Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Group Art Show Opening Miss Muju, Monyomonyo, and Snaggs August 14 – September 8, 2010 Reception: Saturday, August 14, 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 host Hot Pink Fuzz, a group art show featuring new work by Miss Muju, Monyomonyo, and Snaggs. Miss Muju is one half of artist team Muju, based in St Ives, Cornwall, UK, who has been making and exhibiting handmade Muju Toys since 2004 alongside her partner Mr. Muju. Mandalas are a recurring theme in her work, as is the symmetry of natural forms. “I love to work in vibrant colors and create fades of color through intricate felt patterns,” she explains.” For the show, Miss Muju is making one giant mandala figure and a collection of much smaller characters that are connected to the felt sculpture in color and theme. Monyomonyo is a sewing artist based in Tokyo, Japan. She has liked to sew bags since childhood, started creating plush toys in 2005, and had her first exhibition in 2007, in Ebisu, Tokyo. In addition to making gallery work, she has made costumes for dancers, collaborated with children, and made movies. With inspiration from “traveling” and “pictures and stories of festivals, ceremonies, etc.,” she is making plush toys, masks, and other surprises. This will be her first American exhibition. Seattle-based Snaggs was inspired by stuffed Nauga Monsters from the ’60s to become a felt artist. Her rainbow-colored body of work, which includes “paintings,” dolls, and pillows, has a retro modern style that combines the handmade quality of craft with the sensibility of clean design. For Hot Pink Fuzz, she is creating felt cereal boxes. She says, “The packaging of anything from my youth, from cereal boxes and candy to Halloween costumes, was never serious. Half the time they didn’t make any sense, yet they were still effective” 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, San Francisco, and New York City, as well as an online equivalent. An opening reception will take place on 6:30 – 10:00 on Saturday, August 14. For more information about the artists, GRSF, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: Eric Nakamura Giant Robot Owner/Publisher eric@giantrobot.com (310) 479-7311
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Earlier this week, my friend Julia asked Wendy and me if we wanted to attend a concert at the Greek. I have to admit I wasn't super familiar with the bands, but when she asks, you don't say no. (She has killer seats at the Bowl and makes amazing bento boxes, too.) The first band was Long Beach's own Avi Buffalo. All I knew about them was that they are on Sub Pop and that the lead singer was a pro skater who turned to music after an injury. The sound was totally unexpected, maybe like Daniel Johnston singing for the Allman Brothers. They were clearly stoked to be playing a huge stage instead of the Fingerprints record shop, and the band had family members in the crowd cheering them on, which was nice to see. The guitarist on the far left totally looked like my friend Tadashi… Headlining was My Morning Jacket. From their hit song, I thought they might sound like Rank & File's third album, washed-out and sort of metallic cowpunk. Weird, since they used to be on Darla Records, which is better known for dreamy indie-tronica. They turned out to be full-on classic rock band, which was fun to watch. Lots of hair… The funny thing is that I've actually seen them years ago–opening for Paul Weller at the House of Blues. I went with Pryor, who just reminded me… It's been a while since I've been to a show at the Greek, and it's an awesome place to see a somewhat big band (or Neil Diamond) on a summer night. Tonight is the big Dolores Huerta benefit with Carlos Santana, Pete Escovedo, and Zack de la Rocha's new band, One Day as a Lion, which just might be your excuse…
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At 2AM the idea of seeing the Perseid meteor shower came into mind. 40 minutes later, the Brothers Rios came over, picked me up, and were on our way. Los Angeles, at least the westside of it was covered in marine layer. It was grey, so the answer was to leave LA and get elevated. It's hard to see what I really got from these photos, but I brought a tripod and a cable release. I learned a few things about exposing photos of stars in the sky, and you can see the differences between some of the photos. But first, being out in the dark sky was amazing. The black sky, the stars, and when they shoot across the sky, it's amazing. About one every 30 minutes or more will light up the sky, but there's actually more than one a minute, sometimes, a few in a few seconds. You can see these photos larger on flickr. I figured a frame of reference makes for a better photo than just stars in the sky. Afterall, you can get that anywhere. The bright lights in the background was a street light, and you can see trucks going over the 5 freeway.
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Sadly, I don't travel as much as I'd like to, so I'm lucky that everyone seems to wind up in L.A. for one reason or another. Today I had lunch with three sets of friends (and one new one) who happened to be in town from Hong Kong at the same time: Newlyweds Dan Wu and Lisa S. who are in L.A. after the Las Vegas leg of their celebration; Ryan and Candace Hui who are in the States to attend a cousin's wedding in Idaho; Prodip and Amy Leung who are on their annual trip to visit relatives in California; and Lisa's model pal Ana. Yes, they're all friends. Talk about convergence. Such a treat for me to get to hang out with everyone at once, and a hell of a lot easier that opening a gr/eats in Hong Kong…
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Sometime in the last couple weeks, the old site of the Anti-Club was torn down. It was never really the greatest music venue since you had to buy drink tickets if you were underage, but they booked some great shows in the late '80s and early '90s. For a year or two, I probably saw combinations of ALL, the Chemical People, and Big Drill Car on their tiny stage every two or three weeks (with the Hard-Ons and very early Jawbreaker mixed in for good measure). I went often enough that during one Chemical People show Jaime pulled my brother and me onto the stage to sing back-up to “Black Throat” with Jack Baker on guest vocals! There are other memorable shows. Two that stand out are The Mentors (El Duce arriving late because he was in jail in Mexico) with the Love Dolls opening (and the McDonald brothers from Redd Kross serving as go-go dancers) and St. Vitus. Now it's gone, just like Raji's, while The Coop at UCLA and Jabberjaw on Pico are pretty much unrecognizable… Kind of sad, but not totally depressing since there are so many newer venues in town (The Echo, The Smell, and sometimes even Spaceland…) providing spaces for new bands, outings, and memories.
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