Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
[youtube]ejwKPyfm12Q[/youtube] Originally from Taipei but now based in Los Angeles, Jeni Yang is an illustrator who experiments with a wide variety of materials and mediums. The incorporation of woodwork in her whimsical and surreal paintings adds a handcrafted feel; the use of pastels and soft wood stains, nostalgia. She works out of a garage in deep Orange County, and spends 50/50 of her time working on the wood portions of her work and painting. In this Giant Robot Artist Friends film, Yang explains her process further and you’ll get to see her use a scroll saw. Take a look at Jeni Yang’s work as part of Synthesis (showing with Jesse Fillingham).
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“The director of China’s tennis programme says more athletes should follow Li Na’s lead and break away from the country’s sports system.” Winning the French Open was a great victory for Li Na, who is the first Asian to ever win a tennis Grand Slam event. Yet how she was able to achieve this success is, in part, due to the fact that she chose to break away from China’s state athletic training system in 2008, a move that allowed her to choose her own coaches, training regimen and tennis matches. An additional perk for Ms. Li and three other tennis players who also abandoned the Chinese state system is that they get to keep a larger percentage of their professional winnings. This has prompted athletics professionals in China, including top tennis official Sun Jinfang, to question the state’s system and criticize it for its long history of rigidity and lack of emphasis on individualized training. There is no question that Chinese athletes are some of the world’s best, as the country’s performances in Olympic events often prove. But it would be nice to see more athletes like Li get a chance to flourish and achieve victory on their own terms and not just for the glory of Mother China. (BBC News Asia-Pacific – Li Na Bucks Chinese System)
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“Choi’s voice simply astounds, proving that you really never know who has an amazing talent.” Okay, you may have heard about this story already, and perhaps seen the video. What no one can deny is that Korean Song-bong Choi does have an amazing voice, and most of his personal story is tough and heart-rending to hear. But, as is sometimes the case with these talent shows in various countries, the singer’s story is not as straight-forward and upfront as presented on TV. Choi, for example, didn’t just walk off the street from his day laborer’s job and start pumping out opera-quality vocals. He attended a high school for the performing arts, where he received vocal training. This fact was conveniently edited out of his conversation with the judges he spoke to on Korea’s Got Talent. Not a huge controversy, but enough to give us pause yet again when considering how seriously to take TV talent shows. (Huffington Post – Hard-luck Korean Songbird) Additional details about Song-bong Choi from TIME Newsfeed: Korean Singer Had Training. [youtube]KOWL_UFA-lI[/youtube]
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“Americus has the ideal type of wood for making chopsticks. The abundant forests of poplar and sweet gum trees in the area strike the perfect balance between hardness and softness.” Now, we’re pretty sure some clean-cut good old boy in a nice suit didn’t visit a delegation of stern Chinese government officials with a beautiful display case of Georgia-made chopsticks and say “What do ya’ll think about these fine, hand-crafted specimens”. But it’s fun to think about exactly how the ironically-named town of Americus, Georgia ended up supplying millions of these essential eating utensils to the world’s largest communist country. In truth, it has everything to do with Korean-born American entrepreneur Jae Lee, who founded Georgia Chopsticks in Americus last year and has made the chopsticks exporting business an amazing and surprising success. (TIME Newsfeed – Georgia Chopsticks for China) The Center for American Progress has more about Jae Lee and his company’s rapid success: Korean-American Opens Doors to China.
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Racing Hong Kong Dragon Boats Benefits Body, Spirit “Even the newly anointed Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton, was a dragon boat racer in London until she had to leave her team in 2007 for security reasons.” The Chinese have been racing dragon boats for over 2,000 years. For most of that time, such races were ceremonial affairs to celebrate rice planting in summertime, and to pay respect to the Chinese water dragon god. But since around 1976, when the Hong Kong Tourist Association made the shrewd move of holding the world’s first dragon boat racing competition, racing these very long and beautiful boats has become an international sport. At the link, you’ll get some insight into how dragon boat racers prepare both physically and mentally for an event. According to one racer, after training or competing “the body is tired, but the mind is refreshed.” (Wall Street Journal – Go Dragon Boat Racer Go) CNNGo also has a visual dragon boat trivia guide: Dragon Boat Quick Start. Yoshitaka Kawakami’s Digital School Girl Horror There isn’t all that much to say about the link below; because as you will see, these very different and offbeat images really do speak for themselves. And what some of them say is rather unsettling. It seems digital artist Yoshitaka Kawakami has a thing for Japanese school girls. Okay, so even though this can be a dicey subject, suffice to say that many males also have a thing for Japanese school girls. The difference in Kawakami’s case, however, is that he has the talent and the twisted vision required to alter the appearance and circumstances of this Japanese icon in very unusual ways. And that’s about it, except to say be prepared for images that run the gamut from weird but playful, to downright odd and disconcerting. No nudity, but some images are NSFW. (Daily Onigiri – Japanese Schoolgirl Variants) In India, They Take Holy Men Seriously. Mostly. “Now more godmen and activists claiming to know the will of the people will be encouraged to hold an elected government hostage. Mr. Ramdev has avowed to resume his disobedience elsewhere.” Last week, India’s most famous yoga guru, Swami Ramdev, went on hunger strike in New Delhi. The aim of his strike was to protest widespread government corruption and to demand solutions to the problem, which include instituting a death penalty for government officials convicted of corruption. Okay, pretty extreme. But the Indian government took Ramdev seriously enough that it sent in police last Sunday to remove the guru and his followers from the Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi. This was to avoid letting the ranks of Ramdev’s followers grow into a larger and more vocal force which may have spread civil unrest beyond controllable levels. In April, India’s prime minister caved to another hunger striker’s demands to enact anti-graft legislation. We don’t know how well these tactics would work here in the U.S.A.; but you have to respect the fact that bold and earnest protest will get you...
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