This is the event that I am judging. Enter and you can win a 13" macbook.

Hedges, and more neighborhood observations

Ok, this is out of control. I saw this while walking down the street. I wonder how connected these two trees are. The branches much go across the top, intertwining with each other, but I wonder how far they go? To the bottom of the other side? Who thought of this thing and who maintains it? I'd rate this a 9. It's brave and ridiculous.

I have no idea what the point of this lame bush can do for a yard. Inches tall, but super wide and deep, it's like a front yard muff. I rate this a 6. It's actually pretty huge, but it's cowardly and does nothing. Is this decor?


If you can't afford rocks, grow some! This house has boulders of bushes all around. The path cuts through what looks like a fat meat loaf. If you play hide and go seek, or paint ball, this would be the best terrain for the game. An 8. You have to be brave to grow and maintain these, or else you have to aiming for a war, these are like "gook" bunkers.


Who is Andy Gump? The metal sign is great. I wonder if there's a t-shirt. If so, I want one. What font is this anyway?

Is this graffiti? Or is it a social commentary? What was once a $3000 TV, is now a billboard for taggers. Very nice green and nice block lettering.

This must be 7 feet tall, and at the top is a weed. Why does the city make these perfect for weeds? Shouldn't they just plug the bottom? Why does the pole need to be holey at the bottom? Signs for mini-Me?

Mom's birthday at Torafuku. Famous for their rice, which is cooked the old fashioned way, the meals are good. I ordered chicken and it came with a medley of onions and mushrooms. We all ordered dinner specials. The rice of course tastes like rice, but it's special flavor is subtle and classy. The appetizers that come with the special makes the meal. For the lighter eater, that's actually enough! Happy Birthday!

That's Musashi, the hyper Shiba. Musashi will chase the light from a flashlight. In this pic, Musashi was chasing the red laser light from the camera.

Sawtelle drama from Saturday. All were fine.

In the wake of soondooboo bowls, kimchee plates, beef dish, rice from the stone pots, Mike, the one armed swordsman looks puzzled.

Here's something guys can do, and women, well, maybe not so good. I never thought of it until someone at our dinner in upstate NY brought it up.

Can you ladies make machine gun sounds like a dude? It's not like we went to class for it, but I've never seen a woman rock that sound like a dude. Can you?

You never learn anything from blogs? Today it may change.



I wanted to share some great info I learned yesterday. Unless Greg at Safe and Save was messing with me, he showed me a trick on how to count coins. Did you know that Quarters are $20 a pound? Digital scale, a big handful of coins, just punch in $20 a pound and see how much it weighs. Yesterday the coins were $18.25 As for dimes same $20 a pound. Nickels $4 a pound! Unless you have some old coins that are maybe made partially out of silver, it should be spot on.

Eman is back. MTV! Thanks to the lounger who posted this...

Here's the flyer for the talk. It's a day before the cut and paste event. I'll be judging that. Anyone going to enter it? Check out the link, it's a hot event building momentum.

Oops, I was told to take down the flyer. however, this check this out. It's a video.

Watch for the dildo.

The police guy knew wtf he was doing. What a guy.

I thought I'd post this real quick. A e-flyer will be made. It's coming up soon.

Unbound: How L.A.'s Art Magazines Are Changing The Face Of Popular Culture
Featuring:
Shepard Fairey, Swindle
Amir H. Fallah, Beautiful/Decay
Tracy Forman-Snyder, Arkitip
Brendan Fowler, ANP
Eric Nakamura, Giant Robot

Moderated by: Carlo McCormick, Paper Magazine
6 PM, Friday November 10, 2006
5500 Hollywood Boulevard, at Western Avenue.
This is free and open to the public.

Our panel will be followed by a special Presentation sponsored by Andy Spade of
The Neistat Brothers, showing their amazing films and taking questions.
After 8 PM the space will be turned into a party, with the requisite booze and music, etc.

Remember that guy on our softball team, Sky Tetsuka who went to Nepal then stole the Ms. Nepal from the locals? Here's an article on him in the Rafu Shimpo. I was at my parents house, flipping through newspapers, then boom, there's Sky smiling in color with a big ass article. This guy is on fire and should buy a stack of lotto tickets.

