Hanako Musashi

Two dogs. Both Shibas. Hanako is the older one who still likes to act young at times, but she's about 13?! She's been in many issues of GR, some of the old ones too. Remember in which articles? Musashi is the young one, full of energy and likes to badger Hanako. They fight only over food. Hanako is smarter for sure and Musashi, well, let's say, he'll sneak a duke in the house if you're not watching out.



The backyard is my parents, look at that grass. Dicondra grass! My father started it off as a tiny patch, and I think he seeded it and a lot came up. I remember he said some of it was coming out on it's own with some water. They have cherries and berries, peach, all kinds of fruits and veggies. It's a huge backyard.

Bony time

Today's the day Little Bony is out.

Odd, cute, and cool. There's a whole family.

Memorial Day

It's an interesting day, since it's most affiliated with having a BBQ. It's more like a marker for the beginning of summer over remembering fallen heroes or passed away family. It's basically a day off. If you want to get into it more and think about who died and had less happy moments so maybe I, or we can have happier ones, then you do owe a lot of thanks to some folks, most being your own family. The bigger picture, war mongers maybe get a break here or there, I guess we could be a colony of Japan, or lifting our arms in praise of an Adolph thankfully it's Coors, or Rupp, and not Hitler. For me, I use it to remember passed away family. Grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, anyone. I don't go to cemetaries to visit graves, maybe that's for later, but I keep it in mind.

Little Bony and Bony Dog

Thanks to mr Horvath for letting us carry these exclusively in America. Watch out for them on Wed at noon! 11:30 if you're at GR store in LA. SF and NY will get them by next week.

Jordan 22

Thanks to Mr Flynn from Super 7. They were in charge of this big vinyl project. Being associated with the brand that changed everything seems like a challenge. These Jordans are size 7.5!

Mirrored heel, that's what people would be eyeing, when I'm at the crest of my windmill 360. But these are 7.5, lucky for the fools on the courts.

The starting 5 figures, I like the blue. If you can customize, go limited kaiju style and fill them with drawn on paper or pellets.

Shigacorn

After receiving the two song files by Jason Shiga, I've been a bit obsessed. The man is a genius for sure if you know his comics and now he raps. On his myspace page, someone commented with this image, and it looks like a great time. So the question: WHO is the dude with the videocamera on the left? Where is this footage? Help?!

The first time I met the man, I think it was at Wondercon, he rode up on one of the most beat up bikes I've ever seen, his hair was a mess, he stepped in gum and it took him 20 minutes to get it off, and then he stumbled around trying to walk 10 feet. That was ages ago, and now, he's amazing. Not everyone can decide to do rap, and I'm not saying he's great at it, but knowing him, his style, and his personality, I never thought he'd do this, but he did. I couldn't do this on my best day.

APE Alternahipster

The second person is Michelle Borok at APE.




Biker Just Won't Stop - Watch a funny movie here

this guy is amazing, my hero.

people

People around the area.

Birthday Ladies
Store manager Michelle the Vegan Enforcer and Anne the Carnivore
2 ladies enter no food left. Anne's red cap makes her look like Osamu Tezuka.

Jimmy the Locksmith holding a Cup Noodles, and Greg the Mayor holding a bat.

And finally this is our old ad person Nelson the Manatee. He once held the record for ad sales. We still use his excel system. Now he's moved on to building cabinets. I asked him about it and he said, "I don't build cabinets. I love people's problems, just like you." I replied with something like, "I don't solve people's problems, I try to make them happy. They don't have problems." Do they? Do you? Maybe he's right.

The Bike is back

DC shoes and PK Ripper

Every great thing seems to make a comeback.

This is a bike I wanted as a kid, they weren't easy to find, and now, they're being done by DC. This limited edition version is black and grey, but the one they have to do is the aluminum / chrome version. Mags?! Get rid of those and go back to spokes. The looptail looks great, that had to be done and they nailed it. Too bad they couldn't include the Redline Flights! Supposedly only 150 are being made. What's the price guess? $1000?

Sotel

Is this considered a tag? No, it's graffiti. Sotel are still around and here's a big example of that. The names are still great. Bones, Slugger, and Pelon. Ironically, a childhood friend was called Pelon, since he always had a shaved head. He wasn't really in Sotel, but had friends who were, and they'd call him that.

