David Choe Biennale Unofficial flyer.

David Choe rips another one... unofficial GR Biennale Flyer.

Want to see it larger? Open our flickr.

Giant Robot in JPy+ magazine.

JPy+ magazine interviewed me. This is volume 3! "Message from Successful Men" it also says, Secrets to Happiness! The text is cute. If you read the small print, it's quite fun. "JPy interviewed an experienced businessman, who is full of positive energy, and asked him about his secret." Awesome. Click on it.

A larger readable version is here at flickr.

Giant Robot Biennale Cards: The first two.

First two official postcard images for the Giant Robot Biennale. A third is in the making. Click on the images to make them larger! Pass them around. David Choe art above, the mural from two years ago and some extras, and below it's the James Jean card.

Time Lapse Hong Kong storm

Time lapse in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if it should ever be called a gimmick, but time lapse always looks cool. I wish I shot this, and I do wonder how it was done. The lens gets wet sometimes! Maybe it's a window, but it's just so still and perfect.

Night happens at around 4:30. Skip there if it's too long.

kozyndan's new panoramic for GR Biennale 2

This is pretty amazing. Nakano is a great area in Tokyo which features Nakano Broadway, the otaku mecca toy building. This piece will be 10 feet long! Amazing.

Take a look at it large form here.

Masakatsu Sashie Twentieth Century Book - art shots

I hope some of you are in awe of this man's work. It's always striking and thought provoking, but it's pretty awesome how he went deep with his liking of T-Rex to make these works. Some of the links and references are way beyond me, and some are obvious. To a fan, they're probably easy... and we'll see what people say wednesday. Twentieth Century Boy

Editing down Sunsets

Somehow, Sunsets is cut down pretty far. From 98 minutes, I think it's something like 84 minutes. That's 14 minutes and after watching it for the first time in ages, I can't really tell where it lost it's weight, which means good things. The fat got cut and now it's svelte. Sunsets shows this Thursday, the link is here.

Don't mess with Bob

I wish I knew exactly what reptile this is. The only thing I know is that his name is Bob, and Bob is gigantic. I saw him at a pet store in Santa Monica, and it was sort of freaky. Look at the deterring sign below.

Uglydolls completists List

Uglydolls are a phenomenon. It's proven by this thread from their forums. It seems complete, but I'm not sure if it is. I have the piece above, that I don't see in his list. But it's quite great. I'm sure there are others. Two more Uglydolls are at GR store, and those too are handmade. Yes, they're somewhat faded, but that's how they are supposed to be - not part of a collector's wet dream, but actually a permanent part of the GR Store. That's how handmade Uglydolls can be as well and hopefully how David and Sun-min intended them to be. That said, maybe I should take them home!



Here a link to the forums.

Japanese American T shirts from way back - Who done it?

Does anyone out there know who made these T-Shirts? I don't know what I'd do if I had the information, but these are the prototypes for what's become the racist t-shirts made by conglomerate companies all over the world. Yet, this particular brand was made in the 70s and maybe 80s by a company who must have been local to Southern California, Japanese American, and I had a bunch of them, and wore them religiously. It was a form of yellow power. Shirts by "us" and for "us". I remember one saying, Kamikaze Taxi, need a cab, with a full buck toothed driver of a cab that was in old school hot rod Ratfink style. Another was Ichibun with a samurai scratching his ass. I had the Year of the Cock shirts, and of course they had one for each Asian zodiac animal. Then there was monku monku monku - bitch bitch bitch. There were probably more that I don't remember. The one above, Rotsa Ruck is one that I don't remember at all. Look at the color of the shirt first of all.

One of the best parts was the geta slippers on the front as a chest print. That was their logo, but they never did neck tags, so I have no idea what they were called. I bought this at a resale vintage shop for $18. They had another logo, a rising sun with a stereotypical buck toothed dude in the center of it. I wish I had those shirts too.

More than a Game - the movie with Lebron James

It's easy to say, More Than a Game is a good documentary, and I guess I just did. Is it as great as Hoop Dreams? It's not quite there to be honest, but knowing the Lebron James angle and what he's become, does make you want to see how he got there. This is what makes this film valuable. You get a great peek at his friends, the Fab 4 which later becomes to Fab 5, the 4 knew each other from when they were little, 11 years old and they played basketball together all the way through high school. Imagine the bond and how their friendship determined how and where they would play. I especially like Dru Joyce III in the center. He played high school ball and was sub 5 feet tall! Of course Nike is involved. Here's their link to the movie. Meanwhile Kobe was voted as the player of the decade by the Sporting News. Lebron may be the guy for the next decade.

