Happy New Year

Happy New Years. In Shinjuku people are on the move. People walk around and are going places. It could be just home, a place to eat, and even a shrine. One small detail about New Year's Eve and new year's day is that people like watching television. I guess each channel has their special show. It's not quite like Dick Clark, it's that but way more nuts. There are events in Domes that are packed. Why don't they do that in the US?

I ate the traditional meal of soba which had a yuzu twist to it. That's really great, and went to a shrine.

Tokyo Rain

Rain happens everywhere. What's the difference between rain here or rain there. Is it the signs around the rain? The people are the same everywhere I think. Maybe it's the density of the signs, the colors, and what's under it all. Yet, the 99 cents store isn't that cool in the rain, but it has to be the signs. Then again, is it the signs, or is it the font or the characters? If it says, Bob's Big Boy, would this look cool? It wouldn't. As simple as it may seem, it's nice to see the rain in Tokyo, and although people are scurrying away out of the water, I'm trying to get in it. My Ricoh may not agree.



See the Hypebeast blog for some monjayaki talk.

Tokyo time

Tokyo is Tokyo where a convenience store is amazing. A bit of rain, and tomorrow, the checking stuff out and meeting with folks, begins. It's exciting like that.

Chosun

The new tradition, eat Korean food on Christmas. I guess we can always go to Chinese food. I even saw one of the strip mall 3 kinds and fried rice or chow mein places packed. Everyone goes Chinese. But how many go to Korean? My mother made a funny observation. Not everyone eats Korean food. But Koreans eat Korean food, but not Chinese food. So of course, Korean places will be open. Clever.

Racist Coke Commercial

Ha, this is funny. The oppressed oppress harder. It's insane yellow face stuff. I'm not that into pointing out racist things, but this one is pretty bad. If it were made by non Asian people, it would have been skewered harder, much earlier. From dime slot eyes, to the entire camera routine, to the language, then to hit the tourist had, and vest. It's pretty harsh, but it happens everywhere.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays for anyone who reads this blog. I've tried to put some of my thoughts in here, and it's hard to all of a sudden just throw up a Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas blog, since for some reason, it's the last thing I've been thinking about. Maybe it's because I'm going to Japan in a couple of days, or maybe it's something else. While we all shop, and I do this too, I'm on the other side, along with the store manager, Michelle who somehow is able to block out commerce in our own stores, and still seems to enjoy the custom of the holidays by going shopping, and going to parties, and all that to the fullest. Friend Bill goes to malls, and once in a while asks, "do you feel it?" He once took me to a few malls, and we'd walk through the decorations, and see a Santa, and would ask that same question. If I said no, he's take me somewhere else, until I'd admit to something. Maybe I'll be feeling that next year, I'm sort of on a mini search for it. Happy Holidays, for those of you who read this.

XMAS beef

Mr Poon made Xmas dinner, my second holiday event. That's a record. Usually it's just one. See that piece of beef? It was my beef time. It's been a while since I've had a piece of meat, and this one was great. Good job Bill. Gift exchange, white elephant where no one stole, (what's wrong with us?) some Call of Duty playing, and what ended up being a lot of softball talk. Relaxing times that went sort of late.

T Mobile Idiots

The idiots of T-Mobile. So my Blackberry 8700g acts up and goes to white screen every so often. So I call T Mobile tech support, they have me download two types of software, and neglect to ask any questions about my computer. I use a Mac. The files download and it's obvious it's not going to work with my system. I call back and talk to tech support guy #2 who tells me that I need Pocket Mac, that'll save the day. I have that already downloaded, so I fire it up. The tech guy thinks, that some how, I'll be able to upload new software through it. It's supposed to be the files I already downloaded. I tell the guy, it's not going to work. He tells me, that it should work, and all I have to do is use a program called Stuff-It to expand the .exe files I downloaded which will turn them into Mac files! Yeah! Awesome, magic. Well, I break it to the tech guy, that it's not going to work. We go through many steps, and in the end, we get nowhere. Every road he takes is a dead end. He spends sometime surfing the web, and tells me that, no it's not going to work, and he's sorry. Keep in mind this is a guy in Pennsylvania, not India, or Madagascar, or anywhere else. It's the USA and he has the label of Tech Support "Jonathan". He then tells me that not one of their phones is supported by Mac. Since he gave me this piece of info, how did he think that I could put new software into the phone via my Mac computer?

