Biennale LEDAVHARA monday

Finally, this is how it's supposed to look. I'll head back this weekend to check it all out again. Anyone want to come?

As for LEDAVHARA? It's going up on monday online.

Smiling Good

Look out for these in 2010. That's Aki from Good Smile. A cool dude who made it across the ocean from the pacific to be there. Glad we got to hang out. It's fun thinking with him. That's Enna on the right. A GS staffer.



She had some heels on! 90210, Lipstick Jungle, and now Witches of Eastwick star, Lindsay Price came though. I'm a fan.

Aya Takano at the Skarstedt Gallery NYC

Wish I were there... Aya Takano is amazing all the time.

Aya Takano
Reintegrating Worlds
Skarstedt Gallery
November 5 - December 12, 2009
20 E. 79th St. | New York, NY 10075 | tel 212.737.2060 | fax 212.737.4171

Bangals and Dave's.

THURSDAY at store opening David Horvath's Biennale Dave's on sale in all stores LA, SF and NYC and online 12 noon PST.
FRIDAY Le Merde Biennale Bangals on sale in all stores LA, SF and NYC and online 12 noon PST.

Keep checking back on the art pieces. It's most likely Monday for the Ledavhara originals.


I shouldn't have to explain any of this, but there's a strong segment who are very clueless as to how a museum show works, and for good reason, how often does anyone get to do anything at a museum? Not often. So let me try to explain.

I saw a someone addressing JANM not being able to sell the art because it's not for profit. I know there were some of you who were miffed that you couldn't buy the original pieces right out of the case. Sorry! Here's an explanation: imagine if you went to MOCA and saw a price tag on a Picasso, a Renoir, or a Basquiat? Can a museum use their advantage of getting public funds and enjoying the tax benefits of being a non-profit and using their gigantic walls to bring up the value of art in order to sell it and even a higher price? That would be unfair.

So, why is it that Giant Robot can sell it? 1) We're not a non-profit. 2) The art that's there displayed does not belong to the museum, it's not part of a permanent collection. 3) At the Takashi Murakami show at MOCA, some of the art was property of Blum and Poe. It's for sale. 4) Sign up list? What's the difference between a list and taking people's business cards? We did blast the information that art would be available at a later date. Join our list.

Can a museum have a gift shop? I don't know the ins and outs exactly, but the gift shop is also part of their business. Even if it's not for profit, museums can have gift shops. Even if it's non-profit, people who work there still need to be paid. The gift shop had Dave's and Bangals for sale.

That said, I do hope you check out the show, etc. It was a lot of work-more than just producing a new toy. This is about pushing the medium and such in a much higher institution than a store website or even a gallery. This show is up three months and will do a lot for vinyl figures. If I were the typical business person, this would only be a toy sale and only online! This is much more than that and it's something that Giant Robot helped put together. So let's be calm and enjoy what's there. Ask questions if you have them.

Biennale photos.

That's Martin and I standing in front of the wall of magazines. 62 issues doesn't quite look like 62 when they're hung this way. Actually it's short one, you can figure it out. But by the time you see it in person again, it'll be right. Yet, it's a powerful wall and I'm glad it's there at JANM. It makes me laugh how many people trip out of the suits. This being a museum opening, and I suppose people expect us to dress in street clothes, so the idea is the flip it and go clean.

That's me, ex-Secretary of Transportation and the namesake of the San Jose Airport, Norman Mineta, David Choe, and Albert Reyes. I gave a short tour for Norman Mineta who's a big part of the museum and does support GR. It was great to have him here. I wonder where is Secret Service agents were at? That means they were doing a great job.

Gary and Goh stalk the grounds.
It was big smiles for both of them.

That's Deth P. Sun. It was great that he made it down. Late of course, but that's Deth, he can be an enigma. He even waited in line to get to see his work.

That was a gift from Mari Inukai.

