cranes, museums, and rock

Big accident on the 405, it must have been bad, and the guy driving was "charred" according to the news reports. Getting past it took well over an hour and a half. The truck had a huge crane in the back, and somehow that crane fell off and actually went onto the southbound traffic. It was bad. The cab of the truck was just black. Condolences to his family. It's weird how my arm is in the reflection in the photo.

Baseman! One neat thing about the museum is that art is taken super serious. Compared to how we handle work, which I think isn't bad at all, they are really strict. Gloves are important! I'm sure MOCA or LACMA would be even more strict.

Eishi Takaoka is in the house. He enjoys standing next to dumpsters.

Saelee, Clement, and Eishi loading in a serious industrial elevator. Museums are pretty neat. Behind the nice clean walls of the galleries is some crazy offices, and funny people.

Whoa, what's this? It's Thurston Moore at Echoplex wearing a Halloween costume. The Echoplex is close to the museum actually.

Even without his Sonic Youth band, his solo act rocks. I especially liked it when he got rid of the acoustic guitar and went electric. Thurston Moore is one of my guitar heroes. Not the game, but for real.

Saelee Oh gets on the ladder for more late night work.

Flavorpill props...l

Our friends at Flavorpill included us in things to do this weekend. It's always an honor to have their support. They're not the only ones. It always takes a concerted effort to make stuff work, and I'm happy to have help.

Scrabbel at JANM

Late breaking...Scrabbel will be making a trip from Northern Cal to play at the GR Biennale. It's quite a cool thing, since they don't play down here often, and they're the nicest folks around. They support the art shows at GRSF often, and Hellen Jo, the cellist is current in the Black and White show at GRSF.

See her art here.
And hear Scrabbel at their myspace page.
Or hear their covers at their site. This includes Sometimes by My Bloody Valentine.

This is lead guy Dan Lee who was the keyboardist in Aisler's Set.

Takashi Murakami Gala

You pull up, and it's like this. Valet parking, and you drive right up the road in front of JANM. There was a line of valet parking attendants... more than they'd ever need. It was a show of force and a show of Mercedes. I wonder if openings are normally like this at MOCA in downtown. I'd think not and this was some exception. It's a sunday too.

Paparazzi line. No camera went up for me. But for Owen Wilson, Christina Ricci, Cindy Crawford, Marc Jacobs, Toby McGuire, etc. I'm sure they went to work. It felt weird when I saw it, I only noticed that it was carpet. As I took a few steps, I realized where I was, it was a line of photographers. I saw some glam looking older ladies being photographed, I wondered who they were. I have a feeling they were famous fashion people. There were a lot of those. But for the most part, money could buy you in, so it's not invite only.

Murakami has his own Harajuku girls who pointed you towards his exhibition. They were mostly taller than me. I saw the exhibition again, and it's still good, still rockin, and amazing. There's nothing else like it, and you have to wonder how can an artist top this?

I shot a tiny bit of video of the Kanye West portion. He's an amazing performer. I was actually pretty close up, but the wide angle camera gives me some distance.
if you need, link here.

This is the entrance to dinner. You walk through the LV tunnel. Pretty neat stuff.

Dinner room had projection wallpaper everywhere, they even animated a bit. This was crazy.

Using all kinds of tools...

Dinner. You got no choice and this is what you got. Served to so many, it actually wasn't that bad. The meat tasted good. That tater tot is actually yam. The rest are veggies. The appetizer was some weird cabbage sunomono that was fancy. The sashimi was the next course, that was good too.

After event at Blue Velvet hotel. Quick jump on the shuttle and we were there.
That's myself, Seonna Hong, and Takumi Kaseno (he works for Murakami)
Above my shoulder I see Gabe Ritter and his reflection. It's like a little person talking in my ear.

The place mat was actually a plexiglass "art" piece. People were taking other people's. If you stepped away to say hi to someone vultures crept in and took em. I saw one lady with an arm load, and she was even trying to take them off of our table. I guess they make nice gifts and also free for the cheapies.

This is what everyone got to tell them at what table they were sitting at. Pull the card out, and poof, you find out, this leather item is by Louis Vuitton. 31 was my table, and ironically its was where there were a few recognizable people. Seonna Hong was one. Oliver, her gallerist was another. Michael Darling who's now curating at Seattle MOCA, and others. The table next to us was Takashi's family. Yes, he actually has a family.

If you wanted coffee, it came in this mug... Counting, you got a place mat, a LV thing, (I guess business cards can fit in it) and a mug.

laterals

I'm not sure if there's anything better than this new one except the older one... laterals are amazing in football, and they seldom work, but this one does. It was only yesterday, and it's Div 3, but it's still college football, and this is hardcore. I don't think I've seen such a play in pro football. But these two are amazing. Here's to you Trinity. I do think the Trinity version is more of a miracle, since that play is long and it spans the entire play field.

