porta... feel the romance. at night, me a candle, the blue four walls. It's nice to be inside of the portapotty. I can hear birds chirping, raccoons bouncing around, and squirrels in the avocado trees playing in the night.

Earlier in the day, Gary Baseman made an appearance to sign his new Dunce - Pulp. It was cool to see Gary sign and talk to people. He's been underground, but at the same time, busy doing a bunch of crap including some art. Baseman and underground don't seem to match up, but he's back and gaining strength. People came, got some toys, books, and other items signed, and they got a chance to talk to the Emmy award winner. No person is too young or too old, and Gary talks to everyone.



Even earlier in the day, it was Ikea. The Swedes make a mighty fine meatball, but they also make mighty fine, cheap furniture. It's junk at times, and you are expending plenty of energy just to put the stuff together... After hundreds of dollars, we're equipping the webstore to have a new home, and my own house, will also have an overhaul. Finally! More blog later.

International gridlock at JFK. I got stuck in some. jetblue might have their own terminal at JFK, but that didn't prevent our plane being stuck at number 25 in the queue. The pilot even complained that today was the worst possible travel day for some odd reason. The only good thing about sitting and waiting for two hours is that I caught Randy Johnson throw bullets at the Braves.



After hearing all season long about the sadness of this 6'10" bolt thrower, today he was throwing 97mph. Is he back at 42? I hope so. The Yanks won, my plane had to land in Salt Lake City since we burned up so much fuel, and the lady who sat next to me had stinky breath.

The first thing I did when I got home is... use the portatoilet, with a candle. One great thing about the portapotty is that since it's hollow, the sounds from the outside echo nicely. You can clearly hear the coolest birds chirp sounds which I swear I don't hear otherwise!

Still in NYC. The weather is nice, kozyndan's show looks amazing. The new pieces are great. Today is sunday. What am I doing today? Not sure, but it's a great day to walk around in the sweltering humid heat. It's also raining. Everyone's sweaty and gross, taking showers seems almost useless since you walk outside and break out in moisture. Everyone sends text messages, and the cool kid boutiques are still there. Because of the heat, I sit down to eat and end up not being able to finish my meals. This is how NY is supposed to be.

Dump dos. All clear, the skylight is bright, the inside, not so stinky. Did you know there's a heavy fine if you dump chemicals in the chemicals?

NY is hot and sweaty, but if you read this and you're there, come on saturday and see Kozyndan. They're here!

Shenanigans at GRNY

Portapotty watch. Only one shit by me, as far as I know.
I'm not sure if this is working out.

Saw J church yesterday. The show was in San Juan Capistrano at a place called Coconuts. The best thing was that the local kids were huge J Church fans, but the show was sort like a "when animals attack" situation. The kids were dorks and in a band with a friend who has a club. So it's dork on dork on dork and they couldn't help but attack the show. The first band was Stonehill, a group of the dorks who can play well. The musicianship seemed on target but the music kept misfiring. Didn't quite figure out their sound, but they loved J Church. I noticed that the big television set played the NBA finals which went into overtime, then I even watched the postgame news conference, then watched celebrity Poker all without sound.


This is J Church with Asian kids who are not us, so stop thinking this.

The band even started a collection bucket to get them gas money for J Church's ride up to SF. For the rest of the night, the kids walked this bucket around in good faith. I saw very little going in. Meanwhile, J Church goes on pretty late for a Sunday in the middle of nowhere, and they rock. The sound could have been better, but overall, the energy came through. Lance Hahn and company were supposed to play Martin's wedding, but things fell through, so this was sort of like the wedding show, except J Church could have played every song they ever wrote and it would have been fine. No stoppages. After the show, we stopped at a Vietnamese sandwich place. For $1.50 we ate baguette sandwiches and even took some to go. This little 24 hour spot bakes their own bread which might be one of the better baguettes this side of France. Where's my pocket camera when I need it?

podcast testride.

Come see Jack Long

The ongoing saga of my plumbing. The picture below says it all. When I last left off, I had found out that the shit pipes from my house goes under my neighbor's driveway. It's broken in the worst spot possible. Right in front of my neighbor's door. The options are to jackhammer the driveway, and get it fixed, but what if it breaks again next year or next week? Option 2 is to repipe. Right now I'm getting quotes, and taking a shit is still a hardship.



