The Hundreds package

Yes, I'm a chump for blogging gifts. But it's post holiday and UPS just threw this over the gate. A Medicom Hundreds toy. It weebles. It comes in a nice crate, and it's hot for the fans. What can't they make and do? It's mind boggling. See more photos below. They're growing like weeds. A line up? Perhaps. My hands don't look so nice. I feel like I'm a streethypesite blogger now, but I swear I have more to say.

Branded on wood. It's a mini crate.

A Disney collab. Oh my. Weird too. See the ear piercing? Disney? That's nuts. Why? I have no idea.

A bag of stickers. Want one?

I don't smoke, but these will be perfect in the bathroom. Fire starters and Poo smell disguisers.

This is a case. I wasn't sure what for, but you can put a camera in it. It's a hardsheel type of thing. It's a tiny bit crooked, maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Also that small hard plastic emblem always trips me out. What's it mean?

The pillow. Very nice.

Choegal Video

Just finished the Choegal video from the signing on December 23rd in LA. Hope you like it. We have another signing in NYC of the Choegals on January 3rd, 2009! Get there early. We'll have a bit less than we have in LA. Thanks for coming out and supporting Giant Robot, David Choe, and Ningyoushi. I thank them for letting us do all of this.

Chicken Pie Shop - Fresno

There's not a ton of good in Fresno, except thrift stores and Sonic. But the Tower District is their supposed hipster area. It's sort of that way, but the moment I was there, it looked nice. The theater is quite old and looks great. I couldn't figure out the films they showed there. What were they? I never heard of them. The Chicken Pie Shop is one of the oldest restaurants around and it's obvious what they serve best. The shop is old school and probably refinished and remodeled to keep it looking that way.

An old school sign on the side.

They have weird hours, so keep posted. They close early.

Pretty neat, I wonder what that patten on the floor is all about. Leftover linoleum?

The building is just cool looking.

The prize is the pie.

It's not inexpensive at $4 something and it's pretty small, but it's actually really tasty.

NPR interview

I was interviewed by NPR-NY the other day, which is part of Studio 360. It was for the cover story of GR57, the Obama Street Art article. It looks like they're interviewing many of the folks I interviewed and probably more, and thankfully, they picked up on my article and it seems are using it somewhat as a road map. We'll see how theirs turns out... I'm sure it'll be quite great leading up to the inauguration.

This GR article was done completely by me trying to figure out who's who, and who did what, at least in the art world that I know, it's hopefully helping a few skeptics like me understand what went on. Getting some national attention for a single article is always nice, and it helps the subscriptions.


A few things I didn't know about radio interviews:

Did you know that studios don't like it when they interview you, and you're on a cell phone? Landlines are much better.

Radio is much like TV, except in TV, they do a 1-5 minute clip, but on radio, it can go much longer. There's a ton of serious editing going on to make it "cool". I used to think editing for radio could be lazy. But it's just as strenuous as anything else. Of course, right? People take radio as a format lightly sometimes.

Interviews are still done by recording on gear at the studio. They don't use a service that records digitally yet. There's something to the certainty of seeing levels bouncing to know you're getting something.

Writing

Writing, writing, and writing. One thing that happens when a mag gets done is that it means it's back to more writing. I can't say that I write daily, except maybe here, but at the same time, it helps to keep typing words, and figuring out different ways to communicate ideas. I didn't start writing until I was in junior college, where for the first time, I had an instructor named Joe Watts, who'd break down my sentences word for word. On my papers, he would mark LZ. I'd think, what the fuck is LZ? You'd see "run-on" or punctuation corrections, but LZ? Lazy?

LZ meant Led Zeppelin. As in, son, "you're ramblin' on," as if Robert Plant somehow wrote a song about bad writing. Sometimes, when I'm writing for Giant Robot, I see imaginary LZ's pop up. At other times, I hear Mr Watts voice saying, "there's great flow here," while exhaling cigarette smoke. He'd sometimes have office hours on the lawn.

Choegal Signing at GR2

A pretty long line, all governed by two saw horses. Our lines are a lot different than other lines. I was discussing this for a second with Bobby Kim from The Hundreds who came and saw the line and said "whoa" but why would he be surprised? He has kids waiting overnight to get a New Era cap. We looked at the line, and imagine, our line looks a lot different. It's not part of the culture of what "line ups" are about. 16 year olds? No. People who just got off work? Yes. Imagine, the first few people in line were wearing suits. With such of a limited amount of these figures, yes, waiting in line for a custom signed one, and to meet the artist, was a must.

That's Choe's mom on the left. She brought tons of friends. David told her she had to wait in line. She's a proud mom.

Dave signed everything. One kid didn't have any money. I couldn't understand what he was talking about at first. I was like, "you have no money..." but you're in line. Then my dense self figured it out a minute later, he just wanted to get a sketchbook signed.

