Lost AT E Minor

Places / Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, Enids

August 8, 2008 | Places | by Marcos Chin |

Summertime at McCarren Park in Williamsburg is picturesque. It’s often filled with a mix of people, old and young, picnicking or sitting in the shade, running along the track or playing soccer (or football, depending on where you’re from). It’s also connected to a now defunct McCarren (swimming) pool which transforms into an outdoor concert space on Sundays during the summer. In the past, performers such as Leslie Feist, M.I.A., The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Broken Social Scene have performed. Read more

Places / Cheeks Bakery, Brooklyn

July 19, 2008 | Places | by Marcos Chin |

Disregard the buzz that surrounds those other cupcake shops in New York City. Cheeks Bakery in Williamsburg houses the best cupcakes that I’ve eaten. The clean and understated decor extends to the menu, where being fancy doesn’t rule on the cupcake shelves. Cheeks offers, simply, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with either vanilla or chocolate cream. But if you do want more, Cheeks has that as well, a limited selection of pies and cakes.

Art / Joshua Harris on his subway grates artwork

April 15, 2008 | Art | by Marcos Chin |

New York-based artist Joshua Harris makes movable sculptural artwork out of plastic bags, harnessing the air from subway grates to give them a sense of life. Read more

Products / Grandizer Go

October 18, 2007 | Products | by Marcos Chin |

Grandizer was one of the anime programs featured on Force Five, an animated series that consisted of different programs such as Star Avengers and Danguard Ace. This was during a time in my life when Robotech, Voltron, and Battle of the Planets ruled early morning cartoons. I would wake up hours before going to school to satiate my anime and cartoon indulgence. Recently, I came across this Grandizer doll on eBay, and I couldn’t resist placing a bid. I won. Grandizer Go! [watch the opening sequence to Grandizer]

Events / Feist live

October 12, 2007 | Events | by Marcos Chin |

My summer officially ended on August 29 this year when Feist came to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to perform at McCarren Pool. It was a perfect evening — the weather was fine, the sky was clear, everyone was in good spirits, and the music was easy. Read more

Fashion / Odin shoes

October 12, 2007 | Fashion | by Marcos Chin |

No, Dorothy would have never come across these shoes in Oz, but she would have at Odin, a smallish men’s store in New York’s East Village. Read more

Events / Super Phat, Super Fine

October 9, 2007 | Events | by Marcos Chin |

A few weeks back, I went to a show at the School of Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea, New York to see an exhibit called Super Phat. It was a multimedia art presentation featuring the work of over 40 of SVA’s Japanese alumni and alumni living in Japan. Among them were two large and gorgeous drawings by my friend and studio-mate, Yuko Shimizu. Her work never fails to astound me. Yuko’s pieces entitled The Wild Wild Chase and The Rodeo Drive transplants her striped swim-suited characters into a Western inspired realm where they are met by horned and furry hooved monsters. Magnificent. [read an interview with Yuko Shimizu and check out the posts she has written for Lost At E Minor]

Events / Chris Ofili

October 6, 2007 | Events | by Marcos Chin |

I finally managed to get out of the studio before 6pm the other night to check out Chris Ofili’s solo show opening at David Zwirner in Chelsea. I felt as though I fainted and awoke, dwarfed in some lush multi-coloured-jungle-wonderland. In the past, Ofili’s work, which was popularized in the mid-90s, included elephant dung as part of his working media. However, there was no presence of this material in any of the pieces on display at David Zwirner. His huge canvases were filled with luxurious and organic flat blocks of colour, creating a rich and velvety surface that made me want to step right into them. Read more