Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
That neighborhood cat is Balthazar. He's a small black cat probably about 8 lbs which is on the small side and has the right mix of being friendly but also being unfriendly at the same time. That's probably how he lives longer than the next cat. He does hang out in front of bushes and I have a feeling he's looking for mice. Gladly, he has a tag, and knows how to get home, even if it's many blocks away. My camera was jammed up in black and white and the photographs are actually shot in almost darkness. It was about 7:15pm and the exposures were ranging from 1/10 to 1/2 of a second at f/1.8. The last image that's in color was on Auto setting and came out in color. Balthazar didn't seem to mind that I was shooting his photo, but even stood fairly still in these tough lighting situations. We all have neighborhood cats, and this one is mine.
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Eugenia Yuan picks apples. You might have seen her in a movie called Fog, or Strangers, or Three, but she eats apples too. One great thing about produce straight from someone's tree is the joy in picking them. There's a moment when someone says, “hey why don't you take home some apples?” Then you put on some shoes and you go back and pick which ones you want. It's a joyful 5-10 minutes. They won't look like most supermarket steroid apples which have the perfect shape and sheen. Red Delicious looks practically painted. These are natural and in a backyard. The tree isn't what you'd imagine. Aren't apple trees supposed to be tall with a big trunk? This is one tree that's spread out horizontal and there's a ton of apples on it. Super great, these are better than ones at the market and they're fairly plentiful. We're not sure why this year, there are so many apples as compared to last year, but there's no complaints. Growing backyard fruits and vegetables is something we're afforded in Southern California. Imagine if we ALL grew produce, there'd be less busy markets, and we'd all save some dollars. I swear growing this apple tree wasn't done with much effort and the results are many 100 or more pounds of apples.
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Hollywood at the Henry Fonda theater, also known as the Music Box, the international competition known as Cut and Paste took place. I judged it once in 2006! Here's the blog post from that time. The event has grown in 2010, and although it runs nearly the same, it's just bigger all around. There's a 3d competition, and even a motion division as well. But as far as I'm concerned, it seems like the 2d is still the main event. The evening started with 8 designers and a single winner goes to the nationals. It's impossible for people to do their best work, yet in a 15 minute span, they're focused and driven to their final product. If anything between 2006 to 2010, I think the designers are more solid on average. The crowd gets into it. It's a strange world where design can be a spectator sport. I'm not sure how large it can really get, but perhaps if lead designers from different companies went head to head, that would be great.
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The art on the flyer? That’s me. I didn’t realize it, but you know? It sort of looks like me. I asked the Meatbun folks and they said yes! It’s going to be a T shirt that’ll be available at the event and onward at GR2 this friday along with some of their other designs. Meatbun is featured in Giant Robot 67, and the dudes behind the game inspired t-shirts are Giant Robot supporters. It’s based on a game that has a cheerleading element to it. It’s
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IndieCade! It takes place in Culver City in different locations in the area. The word “Indie” works perfect for this event since it's cozy and approachable. The game makers are around and the games are forward thinking. It's not the typical shoot em up games, most have a little something extra that took a little less commercialism and more personal conceptualization. The games are scattered around, and at the time I went, it wasn't too crowded. In my mind, I'd think this event would be packed solid, but it's actually modest and in due time, it'll be huge.
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