Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I didn’t blog a lot over the weekend, but that means I’ve accumulated some photos. This time, it’s food and restaurants. Bay Cities is a fixture in Santa Monica. It’s one of those places you have to go to. Get a sandwich, try out their salads, get some cheese. I always opt for the Poor Boy sandwich which is salami, bologna, and peppers, lettuce, and tomato. The roll it comes in is great too. It has flavors that I don’t get elsewhere. I dare not show a photo. You’ll want to get one now. $6! Check out Bay Cities. Cheeses from all over the world. I don’t eat cheese. But I’m starting to become sympathetic to them – even if it gives me the gas. Raku is near my house. It’s in WLA. It’s a great place that’s probably underrated. The last times I’ve gone there, there’s been this sign that tells you the ranking of the most popular items. This is an izakaya, they have tons of small dishes, so this helps. The weird thing is that I never tried anything on the top 10 even though I’ve been here a few times. See those arrows. Is it a riser, same, or a downer? I’ve tried 6 and 8, because I saw the sign. Shishamo nanban. It’s pickled fish. It’s a good one, my mom makes this better however. Seared albacore that’s marinated with ponzu sauce and garlic. This isn’t a good one to end with. Nasu gyoza. This tastes amazing. Yeah, it’s deep fried, but they created a pretty tasty dish. Yuzu. In Torrance, this is a great spot to check out. Simple, my lunch was 13.50. That’s tongue! Tofu, eggplant, mountain yam, soup, daikon, and rice. High end style and great. I’ll be back. Dinner is more expensive, so stick to the lunch. It’s well done Japanese food. That’s Yuzu’s hamburg steak. This is looking good. I don’t always know why Japanese places give you shredded cabbage with no dressing. Notice the thumbs up? Honey, lemon, and rosemary sauced salmon. Yeah I made this, and I ever cross hatched the grill marks. I got the recipe from Saveur magazine. Back to one of the best spots. Wakasan in West LA. Tough to beat sometimes. That’s David Horvath, who’s in town visiting. A good friend, it’s nice to catch up with him. For my older post on Wakasan, click here.
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Today is the last day of the Olympics and the finals of one of my favorite sports, basketball. Today Lithuania took on Argentina for the bronze and Spain vs. USA for the gold. Argentina won easily but the highlight of the day was watching Spain give the US a run for it’s money. I thought The Dream Team 2 was going to blow out Spain and was expecting a boring game. But right after the tip off Spain turned it up and had Team USA struggling to keep them back the whole game. Although the Gasol brothers were a dominant force for Spain with their NBA experience. I was most impressed with point guard Ricky Rubio. At only 17 he had an impressive game, dishing out some nice no look passes that left Team USA stumbling. 3 more years and this kids in the NBA for sure. The half time show was done ala NBA with the Beijing Stunt Team doing crazy aerials. Here’s the Olympic mascot doing an old Michael Jordan move. In the end Team USA won as predicted but I’m sure they were worried the whole way though. As the score came within 2 points at one point, they managed to fend off Spain for an impressive finish and the gold medal. Finally after 8 years of embarrassment, the best in the world finally showed their stuff.Both teams celebrating their respective Gold and Silver finishes.Two of my favorite players, Jason Kidd and Dwight Howard heading to the locker room. This Olympic experience has been so amazing. The whole city, or rather the whole country had Olympic fever in a serious way. I have been coming to Beijing since 1978 and have seen it slowly grow to the present day. I know what China was like before and even as recently as my 1994 trip I would have never thought China could have done what they have done. As a Chinese American, I’m proud of the strides and leaps China has made. There won’t be an Olympics like this for at least another 50 years. Chong Guo Jia You!!! I will remember this experience forever.On a side note I’ve decided to stop trusting the western media. Outlets like CNN and others obviously have their agenda by trying to play down the amazing feat China has pulled off by dishing off nothing but criticism. I spent a month prior to the Olympics watching CNN broadcast nothing but negative news about China. It scares me because they are running the same fear machine that the US government pulled against Iraq. But what do expect from the conservative right? That’s why we Americans need to get Obama in the office and stop this bullshit. China should be a good partner to the US, why make it an enemy?If any of you were there please leave comments below about your experience! Add a comment – Edit entry
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I See It All by Deth P. Sun GRNY, August 23 – September 10, 2008 Reception: Saturday, August 23, 6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Giant Robot Gallery 437 East 9th Street Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village New York, New York 10009 (212) 674-GRNY (4769) / grny.net Giant Robot is proud to present new work by Deth P. Sun at the GRNY Gallery. Deth P. Sun’s acrylic paintings on panels bring epic landscapes and cosmic occurrences into a private and personal world. Influenced by David Attenborough, as well as the Moomin series and films of Terry Gilliam, the Oakland-based artist seeks to create a fantasy world as a reflection of his own experiences and worldview. It is a place where cold mountains loom under the stars, cloaked figures arrive with the night, and lone dreamers struggle–a place where hope and belief still shine in dark times. For I See It All, Sun is reaching into his sketchbook for the loosest, most natural ideas to realize and make public.
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Went to the Athletics event last night at the Bird’s Nest. Where did the name Athletics come from? I thought it was called Track and Field? How is Athletics a better name? To me it sounds like high school P.E., physical education. What was I being physically educated about? We were just playing sports.Anyway, I got tickets for this event to see Liu Xiang show the world that he wasn’t an anomaly, and that Chinese can succeed at sports dominated by westerners. Unfortunately as we all know, Liu Xiang wasn’t around to show the world that. I wonder where he was and what he was doing? Here’s his rival and current 110M hurdles champ Dayron Robles doing his victory lap. Couldn’t help but cheer him on even though he didn’t break Liu Xiang’s Olympic record.We had awesome seats, right down in front of the sand pit for the triple jump. As I watched the triple jump finals, I couldn’t help but think, “this is the least cool event for athletics”. I mean getting a medal in the 100M dash means your fast, the high jump shows you got hops, the 10,000M means you’ve got endurance. But the triple jump? All you do all year round is do three hops and land in a pile of sand. I’m not saying it’s easy but visually, it’s an awkward looking sport and it would probably bore my brains out if that’s all I did. Look at the photos below and you’ll see what I mean.British triple jump contender.China’s triple jumper. He came in last.cWinner of the triple jump, Nelson Evora The other big surprise of the night was the men’s and women’s 100X4 relay qualifiers. The US was favored to win both, actually all they needed was to make it into the top four and they’d be in the finals. But I guess it wasn’t in the US’s favor this year because both teams dropped their batons and came in last. What’s even weirder is that they both dropped it at the third pass off. Crazy. I felt sorry for them.The Women’s javelin finals were last night as well. Russia took home the Gold and Silver. But the coolest thing about javelin was this little remote controlled car that carries back the javelin after it’s been thrown.Jamaica’s 200M champ Veronica Cambell-BrownThe Jamaicans are making a strong presence this year in all of the raw speed sports. My favorite athlete of the games is this guy Usin Bolt, The Lightning Bolt. This kid is fast. If you saw the 100M and 200M finals you’ll know what I’m talking about. He was way ahead of everyone else, broke the record and did it all without the slightest grimace. Easy. Plus his little dances are funny. I wish I could have seen him up close. Last night was his 21st birthday and the whole stadium sang to him.My best photo of the night. Again Cuba’s Dayron Robles celebrating his win.
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