Counting the Votes

OK, so today is THE absolute final day to vote for your favorite Face. For you, that means you better get clicking. For me, it means it is time to prepare to delve into the database and total the votes. It is always an exciting task to find out who made the Top 5, but for some reason it also makes me nervous! I feel like we are annoucing the Oscar nominees or something. I know it's a bit cheesy, but heck, we live for this stuff over here.

So good luck to all in the final day of voting, and if you have yet to pick up the new issue, do it NOW. Not only do you get to see the semifinalists in print but the issue features one of my favorite stories - a roundup and taste test of Asian frozen and packaged foods found in mainstream grocery stores. Our palates worked hard on this one and the results are quite interesting, and they are helpful when writing your grocery list. Do you know who makes the best Palak Paneer? Are you a fan of stir fry? We'll tell you which brand got the gold star or in our case the Golden Chopsticks!

Oh, and if your like me, you are now in love with Mondays again because it means a new episode of "Heroes!" Enjoy it tonight and read our piece on James Kyson Lee here.

Another Year, Another Face

In our offices, Spring signals the arrival of the annual Face of East West contest. In its 4th year now, this seemingly simple contest, granting the winner a cover of an upcoming issue, truly captivates you readers! We are continually amazed at the responses, the emails and the vote totals.

Every year I get bombarded with the question, "Who is leading?" But guess what? I don't know! To stay neutral and to keep things 100% secret, I wait until the very end to look at tabulations. So, although it is nice to hear from you, please stop asking. :)
I don't know and I am not finding out!

What do I know?
I know the names of two of this year's judges, who will determine the final winner from the top five online vote-getters. We are proud to have on the panel this year Carrie Ann Inaba from "Dancing with the Stars" and Rafe Totengco, whose leading accessory line is loved by celebs like Sandra Oh, Eva Longoria and Jessica Alba.

More names and more info to come! So stay tuned.

Welcome to the Universe of Sanjaya

I feel with all the Sanjaya haters on the Internet and mass media, I should list a few positive links about the lad, though personally myself I think euthanasia should be applied. I think it's really cruel that people are letting him continue. This could scar him for life, or maybe not. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Fanjaya, but the other AI singers easily out-lung him. Granted, they're all boring to watch.

FOR FANJAYAS:
A few of his AI studio recordings:

Sanjaya singing in a choir during his pre-Idol days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDtTVSkFHyM

Sanjaya's purported real MySpace page before AI froze all the contestants' pages:
http://www.myspace.com/dazeoffire

Article about Sanjaya, quoting folks who grew up with him:
I cannot provide links to his AI live performances because I think that would be cruel. However, if you go to YouTube.com, they're all there.

Sanjaya supporter rant: "I'm tired of you all picking on Sanjaya!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAVoqqN6iCI

Enjoy!