Giant Robot, The Pancakes, and a very Asian post

It was random chance if I picked up a copy of Giant Robot, *the* Asian-American pop culture magazine, which I previously thought was a webzine (another case of not paying attention enough). After work, which consisted in a surprise assignment to faraway Lasalle (an hour of bus, metro to go, and another hour back, and plenty of time to nap in the midst of it), I went back all the way downtown to kill some time. Went in the Chapters, and on my way from seeing whether the newest Economist was on stand already (because I'm curious to know whether the Holidays issue will be in my mailbox before Christmas), I caught a glimpse of "Giant Robot" over at the "specialty" magazine stand, which also consists of feminist pamphlets, magazines on tatoos, and all sorts of activist papers. So, after less than ten seconds of reflexion, I snatched a copy of it, and quickly went to the cash to pay.

While skimming through the pages in the metro, I found out that there was an interview on The Pancakes! Pleasant surprise, it was, as I've been listening to a lot of her music in the past few days, as I moved from sweet Chinese pop to sweet Chinese indie pop (I lack in the latter, or even the former, so it's all relatively speaking). The music is always relatively joyful, with lyrics that are otherwise tragic personal human feelings. I tend to adhere a lot more to this vision of life, where anything tragic isn't actually tragic, than that of putting your hard-hat on, and steel-capped shoes and run into other people as if there was no tomorrow. Hey, it's pretty bad, but never all that bad, eh? Off the top of my head, The Dentist song is one of my favourites. The Pancakes also collaborated with Ketchup and Chet Lam (who has rather impressive creds on the indie, but also pop music scene in HK) on an album called Freeplay, and the last track Arcturus is simply the best (presents sexual ambiguity in flashy wrapping paper and a bow), while many other tracks are, I think, cover tracks of each other.

I subscribed to the paper version of Giant Robot, for $30 a year for 6 issues. I was first thinking of subscribing to that Canadian Asian mag, whose name I can't remember (I think it was "New Wave" or something in the like), and which is rather more a Canadian-Chinese publication, from the names of the editors. But Giant Robot is a lot more interesting, visually, and contents wise, as it does focus on pop culture (and not necessarily of Asian persuasion, but mostly so), rather than touching to everything from food to relationships counseling. I have yet to read the issue I just bought, as well as that other Canadian-Chinese/Asian mag I got already two months ago.

Without mentioning what it was, there was a very small image in Giant Robot of an issue of Asian Boston, the anecdotal "Asian" publication that isn't by Asians, and even less for Asians, and which deservedly caused a storm in the New England Asian community (at least according to articles linked to in AAM).

I saw a lot of Asian people downtown tonight, and it was probably because shopping malls were just full of people, point. Which reminds me that I could still do some Christmas shopping, err? I also have to work tomorrow morning, as usual (was caught up in Civ4, urgh), but after that, it's a week-long vacation until January 3rd.