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NOW I REMEMBER...

so i made it back to san diego. flying over socal is actually quite entertaining for me; i've gotten to the point where i can locate landmarks in the little city below... there's the five. there's the spectrum. there's the 241... my neighborhood. then 30 seconds later over the nuclear reactor at san onofre. if only i could navigate the environment so quickly while on the ground.

after a short stop at my hotel room, my good friend mike willette rescued me from the confines of the westin. he's built a full-sized arcade cabinet that houses a modded xbox with the nearly the whole history of video games inside it. we played every version of street fighter you can imagine... soul calibur 2, mortal kombat, everything. and god is it fun to play on a cabinet with proper sticks and buttons. we need to get this guy a job in san francisco asap. sammy studios doesn't deserve him.

i also forced him to take me to one of my old taco shops: la posta number 8 in hillcrest. and god, i felt like i was home. i couldn't bear to order the quesadilla special -- it's a carne asada burrito wrapped in a quesadilla rather than a simple tortilla. i'd say it's the most insane thing i've ever eaten. but tonight i simply chose to injest a carnitas burrito -- you may be able to see a photo in tacovision above. i can now say, without a doubt, that san francisco's burritos simply cannot hold a candle to the best of san diegan mexican cuisine. luckily we do have some excellent tacos and quesadillas up there. anyways, if you're ever headed to sd and you want to know where to eat, drop me a line. i'll let you know where you too can eat the best mexican food in the world. you know you want it.

THE END OF A JOURNEY

late last week, carlos a i hopped in my car and once again made the trek down to southern california. this time, our attendance was required at shane's graduation/final show on the art center campus. the drive was actually quite enjoyable this time out as it afforded me the time to listen to a bunch of music... tons of stuff from the shins, interpol's "antics," patrick wolf's record "lycanthropy," autolux's "future perfect", and elliott smith's "from a basement on the hill," were amongst the chosen records on the playlist. this is a luxury i simply do not often have, as sound construction plays an important role in video production.

once at the show, i once again felt the usual tinge of jealousy that seems to be sparked everytime i set foot on that campus. not only is it home to amazing facilities and tons of current equipment/gallery space, but it also houses what i would deem an overly gorgeous student body. of course, this jealousy quickly fades when i realize the amount of work necessary to excel at that particular educational establishment... it would've been tough to work and study while enrolled for sure. that and it would have been very difficult for me to get accepted in the first place.

the first night was highly enjoyable, mostly due to the wonderful company. in addition to carlos and shane, chris, nick, ricky, oli, song, morten, & ryan were in attendance. i was especially excited to see dawn and rachel, friends and fellow ucsd media alumni, at the show. dawn has been without constant internet access for some time, it seems. she has mentioned that she'll be back online soon. so if you're reading this, dawn, it was really wonderful to see you again. due to an inquiry from the lovely cinematographer extrodinaire, some of my older video work will likely appear on this site sometime in the near future. shane's family was looking wonderful as well, and i would once again like to thank them for the fabulous lunch they treated a group of us to following the graduation ceremony.

but i'm getting a bit ahead of myself. the show was quite enjoyable, as you'd imagine, likely due to the fact that the work on display was the best of what each student had to offer compiling years of work into a sort of "best-of" type event. though i don't have much of it photographed, the majority of what was on display was quite professional; it is clear that an art center education is worth the hefty sum it costs. either that or these were some truly talented bastards to begin with. i suppose both are the case.

shane had been spending the last several months cutting up all his work and slapping it onto a couple dvds. the work looked great, of course, and it was played surprisingly loud as well, drowning out nearly all other sounds in the room at times. lovely. and most importantly, it seemed to draw a crowd, especially when a bunch of us decided to camp out on the small raised platform covered with astroturf in fronnt of the main video displays. shane has also constructed a sort of "robut" that allowed users to control the sound and image coming from a third display. though it was acting a bit funky on the show floor, it was still fun to play with. what more can you ask for, really?

