Cafemode art show October 6th



October 6th is the new Earthworks show at Shojin with art by me, Remi February, David Neptune and more. Hopefully Remi-chan will also be at the opening, so anyone who wants to come can meet both of us:)
David Neptune will be back home in Japan but his very nice photos will be hanging up to make you happy.

The theme of this show is "Collaboration". All pieces must be made by more than one person.


My piece is this water color that I made a few weeks ago with my friend BPPB. I put it in the blog a while ago already. BPPB drew the body of the octopus and I filled in words and face. The above is the framed version with a black pastel matte that I made. It is $38.

I hope to see you at the show.

Good coffee in West Los Angeles/Venic





When I moved from Shimane to Los Angeles to start searching for Jonathan and Linda Smith, I did not think it would be hard to find coffee. In bigger Japanese cities you can find all kinds of high quality coffee. A lot of times you can find a small shop run by a person who only cares about coffee. Usually a Japanese coffee shop will have different country's coffees that you can choose...Ethiopian, Guatemalan, Costa Rica, Kona etc. In America, I noticed that you can usually only get one kind of coffee and sometimes they don't tell you what coffee it is...or it is a blend. I had a very hard time to find good coffee in Los Angeles. Most of the coffee in a LA coffee shop is watery or tastes old, like the beans have been sent to live in an old-age rest home. Those beans have forgotten how to be delicious.
Finally I have found two good coffee shops in Los Angeles. These pictures are from Intelligentsia. It's a funny coffee shop in Venice beach, on Abbot Kinney Blvd. It doesn't look like a coffee shop so much. It looks like a kind of futuristic robot beverage factory. This is the kind of factory where robots go to get their oil or robot fluid refilled.
The seats are set up so that you look down on the shop, or you can sit at the entrance so you are watching people walk in. My friend did not like it because she felt like she is in a zoo and everyone is watching her. I did not feel bad about it, because I like going to the zoo, and if the zoo also has good coffee then I am okay.
When you walk in, you can tell that they care about coffee. They have three country's coffees on the menu. El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. These are favorites of mine :)


This is my cappuchino. I only wish they would have made a nice kitty kat face in the foam. But it was still good.




My other favorite coffee place is The Conservatory in Culver City. They roast beans their everyday. That is where I buy mine. They also have really yummy coffee for sale. It is located next to Sony, so maybe you can have coffee with Adam Sandler. Today he is celebrating Yom Kippur though, so he might not be there.


Last year, I wrote a song about coffee and showed lots of coffee shop signs in Japan and made a video. I hope you will watch it if you haven't seen it yet.

King Kong and Godzilla on Vacation

This morning while I was surfing I was thinking about monsters again. I think about monsters a lot. I was thinking mostly about King Kong and also a little bit about Godzilla. I was wondering what their hobbies are.
Usually you can only see them running around stomping on things with their big monster feet. That is their job, but after work, maybe they play baseball, or surf, or look at their stamp collection.
The waves today were only 2-3 ft (1 meter). They would be too small for Godzilla and King Kong. They would only come up to King Kong's monkey toe. Kong and Godzilla would need 60 foot waves just to surf head high. There are only a few places in the world with waves that big, and they only break a few times each year. So, King Kong and Godzilla would have to travel all over the world and neither of them can fly, and they are too big to fit in a 747 and too poor to buy a ticket anyway. They would have to swim and by the time they got to the spot, the waves might have gotten smaller, or they might be too tired and cold.
They would also need a 60 foot surfboard, or maybe 90 feet if they wanted a longboard. It would take a lot of trees or fiberglass to make it. They would have to hire a lot of people to build it, and neither of them have a job because of the recession.

Sometime I make a list with two columns "why I want to be a monster"and "why I don't want to be one". This is one of the reasons why I would not want to be a monster.

