Free candy for Kim Jong-un's birthday, January 8.

Conflict Kitchen will be handing out free candy tomorrow, January 8, for Kim Jong-un's birthday.

On Wednesday we will be handing out the same free candy that Kim Jong-Un is giving (in an insidious annual practice) to children throughout North Korea to celebrate his birthday.

Text as it appears on the candy insert:

세상에 부럼없어라
“NOTHING IN THE WORLD TO ENVY”

More at the Conflict Kitchen blog post. Conflict Kitchen is located in Oakland (map) and is "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict".

Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) at Dormont's Hollywood Theater, January 10 and 11.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) on January 10 and 11, and will be the only theater in the state with the movie on its North American premiere. Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo is the third installment of the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, of which the eponymous EvaWiki has lengthy summaries. Tickets are $10 and are available now online for both English-subtitled and English-dubbed shows:

- January 10, 7 pm (subtitled)
- January 10, 9 pm (dubbed)
- January 11, 7 pm (dubbed)
- January 11, 9 pm (subtitled)

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), south of Pittsburgh. And if you'd like to take the subway to the theater, it's a little more than a block southeast of Potomac Station.

Pittsburgh Tibetan Center Constructs Mandala for Peace, beginning January 12.

The Pittsburgh Tibetan Center

will construct a sand mandala for peace from Jan.12 to the 17th at Spinning Plate Gallery at 5720 Friendship Ave. The Center’s resident Lama, Ven. Khenpo Choephel, and visiting Lama Konchak Sonam will be creating the mandala each day from nine to five. The opening ceremony is at noon on Jan. 12. The mandala is believed to plant a seed of positive, compassionate energy in the mind of viewers and bring blessings of peace and compassion to the entire world by depositing the sand into a body of moving water on the last day.

The Three Rivers Dharma Center website adds:

During the days it will take to complete the mandala, the gallery will be open to visitors from 9 am to 5 pm. Dharma Center members will be on hand to answer questions, and interpretive posters will be on display. There will also be a variety of events throughout the week, introducing viewers to this highly refined and meaningful art form and other aspects of Tibetan culture and spirituality.

Additional events are listed on the flyer above and on the Three Rivers Dharma Center site.

Japanese for Beginners at Carnegie Library - Squirrel Hill, from January 15.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Squirrel Hill branch (map) will offer a free Japanese for Beginners class on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, starting January 15. Classes begin at 5:30 pm, and the library is accessible via city buses 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 64, and 74. Registration is required, and can be done so online.

This offering has been added to the "Learn" page, along with several other free Japanese, Chinese, and Korean classes in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library branches.

"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – Ten Things I Like About Osaka", January 23.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania is presenting this year's first installment of the MEPPI Japan Lecture Series, "Ten Things I Like About Osaka":

Dr. Charles Exley, Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature and Film, will introduce Osaka City and the specific sub-culture found there. His talk will illustrate how Osaka’s geography, dialect, literary history, food, and manzai/humor make the culture unforgettable.

The talk will be held at the Residence Inn in Cranberry (map) from 5:30 to 7:00. Registration is required and can be done online, and those interested are requested to do so by January 16.

Conflict Kitchen in the Korea Times.

Conflict Kitchen, located in Oakland (map) and "a restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict", is the subject of a lengthy profile in the Korea Times.

In an interview with The Korea Times at a coffee shop in Hongdae, Seoul, Weleski explained why North Korea was an obvious choice for Conflict Kitchen.

“Our only interest is for people to create a space for them to be curious and to develop their own opinions,” she said.

“Initially, the restaurant was conceived to be a North Korean and South Korean restaurant. We wanted to talk about the conflict between the two nations and also the relationship that the U.S. has with the conflict between the two nations ... (To prepare for the project), we shopped in the market with North Korean defectors and cooked with them.”

Earlier in the month Conflict Kitchen was profiled in the Korean-language 서울신문 (Seoul Shinmun). The restaurant is closed through January 5th.

In September there was a bit of a controversy ahead of the Rubber Duck's visit, when the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust stopped a local museum from profiting off t-shirts depicting the generic bath toy. That, um, flap was relatively minor compared to the hullabaloo in Keelung, Taiwan, where the Rubber Duck has caused a "commercial circus":

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman was upset about the arrangement for his Rubber Duck installation on display in Keelung and criticized the organizers for turning it into a “commercial circus,” local media reported yesterday, citing a letter written by the artist.

A day earlier, Hofman canceled his trip to inaugurate the duck display in the northern city, expressing disappointment over how the sculpture is being portrayed in Taiwan.

Almost got it. Helly Kitty tree at Kranyak's in Hermitage, PA (map).

Troy Hill house inspired by Naoshima's Art House Project.

Wallpaper.com recently looked at La Hütte Royal (The Royal Hut) at 1812 Rialto St. (map) in Pittsburgh's Troy Hill neighborhood.

German artist Thorsten Brinkmann has transformed a dilapidated, abandoned family home – and a particularly unattractive take on the suburban vernacular style at that – in the Troy Hill area of Pittsburgh into a (still slightly dilapidated) permanent art work.

The house, built in 1912, was bought from the city by local art collector Evan Mirapaul in 2011. Inspired by the Art House Project on Naoshimi Island in Japan, where artists have had their creative way with abandoned houses, Mirapaul invited Hamburg-based Brinkmann to come and see the house and think about what he might do with it. Multiple long-hauls later and every room in the three-storey (four storeys if you include the basement where Brinkmann has installed a boxing ring) has been wildly re-imagined.

Visits to La Hütte Royal are arranged by appointment only; email lahuetteroyal@gmail.com. for more information.

Former Pirates pitcher Masumi Kuwata on Japanese Hall of Fame ballot.

Via Kyodo Photo.

On November 30 the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame announced its ballot for the Class of 2014, and former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Masumi Kuwata (桑田真澄) made the list. Kuwata, the first Japanese player in Pirates history, pitched briefly for Pittsburgh in 2007 as a 39-year-old rookie. He accumulated 173 wins in Japan, 106 of which came before an elbow injury in 1995. Results of the Hall of Fame voting will be announced on January 17.