3 Meals on Wheels.

The place called Torafuku is known for it's rice. It's cooked in an old fashioned manner in stone pots. They mix it for you, so it's not just like this. It ends up being a fried rice type of dish that's a must have when you come here. Eating rice still works.

Thats' a meat dish, sort of like a bulgoki, or something like that. It tasted great and was fatty.

That's Yaz Noya. Say what up to Yaz. I've known Yaz for ages when she was doing Sony related work at Tofu records.

Kampachi carpaccio.

Tuna salad

Chicken

A crazy smelt and shiso leaf "spring roll"

That's Chi-lan Lieu. Say what's up to Chi-lan at Yabu in West LA. I've known Chi-lan since her G4 days. She interviewed my on her show.

David Horvath at Nook which is in West LA. It's been fairly social of late, but it just so happens that people were in my area in a concentrated amount of days. I've known David since Uglydolls day 1.

Taking air pics.

Imagined Futures - this weekend

What am I getting myself into these days. A keynote speech at a conference. It all sounded great at the outset, but I'm still unsure of it's focus as compared to other conferences. It's creative at least, and that's pretty cool.

Kid Koala and Kid Deer

Kid Koala does a victory lap during one of his songs. That's him with his hands almost covering him. I've never seen a DJ have so much fun while he's supposed to be playing a show. He's on stage completely into what he's doing, and always with a smile, that makes other people happier. His set was swift and deft. It being on a monday night and pretty late, he didn't have the huge crowd, but at the same time, it was a loyal one. He mixed up his music from hip hop classics, to classic rock, to the new classics, whatever that might be.



This is a section where Kid Koala played the most commercial sounds of the night, so I taped it.

His screen was tiny, but you can see his fingers, if you so care. Bigger screen please!

On the way home, coming down the hills of Brentwood, I finally saw a deer. It was 4am and that's when they come out. The deer didn't run at all, but just stood it's ground and kept picking at the ground.

Tennis video

Yes, I swing the rackets. I used to play back in the day. Elementary school, junior high, high school, and very little afterwards. I might get into detail one day, but the key right now is the footwork. I use a cross over step which is Jimmy Connors style. My last coach reworked my entire mechanics to bring me to this style. I previously had an open stance which is ala Nadal, but he switched me to this classic style. My forehand is the strongest of my shots. That was the main weapon I had. Some of the forehands you see are as hard as anyone's forehands can be. They're just inches off the net and landing near the backline, super low. I need some work on the backhand side for sure, but it comes from rust. I haven't played much in the last 20 years, so it's slowly coming back. Yes, I'll admit I wanted to play collegiately and even professionally, but I wasn't even close. In the background, you can hear my cousin Jon. Unlike skatevideos, where you hear people say "whooaahhh," his words are encouraging in another way. That's why he teaches.

CAPE - the talk

Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. They graciously invited me to be the subject of a talk. The weird thing is that Daniel Wu moderated, instead of being on the hot seat. This event would have probably worked better the other way around. I'm sure many thought that's how it was going to be. The only thing... I wish Martin could have been there. His household had girls night out, so his wife, Wendy came along with his sister, Angelyn. As Martin said, "that's the next best thing." Cool.

That's Laverne McKinnon, she's the President of CAPE and did a great job putting this event together.

I dressed a bit better than normal. Daniel said he was going to wear some nice threads, but came in street attire. Daniel was great as a moderator. I've known Daniel for 10 years perhaps, and usually we'd ask him questions, but not today. He actually refused interviews with Chinese press since he didn't want to take away from the event.

This is when we first sat down. A bit nervous... a bit excited... Daniel had trouble getting his mic off the stand.

Half the crowd. It was nice that over 130 came through. Double their normal attendance. I see some smiles, which is really nice.

Yet another pic. I think people laughed a little, and hopefully thought a little more. I heard the words "inspiring" a lot after... and it was nice to meet people who were from CAPE, and who were just interested in being there. Thanks Cate Park for helping set all this up and taking these pics.

Added: Daniel Wu is the question man... on wed April 22

Daniel Wu will ask the questions... He's in LA from Hong Kong and now, we're putting him to work. This might be interesting. I told him to go for it, and ask the hardest, embarrassing, and annoying questions possible.

