Burns 08! Oh fuck yeah!

Narangkar and I just finished up Season 3 of Melrose Place on DVD and we are already jonesin' for Season 4. This season things really heated up: featuring the debut (and then return) of Dr. Peter Burns, Mike Mancini getting amnesia, Jake getting shot, Jo getting shot (with a shotgun in the back!) by the parents of her baby's dead father (Reed, whom she killed), Kimberly going to No More Victims camp and then getting possessed and blowing up the apartment complex in the season finale, Alison going to alcohol rehab and hooking up with a sex addict pro football player, Brooke and Billy get married, Dan Cortez as Jess Hansen, Chris Marchet gambling half-a-million of Jane's Manicini Designs money and basically getting away with it, Amanda's father dies, then her boss, Bruce (head of D&D Advertising), kills himself, then she gets Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which she recovers from really fast, Sydney joins a cult, Matt gets stalked by Gay Cop, and so, so, so much more!

To celebrate the triumphant return of Melrose Place into our lives, I'm resurrecting a custom sticker I made ten years ago to celebrate my favorite character and the one true chief-of-staff over at Wilshire Memorial:


Melrose Place season 4 coming at you April 15th (Narangkar and my 10th anniversary!). Oh fuck yeah!

Winter Skate Jamboree

We got a big enough gap in the winter weather to bucket out the old skatepond and rip it up yesterday afternoon. Andrew, Narangkar, Duncan, Tom, Jedson (or is it Judsen?), and myself got a good 4 hours of skating in. Got some footage of it. Click the photo of Duncan slamming to check the movie:

If you don't want to wait for the video to load, click this link to the video as seen on Shred or Die.

Tom's kickflip into the pond is my vote for trick-of-the-day. It was good to get a strong session going in the middle of winter. Then we all ate Indian food.

Let any and all doubts that I have been ripping it on the skateboard since I was just a wee youngster be put to rest with this action photo:


Pink "Heat Zone" deck, velcro shoes, fingerless gloves that are way to big, bike helmet, non-skate knee pads. Man, I was way ahead of my time.

Ryohei Kills It

I first met Ryohei (pronounced "Yo-Hey") when we were both freshmen at CCAC back in 1995. He lived in the apartment/dorm room right across from mine. I think the first thing that really stood out about him was that his bed was completely covered in artwork and stuff. When I asked him where he slept, he pointed under his bed. We were pretty good friends just about right away and he did a lot of illustration for my zine, Mr. Nice Guy. He could draw so fast and so well. He also was just a generally fun and funny guy.

Throughout the years we have worked together on a lot of projects. Our collaborative film noir was conceived, story-boarded, shot (in super8), and edited in about 7 non-consecutive days. It was the smoothest film production I've ever been a part of. Check it out in its entirety (about 4 minutes - starring Rob Sato):

We also continued to work on zines together, participated in some group shows, and even played some of his music at an opening at Gallery AD as The Apartments. After 10 years as an American, Ryohei moved back to his hometown of Tokyo about 3 or 4 years ago. He continues his massive artistic outpouring of paintings, drawings, comics, videos, prints, music, and his amazing papercut artworks from Japan, with updates on his blog. He also finally got a website up.

His papercut artwork, made by simply folding a piece of paper in half and cutting it with scissors into all sorts of creative monsters and scenarios, had made such a lasting impression on Narangkar and I that one of our first publishing projects with Rowan Morrison was a little book of his cuts. Then, about two months ago, that book came out: Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes by Ryohei Tanaka. The book has sold really well through our online art bookstore as well as our distributor, Last Gasp. And we haven't even launched a direct promotional campaign yet. You should get yourself a copy.

Anyway, Ryohei recently sent us a little package from Japan and I'm pretty psyched about it so check it out. It has some Japanese print promo stuff for the Simpsons movie, some snapshots from my bachelor "party" two years ago (we went to a baseball game), and the 2008 Ryohei Tanaka Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes Calendar! Plus an awesome letter. I really miss Ryohei.




The calendar features 6 all new papercuts.


It looks like it is screenprinted on construction paper.


I hope all the dates are right this time. His "Mark & Cindy" calendar (with Kris Chau) had a few months off and threw me into temporary chaos for a minute.

We have been making plans to get to Japan and hang with Ryohei on his home turf for many years now. Maybe this is the year...