Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The End and the beginning.
I will be moving my blogging activities to my new blog. "David's Wonder Blog" It will be basically what this blog has evolved into from the get go. Why I'm making this change? you ask. It's simply the fact that my comic's title Neuropsychosis makes for very leangthy urls and I've found that people don't like going to sites they have to type really long urls for. So come by every Friday to http://darroyoart.blogspot.com/ for David's wonder blog it's gonna be a good ride.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
The beginning of the end.
Today, the space shuttle orbiter Discovery, landed for the final time. It's not the end of the STS program (it was supposed to be but it got wisely extended), but this landing makes the end of the shuttle a bit more real to me. You see while there have been a number of lasts for the shuttle program over the last few years, last trip to Hubble, last American component of the ISS, and last voyage of Atlantis (though Atlantis may go again). The Discovery hits me differently, because discovery is the most traveled member of the fleet. The current oldest orbiter, after the lost Columbia and Challenger, Discovery is the one for me that has always been there while I saw the rollouts of both Atlantis and Endevour. It was Discovery, which brought us as a nation back from the tragedies of of Challenger and Columbia, and it was discovery that delivered the Hubble space telescope, possibly the most important scientific instrument of the shuttle program, to space. As a space enthusiast all of my life, the end of the Space Shuttle program, without a replacement in sight, is a sad time for me. The space shuttle was and is kind of the Family car of my imagination, and seeing the one of which "we" where the most common passenger go off into the sunset to be placed in the mausoleum of a space museum makes this end so much more real.
Friday, January 07, 2011
The Antelope Valley of Neuropsychosis
Hello Today begins a new series on this blog, where I talk about the locations of Neuropsychosis. Neuropsychosis takes place in my home town of Lancaster California, and the adjoining town of Palmdale and the non incorporated community of Quartz Hill, an area known as the Antelope Valley (A.V.). It's a group of aerospace towns about 60 miles north of Los Angeles to which it also serves as a bedroom community. Many of the places in my comic actually exist or have existed in the past, some have pseudonyms others are portrayed in their accurate glory. But to keep things interesting, I've made the A.V. of Neuropsychosis a hybrid of the A.V. Now and of the past. Kind of a greatest hits version in order to make a more interesting town for the setting of my comic.
The first location is the Racquet Club Apartments in Lancaster. This Apartment complex serves as the home of Toshi and Phil, as well as Melissa, Stef, and Jammy (they're neighbors if it hasn't been clear). It is located on 15th Street West and Ave. J-8. This apartment complex is where my best friend lived for a half a year after high school. As it was where I spent man days of my early adulthood, I have many fond memories of the times I spent there, thus I chose to use it as the home of my characters having the same experience. I haven't been in the complex since 1999, so other than the exterior, it is based on my memories of the place, which was a bit dingy but not quite low rent. The place looks a bit nicer now but I've maintained it's less than pretty quality from ten years ago. The rooms are base on my memories of my friends apartment, so it's more of a set than a location. And judging by the fact that the doors are right next to each other as opposed to spaced the width of an apartment, I've assumed that neighboring apartments are mirror images of each other. Thus the relative layouts of Toshi and Melissa's apartments.
I hope you have enjoyed this location in my Neuropsychosis tour of Lancaster. I've many more to come. Next will be the main location of “The Attack of the Killer Cheeps” the Antelope Valley Mall.
The first location is the Racquet Club Apartments in Lancaster. This Apartment complex serves as the home of Toshi and Phil, as well as Melissa, Stef, and Jammy (they're neighbors if it hasn't been clear). It is located on 15th Street West and Ave. J-8. This apartment complex is where my best friend lived for a half a year after high school. As it was where I spent man days of my early adulthood, I have many fond memories of the times I spent there, thus I chose to use it as the home of my characters having the same experience. I haven't been in the complex since 1999, so other than the exterior, it is based on my memories of the place, which was a bit dingy but not quite low rent. The place looks a bit nicer now but I've maintained it's less than pretty quality from ten years ago. The rooms are base on my memories of my friends apartment, so it's more of a set than a location. And judging by the fact that the doors are right next to each other as opposed to spaced the width of an apartment, I've assumed that neighboring apartments are mirror images of each other. Thus the relative layouts of Toshi and Melissa's apartments.