Subterranean (termites) homesick blues

See that long string thing? That's a subterranean termite mud tunnel going from the ground up. It's amazing how they can make such things, but this is under a house which gets no breeze. The tunnels are made of their excrement, so it must bolster the tube. I'm actually amazed at what they can do. If you break their moist poo tunnel, they'll die since they'll dry out. Evidently, a termite inspector will mark the spots with an S for subterranean for the next person who works on the property (even if they don't get the job). According to one inspector, he said, these folks did a good job before him, and that's what they're supposed to do. Evidently, there's a code of conduct for Termite exterminators. That's cool. Of course what's not cool is that he came out from under the house nodding his head "no" and dropped me the bad news.

See the tunnels in the corners? The termite guy put an S in that spot.

That's indoors.

Michael Lau September 29th in LA. This is the invite

You can try to bootleg this invite and I'm sure someone eventually will in China. But for now, this is what it looks like. We featured Michael Lau and actually were the first to sell his Crazy Children toys in 2000. Or was it 1999. It's a long forgotten fact, but we sold them as they came out, usually in pairs. It was soon after issue 18. Now you can celebrate the 10 years by checking out Barracuda store on Melrose. 7769 Melrose. LA, CA 90066. I don't know how many different kinds of figures there are, but I got the girl figure which is really nice. This show promises to be interesting. The day after, you have to come to see the Masakatsu Sashie show in Hollywood - 20th Century Boy.

Airholes on the box, 1) to probably pain bootleggers by adding an extra step. 2) the figure needs to breathe like a cabbage patch doll.

The text from the invite.

Wet Sand

Sometimes, sneakers just don't cut it. You can't beat the feeling of a thin layer of ocean water on top of the sand that's muddy and gives-in just the right amount.

Bear Flag Wine in the mail

Wine? Sometimes, rad things happen. Bear Flag wanted to know what I think about their wine, so in the mail comes this. Labels are artistic. I'll tell you how it tastes later on. On the left is Red Blend #1, and on the right is White Blend #1. Wine making has been the new micro brew, and we'll see how far it all goes. I get pretty red, so tasting has to happen after hours. bearflagwine.com

No, I swear I won't! Chinatown LA

No, really, I swear I won't! There was another sign that had a super blurry smurf on it! It's on the far left in the background. To make matters better, they even translated it into Chinese. No, don't self sample there, but it's ok everywhere else. I took a small trip to Chinatown today and visited the mayor of Chinatown, Bill Poon.

at Sam Woo

This font was amazing. I kept reading it as Hong Kong since I was so into the font, but it's Hong Chong.

Tons of undies on the the wire. That's old school, both in style and in undie choices.

Ostrich Feed Solvang

This car sits outside of Ostrich Land. I'm not sure if it's the greatest thing around, but for a few bucks, you can get some feed, and from across the fence, you can feed ostriches. They're not friendly, since all they want is your food. Use two hands so you don't get your finger bit off... Once you run out of food, they'll move on to the next person with more food. It's sort of like this video, which is super short.




This is the LEGO section of Danish Days which happens once a year over a specific weekend. LEGO, Denmark. Yes!

Inside of a clock shop, tons of cuckoo clocks. I guess these are Danish.

This is a Danish lunch. Sausage, pickled cabbage, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Paper cutting by Rick James Marzullo, who's pretty good.


I bought this piece from him. It's tiny. Maybe 2 1/2" across.

Birds at the beach in Carpinteria on the way back down.

Shunji Iwai

That's Ayako Fujitani working on a small section of a script with Shunji Iwai. I got to be the other "reader". Even with nearly very little lines, I'd still mess up sometimes, throwing off everyones timing. This is why I don't act. Read more about Shunji Iwai.

Albert Reyes at the Biennale

Albert Reyes checks out the Biennale space. Good job of having too much fun. You should have heard his speech. He promises an installation and art. Will it pass the tests of public safety? We'll see.