When do they do this? Middle of the night? During the day? How old are they? 15, 20, 25? Little by little, there's less and less of them, where do they go? Have they blended into the regular work force? Are they third or fourth generation, or are they newer immigrants? I don't know if I'm curious just to know, or if I should care.

Green Label Art

Mountain Dew is in the hipster business. Making their drink cooler by branding their bottles with kids who make art. Here's some Q and As about it. I'm not sure if I like this entire project. It's great to reach out to the artists, but is this the right project for the drink? Will this get what they want out of it? Obviously it's not just brand awareness, they want to sell more of these drinks. I liked Mountain Dew a while ago, especially when it had the outdoors type of appeal because of it's name.

Now it's the urban drink? I'm not quite buying it. But it's still another example of the power of art in the advertising and marketing landscape, and I'm glad the Dew put it into some artist's hands over more athletes. This all comes in a neat spinning caddy.

Horvaths, Meet the Horvaths

Sun-Min is about 2 weeks from having a child. So what more is there to do but eat!? Italian food's the call and at Bucco, you get more than you can handle...

Shake David's hand, he's a nice guy.

On the left it's sausage. Slightly spicy Italian sausage... can you believe they ran out of penne? On the right is grilled "the other white meat". Lean and good.

As Bon Jovi sang... "whoa... We're half way there... "

But I could carry out the leftovers in the Uglybag.

gr48 proofs

You zinesters out there never see proofs. This is equivalent to making photocopies and looking at them and deciding if you're really set to go. In zine world, I don't think making photo copies help much, except to know if photos will repro ok.


Our proofs are about having that last look, whether it's bleeds, really bad typos, design flaws, bad paths, etc. Bad things can happen, and this is your last line of defense. This is what the big boys use. The bad thing is you have to pay for these pages, and it's not an ink jet deal, these are real proofs from a printer that's probably expensive, because this shit costs. We do also get an ink jet version that's laid out as signatures of the magazine, so you can get an idea of what the mag will look like page after page. Imagine a couple of years ago, you had to make film, a velox which is a 4 color proof (imagine how much that was!), and only later did we get single sheet proofs, but it was all short lived after PDF and direct to plate came to town. Technology actually made making a magazine cheaper than ever.

One last great commend is that with zines you can do anything, anytime, and you can spend 5 seconds on a page, or take as much time as you want. Magazines have restrictions, you can't do either of the things you can do with zines, unless you want a super strange mag or a really late one.

Mag vs Zine

ryan said...

it's true-- the idea of starting a magazine (or small press) can be really persistent, even after tons of smart people say that it's emotionally/phsyically/mentally killer and painful :)

but... but, doing a mini zine on the cheap with friends is LESS painful... right?

Good question Ryan.

Let's start off with the top part. The idea of starting a magazine, it's a tough deal. Sleepless nights, figuring out your place in the world of print, getting the cash, meeting flakes, finding out you got ripped off here or there, a page doesn't bleed right, copy edit errors, photo isn't high enough res, miscounted the pages, have an ad missing, distributor does under, people complaining about their subscription, and this is maybe 1/1o of the things you need to deal with. Maybe one day, I'll compile more, but for now, this is a start.

Doing a mini zine can have equal headaches. Things can go wrong there too. Even though it's supposed to be more punk rock and loose, what's your cutting line of "POS" to being decent? Will you exceed that level? Can you live with being under it? If you take even "just" a zine carefully, there are other sets of issues to worry about. Printing a zine is always more money than you think. Pages can't bleed, layout issues, and much more. It's easier, but doing a good job is always tough.

giant robot in Real Talk LA

A magazine for the people of color. It's just the first issue, and as we all know, making mags is a tough business. Good luck to the folks at real TALK LA.

I do wonder if they know the pain they're in for? Everyone wants to make a magazine, but doing it is almost like owning a restaurant. You hear people tell you not do it, but then you do it anyway.

That's me at GR2 behind the Bliks in the window. If you buy or get this magazine, and you feel the pain of publishing, put your hand against mine, like the crap they do in prison. Solidarity of pain.