We talk some more, and I realize, this guy is outmanned by me, and the entire tech department is pretty crappy. I find out that they get 4 or 5 Mac calls a week, and that's it. You'd think with perhaps a million Blackberry users, more than 4 or 5 would call in a week, but according to "Jonathan," that's all they get.

So next I talk to someone in "Loyalty" department. Totally clueless folks again, who have no idea of what they're talking about. I tell her that maybe to have my loyalty, they should train the tech support people with one sentence, "none of our phones are upgradeable by Mac." Pretty simple thing, maybe they can tape it to the wall in the office, or maybe on every monitor before they waste 30 minutes of someone's time trying to figure out some off of the shelf answers via their script. I suggest that she makes this suggestion, but in the end, she tells me I can do this, in effect for her. I suggest that she takes the step and make this suggestion herself, since I don't work there, and they'll just screw someone else if she chooses not to help, but she's in script mode and asks, "can I help you with anything else?"

Best Buy Scandal.

I've heard of this a while back. Always knew they were scammers.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus23dec23,0,884197.column?coll=la-home-center

Soaptopia

One of the coolest shops that I actually discovered a while back is Soaptopia. On Venice, it's a shop that of course sells soap, but they're not just resellers, they make their own. I have no idea how one gets into making soap and doing it in a shop setting, but they have it dialed in. It's been in Mar Vista for three years, and I have no idea how I've missed it for so long. The exterior looks comfortable, and retro. Something like an apothecary or something like that. Check out this little strip of shops, it's looking up.

The official greeter. The dog walks around slowly.

Most of the things here, they don't make, it's the sponges and stuff in the window.

Norma stands proud in front of the soaps, lotions, and bath oils. See the candy cane themed soap? That's special for the holidays. The chandelier is a nice touch. I'd like to learn how to make soap one day, but for now, I'll just buy it.

I like the open beam ceiling. It could have been just a regular low hanging ceiling, but the wood opens it up. Disco ball? I'm not sure about that.

There's that soap again. I'm digging the cake dish.

This is where you buy the soap. Just pick some off and put them on the table. So many styles and scents. They get featured on TV once in a while, and holiday time, it gets packed. They gift wrap with the best of them.

Some places make cupcakes, but they do soap. What are these baking sheets are all about? Or I mean, what do they use them for when it's not soap? Something flat like cookies?

That's where they make everything. The shop is comfortable, the people nice, and this is a true indie business. They ship of course... from their site, here's their info.

Soaptopia, Inc. - 12228 1/2 Venice Blvd. - Mar Vista - CA 90066
310.398.8333 (phone) - 310.398.7949 (fax)
Store Hours - M-F 10am-7pm - SA/SU 10am-6pm

Giant Robot 1, 2, and eats

The stores are doing it's thing this holiday. It's hard to judge how it's going to be, since retail was down for a while, but it seems to have picked up. The small shop does it's thing and people seem frantic and happy. The employees are holding up, and they're being troopers. They're fueled by pizza and soda. I hear it's pretty good. Next year, one of the projects in early 08 is to replace the ceiling tiles. Prognosis is good. I just found the place that has the original molds. They first told me that the mold was no good, but they were anxious to see photos of the shop with the tiles I have. The fella said that the tiles I have were made 40 years ago! No wonder they're brittle. The wind can blow strong, and they'll crack.

Gloomy plastic bears, they're huge ones.

GR2. That one dude with a beard looks like a ZZ Top dude.

gr/eats Nelson holding it down. I ate the special, which was shrimp, vegetables, and rice. It was darn good. Sometimes, the most home style food is the best.

Thanks for the patronage. Don't forget Giant Robot Silverlake. They're doing it too!

DRx

Darren Romanelli in the Times. I saw all of the jackets for Lupe Fiasco before they were set up, and now they're in the Times, and probably in some music videos. The article talks a little about the work, collaboration, and all that stuff. The writer seems to know a little bit about what's going on which is good. DRx is a good guy.


LA Times link.

Candy is better than nothing

So print shop... where's our mags? We've been waiting and waiting, and the inept delivery people are doing it all wrong. How about dropping it off? How about being on time. How about showing up? Where are you fools? So candy. Yes, Canadians have a lot of candy, but this is all the weird stuff. Do they eat anything normal? I'll bet most buy the imported stuff, from down south. USA.

