Ticketmaster

One reason why I don't go to big events is Ticketmaster. They are crooks, and a bunch of losers. Do you work for them? I know it's a job, and it sort of blows when people criticize your line of work, but Ticketmaster is fucked up.

American Airlines? Do you work here? This company at least at LAX is one of the worst in their field.

Anime Expo

Anime Expo continues in Long Beach. It's amazing how many anime kids there are around. Wearing their cosplay outfits, they dot the entire Long Beach area.



They do the Cosplay thing to no end. The convention hall is still a big barren, I expected more, and maybe even carpet on the ground. That part of the show feels like it's a bit underwhelming. I also noticed that a lot of kids weren't even into the vendors, they were more into just being around other Cosplayers and going to events. A lot of vendors didn't feel like they fit the show. I wonder if it's worth it for them.

shameless painting

My first one. I guess this is art.

Canvas is hard. Those stinking woven fibers make painting hard. When I feel up to it, I'll put up some other stuff. I did this for the tree show. Also Blick sometimes has sales on canvases, it's hard to pass up a canvas that's $2, even if you don't use them. I think I bought this one years ago.

Barry McGee in Tokyo

It's going on now. Here's some photos from Towa Tei. Nice photos, via analog Yashica.

Know Stephane?

Stephane Gauger is the director of Owl and the Sparrow.



Standing tall (I'm not that short), he's a hot up and coming director and his film is one to check out. I'm not saying too much about him, but keep him in mind, you'll hear of him here and there at some point soon. Owl and the Sparrow showed at the LA International Film Festival, who's kicking ass this year. Doing their thing in Westwood was a genius move.

Lane Hirabayashi

Lane Hirabayashi

Know him?



I'm not going to explain everything about this man. So just read this. Imagine, I went to SF State for a second, and although I can't say I had a great time up there, I did have a great teacher. This was way back in the 90s, and Lane taught an Asian American studies class that was probably one of the more memorable classes I took while in college. You'd think it would be a class in your major, or maybe something fun, but his class was neither, it was just a good one. Now he's a chairperson of Asian American Studies at UCLA, and some of his visions will actually get recognized.

It was cool sitting and talking to him for a while and catching up. He's had 1000s of students, I was just one from way back. I wonder if the other 1000s think he's rad? I'll write more about him once in a while.

Chasing Ghosts

Video game doc!



Chasing Ghosts is a documentary about the best videogamers from yesterday. It's amazing to see images of them then, and now. From heroes to zeroes in just a few years as games like Streetfighter came out and changed gaming forever. We're talking about Donkey Kong, Centipede, Tempest, etc. It all started in a small town in Ohio, I can't remember the name, but that's where gaming happened. The doc is sort of in the vein of Dogtown, except no skating, it's just machines and nerdy kids. I played games at arcades during this era at Captain Videos and like most arcades, it bit the dust somewhere in the early to mid 80's. It's sad how not one of these gamer dudes has a career in the current world of gaming. At best one of them is a stat keeping for game scores! He watches videotape of games! This is a worthwhile documentary and if you can see it, check it out. It's funny, and at the same time sad, but the energy of the best games live on.

the press!

Umeboshi wrote: (exerpted)

Then I would be by the magazine racks thinking, “Thank god Giant Robot is still here, it’s the only cool Asian thing that actually lasts.” It really did give me great comfort to know it exists, especially during the times when it wasn’t cool to be Asian. As for the diversification of the business and the magazine, I think it is great and very smart. Any business is a risk and if the owners can diversify, it is only to their advantage.

----------->



I guess your comment sounds great and all, but there are limits to everything. It's sort of like in Heat, when Al Pacino meets Robert DeNiro, and like in the Killer when Chow Yun Fat meets Danny Lee, although they would be friends outside of their lives, they wouldn't hesitate to shoot one another dead if they had to.

Apply this to business too. Enjoy anything while it lasts, because at anytime, it can get shot down, even by me.

Muder

Since I was fooled in the last post, it's time to point out something else, just to make myself feel better.



CNN.com... MUDER!

Ken Tanaka good luck finding your parents.

This dude is amazing. I hope I'm not being bamboozled like I am with the rest of the web. Some things just can't cross the line. This can't be one of them.