Mr Murakami

The opening was huge, imagine an art show with thousands of people. Sitting, standing, talking, dancing around, waiting to be seen, and a few who actually really looked at art. The line of the night, "I'll come back and see the art when there's no one around." A lot of people are scheming to try and talk to Takashi, whispering stuff, trying to find a way to get "in" with him. What will he really do? Hand you a bag full of money? It was nice to hear the sounds of DJ Krush for a minute, especially when I heard some of the old Mowax music.

Takashi came to town and rocked it, and I guess I'll see him tomorrow too. How often are art shows like this? I can remember them on one hand. Helter Skelter, Superflat, Ecstasy, and now Murakami. What can someone do to top this? And which one will have the commercial aspects as this? MOCA just defeated a lot of countries GNP tonight. I saw tons and tons of people holding the big brown LV bags.

While we were leaving, he was coming in pretty incognito, that's when I got to catch up a bit.



Mr. is amazing. He didn't flick me off this time.

Spiderboom mini clear!

This is rare. Not a lot of them around. It's clear, and the light travels through it nicely. That little hat is cute. Supposedly there's a clear smoke one as well, and who knows what other weird colors there are. Mine was clear. I hear sometimes, there's often not even one of these in a case. The weird thing is the top eye ball looks like it's more clear than the other two, but they're all clear. Small figures are the best. They keep going, and these are great.

"What did I do?"

JANM banner

It's up. It's in a week.

LV Time

OK, so this is the print on the bag. Hands? Weird, right? Either way, I dig the flowers, and the tiny details are really nice. It's too bad they didn't make any gear for men. I'm not sure if I'm rock the LV, but it's nice.

Takashi Murakami MOCA

Here's the pics for the show. It's pretty rad. It's going to be great, and it's everything one can expect. Take a look through the pics, it's amazing. Takashi Murakami did a talk at the press preview and kept it simple, talked about commerce and the fact that money is important. He also talked about his work, and this being his biggest show... yes it is. Also the cool thing is that he spoke it in English, which is something that he's been sort of shying away from lately. When I interviewed him way back in 2001ish, he did it in English, then he always worked with a translator.

The small MOCA shop was filled with Murakami goods, tons of it. You name it, it's there. The Louis Vuitton shop? It's going to bank big time. It's going to out rock any shop in the area for sure. Especially since it has the special MOCA only LV design.

So in the end, who comes out ahead? Where's this taking art? It's a pioneering show, and there's a lot to say about it. But I'm still taking it all in. This has to be his biggest venture yet, and I'm proud of him. Hope I get to catch up with him soon.







*Glad I shot pics, they're not allowing photos anymore.

Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead at the Wiltern. Yes, they're a great band - one of the best around. They seem to be getting better while most bands just start to stink after a while. They played most of the songs from 23, and a few older ones as well. Can't go wrong with that.

I didn't like the opener Autolux as much, although they seemed to have their fans.

Yes, I'm a bootlegger. For those of you who couldn't go.

The sun - the air - also the moon

The sky is brown - red, it's from the fires that aren't too close by. We have a filter of crap around us right now. I think it's like this in some parts of the world every day.

Not long after I shot the above, the moon was also a weird color.

Murakami coming up.

I got the above invite. I think members get it. It's neat and colorful. I look at it and think it's pretty happy. I open it and it expands much like one of Murakami's pieces to reveal an invite to the opening event. I'm pretty happy with it all. It's exciting and good for LA. But the invite is nice too. I'm sure someone slaved on it to get it just right.

I'm thinking, this is cool... then all of a sudden I get an email, Takashi wants to invite you to the opening. I'm thinking, I'm going already. Then I find out it's on the 28th... I'm thinking naw, I don't need to go again, the next day, what difference is it? I'm pretty clueless to events going on honestly. So I'm just about going to pass on it, but then I'm thinking, "what the heck.." They mail me the invite.

This looks nicer.

Like an origami ninja star, it unfolds. The invite is on heavy stock.

No, I don't need to bust out the $100,000 bill to come.

Kanye is going to play and Marc Jacobs will mill about.

Nice tiny ass details. This must have been a pain to print.

off and away

So Martin got stuck at the airport and couldn't get on his flight. Darn, an extra day in Hawaii, I'm sure he's pounding sand on that note. The HI film fest has it's weird issues with travel, I heard a lot about it from others too. Tickets not existing, late, confused, no shuttle to and from theater or from the airport for that matter, but then again, there's still help from the folks when trouble happens. I guess it's a give and take. But the neat thing is the Ricoh GR is still doing it job. I shot these... the above photo is pretty sharp for a quick shot. You can see Diamond head pretty well.

