FREE Screening of MONGOL starring Tadanobu Asano - June 4th in LA.

GIANT ROBOT invites you & a guest to a Special Screening of the new PICTUREHOUSE release

NO HE WON'T BE THERE!

Directed by Sergei Bordov and written by Sergei Bordov with Arif Aliyev
Starring Tadanobu Asano

Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (PRISONER OF THE MOUNTAINS) illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan in his stunning historical epic, MONGOL. Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, MONGOL delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. MONGOL shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor.

Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, MONGOL transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad’s landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. In a performance of powerful stillness and subtlety, celebrated young Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu (ICHI THE KILLER, ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE) captures the inner fire that enabled a hunted boy to become a legendary conqueror. Asano’s achievement is matched by those of his co-stars, including the radiant newcomer Khulan Chuluun as Temudgin’s courageous, spirited wife Borte, and the Chinese actor Honglei Sun (THE ROAD HOME) as the Mongol chieftain Jamukha, Temudgin’s dearest friend and deadliest enemy. Masterfully blending action and emotion against some of the most arresting terrain on earth, Bodrov delivers an exciting and awe-inspiring tale of survival and triumph, and a love story for the ages.

MONGOL will be released in NY/LA on Friday, June 6th, 2008. 124 minutes. MPAA Rating – R.


Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 7:30PM
PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER
Silver Screen Theater (2nd Floor)
8687 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
*Please enter the PDC through the San Vicente Blvd entrance and park in the parking structure next to the green bldg where the theater is located.*

Seating is not guaranteed and will be first come, first serve.

1. Send RSVPs to filmmatters@giantrobot.com with “Mongol” in the subject line.
2. Please indicate if you will be bringing a guest.
3. You will receive an email confirming your RSVP.
4. Seating is not guaranteed and will be first come, first serve.

Tom Sach's Sanrio

Tom Sachs put a bunch of Sanrio characters at the Lever House in NYC. I can't tell you much about Sachs, but this was an interesting installation that presents the importance and "size" of Hello Kitty. I especially like his patchwork treatment of the characters and the fact that they're tearing water into a fountain is hilarious. I didn't know this would be there, and it was great to see just walking by. That's so NYC. You see shit done in a way that's meant to be seen if you're just walking by.

The talk

Look at this drawing by Jeaux Janovsky. Amazing. Bye bye David Choe, king of sketch artists... this dude is pretty good. I'm sure he did some coloring at home, right? Either way, impressive. I don't remember being drawn much or if at all except when it was needed for something.

Here's a photo from Mr Jimmy! who's blog is at www.asupremenewyorkthing.com


Then there's more here on Random Access Information, and Jeaux Janovsky's blog.

Meanwhile, what does all this say?

Choe in NYC

Mr Choe and well, that's also a Mr Choe in the background. In NYC now, I met up with "Davidu" (say in Korean accent), at TEHUITZINGO! A great spot to get tacos! You have to walk in and get to the back which has a counter where you can order, eat tacos, shoot the shit with whoever's there, and then leave. The tacos I'd have to say are amazing. Lengua tacos and the chorizo and potato taco are the winners. Those are a must have there. There's drinks like Jarritos, but if you ask the "locals" who are in there, they suggested a drink called BOING! They had a strawberry drink. It comes in a bottle, and yes that's a winner too. 695 10th Avenue.

Read some mixed reviews on YELP. I swear we enjoyed it.

Down the block there's a palm reader woman who wears a carnivale like silver mask. I don't know why.

Dave at his casa in Chinatown. It's a big ass pad with a TV screen projected on the wall, where we played Mario Kart on Wii. 

David and manager of GR store NY, Cheryl. Both have similar tastes in comics. Notice that bizarre toy Cheryl bought.

Korea Society NYC

Here's what we looked like right after. That's me and Joshua who's from CollectionDX. The talk was interesting. It started off with an introduction about toys. The Korea Society had an exhibition of toys from the 70s and 80s and such. First off, who would show robots in an established environment? This is stuff for nerd / geeks. Joshua, showed a powerpoint of tons of images of toys that he's aware of, and it's strange manifestations as they went from Japan to Korea and into the hands of the creative bootleggers. Tons of images and tons of explanation, and then it was my turn. What would I do? I came in and had to contextualize it so people could understand what the old robots and culture around that has brought forth today. read Collection dx.

