Hyphen Mag - Melissa Hung

Yes, that's Melissa Hung past editor in chief who did shit like a publisher of Hyphen Magazine, a non-profit Asian American magazine that's run by volunteers. It's fun some of the time meeting a fellow publisher. There are times when you have nothing to say because they're busy acting like they're blinging, too cool, or douchebags, this meeting wasn't like that. Instead we both have the same problems with our publications. Ad sales, distribution, an Asian American audience, and so forth and somehow we manage to smile in the photo. She's been through the same wars (that you can't win) as I, but she's smart enough to take herself out of it. She won't have the greys and she'll live a lot longer than me.

Game Over / Continue?

I'll be at the Game Over / Continue? at Giant Robot in San Francisco tomorrow. We're debuting FOUR videogames playable at the shop. It's artists meeting game makers! This will be something new. Check it out at gr-sf.com and artxgame.com.

My Sweet Cupcake

Try saying the title like you're a tough guy. Or if you're already tough, just say it, and see what it feels like. These look good, don't they? Chocolate dipped with Strawberry, straight chocolate, red velvet, and Oreo. Not a bad way to start a day. Yes it's another cupcake shop. This cute shop is in South Pasadena. How many people think of opening a shop like this?

I wish I knew what this said or means. Peece?

Cherry Blossoms are still falling. It must be the the special weather. These flowers usually disappear much sooner. I feel like it's been well over a month.

New basil.

Hey Joe Linkin Park - Russian Fans welcome

This is serious gear. It's what you get when you do music professionally. A home recording studio with crazy equipment. I got to hear a preview of a Linkin Park song that's going to be used in a huge blockbuster film. This is how they do it. Note to the Russian fans who scour the net for anything LP, welcome.

It's like cribs. This is just the other half of one room.

Yes, I beginning to get good at this. Trick shots too

The Yogurtland experience. I don't write too much about milk products, and I don't know how so many Asians gobble down yogurt, but I can have just a tiny bit. Doing the .30 an ounze method works well for me. I got a small taste that was $2.

Mei Melancon Jenny Shimizu Harry Kim

That's Mei Melancon, aka Psylocke from X-Men and model Jenny Shimizu comparing Blackberry notes in my kitchen. Jenny Shimizu is on the cover of GR10 and she's on Make Me a Supermodel on Bravo. A superhero and a supermodel in my house at the same time. A strange day.

Then there's Harry Kim, also a supermodel and a superhero. He actually sort of is. We did some filming of a Q and A that went super silly. I'll post that one which is for the Chicago Asian American Showcase. Dirty Hands will be opening that festival.

On the Run

I always trip out on this story about an English teacher who was murdered in Japan. The person who allegedly killed her, was her student, and he's on the run. Japan is the size of California. There's plenty of people, yet, there's not that much space. How can a guy (Tatsuya Ichihashi) disappear in a country so small? How does one really just disappear? I have a stupid fascination with this, I don't know why. He can't use a credit card, can he get a job? Where does he get money? How does he interact with people? This guy went off the grid, changed his identity, and probably lives among people. Maybe he's homeless. He's either a genius or straight up lucky. Maybe this renewed effort will help.

Link to the story. Second link to another.
cafepress shirts with the guy's face on it.

Detained in North Korea

I heard about this earlier in the week. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two journalists were detained in North Korea! I refrained from even talking about it, since it hasn't come out in media yet, but I guess it's official. Laura's older sister is Lisa Ling, a wild newswoman and GR supporter. It's obvious Laura's on the same path of journalism. I hope they get back soon.
link 1 cnn.com
link 2 kcra.com

Screening of Tokyo! 7:30 Nuart - Michel Gondry will also be there

To Answer your questions...

Special Jury Prize : Dirty Hands SFIAAFF

That's Harry doing a hand stand in the filmmakers lounge at the SFIAAFF. Here's what was said about the film. Special Jury Prize does mean 2nd place, but it's still a great honor.

Although only one film can be designated the “best documentary,” another work presented in competition—through sheer audacity, energy and spectacular visual presence—demands to be recognized with the 2009 SFIAAFF Special Jury Award: DIRTY HANDS.




