My blog
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Ron English in HK !!!
Saturday, Jan 24, 2009 10:56PM / Standard Entry
Ron English was in town a few weeks ago for the start of his POPaganda Asia tour and had a really cool exhibition, toy signing, and live painting event at Delay No Mall. This was my second visit to DNM (the last time was when Haze was in town) and it was great watching Ron just chill and do his thing. What made this trip unique was just few days later he had another exhibition and signing for his new "Grin" figure at Garageworks too.The POPaganda exhibition features the new Abraham Obama bust along with t-shirts and prints that feature his popular Supersize Me figure and paintings.Ron working on a Roni Rabbit painting!After working on the canvas he switched mediums to this model.Ron patiently signs the newly released goodies.Some of his previous figures and creations were also on display too.Next was the release event for the new "Grin" figure at Garageworks that also featured lots of awesome prints.The "Grin" was inspired by one of my favorite Peanuts character and they were all sold out in no time. Very cool!
The man of the week: Ron English! We had a nice discussion about music and he told me some fascinating stories about hanging with Daniel Johnston.
I also got to meet artists Pal Wong and Reni Wong!The newest additions to my Mong Kok toy store looking office....haha!The last time we were in Garageworks we went to support Rozy and Race's new comic book Orius. It was drawn and created with the super talented Pat Lee and is available for download here. Support yo!Rozy looking like a real superhero!Pat Lee next to some of his work that is still on display!
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Ryan Mcginness X Arkitip X Incase !!!
Monday, Jan 19, 2009 8:17PM / Standard Entry
The new Ryan Mcginness X Arkitip issue number 48 came out and it's pretty kick @ss. I'm a huge Ryan Mcginness fan so I was excited to get my hands on it. This issue also includes a collaboration with the super cool macbook/iphone/ipod design company Incase.
The packaging design that houses the Arkitip magazine and special "Aesthetic Comfort" book was done by Incase.Each issue was signed and numbered by the man himself!This issue has a lot of great pics of his art and a lot of interviews with people that worked with Ryan in the past.The Aesthetic Comfort book covers his exhibitions from the Fall of 2008 and done in 4 fluorescent colors!Here's another Ryan Mcginness book I got a few years back. It's the special edition printing of Project Rainbow that was signed & numbered. What makes this book so unique is that he actually screen printed on the cover of each one making it a one of a kind unique piece of art!
Here are some of Ryan's past exhibitions and installations from around there world. Wish I could've checked out more of them out in person.Oh yeah, the new Arkitip book also shows some of his latest pieces coming to life in 3D! Super cool!
The lucky cat and shower tree were some of the very first pieces I saw that got me hooked on his art. Check it out!
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Tattoo Royale !!!
Monday, Jan 5, 2009 9:08PM / Standard Entry
Happy New Year! I'm glad we all survived 2008 and from the looks of it there was some pretty cool NYE celebrations. I'm excited for 2009 since we've got some dope things in the mix and hopefully it will be a great year. For my first 09 blog I wanted to to post something I did while being back in San Diego last month. Since it's been over 6 years since I had my last tattoo I decided to start finishing up my left calf. I went back to Guf over at Tattoo Royale (who also did my whole right calf and the half-sleeve on my left arm) and got some fresh new work done. It was great to finally get some new ink and catch up with a good friend. Check it out....
For this tattoo I wanted to do something along the lines of a Sam Flores piece (Sam's know for his Fatima and Tiger Baby characters). Guf mixed the pieces together and added his own flavor to the design.
After dialing in the design and deciding the size of it he then used a transfer to lay the image on my calf and made sure it was nice and straight.
Also additional details would be drawn on the skin using a ballpoint pen or other markers.
Getting things set up and ready to go! Make sure where ever you get work done that the place is clean and that the people are professional, the last thing you want to do is mess up something that's gonna be permanent.
Here we go.....I almost fogot how it felt!
The good thing about getting work done is it gives you pleanty of time to catch up and for us its talking about model kits, godzilla, anime, and Japan. Actually, Guf was the fist person to teach me how to build resin kits!
After a hour or so the outline is finished!
Five hours later (my new record) the color is all done and ready to be wrapped up. The time went by pretty quick so next time let's shoot for six hours...haha!
Thanks Guf! If you guys ever make it down to San Diego check out their shop and get some great work done.
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Christmas in Beijing !!!
Saturday, Dec 27, 2008 11:56PM / Standard Entry
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and that Santa was good to you. I was excited to spend 3 days including Christmas eve and early Christmas morning in Beijing for the first time. It was cool because I got to see some of famous landmarks and got to spend Christmas day in two different cities.
On our first night we cruised down Ghost street and went to check out some music, toy, and designer shops before dinner. We went to the favorite local rock club Mao to try to catch a show but unfortunately no one was playing. But it you're in town on the 31st the Queers are playing with Brain Failure and SKO. I saw the Queers at Che Cafe (SDSU) back in my sophomore year and they killed it. Don't miss this one yo!
Our first meal in Beijing was some tasty won ton, tofu, and beef sesame buns.The next day we got up bright and early and hit a few landmarks including the imperial temple Tien Tan. It was -7 degrees so I was hoping it would snow but no luck this time.When we arrived there were tons of people outside the temple just dancing and singing tunes with a band! Couples were doing tango stuff at one end of the park while a few feet away a bunch of ladies would be doing two step routines. It was pretty festive.This is how you can keep warm while cruising in your bike. Actually, it's a taxi with a seat in the back too.Next stop was Tiananmen Square. It's pretty huge and you can imagine how crazy it must have been standing there with soldiers looking up at the emperor.Next we went to the Olympic "BIrd's Nest" stadium. It was really cool to see how Christmassy it was around town and they even had Christmas trees and a Santa village set up in the area.
Even the lamps were designed just like the bird nest.My favorite place had to be the 798 art district. It was a factory area that is now filled with tons of small indie to big name art museums. There is a super cool Christian Dior exhibition at UCCA, Shu Jie at 798 Underground, and Zheng Rui at Ming Art Gallery that's definately worth checking out.The CCTV building looks like it's from a Japanese anime. You can imagine a giant Evangelion robot fighting a monster next to it....haha.
Foot & ass message......so funny!
Since we were in Beijing we definitely had to have the world famous Peking duck. Authentic ingredients, recipies, and chef. Amazing!After rehearsals we had one last chance to run around so we headed down to "The Village" shopping area and looked at the biggest Apple, Adidas, and Uniqlo store in Beijing. It actually looked just like a mall in the states with a Cold Stone, Starbucks, Roxy and everything.On Christmas eve I had my first gig in Beijing and it was great to finally play here and meet some cool people. This was the first and hopefully not the last.....Jonathan Lee 李宗盛 was also in the show and it was a pleasure to meet such a great artist from Taiwan. Respect!Our last breakfast (6am) at the Beijing airport. My first time having Korean food this early but sooooo good....
Without sleeping the night before we boarded the last flight of the year to make it home just in time for Christmas lunch with the family......yeah!
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Merry Christmas !!!
Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008 11:54PM / Standard Entry
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a great and wonderful holiday season. And I hope Santa brings you some cool gear too.....
Leroy and the 2008 Hui family tree!
