Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
TOKYO ~ A 9-year-old boy has become the youngest Japanese to have ever designed a government memorial coin after his artwork was chosen for one of the coins to be issued to commemorate the Great East Japan Earthquake reconstruction project. The design by Taichi Kojima, a fourth-grader at Odawara municipal Kuno Primary School in Kanagawa Prefecture, shows a boy holding Japanese flags, with “Ganbaro Nippon” (Hang on, Japan) written in colorful words beside him. This is the third time the government has chosen designs for memorial coins from the public. The previous coins commemorated the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1985 Tsukuba Exposition. [Kyodo ~ Commemorative Coin]
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GAME OVERVIDEO GAME CULTURE ART EXHIBITION JUNE 2 – JUNE 27, 2012 RECEPTION: SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 6:30-10PM Artists include: Aaron Brown, Albert Reyes, Alex Chiu, Ana Serrano, Andrice Arp, Aska Iida, Bradford Lynn, Brian Luong, Bryan Wong, Bubi Au Yeung, Cam Floyd, Carlos Donjuan, Christopher Chan, Cory Schmitz, David Horvath, Devin McGrath, Elizabeth Ito, Elliot Brown, Eric Broers, Erin Althea, Gabe Gonzales, Gary Musgrave, Grant Reynolds, Heidi Woan, James Chong, James Kochalka, Jarrett Quon, Jay Horinouchi, Jeni Yang, Jeremiah La Torre, Jeremy Tinder, Jeremyville, Jeromy Velasco, Jesse Balmer, Jesse Fillingham, Jesse LeDoux, Jesse Moynihan, Jesse Reklaw, Jesse Tise, Jiyoung Moon, John Lau, Kerry Horvath, Kevin Luong, Kio Griffith, Kwanchai Moriya, Lawrence Yang, Linda Kim, Louise Chen, Luke Chueh, Luke Rook, Maiko Kanno, Mare Odomo, Mari Inukai, Mark Ingram, Martin Hsu, Matt Furie, Meatbun, Miso, Nick Arciaga, Patrick Kyle, Peter Kato, Philip Koscak, Renee French, Sana Park, Sara Saedi, Sarah Lee, Sean Chao, Shawn Cheng, Shiho Nakaza, Shihori Nakayama, Sidney Pink, Silvio Porretta, Stasia Burrington, Stephanie Kubo, Theo Ellsworth, Tru Nguyen, Yejin Oh, Yoskay Yamamoto, Yumi Sakugawa and more. Also there will be playable indie games including the works of programmers Beau Blythe and Shelby Cinca who are creating a game with Sean Chao and Jeni Yang. It’ll be a welcome back to ArtxGames series. More info. THE ART OF DANIEL CLOWES: MODERN CARTOONIST The book is the first monograph on this award-winning, New York Times–bestselling creator, compiled with his complete cooperation. GAMA-GOORIGAMI CRANE LED LIGHT A calming and cool way to light up your desk, table, or bathroom. GAMA-GOLEOPARD NAP T-SHIRT A nice nap can’t be beat. Especially if you’re a snow leopard in a tree. UGLYDOLLSALT & PEPPER SHAKER Make your kitchen table cute with these ceramic Babo and cookie salt & pepper shaker. JAPANESE MYTHICALCREATURES BOOK Book includes, illustrations of Kappa, Kirin, Baku, Nue, Kitsune and Tsuchigumo from over 120 different artists from around the world! GAMA-GO – UNICORNPENCIL SHARPENER “Sharpen your pencil with magic.” UGLYDOLL CERAMICCOIN BANK – WAGE These ceramic coin banks are vividly colored and feature the helpful Wage who will keep your pennies safe! GAMA-GO – SNOWGLOBE SALT & PEPPER SHAKER Have fun adding seasoning to your food with these snowglobe inspired salt & pepper shakers. LEGO MINIFIGURESSERIES 4 Awesome array of everyone’s favorite mini figures, Lego people! GAME OVER INTERVIEWBy ERIC NAKAMURAAlejandro Quan-Madrid interviewed me for the upcoming, Game Over exhibition at Giant Robot 2. It’s me blabbing about the art of games that’ll be showing at GR. The energy and effort of people making media is always awesome. ARTISTS DROPPING OFF WORK FOR GAME OVERBy ERIC NAKAMURAI wish I shot them all. Maybe I will from now on. Many are fine and smiling. It’s a nice day out and if you’re self employed, you can go bike riding, but it is deadline day at Giant Robot for Game Over. FREE SHOW REVIEWS: DUM DUM GIRLS AT THE GETTY, GIZELLE AT AMOEBA HOLLYWOOD, GOH NAKAMURA AT ELOISE’S HOUSEBy MARTIN WONGDownloading free MP3s is...