This is a film like no other about an individual that has no comparison. And it is what every artist working with film hopes to experience and achieve: a perfect, almost sublime, match between camera and subject. Stimulating, profane and sometimes uncomfortable, both move in step with each other, screaming and dragging the audience into an insanely energized and zig-zag narrative that is impossible to separate from the artist, or his wildly kinetic art. Entirely refreshing, beneath the intoxicating pace and intensity is a noteworthy choice to frame the individual first through his work, rather than through his Asian American identity.

Dirty Hands is the result of seven years devoted by a filmmaker to understanding and participating in the life of his subject, his friend. With this in mind, it’s easy to say the film required no discipline to create and discover, and that may be true. But because it does work against every grain of objectivity and distance that is often the hallmark of documentary film, it is true to the reckless and rebellious ‘life and times of David Choe.’ In its intimate understanding, its knowledge of knowing when to pull away and when to draw focus, it paints a true and truthful image of its subject, unfinished, undone and wild. And that truth is what every good work of art strives to achieve, and the backbone of any good documentary—Asian American or otherwise.

Tokyo! Opens tomorrow (Friday) at the Nuart Theater.

Catch the March 20th 7:30 screening, there's going to be a Q and A with Ayako Fujitani in person. She's pretty laid back, but can give inciteful answers at the same time. Watch her metamorphosis! That's Ayako sitting next to a window in L.A. and you can see her trademark hair curl. She also sports a retro Megan Whitmarsh wallet. The film is one to check out. It's by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho. Two Frenchmen and a Korean.

Here's the site link.
Tokyo!

Here's a trailer:

TOKYO! The Official Movie Trailer - Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho from micfsk on Vimeo.

Smithsonian Franklin Oda and the Air and Space Museum

This is Franklin Oda. He's running the Smithsonian APA Program. The Smithsonian is so huge that they need an organization to make sure everyone is playing fair. They also do events, and make sure Asian Americans get represented. I think it's worth fighting for that. If they didn't, then who would. It was great to drop in and say hello.

This is Washington DC's finest example of graffiti. I dig this. I saw more than one. It's thick road paint, and you'll see if you're on foot.

That's the Air and Space Museum. I like how it looks like cracks in the buildings. Maybe it's like giant square hangars for the planes. It looks powerful outside and inside.

Me x White House x Barack Obama

That's a large pic of President Obama's face. I was next to say, "what's up?" It's amazing to see how a President's administration is reaching out just a little bit further to people in different kinds of fields. Would any previous administration do this? I don't think so. Most of the businesses / business people there are hard to figure out. Is what they do any of it of interest to me? I do love the fact that there was a restaurant owner of a pizzeria chain. There were also reps from small banks, and people in many fields that I've never heard of. Yet, Pat from RVCA and I were invited. I think we are examples of what many or most would call an edgy business, but it's still a business employing just as many employees as many of the other guests.
Here's a link to the words spoken.

Me and Abe. We were there to represent the kids.
Of all small businesses in the US, yes, "we" count even if it's just to be part of a small crowd, and I think this is just the start.

Pat and I. We turned around and click / flash.

Up close, he's a cool guy.

Hallway photos. I guess it's good to have family pics up.

Pretty nice view of the obelisk

This is where we sit. This is the movie theater of the White House. I guess me being of Japanese heritage, I bust out the peace sign. Pat with some tied to Hawaii goes native son with the Shaka and shell toes. Thanks much to Yosi. More coming in the magazine.

David Choe Dirty Hands Harry Kim SFIAAFF Poleng

The day started off cold. The weather was tough all around. I have no idea why I took this photo. It was in Japantown right across from the Hotel Tomo. Do they look alike? This was my last full day there.

Harry getting ready. Notice the dudes just hang out, and the ladies get pretty.

Just before we're out to get out. I think Harry was nervous.

The Q and A, Harry listens to the David Choe taped message.

Strange image, but this is post screening at the Dirty Hands merch table. Harry had fans talking to him, it was great.

At the Poleng. Ok. I forget the tallest Asian girl's name. It starts with an M. That's Jean Sun on the right.

Sheldon and Shilpi Gupta.

