Category Archives: Events

San Diego Comic-Con Day 0 and Day 1: John DiMaggio, Martian Girl, the Aquabats, Geek & Sundry, and more!

Day 0 – Wednesday

We headed to San Diego on Wednesday after work. After checking in at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter, we took the shuttle to the Town & Country to pick up our badges. By the time we got back downtown, we were feeling hungry and at the Meze Greek Fusion. It was amazing! So many tasty things to eat. We ordered a ton, and everything was great.

Day 1 – Thursday

We started the day with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature panel that included Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files) and Marie Lu (Legend). It was pretty interesting.

We also headed to the I Know That Voice: Insights from the Cutting Room Floor panel. I hadn’t heard of I Know That Voice, but it’s a documentary produced by John DiMaggio (voice of Bender, Finn, and a bunch of other cool characters). It was really awesome to hear them talk about voice acting. gem even got a high five from John DiMaggio!

We tried lining up for a panel about NASA, but we didn’t get into it. Buzz Aldrin was there! Too bad I didn’t get to see him. However, there were people dressed as knights battling outside, and gem met one.

Martian Girl

When we were done with SDCC for the day, we headed to the House of Blues for the Aquabats concert! The Aquabats have a song called Martian Girl about a green-skinned, blue-haired Martian. This woman was cosplaying as the Martian Girl, and she was nice enough to take a photo with me. She looked amazing!

I also posed with the Battle Tram of course! The Aquabats played with Koo Koo Kangaroo as part of their twentieth anniversary tour. It was a great show! I bought a 20th anniversary tour t-shirt too. Antonio escaped to the back when the Aquabats took to the stage and the shoving started. I stayed with gem for a while but then let the crowd push me around. I also joined the circle in the back to do some moshing.

There was a battle on stage too as usual.

I had to record it.

After the concert, we showered and then headed to the Geek & Sundry Lounge for drinks and dancing. Now I’m best friends with Wil Wheaton. (Or it might have been a cardboard cut-out. Who knows?)

Check out my other adventures!

Dinner, LA KISS, brunch, and more

This weekend I managed to get a decent amount of activities done. First, on Friday I got around to cleaning and shining my shoes. They look a lot better. Later that evening I went to gem’s to make dinner and watch a movie with her and Anela. We had some tasty curry and watched Don Jon. I’d seen it previously and really liked it, but gem and Anela hadn’t seen it.

On Saturday after yoga I went with Joe, Max, and Lenny to watch the final home game of LA KISS for the season. It was a really good game, and the last minute had a lot of action, but LA KISS lost.

I also had brunch with gem and Antonio after yoga on Sunday. I don’t see Antonio very often, so it’s nice to hang out with him (even if I’ll see him quite a bit over SDCC). We went to Haute Cakes, and I had too many hotcakes. It was a pretty good weekend.

Coup de Comedy 2014

Last week was Improv Revolution‘s Coup de Comedy Festival 2014. There were a ton of hilarious events. While not everything was my cup of tea, the majority was great fun, and some groups were simply amazing.

Wednesday, May 7

The festival began on Wednesday, May 7 with the Improv Revolution / Live Nude People joint show. As a long time LNP fan, this was actually the show about which I was most excited. I particularly like their dance party game in which everyone on stage dances until the music stops. At that point, everyone freezes, someone touches the persons they want to see stay, and then everyone clears. After a short scene, it repeats.

After the opening show was the Revolutionary Comedy Awards honors Tony Hale. While waiting in line, we were allowed to put questions on post-it notes for Tony Hale to answer. gem wrote a particularly funny one, but you’ll have to ask her what it said. The event itself opened with a stand-up act, Sky & Nancy Collins.

This was one of my favorite sets from the entire festival. Sky & Nancy Collins present themselves as a wealthy married couple from the gated community Rancho Pico de Gallo in Orange County. I suppose you have to understand some of the Orange County stereotypes, but luckily I do. “We’re married to each other. I guess that’s okay,” said Sky Collins. Mentioning right off the bat that they’re friends said they were funny, prompting them to try stand-up, they nonchalantly talk about their normal life in Orange County, with their disconnect from the non-wealthy making for many hilarious moments. Sky & Nancy Collins are actually Marc Evan Jackson and Carrie Clifford.

Tony Hale was funny even though he wasn’t performing. He discussed his life, both leading to his role as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development and after. He seemed very down-to-Earth and gave a lot of life advice. He specifically mentioned that a lot of people seem to be constantly looking ahead to their next gig or stage of life, and while it’s good to have goals, he reminded us to be happy in the present. “You have value exactly where you are now.”

