 :: Monday, May 10, 2004 :: Tic toc, bang, bang Running late but what else is new. I’m actually kinda hyped to see all the cool things that are being announced already at E3 this year (the San Diego Comic Con of video games). Possibly my favorite game to date, Splinter Cell, has had its third sequel announced on the first day. This week should end up with a lot of cool video games. But for Now on to comic type stuff! SUPER APE (AKA Neil Is Not Gay!) For the first time I visited San Francisco to attend Ape (Alternative Press Expo), I actually spent a whole week there, and a rough breakdown of the events I experienced there go as such. Thursday: I arrive and hook up with Indy comic fan and Oni Board persona Matthew Seiden. We have some highly disappointing Burgers for supper and then head out to the SLG thing that night. We were possibly the only two people who weren’t working for SLG there. But the SLG folk were extremely cool. I also got to meet Jen DeGuzman who is as charming and intelligent a person you’d like to meet. Both Matt and I were Jet lagged so we headed back to our respective hotels to crash for the night. On a side note I was also propositioned by possibly the ugliest hooker I have ever seen in my life, I mean way beyond ugly and almost passing FOUgily, and in dangerous territory of my needing to create a new word to define the atrocity her face was. (Yes I turned her down.) Friday: Matt and I meet up to check out the SFMOMA, some really nice works there, but the piece that has stuck with me is one called “Nada” I can’t describe it to you it’s just something you have to experience. We grabbed lunch and then walked over to the convention centre for something to do. Still jet lagged we split again, I went back to my room to nap and read. Went for dinner at “Enrico’s” which is expensive but I had the second best steak of my life there. Saturday: Let the Con begin! I end up getting there early and walk about for a while. Once there I ended up getting a few sketches for some really cool small press folk. I also met up with Scott Morse and Jim Mafood, possibly the coolest duo in comics. Scott was jovial and fun loving as always and Jim just seems to take it a step farther. That Night I met up with my Best Friend Neil Blevins who works for Pixar, and his new Lady Love Kat, she is charming, well humored and quite lovely Neil is a lucky SOB. After dinner the three of us went to the Milk Bar for Scott and Jim’s Live art show, things started later than intended so Neil and Kat didn’t even catch any of the show, but I met up with a cool trio whose names I’ve forgotten from LA to hang with for a bit, and then I met Scott s Wife Danielle who is as cool as he is, and I hung out with her and Scotts Siblings for the majority of the rest of the evening. If you ever get a chance to see any of Scott and Jim’s live art shows I highly recommend it, they are lots of fun and you get to see some funky art created right before your eyes. Around 1:30 I headed back to the hotel to sleep. Sunday: Last day of the con I spent it buying odds and ends and talking to artists, I actually finished off the day pretending to be Scott sitting behind his booth while the real Scott finally got his first chance to walk the floor in the last 20 minutes of the Con. After that it was supper and reading and watching HBO until I fell asleep. Monday: I had a day to do as I wished around SF so I walked down to Fisherman’s Warf and meandered around there. On my way there I realized exactly how similar SF is to Montreal, there was one corner of what I think of Victorian Townhouses that looked like it was pulled right out of NDG, the only difference is that the buildings except that they were painted all in pastels instead of being red brick. Which I think is a good description of San Francisco: “Like Montreal, only in Pastels”. They day was spent pretty much meandering about and being touristy while trying not to look like a tourist. Tuesday: Checked out of the Hotel to meet with my friend Neil and crash at his place for the next two days. We had lunch at Pixar, and I have to say I was quite proud to see my best friend walking to the gate of Pixar to let me in. I also got to see the closest thing to a public gallery that Pixar has of conceptual art for Finding Nemo, some really cool stuff. I also had my finger tips mere inches away from an Oscar, probably the closest I’ll come to touching one unless Baichoo (or another member of the acting crew) gets one. When Neil finished work we hung out for the evening and the watched some TV. Wednesday: A mild cold that had been bothering me end up pretty much flooring me, but I battled on as Neil and I spent the day walking around shopping, where in comic stuff I had what was my first visit to Comic Relief, possibly the greatest comic shop ever if you arte ever in the area check this place out. In the end I passed out on Neil’s couch while watching “Once Upon a Time In Mexico”. Thursday: Back home. Never fly with a cold, I couldn’t hear for a week. And that was a quick run down of APE. SUPER STEP BACK Far from permanent, but in the last few weeks I’ve decided to step back from writing comics or working in comics for the next short while. I simply was getting frustrated by lack of forward motion on various parts of my work and I felt that I needed to explore a few other aspects of my writing anyway. So for the moment I am working on three Science Fiction Short stories. I love Science Fiction, it is possibly the most adaptive genre out there, it allows the writer and the reader to explore facets of humanity in ways that other genres and styles of writing don’t allow (not that there is anything wrong with them). And the thing with the Science Fiction I’m want to get out of my head is that I don’t think that these stories lend themselves to comics very well. So I’m stepping back from comics for a bit (but not the column don’t worry/sorry). And Next time I’ll go into this in much more detail. SUPER ADVISE Read: Greg Rucka’s A Fistful Of Rain, and Excellent thriller book and something added in the Paper back to get ready for the Queen & Country Novel due in September. Go See: THE BED TRICK written and directed by Joel Fishbane (A Guy who would be a great catch for the comic industry by the way) featuring: Shawn Baichoo, Ian Young, Freya Ravensburgen, and Judith Baribeau. Playing at The Geordie Theatre Space, 4001 Berri (@ Duluth) May 13 - 15 , 19 - 22 @ 8 PM ! May 15, 22 @ 2:30 PM Adults: $15 ! Students / Seniors / Lawyers: $12 ! Matinees: PWYC Info / Reservations: (514) 931 5449 ! mrpumpkin@sympatico.ca More on either Thursday or next Monday! ‘Till Then -Jay 8:52 PM + Jay D'Ici + permalink 1 Comments: Hey Jay, you have comments now on your blog! |