Vegas: Sushi Wa dinner

When it comes to food, there's absolutely no question in my mind that the supreme contender for my utmost favorite thing to put into my face-hole has to be sushi. I love most forms of seafood to begin with, whether it's black-bean coated stone crab at the All-You-Can-Eat Chinese buffet nearby during their seafood special night, or slippery slabs of cold salmon sashimi bedecked with golden orbs of salmon roe upon a bed of steaming hot white rice. I will gladly consume most things you can dredge out of the ocean, though sea cucumber and daebul aren't things I'd eagerly seek out again. Sushi, though, is the kind of food I can eat any day, anywhere. I mean, there's definitely a huge distinction in quality between your typical grocery store ready-made packages of sushi and a legit sushi restaurant, but when you're in a bind there are the occasional lucky finds.  Luckily for us, we weren't resigned to eating sushi pre-packaged in thin plastic containers from the deli section! Sushi Wa is a good bit more out of the way than we would normally dine at, but when Antho and I happened to be in the area, hungry and in need of fuel, Sushi Wa was there so we decided to give it a go. We weren't disappointed! 

We had to have our usual favorites, of course, like the fatty goodness of salmon or the unctuous briny essence of the sea that is uni, but there were some fun new dishes available for the curious consumer to sample, too, like this dish below with tuna and sweet, sticky rice crisped on the outside drizzled with a spicy sauce and a piquant pickled jalapeno to wake up your tastebuds. Everything we tried was tasty and fresh, full of flavor and contrasting textures, like in the fried ice cream! Yes, fried ice cream. I know that's not a novelty to some of you, but it's always an amusing conflict of temperature states and textures to me when I find it on a menu. Overall it was an excellent meal and the only reason we didn't frequent the restaurant when living in Vegas was the fact it was so far removed from us. There's no shortage of delicious places to eat in the city, but if you happen to find yourself out in Henderson this is an excellent option to fill your belly with some quality sushi goodness!  

Vegas: Sushi Twister

When it's time to #TREATYOSELF, to pick out one of your utmost favorite, most luxurious and decadent choices to eat, what would you choose? For me, there's no doubt I'd veer hard into the seafood section, especially towards things like sea urchin, sweet shrimp, salmon, and salmon roe. I'm a sucker for sushi, what can I say? I won't say it's the penultimately perfect food, though it's bite-size portions with their perfectly balanced balls of tender seasoned rice and meticulously sliced servings of succulent fish are definitely getting pretty close to what might entail perfection. Each bite of rich, creamy sea urchin gunkan (or battleship) style sushi floods your palette with that briny essence of the sea and deep umami flavor that makes sea urchin such a decisively loved or hated food for many, much like raw oysters who's texture and flavor I find absolutely enjoyable, despite their resemblance to some kind of awful lung-lump you might hock up during a particularly bad chest infection. Maybe I'm the weird one here, but Antho loves many of the same oddities I do, so perhaps they're not so odd after all.

If the gonads of sea urchin and roe of salmon are too freaky-deaky for you baby, you can always opt for the warm, flaky, oily goodness of grilled eel smothered in a sweet and sticky sauce that compliments its flavor. Not only is the eel cooked, for those who struggle to stick cold slices of raw fish into their maw, but it's also served warm fresh from the grill so it's extra-enjoyable! There's also a ton of different side dishes available, along with "hidden" extras like the fried sweet shrimp heads, which a chef may politely inquire about your interest in prior to dishing it up. I recommend the crispy little craniums, but I've also mowed them down in raw, living form while living in Korea, so it's safe to say I love all things shrimpy. What I'm trying to say here, though, is that Sushi Twister has long been a staple restaurant of mine for sushi in Vegas for a very good reason: their food is good, very good! And consistently, at that! That's a wonderful thing, because there aren't that many restaurants on this side of the Strip offering sushi, let alone quality sushi, so Sushi Twister is a unicorn of sorts. They were the first decent sushi restaurant I ever encountered this side of Eastern, and the chefs have always been extremely pleasant, or at least polite when I interacted with them. This place is a gem, and while I no longer reside within a reasonable distance to visit them, I hope they are able to prosper and dish up these delicious dishes for years to come!

