Should we start with the Otaku tattoo store or rush ahead to the Japanese super market with special treats you can't get anywhere else? Japanese supermarket it is.
And it's all in LA's lovely Little Tokyo, a haven for those fans of anime and of course, wanting to visit Japan. Little Tokyo isn't all that big, just a few blocks, but you can definitely spend a whole day there. With so many stores and places to grab a bite it's just a wonderful spot to visit downtown.. Please, please get some Japanese food and not Subway.
If you want a snack, treat, meal or just something to show off to friends head to the Marukai Market
123 S Onizuka St. #105, Los Angeles, CA 90012. This is the largest Japanese supermarket in Little Tokyo. There's two more and they just can't compare to the selection. They import candy, drinks and all kinds of snacks from Japan. So, you'll be getting stuff your friends aren't. Try a strange flavor of potato chip or get a special flavor of soda that you can't find anywhere else.
*Though, it's called Marukai Market it's clearly part of the Don Quijote discount store brand of Japan with all the signage of the mascot Donpen, a blue penguin, you can see up in the store.
If you want a real meal and not just snacks and silly hats to put on your hat head over to. Champion’s Curry136 S Central Ave Los Angeles, CA 90012. We've got a full review here, but its easily become our favorite place to eat at when we're in Little Tokyo. And so tasty!
If you want something a little bit different, we're saying try this place on the name alone. Pho Ever 319 E 2nd St Ste 205 Los Angeles, CA 90012 is a Vietnamese restaurant with a good looking menu of eats.
Now, if you want to grab something there's plenty of stores. The multiple store of Anime Jungle319 E 2nd St UNIT 103, Los Angeles, CA 90012 means you can pretty much get or order and Japanese figure or toy you want, but there's more than that.
You also have the video game store of World 8-2, 319 East 2nd Street Suite #120
Los Angeles CA 90012. A sister store of World 8, they carry a bunch of video games and the older stuff, so you can look for classic games for older systems. Could use a bit more decorations, but it's the only game store in Little Tokyo.
For what looks like a sketchy online anime store became real you have Style Outlet LA 340E 2nd street, Suite 334-A Los Angeles, CA 90012 . A hilarious name, when inside it's really got the most random of anime stuff. And, it's filled to brim with it.
Listen, just be careful if you buy anything and don't expect it to last.
Now about that tattoo parlor, Otaku Vision Studios123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 can put Naruto or whatever ninja on your skin, but they also have a little retail and it's 18+ inside.
You can get this lovely tote bag from Visions that'll turn heads.
Then from dirty and naughty let's go to bright colors and cute!
My eyes! My eyes! The colors they burn! Like looking into a utopian future LA, we have the brightest of outfits displayed in Mokuyobi 101 Japanese Village Plz Los Angeles, CA 90012. This retail store makes you think you've found the nemesis to Hot Topic as it's so dang positive in here. A rainbow collection to light up your sense of style.
And those are just some of the stores and restaurants in Little Tokyo. There's many other places to peek into or get lost in, but it's a wonderful place to spend a day wandering through. So, head down to downtown, just pay for parking at one of the pay lots and look around for some Japanese themed fun.
And if you see that Arthur, playing music on his keyboard just tip him some money.
First off, there was a lovely press release by Warner Bros on all the merch coming out for the new The Batman movie. It's mostly insane and I'm unsure what the brag is other than a ton of stuff will be adorned with Batman this year. On that huge list was Batman Oreos and they look awful. We were generally excited about them until the saddest looking Batman head shot was put on them. Luckily, they'll be everywhere else in the world, but America...with no explanation.
In local, more unsatisfying hype, the 49th Annie Awards-the cartoon awards-is going virtual. Sad, as it's always fun to see what goes wrong at their live shows. Also, the dang thing was moved to March when it was usually held February.
PaleyFest is back in person. Oh, it's only been three years since it's been in person...sigh. It's back at the the Dolby Theatre, April 2-10. Why are we telling you so early? Easy, because tickets go on sale today to the general public today. This year you can see the cast and creative teams behind This Is Us; Superman & Lois; black-ish; Ghosts; The Neighborhood; Hacks; Cobra Kai; Riverdale; Better Call Saul; A Salute to the NCIS Universe celebrating NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS:Hawai'i; and Emily in Paris.
