Tezuka Osamu + farmers' market + deep-fried twinkies!
Sun, Jun. 24th, 2007 04:37 pmThis week, I went with
cychi and A. to see the Tezuka Osamu exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in SF.
As we got off the BART, little did we know (well, ok, A. knew) that this was the weekend for the LGBT pride parade, which meant... STREET FAIR!
It was huge! I didn't get to see most of it, as we didn't have that much time, but we all managed to find the fooding booths. We started off with funnel cake, deep fried and squiggly and covered with powdered sugar, absolutely delicious. It was the first time A. had had funnel cake ("Deep-fried dough with powdered sugar!" I said. "How can it be bad?"). Then we decided that we should probably eat lunch first before eating even more.
A. took us to a Vietnamese place in Little Saigon, in which I introduced A. and C. to the joys of roast squab, particularly roast squab with a crispy, glazed skin, oozing with juice and fat, laid on a small pile of carmelized onions and raisins. ("Better than duck!" said C. "I now think of pigeons in an entirely new light!" said A. "Squab!" yelled C. upon exiting and walking through a giant swarm of pigeons on the street.) We also had a tart and refreshing green papaya salad with little bits of beef jerky, along with stir-fried meat, bean sprouts, and other stuff wrapped in a thin, pancake-like substance, which was then wrapped with a lettuce leaf and eaten a little like a taco. Everything was extremely good, except possibly the pigeon claw, which A. discovered upon tasting was more decorative than actually edible, unlike chicken claws at dim sum.
We then went to get dessert at the fair, because they had.... DEEP-FRIED TWINKIES!
"OMG! Awesome! We must get some!" I exclaimed during our first pass through.
"Uhhh. Deep-fried what?" said A.
"I had some once. They were pretty good!" said C.
"OMG! Awesome! We must get some!" I said. "OMG! Beignets!"
"What's that?" asked C.
"More deep-fried dough! Awesome!" I explained.
"Look! Deep-fried artichoke hearts!" said A.
"Yay street food!" said C.
Unlike C.'s first experience with deep-fried twinkies, these were taken out of a cooler and dipped in batter ("OMG! Deep-fried batter!" I said), then dropped into the deep fryer. "I think I should pray before I eat this," A. said. The person at the stand then put the deep-fried twinkie ("On a STICK!" I said. "FOOD ON A STICK!"), added chocolate syrup, strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top, and then handed it over to us.
We goggled at the spectacle, and then began to eat.
C. thought that the deep-fried twinkies he had had before were better, as they had no sauce, and so were crispier. Also, he noted that the batter was a bit thick. I personally think that deep-fried twinkies are the newest most awesome thing ever, especially with the strawberry sauce to dip it in. The outside is crunchy and golden, and the inside is soft and cakey, and then there's the twinkie cream filling, which tastes really good with the strawberry sauce.
Also... it's a deep-fried twinkie! Where is the bad in that?
(Um, yes, I am still excited about it.)
I must go to a state fair some time so I can have more deep-fried twinkies and then try deep-fried cheesecake and deep-fried Snickers bars. Oh America and the foods of Americana, I love you so much!
After that, we all decided that beignets would probably kill us on the spot, so we would get some after walking around the Asian Art Museum for a bit.
I've only actually been to the museum once before, so I don't know how big the crowd was, comparatively, but it did seem like the Tezuka exhibit had drawn a lot of the younger crowd -- not just the twenty-somethings, but also kids and teenagers. There was a large statue of Astro Boy in the lobby.
The explanations in the placards all seemed to be pretty good, as far as I can tell; they explained the pictorial scroll tradition in Japanese art and Hokusai's coined term "manga" for his Edo/Meiji-era woodblock prints, but they also commented that modern manga really began with the imitation of European and American comic strips, and that the industry as we know it began with Japan. I didn't actually learn that much new stuff about manga as a whole from the exhibit, but I wasn't particularly expecting to either.
