Because Alex and Darnell are back visiting in California, we went wine tasting in Temecula over the weekend. Here we’re at Leonesse Cellars, the first stop on our tour. We had a pretty full van – Alex, Darnell, Alex’s parents Hal and Mary Margaret, Darnell’s parents Devin and Lorena, Mike, gem, Gracie, our sober driver John, and myself.
We got to try the grapes that were destined to become wine. They were tasty this way too but different than the grapes you’d buy in a grocery store to eat.
Our guide took some time to explain the process itself and showed us the large tanks.
Then we went inside for the actual tastings. I didn’t know anything really about wine, but our host spoke for a few minutes on each wine. It was a lot of fun.
The Wilson Creek Winery was much more laid back. They also had a port served in a glass made of chocolate. It was interesting!
We picked up a pizza to eat in the van on our way to the next winery. The Maruice Car’rie Winery had terrible service. Luckily it was photogenic!
By the time we reached the Black Market Brewery, I had had enough to drink. I talked games with John before heading outside to chat with Mary Margaret.
We had dinner at Public House, a pub with fun, live music. The plan was to eat appetizers and have drinks, but a few of us wanted real food. Hal got us a table at the restaurant so he, Mary Margaret, Alex, Mike, gem, and me had a nice dinner. I had some tasty chicken stuffed with peppers.
In the evening, Mike, Alex, gem, and I had fun conversation in which we decided the van was its own nation, Vanica. It very quickly evolved into a corrupt state with a religious figure, John, used to keep the front passengers in line. Art imitates reality.
A post like this doesn’t really do the trip justice. What was great was talking with friends. I miss Alex and Darnell, and it was wonderful to see them again. They have good taste in friends, so seeing our mutual friends is also fun, and they both have amazing families too.
I had a blast!
Edit: I forgot to add that those meanies made me dance at the Public House. Oh well. It wasn’t so bad!
A couple weeks ago, gem and I went to the OC Fair. It was a lot of fun as usual!
First, we ate. We started with BBQ’d mushrooms, bacon and cheese, which were delicious. Of course, I had to have some fried Oreos. This time we tried a new dessert – fried jalepeno and Baby Ruth served on a bed of churros. It was okay, but to be honest, the flavors didn’t blend all that well. The churros were delicious though!
I really liked the look of the photo booth. The fact that it was colorful, mentioned colors, and was a photo booth seemed begging to be photographed and made more intense. I should start taking photos of more photo booths!
Of course, we also listened to some live music and looked at the photography. I always enjoy the photography.
We ended our visit with the animals. There were a lot of cool animals we saw and pet, but the coolest might have been this llama that posed with gem!
Last night was the “Christian Dasilva has a posse” benefit show. The Aquabats’ former tour manager, Christian Dasilva, passed away recently, and all proceeds from the show went to his family. While the Aquabats posted about it n the Super Show Facebook page, I probably wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for a bit of a coincidence. On Friday, Toshiba had two food trucks at its Chili Cook-off. For the first time ever, I wore a t-shirt to work because I knew it was going to be hot and we were outside. It happened to be an Aquabats t-shirt, and the guy working the Longboard Ice Cream truck knew the Aquabats. Not only was he a friend of the band, he was a former roadie and has been in the Aquabats! Super Show! He told me about the show.
Shortly after we arrived at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, we saw the Battle Tram pull into the parking lot! It’s a bit smaller than it is in the show…
That didn’t stop gem and me from posing with it though! How awesome is that?
First up was a grunge band from San Diego called The Makeup Sex. I hadn’t heard of them before, and they weren’t mentioned on any of the announcements about the show, so I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily they were pretty entertaining. Strangely, the OC Register’s slideshow featured a handful of photos of the singer and drummer, both, well, fat, sweaty guys (photo 18, for example), yet only included one picture of the attractive bass player (photo 19).
Scotty Professional took the stage while Starpool set up, performing an acoustic version of the Aquabat’s Martian Girl. I really enjoyed it. While I’m not familiar with him, nor had I been to the Chain Reaction before, I could tell that he really cared about Christian Dasilva. I’m glad I recorded his performance; I’ve already ripped the audio so I could listen to the song.
