Kawaii Dogs

I have not forgotten about Kawaii NYC- but there has been little news in the world of Japanese coolness as of late. But that was until I saw this!!!!
This dog was featured in the International Dog Show 2010 in Tokyo. If my cat would hold still he would so look like this.
These other looks are a bit extreme- even for me- but VERY kawaii!

Happy birthday to me!

This list has been shockingly successful in the past so here is what I would like this year for turning 28 on March 26:

1. How cool is this watch? I love all the colors but purple/rainbow, azur/ rainbow, and blue/bubble are just too kawaii!
2. A gift certificate to dick blicks- a huge art store! I am in desperate need of acrylic paints and drawing note books... which reminds me
3. A mole skin notebook is always nice, and cheap!
4. I pair of FRYE boots. So classic. Black and a size 6.5 please!
5. BOOKS. I'm poor and they are luxury items. Hook me up with a gift certificate to AMAZON.com and you will make my day.
6. For those of you with an extra $4000 laying around I have been fantasizing about a Cartier Love Bracelet for years and years. C'mon- you know you love me!
... I'll update if I think of anything else (thanks in advance!)

Is size an issue?

to be perfectly honest I never bought an issue of V Magazine. But previews of their size issue on Models.com having me chomping at the bit to buy. In particular this spread. I look at it and think- my lord I wouldn't have a single complex if all models in magazines looked like this! All I can say is please buy this when it comes out January 14th- and send letters! Tell V this kind of thing gets two thumbs up!!!

Getting my fix

It's been nearly a year since I went to the Mitsuwa shopping center in New Jersey. I was craving Japanese food, kitsch and books so I ventured down to the NYC Port Authority where Mitsuwa offers a shuttle service. Finding the shuttle wasn't easy, and word to the wise if you are going to take it be there EXACTLY on time because the driver isn't waiting around for anybody.
As I wandered around the stores I found it very frustrating to be broke. Importing from Japan isn't cheap. I held back from buying dishes and Hello Kitty charms in favor of a magazine featuring the 2010 kawaii hair styles (a must since American hair cuts always look so drab). Then I had some beef with cabbage and chocolate rice cakes for dessert. The problem with Mitsuwa is very few people speak English. You can only get this specific dessert there and even after all my poking and careful pronunciation the sales woman STILL almost gave me the wrong thing. There seems to be a very constant theme that the buyer shouldn't touch the object until the given time. Things are put behind glass and out of reach. Everything is clean and lovely but takes 10 times longer to get when you can't select it yourself. In the end I left early mainly to keep myself from the temptation of buying. Still a great trip!

Kawaii Nails!

Ok I have to give my mom credit for finding out about the Tokyo Nail Expo. 50,000 people attended this event! I wish we had nail art stateside, even here in NYC it's usually only seen in it's most tacky form. Enjoy the pictures and the film clip from the expo.

my motion graphics haiku

Haiku from Halli Gomberg on Vimeo.

Holiday Wish list

After a few years of great feed back here in my annual wish list for the Holidays. I don't discriminate, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas- it's all good! Here in no particular order are what I'd love to receive. Oh and ps- if you want something special just email me and let me know!

1. Beige perfume by Chanel
2. Gardenia perfume by Chanel
- these are both exclusive fragrances that have to be bought at the store or at a Chanel make-up counter. The scents date back to private perfumes Chanel made for her friends and best customers. SOoooooo amazing!

3. Mexican art work. I like day of the dead, or those cool tin cut outs called mlagros. Plus they're pretty cheap which is always a plus in this economy. Check out this site for some ideas.


4. If you have a few grand laying around I would dig a Cartier Love bracelet

5. A gift card to Amazon.com, American Apparel, Saks...... just about anywhere with books or clothes.

6. Japanese Cell phone charms- I want them all!

Kiichi Tsutaya Coloring Pictures

Just when I think i know everything awesome about Japan another amazing tidbit comes out. The Tenri Cultural Institute of NY happens to be wedged between my class buildings. On my way from one class to another I saw the most beautiful illustrations in the Tenri Gallery. Turns out its an exhibit on Nurie- Japanese picture coloring. Nurie is the phenomena that lead to what we now know as Anime or Manga. It originated during the Meji Era when the government decided to incorporate western culture into Japan. Just as young children were encouraged to trace Japanese characters and learn their alphabet, they were also given coloring books to trace with fabulous "western" pictures. These pictures were usually of sweet faced young geisha and girls, with westernized large eyes as idealized by European drawings.

One of the best nurie artists was Kiichi Tsutaya. He drew girls with large heads, foreshortened bodies and chubby legs. This may sound odd- but just as Michelangelo's "David" is anatomically incorrect but looks good- so does Kiichi's girls. His coloring nurie books sold like hot cakes, typically selling 1 million books a month. I would encourage everyone in Manhattan from 9/25-10/3 to give this exhibit a look over. the art is beautiful and a nice flash back to a time before photoshop and the politically correct blah of today.

What am I up to?

First and foremost I would like to send my best wishes to my Japanese pen pal Tim who is now back in New Zealand due to the economy.

It's amazing the sheer volume of stuff I am producing in "bootcamp", my pre-masters new media program. What have I been doing? Click on these links and take a peek

What's amazing is that this was done only using numbers (code)


Look the ball is moving! HA!

Animation

Boobtastic

I actually have a lot going on right now
but who wants to hear depressing stuff? Let's look at boobies!

Here is proof why South America has yet to produce a Dior or Ralph Lauren. It's as if the models horrible fake boobs are there to distract from the ugly clothing!