The arrow I drew is to my hotel (I think). The Sheraton is the weird triangular building on the beach. I guess it's that shape so they could get as many beach front windows as possible. Look how wide that hotel is! Bad feng shui is what I've heard....

This is the inside of Diamond Head. What are those buildings in there?

last shots

Last shots before I walk off with my suitcase to split a cab with M and W. Here's Ahi tuna Poke. Glad it's not Pokey. It's a favorite in HI, and the cool thing is that, it's just some weird concoction that they created. It's not in Japan, it's seldom in the US. And that's some local flavor. It also tells me tuna must be cheap sometimes.

Once in a while, a tag is interesting. An elephant? That's pretty cool.

That upper left one looks like an Uglydoll Wedgehead.

Last morning

Last day. At around 7 something in the am, I'm looking down the beach. Somewhere in that last building in the distance at the Sheraton, Martin and Wendy are probably crashed out. I got out and hopped in the water pretty early since I'm flying back today. I think I made my peace with leaving the nice beaches of Hawaii.

Hope the fires will calm down in Southern California. It feels weird to be standing on a nice calm beach across the ocean, when hell has broken out at home. Fires keep starting all over the place.

Last full day in HI.

Streetwear among all the other Waikiki tourist stuff. You just can't get away from it. They were having a sale, and well, I guess now I have more t-shirts. This is their second spot. The first being near ala Moana shopping mall. They do a good job, their shop is simple, it's tons and tons of t shirts and some other apparel as well. In4mation store.

Matsugen's Handmade soba rocks, but this is a pic of their Kobe beef.

I actually ate natto

See the dude making the shave ice? Look at the size of that thing. Shimazu makes them the biggest.

Anderson Le and the Shimazu Shave Ice

Crackseed store. So much temptation.

This is what our slide looks like on the screen at the film festival. Saw Helvetica tonight. I wish Shari Sakahara could see this film. It's a pretty cool documentary about the font that we use often. See the above photo. As much as it was informative, it also had good music, and had a great feel.

Day 4 - Local Motion

Yeah, you've seen the t-shirts, now here's the place. I'm digging on the pose by the woman in the hat in the background. This place is the tourist trap of the north shore. You walk in, and it's all about the t-shirts on both sides of the walls. With $2 shave ice, they gotta supplement it. I helped in that economy purchasing some gear. I like shave ice a lot, and I don't know if this is the best place for it, but it's not bad. So below... see the guy behind the girl? He's packing a shave ice? His head comes out of her pony tail... see his hand near his chin. No gloves, and it gets barehanded right on the ice. That's the local flavor...

Strawberry and Rootbeer

Shrimp trucks are around on the north shore area. Parked like beach whales, they offer the same type of dish, garlic and buttery shrimp. Cooked just right to the point that you can eat the skin if you want.

beached turtles - don't worry, they're just basking

Chestnut Tofu

amazing Shabu Shabu experience at Hakkei

Pizza party starring Andrew

D&D

The man running shit Anderson Le and the man running Vietnamese American film, Tim Bui

HIFF day 3 - Lance Hahn J Church RIP

My wet dream may not have a room full of naked hot ladies, but you know, I'll admit, it would have bags and bags of cracked seed. Whoa, I lost it at this booth at the flea market in HI. What was missing from this place? This wasn't even the entire booth, behind me was even more. I spend $50 on bags of dried everything. I'll eat it all too. The flea market once had a lot of vintage items, I even bought a small box of sentai vinyl figures, but these days, it's mostly a vast waste land of new items, t-shirts ($20 for 6), cracked seed, more t shirts, towels, and stuff like that. Surely ebay killed it. We also got bad news that our friend Lance Hahn from J Church passed away (I blogged about it on HB) I'm sure he's pretty unknown to those readers. We'll miss him much.

Li Hing pineapple chunks. $3.

Robocon and Shibre (his and her alias from the GR message boards)

Martin, Kamenriderv3, his wife (yeah her name is Chinese and I forgot)

Can't beat the Shave Ice from here. The locals know about it. But why don't the Shave Ice foundation of HI, do more promotion? You can't even find the ice in Waikiki. I could write a lot on this spot, it's great.

Daniel, Josie, and Conrad, you saw them in a previous GR.

Baby Mao, Sarah Tojo and Anderson Chi Min

The Josie Ho beach front family house, this is only half, there's another one of these on the grounds and that's where I'm shooting from.

the hypebeast

I'm still doing some blogging on Hypebeast updating and trying to figure out what the difference between this blog and that blog will be. Have any ideas? See anything happening? I'm still not sure, but I haven't thought about it much.

