One Trip, Two List Items (#43 & #92)
Stick It In Your Mouth #4 is up!
This was our visit to Pampas Grill at the Los Angeles Farmer's Market (#92 on my 101 list) for some Brazillian BBQ (#43). The Farmer's Market was awesome and filled with food of every kind. Of course it was also fun to look through the knick knack stores full of things like toys and stickers. Definitely looking forward to another visit!
Art (#71), Puppets (#62), & A Castle (#8)
It's been crazy busy and crazy fun around here ever since San Diego Comic Con. August was filled with out of town guests and September with travel. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
One of the best things about out of town guests is getting to do all the touristy type stuff you never do in your own city. For me, this included finally visiting the Getty (#71 on my 101 list). Really gorgeous gardens and of course, amazing collections of art. Even the architecture of the facility is fascinating not to mention the incredible views! Highly worth the trip if you're in the Los Angeles area.
Next stop on the 101 list was Hearst Castle (#8). I had been once before, but took a different tour this time and feel like I saw a lot more of what the property has to offer. The Neptune Pool was still my favorite, but the 
ornate entryway was amazing as were the dozens of ancient artifacts highlighted in the garden. We stayed to watch the IMAX film which illustrates how the property came to be and a little bit about who the man Randolph Hearst was. If you're going to bother driving the windy coastal road to visit this historic point of interest, you might as well stay for the movie!
To wind up the crazy busy Summer, George and I drove cross country to Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. I affectionately call this trip the September Trip of Awesome! This was our third cross country jaunt together and as always, it was great. We made it to Atlanta in two days and stayed with our awesome new friends John and Brandon who were most excellent hosts!
Dragon Con itself was super fun and insane! Some of the many highlights included the Comics & Pop Art Reception/toy release where we were able to meet and hang out with several October Toys forum members, dinner with friends (hi Roger & Tom!), excessive people/costume watching, and the Mad Scientist's Ball with giant Tesla coils playing music like the Mario Bros. theme and Airwolf. Best of all, we were able to relax and enjoy the company of artists and friends in a very laid back environment. A much more intimate experience than other conventions I've attended.
Finally, before leaving Atlanta, we had to sneak in a visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts (#62). I'm thrilled that we did because although the museum is small in size, the treasures inside were grand! Two rooms of Jim Henson's work included, among other things, Big Bird, a few Fraggles and Doozers, Emmet Otter, Sir Didymus, The Four Guards, one of the door knockers from Labyrinth, Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf, Ernie, and more.
The regular section of the museum had everything from creepy marionettes to more Henson creations like a full size Skeksis and two Pigs in Space! It was an informative and fun stop filled with interesting visuals and warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside. (I type that with wide, innocent eyes and a small smile.)
After the con, we drove up to New Jersey because...er...we wanted to! First stop was the infamous Dr. Kent's house. After a rather fruitful trip to the local toy shop, House of Fun, we filmed a Toy Break in his awesome toy cave. You think you have an amazing toy collection? You should see his handy work! Oh wait, you can at ToyBreak.com! Big huge thanks to John for taking a Toy Break with us!
Most of the rest of our time in the garden state was spent with our good friends Eric and Laura, talking toy talk and enjoying rice pudding. We also snuck in a visit with Kev and OG from Big Kev's Geek Stuff which included us getting to sit in on episode 162 and being introduced to Rita's Ice Custard Happiness - tasty!
The trek back home was filled with interesting stops including kick ass grilled cheese sandwiches with our friend Chris, a family visit followed by a trip to Toy2R US headquarters, and finally a stop at one of our favorite toy couples Slick & Mrs. McFavorite's house. It was such an amazing trip and our friends are so awesome that I considered just never coming home! I already miss the rainy Fall weather back east and very much look forward to my next visit!
Fangoria (#75)
Fangoria LA 2009
Herschell Gordon Lewis
I was just reviewing my 101 list and noticed that I forgot to cross off #75 - Go to Fangoria. We actually exhibited at the Los Angeles Fangoria back in April and had a blast! It's such a fun, laid back convention that I can't wait to go again.
We had the pleasure of sitting next to Herschell Gordon Lewis most of the weekend and chatting about life and movies. Definitely one of the best neighbors we've had at a convention. Star sightings and Little George pics included Lloyd Kaufman, Fred Williamson, Bill Moseley, a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.
I'm very much looking forward to the next LA Fango show and perhaps one day to check out an east coast Fango and/or Chiller. I hear those are pretty rad from several of my other coast friends. So many conventions, so little time!
Pinks Hot Dogs (#70)
Along with conquering #70 on my 101 List, our recent visit to Pinks also marked the launch of a new pet project called Stick It In Your Mouth.
Basically George, myself, and anyone else we can wrangle will be recording ourselves eating at fun places and letting you know if you should stick it in your mouth!
Oh and Pinks was good, but not fantastic. I had the Spicy Polish Dog which was indeed spicy. It was quite tasty, but the chili just wasn't up to par in my opinion. The fries and onion rings were average and the ranch was ridiculously thick. I would recommend to stick it in your mouth at least once if your in town.
