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Things got a little crazy with Giant Robot at The Japanese American National Museum last week. Between a raucous outburst by punk rockers The Binge, the usual array of bizarre surrealist paintings, transsexual action figures, homemade video games, and of course robots of all sizes, what began as a homemade magazine distributed to friends had officially exploded into a pop culture juggernaut. Eric Nakamura’s 15th GR anniversary featured some of the most inventive and original art by a variety of painters, plasterers, programmers, toymakers, and musicians.

Eric even presented a documentary of the museum show being put together, detailing the amount of effort each of the artists had put into their exhibits. My girl and I spent about 20 minutes just playing one of these homemade video games — nothing more than a series of paper cut-outs and pasted-together animated backgrounds that, despite its simple look, played and responded like an actual 2-player video game: punches, jump kicks, throwing objects Double Dragon style, all at the hit of a button and move of the joystick.

Along with The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Giant Robot made the museum one of those places that (thankfully) stood out among places like MOCA and The Getty and what often amounts to that air of plain pretentiousness. It’s fun, the art is just as amazing, and featuring more interactive exhibits make it more of a memorable experience. There was food, rock n’ roll, a real history behind it all that Eric and his friends really took the time to make for the patrons, and some larger-than-life art that had people flocking to and discussing. The only thing missing was booze — but I’ll take local creative genius, loud music, and homemade video games over the same old cold, 2-paintings-a room, uber-post-modern thing any day. Finally, an exhibit for the anti-exhibit.

Words by Jeff Nau