KERN HELVETICA

So appropriate today, that I wear my helvetica sweatshirt made by Shari. But maybe she was in the house in some way. I'm at IKEA, then I see this fella named Owen Gee wearing a KERN zip up by Veer. I walked up to him and said, let's take this photo! It's perfect. Also we've both seen the documentary, which I know not enough have seen, so it was a great moment. Shari would have laughed at this one. It's cool how an entire statement and full sentence about graphic design can be made on zip ups.

rip Shari Sakahara memorial day

Today is now two years since Shari Sakahara was killed. I hope she's never forgotten. I still live really close by to where it went down, and her apartment is still there too. When I walk or drive by, I look in the window, she's not there. I hope she looks down my way once in a while.

Sensitivetype.com
Myspace

Ken Tanaka meets me

Ken Tanaka's video. People say I look scared. I was scared for sure. But Ken is a nice man. The best part is that Ken is using his fame on YouTube to actually push culture forward, that says a lot about a guy who's online. I wonder if Ken gets Japanese ladies out of all this?

Here's a link to the Japan Probe posting. There's some heated comments.

Hot Cakes

Made it to Hot Cakes today. I've driven by this bakery many times in the last three years and never stopped in. I actually never noticed Hot Cakes until fairly recently to be honest. The stretch of Centinela where this shop is at, is sort of slowly revitalizing. There's a comics and collectibles place on the corner, and B&B, the hardware store institution is always busy. Walking in, you see people working hard baking. They're making cakes of some sort, and of course what catches my eyes are the cupcakes. I'm not sure how hard it is to really mess up cupcakes, but then again, if you go to a market, they're terrible. These are handmade and the many choices with thick frostings are nice.

The painted chalkboard, and handwriting ads a nice touch. Even though this is big on the wall you hardly notice it since you're busy looking into the glass case.

These stare at you and it's hard to get just one or even two, you tend to want to buy a bunch of give to people. That's why cupcakes are cool.

Of course, cupcakes are sort of like snacks you might buy on a whim, and they definitely bring you back into nostalgia, as least in my lifetime. When I was little, I remember cupcakes were cool. I think that's where the idea of a Ding Dong and Twinkie came to be. The idea was the make small cakes. It's great that cupcakes are in now, and I do hope they never leave. A slice of cake is essentially the same thing, but are they really? Is a cupcake, that's handcrafted for one serving better? I actually think so. The care is worth supporting.

Hot Cakes
10-7 mon-sat, 10-4 sun.
4119 centinela near washington blvd
la, ca 90066
310-397-2324

The blue lagoon

I don't know enough about plants, but when the "leaves" fall off of this plant, I don't know what to do with them. So I try just shoving them in the dirt to see what happens, will I get another entire plant? So I put it in thinking nothing will happen, but then look at that little green thing coming up! I had tried this once before and the same thing happened, I thought it was a fluke, but it's no joke. I'll keep shoving these leaves in and I guess I'll keep getting more plants. I must be doing something right.

I guess it reminds me of that scene in The Blue Lagoon. Two kids, a guy and girl (girl played by Brooke Shields) are marooned on an island for years. One day, she's in pain, her stomach hurts, she's fat, and all that, then poof, a baby pops out. WHAT?! is what they were thinking. How did that happen? Well, basically, I shove in a leaf, and poof. WHAT?!

cracked hopes

So, sometimes, good deeds go sour when it's out of your control. Transcontinental printers, our people in Canada are good to us. No doubt. Issue 50 comes out they actually made us the above award, featuring the first issue and the 50th, framed. But somedays are just not waking up for (no, I don't really believe this). The mail comes, I see the package. I wonder what it is, so I open it and it's a framed something. Neat, but the glass has chips, tiny ones, and I cut my thumb. To not risk injury to others much less myself, I decided the safest thing to do is to throw it away. All the packaging had to go too. I could have kept it, and replaced the glass with all of the free time that I have, maybe in 2010, but that also means housing this piece, broken glass with tiny shards around somewhere. It wasn't going to happen. I felt like an ass breaking the news to the print shop that the item they carefully made and sent came broken and that I had to throw it away for safety's sake. A few of you might be thinking that I should have just dealt with it better, but fuck it, right? I like it, I don't love it, it's broken, and I'll never get to fixing it. What would you do with a broken trophy that caused a cut in your finger?

