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“The Man Can Sing Anything.”
There are eleven million Filipinos working overseas, a million of which left the Philippines in 2007, and Arnel Pineda is one of them.
I’m sure you readers have already heard about Arnel Pineda, the new Philippine-born lead singer for the American band Journey: his hardscrabble life as a homeless twelve-year old with that burning talent; the [...] -
Grand Theft Auto IV and the American Dream (Part Two)
But back to the delights of Grand Theft Auto IV. If immigrant disappointment is quintessentially American, then so is the notion of immigrant criminality. How else does one explain the grip that cultural artifacts like The Sopranos, or The Godfather, or Scarface, or Carlito’s Way, or Gangs of New York, has on the public, their [...]
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Grand Theft Auto IV and the American Dream (Part One).
Niko Bellic is pissed. His cousin Roman hasn’t exactly been telling him the truth about America: the sports cars, the penthouse, and the women which he mentioned in his letters are nothing but a beat-up cab, a roach-infested walkup in Brighton Beach, and tattered centerfolds tacked to the wall around a stained sofa bed. So [...]