To put on your radar is this poorly edited trailer of a martial arts action film coming to Netflix, Fistful of Vengeance. Listen it's gonna be dumb, I'm guessing the intern who did the trailer just didn't care to hide it. What you're coming for is the great martial arts and stunt work. Not the writing. Never the writing.
And a bunch of games came out you might want to try.
Sucker for Love: First Date is now on Steam. You can date a bevy of beautiful eldritch terrors and it will most likely lead to the end of the world. It's another wonderful dating sim and in recent years we've seen them go down some truly dark and disturbing paths. This one is no different.
Out to day is The Company Man. A platformer set in a office and it looks like some ridiculous fun.
And coming from the fine folks who made Guacamelee! we have a quirky game to get lost in Nobody Saves The World and that nobody is you.
Oh, and for the horror fiends; like I posted in the Weekly What To Do Section, the Miskatonic horror lecture series for Los Angeles is online again. Below see a full listing of this year's talks. The first class is Tuesday.
Miskatonic
Los Angeles offers monthly classes and a discounted full semester pass.
For our Spring 2022 Online semester, admission to individual classes is
US$10, and a full semester pass including all five classes curated by
Miskatonic Los Angeles, is US$40. Please note that students from
anywhere in the world can attend.
Miskatonic Los Angeles offers monthly classes and a
discounted full semester pass. For our Spring 2022 Online semester,
admission to individual classes is US$10, and a full semester pass
including all five classes curated by Miskatonic Los Angeles, is US$40.
Please note that students from anywhere in the world can attend.
Tuesday January 25th 7:30pm PST THE CINEMA OF THE RAMSAY BROTHERS Instructor: Shamya Dasgupta
They were a family of outsiders, who moved to Mumbai from Karachi
during the Partition of India, and set up a shop selling and repairing
radios. In the 1970s, they transitioned to film producing and, one
fateful night while observing the reactions of the crowd in a movie
theater, made the decision to pursue the genre that would define their
career. In this lecture, Shamya Dasgupta, author of Don’t Disturb the Dead: The Story of the Ramsay Brothers,
will detail how seven brothers with a business background embraced
every aspect of filmmaking—while economizing at every opportunity—to
become India’s first horror film factory and a genre unto themselves.
They made a splash in Bollywood, but just like in the movies, their tale
has a rise, a fall, and eventual redemption. Join us to learn why, even
today, decades later, the Ramsay name is synonymous with horror in
India.
Tuesday February 22nd 7:30 PST THAI HORROR FILM AS AN EXTENSION OF THAI SUPERNATURALISM Instructor: Dr. Katarzyna Ancuta
Horror has always been important for Thai cinema, although most Thai
horror films, steeped in local folklore, history and modes of narrative,
have relatively little in common with the genre as defined by major
western productions. Most of those films follow strictly supernatural
plots built around a variety of beings described collectively as phi (ghosts, spirits, deities, and demons), they are therefore commonly known as nang phi,
or ‘ghost films.’ Thai horror films differ from their western
counterparts in one more aspect: they exist as an extension of Thai
supernaturalism, a collection of shared beliefs and cultural practices
that not only affects the portrayal of the preternatural in the films
but also frames the functioning of the local entertainment industry. How
then does one make a ghost film for an audience that sees living with
spirits as part of everyday experience? How does one create a work of
fiction that, on some level, can still be recognized as ‘real’? In this
lecture we will focus mostly on the 21st century films seen
as a distinct stage in the evolution of Thai horror cinema. We will
discuss the main themes of these films, situate them in the larger body
of Thai cinematic horror, and address the effects of globalization on
horror film production in Thailand.