Thursday, May 8

The second day started with Awesome Sketch Presentation with Adult Babies & Humble Bees, a sketch show with performers (mostly?) from iRev. After that came Red Door. I remember thinking Red Door was very funny, but now I can’t seem to remember specifics, which is too bad. Next up was Octavarius, an improv team traveling from the future to keep history on the correct path by performing improv.

Following that was The Resistance from ComedySportz. Wow. They were amazing. The Resistance improvises action / sci-fi / horror movies on stage. Rolling around on mats? Gunshots? Monsters? Torture? Fight scenes? Fight scenes with strobe lights? Heck yes, the Resistance had all of these things. It was, of course, funny as well, but I actually got into the story too.

The night ended with Sparks to Fire. They performed short stand-up sets followed by improv based on those sets.

Friday, May 9

Friday began with the ClownMa dell’Arte show. This was the second clown show I’d seen, and I guess I must really enjoy them. It was a hilarious show that included one clown eating the flowers from stems before trying to get her heart’s desire to eat the petals she spit from her mouth. I also essentially had a clown grind on me. No, it wasn’t one of the cute ones.

Later I saw another awesome ComedySportz show – U-Sical: The Improvised Musical About You! They listened to some audience members talk about interesting events in their lives, including the man who knocked himself out by riding a bike into a tree, the woman who got to feed a bear cub (oh man, I love bears), and Josh Nicols’ story of how he delivered a copier to a hospital and got attacked by patients. It’s probably no surprise that we got to see Josh’s story, because that did sound like the funniest one. U-Sical did a great job, and I’d love to see them again.

After U-Sical, we got to see Carrie Clifford (of Sky & Nancy Collins) again in a two-person improv show, Razowsky & Clifford. After that was Stand-Up on the Spot: The Improvised Stand Up Show with Jeremiah Watkins. It involved a variety of stand-up comedians performing sets on-the-fly based on audience suggestions. I didn’t find all of them funny, but some certainly were. The night ended with an Improv Jam. I watched, but I didn’t participate.

Saturday, May 10

I started the day watching some Spectacles Improv Engine – specifically Ghostlight and FlySpace. Both are some of my favorite teams, with FlySpace performing more traditional scenes and Ghostlight always performing hilariously spooky scenes. I really like Ghostlight, and it’s surprising how often I get into the stories they conceive.

Following Spectacles was the Epic Open Mic, in which people tried their hands at stand-up. I think they were all students or recent graduates.

Next was another highlight of the festival – Twilight Zone UnScripted by Impro Theatre. It really felt like I was watching a couple hours of Twilight Zone episodes! I was pretty blown away. For each “episode,” the group would take a simple suggestion from the audience on which to base their performance. I saw a man haunted by vivid war flashbacks, a long line of mayors put in place by aliens, a woman preyed upon by memories of a fire in her childhood and scared of s’mores, and more. Impro Theatre also performing in other styles as well. I’d particularly love to see one of their westerns!

There were two more shows. First, there was The 313, who were very funny. The festival ended with Delicious Moments, a two-man improv team. I don’t know if it was just for this show or if they always do it, but their gimmick was that they each performed multiple roles at the same time and would run back and forth between them. They’d even interrupt the show at times to recap who was on stage under the guise of reminding themselves (but also, most likely, for comedic effect). It was very interesting and amusing. I like it when improv comedians/teams have a gimmick that make them stand out a bit.

And that was the 2014 Coup de Comedy Festival! There were so many talented people performing. It was fun to see Tony Hale, and of course I already know iRev, LNP, and Spectacles. I would totally love to see Sky & Nancy Collins, The Resistance, ClownMa dell’Arte, U-Sical, or Impro Theatre again. Hopefully I’ll have that opportunity in the future!

Celebrate UCI / Wayzgoose 2014

Today was Wayzgoose! I always really enjoy returning to UCI for Wayzgoose. It might be more fun now that I’ve graduated because there’s a novelty to looking around. There are campus tours, booths for all the organizations, performances, a car show, and in past years a small medieval showing (although I didn’t see any this year). While not part of the festivities, there are usually a lot of dogs on campus, which is a plus to me.

One booth didn’t seem to be setup yet, but it did have a guy playing his ukulele! gem joined him, and they played together for a little bit, teaching each other.

I had some spam musubi, lumpia, and chicken kabobs, which were all delicious. I was going to get a shawarma from the Muslim Student Union like I do every year, but I wasn’t hungry enough today. We also checked out the cars at the car show. I like looking at the Model As the best.

The medical center had a giant inflatable colon. In this photo, gem is poop.