George's Hardware

I needed air in my bicycle tires, so I thought I'd stop by George's Hardware which is next door to gr/eats. I rode into the back mechanics shop, and was amazed. Look at this place. It's filled with parts, broken edgers, mowers, grease, working mechanics, tools, and a floor that's gritty.

There's four dudes working most of the time, they're mostly Latino except for Jake, who's on our softball team.

How old is this wood table? Look how far and deep it's worn down.

That's Jake, and that's my bike.

When he couldn't fix my mini bike, my dad would bring it here to get fixed. That was probably 25 years ago and the place looked the same as it does now. It's just a new crew of people doing the same thing, fixing mowers for gardeners. I once saw them working on a go-kart and then test riding it on the streets. One cool thing about George's Hardware, the dudes working always have a smile on their face, in six years we've been around, I have yet to see one look upset.

gr/eats

I'm working at gr/eats once in a while to help out. Today, this dish came out from the kitchen and I had to take a photo. That's omelette rice and it made me hungry.

It's actually fun to work at gr/eats, if it's just a little, it feels pretty good, and I think I'm actually alright at it. I think I'm paying attention to every table almost at the same time. People need water, Ice-tea, lemonade, more napkins, their check, change, and so on. The idea is to beat them to their asking you for anything, as if you're not even there. It's not easy, and some people are wired for it, but most aren't.

That's Nelson running things in way back.

Juxtapoz pimple

Pimple on Juxtapoz

Tentacles

I'm not sure what came first, plain regular porno or tentacle-anime porn. It's a strange genre of entertainment. Tentacles are phallic and super long, so they can slither all over a body, enter orifices, and exit them too.



In this toy, there's binding and gagging all from a beast that looks like Alien. Of course, one tentacle is exploring down south. Who's in line to buy this?!

Dublab

The Dublab community record sale at the Echoplex. The event goes from 2pm-2am, and it's going on now. How long will the GR table last?

on criticisms

It's cool being able to chill at home, and see orders that come in through our store site. Although the big dollar sales are nice, the subscription sales are always consistent especially with the occasional nice note left by the buyer. Some say "rad magazine" thinking we'll never see it, but you know what? I do. If it's not working on parts of the mag, or the stores, I still look for the little things, like the notes, whether it's good or bad. The small details. Thankfully, when people buy a subscription, they already have an interest in the mag, and that leads to some nice short notes. Now the only thing we have to do is to maintain our end of the deal, that's the hard part.

The opposite angle to all of this are the criticisms. For a while, I wasn't hearing it. If someone said we sucked, I said "fuck you." These days, when I hear it, I'm curious as to why they think that, if it's true, if we really need to improve or not, or make a change. But in the end, it's hard to make some changes if what we're doing now fits our profile. Are we the same as 10 years ago? I hope not! Are we better? Most likely, but styles change, so it's just a different time. I'd rather be what we are now, than what we were before. I still joke and look at the older issues and say, "we were good then," but I always leave out that it doesn't mean, we're not good now. The old work is as relavent as the new work today.


This is where you don't buy a subs from GR. No idea how they do it, who handles it, but it's expensive. Still nice comments, mostly from way back.

Watari Museum

Mr McGee's next show. Towa Tei is going to play music too. Tokyo June 3 at Watari Museum.



I was hoping to get to Japan to see, help, whatevers for this show, but maybe next time. We talked about this show since last year, Japan in 07, but maybe another time. It's fun working with (Fong 06, Pimple 07) Mcgee installing. When you think things need to be a certain way, they don't, and when you think things are fine, they aren't. You can't tell exactly what he wants sometimes, that's the fun part. Even with the simple installation of the GR2 mini show, I thought I did fine, but then I get a simple email telling me to remove a tiny bracket that I didn't notice. It's some of those little things that make his vision his, and it's why we enjoy the work.

Caption Contest

Have any ideas?

gr48

The mag is on it's way to Canada. To the printers. Imagine the good feeling you have after a final in school. We get to feel like that 6 times a year without the studying and cramming. It feels pretty good.

Pimple

Robert Pimple on saturday. I think...

cancelled jericho?

ABC TV cancelled Jericho... Why do they do this? There's a nuclear war of some sort going on, and now we're not going to find out shit.

