The Obligatory
"Play safe. Ski only in clockwise direction. Let's all have fun together."
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Weekend and a Half
I've stepped away from the blog for a few days, mainly to work on a few AOTS skits (which will be posted here shortly), and a few extra life-type things.
After finishing up a day-long shoot on Friday, I decided on a whim to drive down to San Diego for ComiCon. I was semi-interested in checking out the NerdFest itself, but moreso interested in walkin' around one of my favorite cities, hanging out with some work friends, and meeting up with my good friend (and fellow college comedy troupe member / roommate) Justin, who writes for ToyFare magazine's excellent Twisted Toyfare Theater.
After sweating in my car for a few hours (mental note - don't try to detour through the desert when it's 100+ degrees and your air conditioning isn't working), I got to San Diego, parked at the hotel and took a shuttle to the convention center ... where I promptly met up with Luis and spent a few hours pub crawling around the gaslamp district.
I eventually met up with Justin while he was waiting in line for the Spiderman 3 conference, but the auditorium filled up ... so we went back to the gaslamp district for more food and beer before his flight home.
At this point, you may begin to predict a pattern. And you would be correct in predicting that I never actually made it inside the convention hall, and spent the vast majority of the day hangin' around San Diego and drinkin'. Next year I'll go in. Honest. It seemed pretty cool ... and the few AOTS fans I met outside seemed like they were having a good time.
Oh well. I still had a good time. It's always nice to get out of L.A.
On Sunday, I woke up early and drove out to the Poway, northeast of San Diego, for a bit of hiking up Woodson Mountain with my new hiking boots. I was drawn in by the pictures of other-worldly boulder formations:
I should have been deterred by the boiling temperatures that had almost melted me on the drive down.
But of course, I wasn't. I'm a hiker, goddamnit.
The trail was short, but was pretty much a straight line right up the side of the mountain, and man - it was hot. I'm pretty sure I almost died on this hike. For sections of the hike, I was pretty much just trudging from shaded area to shaded area, then dropping down on the ground and panting. But by then I was more than halfway up, and that's no time to turn back. Even when you start getting dizzy.
Despite the haze and the radio towers, the views from the top were pretty great. Boulders cover pretty much the entire landscape as far as you can see, and I could make out some of the distant mountain ranges in southern Anza-Borrego. There's some more pics on Flickr, too.
Man, I do love the desert.
Just not as much in the summer.
Oh, I also went to the Flaming Lips show at the Hollywood Bowl that night. Quick summary:
- Os Mutantes are awesome. They sounded really sharp live, and had amazing energy. I'm big fans of theirs, but I think the whole 'singing in Portuguese' turned off some of the audience.
- The Thievery Corporation is also awesome. They had almost the entire Bowl audience up on their feet in a matter of minutes.
- Flaming Lips put on a really great show. It's like a combination of a rock show, a broadway musical, and a religious revival ... with a good amount of performance art thrown in for good measure. I thought their set was really short, though - like 40 minutes or so, with a short encore ... and they were recording the show for a DVD, so Wayne kept telling the audience we weren't cheering loud enough.
The lesson? TV ruins everything.
Here's what the show looked like:
That white light? Powered by the pure joy of the audience.
Also, electricity.
After finishing up a day-long shoot on Friday, I decided on a whim to drive down to San Diego for ComiCon. I was semi-interested in checking out the NerdFest itself, but moreso interested in walkin' around one of my favorite cities, hanging out with some work friends, and meeting up with my good friend (and fellow college comedy troupe member / roommate) Justin, who writes for ToyFare magazine's excellent Twisted Toyfare Theater.
After sweating in my car for a few hours (mental note - don't try to detour through the desert when it's 100+ degrees and your air conditioning isn't working), I got to San Diego, parked at the hotel and took a shuttle to the convention center ... where I promptly met up with Luis and spent a few hours pub crawling around the gaslamp district.
I eventually met up with Justin while he was waiting in line for the Spiderman 3 conference, but the auditorium filled up ... so we went back to the gaslamp district for more food and beer before his flight home.
At this point, you may begin to predict a pattern. And you would be correct in predicting that I never actually made it inside the convention hall, and spent the vast majority of the day hangin' around San Diego and drinkin'. Next year I'll go in. Honest. It seemed pretty cool ... and the few AOTS fans I met outside seemed like they were having a good time.
Oh well. I still had a good time. It's always nice to get out of L.A.
On Sunday, I woke up early and drove out to the Poway, northeast of San Diego, for a bit of hiking up Woodson Mountain with my new hiking boots. I was drawn in by the pictures of other-worldly boulder formations:
I should have been deterred by the boiling temperatures that had almost melted me on the drive down.
But of course, I wasn't. I'm a hiker, goddamnit.
The trail was short, but was pretty much a straight line right up the side of the mountain, and man - it was hot. I'm pretty sure I almost died on this hike. For sections of the hike, I was pretty much just trudging from shaded area to shaded area, then dropping down on the ground and panting. But by then I was more than halfway up, and that's no time to turn back. Even when you start getting dizzy.
Despite the haze and the radio towers, the views from the top were pretty great. Boulders cover pretty much the entire landscape as far as you can see, and I could make out some of the distant mountain ranges in southern Anza-Borrego. There's some more pics on Flickr, too.
Man, I do love the desert.
Just not as much in the summer.
Oh, I also went to the Flaming Lips show at the Hollywood Bowl that night. Quick summary:
- Os Mutantes are awesome. They sounded really sharp live, and had amazing energy. I'm big fans of theirs, but I think the whole 'singing in Portuguese' turned off some of the audience.
- The Thievery Corporation is also awesome. They had almost the entire Bowl audience up on their feet in a matter of minutes.
- Flaming Lips put on a really great show. It's like a combination of a rock show, a broadway musical, and a religious revival ... with a good amount of performance art thrown in for good measure. I thought their set was really short, though - like 40 minutes or so, with a short encore ... and they were recording the show for a DVD, so Wayne kept telling the audience we weren't cheering loud enough.
The lesson? TV ruins everything.
Here's what the show looked like:
That white light? Powered by the pure joy of the audience.
Also, electricity.
that one guy you know, 9:08 PM
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3 Comments:
I have just three things to say.
1. You guys have the coolest jobs ever (I put my name in for a cool job earlier this week, but I doubt I'll get it).
2. You take some prettyawesome pictures on your hikes.
3. I'm glad you didn't melt.
1. You guys have the coolest jobs ever (I put my name in for a cool job earlier this week, but I doubt I'll get it).
2. You take some prettyawesome pictures on your hikes.
3. I'm glad you didn't melt.
It's hard to cheer when it's like 100 degrees in there.
Stil a good show though. No Byrne-Extra-Action-Marching-Band orgy, but good.
Stil a good show though. No Byrne-Extra-Action-Marching-Band orgy, but good.
Aw, thanks, Pilgrim.
