Scion Giant Robot X Scion paper robot contest DUE MARCH 6

I waited to blog this since I know most of you are last minute folks, but this contest looks easy to do and fun. Imagine the robot above will be a pain to do, it's a lot of space, so the contest actually is for the bottom robot (the legs) all you have to do is customize that one, and you're in! Get to it. It's due very soon. MARCH 6. Here's the microsite: giantrobotshin.com

1. Download the blank template.
2. Customize the template with your own designs -- draw, paint, use photoshop -- be creative!
3. Scan or color copy your customized template and save it to upload later.
4. Construct your figure and take a photo of the completed piece.
5. By March 6, upload your scanned template and image of the completed figure using the link below.
6. Upload.
7. Winners will be announced on the site by March 11th.

Prizes

Grand Prize
Roundtrip airfare to Los Angeles, CA to attend the Interactive Paper Art show at the Scion Gallery in Culver City on April 11th
Hotel accommodations for 3 days and 2 nights, April 10th - 12th
Transportation to and from the airport, hotel and art show
Inclusion of the winning entry in the art show, as well as distribution of the template to all attendees
Meeting of the Master of Paper Art himself, Shin Tanaka, at the art show
$500 check
Giant Robot prize package

Viewers Choice Awards
Feature on the website
Giant Robot magazine subscription
Giant Robot T-shirt and sticker packet,
$50 gift certificate to the Giant Robot stores
Scion backpack

THE RULES

Random photos - cherry blossoms, billiards, and 7s.

I can play pool, not with the best of them. Any pool veterans out there? My bridge probably stinks, right? I've been trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. An open bridge? Is that better? Pool is fun, it uses physics and math, and it's a perfect short attention span game. It's easy to try and play. Sometimes, you'll amaze yourself at how insane of a shot you can make.

Brian Flynn of Super 7. I'm not sure what the 4 and 3 mean. 7? Super 7? If it were me, I'd opt for a 5 and 2 which would look perfectly dorky and innocent.

Ah ha. Swiss Chard done Ohitashi style. Yes, I can make this and it comes out good. I'll practice this a little more and then maybe it'll be a recipe in the mag. Maybe.

You'd be surprised, I think I mentioned somewhere that blooms might last two weeks, but they seem to be going a little longer! Here's those back posts if you're into cherry blossoms. cherry blossoms at night and old school blossoms, and many cherry blossom photos. If you want check out my flickr cherry blossom folder which includes the Uglycon billboard.

David Jien

Met David Jien at Art Center of Pasadena while I was getting my vehicle worked on. Imagine, you drop off your car, and they give you a ride anywhere you want. I chose Art Center to see work. This dude draws like none other. Is pencil work in style right now? I think it is. His work rocks.

Yeah imagine these characters are being reincarnated...

The black one is a bronze and weighs a ton!

Michael Perry - The Patterns Found in Space - Giant Robot NY

Michael Perry sent some of these over. You can't go wrong with a self published zine that's newsprint. It's just graphics and cool. It's not pricey to make relative to offset printing options, but the weird thing about newsprint is that if you make something on newsprint, everyone wants it free. It's like a free cinema advertisement / newsletter. If there was a way to make newsprint zines actually cost even just a nominal fee, it would be a great way to go. Michael Perry's The Patterns Found in Space is part of his Giant Robot NY show that's upcoming. If you go, you can get one of these zines there.

Yelp Issues

A lot of folks like Yelp. As a user, it's probably fun. You can read reviews, get previews, learn the inner secrets of places, and more. In the end, everyone's a critic and everyone's a reviewer, even if they shouldn't be, right? The internet has created overnight food experts, movie critics, and whiners everywhere. Yet Yelp is handy, yet from my perspective, aside from the content issues of Yelp, it's sales folks are annoying. It's great they hustle, and I'm sure it's commission based and we all need more money, but the repeated phone calls, shifty marketing words, and their persistence and a-hole style is just too much. So Yelp... although we thank you for the kind words, the hard sell is always a drag and it doesn't stop. If it's not one person, it's another. If you ask them not to call, they'll still call.

Here's another post I did a while ago about Yelp salesmanship.

I hope posting this doesn't give us more negative comments on yelp. Here's our sites. You can't but help read the negative comments!

GRSF Yelp
GRLA Yelp
GR2 Yelp
gr/eats Yelp
GR Silverlake
GRNY Yelp

Casio G Shock LAX - Life is Tough - David Perez Shadi

Casio LAX. Fred Segal's shops are high end. Walking in, I see Lindsay Price who gave me a big double take. No, I never met you. I was looking for the Casio event at Conveyor store. It's supposed to be a photo exhibition, but I was there to meet some heads that I indirectly helped out. I actually "designed" the LAX edition of the G Shock above. My friend Seven Under Topa, (also see my column on the 7under.net site) called me, and while sitting with him and a couple of others at gr/eats, I came up with a idea, and he sat with his laptop and put the colors in. At the end, and well under an hour, we had an idea and concept. The watch came out shockingly nearly as planned. Perhaps it's exact, it was a long time ago. We were all quite stoked.