Smiles all around in HI

My man Lenny, the resident Genius was a pretty good help. He spent time being patient, making sure I didn't feel dumb, and made sure I understood everything. He worked on three computers at a time, and that was pretty good. Bottom line, he fixed my computer. I swear these dudes/gals make it look easy. Ala Moana mall was all right. They have tons of big time shops like Louis Vuitton, and a bunch of little ones too.

Cracked Seed Center. This place is the best. I ended up with rock salt plum and classic cracked seed.

Rock salt, cracked seed, the one on the right is li hing guava!

Koi at the Ala Moana. I dig fish a lot. I wish I took more time to look at fish.

Weenies and Spam musubi in a normal market

My lunch, the chili with dogs over rice rocked. The mac on the upper left was ok, the noodles on the right was alright. The chicken was decent. This was at the Dole mall food court!

Food land in Ala Moana. Everything looked great, and this was a market!

Daniel and Lisa do the tiger growl

Wendy and Martin do the monkey. Me, the 5th wheel.

Genius in Ala Moana

Every good place you go, there's an Apple store. Let's see if these Hawaiian geniuses can fix my machine. It's early like 9am and I'm at wonderful Ala Moana. Crackseed center is here! That's the other place I'm hitting after this. I made an appointment at 9:20, and so far, the help here looks pretty good, just like at the other Apple stores. What kind of Kool Aid are these folks drinking?

- addition - Lenny fixed it no problem. I'll write more later.

ABC

There's nothing crappier than crappy internet in your hotel room. But the good thing is there's an ABC store across the street from my hotel, the Princess Kaiulani. A decent place for sure, and it's near the mallish Waikiki street. I haven't been here in ages, so it's nice to have the comfortable ameneties that you might fight in Tokyo or Sawtelle. First thing I bought after a delayed flight and long and crappy bus ride (take a cab fyi)was 2 rice balls, dried fish, and jasmine tea. So good.



This hotel also doesn't have a gym. It's a huge place, big pool, tons of food, but no gym.

TEXT!

So my computer is now doing weird shit. Emails look like they're in Thai, even when they aren't. I can copy and paste into word and they look fine, but they show up in Thai and when I type, they look Thai. I tried the text encoding, but that does nothing. It's something beyond that for sure. Any ideas?

Softball loss

We're 1-4 now this season. I don't know where our once hot bats went, but looking forward, our defense felt all right. For some reason I like hitting against this pitcher. I went 3-3 in the first game and went 3-4 today. I feel like I can thread a needle with the softball when this guy pitches. The only one I blew it on, was when I didn't think before I swung at the ball. I usually aim. If you've seen For the Love of the Game, Costner says something like ENGAGE MECHANISM. I forgot to do that on the last at bat.

I still play left field, where I pulled a hamstring, and it's bothering me right now. But it's weird, when it comes time to run, I can still do it, maybe it's that adrenalin thing going on. I'm not sure, but our team had some downs lately. Will, our 3b is out for the season, Hap our SS is out sort of too, maybe for a few reasons, but the best one is that his wife is 4 months pregnant, and our team is almost starting fresh in some ways. New players trying to figure some things out, and the same old ones getting older but hopefully better. Yeah, we lost 10-9, so close, but so far, and it was the team that's doing alright this season, but for some reason, we hang with them well. It's a decent league though, we're all sort of in the same level, although our record is probably the worst at the moment. We can turn it around. Right?

Hawaii

Leaving tomorrow for the Louis Vuitton HIFF. Hawaii is great, but I don't look forward to American Airlines. It's one of the worst airlines in the world. Long lines, bad service, bad everything so far. I haven't had a good experience on this airline yet. But once I get there, it should be great. I haven't been to the HI in a while, but this should be an interesting change. I'll tell you more about it as it goes along.

Apple combo

See the new gear. Imac with the new keyboard, the big ass printer which will make magazine proofs for us, as well as nice archival prints. We'll see if that basically does something as good as a giclee print. If it does, then it's on. It's nice to see this new gear, but most importantly, it better help us out. With the help of Transcontinental printing, we should be able to dial all this in, and it'll make the mag get done faster.

Ryan McGinness

Ryan McGinness art for any of your NYers. It never fails, Ryan will send me a roll tube of exhibition posters that are signed. I give them away to people around if there's enough, and that's a really nice thing to be able to do. I've known him for a bunch of years, and it's great to see him. At times, he's super busines savvy, at other times, he's a practical joker. Take a look at the link, and you'll see how this man is progressing as an artist. His small artist days are way behind him, and he's pretty much on his own road away from the group shows. The bad thing is, it gets harder and harder to do a project with him, and for him, that's actually a great thing.