MAYBE better than driving to one of the stores before I even brush my teeth in the morning to take a dump, I can now, walk outside to my own driveway, and hop into this blue national brand portashitty and take a dump. There's no hiding that my neighbors give me a grin when they see my coming out, but it's ok, what else can I do?

I bought a cheap padlock to prevent strangers from taking a dump in my toilet, and when I use it, I try to open the combo lock as fast as I can. It does feel ridiculous standing in front of the door hunched over to unlock a door, especially when you have to take a shit. It's also important for me to bring that padlock inside with me. What if some ass locks me in?

Wedding weekend threw me off, but I'll be back Screaming with Vengeance.

Martin and Wendy got married to each other yes, today was the day. Tons of relatives. 500 were at the Friends of the LA River site, then those same 500 at the great Empress Pavillion restaurant. Speeches, seafood, relatives and friends. It's hard to sum up with the few minutes I have now.

Ray Barbee band, Cover me Badd starring bro in law Carlos, and Whysall Lane played! We're probably going to see Whysall Lane play tomorrow at the free show at the Echo. Martin and Wendy's wedding weekend continues!

martin's getting married today! So is wendy!

Myspace girl goes to meet some dude in the Middle East. Ok it's all bad she's 16, and meeting some 25 year old and all that is bad, but at the same time, this girl is tough. Right now, I'm sure anyone who's reading this news is like crap, what a kook, what a bad guy for luring her there, etc etc. My viewpoint after the legalities, and fucked up ness is still being impressed with this young girls strength to go halfway around the world for some stranger. Someday, this young girl if she's not dead soon, is that she's going to do some interesting things.



That's the back of Bret, I don't have a photo of his mug, but you can tell the type of guy he is. Skateboard shorts, crazy weird padding probably from skateboarding, and his t shirt.

In other news, yesterday was the first loss by the GR softball team in 11 games. The team didn't hit, it was a sad night. The bad parts is that you can find that one thing that would have changed the result to a win. There's a few spots here and there, but it's a team game, and in the end, there wasn't enough hitting to make anything happen. There was some good parts to the game, the hustle of Bret was exciting. Sometimes, one bad play like the homerun bomb that went way over his head can make him look bad. He had a bad game right? No. His good parts, like his dive to first base to be safe scored a run or two. Pure hustle. If I were running, I would have been out. He made a catch in deep right field that maybe he wouldn't have caught in the first season, it was a way up there. He also led the game off with a hit. Bret's new to the game, and in a few seasons is turning into player. He's fun to watch and currently leads off the tied for first place GR team. Why am I blogging about one dude? I have no idea except maybe I was impressed and inspired.

I posted this in the lounge... Since I wrote so much, I figured why not, put it in here.

1) I don't think this thread is stupid. I bet if I looked at a random 50 threads, this one isn't near the top. Happy birthday ____ is a stupid thread, but I do like those. Maybe stupid means important since one actually has to think. I'm not sure.

2) Been reading this thread and it's a hard thing to have a perfect stance. Keep in mind, it's about Japantown (s) and not Chinatown, Koreatown etc. Japantowns seem to be dying, even Sawtelle is less and less Japanese American as time goes by. Little Tokyo, same, and so on. I think it makes a difference to be Japanese American and have this issue in front of you. I'm one, so I'll give my 2 cents. Sorry it took so long.

I do agree with yumyum, Monterey Park, etc, don't need any saving. They're actually still developing. It's definitely on an upward trend. Koreatown, same thing. Pride isn't a factor since a heavy percentage of that area is owned and operated by people from Asia. They frankly don't care, since they just want to turn a buck and make a living off of thier own people. A lot of those places are only recently beginning to cater more towards Americans. In 75 years, we'll see what gets said about that area. Will Monterey Park need to be "saved" at that time? It's possible. Chinatown LA is another story... I'll get to that later.

The 75 years later thing is here for Japanese Americans who are in their 4th, 5th and 6th generations now. Japantowns are changing as a result.

