LIU GENGGU & IREPRESS

Black Lotus

by Liu Genggu

Liu Genggu and Irepress are peppy, psychedelic, but with a good heft to them. Liu has a series of paintings that could be storyboards of a seriously cosmic Buddhist event. All in the colors of dusk. Irepress have now included some vocals, but sparingly, which I appreciate, since they were my go-to instrumental band in lab all summer.

GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO

The Water

by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

LIU GUOSONG

Floating Ice: Yellow River Series No.3

I have moved into my new place and it's wonderful. In process of furnishing and decorating, I came across artist Liu Guosong. Also, I have joined a lab and witnessed the resurrected Yob. Both very, very happy moments.

GIANT SQUID & TIFFANY BOZIC

"Metronome" by Tiffany Bozic

Artist Tiffany Bozic collaborated with the California Academy of Sciences in 2007 to create From the Depths, a science and art exhibit about deep sea invertebrates. Bozic is based in Oakland and has continued to produce beautiful, finely rendered depictions of animals and plants in fantastical compositions. I first learned about her through this collaboration and look forward to seeing her work in person and attending NightLife someday.

Giant Squid is another bay area gem I just learned about. A week after they play three bay area shows, of course. I have been listening to their recent release, The Ichthyologist, nonstop. Their music incorporates a whole lot: cello, horns, clean and screamed vocals, story telling, sick science metaphors, and total heartache. The front man works at the San Francisco Aquarium as a professional scuba diver and shark feeder. He has a graphic novel of the same name in the works as well.

This quarter is quickly coming to a close. I have been a sort of ichthyologist myself these past two months by working with Astatotilapia burtoni. Another amazing fish is Macropinna microstoma, recently filmed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

BICYCLE

Stanford is the largest university in the world, in terms of land area. Walking a couple miles to see your friends is made easier by the lack of open container policy, but it was time to get a bike. With many thanks to my friends who know bikes, I have recently purchased the Electra Coaster 3.

CALIFORNIA

After a few failed attempts, I am finally moving to California today!

DETHKLOK & DETROIT METAL CITY

You cannot watch Adultswim.com videos outside of the U.S. While in Japan, I looked for dark humor supplement. I found it in one of the huge geek towers in Akihabara, when the cover of Kiminori Wakasugi's Detroit Metal City (DMC) caught my eye. DMC is about an eponymous death metal band from Tokyo* that is slowly making a name for itself through rowdy stage antics and its seemingly superhuman frontman. However, behind his corpse paint and hilariously vulgar lyrics, the frontman is secretly a very sensitive and naive young guy from the country who really just wants to play Swedish pop music. His true personality and stage persona occasionally bleed into one another, causing him to live a comically tortured life. The comic is still ongoing, an OAV came out yesterday, and a live action movie is coming out 08/23/08 (with Gene Simmons playing a Western metal musician).

With big thanks to Alyssa's translation skills, I have read and own the first three volumes. The comic is currently being scanlated into English by Scum-Scans. So far, DMC has embarassingly upstaged everyone they have had to share the stage with. This made me wonder what would happen if my fantasy cartoon metal crossover happened and DMC opened for the Asian leg of a Dethklok tour, because although DMC always manages to come out on top, few around Dethklok live very long.

*While I was not able to find any actual Japanese death metal shows during my trip, I did visit an awesome little bar in Nakano called Rock Bar Heaven. It consists of one man, Mr. Shimizu, and his entire DVD and CD collection. He will play anything you pick. We enjoyed beers while Vader, Slayer, and Manowar live shows played on the big screen.