Next up was Starpool. I hadn’t heard of them before I looked them up in preparation of this show. As it turns out, Starpool consists of the former members of Save Ferris and one former member of No Doubt. They were incredibly awesome! Their music was sweet, wonderful ska, and their stage presence was superb. The singer definitely took control of the stage. I especially enjoyed their rendition of “Shout” with the singer jumping into the audience and leading us as we crouched low to the ground, a little bit softer now. More bands need sax, trumpet, and trombone!
I later sent Starpool a Facebook message, letting them know how much I enjoyed the show. I also had to let them know that I bought their album and EP after the show. Great stuff!
Then it was time for the Aquabats to take the stage! In this picture, you can see the M.C. Bat Commander on the left, Eagle “Bones” Falconhawk on guitar next to him further back, Crash McLarson next on bass, and, on the very edge, Ricky Fitness on drums. I don’t think I got any good pictures of Ricky Fitness or Bones really. Oh well.
Can you tell the Commander and Crash are good buddies? It sure looks like it to me! Of course, Crash is also gem’s big friend. He said yes at Comic-Con, you know.
Finally, here’s Jimmy the Robot, who plays the keyboard and sax, in front his keyboard. To his left is Crash. Jimmy grabbed by hand twice in the show! Swoon! The M.C. Bat Commander did once as well! Okay, I’ve seen them before and shaken all their hands, but it’s still fun!
When the show ended, the audience chanted “Where was the Captain,” and the Aquabats came back out to play Captain Hampton. Sadly, this took the place of Fashion Zombies and Burger Rain, which were written on the setlist. I really wanted to hear Burger Rain too!
When they played Pool Party, they threw pool toys in the audience like they’ve done previously. They also called all the young kids onto the stage. The Commander told them that the concession area in the back was the candy zone, and that they’d get free candy if they went over. He said that if the Chain Reaction didn’t want to pay for it, the Aquabats would. And how would the kids get there? Well, the Commander would throw them into the audience to crowd-surf to the back of course! They were all adorable. One very young boy, Jacob, even had a little mustache drawn on his lip like the M.C. Bat Commander!
It was a terrific show, and I had so much fun. I was pretty much soaking wet when I got home, and most of it was likely not my sweat. Those Aquabats fans with rashguards get pretty sweaty. I finally made it to sleep by 1:30, and I can definitely say I was sleepy today! Christian Dasilva’s Benefit Show Featuring Starpool and The Aquabats! – Chain Reaction – 7/23/12, Priscella Vega, Heard Mentality, OC Weekly Blogs The Aquabats perform at the Christian Dasilva Benefit Concert at Chain Reaction in Anaheim on Monday, OrangeCounty.com
How could I be done talking about Comic-Con when I hadn’t actually talked about comics yet? A friend of mine that I met working at Barnes & Noble, Kyle, introduced me to Daredevil, the man without fear! He let me borrow a few different trade paperback collections starting with the one pictured above.
I had to own these for myself, and I had to own more too! I ended up purchasing Daredevil Visionaries: Frank MIller volume 2 ($24.95 list), Daredevil Born Again hardcover ($24.99 list), Daredevil Legends volume 3 – Daredevil The Man Without Fear ($16.95 list), and Elektra hardcover omnibus ($74.99 list). I paid $100 for all of them, which I think is pretty good.
I don’t really need to say anything about this, do I?
What’s that, some sort of tank? No (well, yes), it’s the Batmobile! They had a few different ones outside of SDCC, which was neat.
There was also a really cool panel, Unlocking Arkham: The Forensic Psychiatry of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery. Forensic psychiatrists H. Eric Bender, M.D., Praveen Kambam, M.D., and Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D. discussed Arkham Asylum, comparing it to real mental health facilities. They also considered Arkham Aylum’s patients and examined whether they would actually be found not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty. It was pretty interesting. As you might guess, Arkham Asylum is much more of a prison than a mental health facility, and many of their “patients” should have been found guilty anyways.
And I think that wraps up my summary of Comic-Con!
The most exciting part of Comic-Con was getting to meet my favorite author, John Scalzi. He was nice enough to pose with me for the photo shown above!
There were two panels featuring John as well as autographing. There was some confusion about the line, but the folks at the Tor booth did a great job. In fact, after hearing about what Tor has allowed John to do and how they’re selling their e-books DRM free now, I’m very happy with Tor.
Before signing at the Tor booth, comedy and musical duo Paul and Storm played a little song about George R. R. Martin. It was a fun way to start an autograph session. After the song, we were given free copies of Old Man’s War and then got to meet John!
gem had John sign her vinyl, which I posted about earlier, but I’ll show here as well. He signed in red on the hand. It looks like bloody knuckles!
I asked him to sign Old Man’s War, the first book in his fantastic series (soon to be a movie), and told him it was an honor to meet him. He said, “no, it’s an honor to meet you! In fact, I’m going to write that!” That was pretty cool!
I also asked him to sign Zoe’s Tale, the fourth novel in the series. Afterwards, I asked his wife Kristine and daughter Athena to sign as well. I felt excited to meet them too; it feels like I know so much about them from John Scalzi’s blog, the Whatever. They said yes, so now I have a family-autographed novel! It was shortly after the signing that I saw him walking away from the booth and asked for the photograph shown at the top.
To get good seats for the Spotlight on John Scalzi panel, we caught the end of the previous panel and then moved to the front. While waiting for the panel to begin, the audience ended up singing together. John came into the room and decided to help. He led us in a rendition of Don’t Stop Believing before showing us that it’s possible to turn any song into a B-52’s song.
The panel itself was a lot of fun. I managed to record the whole thing. I don’t think John would ever read this, but let me just say sorry anyways for sitting in the front row with a camera aimed at you for an hour. Honestly though, I’m sure he’s used to this.
My final encounter with John was the panel he moderated on comedy in science-fiction and fantasy. It was a very entertaining panel, and I left with an interest in some new books and authors! Again, I was sitting in the very front with a camcorder. It was the last day of Comic-Con, but we woke up early and lined up early to ensure good seats. It paid off!
It was such a pleasure to meet him. I hope someday I can do something awesome enough to get on his radar. It’s a longshot, but you never know!
Instead of having each artist in whom gem was interested autograph a piece of his or her work, she had them all autograph a single vinyl toy. I think it was a fantastic idea, and I hope she continues to do this in the future.
You can see it from the front in the picture above. First, it was turned into Jake of Adventure Time by an artist at the Adventure Time booth with drawings on the face, belly button, and fingers (and butt and tail, but that’s shown later). The ears and forehead were customized by Simone Legno of Tokidoki. The Aquabats symbol in the center was drawn by band member Crash McLarson. Amusingly, he had to look at the shirt of the member sitting next to him to remember what it looked like – an ‘A’ with a circle! He must have just wanted to ensure it was perfect. Author John Scalzi autographed the right hand. It looks like bloody knuckles!
This is the autograph of the person who turned it into Jake.
Here’s a close-up shot of Simone Legno’s drawings and autograph. He’s the creator and artist of Tokidoki.
On the side of the head are the autographs of Aquabats members Ricky Fitness and Eagle “Bones” Falconhawk. On the arm is a doodle and autograph by Behemoth’s Dan Paladin. On the back is Aquabats member Crash McLarson’s autograph.
Here’s the back. In the center is a picture of Domo-kun and autograph by Domo-kun’s creator, Tsuneo Gōda. You can also see the tail and butt of Jake.
The back of the ear features a great self-portrait by the M.C. Bat Commander, leader of the Aquabats!
Lastly, here’s a doodle and autograph by Tom Fulp of Behemoth.
Do you see that photo up there? That’s me with the Aquabats, the most fun and awesome band ever (obviously)! They were at Comic-Con, and gem snapped this photo of me with them while they were autographing.
This is the poster they signed for me. Sadly, it mentions a show that I didn’t attend; I was tempted, but it seemed better to spend my Comic-Con time actually at Comic-Con. I usually catch there Christmas show in LA anyways because they include past band members.
The MC Bat Commander, lead singer, asked if I wanted it addressed to me as he autographed it, and I told him I’d like it signed to “Peter and gem.” Not only did he do that, but he also started singing a little song. “Peter and gem, together again!”
gem got something signed as well, but I’ll talk about that in a later post.
