Judge not

Double Cross zine tracked down the original bass player of Judge, Jimmy Yu, for an informative and interesting article about the early days of Straight Edge. He was also in Supertouch and Death Before Dishonor. Check it out here.

(Good looking out, Wayne.)

The horror

Louie Cordero had his art opening over the weekend in Manila. I've seen his paintings and sculpture before, but Absolute Horror seemed to up the ante on both ends--as well as combine them.


Louie sent me a bunch of images from the show, and some of the pieces actually seem to refer to this seamless blending of media.


He is still making LP-inspired art...


...as well as ones that may refer to concert posters.


And then he turns it up to 11 with a Mötörhead T-shirt. Classic.


The Scorpions. Not cool or even ironic!


Minds were blown and eyes bugged to the max.


Was Manuel Ocampo there? I haven't seen him in a long time.


Here's Louie. Green was the color of the night--same shade as the envious artists trying to keep up with him.


Check it out:
June 28 - July 27, 2008
Mo Space, 3rd level
Mos design
Bonifacio High Street
Bonifacio Global City
Fort Taguig
Philippines

The Force strong with him is

Q: Is Barack Obama a Jedi knight?
George Lucas: "I'd say that's fairly obvious."

Project blue book

Spent most of yesterday boxing up stuff around the house, getting ready to move out for the renovation, and stumbled upon some remnants from the past...

No hits, no loss

The Dodgers got no-hit, but still earned a win in interleague play against the Angels tonight. Even Vin Scully was amazed.

Pass the bucket

This isn't super new, but it's news to me. Most KFCs in Canada now offer vegetarian chicken sandwiches. (They're vegan if you hold the mayo.)

Even if you aren't a vegan, vegetarian, or animal activist this is a good thing. Meatless dishes are lower on the food chain and save resources and energy that go into raising and slaughtering animals. I consider not eating meat to go hand in hand with conserving energy, decreasing fuel consumption, and turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth. It reduces waste and lessens your impact on the environment. One's diet affects everything from the distribution of grains and water (how much is needed to raise one animal?) to the ozone layer (cow farts).

Meatless options are good for everyone--no one is being forced to eat them and KFC gets new customers in Canada. Time to make this happen in the U.S.

And what about the chickens that go into the other dishes? They are purported to be killed more humanely...

Meet Monkmus

Monkmus is a hard guy to track down. He's lived in New York, Toronto, L.A., Portland, and now San Luis Obispo. (Huh?) I've been keeping tabs on him for awhile, and finally nailed him down for an interview when he was in town. He's best known for his work with Kid Koala, but he's also won accolades for pieces by Badly Drawn Boy, Death Cab for Cuties, Mogwai, and Los Campesinos! I swear, if his videos were ever packaged like the Director's Series DVDs, he'd become a star. Until then, I have his DVD-R reel, which is a huge upgrade to the pixelated images and crummy sound of Youtube uploads. More on the man and his work to come...


After a hearty but healthy lunch at gr/eats, Monkmus tries not to laugh, Eric shoots a portrait, and Tran profiles.

Life sucks but Gabe's book doesn't

This weekend, longtime friend of GR Gabe Soria is having a book signing for his first graphic novel. If you're in the New Orleans area, check it out. The book is a hoot and so is he! Trust me, I don't use that word often--only on special instances like this.


What Adrian Tomine does for the Asian American experience in Shortcomings, he does for slacker vampires... I'm serious. Life Sucks is addictive, thoughtful, and shockingly moving reading, and Gabe's a way cool guy.

Mossy, glossy, and topless

While Jack Long opened his great show at GR2 and Yellena James took over GRSF this weekend, Scrappers, Snags, and LeMerde did their thing at GRNY. Pics are up online now, so you can see what you missed out on...