GR Staffers. Keyla, Luana, myself, Serina, Sasha, and Seth. Quite a crew. Aaron Brown and Dario B were there as well.

That's me and Marc Gerald.

Chris Bettig and kozy from kozyndan. She was dressed nice.

Jim Lee. Have any ideas on what was the Brand New? Heavies?

Whoa... Horvath, a chika (I swear she's for real), Sam, and Le Merde.

James and Wen.
Big smiles.

Rob 62 Sato wearing his map bag.

The band.

David Choe's mom and Dave. Proud parents and supportive too.

The artists who were in the foto.

That's us on stage.

Michelle Borok

Rama Hughes Christine Castro

Cate and Clement.

Amy Hill.

James and Dan (kozyndan)

Joe Hahn in back and Anthony Batt (buzznet.com)

interviews.

Stella Lai runs to the red

Giant Robot Biennale 2 videos

That's David Choe's dad sitting in front of Dave playing drums at the Giant Robot Biennale. I'll post photos soon, but here's some video for you to check out. The below is David Choe on drums, James Jean on keyboards, and Goh Nakamura on guitar.




The below video is George Takei doing an introduction of myself. It's overwhelming, but also fun.

David Choe Death Blossom

David Choe Death Blossom raffle was picked and emails will go out soon. Congrats to those who won.

Biennale - The Banner and last photos pre opening

James Jean stands in front of his banner art. It's 17 feet wide and nice. It looks great. This is a one second exposure! James Jean and David Choe's art looks great, it's on the second floor along with Souther Salazar's 25 foot painting, Stella Lai's 3 pieces and Jack Long's work. Keep an eye on www.giantrobot.com/biennale for every update I could do. Presentation tonite is at 7:30pm.

Figures and tons of them.

David and Le Merde are working on their wall art.

That's Le Merde and David before they took off. They did a fine job repping Dehara too.

Ako Castuera

Rob Sato getting flicked by Audrey Mag

Biennale update photos.

Souther Salazar. A guy I've known for a while. This is an in progress of an installation which looks great. I'll add some more photos. This photo does not justice to it, but his large painting that's coming will be something amazing. Also 7pm. Yes, that's when you should come by. I'm going to intro the artists on stage at the hall at 7:30pm. Then it's party time. Music, etc.

Stella Lai

Jack Long

Bill Farroux and Ben Clark

Le Merde and Pryor who's cutting an install documentary that'll play throughout the exhibition.

David Horvath and Le Merde

LA Weekly week of Oct 22, 2009 Biennale

It doesn't say too much about the art show, but oh well. It'll all make sense if you show up. But keep your eyes peeled, there'll be more to come, we hope.

More Biennale Install Shots

James Jean's new painting is ready to go up. It has a patriotic color scheme. Meanwhile, below, Jeff Soto's work is up and ready and looking good. There's going to be a special presentation at 7:30pm on saturday to introduce the show and the artists. Also, word is, there's going to be live music played by some of the artists.

Dave, hanging out at his installation.

Jason, putting up some of Choe's work.
I like the red painting a lot.

Some of the last bits of Choe's pieces.

LEDAVHARA t-shirt for the BIennale

When did all three greats, David Horvath, Le Merde, and Yukinori Dehara supposed to come together and do a project like this?! In S-XL and girls M.

JANM Biennale install shots.

Here's just a few suspects. Joe Hahn, David Choe, Albert Reyes. They're messing with aerosol and having fun. Below you'll see James Jean. Did you know he has can control? Most don't.

Here's a shot of Dave painting inside.

David Horvath - Le Merde and Yukinori Dehara Trailer - Giant Robot Biennale 2

Here's Trailer number two. Yes it was actually raining that day in LA. Hope you like it. The trio of figures was conceived a while ago. What's the point of having a show without the collaboration of these artists. I think making something "site specific" is always cool and that's what I hope to do and show as much as I can.

