UCLA Talk Asia Institute

Asia Institute got us in to speak today. It started off with a Thai to go lunch and a bunch of questions from the many students who are part of the Asia Pacific Arts and Asia Media web publications out of UCLA. Many have titles, some are interns, but they asked a bunch of questions relating to magazine making. I was challenging myself to remember a whole room of people. That's William with the glasses, the woman on the right is Debbie, but the names started to fade away. Check out all of their links, including the Asia Institute.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/
http://www.international.ucla.edu/asia/

This is what the talk looked like. Behind the project sat Tritia Toyota who's a newscaster in LA. I assume she's still active doing a lot of projects and she took a lot of notes during our talk. Why? I have no idea. She probably didn't realize it, but I'm a long time fan and I watched her broadcast often. I remember her best on NBC. Check out the video below, it's old, but her cadence is perfect and her hair amazing. A touch of blush and a more natural make up style made her better than the rest. In a way, I think she was the true prototype of the Asian American woman anchor. Connie Chung was a big name, but her style was over the top.

A fun fact is that punk band, The Dickies, recorded a song called, "I'm Stuck in a Pagoda with Tricia Toyota" They spelled her name different, who knows why. I wonder what she thinks of the song? Had I got to speak with her, that would have been my first question. 

The talk went well, and it was supposed to include a little about finding a job that's untraditional. I think we did a fair job in showing how it is. The weird thing is that the event took place in the faculty lounge, even as a student, I never got to go inside. Now, I get to see what it's all about. 

10 reasons why David Horvath is Babo

It's been said, that David Horvath looks like his characters. What do you think about Babo?

 

1) The eyes 

2) The teeth 

3) The hand gesture

4) The fact that he draws the Uglydolls. As pictured Babo draws Uglydolls 

5) David is a lefty, notice where the chopsticks are. Babo is a righty. Hmm. That's not helping my theory, is it? Sun-min is probably a righty though. Maybe it's to throw us off.

6) Babo has a little part in the head, David has a part in the hair.

7) Babo likes cookies. David likes cookies.

8) Babo means stupid or idiot in Korean. David is self deprecating, hence the name Uglydolls.

9) Babo is one of the earliest Uglydolls. I think it might have been the first. 

10) Uglycon and How to Draw Uglydolls as presented by Babo? Uh, David? 

Avocado thief makes it to the times blog

I wonder what people really think about this. Is it just stupid? Either way, a theft is a theft. Glad the Times are playing attention to this fairly trivial matter. Read their entry in the LA Now blog. It's not too much, but I'm amazed that they care. Maybe it's a Southern California thing. The weather is nice, we actually can grow produce in our yards (yes, we actually have yards with fruit)... If you drive in my area, you can see other trees, peaches, loquat, guava, other avocados, lemons, tangerines, persimmons and more. It's pretty cool to be in Southern Cali. My parents house has apple trees that are pretty good. They also do grapes which rock and blackberries.

Check it all out here.

Hook-ups Destroying America video with Ming Tran and Jeremy Klein

I forgot to add this one into the last post. So here it is. I couldn't find the video. It's from a Hook-ups a few years ago, called Destroying America. I think you were able to pick it up at Best Buy and it also featured Tony Hawk and many others including pro skater, Jeremy Klein and at the time, martial artist and student, Ming Tran. Check out the funny video part below. 


What do you think?

last bits chicago and ny

Walking around downtown Chicago, I couldn't help but notice this theater. I'm not offended or anything like that, if anything, I'm a bit nostalgic since I know this was created in an era when Oriental was a word, when Oriental could have been a rug, and if you look at the top of the sign, it looks like a genie's hat or a Taj Mahal. Ford makes it way at the bottom of the sign as well, which looks unfitting. I wonder, why does the McDonald's have a green "L"?

At the UIC men's bathroom, I saw this sign again. I've blogged it once before. But this one had some additional lines added in implying, put finger in butt, and you get bacon. It makes strange sense, but it's creative.

This was in NYC. I've seen this before, but it's funny to see a tag added to the "street art". I guess I like street art when it's neat like this. 

Remember Ming Tran? Vegan Supreme Marshmallows? The song by Gob, Hookups ads, or the video below?  She's in NY and might be piloting a plane you travel in. Yes, she flies now.