What's Skeet going to do now?

Finch is back

The Finches are back. They were gone for a few days, and now they're back sort of. Do birds leave the nest for a few days then come back?

I'm not sure what's going on. But did we offend the birds?

Blog talk

Sorry, been on deadline and all that goodness. So one bit or information that I'll say just once. I appreciated comments that have nothing to do with my blog entries. It's a nice way to reach out. But... know that I can't write you back, and I don't want to communicate with you through the comments section in a blog entry that has nothing to do with the comment. I can't write you back. So, if you want something, I'm at eric@giantrobot.com. That includes LEGO® pieces, possible answers to questions (maybe - some things are out of control), and so on. Thanks much for reading and reaching out.

Daikoku Ramen Little Tokyo

The cloudy pork brothed ramen is taking root in Southern California. In Little Tokyo is yet another place doing it, called Daikoku. The soup broth isn't as strong as a place like Santouka, and has some pork pieces, green onion, a marinated egg, and slices of bamboo shoots. For a few extra dollars, you can get a side dish like fried rice, oyako don, tuna bowl, etc. The ramen portion is large, and the noodle are decent, and there's a wait to get in. The gritty: the bowl stuff isn't exciting, and the ramen is decent, but isn't up to the level of Santouka. You get more, but it's just under the level. But if you want tonkotsu style ramen, and you don't want it so strong, then this is a good place for you, but it's definitely watered down.



Daikoku Ramen
327 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-1680
11:00am to 1:00am (Mon-Sat)
12:00pm to 10:00pm(Sun)

Asian Pacific American Book Festival in Little Tokyo

Martin, I, Lela Lee (angry little asian girl), Phil Yu (angryasianman) spoke on a panel about basically being Asian American and doing what we do. Here's some pics. I don't have any highlights, but it was fun.

Adrian Tomine Short Comings

On the horizon for Adrian Tomine is Short comings. This is just a sample mock up. I guess other sites might show you the latest sneakers, limited edition anything, well, this is a hard to get mockup of a graphic novel.


This means the world to some, and I'm happy to see it.

Pinkberry in the LA Times. It's not good for them.

Is it, isn't it? Who cares? But for $5 or whatever high price it is, you're getting cold matter at Punkedberry. It's just cold shit, and I think shave ice is better. Common people, get off this fad, and get back to the basics. Taiwanese slush has been there for years and years, it was never a fad, and it's always been a lifestyle. Imagine, Hong Kong movie, Chinese food, Taiwanese slush, and smiles all around. Get back to what's right.


Pinkberry in culture clash

Regulators say its product doesn't qualify as frozen yogurt. For some devotees, that's OK.
By Kimi Yoshino, Times Staff Writer

But is Pinkberry really yogurt? (you have to have an acct - if not I posted it - find the Giant Robot quote)

That's the uncomfortable question swirling this week around the uber-trendy, Los Angeles-based chain that has attracted legions of calorie-counting, yoga mat-toting devotees and spawned a spate of imitators.

"Crackberry" addicts, prepare for your favorite dessert to take a licking from California Department of Food and Agriculture officials. Their answer:

Nogurt.

"You can't call a product frozen yogurt unless it's mixed off-site and delivered to the site as frozen yogurt," said Steve Lyle, a department spokesman.

Pinkberry executives concede that their product is made with a powder and mixed in-store. They say it includes plain yogurt, yet they wouldn't disclose what else goes into their refreshingly tart treat.

But a lawsuit might force them to take their secret recipe out of the deep freeze.

This week, a civil suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by L.A. resident Bryan Williams, 48, who contends that Pinkberry's powdered mix lacks the "good" bacteria cultures found in yogurt.

"For lack of a better word, it's just dessert," said Williams' attorney, Michael Amir. "We're just asking for them to … tell the public the truth."

Williams, a legal recruiter who lives in West Hollywood, could not be reached for comment, but Amir says his client is a health-conscious guy with no affiliation to any Pinkberry competitor.

Mary Glarum, another attorney for Williams, said: "We're not asking for punitive damages…. The goal is to just have them come clean about what they're doing so that people can make an informed decision when they buy the product."

But Pinkberry founders — who now have 15 California franchises and three in New York — say they are "under attack" by imitators. The suit, they say, is just the latest salvo from a slew of bitter rivals.

