If we were Bitch

The next question is:

If we were in Bitch Magazine's spot and put out an email, would we get the support? Will we get the great discussion with over 110 post responses and such? Can we accomplish raising the money in 3 days? Will our readers rally? I certainly hope so, but for some reason, I have my doubts.

Here's why

a) We get little feedback. We once had a vibrant and funny letters section. It usually gets cuts super short or it turns into a letter with a photo and a caption section. That's bold for a 1/2 page.

b) Maybe it's an Asian thing, to sit and be quiet and just read. I'd take that as a great compliment. Asian film festivals often have this problem. An audience of Asians who won't ask a question. If they read the mag and are so happy that they can't say a word, that's a great thing. I doubt that's true.

c) Recently we made a scavenger hunt in the letters section, but with no responses. The only ones were on the robot lounge, and it was more critical, than anything. It was jokey, but still, no response. Are our readers more apathetic than most? I see great letters sections in other magazines, even "bad" ones.

d) I often hear, "I'm behind a few issues." Or "I need to subscribe." I know it's a hassle, but those people don't get around to it.

e) Maybe because we have stores, do people think, "oh the magazine is fine." How do our stores affect the publishing industry? They don't.

f) I know my own blog actually has a bunch of readers daily. I appreciate it genuinely, but feedback even here is pretty sparse. It seems like the same 10 people make comments.

g) We have corporate ads? It's never enough. Even with folks like Scion who offer a lot of help, Thedirectorschairsite.com, Emotes, Uglydoll, and so on, it's still a grind, we don't have 30 pages in ads. The ratio for ad pages to content is usually fairly high, but ours isn't. We have great advertisers, but that's still limited. Did you know we rejected a cigarette company's advertisement? That's dollars "missing". It would suck if we have to regret that.

I'll end it at G for now. If we had to send something like this out. What do you think would happen? Maybe I'd get proved wrong.

Sunrise Icebat - Uglydoll / Giant Robot

Wake up!
This is the Sunrise Ice Bat. A Giant Robot exclusive. We'll have limited supplies and quantities only 50 pieces made, it's a nice yellow with blue legs, blue teeth, and orange eyes. Ice Bat is up in the morning. In store at 11:30am. I guess this means, GRNY has had em out already.

here's the link.

Giant Robot at Ball State University - Thursday November 6th 5-7pm

Come meet Myself and Martin Wong on the campus at Ball State University.
It's a campus lecture that's hopefully about Giant Robot, and it's work with popular culture - all kinds - from mainstream, to Asian, and Asian American. It's on:

Thursday November 6th 5-7pm.
Ball State University is 2000 W. University Ave. Ball State University. Muncie Indiana 47306.
L.A. Pittenger Student Center - FORUM ROOM

If you live in Indiana or any of the surrounding states. You should come by and say hello, it's not often that we're in Indiana.

Calling All Hands - check out Bitch magazine

I'm not a regular reader of Bitch magazine. Let me start off by stating that. That doesn't mean I don't like it, but what I have in common is the ongoing interest in indie publishing. Imagine, they've been around for a bit, much like Giant Robot, and they face exactly the same problems as we do, daily. Printing costs, shipping costs, bills, and so on never slows down. The difference between having the lights on and being off are always a slim margin. More than you may know.

We're part of an entity known as Small Press. Being an independent voice in publishing is rare these days, since most magazine no matter how small have either gone out of business or have been turned into corporate mouthpieces for larger publishing companies. It's actually a frightful position to be in the world of indie publishing currently. Internet boom 5.0, online ads, and a lot of attention has swung away from the venerable print publications. Especially the smaller ones.

Let's go macro. Substitute, "Asian" for Bitch's "feminist," in their subtitle, and you have us, we're actually in a similar boat as Bitch. Having had problems with distributors, being owed money, and scrambling to survive, indie publishing hasn't gotten any easier. They've resorted to being wide open in asking for help from their readers and supporters.

