Richard Mille

Want to know what a watch worth more than a house can look like? Richard Mille watches are high end, so high end, they often don't have any in their shops. They might have more employees sitting around than watches. This one's titanium with a lot of bling added. Tons of diamonds and a solid feel. It's actually quite thick and it's all hand made. Different version of their watches are for different people, and they are often customized.

See the balls of metal that roll around to help keep the time right? That's how a pendulum system should work. There's something like 20,000 parts that make this watch tick. Guess where this watch sells the most? I know the answer thanks to the rep, and I guessed it on my second try.

Geisai Museum 2

One of the best parts about Geisai is running into some of the folks who are older friends, and some who are new. Some are well known, and some unknown. People come out to Geisai. who are as great and influential as KAWS and Masamichi Katayama.

Sashie with his hair cut.

I won't even try. 

Mr Ohata

Earthquake Sichuan

Thanks for the well wishes from many of you. I'm in China, but the Earthquake is quite far away. I was in a plane, and the devastation looks terrible especially since it happened in a poorer province. The news here in China shows no information except weird graphics and two heads on TV. We also felt multiple quakes in Tokyo. 6.8 was the largest that was 100 miles off shore. Although China seems hunky dory, you don't get the news quickly.

For relaxing times, eat Sushi at Totoyamichi

Sushi in Japan is notoriously expensive. So the cut that cost you hit a conveyor belt spot. Totoyamichi is a smaller chain around Tokyo that I'd suggest. The pink plates are about $1 for two pieces. The green is $2.50. And the selection is enormous. You can just sit and order and not even touch the stuff that's revolving. It's not the greatest, but really, it's pretty good. For the price, if that's a factor, it's amazing. The one we went to wasn't in a touristy area, and we accessed it by car, so it might be tougher to get to. For 5 people and we were all full, it was under $70. This was a great last place to eat, since today, I'm going to Shanghai then Beijing. See you there.

That's a funny smile by Kohei Yamashita who is mountain mountain. He wears green which is his color. 

His work looks like this. In the world of character design, a lot of folks jump in make something and hop out and move on. Kohei sticks to his style and expands on his characters to realize an entire vision. I like the long term over the short term. But neither are necessarily better than the other. 

Littered with Sushi.

This was the mochi dessert. It was really good. You actually pour a black sugar syrup on top and it turns out amazing. 

Ai Yamaguchi and Madsaki

Shingo and Ai's little dude Rei is a picky eater and didn't make it out. So this is the best I got. We ate at an izakaya place called Gomaya, which translates to something like sesame seed shop. You guessed it, that's the theme, sesame. Michelle may be vegan, but somehow she's getting through this trip unscathed, yet, it seems like it's all about veggies. Tomato, cucumber, fava beans, tofu, soba, and stuff like that. The occasional rice ball, and it seems to be working. I'm sort of glad, I'm able to explain what a vegan means in Japan. You can say, no fish, no eggs, no this or that, but until you say, no dashi (which is from bonito fish), then they trip out. 

This is Shu, he does art and also helps Ai and Shingo. He's a quiet dude who I'll guess always takes that middle path.

That's Ai and Shingo. I haven't seen them in a year and a half. They're showing me pics.

That's Miss Premium Yuko who helps out Ai on the weekend. In front is a veggie medley, cooked simple and it was good. The egg behind it was amazing, my blood orange juice of course great, behind the OJ was the sesame tofu which was almost dessert like. Impressive. I've had it before, and don't remember it being as sweet. It was powdered with sesame. I'd suggest this to anyone who's into tofu. To the right is gobo, flattened and seasoned like a chip.

Rice ball. The piece of seaweed kept flopping over like a comb over hair cut. They often refer to it as a bar code, but I found out that it's sort of taboo to make fun of that.

Madsaki is a Japanese artist who lived in the states for years, but now rock in Tokyo. We met him for coffee. He seems like a good guy.

