Asians in rock music?

Well, there's James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins. Miki Berenyi of Lush. Shonen Knife.

As impossible as it may seem, Asians are even more invisible in rock and roll then in the other major forms of popular culture -- Hollywood flicks and television.

But we think that's about to change. We at explode.com see an explosion of young, talented Asian youth who have picked up the guitar pick and are rocking out. Sure, most of 'em are pretty obscure now to the masses: Seam. Buffalo Daughter. Cibo Matto. And a slew of others. But as Valerie Moorhead, lead singer of indie pop band Enda, states in our main feature this month, Asian rock has been around for a long time in the underground, independent scene. And it's just now starting to gain notice from the mainstream. We here at Blast say: it's about time.

Elsewhere in this issue, Jewish Mom from New York shares her chicken soup recipe. Freeze some for your Year 2000 disaster packs. You'll need the comfort. Hiker Christina Stoltzfus shares her latest diary entry from her recent march through the Appalachian Trail. And long-distance runner Matt Johanson reminds us of the true meaning of the Olympics.

We have mentioned that Blast was planning to go monthly - well, we lied. Sort of. We didn't anticipate the intrusion of real life into our Blast activities. But we promise that we WILL go monthly, and you'll be the first to know it. See you in May.

-- Wylie Wong and Amy Pang