Smells like shoebox 2

This is my first concert ticket. When I look back at the things that I've been obsessed with, my parents pretty much started me on them. They bought me my first comic book (Fantastic Four 182) when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and I was pretty much a comic book dork through junior high. Although it was my childhood friend Brian that invited my brother and me on our first ski trips, our dad pretty much got the fever and picked up from there. After junior high, my mom and dad decided that it was probably time that we'd get into music and they bought us $100 worth of records. Our first purchases included David Bowie's Let's Dance, The Clash's London Calling, The Three O'Clock's Baroque Hoedown, and The Jam's Snap! And then our dad took us to our first concert: The Us Festival - Day 2. It's pretty cool to say that I not only saw The Stray Cats, Oingo Boingo, and The English Beat in their prime, but also The Clash's final show with Mick Jones.

Some other scraps from the shoebox...


This stub should inspire you to attend as many concerts as you can. Who knew that this would be the final tour for The Smiths? Since disbanding, the group's stature has seemed to grow exponentially. There are kids who worship the Moz and would kill to see a Smiths reunion. Who knows? Maybe David Johansen will get them to have a reunion, but I can say I saw the band at its peak. If I recall correctly, there was no opening band and it ended with a Morrissey pulling his shirt over his head while mobs of fans rushed the stage.


I went to a lot of hip-hop shows in the late '80s. PE, BDP, and De La Soul. Honestly, this show really sucked. It was for the Daisy Age trio's first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, and Plugs 1-3 just rapped over the records in a really half-ass manner. I recall being on a road trip to Stanford and taking the bus to San Jose to meet another friend at this show. I already had a ticket to their next show in L.A., and that performance sucked, too. They got better on their next tour.


I recall the morning when KNAC changed from "Rock 'n' Rhythm" to "Pure Rock." The alarm radio went off and Danzig's "Mother" played. That's when Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth were all peaking out and G'n'R was changing everything. This stub was for Danzig's first solo album after Samhain. Chuck Biscuits was on drums and Voivod opened at this tiny greaser club in Anaheim.


This turned out to be a dream lineup. I was already into The Fleshtones and Three O'Clock and stoked that they were opening but the shocker was Billy Bragg who played a short surprise set before the Bunnymen went on stage. Incredible. In addition to him playing songs like "A New England," he said something like, "You Americans should send The Ramone back to England where we appreciate them!" Back to the Bunnymen, this tour was for Ocean Rain, their masterpiece.


Another stub that should compel you to see your favorite bands live. After this tour, in which the trio played Warehouse from beginning to end, the band imploded. I saw Sugar later on, but it just wasn't the same.


This is the first time I saw Siouxsie. I'm pretty sure it was the Tinderbox tour. Later on that summer, I saw them open for Bowie on the Glass Spider tour at Anaheim Stadium. I wish I kept all my old concert T-shirts... Another lesson to learn.


The Cramps blew my mind the summer after high school and before college. This was the "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?" tour. The openers were Social Distortion, who seemed to be the Palladium's house band and seemed to be on every single bill. I'm pretty sure they opened for Siouxsie and PiL, too. If there was a good show at the Palladium and Social D. wasn't opening, that probably meant Mike Ness was probably in rehab or jail.


Okay, it's one thing to see a great band before they break up. It's another thing to see a rock god before he ODs. The lineup for this tour included Killer Kane, Silvain Silvain, Walter Lure, and Jerry Nolan. In addition to playing solo and New York Dolls songs, he played a cool acoustic set with a version of "Eve of Destruction." The only thing that could have been better would have been seeing him at the Whisky with G'n'R instead of the Roxy with Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns.

Sigh matters

You might remember interviews with members of Sigh in back issues of GR. I've always wondered how they pull off the mulit-layered, epic, and scary sound with everything from orchestra to banjos in a live set, and now we get to find out. After a couple canceled shows have come and gone, the symphonic dark metal band from Japan is finally doing a proper headlining tour the U.S. They're playing a survey of old and new songs, and promise some Venom covers as well!

Dates and places:

(w/ ZIMMERS HOLE and UNEXPECT)
09/06/08 Sat @ Jumping Turtle - San Marcos, Ca
09/07/08 Sun @ Chain Reaction - Anaheim, CA
09/08/08 Mon @ Knitting Factory - Hollywood, CA
09/09/08 Tue @ The Clubhouse - Tempe, AZ
09/10/08 Wed @ Gators - Farmington, NM
09/11/08 Thu @ Lola's - Ft Worth, TX
09/12/08 Fri @ White Rabbit - San Antonio, TX
09/13/08 Sat @ Meridian - Houston, TX
09/14/08 Sun @ The Muse - Nashville, TN
09/15/08 Mon @ Jaxx - West Springfield, VA
09/16/08 Tue @ B.B. Kings Blues Club - New York City, NY
09/17/08 Wed @ FouFounes - Montreal, ON (*Unexpect not playing this show)
09/18/08 Thu @ Jubilee Centre - Sudbury, ON
09/19/08 Fri @ Wreck Room Toronto - ON
09/20/08 Sat @ Peabody's DownUnder - Cleveland, OH
09/21/08 Sun @ The Pearl Room - Mokena, IL
09/22/08 Mon @ 4th St Station - St Paul, MN

100 percent booty

Glendale Blvd. just south of Alvarado.

Barbee brigade

I've been keeping an eye out for these babies forever, and it looks like they've already been out on the European market for a while. I'm not super familiar with WeSC, but I'm a friend and huge fan of the skater and musician Ray Barbee. I'd be proud to wear his autograph on my ears. Not only did I ask him and his old band to play when Wendy and I got married, but they said yes!

Maybe by the time I track them down at an affordable price, Ray and the Mattson 2 will have a domestic release via Galaxia for the inaugural listen.

Death Cab to Nokia

Our friend Nick (center, with bass) was in town for the current Death Cab for Cutie tour and hooked us up with tickets and backstage passes. Last time I saw him, I crashed at his house while touring with Damon & Naomi and Boris. He was a great host, and even paid for breakfast at his favorite spot. Usually, I only get to him when he's on tour.


Each time I see the Seattle band play, the venue gets larger. This was my first time at Nokia and it's cavernous and modern but not entirely soul-less. The sound was quite good, too, and I think the Emmys and American Music awards take place here. I though it was cool that the band charged 40 bucks per seat, whether you sat in the front row or the nosebleed seats, which rewards young, diligent super fans with good seats for a decent price.


Death Cab has released a ton of albums now, and it's cool to see the band's set list evolve and get stronger. Although there seems to be one huge hit on each of their last three albums, I don't really consider them to be a "singles" band. Each show seems to be more like a collection of fan favorites. Of course there's "Crooked Teeth" and then in Los Angeles, there's also "Why'd You Want To Live Here?" (It makes me smile when Los Angelenos sing along to that one.) When you listen to those and then hear the latest single, you can tell that while the lyrics remain poetic and personal, the music is always changing. The previous songs are solid indie songs, but the epic structure of "I Will Possess Your Heart" reminds me of a Brian Eno-era Bowie song.



We stuck around the "VIP room" afterward, but left before getting to thank Nick for getting us in. He called this morning, and explained that he was tied up in promoter talk that couldn't be escaped. Then he had to go to take an phone interview before heading to KROQ for a short acoustic set around noon and then taking off for tonight's show in Santa Barbara and the tour's final show in Oregon. Right after that, it's Europe, Asia, Australia... But he'll be back eventually.

Absolute Cordero

For those of you in the Philippines, Louie Cordero has a show in his hometown of Manila. From the looks of the postcard--which I received via email this morning--Louie's work has gone 3-D, not only carrying on the tradition of Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood but bringing it to life in a Dehara-like fashion. Definitely worth checking out.

Absolute Horror
Louie Cordero
June 28 - July 27 2008

Mo Space, 3rd Level
Mos Design Building
Bonifacio High Street
Bonifacio Global City
Fort Taguig Philippines
tel 8562745

Open daily 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Zurik Robot

Martin Cendreda is one of my favorite cartoonists. He has indie sensibilities and sense of humor but his work has a classic feel, like Peanuts or Nancy. And in my opinion, he doesn't crank out new work nearly often enough (lots comics anthologies and group art shows). However, you can get a fix on the back page of every GR--including GR54. He's "Mart" in the top left. That's like the pole position, isn't it?

I've started having coffee with him on Saturday mornings. This weekend it was at this El Salvadorean pupusas place on Vine. I never had pupusas before, and they were pretty good. Maybe cheese overload, but you get a lot of food for cheap. See that cup of coffee in Martin's hand? Gigantic.

What do we talk about? Comics, music, movies, friends, the plight of the L.A. Kings, and new parenthood. Oh yeah, food. Someone said Waffle on Sunset wasn't a bad place for breakfast. What are you doing next Saturday?

Jack's back

Saturday night was the opening of Jack Long's Convolvere show at GR2. I'm a big fan of Jack and his work. I tried to hang around Sawtelle late enough on Friday to be there for the installation but car trouble was holding him back. Hopefully this art show will help him remedy the situation.


After Jack left home, his parents really got into gardening. So it's almost like his new, floral-infused works depict his replacements. But that's digging deep. A simpler explanation is that he was ready to explore new color palettes.


This weekend was pretty hot in L.A., but that didn't stop fans and friends from checking out the new work. These are some of his roommates, who are artists, too.


When I was telling someone that I preferred the pieces without figures in them, and Jack came over and said, "What? Why?"





With the Vegan Enforcer out of town, Sasha, Katie, and Michelle held down the fort and made sure things stayed clean.


Please welcome our newest employee, Kayla. (I hope I spelled her name correctly.)


My college friends Lynn and Craig showed up with their daughter, Lumi. I gave her my camera and she took a portrait of me (below)


A more formal picture! We made tentative plans to get some food or hit a Dodgers game one of these days.

I wanna be a bear

We finally threw a red-egg party for Eloise this weekend. We filled the triad room at Happy Family with banquet tables and stuffed relatives to the gills in order to celebrate her one month of survival (times four). Afterwards, everyone knew how Wendy felt when she was pregnant and our daughter was about to drop.

The cake was baked and decorated by Wendy's cousin Linda, who is a pasty chef instructor. When the head was sliced up, the blood-hued interior of the red-velvet cake was exposed!

Dirty Hands

I vividly remember when Dave Choe introduced himself at the GR table at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1997--more than 10 years ago. He was still a student and looking for his first gig. Honestly, I didn't think much of his offer to contribute a drawing when told him that we had an article about Yan Can Cook that could use some art.

Shockingly, he delivered an amazing depiction of the buck-toothed celebrity chef. The image was natural and loose, but well-formed and composed. He mixed street style with a love of comics in the best possible way--not like some poseur geek but someone who wasn't afraid to get dirty for his art or dork out about super heroes and toys.

I saw him go through some slim years. He offered to paint things on commission and lift things for the same deal. But things turned, and then they turned again. And again. And we've followed him here at GR via his art contributions, written pieces, and art shows. I don't want to spoil Harry's documentary on his friend Dave, so we'll leave it at that.

GR is proud to present the premiere on Saturday night at the L.A. Film Festival, as well as repeat screenings on Sunday and Thursday afternoons. I plan on attending Thursday's show. Maybe I'll see you there.

Hot box

Serena: This is like the best issue ever.

Sasha: The person on the phone asked if we had the new issue, and when I said yes I got a "Whoo!"


Hot out of the box. Seriously. The shipment was sitting behind the store in the sun for most of the day, and the mags were practically steaming.

PRE boot

A while back, I blogged about seeing the band PRE and now the interview is in our new issue. But what I never got around to mentioning was the bootleg 7" single I got from their merch table. Apparently, a shipment of them were seized by customs on the way out of Russia and were given to the proper distributors, Skin Graft records. Besides the unreleased music, the selling point is topless pics of PRE and their tourmates Aids Wolf. (Those are my pixels on the cover, above.)


Even though the text is in Russian, I can tell it's not for 2008. Maybe last year? It's kind of cheap how there are only three spreads with four months on each page. The pics are all from the same series. Maybe a post-show party or gathering?


The English text in back is pretty bad, too, proving that Asians aren't the only ones who mangle the language, but the band is probably most bummed about being likened to Melt Banana. "Incredible arouse guarantees"? Totally, if you like tinny, echoing bootlegs of art punks with exploitative packaging.


Get the full story on the confiscated "Sin Graft" singles now available from Skin Graft, here. Read the interview with the singer in GR54, hitting stands soon.

Egg hunt

Tonight is the summer solstice. If you're in the northern hemisphere, you can balance an egg upright at this time. I'm serious. I would have done it and taken a photo, but there are no eggs at the GR house. You should try it, though. My friend showed me in college and it worked. (Or maybe not.)

June 21

This Saturday is the first day of summer, the June solstice, my sister's birthday, and Go Skateboarding Day. Even if you go to a year-round school, aren't at Stonehenge, or don't know Angelyn, you have no excuse not to grab your stick and go for quick session--if not at a skatepark, mini-ramp, ditch, or pool, then a curb, parking lot, or just a quick ride to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee.

Nice shoes!

Giant Robot 54 is scheduled to hit the shelves at GR shops tomorrow (Friday) and here’s what’s in it:

- Cover story on comics-turned-couture artist James Jean
- New art, architecture, and public sleeping in the streets in China
- Machine Girl director and master of sleaze Noboru Iguchi
- Daniel Wu goes into the pit with the Terra Cotta Warriors
- Samurai Assassin-in-training Rain tells a joke
- Eric pays to pet kittens in Japan
- Feet-eating fish in Korea
- (Working) holiday in Cambodia
- Art punks from England, PRE
- New wave comix pioneer Lynda Barry
- New anime, movies, music, toys, and more.

Yellena James has landed

I’ve been corresponding with Yellena James and got the scoop on this weekend's show at GRSF. The Sarajevo-born artist has prepared 32-35 pieces that are mostly pen and ink drawings, with 6 paintings in acrylics.

James says, “As always, there are lots of abstract, organic shapes swimming around and interacting with each other. For this show, I wanted to surround viewers with the sense of life forming all around them. I'm presenting less of the whole, individual creatures often acknowledged in my art, and more of the matter and potential from which they are formed.”

Most of the pieces will be small but detailed and beg for closer inspection. “As people focus on the finer elements and their field of view concentrates,” she explains, “hopefully their recollections and imaginations will draw everything into a perception that is uniquely their own.”

Me? I see an intriguing mix of the floral and alien, organic and sci-fi, crafty and fantastic. The show opens on Saturday night and it’s going to be a compelling one.

Smells like shoebox

I've had a few ideas for what to do when I have nothing to blog--not eating anywhere new, seeing anyone new, going anywhere different, or doing anything that would interest strangers. I think it's time to initiate my "pulls from the shoebox" idea. I've got three shoeboxes crammed full of tickets, stubs, etc. that I've been keeping since I started going to shows in junior high. Here's a sampling...


This is actually the second time I saw the Jesus & Mary Chain. The first time was on Christmas Eve at the Roxy. It was the band's first U.S. show and they only played like 20 minutes with their backs to the crowd. That was before their first album even came out. The second time I saw them was on Easter Sunday with Specimen (Batastrophe era) and the Butthole Surfers (post dress, clothespins, and pus-packs, but still had fire and go-go dancers) opening. You don't get weird lineups like that any more.


This ticket is thrashed not because it went through the wash but because the Palladium is a sweaty, disgusting place to see shows. The sound sucked and the security would strip-search you on the way in. Nonetheless, I saw tons of great shows there in the mid-'80s, including this one, which was The Cult's Love tour. I gave blood the day before and wound up fainting in the pit!


The first time I saw the Ramones was on the Animal Boy tour at Fender's with The Vandals and Tex and the Horseheads. When I first met Joe Escalante, I told him I was at this show and he pretended to be impressed. This was back when punk shows were full of big, bald, scary guys. Wait, the ticket stub says 1987. I guess this was the Halfway to Sanity tour.


I saw PE on the Yo! Bum Rush The Show tour at UCLA, but they were way better on the It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back tour. Funny thing is that these days people are more impressed that I saw EPMD and Stetsasonic than PE in their prime. Actually, the live show probably peaked when they toured with Anthrax a couple years later.


For better or worse, Jane's Addiction kind of changed everything. Punks got into metal and glam and Guns 'n' Roses happened. This show was part of their one-week stint at the JAF in the Hollywood Hills after their live debut album came out. I went to three of the shows and one of the openers was The Flaming Lips before they were good.


Historic Fugazi show where Calvin got brained by an ashtray when Beat Happening was opening.. This was Fugazi's Repeater tour.


I actually saw SY earlier on the Sister tour, but that was at Scream and I don't have a stub to show for it. This was a warm-up show for the Goo tour with fIREHOSe and Superchunk opening. The Whisky is a tiny, tiny place to see a band of SY's stature and loudness. (Well, that's what I thought until I saw them at the Orange County Museum of Art a couple years ago.) This bill was kind of interesting since it signaled a passing of the torch from SST's stranglehold on "college rock" to the emerging era of "indie rock." Thurston and company were equally respected on both sides.


Finally, a benefit show for one of the members of Mary's Danish. There was a punk-funk scene sorta in L.A. at the time and all the bands came out to help the dude out. Thelonious Monster was on the bill and I remember the singer Bob Forrest saying how one of the Beasties was dating his ex (Ione Sky) but it was okay because they were like brothers. Um, okay. This was one of the RHCP's inbetween lineups with someone like Blackbird or DH Pelligro filling in. I believe it was one of the first Beasties shows after Paul's Boutique. I feel like Fishbone should have been on the ticket, too.

More tickets and ramblings when I run out of stuff to write about or upon request...

Cigarettes to children

My friends Martin and Jenny informed me that their daughter Margot is enthralled by the latest GR cover art. It's true; here's the proof.


Wendy and I tried it with Eloise, and she was captivated by the James Jarvis artwork as well.
How can we use this power?

I was there

This came out a couple months ago, but I didn't know it existed until this weekend when Martin Cendreda and I dropped off our respective spouses and babies at their weekly "Mommy & Me" session, then grabbed some coffee and did some browsing at Amoeba. Is that what they call a "man date"?

Back to the subject, the final Rocket from the Crypt release features the San Diego band's final show preserved in CD and DVD formats. If you're from SoCal and are familiar with indie punk 'n' roll, you know about the group (associated with Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, etc.) and its infamous Halloween shows at Horton Plaza. You probably attended at least one. I went three or four times, and only once did I not wear a costume. If you didn't dress up, you felt like a lurker.

For the 2005 performance--which everyone knew would be the group's last--my brother, sister-in-law, and I dressed up in Zankou Chicken T-shirts with paper hats. There were a lot of S.D. locals that were clueless, but those who ventured into L.A. (and those who came from L.A.) really dug our costumes, which I was really proud of. An unintentional bonus is that it will be easy to spot us in those yellow shirts on the DVD. Time to start looking...

(Some random trivia. Way back, I was in the crowd in L7's "Fast and Frightening" video. How can that not be on Youtube?)

Live Clive

Just got this invite from Clive Chin, whom you might remember from the Chinese Jamaicans interviews from GR37. I got into his stuff through reggae compilations from the always tasteful Pressure Sounds label, but it turns out he's releasing his own archives via the 17 North Parade imprint. If you check out the legendary reggae producer spinning records in person on Wednesday in NYC, I'll be jealous.

Happy Father's Day

My dad is cooler than your dad!

Chickenless run

Today I did Father's Day lunch with the in-laws (below). Hey, wait, I'm a dad, too! Weird, but that meant I had a say in choosing the spot so we went to one of my favorite Chinese vegetarian places, Happy Family in Monterey Park, home of the justifiably famous House Chicken--actually mushrooms.


Also tried the mock shrimp and young snow-pea leaves. Wendy thinks they're better at Vegetarian Wok, but I liked the dish a lot.


The chicken nuggets are good, too--a salty complement to the sweet/spicy "chicken" dish.


Eloise didn't get to eat any of the food, but she still had lunch.


Wendy's brother, sister, and uncle made the trip. You can't tell in this photo, but from the window behind them you can see a fireworks stand going up. In L.A., the SGV is one of the few places where you can still buy them for the Fourth of July.


Maybe we'll see you there next weekend...

Return of the king

I flipped through the Top Shelf sampler today, and saw a preview for a new Brian Ralph publication. Finally! Look for Crum Bums sometime in 2009.

Hang out not art

Before Dan-ah Kim's art opening tonight, we met up with her and Aaron at Bulan--conveniently located between Wendy's parents' house and the gallery.


They also brought their friend Ken (below), a.k.a. Monkmus. I'm a big fan of his video work for Kid Koala and Death Cab, and it was nice to finally meet him. On the right is our friend Grace and her son Christian.


Dan-ah's new art has a lot of new elements, both in terms of materials (see the stitching, below) as well as inspiration (from traveling around the world for the Death Cab video). It's awesome to see her push her work.


It's Eloise's bath night, so were had to split early. But Dan-ah didn't take it personally. That's how it goes these days...

Morning in the LBC

Eloise had her 4-month checkup in Snoop Dogg's hometown this morning. That and a visit with my sister-in-law afforded a stop for lunch at Chronic Tacos. Whoa, even the cops get buzzed from that place!

Signed, sighted, and sated

I love it when out-of-town friends come to Sawtelle. First of all, I hardly get out so it's the only time I get to see them. Second, it's an excuse to meet for lunch at gr/eats. Today it was New York-based filmmaker Aaron Stewart Ahn and artist Dan-ah Kim who came by. (The two had recently circled the world filming a video for Death Cab, and actually contributed an article about their stop in Cambodia for our next issue.) Chef Nelson hooked us up with some vegan dessert to follow-up on our meal.


Afterwards, we walked by the GR shops to see what's new. Two stacks of signed books jumped out at me. Above, Phil Frost's deluxe reissue. His signature is impressive, and different in every copy. Below is Lynda Barry (who will be in GR54 as well), who not only signed her guide to creative writing but drew a monkey head, too. Ha! Good luck getting these babies at Amazon.


Tomorrow night, Dan-ah has an art show opening at Thinkspace in Silver Lake. I know what you're thinking: Why isn't it at GR? She told me it was planned a long time ago--like way before the GR show at the Scion space even--so she gets a pass.


Back at the GRHQ, she showed me three pieces painted on kites that were handmade by her dad! Check out the show because her new stuff is evolving at breakneck speed and definitely worth checking out. (She and Aaron are really affable, smart people, too.) Look for their article in the next issue, more of Aaron's blogging on the GR site, and hopefully more of Dan-ah's work at GR galleries in the future.

Bulan 2

Wendy and I have been eying the new Bulan location in Silver Lake, which is right between her parents' house on Manzanita and the Giant Robot store on Sunset. The grand opening isn't until Friday, but it turns out they were open tonight. We were greeted by two of the three owners, who recognized us!


We've been big fans of the restaurant's original location on Melrose as soon as it opened a few years ago. There are a lot of vegetarian and vegan Thai joints in L.A., but Bulan is different. The textures, flavors, and presentation are tack sharp. There's nothing chewy, bland, or boring about it. We were regulars for a while and saw Bulan's business grow fast. Then we stopped going after having Eloise. Wonder why?


Tonight, we tried one new dish: the pumpkin with tofu. It was quite good, not mushy or stringy in any way. The squash was sweet, creamy, and firm--not stringy or gooey. Nice, light sauce with a lot of flavor without overpowering the natural flavors.


Whenever we went to the first Bulan, we'd always get the fish with green apple. So we had to get it here. The mock fish is flaky, crunchy, and tasty. On top of that, you dump the mixture of green apple, sweet onions, and cashew. It's cool, light, and snappy--a great complement to the battered and fried dish.


Restaurants that lease the spot on the corner of Santa Monica and Manzanita seem to come and go, but hopefully this one will stick. If you're in the area, definitely check it out. If you eat in by the end of the month, you can use a coupon for 10-percent off.


You probably guessed why we went out tonight. Today's the two-year anniversary of Wendy and me getting married. It was kind of fun to go out on a mini-date like this, but maybe even better that we could just walk up the hill and pick up Eloise from Wendy's parents. She rocks. But what will the next two years bring?

731 days

Two years ago this day, Wendy and I got married. That's not the diamond or even the paper anniversary. Not close to golden. But these years have been full of Dodger games, Giant Robot issues, and...


Beard Papa cream puffs! I got a six-pack and this little dude to surprise her tonight.