In case you don't know her work, this is what some of Ai Yamaguchi's work looks like below. Take a look at more pics where it came from: Edition Works.

Soba and Nine Courses

Soba Made by Hand. It sort of rhymes with Castles Made of Sand, a song by Jimmy Hendrix. This is the one I like best. Duck in the hot dipping sauce "tsuyu"... the soba was amazing. It's great when you can taste the freshness, and the green onion which are those huge chunks, were actually quite sweet. Ate this at a spot in Saitama. It's pointless to even guide you there. It's about an hour north of Tokyo in a tiny spot that I'd never be able to find. You can get this at most soba spots that have variety, but not with fresh noodles.

Dinner time was another story. Sumireya is an amazing spot. I didn't shoot another city scape but it's on floor 42. The elevator gets you up in 5 seconds, literally. This, above is sort of like an appetizer, but it ends up being, that the entire meal was like many appetizers. I think I liked the seasoned squid on the bottom left. The scallop in the cup was good and the tiny green vegetables were seasoned with ume. They were crispy. The shrimp was a sushi with I think potato under it, mashed. 

This sashimi will mess with you. The tuna was chu toro. That alone was amazing. Name the other two. 

Cold Chawanmushi, that had this super bony fish in it. I think it takes a special technique to cut it and rid the bones. That's uni on top. Great uni makes uni great. (how's that sentence?).

Tuna that's fried seared. Amazing, and it's not because it was fried.

This wasn't even mine, and it was good. Chicken. Cooked well.

With Mr Arai, we discussed pachinko futures and gangster business techniques.

Gelantinous seafood puck. This wasn't sweet, but every bite was a party in your mouth.

Sir Loin on fire. This was good. Perfect amount, if you got a 10 oz steak of this, you'd have passed out at 6 oz sporting a woodrow.

The rice is white but it had bits of fish. Was it Spanish Mackerel. Red dashi miso soup, the best kind, and pickles.

Dessert was a mousse cake, with fruit.

Shiodome City Center D4Tokyo 41F, 1-5-2 Higashishimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Here's a site for the four restaurants. I guess I'll have to try the other three. One's a bar. Here's the big site.

Seonna Hong Viscery Loves Company Kaikaikiki gallery

I made it to Tokyo in time to see Seonna Hong's art show at Kaikaikiki gallery called, Viscery Loves Company. Her paintings were large sized, much larger than anything I've seen from her before. I actually saw these pieces in the works at her studio, but seeing them up on a nice large wall was amazing. She's able to mix her old sharp 2d style that was heavily graphic oriented, to now using paint brush strokes and showing them off, while not abandoning her craft elements of using pre printed papers for her character's outfits. I have a feeling, these new works will be part of a great future in painting for her. 

mediarights.org short list

This came out today at mediarights.org. It's a life of documentaries that I suggest. I probably have seen 3 or 4 more that should be in it. I think the idea is this list should be a starting point of discussion. Maybe some of you disagree with some of these are being good ones, but it's what inspires me. Check out the list, and maybe comment and add other ones. Docs are fun, and it seems like people are giving them more notice lately.

Mediarights.org.

JAL and Tokyo and Dehara

Japan Airlines is a pretty good airline. Seafood curry works, and they even give you the fukujinzuke (red pickles) to eat with it. Seems like one that you shouldn't blow, and they didn't. The green salad is pedestrian, that was probably made in LA. The salmon was great as was the fish cake, and the burdock root. The dessert was fluffy and not too sweet. All this was an encouraging start to a long trip. I'm surprised at how decent this was. 

I got hungry and asked for snacks, here's what they brought. 1) I got a toothbrush, since I forgot mine. 2) the Coca Cola cup actually has their special Yuzu beverage, which is quite nice. It's not too sweet. One the left is their no frills rice cracker mix, which is great. Then it's a two piece fancier rice cracker bag, then a granola, and then potato sticks!