Lance Hahn 9/21/07

Sept 21, 2007 is when our friend Lance Hahn from J Church passed away. We won't forget him. Here's a blog post from Martin about Lance and the moment we found out. We were thankfully hanging out in Hawaii eating shave ice... Then the call came. It's been 2 years already. Time flies and all that.

Martin's blog.
lancehahn.org

Japanese Technology, Big American Taste

I open an older copy of SLAM magazine and see this ad. Interesting. Characters and burgers and the line, Japanese Technology, Big American Taste. WTF? What campaign was this? How does anything tie into each other to make sense. Did Japan invent burgers? Did they shrink them down into sliders? Did Sliders exist already? WTF? Try finding information about this campaign. I found none. I'm sure it failed. Even the characters aren't drawn well enough to be real.

Sunsets ID Film Festival JANM Oct 1, 2009

Remember this project? RE-CUT.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sunsets movie screening at iD Film Festival

Check out the FACEBOOK page.

October 1, 2009
8:00 p.m.

Japanese American National Museum
National Center for the Preservation of Democracy
111 N. Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
janm.org
(213) 625-0414

link to JANM site.

The 2009 iD Film Festival is scheduled to open with a rare screening of Sunsets, the first feature by filmmakers Michael Aki and Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura. Premiered as part of the Class of 1997 at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival over a decade ago (along with works by Justin Lin, Rea Tajiri, and others), the film has never been shown outside the festival circuit or been commercially released.

Shot on grainy black and white 16mm film, the very medium of rebel cinema, Sunsets chronicles the ennui, drunken bouts, and petty crimes of three young men, a white guy, a Hispanic, and a Japanese American (played by Aki himself) growing up in the small town of Watsonville, CA. The film is very much a coming-of-age story that is compelling in its purity and rawness. Understated, honest, and funny, this little-seen film shows a rare slice of Asian-American cinema that had never been attempted before. A critic has asserted that the film is “smarter and more credible than anything Gregg Araki has come up with.”

The screening will take place at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 1, followed by a reception for the filmmakers at 10:00 p.m. For more information about Sunsets, the iD Film Festival, or Giant Robot, please contact:

Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311

###

What is this?

Spotted outside of the Giant Robot webstore... a mushroom? It's definitely fungal, but that's all I can guess. A rare species? Is it edible? Will you hallucinate?

Loren Jovicic

Sometimes, when you get a bit apart from your childhood days, you might actually turn around and look back. I write about nostalgia for no reason once in a while, and this installment is about my one of best friends in the 2nd and 3rd and maybe 4th grade (I'm guessing). Typical as with growing up, people move in and they move out. Loren Jovicic moved out and went to Santa Monica. It's not too far, but in elementary school days, it's the end of a friendship and on to new ones. The other day, I ran into this photo. It's from a film and I thought it looked like Loren-it just popped into my head. Google brought me to imdb. His name is now Loren Dean (he used his middle name), and he's in a bunch of movies. I've seen him in a few like Gattaca, but never made the connection. If you asked me at that time, what I thought he'd end up doing, I would have guessed something with drawing. He was pretty good. Maybe 4 square champion or tic tac toe master? I hope he's enjoying movie land.

Free Former skateboards

Free Former... Thanks to Yong Ki from Solitary Arts for sending this my way. I guess he came across a bunch of these, they're brand new. I've told the story before... my uncle once worked here and I would get these as gifts... Here's a link to my clubmumble interview where I mention Free Former - and here's a excerpt. It's a nice looking plastic skateboard. Clubmumble.com Solitary Arts.

What’s your favorite skateboard brand of all time? It doesn’t have to be one that’s still in business.
I’d say Free Former since my uncle was a designer there when I was a little kid. It was the era when Ty Page was their pro skater, doing old style skateboard tricks that made it on to shows like CHiPs. For Christmas and Birthday gifts, I’d get a new skateboard. I got them for a few years until Free Former rode off into the sunset when skateboards went from plastic to wood. As many of the old schoolers know, Free Former wasn’t a good brand, and it may very well have been the worst brand ever, but that’s actually a hard honor to achieve. I still think it was all cool. Other than that, because I’m on the westside of LA, I grew up with Dogtown and the Suicidal Tendencies culture of skateboards and clothing. Those kids were all over my junior high school wearing hand drawn button down shirts with skulls all over them, flipped up bill baseball hats that said Suicidal, and blue bananas. I wasn’t one of them, but their aesthetic was amazing. It’s the very brand that killed Free Former.

