Not too far into 2010 and there’s already been a slew of birthdays…

Regina, whom I’ve known for almost 20 years

(more…)

I had the incredible honor of attending an installment of the Japanese Consulate General’s 2009 Spring Conferment of Decoration for one of the most amazing people i know: Fred Schodt.

Writer, translator, interpreter, intellectual, and all around cool guy, Fred was awarded this prestigious award (“Order of the Rising Sun”) by the Japanese government for awesomeness. He was instrumental in introducing manga and overall Japanese pop culture to the states. Of his many achievements, he and his posse, back in the day, had the balls to approach Tezuka about translating his works. And things blossomed from there.

We brought Fred on board for some work during the Tezuka exhibition two years ago, and it was one of the best things that happened to me/us. Getting to know him, and his fantastic wife Fia, goes down in record as one of my career highlights. (I basically aspire to be like this charming, lovely couple. Their bohemian-without-the-baggage live-and-let-live attitudes are the best)

The evening was superbly pleasant and chill, not weighed down with formalities. The tone was festive and moving. Jared Cook, Steven Okazaki, Takayuki Matsutani (pres of Tezuka Productions), Seiji Horibuchi (pres of VIZ), and many others were there. Watch this vid of Fred and some bandmates busting out a sweet song. The cheery guy in the middle is the president of Tezuka Productions! I just love when the guy busts out his fiddle (?!). And the Consul General is dancing too! Sigh. Happiness.

Fia, Fred, dorky me, and Ryan:

Consul General, Fred’s nephew, Fred’s “honorary son,” Fia, and Fred:

testing a new flickr app, seeing how it works. so far i dig it.

btw, gimme some love and spread the word about our upcoming samurai exhibition. it’s gonna land this summer. we’re going gangbusters in promoting it and trying out new “guerilla” marketing tactics, such as “spot the samurai.” i sweated overseeing the production of a homemade custom samurai armor and having it get here in time for its debut last thursday. it was painful but now rewarding. what do you think?

props to derek for being the first to pop the armor’s cherry. he was an excellent sport! if you scroll the photos you’ll see he was being perfectly, charmingly hammy. i still laugh when i peek the pictures.

i know i’m overdue for an update when i can’t even remember what my last post was about.

lots of photography things have happened, so i’ll debrief here. everything’s been thrilling and enriching, but i’m not getting my hopes up. “photographers” are a dime a dozen, and anything good that’s come my way is 95% luck and guanxi. so far, i’ve been dang lucky. i’m having a great time, and that’s key.

en route, the air canada magazine contacted me asking if they could use a photo of mine of dottie’s for a piece they were doing for SF. yes, of course! pretty random, but there’s an example of why it pays to tag the hell outta your pictures on flickr. that’s how they found it. the funny thing is that it’s a totally random, useless photo.

i guess a couple of my photos made it into the april issue of food & wine? in an article about gastropubs (magnolia). i’ll have to hunt down a copy. to clarify, they used photos i had taken for magnolia gastropub awhile ago. it’s not like they hired me to shoot for them, though ultimately that’d be my dream!

and then i woke up this morning i found an email from jeff adachi — our public defender and passionate filmmaker — asking if he could use my photos for his film’s (you don’t know jack: the jack soo story) website.

i also recently bought a domain! jenntakespictures.com
all it does is take you directly to my flickr portfolio page. chintzy but practical. it’s the best i can do at the moment, and anything’s better than giving people a cumbersome, lengthy link to work with.

not a big deal, but for a small fry like me these little things can make or break my day. okay, so on to the recap:

i splurged and purchased a bigtime beautiful lens (60mm 2.8), thanks to all my wonderful friends (and ringleader peggy) for getting me a GC to looking glass in berkeley. this pup’s been especially good for portraits, and i haven’t even taken it for a macro spin yet.

in february i shot for SF Beer Week. dave mclean, the kind owner of magnolia and alembic (both of which i’ve previously photographed), asked me to take pictures so i jumped at the opportunity. i documented nine events, each one a little different. i met many sweet, passionate people (the craft brewing community is not unlike the comics community), and cultivated a deeper appreciation for the craft. i was TERRIFIED with nervousness the first night, fumbled like an idiot poseur, but quickly dropped the whiny little bitch act and acclimated. another bonus was that i had to rent some gear, and that in itself was a big step. learning how to operate a speed light (though very crudely) was nice.

