Korea: Christmas at Yonie's

While it's a bit early for Christmas yet, as we haven't even had Halloween yet, the nostalgia of winter holidays seems fitting enough to roll out this post celebrating the last (and only!) Christmas I spent in Seoul, living with Yonie. It had been quite a ride! I lived in Korea for six months, the entirety of which I spent living in her apartment, which I shared with a rotating roster of various other guests (who booked on AirBnB) along with other artists who would sometimes stop through to visit. The caricature community is a small one, after all, so most of us end up knowing eachother, especially when we tend to spend extended stays in the same countries. Sometimes this rotating company meant letting a small, quiet Japanese girl in some evening after 11pm, when the creepypasta I'd been reading had thoroughly tainted the tone with spoopies and I was disproportionately spooked by the doorbell, others it meant an impromptu evening of shopping and Doctor Strange with Yonie and Sam. Yonie always takes pride in her hostess skills and as such, she arranged quite a lot of activities for everyone throughout my time there- including this Christmas eve celebration, replete with caricature-themed (or named) wine, red velvet cake, candles and company. It was a lovely evening, and while I had a nice time with everyone, I was more wrapped up with my preparations for leaving Korea in the next 24 hours or so. This was the final stretch of my time living in Seoul, and it was a nice gathering to top it off. While at times I may not have always agreed with Yonie, like when it comes to leaving an oscillating fan on overnight (there's a Korean superstition that leaving a fan on overnight can lead to death) or the scent of cooked fish, I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity she allowed me to have and the incredible adventure I was able to embark upon thanks to her kindness, openness, and hospitality. While nothing is ever perfect, it was pretty fun overall and was absolutely a learning experience. 

Vegas: Harry Potter Party at Mae's

Have you ever dreamt of being a wizard, and sat eagerly by the door or the mailbox awaiting your Hogwarts letter only to be disappointed by cruel muggle reality? Never fear, my dears, because you, too, can live out your dreams of being a wizard, Harry! While you might not be doing it with our close friend Mae at her amazing party, you can recreate the experience in your own home with enough time and dedication.  😉 For weeks leading up to this party Mae dedicated hours to creating hand-made wands for each party goer to select upon their arrival and sorting into their appropriate house with the help of any friends willing to lend their time and efforts to the project. Both Antho and I put in some time making wands! It was a lot of fun and definitely something we'd like to do again. We were also both sorted into Ravenclaw on Pottermore, the official hub of all things Harry Potter on the internet. Ravenclaw is a house associated with cleverness, wit, creativity, talent and originality. Ravenclaws are smart and capable individuals who go about life to the beat of their own quirky drum, characterised by Luna Lovegood, Rowena Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, Sybill Trelawney, and unfortunately Gilderoy Lockhart (who used his wits and talent to rise to  his ill-begotten success).  While Gryffindor tends to get all the glory, Slytherin are known sassy sneaky snakes, Ravenclaws are working diligently behind the scenes pursuing our own, often times odd, passions. We don't need all the aplomb and praise so long as we can go after the things we're fervent about. 

I'm definitely a Ravenclaw. How about you? Have you ever been sorted? We happened to find an official Harry Potter Sorting hat while out at the Linq promenade and snagged it up for Mae's party as we wanted our beloved friend to have the best of the best available for her special birthday shindig, ya dig? When fate smiles upon you and bestows the appropriate gift at the appropriate time, you really should listen to your intuition and just roll with it. Is that a rather Sybill Trelawney sort of thing to say? Perhaps. Maybe I would have done well in fortune telling...

Now, gaze into the flames and tell me what you see, students.

What does your future portend? 

Vegas: Feast of Thrones at Mae's

We find ourselves extremely fortunate in that over the years we somehow became counted among the inner circle of our good friend Mae's close inner circle of personal friends. This includes a bounty of benefits, such as having the wonderful and thoughtful Mae as our friend, along with invites to the various festivities and events she hosts throughout the year. Not only is she an incredible human being in and of herself, but the amount of energy and attention to detail that she puts into every gathering hosted at her home is incredible! She really goes above and beyond to try to create the perfect evening and entertainment experience for all involved and it really shows! We've been going to her parties for years, first as friends of a friend, but she's such a chill and kind-hearted person that it's hard not to be her friend. Every time we make our way to her fabulous nerd-cave we find a new and exciting event in the works, too, which boggles my mind given the amount of energy and preparation involved for each one. It's always a good time, and the food has been outstanding, especially on the more intimate gatherings where more care and expense can go into the preparation. On this evening we were celebrating the season finale of Game of Thrones, which dates this post a bit, but at least it's finally here! 

Antho and I are a bit behind with the show as it took me ages to convince him to start watching it- and somewhere around season 5 or 6 we got distracted and left off.  Maybe it was all the death... or the CW's Flash probably came back on air and we got so caught up in our beloved Speedster, his melodrama and Team Flash's antics that we couldn't bring ourselves back to the death and tragedies of Westeros. Still, the season finale was certainly a spectacle to behold and we had a lot of fun! The food was absolutely fantastic and I ate an enormous amount. There were cheeses galore with sweet bursts of fruit to pop through the creamy richness, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with cheese, tender fluffy little roastie potatoes with crackly skins, sweet honey baked ham, umami stuffed mushrooms and so much more, all of it absolutely delectable. I was talking about this meal and event for weeks! This is typically the case for any of the events we attend at Mae's, to be fair. 😉

Photos continue below!

Las Vegas: Electric Coronation w/710 Visuals @ the Womb Room 2015-10-03

And to the headlining band, Electric Coronation!

This highly talented group was celebrating the release of their album, so naturally 710 Visuals had to bring the lights for this momentous occasion.

Electric Coronation is comprised of: Joshua Chévere Cohen & Brian Gathy - Guitars, Assorted Trickery Ethan Gathy - Synth Torture Ramy Almerie - Percussive Time/Space Manipulation

Japan: Arribas work party 2012-10-06

The company I worked for had been in Japan for well over 20 years by the time I showed up, and many of the artists who had started working there in the beginning were reaching a point in their career where they were preparing to step down and return home or retire. As such, when one of the longest-working professionals was reaching the end of his time working with us, the manager arranged a farewell party in his honor.