The exhibit had several enlarged pages from Tezuka's manga, but the really great part was that they had a lot of the original artwork and pages from the comics. I think the exhibit covered about twenty or so of Tezuka's works; the exhibit began with biographical information on Tezuka, and then each series had a brief plot summary and discussion of themes and artwork, which was nice. I had known that Tezuka was prolific, but I was still astounded by his range.
Also, it was so amazingly neat to be able to see the original pages! I think the ones from earlier on (50s and 60s) were done almost entirely with pen, ink and correction fluid; tones were used starting from around the 60s to later. You could see all his ink lines and the use of correction fluid to draw stars in a black sky, or just to correct himself. You could also see pencilled-in dialogue beneath the typed-out dialogue pasted to the page, or larger corrections that meant re-pasting in entire panels or sections of the page.
It was also fascinating watching Tezuka's style evolve, from the very 50s, Disney-esque style of his earlier days (boneless-looking bodies, round faces and eyes) to the more angular style of his later days (sharp chins and smaller eyes).
And while I knew that Tezuka tackled some pretty mature themes, it was still surprising to read some of the summaries of his series. MW in particular sounds like it comes straight from the brain of Yuki Kaori, as it is about the clone of one man, who unsurprisingly wants to kill him, love him, and completely fuck with his mind, as it is with the best of cracktastic manga (C. had to ask me why I was giggling so much at the description. "OMG! Yuki Kaori!" I said as I flailed incoherently.). I also now really want to read Ode to Kirihito, which is a medical thriller and a meditation on mankind; Human Metamorphosis, on a rather psychotic woman gaining power, even though the gender politics look horrific; Apollo's Song, which I swear has anthropomorphized sperm rushing to mate with a single egg and other scenes that look like they are straight out of End of Evangelion; and Princess Knight, the gender-bending, cross-dressing birth of shoujo manga.
I wish there had been more on Princess Knight and shoujo manga, but I can also understand why there wasn't, it being one of Tezuka's earlier, possibly less complex works. On the other hand, I learned that Tezuka grew up around the Takarazuka Revue, which I might have known before but had completely forgotten. I was also extremely amused but not at all surprised at how much gender-bending and cross-dressing and clones and other cracktastic elements there were in Tezuka's works -- the robot in Metropolis changes sex at the literal flip of a switch! Why was this not included in the anime adaptation? I feel cheated.
I also loved Tezuka's imagery, despite being a little put off at first by the older art style. Bomba! had an image of a dead woman slowly dissolving into water, then a shot of the main character's tear-stained face; Black Jack had some very anatomically-detailed and graphic images; Ode to Kirihito had some extremely disturbing, abstract looks at mental anguish, including a wordless page with a man's head, slowly disappearing and leaving only his glasses, and then a kitchen knife splitting the glasses apart.
It was also interesting looking at just how cinematic the panelling was; I had known that, but I was still surprised. The close ups, the sense of the camera drawing closer on a subject or receding to give emotional space, the intercutting between two different, but interrelated scenes... all of that was there even from the very early works. On the other hand, Tezuka's panelling remained largely boxy and rectangular. Some figures would break through the panels, and Princess Knight had more examples of shoujo panelling, including a composition of Prince/ss Sapphire figure dominating the entire page, with several panels behind her, which I've seen in so much shoujo. The later works had more irregular panelling, but by and large, they remained rectangular, with the occasional break into full-page or half-page spreads, or unrectangular but still geometric panel breakdowns.
Also, several of the later works included "bed scenes," at least one of which was homosexual (MW).
We then went to check out the Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales: Woodblock Prints from Edo to Meiji exhibit. The placards briefly tied the Yoshitoshi exhibit in with the Tezuka one by talking about Japanese pop culture and sequential art, though thankfully, it was again nice to note that they were just drawing a connection as opposed to saying, "Look! Manga existed even back then!"
I have less to say about the woodblock prints because I know a lot less; most of the ones the exhibitors chose were usually taken from scenes from Japanese folklore and Chinese literature, which a few of geisha, famous kabuki actors of the time, and other miscellaneous things. No shunga, for anyone wondering. It was again interesting to watch Yoshitoshi's style evolve, especially since his work spanned two historical periods. The exhibit also helped a lot with this; the exhibitors had chosen prints that returned to the same scenes or characters or stories from different stages of Yoshitoshi's development.
