well i haven't been to downtown sb in a while. throw in a few drinks, my amazing sense of direction, michelle's amazing sense of direction, and some distracting (but good) conversation, and this is what happens. our path back to our cars is orange. sheesh.

ben gave me his "ghost" painting as a gift, and it means a lot to me. when i saw the piece before the power in numbers show, it resonated with me strongly. the image is personally significant, and the title captures the exact connotations i hold with it. i am indebted to you ben, thanks.

after picking up kean from LAX in the morning, we fueled up with a quick in 'n out stop and drove onto the freeway only to park there and somehow, by the power of the earth's rotation, arrive in san diego about 5 hours later. the traffic was worth it, because after dropping kean off at comicon jamie and i headed to soma to see muse, and muse was amazing. it was one of the best concerts i've ever been to... i thought the venue was great, muse was excellent live, the crowd was super-energetic but considerate, and the sound was crispy. a lot of sweat (and a lot more to follow), a lot of singing, good times.

after showering and passing out, we woke up the next morning to head out to comicon and were greeted with the longest line of all time, planted directly under the high-noon sun. more sweating ensued as we waited for over 2 hours just to get to the doors of the convention. while grumbling a little about the crazy prices of tickets (and higher prices for the following year), a member of the staff came out and told us that they couldn't let any more people in, and we would have to wait at least 3 more hours before entering. everyone had already lost a few pounds from non-stop sweating, so at this point we were ready to abandon the convention altogether, but i made a few quick phone calls and a buddy got us in (should have called him earlier). yeah that's right, i have connections at nerd conventions.

the 'con was fun after we got some food and met up with ali. i came back empty handed (it's hard to really get into stuff in that kind of atmosphere... same feeling i had at E3), but jamie returned with a signed copy of bizaro and a mike mignola print. i was hoping to pick up phoenix wright at the capcom booth, but they were sold out. our friends at the flight and nucleus booths looked tired and energetic at the same time. their booths were crowded, with people getting stuff signed and purchasing books, prints and shirts nonstop. it was cool to see them so busy, as it seemed to be once again one of the hits of the show. and jeff smith was signing bone books at the flight table!

after sweating some more (it apparently was the hottest day ever recorded in the san diego area), it was time to shower and sleep again. the next morning we met up with danny and tanya at morley field for some disc golf action. i sucked it up real good. lots of discs flying, gatorade drinking, sweating, and laughing.

the rest of the day is kind of a blur... pizza parlor... pool table... loading up a piano into a uhaul... caravan of friends up the freeway... hands in the wind outside the car windows... more insane traffic... more sweat... unloading a piano into the joust kidding... passing out.

craig mullins has been one of my favorite concept artists / digital painters since i was rewarded with his amazing chapter screens from bungie's early game, the marathon trilogy. when i found out he was giving a talk at art center, i jumped at the opportunity to attend. we got there about an hour early, which was a good thing because the auditorium was super packed and we were almost the last to get some seats. the discussion and q&a itself was really cool, and it was most pleasing to me to simply confirm that he was just a down-to-earth fella with a good head on his shoulders, who didn't take art rules too seriously. though his knowledge and technique is broad and precise, he just paints things that are cool, and that's pretty much the basis.

i've been waiting almost a fifth of my life for pink floyd's pulse (one of the most amazing concerts ever recorded) to be released on dvd, and i finally got it in the mail a few days ago. i've had it on vhs for a long time and have been looking forward to a version with improved picture quality and sound. the dvd is pretty sweet; it definitely delivers in the sound department, remixed in 5.1 and crispy clean. the video is OK, but there wasn't too much they could do since the original wasn't shot on film. all in all, it's still amazing and i'm absorbed at the moment.

last night we saw the beach boys perform at alhambra's summer jubilee festival. it was pretty weird. they sounded good, especially for their age (and still pre-pubescent, somehow), but i guess it was kinda boring. john stamos was playing with them, which was also weird, and also kinda boring.

earlier in the afternoon, we went to the IMAX theater at the california science center to watch deep sea 3d which was awesome! the 3d glassed (not the red/blue kind) worked great and it was so immersive at times. the music was great (danny elfman) and the narration was good too (johnny depp and kate winslet). the ocean is truly incredible and the variety of life is fascinating... it is truly a local, alien world. it kinda made me miss my salt-water aquarium days... maybe i'll get back into that in the fufture. :)

today was a blast. we headed over to ben's (super cool) pad for some great food, hours and hours of swimming, some friendly ds lite competition, and (more!) piñata smashing. great friends, hot sun, crazy pool (complete with rock slide and waterfall), lots of fruit and water balloons being thrown about, breathing underwater with buckets, boba, and burned skin.

after some frisbee & swimming at dockweiler beach and watching the UFC match at big jovy's pad, we went to nucleus to catch the tail-end of the flight 3 gallery show. everyone was in such high spirits and the turnout was huge. it was also cool to put a face to some of the artists whos work i've come to admire (like reagan). the show was followed by a large trip to baccali for some food and desserts.

hi blog! it's been a while. here's what's been going on:

kotori 007 is back from the printers and in stores! it came out amazing, a rock-solid issue. production is already underway on the next issue, so grab this one while it's hot. or something like that. a new blogified continously streaming kotori website is coming soon...

the power in numbers show at the nucleus was cool, and overwhelming. so many (little) pieces to look at. i wish i had more time but i was a little rushed running back and forth between the nucleus and the diner. come to think of it, that whole night was a blurry rush.

i picked up a ds lite and a few games over the last couple weeks and it's amazing. it's just great fun; a cool little device that does everything with style. the games are reminiscent of snes-era games, which is nice to relax since they aren't obsessed with over-the-top visuals, but rather focus on gameplay. ok, enough nerd-dom. well, i guess that's not possible.

the jenn & jenn barbeque/piñata party was a blast, everyone had a great time. and busting up the piñatas was liberating. near the end of the night, some weird totoro-style winds passed through the area. it was odd... fierce wind and sprinkling for a couple minutes and then silence. i'll try and post up some photos soon.

went to a bonfire at huntington beach to meet up with khang & tran. the beach looked like some middle east oil fields on fire... so many plumes rising up. good smores and nectarines and conversations.

for the fourth, jamie, becka and i hiked up the mountains to watch the rose bowl fireworks show. it was nice and calm up there, and we could see dozens of other fireworks shows all around LA. it reminded me of aliens landing. too bad they weren't.


jamie and i snagged some muse tickets for their san diego show. it's all part of the weekend-o-fun coming up. muse on friday night, comicon on saturday, and some disc golf at morley field on sunday. to top it off, we'll be returning home with an upright piano. sweet!

there's a lot of cool papercraft around the web, and i'm slowly getting into it. i'll post up some photos when i complete some figures.