these guys were at a 21st amendment event. i overheard them speaking mandarin and found out that two were from taiwan, and one from china. i enjoyed meeting them.

there was a slight sabbatical from eater sf’s “gatekeeper” series, but it returned with a spotlight on bar tartine’s lovely, hospitable xelina.

afterwards i ate there and awkwardly took some general shots during the peak of their brunch hour.

and then, just this past weekend, i suddenly threw myself into the fire and signed up to be a volunteer photographer for SFIAAFF, thanks to gracious photog albert chau for offering me a chance. it all transpired on friday afternoon. i was hella stressed and didn’t feel adequate, but despite my baggage i thoroughly LOVED the experience! it’s a perfect fit for me — i’ve been a film fest groupie ever since working at the museum, so it makes sense. going year after year after year, you get a strong sense of community, and being able to capture the energy on camera is a pleasurable thing.

the highlight must’ve been seeing older generation asian american folks like these, and being able to photograph them. they were so plucky and cheerful, just having a jolly ol’ time with each other. tugged on my heart strings.

here’s our public defender at his post-screening reception

kiyoshi kurosawa

joan chen

well, that’s it for now. fingers crossed for onwards and upwards…

on my jack lemmon kick, i recently watched the 1962 blake edwards’ film days of wine and roses (based in SF!)

it was bleak. jack lemmon, a well-meaning but damaged PR guy in the two-martini lunch era, has a crippling dependency issue. he meets lee remick, a pure, sweet thing who doesn’t even like the taste of alcohol (but loves chocolate). they “fall in love,” marry, procreate, etc, but everything quickly disintegrates because of booze. she too has become an alcoholic to pass the days of being a bored and pensive housewife.

in the end, he miraculously manages to give up the bottle, but she’s a wreck wandering the streets in an ethanol-induced stupor. mind you, they have a daughter! as immensely as he wants her back, he needs to know she can stop, or at least try to stop, but she refuses to promise even an effort, acknowledging, “But I can’t face the idea of never having another drink.”

and that got me thinking: wow, that’s heavy. is there something that i crave and am so severely addicted too that i couldn’t even imagine ever giving up? for life? (other than love, affection, friendship?) forgive me for my offensively rude and crude analogy, but the answer is food. yeah, i guess could just subsist on chicken breast and fish and veggies for the rest of my life (if i was a vegetable), but it’s the starches, the sugars, the deep fried goodies, all that stuff, that i need.

understand that i am not likening my relationship with food to an alcoholic’s relationship with alcohol. hardly the case. it’s just that thinking about substance abuse in this way gave me an extremely deep appreciation, or vague idea, of the impossible epic battle that addicts must face if they want to win. it’s downright depressing, and requires the sort of willpower that i can’t even fathom. i think about a relative whose life was lost to this battle, and it saddens me to no end.

i’ll be the first to admit that i have an eating disorder. sure it’s not bulimia or anorexia, but there’s definitely a pathological, psychological connection i have with food. it’s intense. the passion for good eating is fine and dandy, but i’m talking about the sick primal binging (no really, it’s disgusting), the absolute lack of control, the full-throttle consumption, and how all of it feeds into my body image, the incessant utterly violent self loathing. it’s probably my one true consistent sourse of unhappiness. i don’t think it’s just emotional eating either, a la jack donaghy (but i assure you if i could find a huge tub of cheese balls i’d be all over it)

well this has probably been my most navel gazing post ever. if you didn’t know it before, it’s been confirmed for you here: yes, i really am that superficial and shallow.

in days of wine and roses, jack lemmon would ritually say with pleasure, right before taking a swig, “magic time.” and that’s how i feel every time i eat something delicious.

while shoveling mushroom bread pudding and beef down my gullet at the work holiday party last night, my colleague yukino tapped me on the shoulder and i turned around — stuffed mouth trying to contain spewing crumbs — to face her and this young asian fellow.

he looked really, really familiar, and if she didn’t introduce james jean so quickly, i still would’ve recognized him as one of my favorite artists of all time.

the next few minutes entailed a frenetic one-man freak show (starring me) that cycled over and over again in a shrill excited voice: “you are one of my favorite artists ever,” “my friends and i all think you are the absolute best; some of them are cartoonists and illustrators!,” “i’ve been following you forever!,” and “i bought two recess series prints from you at APE a few years ago! i dream of owning the entire series one day!!!” he was graciously demure and patient with my wild ranting!