Meet Bruce and Toby

  Babies are so cute.
On Sunday I bought some baby corn at the farmer's market.  I was very happy to find it because it's not so common and it is very tasty.  Babies always taste better for some reason...veal, lamb, spring piglet, salmon eggs.  I guess animals grow out of deliciousness as they get older.  It is true for vegetables too.  
   I brought the baby corns home and unpeeled them.  Inside I found two new friends.  Bruce is the green one and Toby is the brown, tiny one seen in the photo above.  I am now living with Bruce and Toby and raising them on baby corns.  I am hoping to see Bruce and Toby grow up and turn into a beautiful moth.  Then I will take out the baby corn and put in some wool socks for them to eat.  On weekends, I might bring them, in their jar, to the beach to enjoy the ocean breeze.  What else do moths like to do for fun?   
 

On a clear day



This is the view of Los Angeles from a street in the hills called Mulholland Drive. When I am feeling sad or anxious I like to go up here and look down on the city. Distance makes me feel better sometimes. It's funny to think that there are millions of people down there, in those buildings. Some are making breakfast, some are sleeping, one of them is watching Die Hard 2, "Die Harder"...but all you can see is buildings and cars and smog.






The photo below is the view from the other side of Mulholland Drive. This is what people in Los Angeles call the Valley. This is where Universal Studios and TV studios are. Mickey mouse also lives here. He is just a cartoon mouse, but they built a very large building for him to live in. I don't think they realize that he is just make-believe. He lives there alone. Minnie moved out a long time ago.

Dog Squish, Shark punch!

Lately I have been having funny dreams about animals attacking me.

First I had a dream I was in the bathroom of my elementary school in Shimane and a very small dog came in. He was so tiny, not even as big as my foot. When I put my hand out to him he bit my finger. I stomped on this tiny dog and squished him under my shoe. He became very flat and dead.
I was afraid he had rabies.
Later there were signs up all over saying "Ken Tanaka Puppy Killer".

I wouldn't step on a puppy in real life if he bit me. I might stop petting him though.


The next day, I had a dream I was surfing with Ericsurf6 from youtube (you can see video below of us in an earlier post at the wave machine in Japan).
A great white shark swam under us as we surfed and Mr. Eric said
"When they bother me, I just swim down and punch them in the face."
I was afraid to punch the shark because I have never been in a fist fight before. I didn't think a great white shark was a good first time opponent.

I have never seen a great white shark in real life, but I have seen hammerhead sharks and reef sharks while diving. I even pet a reef shark once, his skin was rough. He liked to be scratched right behind the gills. I have also swam with a very excited male dolphin.

This morning dolphins swam by me while I surfed in Venice. Sometimes you can see them catching waves. They don't have surfboards, instead they bodysurf just like Barrack Obama.

LEARN FLUENT SPANISH WITH REMI AND KEN?

My most popular videos on youtube are the three "How to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word" lessons that I did with Remi February. Remi is an artist who makes videos and also contributes art to shows with me in Los Angeles. She makes very nice creatures.
You can see some on her webpage.
Remi and I have been friends since we started doing videos a few years ago. She is very handsome.

This new video is footage of me on my trip to El Salvador with David Neptune and David Ury. I learned a few spanish words, so Remi and I decided to do a silly parody video of our "How to Speak Fluent Japanese " videos.

If you haven't seen those videos, you should watch one of them first :)



HIdden Mosters are all around you.

There are monsters everywhere. Monsters are all around us all the time, but sometimes you have to look very closely to find them. I found Toby, the monster in the photo above, living inside of a foam mat. It's a foam mat that you place under your bed for extra comfort....So Toby is the monster under your bed.
Can you see Toby? The swirly circles are his eyes, and he has a little triangle nose. I am going to draw a picture of Toby soon. Maybe i will give it to him for his birthday, I think it's in December. His birthday is close to X-mas, so I have to think of two gifts to get him. It's not so easy.




