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.