ConversAsian

Yvonne Lau, a professor at DePaul University invited me to appear on her show, ConversAsian that shows in Illinois. Before you mess with it's name, know that it's been around for years. It's fairly free form, it's Yvonne and a subject sitting across from each other in a simple room. It's what you've seen on cable access, but this one focuses on Asian Americans. Rare actually, isn't it? I made it through two segments easily, each being 28 minutes. There's no editing, so if you decide to melt down, you can't take it back.

This is what the control board looks like. I'm sure it's not brand new, but it works. We talked about the beginnings of GR, where it's been, where it's going, Asian America, and what I think about it all. It's fun to be able to air out your mind, especially when I've been thinking about things for a while. 

After the interview, Yvonne thanked me and said it was inspiring. If you see the broadcast, give me a shout.  

Hot Doug's hot dogs Part 2

Hot Doug Part 2 - it doesn't stop. The food in Chicago is pretty good. I've written about Hot Doug's before, which is perhaps the best dog place around. It's open only during the day, and it's right by the folks at Midway who makes the Chow Yun Fat video game. Eat dog seems be well crafted. The above two are the veggie dogs, and maybe some of the folks who read this blog can tell me what the heck the bottom one is. I forgot. I added the image above, and that's Hot Doug himself. I sneaked photos of him before, but this time I asked, and look at that smile. If you're in the business of making great food, and making people happy, I hope you can smile like this man can. He's always there working. When he's out, the spot might be closed. 

Rumor has it, that Hot Doug is a culinary student of sorts, and went through the rigors of being at high end restaurants, and now makes the best dogs he can. That's really cool.

This is the Dave Kingman. I do remember Mr Kingman, who hit a ball in the Astrodome that went so high, it didn't come down. The Chicken sausage dog is the Dave Kingman. I got it Italian style, which has those special herbs that mama would put in the sauce. 

The technique of opening this dog is a bit freaky. If you hit Chicago, you should check this place out.

Here's my last post about Hot Doug's.

University Illinois Chicago

Talking at a the University of Illinois Chicago, which is a state school that's supposedly not among the better institutions, it was a a great chance to talk to the people-the regular kids-which is pretty much how I got my education. 

1) The school is 25% Asian, and even with that, there's no Asian American studies as a major. There's a student Asian American office, but it ends there. One office, and 25% of the campus who's Asian. It doesn't compute, does it? The majority is probably 1.5 generation, which is maybe why it's splintered. 

2) We talked for about 40 minutes to a decent amount of people, and then answered questions, then it became an impromptu signing session. Usually people just gather and take, but in Chicago, they lined up orderly.



3) The best part of talking to schools is that the kids who aren't forced to come, really listen as compared to talking at a class where people just don't care.

4) Another good part about doing it out of town is that these are all new folks who are just finding out about the magazine. Hopefully, they'll stick around.

5) The good thing is that we got to eat Greek food for dinner. The future of Asian America? I'm not sure, it's always cloudy, but today, I think we talked good game.

Jay Ryan The Bird Machine

Inspection time. This is a preview shot of the new poster for Shipping News. The artwork is always by Jay if he's printing it, and it features a multicolored, geometric abstraction image that's more fine art than ever. He's using gradients and they come out perfect with a nice transition of color. Jay's an amazing artist from Chicago and it was great to see his studio. 

Jay is sort of an eco dude. He's growing sprouts outside the studio door. That's Tim Hugh who runs the Asian film fest in Chicago. 

Jay in his front room where the magic begins.

Smoque in Chicago

Baby back Ribs. If you think of that Chili's song, that's a heartbreaker and maybe a dealbreaker. Refrain please. Instead, grab a pile of wetnaps, get your all you can handle Fanta Orange and get ready to rumble. These are the St Louis style, and the ribs break apart easily, and the flavor is both juicy and meaty with a bounty of taste. It's not heavy on the sauce when it shows up, and their BBQ sauce works great on everything including fries. See the forks? You don't need them for the main features.

 
Brisket sandwich. The bread alone works with the sauce. It's sort of like eating Unagi, you can put the sauce on anything, and it'll taste good. But the brisket is tender and breaks down in your mouth. This a soft sandwich, and the thick bread isn't too heavy, and compliments the meat. I found myself pouring a tiny bit more of the BBQ sauce in. Does that meat look amazing? Even you vegans and veggies have to admit, this is looking good, right?

