Sanrio Small Gift launch party kicks off 10 days of fun in Los Angeles

I don't have a Boing Boing business card, but I smooth talked my way to the front of the interminable line to get into Sanrio's Small Gift launch party last night, held in a hangar at Santa Monica Airport. Set up like a carnival, there were games, a miniature golf course, a ferris wheel, and lots of food -- I was treated to Pink's hot dogs, Beard Papa's cream puffs, frozen yogurt, and enough Sanrio adorableness to shut down my pancreas.

If you missed the Small Gifts party, there's still plenty of activities in store.

For example, our friends at Flux have created some fantastic workshops with Crowded Teeth, Gary Baseman, Naoshi, and others that will be featured this weekend and next. You can read about the workshops and purchase tickets here.

Small Gift LA will be in Santa Monica from Nov 12-21.

Photo by Brandon Shigeta. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Many people came dressed as their favorite Sanrio character.

More photos after the jump!

Photo of Erik Estrada by Brandon Shigeta. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

A well-preserved Erik Estrada dazzled his fellow party guests with an illuminated Superman shirt!

Photo of Audrey Kawasaki by Brandon Shigeta. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Boing Boing favorite artist Audrey Kawasaki had a painting in the show.

Here's Audrey's painting. It is $7,000.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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dr

Is there a backstory to the painting of the Hello Kitty that has been plucked and broiled?
Anonymous

Kawaii!
BakaBozu

Aloha, love the pix even though I’m not really a Sanrio fan, but how can you not imagine yourself driving around in a little pink Hello Kitty car?

I hope that I am not being inappropriate here but why didn’t former SG Twinkie get a shout for wearing that cute kerokerokeroppi dress which was probably handmade by her. Audrey Kawasaki, sure great artist. Erik Estrada, Ok. But Twinkie is also a celeb, in some circles.
treacle

Stefan Jones: I love you! I have been looking for that bit of text for several years now… yes, from the days of Usenet. I think it’s saved on my old Apple Duo laptop, if I could only find that now… Thank you for posting!
Anonymous

Yeah, Twinkie Chan should get a shout out.
http://www.twinkiechan.com/ fine knitted food stuffs.
irregardlessly

Totally agree on Twinkie-chan! Her scarves and stuff are amazing!
desiredusername

Hey Twinkie! It’s me publicAnemone! I don’t know if you remember me from J&J!
Cynical

No Swarovski Crystal Hello Kitty?

http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/super_hello_kitty_swarovski.png

3 Inches tall, one off limited edition and 15,750,000 yen (118,346GBP/190,851USD) What Hello Kitty collection is complete without one?
- catgrin
  
  They had them there in a separate display case.
penguinchris

There’s some nice art here. I’m glad Sanrio embraces people who use their characters either directly or as inspiration, even for profit – that painting doesn’t have any Sanrio stuff in it but I presume if that one is for sale ($7000?!) that at least some of the others were as well?

Personally, I love the cuteness that pervades in Asian cultures. Japan is particularly notable for this of course, but other Asian countries are similar (though Japanese stuff has the biggest influence even in other Asian countries).

There are the Sanrio shops in various places around the US, but they don’t compare to girlish shops in Asia (I only have experience in Thailand myself) – cuteness overload prevails. If I were a girl, I would not have been able to restrain myself and would have bought tons of stuff ;)
- turn_self_off
  
  i wonder if this is a result of a different female gender role in japan.
  
  europe had its gender roles rocked by this:
  https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/A_Doll%27s_House
  
  While in japan it would almost appear as if it is the “alpha male” that have declined. That is, if this rambling makes sense at all.
orselli

You don’t have a Boing Boing business card?!??!
Stefan Jones

I found this on a USENET group many years ago:

From: FROGMORE
Subject: alt.religion.hello-kitty
Date: Wed Sep 07 23:03:14 CDT 1994
Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
Lines: 83

My mystical experience with Hello Kitty & friends (excerpt)