19-18. (oops it was 20-19. We played the other Asian team who won first place last season. They're a bunch of lawyer/athletes and from top down, they might be faster and for a lack of good words, more athletic. We played tough and went ahead in the early innings. We took advantage of a ton of walks by the opposing pitcher, and played some tough defense. As soon as I stepped into the game, the other team started hitting, and our team made error after error. They went ahead. Another inning, and again, they piled on more runs. They were up by 7. We were down 18-11... and the other team was looking strong. We were stunned. Gloves were being thrown. I came up to bat, and poof, I drew my third walk of the game. Their pitcher was falling apart again, and with a few hits, more walks, we got within a run. 18-19. With two on, and Hap batting, I figured he'd take a walk, but instead, he hit a clean basehit.



In their haste to try and preserve the lead, they never gripped the ball right, and it was bobble city. The winning run scored, and the game was over. Even though we were ahead, then were getting our ass kicked, we played through our bad times, and kept playing through the small good times, one base runner at a time. It was actually amazing. Sometimes, you can play super ugly and still preservere. Winning isn't always pretty. With this self indulgent blog, what do you get out of it? I don't know, maybe nothing.

Cousin Dan and cousin Larry visited Sawtelle today. Dan was in town to see a show at the Wiltern. He's gonna play a show in December in LA, and Martin, you missed his show in Hawaii for the film fest. It's weird, Dan always gets an allergy in GR1. That's why we're outside.

APB - Fabian. Where have you been? Birthday boy to MIA. Hope you're having fun with the goodies you got.

Courtesy of friend Noriko, here's an image of the Chiho art in the Gloucester Road station of the Circle Line. 25 July 2006 -25 Jan 2007. "Mountain Whisper"
No wonder people dig Chiho in England! The pound is twice at strong as the dollar, and even more compared to the yen. It's a great place to be earning money.

It basically looks like "City Glow." I wonder what Chiho will do next... Handpainted work? Speaking of which, while at the Murakami gallery...

Yes Chiho does draw. Here's proof.

Michelle is the manager of the store. You might know what she looks like. Can you find her in this You Tube video? I have no idea what this video is about, but oh well, it's weird.

Sawtelle Neighborhood minute. There's a lot of development in the West LA area near the stores. Some of it is nutty, and some of it is / will be historical. Let's go on a tour!

This house or duplex is looking like the ship the Jawas rode in. Before this was being built, it was the home of this guy named Lou who was an ass. He often stood outside of his house at the gate so he could try and talk to Japanese kids (girls) as they walked by. He's passed away now. I remember the minute we heard of the news of his death, my cousin Mike said, "I'm not going to say anything bad," which meant he had a lot of thoughts of this dude, but was being respectful. Me on the otherhand, I didn't care, and gladly said he was a dick (because he was). I'm not glad he died or anything, but he was a dick. This new building might end up looking cool. It's a behemoth for sure.


Architect David Ming Li Lowe designed and works out of this spot. He owns the front and back, and the red is "Forbidden City" red. It's a big studio and it's a building that you either like or not. I've grown to like it.

A detail of the dragon that's near the back entrance.
David Ming Li Lowe also designed this building/house/studio for a private party. It looks rather simple, but this runs the length of the lot. So it's a long, long house. I think it's broken in two, the artist studio is in front. Now next door to his "Forbidden City" red house, he's building another home for his brother. There's one in the front and one in the back. 3 green roofs in a tight area. It's crazy. David once said he wants to develop this area, and he's definitely doing it.

I don't know why this pic is in, but look at the roof! It's very similar and I'm 99% sure it's not by David.

David also designed these homes. There's two of them, one up front and one in back, and they're a local landmark. They're built on springs or something, and can withstand earthquakes.
The trees have grown to almost cover the facade of the homes. It's like they're on an island to themselves. David lives in the back unit.

This is next door and it's an unfamous Frank Gehry home.

This home is on 2 lots. It's a behemoth. The guy who owns it supposedly once lived in the front of the two David Ming Li Lowe home. It has a crazy yard around it with trees, plants, and design. Inside from what I can see has huge roll up doors, and actually seems sort of small, although you can tell it's massive. No expense was spared here.

So this leaves this spot. You can see the arched roof David project in the background. Is David going to make more? Will this be a "small" behemoth? The lot isn't huge, but with these new buildings, my house slowly becomes the shittiest on the block! Tour's over, don't forget your things and be careful on the way home.

The webstore and it's components. We're adding more shelves and it's looking good. Part of the bad, is that I have to clean my stuff out of the webstore area.

This is Michael he's camera shy, so I pixeled him out.

Tons of books. Shelves and shelves of books.

More good stuff like toys, vinyl dolls, shirts, etc on more shelves.

Keenan with that stash...

