Ako Castuera holding her two pieces for Year of the Dragon. Watch for her solo show at GR2 in the coming months. She’s one of my favorites and will be one of yours one day soon.

Sometimes you just have to eat Kimchee. I enjoy it when it has that fresh taste and the cabbage is still crunchy. Why is it that sometimes, iPhone 3s take great pics and sometimes they don’t?

Luke Chueh and his piece for Year of the Dragon. Yes, it has a deep meaning and a background story. It’s always awesome when a guy like Luke participates in our shows.

This man’s back tattoo is amazing. Cape Cod is a difficult place to figure out with the tiny provinces with their names. Now, I have a map.

Bjorn Calleja’s piece for Year of the Dragon (There’s another part as well). The eyes are freaky powerful.

This deserves a c’mon! Yakisoba with a cheddar cheese flavor? It’s Cheesy, It’s Easy as a slogan sounds delicious.

Jeremy Lin article. Yes, he’s in the D League after being on the Knicks and getting no playing time. He did score a triple double in a recent game and is looking strong. What does it mean to do well in the D League if you don’t get playing time in the NBA? Sometimes nothing unfortunately. Hope it matters this time. (NBC - Jeremy Lin)

It’s hard to write about 3.11 from this side of the planet. I watched the horrors on television, Ustream, and Twitter just an hour or so after attending an after event for an exhibition by James Jean, where I stood when I heard about the quake and tsunami. Like 9.11, you’ll remember what you were doing and who was around when you heard, and like with most, I experienced the devastation virtually.

Living just a few blocks away, I’ve known filmmaker Shunji Iwai for a bit over a year as he was working on projects outside of Japan. He often discussed his life in America that didn’t include a need to work in Japan any time soon. Over many meals, he talked about the quake and had powerful views of how dangerous the radiation was for Tokyoites and of course the surrounding areas of Fukushima. Depressed, he was positive that if he was in Tokyo, he’d have moved far away as should everyone else. He knew the media was lying. He newly established an office, staff, had a completed film “Vampire,” and before I knew it he left America nearly overnight for Osaka.

I’ve often wondered how my neighbor was doing. Just the other day I ran into him on Facebook. He messaged me that he’d send me his film about 3.11. I only loosely heard of his project and expected something that would be cinematic – in his way. It’s not. At least that’s what I thought at first. By the end, it is. It’s more of what can be thought of as a text book on film that’s heavy with interviews. As you’d expect there will be scenes of wreckage, but what Iwai captures is also his own experience that he shares with his new friends including a young girl activist. He too is experiencing the scenes, explanation and people as you are when you watch it.

It’s not cinematic in a sense that he’s not trying to sway your emotions with pretty shots, but you are pushed deeply into understanding what 3.11 means from angles of indie media, nuclear plants, locals, professors, involved actors, and more. I was most touched by a professor in Kyoto who’s remarks about the children affected by the radiation was especially touching and only then does his film crescendo into something that I could see crafted by Iwai’s hands. It’s all in the last last few minutes that you realize his artistic vision for this film.

They asked the question, Who’s the Best Asian American Athlete? Of course the in studio team at TMZ didn’t know and went straight to the Asian players. Yao Ming? Ichiro Suzuki? Manny Pacquiao? Kristi Yamaguchi? They didn’t acknowledge until later that Pacman wasn’t American. They didn’t mention it at all with Yao Ming or Ichiro Suzuki. Tiger Woods got the nay because he’s half. So who is it? The funniest thing is they asked Hapa Anton Apolo Ohno, and by their standards, he doesn’t qualify. By the TMZ standards the person needs to be active as well. So who is it?

Outside of Giant Robot 1 someone (Hooked Hands?) placed a Spam musubi on the PVC pipe. Rice, Spam, and seaweed. Ingenious.