My friend found this monster on the bottom of my t-shirt. I washed my hands and wiped them on the shirt, and this photo shows the wet spot. When the shirt is wet, it reveals the monster who lives inside it. His name is Motoaki. You can only see his right eye (the white dot) because he is closing his left eye to wink at you. the big white rectangle is his mouth. and he has tiny little legs. You can see his full right leg, but only half of his left. This is because he is bending part of his left leg and doing a yoga pose. It was morning, and he always does yoga in the morning. He is a very health conscious monster.
I didn't even know that he was living in my shirt until my friend pointed him out to me. Now whenever I am wearing that t-shirt and feeling lonesome, I just moisten it and he comes out to visit me.

Do you have photos of any monsters you have met? Please send them to me.

Vintage Levis at Rummage Sale



People always ask me what I to do make money in LA while I am searching for the Smiths. I do two things. I sell my artwork and t-shirts, and I also buy vintage american clothes to send back to Japan. Vintage American clothes used to be very popular all over japan in the 90's. Now it is only popular among certain collectors. I go to American garage sales and flea markets and look for things to send to my friends who have stores.

Last Saturday I found some Levis from the early 60's. These are called Big E because they have a capital E on the levi tag. Modern ones have a lower case e.
This pair of pants is called 501 S Type and in good condition can sell for $400-$600 (used to sell for over $1000) depending on size, color and other things. My pair is not in very good condition. It smells like a cat has been living inside of it for many years. I wonder where that cat went. I think I will sell this one for $100-$150. Right now Japanese yen is very strong, so $100 is only 9000yen.

I also got the 557 Levi Big E Jacket. This is the third version of the levi jacket. It's not so valuable now...but it used to sell for $500. Maybe I can get $50-$100 for it. This jacket must have been worn by the same smelly kitty kat who wore the jeans.

Ken Tanaka -Celebrity Beefsteak at the farmer's market


One of my favorite things about life in Los Angeles is the farmer's market. There are markets all over the city on different days and you can find handsome and friendly fruits all over. Today I saw a sign for Celebrity Beefsteak. I thought this was a very funny name for a tomato. Is this name only used in Los Angeles, where celebrity is so important. I wonder if I can find some celebrity bean sprouts too. I also have to take a load of trash to the Celebrity Garbage Dump.
I hope this celebrity tomato will get a star on the hollywood walk of fame. Maybe there will be a new reality tv show "Who is Hollywood's next Celebrity Beefsteak". It could be you.

Make Believe Surf in Japan's Oiso Long Beach Wave Pool

My youtube friend Ericsurf6, along with Hikosaemon and Nattopower took me to the Oiso Long Beach （大磯ロングビーチ）Water Park while I was visiting Hiratsuka in Kangawa, Japan. It was my first time in a wave pool and it was pretty difficult. It was lots of fun, but I think it's kind of funny to have a wave pool just a kilometer away from real, ocean waves.
Today, I surfed in Venice beach pier where the waves are 3-4 feet but very angry. One of them took my surfboard (jacob the surfboard) and threw it into the sand. Now I have to spend $35 to fix poor Jacob, and I can't ride him till saturday.


Ken Tanaka Hand Printed T-shirts now at Royal-T

I recently made 4 different silkscreen t-shirts using some of my paintings. Each of these shirts is silk-screened by hand using no machines or evil robots. Even the screens are burned in the sun, the natural way.

Royal-T Maid Cafe and ARt SPace is now carrying my t-shirts and some of my framed prints.
There are various sizes for all the shirts from boys xl (which is good for girls) to mens XL.
.
If you want one, you can email me at

Kentanakala attt geemail dottt com. and let me know your size, and preferred color.

Here are the four prints.

House CAT



Olympic Gold


Mistaken Bear

The Decision


I hope you like the shirts. I am hoping to start printing more and have them for sale in more shops in the US and Japan, and anywhere else that is interested in carrying them.

日本の祭り　Japanese Summer Festival


Summer time in Japan is a time for lots of festivals all over the country. I try to make it to a festival every time I go back home. It is a very special atomsphere. Usually there are lots of food, drink and game stalls. Young people from the neighborhoods near by form groups and each group participates in the festival. sometimes they carry big floats called Mikoshi.