LAX (LA) has an eco-vibe as compared to NY or Tokyo (the other two places where special edition watches were made for this project). Snow boarding, oceans, mountains, hiking, it's all close by. Prius, green homes, and solar are cool here since people are building like crazy. So that's why the watch actually makes sense. Of course, it could have been black or something really plain, but this stands out hard, and if you take a quick peek, you'll remember this color scheme.

David Perez Shadi, the photographer who shot the line for G-Shock.

The girl sitting looking at her cell must have been a model or something.

Spicy tuna on crackers. Can any local food heads guess where this came from?

Hirotaka and Akiyuki

KAWS - Natalia Fabia

I knew this painting would catch your eye. It looks almost like a photo and well of course it'll catch your eye. It's work by the woman pictured below Natalia Fabia at the Corey Helford Gallery. The original plan was to see the KAWS show like the rest of the kids in LA. The Culver City bound La Cienega offramp was packed. You couldn't get off from the 10 freeway going south. Driving by the line was gigantic. The same kids who'd wait 24 hours for a sneaker were there. You can't win when that happens.

The Natalia Favia show had a long line as well. Luckily, rolling with James Jean gets you in places. Imagine, all of these glamour folks, and the man who's not boisterous or flashy can paint with the best of the them, or maybe better.

Someone should make a comic and then a movie about this guy.

That's Jessie Mann, my intern from maybe 8 or 10 years ago. Haven't seen her much at all, or maybe not at all, since then. It was nice to see her out.

Umar Rashid. MC Hi-Fidel who's in his new band Friday Night. Here's his music video.

Work from Dave Muller at Blum and Poe. Can't ever go wrong with Snoopy

Harry and James.

Jimmy Smith

Kio of Yellow Rat clothing - Barry McGee t-shirt

I dig this dude, Kio who runs a clothing like called Yellow Rat. He's supposedly a great surfer, and back in 2007, I wrote about him with some photos on this blog when I visited his casa. Here's that post. 

He once made a Kio's Ding Repair shirt using a Barry McGee image. It's looks like this here. Today, he showed me a new design. Here's the backstory which makes this funny. Barry does strange ads sometimes. He pays for the ad, and actually advertises something that's not his own. This advertisement showed up in the Hamburger Ears (their music offshoot of Hamburger Eyes) publication. Kio was shocked to see the ad, and now it's a shirt complete with Kio's home address at the bottom. I'm sure Barry had no idea that Kio works out of his home in Mar Vista. I hope people don't knock on his door. 

That's his assistant. Yes, I forgot her name.

Help Praxis

Praxis... the great dog needs your help.

For the next seven days, you can view and bid on ebay for artwork by some of my favorite artists. They have created and/or donated work inspired by my dog, Praxis. Most of these artists have met Praxis, or know how much he's meant to me, and donated their time and talent to my effort to raise funds to pay for Praxis' chemotherapy and other medical bills after he was diagnosed with lymphoma in May 2008.

I've held on to these for a while, maybe too long, and I only kind of know why. Since the diagnosis, I've been in a strange state trying to wrap my head around losing a loved one to an illness like cancer. You have to accept that there's no cure, and that treatment can buy you time, but there's never a guarantee of quality of life, and certainly no sense of how long that time will last. Engaging in this artwork, all of it capturing some part of Praxis and my love for him, brings that home for me... and I'm not always strong enough to find a way to deal with the loss that's looming ahead. I think part of me also wants to keep it all!! Each piece is so fantastic... truly. This is a talented bunch and I'm incredibly lucky to have these folks as friends. This is an exciting time in my life. This is the first time I've had so many creative friends who are successful in their endeavors and inspire the same in others.

The work ranges from oil paintings to gooco prints and is a diverse collection of talents and styles, and 10% of the proceeds will go to The Magic Bullet Fund to help other pet owners find funds for expensive cancer treatments. It's a terrible feeling to have... to not be able to afford something that can help an animal you've loved and cared for. It made me feel powerless and disloyal. That was afwul, and I hate to think of anyone being in that position.

Check out the auctions on eBay!
See Michelle's original post here.

Geoff McFetridge Patagonia Boxers

I don't normally post pics of my underwear, but this one is special. Patagonia stores had a sale that just ended, and I picked up some underwear. The design of the pattern is by Geoff McFetridge. The material is silky poly material that look shiny like boxing shorts. Not many will ever see me wearing this.

These are brand new. I wouldn't show you a pic of worn underwear. These were $12 and came in two colors. Some people want to wear clothes so people can marvel at it. I'm actually good wearing stuff, full knowing that only I will see it, maybe for all of 10 seconds. I sometimes wear my nicest t-shirts under a sweatshirt that never comes off all day. Who knows that I'm wearing something nice under a plain sweatshirt? Just me. I wear clothes mostly for myself. That's how I do it.