This meal didn't work for me, I don't dig the pasta cream sauce along with the chicken. But the small container of noodles were good. Potato salad and fish, and the fruit was all fine. 

Pryor takes it off with Dehara and Yoko. They all drink a lot.

Since Michelle is vegan, this is what she gets. Rabbit food.

At a bar in Golden street area... There's maybe 100 bars in the area, most are tiny, but this one was a cool one. Dehara is a good sport and if you haven't, check out his work at gr2.

Jacob Magraw art on Chuck Palahniuk Book Rant.

I'm at LAX looking at books for a second, then I see this one. It's Jacob Magraw art on the cover. I thought about buying it, but I'm already holding two. The name of the author makes me think he must be from that Nordic area of the Reindeer people. Congrats Jacob for the book, and his new baby along with Rachell Sumpter, Mica Ruth Mickelson. Next stop for me: Tokyo.

Flavor Flav Under One Roof

Flavor Flav. I can't believe I used to be a fan of this guy in 1988. Public Enemy was the best group around. It was hiphop with a message, and you couldn't not listen to them. They were fighting the man with music, and creating an effort to bring up people's education and consciousness of unjust issues around the world. The music threw down energy, but food for thought. Chuck D was the man, and he's gone on to who knows what, including a radio show which is now gone. That didn't impress, but he's still the man. But the sidekick, Flavor Flav was amazing. He was this clown like character who wore weird clocks and always had crazy glasses and hair. Basically, he was a weird crackhead type of guy back in the day, but he had talent. The entire time he was in the group, people wondered if he'd do a solo album where he'd go off in his weird style. He'd have a few songs that were solo, and they were always nutty and weird, but a solo album never happened.

Now he has this show, and even the funny intro rap is sort of like Fresh Prince type stuff. Is he another casualty of the industry? I know he's making his money which is great, he's probably needing it, and probably didn't keep what he had from his PE days. His edge is now gone. Any solo album now will probably be cheesy, but his Q rating is going up for sure. 

Here's when he was a bad ass.

The Judge of short films speaks

Short films judging for the VC film fest. It's due tomorrow, I've watched it all twice, again doing my duty to take this serious since in the end, it just helps. It's a tough one though. Imagine judging a doc against a narrative against a music video against an animation. How do you do it? It's sort of like picking your favorite fruit or your favorite doughnut. You just have one, sort of. 

What about comparing the best type of food. Is it Vegetable, Beef, or Sweets? Vegetables are healthiest, you can eat it daily for the rest of your life. If you ate only beef, you'd shit badly all the time. Sweets only, you'd get diabetes, but it tastes good. Seems like veggies are the best for you, although good sweets sure are great. Great steak tastes good too. One is better for you in the long run, the others are definitely better in the short run. Tough pick in a way. I'm still deciding between the Vegetable and Dessert film. I can't pick. 

I also saw Up the Yangtze a film about the river that's being dammed and is displacing 2 million people and maybe now 2 million more. It's an arty documentary. I'm on the fence if I liked it a lot. I think I was looking for it to be more informative, as in something I'd see on Discovery channel. This film is much more poetic and touching, something totally unexpected, and that's why it's getting some distribution, it has a viewpoint, tempo, art direction, and style. 

Kissing Cousins

Amazing sight at the DGA this evening. Tons of people packed the lobby and it felt like it was opening night one more time, but this time Sunday at 6:30pm, when then became 7pm and then maybe 7:20 by the time the film began. Kissing Cousins a film by Amyn Kaderali was the special feature film that's put in the middle. They call it a center piece film when it's not an opener or a closer to get that extra special showing in there. Did you know that? I've only recently learned about the centerpiece spot in a festival. 