It was also neat watching Yoshitoshi's style go from the more abstract to the more realisitic, particularly in terms of face shapes; I preferred the later, more realistic style, but that is probably because I am accustomed to the more realistic styles in Western art. I also liked being able to look at woodblock prints from the perspective of one creator, particularly after reading a little more about authorship and "folk" art (caveat: I do not think Japanese woodblock prints are generally thought of as folk art, though I think generally in America and possibly Europe as well, there isn't that much knowledge about authorship/artist-ship of non-Western art).
After checking out the exhibits, we then went to the manga lounge, as sponsored by Viz. There were some drawing stations there, along with displays of anime/manga paraphernelia (I laughed, seeing several Naruto figurines in there that I owned), and a small recreation of an anime fan's bedroom. But more importantly, they had books about anime and manga and a good deal of manga in the room, just for people to read! And comfy chairs! Most of the manga was Viz's, as Viz sponsored the exhibit, but there was some from Vertical and I think Dark Horse, given the Tezuka exhibit. I sat down and read three volumes of Monster, along with siccing v. 1 of Yakitate! Japan on A.
I then spent obscene amounts of money in the gift shop. Um... I feel obligated to keep up with anime/manga scholarship? Oh hush.
I got:
- Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga, which was the catalog for the exhibit. It's small and pretty darn expensive for the page count, but it also has Tezuka on his own works, along with color pictures of the manga in the exhibit and several essayists on Tezuka.
- Shojo Manga! Girl Power!: Girls' Comics of Japan, which was the catalog for an exhibit from a couple of years ago on shoujo manga, which I am still bitter about missing. Never mind that it never even came close to me. Still! Essays inside on shoujo manga!
- Tezuka's Apollo's Song, having been intrigued by the exhibit
- Frederik Schodt's The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atin, and the Manga/Anime Revolution. Schodt has a new book out! I had no idea!
It doesn't look like that much, but they were expensive. I justify the two catalogs by saying that they will probably be near impossible to find elsewhere. On the other hand, I narrowly avoided getting vol. 1 of Buddha, vol. 1 of Adolf, Ode to Kirihito, Anne Allison's new book (Woe! Am so behind on Japanese pop culture scholarship!), vol. 1 of Phoenix, and vol. 1 of Black Jack.
On the way out, I realized that a lot of the Vertical Tezuka titles were flipped, which greatly puzzles me (takes more time and money and is not industry standard anymore! And To Terra is unflipped, and it's by the same company!). Does anyone happen to know why? Is it because Vertical is trying to push the Tezuka titles at a non-manga audience or something?
On our way out, we then got beignets, deep-fried artichokes, mushrooms and zucchinis, and barbequed meat on a stick (food on sticks makes everything better!).
Today, I went to the farmers' market to find that cherries are still going strong, the stone fruits are getting better and better, and that the heirlooms have started showing up, even though I got there too late to get any good ones. I got white peaches, things which are either green plums or pluots but are in any case tasty, white corn, raspberries, strawberries, two pounds of cherries, my usual enormous bag of peas ("What do you do with all of them?" my pea vendor asked, rather puzzled. "I eat them all?" I replied), an apple galette, gooseberries (!!), and two heirlooms, which are sadly still not that flavorful. But I had to get them anyway.
I also have buffalo mozarella, crusty olive bread and chevre from the supermarket, and I feel extremely content with my bounty.
As we got off the BART, little did we know (well, ok, A. knew) that this was the weekend for the LGBT pride parade, which meant... STREET FAIR!
It was huge! I didn't get to see most of it, as we didn't have that much time, but we all managed to find the fooding booths. We started off with funnel cake, deep fried and squiggly and covered with powdered sugar, absolutely delicious. It was the first time A. had had funnel cake ("Deep-fried dough with powdered sugar!" I said. "How can it be bad?"). Then we decided that we should probably eat lunch first before eating even more.