Tuesday March 29th 7:30pm PDT SHE MADE ME A MONSTER: WOMEN AND GOTHIC LITERATURE Instructor: Lisa Kröger
We know the Gothic when we see it: the gloomy, mold-covered manor
house, the ghostly whispers of long-buried secrets, the heroine locked
in a prison of her own mind. Beneath these Gothic tropes is a rich of
history of women writers, beginning with the literary success of Ann
Radcliffe, and that of the other authors (Regina Maria Roche, Eliza
Parsons) who published with Minerva Press in the last decades of the
eighteenth century. While the Gothic was a genre geared toward female
audiences, it often promoted radical ideas of the feminist movement,
which was gaining popularity at the same time. For these women, the
Gothic was a space that allowed for the safe exploration of feminist
themes like the lack of rights within marriage, the contested female
body, women’s autonomy, and more. This lecture will examine women’s
critical role in the creation of Gothic literature, as both creators and
fans, from the earliest Gothic novels in 1790s England. Then, we will
look to the modern Gothic, as it is being reimagined today in literature
and film.
Tuesday April 26th 7:30pm PDT THE WOMEN OF WEIRD TALES Instructor: Melanie R. Anderson
In the early decades of the twentieth century in America, pulp
magazines developed into prime real estate for genre fiction such as
westerns, science fiction and fantasy, horror, mysteries, and adventure
stories. Specific magazines catered to specific tastes, and readers of Weird Tales (1923-1954)
were looking for horror and dark fantasy. Ultimately, the fiction and
names of many pioneering writers of genre fiction who wrote for the
pulps have faded into history. Many of the surviving works are by men.
This, however, does not mean that women were not involved in the
production of the pulp magazines. They were in positions ranging from
cover artists to editors to writers. This lecture will explore how women
were involved in the production of the pulps with a focus on Weird Tales.
These women’s stories fit into a larger tradition of horror and dark
fiction by connecting the legacy of women writing horror prior to the
twentieth century to later generations.
Tuesday May 31st 7:30pm PDT RACIAL HORROR AND THE MONSTROUS FOREIGN Instructor: Mila Zuo
Is race a trope of horror? What is racial horror? This talk addresses
the abjection of race through the lens of the contemporary horror film.
From the Haitian origins of the enslaved zombie to gothic
multiculturalisms, the nonwhite figure has been continually enfleshed
and encoded in the West as monstrous, alien, and foreign. Often
frightening, overly desirous and hyper-appetitive, racialized creatures
are the source of terror and jouissance—objet petit a in
Lacanian terms. From the horrific specters of slavery and genocide of
Black and Indigenous populations to Yellow Peril techno-orientalism,
white Western horror thrives upon the abjection of racialized bodies.
Drawing together psychoanalytic approaches, critical race theorists
together with horror, we will analyze the recent turn of Black and
Indigenous horror films as well as global Asian films to reveal the ways
in which such conventions are troubled by global nonwhite filmmakers.
Finally, we will speculate on the extent to which racial horror casts
(counter)spells on its audiences through tempo, color, rhythm, and
affect.
Wrapped production on the WNUF Halloween Sequel today.
Might crack open the last pumpkin beer I saved from this fall to mark the occasion. Might wait for February when I run the final cut through dueling VCRs.
Either way, big ups to everyone who's helped make it possible. 🎃
Also, for horror fans, excited to hear there's a sequel to the WNUF Halloween special. Can't say I like the other things the people behidn it have made, so here's hoping they stick to the formula from the first and make a fun VHS horror film again.
January 19, 2022 - January 23, 2022 Los Angeles Convention Center South Hall
Single Day $33.03
The LA Art show is back at the LA Convention center. See a huge collection from local galleries and galleries from all over the world. Get on the ridiculous NFT train this year. We wonder how exactly they will be displayed. Do they put them out on 4k TVs or just show them on their phones? It's gonna be weird. If going, try and count how many times you hear NFTs said out loud at the show. Do not make it a drinking game or you'll probably die of alcohol poisoning.
Film has taught us many things, one being that Alligators and Crocodiles
can attack anywhere at any moment. Whether you are in Florida, Maine,
Texas, the Windy City, or abroad, be on the lookout for Killer Crocs,
teams of hungry gators, alligator people, and Burt Reynolds. This month,
the AC stands for “Alligators and Crocodiles” as we pay tribute to
their finest film appearances with LAKE PLACID alongside Betty White, the Roky Erickson favorite THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, Tobe Hooper’s EATEN ALIVE, the modern masterwork CRAWL, the notorious KILLER CROCODILE and the 4K restoration of the John Sayles penned classic ALLIGATOR. Plus, the most destructive creature of all, GATOR, starring Burt Reynolds.
