The Hundreds package

Yes, I'm a chump for blogging gifts. But it's post holiday and UPS just threw this over the gate. A Medicom Hundreds toy. It weebles. It comes in a nice crate, and it's hot for the fans. What can't they make and do? It's mind boggling. See more photos below. They're growing like weeds. A line up? Perhaps. My hands don't look so nice. I feel like I'm a streethypesite blogger now, but I swear I have more to say.

Branded on wood. It's a mini crate.

A Disney collab. Oh my. Weird too. See the ear piercing? Disney? That's nuts. Why? I have no idea.

A bag of stickers. Want one?

I don't smoke, but these will be perfect in the bathroom. Fire starters and Poo smell disguisers.

This is a case. I wasn't sure what for, but you can put a camera in it. It's a hardsheel type of thing. It's a tiny bit crooked, maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Also that small hard plastic emblem always trips me out. What's it mean?

The pillow. Very nice.

Choegal Video

Just finished the Choegal video from the signing on December 23rd in LA. Hope you like it. We have another signing in NYC of the Choegals on January 3rd, 2009! Get there early. We'll have a bit less than we have in LA. Thanks for coming out and supporting Giant Robot, David Choe, and Ningyoushi. I thank them for letting us do all of this.

Chicken Pie Shop - Fresno

There's not a ton of good in Fresno, except thrift stores and Sonic. But the Tower District is their supposed hipster area. It's sort of that way, but the moment I was there, it looked nice. The theater is quite old and looks great. I couldn't figure out the films they showed there. What were they? I never heard of them. The Chicken Pie Shop is one of the oldest restaurants around and it's obvious what they serve best. The shop is old school and probably refinished and remodeled to keep it looking that way.

An old school sign on the side.

They have weird hours, so keep posted. They close early.

Pretty neat, I wonder what that patten on the floor is all about. Leftover linoleum?

The building is just cool looking.

The prize is the pie.

It's not inexpensive at $4 something and it's pretty small, but it's actually really tasty.

NPR interview

I was interviewed by NPR-NY the other day, which is part of Studio 360. It was for the cover story of GR57, the Obama Street Art article. It looks like they're interviewing many of the folks I interviewed and probably more, and thankfully, they picked up on my article and it seems are using it somewhat as a road map. We'll see how theirs turns out... I'm sure it'll be quite great leading up to the inauguration.

This GR article was done completely by me trying to figure out who's who, and who did what, at least in the art world that I know, it's hopefully helping a few skeptics like me understand what went on. Getting some national attention for a single article is always nice, and it helps the subscriptions.


A few things I didn't know about radio interviews:

Did you know that studios don't like it when they interview you, and you're on a cell phone? Landlines are much better.

Radio is much like TV, except in TV, they do a 1-5 minute clip, but on radio, it can go much longer. There's a ton of serious editing going on to make it "cool". I used to think editing for radio could be lazy. But it's just as strenuous as anything else. Of course, right? People take radio as a format lightly sometimes.

Interviews are still done by recording on gear at the studio. They don't use a service that records digitally yet. There's something to the certainty of seeing levels bouncing to know you're getting something.

Writing

Writing, writing, and writing. One thing that happens when a mag gets done is that it means it's back to more writing. I can't say that I write daily, except maybe here, but at the same time, it helps to keep typing words, and figuring out different ways to communicate ideas. I didn't start writing until I was in junior college, where for the first time, I had an instructor named Joe Watts, who'd break down my sentences word for word. On my papers, he would mark LZ. I'd think, what the fuck is LZ? You'd see "run-on" or punctuation corrections, but LZ? Lazy?

LZ meant Led Zeppelin. As in, son, "you're ramblin' on," as if Robert Plant somehow wrote a song about bad writing. Sometimes, when I'm writing for Giant Robot, I see imaginary LZ's pop up. At other times, I hear Mr Watts voice saying, "there's great flow here," while exhaling cigarette smoke. He'd sometimes have office hours on the lawn.

Choegal Signing at GR2

A pretty long line, all governed by two saw horses. Our lines are a lot different than other lines. I was discussing this for a second with Bobby Kim from The Hundreds who came and saw the line and said "whoa" but why would he be surprised? He has kids waiting overnight to get a New Era cap. We looked at the line, and imagine, our line looks a lot different. It's not part of the culture of what "line ups" are about. 16 year olds? No. People who just got off work? Yes. Imagine, the first few people in line were wearing suits. With such of a limited amount of these figures, yes, waiting in line for a custom signed one, and to meet the artist, was a must.

That's Choe's mom on the left. She brought tons of friends. David told her she had to wait in line. She's a proud mom.

Dave signed everything. One kid didn't have any money. I couldn't understand what he was talking about at first. I was like, "you have no money..." but you're in line. Then my dense self figured it out a minute later, he just wanted to get a sketchbook signed.

This is an old friend's cousin. I had no idea he was a Choe fan and I had no idea he was into GR stuff. check out that Choe deck!

The girl in black. Who is she? You'll see in the video, when I finish cutting it up.

Martin got into the act signing mags, as did Joe Linkin Park Hahn who's pictured below in a photo by Clement Hanami.

That's Dave and Joe. Did you know his band is huge in Russia? He was explaining how his band is big outside of America... haha. The point though was that even bands who've faded from the limelight in the USA years ago have huge followings in Russia. Also overheard, a kid didn't hold back and said, "My favorite street artist! My favorite DJ in the same place".

Bobby Kim, and imagine this is a photo of him with no cap.

My Reggie Hudlin, director and comicbook writer of Moonknight and Black Panther

That's Alex Chiu and his gf. Darn forgot her name. Alex gave me a small painting. Can you tell he's a nice guy?

That's Lisa Strouss. She used to do advertising for GR long time ago. She's the OG "girl with glasses" and now sells glasses at LA Eyeworks, and that tiny shop next to The Hundreds store on Rosewood.

David and his friends who do aerosol art.

The figure in context. They really are very different from each other. Of course Dave will say, "this one is really bad." at some of them, but I can't even tell.

That's Scott Brooks, our friend and he was early in line. He's tall, so he has to squat to talk to Dave. He even picked up a post-it by Jacob McGraw at the signing.

Some people in line got this. It's a sticker with some of his art on it. This one is the best. It's funny when he hands it to someone, and he says, "it might be offensive."

All from SD.

Beth & Boom Rice Picker Skater!

We've come a long way! Not in perhaps Mexico though. Check out the goofy footed skater. Evidently it's a figure and under the rice picker hat was chocolate. I have no idea what kind. It came in the mail from Scott Wolfson out of NYC. I thought it was the latest attempt at a "Designer vinyl" figure, but I was wrong. Instead, it's a strange novelty toy and as jokey as can be. Am I offended? No, but will others be? Of course. It's playing on every wrong stereotype imaginable to an Asian, except, he skates. Scott's site: Eggsmcmanus.

I'm not sure if people get more offended when stuff like this happens on their own soil. Do they give a "pass" when it's from another country? It seems like it, since values, social awareness, p.c. ness, may be different there.

Here's a link to the product. It doesn't tell you anything about it, but maybe someone out there knows more. There's small writing in Spanish, Portuguese, and German.

Magazine predictions from the mouths of the "pros"

Scary magazine predictions, but I don't think it differs from anything else. Magazines, like a car manufacturer, retail store, small business of any sort, all apply.

Andy Cohn from the Fader said that 5 out of 10 mags and papers will close.
-I guess that's the same as 1 out of 2. Scary thought, since what will a newsstand look like if this happens?

Steven Kotok from The Week says: "Lots of things nobody predicted will occur."
- hope this can mean great things.

Dylan Tweeney from Wired: "...2009 will be a very, very difficult year for advertising-supported businesses of all kinds. Anyone launching a publication in 2009 better have deep enough pockets to ride out a year or two of very thin revenues."
- that's obvious since even a publication that's been going for years will have thin revenues.

Video content seems to hit a few people's lists. Am I paranoid yet about our future? Sure just a little, but at the same time, the idea is to keep moving.

Read many more here at Foliomag.com
It's interesting to read what people say about magazines (at least for me).

Post Its

As of a couple days ago... there's still great Post-Its. I'd guess a bunch of these might be gone, but we're talking a week later, tons of people coming through, and this much talent left? Not bad. That's how the Post It show works. I'm digging the Vanessa Davis pieces. The "big big" names, yes, they're gone, but there's still a bunch left from other "big" names.

Yoshitomo Nara - YNG opening at Blum and Poe

Yoshitomo Nara and Hideki Toyoshima (GRAF) put together an insane exhibition that's unlike anything else they've done from what I've seen. The cool thing is that Nara did paintings and did work aside from his GRAF work of late, so in a way, he's back! It's great that he has a work team, but at the same time, Nara is a rock star, he's an artist who's on a path, and the work with GRAF in the last many years, hopefully is changing his work, and it is. There's new style paintings that look like vintage signs. His frames are more ornate, yet his drawings are still kick ass and cool. That's Tim Blum and two of his kids sitting.


This is a video of inside of that wagon buggy.

A detail of a painting.



Wen, James, and Baseman

This peace sign is fan art plushes.

Two of the 6 pieces.

Two of the 6 pieces.

Two of the 6 pieces.

A nice large painting

Dig that frame, and if you look at the eyes, the detail is great.







I like this drawing. It's large and in that rarer profile style. He doesn't do the profiles as much.



I like this drawing a lot.


You might not have seen this one, it was stashed in back.

Whoa, this is all they used to make the wagon buggy.

Check out Nara's creeps

Yoshitomo Nara - Blum and Poe

Blum and Poe presents: Tomorrow
Yoshitomo Nara and Installation by YNG
December 20, 2008 - February 7, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, December 20, 6 - 8 pm

That's all folks.

Blumandpoe.com

Choegal

The mail carriers are doing weird stuff. Who knows how long this was hiding at my front entrance. It's a Choegal. It's nice, wood, and really looks like Dave's works. He even did the spinning faces type of thing, which came from this funky weird vinyl toy that you can buy for almost nothing. You don't get three heads, but you get three faces in one head. The arms are articulated really well, the legs don't do much, but stand. Yes, you should come to that signing at GR2 on Tuesday.

The vinyl toy we have is the same one Dave brought over about a decade ago. We've thrown out tons of things since then, but for some reason, this has still made it through a move, and some cleanings.

Return Arthur Nakane's shit now.

There's no justice when you hear stuff like Arthur Nakane, the one man band dude getting his gear stolen. It's sort of like Sonic Youth getting their gear stolen that one time. Those one of a kind instruments and so on. Arthur might be able to replace it all, but someone stole his lively hood out of his truck. Pretty harsh. This dude though, is a survivor, you will see him again. But if you got the time, or energy, take a look at the video. I interviewed him back in issue number 5. During my record scouring days, I found his lp. It was a super limited vanity pressed lp, but I wrote to the po box (this was before mass use of internet), and poof he wrote back. Any contribution can go here. No, I doubt he has paypal.

Check his myspace as well. Yeah, even at this writing, he only has 5 friends.

Here's his arthurnakane.com site. It barely works.

Art Nakane
P.O. Box 50673
Pasadena, CA 91105

Giant Robot 57 poster

We made some of these, and we have to sign a bunch for JANM. Ideally, David Choe should be signing them, but oh well. Does he really want to sign a bunch. It's a premium. Join the museum, become a donor, and you'll get one of these. I'm not quite sure how it's working, but it's the most I know. It came out nice. I hope people join JANM, they need you.

We'll have some in the store soon. Get David to sign one if you come on tuesday.

Kogi BBQ on Abbot Kinney

Kogi BBQ. Yes this stuff is good. I've been hearing about it little by little, so I had to try it. Yes, my photos are from last night. Super late. It's not good to eat late, but I had to. It was calling me too loud, plus it's the only time I can really get out further when there's no traffic and no worries from work. I think the food is tasty.

burrito with kalbi

Yeah you seen this.

Tacos, I'd go spicy pork.

Much effort and much love to KogiBBQ. They even bust the vegan food once in a while. Is it the food, or is it the journey to a truck. Or is it both?

Leonardo Nam and Ramen

Yes, I made Leonardo Nam eat ramen. A cool guy, he's working a lot acting in a ton of pictures, most notably Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, he gets gigs in "chick flicks!" He's come a long way since I first met him at the SFIAAFF a couple years ago.

Unique LA

Unique LA. Taking place on the 13th floor, yes, they have a 13th floor of the California Mart, the event was actually vast and filled with vendors. On sunday afternoon, the event was already winding down, but Saturday was supposedly quite great. I visited the Cutxpaste booth which had a little of everything. It was quite chilly in that section.

That's Angelyn. Kumquat baby clothes. Martin's sister and she made the GR baby clothing line. You'll be seeing more of that in the next few days.

A nice view, you could even see the ocean barely.

Seibei in the house. They're from the east coast, and they read GR. That's quite cool. Thanks Seibei.

Poketo. They hustle. That's Ted in the background. Angie in the front.

The Fader Post It

Not to be outdone, but the FADER did a video as well. Thanks for heads up Michelle B. It has a different vibe, but overall, you get the idea. Cinematography? Yes, it's cool. Thanks much for the coverage and very quick too. Hope Fader comes back some time for other shows. Who can't like a Post-It?

Post It Video

Got the Post It Art Show Video done last night and just put it up. A lot of artists came though, I had no idea until I was looking through the footage, so that's why there's so many faces and names in this. It's funny how Youtube pics an image that goes with it. For some reason it stopped on Tim Hensley (right), the unlikely Hero. He's great. That's Johnny Ryan on the left.

Here's the link to the video.

From all Angles

The Post it show... I forgot to show you this one. Trip out. One artist, sorry for not remembering, drew people who have collections. I guess I'm a toy collector. Not really though, but I guess I have some toys. Do I really look like this guy? I look terrible. I've had better days, but it's still an honor.

I put up images from the Post It Show, the kozyndan Bunnyfish Homecoming, and the podcast for GR57.

Video from the Post It Show, I hope next... I shot a bunch and it'll be fun to mess with it.

kozy's blue tongue. I'll bet some of you want to be a Bunnyfish.

Post It 3 Giant Robot

Post It 3 was amazing. Tons of people, tons of Post Its, and I think people were happy. It's rare that you can get through the night and people aren't crazy and mad. But we did alright. Of course you have to wait, but with the $20 Post Its, amazing artists, and a great vibe, it worked out well. A lot of artists showed up too. The Robots. I don't know who these kids were, but there were actually 4, but these two struck a pose. See the rest of the pics here.

These were gone quick. When I complimented Gary, he said, "That's how I do it." I dunno about that, Gary.

This was a surprise. Kiyoshi wearing a Shari Sakahara sweatshirt. I forgot he even had one. I got one too. I wonder who out there has them, and if they know the story behind the sweatshirt. Shari!

Awww

It was like this all night.

Lisa Bling Ling!

Johnny Ryan and Tim Hensley - what a great photo

The Three Wise Men - Steve Weissman, Johnny Ryan, and Jordan Crane.

Meetings in buildings

Sometimes, meetings take you to weird places. I had no idea that Century City's new building right across the Twin Tower, 2000 Avenue of the Stars actually has a huge hole in it. What seems like the architecture style of the second, judging by the CCTV building in China, this is actually fairly cool. Of course being in earthquake world, This building can go very tall. For the price of the gaping hole, how much office space got displaced, and how much more are they charging as a result? Either way, the Twin Tower complex in LA, isn't the spectacle of other cities, but it's neat for a second.

The buildings are still there, and I guess there's not much you can do them, except work the area around them. When is the last time a packed urban high rise building (not hotel) got demolished on purpose? I'm not talking about World Trade Building 7, but literally a public demo of a gigantic building? No remodels seem possible, so I guess they stand until they can't anymore. I wonder how long a tall building like this lasts?

Giant Robot 57 - Obama Art cover

New issue of GR. Behind the scenes just a bit: Yes, it's an Obama cover, by David Choe, most of you may have seen his other image, but this is actually a water color that was almost like a study, but sometimes, the studies turn out to be great. This is one of those examples. Upper Playground worked with this image as well, in their huge quest in helping the ascension of Barack Obama as a candidate and President.

Why an Obama cover? Perhaps some of you are sick of seeing pop culture images of the President-Elect. I honestly was getting to that point, and that's when I thought maybe I could learn more about it, and explain it to others who maybe felt the same way. I happen to have the access, so I actually wrote an article about how Street Art worked with the Obama movement. I tried to explain the story of how artists like Shepard Fairey, Date Farmers, David Choe, Ron English, and many many others, with the help of brands like Upper Playground, Obey Giant, and an artist friendly PR dude, Yosi Sergant helped make street art play a role in this election.

It's one of my longer articles, and I did the best I could to construct stories from different angles.

Part two, we have an exclusive interview with Barack Obama's sister - I guess "The First Sister" Maya Soetoro-Ng. Her words are great too and we have a couple of cool photos of her and her brother in his old crib. Yep, he eats cereal just like us. Hope you like it.

Warm Giant Robot Applique Hoodies

You'd be surprised to hear that this project took years. From sewers who flaked out, kept the samples, and wouldn't return numerous phone calls to sewers who made every excuse in the world as to why this job is hard, although every brand is able to make it no problem... it's finally done and in time to keep you warm. Two colors, for both men and women. They'll be in stores hopefully within the week. The work was all done in the USA.

The Toyota Museum.

I have no idea if the Toyota museum is public or not. It's a place that's pretty hidden, and not very public. I had no idea there was such thing. It's great seeing these old cars and new ones too. I'm not a car expert, but I dig those old Coronas. Of course there's a Prius and plenty of mid-80s cars like Celicas and so on. We did a talk here to a group of high schoolers the other day. It's always cool having cars as a backdrop. What is the above car?!

Pretty cool. It looks like the Jaguar XKE, or maybe a 240Z!

I dig this one.

This has to be a response to the many American cars in the early 70s. Dodge Dart?

The Corona. This is nice.

This looks like a Happy Days car.

Giant Spero

If you're lucky while at Giant Robot 1, you'll see a puppy named Spero. Spero has some shakes, but prances around like a mini bobblehead dog. Who doesn't like a puppy cruising around while you shop? It's the simple things... right?

3rd Street Santa Monica

I went to the Third Street Promenade tonight. Except for wanting those two hours back since the place blows, it's definitely recessed. Aren't Saturday nights at 9pm supposed to be busy? I walked the entire length and around the areas and yes, it's much less congested. Luckily, I jumped into the Apple store and streamed the Pacquiao fight, and watched just a bit of it, enough to see the end. The worst part is that, there are street performers. Next to the little rocker kid who plays guitar and sings, is a guy who's preaching about God. It's an open mic for anyone to debate this person. The problem isn't the guy, he's there to fuck with everyone, the part that blew was when he debated a kid who was pro evolution, the God guy said, "God created the heavens and the Earth" the entire crowd of maybe 50+, cheered and whistled. I have an open mind for people who want to debate, but fuck that crowd and fuck 3rd Street Promenade. Why is that guy even preaching there when almost everyone is already converted. 

Heath Ceramics in Los Angeles

Heath Ceramics has been around since 1948. Part of the mid-century modern lifestyle, this brand has always been a mark of great design and high quality work. Friday was their grand opening at 7525 Beverly. Fairly anticipated, it's been written about in magazines and newspapers. The space is vast and clean, and is in the perfect area which matches home furnishings and people with hopefully a few extra dollars. For those of you who are on a budget, Heath wear might not be the most affordable, but at the same time, it's a standard by which a lot of other brands try to match. Heath

Smiling with Adam Silverman. I met Adam years ago when he was a co-founder of the X-Large store in Los Angeles. A graduate of RISD in architecture, which he did for a few years, he also worked on ceramics at the same time. He left the clothing industry, and decided to pursue his hobby of pottery. He'd probably classify himself as just starting since his pottery career began in 2002, but his work look masterful. One great fact about Adam's efforts is that he's branching the worlds of a generation of "kids" who are into clothing, art, and design with a venerable ceramics brand. We'll see how this next phase of his career and Heath's brand steps into a new future.

Here's a sample of Adam's personal work that's available at Heath. There's plenty of it throughout the shop. I like his glaze technique.

Who knew he made hanging lights!

Geoff Mcfetridge drawing of Adam.

Vintage Heath not for sale.

Ironically, years ago, I bought a couple of mugs that looked cool and were inexpensive, I had no idea what make or model they were. I looked at them the other day, and lo and behold, they're by Heath!

Sung Kang at Bloomingdales Beverly Center this Saturday

Sung Kang at Bloomingdales this Saturday. December 6, 204pm. Jump Shoes. I have no idea what these are. Go to the website, if you check it, it's a video with Sung in it, pretty cool actually in style. The shoes, I don't know if they're for me. Sung is an Asian American actor dude, been in some pictures, and is endorsing this shoe. I think that's a cool thing that he, an indie actor is a pitch man for a brand.

Jump Corp.

Post-It 3 Amazing art - GR2

Amazing Post-Its... Seriously. Even the Heska on the bottom left, it's painted and insane. The bottom right by Matt Furie? Also amazing. I expect a lot of people to Post-It 3. Don't you? It's going to be amazing.