Posts Tagged ‘downtown las vegas’

I’ve been hinting at what’s been occupying most of my time the last two weeks here, but overtly giving peeks at it on Facebook, however, I haven’t completely revealed just what the heck I did in the windows of the Contemporary Arts Center until now. OK, technically the art installation itself was revealed to the public Thursday, when I put the finishing touch on it. But I haven’t really explained what the heck is going on.

Basically, the CAC separately curates its large, front window display facing Charleston Boulevard separately from the exhibits running inside the gallery. These “East Side Projects” essentially let an artist use the entire display to execute his or her vision. I was asked by the CAC board if I’d be interested in doing something with the window for March related to my comic book work, specifically The Utopian. I was honored, of course, but a bit apprehensive. After all, I’ve only had a few little piece of “art” shown in a few group shows, and had never done anything on the scale of filling a 22-foot-wide space, especially one that would be viewable 24 hours a day on one of the busiest thoroughfares in Las Vegas. Also, I didn’t want it to be (nor did the CAC) want it to be an overt ad for The Utopian, but I did know what I wanted it to be: fun, colorful and representative of my illustration style.

The concept I ended up developing was the effect of a passerby looking at life-sized comic book panels. I wanted to get across a few of the major themes of The Utopian, including the tendency to render the past with overly nostalgic eyes, and of course, the message of real change coming from the group up — something extremely relevant in light of the uprisings in Iran, Egypt, Bahrain and elsewhere. To my surprise, the initial designs I submitted — a combination of art and text culled from or inspired by the original comics — were accepted wholeheartedly, which left me to figure out just how I’d fabricate all the parts of this giant diorama.

There were three major elements to this installation: The two different backgrounds, the “stand-up” characters, and the foreground lettering (speech balloons and captions). It became almost more like set design. After initially considering producing everything digitally and printing in large format (which would have cost much, much more than the approximately $200 I poured into this project), I ended up doing everything by hand. The back walls — one a forced “exterior” perspective, one a high school hallway — were hand-painted with a combo of house paints and  acrylics. The stand-ups (four of them) were drawn onto and cut out of 5-foot-tall foam board, painted with  acrylics and outlined with a Sharpie. I created stands from left-over foam board. The lettering was done (poorly) by hand on poster board, and then suspended from the rafters with clear thread. Other elements were also created on the cheap, such as the “PRINCIPAL” door plate (white adhesive letters on black foam board) and a homecoming poster.

It took me about three days to paint the backgrounds and a day and a half to cut and paint the stand-ups.  Installation of the stand-ups and hanging elements took another day and a half. I did it all myself, with some last-minute assistance from Sara.

Feedback so far has been very kind. I personally think it turned out just “OK.” Of course, you lose a lot going from a perfectly controlled digital design to a real-life environment. But the effect is there. And it definitely brings attention to the CAC’s windows. If you get a chance over the next few weeks, swing by the Arts Factory and check it out.

The boys are back in town. Actually, we didn’t quite leave town. But it has been since November that the band in which I bang on drums, As Yet Unbroken, has graced a stage to perform live. If you follow us on Facebook (and, um, you should), you’d know that’s because we’ve been hunkering down in my home studio, recording new (and old) songs for our forthcoming debut album. But we’re venturing back into the Las Vegas live music scene for one night because we were asked to play a benefit show for the non-profit co-op preschool our lead singer’s kid attends, and aside from being a good cause, it gives us an excuse to stretch our musical muscles once again.

So it would be lovely to see your faces at Las Vegas Country Saloon (425 Fremont St., above Mickey Finnz) at 8 p.m. this Thursday, Feb. 24 as we join fellow local bands Pigasus and Viva Valhalla for a night of fund-raising rock ‘n’ roll. If you’re over 21, you’re in like Flynn, and there’s technically no cover charge, but of course, any donation amount for Kids’ Co-Op is appreciated. We’re going to be playing new stuff, old favorites and maybe even toss in a surprise or two, so come on down. It’s a school night, yes, but it shouldn’t be too late for you sensitive types.

Hmm. Those are a lot of numbers in that blog title.

A few months ago, As Yet Unbroken was invited to perform at the opening reception for a group art show at Studio 8 Ten. I’d heard the name of this place before, but had no idea what it was. So, not wanting to just show up with my drums ignorantly, I did a little research, and discovered that Studio 8 Ten is the public venue for Transition Services, Inc., which provides employment opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities.

