And we're up

Three months of "me time" in the Bay Area, and I'm proud to say I have at least one thing to show for: my very first official website. This photo almost made it as the title image, but then an artist friend told me: "No one cares about aesthetics as much as they care about just getting the information." He also said people usually pay for that kind of creative advice, so I figured I should take it while it was free. Plus, he's right.

In the "stories" section, you should be able to read some select pieces from my archives, including classic GR stuff. The problem is, throughout my career, whenever I'd write a story, I was so over it by the time the pages shipped, I never bothered saving a text file for myself. So most of the stuff I've reprinted, I've actually sourced from sites where people actually took the time to transcribe and post them. Got to hand it to the Sam Rockwell and Korean plastic surgery fans. Please check out www.claudineko.com.

The Hills are Alive

Look closely.

Liu Wei (b. 1972, Beijing)
It Looks Like a Landscape, 2004
Digital black-and-white photograph, 120 in. x 20 ft.

There were two major contemporary Chinese art exhibit openings in the Bay Area this fall: one at the SF MOMA, the other at the Berkeley Art Museum. The latter is much better, and ongoing. You're just gonna have to get on BART and schlep to the East Bay.

Potato Have Toes

Yesterday, I was walking through the craft fair at the college formerly known as CCAC in Oakland, CA when I saw the familiar drawings of Deth P. Sun. So I introduced myself and asked the guy in glasses if he was Deth P. Sun. He was. And then he introduced the girl next to me as Evah. It took me a minute until I realized what I had in front of me: artist Evah Fan, one of the many people I've interviewed in my life over the phone, but never met in person. One down, lots to go.

My shopping day was a coup. From Evah:





From Deth: