Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I think I'm late to the Nina Paley party, but I'm crashing it anyway. Just watched Sita Sings the Blues after it came up in a dinner convo with old friends and new about recent break-ups. Par for the course topics: how to channel something bad into something good, how to make sense of the non-sensical, and how to cope with the challenges of dating creatives. One of the hosts of the evening (there are three inhabitants of The Clown House) mentioned an ex who made a brilliant film about the topic at hand. It has a space phone app that he showed us, and the graphics were compelling enough to watch it as soon as I got home. You should watch it too. There are better ways to watch it, I just needed to see it right away. Who can resist a movie with the subtitle “The Greatest Breakup Story Ever Told”?! Now, just to be clear, this story doesn't speak to my recent experience, but it's still worth sharing here. Top 3 reasons to watch, share and support Sita Sings the Blues, from someone who isn't really a film critic, she just likes what she likes: #1 – The animation and the music. I'm lumping them together because they play off one another throughout the film in the same way. Nina juxtaposes iconic Hindu art with a more modern illustrative style, that still manages to reference animation of the past. Her storytelling makes it pretty seamless. The narration (totally unscripted) does most of the heavy lifting though, and even her use of narrators is a nod to tradition. The music is used the same way. Sita is voiced by Annette Hanshaw, a jazz singer of the 1920s and 30s who I have many a tune from in my own music library. It all works – the sculpting of the love story with the lyrics of those old love songs is brilliant. #2 – I'm the number one fan of taking religion, especially the ones that seep their way into cultural identity, and making it your own. It's how I live as a Buddhist. It's the only way I'd ever recommend being religious. It appears that Nina Paley ran into some trouble with this film and bummed some people out with her take on the Ramayana. I get the critiques, I truly do. I've read my Edward Said, but I think it's unfair to assume that there aren't a ton of people who find their spiritual path by taking in texts like the Ramayana, and processing them through their own filter of culture and memory. I do get completely weirded out by people who identify as fill-in-the-blank-Eastern-religion that they have little or no cultural connection to, but Nina Paley was wise here – she let the telling of the tale (a tale that has been retold about a thousand times in some of the most grossly commercial ways ever, and gets re-imagined all the time) be told from three...
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Internet friend, Ian Bogost just released his videogame project, A Slow Year. On a cold (LA temperatures withstanding) winter night, at the end of a year that's been rife with quiet contemplation, this concept sits well with me. I never had an Atari growing up, or a Nintendo. When other kids had videogame consoles, I had a Commodore 64, and then later a 128. If I knew then what I know now, I would have learned to love it.
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This weekend I attended Hero Studios' annual holiday cookie gathering off Melrose and enjoyed an unofficial gathering of GR photographers. Above: Eloise and me with Ray Barbee, who has been featured in GR mag as a skater, musician, and photographer. What a Renaissance Man and nice guy. Look for him on TV in a Ford commercial soon! On Saturday night he was snapping away with a new used T4, but his real love is shooting Leica. Two other Lecia dudes and GR contributors, Ben Clark and Doug Kim. In GR68 (on stands now), you can see Ben's photos of FMX stud Taka Higashino… … and Doug's pics of the post-hardcore band from Japan, Envy. Ray, Ben, and Doug are all over the place, so it was very cool and special to see them in one spot–one spot that had a table full of homemade cookies! Thanks, Bret and Happy!
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[nggallery id=32] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Group Art Show Opening Printed Matter 9 December 4, 2010 – January 12, 2011 Reception: Saturday, December 4, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m. GRSF 618 Shrader Street San Francisco, CA 94117 gr-sf.com 415-876-4773 Giant Robot is proud to present Printed Matter 9 at GRSF. Because limited-edition prints are one of the best ways for budget-minded and new collectors to acquire artwork and support independent artists, Giant Robot is committed to providing this popular series of art shows on a recurring basis. The latest installment of Printed Matter will feature more than 35 artists with a wide variety of aesthetic styles and printmaking techniques. Prints will be cash-and-carry, so this is also a timely opportunity to purchase limited-edition, one-size-fits-all gifts for the holidays. Participating artists are scheduled to include the following: Apak!, Nick Arciaga, Sasha Barr, Chris Bettig, Bigfoot, Jon Burgerman, Louise Chen, Shawn Cheng, Chris Cilla, Fortress Letterpress, Matt Furie, Nick Gazin, Tim Gough, Katherine Guillen, David Horvath, Kerry Horvath, Martin Hsu, Yellena James, Orlando Lacro, Landland, Le Merde, Jesse LeDoux, Little Friends of Printmaking, Saelee Oh, Ming Ong, Martin Ontiveros, Mike Perry, Souther Salazar, Bwana Spoons, Dan Stiles, Daria Tessler, Kevin Tong, Weathermaker Press, Steven Weissman, Madeleine Zygarewicz Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent. An opening reception for many of the artists will take place on 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, December 4.
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