Changes to the Blog and Japanese Earthquake Relief

NEW YORK, March 18 – I apologize to my readers about the infrequent blog posts in the last several months. I’ve been dealing with a lot of life changes. I’ve also decided to move the blog over to a private server due to the increasingly prohibitive restrictions of blogger and the personal desire to expand the content on the site. Over the next several months, I will be transitioning slowly over to my own domain name (www.raiwebs.com). Hopefully by July, the entire blog will be fully transferred over to the private hosting server.

Vocaloid Autos in Akihabara

TOKYO, January 3 – While hunting for manga in the Akihabara district (秋葉原), we walked down the block from Mandarake and ran right into an impromptu car show. A significant number of otaku parked their Itasha (痛車) (customized cars with anime themes) along one of the district’s side street. The anime car subculture has been around for a few years, but the current crop of vehicles reflects the Vocaloid craze. The trend seems to be six months behind the dōjinshi fandom. Maybe next year we will start to see more Touhou Project (東方) automobiles.

New Year's Festival Food in Asakusa

New Year's Festival at Asakusa Shrine
TOKYO, January 1 – After tossing our coins into the shrine's collection box and saying our prayers, a small group of us headed over to the rows of vendor boothes (屋台) near the Asakusa Shrine (浅草神社). Many of the stalls were selling tradition Japanese festival food ranging from sweets to grilled fish. Here are some festival foods that we enjoyed on New Year's Day:

Welcome to the Future of Hong Kong

HONG KONG, December 24 – Saw a trio of mannequins that freaked me out at the Hong Kong Museum of Science. They projected video face onto the lifeless humanoid forms and gave them voices in order to narrate the exhibit. It was very trippy.

Christmas Advertising in Hong Kong: Movie Stars, Pop Singers, and Clark Kent

Large Billboard Ad for Gary Chaw’s (曹格) Tour. It’s sponsored by Johnnie Walker.
HONG KONG, December 24 – Marketing and advertisements say a lot about a people. They highlight the best values of a culture as well as its shallowness. In Hong Kong, the corporate graffiti is everywhere you look. Your eyes can’t escape a product pitch or a public service announcement. Most Hong Kong denizens do their best to ignore them. I, on the other hand, obsess over their meaning and over-analyze their subtext. I also document them on this blog.

New Adventures in Dim Sum

Glutinous rice and Chinese sausage.

HONG KONG, December 23 – When I’m in Hong Kong, I always look for the most creative and tastiest dim sum dishes in town. The competition is extremely intense with the countless number of tea houses and restaurants lining every major thoroughfare. The financial survivals of these establishments are reliant on their ability to innovate, steal, and borrow. Unlike their Western counterparts, the chefs here don’t rely on the same classic favorites like a simple cheong fun (腸粉) or shaomai (燒賣). They keep redefining the notion of dim sum in an effort to constantly improve their menu. Here are some of my favorite little discoveries.

Hong Kong's Sidewalk Comics

Hong Kong History Museum Exhibit of a Comic Book Lending Library
HONG KONG, December 22 – After the Second World War, Hong Kong children used to spend their free time at the local sidewalk comic book lending library. They paid 5-10 cents to burrow a single comic book. The vendors of the library would also set-up a row of tiny benches to accommodated their pint-sized clientele. These kids were hardcore.

Black Dub in Full Force

Left to Right: Brian Blade, Daniel Lanois, Trixie Whitley, and Jim Wilson
NEW YORK, November 17 – I usually don’t post two similar pieces back-to-back on this blog, but I'm making an exception. After being blown away by Black Dub’s stripped down show at the CMJ Music Marathon, I decided to attend their full band performance at the Bowery Ballroom.

I was eager to see the complete band including Brian Blade and Daryl Johnson. They were a super group jam band therefore the live performance is supposed to be top notch. I was already somewhat familiar with Brian Blade’s solo work, and I always admired his skills behind a drum set. Also Daryl Johnson was pretty amazing on the Black Dub recording.