Dehara extras - Deharavath at Giant Robot NY

While Dehara's work is on the walls at Giant Robot New York, I thought it would be cool to show you some goods he's made. Check out his work with Meiji chocolates in Japan. Click around and have fun with it. Would an American candy company ever do this? Here's a link. Dehara gave me a cellphone charm that they gave away at some convenience stores in Japan. The big companies are finally catching on. Check out the GRNY art exhibition goods too. link to the Giant Robt NY gallery.

Then a confection company tapped Dehara to make a Tosa dog themed dorayaki. Tosa's are fighting dogs, and Dehara's Tosa actually bites the kid character! But it still works on this pastry. It's from a lesser travelled region. Ishikawa maybe... I forgot what he told me, and you can get these only there.

This tasted great. I gave most of mine away to people who helped out at Giant Robot NY for the show. David Horvath got a whole box!

Super late Rob Sato Video from Dirty Paper Machines

This one was super late. It's the Rob Sato video from his show at GR2 a bit ago. This one was tougher to edit down because of the amount I shot. If I shoot too much then I'm making tons of extra work for myself, like this one.

See more of his works here in transmissions in case you missed out.

Le Merde videos for Giant Robot 2 show Beaten, Bruised, and Blackened

Le Merde at GR2. Great work, nice guy, and cool family, if you didn't make it to GR2 on Valentine's day, then make it down later if you can! If not, here's what you missed. We did an artist's talk at GR2 during the show, and below are the youtube videos where Le Merde explains how to make a figure. The first video is the install.

The work is now online at gr2.net for sale.
Photos are here in Giant Robot transmissions.

Softball

Pregame. This is what it looks like. People sitting, maybe yawning. It's dude style. Look at the gear, it's all athletic with cut off sleeves. This was Game One for the LA Parks and Rec tournament. The Giant Robot team had a mediocre season in the c+ league, so entering the tournament could be redemption. We were playing a team called GRF. No relation. We haven't played together since December, and for most of us, it might be the first look at exercise since then.

Martin the pitcher in his pregame ritual. That's Bill behind him writing a journal entry. Martin pitched well, we didn't hit well, we made a lot of errors, which is pretty normal actually.

This is Sean. He's a big dude with a lot of power. He always tunes everyone out before a game and listens to his music. That tree is under duress. It's actually a cool looking tree. Sean hit pretty well, did his thing at first base, but in the end, our team lost to GRF who we thought we could beat, but it didn't happen and just like that, we're out of the tournament.

Everyone parted ways. Some went to eat, some went home. I did eventually go home, but I went to 99 Ranch and saw the biggest fruit ever. That's a jackfruit, who I'm sure doesn't give a shit about softball. Instead, I think the jackfruit is laughing at the pineapples who are usually the bullies of the fruit pile.

Blooms

I shoot images of cherry blossoms about this time every year. It's that great two weeks or less when you see the pink flowers that fall and actually look cool on the ground. Imagine the pink on green grass. That contract is amazing. It's a shame it's such a short season every year, and it being short is a reason why it's so revered. On Sawtelle, people just walk on by, probably inebriated and on their way to an amorous adventure this Valentines night.

The new issue of GR is out and unleashed. Number 58!

The Lackness - Street Fighter Event MOCA

Mr Hahn shows his displeasure with the Street Fighter 4 party at The Geffen MOCA spot. The event was huge. It seemed like as many people inside was doubled up with the people outside in line that never moved. Inside, it didn't seem so packed, but what can you do when there's capacities? The best part of the night. 1) Seeing a fairly low budget stage event for a high budget party. I'd have done that part different. 2) A woman we were dubbing as Margaret Cho meeting Divine who was in charge of something freaking out, and repeatedly saying to herself, "I need to make a big decision." 3) Getting in the building after much hell, and seeing Aaron Yoo not be able to get in to the VIP section because it was too packed. 4) Seeing staff who were stuck outside and couldn't get in. 5) A strange array of videogame machines, and pseudo events strewn around the inside of the building. There's plenty of other things I'd have set up differently, but the event is now done.

Chris Klein, Taboo, and oh yeah, that's Joe on the left. He answered a question that went something like this: "I think Chun Li is the best female StreetFighter character". What can you say in times like that?

For the kids.

Action figures galore. I'm not sure if these will be mass market, but there's a lot of figures on display.

Honda!

That's the red carpet area. It's odd how it works. A star has a publicist. The publicist stands there and gets people their interviews. Then it probably gets shelved for soundbites. Where will it really go? But in case of something strange, they roll on it.

Over capacity, this building was governed by fire marshalls. That pissed off plenty. A lot of the stars couldn't even get in. Yet, as with many buildings, it seems like another 1000 could have fit easily.

Yoshinori Ono - Streetfighter 4 producer