Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
This week I attended back-to-back music release events for Aziatix and Best Coast. Weird! For the former, I crossed a velvet rope along with invited guests and journalists. For the latter, my Kindergartener daughter and I sat on the sidewalk for a couple of hours with fellow fans outside Amoeba to attend the in-store concert. K-pop vs. indie rock. Massive production value vs. lo-fi. Lil’ Wayne vs. Kid Cudi. Making charts is something I really enjoyed and miss about working on Giant Robot magazine, so I figured this was as good an occasion as any to dust off the old format… Enjoy! Links that actually work: www.toyota.com/corollaready www.amoeba.com/live-shows/detail-2760/
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Last night my program of indie skate videos by friends showed at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village. I knew it was a rad spot as soon as I saw the Let Me Die a Woman and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! posters outside. And then when I finally met R.B. Umali in person, he said that he showed the first installment of N.Y. Revisited at the same venue ages ago as part of the Underground Film Festival. Another good omen. And when I saw my friends Wing Ko and Jesse Neuhaus gather to represent The Brotherhood: Chicago, I was reminded of the Chicago and Honolulu screenings, I knew this film festival tour was a pretty rad thing to keep going. (There was also San Diego.) I’m a crummy skateboarder. I’ve never made a movie other than filming my daughter do cute stuff. But I’m really proud that I’ve been able to help promote the rad skate videos that my friends have made. From Tadashi Suzuki and Thy Mai’s artful and fun “The Working Man” and “Perfect Time” (which I got to be in, here’s a shorter version) to Wing Ko’s amazing doc about Chicago’s first generation of pro skaters Jesse Neuhaus, Stevie Dread, and Eric Murphy, The Brotherhood: Chicago. Ben Clark and Langdon Taguiped’s music shorts on Ray Barbee and Mario Rubalcaba. Willy Santos versus Pinoy comedian Jo Koy. And I wouldn’t have taken these to New York City unless I secured the local support of R.B. Umali, who made a special remix of his upcoming N.Y. Revisited Vol. 3 just for the fest. The screening looked and sounded incredible and the Q&A afterward kicked ass until the lights dimmed. Thanks to Asian CineVision’s AAIFF Managing Director Judy Lei for inviting us to show skate videos on the big screen alongside indie, experimental, and imported works. I think it’s awesome that she would take that chance and put the genre in such context. Yes, I’ve been doing other stuff in NYC, too. Namely, taking my 5-year-old daughter Eloise on pilgrimages to various destinations related to The Ramones. Left to right: Joey Ramone Place, 53rd and 3rd, the address where CBGB once stood. I know the way to Rockaway Beach but don’t think we’ll make it this trip. Perhaps next time… Gabba gabba hey!
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Last night my program of indie skate videos by friends showed at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village. I knew it was a rad spot as soon as I saw the Let Me Die a Woman and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! posters outside. And then when I finally met R.B. Umali in person, he said that he showed the first installment of N.Y. Revisited at the same venue ages ago as part of the Underground Film Festival. Another good omen. And when I saw my friends Wing Ko and Jesse Neuhaus gather to represent The Brotherhood: Chicago, I was reminded of the Chicago and Honolulu screenings, I knew this film festival tour was a pretty rad thing to keep going. (There was also San Diego.) I’m a crummy skateboarder. I’ve never made a movie other than filming my daughter do cute stuff. But I’m really proud that I’ve been able to help promote the rad skate videos that my friends have made. From Tadashi Suzuki and Thy Mai’s artful and fun “The Working Man” and “Perfect Time” (which I got to be in, here’s a shorter version) to Wing Ko’s amazing doc about Chicago’s first generation of pro skaters Jesse Neuhaus, Stevie Dread, and Eric Murphy, The Brotherhood: Chicago. Ben Clark and Langdon Taguiped’s music shorts on Ray Barbee and Mario Rubalcaba. Willy Santos versus Pinoy comedian Jo Koy. And I wouldn’t have taken these to New York City unless I secured the local support of R.B. Umali, who made a special remix of his upcoming N.Y. Revisited Vol. 3 just for the fest. The screening looked and sounded incredible and the Q&A afterward kicked ass until the lights dimmed. Thanks to Asian CineVision’s AAIFF Managing Director Judy Lei for inviting us to show skate videos on the big screen alongside indie, experimental, and imported works. I think it’s awesome that she would take that chance and put the genre in such context. Yes, I’ve been doing other stuff in NYC, too. Namely, taking my 5-year-old daughter Eloise on pilgrimages to various destinations related to The Ramones. Left to right: Joey Ramone Place, 53rd and 3rd, the address where CBGB once stood. I know the way to Rockaway Beach but don’t think we’ll make it this trip. Perhaps next time… Gabba gabba hey!