Meeting the king

I'm on a flight to Washington DC shortly and am on my way to the White House. President Obama will be making an announcement for small businesses that should be big. If all goes well, I'll be in there.

SFIAAFF - the Matrix interviews and Directions in Sound

Starting early in the day, I walked by this sculpture in the plaza in SF's Japantown. It's by Ruth Asawa. She's a great sculptor that not enough know about. These are made of solid metal, but I like her wire sculptures best. They're pretty insane.

Shilpi Gupta, Dan DeLorenzo, and Emily Chang
Humberville Poetry Slam
Our interview was at a table as if we were drinking coffee.

Tse Chun who's film is called Children of Invention. We did this one on the bridge. He's a cool guy and is only 28 years old.

Jeff Adachi, a public defender has a film called You Don't Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story. He's a great guy. Late in the game of film, Jeff Adachi said that being a public defender is like being a filmmaker.

Chicken

pork at Regalito Rosticeria

This place rocks, but it took an hour wait to get in. I usually wouldn't wait and hour, but it might have been worth it.

SFIAAFF - Directions in Sound - There was a lot going on and this group of MC's braved the cold and did their craft. This was at 111 Minna. See the Matrix in back?

SFIAAFF Day 2 Friday night

You wouldn't have believed it. A concert in a hotel room. Goh Nakamura and friends played music to over 20 something folks in a room. I can't believe it didn't cause problems. They played till 3am. There's a lot to say about a room concert like this and honestly, I could never give it it's due here.


That's Goh


I didn't catch their names but they sounded great. The latter part is Goh doing Wouldn't it be Nice by the Beach Boys. When I get the names of the folks in these pics... I'll update it. (Sadie and Han from The Invisible Cities)


She was great too, and in a room so tiny, I should have caught her name, but songs were going back to back. But she was a runner up at Kollaborration. She sounded great. (Jane Lui)

Anderson Le from HIFF gets in on it and sings Rush's Tom Sawyer, using his Blackberry to get the lyrics.

This is what the room looked like. I got there at 1am, and stayed until 3am.

SFIAAFF Day 1 opening night at the festival

This is the outside of the Castro Theater in SF. That's the Toyota Matrix. Parked in front. I swear the rims on this car are huge making those tires look tiny. This theater seats 1400 and Dirty Hands, the David Choe film will be showing here Saturday. I'll be there. Tonight I saw My Dear Enemy, a Korean film that opened up the film festival. I don't know if I loved the film, but people had a great time.

This is Sheldon, my director of The Dwelling.
That's Cynthia Otteson on the left. What were they looking at?

Shinae Yoon and Anderson Le, part of the film festival world of party people. Do they actually work? I swear a drink is always in hand. Anderson from the Hawaii film festival and the LA Film Festival and the VC Film Festival is looking rather dapper. Shinae has powerful dimples. This is what film festival programmer types look like.

Janine who once worked at GRSF. She reps really great candy, from uhhhhh. Forgot the name of the brand. Damn...

I can't say I'm part of the team. But this is the HP Mendoza posse. He has a film in the festival called Fruit Fly. Click on the link to see a trailer. It's an Asian American musical! It's sometimes the Rich Wong posse. He's the cinematographer, but he also makes films. Last year, it was the actress, Ling Li posse. What a trippy link, I guess she also models. She looks smashing. (old school word).

My cousin Goh Nakamura. Glad to see people loving his music. He handed me his new CD. Click on his link to hear him.

CHECK OUT this post from last year. I'm alarmed at how long it is, but it has some of the same folks in it. One year flies by so quick.

CHECK OUT the post from opening night last year. One big difference was no dim sum. Budget cuts? There were tons of people at the Castro theater tonite.



Minor video. But you can see the organist at the Castro with the Giant Robot slide popping up.

LA Times Jacket Copy Giant Robot Silverlake

Can I get an awwwww? I guess word travels fast. I wish I got some Jacket Copy earlier! The LA Times wrote about us closing. I guess a GR store closing becomes news. link.