A joke between Greg, who works as the Japanese American market Safe and Save in west LA... occasionally I'll ask where did ____ go? An answer we've said. "Oh, got married to a white person and moved away." I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but with probably the highest rate of "out" marriage (I've heard it's over 50% for women - less with men, since a lot won't ever get married - back to that age old Asian women White man issue), Japanese Americans are turning hapa, and "blending in" with society the fastest. The need for a Japanese American community becomes less and less, and the need for suburbia that's a better place to raise kids seems to go up. In the end, if you're nearly a middle suburban American, why do you need a Japantown? I suppose it's so you can buy the occasional grocerie (1 item - a bag of rice), eat japanese food which your suburban hood has, etc.. There isn't really that much you need at this point.

I have seen it with LA's Chinatown. I know that area needed to be "saved". And as I read in an earlier post, it is now just a tourist place and retains little of what it was originally for -- to (I think) help Chinese folks way back in the day when it was needed. There less Chinese culture than ever, since in the end, it's now many galleries, and youth culture stores, although the restaurants are holding it down. There are some old school elements and that's continuing, but I do think the gallery thing that took over isn't helping it be Chinatown, if that was one of the purposes of bringing them in. LA Chinatown seems to be sort of like the Sawtelle Area, except instead of having a Monterey Park that's really the true Chinatown in my opinion, there is nowhere else for true Japantown.

The Sawtelle area, does less for Japanese Americans (If Safe and Save market ever closed, I'd think the area for JA's would be near over.), but does more for Japanese nationals. Kids from Japan are in the area. We're talking half of one block! How many plan to stay in the area, get married and have kids remains to be seen. I assume most are here to fuck around and then go back to Japan. Meanwhile, the Sawtelle area is leaning towards Korean business if anything.

So all this said, is there a lack of pride by Japanese Americans in these areas? Probably. But does this make them bad people? No.

Can it be "saved" I guess that still depends on what the ultimate goal and definition is. But most likely, it's going to be an uphill battle. I personally am not interested in saving an area, but I'm more interested in working in or with an area.

I'm Japanese American, and yes, I do have pride for at least the area I grew up in, which is Sawtelle. That's one reason why we have businesses here. But that doesn't mean we're going to open stores only in areas that are JA. I still have to do what's best for GR, and ultimately that means I have to make a business decision over a personal one. Is Little Tokyo a great place for GR? Probably not. I personally don't like downtown LA too much, but I do remember when Little Tokyo was important. We'd go once a week in the 70s.

Part 3.


7) How would it have been different if you had launched GR ten years earlier? What about if you had launched it today?

Good question. If I launched it today, we’d be a different publication, I doubt we’d start as a zine, and I suppose we’d lose a lot of money initially, but I think we’d find our stride. I think our editorial style and viewpoints are more open than other publications. If we launched it ten years earlier, not sure! I was too young to even care.

8) Your readership actually has a large proportion of non-Asians, how do you think these readers got into GR? And what do you interpret it to mean for your magazine? When you were starting, did you think that GR would have such a hold on a non-Asian audience?

They got into GR because we’re not an exclusive club. We come from a different background which I think helps the variation in themes and approach to a magazine. National Geographic can be read by anyone, I’d like to think that GR could have that broad appeal. The other traditional Asian American magazines perhaps not. I like to interpret it as we do editorial better. We have better stories that are more interesting. Why would a non Asian American care about “twenty top Asian American women business persons.” “5 best Asian American lawyers” “Cars that an Asian American should buy”. Etc. That’s all shit. When we started, we didn’t think about who would read GR. We wanted to make a good publication.

9) What direction do you see GR taking in the future?

No plans, just to continue on and fight the good fights.

Interview Part 2. Interview conducted by Cindy Ko.


4) What factors are important to choosing the next location of a new GR store?

If we have time to handle it, that’s the first factor, but otherwise, it just has to make sense financially within the area.

5) Arguably, your largest base is in the Los Angeles area-- do you see it influencing the visibility of Asian American culture in LA? How about the Asian American community overall?

I’m not sure what gets through to people. But I’d like to think since we’ve been around, we’ve helped shape some people’s ideas of what Asian Americans are about. I do know that there was a time, when I was shunned by Asian American groups, clubs, and organizations. It was as if I wasn’t Asian American enough, when in my opinion, I’m hardcore Asian American. With that, I think GR does what it does, and I think it gave a voice to the folks who were ignored, like me.