See his show at Pace.

Bobby Hundreds on KoreAm

I saw this and just thought in Sulu voice, "oh myyy..." I forgot Bobby was even Korean. The photo is hilarious since Bobby always makes funny faces in pics, and this one is a good one. His hair looks cholo like, and the lighting and so on looks almost fake. By looking into his eyeballs, yeah I see a strobe. Anyways, this is funny... The first line begins with "Bobby Kim is cool. He knows it." The article is long as hell, and well, he deserves it. I wish I could read an article that long, remember, I got the sub 400 verbal on the SAT.

Roast Chicken

Sometimes, I have to eat too and there are times, when I'm at home and gotta make something. So what to do? I had a whole chicken frozen in the freezer, it was the night that I would roast this thing. I defrosted it, threw some veggies around it, a tiny bit of oil, salt and pepper, and did it up for an hour a 1/4 at 450 and then 375. I read someplace that you go 450 for 20 minutes, then the rest at 375. Either way, I tried, and I think I succeeded.

The veggies tasted good too. I know I can do better next time with some herbs and more. I guess cooking is as hard as making the effort. Sometimes, you'll suck but sometimes, you'll be alright.

Damon and Naomi

Since Martin's camera isn't working, and well, since some of the images may go in the mag anyway, here's what he looked like selling goods. Notice the GR's on the table? Tons of merch, and a good deal too since you don't pay shipping, and since Japanese CD's are expensive! Boris rocks, and plays psychedelic hard rock, and Damon and Naomi... they were great. I'm not sure if they're better as a simple duo, or with a whole band, but they did sound great. I remember seeing them and Naomi played some weird accordion type instrument. Now a cellist, a sax, and Kurihara on guitar, he's way right, you can't see him in the photo.

That's Naomi in the middle, Damon on the left, and the sax dude on the right. Naomi's outfits are sponsored by Gary Graham. I don't know how this all happened, but in the photo above, Naomi is wearing a sequined dress. I'm not sure if it's a compliment (it would be for me - if I wore a dress - I think?) but the dress looked like chain mail from where I was standing. If I had a short sword, and took a swing, I think Naomi would be singing behind the keyboards.

Clare Rojas's book

Clare Rojas new book... I wrote about this before, and now Juxtapoz blogged it too.

Ironically, I just stole the photo back. Hope you don't mind either! I didn't know I had dry wit, but that sounds pretty good, I think.

Clare Rojas new book, nicely written about in Juxtapoz... I don't think I mentioned that we're distributing the book, so it's slowly getting out to the finer shops near you. If they don't have it, tell them to carry it.

GR50, ads, and business.

So the hunt was on, and we have a new ad person, I'm not sure if I can release the name just yet, and I'm not sure if their self defense, "beat up someone skills" are up to par with Kiyoshi's, but I think we'll be in good hands. Sometimes, mental kung fu is just as important.

Meanwhile, issue 50 is shipping shortly. I'm excited. Are you? It's going to be a fun one.

Also a David Choe $ GR skatedeck is in the works too. No pic of that one yet, just thought I'd tell you about it. It's going to be nice. It's fun making things once in a while, we have to do more of that. Anyone want to play?

Janm site for the Biennale

Yeah, it could use some more punch or highlighting. But oh well, it's a museum site. Hope the banner out front looks nice and brings people in.

Take a look at the JANM site.

Pasadena arty minute

In Pasadena old town area, they have an art walk type thing. There, people show off their wares like zines, paintings, sculpture, and random items. In the pic above, that's Saejean Oh looking very excited or surprised at something. Look at the person on the left, he or she is just as surprised. I think that's "Baby." It's a pretty neat event, well trafficked, and sort of weird at the same time, since a lot of it is indie art meeting mall folks. What did I walk away with? A $1 zine!

Clay! One person threw pots there too.

Walking around, Saelee Oh was there too, giving some support to her sister.

Connie, yeah, I think that's her name. She makes some nice etchings.

Souther Salazar Make it Real opening

Giant Robot 2 Opening saturday night. It's getting nuts in LA, tons of art show openings all over the place. You name it, there's probably an art show there. People are having art shows in spots where there's no space for an art show. It's just getting nuts. What can we do, but hopefully provide a decent space for a person? Maybe our reputation complete with a magazine, and being one of the first helps us a lot. Maybe not. Either way, having a great friend Souther Salazar show is an honor. I'm proud of him all around. Above, that's Souther with Christian Clayton, the other half of the Clayton Bros. They're rad.