I went to the Hoshi Kudari festival in Takarazuka City near Osaka. It's a small, neighborhood festival that doesn't bring in too many people form far away. Some of the more famous matsuri, like Nebuta in Aomori attract tens of thousands of visitors from all over Japan. I have even heard of matsuri lovers who travel the country going from festival to festival.

Water Color is fun.


I painted two paintings with by friend BPPB's water color set.

BPPB and I collaborated on the octopus one. She drew the octopus shape and I filled it in and did words and background. The octupus' name is Jamie Octopus. I guess Octopus is a common last name for Octopus. She only has six legs because she is a shark attack survivor. On march 12th 2007 she was attacked by a white tip reef shark near Cairns, Australia.


I did the other painting by myself. This is one of those paintings where I did not know what I was going to draw, but just played with the brush, and this guy came out. I will name him Jacob Blueyman.
He is a very nice man. He was arrested while looking for his mommy in front of his own home. Do you think he's guilty?

These are both for sale for $32 The size is 6.5" x 7.5"

You can buy them by paypal...just send email to me Kentanakala (then type the atmark) then type gmail then dot com. like this ______@gmail.com

Ken Tanaka On Glee


I have been getting many e-mails about this Ken Tanaka sign on the new Fox TV show Glee. Many people wanted to know if they were talking about me, but I'm pretty sure it's not me, because I don't know how to use a shredder. Also, I feel bad for so many innocent documents that are sent into a shredder.
I looked up the show and I learned that there is a character named Coach Ken Tanaka. Many people also wrote to me to ask if they have named this character after me. I don't know, but Ken Tanaka is a pretty common name. There are other Ken Tanaka's that people confuse me with.

1. Photographer Ken (kenneth) Tanaka
http://www.pbase.com/tanakak/

This Ken Tanaka is a professional photographer who takes very handsome photos, sometimes of Cats. He also reviews cameras on a blog called
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

People sometimes think I am this Ken Tanaka and send me questions about my photographs. When I had my art show at Billy Shire Fine ARts, a Los Angeles Photography Festival curator called and asked if they could put my art show in the Photo Festival.

2. Ken Tanaka the Actor
There is an actor in Japan named Ken Tanaka who was in the 1984 version of Godzilla.
People also ask me about this, but I have never met Godzilla. I met Mothra before though. I met him at a Doutour coffe shop in Yamaguchi. A few years later I saw him again at a Hiroshima Carp baseball game. He was sitting in the bleachers. I said hi to him and he said hi back, but I could tell he didn't remember me.

3. Ken Tanaka the mystery character

An author named Dale Furutani writes mysteries about a character named Ken Tanaka. This isn't me either. I'm not a detective although I can sometimes solve mysteries. Once I couldn't find my cat. Then I went outside and found him sleeping in front of the door. I solved that one, but I have never tried to solve a murder. I am willing to try.

Do you know another ken Tanaka

Ethiopian Food and Zine Comic book writer Carrie McNinch


This Saturday I went to the Buff Monster gallery show opening at Corey Helford. Afterwords, some friends took me to eat Ethiopian food at a restaurant in Fairfax called Mercado. One of the friends in this picture is Carrie McNinch who writes the comic zine "You can't get there from here" (see below).

Ethiopian food is good for these three reasons.
1. Yummy
2. You get to eat with your hands.
3. The food has nice names like Firfir and Fitfit and Chicken Tibs. These are all good names for babies too.

We got a vegetable plate with many bean curries. It is all served on a sour spongy crepe called Injera. You also get a basket of injera and you can use it like Indian Nan to scoop up the curries.
They also roast their own coffee in front of you.
If I am ever a coffee bean, I hope I will end up there.

This is Carrie's comic. My friend Dr. Mao introduced me to her comics which you can get here.
http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/carrie_mcninch/
I like to read home made comics and this is my favorite one so far.


Her comics are good for these reasons.
1. Funny
2. Sad
3. True

Carrie likes coffee and she even goes to Rome just to drink her favorite cappucino. If you read about it in volume 3, above, you will want to go to rome.