Pinkberry "is yogurt, absolutely 100%" vowed company President Young Lee, who said he's working with the state to resolve the concerns. "We are more frozen yogurt than other frozen yogurt."

Nevertheless, Pinkberry has removed written references to frozen yogurt from its website. A catchy jingle, though, still extols Pinkberry's fat-free, 25-calorie-per-ounce virtues: "Sorry ice cream, I'm dreaming of a different dessert. Pinkberry shaved ice and frozen yogurt. It doesn't feel like I'm cheating when I'm eating it, because it's healthy I feel better already."

If Lee is a little defensive, and protecting the recipe as if it's a state secret, it's because Pinkberry has caused its fair share of controversy since its first outlet opened in 2005, serving just two flavors: plain and green tea.

Within a year, the tiny West Hollywood shop was drawing 3,000 customers a day, most of them self-described Pinkberry addicts willing to risk parking tickets to stand in a line that snaked around the block. Neighbors wanted Pinkberry to move, but the city negotiated a compromise. Security guards and workers now help pick up litter and dissuade parking scofflaws.

Since then, 17 other stores have opened, and six more are coming in the next few weeks to Little Tokyo, Belmont Shore, Topanga Canyon, Beverly Hills, Lakewood and New York.

Competitors are vying for a piece of the success. Among the hatched frozen yogurt shops: Kiwiberry, Mr. Snowberry, Roseberry and Berri Good.

As a Pinkberry buzz has built, skeptics have questioned what's in it and whether it's as low-cal as it claims.

One customer said the hype reminded her of a famous "Seinfeld" episode in which Jerry and Elaine gain weight eating loads of "nonfat" yogurt. They finally test the yogurt only to discover that it's not really fat-free.

"I hope that episode wasn't foreshadowing Pinkberry's ending," one Angeleno wrote on the Giantrobot.com blog.

On Wednesday, Sandy Hsu, 26, a tourist from New Jersey, trekked to the Pinkberry store in Koreatown after a friend e-mailed her a photo of Paris Hilton spooning up the treat.

Hsu didn't seem to care what was in the icy concoction, but said it didn't live up to the hype: "It's not super good like I think I'd come back."

Regulars, though, said they were hooked.

"It just tastes good, and I'm not a frozen yogurt connoisseur by any means," said 19-year-old USC student Andrew Wilson.

Austin Cho, 27, agreed: "If it tastes like yogurt, I don't really care. Just as long as it's healthy."

He paused, peering into his frozen snack: "Is it healthy?"




It was a quote from Saelee, a Pinkberry eater.

Impossible is nothing adidas.

I did this two days ago, and the email just showed up. It takes forever to load, but it's still funny. If you have an imac or a newer mac, there's a cam so you can do this thing really easy. I'm not that into that French building jumping crap (forgot the French word for it), but "Erichead" is having a good day in this video.

It takes a while to load the pop up window. Maybe it's not quite worked out yet.

I guess by me linking this, I'm doing exactly what Adidas wants me to do, and it's all for free. Shame on me. Shame on you for clicking that link up there and doing the same thing. Moooooo...

on the Hundreds blog.

From my visit yesterday The Hundreds, and I'm on their blog. Thanks much fellas.

Hundreds

The kids grow up. Bobby Kim does The Hundreds, today he gets attacked by a cane. You'd think that old ladies would kid and hit light, but this old lady hit with a closed first and poked pretty hard with that cane. I remember way back when Bobby was getting his project off the ground, he still has the energy, and that's something a lot of kids lack after a few years. Some lack it from the get go.


Sal Barbier is a funny guy, and also local and has a shop. A gentleman for sure. I wonder if his show sells bowties? Here he kids with Ben.

Fire!

So the hills are burning again, it's early in the year for that, and this one is close to LA. CBS has a report.

A site that always has great LA updates is bloggingla.com, at this moment, there's a few photos and they keep updating.

I shot this going down Olympic in West LA, I thought the fire was in the middle of LA! Two kids, lighter, brush. Duh.

link time

Feeling the take on origami. Origami needs to make a real comeback.

etchings

BM etchings. These are precious.