A. took us to a Vietnamese place in Little Saigon, in which I introduced A. and C. to the joys of roast squab, particularly roast squab with a crispy, glazed skin, oozing with juice and fat, laid on a small pile of carmelized onions and raisins. ("Better than duck!" said C. "I now think of pigeons in an entirely new light!" said A. "Squab!" yelled C. upon exiting and walking through a giant swarm of pigeons on the street.) We also had a tart and refreshing green papaya salad with little bits of beef jerky, along with stir-fried meat, bean sprouts, and other stuff wrapped in a thin, pancake-like substance, which was then wrapped with a lettuce leaf and eaten a little like a taco. Everything was extremely good, except possibly the pigeon claw, which A. discovered upon tasting was more decorative than actually edible, unlike chicken claws at dim sum.
We then went to get dessert at the fair, because they had.... DEEP-FRIED TWINKIES!
"OMG! Awesome! We must get some!" I exclaimed during our first pass through.
"Uhhh. Deep-fried what?" said A.
"I had some once. They were pretty good!" said C.
"OMG! Awesome! We must get some!" I said. "OMG! Beignets!"
"What's that?" asked C.
"More deep-fried dough! Awesome!" I explained.
"Look! Deep-fried artichoke hearts!" said A.
"Yay street food!" said C.
Unlike C.'s first experience with deep-fried twinkies, these were taken out of a cooler and dipped in batter ("OMG! Deep-fried batter!" I said), then dropped into the deep fryer. "I think I should pray before I eat this," A. said. The person at the stand then put the deep-fried twinkie ("On a STICK!" I said. "FOOD ON A STICK!"), added chocolate syrup, strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top, and then handed it over to us.
We goggled at the spectacle, and then began to eat.
C. thought that the deep-fried twinkies he had had before were better, as they had no sauce, and so were crispier. Also, he noted that the batter was a bit thick. I personally think that deep-fried twinkies are the newest most awesome thing ever, especially with the strawberry sauce to dip it in. The outside is crunchy and golden, and the inside is soft and cakey, and then there's the twinkie cream filling, which tastes really good with the strawberry sauce.
Also... it's a deep-fried twinkie! Where is the bad in that?
(Um, yes, I am still excited about it.)
I must go to a state fair some time so I can have more deep-fried twinkies and then try deep-fried cheesecake and deep-fried Snickers bars. Oh America and the foods of Americana, I love you so much!
After that, we all decided that beignets would probably kill us on the spot, so we would get some after walking around the Asian Art Museum for a bit.
I've only actually been to the museum once before, so I don't know how big the crowd was, comparatively, but it did seem like the Tezuka exhibit had drawn a lot of the younger crowd -- not just the twenty-somethings, but also kids and teenagers. There was a large statue of Astro Boy in the lobby.
The explanations in the placards all seemed to be pretty good, as far as I can tell; they explained the pictorial scroll tradition in Japanese art and Hokusai's coined term "manga" for his Edo/Meiji-era woodblock prints, but they also commented that modern manga really began with the imitation of European and American comic strips, and that the industry as we know it began with Japan. I didn't actually learn that much new stuff about manga as a whole from the exhibit, but I wasn't particularly expecting to either.
The exhibit had several enlarged pages from Tezuka's manga, but the really great part was that they had a lot of the original artwork and pages from the comics. I think the exhibit covered about twenty or so of Tezuka's works; the exhibit began with biographical information on Tezuka, and then each series had a brief plot summary and discussion of themes and artwork, which was nice. I had known that Tezuka was prolific, but I was still astounded by his range.
Also, it was so amazingly neat to be able to see the original pages! I think the ones from earlier on (50s and 60s) were done almost entirely with pen, ink and correction fluid; tones were used starting from around the 60s to later. You could see all his ink lines and the use of correction fluid to draw stars in a black sky, or just to correct himself. You could also see pencilled-in dialogue beneath the typed-out dialogue pasted to the page, or larger corrections that meant re-pasting in entire panels or sections of the page.
It was also fascinating watching Tezuka's style evolve, from the very 50s, Disney-esque style of his earlier days (boneless-looking bodies, round faces and eyes) to the more angular style of his later days (sharp chins and smaller eyes).