It was cool that I could help out such a noble venture by providing a loud soundtrack for the art show, but after getting to know the staff and employees a bit, I wondered why more people didn’t know about this place. And when it was brought to my attention that not only was Transition Services launching a new venture (Circles magazine), but also had a holiday open house planned, I figured it was a good time to shed some light on the little shop. Thankfully, my editors at Vegas Seven agreed, and so we have today’s article all about Studio 8 Ten.

Even as you’re reading this, I’m probably checking out the open house there. If you still have last-minute Christmas shopping to do, why not stop by 810 Las Vegas Blvd. S. this week and buy some locally produced, handmade gifts? Why not indeed!

Discussing the art and business of self-publishing with Keith Knight and Ryan Claytor. (Photo by Katrina Miller)

Well, I did it. I broke myself. I kind of knew it would happen, but I was hoping it wouldn’t: I managed to pull through the last few weeks of whirlwind activity and then my body finally gave out upon waking Sunday morning. It’s my usual change-of-season cold (because, of course, the temperature dropped drastically on Sunday as well), but I’m sure it also had something to do with the self-abuse of this past weekend’s shenanigans. But everything went spectacularly well, and despite the stress, it was about as fun as it comes.

Friday — after running around all day with last-minute prep for the weekend’s festivities — we opened the “Inside the Boneyard” original art exhibit at Blackbird Studios during First Friday. It was also the first chance anyone had to get their hands on a physical copy of Tales from the Boneyard. The turnout was great, both for our show, and for the Day of the Dead exhibit in the front of the gallery (in which I also have a terrible piece of art). We sold a bunch of comics, and I sold at least a few pieces of original art. Very exciting! Both shows will be on display through the end of November, so I suggest you waste no time and head to 1551 S. Commerce St. to check them out!

I cut out of the reception early to run over to the Double Down Saloon (OK, so I drove, whatever) to talk comics, music and other shenanigans on Double Down Radio. It’s a pretty impressive set-up they have over there. I expected one dude with a laptop and Radio Shack microphone. But there are actually producers, hosts, call-in lines and all sorts of other fancy broadcasting things going on. Of course, it’s all done while downing shots and beer, but still, impressive. Self-described Star Wars fanatic Dave Prophet hosts the Friday night live shows, and I had a great time just hanging out and talking smack. If you want to hear the program, you can get the full, two-hour episode here, though I don’t come on until about 1:21 (that’s an hour twenty-one).

Saturday morning was a bit of a rough start, as the Double Down was not my last stop the night before, and it got rougher when I failed to find an envelope holding about $125 in petty cash I needed for the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, where I needed to be set-up by about 10 a.m. Thankfully, because of sales the previous night at the gallery reception, there was enough cash in that box to get through the day, but misplacing that much cash wasn’t happy news either way (it eventually turned up, two days later).

The festival itself was awesome. We sold copies of Tales from the Boneyard like gangbusters — a feat I owe a lot of credit to the supportive local press, who have been promoting the anthology for almost two months — and my other Pop! Goes the Icon titles didn’t sell too shabbily either. I also sat on my first convention-style panel, a self-publishing discussion with the great Keith Knight and Ryan Claytor. The room was packed, and we must have talked for well over an hour, mostly answering dozens of questions from the crowd.

This year’s festival was packed with people, and felt way too short. I mean, it’s only five hours anyway, but those five hours went by insanely fast. Last year’s event was good, too, but I recall having a few more periods of downtime. Of course, I didn’t have two tables to run or panels on which to sit. It was great to connect with so many people, and I predict next year’s event will just be even more fun.

There was little time to breathe in between the end of the festival (from which I departed at 5 p.m.) and band rehearsal at 6 p.m. It was the first time we were able to practice with our singer Tim in almost a month, and also the first time he’d performed with our former/temporary guitarist Rick in more than a year. But Rick, Mark and I had been practicing nearly every other day, and Tim jumped right into the mix. We blazed through our set relatively error-free, and packed up to head for Brass Lounge downtown, where we were playing the release party for both the Boneyard comic and Dead Neon: Tales from Near-Future Las Vegas.

Despite fears that we’d clear out the room of Saturday night revelers whom Kirby Krackle (which was just a solo, acoustic Kyle Stevens) warmed up, getting them dancing, our performance actually went really well — maybe the best in years. I don’t know if it was Rick’s (temporary) return, the energy of the crowd, the free drinks, or what, but people were actually dancing to our rock-metal-punk attack, and inexplicably cheering. Of course, that was nothing compared to our follow-up act, Jarret Keene’s Dead Neon, which was the obvious main draw of the night. The trio’s post-apocalyptic sludge metal was strangely hypnotic, infectious and grooving, and some hardcore fans were actually hanging on every growling word from Jarret’s mouth.