I met Ted Fang from Asian Week for lunch. He's a good guy. If you read up on him, there's crazy drama, but know he's a grounded chill dude with a lot of knowledge. He once owned the SF examiner!

Dinner with Mr. Horvath who's sitting in his new ride. We're planning Uglycon, their art show at GR2, which will be in December, it's going to be a great thing involving GR2, gr/eats, and who knows what else.

Whoa, t.m.i. Takashi Murakami is doing body painting for his show that just started last week. It's in Paris! Buck naked, he's smearing himself to make art. What do you think?

Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
76, rue de Turenne 75003 Paris France
www.galerieperrotin.com

Giant Robot podcast for issue 44 is up. You get the goodness of hearing us talk about the issue. Bird carving, Donutman, Pete Fowler, Buddha Machine, and herbs from Chinatown. Podcasts are fun and simple, and for some reason there's a little bit of background noise this time. I don't know how many of you check out our podcasts, but I do hope you enjoy them. Our friend Dan Wu, listens to them on his ipod while he's getting film make up put on. It's sort of a bummer, we merely have only 1 podcast this time.

Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" with Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li. I had all weekend on think about it. Chow Yun Fat's first appearance is hilarious since he had a beard. There's lavish battle scenes with techniques I've never heard of, and I was an East Asian studies major!



The flick is basically a period piece depicting the 10th century reign of an emperor who wore Liberace beating blinging gold in each scene with the backdrop of drama between he and his family. Stripped down, Zhang Yimou is up to his same tricks, it's a historical drama with characters who are being sneaky and jealous of each other. Zhang's muse continues to be the depressed looking Gong Li. But what brings this one up is Chow Yun Fat, and the insane battle scenes and techniques, incredible ninjas, and the insane armor. Gladly the sword play wasn't overbearing, since we don't need that anymore... See this one for sure.

Lana Kim's Birthday party. The cake came out, the birthday song was going on and she was on her cell phone!

Ely, her brother wants none of the blown flames.

Tim Biskup - wtf!?

Cousin mike got an operation on his arm after years and years of talking about it. A funny story is that right when he came back into consciousness, he started throwing punches at the nurses and spitting. I guess he clocked some nurses but has no recollection of it, it was just a natural reaction of some sort. Throwing punches can make you the talk of the post-op room and you can get away with punching a nurse. What can you say? Sorry? That story is just the warm up. We watched PRIDE which made it's debut in Vegas. What a great production and show compared to the UFC. It's a huge difference in talent, and production budget. In the end fighting is fighting, but seeing the Shogun (GR's 2005 fighter of the year) vs Randleman and Fedor vs Coleman among other great fights made this a great time. It ran about 3 hrs+. A great night for mixed martial arts.

Ikea has small business supplies. I guess making shops these days have become so common that even Ikea has picked up on it. They sell shit you can use for your shop/boutique/etc. What's next? Sections in Ikea that depict your special room for making your vinyl doll kit, DJ room, crafting workshop, or t-shirt design studio?

Uglydolls are so ugly, they broke the window!

The old man, 89 with a murder rap, might not get much prison time. Who knows, but either way, I think he and his family may be screwed, who knows what kind of lawsuits will happen. I heard there were 70 injured! I know one killed was a homeless guy.



I once talked to a guy who has a space right near the beginning of the crash site. He told me the first person get killed was a homeless person. Did that person have a family who had an opinion on whether this guy should go to prison or not? How about any restitution payments? I'm still not sure if prison is the way to go for this old fart. But all I know is that if I did it, I'd be in prison.

I remember when this old dude killed 10 people. I wasn't there, but it must have been a sad day. I used to go to the farmer's market often, but since this happened, I seldom go. Do I think it's right that he's going to prison at 89 for this "accident"? At first I thought he should burn at the stake, but for some reason, since it's been years and this dude is totally fragile, I almost think he should have some other penalty. But what use is this guy?

Fabian's birthday! This is the black mask version! We all had a blast at gr/eats for Fabian's 21st. He had a full house.

Fabian ate some cake, ate a veggie burger and a chicken sandwich!

Cybelle Tondu eats dinner #2. She does not look like this.

Hoody #3 - Fabian got 3 hoodies! I guess everyone thought it was funny.

Fabian and his dad, Moses

I think Fabian liked the cake. It was funny, when I took it to the kitchen, nelson the gr/eats chef, looked at it, and said whoa, Back to the Future! Fabian did the same thing. The first thing I told him is the clock, is it the right time? He said yes.