Her zine is about her real life, her friends, her cats, and she writes very honestly about things she struggles with. She also has a neat t-shirt she made with her cat on it which she sells.
I think it is important to have a t-shirt with a cat on it.

Happy Birthday Neptune-Kun


My friend David Neptune-Kun had his birthday while I was in Japan. I met Neptune-Kun at my gallery show at Billy Shire Fine Arts. His story is kind of like mine. He was born and raised in Chiba, near Tokyo. His parents are American, but have been living in Chiba since the 70's or so. David moved to America when he was 15 or so to finish high school and go to college. We became good friends very quickly because we have many things in common.

He is also my surf pal. Last night we went night surfing at the Venice Pier at midnight. The moon was full or close so we could see the waves. In June, we went to El Salvador to surf with my brother David, as you can see in one of my earlier blogs below.

I made him this late birthday card yesterday night.

It is fun to paint when you don't have any idea what you are drawing. To just rub the brush on paper and see what it looks like. You can't make a mistake, because you aren't trying to draw anything.

I made some brush strokes that I thought looked like a funny animal's mane....so then I drew the rest of the animal, but he was too big to fit on the paper. I am hoping that David will get another piece of paper and draw the other half of the animal. Or maybe you will print the drawing out and draw your version of the other half, and give it to me for my birthday or Christmas, or White Day (Do you know White Day?).



I think this animal is called a Mobo-beast. I wonder if he has a tail. He is a good Mobo-beast and always works hard. He is a family man. He is nice to everybody he meets. Even the small plants and flowers he eats forgive him, because he is so nice to them.

Once you draw something, does it become real in some other place? I will try to go there and meet him. I'd better bring some candy or fruit or something for him. Maybe I will buy some peaches.

My new friend Erik Lundgren


A few weeks ago I got a very nice email from a man who watches my videos. He sent me his own original song called "Mr. Tanaka". When I listened to it, I was very impressed to hear such a professional sounding recording and beautiful acoustic guitar music. Nobody has ever written a song like this for me before so I was very happy.
His name is Erik Lundgren and he is from Sweden. He is an animator and a musician who has just moved to Kyoto.

He has a few other original songs on his youtube channel which you can see linked in the above video. I was very surprised to see that his songs had been up for a year, but he had only one subscriber. I guess that youtube is so big, that even a very talented person can get lost in all the millions of videos.

I made this video mostly from footage from my recent trip back home. The shrines shown are all in Chichibu. There are a few bits from Washington DC too and the swan is from Sonoma.

You can download mp3 of Erik's album at his website.... http://www.eriklundgrenmusic.com/

Comic Market 76 and Gundam


The day after the Tokyo Youtube gathering, August 16th, I went to Comic Market in Odaiba, Tokyo. Comic Market is Japan's, or maybe the world's, largest comic convention and happens twice a year, in Summer and Winter. Over 500,000 people come to Tokyo Big Sight during the 3 day convention.
The big difference between Comic Market (abbreviated to Comike) and an American convention like San Diego Comic-Con, is that Comike is almost all Dojinshi. Dojinshi are like a fan fiction manga. They are fan made manga that use characters from famous manga, anime, games, music, film, etc. They are usually made by groups or individuals called "Circles". Some of these circles become very famous and people line up for hours to get their new books. The books can then sell for a lot of $$.

Dojinshi can be about any subject matter. Sometimes they take a popular story in a new and strange direction. They are also known for being very erotic. Although not all Dojinshi are erotic, many are heavily sexual. The themes often include forbidden love and homosexuality.


Odaiba is known as a popular date spot in Tokyo. It's located on the bay and has a ferris wheel, and lots of shopping centers and parks. In Shiokaze park, about 2.4 kilometers from the Tokyo Big Sight Comic Market, is the giant Gundam. The Gundam is 60 feet high and is made by Bandai toy company. It is been guarding the park since July and is supposed to be up till October I think. Gundam is one of the most popular anime in Japan and has been around since 1979. A lot of kids in Japan want to be a Gundam when they grow up. I wanted to be a giraffe, or a fire truck.