Goh Nakamura and The Invisible Cities at gr/eats - The Unofficial 2009 JetBlue Music Tour

Our first show at gr/eats featured Goh Nakamura and The Invisible Cities. We closed up at 9:15, then rearranged tables and chairs and lo and behold, a nice intimate space emerged. Of course having a nice rented monitors helped. Everything sounded great. About 20 or so people filled the room nicely. The tour is called Follow Your Whim, as seen at followyourwhim.com There's video, live feeds, tweets, and more. Our space isn't the biggest, but for an event like this, I couldn't be happier. Maybe we'll do something again soon. Here's more of his tour stops at his site, gohnakamura.com.

Sadie Contini, Han Wang, Gary Chou, and Goh Nakamura

Speaking at the West Hollywood Book Fair

From sushi to cinema to street art, Giant Robot magazine has documented, dissected, unearthed, and grown Asian and Asian American popular culture for the last 15 years. Editors Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura will discuss a range of topics, including the publication's evolution from handmade zine into a glossy publication with a worldwide following, the infiltration of Asian aesthetics and entertainment into mainstream America, and what's coming next--whether you like it or not. Moderating the casual-but-loaded discussion will be the bass player of the legendary punk rock band The Vandals, owner of Kung Fu Records, popular DJ on Indie 103.1, and part-time Judge Pro Tem for the county of Los Angeles, Joe Escalante.

THE OPEN BOOK PAVILION on "The Field" at 1:45pm.
Giant Robot's booth is located in the "Comics, SciFi & Horror Scene" at the Book Fair. It's booth #D13.

10AM to 6PM • West Hollywood Park • 647 N. San Vicente Blvd • West Hollywood

westhollywoodbookfair.org

Old interview about Sunsets from Flak magazine.

Here's an old interview from 1998 about Sunsets. These are excerpts... read the whole thing at the link below.

Sunsets
By Jeremy Richards

Eric Nakamura is one of the founders of Asian-American (and all around cool) magazine GIANT ROBOT, a journal of West coast youth culture that's found a dedicated audience from coast to coast. Teaming up with his cousin, Michael Idemoto, Nakamura has recently made the leap from editor to film maker, but the leap from print to film has done nothing to diminish the impact of his work.

Eric and Mike spent almost four years working on their first film, "Sunsets". The directors follow the last summer a group of young friends spend together before they each go their seperate way. The film plays on the dynamics in a group of young men, looking for something to do during a sleepy, hot summer. Although the summer is one in which nothing seems to happen, all of the characters are aware of the impending end to their relationship. Thankfully, there is no spoon-fed, generic focus on the characters various racial and social backgrounds as they pass the summer hanging out on the beach, breaking into cars and spending time together. Instead, Eric and Mike decide to let their characters become entities for themselves, not paper-cut representations of different aspects of society.

Flak caught up to the two of them and discussed the arduous process of making an independent film, along with the motivations that lay behind making a movie in the first place.

Interview with Eric Nakamura

Flak: So what are you guys doing to get your film seen?

Eric Nakamura: Well, we were showing it any time we could show it, anytime we could get a screening in some city, we would take it. We just did San Francisco again, a little while ago, and so we just keep pushing it. And we have this distribution with a company called Phaedra. I don't know if you've heard of Takeshi's Gonin, but he distributed Gonin and some other Japanese movies. It's still fringe kind of stuff, but it's a lot bigger. He's going to start it off for midnight shows in December in LA.

Flak: What kind of responses were you getting from people who saw the movie?

EN: Oh man...everytime it shows, we get a few people who walk out. They're expecting, like, "Apocalypse Now," or something really huge, and then they look it at, and it's black and white and kind of gritty and there's some language in it...so they're like "fuck, we gotta get out of here, forget this" and they just know within the first five minutes that it's not their kind of film. So there's that, but then that's a small minority, and on the whole people really like it. I really get very little criticism on it.

Flak: As far as the cars in movie, where did you get them, and how did you get to break them up like that?