Mari Inukai - The Human Eclectic

That's Mari Inukai! Guess which one? Quickly made it to The Human Eclectic: An Exhibition Curated by Kent Williams at Merry Karnowsky gallery. Included in the show is: Peter Liashkov, Barron Storey, Jon J Muth, Kent Williams, Aaron Smith, Dean Karr, Mari Inukai, Chris Anthony, Jennifer Poon, Jason Shawn Alexander, Kevin Llewellyn and Sara Escamilla. Here's the link. Mari will be in the Biennale starting this saturday.

Barron Storey the sensei

Ayako Fujitani and Kent Williams stand in front of the painting from the postcard image from the show.

That's a Mari Inukai painting.

Turn for the Worse in the Shepard Fairey vs AP

This is a bit heartbreaking, although it doesn't diminish the power of the image, the campaign, and all that. Read all of the parts, if you're that into it. Either way, it seems like Shepard erred somewhere, and has come out to talk about it and fess up. It's a bit nuts, and in the end, it seems like he really didn't need to mess around. His case was fine as it was. Wasn't it? This is the AP side of it at the link below. I still think the AP should back off, or else come to a realistic agreement with Fairey or charge him for a license and not try and take portions from his sales which were all put into the campaign. Then again, I'm sure the AP is seeing dollar signs from him. They're only going after him because his rendition was iconic and made money. The other hundreds of Obama images which came from other images, which I'm sure include AP? The planet needs to be consistent.
AP

SDAFF 2

Tad Nakamura. Ran into him at a Quiznos. For some reason, this dude reminds me of so many people wrapped up in one. But for now, he's in SD with his film, A Song for Ourselves. It's also showing soon in Hawaii. (HIFF). See aSongforOurselves.com I also nominated him as an influential Asian American under 30.

Bananaman... Remember the dude named Nguyen from Starry Kitchen a few posts back? Here he is promoting White on Rice to no end, which will also be in Hawaii. (HIFF).

That's David Boyle, the director of White on Rice. I think he takes a few lumps, but people like his film. whiteonrice.com

Leonardo Nam. His name backwards? Leonardo Nam? Man, O' Drano El! It sounds like a sentence. Maybe it is.

Bahia restaurant in SD. I tried this. The cheese was intense, but I was feeling like Nacho Libre. I had to try it. I still like my corn plain, but this worked.

Mark and Cyndi again. They ordered too much food and almost finished it.

This Homie is strange. A snife and a side of beef that looks like a wig. I'm amazed at how long all this has lasted.

Domo 7-11

So much Domo imagery in 7-11, it's actually incredible. I didn't see a special drink flavor that was specifically Domo. But there are plenty of cup designs. It's funny how the Domo designs below hold plain non Domo cups.

I've always liked Domo's friends. Those bats are interesting.

Whoa these are weird. I'd rather have a plain Domo design.

This is fun. Domo coffee. Perfect for his teeth.

This is the simplest and coolest design. The Domo cup. It's cool how Domo sometimes works as the object itself. That's a sign of an interesting design.

Just saw the Giant Robot dude doing interviews

Korean short filmmaker wearing all white. Yes white pants. The dude with the hair and sunglasses, the actor of course. It's fun doing interviews when the dudes don't know English well. The dude the hair said. I'm an actor thank you very much. That was it. I also didn't get a chair to sit on. It's amazing how much people want free stuff. There's totes and keychains, but one lady thought she could take one of these directors chairs.

Cyndi and Mark. This is what happens when you say, "hold my camera please." Notice how the car hood says Asian American Cinema! Yes, it's a genre.

Even the young ladies in short skirst watch from far.

Goth Toys

I want these dolls so they light up my room in darkness. I'll prey that they'll come to life every night. And if I'm lucky, they will be like Weird Science when Kelly LeBrock turns into a real life woman, except these will be gloomy and make weird poses all the time. I'll just stand there in silence and feel like I'm into feeling like doom. We're not happy, the world isn't happy, and these dolls are just so goth, there's no tomorrow.