What did I think about the film? Honestly, it was a great first feature. Kaderali masterfully weaves a ton of characters to make a fun family comedy. I guess you can say romantic comedy featuring an Indian lead dude who's just a dude and not an Ethnic portrayal. It's funny, and he gets away with a lot of scenes that could have easily gone south. Impressive. I felt it wasn't lit right, might be my only criticism. Maybe it was the projection. Either way, it's worthy of support. 

Kissing Cousins site. This has to be temporary since it's it's an ip address. 

I ate one too many samosas beforehand, which were really good. I'm sure they were out there for Kaderali and his friends, but I munched as many as I could anyway.  Having that festival badge helps.

Kaderali was still being interviewed. He's a tall dude picking his eye. The weird thing is, life's grand during the festivals, but if you don't have "big" (as in Hollywood) interest, it's a big up that crests at the festival and then turns back into regular life soon after. But I think the highs are fun for that minute. 

Takashi Murakami Davy Jones' Tear Blum and Poe May 3 - June 14th.

Takashi Murakami's show Davy Jones' Tear opening took place at Blum and Poe. I'm sure everyone wants to know how much everything is. I never bothered to find out, but they weren't free or cheap. They probably hit the 7 figures+ and I heard they were all sold. From one of his past associates, I found out it's not uncommon for an artist to follow up a big ass show in the same city with another exhibition to make some sales, pretty much as I thought. The art continues to be great, in a sort of continuation from the latest works at MOCA. These really need to be seen in person to get the idea of what they're like. From an image alone, you don't get the idea. 

These works follow up on the second floor of the MOCA exhibition.

I heard that these works were entirely silkscreened. Many colors no doubt and huge and meticulous. I think it's the first time he produced work in this manner. 

These works are actually amazing and will continue his tradition of art. The piece above has a little bit of old school and new. The latest flower style which you see on his mugs, and his newest style of his backgrounds.

A lot of folks steamed up the rooms. I'm sure it's not so great for the works, but for a night, it's all cool.

Seonna Hong, who I'll be seeing in Tokyo next week. She'll be there tomorrow.

Takashi Murakami and Mark Ryden

Kurobuta and baby bok choy and tomato at Wilson Food and Wine. 

Kobe style beef on an eggplant slice, asparagus, and flat bread and guacamole.

Tim Blum makes a quick speech. Tim Blum and Jeff Poe have done a lot for art in LA and maybe the US. Granted, it's mostly high art, and it definitely caters to the heavy hitters, their clientele, the work by Murakami has transcended to the masses. They also handle Yoshitomo Nara as well. It's work that's infiltrated popular culture and brought a style of Japanese art to the US and they were into it before it was cool or hot. I'm sure they're doing quite well as a result of their vision, and look at how many people they can host to a nice meal.

Tim Blum, a woman (I found out! It's Tim's wife), me and Chiho...

Judging shorts

I'm judging shorts this year at the VC film festival. I've been outspoken about how I dislike short films, so I seem like a terrible candidate, but in the end, it's not true. It's not that I dislike shorts, it's more about disliking bad shorts. I've seen my share of short programs that have 8 bad ones and 1 good one. I've also seen some which are 10 bad ones only. Then there's been some that are half and half. I'll admit from experience, it's difficult to tell a short in just a few minutes. Usually, it's a gag, or a quick "haha" type of project. That's how it is. You don't have time to develop a character, you don't have time to tell an entire life story, but what you can do is a quick vignette. 

I've made a super 8 short, Sumo: the Wrestlers which screened a few times in festivals here and there. It actually showed in the post LA riot 1991 to just a few people. I made another years later as part of the Obits program, which went to a bunch of film fests, which I hope never sees the light of day again. There were others as well. I think I had screen dreams back then, like many today. 

I do know people spend as much money as it takes of make a feature film on a short. They probably take as long as some do to make a feature, and for some, this is their life's achievement, all in a matter of a few minutes. So with that mind, I'll give all of these film a fair viewing. Who knows, this may give some lift to an important director tomorrow.

Somehow I found the room of snacks. It's not pretty, but that's where people recharge.