EN: There were two cars that were beat up, right? Both of them were same car. We just turned it around. You don't notice because we parked it a different way. It's the same car, but we just blasted it twice. We had to buy it though, which sucked. We had to buy it, we broke it up, and towed it away. Even when we were out in Madison [Wisconsin], we saw so many people with cars in their yards, outside of Madison in those little towns. And we we were just like "Fuck." We just wanted anybody's leftover car, and we couldn't one. When it came time to get one, we just couldn't get one.

Flak: Have you have any sort of weird experiences doing discussions after the movie?

EN: The cool thing is...did you ever see "Karate Kid II" where the guy goes to Japan? And that girl Tamara Tomita, that girl? SHE liked it. And she like totally blew us away and gave us the coolest, greatest comment, which was that she said exactly what she felt, that she loved it and stuff- you know, when I was little (well, not little, but old enough, anyway) she was the chick I wanted. You know what I mean? I was on stage with my cousin [Michael Idemoto] in a film festival in LA, and she was in the crowd and said all this stuff, and I couldn't even see her because it was pitch black in the crowd. And then afterwards she walked up, and it was her, and I was like: "Oh my GOD. That was the chick." She was the hot chick at the time. I was just stoked.

Flak: You guys spent about three years writing [Sunsets], right?

EN: Yeah, definetely.

Flak: And you made it in a week, or something like that?

EN: Well, not one week; it was a little longer. It took up a good three weeks, actually.

Flak: When was that, exactly?

EN: We shot it in '95 and finished in January of 1997. But you know editing and all that stuff takes a long time. When you've got a lot of money, it's a lot easier. With a lot of money, it speeds up the editing process. But we were editing on a home system, and nobody really does that anymore.

Flak: I thought that really worked as far as showing the groove they were kind of forced into. I'd like to ask you about Josh Brant and how he found about the film.

EN: Yeah, we were having problems casting that character. We knew who we wanted: we wanted a guy just like Josh. He's kind of like the tough guy. And it's suprisingly not easy to find. We sent scripts out to people who were interested, and they didn't want to play that kind of a role. They were just afraid of that role, playing the mean guy. It's kind of an exciting role to play, though...it's kind of like playing a De Niro role in Goodfellas. I was thinking that you'd come off pretty rad...girls would love you! It's really exciting, but we had a hard time casting it. The best two people we had came from the supermarket ads we put up. We just went to the big-ass supermarket in the white town next to [Watsonville]. Watsonville is kind of like mixed...a lot of Latinos. But Ascot is kind of like the rich area near Watsonville. We put up a billboard there, kind of figuring: you know, they've got money, maybe they have time to think about this sort of stuff, you know what I mean? I don't know if it's a weird classification or ghetto-ization of somebody, but I figure that people with money have more time to think about being an actor. In Watsonville, you're not going to be an actor. If you're a dreamer, you might be able to, but if you're living in Watsonville, you've got no chance. The chances of you getting out and making it like that...well, it's slimmer. We just put it up in that neighborhood, and right away we got two calls and both of them were pretty good. Once Josh showed, we saw his face, and we're like: "here's what we wanted."


Interview with Michael Idemoto

Flak: Was the film autobiographical for you? How much were you influenced by your Watsonville youth experience?

Michael Idemoto: We like to say it's fiction, but it's also very personal, for me and Eric, in our own ways.

Flak: As far as the character Mark goes, did you empathize with him, and were you playing yourself to some extent?

MI: I guess so. It's personal stuff.

Flak: You guys wrote this over the span of three years. Did you kind of bounce ideas off of each other?

MI: We had a rough outline of things and since we had it all in different subjects, the scenes would just sort of come out of those subjects.

Flak: Did you use any of your English [major] background when writing the film?

MI: Well, out of all that studying and stuff you try to create a style for yourself. You take what's best, or what you really like about other writers and pieces of literature, and you find your own style. You decide if it's going to be complicated like Thomas Mann or maybe Mishima-style dialogue or something...or something like Hemingway, which is very simple but also very constructed.

Flak: Do you think there's Shakespearean influence in the movie?

MI: I like Shakespeare, his type of drama and tragedy. I always considered Sunsets a type of tragedy, but it's on a lighter scale. Shakespeare's kind of a role model for me for drama-based stories. Or even comedy.

