Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I guess we have his seal of approval! It’s now back in stock! He’ll direct Star Wars and hopefully, he’ll wear the shirt on the set. (GR: Tape Robot)
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Asians love theme restaurants, and Mongolians are no exception. I’m not sure how it compares to Tokyo’s bikini girls in gundam suits, but this is still intriguing… Anand Erdenebileg spotted this in Ulaanbaatar. A new Korean restaurant that kept the old facade, but stuck a brand new meme on the roof. Do they loop PSY’s one international hit from open to close? Do they offer private dining in a sauna? Do they “horse dance” when they bring the tab? I’m tempted to find out.
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On Sunday night, the Maybe Mars crew from Beijing made a stop in Downtown L.A.’s Redwood Bar with their flagship band Carsick Cars. I got there just in time to catch White + (featuring Carsick’s guitarist and singer Shouwang Zhang with drummer Wang Xu from The Gar). Their last song had a cool Krautrock-style drone that I’d like to hear more of. Carsick Cars has a new bass player and drummer but played the great, melodic, Sonic Youth-informed old stuff and snuck in some new, more rocking sounds as well. Shouwang is still an axe master, mixing the minimal technique of Steve Reich with the hooks of Pavement and making Carsick Cars the best gateway band to the Chinese indie scene. Rounding out the show was The Gar, whose most jangly song kinda reminded me of Libertines. What do you think? It was good to see Charles Saliba, one of the guys behind Beijing’s Maybe Mars record label. He facilitated the coverage of Carsick Cars, PK14, and other great bands from Beijing in Giant Robot mag as well as an in-store at GR2 years ago. Charles said that this year’s tour was scaled back some, with just a handful of shows in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, and New York City. If you get a chance to catch the tour in the Big Apple, don’t miss it. Who knows when they’ll return? ZINE REVIEWS Moshpit (52 pages, 4 or 5 bucks) This isn’t new, but I picked it up from the Hamburger Eyes table at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair a last month. Ray Potes’s zine of SF Giants riot pictures was sold out, so I got this instead. In Moshpit, photographer Josie Raymondetta collects nothing but hyper contrasting images of hardcore punk and metal shows, directing her lens at the crowd as often as the stage. Who are the bands? Where are the venues? Who cares! The energy and images totally rip, and convey the power of heavy music silently and brutally. [www.hamburgereyes.com] Perpetually 12 9 (68 pages, 5 bucks) I’m a big fan of this San Diego based-zine, which boasts an adolescent name and format but is fully informed when it comes to indie punk, art, and life. I dig how McHank loves the old bands (RFTC’s John Reis contributes an essay about The Ramones) but celebrates newer ones as well (Q&As with Mary Animoux from White Murder and Brandon Welchez from Crocodiles). The interviews, which are often hand-written, are separated by art contributed by the likes of Bwana Spoons, Skinner, Tim Kerr, Travis Millard, and McHank himself. Very cool and totally unfiltered, with a touching essay on the passing of Tony Sly (NUFAN) by Joey Cape (Lagwagon). [heymchank[at]gmail.com] Cometbus 55 (72 pages, 3 bucks) Two decades (and then some) is a long time to read about a guy’s relationship with the scene and his crushes, girlfriends, and bands that pass through it. But Aaron Cometbus’s view of radical politics in Berkeley goes well beyond the...
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OH, CALM DOWN… We note that there was a presser March 13 announcing that the beta-test of an earthquake early-warning system had been a success during the 4.7 temblor (I love that word) that shook the desert in California’s Riverside County, ironically, on Monday, the second anniversary of Japan’s humongous 9.0 on 3.11.2011. Experts told a reporter from the L.A. Times that the system would give scientists “up to 30 seconds” warning of an impending quake. “Scientists”? What about us? [LAT ~ Earthquake early-warning system successful during quake] Monday, the local news in L.A. was airing comments of those who experienced the strongest shaking: “I just grabbed my baby and ran out of the house!,” one woman said. A teacher at a local elementary school recounted proudly how she directed her students to huddle in a doorway. <Buzzer Sounds> Sorry, contestants. You lose! Japan has had an early warning system in place since 2007. The program alerted some 50 million residents ahead of the Fukushima earthquake in 2011. Yeah, but what do you do when it’s a 9.0? Reminds me of those Cold War era drop drills in case of a nuclear war. According to a Japanese study, residents of tsunami vulnerable Tohoku region had between 10 and 19 minutes warning to evacuate to higher ground. The same study compiled with UNESCO found that 90% of the nearly 19,000 who died on 3.11 drowned, and that ~ and here’s the kicker ~ 70% of those who were swept away by the sea that day did not bother to evacuate. [Japan-UNESCO-UNU Intl Symposium ~ Great Eastern Tsunami and The Tsunami Warning Systems: Policy Perspective ~Rachel Roh
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GR’s fearless iron-stomach-ed friends over at KoreAm give you a running commentary on the hottest dehydrated napa cabbage Asian snack food sensation manufactured by non-Asians and available right next to the Cajun hummus at Trader Joe’s. [KoreAm ~ Kimchi Snack]
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