Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Giant Robot Rock Quietly Sessions Grand Hallway with Goh Nakamura – Free Fri June 17 7-10pm GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd.Los Angeles, CA 90025 http://giantrobot.com (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot Rock Quietly Sessions featuring Seattle group Grand Hallway accompanied with Goh Nakamura will take the floor at Giant Robot 2. An intimate atmosphere, this six member band will play somewhat unplugged. Grand Hallway are touring as part of their third album release, “Winter Creatures”. Tomo Nakayama, lead vocalist and chief songwriter endured his grandparents death, the birth of a guitar player, Jeramy Koepping’s baby, and the closure of the Neptune Theater in Seattle, all contributed to the new songs. Giant Robot contributor, Goh Nakamura is a singer / songwriter and stars in “Surrogate Valentine”, a feature film current on the film festival circuit. Together, Giant Robot and Goh Nakamura have thus far curated two Giant Robot Rock Quietly Sessions with more on the way. Nakamura cites Grand Hallway as one of his favorite bands. Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with a shop and gallery in Los Angeles, as well as an online equivalent.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Craft Event Make A Button Evening with Busy Beaver Button Co. Thurs June 9 6-8pm GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 http://giantrobot.com (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot and Busy Beaver Button Co is proud to host Make a Button Evening with well known button maker, Christen Carter, proprietor of Busy Beaver Button Co, Chicago.Christen Carter will bring her 2.25″ button maker. You can draw, bring in scraps or see what’s possible to do on a button! It’s free and all done on the spot. Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with a shop and gallery in Los Angeles, as well as an online equivalent.
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Takashi Miike to Direct Film Based on Nintendo DS game – Phoenix Wright Miike’s next film following his 13 Assassins and Ninja Kids… This man keeps busy, and it’s striking that anyone will make a film based on a DS game. That’s how strong DS is in Japan. “In a typical “Ace Attorney” game, you’d hunt for clues in various locations and talk to persons of interest who might info on a case. Then, like a “Law & Order” episode, the action shifts to a courtroom where you put witnesses on the stand and whip out evidence that shatters their alibis.” (IFC - Miike Phoenix Wright) After the Quake: Sake Returns! Takahiro Hirai says, “I thought the fermentation had gone too far and we’d have to discard everything. I had almost lost hope,” he says. “But it turned out to be full of life, with an excellent strong, thick flavor, although very different from our usual style.” It turns out that although the many sake houses damaged from the quake are re-finding their stride. The rice used isn’t from the quake zone, but are from Western Japan. Perhaps there’s a few relaxing times ahead. (Time – Sake is back) China slows down Rail Expansion The story might not be that exciting, sans this one passage: “A corruption scandal ousted China’s speed-loving railway minister Liu Zhijun, amid reports he kept multiple mistresses nationwide, and concerns over safety and cost persuaded his replacement to lower top operating speeds from 217 to 186 mph.” Guess what he wanted the high speed railways for? (USA Today – Bootie Train) 40 Ways The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The US There’s probably more than 40, but this scroll through list is a good quick way to catch up on how strong China is at the moment. “Since 2005, the U.S. has spent $1.1 trillion in Chinese products and services, but China has only spent $272 billion on American goods and services” (Business Insider – 40 Ways China Leads) Old School Asian American Actor – James Hong “You know the face. but you may not know that actor James Hong, who voices Panda’s papa, grew up in Minneapolis “They couldn’t find a role for me in high school because they said they didn’t know what to do with a yellow face. And even at the U of M, they’d say, ‘What would we do with a Chinese man in our plays?’ ” James Hong is one of those actors who has contributed to the growth of Asian Americans in Hollywood, but in the end, he gets just a pat on the back, if even that. (Twincities – James Hong)
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Beer Can Pouring Mastery “By attaching the device to a can of beer, one can achieve the perfect balance of beer and head when pouring into a glass.” Okay, no big, life-changing news in this story really. But there is a “cool” factor here which we thought you’d enjoy. The Japanese are renowned for their desire to achieve perfection in even the smallest things, and the simple act of pouring some cold brew from a can appears to be no exception. The Takara Tomy company is responsible for this one. After watching the video at the link you’ll probably agree with us that this is a perfect idea. (Japan Probe – Good Beer Head) It’s a “Hangover” For Ang Lee’s Son “A large portion of the business has less to do with your talents and more about your resourcefulness and willingness to adapt.” His father has directed some of the finest films of the past twenty years, including “The Wedding Banquet”, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain”. So you might think Mason Lee would naturally try to leverage the respect and success his dad Ang has earned in Hollywood. Not so. In fact, Mr. Lee is a humble NYU acting student who had to audition for his key role in “The Hangover, Part II” just like anyone else. (Wall Street Journal New York Culture– Mason Lee) There is also a brief video interview with Lee and other Asian-American “Hangover 2” cast members on Channel APA. (Channel APA – “Hangover 2” Asian-American Cast) The Miraculous Lone Pine Tree Brings Hope “Only one tree, estimated to be 270 to 280 years old, survived the tsunami. It has been a great emotional support to residents.” If you’ve seen any of the videos of the black, all-consuming waters of the tsunami that struck the Japanese coast after the March 11th earthquake, you will agree it is amazing anything survived. But one pine tree out of a beach-front forest of 70,000? To guess that the odds of this are extraordinarily high would probably be an understatement. Yet it happened in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, where botanical scientists have carefully taken branches from the survivor tree and grafted them onto other pines with the hope of recreating the forest that once stood. If all goes well, and there is no guarantee of that, the seedlings resulting from the grafted material should be ready for planting in three years. (Detroit Free Press – Lone Pine Tree) Kim Jong Il Repeats Himself in China. A LOT. “The sameness of Kim Jong Il’s toasts when he visits China is striking.” There really is no humor in what Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship has done to the people and resources of North Korea. It’s just wrong. However, there is a lot of humor to be found in the ways the strange man with the huge glasses presents himself to the world outside North Korea. In China, for example, he has a habit of basically saying the same thing every time he makes...
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That’s Jeni Yang, Giant Robot Drawing Club guest who actually made cookies for the event. GR Drawing Club opened at 6pm and continued late into the night. We’ll be announcing the next GRXDC event soon, and everyone of any age is welcome. We hosted children through adults. The idea is to just sit and draw without pressure and in a comfortable environment. We played music – this time, mostly 60s and 70s rock, yes, bring a record, and we’ll play it. We expected a tiny group but ended up setting up three tables! Great job, everyone. Cam Floyd and Niv Bavarsky just showed up! [nggallery id=17]
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