The final band of the night, 11K, featured a few members from Dead Neon, but its sound was more indie-dream-rock than death metal. Still, it’s a shame so many people left after Dead Neon finished, because 11K put on a great set, and I was kind of sad to learn the band only reunited for that night’s performance (most of the same line-up appears in Minor Suns, who was supposed to play originally).

All in all, it was a good night. We sold a few more copies of Boneyard, and hopefully impressed the booking agent at Brass to invite As Yet Unbroken to perform in the future. Of course, we’re at another crux, as our full-time guitarist parted ways with the band a few weeks ago (hence Rick’s pinch-hitting appearance). Much as we did about this time last year, we’ll probably focus on recording before diving back into the search for a new guitar player. Or, you know, just build a guitar-playing robot. Hmm …

I’m taking it relatively easy this week, though this mild cold I have is also kind of forcing me to do so. I’ve been trying to plug away at my NaNoWriMo entry, but apparently, I’m a slow writer. Also: Brain borked the last few days. I do have one event to attend this week, but I’ll talk about that more tomorrow. Back to my headache and work …

Yeah, kids, it’s gonna be a marathon weekend in Las Vegas, so let’s do away with the extra yadda-yadda and get down to the business of where you can find me this weekend and where I hope to find you this weekend:

Friday night: We’re holding the opening reception for “Inside the Boneyard,” a showing of original art and concepts from Tales from the Boneyard, at Blackbird Studios (1551 S. Commerce St.) from 6 to 10 p.m. It’s also the first chance to get your hands on a copy of the comic. Bring cash and hugs. But if you want to catch me there, do so before 8 p.m., because after that, I’m heading to the Double Down Saloon to talk comic books with Dave Prophet on Double Down Radio. If you’re in front of an internet box from 8 to 10 p.m., you can listen live, but I think there’ll also be a podcast link after the fact, which you KNOW I’ll link to.

Saturday afternoon: The Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival! Duh! From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Clark County Library (1401 E. Flamingo Road), I’ll be floating around between the Pop! Goes the Icon table, Tales from the Boneyard table and artist jam, as well as speaking on a self-publishing panel at 12:45 p.m. (I think, not sure on the time). It’s all free, and it’s family-friendly, so get your butts down there!

Saturday night: You’ll want to be at Brass Lounge (425 E. Fremont St., upstairs) starting about 9 p.m., where Kirby Krackle, Dead Neon, Minor Suns and As Yet Unbroken will rock hard to celebrate the release of both Tales from the Boneyard and Dead Neon: Tales from Near-Future Las Vegas. Yes, the band in which I play drums is playing a party to celebrate the release of a comic in which I appear. I didn’t plan it that way. Jarret Keene did. And God bless him for doing so. It’s free! So just come down and rock and buy books and comics and booze and stuff.

Sunday: I’ll be sleeping, watching Smallville and catching up on NaNoWriMo. So leave me alone.

Finally went to Go Raw Cafe yesterday. This is one of those places like Whole Foods where it’s dangerous for me to walk in, because there are so many good and interesting food items for me to buy, and it’s far too easy to spend a lot of money there. Aside from making all-raw, all-vegan dishes (with creative ingredients such as “nut cheese” — better than it sounds!), Go Raw also carries a variety of raw grocery items, including “breads” (made from sprouted seeds and soaked nuts), snacks, cookies, beverages, cooking supplies and other goodies, including a large selection of books on homeopathy, raw cooking and other health topics. Oh, and it has a salad bar, too.

I walked out spending about $40 on two prepared meals, a smoothie and a bag of  spicy “krispys” (basically, raw tortilla chips). I know that sounds like a lot of money, and believe me, it is. That’s the reason I only go to Go Raw on special occasions. A typical lunch for two would cost about $20, and while that’s not actually much more than even going to a sandwich shop (once you factor in sides and drinks), it’s probably more than most people want to, or should, spend on a normal basis. But the quality of the items Go Raw creates is so good (and the process going into making some of these items is so involved) and tasty, it’s worth it.