Vegas: Ceedro's open mic night

There are few things so universally despised and feared as public speaking or performance, which makes it an especially daring and reckless endeavor for those who seek out things like open mic nights to expose themselves and their preferred form of expression to the world, whether it be through music, comedy, or daredevil acrobatics. Our good friend Ceedro eagerly pursues these opportunities to get out there and perform with an enthusiasm that might borderline on questionable if it weren't for his sheer, infectious love of music and humor. At the last open mic night we attended with the good fellow, he won top billing and was invited to be the headline performer for the next weeks, much to no surprise of ours (because, duh, Ceedro is awesome)! It's not easy to get up on a stage in front of a bunch of strange people and perform, making yourself and the things you care about vulnerable to arm-chair critics. I can't say that I have the courage, as I've never gotten up in front of an open mic night myself, but Antho has and we both absolutely respect the sheer cajones it takes to do such. It's with this appreciation and the desire to always support our friends that Antho strove out, camera in hand, hoping to capture the endeavor for posterity's sake. Last time we attended this open mic, located at the Center for Science and Wonder in the world infamous city of sin, fabulous Lost Wages (aka Las Vegas), we got photos of the venue and random performers, hoping to maybe share them along the line, somehow, some way. It was evident upon secondary visitation, however, that the cast of performers was rotating pretty regularly as it was a fairly newly established open mic night. By the time of this post going live it may have become more solidified and predictable, but perhaps not. Art is not the sort of arena where you can really get particular about things, not when it comes to locking down performers or artists. As an artist myself I've got to admit that us artsy types aren't exactly renowned for our reliability, but I digress. 

When it comes to our friends, we strive to be consistent in supporting their hopes and dreams. I think that's important. Antho snagged these photos, and I'm sharing them. We hope you enjoy!

Vegas: Open Mic Night at the Center for Science and Wonder

Happy labor day guys!

Welcome one, welcome all, to the Center for Science and Wonder! Excellent name, isn't it? The venue itself is pretty small, primarily intended for small movie showings and open mic nights from my estimation and limited experience with the center's space. We were there, with our good friend Ceedro, to check out an open mic night. Ceedro was going to be performing, playing his ukelele for the crowd! Several other local artists and comedians joined the festivities, and though the open mic itself is pretty new it's been growing rapidly each week! Antho has gone back since and commented that it, indeed, had gotten more crowded since our visit the week prior. Being an open mic, it was full of the requisite awkward humor and self-deprecating jokes, moments of stage fright, and the venting of more than a couple frustrations. If the name "Center for Science and Wonder" doesn't make you curious, or at least a little ponderous, the center is geared towards the skeptic and atheist community of Las Vegas, providing a place for them to gather and discuss their ideas and philosophies without fear of interjection by offended religious folk, or consternation. There's a lot of hostility out there towards people who don't share the belief systems a lot of people are raised with, and that's very threatening to some people on a basic level- if you don't believe in the same moral guidebook, then how do they know you have morals?! Gasp, shock, horror. For most people who learn agnostic or atheist, the need for a guidebook on how to not be a terrible person is in and of itself a rather horrifying thing, so the offense goes both ways at least. Another place you can see this sort of contemptuous disdain for people with opposing viewpoints is any political rally or debate online. Same fervor tends to apply in those instances. It's a bit silly, to let our ideas become so divisive that we can't peacefully communicate and exchange those ideas, but the passion with which people cling to their beliefs is deep and often very meaningful to the individuals, whether it's their belief in an omnipotent god watching their every move with an itchy finger to send them on a one-way trip to hell, or the absence of any such singular entity. Whatever floats your boat or sinks your submarine, I say, as long as you're not hurting anyone else. 

Vegas: Sunset drive towards Henderson

Henderson, Nevada, is a city all it's own, but really it's just a suburb of Vegas. The two bleed more or less seamlessly into each other, the edges nearly unintelligible unless you know where to look (like that other "Welcome to Vegas" sign, for example). Somewhere on Boulder highway, to the East of Vegas, seems to be the official line of demarcation, and if you go past Nellis or Russel road you're typically seen as heading into "Hendertucky". Personally, I've got no qualms with Henderson. When I lived in Boulder City, which is another 20-40 minutes down the freeway from Henderson, it provided a nice change of pace, a close escape from home that bled into the city proper. Many of my friends and myself have lived in Henderson over the years and I can't complain about the area too much, though there are some stories I could certainly tell. My experience living on that side of the tracks isn't that different from my experience living anywhere in Vegas, which is generally to say it's been hot, people are frequently assinine, and there are slot machines crammed into any possible corner of any publicly accessible business. Vegas, baby. Where homeless crackheads congregate in the baking sun, shouting their misery at any and all who'll listen. 