5801 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232
Roberts Projects is pleased to announce The Spring Cycle, an
exhibition of new paintings, drawings and photographs by Ed Templeton
that are a direct response to the suburban environment he lives in.
These new works create hyperbolic realities that scrutinize the human
condition through the lens of urban isolation. The exhibition runs
January 22nd - March 5th, 2022, with an artist reception on the night of
Saturday, March 5th from 4-7pm. Between Two Dimensions is an ongoing exploration of both the material
world and and the transcendental. A space where time is boundless,
unrestrained, full of wonder. A place where liberation flies upon the
wings of resistance. Cradled between the arms of all things hoped for
and all things yet to be seen.
Miskatonic Los Angeles offers monthly classes and a discounted full semester pass. For our Spring 2022 Online semester, admission to individual classes is US$10, and a full semester pass including all five classes curated by Miskatonic Los Angeles, is US$40. Please note that students from anywhere in the world can attend.
Tuesday January 25th 7:30pm PST
THE CINEMA OF THE RAMSAY BROTHERS Instructor: Shamya Dasgupta They were a family of outsiders, who moved to Mumbai from Karachi during the Partition of India, and set up a shop selling and repairing radios. In the 1970s, they transitioned to film producing and, one fateful night while observing the reactions of the crowd in a movie theater, made the decision to pursue the genre that would define their career. In this lecture, Shamya Dasgupta, author of Don’t Disturb the Dead: The Story of the Ramsay Brothers, will detail how seven brothers with a business background embraced every aspect of filmmaking—while economizing at every opportunity—to become India’s first horror film factory and a genre unto themselves. They made a splash in Bollywood, but just like in the movies, their tale has a rise, a fall, and eventual redemption. Join us to learn why, even today, decades later, the Ramsay name is synonymous with horror in India.
Largo,
known for comedy shows, is back open and selling out shows. Grab some
tickets before everything sells out. Many new shows from some of LA's
top comedians. We see Bill Burr, Patton Oswalt,
Pete Holmes and Sarah Silverman to name a few.
The Glen Brogan Show is here! Formerly The Pinup Show, my annual art show is now available at https://t.co/EMDxmxh94K, expanding beyond pinup work and including prints of numerous pieces folks have been requesting. Thanks so much for enjoying what I do ❤ pic.twitter.com/DLwhDoq3Rj
The Anacrusis, a sci-fi, four-player, cooperative first-person
shooter is out today on PC (Steam Early Access, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft
Store) and Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S in Game Preview and is available
with full crossplay between all platforms. Priced at $29.99 USD, The Anacrusis
launches with a 20% discount on Steam, Xbox, Epic Games Store, and the
Microsoft Store. The game comes to Xbox and PC Game Pass players as a
day one release.
The iam8bit Moving Sale has already started, looks like you can grab a lot of deals on some great video game merch.
Not too happy to hear iam8bit is moving, albeit just a little down the road. It's location was top notch as a retail store, gallery and offices. We remember covering stuff from them at the location throughout the years like Super iam8bit to a special Dead Rising event. (Sigh)
Ti West's X comes out this March and we can't wait for what looks like a porno slasher film fro mA 24 and him.
Coming out much sooner and a favorite of ours is a special 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray Set of Dead Heat from Vinegar Syndrome. An 80's buddy cop horror film like no other. Part comedy, part horror and utterly ridiculous, it's just too good for an old-school horror fan. Other than just seeing it in the most pristine way possible it comes with quite a lot of extras.
Moving over to gaming the latest Dead Cells DLC has come out and it's totally worth it. This game came out a few years back, but keeps being playable after free updates and $5 DLC. Grab the newest pack and explore a sunken ship and meet up with a very angry Queen.
Catching our eye is this upcoming game of an America taken over by the Japanese, it looks like bonkers fun. It sort of looks like if No More Heroes 3 had kept out attention. No real release date though.
Urusei Yatsura or in English, Those Obnoxious Aliens!, from Rumiko Takahashi creator of Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 is being revived. That means alien green-haired cute Lum will be back in her tiger bikini...need we say more?
