Death

Alright, now that I'm settled in, it's time for some Limited Ed. shit. I got e-mail from 3A, Ashley Wood and 3-Zero's collaboration toy company, letting me know that their new 12" figure Les Mort [pictured above] is now available over at Bambaland. I am a huge fan of both Ashley Wood and 3-Zero and this is one sweet-ass figure. Unfortunately, I just moved to LA and don't have a job (yet) or an apartment, so it might be a little while before I buy any more toys. But for only $130, it is a lot cheaper than some of Ashley's other toys.

Fear And Loathing Across The USA

I was doing ninety outside of Yuma when the acid kicked in [pictured above]. I told Anne to grab the wheel as I swatted at buzzards that had started circling the cat cage. When I looked back over at Anne, she had morphed, transformed into Kallie the Kat, in the fur [pictured below].


Kallie grabbed the wheel as I fiddled with the radio dial. We were in the desert, just inside California. It was the last day of our trip, but just the beginning of mine. As the car careened along the smooth asphalt at ninety miles an hour, practically steering itself at this point, I thought back over our voyage [first day, pictured below].


From Durham, North Carolina, we had headed down I-85 South towards Atlanta. "What are we doing?" I thought as we reached Charlotte, "This is going to take forever!" We were only three hours into our trip and already I was exhausted. Anne took over in South Carolina [pictured below] and took us through Atlanta, one of the hairiest parts of our voyage.


The traffic around Atlanta is awful and Anne had never driven there before, but she figured it would be good practice for when we got to Los Angeles. After we got to Alabama, I took over driving again. Kallie had taken some tranquilizers in the back seat and had finally stopped whining [pictured below].


It would be about six more hours before we would get to Jackson, Mississippi and our first night's rest, so I figured it was about time I started drinking. There's nothing like the combination of Gusano Rojo and Yellowjackets to keep you awake, alert and relaxed on a long drive. Anne protested, but it's my car, so what's she going to do? I was happy to pull into the La Quinta in Jackson around 7:30, and Anne had spied a little Thai place called, appropriately, the Thai House, on the way in. I was a little reluctant to eat Thai food in Mississippi, but after reading positive reviews online, we decided to give it a try, and it was delicious. I had the Tom Kha Gai soup and Pad Prik and Anne had Larb. All three dishes were worth the trip. Then back to the hotel to pass out and be woken up every few hours by Kallie in nocturnal hunt mode [below].


The second day took us to Austin to visit Mike Lucas and Sunny Love [below].


I drove the rest of the way through Mississippi, Anne took over in Louisiana and I drove through Texas. Texas is a lot hillier than I had remembered on my last cross country trip. We took the back roads off of I-20 down to Austin. Highway 79 or some such nonsense. There were some real shit-holes [below] on the way. Austin is great, though. We arrived just in time to snack a little before Mike cooked some mean Parmesan and Panko breaded chicken. Yep, Mike is eating meat again. Mike has been a vegetarian the entire time I have known him, but now he is back on the meat with a vengeance. We stayed at Mike's girlfriend Brandy's place in Austin.


The next day, after a hearty burrito breakfast, we ventured out into the Austin heat. 110 degrees in the shade! It was too hot to stay dry, so we liquored up and headed for the local swimmin' hole, Barton Springs. On the way, we just had to stop for delicious Vietnamese sandwiches at Lulu B's, a sandwich truck that is a favorite of locals [below].


I thought about getting Kallie stuffed at Martinez Brothers Taxidermy Studio [below], but that would have to wait. The swimming hole was the perfect thing. A natural spring that has been walled off with concrete and charges three dollars admission. It was deliciously cool water, around sixty-five degrees, with disgusting algae floating over the surface. That didn't stop us from jumping (or slowly scootching) right into the water. After about an hour, we were cooled off and ready to head back to Mike's place to pick up some DV tapes of some old crumps for me to put on my computer. That, and a ton of Reggae music.


