Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Dramatic looks on the turntable. Kid Koala got to tweak and mess with his sounds all day. It's friday, and you'd think people would be going crazy, but they're not. Things seem to be going at a nice pace, and the plan is tomorrow when P-Love comes to town, they'll get to practice. Guess what I just heard? 500 gingerbread cookies shaped like the Space Cadet will be available and you get to decorate them! Make them how you want!? So cool. This exhibition / performance is shaping up to be an insane, interactive event. There's going to be plenty to do including play with the electronic gear. There's records to play, sounds to manipulate and there's even a quarter Wurlitzer Jukebox and you can hear the sound tracks one at a time. Don't forget shows at 4 and 8pm, and if you don't bring a headphone, you're fine, there's extras here.
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Thanks Carlos for the support and the video from the exhibition opening. Video takes time, so it's appreciated! This interview was a welcomed surprise and the cool thing is, these dudes left after the interview and then came back to bring us a Wii to use for the opening reception. That's cool. On top of that, I didn't even say thank you in person. Some great press has happened for the car, and guess what? There's another exhibition coming up really soon for it, that I'll be announcing very, very soon.
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I was at Mass Moca here years ago when Cai Guo Qiang had his great exhibition. First thing when you hear of a museum in a town called North Adams is that it'll be underwhelming, small, or just small town ish, but instead, you get high end, big, grand, still indie, and great setting for a museum. It was once a factory that's been cleverly converted into galleries. I never thought I'd be back, but here I am! Right now Sol Lewitt has art up as does Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek's Spock!). But on saturday night, Kid Koala's Space Cadet will have an art show / performance that seems like it'll be one for the ages. Two shows 4pm and 8pm and it'll be multi media in that Kid Koala way. Indie but big, which sounds like a great match for this venue. If the following shots are of any indicator, this will be fun. Check out the floor. This is only half. There's a part that'll show his scratch board comic art and his space records collection. The floor? It'll be where you lay down and put on headphones to listen to Kid Koala's music. Bring your headphones! 200 people per show, so that's a lot of headphones needed. That's the nuclear family. I wrote about Eric San Kid Koala on his first tour with Ninjatune. This must have been about 12 years ago.
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The Pacific Asia Museum invited me to take part in this month's Active Cultures program, and it takes place this Friday night! The deal is that two unrelated speakers from different backgrounds give short presentations about what they do, and then they field questions from the audience and each other afterward to show commonalities and contrasts and complement both. Cool, right? I'm being partnered with indie filmmaker Arthur Dong, who gained a serious reputation for three documentaries on being gay in the military, being gay in a conservative family, and murderers who killed gay men, but recently proved that he can also make crowd-pleasers with Hollywood Chinese, which celebrates and criticizes the treatment of Chinese and Chinese Americans in front of and behind the camera. I've actually interviewed him a couple times–once in the pages of Giant Robot and once for an event hosted by the Chinese American Museum. He's a cool dude who does important, interesting work, and he knows how to talk about it, too! As for my portion, this will probably be my last speaking engagement for a while and I want to make it count–not that I ever mail it in. No one wants to hear about how crummy the magazine business is going these days, so I'm going to discuss editorial, which is what I do anyway. I've spend the last day or two selecting some of my favorite stories over the last 68 issues and recalling anecdotes about weird things that happen during the interviews, how ideas evolve and mutate, and how certain articles have had unexpected, interesting repercussions. The stories behind the stories, as a certain radio announcer might say. I think it will be an interesting 30 minutes (bookended by Arthur's talk and the Q&A) and if it isn't, at least there will be images like the ones in this blog so you won't be totally bored! Admission is 10 bucks, but who knows? If I have a small guest list, maybe I can get you in since Eric is out of town and Wendy might stay home with Eloise (since the wine tasting part isn't exactly right for a 2-year-old). Send me an email or message on FB because I could use some support!
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My first gift guide. It's going out at 9am tomorrow and it took a while to write and figure out. I feel like I learned a ton by doing this. It's going to look like a simple design, simple text, and easy concept, but it took a lot effort to get it done. I do hope it helps some people out. Holiday gift shopping can actually be the cause of a lot of stress. I'll see if I can figure out a way to post it here as well. I'm not sure if it's possible. If not, it'll be emailed to many, and hopefully posted via Facebook and twitter. Here's the link! it works!
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