Scott Eder

holiday ....brrrrr...it's cold outside!

2011-12-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

Well, we decided to do a little trip to the Delaware Water Gap (border of New Jersey & Pennsylvania) about 1.5 hrs drive from NYC. We spent 2 nites in a lodge belonging to the Appalachian Mountain Club. It was a bit like camping up there. Very basic, NO frills stuff...but in the heart of the wonderful park along the Appalachian Trail . In case you didn't know ...we're big fans of hiking and camping. A break from the city was needed and this was just what the doctor ordered! We got in 1 really good hike ....because it rained for most of the time. No cel or puter service the whole time (yay)!!! very cozy in the lodge (which sleeps 4 families), but we had it all to our selves. The heat wasn't working for 1 of the days so we were all bundled up to stay warm...but it didn't chill our spirits...we took advantage of the fireplace every nite! I caught up on LOTS of reading (brought my Denis Kitchen biography...plus a bunch of underground comix, and a mess of New Yorkers!!). AAAAAND, as you could imagine we brought some yummy food to cook while there. We hit up Fairway Market and bought all our staples...The highlight was the NY Strip steaks, pan fried to perfection.....baked potatoes and salad on the side...nice bottle of red wine to accompany.

it just goes to show...

2011-12-21T11:42:00.001-08:00

That after all the years of hard work and dedication to comic art dealing and art collecting, I finally got what i deserve!!! and I feel like it's finally beginning to pay off! Check out the prestigious award i just won (i got it in my email...so i KNOW it's real!!)
I've made the big time!
i'd like to thank all the doubters and haters for inspiring me to such great heights!
CHEERS!!!

back to BJJ....and a nice reward after!

2011-12-21T06:16:00.000-08:00

As some of you friends know i've been "dabbling" or some might simply say "suffering gladly" my way thru the Alliance BJJ school in NYC . BJJ stands for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. A martial art prevalant in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. With injuries (a torn meniscus in the left knee) and work and travel, and more injuries...it's been 6 months since my last class. but that ALL changed last night! I went back and had a great time, and collected my usual trophy bruises and scrapes (including a nice knock in the jaw!...how? ....i don't know). I got to see several students i haven't seen in all this time (progressing nicely....) and to say hi to the head of the school Fabio Clemente, and of course my teacher Lucas Lepri (world no gi grappling champ, and numerous world title holder). While the class was great...i was saddened to discover that Lucas is leaving to live and teach in the headquarters school in Atlanta. While all the students at the NYC branch will miss him, i'm sure we all wish him (and his wife) the best as they settle in to their new life. Luckily for me, i picked a great time to come back as he's leaving this tues!! so....it was nice getting to say goodbye. Enjoy the pic of me eating at Minca (Ramen noodle restaurant)

dave cooper, l'image

2011-12-18T07:42:00.000-08:00

One of my fave artists (Dave Cooper) was in town...! He came by for a visit and i picked up some art work ...surprise!!?? yeah right.
We all went out to dinner to our local Italian place (Pepe Giallo), and had a very nice meal. I had the stuffed chicken special (eggplant inside!) with Polenta, and a nice salad. but that's a whole other story! it was great.

After dinner Dave had arranged to interview Steve Gadd for a comic strip project he's working on about drummers (Dave's a drumming enthusiast and player)...pretty natural to combine the 2 interests. The plan was to see Steve in the band he's playing with later that night: L'Image featuring him, Tony Levin (bass), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone), Warren Bernhardt (piano), and David Spinnozzo (guitar). It was a great show at the legendary Iridium club. I'd seen Tony play with the prog rock/fusion band King Crimson back in the 80's ...i said hi after the show, and pointed that out to him. He remembered those shows at the Pier in Manhattan and said it was interesting for me that he noted that they were among the best shows KC did. Tony's still on top of his game and played the Chapman Stick, a regular bass, and a really cool electric upright bass. I had also seen Mike Mainieri play with Steps Ahead (the fusion super group) in the 80's ...um yeah, i loved fusion in the 80's!! Watching Mike play is very exciting, vibraphonists in particular really put on a show. And i had NEVER seen the legendary Steve Gadd perform before so it was a real treat.
Capping off the evening was a nice walk home thru times square round midnight...the city was wide awake as you would imagine...packed with people and street merchants, the energy was intense.

art is everywhere!