On the way back to Brandy's house, we stopped at the farmer's market [below] for some veggies for that night. Now, when I say Mike is back on meat with a vengeance, I mean it. That night, we had bison burgers and two kinds of sausage with our veggies. We hung out for a little after dinner, but we were exhausted and it was a long drive to El Paso the next day. Kallie enjoyed her short time at Brandy's, getting to play with three dogs and another cat. The dogs: Sunny, Bowie and Tootie took an instant liking to Kallie and chased her whenever they had the chance. The cat was a little more standoffish.


We left Austin around ten the next morning after a breakfast of homemade blueberry pancakes and bacon (a la Mike). Peter Garrett was right when he sung, "the Western desert lives and breathes." Sure he was talking about Australia, but it still applies. And it was breathing pretty hard when we arrived that night in El Paso [below (not really, but it is Texas)]. El Paso, right on the Mexican border, across the river from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. You could see the shacks on the hill within walking distance from I-10. "How were they ever going to build a fence here?" I thought. "Great place to get Mexican food, though, right?"


So we looked for a place close to the La Quinta and found Dominguez Fine Mexican Food. It got a good review on Yelp, but was probably the worst Mexican either of us had ever eaten. They brought out two salsas, a chunky salsa (named after the Chunky River in Chunky, Mississippi) and a puréed salsa. The chunky salsa was just chopped up jalapenos with a single slice of tomato and onion in lime juice. The puréed salsa was just jalapenos tossed in a blender. My mouth is still on fire from that. And that wasn't the worst of it. Anne ordered a dish that included a tamale topped with ketchup.

We figured the only way to make up for it was to trash our hotel room before heading to Orange Julius for breakfast the next morning. My father's father's name was Julius, and going to Orange Julius has always reminded me of him. There are no Orange Juliuses close to where we live in North Carolina, and hadn't been since I was a teenager and my grandfather died. I always kind of connected the two in my mind. Anyway, this would be a special treat and it did not disappoint. It was still just as delicious as I had remembered.


Now, only two days left on our trip. We packed up the cat and the car and hit the highway heading West [above]. Next stop, Phoenix, Arizona, seven hours away. This would be an easy day, or so I thought. Luckily, we did not run out of gas or overheat in the pit of hell that is the Sonoran Desert. We did get to see beautiful Mesas and huge Saguaro cacti, though [below]. And we barely bickered the whole ride, with only Kallie providing the "are we there yet, are we there yet?" whine.


Phoenix, Arizona might as well be located on the sun. It is definitely the hottest place we stopped on our trip. It was over a hundred degrees in the middle of the night. And I don't care what people say about dry heat. The disgustingly hot, dry wind that blew through the city made me sweat just as bad as any humid summer day in North Carolina. Luckily, we found a delicious Chinese restaurant called China Chili in Phoenix for dinner. The dumplings there are to die for! Anne and I could have eaten those all night. Then back to bed with a more behaved Kallie this night. The next day would be our shortest of driving, so I figured the acid wouldn't hurt anything. Boy was I wrong. At least it kept the California desert from getting boring. On the way, we stopped at the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum and Tank Graveyard and had milkshakes [pictures coming soon]. That was really the only way to beat the heat. It was only another few hours to Los Angeles, but at that point, who knew if we would make it. Anne's credit card was declined, and we nearly ran out of gas, but luckily her bank had just thought it was stolen and after a half hour on the phone with them, we were back in business, fueled up and ready to hit the road again.

Los Angeles is huge, dirty, beautiful, Mexican, hot, cool, everything you might think it is. I had to break into Seth's friends Mesha and Jordan's house to retrieve his keys, but we got out of there before the cops showed up. Seth's place is in Echo Park, right across the street from the park. It might as well be called Little Mexico, but it is not that little, so it should probably just go by Mexico. On Seth's recommendation, we headed to Mae Ploy for Thai food last night. It was delicious! Just like in Thailand.