I got all this text from the box they come in.

Bangals and the Choe book

The Bangals are really coming and will be here in LA quite soon. It's an honor to work with Le Merde on this. We also got a rare shipment of the David Choe Lazarides book. Another honor to have it. While there's so much to do, I still enjoy products and maybe that's why I own a store and more. Both of these items should be available in some quantities during the Biennale. Keep in mind product fans, Giant Robot stores will have them available too.

SDAFF - One year passes so quick.

Another year goes by and it's the SDAFF again. I'm there tomorrow through saturday. If it's anywhere as fine as it was before, then I'll be in good shape. The SD fest is a bit different than the other Asian / Asian American film fests. It's run with an iron fist by one woman, Leanne Kim, and has a distinct air of pseudo celebritydom in an Asian American way, but at the same time is definitely small and family feeling. You get both. I'll do a run down one day of how all of these fest relate to each other. But not now! I'll be blogging and doing the Twitter thing from SD. My efforts are for the Toyota Directors Chair website and program. In the end, Toyota is doing something great for these fest especially in a down trodden year. Not one person can say anything bad about it, unless they're willing to cut a fat check. Bottom line, enjoy it or stay at home. Here's my post from last year.
SDAFF

Goh Nakamura playing at the Giant Robot Biennale

Goh Nakamura trailer. The other day, I was watching a webcast of a Goh show at GRNY. Pretty fun. So why not bring him to play LA? His music's good, he doesn't annoy, people can't complain that he's too loud, or not loud enough (he can wail too). So, enjoy!

Nguyen and Thi - Starry Kitchen

That's Nguyen and Thi at gr/eats. Hungry? Want Asian food and you can't make it to gr/eats? Then hit up Starry Kitchen. It's not a truck. No. It's an actual place, it's like a party. Donations requested and accepted if you know what I mean. The antidote to the antidotes.

Starry Kitchen
Their Yelp reviews.

Rachel Ray - Eat + Run Meatballs

Rachel Ray is great. It's now online. Meatballs made of tofu! Happiness for all. The recipe is from my mom! They made their version and it looks a tad different, but it's pretty close.

Rachel Ray - Eat + Run Meatballs link

Giant Robot x Gargamel X Le Merde Bangal

For the Biennale... Le Merde's Bangal. More info soon.

The Giant Robot Biennale 2 James Jean trailer

The Giant Robot Biennale 2 James Jean trailer. 1 minute long. Here it is. A few more with some of the artists may get made, so watch for them. I hope you like this even just a little. Shot with Flipcam and edited with iMovie.

Dave by David Horvath (not an Uglydoll!)

Dave! Two special color ways! Edition of 50 each. So good looking that you can eat them. These will be released quite soon. Keep your ears out for when!

The Goods

Retrofitted nautical binocular. Cleaned up, chromed, and shiny, this is a Zeiss periscope type item. I'm not sure if it's from a sub since, a two foot periscope might not help much. It's a nice looking piece of vintage machinery.

Whoa, my name is on the back of the T shirt by Hysteric Glamour. I doubt many of you will get to see the shirt itself. It's uncommon and quite pricey! Maybe I'll actually wear it one day, but for now, my cat sleeps on it!

Even from above, it's a nice view. Yes, riff raff is up here. I saw a woman get smacked and she fell 3 rows. She was then led away by security. The slap to her head echoed from seriously 100 or more yards away. It just so happens that The Dodgers also won game 2 in insane fashion. Bottom of the 9th with two outs.

Giant Robot sponsors ITVS PBS Independent Lens kickoff

Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond talks to an audience at the top of the Thompson Hotel
ITVS PBS Independent Lens kickoff event. A lot of you probably don't know the man, but if you look him up, he's a huge cinematographer with a list as long as my arm. Here's his imdb link. We sponsored the opening party and it was quite an honor. Imagine. 27 films, every week on tuesday at 10pm. You can actually watch them for free. Many of these have been making the film festival circuit, so the adage of not being able to see films again after a film festival isn't quite true.

