP, according to comments Simmons made on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”
Simmons said he was meeting with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman on the same day he had a meeting scheduled with Dean. But Simmons and Mehlman hit it off so well, he didn’t make it to Democratic headquarters. “I sat with [Mehlman], and I felt there needs to be an effort on one of the parties to reach out and speak to the young people and to all the people who are struggling, especially the young,” Simmons said on the show. The DNC denies there was a meeting scheduled between Simmons and Dean on the day in question. The group is actually working to set one up, a DNC spokesperson said. Simmons’ last encounter with Republican politicians ruffled feathers in Albany. But could this meeting signal that the godfather of hip-hop allying himself with the Bushes and Cheneys of the world? Not likely, but some suggest Simmons means to send a message to the Dems to pay more attention or risk losing a key voting demographic. |
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| Help Mike G.
Writing letters to the editor is one way to help Queens own candidate for NYS Attorney General. According to the newly launched site, www.mikegianaris.com, one of the volunteer options is “media – letter to the editor.”
Astoria Assemblyman Mike Gianaris has taken the internet and volunteerism to new places. Another volunteer option: “drive volunteer/candidate.” Under donations, people do not just have to give money. There is a box one can check if they can donate food. Yummy! |
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| Walcott, Prescott, Whatever
It appears the Hot 97 morning host Ms. Jones needs to bone up on her politics. On a recently aired show after the Howard Beach baseball bat incident, Queens resident, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott sat down as a guest, mostly likely to reach out to young blacks about the city’s efforts to respond to the situation.
Ms. Jones, who hails from Astoria, and her cohorts repeatedly referred to Walcott, as Mr. Prescott. Supposedly the result of a research sheet that misidentified the deputy mayor, the mistake was eventually cleared up and Ms. Jones tried to laugh off the confusion by asking listeners to call in and apply for the now vacant researcher’s position. The morning show crew, which recently had been in hot water for a song ridiculing the victims of the Indonesian Tsunami, then stated the real problem with the Howard Beach incident was the victim’s two friends ran away instead of standing and fighting. A number of other racially charged assertions soon followed. Walcott, unfazed by the starkness of the conversation, stuck to the party line, saying the number of hate crimes has actually fallen in recent years and the city would deal with the attacker to the fullest extent of the law. | |||||||||
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