Afterward, we headed back to Seth's to crash. We were exhausted from the trip. Seth's apartment has no air conditioning, it is on the third floor and has Western facing windows, so it was hot. We had all the windows open and all the fans going as we settled down to sleep. The screen in the window behind Seth's bed is not all the way attached, so there is a slight gap between it and the sill. I thought I would fix it in the morning when we got up, but Kallie had different ideas.

Kallie loves sleeping in window sills, but this one was not the best place for her to sleep. At around one in the morning, she knocked the screen out of the window and nearly fell out with it. I had to get dressed and go down to the street below to retrieve the screen, then had to hang nearly all the way out of the window on the third floor to reattach it. We decided that we would leave that window closed from now on and Kallie has taken to hiding behind the futon in fear, so as not to almost fall out of any other windows. We went grocery shopping today, trying to get a little better lay of the land. It will take a little adjusting, but I think we will make it here. We just need to find an apartment with air conditioning that is closer to the ground. Oh yeah, if you want to see more pictures from the trip, check out my flickr set here.

Bloggin' In Austin

Anne and I are in Austin visiting the infamous Michael Lucas. We arrived last evening and will be leaving for El Paso in the morning. Damn it is hot in Texas! I can't wait to get to LA where it is a pleasant, constant temperature all year round. Anyway, Anne and I haven't killed each other yet, but I think Anne is planning on doing Kallie the Kat in before the trip is through. Kallie has been a little annoying, crying in her luxurious cage in the back seat of the car for five to six hours of the trip each day. She does like it when Anne and I read to each other, though. She will actually go to sleep. And she likes putting her paws up in the window sill and looking out the window when we pass 18-wheelers. Alright, so that's the trip so far, now for some Limited Ed. business.

Tokyoflash is having a special Summer 2008 Festival in which they are presenting four Limited Ed. watches [pictured above]. They are also having a sale on selected watches. Also, when you purchase a watch between July 30th and August 6th, you will be entered for a chance to win one of three excellent prizes, a JVC Everio Camcorder, a Tokyoflash watch of your choice for you and a friend, or a selection of funky keychain games and a Nekura brand watch of your choice. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Well, that's all for now. Anne and I will be on the road for the next three days, so the next time I will blog will probably be from LA! See y'all there!

The Wrath Of Con

Comic Con 2008 is upon us, and with it comes a shitstorm of e-mail, e-mail, e-mail about all the wonderful things going on and toys being released and artist signings, etc. etc. etc. It is like the earwig from the Wrath of Kahn, burrowing into my brain making me even more crazy that I already am with Anne and I moving to Los Angeles on Sunday! WTF!!!!!!!!! I still have three boxes of shiites to pack up. Don't tell the moving company, I think they are Sunni. Anyway, here is a mini-roundup of my highlights.

First off, A Paper Tiger will be representin' with a beautiful new Limited Ed. print from Tessar Lo entitled Kirin [pictured above]. A Paper Tiger's prints are just beautiful, great ink quality, exquisite paper. This print is limited to just 50 pieces, 25 available at the con and 25 available online for those of us who won't be out there by then. Tessar Lo was born in Indonesia and is a recent graduate of Toronto's Sheridan Institue of Art. He received his BAA in illustration and plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an artist. Sounds familiar. Lo his influenced by artists Takeshi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara and by japanese ukiyo-e printers and other traditional Asian techniques. He is at the Munky King booth RIGHT NOW (Thursday, July 24th, 2:30-4:00pm PST) signing prints and more!

Next up, project:gallery's very own Yoskay Yamamoto will be releasing his first vinyl figure in collaboration with Munky King. The Koibito [pictured above] has been much anticipated and can expected to sell out quickly this weekend. Yamamoto will also be signing a print and autographs at the Munky King booth all weekend and will be painting live with Scott Belcastro at the vinylpulse.com party tonight.

Also, Super7 will be unveiling their Shogun Warrior-esque Stormtrooper vinyl figure, which they produced in association with Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Kotobukiya [pictured above in the background with Brian Flynn of Super7 and a real live Stormtrooper]. This thing is giant and sweet as Texas barbecue beef brisket. When I was a kid, I had a Shogun Warrior Godzilla figure. That was one of my favorite toys ever. It had wheels in the feet and a flame tongue that would stick out when a lever in the back of its head was pressed. Its claws were sharp enough to cut my younger brother. You don't see toys like that anymore, I guess until now.