Here's a link to their post about saving Bitch magazine. Notice the amount of comments they've received. There's actually a great discussion between the readers, them, and some "experts" - who's names I recognize. That's really cool.
Here's their donation video pitch.



Here's their success post! Congrats, Bitch Magazine. It's great to see how your readers rally for you! They are even past the 75k mark. 

Giant Robot X China Bag shirt

Yes, we collaborated with China. Far off in the mountains away from the Special Economic Zone is a valley with a factory of loom like machine which produce those old bags that are nearly free. It's on the GR cap, and now it's going to be on a GR t-shirt. Capturing the spirit of the east and even the south (yes, these bags are in Mexico too), the shirt feels just right to me. Comes in a couple of colors, I'll wear this proudly, but hopefully not every day like I wear the GR X Know1edge cap. Get those before we run out.

The shirt will come in a few colors and will be out late next week at the GR stores. Keep posted.

BonChon Fried Chicken Korean Style

That looks good, doesn't it? That's Korean style fried chicken. You can say Korean style, but fried chicken is fried chicken no matter how you handle it. Yet, my friends were telling me while the chicken eating jams pumped out of the speakers, "Koreans eat the most fried chicken." Is that true? The photo above is of the sweet flavored version (Soy Garlic). There's also a spicy that's a killer. It's almost too hot and had everyone burning. I'd suggest opting for the sweet Soy Garlic which will make you smile. It's not over fried, and it's juicy, and made per order.

You can get different parts of the chicken, but they know what's tastiest and cheapest the dark meat. Keep in mind that it takes 25 minutes for the chicken to get made. You can order ahead even if you plan on eating there. We ate 4 baskets of chicken between 10 people. 

This version was boring. Simple fried chicken didn't have the zing compared to the flavored, but at the same time, it was good too. We also got fried gizzards, and they even have dishes like duk boki, salads, fries, and sandwiches. The duk boki is typical, the fries and onion rings are just okay. I'd stick with the chicken.

Notice alcohol bottles. They serve the soju and beer. The restaurant is actually quite small in size, with a few tables, so it seems like they're aiming for take outs.

The pickles are amazing. It's daikon, and this might be the most valuable thing MVT since it cuts the fried chicken flavor on your palate. It's also fun to eat because they're cubes.

This is the largest table. It's not that big, but this is about 1/3 of the place. I've heard many say that the competition, KyonChon isn't good, and BonChon is the place to go. There's plenty of locations on the east coast. I've tried one in Manhattan a while back. Meanwhile in LA, it's all about K-town. 6th and Catalina street. You can always hit Ice Kiss and get your dessert fix next door.

BonChon
3407 W 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 487-7878

This is what happens. The fried chicken crash. 

Whoa, it's K Town Shenanigans.

Jean and Harry Kim doing Endless Love or something like that. 

Hahn and Choe Jam session

The jam session happens. David Choe on the lefty drum set. Yes it looks weird like that, but sounded great as you'd expect. And Joseph Hahn scratching the Qbert battle record. A few quick cuts and beats and See the video below. The drums are loud, but if you're standing near the turntables in the music station area where Joseph usually sits to make beats, then it sounds nice and balanced.

Choe the drummer. So fast you can't see the sticks.

Cribs: Joseph Hahn Linkin Park's crib visit.

Joseph Hahn of Linkin Park and David Choe of David Choe. This is sort of like cribs for a seccond, it was dark out, and late, so there's no house photos, but Joseph lives in a great area in Brentwood, my old stomping grounds. I've met Joseph for just a second years ago, but it's great to see how he's thriving. Is that even the right word? Thriving? His house is amazing, he's a good guy with quite a toy collection.

His art collection is no joke either. It spans the three floors of his home. There's even an elevator but I wouldn't ride that.

Banksy, WK, Space Invader, tons of work by illustration style and graf artists. There's everything.

Bathrooms. This is nuts, two sides, and huge. The bathroom is bigger than most bedrooms.