We also ran into some Improv Revolution members inside the colon and discussed improv. It was fun!

I’m ready to begin the operation! This reminds of me of Trauma Center: Under the Knife.

We walked back to our car by passing through the courtyard between Engineering Tower and the ICS building. gem took my photo in front of Engineering Tower.

And I took one too.

gem stopped to play ukulele near Engineering Gateway too.

I still think UCI’s a really beautiful school. I can’t help but think, “I’d like to go to school here,” even though I already did.

Clowning around

I’ve blended in with their culture successfully. Despite our physical differences, the clowns don’t seem to notice I’m not one of them.

Or maybe I just got pulled on stage at April-o-ween: A Spooky Clown Show.

It’s a good thing Collin was there to take photos of me!

Off Center Festival Party on the Plaza

Last night I went to the Party on the Plaza to kick off the Off Center Festival at the Segerstrom Center. Honestly, I’m not really sure what the Off Center Festival is, but the Party on the Plaza was free. There was a live band, La Santa Cecilia, that was entertaining along with three food trucks.

I shouldn’t have, but I ate at two of the food trucks. I had a pulled pork waffle sandwich from Waff-N-Roll and found it mediocre. Luckily, I went to Dogzilla for a Loco Moco hot dog that was simply amazing. It was a hot dog with spam, nori, gravy, a fried egg, and probably a few other minor ingredients I can’t recall – very delicious!

I don’t really know what the rest of the event is, but I had a good time chatting and eating food truck foods!

Reel Big Fish Don’t Stop Skankin’ Tour

Yesterday was the Reel Big Fish concert, which I enjoyed very much. The show opened with Ryland Steen, the Reel Big Fish’s drummer, performing his solo music with an acoustic guitar. He was good, and it was a great way to start a show.

The Maxies were next, and I didn’t really care for them. Their music was unpolished, but their attitude was the worst. They discussed at length how they were better than the other bands in the show. More annoying, their songs and banter were pretty vulgar. I just wasn’t feeling it.

Mighty Mongo was a nice change. They were a fun four-piece band, and the lead singer played the keytar. THE KEYTAR! Yeah, it was pretty cool. They had great energy and were a ton of fun.

The Pietasters were fantastic. Their horn section was especially awesome. I’m definitely going to look into their music more. They had a number of solos as well, which really helped to highlight the various instruments. I love it when a band has good horns.

Of course, the Reel Big Fish were a lot of fun. Up until about halfway through their set, I was using earplugs. Actually, I’m kind of ashamed of that, but I decided to try it. When they played Sell Out, I had to take out one. Anyways, they were a lot of fun!

Ska Luau IV!

Last night was the Ska Luau IV at the House of Blues! It was an awesome show, and I’ve learned about some new awesome bands.

The show began with Magnolia High School’s Polynesian Dance Troupe. I only took one photo, and it was pretty bad. Sorry! They had men and women, but they danced separately. They did dances from a variety of Polynesian cultures. Pretty interesting.

CodeName: Rocky was the first band to perform. I hadn’t heard their music previously but was very impressed. They had a great variety of instruments too. Sax? Of course. Trumpet and trombone? Yep. French horn?! Heck yeah!

Save the Swim Team described themselves as “the most screamo ska band,” and I suppose that was true. I liked the ska, but didn’t particularly like the screamo parts. However, they did mesh it pretty well, and I could understand why they’d have a lot of fans. This was actually their last show ever.

Suburban Legends was absolutely amazing. I’ve actually been listening to their music all day today now because I’m hooked. The lead singer was a lot of fun, but their guitarist was pretty charismatic too! Their brass section consisted of two trumpet players and a trombone player. The band also danced together with great choreography. I wasn’t expecting it, but it was so amazingly good.

Starpool came on the stage wearing tiki masks before starting the set and releasing the confetti that’s in the photo at the top of this post.

Besides throwing bags with chocolate penises into the crowd (some sort of joke from previous concerts I’d assume), they also threw these glowing sticks.

They played an amazing set full of a lot of songs that I loved. I sang along, danced, jumped, and was pretty tired at the end honestly.

And what concert would be complete without a band member crowd surfing in a giant ball? That was pretty cool. Starpool ended the show with their cover of Shout that I absolutely love. This might have been my favorite concert I’ve ever attended. If not, it would be the show with the Aquabats and Starpool, so I guess that’s good for Starpool anyways!

Hopefully Friday’s Reel Big Fish show at the same venue is as awesome.

Christmas time!

Christmas time is always great! I hadn’t really talked about it yet at all, so I’ll mention everything briefly in this post! Even though I was taking my family’s presents to my aunt’s house, I kept them under my tree. I like having a lot of wrapped gifts under the tree.