I posted some pics and more comments, etc. at Hypebeast.
See all my pics at Giant Robot Transmissions

Dan and Kozy have a Janette Sandwich. The sawhorses is now a rollercoaster. I knew these sawhorses would be useful. You should get some. They're called Burro brand.

Wake up Souther!

Whoa, Mr Canseco and Nelson stop by. I'm glad these dudes can stop by and check out the art show. gr/eats in the house. Nelson sports a Fila jacket and a New Era LA cap. Mr Canseco, classic GR cap.

Souther's fan range, these folks bought a piece from him a while ago. They were on the fence for this show. Yes, you do need living room space to make it happen.

Pikapika! Yes, they didn't paint with light, but it's cool they came though.

here's what they look like

Here's some works. The best part is that hanging them was really quick. The order was already set, everything is uniform and neat. I wish I could paint like this. Should I get one? Souther's come a long way, and that's a great thing. The thing is, whoever buys one of these, they won't get them until later January. These works will go into the JANM Biennale show. I figure our audience and the JANM audience will be quite different, so this will work nicely. Excited!

Souther Salazar GR2 Opens Tonite

I picked up Souther Salazar's pieces for tonites show in the rain. On the way there, I saw 3 car accidents, one car was upside down on the 110. I saw some ambulances driving, and I finally get there. Souther looked dead, but the pieces look great. Amazing work. Of course, right? I'll just show you one for now. When I was leaving Souther said it, "Make it Real." I'll try. On the way back, smooth sailing, we're talking 2:30am, and a big accident making all traffic stop. It's still raining at 3:30am wondering which one will be mine.

Mr Romanelli

Doctor (DRx) to most of you. This man does a lot. From client work to his own work, the stuff you see or don't see spans all over the world. His dog, the one pictures hates people who wear black sneakers. Guess what color mine were. They are beat up, and he did take a weird look at them, and kept his nose close to them. Look at his eyes in the pic, I know the dog likes me, but he's weary of my shoes. Back to DRx, his jackets are nuts, patch worked together into a single product. Track jackets, leather, military, and more. It's true artistry.

He also does stuff like this. Bugs with the DRx scissors? How does he get these hegemonic companies like WB and Disney to do projects like this? That's not really the point, the point is he does them.

JANM

A wall at JANM. This is where the Biennale's taking place. This is the small room actually. Can the artists handle the space? I'll assume it should be easy. Will it be tough and last minute? Probably. Is that normal? Yes. Will it be fun. Most def. I'm hearing that the folks are enjoying the idea of this show at JANM, and that's a good sign. Any last minute predictions of problems? Can't just yet, but it's bound to happen. Also want to say, welcome aboard to a last minute sponsor, Scion. Along with Imprint and the James Irvine Foundation, I guess we're set.

That's one entrance. A wall and text will go on there... maybe some art, who knows.

Space is the place. All I know is that I'm taking that George Nelson bench home.

Photos are deceiving. This is actually the big room, and the small one is through that entry way. It's not that big, but it's nice. Who's art is going where? I get to help decide.

Rollin' out the Murakami MOCA show

Shot while driving on Sunset Blvd. Takashi Murakami's MOCA show is fast approaching and this is the first advertisement I've seen so far. This one is on it's way to Echo Park. If you drive by at the right time and the gate's up, you can actually see his exhibition being installed. I hear there's going to be two entrances, one for the young ones and one for adults. Wonder what's in the adult entrance that the kids can't see. Nasty nasty.

Notice the SAW IV ad in the right bottom corner, weird billboards but down low.

Hypebeast 2

Mr Jimmy asks: how bizarre. Is hypebeast going in a different direction now or are you? or neither... Were you initially reluctant? Where's the synergy?

I looked at this and thought... hmm. Interesting viewpoint. I didn't feel anything odd about it. It just felt like a normal occurence. So here goes some explanations for maybe anyone who cares. In case you don't know. Hypebeast is one of the premier streetwear blogs. Maybe the premier one, period.

