gistfile1.py

class BaseHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
 
    def initialize(self):
        self.thread = None
 
 
    def task(self, target, *args, **kwargs):
        target_task = functools.partial(target, *args, **kwargs)
 
        def callback_wrapper(callback):
            callback(target_task())
 
        def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
            target_callback = (kwargs.get('callback'),)
            self.thread = threading.Thread(target=callback_wrapper, args=target_callback)
            self.thread.start()                                                                                                 
 
        return tornado.gen.Task(wrapper)
        
 
 
# USAGE
class MainHandler(BaseHandler):
 
    @tornado.web.asynchronous
    @tornado.gen.engine                                                                                                         
    def get(self):
        photos = yield self.task(Photo.objects.filter, approved=True) # make a django (would be blocking) query
        self.render('index.html', photos=photos)