On the flip side, we do get some rather stunning sunsets with all that unobstructed desert vista. The roads are rarely steep, unlike Seattle, with more of a smooth hilly gradient if you look for it. There are a few exceptions- Bonanza and Maryland Parkway have a pretty sizeable incline,  and there's another out off of Hollywood road somewhere, where teenagers and daredevils can try their luck on their preferred method of rolling- skateboards, rollerblades, whatever. Mostly, though, it's easy driving. The freeways aren't bad, at least when they aren't blotted in orange cones or clogged to capacity with out of state plates. There's always construction going on, somewhere, to improve the roads, but there are some seriously pot-holed spots- over on Eastern Avenue, by Tropicana and Flamingo area, for example. Maryland parkway in the university district was pretty rough for awhile, too. Our drive on this particular outing didn't take us that way, though. We were picking up our good friend Ceedro from his casa, then heading over towards Henderson to check out an open mic night! 

Vegas: Wetlands Park

As part of our personal quest to see all the pretty places scattered around our fair city, we suited up and found ourselves driving over to the Wetlands Park in Henderson one fine day. By this point we'd gotten Vanticore, our big Van, and were eager to stretch her legs. Eventually we want to get her fully converted to be livable so we can travel about in comfort, not unlike my much loved tortoises who carry their homes with them, but for now she's getting us out and about as we break her in. She's gone to Valley of Fire since this, but since she was still pretty new to us and we were finding new mechanical errors here and there, we kept it close to home and the Wetlands Park is pretty conveniently located just off of Boulder Highway on none other than Wetlands Park Drive ( 7050 E. Wetlands Park Lane

Las Vegas, NV 89122)... it's free to visit and there's quite an extensive network of trails running throughout the park to explore, so we barely just scratched the surface of all there was to see and do during this trip. The museum was preparing to close shortly after we got there, too, so we weren't able to spend as much time checking out the various exhibits (giant flying mechanical insects, animals pelts and more) as we would have liked. The ladies working inside the museum were very cordial and friendly despite being ready to leave, and when it was time for them to start closing up for the day they were still polite. Perhaps it was Antho's enthusiasm, which can be pretty contagious to be around, and he was pretty excited to be there. We'd talked about going several years back when I lived nearby, but it never panned out at the time. Perfect excuse to take Vanticore for a drive and stretch her legs!  It's free to visit 

More photos after the cut!

Critical Care Comics Saint Rose Hospital Visit 2016-03-24

You guys might have seen me talk in other posts about my volunteer work with Critical Care Comics, but in case you haven't here's a brief rundown: a bunch of big kids get together with local nerds & do-gooders to gather comics books, then summon up some superheroes and hand out those comics to kids in local hospitals to bring some much needed fun to their day.  Who wouldn't be happy to have Spiderman, Supergirl and Deadpool bring you a fat stack of comics?! Normally Batman would join us, but this time around he had some business to take care of back in Gotham...something about a fight with the man of steel...pfft...boys.

While I've been doing visits with them for a few months now, they've been around for 4 years doing good deeds and assembling their super squad! They're all pretty awesome people in their own right and though Deadpool is a recent addition he's a smash hit! It's so much fun seeing how the kids light up when their favourite heroes (or anti-heroes) walk in! I tag along and do caricatures for any of the kids who'd like to be drawn as their favourite heroes or cartoon characters. On this last visit to Saint Rose I got to draw a little Beast Boy, a Wonder Woman and an Elsa along with a super cute little Mickey Mouse! Sometimes the kids will be too nervous or shy to interact much but will light right up when they see my drawing, which is really heart warming to see. Any reason to be in the hospital generally isn't going to be good, so to bring a smile and some joy into their day is pretty cool! I've been doing caricatures for nearly 8 years now and it's great to be able to give back and do something for people who might not feel up for going out at the moment. 

During this visit we had a camera crew of Channel 3 news tag along for a segment that aired later that day. Our super crew went about business as usual, just with a bit more fanfare than normal. ^_^; It was pretty cool seeing our group get some tv-time. We're legit! It's true! We really do what we do!

And it's pretty awesome. I aim to keep tagging along and doing what I can to help cheer people up when and where I can as long as they'll give me the honour of doing so with their awesome team. 

Thanks to @SandraNews3LV for coming today to spotlight everything that @CCComics4kids does in our community! pic.twitter.com/4rfoc0D1zb

— St. Rose Dominican (@StRoseHospitals) March 24, 2016