Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
This is a question from a journalist and my response. It stems from the Ray Fong thing, but goes beyond it. It made me recall a t-shirt company in the later 70s and early 80s. I don’t know much about them, who they were, where they went, etc, but I remember the designs. It’s pretty nostalgic for me. I have no pics of it, I wish I did, but read on. How can images featuring Asians with slanted eyes, buck teeth, etc. – that some would say historically portray Asians in a negative light – be “pro-Asian?” Here’s one way I can explain it. When I was in sixth and maybe seventh grade in West Los Angeles, I remember a t-shirt company who made pro Japanese American t-shirts. The company’s logo was a rising sun, not like the Japanese war flag, but more of a sun with rays coming out 360 degrees, and in the middle was a smiling buck toothed Asian character. One of their designs was “Kamikaze Taxi Need a Cab?” printed in chopstick font, with an image of a bucktoothed Japanese guy wearing a Japanese war flag, driving a hot rodded taxi. The image of the driver was definitely drawn sort of in the propaganda imagery of WWII Japanese soldiers, and this also couples the notion of Asians being shitty drivers. Yet, this shirt was empowering and pro Asian at the same time as it was self mocking. This shirt brand which was run by Asian Americans was sold around LA and definitely in Little Tokyo. I have no idea where else it was sold, whether it was in other cities or states, but I wish I knew more about them. There were many other designs, and I saw many Asian Americans wearing them. We also drew similar images on our notebooks throughout junior high and it was in a positive light. We weren’t Charlies fucking ourselves. We were pro Japanese American and Asian American.
Continue reading
Strengths and Weaknesses. Giant Robot, the issue 42 is hitting the stands soon! We got our advance copies, and we hope you like it. My strength is writing a simple sentence like this. It says what it needs to without too much flair. It’s fairly to the point, although I’m trying to tell people at the same time, “don’t expect your subscription copies today, because these are the Fed Ex copies we got overnight.” If I tried to get too fancy with my words, I end up even confusing myself. Basically, I’m trying to explain that I’m better at some things than others, and I think that’s how we all are. Utilizing strengths is something that a publisher has to be able to do. It’s a tough one, since in the end, if you’re a multitasking, economizing, tenacious motherfucker then that means you’re pushing your bandwidth past T1 speed. Gladly I’m not that nutty, am I? But if you are, can you expect people to keep up? No way, so don’t think about it. Some people have different goals, they work for different reasons, including because they have to and not because they want to. Work is a tough thing, and a lot wait until 5pm hits, so they can run out and begin their real day. There’s something good to be said about that too. One mistake is expecting everyone to be like how you want them to be. That’s ridiculous, and I’ve been guilty of that like the next person. One part of my job these days is to try and work with people’s strengths and keep them somewhat free of their weaknesses. I think it makes people happy. I’m not 100% sure if this is a publishing tip, but in the end, it’s just a suggestion for how to get something done with the best quality and in the best amount of time. Now let’s translate this to basketball. The Pistons are a well balanced team. It’s all about teamwork, which is ideal since everyone works with their strengths efficiently. It’s a neat thing to see even if they get beat by the Heat. Each person does their thing, and there’s no superstars. Whereas, the Lakers, “my team” has a guy who can score 81, but lost to a better balanced team, The Suns. I suppose and believe that the law of averages and longevity will be on your side if you’re steady with a solid teamwork based team. Ideally you can be part of something like this too. Even though I talk about teamwork, I hope The Heat win. Now, the sad part. Once all the fun parts get distributed and only the crappy parts are left, guess what? The publisher has to fill in at that point and figure it out. Before this turns into a downer, enjoy GR42!
Continue reading
Leave it to my brothers and sisters in China to give birth to a baby with three Arms. With over a billion and fair communication, we find out about stories like this. Imagine, India has nearly a billion and we hear almost nothing of Siamese twins, world’s tallest, shorters, oldest, etc… Back to the baby, which arm would you pick? I’d go with the one that’s closer to his body. The way it’s bent seems like it’ll be more useful. The other arm seems bent weird to the point that it’ll be more in the way than useful. My finger that’s broken is permanently curved, but it’s better curved than stuck straight. I wish this baby and his family some luck, it’s going to be a tough road ahead, but things can actually be worse.
Continue reading
15 Sacrifice. Home or Away? (This will be the last one. I’m tired of this. Aren’t you?) One thing about sacrifice for your project isn’t the fact that you’re so busy, you won’t get to do the fun stuff. That’s a given. You won’t get to see movies, bands, eat dinner, eat desserts, and generally fuck around. No, it’s established that there’s no time for that. But something else might happen. You won’t take good care of yourself and your own “shit.” Here’s an example. Right now, the plumbing at my house is fucked. The pipeline that takes all water to the city sewage system is broken. The broken section of pipe is actually located under my neighbor’s driveway. Way back in the 30s, my house lot was huge and the surrounding area was farmland. So when the plots were chopped up many years later, it wasn’t done carefully. So now, I have to ask my neighbor if it’s ok for us to jack hammer her concrete driveway and get that pipe fixed. It’ll be two days of broken concrete and one day of smelling sewage and many thousands of my dollars. It’s not the money which in the end, is going to be a lot, but it’s the time to get this done. Last week, at gr/eats we had a disaster. Overnight, the water heater broke. We walked in, and there was water coming out. Luckily restaurants have drains built in the ground (you need this to get an “A” rating), so the water had somewhere to go. So dilemma… fix the house or fix the business. Guess which won? All you have to know is that I still can’t take a shit at my house right now, and no female can take a piss unless they want to drip dry. However, gr/eats has a new water heater and that means clean dishes, cleaner hands, and happy food for our customers. Sometimes, the sacrifice is worth doing.
Continue reading