Interviews of the folks at CAAM

I interviewed the staff of CAAM for who knows exactly what today. They're the folks that run the SFIAAFF. That's Steven Gong above, who's the executive director of CAAM, I also interviewed a few others including Chi-hui Yang, Michela Rivera Gravage, Vicci Ho, and Christine Kwon. Their names might not mean much to you, but they're part of a staff that run this festival. I realize after the interviews, that they're rather selfless in a lot of ways, and they put together a machine that's a lot bigger than themselves. Some of the other festivals are run by one or a few persons due to budgets, etc and those festivals have a completely different flavor. Either way, I'm saying nice stuff now, maybe it'll change later.

Ozumo San Francisco

Ozumo in San Francisco. It's a restaurant in the Embarcadero area. Running around with the GRSF manager, Luke, this is a spot that he knows about. This was fish with a thin bacon covering. I forgot what kind of fish, but perhaps a halibut. The flavoring was strong from the bacon. The mushrooms buttery. Ozumo.com

This was a medley. There's crab on the left, but on top nearly covered is a tiny squid that's quite rare. They removed the eyeballs, but other than that, it tasted quite nice. I could have eaten a lot more of them. They suchi is crap and scallop. The "thing" with the red dot" in the middle. I had it before, but I forgot what it's called. I almost think it's a fish egg cluster, but I'm not sure now.

Two kinds of snappers. Red on the bottom, the top is black snapper. Both are more tart and refreshing. These after came after the below pieces.

Guess what the top piece is? It's Kobe beef in sushi form. It was quite great. Super rich. It goes well with the toro, which is also quite rich. I started with the toro of course, before hitting the Kobe beef. Definitely the right way to go.

I didn't hear the description of this one, but it's pretty for sure. It was something like a California Roll with some Unagi on top. The mint actually serves a perfect purpose of adding a little bit of something to the sauce which had some spice to it. It was their most hybrid sushi dish that we had.

Ribs. From the kitchen, this is over the top. The slaw was good too. Glad they didn't put peanuts in it. It seems like something that would have too many peanuts ruining it.

This is Luke, yes, we down ramen too earlier in the day. You must think all I do is eat, but that's not the case. I remarked that Luke looks like Mario. Imagine the overalls with a different color hat. Yes, Mario.

Myself X Kiyoshi Kurosawa Apple Store

I worried and worried about knowing enough about the guy for too long. If I didn't though, would I feel prepared? Would I do well? I'm not sure. I swear I did all I could in a short amount of time to be ready. Watched some of his movies, read about it, took notes, thought back to my days at UCLA as an East Asian Studies major (Japanese emphasis), GR work, and came up with a short list of questions. link to Tokyo Sonata site. Here's the release schedule.

This is what the back of the Apple store looks like. I was kidding that we were like thieves jammed up back here, but they really put thieves back here while they call the police. If you see this room, it means you did something bad. So I hope you never do. Yet being back here with the filmmaker made a bit of pressure mount more. I've come recommended by translator / filmmaker Linda Hoaglund as being good at this and they talked about it for a bit.

That's us with mics in our faces. Mr Kurosawa answers questions with a lot of care and he's quite gracious and genuine. That alone should tell you to see Tokyo Sonata when it makes it runs in theaters. That is Mr Taro Goto the translator on the left. He did a great job, and I had no idea he was adept at doing translations from Japanese to English. I know him as part of the film festival in SF, and as a producer of some indie films.

This is the sign. I guess it got on indieWire I don't know much about indieWire except it's film related. Either way, the event went well at the Apple store. It's pretty much an honor to do things there.

Interview prepping for Kiyoshi Kurosawa at Apple Store in SF

I'm in SF to do an interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I've seen my share of Q and A's and done my share too. I'm still not sure what I'll ask him. What criteria do I use to drum up questions? Here's a few for a live audience:

1) Who's the audience? Are they fans or just shoppers who happen to be there.
2) How fanboy does one get? I read other interviews and they ask some of the most pointed questions ever. Tuck in the fanboy.
3) Is it a Q and A about his most recent project?

I'm only giving you these three things, but in the end, there are plenty of major other things to think about when doing an interview - which most people don't think about because they think doing an interview is easy. I'm realizing more and more, which interviews are important and which ones aren't. You should be able to read it years later and have it still make sense and still have long lasting qualities. It's just like art, many artists make tons of tiny pieces which are cool, but the big ones are often the "important" ones. I try and go big each time.