He's like Latka on Taxi, completely turned around, innocent, and nice. His accent in Japanese is spot on, and his mannerisms, weird words, gestures, are all legit. Hope he finds his parents.

design tournament

My friends at Cut&Paste is back this Fall 2007 in eleven cities worldwide! They wanted me to blog this to get any of you involved. Here's what they got to say. I judged this last year, and it was a great event. It has my measly stamp of approval.



We’ve partnered with Adobe to bring our digital design tournament series to six cities in the US (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, San Francisco) and five cities across Europe and Asia (Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Tokyo).

The Los Angeles tournament will be held on October 13th.

Eight designers will have the opportunity to showcase their talent and compete in three, single-elimination rounds. Their work will be webcast globally and projected in real-time for the live, Cut&Paste audience. Onsite and offsite viewers may vote online or by SMS to award an Adobe® Creative Suite 3 Master Collection Suite to the winner of our Audience Prize. An all-star judging panel will decide our C&P Champion, who will receive our Jury Prize, a newly released Wacom Cintiq® interactive display.

Judges this year include:
Saber (Renowned Graffiti Artist)
Michelle Doughtery (Creative Director, Imaginary Forces)
Keith Tomashiro (Creative Director, Soap Design)
Kelly Port (Visual Effects Supervisor, Digital Domain)
& one more to be announced...

Our call for entry deadline is July 17th, 2007.
You can enter online here

Shuffle

Someone showed me this game... It's a game that's something like billiards. It's a addicting and fun game. I tried it a bunch of times since the games are quick and short but also strategic. If you can hit two or three or even four balls out with one shot, then you're golden.


After playing it a bunch of times, I got good enough to be number 497 of 500 high scores of the day! That score is pretty good as you can see the nickel and dime numbers that are higher than mine. But who's Tu Puta Madre?

Happy birthday Shari Sakahara

Time goes by quick doesn't it? Happy birthday Shari.



You're still here.

no cash in the press

Aside from winning our softball game once again by 7 runs, and still hitting away...



I'll still make more comments about Punk Planet. It was mentioned in a comment, that's it's too bad we have to make a brand to survive... but we've all heard the words, "there's no money in publishing." Well? What the heck does that mean? It means, there's no money in it. So a brand developing out of a magazine is important. If it's not a brand, then it's some form of consulting, it's throwing parties, it's becoming a design firm, it's more than just a magazine, and as Paper magazine's art editor, Carlo McCormick once asked me, and a group of publishers, "What's your scam?" He did preface it with saying that for a small mag to make it, there's more than just publishing the magazine. Well, that's what it takes to make it, and we've all been warned.

But! Wouldn't it be nice if we could just make a magazine and not worry? Can it be done comfortably? I'm still not sure. It would be nice if GR was retail $10, and we were able to sell each copy direct to customers. Then we'd still need to get ads, but a plan like this would be nice. Business sense counts in this racket, and I think that's something you have to consider if you're going to be in publishing.

Punk Planet

A day later. On Punk Planet.



I had time to think about it, and I didn't get into reading the many eulogies or blog posts that I'm sure exist for this fallen magazine. It's been 13 years for them, and actually the same for us as well, and I do know their magazine will be missed tremendously. It seems like they fit well into the world of indie publishing. They've probably won a few awards at the hands of UTNE reader. If you go into any indie record store, and many mainstream ones as well, you'll see their magazine with that special look that they created. Punk Planet was more than just a music magazine, that seemed like the last bit important about them. They covered the rest of a punk rocker's life, from politics to design to finances, and that's something most music magazines won't touch. Unfortunately, the last one, finances is what ultimately ended this publication.

The same distributor we used, Indypress, AKA Bigtop, went under leaving PP in a world of debt, and believe it or not, left us in a quandary as well. (This isn't about us, and I seriously doubt people would give that much care if we ceased to exist as compared to PP) The debt of a distributor going down and not paying for perhaps 3 issues is huge, it's over a year's salary for most people, and where's that money going to mysteriously appear? You're pretty much fucked, and that's what happened. It's a shame that the demise of a magazine isn't from shitty journalism, but it's from the business of distribution - the part that's largely out of a publisher's control if you're a newsstand magazine.