Kalbi? No. The robots and such brought out a generation of creatives. Imagine a filmmaker like Joon Ho Bong, who made the Host. Did he watch monster films as a kid? Did he play with toys? Of course he must have. The geeks who collected toys are now in power at creative places, and look at what they've brought forward? A new world of creative minds. Check out Korea Society.

Korean food afterwards was the call. Of course. Imagine that Korea Society put all this on, it's odd, edgy, and who else would do this?

That's Jinyoung who worked on this show and talk. She rocks.

My Bodyguard

My Bodyguard was a film that's from the 80s, while, it's been pretty much forgotten, today in NYC, I few personal mysteries were solved. The pond depicted in the film, where was that? Today my friend Claudine told me that the pond in Central Park is the one from the film, and she was sure of it. I argued that I thought it was larger, and there was more to it. I didn't remember even banks all around, although I did remember it not being an oval, that it did have man made ins and outs. Today by the way, in NYC was perfect weather, people were out and about.


So after seeing the pics below. I'm pretty sure that the pond I saw isn't it. It's the pond where you can rent boats and eat lunch. It's larger and close by to the first pond. After sitting there believing that I was looking at the My Bodyguard pond, I pretty much discarded any other care about any other pond. So now I'm pretty sure I know which pond it is. Either way, I guess personal mystery solved. 

Meanwhile, rent My Bodyguard. I think it's a great film. If I had to show a movie in Central Park, perhaps this one would be the perfect one to show. 

Morning jfk

Talking at Toyota

The text didn't show up hours ago with the photo, so I'll have to type it in. Did a talk at Toyota today for Asian Heritage Month. Toyota is a huge campus, and like a school, there are groups and committees which are volunteer. They create events for people to enjoy, and I'm glad they do and did. Like anywhere though this has to be at a time when they're not busy, so during lunch, etc, employees might have some time to check something like this out. Glad they did and hope we made their lunch better. I'm still going to NYC tonight to talk tomorrow and then come back really quick!

James Jean

James Jean's pad is pretty cool especially when there's koi in a pond. What do you think of ponds? Are they relaxing, or are they a waste of time. I remember back in the day, ponds were more popular and these days there are less and less. The "too much trouble" line comes up a lot. If you don't know James Jean's work, then you should look him up, or wait a bit, and check him out later. His casa is interesting, once a product of an architect, who had a craftsman like home in the front and a big addition of a studio in the back, which actually uses a portion of the top of the garage as a studio, it's a well thought out place. The architect moved down the street, but the house remains and is now broken into two. I'd say, you can do a mini cribs at James Jean's place.

Illustrate Now!

GR helps people do things that will probably make them broke. I'm not sure if this is a good thing to do, but getting excited because you read one of our magazines? Cool. Unlike a lot of mags out there, we're low key. We don't do the most popular thing, and we highlight a lot of things which are unpopular. But overall, we're telling a story of a group of people who are trying to do things that are usually against the grain. Read this person's blog on positivecapitalism.com. I guess you can say, we helped him/her see something that he was missing out on. I'm not sure if wealth building is the way to look at illustrating, but check out his/her blog

Korea Society Talk This Wed May 28, 2008 New York City

I'll be in NYC for a day or so to talk to whoever shows up on this panel discussion. It's about stuff I like, Toys!

The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, Eighth Floor

Please join us for a lively talk on Korean toys and their fascinating origins in the interplay between Korean, Japanese and American pop cultures. This panel is presented in conjunction with our current traveling exhibition, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood.

Panelists:
Joshua Bernard, editor, CollectionDX.com
Eric Nakamura, publisher, Giant Robot Magazine
Joanne Rudis, design director, Fisher Price/Mattel
Seho Kim, creative director, The Korea Society

$10 (members) and $15 (non-members)
Buy tickets online or RSVP to (212)759-7525, ext. 355 email.

About the Panelists

Joshua Bernard, editor, CollectionDX.com
As a child of the '70s, Joshua Bernard was raised on Shogun Warriors, Speed Racer, Starblazers, Voltron and George Lucas. His obsession for Japanese toys and culture was the impetus behind CollectionDX.com, his popular Web site for toy collecting. Joshua collects Korean and Japanese toys, has written for Super7 magazine and co-authored the book Tokyo Underground: Toy Design and Culture in Tokyo.

