Felt Domo-kun iPod cases sold out after only two days on Etsy in July! Made by SydneyAngel, the cases hold iPod Touch, iPhones and clunky iPod classics. This shows how people love all things Domo.
The Bad Plus played a great outdoor show at California Plaza last Friday. Fans brought their own food and wine (Ajumma ate a Crunky) and enjoyed the music as the sun set over Los Angeles. The Flea Market wrote up a blurb about free show and threw in some nice photos.
We bought a Nikon Coolpix camera to take on vacation, last week. Whenever I appeared in a photo the camera would ask, "Did someone blink?" It became a running joke among my friends. My husband would laugh and tell others, "I can see that her eyes are open, but it says she blinked!" Apparently I am not the only one with a Nikon who is having this issue.
When you make skinny jeans look baggy, you are TOO THIN. Everyone thinks that Asian girls are naturally built like matchsticks, but the truth is they're skinny because they don't eat.
Delectable dango from Fugetsu-Do sweet shop in Los Angeles. See more colorful images of Fugetsu's rice cakes here.
I confess that the eye-popping cover is what drew me to 1001 Cranes by Naomi Hirahara. Standing in a Little Tokyo bookstore, I halted for a quick second when I realized 1001 Cranes is teen fiction. I generally dislike teen fiction. Even as a teenager, I felt like authors talked down to readers with flat stories and overly simplistic characters. But as I skimmed 1001 Cranes, I saw that Angie, the story's protagonist, isn't always nice, her parents aren't perfect, and her boyfriend-to-be is a cigarette-smoking skateboarder.
Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, was a brilliant journalist who ended her own life in 2004. Chang's friend and fellow writer, Paula Kamen, examines the Chinese American author's personality and ambitions while delving into the question of why Chang (who previously did not suffer from severe depression) killed herself.
'Surely these people are not lined up for Korean food served from a truck.' That is what hubs and I thought after watching people sit outside the Japanese American National Museum for an hour, behind a sign for the Kogi truck. Our friends informed us that the Kogi truck sells a hybrid of Korean and Mexican food (like Korean tacos), notifies people of their upcoming locations via Twitter, and encounters throngs of fans wherever it goes. Awesome.
You'll find a gourmet cupcake bakery at any upscale shopping locale in Southern California these days. We happened across Yummy Cupcakes on the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade. Yummy Cupcakes earns a hearty thumbs up for lovely presentation. Their cupcakes are more festive than Dots for sure. I enjoyed Yummy's moist Red Velvet cupcake, though it was more brown than red. Had it not been for the name, I would have guessed I was eating a chocolate cupcake. Props to their Shirley Temple frosting, which actually tasted like a Shirley Temple drink! The fun came to a screeching halt, however, when trying a vanilla cupcake with sprinkles. Bizzare flour taste. Heavy consistancy. Big turnoff.
Had lunch at Mao's Kitchen on Melrose, which boasts natural, Chinese homemade cooking. I liked the sparse interiors with colorful Communist Revolution posters adorning the walls. My Hong Kong-style ramen was scorched on the bottom, which is a no-no, but all in all it tasted good. My husband liked his black bean and veggies entree. I will say that Mao's Kitchen stir fries fish with the best of them.
Korean actor, Lee Byoung-Hun, is in poster form all over L.A. as Storm Shadow in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. He was peering at us on the wall outside of Mao's Kitchen.
I got a chuckle out of "Go Girl" energy drinks and "Y Water" at Marukai market in Little Tokyo. "Go Girl" is amusing because of its name, and "Y Water" (water with nutrients for ones brain, muscles, etc.) for it's innovative packaging and amusing sayings on the tags.
Ajumma and hubs are headed to Los Angeles for a few days for major emo eating. If we were going one week later we'd line up outside of Johnny Cupcakes on Melrose for the t-shirt store's 1 year anniversary party. According to Johnny Cupcakes' blog, they're serving free cupcakes and other desserts to mark the occasion.
Originally I was excited to try the Red Velet cupcake at Crumbs Bake Shop in Beverly Hills. I figured I'd pick up some regular vanilla sprinkle cupcakes, too. After reading Crumbs' online reviews from cupcake fans, the words "dry" and "oily frosting" keep popping up. After being disappointed by Dots Cupcakes in Pasadena, last year, Ajumma's decided to skip Crumbs altogether.
Coco Cake Cupcakes out of Vancouver, BC is definitely worth checking out. As I scrolled through the FAB-O cupcake blog, I had the odd sensation there just had to be an Asian person somewhere. Low and behold, the Coco Cake proprietor is indeed Asian, and her name is Lyndsay Sung. She currently makes cupcakes to order.
Ever notice how the banjo music in ads for Cartoon Network's Squidbillies (about a redneck squid family in Georgia) is the same as in ads for TLC's 18 Kids and Counting? Squidbillies has been on TV 3 years longer than 18 Kids so it's not like Cartoon Network pulled a fast one.
Ajumma spent 12 hours at the airport, yesterday. During that time I saw many children in Crocs, paid $1.26 for a candy bar, and came across some creative luggage tags.
Jun Ji-Hyun, makes the rounds at Blood: the Last Vampire premieres in Hong Kong, Japan, and mainland China. The movie, a live-action version of anime about a vampire hunter, opens in the U.S. in limited release on July 10.
When the Japanese pressed asked which actor she'd like to work with, Ji-Hyun answered Japanese pop star and actor, Kimura Takuya.
Folks are going bonkers over Corey Feldman's Michael Jackson-inspired outfit at MJ's funeral, yesterday. Did I miss something? Did the pallbearers not all wear sequinned gloves? Sheesh. If anything was strange, it was John Mayer even being there. At least Corey and Michael were friends. John Mayer must have won one of the 8,750 tickets to the event.
Nathan Fletcher's latest surf film, Lavese Las Manos premieres tonight in Newport Beach. Tickets are free and available at the door, so make your way to the Lido Theatre. Show starts at 8:00 PM.
July 2 is World UFO Day! This holiday commemorates the incident in which a UFO supposedly crashed onto a military base in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The US government denies the incident ever occurred. UFO fans will descend upon the city of Roswell for the annual UFO Festival, which starts today and lasts through Monday, July 6 (or whenever the folks in the alien costumes go home).
1. Sean Malto photographed by Aaron Smith