How can I explain the depth of my Sanrio religious revelations? How could I hope to explain how much it means to me? It must be experienced through endless study, mediation, and shopping.
I could talk for days about my quest for enlightenment, and my spiritual guide, Tuxedo Sam. Tuxedo Sam accompanied me on all my pilgrimages, saying he wanted to help.
I could tell you of how I found Kerokerokeroppi seated in divine serenity on his lily pad, his huge eyes seeing all, as he compelled us toward Nirvana simply by living Ribbit.
I could tell you how I cried when the nails went through Zashikibuta’s hands, and how I rejoiced when he rose 3 days later.
Of course I will never forget how My Melody appeared before me and miraculously filed my cloak with flowers; the shrine I built to house her image draws streams of pilgrims to this day.
All of this, however, is almost commonplace compared to the time I found HELLO KITTY herself. I can not explain the experience, I can only tell you what I remember of it.
It took 40 days for Tuxedo Sam and I to cross the great burning desert. I was half crazy with thirst, but Tuxedo Sam was eternally cool. At last we reached the Great Palace, a riot of red and grey stone intricately carved 20,000 years ago, the spires reaching to the sky.
I hesitantly knocked on the 5 story high mahogany door. A voice inside droned, “Who seeks entrance?”
“A humble pilgrim”, I said.
“And Tuxedo Sam”, added the spiffy one.
A thunderclap struck. I was suddenly whisked a great distance… I couldn’t tell if it was up or down. As soon as my eyes could focus, I found myself next to Tuxedo Sam in an enormous domed room surrounded by great towering round columns, all of black marble.
In front of me was a sight that made every follicle of my hair stand on end, a sight simultaneously by far the most beautiful and the most repulsive I had ever seen. There, on a giant golden throne, was HELLO KITTY herself!! Despite the chill air of the marble hall, I broke into an uncontrollable sweat as I fell to my knees and bowed down. I was unable to take my eyes off her. HELLO KITTY looked different here in her throne room than the images of her I had seen before.
She was huge. Her red hair ribbon had been replaced with a bejeweled crown. Her great mouthless head seemed larger, rounder, and more brilliant than the sun. HELLO KITTY had an uncountable number of arms. The mitten-like paws of some held swords, others bowls of blood, others fistfuls of dollars, yen, pesos, and deutchemarks. I could not count the number of rapidly writhing short stubby arms which seemed to exist in many more than 3 dimensions. HELLO KITTY wore a necklace of sculls of humans, animals, and Disney characters. Something in the pit of my stomach told me that one of those skulls was my own. Other than this gory jewelry, HELLO KITTY wore nothing from neck to waist, and the sight of her 3 pair of impossibly full round feline teats would have immediately impelled me to rush forward to grab and suckle had I not been paralyzed with fear. I had never felt so alive before… and yet at the same time, never so close to, so intimate with, death. As HELLO KITTY uncrossed and recrossed her shapely legs beneath her silk skirt I got a view that made Sharon Stone look like a man in comparison. I immediately went more rigid than I thought possible as I ejaculated blood.
“Hello, Hello Kitty”, said Tuxedo Sam.
A voice answered back, louder than a thousand rock concerts, with words which seemed to stretch from pole to pole, from the lowest hell to the highest heaven: “I AM HELLO KITTY, DESTROYER OF WORLDS!”
“I love you, Hello Kitty!” I cried, as bowed repeatedly before the magnificent awesome presence. “I — I love you, Hello Kitty ! I love you, Hello Kitty!” Tears poured from my eyes, I trembled all over, and I longed for HELLO KITTY to kill me then and there, except that more than anything else I wanted to spend eternity bowing and repeating, “I love you, Hello Kitty! I love you, Hello Kitty!”
A small voice to my side added, “I love you, Hello Kitty.” Tuxedo Sam tipped his stylish hat, saying, “Goodbye, Hello Kitty”, as he coolly waddled over to a door under a red neon sign marked “EXIT”.
“Goo– Good bye, Hello Kitty!” I stammered as I rushed to follow the elementary penguin out the egress.
I don’t remember any of what happened for over a year after that. But I have never, not for a second, stopped thinking about HELLO KITTY since.
synthsis

Is this stuff for sale too? Because that painting of smiley toast is awesome.
Dr. Rek

what? no rela-kuma? he is definately my favorite sanrio character. He’s like an old zen monk, hiding in a bear costume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilakkuma
o wait, as wikipedia tells me, he is from San-X, a non sanrio related company with characters much more bizarro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San-X
- Dr. Rek
  
  ok, so many girls in japan told me that rela-kuma is an old guy in a bear suit, that doesn’t want to do anything but relax, which I have interpreted as a pinnacle of what a zen monk might do, wanting to cast off the robes and rigor of monk life and just chill in a shield of cuteness. This I can not confirm or deny with wikipedia or his official character page.
Anonymous

Who is the artist that created the picture with the strawberry hot air balloons with the clouds and sweets, etc?
- catgrin
  
  Brandi Milne – The original was long gone by the time I got to the I Heart Nerds party, but I managed to snag a limited print of it. Really great!
Anonymous

nevermind…it is Brandi Milne
Anonymous

here’s some artistic depictions of my secret love of hello kitty.

http://picasaweb.google.com/117100679249824909605/HelloKittyHomages?authkey=Gv1sRgCLGms43Xq-mLPQ&feat=directlink

i also found a little hello kitty plush toy on the sidewalk today on my way back home. i wish i could have went to this sooooo badly
skeletoncityrepeater

As an adult male I am partial to the myssterious Hangyodon.