JET LAG IN LA

It's 7am and I have been up already for 3 hours. In some ways it is nice to be up so early. I go outside at 4: 20am and my Los Angles is another planet or the moon. There are no people and almost no sounds. Only cats. I am like an astronaut floating through my neighborhood.

I am 4 days back in Los Angeles and it is a funny feeling. You can be with your friends and family eating Niku-Jaga and looking out at Japan Sea. And then a few hours later walking alone on the Santa Monica pier and watching someone fish for saba before the sun has its chance to rise.

I MADE A TOY.

I was asked to make a work of toy themed art for a show called Omocha de cha cha cha. Omocha means Toy in Japanese. The show is at Cafe Bolivar in Santa Monica and is curated by Kio Griffith from Cafe Mode.

I decided to take a See and Say toy that I found at a garage sale and remake it. A See and Say is a toy where you pull a string and an arrow spins around and stops on an animal, then it makes the song of the animal. Like this " This is a cat....Nyaaaow"

The toy I found had all the animal stickers peeled off, so I made my own drawings of the animals and stuck them on. Maybe a small child will learn about Frogs and Ducks by pulling the string on my toy. That will make me happy. It is also a good refresher course for adults who live in a city and haven't heard these animal's songs in a long time.

Also, they will be showing my "I am Robot film" as part of the exhibit too. It features two good friends of mine who are toys (Raideen and Great Mazinga).

Pay Katsuyuki will also have some new works that I just brought from Japan. They are very handsome home made keychains with individual drawings on them....and cheap :) Remi February will have some work in the show too, but I don't know if she will be at the opening. You had better ask her :)

The opening reception will be on September 12th, from 7-10pm, but I think the work will be up starting this weekend around 8-21.

If you come, please pull the string on my See and Say.

Cafe Bolivar

1741 Ocean Park Blvd

Santa Monica CA 90405

I Am Robot

This is the video I mentioned 2 posts ago in the Flip Video Ultra HD post. A friend of mine told me about a museum show featuring video installations shot on this camera. I made this video specifically for the museum show. I wrote it on Tuesday , shot the video on Wednesday and Thursday, and edited it on Friday. It took quite a bit of time.

My friends Raideen and Great Mazinga make an appearance in this video. They were my favorite cartoon robots when I was a kid in the 7o's. You can see the theme songs to their anime if you search youtube.

I'm hoping to make some more movies like this if people seem to like this one.

I had never done a short film like this before. It was very fun to make, and it was a story I had always wanted to tell. It's based on true events.

When I was young, I did pray to the Gods that I would become a robot. But I'm pretty sure I never did. If my wish had come true, this video shows what might have happened.

Are you a robot?

Camping at San Onofre Beach in San Diego

This past weekend, I went camping at San Onofre. It's a beautiful area with miles of beach and nice, friendly waves. It's not too far from the famous surf break called Trestles.

As I was getting ready to leave in the morning, I stopped by the restroom. Two young guys were standing out front and as they passed they said to me "Ken-San". Once in a while someone will recognize me from my youtube videos and say hello to me. It's always nice to meet other youtube viewers. I waved at them and smiled.

When I came out of the rest room they were still there. Thinking that they might be studying Japanese, I spoke to them in Japanese and they replied "Ken-San" again. Okay, I thought, I guess they don't understand Japanese. Then one of them said "Very-Ken-san". I wasn't sure what he meant exactly, and he had a strong accent of some kind....and then his friend said...."Yes, Very handsome". "I like you very much."

It turned out he wasn't saying Ken-San. He was saying "handsome".

I don't think I looked too handsome that day, but it was very kind of him to say so.

My New FLIP Video Ultra HD

I bought this new Flip Video Ultra HD pocket video camera for my trip to El Salvador. I didn't want to take my usual camera, a Canon HV 20, because I was afraid it would break or get lost on the trip.

I named my camera Jacob. Jacob was about $200 at Best Buy.

He was really fun to use because you can just keep him in your pocket, and whenever you see something funny or meet someone intersting, you can take him out and film it. I plan to take Jacob everywhere.

My latest video of El Salvador was shot all on Jacob the Video camera, except for the surf/bodyboard shots. The only problems with the camera are that it has no image stabilization so it's very shaky when you walk or move, and the microphone is not that strong, so you can't hear someone if they are more than a few feet away.

Jacob holds 2 hours of footage and can take AA batteries. You connect Jacob with a USB port and the videos come up as MP4 files. Then I just put them into imovie and edit. It's very easy.

I've been doing experiments with this camera and have made a little short film video with me and my robot friends Raideen and Great Mazinga. I'll be posting it up soon:)

Ken Tanaka Loves You!

Goodbye.