This is an old friend's cousin. I had no idea he was a Choe fan and I had no idea he was into GR stuff. check out that Choe deck!

The girl in black. Who is she? You'll see in the video, when I finish cutting it up.

Martin got into the act signing mags, as did Joe Linkin Park Hahn who's pictured below in a photo by Clement Hanami.

That's Dave and Joe. Did you know his band is huge in Russia? He was explaining how his band is big outside of America... haha. The point though was that even bands who've faded from the limelight in the USA years ago have huge followings in Russia. Also overheard, a kid didn't hold back and said, "My favorite street artist! My favorite DJ in the same place".

Bobby Kim, and imagine this is a photo of him with no cap.

My Reggie Hudlin, director and comicbook writer of Moonknight and Black Panther

That's Alex Chiu and his gf. Darn forgot her name. Alex gave me a small painting. Can you tell he's a nice guy?

That's Lisa Strouss. She used to do advertising for GR long time ago. She's the OG "girl with glasses" and now sells glasses at LA Eyeworks, and that tiny shop next to The Hundreds store on Rosewood.

David and his friends who do aerosol art.

The figure in context. They really are very different from each other. Of course Dave will say, "this one is really bad." at some of them, but I can't even tell.

That's Scott Brooks, our friend and he was early in line. He's tall, so he has to squat to talk to Dave. He even picked up a post-it by Jacob McGraw at the signing.

Some people in line got this. It's a sticker with some of his art on it. This one is the best. It's funny when he hands it to someone, and he says, "it might be offensive."

All from SD.

Beth & Boom Rice Picker Skater!

We've come a long way! Not in perhaps Mexico though. Check out the goofy footed skater. Evidently it's a figure and under the rice picker hat was chocolate. I have no idea what kind. It came in the mail from Scott Wolfson out of NYC. I thought it was the latest attempt at a "Designer vinyl" figure, but I was wrong. Instead, it's a strange novelty toy and as jokey as can be. Am I offended? No, but will others be? Of course. It's playing on every wrong stereotype imaginable to an Asian, except, he skates. Scott's site: Eggsmcmanus.

I'm not sure if people get more offended when stuff like this happens on their own soil. Do they give a "pass" when it's from another country? It seems like it, since values, social awareness, p.c. ness, may be different there.

Here's a link to the product. It doesn't tell you anything about it, but maybe someone out there knows more. There's small writing in Spanish, Portuguese, and German.

Magazine predictions from the mouths of the "pros"

Scary magazine predictions, but I don't think it differs from anything else. Magazines, like a car manufacturer, retail store, small business of any sort, all apply.

Andy Cohn from the Fader said that 5 out of 10 mags and papers will close.
-I guess that's the same as 1 out of 2. Scary thought, since what will a newsstand look like if this happens?

Steven Kotok from The Week says: "Lots of things nobody predicted will occur."
- hope this can mean great things.

Dylan Tweeney from Wired: "...2009 will be a very, very difficult year for advertising-supported businesses of all kinds. Anyone launching a publication in 2009 better have deep enough pockets to ride out a year or two of very thin revenues."
- that's obvious since even a publication that's been going for years will have thin revenues.

Video content seems to hit a few people's lists. Am I paranoid yet about our future? Sure just a little, but at the same time, the idea is to keep moving.

Read many more here at Foliomag.com
It's interesting to read what people say about magazines (at least for me).

Post Its

As of a couple days ago... there's still great Post-Its. I'd guess a bunch of these might be gone, but we're talking a week later, tons of people coming through, and this much talent left? Not bad. That's how the Post It show works. I'm digging the Vanessa Davis pieces. The "big big" names, yes, they're gone, but there's still a bunch left from other "big" names.

Yoshitomo Nara - YNG opening at Blum and Poe

Yoshitomo Nara and Hideki Toyoshima (GRAF) put together an insane exhibition that's unlike anything else they've done from what I've seen. The cool thing is that Nara did paintings and did work aside from his GRAF work of late, so in a way, he's back! It's great that he has a work team, but at the same time, Nara is a rock star, he's an artist who's on a path, and the work with GRAF in the last many years, hopefully is changing his work, and it is. There's new style paintings that look like vintage signs. His frames are more ornate, yet his drawings are still kick ass and cool. That's Tim Blum and two of his kids sitting.


This is a video of inside of that wagon buggy.

A detail of a painting.



Wen, James, and Baseman

This peace sign is fan art plushes.

Two of the 6 pieces.

Two of the 6 pieces.

Two of the 6 pieces.

A nice large painting

Dig that frame, and if you look at the eyes, the detail is great.







I like this drawing. It's large and in that rarer profile style. He doesn't do the profiles as much.



I like this drawing a lot.


You might not have seen this one, it was stashed in back.

Whoa, this is all they used to make the wagon buggy.

Check out Nara's creeps