Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The best thing about editing Giant Robot magazine was being able to share the rad things that friends do. And make new friends that do rad things. That’s how I feel about my first sizable “solo” project, assembling (and sometimes even participating in) excellent shorts that friends have created and then complementing them with works by new friends. So while the Animal Style (Chicago) and Son of Animal Style (Honolulu, San Diego) skate video programs have given my crew an outlet for their hard work, they have provided me with fodder to keep engaged, keep pushing culture.
And is there a better place to do it than the Hawaii International Film Festival? No other fest balances East and West, high and low, or big budget and indie like HIFF. And while it makes sense for the latest iteration of the Animal Style program to show alongside the long-awaited Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, it’s even cooler that it is on the same roster as Cloud Atlas, Tai Chi 0, and The King of Pigs. It puts skateboard movies in the same conversation as “real” cinema. And with guys like Spike Jonze, Mike Mills, Jason Lee, and even Sam Lee coming from the world of skateboarding, why not?
Norin Radd at Comic-Con 2011
Yesterday I attended San Diego’s annual nerd mecca as as a regular guest–and not a vendor–for the first time since 1995. In many ways, it wasn’t as cool. Namely, I was forced to struggle with the famously difficult online sales just like everyone else. In fact, passes sold out after my 90-minute long wait despite entering [return] the moment they went on sale. I was lucky that another friend did get through that morning, and placed orders for my brother and me so that we wouldn’t miss our first Comic-Con since 1987 and second since 1979. (Thanks, Brian!) Greg and I gladly stood in line for 90 minutes to pick up extremely coveted one-day badges and proceeded to enjoy.