I hope you have enjoyed this location in my Neuropsychosis tour of Lancaster. I've many more to come. Next will be the main location of “The Attack of the Killer Cheeps” the Antelope Valley Mall.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Happy New Year!
Hello. New years is upon us and I figured I'd drop a line again about a few drinks. I haven't really been much of a participant in cocktail culture of late Spending more time drinking good beer. So I'm going to write this one about winter beers. And follow it up with a recent cocktail fave “the Rusty Nail”
Back in the day brewing was a seasonal activity and many beers had their distinct times, for instance Marzen, better known as Oktoberfest beer in the states. Was brewed typically in March, thus the name Marzen, German for March. Due to the advantages of the modern age, Refrigeration, year round grain and hops etc. Many styles of beer are now made the whole year. But there are still some brewers due to tradition or the intricacies of their brew, that choose to still make special beers for the holiday. I'm going to outline three. Sammichlaus, Cervezaria Moctezuma's Noche buena, and Anchor's Christmas Ale.
Sammichlaus.
The first of these that I'm writing about is the Swiss Beer Sammichlaus. This beer named in the Zürich dialect word for Santa Claus. Has the distinction of being the strongest beer ever brewed, at a whopping 14% alcohol by volume. First brewed in 1980, Sammichlaus is brewed every year on St Nicholas' day, December 6, and is lagered (a slow secondary fermentation wherein it is aged under cold conditions) nearly a whole year. In fact the total process, brewing, fermenting, lagering, and bottling takes a whole year as it is bottled on St Nicholas' day of the following year from which it was brewed! This brewing time and the use of champagne yeasts make the famous strength. The Beer comes in s light and dark version, but they should be called dark and darker. I bought the only type they had at my local BevMo but judging from the bottle pictured in Micheal Jackson's “Ultimate Beer” (DK 1997) I believe I tried the light one. Traditionally the beer is drank in espresso cup sized steins but as I don't have one of these, my father and I sampled it in cognac snifters. The flavor is rich and full with a wine like mouth feel. It's a little sweet and has more of a wine like acidity than typical beer like bitterness. But the flavors are all malt and hops, being a lager the yeast doesn't play into flavor. It's texture is a little oily not dissimilar to an ice wine or a single malt. It was quite good, and even in the snifter goes straight to the head. I'll have to try it in a pint sometime for science.... of course. The beer is of course seasonal, but due to it's low profile out of hop head circles it's pretty much available year round wherever good beers are sold.
Noche Buena.
Named Noche Buena (the good night) the Spanish term for Christmas Eve. Noche Buena is a great German style lager. Though known for cheaper beers like Corona or Tecate, there are many a great German style beer coming out of Mexico. In fact many styles like the Vienna lager which aren't made much in Germany Austria anymore are still quite popular in Mexico. Noche Buena is made by La Cervezaria Moctezuma, and starts to appear on the shelves around Thanksgiving. It is everything a German lager should be, good malt flavors, a nice zing of hops and a fizzy, but not too fizzy mouth feel. I believe it is Mexico's best beer. I usually find it in holiday party packs at Costco with it's popular brothers Dos Equis Clara and Obscura (itself one of the aforementioned Vienna lagers).
Anchor Brewing's Special Holiday Ale.
Commonly called the Christmas ale, due to it's Christmas card style label. It's an excellent ale made with spices. Brewed by the Anchor Brewing Company, famous for reviving “steam beer”, since 1975. Each years Christmas Ale is a little bit different. Each year gets a different group of spices in the wort, and a different Tree adorns each years label. The spices used are a trade secret, but I can usually spot coriander (a favorite beer spice), orange peel, and I suspect pine. This beer has been a family tradition in my house for the last couple of years and I've tasted two vintages. Both where actually quite similar so I'd say they have a base recepie, that they modify it to suit the spices chosen for that year. The Christmas Ale is a complex flavor. It has a very rich malt presence with a bit of nuttiness from the yeast, and a nice session bitter hop character. Then the spices hit you adding to the bitterness, in an almost medicinal way (this is a good thing). It's meant to be drank in pints, but I prefer taking it in a snifter or tumbler because it's very, very rich, and a pint would become monotonous on the palate. I highly recommend it, I've tried 2009 and 2010s. And I prefer 2010, so check it out while it still lasts. You can find it at most good liquor stores, wherever Anchor is sold. It is sold in both 12oz. bottles and magnums, I prefer the magnum as I get it as part of our Christmas feast, and it's just more celebratory. As it is a vintage ale it supposedly ages well, but I've never had it last that long aging beer and wine for me is a task.
