Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Some of you might recall that I assembled a program of skateboard videos that played in Chicago back in April. Named Animal Style after the famous Search for Animal Chin, it was a way for me to put the spotlight on some rad Asian and independent filmmakers who just happened to be my friends. Well, now there are two more chances to catch it, as remixed lineups have been announced in Honolulu and San Diego. The core of arthouse-meets-funhouse pairing of The Working Man and Perfect Timing and Windy City documentary with 20 years of footage The Brotherhood: Chicago has been kept intact, now bolstered by a double-header of skate rock (Traveling Sounds with Ray Barbee and Wide Angle Sounds: Mario Rubalcaba), a skating vs. comedy throwdown in Willy Santos vs. Jo Koy, and a Sampler by Honolulu’s Treevisions crew. The Honolulu screening will also include a bonus feature on local skater/musician Anton Glamb’s First Day of Summer. I’m super excited to not only give my talented friends run for their great work once more, but also to hit the road with many of them. The dates are as follows: October 19, 2012 – Hawaii International Film Festival November 3, 2012 – San Diego Asian American Film Festival Who knows if I’ll ever be invited to do anything like this again, so I hope you click on the links, plan to attend, and get inspired to skate, make movies, or just say hi.
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I can’t tell you anything about Raymond Tran, but this article is rad. He’s almost a local hero who’s just the main man at the Post Office is Little Saigon. You can practically make a film about this guy and how he handles his job. His PO is at Bolsa and he runs it like it’s a cafe. More places need to think micro instead of macro, don’t you think? (LA Times – Raymond Tran)
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Le Merde and Kiyoka Ikeda at Giant Robot 2. Kiyoka Ikeda wasn’t present, but his presence was there in the forms of his ground breaking custom work. The walls had some paper murals to be colored in a little at a time. That’s Matt Specktor, daughter and Mike Kelly (Le Merde).
Customers check out the figures.
Coloring in walls.
JANM Kokoro Craft Boutique. Congrats. That’s Rodney Kageyama and Tamlyn Tomita below. Rodney was the MC of the day.
People lurk and check out the gear on the tables. The event was fun.
Kat Rivera shows off the bag of buttons she purchased through the vending machine at JANM.
A photo feature in Smithsonian magazine this month brings us back to the work of Liu Bolin, busy making himself an “invisible” citizen of the world since the Chinese government shut down the studio complex that he was working out of in in 2005. He found a new home at the 798 Art District, or Dashanzi Art Zone, that Eric visited back in 2008 and wrote about in Giant Robot. There his work thrived and helped him land a New York gallery. Liu’s process is laborious, impressive and symbolic. With the help of commercial representation his work has also appeared in fashion magazines to have his concept used for portraits of major fashion designers. It’s great to revisit his images though. Even when set in new a cultural landscape (New York), it still holds the power to make the viewer ponder their place in the world and whether or not they stand out. 798 Art District is still active, and is now a tourist destination you can read about in Lonely Planet. My friend Richard popped in for a visit this summer and it looks as vibrant as it did two years ago, and it’s still a great place to discover new work and to be inspired. If you’re in Beijing, go visit and keep your eye out for the next big thing – s/he may be painted in urban camouflage.
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