Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
You know them from the placemats at Chinese restaurants. Right to left: pig, dog, rooster and half a monkey. Over Memorial Day I got a chance to swing by and see Ai Weiwei’s sculpture exhibit at the Plaza Hotel at the southeast corner of Central Park. Toughest chicken ever! Right to left: rooster, monkey, sheep, horse and snake. The odd thing is that there isn’t a sign describing the heads sitting in the Pulitzer Fountain. There isn’t even a sign that notes the name of the artist or the title of the work (“Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads“). Maybe it was meant to echo China’s silencing of Ai Weiwei via jail. The rabbit is in a rather precarious spot. Right to left: dragon, rabbit, tiger and ox. What is the meaning behind the art itself? Surely it echos the bronze zodiac heads of a famous ancient water clock that were looted from China by British and French forces in the Opium War. It may also be a comment on capital punishment in China (the highest in the world on an annual basis, though not on a per-capita basis). The first time I saw the tiger, I thought it was a bear! Right to left: tiger, ox and rat. Or perhaps the 12 animals represent the mercurial nature and hypocrisy of the Communist Party of China, and the different masks it wears year-to-year, day-to-day, depending on whom it is addressing and what it ultimately wants. I’m just saying. Los Angelenos: Don’t be bummed you’re not in New York City. The exhibit is coming to LACMA in September!
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The Straight Graphical Dope on Nintendo “If you’ve never read about Nintendo’s history, it’s a fascinating story. In Japanese, the word Nintendo means ‘leave luck to heaven’.” And if there is a heaven, it seems to have been smiling on Nintendo for a very long time. Certainly since the company began producing video games in 1978. Many of us go through our daily lives using the products we like without giving much thought about the company behind the conception and manufacture of these products. Seriously, think about it: when you got your first NES or Gameboy you didn’t really consider where it came from, you just wanted to play with it and have fun, right? Right. Well, at the link there is an infographic which will give you a quick and interesting summary of Nintendo’s origins and historic sales and market share figures. At the very least, if Nintendo comes up at the next cocktail party you attend, you’ll be able to whip some heavy gaming facts on the less-enlightened martini-and-olive crowd. (Bit Rebels—Nintendo History) Prince Philip Unapologetic for ‘Slitty-eyed’ Remark “I’d forgotten about it. But for one particular reporter who overheard it, it wouldn’t have come out.” One day in 1986, on a visit to Xian, China, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (a.k.a. husband of Queen Elizabeth II) famously commented to a group of British exchange students “If you stay here much longer you’ll be all slitty-eyed.” Many of you are likely too young to remember this and other disparaging public comments the duke has made over the last 60 years. And you’re probably better off. Of the comment above, the duke recently said “The Chinese weren’t worried about it, so why should anyone else?” So much for enlightened attitudes and cultural sensitivity within the British Royal Family. (The Daily Telegraph UK – Prince Philip.) (For your further amusement and disbelief, an extensive list of “Philip-isms” can be found in this piece by The UK Independent: Insensitive Prince.) Mortal Kombat Legacy Slightly Flawed, but Good “Mortal Kombat Legacy seems to have the right production values. It’s no ‘big Hollywood’, of course, but it’s got primetime television level effects.” Seven episodes into this web series, and things seem to be going well. It boasts a cast of actors familiar to fans of science fiction TV programming (Jeri Ryan, Tahmoh Penikett, Ian Anthony Dale and Ryan Robbins), and is giving Mortal Kombat fans fairly interesting stories on the origins of key Mortal Kombat characters. The story on the origin of Raiden, in particular, has been praised as the series’ finest so far. Still, it is a fledgling show, and web-based at that; so it has been criticized a little for continuity errors and some production values that seem a bit less than top-notch. However, word is Mortal Kombat fans should not only check it out; they’ll probably like it quite a bit. (TG Daily – Mortal Kombat Legacy) China, Japan Look to Rebuild Chinese Tourism “Following the Tohoku quake and tsunami,...
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Ryan McGinness glances and makes eye contact to a question asker, during his entertaining and informative lecture at Giant Robot 2 on Friday, May 27th, 2o11 as part of his 2011 Los Angeles Tour. McGinness and his staff graciously added Giant Robot to his schedule of events and on a calm Southern California friday evening and night, his fans and passers by enjoyed gr/eats made BBQ Chili dogs and Chili burgers, an outdoor projection of a “vintage” McGinness animated video, lecture, and a signing of his books and products. One of our favorite pages captures nearly everything. On the left side, something akin to a butterfly. It’s part of McGinness’s “pretty” imagery, but at the same time, it’s juxtapozed by the “balls” to add masculinity. The bottom left appears to be a sketch for one of his large scale paintings which we learned isn’t orchestrated necessarily by the exact placing of each “icon” screen, but more so as a whole. McGinness did seem to be in a place to perhaps explore the placement of each screen in the future. On the right, a tape cassette that says “Love”, and it’s being torn apart. It’s a sad image. McGinness is often designing buttons, t-shirts, and products which are often never made. They live in his sketchbook. Images from his sketchbook lived on the window at Giant Robot 2 throughout the weekend. [nggallery id=16]
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From Japan, a Poncho Toilet for Disasters (to Prevent Disasters) “This is basically burnable garbage.” When you gotta to, you gotta go, And in order to go, you need two things: A place to go, and bit of privacy. On the serious side, you have a country like Japan, where crowded living conditions often make attaining privacy difficult. And we have a hard time imagining how the survivors of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami have adapted to having even less privacy than usual in crowded shelters and refugee centers. On the lighter side, we can see a huge advantage to having a toilet in a baggie at one’s, uh, disposal. Check out the video at the link, and just try to convince yourself that this is a crappy idea. (SFGate – Poncho Toilet) Mumbai Artist Puts Himself in “Jail”—Wait, What? “My act is a poetic take on the practice of arresting and punishing people for sedition.” Jail is perhaps too strong a word. But the point performance artist Tushar Joag is trying to make by sealing himself in a five-foot by three-foot cell is that India’s sedition laws are too harsh and too freely utilized. But it’s a good thing he has confined himself in a space with a bathroom, because all he’s doing from now until he releases himself on May 30th is writing the words “I will not lose faith in the Indian Judiciary and Democracy” in a stack of blank school notebooks. (Hindustan Times – Tushar Joag, and CNNGo – Indian Artist) Amazing Flight Path Time Exposures from San Francisco International “The lights seem almost alien in nature. The shots string ribbons of fiber optics across the skyline, almost fooling the viewer.” With enough time and patience, an artist can take even the most mundane and run-of-the-mill occurrences and show us something normally unseen and extraordinary. The photos you’ll see at the links below make it clear that the nearly two years photographer Terence Chang spent making these images, from July, 2008 to April, 2010, was time very well spent. Until viewing these photos, it never occurred to us that the normally annoying event of a jet airliner flying overhead contained such sublime, concealed beauty. (YPOC –Terence Chang. Full Gallery on Flickr) Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai “As a complete slice of entertainment, “Hara-Kiri” isn’t quite at the elevated level of “Thirteen Assassins”, and plays more like the talky but absorbing first half of that film.” Following our NewsBot piece yesterday about the impending American release of a pornographic 3D film from Hong Kong, today we bring you news of yet another film genre into which 3D technology is making inroads. Frankly, it seems a bit incongruous for a highly-respected director of Samurai genre films like Miike Takashi to get on the 3D bandwagon. But according to this review, the use of 3D in “Hara-Kiri” is restrained and understated, and does not detract from the overall lushness and quality of the film. In fact, the only...
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