In SHARP contrast comes model Yuri Ebihara, known as Ebi-chan in Japan who despite being covered in clothing thinks she is acting too sexy.

God bless those Japanese.

If the Motel's rockin, start that knockin!

Where have I been the past month? Well the answer is working as a shop girl surrounded by amazing clothes. I love dealing with customers and the thrill of a large sale, but it's been torturous being low on cash and not being able to buy squat. My graduate program starts in 3 weeks and I'm trying to save all my nickels and dimes which means canceling my gym membership, ending my beloved trapeze lessons, and taking public transit everywhere. That being said I haven't been perfect.

I have to stand for 8 hours at a time since we're not allowed to lean let alone sit. Yes I have been yelled at for leaning. Many times. So to combat the horrible pain my feet were in by the end of the day I went out to Easyspirit- that Grandma shoe landmark. I'm not a proud woman, and it wasn't easy to find granny shoes that even hinted at pretty, but I bought two pair. And you know what? They're the most comfortable freakin things I have ever worn. Not one blister and at worst minimal pain after 8 hours standing. I'm so happy I want to write the CEO!
As for clothes shopping I broke down and bought an amazing dress off

Motel Rocks out of England. OF COURSE over there the dress is like $20 but with the conversion of the pound I made sure to hold back and only bought one. The dress is amazing! Cute pockets, great fabric! I'm trying to get the owner of my clothing shop to buy the brand for the store. Discount here I come!

Whooooa?

Here are some amazing photos from the Trick Art Museum at the foot of Mount Takao in Japan! And here is a rarity- they have a web site!!! http://www.trickart.jp/en/gallery.html

What's new with me

Good lord my cup over-flowith (is that a word?) with everything. I've managed to pick up a part time retail job selling high end clothing for a whopping $10 an hour with 1% commission. But the owners are cool, I enjoy working with the customers (except the tranny who stole a blouse) AND I need money for graduate school. Yes ladies and gentlemen you are reading the blog of a future Parsons graduate student for Interactive Media and Design. I'm excited but horrified over the main reason I avoided grad school as long as possible: money.

I am about to be in a butt load of debt. To prevent my debt from reaching collasal proportions I am searching for scholarships. This has proven pretty damn difficult. Most places either don't have them available or they are only for undergraduate students. I even explored using my ties to the Masons- sadly the Maseonic moolah's deadline has passed and I need to wait till next year. Do you know about scholarships I can use? Contact me!

When I'm not sifting through scholarships or getting women to buy a dress that is one size to small I have been breaking in my new apartment. I live in this sweet studio next to Central Park West. It also puts me within walking proximity to my mom and step dad's which is great for me and lame for them- I bring over my laundry and take all their leftovers. Yes I have no pride. But money is tight and as I just mentioned I don't like the idea of being in debt and would like to be in debt for as short amount of time as possible.

What else? Nothing on the Japanese front except I saw this adorable video of a Japanese dog doing a work out with his master. You haven't gone "aaawww" until you see this dog standing on his hind legs doing squat thrusts with his master. I asked my cat Nigel why he doesn't do this with me and he promptly rolled over and fell asleep.

Sakura Matsuri, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens 2009

If I had let rumors of rain disuade me from going to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens annual Japanese Cherry Blossom festival, I would have hated myself. I put on my geta sandals (designed to lift geisha and their expensive kimono out of the mud in JUST SUCH a situation) and decided to risk it. Characters dressed in kawaii/ harajuku style were wafting around the gardens. I even came across one girl who had her nails done in the over the top kawaii style! (See below). The weather turned out to be hot and lovely. I made oragami, ate a traditional japanese box lunch, and enjoyed getting a tad bit closer to my beloved Japan.

OOohhhh

This is a good video of Modern Japan even if the film maker seems a bit obsessed with showing us just how many vending machines there are!

So Freakin Cool

hey check it out!

http://www.hallisportfolio.com/

Happy 50th!

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary as the media hailed ways in which they have adapted the world's oldest monarchy to modern times.

In the half century since they married, Japan has emerged from the aftermath of World War II and US occupation to become Asia's economic powerhouse, and the Chrysanthemum Throne has changed along with the times.

While Akihito's father Emperor Hirohito was once worshipped as a living demigod, Akihito and Michiko have tried to be seen as an "ordinary couple" and narrowed the distance between the palace and the people.

Michiko, educated at a Catholic university, was the first commoner in modern times to marry into Japan's imperial family and the first empress to raise her children herself, famously making them "bento" lunch boxes to take to school.

Now 74, she recalled how in the early years, cloistered behind palace walls, "my heart was filled with anxiety and insecurity," but she said now "it feels like a dream to celebrate the golden wedding day by his majesty's side."

Newspapers praised the couple's pilgrimages to former war-ravaged areas to pray for peace, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the sites of the US atomic bombings that led to Japan's World War II surrender.

They also recalled the imperial couple's visits to the city of Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, when both knelt down before survivors -- a stunning scene in a country where the monarch never spoke in public until 1945.

The golden wedding was to be marked Friday in ceremonies at Tokyo's Imperial Palace, including an afternoon tea party with 101 couples invited from across Japan who are also marking their golden wedding anniversaries.

Kyot-NO!

Geisha are being followed in Kyoto- the victim of curious tourists who are apparently pulling at there kimono and tripping them! Listen, I would totally be that tourist with a camera- but please. Try not to commit assault on some poor young Maiko.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/asia/07iht-geisha.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Me

I made this self portrait in class tonight- I think it's very true

SOOOoooo good

This has got to be the best POCKY I have ever had.... dark chocolate pretzals from Japan- HEAVEN!