Scanning Old Photos (#84)
Over the past month or so I spent several days scanning in old family photos (#84 on my 101 list), followed by cropping, color correcting, and restoring said photos. I ended up digitizing around 400 pictures spanning several generations of memories.
It was one of those goals that I had been putting off for years because it seemed so daunting. I realized, though, that every year those photos were fading a little more and accumulating a few more scratches so the sooner I did this, the better.
Like most things in life, getting started was the hardest part. It was wonderful reading the notes scribbled on the backs of photos and seeing the progression of my relatives lives before I was in the picture (pun intended). The best part, of course, is that now I have gems like these at my digital fingertips...
Beards in Alaska (#27, #28, #47)
George and I just had the pleasure of spending a week in Anchorage, Alaska for the World Beard & Moustache Championships. The air was crisp, the scenery was breathtaking, and the beards were bountiful.
We have posted lots of pictures on Flickr and so has our friend Megan (who went with three other friends up to Denali for a few days while we partied in Anchorage, beard style). We'll probably add a few more as we finish organizing the crazy amount of photos we took as well as update LittleGeorge.com with lots of new fans with facial hair.
Some of the highlights of the trip included the WBMC 2009 competition, the Southcentral Alaska Beard & Moustache Club contest & party, disc (frisbee) golf, Portage Glacier tour, panning for gold at Crow Creek Mine, 18 hours of daylight everyday, and making so many new friends!
Here is a quick recap of our trip...
Video of the parade around downtown Anchorage, AK...
The Beards from Australia performing at the opening WBMC party...
I can now officially cross off Alaska (#27) and the WBMC (#28) from my 101 list. I can also unexpectedly cross off getting new glasses (#47) because my previous pair broke in half the day before we left for Alaska. Luckily even Anchorage has Lenscrafters.
Battlestar Galactica (#21)
I love Star Wars. I love Star Trek. I love Buffy. I love the Matrix. I love Cube. I love the X-Files. I love Firefly. I love Twilight Zone. I love Outer Limits. The list goes on and on. There is no question about it...I am a Sci-Fi fan.
I have many fond memories of the original Battlestar Galactica from the silliness of Muffit the Daggit to Dirk Benedict's endearing smirk. Although I did not start watching the new Battlestar Galactica when it first aired, I have been very excited to check it out on dvd and have deftly avoided spoilers over the years. Two weeks ago I finally had some time to sit down and embark upon the long awaited BSG journey (#21 on my 101 list).
To say I was underwhelmed would be putting it mildly. The show seemed to drag on, making very little progress each episode. While I was open to a female Starbuck, I did not like Katee Sackhoff in the role at all. The Cylons were pretty cool, but nothing about them really captured my attention.
Perhaps I was expecting too much, but after watching five hours of the show, I started to marvel at the fact it lasted four seasons. People have assured me that it gets better, but if I'm not hooked by five hours in, I can't justify putting any more time into it. There's always a chance that I will pick it up again in the future, perhaps as something to watch in the background during a long project, but for now, I have to say I am not on board the BSG train.
My Clean House Moment (#100)
George and I often watch Clean House on the Style Network. It's one of those shows that makes us feel better about our comparatively minimal amount of clutter. We watch so much that we decided to go to one of the yard sales a couple of months ago.
The yard sale was pretty average except for the production trucks surrounding the residence and the camera men roaming the property. George flagged down Mark Brunetz for a picture with Little George and later got one with Matt Iseman, too. We found a couple antique tools we wanted to buy (one being a really cool wavy wrench) and when we tried to pay Mark Brunetz he talked us into buying one of the shows key items - a giant c-clamp. Of course this meant we would make it into the show, too.
We hadn't really planned on being those people who bought something on camera, but Mark is a pretty convincing salesman. We actually had a much longer exchange than it looked like on the show, but I'm guessing it either wasn't very interesting or I kept looking at the camera. I remember we were discussing uses for the c-clamp and medieval torture came up. Perhaps that was inappropriate :)
After that we each signed a release form and every crew member we passed asked if we bought the c-clamp on camera. Apparently they have a handful of "key items" that they follow throughout the show and that was one of them. We left feeling a little dazed, but sort of excited to see ourselves on a show we watch so much.
It was cool to finally see it air recently after idly wondering for months when it was going to be on. Several friends have already seen and commented on our appearance, too, which is awesome because we had no idea that they also watched Clean House! So in the end, the c-clamp has a new home at my parent's house and I can now cross off item #100 on my 101 list which was to be on tv. To think, me on the Style Network!
1 Beard, 2,222 Toothpicks
What do George and I do when we're not working or catching up on tv shows? We put toothpicks in his beard. Seriously.
Choking Hazard (#65)
I just realized that I did #65 on my 101 list - have another art show! Our custom MiniGwin show, Choking Hazard, debuted at the Winter Vinyl Toy Network back in December and has started traveling indefinitely. It's currently at Kaiju-X3 in Phoenix, AZ and has almost one hundred custom MiniGwins! Pieces will be added as the show travels, so it will always be a new experience. In case anyone reading has a piece in the show, thank you so much!! If you don't have a piece in the show, but you want to, check out the details at gwinarmy.com/chokinghazard.php