suspend your belief, but i don’t like idolizing people (and there are maybe five people in this world i’d wait in line to meet). even the coolest folks are human beings like you and me, just way luckier. however, james jean is a true hero to me in so many ways. if you’ve ever seen his sketchbook you would gasp endlessly and die from sheer astoundment and admiration, and then you would want to gouge your own eyes out and crawl under a rock to die, frustrated that you were never born with even a nano-fraction of his talent.

also, he’s a very kind, gentle man, a taiwanese-american, and sickeningly young and accomplished.

so the big Q: why the heck was he there? well, yukino is way involved in the totoro forest project; she was one of the principle organizers of this incredible endeavor to save the forest in japan that’s succumbing to urban development. the forest inspired my neighbor totoro. a bunch of artists, some from pixar / academy of art, some of whom are illustrators, cartoonists, etc, banded together to make sweet totoro-related art and auction it off to raise $$$.

james jean of course chipped in with his piece, which our japanese curator bought for the museum!

the museum rules, but now it’s even way cooler in my books because our japanese curator, who’s a total charming cutie, has manifested her good taste in another unexpected way.

so go see everyone’s totoro artwork while it’s still up at the cartoon art museum.

ps – if you check out his recess series, i own “pickup” and “flush”

been neglecting this stupid thing so it’s time to get back on it with some big ol’ updates. i’d like to take a moment to remind (beg) visitors (hi mom, hi sis) to please please PLEASE leave comments! they bring me more pleasure than any lethal narcotic ever could. it’s all i want for xmases and my bdays for the rest of my life.

and away we go with the backtracking.

*
november kicked off awesomely with APE, that beloved annual tradition of nerding out and seeing old friends. this year i ingratiated myself to the coolest kids in the hall, the bang gang (see happy shiny people below). you’ve all heard me wax poetic on what a nostalgic thing APE is for me. it’s nice seeing the same passionate, geeky folks year after year after year, but again, it reinforces my reputation as a lame groupie. oh well. at least this year i was a barnacle at the bang gang table.

(that’s johnny ryan with our ryan)

it was a synergistic year for the bang gang, with hotly anticipated debuts, such as hellen’s jin & jam. it’s awesome, sexy, and sweet. if you like beautiful girls and/or remember what it was like to meet someone who mystified you and with whom you developed an electrifying chemistry, it’ll resonate even more. i remember when hellen started working on it last year during her residency at the museum (for the tezuka exhibition), and the pages were gorgeous. now the finished product is even more gorgeous. it sold like hot cakes. dan clowes told hellen she’s going places. well duh.

anthony peddled gorgeous prints and magnets alongside evan’s trademark photo-illo prints in candy color frames. anthony and derek also reminded ppl of their purdy pieces in the newest popgun. derek debuted deth’s head (the red mini on the table, you can spot it in other pictures), a punchy and hilarious mini about digging for maggot-infested burgers; features a splash page that still cracks me up to this day.

calvin sold out of his prints and ramble on, a lovely mini that i suspect music fiends may especially appreciate. like everyone else in the bang gang, calvin is an incredible soul and talented artist.

another ssssssizzling debut at the bang gang table was ryan’s electric ant zine! it’s a real beaut, aesthetically and content-wise, a reminder of why i got turned onto zines in the first place — passionate people with something interesting to say channeling their earnest energy into a compendium of cool. this one’s got an interview with our hero fred schodt, a gallery of bad guys from our cartoon-infected youthl, NIN mad libs, comics about first kisses, etc.

ALSO, i had the major honor of contributing to the dark lords gallery in EA. being a part of this special project made me feel very, very good. i’m no artist, but to have something i created keep company with artists whom i admire is a throbbing emotional boner for life. drawing it was healthy practice; challenging but fun. i’m surprised i was able to do it. it’s no big deal, just a drawing, but i actually got off my lazy bum and made something. if i’m lucky, i’ll have the pleasure and honor of doing it again.

if you’re curious about my contribution, see if you can find it on EA’s website (tip: preview gallery).

i’m also deliriously giddy, not only cuz Ain’t it Cool News (and others) gave EA a glowing review, but cuz there was direct reference to my piece: “you’ll never look at Shredder the same way again”

and then stuff like this, as silly and non-eventful as it is, makes me high:

so the moral of the story is, surround yourself with the funniest, smartest, most talented friends you can find (artists, writers, strippers, car mechanics, etc) because it’s good for your health, and you can live variously through them! also, it can kick you out of your crippling self-pitying stupor and make you do something that makes you happy.

