Malaysian singer Yuna at Altar Bar, February 12.

Malaysian singer-songwriter Yuna will be performing in Pittsburgh on February 12, at the Strip District's Altar Bar. Says MTV:

The ease with which Yuna has transitioned to border-defying mainstream success shouldn't be surprising, considering the effortlessly universal appeal of her organic blend of contemporary pop, acoustic folk and soulful R&B. The artist's personally charged songs are deeply felt yet melodically irresistible, combining her engaging voice and expressive songcraft with imaginative production to create wholly distinctive music that's won her comparisons with the likes of Feist, Adele and Norah Jones.

The show starts at 8:00, and tickets are available online.

Lecture " Thailand as Transgender ‘Mecca’: Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment" at Pitt, January 23.

The University of Pittsburgh's Women's Studies Program and Asian Studies Center will host Aren Aizura of Arizona State University and his lecture "Thailand as Transgender 'Mecca': Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment" on January 23. To quote from the above flyer:

Thailand is often described as the global "Mecca" of gender reassignment surgery, which cater almost exclusively to trans women-transitioning from male to female, although one or two surgeons cater to trans men.

This talk looks at Thailand's gender reassignment surgery clinics as part of a transnational imaginary of gender reassignment. This transnational imaginary consists in communities and connections that form across national boundaries, and that circulate practices, ideas, fantasies, anecdotes and information about gender reassignment across the uneven spaces of global/local modernity. Drawing on ethnographic research in gender clinics in Thailand and with trans women and men who obtained gender reassignment surgery there, the talk considers how understandings of Orientalized Thai femininity structured non-Thai patients' experiences of care, community, and transition in the space of the clinic and in tourist encounters with Thailand. By questioning the economic, colonial, and racial relations of "transgender travel", this research contributes a critical voice to the emerging field of transnational transgender studies.

The lecture is at 4:00 pm in room 602 of the Cathedral of Learning.

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない) at Hollywood Theater in Dormont, January 18.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will have a one-time showing of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない on January 18.

Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster (一代宗師) at CMU, January 18.

Wong Kar Wai's latest film The Grandmaster (一代宗師) will play at Carnegie Mellon University next weekend as part of the Activities Board's Dollar Film Series. Showtimes are 8:00 and 10:30 pm on the 18th in McConomy Auditorium (campus map), and tickets are one dollar for those with a CMU student ID and $3 for those without.

Starring Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi, the New York Times wrote in August:

a hypnotically beautiful dream from the Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, opens with curls of smoke, eddies of water and men soaring and flying across the frame as effortlessly as silk ribbons. The men are warriors, street fighters with furious fists and winged feet, who have massed together on a dark, rainy night to take on Ip Man (Tony Leung), a still figure in a long coat and an elegant white hat. Even amid the violent whirlpools of rain and bodies, that hat never leaves his head. It’s as unyielding as its owner.

Free candy for Kim Jong-un's birthday, January 8.

Conflict Kitchen will be handing out free candy tomorrow, January 8, for Kim Jong-un's birthday.

On Wednesday we will be handing out the same free candy that Kim Jong-Un is giving (in an insidious annual practice) to children throughout North Korea to celebrate his birthday.

Text as it appears on the candy insert:

세상에 부럼없어라
“NOTHING IN THE WORLD TO ENVY”

More at the Conflict Kitchen blog post. Conflict Kitchen is located in Oakland (map) and is "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict".

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) at Dormont's Hollywood Theater, January 10 and 11.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) on January 10 and 11, and will be the only theater in the state with the movie on its North American premiere. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo is the third installment of the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, of which the eponymous EvaWiki has lengthy summaries. Tickets are $10 and are available now online for both English-subtitled and English-dubbed shows:

- January 10, 7 pm (subtitled)
- January 10, 9 pm (dubbed)
- January 11, 7 pm (dubbed)
- January 11, 9 pm (subtitled)

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), south of Pittsburgh. And if you'd like to take the subway to the theater, it's a little more than a block southeast of Potomac Station.

Pittsburgh Tibetan Center Constructs Mandala for Peace, beginning January 12.

The Pittsburgh Tibetan Center

will construct a sand mandala for peace from Jan.12 to the 17th at Spinning Plate Gallery at 5720 Friendship Ave. The Center’s resident Lama, Ven. Khenpo Choephel, and visiting Lama Konchak Sonam will be creating the mandala each day from nine to five. The opening ceremony is at noon on Jan. 12. The mandala is believed to plant a seed of positive, compassionate energy in the mind of viewers and bring blessings of peace and compassion to the entire world by depositing the sand into a body of moving water on the last day.

The Three Rivers Dharma Center website adds:

During the days it will take to complete the mandala, the gallery will be open to visitors from 9 am to 5 pm. Dharma Center members will be on hand to answer questions, and interpretive posters will be on display. There will also be a variety of events throughout the week, introducing viewers to this highly refined and meaningful art form and other aspects of Tibetan culture and spirituality.

Additional events are listed on the flyer above and on the Three Rivers Dharma Center site.

Japanese for Beginners at Carnegie Library - Squirrel Hill, from January 15.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Squirrel Hill branch (map) will offer a free Japanese for Beginners class on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, starting January 15. Classes begin at 5:30 pm, and the library is accessible via city buses 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 64, and 74. Registration is required, and can be done so online.

This offering has been added to the "Learn" page, along with several other free Japanese, Chinese, and Korean classes in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library branches.

"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – Ten Things I Like About Osaka", January 23.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania is presenting this year's first installment of the MEPPI Japan Lecture Series, "Ten Things I Like About Osaka":

Dr. Charles Exley, Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature and Film, will introduce Osaka City and the specific sub-culture found there. His talk will illustrate how Osaka’s geography, dialect, literary history, food, and manzai/humor make the culture unforgettable.

The talk will be held at the Residence Inn in Cranberry (map) from 5:30 to 7:00. Registration is required and can be done online, and those interested are requested to do so by January 16.

Conflict Kitchen in the Korea Times.

Conflict Kitchen, located in Oakland (map) and "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict", is the subject of a lengthy profile in the Korea Times.

In an interview with The Korea Times at a coffee shop in Hongdae, Seoul, Weleski explained why North Korea was an obvious choice for Conflict Kitchen.

“Our only interest is for people to create a space for them to be curious and to develop their own opinions,” she said.

“Initially, the restaurant was conceived to be a North Korean and South Korean restaurant. We wanted to talk about the conflict between the two nations and also the relationship that the U.S. has with the conflict between the two nations ... (To prepare for the project), we shopped in the market with North Korean defectors and cooked with them.”

Earlier in the month Conflict Kitchen was profiled in the Korean-language 서울신문 (Seoul Shinmun). The restaurant is closed through January 5th.