I went to two Christmas shows. The first was the Aquabats holiday show, which I talked about previously. They played with Emily’s Army and Kepi Ghouli; it was a great show.

After I posted some photos of the show on Instagram, user gogo13band liked some of my photos. The user’s description says they’re the “literal brother band” of the Aquabats. I looked into them, and it turns out that the lead singer of the Aquabats’ brother is the lead singer of a ska band called GOGO13. They played with the Vandals and Knock-Out at “The Vandals 18th Annual Christmas Formal.” It was a great show too! The Vandals played music from their album Oi to the World!

Alex and Darnell were in Brea at her parents’ house, so I came to visit too. Devin and Lorena gave me a bottle Beet that they infused themselves! It came with recipes for two mixed drinks. That photo is of a drink called The Beet Goes On, which was great!

Alex and Darnell gave me cranberry orange bread and homemade lemon curd. Wow, it was all so delicious! I put blueberries in the lemon curd a couple times, but it was so flavorful and tasty that I definitely ate a lot without anything extra!

gem gave me a Snuggie and The Geek’s Guide to Dating. While I haven’t read much of the book yet, it’s pretty interesting and funny too. gem knew I wanted a Snuggie and called a bunch of stores trying to find one. She could only find one store that had any in stock, and when she got there, she could only find a single Snuggie. She told me I could exchange it because of the print, but I definitely wanted to keep it. It’s very comfy 🙂

I spent Christmas Eve at my aunt’s house and Christmas day at my parents’. Here’s my cousin, Mitch, collecting all the gifts to him in one place so he could open them quickly.

I got all my cousins board games. I gave Apples to Apples, The Logo Board Game, and Munchkin Legends. On the subject of board games, I also bought Edward Arkham Horror. My brother got a video game from me instead – Super Mario 3D Land. I gave gem a Tokidoki x Sanrio clutch.

I also took gem to see Cirque du Soleil’s Totem. I talked about that yesterday, but it was excellent!

Edward gave me a new leather jacket! I was very surprised, and it’s pretty great. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a leather jacket.

On the subject of unexpected gifts, my brother got me a Harman/Kardon soundbar and subwoofer. I was pretty amazed. It’s connected to my TV, and I’m listening to it right now. When it put it on top of the TV stand in front of the TV, it blocked the IR receiver on the TV. I moved it to the shelf underneath, which looks a little odd but works. It’s a great sound system! Notice the bow on the present? My mom added that.

Duncan moved the bow to Sumo. He’s quite festive with it.

We tried to turn the box into a dog house, but Angel and Sumo really didn’t want to hang out in it. We’ve put their beds in it, hoping that would entice them to enter. Well, they’re not really going for it.

Anyways, that was my Christmas time! Yay!

Drinks, Cirque du Soleil, and Zenko

Friday and Saturday provided a great start to my weekend. I began Friday evening with a martini with the “Beet” that was infused and given as a gift to me by my friends. I did have to buy martini glasses and some other things, but it was worth it. Duncan was going to Dave & Buster’s for drinks with some friends, so I went with them. I definitely had a good time.

Saturday afternoon, gem and I saw Totem, a touring, Grand Chapiteau Cirque du Soleil show. It’s about the evolution of humanity.

Totem was an amazing show. There’s not much of a reason to explicitly recommend seeing it, because I’d always recommend all Cirque du Soleil shows. I particularly enjoyed the ring and trapeze artists. Their strength (and balance and coordination) is just amazing.

Before the show when some of the artists were interacting with the audience, one, who I’ll call the ringmaster although I’m not sure it’s accurate, was near us. Everytime the ringmaster looked our way, gem would wave enthusiastically. When he got closer and was a few rows from us, he almost walked away, but after gem waved again, he came over to us. He got really close to her until his nose touched her nose. After a few seconds he jerked back and booped her nose, attempting to put a clown nose on her. It didn’t stay, so he tried again, slower, and then told her she a small nose. She lifted her glasses, pushed the nose on, and then lower the glasses on it. During the show, every time the ringmaster came on stage, gem would whisper, “that’s my buddy!” And that’s how gem got her clown nose!

We went to Zenko Sushi for dinner. I finally took back my rightful mayorship of the restaurant on Foursquare from “B.”

The waitress missed my glass when refilling my water, getting my shirt pretty soaked as well as my pants and phone. Everything was okay; she was very apologetic, and I really didn’t mind too much. She gave me dessert for free – deep fried green tea ice cream! It was very delicious.

I somehow doubt Sunday can live up to Friday and Saturday.