Sweet Streets II

A Window in Time, by Hiromi Sato. Daydream Believer, by Stella Im Hultberg.

The Japanese street fashion and art exhibit at Gallery Nucleus was the last day of my internship, so I was really excited for this event. There were more than enough interns, so I ended up hustling raffle tickets.

In the summer of my transition into high school, I devoured information about Japanese subcultures, especially pictures of kids in Elegant Gothic Lolita, steam punk, and dresses by h. Naoto.

My teenage days of depression, and obsession with the gothic lifestyle and Victorian era imploded and condensed into a pile of clothes that vary in different shades of black and grey.

The black hole in my closet is slowly but steadily accumulating mass in the corner of my closet, from which no light escapes. I am still secretly a closet androgynous goth boy when it comes to fashion.

handmade bow. hat, skirt: H&M. shirt: UO. purse: vintage Coach.

Maze by James Jean.

The curators allowed me to pick a gift from the store, and I really appreciated it as a token of the internship. It took a while before settling on this James Jean print, because the Moki print was limited edition and sold out! I was planning to save for it, too. Ah, well T___T

Parting ways will be bittersweet, because my days of temporary indentured slavery are over! My weekends are going to feel lacking in art, and the intake/output of information. I'm going to miss the daily rapport with my favorite co-interns and the Nucleus team.

Fashion's Night Out

Nucleus intern-outing to James Jean + 3.1 Phillip Lim show in Hollywood.
Dan took Nat and me to see some artwork from James Jean's "Birds and Boys" collection. It was a crowd of tall, well-dressed people congregated in an impressive space of sloping, white pyramid studded walls.

We spent the rest of the night stalking James Jean. Dan managed to get a quick photo with him, before legions of socialites engaged the artist in small talk. I impatiently waited another 10 minutes to see if the James Jean would break away from the group, before deciding it wasn't worthwhile.

While I stood waiting next to the life-size illustration of Aska, a woman good-naturedly asked if it was a portrait of me. Dan and Nat thought it was hilarious; we were waiting to see if a stranger would notice my doppleganger, "Aska."

"Aska," & "Selma Blair" by James Jean.

Afterwards, we went to eat at Kang Kang's Food Court in Alhambra. There were several groups of elderly and teen-aged Asians there, though it was quite late into the night.

The self-serve cafeteria seating suited us, because we didn't need to attempt polite small talk with any waiters. We just settled in after ordering at the cashier and proceeded to eat when the food was ready. The oyster egg cake may have been the best dish, along with a plate of siu long bao, or hot steamed buns. The noodles in herbal chicken stew was also pretty good, but not very memorable.

I intend to force-feed you some siu long bao that will burst into delicious, throat-scathingly hot soup with poor chopstick-holding skillz. Also, Dan and Nat revealed their animosity towards each other over the course of our meal.

Photo thanks goes to Dan Lam, my brother from another mother.

Alice in Wonderland

I think the movie is going to be horrible, but the show at Gallery Nucleus was really fun. The art is amazing and the curator even made macaroons that looked like real mushrooms.

My friend let me carry her adorable floppy eared bunny in a basket, and I'm wearing an old Halloween costume I made last year. Why do I always look like a bitch.

I helped draw some faces for the talking flowers, then alternated between greeting patrons at the door and wandering aimlessly for the rest of the night.

All photos were taken by Gallery Nucleus.

Little Tokyo

Sebastian and Ricardo picked me up this morning and we headed to Little Tokyo for a day trip. Our plan was to see the Giant Robot exhibit in the Japanese American National Museum, and I haven't been in that area for a while so I wanted to eat and explore the shops there.

We went to take some novelty pictures at Cues for $7. RIPOFF. Photoshop FTW.

. Routes
There used to be a cool vintage shop called Dust Factory, which I unfortunately never had the opportunity to explore before it became Routes, a bike/graffiti/skateboard store. "We're whatever you need us to be," said the Asian [most likely Japanese] man behind the counter. The first guy I encountered turned out to be PRIME, a respected L.A. graffiti artist. Some of his sketches were lying on the table in a stack, and I sifted through them while the Asian guy talked. He seemed high, his motions and speech had a slightly viscous quality to it, and his attention kept switching to whatever caught it.

After talking to him for about an hour, he agreed to sell a lot of vintage cameras for $80! Which may turn out to be a rip off, if they don't work. Even if they do work, I probably won't use them enough to justify the cost. He threw in a free tripod and cute canvas tote, too. Sweet.

I will conclude this post with a picture taken outside the exit of the the exhibition.