Flak: You guys managed to put the movie together with a pretty limited budget. If you had unlimited resources, would there be anything you would change about the movie?

MI: Oh yeah. I think so. I think if we had a higher budget, the film would be totally different in terms of its style. The editing was always questionable to me; it could have been tighter. Originally it was like a two-hour film, and we cut it down another 20 minutes, and then we had a final cut and then we returned the equipment. It was like: "man, there's still some scenes that could've made the film a little tighter"

Flak: And do you enjoy doing that as a filmmaker?

MI: Uh...Not really. I mean, I like it because...No, I don't really like it. It's so impersonal, you know? To discuss the film with somebody on a one-on-one basis I think is so much more informative than if you're speaking to a whole group. I worry about what their interests are, or if I'm talking too much, or what they want to hear. But you figure that people who attend independent films...well, I don't know if you'd consider ours an independent film...it'd be like a guerrilla film...are like peers, you know?

E-mail Jeremy Richards at richarje@msnotes.wustl.edu

flakmag

Twentieth Century Boy

The trexlosangeles.com

Twentieth Century Boy
A Celebration of T.Rex, the Original Glam Rocker
through the art work of Masakatsu Sashie
September 30, 7–11pm
1637 Vine Street, Hollywood

WHAT:
In Hollywood on September 30, Japanese artist Masakatsu Sashie pays tribute to one of Britian’s legendary pop stars and the original glam rocker T.Rex (Marc Bolan). A life-long fan, up and coming artist Sashie is presenting an exhibition of original paintings using endorsed images of the rock star’s likeness. The works feature Sashie’s signature hovering orbs that blend autobiographical details with culture references, past and present, ranging from video games to Japan’s quintessential vending machines, in an intricate painting-style that is grounded in a pop aesthetic.

Teaming up with Darren Romanelli (Dr. Romanelli), Eric Nakamura (Giant Robot), and Rolan Bolan (T.Rex’s only son), this one night event will feature new paintings, video projections and a special musical tribute to the first in glam rock, T.Rex. A percentage of the proceeds from Twentieth Century Boy will be donated to the Light of Love Foundation, an organization established by Rolan Bolan and his mother Gloria Jones that raises funds for the Marc Bolan School of Music and Film soon to be built in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Twentieth Century Boy is generously supported by ForYourArt and Hysteric Glamour.


WHEN:
September 30, 2009
7-11pm

WHERE:
1637 Vine Street
Hollywood, California 90028

WHO:
Masakatsu Sashie
Japanese painter and professor of art, Masakatsu Sashie resides in Kanazawa, Japan, on the coast of the Eastern Japan Sea. Distanced from extreme popular culture of Tokyo, Sashie paints a unique blend of nostalgia for his hometown and the innocence of pop culture elements such as crumbling architecture, fading shop signs, 80s and 90s videogames, and Japan’s quintesscential vending machines. He often places them in an orb-like arrangement, which packages his memories neatly.

Since studying oil painting at the Kanazawa College of Art, Sashie began his career exhibiting at Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI and has had exhibitions in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Miami.

T.Rex (aka Marc Bolan)
Iconic singer, songwriter, guitarist and original glam rocker Marc Bolan (a.k.a. T. Rex) inspired a generation of British musicians to adorn glitter and makeup as a progressive message of social change in the 1960s and 70s. Bolan believed he was destined to be a rock star. He teamed up with Mickey Finn, changed his name to T.Rex, and his fans soon watched singles claim the top of the British pop charts. T.Rex’s style began to influence rock giants such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Rod Steward, and David Gilmour. Though his untimely death at the age of 29 shocked fans worldwide, his creation of glam rock touched a generation and his legacy continues to live on as a cornerstone of British rock history.