2011-12-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

or just possibly aliens trying to tell us something?? just look around you and you'll find "art" in the details. I found these Con Ed drawings by the local power plant in Dumbo scrawled all over the side walks. these kinds of drawings can be found all over the city, but they usually get worn out by car and pedestrian traffic. these are fresh!

The Factories all around against the clear sky...don't expect this area to look like this a helluva lot longer. the property along the river is really valuable as the neighborhoods of Dumbo and Vinegar Hill continue to grow and gain popularity...

Mark Bode TAGS my door

2011-12-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

Mark was in town today, to have his interview done for the Jeffrey Jones Documentary. Maria (the documentarian), Mark & I all met for lunch at Katz's Deli...yes i had the Pastrami on Rye!! and then
we headed over to the gallery to film the interview. here's a super cool pic of Mark "hitting" my door!

my 30th HIGH SCHOOL REUNION (Bronx Science '81)

2011-12-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

What a great event and evening it was!! So many old friends and classmates....the evening went by WAY too quickly. Highlights? hmmm....too many to mention them all. How about seeing Ms Strauss, the fairey godmother of the Ultimate Frisbee team! that was awesome! what a sweetie!!!
And soooooo many others....while most of you reading this won't have a clue as to who anyone is in these pix...i'm posting them anyway! btw, check out the snazzy suit i had on!!!!

New York Comic Con 2011

2011-12-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

It was a hectic and busy show....rather than blabbing about it...here are the pictures!

way back when.....before this year's fall

2011-12-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

We did a very nice hike up in Harriman State Park. This is our "go to" hiking spot...the trail we use most is a fabulous loop that passes thru undulating hills with several great vista's and nice brooks, streams, a lake and a pond. And yes...it's our secret... enjoy the pix! only 1 hour from NYC!! Check out Grant up in the tree (lena's former classmate from P.S.11). it was a great day...a fall/winter hike is definitely in our near future!

Later that day we went apple picking and stuffed our faces plenty. Brought back a huge bag of apples for eating and making pies with. We've done this 2 times this fall.

out an about in NYC- the past few weeks

2011-06-15T06:15:00.001-07:00

events from the past few days:

driving in to the gallery (i don't usually do this...subway or bike for me) it was time to drive our recyclables to the processing plant. i spotted this art luminary and took a quick pick of his head. answer? at the end of this blog!

recently we've been enjoying the extenstion of
the High Line...despite the huge crowds and the extremely annoying people who stand in groups along the narrowest part of the path, we LOVE it.
also include here are pix from the grounds below where they had the opening party and where resides a really cool beer garden!
we are psyched to partake!

also spent a great day a few weeks ago biking to and around Governer's Island. No cars, and a very nice place to bike around on.

next up is the fabulous sculpture in Madison Sq Park. and also a note about the food court that was gone in a flash (only 1 month :-( ...). i enjoyed a beer there with Marcia. and another time i took John Lind and his wife there.

Jeffrey Brown and i out and about when he was in town for his FIRST solo show at our Gallery!

then a coupla nice Chelsea art gallery days... a fabulous Picasso show, and a wonderful Keith Haring show featuring a whole mess of small pen & ink drawings.

a great day. and lastly a picture of Marcia & Lena in our community garden~!

answer: Andres Serrano

Zap artists, & High Line opening!

2011-06-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

The incredible High Line in Chelsea just opened the extension north of 20th st!
Marcia and i went for a walk the opening nite and we're both amazed!

there's a really cool Zap Comix artists art show at the Andrew Edlin gallery in Chelsea, curated by
Gary Panter (like they need me plugging the show?!!). most of the art isn't for sale as
it's loaned from a private collection. Great viewing...and it's right across the street from the High Line! what could be better?

3 cons down, 3 art shows~....1 con to go (san diego!!!)

