Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
What was once a normal Korean American girl named Jennifer Lee was transformed by a primordial soup of an upper-middle-class Torrance, Calif. upbringing, classical piano, R&B, hip-hop and Japanese anime into TokiMonsta, a wildly eclectic contemporary composer with a growing global following. Tapped by Ryuichi Sakamoto a couple of weeks ago to collaborate on his “Odakias” anti-nuclear project earlier this month along with Japanese avant-garde musician Otomo Yoshihide and rapper Shing02, Tokimonsta is blowin’ up! [youtube]zCnmmrYIXrw[/youtube] Yeah, “eclectic:” a truly overused term. But TokiMonsta owns it. Her sound has been described as “vast textural soundscapes by utilizing live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty vinyl. ” Okay [youtube]-i5jP5DwrRw[/youtube] “I just like everything. I get bored easily, so having options, like, I can’t make this beat. You know what? On my Google Readers– on the bookmarks– I have pop culture blogs, I have fashion blogs, I have art blogs, I have advertising blogs because I think advertising is also really captivating– the mentality–’Wow! How did they think of that? That’s really clever.’” Get a taste of TokiMonsta’s Sa Mo Jung (2011) To this point in the arc of TokiMonsta, Christine Kakaire’s “monsta” 2,000-word essay-interview with Jennifer Lee is perhaps the mos in-depth verbiage on Tokimonsta evar inked. Or, maybe, the best inside look into Tokimonsta was the Dumbfounded-DJ Zo TokiMonsta podcast of September 2011 on knocksteady.com. Too bad: only a few telltale traces of it remain. [youtube]sn4kVtuEmMU[/youtube]
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In the final gasps of fossil fuels: this. You’ve seen these heart-pumping, tire-screeching, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-’em gymkhana stunt runs, but this one’s about the best we’ve seen to date ~ simplemente la ultima palabra en automovilismo. That’s Ken Block at the wheel of that monstrously modded Ford Fiesta with Travis Pastrana in a dirt bike cameo. Obligatory nod to DC Shoes for bankrolling the JUST-RELEASED th’ang. Steve McQueen is smiling. [youtube]LuDN2bCIyus[/youtube]
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Pilgrimage to Tule Lake reported in the NY Times. Cool. The best part though might be the comments. The NY Times actually gets some decent dialog going. (NY Times – Tule)
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The electric car concept sounds like a dream. It’s supposed to save the world. A documentary was made to cheer it’s value. Gas? who needs it? I drove the Mitsubishi MiEV for a bit less than a week and found that although the car works, the electricity part – the piece of the puzzle to save the energy crisis, the savior? it is its own Achilles Heel. The electric car is slowly gaining some momentum. I did some research. There’s been press conferences, press drives, and a bit of news here and there. Myself driving this car is supposed to add to it. The idea? Drive it around and report on it. What can it do? Like most lower priced vehicles that have this “electric car look,” which for whatever reason has to look like a modified golf cart, there’s actually space. I was able to transport items I needed to and from Giant Robot. The purple version raised eyebrows and charging it from a standard plug that was able to run under the door overnight at Giant Robot raised a few questions, mainly aside from the Japanese stares, people ask, “what is this?” On paper, it’s a great answer. The car to save the planet. But in practicality of living in the maze of traffic and freeways of LA, it’s a worry. It’s sort of like the film buff who drinks a bottle of water at the beginning of a three hour epic. Problems will happen. The true test of how this car is being embraced and at what pace it’s being supported by the government and private enterprises are the availability of charging stations. At a 62 mile distance before charging and this is driving and coasting and driving again with only you and no extra weight in the car, charging stations are important. You’ll need to map out how you’re going to drive all day and where you’re willing to leave your car to charge. We ran a test. Can we drive to Donutman and back? Yes, it’s 40 miles. We will need to charge the car somewhere. I downloaded two apps to tell me where charging stations are located. In certain parts of LA, they’re less common. This is LA. They need to be common and not in desolate industrial areas. There’s one located at a power training station. At night, it’s a barren cluster of buildings with not even a soda machine or restroom. The type 2 charging station still takes 7 hours for a full charge. The home version is 22 hours and there’s the miracle type 1 which take a single hour for 80% charge. Where are those and what are those? There seems to be only 1 in California and it’s 500 miles north. We drove about 35 miles and already needed a charge. The power was running low. Two people in a car, driving on a freeway with a little bit of accident traffic. We pulled up in an Edison...
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Zhang Xiaogang’s health hasn’t been at it’s peark. It seems like it’s stress, but at 54 and selling works at 10 million dollars, he’s become one of the priciest artists today. The WSJ covers him extensively. (WSJ – Zhang Xiaogang)
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