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The root concept of the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb is blood simple: bring a insanely powerful car and negotiate the hill’s hairpin switchbacks, precipitous drops, uneven road surfaces and 12.42-mile-long, 14,115-foot climb faster than anyone else. Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima is the undisputed king of Pike’s Peak. Last year, Tajima, the chili dog-chomping veteran Japanese rally driver, became the first man to reach the summit in under ten minutes, ripping up the mountain in a record 9:51.278 in a crazy-looking 900-horsepower, twin-turbocharged, all-wheel drive Suzuki. Suzuki? Tajima’s not in this year’s race (July 3-8) to make some politically-correct statement on green power. He’s out to smash his record again, and knows it can be done ~ last year, another Japanese driver Ikuo Hanawa piloted his eco-friendly but woefully underpowered Team Yokohama EV Challenge Racer to within two minutes of Monster’s record. If we’ve learned anything about Tajima (inset), we know that he always brings more horsepower, er, kilowatts than he actually needs. The public got its first glimpse at the old man of the mountain’s latest contraption, the so-called Monster Sport E-Runner at Toyota Mega Web, a Japanese theme park for auto nerds, in early May. And we’ve been given video footage of it running at half-power, and, frankly, although it looks a lot like the Batmobile, it looks awfully slow. Tajima won’t say how many Yuasa AAA batteries he’ll be using. There’s also a couple of dark horses in this EV race to the top ~ Mitsubishi recently unveiled its sleek MiEV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) (below) that will use three motors to produce 320 hp. And BMW says they’ll be bringing a battery-powered M3.
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The hackneyed phrase: “Well, back to the chalkboard,” is usually a roundabout way of admitting failure. But when Brooklyn-based Japanese American graphic artist Dana Tanamachi reaches for her chalk, stand back and be prepared to be stunned. Her layout concepts and font usage flows onto the slate directly from her mind’s eye through her hands ~ an art lost in this age of Adobe®. Webpage Biography: After graduating in 2007 with a BFA in Communication Design from The University of North Texas, Tanamachi moved to New York City to design Broadway show posters at Spotco—a leader in arts and live entertainment branding. In early 2010, she took a job working under Louise Fili at Louise Fili Ltd, specializing in the design of restaurants and food packaging. Currently, Dana works full time as a custom chalk letterer and has been commissioned by clients such as West Elm, Rugby Ralph Lauren, Google, The Ace Hotel, Adidas, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, Lululemon Athletica, and Garden & Gun Magazine. She has been interviewed and featured by The Wall Street Journal, Design*Sponge, and The Great Discontent. In 2011, Dana was named a Young Gun (YG9) by the Art Directors Club and a Young Creative to Watch by HOW Magazine. Most recently, Tanamachi had the honor of creating O Magazine‘s first entirely hand-lettered cover for their February 2012 issue. Here’s Dana Tanamachi in time lapse:
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Pacific bluefin tuna migrating last year from coastal Japan to the waters off Southern California contained radioactive cesium isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, scientists reported Monday. This news sent the Twitterverse careening out of control for a time, but what are the facts? The amount of radioactivity in the fish was one-tenth the level the U.S. and Japan consider dangerous, and likely posed no public health hazard or risk to people who ate the seafood, the scientists said. But the study showed for the first time that migrating sea life rapidly brought traces of radioactive elements from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors across vast distances. [Read more about tuna and radiation: HuffPo ~ Bluefin Tuna Radiation: Is There A Health Risk? / The Wall Street Journal ~ U.S. Tuna Has Fukushima Taint
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