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First of all, Comi-con was a blast. I performed on the Jedi Stage to an enthusiastic audience, about 50% of which were in Jedi costume. Thank you, Matt Little, for giving me the chance to have that previous sentence be something that is true. I wrote a special set of material, because I don’t know if I’ll have another chance to weave jokes about price guides and 1980s text adventures into one batch ever again. Thank God for Elephant Larry and A Week of Kindness who not only did funny stuff in the show, but performed the Good Karmic Work of watching everyone else so we didn’t all feel totally foolish doing [...]

3 Comments | Tags: comics, eliza, stand-up

Friday, Eliza and I hoofed around The Mission and The Castro. Highlights here included a store called 826 Valencia, which was ostensibly a Pirate Supply store, but it felt more like a headquarters for McSweeney’s. I think McSweeney’s is published out in SF, right? There were very funny lists posted around the place — things like “How Ned Lost His Eye” and “What To Do If You Are Being Mopped.” And everything had an old-timey McSweeny’s-ish typeface, and they sold most of the back issues. I refuse to conduct the very small amount of research necessary to answer this question.

We also saw a sci-fi/horror bookstore that featured a hairless cat. It was creepy and adorable.

By the way, I was [...]

7 Comments | Tags: eliza, san francisco

The hoofing around on Monday injured my aged, tender calves so we did our road trip to Santa Cruz on Tuesday. That way much of the day was spent driving. We went to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz. It was cleaner and friendlier then my trips to Coney Island had led to me expect. It’s a pretty extensive boardwalk! Two big roller coasters, a haunted mansion, huge beach, enormous arcade. At 5pm it became “1907 night” which meant they rolled back the prices on everything: hot dogs, sodas and all rides cost just 65 cents. Eliza declared that if she lived in that town, she’d go every Monday night. I do not believe her, but it was a fun trip.

Then [...]

2 Comments | Tags: eliza, san francisco

Today we walked all day, from our hotel at the gates of Chinatown up through North Beach then across and south through JapanTown and along Haight St. That’s a ton of walking, people. But it’s the kind of walking that makes you feel proud, as if you are a hard-working person, and not someone who is spending the day thinking about what to put on his blog.

A famous bookstore, Cody’s Books, closed its flagship store in Berkely today. A woman in a used bookshop on Haight St. was complaining about how on-line booksellers are putting regular book stores out of business. “They have VOWED to put every book store out of business. And they’re gonna do it,” she said. Shrewdly, [...]

4 Comments | Tags: eliza, san francisco

Eliza and I are visiting San Francisco. We’re staying the Hotel Des Arts — a cheapish place (for San Fran) where local artists were each assigned a room to decorate. Ours is decorated by Scatha G. Allison. Were I Mitch Magee, I would upload photos and make this post interesting. The hotel is less expensive than most because there is a shared bathroom on the floor. It makes us feel bohemnian and I love it.

Changing cities always makes me feel adventurous in useless ways. Today, I got my shoes shined. “I’m that kind of guy,” I told myself. It cost $17 and the guy painted my previous black and burgandy shoes jet black. I blame myself!

Sketch Cram went great! Thank [...]

3 Comments | Tags: eliza, san francisco

Catching up. Might expand on some topics later.

• Eliza and I spent last weekend in the Catskills. That makes us sound like Henny Youngman. Or 80. Even moreso if you count Eliza’s time knitting in a for-real rocking chair, and my desire to hide inside and read. It’s off-season, which meant cheaper room rates for us and a hilariously high percentage of businesses closed. Our cabin was great: I cringe at the thought B&B’s — but Eliza found one that was low on fluffiness and high on spaciousness and having-its-own-kitchen. Very nice. And wi-fi!
• Top 50 Comics Publications of 2005, according to Tom Spurgeon:
  http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/4505/

  Seeing the entries on Batman: Year One and Watchmen warmed my increasingly robotic heart.

• I made this [...]

6 Comments | Tags: batman, eliza

Good review of Jaime Hernandez new comics collection “Ghost of Hoppers.”. Thank you Kevin, for pointing it out to me. Someday I’ll lay down my full pitch of why the Hernandez Brothers make the best comics. They are as cool as the ocean, let’s leave it at that.

Did stand-up for the I Eat Pandas musical improv show last night. America, I know I’m biased because Eliza is in this show, but no foolin: you should go see it. It’s a phenomenon. The tiny Under St. Marks Theatre was packed and everyone in there was laughing and clapping with terrific joy. That show is magic. That it’s just three people in this sparse underground theatre makes it all the [...]

6 Comments | Tags: channel 102, eliza, jack kirby, love and rockets

As an Xmas present, Eliza took me to see They Might Be Giants in Williamsburg on New Year’s Eve. I was disproportionately excited for this show since there was the strong likelihood that there would be mostly adults in the crowd. Most people who love TMBG begin doing so when they are 13-19 year old honor students. The odd thing is that the fan base never seems to age. For 17 years (!) I have gone to TMBG shows and while I (and the band) get older and older — the majority of the crowd seems to have arrived straight from their Calculus AP tests.

My devotion to them has ebbed and flowed over the years. It’s hard to listen to [...]

5 Comments | Tags: eliza, tmbg