Heisuke Kitazawa or PCP

I don't exactly know why, but I love these two photos... I'm actually behind Heisuke, moderating his talk at GR2 for his show. The people, the smiles, and his slides explained his work just a little bit better to everyone. From commercial work, old work, and new work, and finally to the reasons why this show is what it is, I think blew people away. He ended the talk explaining about his daughter who's growing quickly and he can see it happening, but at the same time, we are growing too and we can't see it. Then he talked about the shortness of life, and the importance of each day, and he put everyone in their place.

If we can make people smile at an art show, then we're doing a fine job.

While blogger is lame, I'm putting up my updates on hypebeast at http://hypebeast.com/blog/ericnakamura/

Reuters

Uh oh, Blogger is back, after two days of being totally numb, here it goes. So this was yesterday at the Papershapers show at the Scion gallery, which might be extended another week. Reuters who normally would cover wars, actually came down and did a video piece interviewing me and Ana Serrano. Gladly, we had a local person in the show who could manage press and she did a great job explaining the influence of this piece which was from Mexico. Her houses or city of cardboard is quite amazing. Where this Reuters piece ends up, I have no idea, but I'll update you when I know.

Blogger woes

Blogger is denying uploads of photos. What's going on people? Isn't it time to get off the Blogger and get to a real blogging program? This is getting lame.

James Jean (again) and Taffy

James Jean applies some touches to a "loose painting." In JJ world, what is loose anyway? His work has been going into different directions, and this one is a rickshaw in a world of detritus and waste. Sorry, this is merely a spy photo. I missed the dinner that his wife, Wen cooked.

Taffy has always liked me.

CAPE Spring NETWORKING Mixer...

Networking mixer... what did I sign up for? Will 10 people come? I'm being interviewed by a person TBA really soon. That person is supposed to be a director or actor of some sort. I've seen a short list, and it looks interesting, but I'm not quite sure who yet.

Here's their press release.

CAPE NETWORKING MIXER

AN EVENING WITH
GIANT ROBOT’S ERIC NAKAMURA

Open to CAPE Members and General Public
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7:00pm to 10:00pm

National Center for the Preservation of Democracy building at JANM
(JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM)
369 East First Street
Los Angeles, California 90012

and here's where you sign up here!

Papershapers

That's Matt from Kansas City. He won the giantrobotshin.com contest. He came, he saw, he drank, and ate. The cool thing about Matt is that he actually fit in like an artist. He knew of most of the artist's work, and joined right in almost as a peer rather than a fan dude. I saw him being interviewed during the opening.

More of Mu Pan's Indians. This was the first time Mu's ever shown these pieces which he makes while watching TV.

That's myself and Brian. I said hi to more people while waiting for the toilet than anywhere else.
He wears Shaq like attire. It has an air of SAT test taking circa 1930.

The Wong Family Association. Childrens everywhere.

Scion recorded a record size crowd of 1155 people. If you came, thanks much. It was the first time a line up happened and we beat the previous attendance record by a bunch.

That's Myself and Martin. It was a fun night.

That's myself and Brian Dettmer who disappeared into the night earlier than everyone else.

That's Margaux in front who helped curate this mother... See Richard Sweeney's piece in the background? It's the next dimension.

Beau Sia is so deep. Catch him at his gig April 18, the same night as PCP at GR2.

Mr and Mrs Dettmer with some Richard Sweeney's pieces in the background.

Joseph Hahn shows the fingers he uses on his Geminis.

Okay, Ayako

Tables were put out so people could make Matt's winning design of Shin's robot! If you would have entered, you could have won. Shin picked the winner.

Lots of glue sticks and scissors, and some fool spilled beer!

People sat all night making things. It's the next level for shows-to make them interactive on different levels.

That's Matt and Richard talking to a youngster.

That's a new Prius. 50mpg and solar panels...

Mrs and Mr Hudlin. Director and comicbooker.

Ryohei Tanaka is in the middle, wearing the Scion hoody and making paper cut outs. He held a huge group all night.

Ken!

Richard Sweeney's piece. People interacted with his piece all night.

DJ Puffs who killed it. Her blend of music was smart and fit the genre.

Ana Serrano

Reggie Hudlin meets Puffs.

Shin gets Matt to sign his Papershapers booklet. Meanwhile Mr Hahn flips the bird.

Richard couldn't get enough and folded a dollar and signed it for me.

Mr Shin Tanaka... the night ends something like Oceans 11. As each person leaves the after show dinner, they say goodbye, leaving one at a time to go back and pack. As Shin leaves, the room erupts in applause. He waves and leaves out of the side door.