The printer dude felt bad. He called his peoples who packed this and got this done. Their response which he relayed to me was that it's never happened before, and it's impossible that it happened.

1) They made me a special issue 33 - ten years type of award. It also showed up with broken glass. I sort of didn't remember too clear, but Martin confirmed it. The frame is bent too. This one was much smaller, we eventually took it to get replaced. But the point is, the "never happened before" is a crock of shit. They are 2/2 in sending shit broken. Why is it that printers are so self righteous? It's been a common theme since day one of doing GR. Printers screw up like everyone else, they just hate to admit it since it costs them money or credibility.

2) The employee who said, "no way it could happen." That's just stupid. What makes you think you can pack something that a delivery person won't drop, kick, or even dropkick during transit? I told Mike to tell her to "Fuck Off". He said he would, but I doubt it. Maybe the strong Canadian dollar is making the Canadians feel impenetrable or something, but logic still has to prevail. Delivery people will break shit.

Next, our issue 51 that we need to have for the shops, etc, sat in a warehouse since last week. No note, no call, no nothing to tell us that they were ready to be delivered. Basically, they were supposed to come by and drop them off. We were around the whole time, but nothing. We found this out yesterday, and today, this company, Yellow, refused to deliver them. So my printer, trying to make something work right calls a different freighter to come and pick it up to bring to us today between 5-8pm. Martin waits and waits, and at 8:05 he has to leave. A pregnant wife, and a trip to Hawaii tomorrow morning is pretty important. The delivery people never show up. Cut finger, shitty framed object, a complacent packing person, and a shitty delivery company are the hazards of the day. The magazines which we pay hefty amounts for, just sit picking up dust, when they should be for sale. When you look from above and think about it from at least our point of view. Here's what's going on.

The magazine needs to be for sale. Each day it's not a chain of events happen.

a) we lose the sale, we may lose the customer who may buy the mag elsewhere and become a customer there instead.
b) we lose any associated sale from the person. maybe they would have gone home, or showed the mag to someone who in turn would have bought a copy, a subscription, an artwork, etc.
c) the advertisers will think we suck. Even though other places have the mag, it looks bad when we're out at the store. Advertisers mad? Maybe they won't give us the next ad. It's damage that we can't afford.
d) customers will think we suck. Who's subscribe to a mag that can't get on the stands?
e) now we're faced with a late holiday issue in store. That's bad. While the world tunes out, we need to try and build hype for the issue. (keep in mind it's in store, the rest of the spots should have them) Aside from first copies, this is our store copies.

Have any bets as to when this secondary company will deliver it tomorrow? Will I be in at that time whenever it is? Should the printer just had the regular delivery company bring it tomorrow since whoever was to bring it in the "expedited" method failed?

The only good thing is that "Transcon" sent us a bag of Canadian candy. We got sugared up, and that made us feel better.

Moca planning

Baseman is a joker. Wherever he is, he'll tell jokes. A lot of them. I met with MOCA folks, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, and Simone Legno in downtown this evening. The idea was to lay the groundwork for the panel and live painting evening of Pervasive Persuasion, an event in 2008. It's going to also feature Oguri, a butoh dancer. I think that threw everyone off into a what the fuck is going on again? mode. Oguri is going to do a slow butoh move during the event. Strange for sure, and people are going to trip out hard. Butoh is a weird modern dance "thing."

Simone said the first thing he did when he landed in LA the first time from his native Italy was to go to Giant Robot. That's quite an honor. Literally from LAX to GR. I responded with figuring out the trick the car game he had on his site from years ago that got me the first place spot that stood for ages.

Tim and Gary get into lively art discussions. These two are like water and oil when it comes to art. "I disagree" is often said by Baseman. I learned a lot about these two, and a little tiny bit about the importance of art. Tim chows down on a shrimp udon. This shot catches him in mid-shrimp at East restaurant.

Denise and Raul chill and listen to Gary go at it. Jokes and all.