Besides the poster, we also bought a pack that came with Aquabats boxer-briefs and a sweet, light-blue t-shirt featuring the Aquabats “A” symbol in the center. Later we were walking in downtown at night, and I saw some clothing on the ground. I wouldn’t normally pick up something like that, but something made me wonder if it was Aquabats merchandise. I kicked it with my t-shirt, and it was! We had found a t-shirt for The Aquabats! Super Show!
For those who don’t know, the Aquabats have a mythos that they’re superheroes from Aquabania. Over the course of their albums (and now TV show), they’ve accumulated enemies. One of them, from the album called The Aquabats vs. the Floating Eye of Death, is (as expected) the Floating Eye of Death! This was some pretty sweet cosplay.
I attended their panel on their TV show, The Aquabats! Super Show! Unfortunately, I wasn’t sitting near the front, so the video isn’t great. On top of that, they showed a lot of clips that I wasn’t allowed to record, so I had to edit them out. Even so, I’m glad I recorded it.
One of the things they showed was a Mega 64 video that was given to them to put in the show as a fake commercial. Unfortunately, the Hub, their TV channel, didn’t allow it. It was a commercial for a kit to turn a garage into an adventure play set for kids, built around the idea of a child pressing the garage door button and then rushing to get under it before it closed like Indiana Jones. It was pretty funny, but we couldn’t record it.
I think the most interesting part of the panel was finding out that one of the adults in attendance wrote a letter to the Aquabats years ago as a child suggesting a particular hand motion to do during one of the songs, Martian Girl. After reading the letter, the Aquabats have used that hand motion every time they played the song.
The Broken Yoke, a restaurant in downtown San Diego specializing in eggs, was redone to be a restaurant based on The Hub. Our table featured the Aquabats!
There was a section on the menu called “The MC Bat Commander Breakfast.” Of course, I had to order from it; I had Betty’s Southern Biscuits and Gravy.
As part of Mega 64’s collaboration with the Aquabats, they created commercials for fake “Gloopy” products. Here’s some ketchup rebranded to look like Gloopy Catsup.
Here’s one last thing to share – Gloopy Eyewash. “Pour directly into eyes.”
Last weekend was Comic-Con, and I went with gem and Antonio. I had a ton of fun, and I wanted to share a few things over a series of four posts. Above, you’ll see the chalkboard that was in our hotel room. I don’t know why they’d put one in a hotel room, but it was fun. gem customized it for us!
While waiting in line for an Archer panel that filled before we could enter, we saw these two Atlantians yelling at us land–dwellers. They were pretty entertaining; if it wasn’t for them, being in that line would have been wasted time.
I bought a tokidoki x Marvel hat from the tokidoki booth featuring Captain America, one of my favorite heroes. Simone Legno, tokidoki creator and artist, was there, and he autographed the hat. He also drew Adios and the tokidoki symbol of a heart and crossbones. Adios is my favorite tokidoki character. In fact, Simone has also drawn him on my 360.
I wasn’t expecting Little Shop of Horrors cosplay at Comic-Con, but it’s one of my favorites so I was happy! Here’s Seymoure and the Audrey II. It was a puppet, so he could control the plant.
Behemoth was there again with a great, arcade-like booth. Although they did have Castle Crashers, they were heavily featuring their new game, Battleblock Theater. It’s a very fun platformer to which I’m looking forward very much.
I’ll have posts about gem’s toy, the Aquabats, and John Scalzi soon!
For Mother’s Day, gem and I took her mom and aunt to see IRIS by Cirque du Soleil in LA. It was a lot of fun, and I took a few photos throughout the day.
We spent a few minutes talking at her parents’ house before heading up to Los Angeles. We got there around 5:30, and the show started at 7:00, giving us some time to walk around. We spent a little time just wandering (and taking photos). I also had a super delicious hot dog with bacon and lots of toppings, including whole grilled jalepeño. Why wasn’t I always putting whole grilled jalepeños on my hot dogs?
IRIS itself was fantastic. It’s about the history of cinema. It uses a lot of the “basics” (contortionists, jugglers, trapezists), but it’s very inspired by cinema. It plays a lot with light, shadow, and recording in very cool ways. Of course, there’s an overall story to it as well that involves the film industry. They even threw an awards show in the middle! Some acts were less obviously about cinema. The Kiriki act involved a group of performers in different colored costumes flipping, climbing, and balancing on each other. gem whispered to me “I think this is about the introduction of color.” I hadn’t realized it on my own, but it seems very likely. It was one of the best acts in my opinion, but it wasn’t my favorite. That honor goes to a noir scene that’s set a wonderful mood and segues nicely into a noir, rooftop fight scene heavily using trampolines. Very cool.