1 Hypebeast now has blogs so that's new. Maybe they're changing. I'm staying the same. I won't wear oversized sunglasses. Hat, if I have one on will be normal pointed forward, not at a 30% angle. My sense of style won't change since it's perfect already. I'll still be awkward in crowds. I don't own any denim. You won't see me out a lot at sneaker events. I do like sneakers though, but seldom buy them. My sneakers tend to be beat to shit. I like products, but don't write about them in blogs too often.
2 Maybe Kevin from Hypebeast is looking for other perspectives, maybe he likes GR (isn't that possible?!)
3. Synergy? Products, culture, and more. I think there's a fit. I might not be as "cool" as the streetwear kids, but I do try to innovate, but just in my own way.
4. Was I reluctant? No. If it were Perez Hilton then maybe, but Hypebeast? I figure it's all about consumer design culture and nice and hardworking people like Kevin, and Mr. Rob Heppler.
5. The direction. Am I going to start writing about GR X (insert blank) daily? No, but I do make stuff sometimes with people, but it's never "line-up" material. If I knew how to do that, it would be neat. Come to think about it, we've had some line-ups before. Barry McGee show and Uglycon and the Tylenol Ouch toys.
6. I'll aspire to write about friends, life, and projects like I do here, but maybe for a different audience and from a different perspective. I'll do the best I can, and hope I'm not boring.

Hypebeast

Some of you may care, some won't, but I'm blogging also on Hypebeast starting now. Here's my first.

modified card

The show is shaping up. What's going to happen? Tons of art, it's going to be a great evening. It's been a long road to get to issue 50, but now that we're there, it's great to have an event surrounding it. As much as it's about art, it does have some relavence to GR. That's pretty cool. The issue 50 cover will look like the above sort of, it's David Choe. We've known him since issue 9 and now here's on the cover at 50. Finally.

Clare Rojas book

This sailed from halfway around the world. I expected cardboard boxes, but instead, it came packed up in a wood crate, and weighing a ton. Using a Makita, I unscrewed nearly 20 screws just to take the top off of it. Inside it protected a delicate book by Clare Rojas. A children's book, it's not thick, but it contains a story with Clare's art work next to it. It's a higher end publication, that's rich and awesome. I'm glad we get to distribute it to the finer stores everywhere. When I saw that box, I thought, "damn, Japan packaging." But I guess they do it in some places in Europe too. It's a small treasure.

Apple Genius Bar

So the Genius Bar does it again. Took the Macbook Pro in, the dude connects to it, sort of like Spock's mind meld, and the first thing he does is download the battery update. I have an auto update every week, and that never showed up. Unless it was just this week or something, then I have no idea how he found that, because it just showed up how it should. Next the broken CD and DVD drive. He inserted a disc and it worked. He said he didn't do a thing. The drive's been down for months and well, now it's not. I don't really understand what more this "genius" did, but I walked out with my computer looking pretty good.

Things I learned from this dude. Keep your computer charged, as in plugged in. Down worry about draining it all the way then recharging it. All that does is take down your battery cycle. Unless you leave it plugged in 24-7. But the drive, how did that all of a sudden work? The guy would take no credit for it. He suggested that maybe all of my CDs and DVDs are bunk, but his burned Echo and the Bunnymen CD was fine.

Macbook Pro Battery

Today I discover my 15" Macbook Pro battery dies the instant it's unplugged. It's less than a year old, it should be fine, but it's not. I know there's been problem after problem with batteries getting too hot, and even bubbling, but thankfully, mine is just dead cells, I think. I made an appointment at the Apple store Genius Bar to see if maybe it'll be a free fix because my computer is under a year old. I know the Genius Bar gets a bad rap sometimes, but so far, I've had a lot of good luck with their help. I wonder if a shop like Best Buy dares have a free Geek Squad type of "bar" in their store to teach people how to use cameras, video cameras, and fix shit. That's the next level of customer service. As long as it's appointment, and the people are trained, it should work.

the printer

Today, a truck comes and the guy says, they have a shipment. I expect a box or something but it's larger than that. It's a big ass box. The new printer. This thing looks like an ink jet, but imagine, it's 80 pounds. Guess what? We can make archival prints. Hopefully good and big ones too. But don't get ideas, friends! This is a work tool. I'll keep you updated as to how it works out and so on.



Maybe we can make prints for Baseman who I met today. Gary Baseman is an interesting fellow. You can know him one way, which is when you seem him out, working and being the public man, then you can know him personally, and well, it's a bit different, but that's when you see the diligence, hard work, business, and overall viewpoint of what he's doing, why, and more. But why he has to look so gangster in his photos, even at a breakfast meeting... I have no idea. Check out Factor's Deli on Pico one day, it's a pretty good place. Gary's going to be in the GR Biennale, so we were trying to work out some details.

Taehoon Kim

Remember Tae-Hoon Kim from issue 48? He's got a show coming up. A short one, so don't miss it. His english is a bit rough, but he's a friendly guy. But if you're free to do nothing, come by and see Souther Salazar who's show is coming up at GR2 on the 13th.