Angry Robot

Whoa weird, Militant Geek website features the Angry Robot in the City t shirt. Filled with vector art, it's something I did actually quickly. One day, I'd like to take a proper glass for illustration using Illustrator. I don't use a mouse, I don't know much except for a few tools, and that's how I go at it. It's minimal, but it's enough to get the job done. Sometimes, when you don't know what you're doing, stuff like this comes easy. It's like how at 17, Jason Bateman won a celebrity car race. No worries about family, kids, or anything, he probably went as fast as he could around the corners, and floored it coming out of every turn. Has he won it since? I don't think so.

Also French Robot wars? No, that's Tokyo Tower!

Militant Geek.

Yelp!

This ad dude from Yelp writes:

Eric,

Hope you are having a Happy Holidays? I have been thinking about you lately and how you just can't afford to be involved in Yelp. I ask myself, how can he not afford to be working with Yelp. Your Los Angeles would be a huge magnet to people who are looking for you in the area. Plus, with over 300 people coming to your page every month to decide to spend money in your store, there is a huge opportunity here.

I have to ask, what matters most, price or profit? Eric, which would you rather have? Price only lasts for a moment and profit lasts for a lifetime. I am very confident that Giant Robot would b a huge success on the site. Plus, your success is directly tied to mine, and I wouldn't have made contact with you if I didn't think I could help bring you more profit.

Let me know what I can do to make this work, I know you will have extreme success, we just got to get you involved. What are your thoughts?

-Best

Brent



Isn't this a fucked up email? It's one of the rudest, condescending emails I've seen in a while, and it came from Yelp.

1) has this guy Brent really been thinking about me?
2) can I really afford to work without Yelp? I've done it so far.
3) "Your Los Angeles" Yes, "My" Los Angeles.
4) I get 300 people looking at my page? That's it?
5) Price or profit and he inserts my name there? There's some fucked up shit. What's more important? Neither, it's doing things right. There's more to it, and if this dude had any business experience, he'd be cooler.
6) Giant Robot would "b"?

Pretty uncool Yelp.

Logo T

This is what I get to do, wear a GR shirt that I just made. It's a brown and orange prototype. It was just going to be a logo-t, but at the last minute, I put a robot in it. Not rocket science, but it works.

videodrome

Ken Tanaka is hilarious. Today, I was filmed for one of Ken Tanaka's video spots. What an honor. It should be up in a few weeks. If you don't know Ken, he's the whitest Japanese man I've ever seen. I don't think he realized that he was holding the Raideen jumbo backwards, which is very Ken Tanaka. Also the Raideen is also missing it's left hand. Here's a video of what he sort of does.



Film #2. Documentary about Takashi Murakami. Happened at JANM, and we'll see how many moments that I'll actually make it onto a documentary. I'm sure I'm there for comic relief, since there's no doubt, big time curators, critics, benefactors, other artists, TV people, actors, rich folks, etc, and then me? Find me on the cutting room floor.

Random SF.

After the Automator suggestion of the Yucatan spot on 15th and Valencia, and driving around the hot breakfast spots which are packed in SF, we were full. So much food, so good and on weekends, posole. I like this spot and the agua fresca is quite good too. I got the cantalope drink. SF never has a shortage of restaurants, but this one always has space.

Check out Mi Lindo Yucatan on yelp.

Dave's car is nuts. I like it, and he's going to give this to me soon in trade.

Owl of the day. Amazing work at Upper Playground. It makes noise through servos, and basically it's like a pinball machine. When it runs right, it makes a rhythmic beat.

This is a nice dog. So mellow. The little one is mellow too and has a nice bell.

Later in the day, we went to some print place. SF has this indie thing where people who want to make shit can get stuff done in a community. I guess since it's so spread out in LA, if you wanted to do this, you'd drive for an hour to find something.

Andrew Schoultz's mural still exists. How did this work in SF? In LA, it would be gone.

Object of the day. Mao dogg at his desk writing standards of his own Red Book quotes. He had quite a robust hairline. This object was probably old, and I guess served a purpose of some sort, but was $485. Historical communist gear is expensive. I'd probably break it, but it would look great in a museum or something. I hope someone rad gets this.

They sell some of our books and have a neat shop.

Pens and Needles sells some of ours too. Tim Kerr and Rich Jacobs art. SF is an arty place and it's fun to visit for a bit. I lived here once a while ago, and it remains a great place to visit.