And last but not least the one new drink I've discovered this year. The Rusty Nail. It's a simple drink made of Scotch Whiskey and the cordial of Drambuie Drambuie is one of those super secret cordials that everywhere in Europe seems to have, So I have no idea what it is other than Drambuie The drink goes thus.
1.Old Fashion glass (tumbler)
2.4oz. of blended Scotch Whiskey.
3.1oz. of Drambuie
4.Ice.
Fill the glass with Ice and build the drink by first pouring the Scotch, then topping it off with Drambuie Give it a stir then drink.
Well that's it for me this year so I hope you have a great new year and keep safe on New Years Eve.
David
Back in the day brewing was a seasonal activity and many beers had their distinct times, for instance Marzen, better known as Oktoberfest beer in the states. Was brewed typically in March, thus the name Marzen, German for March. Due to the advantages of the modern age, Refrigeration, year round grain and hops etc. Many styles of beer are now made the whole year. But there are still some brewers due to tradition or the intricacies of their brew, that choose to still make special beers for the holiday. I'm going to outline three. Sammichlaus, Cervezaria Moctezuma's Noche buena, and Anchor's Christmas Ale.
Sammichlaus.
The first of these that I'm writing about is the Swiss Beer Sammichlaus. This beer named in the Zürich dialect word for Santa Claus. Has the distinction of being the strongest beer ever brewed, at a whopping 14% alcohol by volume. First brewed in 1980, Sammichlaus is brewed every year on St Nicholas' day, December 6, and is lagered (a slow secondary fermentation wherein it is aged under cold conditions) nearly a whole year. In fact the total process, brewing, fermenting, lagering, and bottling takes a whole year as it is bottled on St Nicholas' day of the following year from which it was brewed! This brewing time and the use of champagne yeasts make the famous strength. The Beer comes in s light and dark version, but they should be called dark and darker. I bought the only type they had at my local BevMo but judging from the bottle pictured in Micheal Jackson's “Ultimate Beer” (DK 1997) I believe I tried the light one. Traditionally the beer is drank in espresso cup sized steins but as I don't have one of these, my father and I sampled it in cognac snifters. The flavor is rich and full with a wine like mouth feel. It's a little sweet and has more of a wine like acidity than typical beer like bitterness. But the flavors are all malt and hops, being a lager the yeast doesn't play into flavor. It's texture is a little oily not dissimilar to an ice wine or a single malt. It was quite good, and even in the snifter goes straight to the head. I'll have to try it in a pint sometime for science.... of course. The beer is of course seasonal, but due to it's low profile out of hop head circles it's pretty much available year round wherever good beers are sold.
Noche Buena.
Named Noche Buena (the good night) the Spanish term for Christmas Eve. Noche Buena is a great German style lager. Though known for cheaper beers like Corona or Tecate, there are many a great German style beer coming out of Mexico. In fact many styles like the Vienna lager which aren't made much in Germany Austria anymore are still quite popular in Mexico. Noche Buena is made by La Cervezaria Moctezuma, and starts to appear on the shelves around Thanksgiving. It is everything a German lager should be, good malt flavors, a nice zing of hops and a fizzy, but not too fizzy mouth feel. I believe it is Mexico's best beer. I usually find it in holiday party packs at Costco with it's popular brothers Dos Equis Clara and Obscura (itself one of the aforementioned Vienna lagers).
Anchor Brewing's Special Holiday Ale.
