COMIC CON 2007

Raj convinced me to get on the train to get to Comic-Con down in San Diego this year, which worked great and we had an awesome time. Got a ton of great books, mostly Japanese and French, and bowed out early cuz my bag was heavy and my wallet light. We were gonna get a ride home with my co-worker and buddy Randy, but he was still inside looking around so Raj and I went for some beers at a nice outdoor patio bar just up the street. We had been to the same place for lunch a few hours earlier, and strangely most of the staff was wearing BattleStar Galactica t-shirts. So I wasn't COMPLETELY blown away when Aaron Douglas, who plays Chief Tyrol, strolled up into the bar.

I try not to nerd out too hard but I was already drunk and so I went up to him and told him I was a huge fan, and he was like the coolest guy. Totally into chatting, super friendly, we had neat conversation for a few minutes and then took a picture. Great. So I sat back down and then Lena Headey, the HOT WIFE of the lead Spartan in the movie 300 came and sat right next to us. No kidding. So Raj started chatting her up and we ended up partying with her and her husband all night, they bought us a bunch of beers and we had a really good time hanging out and getting to know them, they just moved to LA from the UK.

Towards the end of the night I got a tap on my shoulder and there is Aaron Douglas again, with Michael Trucco, who plays Samuel Anders on Battlestar Galactica! "Thought you'd want to say hi to him too", so I got a picture with him and was REALLY drunk by this time and I was just stoked. So Comic Con 2007 was all about beers at the pub down the street! I had just watched the first episode of Season 3 THE NIGHT BEFORE where both these guys blow up a huge Cylon ship on the occupied planet. They were both really cool and I was glad to meet them. Oh yeah, and the staff wearing the t-shirts was COMPLETELY unrelated. Wtf.

GOODBYE, Mr. Gallstone

So Friday I'm finally having my gallstone laproscopically removed by a very good doctor, hope to largely recover over the weekend and be back to work either Monday or Tuesday. This weekend is Comic-Con in San Diego, which I had TOTALLY been planning to go to, but I finally arranged the surgery so no more waiting. I'm going to hit comic con on Thursday and hopefully I can rest over the weekend looking at some awesome new books!

TEKKON KINKREET

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/

I saw this movie today for the 5th time. I really realized just tonight that this is really absolutely my favorite movie ever made. And the director is an old friend of mine. Stunning. The most meticulously crafted film I think ever made. I can't even begin to imagine the man hours it must have cost to create this film. Watch it.

July 17th, 2007

6:30 am am wake up

7:00 am surfing long rolling waves under a foggy sky at Venice Beach, took the two support fins off my long board, making serious progress as a surfer. Amazing. Soul-fulfilling.

10:00 roll up to work. Latte and cheerios. I'm in charge of designing the front end and user interface for the second Spielberg project, my part to be finished in just weeks.

6:00 pm Leave work early to head to Hollywood for my class in Visual Storytelling with the master of Cinematography, Bruce Block, at Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

10:00 Get out of class, drive 30 min back to Santa Monica, to my favorite pub with most of my local game developer friends, for sweet sweet Dry Blackthorne Apple Cider and heated debate about the latest HBO programs and latest game industry gossip.

1:10 am Just got home, writing my damn blog about writing my blog.

TERRA_TASTIC

In an AMAZING coincidence, I was chatting with a girl named Ayako at a dinner party last week of one of Yoko's best friends. She's an actress, and will be starring in a big upcoming movie which has yet to be announced. We were chatting about my job, as a designer and illustrator who used to work in Japan, "maybe you know my fiance, Terada Katsuya?"

OMG yeah I know him. I only have EVERY BOOK HE HAS EVER PUBLISHED and only one poster adorns my studio wall, and HE DREW IT. Turns out he was coming to town this week to visit and she invited Yoko and I out to dinner with the two of them! LUCKY.

It was rad, he was rad, she was rad, dinner was rad, and RADDEST OF ALL he signed some of my books and even drew me a portrait. (Yoko and I are debating the purchase of an iPhone) We had an amazing dinner on Main Street after a colorful walk down Venice Beach on Sunday evening. More than anything else this week this was definitely the highlight of my week. I hope to stay in touch with him!

Genki Rockets

Luckily for me, even though I no longer live in Japan, Japan often comes to see me. Usually in the form of Tetsuya Mizuguchi. I see him sometimes it seems only slightly less than when I worked for him. He is in LA ALL THE TIME. And we usually get at least one dinner and drinks session each time. This week was no different! The difference was I got to meet the rest of his amazing new pop band that opened the LIVE EARTH concert, and he got to meet Al Gore! So cool.

The Genki Rockets guys are awesome, and one of them used to work at Sega, in the same building as me! He says he used to see me eating lunch all the time downstairs. What, do I stick out or something??

E3 week chapter 1

So E3 this year basically sucked more than I could have imagined. No big announcements, only one good party, and tons of regulars didn't even come because there was nothing for them to do. LAME.

Fortunately I grabbed fate by the balls and made it rad by my own hand.



Ubisoft had a great party so I crashed it. It was the only "real" E3 party, with most of the regulars and tons of free drinks and good conversation and laughs. This was the only night I really got to see all my old buddies from EGM/1up, guys that have been TRADITION to party with for like 9 years. Jason, John, Dom, Yamachan, and everyone else that didn't make it you were missed!

Peeps in picture L to R Brian Inthihar, Mark McDonald, Sam Kennedy Shane Bettenhausen (all EGM guys) Cindy Lum from Ubisoft, and Ryan Payton from the Metal Gear team.

BIG CITY

I bought tickets today for Yoko and I to fly to New York City at the end of August. I've never been there and its my brother's bachelor party!! Sammy Seal is getting married in December, and besides, I owe him a visit. Pretty excited, so excited in fact I did a piece of city art to celebrate!



My camera is gonna be breaking a sweat filling me with inspiration come August baby

WEEKEND WRAP UP

So... this week..

I will be helping out on another project at work for two weeks, should be a nice distraction, just long enough. My gall bladder has to be taken out, so I am getting a lovely colonoscopy on friday to peep my butt, I went in to work yesterday to do some of my own work and with zero distractions, zero email and zero meetings I got like 2 days worth of work done. Crazy! Me, HP and his sister went up to county line today and surfed for 6 hours. Randy and some of his friends showed up and Randy and I caught some very big waves boogy boarding between surf sessions. I'm sooooooo tired right now. And while trying to pause my downloaded rental of "The Fountain" while talking to my mom just now I found out in order to fast forward downloaded content the download must be 100% complete. I had to shut my xbox down because it froze when I paused it and restarted it, and had to wait for the final 25% to download, which it just finished doing.

So I'm back to the Fountain! Great flick, check it out.