ALSO, you can support the arts and buy copies of what i’ve mentioned above by clicking on the links.

ps – this is definitely not an exhaustive report of APE.

pps – publisher last gasp held their usual pre-APE shindig (on halloween) where they open up their vaults to the public. i had such a great time. you can see pix here. the warehouse is a wonderland; i could’ve spent hours and hours there!

me & larks!

calvin & hellen as pigsy and monkey king

the best in the west nugget rib cook-off in sparks (reno), nevada. we went, we devoured, we conquered.

it was A M A Z I N G.
i was so elated to cross “go to cook off” off my life’s to-do list. as insanely decadent as it was, i find myself craving ribs more than ever before. you’d think i’d never want to touch a half rack again, but since our return home i’ve had ribs twice from my neighborhood corner joint, roadside bbq.

before i launch into a recap of our pilgrimage of decadence, extra big ups to peg for driving and jeff’s family for hosting us in sacto at “chateau d’chew.”

we get in late friday night and settle into our jammies after a satisfying meal of homemade curry, frozen taquitos, mini corn dogs, and almond tofu. i pop my scrabble cherry (yes, it’s my first time) to the most intense battle of vocabulary mastery and wit. like trying to learn the art of war, board game style. here’s everyone when the game commences, eager and alive:

and here’s me like five hours into it. pretty much captures my exhausted, slaughtered spirit

the next morning we find this on the kitchen counter. AWWWWWWWWWWWW

being in the house in which jeff grew up is illuminating and touching. i get to see photos of baby jeff, little jeff, angsty jeff. we all fall in love with jeff’s parents too. they’re so charming!

after some diddle daddling, we board the silver bullet, reno-bound. jeff’s parents walk us out. as this happens, an epiphany strikes: every one should be seen off by warm parents with their arms around each other. it’s a poignant sight. they don’t stop smiling and waving until we drive off. is this on maslov’s hierarchy of needs pyramid? because i think it does cultivate healthy adults

i find the drive over donner summit a little daunting. i offer to give peg — the wknd road warrior — a massage but we nervously joke how it would cause her to swerve off the road and into our tragic deaths (bellies devoid of ribs).

after two and a half hours, we reach wooster high school — a free shuttle stop. here i force peg and hilary to pose next to the sign while starving in the hot sun. by this point, we’re all famished and lusting for ribs, not to mention trying to contain an urgent need to urinate

we get there and it is EXCITING. as luck would have it, brigid finds us as we we enter the fray. brigid, a san ho, is the person who told me about the cook-off in the first place. she went the year she got engaged, during a roadtrip with her husband.

she points us in the right direction, our first booth! arizona, huh? okay…

they hawk tank tops declaring: “grip it and lick it,” and “just bone me.” i like them already!

ahhhh! by the time we actually get our ribs we are DYING WITH ANTICIPATION. seriously. these turn out to be the best ones at the entire event. who knew? no other vendors’ ribs were so perfect. many layers of textures and density, with tender meat falling off the bone. mmmm

ohhhh yeah. fire roasted corn. buttery and sweet, with kernels that burst with every bite. topped off with seasonings and hot sauce. deeeeeeeelish

next up, memphis bbq. i promptly rush to this one because brigid tips me off to its deep fried dill pickles. she says the ribs aren’t all that, which is disappointing because i wanted to find revelation in tennessee Q.

blinded by excitement and a lapse in reasoning, i pay for two orders of fried pickles because i envision whole breaded pickles. i’m wrong. these are good! not great, but tasty enough to munch on. the creamy sauce definitely saves it, otherwise the sodium overload would murder you.

peg double fists guava margaritas. very refreshing

hilary gets a big ol’ lemonade. tastes mostly like mediocre sugar water, with no natural citrus tang.

neva gives a cheer while jeff stares off into the horizon, plotting his next kill

well, well, well…what do we have here? up to that point, i’d been mentioning deep fried goodies every other second. the moment has come….

these are texas style taters, and as much as i covet them, i conclude that it’s best to stay away…

…and defer to these!