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Holy crap! Long Beach: Work in Progress really happened. The scenario seemed too good to be true: Come up with panels to illustrate and demonstrate the underrated heritage and upside of a city that I’ve been digging since I was a teenager. Crashing culture, colliding communities, and the power of subcultures–I’m all over that. Above you can see Long Beach skaters/activists Chad Tim Tim, Justin Reynolds, Paul Kwon, Dallas Rockvam, and Levi Brown with Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold. The event took place in the historic Edison Theatre, which was built in 1917 as the Nippon Pool Room and went through phases as a sporting goods store, foot clinic, and beauty salon. Most recently it was home to CSULB’s theatre troupe but has been shuttered for five years until it was opened by the city just for Friday’s event. Keynote speaker John Jay (W+K Garage) spoke on the the creative crisis–how the need for creativity is at an all-time high in business, the arts, and society in general. His manifesto was followed by authors Cara Mullio and Jennifer Volland’s very cool study on local Case Study House architect Edward Killingsworth. (Yes, I bought a copy of their brand-new Hennessey+Ingalls book on Killingsworth and had them sign it.) Jonathan Gold’s seemingly stream-of-consciousness-yet-completely-in-control ruminations on things he likes to eat in Long Beach (framed by recollections of sailors at The Pike, a roller-coaster decapitation, and bad metal shows at Fender’s) was so good it almost made me cry, and was followed by an otherworldly panel on Long Beach music moderated by my friend and member of The Vandals Joe Escalante. Somehow, he was able to balance the early hardcore punk stories of his longtime colleague Jack Grisham from T.S.O.L. with peeks into Little Cambodia via Dengue Fever’s Zac Holtzman and Chhom Nimol (who played an acoustic preview of a brand new song). Is that a mash-up of subcultures or what. The final panel was about the importance of skateboarding to Long Beach culture and its future with Justin, Chad, Ricki The Dude Bedenbaugh, and Paul. Of course, it ripped and generated a ton of responses. The long day was capped by a round table discussion handled by jeffstaple and words from District 2 Councilperson Suja Lowenthal. Very legit to get seals of approval from a king of street culture and a city respresentative. And so awesome to witness my worlds colliding right in front of my eyes, with Jack and Joe (above, left) from years of going to punk shows to Tanya, Julia, and Renzei (above, right) from my current efforts to help the team build Long Beach (and everywhere else) through culture labs and backers in business. Keep an eye out for more photos and even a video to be leaked in the near future… But until then I think the message of Long Beach: Work in Progress can be applied to anyone’s hometown. Look for what’s cool about it, and then seek to understand, grow, mix, and share...
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I don’t talk about my day job here very often, but I think that a lot of you will appreciate this. Imprint Culture Lab is a company that showcases up-and-coming, under-the-radar, and imported ideas. Eric Nakamura actually helped kickstart the earliest ones, bringing in high-powered friends from the worlds of streetwear, tech, otaku, and craft. I’ve been helping out with the newest one, which takes place in the home base of Imprint and its sister company interTrend.
The topic was born when the founder of Imprint/CEO of interTrend Julia Huang (above, right) told me that her companies were moving from a high rise to the second oldest building in Downtown Long Beach. I created a job for myself documenting its renovation, digging into the building’s sordid past as a psychic temple, researching the local history, and showcasing the community’s energy and upside in a blog. While sitting in on a meeting to choose a direction for the next Imprint, Long Beach seemed like a perfect choice to me. With the company investing and placing roots in the neighborhood, it was time to give back and grow it.
Long Beach: Work in Progress, which takes place next Friday, will have four panels. Authors Cara Mullio and Jennifer M. Volland will talk about their new book for Hennesy+Ingalls on Case Study House architect Edward A. Killingsworth. On the subject of music, Joe Escalante from The Vandals (above, left) and Jack from T.S.O.L. will represent Long Beach’s first generation hardcore punk subculture and Chhom Nimol and Zac Holtzman will talk about their relationship Long Beach’s Little Cambodia.