And while I knew that Tezuka tackled some pretty mature themes, it was still surprising to read some of the summaries of his series. MW in particular sounds like it comes straight from the brain of Yuki Kaori, as it is about the clone of one man, who unsurprisingly wants to kill him, love him, and completely fuck with his mind, as it is with the best of cracktastic manga (C. had to ask me why I was giggling so much at the description. "OMG! Yuki Kaori!" I said as I flailed incoherently.). I also now really want to read Ode to Kirihito, which is a medical thriller and a meditation on mankind; Human Metamorphosis, on a rather psychotic woman gaining power, even though the gender politics look horrific; Apollo's Song, which I swear has anthropomorphized sperm rushing to mate with a single egg and other scenes that look like they are straight out of End of Evangelion; and Princess Knight, the gender-bending, cross-dressing birth of shoujo manga.
I wish there had been more on Princess Knight and shoujo manga, but I can also understand why there wasn't, it being one of Tezuka's earlier, possibly less complex works. On the other hand, I learned that Tezuka grew up around the Takarazuka Revue, which I might have known before but had completely forgotten. I was also extremely amused but not at all surprised at how much gender-bending and cross-dressing and clones and other cracktastic elements there were in Tezuka's works -- the robot in Metropolis changes sex at the literal flip of a switch! Why was this not included in the anime adaptation? I feel cheated.
I also loved Tezuka's imagery, despite being a little put off at first by the older art style. Bomba! had an image of a dead woman slowly dissolving into water, then a shot of the main character's tear-stained face; Black Jack had some very anatomically-detailed and graphic images; Ode to Kirihito had some extremely disturbing, abstract looks at mental anguish, including a wordless page with a man's head, slowly disappearing and leaving only his glasses, and then a kitchen knife splitting the glasses apart.
It was also interesting looking at just how cinematic the panelling was; I had known that, but I was still surprised. The close ups, the sense of the camera drawing closer on a subject or receding to give emotional space, the intercutting between two different, but interrelated scenes... all of that was there even from the very early works. On the other hand, Tezuka's panelling remained largely boxy and rectangular. Some figures would break through the panels, and Princess Knight had more examples of shoujo panelling, including a composition of Prince/ss Sapphire figure dominating the entire page, with several panels behind her, which I've seen in so much shoujo. The later works had more irregular panelling, but by and large, they remained rectangular, with the occasional break into full-page or half-page spreads, or unrectangular but still geometric panel breakdowns.
Also, several of the later works included "bed scenes," at least one of which was homosexual (MW).
We then went to check out the Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales: Woodblock Prints from Edo to Meiji exhibit. The placards briefly tied the Yoshitoshi exhibit in with the Tezuka one by talking about Japanese pop culture and sequential art, though thankfully, it was again nice to note that they were just drawing a connection as opposed to saying, "Look! Manga existed even back then!"
I have less to say about the woodblock prints because I know a lot less; most of the ones the exhibitors chose were usually taken from scenes from Japanese folklore and Chinese literature, which a few of geisha, famous kabuki actors of the time, and other miscellaneous things. No shunga, for anyone wondering. It was again interesting to watch Yoshitoshi's style evolve, especially since his work spanned two historical periods. The exhibit also helped a lot with this; the exhibitors had chosen prints that returned to the same scenes or characters or stories from different stages of Yoshitoshi's development.
It was also neat watching Yoshitoshi's style go from the more abstract to the more realisitic, particularly in terms of face shapes; I preferred the later, more realistic style, but that is probably because I am accustomed to the more realistic styles in Western art. I also liked being able to look at woodblock prints from the perspective of one creator, particularly after reading a little more about authorship and "folk" art (caveat: I do not think Japanese woodblock prints are generally thought of as folk art, though I think generally in America and possibly Europe as well, there isn't that much knowledge about authorship/artist-ship of non-Western art).