after a few days of chillin', soul calibur, and catching up with friends, carlos and i made a quick stop in huntington to pick up our friend jason, stopped at taco mesa for molé, (carlos's is better) and grabbed nick for the trek back up to the bay area. all in all it was a pretty good trip... though once again, i'm glad san francisco is my home rather than la or oc.

i'm just now completing a rather awesome (and hilarious) interview ray conducted with epic's cliffyb at atari university in cabo. hopefully it'll be available to watch for free, with no wait whatsoever, on gamespy.com today in the next couple of hours. i'm kinda rushing as i have to catch a flight to san diego for a midway event very, very soon. then i'm back on friday for the weekend. monday = london for the egn show. it's gonna be a crazy few weeks. keep it here. i'll try not to lull as i did last month.

and now, the photos.

TO THE HOMELAND

while i'm not actually of mexican descent, i've always had a certain attachment to the country's culture no doubt spurred by my love of their cuisine. so it was with some pleasure that i hit mexican shores a few week's back... actually, that's not entirely true. i have been in a somewhat introverted mood lately -- yes, even moreso than usual. as such, travel has not been sounding too keen to me. yet, i was somewhat excited to visit mexico, as mentioned... though i also knew that i wouldn't be getting an authentic look at the country. you see, the event we were invited to took place in cabo. so unfortunately, my experience was nearly entirely located at the resort in which we stayed: the westin los cabos.

it's pretty grand, as you can surely see from the photos below. it's also quite hot and humid. this fact was never more clear than when i introduced my video equipment to the harsh climate; when attempting to turn on the camera, i was informed that the system had detected condensation... yes, WATER decided to automagically appear INSIDE my camera. fuck that. so far, the permanent effects have been minimal, though there is definitely damage. not cool. then again, i'm sure it didn't help to shoot an hour-long interview with cliffy at the pool-bar either. but it was worth it. the result should appear on gamespy.com (which now has its own video component -- no more fileplanet for me! yip!) within the next few days. abre los ojos.

the first few days were rather enjoyable. the resort had like eight pools. thus we felt it necessary to make like ned merrill and swim the giant, winding river from one side to the other. when quizzed about which pool was the finest, we quickly disregarded all but a single one: the one containing the aforementioned bar. yes, drinking margaritas while floating beats sheer size and silly waterfalls any day of the week.

of course spending all day in the sun drinking -- and all night in a bar drinking -- has its consequences and i spent the next morning vomiting. strangely, i felt otherwise ill as well, though nobody believed me. regardless, i was sick, it was hot, and i had to work. it sucked. but i somehow sort of pulled through and felt better later in the evening. i even made it to the beach bbq. pictures are provided below. oh and thanks to cliff for the heinous-ass image of me scarfing down meat. i hadn't eaten anything all day... but somehow, ribs seemed okay. my continued illness at quakecon during the days following would seem to indicate that that was the case. but guess what? ribs taste good. and yes, i really was that red... no color-correction necessary to look disgusting.

HOLY MOLÉ

carlos and i had recently become fascinated with the idea of homemade molé. his grandmother is, as i understand it, the queen of mexico's chocolate/chili sauce; to be honest, i can't speak to the truth of this statement because i have never sampled her work. that said, i do love good molé and thus i felt that conquering this dish -- one of the most flavorful offerings available south of the border -- would be a true milestone in our cooking career. so i did what anyone in my position would be obliged to: i stood back and let carlos do his thing.

actually, i'm usually very much a hands-on cook... kinda necessary, right? but carlos had studied his grandmother's technique on a recent trip down south and he felt that he could replicate it. i kept a very close eye on the proceedings but found the recipe a bit too complex to follow. i'll definitely need to watch again, and take better notes... err, simply take notes. what i can tell you is that the result was really quite delectable. while my taste-o-tronic java application is not quite complete, i have taken a few photos of what went down that evening. sorry, no tasties for yousies. since that special evening, carlos has made the meal one other time; according to him, the second effort was masterful. i was not present.

looks like poop, tastes like flavor. works for me. check it out: