Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

As you know, we closed Giant Robot SF. After a run of 8 years, it was time to strip the location down to it’s bare bones. It was a challenge, but we got it done.

That’s Mats!? He came to pick up the Stincker machine. He lives in Oakland and it seems like he seldom leaves Oakland.

That’s Goh Nakamura at Halu in Richmond.

Squeezing the lemon. Halu is a great yakitori place. At the end of a long day, it’s the perfect spot. It’s small, it’s funky with the music photos everywhere, and it feels like you walked into a spot in Japan. The food was great too.

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Cochon 555. I was there to sell Heather Shouse’s Food Trucks book. Note: We are hosting a signing at GR2 TONITE from 6-9pm with food trucks including Kogi, Mandoline, and La Isla Bonita (a real OG truck). The bacon above was candied, and well cooked so you were eating the yin and yang of salt and sweet, or is it sweet and salt. How can you miss with bacon like that? I started off serious, trying to move books, but in the end, I got high on the supply… of pork. Tons of it from different chefs who included Octavio Becerra from Palate Food + Wine, Chad Colby from Mozza, Tom Goodell from Public Kitchen, Ben Ford from Ford’s Filling Station, and Joshua Whigham from The Bazaar. The event travels and the LA edition took place in downtown. At $125 a ticket for a all you can eat and drink (wine and beer and one soft drink brand), it’s actually a steal since if you’re VIP, you get in at 3:30 and the event ends at 7:30. That’s 4 hours of feasting on non stop meats prepared in so many ways, it’s hard to fathom.

Before I get any further it’s only fair to show you what I was eating in a purer form. That’s yet another cousin, Erica Nakamura. She can handle a blade like Bill The Butcher.

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Two conferences going on at the same time at UC Berkeley, Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (self explanatory) and Hapa Japan (about the hapa Japanese diaspora). ITASA had a lot of heart as it was completely run by students and Hapa Japan had awesome food! This rather unassuming young man, Duncan Ryuken Williams, is a professor of East Asian languages and cultures. He also organized Hapa Japan months before the quake and tsunami. In fact, he was heading in a train to Narita airport when the quake hit. He and all the other passengers had to walk the train tracks for 90 minutes to reach safety. Also in attendance: super-cool Canadian filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns, whose  animated short Yellow Sticky Notes you should really check out. Back at ITASA, I was fortunate to hang with my old pal Cynthia Lin and meet for the first time Dawen, who did his college thesis on Waylaid. Boy, does that make me feel fucking old. From her new album. With four iPads? What? At ITASA, I saw this one woman sitting by herself all the time, taking pictures of the conference, so I snuck a few of her in. This is what Hapa Ramen does and does great. They were operating a stand at the Berkeley campus for the Hapa Japan convention. It was great but I couldn’t enjoy it fully because I was eating it as I watched a slideshow presentation about how hapa kids in post-World War II Japan were bullied in school and abandoned by their families. Ultimately many of the subjects were shown triumphant (or at least at peace with themselves). Back to ITASA. I got to see Jenton and Stephanie Lai do a live mashup of “I’m Coming Home,” “Firework,” “Viva La Vida” and “Rocketeer” Random shots of Berkeley follow. This would never cut it in SoCal. Served with a glass of (Wu) Tang. Compared with the people of Berkeley, she ain’t that strange. This is what happens when you don’t know that BART doesn’t open until 8am on Sunday and your flight is at 9:30am at SFO.
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When I take time off from work, I give back to the community, which is to say, the community of homeless dogs. There is a great no-kill shelter called Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC) and they always need people to walk their dogs (and curb them). This fine guy right here is Hunter, a puggle. This dude is low to the ground and has a pull-force like you wouldn’t believe for a guy his size. Whew, after having a run-around with Hunter, it was off for quality time with other dogs. The kind with chili! Hey, wait, what is this under the table top? It’s Moon Patrol! You know, from 29 years ago! I gotta play this! Fifty cents (!) later and I’m off! The controller and buttons are all greasy and shit from those hot-dog-eating moon patrollers afore me but I don’t care. Now I get to leave my double-dog scum, too.
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