Anyways, it’s an excellent show. And the music’s on Spotify.
In addition to the conference proper, I got to enjoy seeing San Francisco a bit. I took a 6:40 AM flight from Orange County to San Francisco so I could have some time to see the city. After eating in the airport a little, I took the BART to the Powell St. station, which is where I always get off when I visit SF. It’s also where I always take a picture of the same building.
Then I headed to the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, stopping to take a picture of the hotel, to drop off my bag.
Then I headed back to the shops near the Powell St. station. After getting bored of that, I checked out some little parks and then looked on Google Maps for interesting sites. I realized that it wasn’t far to reach the water, so I started walking that way. There were plenty of interesting things along the way, including a restaurant called Crepe & Curry in the Financial District. I had a quick snack and then checked out Justin Herman Plaza, which had a really awesome fountain.
Then I walked along edge of the bay, heading north toward what Google Maps told me was a submarine. I did stop to take some photos too of course, like this cool snack shop.
I eventually reached an arcade that featured very old attractions. I wouldn’t even call most of them games. Put in a coin to see the figure dance – that kind of thing. But outside was the cool part. The submarine, the USS Pampanito, was out back!
I took a bunch of pictures of it.
I also paid to walk through it!
After I was done, I stopped to take a quick picture of a seagull before continuing on my way.
I headed toward Fisherman’s Wharf and wandered around for a bit, getting a delicious crab sandwich. When it was time to head back to the hotel, I took the cable car back to the Powell St. station, which I guess acts as a landmark for me!
At the hotel I went up to my room and took a photo before heading to registration. I discovered that the payment for my registration didn’t go through. There was some confusion and phone calls to Julie back at the office, but things were fine of course. Then there was a fun reception full of delicious foods (mmm pork buns) and beer.
Thursday was packed full of fun and went fast. Before I knew it, it was evening and we were piled into buses to go to Bimbo’s 365 Club for dinner, drinks, and music.
There was an 80s band playing called Tainted Love (who, by the way, never did play Tainted Love). They were really good. But then again, I was drinking a lot of Heinekens. There was a pair on the dance floor who were more entertaining than the band. She was really into the music and getting flipped all over. Half the dance floor must have belonged to those two!
Friday didn’t go quite so smoothly. There was an announcement of a security breach of some sort at SFO. As it turned out, it was at my terminal. “Expect delays,” they said. Well, my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:59, so I figured I’d leave the session at 11:45 to pick up my bag from the bellman. That way, I could probably catch the 12:15 BART train, get to the airport by 1:00, and still have time to get through security with the delays. If I got through quickly, great, because I hadn’t eaten anything that day and would appreciate the time for lunch.
Well, it wasn’t that easy. There were malfunctions on the tracks apparently, and they made us all get off at some random station between the hotel and the airport. We were told we’d get further instructions, but I could also see a lot of people with bags waiting at that station. We must not have been the first train to unload there. Soon after we were told to get on a train that would take us to the end of the line, just past SFO. Then a shuttle would take us to the airport. When we got to that station, we were told that now the shuttle was going to go to the station just on the OTHER side SFO. We had to take a train back there. Guess what? After getting there, they changed their minds again, and we were headed back to the other station again.
There was also the bit where they told everyone to get on the train no matter where they were headed and then said “whoops, if you were heading to the airport…” Anyways, then a train took us from that station to the airport. Having to manually flip the switches probably didn’t help. (Nor did the trains travelling at 20 MPH so that the track could be watched by eye.) My 40 minute train ride became over two hours. Regardless, my flight was delayed about a half hour, and I got through security in decent time, so I had more than enough time to eat and read my novel. And then I got to finish my novel on the plane!
I just wish I knew who got my sick on that plane!
All in all, it was very fun trip. I enjoyed the conference itself, and I enjoyed getting to see a bit of the city. I’d certainly love to spend some more time there. Hopefully, I’ll get to visit with gem next time! And as you might have seen, I spent some time after getting home uploading some photos to Instagram!
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