as well as these! neva holds the mythical zucchini spears. i have to request ranch sauce. are they crazy? they should know better than to leave the packets of creamy herb magic under the counter

we find respite in front of a caboose. we sit and prepare for consumption of the fried zucchini and onion rings

here, perhaps the most disgusting moment to befall the nugget cook-off. they are HUGE. and yes my arms are unimaginably greasy afterwards

jeff had the brilliant foresight to pack latex gloves. as creepy as it seems, it’s a smart idea. do you know how difficult it is to eat ribs in an outdoor setting as you’re trying to juggle a million other things? there’s only so much sauce and fat you can wipe on your legs.

after the grease feast, we head here

jeff eats sausage with a gloved hand. great! the skin crispily snaps in your mouth, yielding juicy soft bitefuls of flavorful meat.

i’m going to fast forward here and bypass photos of all the different booths. you can see them here if you want. the showmanship is impressive and boastful, but after awhile they all look the same.

smoked turkey legs! admittedly, i’m not really feeling it, but neva is

so she stands in line and procures one. we pick off little fleshy bits and damn, that is one fine turkey leg! i am pleasantly surprised

refusing to give in and call it a day, i randomly allocate one last booth to be an accomplice in my swan song. i settle on a company from florida

it ends up being too syrupy sweet. sigh…

damn straight!

NOT COOL, dudes. i believe they’re from arkansas or kentucky. too bad, cuz we were jonesin for Q from way south

mr. melted eyeball

a few of these throughout the fair. says it all…

brushing red, red sauce all over the succulent racks

“it’s a love thing. you can’t bottle passion, but you can taste it!!” amen to that

by the time we get to the car, we’re all squashed

you’d think we won’t want to eat for the rest of the day, but soon after we return to chateau d’chew, we tap into the reserves (that jeff stealthily stowed away in latex gloves and ziplock bags) and gnaw away some more. we anxiously urge jeff’s parents to try the ribs — the best ones, from the arizona booth — that we bought before we left the cook-off

welp, that’s about it. rest assured, that won’t be my last rib cook-off. next up, a chili cook-off?

i have reservations about the slow food “movement,” some ignorant and unfounded and some because i’m usually not down with trendy “movements,” especially when they are founded on concepts that should be intrinsic to our lifestyles anyway. i’m a nasty naysayer.

regardless, i am a food fanatic (note that i refuse to use the tired term, “foodie”). my obsession with making every meal as pleasurable as possible is borderline unhealthy and problematic to my body image. so, despite my “hmm, i’m not sure about this slow food nation business” mentality, i can honestly say that i’m about to pee my pants with excitement about the slow food nation “market place” across the way from work.

they’ve done a nice job on the garden, but i stupidly didn’t know they were going to have vendors there as part of the food bazaar starting today. excellent. the vendor line up is thrilling: TWO ice cream purveyors (bi-rite and ici), fatted calf (fell in love with them during the cal farmers market days), VIK’s (yes, VIK’S), and a bunch of other heavy hitters. it’s not that big of a deal, but knowing it’s happening right outside our doors makes the convenience very nice.

is it lunch time yet?

also, the taste pavilions for the entire wknd are sold out. don’t matter, cuz tonight we embark on our own gastric adventure: the nugget rib-off in sparks, nevada. it is going to be a rib orgy of unimaginable, sick awesomeness. will report on that for sure, if we make it out alive and don’t succumb to heatstroke and/or heart failure.
fried zucchini, here i come!

oh god my mouth is actually watering.

courtesy of peggy

**addendum**: over the weekend my mom probably asked me five times with genuine care and concern, “are you eating organic food?!” to which i’d reply only half-facetiously something like, “pfft, of course. i live in san francisco, that’s all we do.”

i’ve been freaking out doing everything i can to make sure we get the word out about THIS. will feel much better when the kickoff event is over. til then, i’ll continue to be in pouty, haggar insular mode. it’s been a terrifically harrowing past couple of months!

so if y’all are free on thursday and have only $5 to spare, come on by for some acupuncture, qi gong, tea, shiatsu, live chinese music, cupping (heh), and a whole lot more. it’s a total steal.

anyway, i really dig this art by wu gaozhong. his show is called spectral memory, on view at the zendai MoMA in shanghai. it heaves a visceral impact on many levels; so repugnant, yet so…beckoning. of course, anyone who’s familiar with my neuroses will immediately know exactly why these objects creep the $*#! out of me.

i also gravitate toward this art because it looks like how i feel.

photos from this flickr account