Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Spotted outside of the Giant Robot webstore… a mushroom? It’s definitely fungal, but that’s all I can guess. A rare species? Is it edible? Will you hallucinate?
Continue reading
Sometimes, when you get a bit apart from your childhood days, you might actually turn around and look back. I write about nostalgia for no reason once in a while, and this installment is about my one of best friends in the 2nd and 3rd and maybe 4th grade (I’m guessing). Typical as with growing up, people move in and they move out. Loren Jovicic moved out and went to Santa Monica. It’s not too far, but in elementary school days, it’s the end of a friendship and on to new ones. The other day, I ran into this photo. It’s from a film and I thought it looked like Loren-it just popped into my head. Google brought me to imdb. His name is now Loren Dean (he used his middle name), and he’s in a bunch of movies. I’ve seen him in a few like Gattaca, but never made the connection. If you asked me at that time, what I thought he’d end up doing, I would have guessed something with drawing. He was pretty good. Maybe 4 square champion or tic tac toe master? I hope he’s enjoying movie land.
Continue reading
Free Former… Thanks to Yong Ki from Solitary Arts for sending this my way. I guess he came across a bunch of these, they’re brand new. I’ve told the story before… my uncle once worked here and I would get these as gifts… Here’s a link to my clubmumble interview where I mention Free Former – and here’s a excerpt. It’s a nice looking plastic skateboard. Clubmumble.com Solitary Arts. What’s your favorite skateboard brand of all time? It doesn’t have to be one that’s still in business.I’d say Free Former since my uncle was a designer there when I was a little kid. It was the era when Ty Page was their pro skater, doing old style skateboard tricks that made it on to shows like CHiPs. For Christmas and Birthday gifts, I’d get a new skateboard. I got them for a few years until Free Former rode off into the sunset when skateboards went from plastic to wood. As many of the old schoolers know, Free Former wasn’t a good brand, and it may very well have been the worst brand ever, but that’s actually a hard honor to achieve. I still think it was all cool. Other than that, because I’m on the westside of LA, I grew up with Dogtown and the Suicidal Tendencies culture of skateboards and clothing. Those kids were all over my junior high school wearing hand drawn button down shirts with skulls all over them, flipped up bill baseball hats that said Suicidal, and blue bananas. I wasn’t one of them, but their aesthetic was amazing. It’s the very brand that killed Free Former.
Continue reading
Our first show at gr/eats featured Goh Nakamura and The Invisible Cities. We closed up at 9:15, then rearranged tables and chairs and lo and behold, a nice intimate space emerged. Of course having a nice rented monitors helped. Everything sounded great. About 20 or so people filled the room nicely. The tour is called Follow Your Whim, as seen at followyourwhim.com There’s video, live feeds, tweets, and more. Our space isn’t the biggest, but for an event like this, I couldn’t be happier. Maybe we’ll do something again soon. Here’s more of his tour stops at his site, gohnakamura.com. Sadie Contini, Han Wang, Gary Chou, and Goh Nakamura
Continue reading
From sushi to cinema to street art, Giant Robot magazine has documented, dissected, unearthed, and grown Asian and Asian American popular culture for the last 15 years. Editors Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura will discuss a range of topics, including the publication’s evolution from handmade zine into a glossy publication with a worldwide following, the infiltration of Asian aesthetics and entertainment into mainstream America, and what’s coming next—whether you like it or not. Moderating the casual-but-loaded discussion will be the bass player of the legendary punk rock band The Vandals, owner of Kung Fu Records, popular DJ on Indie 103.1, and part-time Judge Pro Tem for the county of Los Angeles, Joe Escalante. THE OPEN BOOK PAVILION on “The Field” at 1:45pm.Giant Robot’s booth is located in the “Comics, SciFi & Horror Scene” at the Book Fair. It’s booth #D13. 10AM to 6PM • West Hollywood Park • 647 N. San Vicente Blvd • West Hollywood westhollywoodbookfair.org
Continue reading