Commonly called the Christmas ale, due to it's Christmas card style label. It's an excellent ale made with spices. Brewed by the Anchor Brewing Company, famous for reviving “steam beer”, since 1975. Each years Christmas Ale is a little bit different. Each year gets a different group of spices in the wort, and a different Tree adorns each years label. The spices used are a trade secret, but I can usually spot coriander (a favorite beer spice), orange peel, and I suspect pine. This beer has been a family tradition in my house for the last couple of years and I've tasted two vintages. Both where actually quite similar so I'd say they have a base recepie, that they modify it to suit the spices chosen for that year. The Christmas Ale is a complex flavor. It has a very rich malt presence with a bit of nuttiness from the yeast, and a nice session bitter hop character. Then the spices hit you adding to the bitterness, in an almost medicinal way (this is a good thing). It's meant to be drank in pints, but I prefer taking it in a snifter or tumbler because it's very, very rich, and a pint would become monotonous on the palate. I highly recommend it, I've tried 2009 and 2010s. And I prefer 2010, so check it out while it still lasts. You can find it at most good liquor stores, wherever Anchor is sold. It is sold in both 12oz. bottles and magnums, I prefer the magnum as I get it as part of our Christmas feast, and it's just more celebratory. As it is a vintage ale it supposedly ages well, but I've never had it last that long aging beer and wine for me is a task.
And last but not least the one new drink I've discovered this year. The Rusty Nail. It's a simple drink made of Scotch Whiskey and the cordial of Drambuie Drambuie is one of those super secret cordials that everywhere in Europe seems to have, So I have no idea what it is other than Drambuie The drink goes thus.
1.Old Fashion glass (tumbler)
2.4oz. of blended Scotch Whiskey.
3.1oz. of Drambuie
4.Ice.
Fill the glass with Ice and build the drink by first pouring the Scotch, then topping it off with Drambuie Give it a stir then drink.
Well that's it for me this year so I hope you have a great new year and keep safe on New Years Eve.
David
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Week of Unlikely Concerts.
Last week I had what I like to call my week of awesome improbable concerts. I call it this because I got to go to two concerts that I never believed would happen. The first was Roger Waters performing, his and Pink Floyd's opus "The Wall" On tuesday November 30th, and the second the first and (so far) only U.S. concert of the Japanese Prog Rock outfit Luna Sea on Saturday December 4.
First Was "The Wall" by Roger Waters. I would have never thought that Waters would ever tour "The Wall" again, it having been an exceedingly difficult show to pull off in 1980, and a historic debacle when performed again for a one off in 1990. Also it's from a period of his career that the artist is typically touchy about. So imagine my surprise when my dad sends me a newspaper clipping announcing the tour.
Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in all honesty has never been my favorite Pink Floyd album, and I detest the movie. But to see that Roger Waters was re creating and reviving the the famous stage version (which I have always been partial too, despite my lack of love for the album) I knew I couldn't miss it.
The Show was great, many of the original concepts of the show where still in place, the giant wall erected between band and audience, The massive inflatable puppets, and projections. But now the show has been moved from an internal view (the character pink's move from the world into his emotional wall) to an external one (society's move from the world into it's emotional wall). Thus the show has a much more political theme this time around. The projections are mostly new, in fact only three animated sequences from the original show are present in the current show, These are "What Shall we Use Now?" aka the fornicating flowers, "Waiting for the Worms" the hammers marching, and the trial. An interesting aspect to this new performance was the use of projections on the wall in the first half of the show. For those who aren't aware in the original show the wall is erected between the audience and the band, as if it wasn't happening, no projection's, the band performing in their spots with only traditional moments of coming to stage front, such as guitar solos and such. The idea was startle the audience with this bold idea of blocking off the connection between performer and audience, as well as providing a literal dramatization of the concepts of the show's narrative. While it still is bold and still enforces the narrative, everyone knows about the wall (the literal barrier) from books bootlegs and documentaries, so knowing that there would be no shock factor to a forty foot wall being built during a rock concert, Waters and Co. decided to use it as theater straight away. One of the highlights being in, "The Thin Ice" where they project a picture and name of a victim of war, beginning with Waters' father and transpose each one to a different brick, with ever brick filled with an image by the end of the number.
The performance was great. Waters newest band being in top form, kudos to the singer Robbie Wycoff for his great renditions of the songs originally sung by David Gilmour and to Guitarist David Killmister for his reproduction of the guitar solo's of the same. Also performing was a local kids group who danced and sang along with the children's choir part of "Another Brick in the Wall" part two. The stand out bits for me, was what is the first side of the second record "Hey you", "Is There Anybody out There", "Nobody Home", and "Comfortably Numb" the boldness of playing out the pieces completely or mostly behind a wall. makes these numbers, the best on the album in my opinion, quite memorable and bold. More a piece of theater than a typical concert. Roger Waters Wall Tour was a great experience.
