Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The Imaginasian Center in downtown is on Main next to the Smell. An unassuming building, which was once the Linda Lea theater, it’s now a great place to see films. It looks small actually from the outside, but inside you do get a nice theater that’s clean except for the floors, which are sticky. The Japan Film Festival LA has put together a great program of shows. They still have a little to learn in terms of making a film festival, since I don’t think they intro’d the film, but overall, they put together a ton of films in a tiny amount of time. At 4:50pm on a friday, attendance is a tough one. I don’t think you can pull off day time shows on a weekday. I think there were films earlier in the day as well. But there’s plenty to see and it’s worth seeing the movies in this festival. I saw Chanko, it was a sumo film, and even though they could have edited out 30 minutes of the film, and it had nutty romantic drama that was first grade, it was still funny.
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After a lot of prodding, I feel like I've been forced to put up this post. But first, the Vietnamese food above was so amazing. That's bun, and the shrimp, meat, and eggroll. So good. It's a huge serving of food. I didn't think I can eat all of this, but as I kept putting a little onto my plate, it slowly disappeared and then went away.But the gross part that I've been told to post, and I...
After a lot of prodding, I feel like I’ve been forced to put up this post. But first, the Vietnamese food above was so amazing. That’s bun, and the shrimp, meat, and eggroll. So good. It’s a huge serving of food. I didn’t think I can eat all of this, but as I kept putting a little onto my plate, it slowly disappeared and then went away. But the gross part that I’ve been told to post, and I apologize ahead of time… but if you scroll down this gets gross. While I ate, the dog did doodies all over the place. From one moment of enjoying food, talking, relaxing, to terror…A walk to the bathroom, and a shriek of pain. Did an ankle twist? Is a “man” down? In this case NO. Soon the pain turned into laughs. A direct hit. The brightly tinted brown poo became stuck in the mits of her foot. Molded in between the toes, the agony of the upcoming clean up task began to loom. Toenail cutting, scrubbing, ruining a bar of soap, and then figuring out how it’s going to go down the tub drain preceded the carpet cleaning. As the trip to the bathroom began, another turd appeared as if by magic. Then another under the desk, and a 1/4 sizer elsewhere, which may be a dingle leftover, then a 1 foot diameter pee circle.
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Does that look sparse? Maybe. But as it went, more came in, and it didn't feel like as many seats were empty. It's a wide angle lens illusion. The talk itself was a lot more thoughtful that thought provoking at least to me than most panel discussions I am on. At this point in my life, being on a panel is about giving something to the people who attending to take with them, rather then dazzling...
Does that look sparse? Maybe. But as it went, more came in, and it didn’t feel like as many seats were empty. It’s a wide angle lens illusion. The talk itself was a lot more thoughtful that thought provoking at least to me than most panel discussions I am on. At this point in my life, being on a panel is about giving something to the people who attending to take with them, rather then dazzling them with useless “wow factor” facts and information. It’s always a difficult situation since being on a panel is also being an entertainer. If you’re not telling jokes and getting laughs which are good for a moment but are fleeting, then you have to care and hopefully have enough incite to offer some new thoughts about whatever topic you’re on. Hopefully the audience will understand what you’re talking about. That’s Phil, Angryasianman.com The panel was about popular culture but crossed into many avenues of fairly thought provoking discussion at least from my end. What could have been tired stories about Asian pop culture heroes, turned into issues of politics, “community,” Asian American representation, Asian vs Asian America. We were given a list of questions, which I didn’t read, and maybe I should have. I was forced to think a lot which I don’t have to do most of the times in panels or talks. We did get through all of their questions. It felt like a lot and usually time runs out quick, but we kept on going. Jeff Liu from Visual Communications (yes go to the film fest in LA. May 1 – 8th) and Daniel Lee the professor at UCLA. It was great to hear words from the other panelists. I learned about their perspectives, which differ from mine, but are backed up with their reasons and experiences. The audience questions were good too. They made me think, just to offer decent answers. If you missed it tonite, it might show up on video. The Subverses team did tape it. For maybe a few minutes, I felt in tune with where Asian America sits. It’s not great yet, but it’s moving, and that’s good.
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