Here's the itvs site which has schedules and previews. I swear, I was going to try and find ways to get screeners of some of these films. Herb and Dorothy, the unassuming art collector couple is showing October 13th. I heard it was good. Here's the link to a preview. Or if you want, just click on the image below to see the embedded trailer:

Biennale E Flyer Update. Here's the latest

Ok, some more tweaks, and this is near the end of the messing around. So here's the latest three cards. It's becoming a fun ride, and we'll see how it all goes.

Barry McGee Motorcycle

Artists are doing everything these days. Maybe it's our economy talking. This is primer grey motorcycle. Primered by none other than Barry McGee. On the gas tank is one of his faces. Pretty large size, nearly that of a hand. Great detail and nice line work, it's a good piece. It's actually glossy and the rest of the bike is matte grey. The only other work he did to it was the trim work on the bottom of the bike. How very McGee! It's either total destruction, or a perfect classy blend of art and design. This bike was for charity, so don't get too on his case for painting a deathmobile.

Tax Payer Failure

See the racket and the measurement of the doubles alley? Basically this means, any match played is a fake, a phony, and forfeit. It didn't count because the court was painted wrong. There are 4 courts done this way at Stoner Avenue Park in West LA. These are brand new courts, and you'd think the folks who do this would have it down by now. Our tax dollars at work.

Mr James Jean and the Giant Painting

James and Taffy...an unlikely pair, but they get along pretty well. Look at the size of this piece. A side of a bus? Maybe. Look for this one in Miami, it's an amazing journey of a piece, and will cost you. You'll need escrow help. I'll cut a quick PSA for the Biennale quite soon. James is working hard for the show.

Happy Birthday... Batman. This looks like a scene out of Gummo.

Card 3 Biennale The Horvath, Le Merde, Yukinori Dehara

Click on the flyer to make it larger!

Unko San - The Greatest Crap Ever. SFW

I'm Asian, so poo and I have this special relationship that most of you wouldn't understand. We eat well, we carry long, and then we expel. There's this empty feeling afterwards that invades your psyche, and that's why poo is so special. We cry with each wipe and long to meet up another time. So this is why a new Japanese character called "unko-san" exists. I like how it says "timely catalog." The characters on the right. On top, the disturbing red one with the hair patch... that's Benson! The bottom right, "Corn-san" This is just a start. For each poo you secretly give a name to, some thought mongrels in a toy company have come up with even more.

Rob Sato - Biennale artist

Rob Sato laughing so hard, he's blurry. I'm a big fan of Rob Sato and maybe not enough of you know him, but he's showing in the GR Biennale 2! In photos, the man can't stay still.

West Hollywood Book fair - Giant Robot style

This is the Giant Robot booth. The event was pleasant thanks to the nice weather, decent booth set up, comfortable vibe, and location. I wasn't there all day to hear what negatives there are. As each year passes, this event improves, and we'll be there next year too.

Carol Channing!

This is a photo from the panel. Joe Escalante, Myself, and Martin. We talked about Asian pop culture and publishing. Joe makes stuff like this easy, and he's quick and funny.

This woman makes these trippy zipper tyes.

Thomas Nakanishi

Blinky Sasha and Cate

That's our friend Alexis. We haven't seen him in a long, long time.

Novelist Naomi Hirahara 2nd from left.

1997 Revisited "Asian American New Wave" Revisited Podcast

We dared to re-shoot the 1997 photo. I think the prize goes to Michael on the upper right. Look at his face on both. Amazing. 1997-2009. 12 years have passed and honestly, I didn't have enough time with everyone and it actually would have been nice to talk a little bit longer. It really was important, but honestly, at 20 minutes our panel was much too short. I left it all very unsatisfied. I think there were plenty of questions that could and would have been asked, and it would have been nice to hear from everyone about them. What little we did talk about was interesting, but just barely scratched the surface.

