Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month is May

It's that month again and it would be nice if it really felt like this special month. Yet on friday it was special, as I got invited to see Don Nakanishi, Lisa Ling, and Dr Patrick Soon-Shiang get honored by the mayor as a part of Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month. An interesting setting, I donned a suit (sort of) and got there early. Parking was security enforced. It's actually cool that they have a car blocker than goes down when they let you enter. The program is above. It's filled with art!

That's them from Left to Right. The Dr is quite an impressive person that I've never heard of. I guess I need to pay attention to more doctors.
Korean food, Japanese rice balls, islander fruit, Chinese bao.
The Mayor gives a talk. He did hit that gong just a minute earlier. That's Paul Song, Lisa Ling's husband on left.

That's Laura Ling and Lisa and Laura's mother on the right. Laura is pregnant, but how is she still stick skinny besides the baby?


That's the Nakanishi's Mom and Thomas added with the Mayor.
That's the man getting down. Look at the leg pose in the red dress.
Soba.
In the big room. Chinese dragon dancing happened.
This room is amazing. Imagine people come up and do talks. They get a few minutes, and see the huge area where people are sitting? Most of the time, they don't even listen. They're talking to other people. It's a strange place. There's an audience behind where I was sitting and there's groups who are there for a particular reason - to listen to one of their crew do a talk.
That's Don Nakanishi
The three were presented with an award. Yes, people did listen a little more since the Mayor presented it. It's still an odd place filled with protocal.
The press room.

Lisa shared a moment with Paul. "Let's get outta here!"

horvaths, my ear, and Juxtapoz Choe

Mexican without Mexicans. Yeah. This place is amazing. Manhattan Beach Mexican food. El Sombrero #2. I hope the #2 doesn't mean anything weird! It's a neighborhood Mexican place that I can tell is well loved. It's packed, it's good, and people there seem happy. That's David and Sun-min. So glad to have caught up with them. It's been ages. Look at their burritos! Whoa. I opted for 2 chicken tacos. Pictured is only 1 taco. All so good.

This was a tough one. It was chef Mina's turn. She cooked us up noodles, chicken in spicy sauce, and ice tea.

I don't know why I feel the need to blog my ear, but see that scratch. Imagine this. My cat, put one claw into my ear. It was stuck. I was trying to get it out and in the process, sliced through my own ear. That line goes through.

The below is my article on David Choe in the current Juxtapoz. I wrote it on the morning it was due. I think it came out pretty decent.

Strangers at LAAPFF

The Strangers Crew at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. That's Bill Poon, Robert Burke, Michael Aki, Eugenia Yuan, and Pryor Praczukowski. Bill Poon is the Assistant Producer! Robert Burke plays the perfect dirty loser underworld guy. Michael Aki's character is the Asian Kimbo Slice. The master of the gun. A killer. Eugenia Yuan is the subject. Pryor shot it nicely. Strangers screens sunday 9pm at the Sunset 5 in LA.

Instead of watching the opening night movie. I ate dinner with the group.

Eugenia and Michael Aki. The carpet might not be red, but this is the red carpet area.

Amy Hill was there!

Thomas Nakanishi should join Kiss.

The end of Tokyo - great food. Hanaya Asagaya

Neighborhood spots. The tasty of the tasty. I had omakase type of dinner at Hanaya in Asagaya. You get the drift. Great foods, amazing presentation. Nice people. This type of spot has your back when you want something really nice to eat. You can't go there daily, or, can you? It's not out of the control pricey, but at the same time, it's not super inexpensive. There's plenty of nice spots to eat in this area, this is just one of them. Toro and uni above.

a small fish and eggplant dish.

porco rosso

egg tofu and daikon with ikura

This is the drinker set of snacks.

daikon and gobo

The next day. cat #1

cat #2

cat #3. This cat looks really beat up, but I really like the cat's face. I hope this one recovers fully by the time I come back to Japan.

Yasukuni shrine images will end out this blog post.

Except for this image. I really like how the caramel box is integrated perfect into the handle on the train. Someone was thinking.

Donut man - the strawberry payoff...

Every year I post the same pic, nearly. Donutman in Glendora. Yes, they rock the strawberry donut. This time, I put the red colorful and tasty donut at the end. Instead I'll show a pic of the guys making the donuts. See the round rings? Yes, those are going to be good. While we sleep, there's someone there making more donuts. It's to good to know that there are people working while some of us are not.

The long ones are called Tigertails. Not typical of any shop, this is a favorite here. I'd suggest it.

The sugar donut, which was once my favorite fell off the rack. I think I liked the crunch of the sugar.

It's all of it's glory, this is a great tasting donut.

David Choe art lazarides Art shots. A slide show.

I stopped in today since I had a meeting really close by and shot another 40 shots of just the art. Take a look at the figures by Goodsmile. GR will be handling those come July! We're excited to be a part of this. It's something great to look forward to. Meanwhile, do check out the Choe show in person. If you can't, then thumb through the images. These are a pretty good collection of what's there. There are more watercolors, so do check it.



Created with flickr slideshow.