Eric Nakamura, publisher, Giant Robot
After graduating from UCLA with a degree in East Asian Studies, Eric got his start in the magazine business at Larry Flynt Publications. He is currently the publisher of Giant Robot, a magazine and Web site dedicated to Asian American pop culture. Eric has also produced the independent film Sunsets, shot photos for punk rock bands and designed t-shirts.

Joanne Rudis, design director, Fisher Price/Mattel
A 1993 graduate of FIT's toy design program, Joanne Rudis began her career in Chicago at Strombecker (Tootsietoys). From 1993 to 1995, she designed Sesame Street wood toys, die-cast metal toys and Disney bubble toys for Strombecker. In 1995, she moved to Rhode Island to work for Playskool, the preschool division of Hasbro, where she focused on their Dollhouse line. Rudis joined Fisher Price in 1997. She is currently the design director for the Disney licenses at Fisher Price.

Seho Kim, Creative Director, The Korea Society
Kim received his BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA from Parsons School of Design/New School University, where he was the 2003 commencement speaker. He is the winner of the 2006 Spotlight Award, the 2006 American Design Award and the 2005/2006 Magellan Award for excellence in communications in design. He was worked on projects for W Hotels and The Store, and illustrated Go for Kids, a multi-paneled children's book published in 2001.

Deharavath video, yeah it's late sorry

Deharavath happened when I was out of town, but I did catch the install and talk to the artists, David Horvath of Uglydoll and Yukinori Dehara of Cakees! I shot this through my camera, and it ended up ok. I should have shot a lot more to make it more rounded, but in the end, I should be using a video camera, and doing it right. Maybe I can get some help on this eventually when I can find someone who wants to shoot stuff like this, or maybe I can have someone on staff shoot it. I think I need about 15 minutes of footage to pull something decent. I think I shot about 7 minutes total for this one. I used 5+ of it!

Yosemite Studios

Yosemite Studios feature Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Carlos, Souther, Seonna, and Martha Rich. That's Souther and Seonna who is striking the pose. Below, she is quite surprised! I should have taken more photos, but I did shoot some video which is at the bottom. That alone has to be worth something. Souther's doing magic, rubber arms revisited, pen tricks, Kid N Play, and more. Tons of people come to their studio party these days. In the past I remember when it was just a private handful. Now it's a raging kegger. See the videos below.

What the heck, that has to be one of the tallest lip raises ever. 

Un Clayton

Fascinated by Japan article

Articles happen all the time on GR, and we're thankful for all of them, but this one was one which didn't seem to be working right even after the interview. Facts weren't right, and when I pointed one wrong thing out, I didn't hear anything back about anything else. But maybe there was so little added to it, that it was all okay, who knows. The title already is way off base. "Fascinated by Japan -- If it's big in Japan, it could also hit big in the United States--and these entrepreneurs are betting on it." That's definitely not true. Right? It's definitely not something I'd think. I guess I'm betting on it to be true. Ouch.

Just the title is a horrible start. It's bordering on annoying. What do you think? Personally, I feels like the title from this article is from years ago. I remember articles like these that highlighted Japan and people's fascination with the place as being super cool, and so on. Either way, it's great press and it's been syndicated by papers everywhere. Read it here.

Gruyere Cheese Fart Smell

Friday, I ate at Sawtelle Kitchen. First time in years since their remodel. Sawtelle Kitchen is the restaurant that I would go to once in a while, since it's across the street from GR1. The issue I have is that the owner closed up and evicted my aunt's shop Get Wicked. The owner is known as a jerk, but I don't really know him. Maybe he's swell, who knows. The funny thing about the meal was that Gruyere cheese is served on the penne pasta. If you order it, you're in for a surprise. The entire restaurant will waft of wretched fart. Here's what went down.

I noticed the fart smell and ignored it. Martin the vegetarian and getting lactose intolerant was sitting on my right. I figured a tiny peep came out. Kidding, but I did whisper and ask him about the shit smell. He thought it was the cheese. Daniel sitting across said he was outside on the phone and smelled it shooting out of the door. Bad plumbing? No, he sat, and caught on to my private question to Martin, since who knew maybe it was Dan or better yet, Elaine sitting next to him. I do have some tact. We got vocal about it and talked about it for a bit. A kid at another table noticed it to and was sure it was fart.



Meanwhile, the waitress came by and I asked about the fart smell. She laughed and explained it all. Melted Gruyere. The fella sitting next to us peeked over, it was his penne and he knew what we were talking about. We figured maybe he didn't know that it was his own since he was shoveling the food into his pie hole. Then soon left.

