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!
Thanks to Jackie and Kenneth visiting, we had an eventful weekend. Friday night we went out for Korean tofu. I hadn’t had it in a few months now, so it was about time.
The menu happened to list “ocotopus” as one of the possibilities. I’m not sure what an ocotopus is, but it’s now my favorite animal.
After dinner we decided to see if Mochilato was still open. It’s a mochi/gelato store. We cut through Mitsuwa, where I found this sign.
I swear, I wasn’t the only one who giggled. That looks a bit like a certain part of female anatomy, doesn’t it? Anyways, Mochilato was still open, and it was tasty. It was very packed though. The last time I had eaten there, it was a relatively new restaurant and not that popular. It’s not amazing, but it’s a fun little place.
On Saturday we went to a picnic at Corona del Mar with Jackie, Kenneth, and some of their friends. There were a couple people I knew, but no one else I knew very well.
We decided to take a break from the picnic to go out on the rocks of the jetty. gem had a bit more trouble than me, but we managed to make it to the end. My photos are here. I got to take some cool shots, which is always fun.
On Sunday, we went to Metro Pointe to watch Men in Black III. As expected, it was really fun. It had the same MIB humor and high quality as the first movie. The second movie was not as good. I saw some people complain about time travel plotholes in IMDB, and I’d like to point out that it’s Men in Black. Just enjoy the crazy humor. Will Smith’s awesome.
Afterward, we stopped by Color Me Mine to pick up our completed pieces. They wouldn’t give me the shards of the broken piece at first. Why call and let us know they’d save the pieces for us if they were going to throw them away. She eventually let us keep them though. Then we headed to Barnes & Noble where Amanda was working. We spent a few minutes catching up, which was very nice. She seems to be enjoying it there. Now I just need to find time to stop by Rich’s new store.
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.
gem and I went hiking in the Limestone Canyon Wilderness Park on Saturday. We were supposed to go with Carrie and Edward, but Edward forgot somehow. I guess signing up in advance wasn’t enough of a reminder (nor was the e-mail reminder from them). We signed up in advance for the Wilderness Access Day, which comes up every month or so and allows self-guided hiking. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to go with a guide.
It was a beautiful hike, and I’m happy that the trails were very clear. I still had a cold though, so that caused some difficulties. I had to stop occasionally when the hiking was upsetting my throat. I also gave me the chance to take a lot of photographs!
Chuck Sommerville, creator of Chip’s Challenge, autographed my copy of the game! Chip’s Challenge has been one of my favorite games for as long as I can remember. I’ve been wanting to get Sommerville’s autograph for a while but only recently actually asked him. He’s also the creator of Chuck’s Challenge and the soon-to-be-released Chuck’s Challenge 3D. I’ve interviewed him for Game Boyz, which you can read here.
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!
This past weekend was an eventful one. Friday night we went to Yardhouse at Spectrum for Duncan and Elizabeth’s Spring Break celebration. Yes, we celebrated something that I haven’t had in a while by going to a busy restaurant at an incredibly busy mall on the worst possible night. But it was fun anyways! And the food was good of course. There were a couple people I hadn’t met before, so that was fun as well.
Saturday we went to Balboa to go parasailing! It was a ton of fun! Things started off a little troublesome. Besides the fact that it was very cloudy, we misinterpreted our Living Social coupon. We thought it was for two people, but it was only for one. In addition to owing extra money, there wasn’t room for me due to regulations. Luckily, they let me on the boat by utilizing a nice loophole and considering me a lifeguard in training. Yay? Watching them unfold the parasail wing was scarier than watching the other group go up, which was scarier than going up myself. It would have thought it would have been the other way around. I guess when I’m doing it, I’m more concerned with doing things properly and enjoying it! Leaning back and looking up to see parasail wing while in the air was very disorienting though. It was incredibly fun, and I’d love to do it again.
Afterwards we walked around the waterfront and had some lunch. We found a tasty pizza shop and got a gyro and slice of pizza. Then we headed to a dessert store called Sweet Tooth (that wasn’t related to the Twisted Metal character at all!) where I had a delicious chocolate covered banana. Watching Arrested Development again gave me a craving for a Bluth Banana, I suppose.
Sunday I went golfing with my stepdad, boss, and coworker. You can see my stepdad in the photo. It was my first time, and I was terrible like I suspected, but it was still a lot of fun. I was pretty relieved that it was fun actually. After all, I did already put a bunch of money into this and agree to play in Toshiba’s league. My arms got sunburned, but Pete had it the worse; he felt something hit his leg only to soon after realize that what he felt was in his leg. He was in pain and had trouble walking, but he finished anyways. Hopefully it isn’t anything major, but I can’t imagine how that would be possible.
Monday night we went to a new Korean BBQ place we hadn’t tried with Collin. It was expensive, but we had another coupon. There were a bunch of delicious things I’d had previously as well as some new things. “Beef marrow gut” (cow intestines) was new to me. It tasted pretty good, but it felt terrible.
My weekends aren’t normally this exciting, but I wouldn’t complain if more of them were! Okay, honestly, I would complain. But I’d enjoy it in the end.
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