6) How do you think that face of Asian American culture has changed, since the start of your magazine?

I sort of answered it above. In our world, the outcasts found a niche I guess… and we did it without being part of APEX, and being associated with the many Asian American theater groups, and the many other organizations. We did it ourselves which seems to be fairly unprescendented in Asian American land. At the same time, I’m not shunning these groups, I’m just saying we were cut from a different mold and found a world for that. How we fit I suppose doesn’t really matter, we don’t really think about that.

Interview part 1 for a school paper at Cal Tech!

1) When you were coming up with the idea of GR, what factors inspired you to create this kind of magazine?

There was a lack of magazines out there with the pages of info that excited me, so the only way to fill that void was to make a magazine myself. The climate of magazines especially with an Asian American angle was small and bad, so perhaps that was another reason. Then finally, I didn’t have a job and writing jobs weren’t flowing my way, so using what I knew about photo, and using copiers, making a zine wasn’t that tough.




2) Why do you think that contemporary Asian American culture fits a magazine so well? What aspects of a magazine make it an ideal vehicle for these purposes?

I’m not sure if it fits that well, or we make it fit. But for now, let’s say it fits well. I think there’s a growing interest in the culture, but at the same time, it’s never been documented well. So I’d like to think we’ve trailblazed a path for it to be documented, not just by us, but also by others. Obviously, a magazine works well, but I’m sure a television show, DVD, etc would be fine too. I think paper is a long standing and strong method.

3) What sort of relationship do you think the magazine and its associated stores have with their audience? With the Asian American community as a whole?

The stores display stuff the magazine writes about. Sometimes a lot, sometimes, a little, but over all, there’s a common element with the stores and the magazine, and for those who follow the magazine closely, it’s very obvious, but for those who don’t know the magazine well at all, it also works. This is all calculated. GR isn’t a private club for insiders, it’s for everyone. The stores and magazine hopefully supports part of “the culture” that we like and find interesting. We can’t support everything, so we pick and choose.

Souther and Saelee - it's easy! I hung out with the kids yesterday, went to Sootbulljeep for some bbq and cold noodles. The naeng myun is cold, slimy and tasty. Add some vinegar and mustard that's provided on the tables and it's even better. I've had better, but this isn't bad at all for a place that's known for their meat. The bbq is where it's at. Having a gas table top grill is great, but actually having coals make a small difference. The meat and shrimp get well grilled and comes out better than the regular bbq'ers. I guess that's why people like having BBQ's at home. We left smelling like garlic and meat.

One thing we talked about which I think is funny is the speed at which people expect art shows to get done. Some think it takes a week, some less, and I can in a way understand why. It's about having art that may look effortless. Saelee Oh's work, this isn't effortless. Cutting paper and her meticulous drawings and painting is no joke. You look at this and know, she puts in the hours. Souther is another story. If you take a look at the GRNY show you might think his work is effortless. Pen marks, simple paint strokes, tape, paper, junk, and a dream. it's easy right?



In GR-land, people in the past have said some of the funniest things that tell me that they think making GR is easy. Here's some examples.

1) You guys just write as much as you can about a subject and print it. (That's like saying, just draw as much as you can and you have art.)

2) You guys are irreverrent and articles are wacky. (Again, this is like saying just fuck around on a piece of wood and frame it. It's art.)

3) This isn't an attempt at remembering a quote: but people have submitted butt-horrible articles filled with expletives that say nothing, and then they say, it's perfect for GR. Cussing doesn't help articles get better. (It's like if I made a piece of shit art piece and showed it to Souther or Saelee and said, this is just like yours. That's a fast way to insult someone.)

4) Some turn in their school term paper and think we'd print it. (if I did an art project for school, does that mean it can go into a gallery?) Some even submit B and C papers!

5) Just because it's Asian, we want it. We get PR people showing us a book about the Ming Dynasty trade secrets, and expect us to want to write about it. (if I cut paper and make a snowflake, is my work akin to Saelee's? Does it even fit in the same sentence?)



