Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Ok, so I meant to blog more on this trip but things were much busier than expected both in SF and LA. Now I’m back in the BAY catching up on some much needed sleep, rest and blogging! I must say the SF Asian American Film Festival was very good and exciting this year! There were so many great films from so many from different places. I saw Wayne Wang’s “A Thousad Years of Good Prayers” which had a really stellar performance by actor Henry O. I also saw “Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay”, this film was hilarious, Kal Penn is such a great comedian! And finally I saw the documentary on one of my favorite artists, Yoshitomo Nara. Congratulations to festival director Chi-Hui Huang and asst director Taro Goto for all their great work. Very professional and well organized. Bravo.(and yes that’s an Obama pin)Dan “the automator” Nakamura and his cousin Eric2@ Yoshi’s SF. On one night of the festival Eric Nakamura(from Giant Robot), Dan The Automator and I went for a meal down at the new Yoshi’s in SF. Yoshi’s is a Bay Area establishment that started in Berkeley. Their idea is simple Jazz and Sushi. Although all the great Jazz people come thru there their sushi has always been soso. However, the new joint on Filmore St really did it right on the sushi front. They look bummed in the photo but those expresions don’t really reflect how good the food was. Dan knows the manager Andrew and the sushi chef Sho, so we got special seats right at the sushi counter so we could watch the action. Baby Squid was the best thing we had. Tender but not too chewy. I’m not normally an Uni fan and I almost didn’t eat it but I’m glad I did. It tasted like sweet natural spring water which made me realize most of the Uni in HK is low quality.Sho and his personal knife collection. Apparently one knife in there cost 50,000usd!After sushi it was time for Sho and his crew to eat so we walked down the street for Korean and continued to eat until 1:30am! As you guessed, we love to eat and when Dan, Eric and I get together…we really eat!
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A good friend of mine from highschool, Elaine Chin, was in New York and came across these photos found by photographer Mark Dworzak while he spent time in Afghanistan. The above photo is his own photo but go to the Magnum Photos site here to see the very strange photos that he found of the Taliban. What’s going on with the art direction and the make up? Maybe they had a gay stylist do ‘em up for the shoot like THK! Actually that happens to me a lot when I do fashion spreads for magazines. Who knew Taliban fighters got emasculated too! I feel for them.javascript:void(0)
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Yes, I’m on my way to Vega$ to do a talk. It’s been a while since I’ve been there, but this should be neat. I’ve only heard stories via David Choe as to what happens there. And I guess yes, things do stay there, and only rumors make it out at best. We’ll see what happens. Will I gamble? Last time I did I won $100 in quarters.
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Back home for the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival. Will be doing a Q&A for Blood Brothers as well as a special discussion panel entitled “Crossing Over”. Any excuse to be back home makes me happy. Probably will head down to LA on this trip as well. I used to not like the Asian American films just because the subject matter quickly became very stereotypically boring. I mean i really thought Joy Luck Club was an important film but it really killed it for Asian Ams for a while. This year the fest looks to have a very interesting line up. We’ve got everything from Wayne Wang back to his Asian Am roots with ” A Thousand Years of Good Prayers to “Harold and Kumar- Escape From Guantanamo Bay” which I am personally really looking forward to. So if you’re in town and down. Swing bye and check it out!
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