The next parts that I'm sure helped their end, is the huge amount of crap online. There's so much, that people are reading less in print, and just taking quick looks at blogs, and "tidbits" of information here and there. Are print mags actually in trouble as a whole? Ads are going the way of the internet more recently since the technology of online advertising has improved as has internet video and tv type of content. Maybe that's another culprit. It's not lack of funds by the readers, that's for sure, since everyone seems to have enough to buy a beer or a boba, which is just about the cost of a magazine.

So, I lied, this will be a little about GR, since I'm now thinking about our situation. Imagine, GR with no stores or restaurant - just a magazine. Are we in the greatest shape ever? Probably not. Is advertising in print down? Maybe some. Are subscriptions up or down. Maybe a bit down. So what's going to happen here? What can we do to prevent ourselves from being the next Clamor mag or Punk Planet?

I'm not sure if I have any answers to this, except I feel good about making a magazine, and I do feel that our work is important to continue at all costs, even in the face of a climate that's less nice to print publications. Our future is a long one. That's the plan, and as I tell a lot of folks, the stores are like our branches, our customers the leaves, but the magazine, that's the heart. Will our own readers rally for us if we need? Will we ever ask for anything? Who knows...

With all this, PP is a highly influential magazine that'll go down in punk rock history as being an important publication. In a climate that once filled with punk zines, MRR, and Flipside, PP gave yet another strong voice to a musical movement turned lifestyle, that will always continue.

Punk Planet ends at issue 80

Dear Friends,

As much as it breaks our hearts to write these words, the final issue of Punk Planet is in the post, possibly heading toward you right now. Over the last 80 issues and 13 years, we've covered every aspect of the financially independent, emotionally autonomous, free culture we refer to as "the underground." In that time we've sounded many alarms from our editorial offices: about threats of co-optation, big-media emulation, and unseen corporate sponsorship. We've also done everything in our power to create a support network for independent media, experiment with revenue streams, and correct the distribution issues that have increasingly plagued independent magazines. But now we've come to the impossible decision to stop printing, having sounded all the alarms and reenvisioned all the systems we can. Benefit shows are no longer enough to make up for bad distribution deals, disappearing advertisers, and a decreasing audience of subscribers.

As to the latter two points, we could blame the Internet. It makes editorial content—and bands—easy to find, for free. (We're sure our fellow indie labels, those still standing, can attest to the difficulties created in the last few years). We can blame educational and media systems that value magazines focused on consumerism over engaged dissent. And we can blame the popular but mistaken belief that punk died several years ago.

But it is also true that great things end, and the best things end far too quickly.

As to bad distribution deals, we must acknowledge that the financial hit we took in October of 2005, when our newsstand distributor announced that it was in dire straits, was worse than we originally thought. As the dust began to clear from their January bankruptcy announcement, we began to realize that the magazine was left in significantly worse shape, distribution-wise, than they let on.

Add to that the stagnation that the independent record world is suffering under and the effect that has had on our ad sales, not to mention the loss of independent bookstores with a vested interest in selling our publication, and it all adds up to a desperate situation. This has been made far worse by the exhaustion felt from a year and a half of fighting our own distributor. It was a situation that didn't have an exit strategy other then, well, exiting.

The books line will continue to publish, and the website will continue to be a social networking site for independently minded folk; Dan will be staying with both, but Anne will be moving on, only blogging occasionally at punkplanet.com while she pursues other interests. All further inquiries about the magazine should be addressed to theend@punkplanet.com.

There probably isn't much else to say that we haven't already said in PP80—in articles about new activist projects, SXSW, the demise of the IPA, and transgender media, and in interviews with the G7 Welcoming Committee, Andre Schiffrin, and The Steinways. Read it, enjoy it, and find in it enough inspiration to last until we come back in some other form, at some other time, renewed and ready to make another outstanding mark on the world.

Thanks so very much for everything,

Dan

On the robot lounge "my marriage ended yesterday"

The message boards are usually loaded with jokes and crack pot comments, it's what gets people through the day.