In case you don't know. That's Chris Chan Lee, Justin Lin, Rea Tajiri, Myself, Quentin Lee, and Michael Aki. The rest of the photos are just some images from the green room, right before we went up there.

Click here to hear the Podcast of the panel discussion.
or link to iTunes

more photos up at flickr.

IndieCade!

Indie games? Check out IndieCade! Although most of the games are really cutting edge, they're almost too cutting edge and bordering on fine art. Some are genius in game play, some in concept, and some utilize hardware better than others. It's a juried exhibition and there are panels and more. I saw it referred to as a Sundance festival for games. No. That's total crap. It's more like an art fair but with games, and much less product as compared to an art fair. Yet, it's really great work and fun to see.

This game, you design the levels that you jump on with paper, pen, and a camera than scans it all in while you sit there. Then you have to play it.

This isn't a videogame. Yet, it's actually quite deep. You wouldn't know it until you play it... It's about the holocaust.

Adam and Brandon.

Keita Takahashi from Katamari. He draws characters and shapes on the sidewalk.

This is just weird. I think he drank too much and fell down.

This dude created a fun iPhone game. I solved it and got the toughest result. Victory. He seemed somewhat surprised.

50+ artist names in the Biennale group show

I felt that having a GR like big crazy group show during the Biennale captures something we do quite often. Here are the names in this unofficial Giant Robot press release.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years
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, Theo Ellsworth, James Jean, kozyndan, Stella Lai, Jack Long, Albert Reyes, Souther Salazar, Rob Sato, Jeff Soto, and Deth P. Sun. A second hall will include the contributions of more than 50 others, including:

Aaron Brown
Aiyana Udesen
Ako Castuera
Allison Cole
Andrew Holder
Andrew Jeffrey Wright
Andrice Arp
Ana Serrano
Apak
Ben King
Bigfoot
Brian Rush
Bwana Spoons
Christine Castro
Christopher Bettig
Dan-ah Kim
Daria Tessler
Ed Trask
Edwin Ushiro
Eleanor Davis
Emilio Santoyo
Esther Pearl Watson
Hannah Stouffer
Hellen Jo
James Kochalka
Jay Ryan
Jeffery Brown
Jen Corace
Jeremy Tinder
Joe To
Jon Burgerman
Kaori Kasai
Katherine Guillen
Kelly Lynn Jones
Kerry Horvath
Luke Chueh
Marci Washington
Mari Inukai
Mark Todd
Matt Furie
Megan Whitmarsh
Mike Perry
Munkao
Nikki McClure
PCP
Phil Lumbang
Prodip
Rama Hughes
Renee French
Robert Bellm
Scrappers
Sidney Pink
Steven Weissman
Yellena James
Kiyoshi Nakazawa
Thomas Han


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, five custom videogames have been developed by the Attract Mode collective in conjunction with some of Giant Robot's favorite artists. Many games were made exclusively for the Game Over/Continue? show at GRSF (March-April, 2009), and they be available for play once more throughout the exhibition's stint. The artist and developer pairings include Hellen Jo, Calvin Wong, 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

###

Jack Purcell Converse Ian Ginoza

Kicks Hawaii! These are nice. The leather has that perfect new school Louis Vuitton like texture. I like the lazy laces, just my style. The white is quite nice, and the subtle trim makes this cool. It's not overdone. It has a great balance of style. These are quite classy. Of course a percentage goes to a disease fighting charity. I know these aren't super new, but new to me is good enough.

The movie screening.

That's me and cousin Mike. I didn't think about taking a photo together, but I'm glad it was forced upon us. Now, here it is. Our film, Sunsets showed, and it was fun to see and great to be able to relive in a way. But this version is quite different, it does feel like something brand new, and I can actually stand to watch it now. Who knows if I can see it again, but it looked great on screen. Much better than I thought. People seemed to like it too. Now what do we do with it? We'll be doing a roundtable on Saturday night with Justin Lin, Quentin Lee, Rea Tajiri, and Chris Chan Lee, the film class of 1997.