After checking out the exhibits, we then went to the manga lounge, as sponsored by Viz. There were some drawing stations there, along with displays of anime/manga paraphernelia (I laughed, seeing several Naruto figurines in there that I owned), and a small recreation of an anime fan's bedroom. But more importantly, they had books about anime and manga and a good deal of manga in the room, just for people to read! And comfy chairs! Most of the manga was Viz's, as Viz sponsored the exhibit, but there was some from Vertical and I think Dark Horse, given the Tezuka exhibit. I sat down and read three volumes of Monster, along with siccing v. 1 of Yakitate! Japan on A.
I then spent obscene amounts of money in the gift shop. Um... I feel obligated to keep up with anime/manga scholarship? Oh hush.
I got:
- Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga, which was the catalog for the exhibit. It's small and pretty darn expensive for the page count, but it also has Tezuka on his own works, along with color pictures of the manga in the exhibit and several essayists on Tezuka.
- Shojo Manga! Girl Power!: Girls' Comics of Japan, which was the catalog for an exhibit from a couple of years ago on shoujo manga, which I am still bitter about missing. Never mind that it never even came close to me. Still! Essays inside on shoujo manga!
- Tezuka's Apollo's Song, having been intrigued by the exhibit
- Frederik Schodt's The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atin, and the Manga/Anime Revolution. Schodt has a new book out! I had no idea!
It doesn't look like that much, but they were expensive. I justify the two catalogs by saying that they will probably be near impossible to find elsewhere. On the other hand, I narrowly avoided getting vol. 1 of Buddha, vol. 1 of Adolf, Ode to Kirihito, Anne Allison's new book (Woe! Am so behind on Japanese pop culture scholarship!), vol. 1 of Phoenix, and vol. 1 of Black Jack.
On the way out, I realized that a lot of the Vertical Tezuka titles were flipped, which greatly puzzles me (takes more time and money and is not industry standard anymore! And To Terra is unflipped, and it's by the same company!). Does anyone happen to know why? Is it because Vertical is trying to push the Tezuka titles at a non-manga audience or something?
On our way out, we then got beignets, deep-fried artichokes, mushrooms and zucchinis, and barbequed meat on a stick (food on sticks makes everything better!).
Today, I went to the farmers' market to find that cherries are still going strong, the stone fruits are getting better and better, and that the heirlooms have started showing up, even though I got there too late to get any good ones. I got white peaches, things which are either green plums or pluots but are in any case tasty, white corn, raspberries, strawberries, two pounds of cherries, my usual enormous bag of peas ("What do you do with all of them?" my pea vendor asked, rather puzzled. "I eat them all?" I replied), an apple galette, gooseberries (!!), and two heirlooms, which are sadly still not that flavorful. But I had to get them anyway.
I also have buffalo mozarella, crusty olive bread and chevre from the supermarket, and I feel extremely content with my bounty.
(no subject)
Sun, Jun. 24th, 2007 11:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 03:29 am (UTC)Someone had actually scanlated nearly all of Princess Knight (along with a bunch of other Tezuka manga) at one point, but they got a C&D and took it down. It wasn't downloadable - there was a special viewer on the site and and whatnot to make it hard for people to copy the images - so I don't think there are any torrents or anything. I'm still slightly angsty about that, even though I've got my nice French edition and everything.
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:07 pm (UTC)I (evilly laughs) actually have all four volumes, only in Chinese... so I have to sit down and just slooowly make my way through it some day.
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 04:54 am (UTC)Deep-fried artichokes?! I fear them.
Mmm, gooseberries. I should grow gooseberries.
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:14 pm (UTC)Well, deep-fried artichoke hearts, which is much easier to eat than an entire artichoke ;). They were really good!
oh and
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 04:57 am (UTC)Re: oh and
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:17 pm (UTC)But yeah, the squashed peas would be sad, as they would then be less edible (still edible, but not as crunchy).
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 04:59 am (UTC)The books sound really amazing. Off to browse the Museum store online now!
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 09:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 04:49 pm (UTC)[sighs in longing]
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 05:16 pm (UTC)I think I may try and go back next month too...
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 07:26 pm (UTC)Mmm, farmer's market stuff too.
(no subject)
Mon, Jun. 25th, 2007 09:29 pm (UTC)