We don't talk about the diaspora of Asian Americans, although at times we do. But a thread caught my eye. At first I thought, ok, this person must be talking about Paris Hilton missing her dog, or maybe something about Jennifer Aniston, but no, this was a reach out for support. A lot of us don't know each other too well, there's time for jokes, time for laughs, and ridicule. It's like punching the dude who fell off his skateboard and skinned his/her knees. But this one ended up different. One of the longer term boards person, Dragon Chic, really had her marriage end. I'm sure it was hell, she has kids, and is going at it alone. With the sounds of things, sure she's beaten down, but the ability to post it all, without it being shit talk, that shows some strength. The support back was also powerful. Once in a while, I see a glimmer of hope in the message boards. When it's time to step up, the people step up. It's never hopeless, it's more hopestrong.

Ray

Barry McGee work has been looking like this lately. Sometimes, with a hat, sometimes in an Indian style, it's different, and it's grown on me.

Panelists 3

We hung Panelists 3 up at GR2 last night, 195 pieces! Did it fit? Take a look!
Comics artists have it tough, and maybe an art show like this helps them out just a bit. The opening's tonite and it should be interesting. This is the first Panelists in LA, the other two were at GRNY, and GRSF.

Display longer please

aw crud latest issue says, display through June! Error, bad one.

Thursday Night Lights

Softball game again. This time we played against The Nortons, as in Symantec.

I used Norton a lot when I had a Mac and OS 9.0. Now I know them as a softball team. They're a first year team, and they seem to having a lot of fun. Tonite, we beat them 20-3. The 3 was my fault, a fat error on a flyball, somehow it sailed over my head. Duh. But on a good note, we played a fun game and still had a good time. My hitting streak whatever it is, ended when Greg running at second, almost took what would have been a base hit nearly in the nuts! I hit it decent and one bounce, plop. The first time a ball went to the left of second base this season. He should wear a cup and buy a a lotto ticket! Smiles all around, it was a good time.

ricoh

So my Ricoh broke down, in a different way than Martin's. I don't wear tight pants, but imagine, a camera in pocket, maybe it zoomed while it was in pocket, which only makes me look good (I think), but the bad thing, is if there's no space for something to zoom, what happens to it. It gets squashed. I'm guessing that's how the servo motor burnt out, trying to zoom, but can't. I read about this online, and that leads me to recommending everyone to have a case for it. I guess the idea for this camera is a quick access, but I think that's how mine broke down.

ipod battery install.

1) the new battery : the cord actually comes out from a different part of the battery, so it makes it so the new battery can't fit back into the space where it should. So I had to modify by cutting a bit of the plastic that holds it in place to make it fit.
2) No torques head screwdriver is included but it says one's included in the instruction sheet. I supposed you don't need one, and you can bend the heck out of the circuit board (someone is going to break their iPod this way and you can easily damage the thin wires on the battery).
3) The instruction sheet is printed with too large a dot screen, it's pretty useless for the detail photos.
4) The two tools to open the iPod work, and it doesn't take too much effort to get it open, but the instructions could include 1 more line in there that would solve a lot of problems for many. The actual tool doesn't go straight in, it needs to point down.

That's the harddrive, it's padded and nice.

Pulling out the old battery isn't that easy. Unplugging it can be hard, you'll have to work at it, and I can see someone breaking something from tugging too hard. Underneath the battery are some weird little mini circuit boards. Although I know they can be smaller, this is pretty small.

Overall, it's a simple operation. But it's not a smooth one, there are problems and like I mentioned, someone is going to break their iPod if they're not careful.

das boot

A 66! What's this Asian doing in this car?
Didn't he wear that shit the night before?

With his Vegas winnings, Choe bought a car, a big one. A 66 Lincoln Continental convertible. It's dark green, rolls like a boat, and cruises along. People like to look at the car everywhere he drives. It must get less than 10 miles per gallon. The suicide doors are always nice.

Choe

David comes back from Vegas having won some cash in his hit and run black jack method. He wants to throw a BBQ at his friend, Harry's place. It's in Korea town. Talking bad about someone's area isn't too cool, but it was funny. There are people sitting in chairs on the sidewalk chillin', there's a church that's loud as hell, people are singing and yelling, a dog that has dreads all over runs the neighborhood - it'll just lay there in the middle of the street looking at the cars rolling by, adn chickens running around. It's weird.

Harry BBQs, he uses a flashlight since there's no light outside. He's good at cooking and has a belly to show for it. I trust that. BBQ chicken and he injected the insides with some chili sauce. He later makes burgers.