Fugetsudo manju. Very good and I'm thankful that they donated some cakes.

That's what it looked like inside.
That scene above was shot in super 8!

That's Tamlyn Tomita and Me.

Wen and James. Wen is just back from Taiwan from a Tango Festival, and James is just a bad ass mofo.

James, me, and Harry Kim. Watch for Dirty Hands sometime soon. That's a great film.

That's Oscar Rios. A GR supporter.

Class of 1997, the voices and more.

Chris Chan Lee, Justin Lin, Rea Tajiri, myself, Quentin Lee, Michael Aki. We all wrote about our ideas about 1997, our trips, our films, what it was like, and what it became. This might be one of the most important posts regarding Asian American film, ever. It's a long read, and each of us in many ways seemed to have similar views looking back. I'm glad I'm not the only one. This was to be 2 paragraphs from each of us. I thought I was doing a disservice by writing 4 or 5. It turns out, some of the others wrote nearly a book. I'm not sure if it's great to be lumped into this nostalgia just yet, since this is the type of stuff I used to think should just die off, but oh well. One thing that might be fun to hear is from the film festival programmers etc. I know they played major favorites to who they thought were the bigger films. Yellow, by Chris Chan Lee was considered to big one for sure. We were always given the crappier time slots and smaller theaters (yes, admit it bitches). Our film sold out at it's premiere, plenty early, and no further screenings afterwards. At the NY Asian American festival, we were given a midnight slot in the middle of nowhere and I think 8 people were there. Black and white film = midnight? That was fucked up. For that, I give the programmer the middle finger.

But overall, it's very possible that of all of these films, ours may hold up the most because it was shot black and white and grainy, giving it a timeless feel - sort of like Strangers in Paradise by Jarmusch. It's theme wasn't about Asian America at all, or had a cast that existed in Asian American land. It was very prototypical, but then again, we never even considered our film to be part of any Asian American anything. Read more, at the link please.

youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com

Twentieth Century Boy - The event.

Rolan Bolan and Masakatsu Sashie. Sashie drew a nice gift for Rolan. Imagine an event that was just an idea two years ago that finally came true. Here are the words on the intro wall:

Two years ago, Darren Romanelli posed the question to young contemporary Japanese artist Masakatsu Sashie, "What kind of music do you like?" Her answer "T-Rex!". This "Exhibition" spawned from that moment and worlds began to collide. Masakatsu Sashie has shown with Eric Nakamura and Giant Robot in America, and he resides in the Japanese Sea city of Kanazawa. Somehow, T-Rex has invaded his life as well.

If you're new to T-Rex, imagine the the late 60s and early 70s, when English rock pushed every boundary. T-Rex invented a style of glam and brought it to rock n roll sharing influences and impacting almost all of his contemporaries including Bowie, Bauhaus, the Damned, and many others. Led by Marc Bolan, songs such as Bang a Gong, has reached world household status today as it's appeared in nearly every medium.

Fusing a relationship with Marc Bolan's son Rolan, and Rolan's mother, Gloria Jones, this event featuring the art of Masakatsu Sashie, honors the late rock star in an event that's long overdue. Mark Bolan may have passed away on September 16, 1997, just shy of his 30th birthday, but his legacy is gaining momentum everyday. Sing a silent Happy Birthday, as you've actually stepped into his 62nd birthday party.

Darren Romanelli and Eric Nakamura would like to thank:
Light of Love
Marc Bolan School of Music and Film
For Your Art
Hysteric Glamour

That's me and Lupe Fiasco, the Superstar. He's taller than me! I thought he was short!

Wait, maybe he is.

Gloria Jones

Hysteric Glamour

Romanelli family

Joe and fans