Archive for the ‘Pick-ups’ Category
Leonid Afremov’s “Rainy Etude” giclée
My visit to Europe and the countless art museums I speed-walked through must have had an impact because ever since I returned, I’ve been itching to get some artwork to hang in my apartment. I was first introduced to Leonid Afremov‘s paintings while looking for desktop wallpaper, of all things. I immediately fell in love with “Rainy Etude” and discovered Afremov’s website while looking up more information about the painting.
Afremov auctions off over a dozen giclées each day on his site. Giclée is a printing technique to make reproductions of original fine art. It is supposedly the highest quality method of making prints, and many of the reproductions found in art museums are created this way. Afremov’s giclée auctions routinely close below $50, which is a very appealing price. I’ve been monitoring his site daily for the past several weeks, not expecting to see my favorite Afremov painting show up, but waiting for a similar piece that resonated with me (he has a distinctive style and many of his paintings look similar).
So imagine my delight when the one and only “Rainy Etude” showed up for auction one day!
Street Fighter 4 mania
Evolution 2009, the premiere fighting game tournament in the U.S., kicked off yesterday in Las Vegas, and I’ve been eagerly following the Street Fighter 4 event via online streaming. Over 1,000 people are participating in SF4, which makes it the largest live fighting game tournament in U.S. history. I am a very amateur SF4 player so half of the time I’m in disbelief watching these guys play. Their skill and watertight execution are so slick. Even more impressive is the adaptation. The pros might be caught off guard for a round by unorthodox play, but they’ll quickly learn the habits of their opponent, settle into the flow of the match, and powerfully turn it around in their favor.
Other than a few mishaps, the live stream has been great with running commentary and picture-in-picture so that we can see the players’ faces and reactions. Even if you only have a passing interest in fighting games, I’d recommend checking out the live stream on Sunday night. SF4 finals will be hot!
While on the topic, I want to share some SF4 goodies I’ve acquired over the past couple weeks. Triumvir, a SoCal-based clothing label, partnered with Capcom a while back to create the official SF4 T-shirts. They were produced in very limited quantities and sold out quick, but an even more limited second run was produced in May. I managed to place my order for the second run and got a nice stack of T-shirts.
PS3 impressions
I leave all my consoles at home so whenever I go back to Los Angeles for Christmas break, there’s typically the “big game” of the year that I can’t wait to play. For 2007, it was Halo 3 and Mass Effect. 2006: Gears of War. And so on. For 2008, I was expecting it to be Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Gears of War 2. However, lately I have become so weary of investing time into single player campaigns (and gaming in general) that I ended up playing none of these. Instead, Geometry Wars 2 and Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix were my games of choice this holiday when I did sit in front of the TV, both supremely excellent titles on Xbox Live Arcade.
But I’m here to talk about my first experiences with the PS3. When the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundles were first announced almost a year ago, I was excited about the PS3 finally having an appealing bundle/deal. However, I wound up talking myself out of buying the system. It wasn’t until Amazon restocked the limited edition Gunmetal MGS4 system for $200 off the original price that I was convinced and bought the PS3 in November.
Toto Washlet S400
I had planned to post about the Toto Washlet a few weeks ago when I returned to my Los Angeles home. These washlets aren’t that common in the U.S. and are probably best known as those “crazy Japanese toilets that spray water at your butt”. They’re everywhere in Japan restrooms, of course, but they’re also fairly common in Taiwan and I’m sure in other Asian countries. My uncle has had these toilets in his Taiwan house for a few years, which was an inspiration for my family to install them.
DJ Max Portable Black Square Limited Edition + DJ Max Technika Ultimate Collection
Special New Year’s Eve delivery from the mailman! I’m a huge fan of the DJ Max Portable series on PSP, made by a Korean company called Pentavision. It’s a rhythm game series similar to Beatmania and has great soundtracks and slick presentation. I own the Limited Edition prints of DJ Max Portable 1 and 2, both limited to 1,000 copies each. With the newest installment in the series (titled Black Square), Pentavision outdid themselves again and produced a stellar Quattra Limited Edition. This set is again limited to a scarce 1k run. Being the fanatic that I am, I made sure to reserve one the moment Play-Asia started accepting pre-orders.
Latest pick-ups
My order of melody.’s final album (a “Best Of” collection) came the other day, along with a nice poster. I went to Target to look for a cheap frame and was dismayed to see that none of the frames fit the poster exactly. Then I realized that I could flip the paper insert around and use it as a white background. I think it looks great!
I also got a couple Bathing Ape items from Yahoo Japan Auctions: the black Aoyama city camo shark hoody and a red BAPE letters crewneck. In general, I’m not really into clothing or fashion, but for some reason I’m a big Bape fan and keep up with the latest releases.
What I like most about the brand is its exclusiveness and the flashy designs, as well as the spectacular store designs by Wonderwall. So far I’ve been to the Taipei, Hong Kong, Harajuku, and Aoyama stores. I intended on visiting the newly opened Shibuya store this past summer, but I arrived 5 minutes after they closed for the night and didn’t get a chance to return the following days. Truthfully, Bape didn’t have any new releases at the time that I wanted, but visiting the stores is an experience in itself.
I also now have a near complete collection of catalogs/magazines. I’m just missing the first 2 issues.
Wall prints
My brother printed this awesome Star Wars: Force Unleashed poster for me recently. I might frame it at some point, but it has some awkward dimensions so I’ll have to order a custom made frame that would probably be more trouble than it’s worth. In the meantime, I taped it onto the wall.
If you’re wondering about the eyesore behind my chair, no, I didn’t make a giant hole in the wall. Not yet anyway. The covering is there as a preventive measure for chair damage since I like to lean back and don’t want to pay damage fees when I move out of this apartment.
I’m not much of a decorative person so all the walls in my apartment are pretty much plain white, but in the past couple months I’ve put up posters of Casino Royale (James Bond), Hitman, The Dark Knight, and Lost in Translation to make it a bit more interesting. I also have these Penny Arcade comic prints still sitting in my closet that I have yet to find frames for.
