Giant Robot Museum Show with James Jean and David Choe

James Jean
Dave Choe

Saturday October 24th was the opening reception for the Giant Robot Beinnale 2 art exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in LA. The show runs through January 24th, so make sure to check it out if you are in LA.

They featured work from my friend and neighbor James Jean, and his good friend David Choe, who is also a very nice man. They also have work from my friends Kozyndan as well as Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto and many others.

I went with my friend the Gooch, but we could only stay for a little bit because we had tickets to see Mr. Daniel Johnston play a concert in Hollywood.

When we got to the Museum, we were very surprised to find James and Dave up on stage playing music. James was playing keyboards and Dave Choe was playing drums, with Goh Nakamura on guitar. If you have seen my videos of James you know that he is a very talented trumpeter, but he also plays piano and he is an accomplished hand whistler.

Here is a video of James and I last Christmas.

HELLO KITTY THREE APPLES PARTY AT ROYAL-T

Starting October 22nd through November 15th Royal-T in Los Angeles and Sanrio are celebrating Hello Kitty's 35th birthday.

Hundreds of people showed up at the opening to see Hello Kitty. Japan La curated an art show with 60 artists doing their version of Hello Kitty. Participating artists include Gary Baseman, Ron English, Buff Monster, Yoskay Yamamoto, Edwin Ushiro, Natalia FAbia, Buff Monster, and me. Yes, Sanrio and Japan La were kind to ask me to do my Hello Kitty painting, which you can see below. It's up in the gallery and on sale. I hope Hello Kitty likes it.

So many people came to her birthday party. I think there were at least 500 people, which is a lot for a fictional cat's birthday party. When I was 7 years old, I threw a birthday party for my cat Shintaro but only my grandma came, and she had to leave early to get acupuncture. I miss you, Shintaro.

Poor Little Fire Hydrant

I was on Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles today. Traffic was bad because somebody had decided to drive into a fire hydrant and knock it over to create a beautiful, giant fountain.

I think it was a kind of performance art.

Everybody was stopping to look at it. The street was flooded. I pulled over to go for a swim, but the water was very cold. I didn't have my wetsuit with me.

If it is still flooded this evening, I might go fishing. Fish bite best at dusk. I am hoping to catch a mackerel.

2 New Color variations of t-shirts

I just printed two new colors of "Mistaken Bear" and "The Decision".

Like all my t-shirts, I hand screen print these myself. They will be available at the Royal-T in Culver City (I think they are $25) and you can also get them direct from me. Just send an email to kentanakala ( at) gmail (dot) com and request your size.

I have them in Boys XL through Mens XL. For girls I recommend a boys xl or mens small.

These other prints are also available.

Cooking with Human 餃子パーテイー Potsticker Party

My Chinese friend had a potsticker party for her birthday. We made potstickers from scratch.

They are fun and easy to make.

HEre is what you will need to make them.

-One small piglet (or just a part of one).

- ginger, garlic, corn starch, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil,

All you have to do is mix it all up and put it in dumpling wrappers. If you are a serious dumpling master, you can make the wrappers from scratch, but we bought them at market.

If you are using a whole piglet, make sure that it is fully not alive before mixing with other ingredients. Otherwise you can end up with a big mess.

You can see a recipe in English here.

The scariest part is when you finally fry them up. You put them in hot oil for a few minutes. When they get a deep, dark tan, you have to add water to the hot oil and it pops and sizzles and flies in the air. It's important to wear a shirt and pants for this part, I wore a Smurfs halloween mask also to protect my face and sideburns.

They came out all crispy and yummy and we were all very proud. There were a few left over dumpling wrappers. I want to use them to make a dessert potsticker. Maybe chocolate with cream cheese and a straw berry. I guess you could put anything inside of a dumpling wrapper.