Well, that's all for now. I'm tired and I need to get back to work.

KAWS JPP

We are just two minutes away from the drop of Kaws latest creation, JPP [pictured above], in association with Medicom Toy. Get ready to hit refresh over and over until you can actually get this to pop up for you and then try to get it before it sells out in ten seconds. No price or availability info, of course.

Everyone We Know

I got e-mail from Yifat over at Urbanix Gallery in Tel-Aviv in Israel letting me know about what's going on at their gallery. Urbanix is the first gallery and shop in Israel dedicated to urban art and vinyl toys. That's pretty freakin' awesome! I am very glad that urban art and vinyl has caught on somewhere like Israel. It gives me hope for the future. Anyway, they have an exhibit opening this Thursday, July 24th, entitled Me, You and all the Others featuring works in different media by five young Israeli illustrators and graphic designers: Gabby Nathan [painting pictured above], Gal Shkedi [sculpture pictured below], Nura Porat, Tamar Moshkovitz and Shlomi Schillinger (the last two are the creators of Plushhood). According to Yifat:

"The exhibition deals with the dialog between the urban (the city) and human texture (the society).

The difficulty of coping with a demanding and competitive urban life, the subjugation to consumerism, money and social status, beside social manifestations like violence and indifference, can be found either openly or concealed in the works presented."

Pretty heady stuff. If you are in Tel-Aviv this weekend, stop by and give them a big Shalom for me!

Kicks Hiiiiiiiiiiiigh

Finally, a t-shirt from Kicks/Hi that I actually like. It has been a while. This one really says it all, though. Aloha Friday!

Also, check out the funky bright, bright yellow and red Nike Blazers China BMX editions [pictured, below] that will be available at Kicks/Hi this Saturday at 11am until they sell out. Damn, my eyes are burning!

Q-Tip What Ya' Want The Mike For

Alife has got a bangin' new Limited Ed. Q-Tip lyrics-inspired t-shirt [pictured below] dropping in either black or white (no shades of gray here) featuring lyrics from the Tribe Called Quest song Lyrics to Go in honor of the Rock the Bells tour that Tribe is headlining that started this past Saturday in Chitown. The tee will be available at each of the concert venues and in limited numbers at the various Alife stores starting tomorrow, July 22nd. Q-Tip's new album, The Renaissance, will be in stores soon.

Kiss, Kiss

Got e-mail from ESC lettin' me know 'bout a Limited Ed. SDCC 'sclusive Kissaki Sandstorm Edition. It is limited to only 300 pieces, available Friday or Saturday, the 26th or 27th to be signed at the Toy Tokyo booth. It'll run ya' $69.99, but you can get it signed, which makes it priceless. Also, it looks pretty sweet and I really like the brown and blue colorway. Reminds me of something.

Rom, Spaceknight

Rom, Spaceknight was one of my favorite action figure/comic book combinations as a kid. I remember the ad [pictured above] in the back of other comics for the toy (from Parker Brothers®, one of my favorite board game producers). There were only 75 issues of the comic, but the toy was what really attracted me. It made beeping noises and had light up accessories, and I love sparkling lights, especially red LED ones, and electronic beeps, so I loved this toy. I'm like a big, dumb dog. In the UK, Rom was licensed by Palitoy as part of the Action Man series, which was the British version of G.I. Joe, the Japanese version of which was Combat Joe, which spawned Henshin Cyborg, the inspiration for a lot of modern Kaiju toys including those of Bounty Hunter and Secret Base. Anyway, I am apparently not the only person in the world who was a big Rom fan. I'm thinking a toy update might be in order. A Neo-Kaiju Rom-inspired fight figure. If no one has started working on one already, I'm calling it. If anyone has started working on one, let me know so I don't waste my time prototyping.