The goods

Last night was a good one. The Lakers gutted their way to their first victory in the Finals, the Dodgers got some runs, and Pryor, Eric, and I fine-tuned GR54. Final hi-res PDFs for the pages were uploaded and approved, and now I'm off to FedEx to send proofs, the binder, and a bookmap (below).


After that, it's time for some housekeeping. You don't really need to see a photo of that...

Makin' it

Last night was rough. We struggled to polish off the hi-res PDFs only to find that our printer wouldn't cooperate. The proofs that we tried to print were cast blue. I left after 1:00 A.M., and Eric and Pryor toiled for an hour after that. But this morning we talked to our tech guy in Canada and got everything straightened out... As of now, the printer is going off.


But let's go back just a few weeks. The manuscripts starts off like a regular Word document that I clean up and cut down to an approximate number to go with however many pages we envision the article to be. After that, I let let it loose to readers who attack the pages like rabid dogs.


Eventually, the articles get laid out. I import the words and images into the templates and then Wendy does anything from fine-tune to overhaul the sucker. It's a little more fun for the copy editors to look at the layouts with pics. When the files are sufficiently tight, we turn them into hi-res PDFs that we upload to our printer's system.


No, we didn't run out of toilet paper. But our proof printer did run out, so we had to open up a new roll of satin-finish Fuji photo paper. This stuff is hard to get, but don't settle for substitutes.


When the files are on our printer's system, we revisit them until they're ready to print as proofs on the giant Epson 4800. The proofs are actually better than the regular magazine pages. We look at those to make sure everything lines up, there are no egregious errors in headlines, the pagination is correct, photos bleed to the frames or off the page, and so on. After that, we approve the files and send the proofs.

Got it? Now go out there an make your own magazine.

Rollins on Jonesy's Jukebox right now!

Are you listening? He's guest hosting the show for the rest of the week...

Final corrections, NBA finals

More readers came by this afternoon for the final push to clean up the articles and get them ready to print. My parents and Eric, for example. Angelyn brought her secret weapon, Lucia.


Production ace Tran came by. Wendy is fine-tuning the layouts on the laptop.


Ken, Brian, and Anthony are reading pages, but also checking out the tabs on the Lakers-Celtics game. Anderson came a little later on. Things are looking bleak for Lakers fans at the moment, but GR fans can look forward to a pretty tight issue.

My I don't have to run day

At home on Sunday and I may not go further than the driveway to pick up the paper. This never happens, and it's already been eventful. Woke up to hear crazy screams from cats in the backyard. Catfight!


After a quick cleanup, Wendy and I dug into magazine work. Readers are dropping by the house all day. Here's Nikki from Eagle Rock. Her Hello Kitty bag has Bowie, Clash, and Murakami buttons on it, so we knew she was okay.


Wendy's parents dropped by with a bunch of these... My grandparents from Toison called them dung, but I guess the Cantonese pronunciation is more like jung. The ones of the left are meaty, for my parents. The ones wrapped in thicker string are veggie versions for me, my brother, and my sister.

More people coming to read soon. Come by and help, and maybe you can open up one of those banana leafs and see what's inside...

Carats and cones

Isis used to work at the GR shops on Sawtelle, but took a leave of absence to attend Otis. Now she's on vacation, back in circulation, and helping out with the mag. Isis has been tending to her dog--who has been fixed recently and is now fitted with a cone--so we're grateful that she made time to come by and look over articles.

No, Isis doesn't have cold hands and she didn't give us a puppet show, either. I just asked her to hold up her dog's old sweaters because they are insanely tiny!

Happiness is...

...a warm puppy, I mean baby. Number-one Super Beagle fan/hardcore GR contributor Brian T. gave Eloise this custom and classic needlepoint project the other day. Amazing and much appreciated.

Looking for readers

We're making the final push for GR54, and that means we need extra help with copy editing, proofreading, etc. If you've got a solid command of spelling and grammar, are familiar with GR culture, and live in L.A., we can use your help. Even if you don't know those funny copy-editing squiggly marks, it doesn't matter. We can use your brains.

Hit me up with an email at martin[at]giantrobot[dot]com. No, we still don't pay, but you will receive our gratitude, get listed in the masthead, and maybe even be on the receiving end of cookies.