Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

On Saturday night, the HUF warehouse hosted a reception for the singly named Haroshi. But the Tokyo sculptor isn’t some poseur who simply paints on skateboards or appropriates the culture for street cred. His pieces (made out of used boards by DLX team riders in this particular case) actually capture and convey the energy and power of skating from a skater’s point of view. Probably the smoothness, too, although rent-a-cops were stationed to keep guests from fondling the art.

Continue reading

OFF!'s free midnight show at the Echoplex

As it was for a lot of you out there, this wasn’t the easiest year for me and my family. Following Giant Robot’s print magazine going on hiatus at the tail end of 2010, I was unemployed with no job leads or responses to my queries for the first six months. Then, after I got an awesome job out of nowhere, the company my wife worked for was purchased by a competitor and shut down. Fortunately, we’ve managed to get by through frugal habits, a rock-solid support system of family and friends, and the PMA. And yes, there have been highlights. Here are ten of them–some of which has been written about in the blog, others merely alluded to, and a couple of odds and ends–in no particular order.

Continue reading

This list represents a lot of stuff that I just got around to in 2011 and really dug. I hope you get a kick out of it.

 

 

Continue reading
It’s not priceless like it says, but why did I think the person who lost it was Asian? Muchen Hsieh left her violin on a bus ride. The cool thing? The cleaning crew found it and reported they found it. The question is would the finder have turned it in if they knew it was worth $172,000? The violin was made by Vincenzo Jorio in Naples from 1835 and on loan for a Taiwan Conservatory. Either way, I’m glad she got it back, but the news story went so far as to cover the violin player (who unfortunately gets massive double chin with the fiddle under her neck) but didn’t bother getting a peep out of the finder. That may have been telling and great. The thought process: Asian girl who attends a high end music school… yes. Cleaning crew member… no. Merry Christmas.
Continue reading