Giant Robot Tokyo! Screening at the Egyptian Michel Gondry and Ayako Fujitani

Giant Robot presented Tokyo! by Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax. The cool thing is that Michel Gondry and Ayako Fujitani (the lead actress) made a special appearance. It wasn't on the schedule, so it was a great surprise. He did a long Q and A afterwards, which was quite nice. He's an interesting dude for sure and won't hesitate to tell the truth. It's funny how he at some points cuts the moderator down a bit, with the funny quips, but that's his style. The Q and A went for at least 30 minutes, which is pretty long. Then it was free Sapporo. Before the screening I actually stood up at the press area, and was photographed with Michel and Henry for some press outlets. Check out Tokyo! It's opening soon and it's a cool film about my favorite city.

Henry Rollins was there. It was great to meet him. I said only stupid stuff. What can you say to Henry? He did say something to the effect of, "I'm cooler standing next to you." I don't think so, Henry. I forgot to mention, I intro'd the film, threw out shirts, and one of them made it to the upper level of the Egyptian. I challenge anyone to do that with a t shirt, size medium.

The Spences, who read GR since issue 3. They're still reading and complimented us on the Obama coverage. It was unique, and I'm glad they appreciated it.

I'm BEAU SIA! If you see him live, this is how he ends his shows.

Michel Gondry and Ayako Fujitani. A bunch asked if they are a couple. Ask Perez...

Giant Robot Silverlake is closing

Yes, the Silver Lake store is closing. Really, I didn't think it would be a big deal, and maybe it's really not.

Giant Robot Silver Lake is a much smaller shop than the normal GR stores we have in LA, SF, and NYC. We put a lot of love into it. Yet it's closing for a few reasons.
1) We actually went past three years there. That duration is past what our sublease originally stated, and we decided to move on.
2) I can't say it's a victim to the economic downturn. That's actually unfair to say. It's smaller, there's less merchandise, although it does rotate a lot. It would still be easy to keep it running until the end of time. If all we did was a Giant Robot Silver Lake store, then you'd see us sitting at in that exact shop a year from now. But when an exit strategy presented itself, we decided to take it. So, no it's not only "the economy" in this particular case. Some economists would argue, it wasn't good enough from the get go-over three years ago. Yet we chose to keep it open because we like Silver Lake.
3) This doesn't mean we do not want open another shop in a different location in Silver Lake or elsewhere. If a great space is available, tell me or show me.
4) At the moment, we're working on Giant Robot issue 59 in our fifteenth year, we have our shops running in West LA, SF, and NYC, and gr/eats in West LA.

Giant Robot Screening Tonite of Tokyo!

Guess who's coming?
Director Michel Gondry & Actress Ayako Fujitani In Person at Private TOKYO! Sneak Preview at the Egyptian Theatre

Kiyoshi Kurosawa x Me at the Apple Store SF

Wednesday at the Apple Store in SF, I'm interviewing Kiyoshi Kurosawa live. I've never been to that shop, and I don't know how things are laid out there, but I'm sure it'll be nice. The cool thing is that I was actually requested to do this, which is an honor. Hopefully, I'll put on my game face and ask him some questions that'll get people to know a little more about him. I have no idea for how long, and if the audience will even know a thing about him ahead of time, so I'll play it how it comes. I'll be up in the bay area from Wed-Sunday. The Dwelling shows on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'm sticking around for that. Most likely, I'll come back to LA on Sunday. I wish they programmed that before Sunday, but I'm just glad it made it in. Here's a link to tokyosonatamovie.com



This is the Tokyo Sonata trailer which is also playing the SFIAAFF

Mr James Jean Wine Bottle lables and print at SURU

It's good to be James Jean. Out comes a series of wine bottles with his labels on them. I took the photo at casa de Jean. They were sitting on his counter. Here's a link to the places where you can get more info on the wines. It's all very high society. Gladly, we downed the wines completely, and I think the Shiraz was best.

Here's three links to them. 1, 2, and 3.


Get it at: Suru.
Fuckin' Joe Hahn has everything. And the insider tip. James Jean did the music.