Light of Love Foundation
Light Of Love Foundation raises funds for the building of the Marc Bolan School Of Music & Film. This academy of music will be built in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our goal is to replace the automatic weapons with musical instruments, these are children of the civil war who have a purpose in life. Through music this should enable children from all over the world to come, create and learn to see their world through cinematography.
www.myspace.com/lightoflovefoundation

The curators:

Darren Romanelli
It’s easy to become infected by Darren Romanelli’s enthusiasm for his obsession-turned-profession; Dr Romanelli brand. Twisting the familiar into in the fresh, DRx has gained renown as a savvy reviver of cultural classics. Whether its Nike, Jaeger Le Coultre, Black Sabbath, Looney Tunes or Converse – he reinvents these legendary properties, simultaneously building a loyal following on a global scale. His primary connectivity/fanbase is with the hard to penetrate upper- tier influencer. By aligning brands with specialty boutiques in cities around the globe, he's able to tell stories and build loyalty via his totally unique approach to marketing. Maxfield in Los Angeles, Colette in Paris, Sophnet in Tokyo, Maharishi in London are only a few of the elite retailers transformed under the Dr.'s touch. Romanelli's own alternative marketing agency, StreetVirus, allows him to strategically bridge these physical worlds with the virtual - communicating elements of his collections through the seeding of blogs and competitive magazine placement.

What links each of the 32-year-old Romanelli’s projects is the enthusiasm with which they are conceived. This innovative blending of past and present began with a love for vintage lines, an obsession with the class and craftsmanship of days past and present. Each new item is the result dedication and commitment and more importantly, a personal connection. Each stitch following the ghost of a story, each garment is imbued with a narrative all it’s own. For Romanelli, style has become a kind of surgical procedure, a complex operation in which the clothing undergoes a thrilling metamorphosis.
www.drromanelli.com

Eric Nakamura
Publisher/Co-Editor of Giant Robot
Eric graduated from UCLA with a degree in East Asian Studies in 1993. He got his start in magazine making through a stint at the Santa Monica College newspaper, The Palisadian Post newspaper, various zines, and Larry Flynt Publications. In 1994, he started Giant Robot magazine and in 2001 opened the first Giant Robot store in Los Angeles. Today there are Giant Robot stores in LA, SF, and NYC and a restaurant called gr/eats also in Los Angeles. Each location features the newest in Asian popular culture products along with monthly art exhibitions. Nakamura also curates exhibitions outside of his shop spaces for clients such as Toyota Scion, University galleries, and the Japanese American National Museum. In addition to publishing issues of GR, Nakamura has made an independent movie called Sunsets, shot photos for punk rock bands, and designs t-shirts.

Media inquiries:
Melissa Goldberg, FYAworld, 323-951-9790, mgoldberg@foryourart.com

Yosi Sargent from issue 57 reassigned at NEA

Yosi Sargent reassigned from the NEA after being barraged by Glenn Beck. We mentioned Yosi in issue 57. He helped set up Shepard Fairey, art, and more. Is it exciting news? I'm not sure, but it's relevant to us youth. I think.

Washington Post

Attention gamers Don't unlock Kurt!

This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate - we have no control whatsoever in that area.

While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in "re-locking" Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl

Sunsets photos from the archives

That's me in 97. Or was in 96. I don't remember anymore. The camera with a 9mm lens. I'm sitting in the back of the Mercury Marauder. I think it was a 64. We bought the car to use in the film and drove it all summer. It's almost like a modern Dickens tale or something. Making a film, buying a vintage car, and cruising around Watsonville. A fun summer for sure.

I wish I knew where this was at. It's obviously a movie theater, but it's empty. That's Betty Hallock from the LA Times - an old friend of mine from UCLA. That's Mike Idemoto in the center (co director, actor, etc) and his best friend from way back, Craig Wong (who was also in the film).

Goh Nakamura and the Invisible Cities playing this friday at gr/eats

Goh Nakamura and the Invisible Cities are playing an intimate unplugged show at gr/eats. We close up at around 9:15, then it's Goh time. We'll set up some kind of spot for a dude and friends to play some music. I'll be there hanging out. It's free and fun. Goh and friends are using the Jetblue unlimited ticket to tour America. They're hubbing out of Long Beach a lot, so he's in and out of town. Want to see Goh who was featured in issue 60? This is your chance. His friends are the Invisible Cities, a cool band from the Bay area. I'd suggest them too!

GR61 out now Phil Lumbang's Bear!