After getting my hair cleaned up by the always-adorable Kimberli Lopez at Tease Boutique Salon (a long drive for me, but she does such good work), I headed to the opening reception for “Drawn in the Dust,” the comic book art exhibit at UNLV’s Barrick Museum in which I have a few pages hanging. The turnout was surprisingly good. It may have helped that this was a dual reception — another show of art by UNLV faculty and students was opening just on the other side of the wall from our show — but there were definitely a bulk of people over the two hours who came specifically to see our silly little comic drawings. I had a great time seeing new and old faces and comparing notes with other artists about our respective processes. It’s still a little weird for an industry veteran like Deryl Skelton (who’s worked on dozens of titles over the last few decades, including a great 1990s run on Star Trek: The Next Generation for DC) to consider me a peer — and an honor to be his editor on Tales from the Boneyard — but it’s also a nice feeling. I shot some video of the event last night, but I’m not sure how the audio came out, so we’ll see if something actually turns up.

After that, I headed downtown to the El Cortez for Vegas Seven‘s “The Tell.” When I was talking to host Dayvid Figler a few nights ago at another event, he described the ballroom space in the El Cortez to me, explaining that it used to be a buffet, so there were still buffet bars lining one side of the room. He noted there was seating for only about 80 or 90, between the fixed booths and the portable chairs. Well, it turns out about 200 people turned out last night. It was pretty amazing. Two hundred people on a Friday night for a storytelling event. Admittedly, it was free, and it was being heavily promoted by both Seven and the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and among the Vegas culturati, it was one of those “must-attend” events. But still, impressive. And it was great. Seven storytellers from or connected to Las Vegas sharing their experiences with cheating — whether romantically, professionally, academically or otherwise. Many drinks were purchased and consumed (none here of course!), the room was standing-room only, and most everyone seemed to really enjoy the loose, fun atmosphere. This is apparently the first in a series of such events, so look for more installments of “The Tell” in the near future.

I called it a night right after that, however. It was 11:30 p.m. by the time everything wrapped up at the El Cortez, and while my friends were very insistently asking me to go to the after-party at Downtown Cocktail Room, I just wanted to head home and sleep. I had been up since about 6:30 a.m., as I did manage to go for a run in the morning as planned — about 2.6 miles total running and walking — and I didn’t really want to be around a lot of smoke and stuff during my “detox” week. But it did bring me back to my straightedge days, when I’d hang out in bars all night drinking only Sprite and still had a good time (for the most part, when I wasn’t soberly aware of people getting obnoxiously drunk) without defiling my body as much. I was genuinely enjoying myself last night without libations, but I was still pooped nonetheless.

Geez, give me a schedule to blog, and I’ll just ramble about nothing for a while, huh? Ack.

Anyway, you came here for yesterday’s menu, didn’t you? FINE:

• Pre-run/post-run snack: Coconut creme pie Larabar
• Breakfast: One apple, one cup Dynamo juice blend
• Lunch: Caro-bana smoothie from Go Raw (carob, tahini, banana, dates)
• Supper: Two veggie wraps from Go Raw (pesto, “almond cheese,” tomato, avocado, sprouts, onions, cucumbers and carrots wrapped in collard greens)
• Dinner: Lentil and vegetable soup with three spicy “krispys” (buckwheat, chia seeds, flax seeds, oranges, yams, sunflower seeds, garlic, olive oil, basil, rosemary, Himalayan Crystal Salt, jalapeño)
• Late-night snack: Three slices pineapple
• Beverages: Water all day, plus the above-listed, and a few sips of Kombucha tea

Have to get this article for David magazine done today. For real. Tomorrow I have band practice and other nonsense, and the rest of the week will be insane prep for Long Beach Comic Con, so … yeah. See you kids later.

Yep. I’ve got art in another group show, this one a showing of original comic book art by Las Vegas-based creators (not to be confused with the other original art show I’ll be in next month as well at Blackbird Studios; more on that to come) called “Drawn in the Dust.” Curated by my man Dustin Wax at the UNLV Barrick Museum, it features all of the fine people listed above, which is a pretty diverse crew. I’ll be showing two pages of original art from my story in Omega Comics Presents #3. Which you should have pre-ordered by now, right? RIGHT?

It would be lovely to see all your faces at the opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday. I’m sure there will be refreshments, and I believe most of the artists should be in attendance to bask in your admiration and worship. As I am in the midst of Detox Week 2010, I will not be drinking, and I will probably be starved, so if I sniff your hair or bite your arm, well, sorry in advance.

Oh, and after that, you should head downtown to the El Cortez, where Vegas Seven is presenting “The Tell,” a Vegas Valley Book Festival pre-event featuring an evening of seven true, unscripted stories about cheating. It features a number of friends including host Dayvid Figler, Cindi Reed, and a number of other respected storytellers. The thing starts at 8 p.m. for cocktails (none for me) and 9 p.m. for, um, talking. Here’s a Facebook event!