The Second unlikely concert was that of Luna Sea. Luna Sea is a Japanese rock band from the nineties that has been not just a favorite J rock band of mine, but one of my favorite bands for some time. it's hard to describe their music, a blend of hard rock, Metal, Goth, and Progressive rock. I choose to call them a prog rock band as it is the part of the previous description that doesn't preclude the others. In any case they are a very unique and exciting band , that broke up ten years ago, though they preferred to call it a prolonged hiatus even back to when they split. and if you've never heard them I recommend you check them out, they are available on I tunes and there are many videos of them on You Tube. Recently many J rock bands have been touring the United States, and I have seen a couple of my favorites but, of all of the J rock bands I've listened to Luna Sea seemed least likely to want to tour the U.S. especially as, despite a couple of one off shows in 2007, where still split. So imagine my surprise when I found out that they where not only going to be touring this year, but playing at the Hollywood Palladium, on their one and only stop in the U.S. For someone who pondered going to Japan to see their (then) final concert and their reunion, it was no question, I had to go to this show. This was the first time I had ever been in the Palladium, and I was surprised at how big the place is, from the outside I expected it to be like a club, but when you really look at it and go inside, I found that it was actually a pretty good size theater. The place was full with an interesting crowd of American, anime fans general concert goers, and the Luna Sea faithful, known playfully as Slaves. There was a film crew there as the concert was being filmed for a 3D concert film to be released next year. The stage was a simple setup with a back drop of a reflective full Moon and the band's logo. The House music faded over to Luna Sea's techno intro. And the audience came up to a frenzied pitch when the ominous LOVE intro to the opening song "Loveless" echoed. The opening track of their fourth album "Mother" it is a wonderful sparse crystalline song and a perfect opener for the concert. The biggest shock to me about Luna Sea live is how loud they are, of course all rock bands are loud so I'm speaking relatively. But it was not a noisy loud just a big fully enveloping sound that made the atmospheric nature of their music the dominating force of the evening, brilliant! The guitars weaved around the room and the bass and drums where strong. The concert that followed was a triumphant trip through Luna Sea's greatest hits. The big songs where all there, Dejavu, Rosier, Ra se n, In My Dream (With Shiver), and so forth, and the performance was as energetic and strong as the band ever played in their 1990's heyday. Ruyichi the Lead singer did some of his MC ing in English, but unlike some J rockers the language is not his strong suit so he spoke more in Japanese, but we didn't need English to understand their passion and thankfulness to play to an international audience for the first time. I do believe that musicians greeting the audience in their home language is quite an honor so I thank Ryuichi for his effort. The concert was a great experience and the best concert I've been to in quite a while, you know those shows where you feel both tiered and refreshed at the same time? this was one of them. Stand out moments for me where. "Ra se n", this is a cyclic song of moods culminating on one of lead guitarist Sugizo's greatest solos. His Guitar tone in person is so large and penetrating, its almost as if it's coming from within you. "Face to Face" a moody goth song a favorite, "Storm" a great rocker with a solo almost as great as "Ra se N's" the violin lead "Providence" and "In my Dream (with shiver)" the earliest of Luna Sea's anthems and an epic moment. Also a stand out for me was Drummer Shinya's playing I feel you can only truly experience that art of a drummer in person, so much is lost in recording. And Shinya in person was an amazing experience. He is a drummer with a Taiko back ground and he plays drums with such authority (read he hits them really hard). After about a two hour show the band ended the concert with the popular closer "Wish" starting with a shot of confetti cannons, we where the band's for one evening as the band was ours.
So that was my week of unlikely concerts. both where great experiences and I can only hope that I can have rock concert experiences like that more often.
First Was "The Wall" by Roger Waters. I would have never thought that Waters would ever tour "The Wall" again, it having been an exceedingly difficult show to pull off in 1980, and a historic debacle when performed again for a one off in 1990. Also it's from a period of his career that the artist is typically touchy about. So imagine my surprise when my dad sends me a newspaper clipping announcing the tour.
Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in all honesty has never been my favorite Pink Floyd album, and I detest the movie. But to see that Roger Waters was re creating and reviving the the famous stage version (which I have always been partial too, despite my lack of love for the album) I knew I couldn't miss it.
