NEW PEOPLE AT SAN FRANCISCO'S JAPANTOWN

After my trip to Berkeley I had to run an errand which brought us back into The City. That however is really not worth mentioning but on the way, we stopped over in J-town to check out the second day of the grand opening of New People, a new retail establishment highlighting pop culture from Japan. Manga, magazines, toys, Hello Kitty and all the latest fashion from streets of Tokyo; It's all here! The design and architecture of this new building are impressive but whether or not this is going to be a money making operation remains to be seen because all that really cool stuff from Japan is really f-ng expensive.

(very expensive handcrafted Japanese shoes from SOU SOU)

The upstairs gallery featured art by Yoshitaka Amano, that cat from Japan who was a graphic designer for the Final Fantasy video game.

So if you are into Japanese pop culture or are you are looking for the latest in Gothic Lolita fashion, this place is at least worth checking out. And if you are feeling like you need a little caffeine fix, the cafe is serving Blue Bottle Coffee. You can't complain about that.

TIJUANA VIOLENCE : ART NOT SACRED

"Chivaca", originally uploaded by Isha.Net*.

Everyone knows that violence in Tijuana has escalated to terrible new heights this past year. The citizens there have had to endure rampant kidnappings and street shoot-outs that make the awesome scene from Michael Mann's Heat look like a water gun fight. As if having to tolerate disrespectful and drunken gringos wasn't already bad enough, but now it seems even the cows are no longer sacred...well not real cows but cows as art. Yesterday, a fiberglass cow named "Chivaca" was burned to the ground by villainous vandals.

Last May Grupo Lala, Mexico's Dairy conglomerate, sponsored "CowParade Lala Tijuana 2008" which is really an international public art exhibit that's been around ten years and has been to cities such as Chicago, New York, London, Tokyo and Barcelona. It consists of 70 fiberglass cows painted by local as well other Mexican artists. The pieces have been set up at different popular areas around the city. For some great photos of these cows, you can visit this photo pool from Flickr.

So far, eight cows have been damaged since the exhibit opened in Tijuana with "Chivaca" being the latest victim. Although the three vandals have been apprehended. It's unknown whether they are also responsible for the others. Also unknown is whether these guys are art vandals, trying to make their own statement, just plain idiots or since it was "Chivaca" after all, if they are just die-hard fans of Club América!

Whatever it is...it's a major downer that the people of Tijuana have to yet again, deal with another ugly stain on their civic pride.