Schindler House

A little while ago now, I went to the Schindler House in Los Angeles. It's a pretty cool place. The entrance is a long walk way. Notice how it's not paved, there's no grass to see, it's just dirt and a high hedge. It's simple and it's sort of a long path to see what the place has to offer. It's not instant gratification. Here's the link to the site.

This is the view of the house from the back of the lot. It's a huge property. It was built in 1922. If you take a look at these pictures, you could believe it, but at the same time, you'd think that it's modern. That's what's cool about mid-century style design, although 1922 seems really early to be doing work like this. It's also definitely Japanese inspired.

There's no real second floor, this is one of tow decks that's sort of like an observation spot.

The high windows are nice, yet this house is pretty dark during the day.

This is the entrance of the house. Two families lives here back in the day. I wonder how that worked out.

The bamboo is under control. I wonder how this is done, since bamboo loves to grow rampant.

This is sort of the backyard of the house. I like the series of squares and rectangles. The walkway is the key I think, linking everything together.

That's a view straight back.

This is what the front of the house looks like. The weird thing about walking around here is that you don't really know what the house looks like. If you had a pad of paper, you couldn't really draw it easily from memory.

That's door #2 I assume for family #2.

This is walkway #2.

KAWS Honor Fraser

The lag of it all. After weeks of being up, I finally made it in to the gallery to see KAWS. He generated so much hype for his exhibition, it was amazing to witness. The long line at the gallery happened because in the end, it's not a large space. It's actually two rooms, which is big enough, yet, for the grandeur, it seemed like he needed a museum floor. This was a huge piece probably made of fiberglass.

This one was smaller and quite nice.

His art has gotten more abstract, and it's great to see new ranges of his works.
It's almost like his work deconstructed.

It's odd to see his head as a sculpture.

This looks like the Kimpson's pieces from way back.
I saw his exhibition at the BAPE gallery in Aoyama back in the day. They were packaged just like this, but much smaller.

Ryan McGinness strikes back again

Ryan McGinness has been drinking some special water. He's been in and in and in. This is his new book on the Rizzoli label. All this came via a Ryan package just yesterday. The book is amazing. That's all there is to it. He puts forth a lot of effort to make his books and this is a fine example. I think this is book number 13 or 14 by Ryan on my shelf. Did you know in Japan, in many circles of folks who he doesn't know, he is known as just "Ryan"?

He has an exhibition at Deitch it NYC called Works. It starts very soon. March 7th. I got a handful of posters. They're always huge!

And then there's this. A special book. It's filled with things that he's made. It's fun to look at. It's amazing how Ryan can resurface and raise a lot of havoc, then disappear, re group, re work his work, and then come back, over and over and over.

Here's another blog post on Ryan I did a while ago.

Here's Ryan's site.

Edibles - Cheapness

I saved up some food pictures. My only female cousin on my mother's side is married with a kid. Sophia is 1 years old. Sophia is half Japanese and half Korean. There's two sides of the family, and although everyone's cordial, no one really knows who the other folks are. Yet, everyone smiles at each other.

I thought these candies were quite funny. I don't think I'd dare eat these, ever, so I didn't take one of these with me. Sometimes, simple family events are cool, especially when it makes everyone happy even for a while.

Are these real m&ms? I have to figure out where to get these made.

Tortilla Grill. It's on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice. I don't go there often, but when I do, it's pretty good. That's a chicken and fish taco. It's Westside Mexican food, but it works well.

This is a fish salad. It comes in a tostada bowl. This is real Mexican food, right? The bowl is better than the chips, which were stale. Underneath is black beans. Get the agua frescas if you check this place out.

Sam Woo shrimp dumpling noodle. It's simple and good. I think this works as comfort food. For those of you in Asia, don't laugh at me, this is the best we can get.

Death Cab For Cutie - Grapevine fires music video

It's nice to see music videos once in a while, and instead of MTV, it's now an online quantity. I've mentioned Death Cab for Cutie before a while ago. Nick Harmer has always been great to us. Here's that post.

here's the link to the new Death Cab Video. It's animated and interesting.

Directed by Walter Robot, a.k.a. the team of multimedia artist Bill Barminski and writer Christopher Louie.