Takashi Murakami NY Times

NY times article on Takashi Murakami.

When I visited the man, he was studying tea, the art of it, history, etc, and it makes it's appearance in the article.

Takashi Murakami

Yet another exhibition by the master. Takashi Murakami in NYC. The Show’s called : Tranquility of the Heart Torment of the Flesh - Open Wide the Eye of the Heart, and Nothing is Invisible

Think it’s inexpensive? Daruma images, flowers, and more. The themes may change, but his imprint on art is powerful. You can tell right away.

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Tel 212.744.2313 Fax 212.772.7962
Tue-Sat 10-6

art day for a sec

Went to Bergamont Station and saw Rachell Sumpter's show. The last day. Nice work, really cool and polished. Art's cool.

Cinco!

Yo still have time... a bit of time. gr/eats rocks May 5th. Yes, darn good.

Fruit Snacks

Lost a softball game. Not that big of a deal, but 9-6... not enough hitting from us, and the other team earned most of their runs with hits and so forth. Sure, we had a few blunders, but so did they... but it's the hitting, I have a lot to say, but basically, it's frustrating. So what to do?

go to gr/eats and take part in the Cinco de Mayo celebration! Haha. Ate two tacos, a veggie taco, and a chicken taco, rice, beans, salsa, and guac and chips... Then I hit my favorite aisle in the supermarket.

Tonka?! by Betty Crocker?! I imagine this is the fruit snack for the future tough kid. The ruler of the sandbox. The alpha child. He who handles tractors will get a fat ass, drink Bud, wear suspenders, may even marry a hottie who's hair style will remain 80's, and not shave.
Ram Tough, I say.

Build a Bear. Ah... for the kids who can't let go of that blanket. Ralphs makes this one... So the bear you make for yourself, because you shouldn't suck your thumb, not crap or piss in your pants, and that old dirty baby blanket, you stuff all that in the bear, so you can feel secure. Everyone is special, you're special, you're a winner too! Not. (Wow I'm still mad from softball)

Avatar - ah trying to capitalize on the "Asian is cool" thing... Nickelodeon cartoons. At first glance, I thought it said Avatar The Last Hairdresser. Damn. They really blew it, my idea is better. The kids who gets this are Otaku wannabes. Contrary to the Asians nerd is now cool. If this is your choice, you're a loner with a boner. "Alright! Avatar fruit snacks!" Schwwwing!!!

LEGO®
Classic. These don't really connect, but basically, you get a 2x2 piece, which is pretty cool. The big logo is comforting. Who gets this? This is for the crafty, thinking, building type. Work with your hands, make something, change the world, think spacially, think systems, just think.
My only criticisms, where's the regular colors? White (yes coconut flavor!), Purple?! That's not a common color! Black! Make Black. Licorice! Wrong shade of green for sure. Orange? Eh.. I'll give you a pass on that, but what about Grey?! What flavor is grey?

So what did I opt for? The one that was on sale. Regular plain fruit snacks. No style, just the one that was suggested to me by Pond Crosser. It's generic.

Cactus update

Take a look. Thanks for the suggestions before. Any more? Am I doing better? Cactus are strange.



I opted for the small plates below so I can put water underneath. The biggest succulent is doing much better in open shade, it's near the window, but sits on top of a microwave. It seems to do much better here. I can see growth everyday. Photo 6, see how those plants are bending over towards the window? Do they want more light? I'm trying to figure that out. They seem happy, but they're leaning so far towards the light, I can't really tell. In the 7th photo the cactus has this long ass branch that came out and there are flowers! You can see a closer up of the flowers in the 3rd photo. These plants are so weird.

31 flavors for .31 cents

Saw the special online... 31 flavors Baskin Robbins for a .31 a scoop, .62 for a double! I'm not dairy compliant, so it's a tough one for me. But sorbet, sherbet (sort of)... I can have it.



The line was long. Standing in front of me... I thought about a scoop of ice cream as I peered over the bright scalp to the front door. Martin and Wendy waited in the long line, that moved pretty fast. Ice cream makes people happy. I'm going to wait until everyone leaves to eat the scoop of chocolate peanut butter.