October 21-25, 2007
Opens October 21 5-7pm
Merlino Gallery
Cal State LB
1250 Bellflower Blvd
LB, CA 90840

Appleseed Machina

At GR2, we were interviewed for the Appleseed DVD. It's a new version that has John Woo involved, so you an expect the action to be fast paced and tight. I'm not sure where anime is going, but it's getting a decent push in the US, and this is all moving forward with new techniques and style. I can't say I watched a ton of Appleseed way back, but it was a hot title back in the day. The shoot was cool, long and detailed, a lot about Asian popular culture both in the US and in Japan. Luckily, I know the topic well. Check out the trailer for Appleseed here.

typo

One of the best things about doing a magazine and having occasional typos is that I don't feel as bad when I see the big guys do it. I really wish there was a place called IDADO, it's actually better sounding than Idaho. The funny thing is that if you look at Google, there's a bunch of IDADOs in there. Some are real, but many are screw ups. I guess maybe that's the secret way to spell Idaho in these areas. Either way, I like to see these mistakes on huge media companies websites, and how they get away with crappy quality when they're supposed to be perfect. On the other hand, people make fun of us when we make mistakes, but IDADO, no we won't do that. We screw up on Toyko and Hong King, instead. If the allegedly gay Senator, Clark should be in a HOF it should be IDADO along with OJ's clown cop, Mark Fuhrman.

Jeffrey Brown

So a nice person gave me this book ahead of time. It's not done, but it's Jeffrey Brown's debut with a major publisher. I had no idea he was doing it, but poof, here it is. Some are ones I've read before, but the thing is, with Jeffrey's books, you have no idea from which one it came from. This isn't a review or anything, I'm just happy that Jeffrey has another book coming out.

Giant Robot Biennale

Giant Robot Biennale

So this show is on the horizon. This is a rough of the postcard.

The Biennale’s works will range from Pryor Praczukowski's cinematic photography to David Choe's graffiti-like murals. The pieces in between include panels by leading indie-comics artist Adrian Tomine and the pop culture inspired works of Seonna Hong, Gary Baseman, APAK, Souther Salazar, and Saelee Oh. Sashie Masakatsu's oil paintings reflect the nostalgia of pop culture-influenced youth while Eishi Takaoka's sculptures can dominate a room with their meditative presence.

All takes place in LA, at the JANM. Japanese American National Museum.

George Takei

When you look up in the sky, you might see George. For many, that can be a scary thought, but if anyone should have a star on the Walk of Fame and in the sky. He's a star, and he's done a lot for all of us and more.

question

Bad interviews. Sure. Happens, look at issue 50 when it comes out, there's one in there who does some yes or no answers. You'll get little out of it, except that they're pretty lazy... and that's not smart especially when hoards of people will read it. Hiro Yamagata was a bad one. To almost every question, he said, "I don't know." Which is why, if you ask, "what happened to your career from being a big star in the 80s to now being unknown and as many have said, "OVER"?" He's probably still answer, "I don't know". I don't know either.

So there's a couple. Bad interviews are different than dicks who we interview. Sometimes, the dicks aren't that bad in the interview, but they're dicks. I'd rather interview a dick than do a shitty interview and waste my time.

As far as people applying for a job, no, we get some bad ones, sometimes, real bad ones, we get good ones too, no different than anywhere else. I feel bad for the ones who are nervous, since really, they shouldn't be, but I think I remember that feeling too of meeting someone you don't know, especially if you're shy. But being nervous doesn't mean you're less good than a person who's confident, not shy, and outgoing. Being a shy and nervous person myself, I know what it's like, and that doesn't hurt anyone's chances.




>>I would be curious to hear any weird interview stories you have... Like bizarre people who interviewed badly. You don't have to name names, of course, and it doesn't have to be this round of interviews if you don't want to offend anyone...

At a previous company we had some very crazy applicants for art positions, including an actual "drug dealer" who offered to sell to someone at the company *during the interview.*

Anyhow. Just curious as to the crazy sorts of people you get applying at GR.

Turtle or the Hare?

Today, tons of interviews with possible new advertising person for Giant Robot. Interviewed 6 today. It's a tough one, since there are a few more I still need to talk to. It's great to see there's a lot of talent out there available to work. I sort of wish I could tell you about each one, and what I think their strengths and weaknesses will be for the job. I'm not sure if I'd be entirely right, but I think I'd be close. Basically, what's better, the slower long term, or the faster short term? That's always a dilemma. But it's an exciting time to be on the horizon of a new staffer for the magazine. We don't have too much turnover at the mag, so this is a rare occasion.

Then, it was talk to the Girl Scouts hour. I was never a Scout, but part of their assignments was to learn about doing your own business, so they came to me. Awesome. I hope they can do it. Michelle Borok was a Girl Scout herself, and it was good for the kids to see a peer.