Ten minutes later, another table 15 feet away got one too. The fart smell came back and we then watched to see what the reactions were from the guy who got the dish. He sat across from two ladies and was quick to blame the dish. I saw him lift the plate and let his female guests smell it close up. He could have sent it back leaving him with no food while the ladies had their dishes. Then it would get awkward. he looked around with a little bit or embarrassment. He knew that his dish reeked of smelly gas. He had to man up and eat it.

Rant about the news of the quake

The Quake in China. I remember when it happened, I was on a plane going to Beijing, I landed, got in front of a TV, there was a bit of news that it was a 7.8, but now days later, people still being found alive, the death toll is up to 55,000 with a another 20,000+ not found, and hundreds of thousands injured. The question is how the heck were so many new agencies so content in reporting 5,000 were killed fairly early on. It went up every day to being 10 times+ wrong. I understand the news needs to report what they know, but it's so far off, it's a wonder why they bother reporting anything at all? I'd guess news doesn't get out too well from the smaller and poorer towns who are completely cut off and devastated to the big agencies who then report what they feel fit. Yet imagine... "that car is $10,000. Oops, my "expert guess" was wrong it's $55,000." "Your sister had her baby. Oops, I was wrong, it's quintuplets." All so far off, and this is about deaths, not money or life. I don't think we've ever been that wrong at GR, and it seems hard to be that wrong. But in our need to know numbers about everything, as in How much is this? How many are there? etc etc, we're forcing the news to feed us crap as well. It goes both ways. No one is right, but I'm sitting shaking my head as to how it went from 5k to 55k in a week. That's my tiny rant and it helps nothing, except hopefully making people a little more thoughtful about figures.

Meanwhile, check out the wedding photos before and after the quake, it's a trip from one photo to the next. The buildings seem like they're made out of sand.

Hundreds

Hundreds Bobby posted a mammoth compared to my measly photo of him and his camera. I rock his clothes and such, but he published a book on GR in minutes I'm sure. That's why he carries that camera, his pics come out clean and good. He even watermarks his photos, which is a nice touch since everyone just takes each other's photos and puts them on their blogs. Check it out here.

Bowling for mail

Being gone for a bit means mail piles up. Mail is usually good, and tons of cool things come through. Books, zines, comics, cd's, art, gifts, snacks, PR, payments, and more. One of the boxes was heavy and larger. At first, even though the sides said it was bowling related, I didn't believe it. I figured it was catalogs or books or something. But it really was a bowling ball. This one is from our friend Tim Hugh in Chicago, who's a heck of a bowler. He let me play a couple of games, and I scored a 133 which is my record. I've bowled maybe 10 times in my life, and I tried it again recently and got a 115. Not great, but not bad considering. 

So now I have a ball with no holes in it. Tim said to start with your own ball so you won't use the crappy balls with the odd sized finger holes in them which will ultimately make you suck. I don't know about that, but now that I have one, I have no excuse. I'll tell you how it goes.

Also: on a side note, Blogger has been not allowing people to put images through ftp for two days. That's really awful and it's hard to believe it's still a problem. I'm sure a lot will suggest to use Wordpress, which is what we should be doing.

Inclined band, reunited

This is a band I was friends with through the end of high school and some of early college. I'm not sure if getting back together is a great thing, since sometimes, the memories are better, but this band was together from 1984 or earlier to 1996, which is a long reign for sure, and I guess why not play a few more gigs. Reunion shows are in, right? Miles Tackett is also known as The Kid Named Miles, who is a big part of The Breakestra. Eugene Perry, the nice guy, is the bass player who's now a web developer. The drummer prodigy, Steve Smart lives in Pittsburgh. Each are insane quality musicians. Each could have and probably worked as studio musicians, which means, they are great. They're getting back for a few shows, it's coming up this weekend. I miss them when it was about dirty Led Zep and Aerosmith rock n roll, before the hip hop and funk hit them.  Here's a link to an article in the Palisadian Post newspaper. I worked there as a photographer once I think in 1989. I was their chief photographer. See the Inclined myspace for info about their shows.

Bobby Hundreds

One of the Mr Hundreds stopped in for lunch at gr/eats. He still has that super wide lens that looks fit for skaters and has no fear of the large camera format. It's great to catch up with kids like him. His shop in SF is cruising along. If you haven't seen it, it looks nuts inside. I feel like I'm in an Iron Maiden album. That's pretty tough to accomplish in a retail shop. Check out some photos on their blog.