Art isn't easy as it looks and making a magazine isn't as easy as it looks, (understanding each can be as easy as it is difficult) but the hours of work and years of thinking about it can make it look effortless. An example that's neither publishing or art, is how Steve Nash makes basketball look easy. You might think that you don't need to jump, be fast, or even look good. Yet he can score 30 points and dish 10 assists. There are prodigies, who can jump in and be artists or even make a mag, or throw a pass, but that's as rare as hitting a lotto.

There's no lesson here except some things that look easy, aren't. Even with a simplistic piece that Warhol did, like a soup can... there's years of basis, and ideas that prefaced it and years of projects that spawned from it. It's not that easy.

Yet, if the "easy" inspires you to try something that makes you succeed or fail, then that's cool too. All this from Korean BBQ... or was it only that?

Video of the three armed baby. I now think the outer arm is better.

This is a question from a journalist and my response. It stems from the Ray Fong thing, but goes beyond it. It made me recall a t-shirt company in the later 70s and early 80s. I don't know much about them, who they were, where they went, etc, but I remember the designs. It's pretty nostalgic for me. I have no pics of it, I wish I did, but read on.

How can images featuring Asians with slanted eyes, buck teeth, etc. - that some would say historically portray Asians in a negative light - be "pro-Asian?"

Here's one way I can explain it. When I was in sixth and maybe seventh grade in West Los Angeles, I remember a t-shirt company who made pro Japanese American t-shirts. The company's logo was a rising sun, not like the Japanese war flag, but more of a sun with rays coming out 360 degrees, and in the middle was a smiling buck toothed Asian character. One of their designs was "Kamikaze Taxi Need a Cab?" printed in chopstick font, with an image of a bucktoothed Japanese guy wearing a Japanese war flag, driving a hot rodded taxi. The image of the driver was definitely drawn sort of in the propaganda imagery of WWII Japanese soldiers, and this also couples the notion of Asians being shitty drivers. Yet, this shirt was empowering and pro Asian at the same time as it was self mocking. This shirt brand which was run by Asian Americans was sold around LA and definitely in Little Tokyo. I have no idea where else it was sold, whether it was in other cities or states, but I wish I knew more about them. There were many other designs, and I saw many Asian Americans wearing them. We also drew similar images on our notebooks throughout junior high and it was in a positive light. We weren't Charlies fucking ourselves. We were pro Japanese American and Asian American.

Strengths and Weaknesses. Giant Robot, the issue 42 is hitting the stands soon! We got our advance copies, and we hope you like it. My strength is writing a simple sentence like this. It says what it needs to without too much flair. It's fairly to the point, although I'm trying to tell people at the same time, "don't expect your subscription copies today, because these are the Fed Ex copies we got overnight." If I tried to get too fancy with my words, I end up even confusing myself. Basically, I'm trying to explain that I'm better at some things than others, and I think that's how we all are.

Utilizing strengths is something that a publisher has to be able to do. It's a tough one, since in the end, if you're a multitasking, economizing, tenacious motherfucker then that means you're pushing your bandwidth past T1 speed. Gladly I'm not that nutty, am I? But if you are, can you expect people to keep up? No way, so don't think about it. Some people have different goals, they work for different reasons, including because they have to and not because they want to. Work is a tough thing, and a lot wait until 5pm hits, so they can run out and begin their real day. There's something good to be said about that too.

One mistake is expecting everyone to be like how you want them to be. That's ridiculous, and I've been guilty of that like the next person. One part of my job these days is to try and work with people's strengths and keep them somewhat free of their weaknesses. I think it makes people happy. I'm not 100% sure if this is a publishing tip, but in the end, it's just a suggestion for how to get something done with the best quality and in the best amount of time.

Now let's translate this to basketball. The Pistons are a well balanced team. It's all about teamwork, which is ideal since everyone works with their strengths efficiently. It's a neat thing to see even if they get beat by the Heat. Each person does their thing, and there's no superstars. Whereas, the Lakers, "my team" has a guy who can score 81, but lost to a better balanced team, The Suns. I suppose and believe that the law of averages and longevity will be on your side if you're steady with a solid teamwork based team. Ideally you can be part of something like this too.

Even though I talk about teamwork, I hope The Heat win.

Now, the sad part. Once all the fun parts get distributed and only the crappy parts are left, guess what? The publisher has to fill in at that point and figure it out. Before this turns into a downer, enjoy GR42!