The sides aren't a joke here. The beans are a winner and sports a great sweet and smokey flavor that blows a can of Bush's to Uranus. Tiny bits of meat, tell me that it's probably made with the "shake" from the ribs and brisket giving that extra jab to tell you it's homegrown. The cole slaw might actually be a vegan dish. It's void of the typical mayo, but instead is in a dressing, so it's more like a mini salad. Vinegar, spices, and the onions make this work. I could have ate a bowl, and today, the following day, that's what I'll probably need to eat all day in the wake of this devastating to the body type of meal.

Smoque
3800 N Pulaski
(between Avondale Ave & Grace St)
Chicago, IL 60641
(773) 545-7427

Cai Guo-Qiang At the Guggenheim Museum I Want to Believe

Murakami might be in Brooklyn, but Cai Guo-Qiang is at the Guggenheim. Two of Asia's finest artists are doing insanely well in the world market. I don't need to say much about Murakami, who's going the Louis Vuitton thing in Brooklyn as well, and Cai Guo-Qiang did his exploding car thing as well, and showed his stuffed animals and boats with arrows. He also showed his explosion paintings as well. It's amazing that two artists from Asia can make an impact in perhaps the leading city for "high" art in America at once. If you're in NYC, I'd highly suggest you check out Cai Guo-Qiang. I last saw his work at MassMOCA, and it's great that he's also going to do the fireworks for the Beijing Olympics.

Comicon Day 2, Sunday and Over

You know you're in trouble when you see "URBAN VINYL" look like this. Recall, one year ago, I photographed Diamond comics with the box that said "URBAN VINYL" on it, and although they probably don't make these, I didn't like them at all. I'm not sure if a Urbanized Han Solo or Boba Fett is the way to go. When I see this, I think it's the end of the vinyl doll craze, but it's not. Have any opinions on this?

This morning, a funny thing was taking place. Look at this photo. You see the dog just looking at me as if he was skeptical old man. Not saying a word, but just watching away. But the dog owners were in back. It's overcast, a little cold, and in this empty playground are a couple who get their morning exercise by throwing a Frisbee at each other. I would agree that Frisbee throwing is a lot of fun, but for some reason, this didn't fit at all.

The top row of handmade crochet plush are amazing.

Plenty is said in hush hush about the above kaiju. What do you think?

GRNY.

Pillow fight with Uglies. It was a daydream for you some of you Uglyfans. 

Videos / the thief and the musician

The thief struck a Giant Robot art exhibition in SF. Know who this is? This person stole a piece by Susie Ghahremani. Notice the lack of fear or any kind of hesitation. This person is bad person. Could you do this without any hesitation? Would you even think about it? And would it eat you up later? It's sad to say, some people just don't care and won't hesitate to steal from a young artist. Sad times and a sad world we live in. Imagine that this is a stolen art piece, and not a murder, terrorism, war, or anything like that, and yet, this person still has to fuck up something that's fairly pure.




The next video I shot while on Virgin America. Did you know they'll let a passenger play the sax in an aisle? I'd much rather see a gymnast do flips, or maybe a stripper doing her thing, or how about a skateboarder pushing mongo-style? Virgin America is a lot more open minded in letting people entertain themselves on a plane which is shocking since eventually it'll cause some kind of problem or complaint. I remember after 9/11 they didn't want people getting out of their seats. If you hung around near the bathrooms, it meant bad things. Maybe it's great that we're more lax, and security is improved to the point that we can fly with a smile and more comfort.

Ny Kaiju Toy Tokyo

Toy Tokyo does it weird sometimes, but overall, they're hustling and pushing the kaiju. It's streetwear mixed with toys, if that makes any sense. But it's working for them. I'm not sure kaiju fits, but if it's not, they're making it fit. So here's more pics from the exhibition. It's neat to see toys get front and center attention. It's not the first time, but maybe it needs to happen more.

The Lord!

She likes head.

Koji Harmon paints kaiju 

Kiyoka Ikeda sculpts and paints well himself.

Le Merde

I know some of you toy folks are saying you'd hit this.

This is a great collection of Real Head dolls. I wish I had a collection that looked like this.

Whoa, this is a diorama of strangeness