Frozen Han Solo

Bobby Hundreds sits in the Eames Lounge. I told him Kiehl's stores have them.  

This is amazing. Even Joseph has a sneaker collection. It doesn't ever end. 

Blogger changes

i'm no expert in code, but recently Blogger changed the code when you post a photo. It's something I tried to scan on the internet, and found very little info. Maybe it doesn't affect anything, but in the end, it may affect some of you out there.

It looks like this. Why the heck did they decide to add this line of code in the last one week?

width: 306px; height: 400px;

Basically, it was fine without it, and now it's in there... it does cause a problem with us for sure.

Groovisions video

Remember Groovisions, who took helvetica bold to new heights? They were part of the Superflat Exhibition curated by Takashi Murakami that came through LA, and a few other cities. Groovisions designed Chappies, a character that's simple, cute, and also plain. They also were on the cover of Giant Robot 23.



They had a shop in Tokyo which was in the cool area of Nakameguro which is now closed. They've recently put together a cool video for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries MAFF, which works in their style of being simple, stylish, and heavily graphic oriented. Watching this is nostalgic in a way since it brings me back to this visionary design group. But at the same time, it's totally new and cool. I wish I knew how to make stuff like this. Maybe one day, I'll do it.

The Banana Diet

Why are Bananas so cool? It looks like it's a health benefit. I've been wondering why all of a sudden there's been a surge in banana toys, mascots, keychains, and plushes? We've been carrying them at the GR stores. Here's why. Bananas are in. It's part of a big weight loss diet, and now the demand for bananas are having a hard time being met in Japan. The deal is you eat a banana and drink room temperature water in the morning, eat lunch and dinner and so on. It's definitely a fad, and we'll see how long it lasts. Meanwhile, bananas have always been our friends. Read more in Time.

Add to the banana fad, and check out our

Banana capsules
Banana cell phone charms

This blog on iPhone

For your iphones... this is just a test, but maybe if you want, you can read my blog via your iphone. Check it out, it feeds optimized. Pretty cool. It updates every 15 minutes! Eventually it'll be done better or right, but for now, this seems pretty decent. Any feedback on this would be great.

Here's the link for your iphones.

Podcast delayed

We attempted to make a podcast by using Garage Band on a Mac. Figuring that the quality of recording would be decent even with the on board microphone, I was wrong. We recorded everything with a huge hiss in the background. I tried to mask it with music, but the weird thing is that the hiss goes away when we don't speak, but once we start talking the hiss starts - and stops again during a gap. It's more annoying than having a continuous hiss. 

I decided to order the Marantz 620 pictured above. In the past, I used an Ipod with a recording device for most of the past podcasts, but like all Ipods it seems, mine died. It wasn't mistreated, but just died.

With this Marantz, I'm hoping it'll bring better quality podcasts and recordings of events and we'll be able to share them with you. Keep tuned, I'm hoping to get this unit this week.

Sawtelle old stories November 1, 2008

At the so called "nut house" across from Giant Robot in LA. This is actually interesting, since I think it's one of the first "community events" in a while, and maybe the first at the psychoanalytic institute which has had a very closed door approach to the area. It was just a center that you know nothing about, but November 1, they'll open their doors to people to hear about the area from times back when. They even call it a Sawtelle Open House... 2:30-5pm 2014 Sawtelle Blvd, I have no idea what NCP means on the flyer. I had to redo the flyer a bit, since it was too small to read. Hope this works, and I'll be shocked if any of you show up. I'll be shocked if I show up too.

Lovefoxxx in Giant Robot 56

In the new Giant Robot 56. Lovefoxxx from CSS... Here's a few more pics that I shot live at their show in LA.  She sure has fun when she plays live. Her outfits are out of control and her charisma is on high. Tyra Banks was supposedly there checking them out. They have starpower, and fans all over the world. The short clip interview below isn't the best, but you can see where our interview took place. In their giant RAYBAN tour bus!


