This is Halloween

Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you have a great candy-filled holiday!

California Day at Royal/T

Our last day in California was spent in Los Angeles. Raoul and I went to some very cute shops and art spaces. My favorite was Royal/T, a café where the waitresses dressed in gothic Lolita style. It was so neat there, and they had a great exhibit called East Village West going on, too. We saw lots of art by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Greer Lankton, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf, to name a few.










I found some of my favorite records in the art installation!


And here, too!



All that art-lookin' made me hungry. We ordered the High/T, which had a pot of tea and a variety of little cookies and fruit to try.



Needless to say it was yummy. Our favorite was the raspberries and fruit dip and the cookie on top. It had cranberries and it was super soft.



We also met my pal Jamie for a short time. She brought her Blythe dolls!


Here is Tofu Baby with Birdie. They are good fwends!


Here is Tofu Baby with York! They sure had a busy and fun day together!

Sketchbook Sunday: Adventure Time! x Epic Mickey

So, my nephew, EVAN, who just turned 7 this past September, started writing ADVENTURE TIME! FAN FICTION when he was only SIX YEARS OLD, culminating in his very first 50-page GRAPHIC NOVEL/COMIC BOOK simply called "ADVENTURE TIME!" Check out the "About the Author" page-slash-table of contents...hilarious! (The "Mario" mentioned in the "about me" is the one from the SUPER MARIO BROS. video game franchise.



The drawings are rudimentary of course, but still awesome in that innocent "children's art" kinda way (the little guy was ONLY SIX when he made this - cut him some slack). Still, it's amazing to think that the he took the time to make up a story, and then actually illustrate it and put it in a notebook. Think back to when you were six years old - what did you do? I know I probably didn't do jack squat, much less write and illustrate a whole story based on my favorite cartoon (which, at that time was probably Heckle & Jeckle or Tom & Jerry...now I'm just showing my age)





I like the way he spells words by "sounding them out" and the way he frames the characters' names in boxes. My sister also pointed out that he also has a CAMERA EYE, often showing zoom-ins and zoom-outs and close-ups in his drawings...















Check out the ARM sticking out of the grave!





He's already working on his second Adventure Time! book called EPIC MICKY AND ADVENTURE TIME! (sic). I made the mistake of asking Evan if it was some sort of "cross over" fan fiction with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters co-mingling with Adventure Time characters, but he was adamant: "No, it's NOT Mickey Mouse...it's EPIC MICKY!"







Needless to say, I'm a proud Uncle and maybe I'm projecting or getting ahead of things but...I sure hope that his inherent talent takes him to an awesome arts school like CALARTS or OTIS...I certainly think his portfolio is off to a great start! And did I mention that he's also on course towards earning his BLACK BELT in karate, probably by the time he's twelve? He's only seven and already he's making me feel like an underachiever!

Tio's Tacos, Pt. 3

Here are the last set of photos from Tio's Tacos. Their method for building many of the huge figures populating the restaurant and it's gardens seem pretty simple: use CHICKEN WIRE to build a wire frame around a palm tree, light post, column, etc. then fill the frame with garbage and recyclables generated by the restaurant. The figure above was built around a lamp post on a second floor balcony and is slowly being filled in with empty BEER CANS. The TWO-HEADED CHEF below is mostly filled with DISCARDED OYSTER SHELLS in it's torso, with BEER BOTTLES filling out it's arms...





















After about an hour of exploring the gardens and taking tons of photos, we finally made it into the restaurant and got some food. The sun was starting to dip and the time we took exploring built up our appetites...









Dining al fresco in the gardens...back when I used to live in Riverside, only this front patio section was open, it's only decoration being some brightly colored lanterns and these giant MARIACHI BAND cutouts. They used to have a more prominent place closer to the sidewalk and street, but are now tacked up on the side of the house as a reminder of Tio's humble beginings...