Phil Lumbang's Bear on the cover. Seen them on the streets? The magazine is currently solely available at GR stores. These are the first Fed Ex copies. The regular shipments are out now. Enjoy! Watch for the podcast soon... next couple of days. Here's a post about the bears I wrote a while back at clubmumble.com

No American Spirit

It's weird when I grab a youth oriented magazine and see American Spirits advertisements. I know we all need money, but advertising smokes is just not what should be in magazines. It's not on TV, so why on paper? Smoking is fine for whoever wants to do it. My parents both smoked. If my dad could, he would. But in a youth oriented magazine? Recall, it was also in a Tennis magazine! Our story is that we could have had that advertisement. We rejected it, and the sales rep got so mad, he hung up on us. Repeat: A cigarette ad salesperson who hangs up on people who reject his ads. That's the Spirit.

Chinnamasta - James Jean

Check out Chinnamasta, a work in progress by James Jean. It's not China Masta.

Of course with the name of the piece, you think of saying the latter. China Masta. A new rapper. But no, this is a new work by James Jean and it's based on a Hindu character. See Chinnamasta in Wiki.

This is a piece when completed will be up on the wall at the GR Biennale and it's for sale through GR.

Food time Otafuku and gr/eats

It's still tough to beat soba at otafuku. I can hear about places that shuffle you in and out quickly with their handmade soba, but why is it never as good as this place? The rest of their food is great too. It's izakaya style, and might be one of the better in SoCal. Otafuku. The soba above is seiro with plum. Of course okra is quite great with soba.

The box of uni is always great here. Uni isn't uni.

I threw in the tilapia pesto from gr/eats. It's good too.

Champs softball

Yes, that's what first place looks like. But the season starts next week...

Giant Robot Biennale 2 - 15 Years

It's going to be a big show. Both floors...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years

FACEBOOK PAGE

October 24, 2009 - January 24, 2010
Opening reception: Saturday, October 24, 2009, 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
janm.org
(213) 625-0414

In 1994, Giant Robot was born with the purpose of documenting and promoting new, up-and-coming, underdog, overlooked, and hybrid Asian and Asian-American popular culture. Fifteen years later, the self-published magazine has not only evolved from a stapled-and-folded zine into a full-color, glossy publication with an international following, but also opened trend-setting shops and influential art galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. To celebrate the magazine's longevity, energy, and loyal readership, the second Giant Robot Biennale is being hosted by the Japanese American National Museum in Downtown Los Angeles from October 24, 2009 to January 24, 2010. The event will feature several exhibits, including the following:

To provide a visual overview of the Giant Robot aesthetic, publisher Eric Nakamura is curating artwork by individuals who have contributed to shows at Giant Robot's galleries, been featured in the pages of the magazine, or even contributed cover art. The main hall will include installations by David Choe, James Jean, and Souther Salazar, in addition to Theo Ellsworth, Rob Sato, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Jeff Soto, and Deth P. Sun. A second hall will include the contributions of more than 50 others. (A complete list will be made available at www.janm.org/exhibits/gr15/home.)

The photography of longtime magazine contributor Ben Clark will also be featured in a retrospective. Clark's powerful images from past issues will be displayed in a larger, more vibrant print format, accompanied by recollections, explanations, and other ramblings by editor Martin Wong.

The roots of Asian popular culture--the kaiju scene introduced by Godzilla, Gamera, other giant monsters, and the toy industry they spawned--will be paid tribute to by a run of collaborative works made by Japanese indie sculptor and artist Yukinori Dehara, UglyDolls co-creator David Horvath, and Portland, OR-based underground toy legend LeMerde.

In addition, four custom videogames have been developed by the Attract Mode collective in conjunction with some of Giant Robot's favorite artists. These games were made exclusively for the Game Over/Continue? show at GRSF (March-April, 2009) and will be available for play throughout the exhibition's stint. The artist and developer pairings include Hellen Jo and Derek Yu, Saelee Oh and Anna Anthropy, Souther Salazar and Petri Purho, J Otto Seibold and Kyle Pulver, and Deth P. Sun and Jonathan "Cactus" Soderstrom.

An opening reception will take place from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, featuring live music and attendance by many of the participating artists and key members of the Giant Robot family.

The show will run from Saturday, October 24, 2009 to Sunday, January 24, 2010. For more information about Giant Robot magazine or The Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years, please contact:

Eric Nakamura
Giant Robot Owner/Publisher
eric@giantrobot.com
(310) 479-7311

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