Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I guess I said this years ago. The best part, I don’t quite recall most of it, but most still make sense. Any new advice? Think of a fun topic and go from there, but “here’s my random thoughts” zines don’t really work out. Thanks Ryan and Evan. It appeared in Electric Ant which you can buy here. What a post! (Samehat.tumblr.com) Zine wisdom from ERIC NAKAMURA Don’t expect anyone to care about your zine, read your zine or even remember it. You most likely won’t get free shit from your crappy zine. Zines might make you a friend, but that’s about it. Even though zines are thin & sparse, they take a long time to make. Why? Because you don’t know what you’re doing. Your page 4 will end up upside down on another page. The photos will look like shit too. Zines look junky & cheap, but they actually cost a lot to print. The idea is to get copies free. If not, expect to pay. Copies aren’t cheap. Chapbooks are almost like zines, but they’re called chapbooks. You can charge more for a chapbook. But you also have to tell people that you made a chapbook. Chapbooks are like rollerblades, zines are like skateboards. You pick. Zines are not art. I don’t care what people say, zines don’t go up in price and shouldn’t ever be on walls. A zine is cheap unless you’re famous or phony. Zines can be as crappy as you want it to be. They can also be great. But they are most often not both. Most likely, your zine will be crappy. It’s the law of averages. At some point you’ll deny participation in your own zine. Or you’ll say it sucks. You will be embarrassed of yourself. You’ll say, “I did that , and it was bad.” Selling your zine is nearly impossible. Don’t expect anyone to want to buy it or stores to want to sell it. If someone does buy it from you direct, they’re feeling sorry for you. Take their money. Most zines die after Issue 1. Why? Because it’s hard to make a zine that someone aside from you cares about.
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The plot description is impossible to read on paper. The 3D is flawed at times and I’m not sure how it will look on a full-on IMAX screen. But goddamn. I was blown away in the screening room and, for me, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is a perfect movie.
The greatest hurdler of all time, Liu Xiang who has had two bad outing at the last two Olympics is in the midst of controversy. He’s the Asian speedster and like Yao Ming, a national hero in China. According to the South China Morning Post, he was told that his injury was serious at London. He ran, hit the first hurdle and limped to the finish line. Was he injured the entire time, but kept it secret for his endorsements? That’s what the paper implies. The government issued a gag order to the media and he did his thing in front of the world’s eye and broke people’s hearts. This sounds like a piece of sensational news, but who knows. It was reported. When healthy, he’s still world class. (ABC – Liu Xiang)
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South Koreans want the world to know about Dokdo, aka Takeshima, aka Liancourt Rocks. Korean soccer player, Park Jong Woo scored the biggest audience so far for the Dokdo debate when Korea beat Japan for the Olympic bronze, but lost his chance to be a part of the medal ceremony. He may not get the medal awarded at all, but he does get out of having to do compulsory military service. Before Park held up his handmade sign on the world stage, Koreans in London were handing out flyers about Dokdo to the international tourists around the city. Korea really wants us to know what’s going on, because so far, no one seems to care, no matter how hard they flash mob for the cause. Dokdo is found in Korea’s written records as early as 512, during the Shilla Dynasty. The islands show up in Japanese written records in 1693, and are eventually known in the Japanese record as Takeshima. Korea promptly sent an emissary to Japan to let them know back then that the islands were Korean territory, and Japan backed off. In 1849 a French whaling ship charted the island, and in typical European fashion, made up their own name for it, Liancourt Rocks. Japan came back again in 1876, and once more Korea protested. Japan apologized, again, and left it alone until the peninsula and all its territories were under Japanese control during 35 years of occupation. The Japanese were stoked on the prime sea lion hunting location. After liberation in 1945, Dokdo was Korean territory again. The US used the islands as a bombing range in 1952 and stationed US troops there for a short time. The islands have been more than just a pile of rocks for a very long time. They are home to good fishing grounds, untapped gas deposits, and did I mention the sea lions? So, now what’s to be done? Takeshima has become a platform for Japanese conservatives to stand their ground against outside agencies telling Japan what to do, and it’s also been a talking point for holding on to dwindling natural resources close to home. Dokdo has long been a focal point of Korean efforts to right the wrongs of a traumatic past. Dokdo was the starting point for the annexation of the Korean peninsula in 1910, and represents much more. No one is actively campaigning for the recognition of “Liancourt Rocks”, but who really cares about “rocks” anyhow? How can all parties move forward? Japan doesn’t like to apologize for war crimes, and it doesn’t like to concede. Takeshima gives steady fodder to the conservatives who influence government, education, and foreign policy. Currently airing Korean television dramas about freedom fighters during the occupation are popular and get consistently high ratings. Dokdo makes regular appearances in Korean media and has become a focal point of national pride. If the closure Koreans need hasn’t been granted (if Han allows for any closure at all) then this, and other issues will...
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Still so much post-Olympics fallout. While other countries have finished their best worst dressed lists for the international games, Korea (and others) are reacting to the “rising sun”, or Hinomaru, design featured on Japan’s gymnasts uniforms. There are a lot of pieces to this debate. The average person outside of any conflict with Japan looks at the rising sun design and thinks of the Karate Kid’s headband. No harm done. The educated Japanese know that the design is symbolic of imperialist Japan, which has a lot to answer for. The conservative and nationalist Japanese sees the rising sun with great pride, the same way some white Southerners proudly display confederate flags in the rear windows of their pick up trucks – as a nice backdrop for their gun rack. Then there are the people who see the rising sun as no different from the swastika of Nazi Germany. The United Nations banned the rising sun flag in 1945, but it hasn’t gone away, and for those who remember what it symbolized for a Japan at war, it’s a reminder of terrors, sadness and injustice. It has been used deliberately in the recent past to stand for Japanese domination, as it did in the not so recent past. Speculation about whether or not the design was an intentional political statement can go on for a long time. Without the history behind the imagery, it’s just a snazzy design for a uniform in a sport full of smiles and swirly sparkly things. The world we live in doesn’t let us off the hook so easily though. We’ll see if where it leads.
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