Brillante Mendoza

Brillante Mendoza is in GR53. I met him at the SFIAAFF. He's a great guy, totally nice and I made the screening of one of his films that I wanted to see even though I really had no time. I saw him a moment before the screening, he gave me a pound and went up and intro'd his film and said something like, he was happy that some of his new friends made it to the show. 

His latest film Serbis was part of the competition at Cannes. It got panned by the media, but it's the first film from the Philippines in 24 years. This film is probably harsh in some way showing the differences between the wealthy and poor in Manilla. The film is almost 5 hours long. Read more on ABS CBN.

Wieden Kennedy Shanghai

This is part of the W+K office in Shanghai. I did a talk there to a lot of the staff who sat around the grassy interior middle. I like it when offices make an open space. It either means, they planned it that way, or they have too much space. Most offices are crammed! People sat, listened, drank beer, asked questions, and it was all translated. I enjoyed listening to whatever I said turned into Chinese. At some points, I realized, the translations were a bit off, but that's ok, maybe it made GR sound cooler. Evidently I was test subject #1. The speakers series has begun. 

That's Nick Barham in the middle. He took care of business. Along with Mr John Jay who set it up. They also gave me a great looking Perk book.

This is a better view, you can see how their office is set up. It's three floors in a warehouse that has a lot of concrete. It's definitely a creative only atmosphere and they're tearing shit up in Shanghai and Beijing. Photos taken by the house photographer. I saw you taking pics. Thanks much. 

Ken Tanaka on Jade Cracked Seed

Ken Tanaka emailed me and said he saw the Jade Foods article in Giant Robot and then went to Hawaii and checked it out for himself. So check out the video and enjoy. If you have a bag of seed, you should bust it open and enjoy. Either way, glad to see GR is being used wisely for it's editorial prowess. Ken Tanaka is one of the funnier persons on YouTube, glad he went from searching for his parents to adding to culture.

The Fans

Hanging out with the Wu, causes firestorms of fans. It's great when they're so obvious. They'll follow him into a shop and pretend to be looking around, they'll snap photos in the most obvious way, they'll go nuts full knowing that it's annoying, yet, they're the true fans who'll be there day or night. The mid sentence thing is the best. I guess it happens so often, that Daniel will talk about something, break for a photo with someone, then come back and finish his sentence. 

XinJiang Uighur restaurant

Eating food from the Xinjiang region is interesting. It's far in middle north, it's Muslim, and the folks there look part everything all in one. Turkish, Chinese, you name it, they're mixed. The food is tasty. It's lamb time. On skewers, you can actually just pick some up on the street in front of the restaurant. It's done well, and it's tasty. The lamb that's minced with vegetables make for great burrito like bites. That's highly suggested. More than the food is the funny atmosphere. The folks working there break into song on the stage via karaoke type machine and keyboards. A few new friends from W+K in Shanghai joined up.

This is the eggplant. It's lightly breaded, and tastes amazing. I haven't had eggplant like this before, and it tastes light and good. 





Watch this video, I think it may make some of you trip out. I got more than I bargained for.

1 Shaanxi South Road, near Yan'an Zhong Road, Shanghai

Issimo Restaurant Shanghai

The restaurant within JIA hotel in Shanghai where I'm staying features a restaurant that's highly recommended. It's called Issimo. It's Italian, which is odd choice of food, considering, I'm far from home in Asia, but this place doesn't disappoint. First off, it was filled, and you're supposed to reserve ahead of time. Being a last second person, it was a "kitchen" seat which is basically a front row to the kitchen counter seat. 

The simple salad is actually really nice. You can crush salt and pepper and you can do your own dressing. Balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Bruschetta is always a winner. It's simple, bread, some tomatoes, but this one features the white part. The fat off of pork, which works almost like cheese. It's super thin, and I'd guess a lot wouldn't know it was fat, they'd think it's cheese.

Grilled vegetables on a skewer with cheese on top. I don't eat dairy products, so I opted to not have any on it. But in the end, cheese and pork fat, are just about the same, except the pork fat won't make me sick.

You order pasta for two. I guess you can get a single portion, at more than half the price of the normal portion which is priced for two. 

Simple and good. 

931 West Nanjing Road, Shanghai
Telephone: (86-21) 6287 9009