The Show was great, many of the original concepts of the show where still in place, the giant wall erected between band and audience, The massive inflatable puppets, and projections. But now the show has been moved from an internal view (the character pink's move from the world into his emotional wall) to an external one (society's move from the world into it's emotional wall). Thus the show has a much more political theme this time around. The projections are mostly new, in fact only three animated sequences from the original show are present in the current show, These are "What Shall we Use Now?" aka the fornicating flowers, "Waiting for the Worms" the hammers marching, and the trial. An interesting aspect to this new performance was the use of projections on the wall in the first half of the show. For those who aren't aware in the original show the wall is erected between the audience and the band, as if it wasn't happening, no projection's, the band performing in their spots with only traditional moments of coming to stage front, such as guitar solos and such. The idea was startle the audience with this bold idea of blocking off the connection between performer and audience, as well as providing a literal dramatization of the concepts of the show's narrative. While it still is bold and still enforces the narrative, everyone knows about the wall (the literal barrier) from books bootlegs and documentaries, so knowing that there would be no shock factor to a forty foot wall being built during a rock concert, Waters and Co. decided to use it as theater straight away. One of the highlights being in, "The Thin Ice" where they project a picture and name of a victim of war, beginning with Waters' father and transpose each one to a different brick, with ever brick filled with an image by the end of the number.
The performance was great. Waters newest band being in top form, kudos to the singer Robbie Wycoff for his great renditions of the songs originally sung by David Gilmour and to Guitarist David Killmister for his reproduction of the guitar solo's of the same. Also performing was a local kids group who danced and sang along with the children's choir part of "Another Brick in the Wall" part two. The stand out bits for me, was what is the first side of the second record "Hey you", "Is There Anybody out There", "Nobody Home", and "Comfortably Numb" the boldness of playing out the pieces completely or mostly behind a wall. makes these numbers, the best on the album in my opinion, quite memorable and bold. More a piece of theater than a typical concert. Roger Waters Wall Tour was a great experience.
The Second unlikely concert was that of Luna Sea. Luna Sea is a Japanese rock band from the nineties that has been not just a favorite J rock band of mine, but one of my favorite bands for some time. it's hard to describe their music, a blend of hard rock, Metal, Goth, and Progressive rock. I choose to call them a prog rock band as it is the part of the previous description that doesn't preclude the others. In any case they are a very unique and exciting band , that broke up ten years ago, though they preferred to call it a prolonged hiatus even back to when they split. and if you've never heard them I recommend you check them out, they are available on I tunes and there are many videos of them on You Tube. Recently many J rock bands have been touring the United States, and I have seen a couple of my favorites but, of all of the J rock bands I've listened to Luna Sea seemed least likely to want to tour the U.S. especially as, despite a couple of one off shows in 2007, where still split. So imagine my surprise when I found out that they where not only going to be touring this year, but playing at the Hollywood Palladium, on their one and only stop in the U.S. For someone who pondered going to Japan to see their (then) final concert and their reunion, it was no question, I had to go to this show. This was the first time I had ever been in the Palladium, and I was surprised at how big the place is, from the outside I expected it to be like a club, but when you really look at it and go inside, I found that it was actually a pretty good size theater. The place was full with an interesting crowd of American, anime fans general concert goers, and the Luna Sea faithful, known playfully as Slaves. There was a film crew there as the concert was being filmed for a 3D concert film to be released next year. The stage was a simple setup with a back drop of a reflective full Moon and the band's logo. The House music faded over to Luna Sea's techno intro. And the audience came up to a frenzied pitch when the ominous LOVE intro to the opening song "Loveless" echoed. The opening track of their fourth album "Mother" it is a wonderful sparse crystalline song and a perfect opener for the concert. The biggest shock to me about Luna Sea live is how loud they are, of course all rock bands are loud so I'm speaking relatively. But it was not a noisy loud just a big fully enveloping sound that made the atmospheric nature of their music the dominating force of the evening, brilliant! The guitars weaved around the room and the bass and drums where strong. The concert that followed was a triumphant trip through Luna Sea's greatest hits. The big songs where all there, Dejavu, Rosier, Ra se n, In My Dream (With Shiver), and so forth, and the performance was as energetic and strong as the band ever played in their 1990's heyday. Ruyichi the Lead singer did some of his MC ing in English, but unlike some J rockers the language is not his strong suit so he spoke more in Japanese, but we didn't need English to understand their passion and thankfulness to play to an international audience for the first time. I do believe that musicians greeting the audience in their home language is quite an honor so I thank Ryuichi for his effort. The concert was a great experience and the best concert I've been to in quite a while, you know those shows where you feel both tiered and refreshed at the same time? this was one of them. Stand out moments for me where. "Ra se n", this is a cyclic song of moods culminating on one of lead guitarist Sugizo's greatest solos. His Guitar tone in person is so large and penetrating, its almost as if it's coming from within you. "Face to Face" a moody goth song a favorite, "Storm" a great rocker with a solo almost as great as "Ra se N's" the violin lead "Providence" and "In my Dream (with shiver)" the earliest of Luna Sea's anthems and an epic moment. Also a stand out for me was Drummer Shinya's playing I feel you can only truly experience that art of a drummer in person, so much is lost in recording. And Shinya in person was an amazing experience. He is a drummer with a Taiko back ground and he plays drums with such authority (read he hits them really hard). After about a two hour show the band ended the concert with the popular closer "Wish" starting with a shot of confetti cannons, we where the band's for one evening as the band was ours.