That's Dave on the left with a new Krishna cut, and his friend, Yoshi, the comedian who tells dirty jokes and works in Porn.

After a late night out, and walking back to the car, I see this and it explains the area just as well as I did. HAULIGN. How do you even say that?

softball

We had a softball game on thursday. We beat the only team who beat us this year, 15-14. I haven't picked up a bat for a month, and although I began the game with a weak short fly ball hit, and then did it again on my next at bat, I wasn't feeling like I was at my best. The next at bats were decent, a regular basehit when I was out of pitches, then a grand slam homerun to tie the game up at 12 with two outs. Another inning, then the other team, Eli's (the team we played) got another two runs (how do they keeping doing this?), then it was our last at bat. Two more runs, by way of a homer, then after getting two on with one out, I got up again, and since I went 4 for 4, I was due for an out. Hit into the worst possible thing, a double play to end the game? I took the first pitch and hit one pretty hard towards first base, a weak attempt at a scoop, the throw from right didn't catch Martin who scored the winning run. During the last play, I was thinking of juking and hoping I could get the right fielder to throw me out at first or second. I get pretty into the game, and I do think about the little elements of it, but really, I'm probably the only one thinking these neurotic thoughts. The game ended, I was standing between first and second in no man's land, trying to do the little things that may one day make a difference. Maybe not. But it's ok.

takashi murakami

It's impressive when you see a guy at the top of his game doing his thing. I guess it's Lebron James, although I'm still somehow a Kobe guy, and it's also Takashi Murakami. He came to LA to visit a bunch of people, and I was one of them. He came to hang out to deal with MOCA stuff since he has a show there in October, but he also came to WLA to walk around GR stores, and we talked a bunch at gr/eats, then he took off in his van.



Aside from him, he brought a ton of staff, a designer came by, two measuring dudes who measured the heck out of GR2, and more. I think he had a crew of 8 or so, and I guess that's how he rolls.

Food in the East Coast

Stop 1. Lobster Rolls Part Deux - Seafood Haven Lobster rolls shrunk. It's still claw meat, but the chunks got smaller. Still tasty with the cheap roll it comes on, but that's what makes it work. No mayo, just Lobster and maybe butter. Since it's smaller, it was on to the other sides. Crab cake sandwich! Not bad. Soft, fishy tasting since it's real. Clam Cakes (one of their specialties) tasted better. Soft, big, with a tiny piece of clam in it. Not bad. Clam strips are good, but they're heavily fried almost like popcorn chicken. Seafood Haven is a nicer spot that Captain Zak's, and the menu seems bigger. I'm suggest Seafood Haven, but get the Lobster roll for the end of your meal.



Legal Seafood is a huge chain that you'd probably see advertised in an in flight plane magazine. Tasty and with everything you want in seafood, it's a good call. Of course Cioppino is a winner.

Julian's It'll always be there in PVD. But go there for brunch, it's works better than dinner. Dinner is good, but it takes a damn long time. But the best thing about it, it's where I met Jack Long's work.

Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream This place has it all. It's a shop that's actually the last business right next to a working drawbridge. It's arguably on the bridge! The shop is in Mystic, CT as in Mystic Pizza, which is just down the street. In the last picture you can see the drawbridge actually up. When it's up at 40 past the hour, people have to wait about 15 minutes for it to come down, and the inviting ice cream is right there. They make their own, and they do it well.

In every big city in the US, there's nothing as cool as this. We're all so trapped with the rules of safety, distances that businesses can be from a bridge, and can a business be on a working draw bridge? Only in a small village town can something like this exist, and the ice cream even tastes better because of it. Too bad their t-shirts are in only ugly colors. Print it in black and you'll sell a bunch more.

Decepticons

Products that caught my eye

The art game is for little kids too. Make your own Play-Doh image, and put a dome on it. Of course, it takes no firing, but the plastic will prevent it from getting messed up. Everyone wants in on Sculpey Kids.


Ribs by Samsonite. The t shirts, that have skeleton prints are over. It's time to take it up a notch to your suitcases. This is the way.


I just bought this bad boy from KB toys. Amazing. This thing transforms your voice to sound like a Transformer. When I get photos of me wearing it, I'll show you!

At first I thought, there's no way, this would fit over my head, but this isn't for kids. It's for adults. Fuck the kids.