Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Someone wrote to me asking about starting a magazine. I guess it’s ok for me to post my responses. I hope they do help, although there’s no real answers to some of these questions… I left the topic of his possible magazine out. I also edited things down to make them shorter and easier to read. Was it difficult to take GR from a zine to where it’s at now? Did you and Martin work full-time on GR from the beginning? Or did you have day jobs for a while? How did you fund it in the beginning when you first jumped into a full-on magazine? Given my limitations, do you think this idea is unrealistic? 1) I think you do have to start small. If you can figure it out, you can make a site first, then make the publication later. People seem to do this these days, it’s tough work, but if you want it bad enough, it’s there to do. It’s totally possible to make this work. It’s a decent idea. You might have to make sacrifices, you can’t do it all. Had I not sacrificed, I wouldn’t be doing what I do today. I watched people move forward in life, while I lived at my parents and toiled all night. Typical, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. 2) It’s a long ride, 12 years or more for us, so it’s not easy, but small steps is what it took. It wasn’t an overnight thing, it was small improvements each issue. Did you know we had black and white in the mag until maybe 2 years ago? 3) Martin worked FT elsewhere for 10 years. I worked on GR full time much much longer. I lived at home until I was maybe 30 or near there. 4) Funding. $200 for the first issue and it was out of pocket. If you have $200 you can start something. I don’t know when the “full on mag” thing started, I usually say it’s the first issue, but the jump to the third issue was $2000. You gotta have at least $2000 and something to get things going anyway, on the minimum. But we did start with $200. 5) Things are as real as you want them to be.
Continue reading
Someone wrote to me asking about starting a magazine. I guess it's ok for me to post my responses. I hope they do help, although there's no real answers to some of these questions... I left the topic of his possible magazine out. I also edited things down to make them shorter and easier to read.
Was it difficult to take GR from a zine to where it's at now? Did you and Martin work full-time on GR...
Continue reading
Was it difficult to take GR from a zine to where it's at now? Did you and Martin work full-time on GR...
Click on this to make it bigger, but we accidentally got many of these posters from Woody at Sneakerfreaker. So no new issue yet, but many posters. But while we’re at it, how many of these can you name? Are all of those 5 striped ones KSwiss? Sneaker Freaker Woody is a great guy, if you ever get a chance to meet him, shake his hand.
Continue reading
Click on this to make it bigger, but we accidentally got many of these posters from Woody at Sneakerfreaker. So no new issue yet, but many posters. But while we're at it, how many of these can you name? Are all of those 5 striped ones KSwiss? Sneaker Freaker Woody is a great guy, if you ever get a chance to meet him, shake his hand.
Santouka originated in Asahigawa in Hokkaido and now they’ve landed in West LA in the Mitsuwa food court. What was once Tampopo ramen in the food court serving what was always maybe average ramen, it’s now the king of ramen in Los Angeles. A small line formed at lunch time on an average tuesday. There’s not a lot of seats open, and the audience is mixed, some are Japanese, many aren’t, but you can tell a lot are food people checking the place out. There’s a bit of construction going on, but it’s not too annoying. The glass case, shows the entire menu, there’s ramen, basically three types, salt, shoyu (soy sauce), and miso. The inside line from my friend in Japan is that the “shio” or salt ramen is the one to get. I opted for the regular shio with ikura over rice combo. The ramen broth is a tonkotsu (pork) and shoyu broth mix. If you order shio ramen in another ramen joint, you might get something nearer to a clear based ramen, but shio here means it’s salted tonkotsu-shoyu ramen. The bowls are actually small, so if you opt for just ramen, you might end up a bit disappointed. If you’re a ramen eater, get the large. If you’re getting a combo, perhaps stick with regular. The ikura bowl was fair, in the end, it’s sort of like filler, you’re getting rice and fish eggs, and neither are spectacular, but Santouka is famous for it’s ramen. The shio ramen was again, smaller in size, but hearty in flavor. The whitish broth has a savory flavor that’s filled with the familiar tonkotsu style pork broth you’d fine in ramen from Kyushu. It’s oils mixed with it’s long boiled broth make it exciting and satisfying. The noodles aren’t anything new, they’re decent, and the small fixin’s inside are fine with the pork standing out. It even comes with a mini umeboshi. The plastic food versions actually look decent, although there was less ikura than the plastic example showed. The hardboiled egg was actually surprising since it’s been soaking in a soup base. My combo was $10.49. If you decide to get just ramen, for the shio small it’s 5.49, medium 6.49, and large 7.49. You can always get extra pork, and that’s good too. The hot miso ramen seemed least appetizing, and I probably won’t be getting that until I’ve tried everything else. Take a look at the ramen. These are plastic. Click on it and zoom in and you can see what’s written here. Santouka Ramen3760 Centinela Ave.Los Angeles, CA 9006610:00am – 8:00pm(310) 915-0442 The Other Address!21515 S Western AveTorrance, CA 90501(310) 212-1101
Continue reading