So that was my week of unlikely concerts. both where great experiences and I can only hope that I can have rock concert experiences like that more often.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Moleskine notebooks.
The Moleskine Notebook, is a cheap leather bound notebook that has caught on with artists, especially it seems animators. I always thought that these notebooks, which seem really cheaply put together, made in china, and $10 for a 3.5”x5.5” one, where just another hip status symbol object. I just could not figure out what the appeal of these sketchbooks were. Well, while I was at A.P.E. I sat next to some animators who were sketching in Moleskines, I started to wonder about them again. Later I was at Barnes and Noble I noticed that they had Moleskines for 20% off. So I figured I'd see what the hype was all about. I took the plunge and bought one. And well, it's hype and a status symbol... mostly. The one I got was a hard bound, but it really is not well bound, however, this actually works in the things advantage. Because since the perfect binding breaks on every spread, you can draw freely across the gutter. The paper is a very smooth slightly toned surface that's kinda hard. It takes to my beloved Col-erase pencil beautifully (probably why Animators like 'em). So I have to admit that it is a nice drawing experience. But here is the part that sucks. A 3.5”x5.5” sketchbook costs the same as a 9”x12” by most other companies. And while the texture of the pages is great it's nothing that can't be obtained in a less expensive notebook, made in the first world. So basically it's a nice book, but way overpriced in my opinion, especially since they are made in china. So it won't replace my Strathmore's and Canson's any time soon. But that said, I may keep get the 3.5”x5.5” type as a travel notebook in the future, epecially if I can find them on sale. Because it fits into the pocket well, without the discomfort of the spiral bind. So there you have it they're good, but no greater than other makes of sketchbooks, so my conclusion is that Moleskine notebooks are hype and status symbols.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Long Beach Comic Con and the Neuropsychosis World Tour
Hey lo. Last weekend I finished up the Neuropsychosis World Tour with the Long Beach Comic Con. The Con was a fun experience and my first at a big Convention's artist alley. It was completely different from A.P.E. I felt it had a similar vibe to it as an Anime Convention. I did poorly sales wise, but did very well as far as making connections and learning stuff was concerned. I made one connection that may get one of my short stories into print, so that was pretty cool. I was surprised though, because I expected A.P.E. To be the show that I did poorly at. Aside from my exhibiting I found some cool new comic stuff, visited with my neighbor from A.P.E. Josh the artist from "Assholes", and got a drawing from the amazing Dean Yeagle. I also got a hold of Mobieus' new Arzack series which will probably be written about here later. Long beach seemed to be a big cosplay show, which is cool, of course that might be due to the fact that it was on Halloween weekend. All that plus a weekend with my cousin equals a great time.
With the first Neuropsychosis tour finally wrapped up, I can reflect. It was a good learning experience in how to promote your book. I learned that you need to have a single sentence in which you can entice someone into picking it up. After looking around I decided that I need to go with some form of print house for my comic as the 'zines just aren't attracting people, in fact most people figure them as freebies. So that was the Neuropsychosis World Tour. See ya on the next go round.
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