LA Weekly on GR2

Cool Kitsch

Sometimes you get invited to a party thrown by one of those people who have it all. Incidentally, those are usually the swankiest and best parties. Where do you go? GR2. It’s an offshoot of the original Giant Robot store, the brainchild of Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong that started as a cult indie zine. GR2 celebrates Japanese pop culture, and what’s more hipster than that? The store is tiny, and everywhere you look there’s another tchotchke to play with. They have a ton of cool stuff. Your hostess can grow her own herbs in an anime egg, or “Taterpot,” for $12. You can buy T-shirts by 2K with artwork by David Shrigley, stationery and books illustrated by Yoshitomo Nara and a plethora of other artists, an “Ugly Doll” plush toy from $10-$75, and a variety of salt-and-pepper shakers shaped like dachshunds, robots or weird figurines for $12. There are banks shaped like houses and even a Buddha Machine, a small music loop gadget that was hugely popular in Asia (and we hear Brian Eno bought eight of ’em). I liked the Gama Go Fliperoo Clock for $60 and was partial to the Lomo Camera, which uses regular 35 mm film but has a fish-eye lens, so you never know what kind of picture you’re going to get. They range from $50 to $200. 2062 Sawtelle Blvd., W.L.A., (310) 445-9276; Mon.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., noon-7 p.m.

Wayne Lo in Newsweek

Wayne has wanted to come out and talk about the school shootings on a national level. Finally people are hearing him. I know he's actually happy to be able to share his knowledge and to actually be recognized as a person with a malady to provoke a school shooting.


Read about him here.

Keyshawn gone

Panthers cut Keyshawn Josef Johnson. Read in SI. Although it doesn't really matter that his name was Josef when he went to my high school, it was cool seeing him in the NFL draft show. Me, under the weather and watching anything on TV, saw him actually do a fair job on television. His ad lib skills stunk, but his football knowledge and candor was pretty good. It was super exciting to see him talk about Dwayne Jarrett, the USC player who left school early to get in the draft. KJ also a USC grad via West LA College, was so excited and eager that his team, the Carolina Panthers drafted this dude who he said is a similar style receiver. He assured the young player than even though he was drafted much later than was hoped for, that he would teach him to be a great pro, and the kid would earn a lot of money in the league. He had nothing to worry about. The kid looked happy, not exactly excited as he sat next to his proud family. KJ did a short and bad interview, but really centered around how excited he was that this kid was going to be his teammate. Who would do this for another person in the same position? KJ's 34 and near his end, but still regarded as a threat in the game. He has a lot to give to a young player.


Just a couple of days later, KJ gets fired. Aside from the embarrassment of putting himself out there on TV and telling everyone how he was going to help this kid to poof... Who's going to teach the kid now? Imagine what his family must think? From sitting proudly next to their son who's has a veteran damn good wide receiver assure him that he'll teach their child everything, and even insuring his success and riches... sad times. I hope KJ finds a good place to go, Raiders!

Favorite Aisle in the Market

Super Markets can be huge food emporiums. We take them for granted unless a major disaster happens, and all of a sudden people flock for bottles of water and canned goods. Some of us have different names for them. It's the market, the store, grocery store, or it's a proper name, Albertson's, Ralph's, Von's, Jon's (with a silent J), Safeway, Kroeger's, Meijer etc.

When I go, I realize, I start off in produce, fruits, vegetables, then it's off to the wanna be healthy area, then it's to the Vitamin water and juice area, I might get sparkling water... Then I check out the meat area, then I bypass all of the frozen, and I check out the canned area, if I want anything, if not, then it's to the last aisle, cereals and fruit snacks. Of course, the fruit snack part isn't heavily marketed as it's own section. But it's a great one.


The variety is kick ass. Movie tie-ins, Fruit by Foot, fruit snacks, plain brands, Sponge Bob, Fruit Gushers, and so much more.


Today was Hello Kitty's day. Kellogg's is rocking Hello Kitty in the fruit snacks category. It wasn't on sale, so I didn't buy any. The best time to come is when the movie is gone and dead, on DVD already and forgetten, but lo and behold, the only thing keeping the film relavent is the fruit snacks. But when the market people catch on, it goes on sale to kill the item. That's when you have to swoop in and buy low, so you can eat high. No deals today, I got nothing.