HUSH is Found

American Dreamer
NEW YORK, November 19 – The Angel Orensanz Foundation hosted a brief gallery exhibition for British street artist HUSH. The current series of paintings is titled “Found”. In the past, the artist has been known to combine elements of graffiti art, anime, manga, and Asian pop culture.


Found in the City

Black Dub: Stripped Down and Devastating

Left to Right: Daniel Lanois and Trixie Whitley
NEW YORK, October 23 – While I was attending the CMJ Music Marathon to see other indie acts, I checked their overall schedule of performances and noticed Black Dub was set to play on Saturday evening. Black Dub is the current incarnation of Daniel Lanois’ super group with a rotating roster of rock/jazz/blues virtuosos. If you don’t know Lanois’ name, he has produced some of the biggest landmark rock albums such as U2’s The Unforgettable Fire, U2’s Achtung Baby, Peter Gabriel’s So, and Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind. He is also an absolutely brilliant musician.

Family, Friends, and Grand Hallway at the CMJ Music Marathon

NEW YORK, October 22 – Based on another recommendation, I went to check out the Seattle-based Grand Hallway at the CMJ Music Marathon. They’re a sizable band with quite a few players including violinists, woodwinds, piano, and others. Playing at the small Rockwood Music Hall, the band squeezed themselves into the corner stage.

Paul Weller's Night in Harlem

Crowd waiting to enter the Apollo Theater.
NEW YORK, November 6 – As I rolled up from the A train onto the Harlem streets, I eagerly made my way down the block to the see the amazing Paul Weller at the Apollo Theater. There was no wind that night, but the air was a bit chilly. I pulled up the collar on my coat and soldiered on. The brisk November couldn’t deter me from this potentially awesome performance.

When I reached the legendary venue, I noticed a massive line of people. I quickly asked the last man in line about the crowd. He responded with a nod and assured me that this is the line to get into the theater. I was astonished at the large number of concert goers for Weller’s show. I took my place in the back of the line and waited in the cold with my fellow music enthusiasts.

Kaiju Heroes: Men in Rubber Suits

Haruo Nakajima taking a break between takes.
NEW YORK, November 9 – In Japanese kaiju (怪獣) films, the faces of the most memorable players are never seen on the silver screen. They are the kaiju actors who breathe life into fantastic monsters like Godzilla (ゴジラ) and Gamera (ガメラ). Suffering underneath thick layers of latex rubber, they lumbered around complex miniature cityscapes in order to create movie magic. They are literally where “the rubber meets the road.”

Jane Lui Double Taps New York

NEW YORK, October 22 – Based on a recommendation, I went to see Jane Lui’s performance at the Rockwood Music Hall. Lui, a recent internet phenom, has been known as one of the more notable independent musical acts in the San Francisco scene. Unlike past generations of musicians, her career was born out of the internet and takes full advantage of powerful marketing tools like youtube and social media networks. Through a spirited digital DIY campaign, she has carefully garnered a pretty loyal following making her internet famous.

Shonen Knife at Asia Society

Emi Morimoto standing on her drums and Ritsuko Taneda rocking out.
New York, September 25 – As a part of their extravagant Yoshitomo Nara (奈良 美智) exhibition, Asia Society hosted a concert by Shonen Knife (少年ナイフ). Nara is a big fan of the band and designed some of their album covers including Happy Hour. In a larger sense, he has also credited punk music as being a major influence in his artwork.

In addition to the art exhibit, the performance was part of a new American tour that served as a coming out party for Shonen Knife's new drummer Emi Morimoto. She seemed to fit the band extremely well. Her drumming was exciting and filled with gusto.

AWA 2010: Shinji Aramaki and Friends

Con Attendees
Atlanta, September 18 – Being sandwiched between the summer anime convention season and New York Comic Con, I was initially hesitant about attending Anime Weekend Atlanta 2010. The two big draws for me were hanging out with some friends and meeting anime director Shinji Aramaki (荒牧 伸志).


Everyone is a Critic Panel (Left to Right): Paul Chapman (The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast), Gerald Rathkolb (AWO), and Daryl Surat (AWO)
The great majority of the convention was spent hang out with friends. Since AWA is more low key than other larger conventions, I actually got the chance to talk to people. I also had the opportunity to attend some interesting panels like Everyone is a Critic and the Podcaster's Roundtable.

NYCC 2010: Everyday is Like GR Sunday

Giant Robot Invades
New York, October 10 – The last day at New York Comic Con was much calmer, and I saw more children in the crowd. My game plan for most of the day was booth duty. I spent most of the day answering questions and promoting Giant Robot Magazine.

Sho'nuff visits the Giant Robot Booth

The booth had many different visitors. Most of the visitors to our booth were young artists looking to get involved with Giant Robot. I had long running conversations about Superflat, street graffiti, and the current art scene. I even ran into a few David Choe fans. They were hoping that Dave was going to be at the booth. Unfortunately I had to give them the bad news. On the other hand, younger booth visitors were looking for recommendation about everything. I was dispensing recommendations for anime, manga, Asian cinema, J-rock, and other related topics.

NYCC 2010: Saturday Funnies

Ultraman (ウルトラマン) Cosplayer
New York, October 9 – Saturday is probably the busiest day during the New York Comic Con. I arrived early for many of the interesting panels including the Spotlight on Harper Collins, Digital Comics & Distribution, and Sushi Typhoon.

Vampires, Witches, and Zombies. Oh my...


Spotlight on Harper Collins. Seated (Left to Right): Erika Tsang (editor), Margaret Ronald (author), Jeaniene Frost (author), and Pamela Palmer (author).
I popped into this panel to check out the announcements and support my cousin Erika Tsang. She is an Executive Editor at Avon Romance. The panel announced several supernatural romance fiction titles such as Majorie Liu's In the Dark of Dreams, Jeaniene Frost's Side of the Grave, and Kerrelyn Sparks' Vampire Mine. Despite the romance nature of the imprint, the line was filled with sexy vampires, powerful witches, and zombies invasions. The trend in romance fiction is leaning towards the supernatural with the popularity of book series like The Twilight Saga and The Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood).

NYCC 2010: Digital Revolution Will Not Be Televised... It Will Be Loaded into Your iPad

Digital Comics & Distribution. Seated (Left to Right): Ira Rubenstein (Marvel), David Steinberger (Comixology), Jim Lee (DC), and Micah Baldwin (Graphic.ly).
New York, October 9 – Lately much of the news from many comic book publishers are focused on their huge push into digital distribution. Due to the portability and high resolution of print, the publishing industry enjoyed a brief respite from the onslaught of digitization and piracy of their media. However, the proliferation of piracy on file sharing torrent networks and dropping revenues from unit sales have forced publishers to adopt a more aggressive approach towards digital distribution.

The panel included: Ira Rubenstein (Marvel's), David Steinberger (comiXology), Jim Lee (DC Comics), and Micah Baldwin (Graphic.ly)

NYCC 2010: The Brave and The Geeky

Cosplaying Couple posing as Superman and Wonder Woman.
New York, October 8 – Due to a late night pre-con party, I arrived to the New York Comic Con 2010 late on the Friday afternoon. There weren't too many interesting panels except the Aniplex one. I had a difficult time finding the press office to pick-up my badge, and the volunteers at registration had no clue. I wandered a bit and eventually got my badge. I headed over to the Aniplex panel.

Aniplex of America


Aniplex PR team. Hiroe Tsukamoto (right).
As I was waiting for the panel to begin, Anime News Network (ANN) Editor Chris Macdonald sat right in front of me. I've run into him at other conventions over the summer. I greeted him, and we were trading war stories about this year's anime con season.