A little bit of Lovefoxxx who's featured in Giant Robot 56.

McGee zines pages

He's back... Had to start it that way. No, he's not back, he's still there and keeping busy. Here's some pages from his new zine. We'll hopefully get some of these in stock soon. The zines are nice of course, and part of his vast collection of publications. I love how they just keep coming at the oddest times. No matter what format, they always come out looking good.







This last one is Isaac Lin with some Twist tags next to it.

Most recent Los Angeles magazine

A little something on Sawtelle. It keeps going and going. Sawtelle is a fun area to be in and the media seems to like it. The cover makes me hungry, is that Japanese pasta? I'm good with that. The section on Sawtelle is a small one. I'll bet Sheperd Fairey will read the article about him. Huge photos, gigantic coverage, and he might flip to the Sawtelle part and see me standing there. I feel dumb, but oh well. The title caption is a bit embarrassing, I cut it off and won't share it unless you ask. I took the hit for the neighborhood. The KAWS Chompers BE@RBRICK looks cool though.

Raccoons

Raccoon invading the avocados. I used to think these little creatures were alright, but you know what? They're like all of the other wild animals. They just take, and give only to the eco system and food chain. But in a major city? What could people do? I actually let them do their thing, until they start making a huge mess. I know my neighbor puts poison out, which cats probably eat as well. That's not the way to go. Are you supposed to call animal control or something? Raccoons as far as I can tell are nocturnal, so at this time, I'm just letting them do their thing, until there's a safe and cool way to get rid of them.

This creature keeps showing up and eating anything in it's path. I scare it off, and it comes back. It even looks like he's flicking me off. It's time to research them better. I hear they can rip apart your house.

*I had to change the title of this post. I had no idea that the shortened version of raccoon "Coon" was such a racist word!

Kai Kai - Takashi Murakami's kids - mini video

Kaikai of Kaikai Kiki doing a performance. That's who I want to be for Halloween. This is the sh*t you don't get to see if you go to Geisai. I haven't a clue where they use these suits or where you get to see Kaikai or Kiki doing their thing, but at dinner, it happens. Ken Chu, the pop star was amused by it all too. He's laughing in the background. Kaikai looks funny as a 3d costume. Super huge!

Joe Son Do

The guy best known for being Random Task, and being in the UFC, yes I watched those live, is now being held for a previous gang rape from 1990. This dude is 5'4" 230 pounds. He's a little bowling ball (excuse any pun), and has a crappy MMA career, and almost had an acting career. Imagine he submitted to a DNA test for something minor, and is being dinged for something from 1990. The other gang raper is still on the loose. I bet he's scared.

See a link to a short article. I've been waiting for more news to come out. But I haven't seen anything since.
Guardian.

This is a very scary video below. Watch it at your own risk. I'm disturbed by it. His make up is disgusting, but check out his moves and his MC skills

RIP Dolemite

RIP Rudy Ray Moore, the man who made so much happen, from comedy and shit talk to Blaxploitation and more. I can't even be the one who can comment wisely on this man, but I got some LPs, we had a little something on him a long time ago in GR, and it was his time at 81 years of age.

RIP Dolemite

Domokun in Star Tribune

Domokun article in the Star Tribune with a quote by me in there. This sort of spawned from the Domokun blog post I did a bit ago about Target. Target is centered in Minneapolis, so this article isn't really that odd to be in this midwest paper. Instead, it's pretty solid. I wish it were more deep, but if it were, then it would be really strange in this context. They didn't write about the sub quality product that I pointed before and maybe that's better.

Star Tribune link

Here's my link to the blog post.

Dirty Hands at HIFF - a mini video

Here's a tiny clip from the Hawaii film fest of the Dirty Hands experience. It's not much and well, just watch it and get an idea of how it all works out. There's some Q and A and a radio station spot, and a clip from the film that I bootlegged from the wall. Sorry Harry. It's weird how Harry stands in the shadow even at his own Q and A section. That's how it works.