2011-06-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

it was a crazy busy spring for me.
-secaucus nj, art con!
-wondercon, sf! and then a week visiting my brother in L.A.
played pitch and putt golf, and did some awesome hikes in the malibu canyons.
-c2e2 chicago! cool show, and 1 free day to visit the art institute, and the natural history museum,
eat lots of great food, and watched the UFC live with Jeffrey Brown at his house! it was great.

squeezed in the middle of this was the Tony Millionaire, Peter Bagge, Jeffrey Brown art shows!
and of course our trip to Costa Rica.

now i'm getting ready for San Diego and YES, i will be bringing tons of awesome art. including brand new ASHLEY WOOD art!!! we will also be making an exclusive art print with Ash.

Good lookin out to all who attend S.D.

s

5 minutes

2011-06-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

trying to recover my password for this blog!!
5 minutes.

in this age of pass protected accounts is it possible to have too many of them?

this isn't a rant...more of a self deprecating look at how many accounts to keep track of.
emails (personal & biz), banks, credit cards, blogs, websites, auctions houses, etc...

originally when i tried to retrieve this password i had it sent to one of my emails which is forwarded
to another email address. only it didn't show up. so i went to the other email account, and, you guessed it...i couldn't remember that one either!

there's a list somewhere with all of it.
now if i could only remember where that list is!!!!
lol

long over due- what order to tell- COSTA RICA

2011-05-31T12:46:00.001-07:00

it's hard to ramble on about yourself. but what's a blog to do? so get over it!!!
in no particular order, i will recount the previous months adventures.

starting with......

we went on a big family trip to COSTA RICA!!!
absolutely wonderful. 12 intense days of running around doing all kinds of Eco Touristic things.
the highlights of the trip were all the wild animals we saw: Sloths, 3 of the 4 types of monkeys (squirrel, spider, cappuchin), an arboreal anteater, the resplendant quetzal, the Jesus lizard, many types of birds, snakes, frogs, and all kinds of butterflies and other creatures.

Spectacular jungles, and beaches. yes we got sunburned. even with tons of block..it IS powerful down there.

awesome food: Ceviche!!! great fresh tropical fruits....mmmm awesome.

in the jungle the humidity was so intense our clothing was NEVER dry!

one day, while in the bathroom, my daughter called out claiming there was a scorpion in the room. yes, the kind that can EASILY kill a child. i ran out, took a coupla pictures first! and then caught him in a jar and released him. i'm 100% positive NO costa rican would have released him.

the off road 4 wheel driving i did was incredible!!! thru small rivers, up and down steep muddy slopes! if it wasn't for our guide i wouldn't ever have known what i could do in a 4 wheeler! worth every penny to pay a guide i can assure you!

tours: the coffee plantation! incredible. if you're a fan of the bean, you must do this sometime in your life.
we also went to a cacao plantation. again if you're a fan of coco or chocolate it's a MUST

the incredible thing about CR is that it's a 5 hr flight from NYC. so easy, and with good planning you can have an incredible time. and we DID!!!

WonderCon S.F. short report

2011-04-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

just got back and i have to say that the San Fran WONDERCON is by far my favorite convention in the U.S.!!
it still feels like an oldschool convention, with a flea market atmosphere and all kinds of dealers (many local cali dealers...who probably only do this show). the biggest plus for me: a mostly low-key presence for the big publishers (marvel & d.c.), which i prefer....and very little movie & t.v. stuff.

a big tip of the hat to Dan for all the great underground comics. his buddy who sold me a couple of Ted Richards strips. it really was hard for me NOT to buy more comics...but space is always an issue at home.

there are so many people i can see out there...so it was nice to hook up with my old friend alan and his wife jinky!

hanging with Spain Rodriguez again was fantastic. cheers brother!

we had good sales all 3 days and i was sad when the show was over.

why L.A. ?

2011-03-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

-Because it's sunny and nice in late March!
-because where my brother lives (near sawtelle ave.) i can walk to a gazillion Japanese restaurants...oh and did i mention the sun?

other notables:

-45 minutes to Malibu Canyon hiking trails
-Venice Beach canals
-my brother lives here
-i love the garden behind his house (otherwise known as a back yard)
-in that garden a humming bird visits
-pitch and putt golf up the hill at the V.A.
-jamming with my bro...him on guitar, me on bass
-eating Ramen almost every day!

i'm usually on vacation here...so i love to chill.

that's why !

Millionaire opening highlights!!!

2011-01-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

Whatta night!! Driving to the gallery felt completely surreal. The streets and cars buried in snow and traffic moving at a snails pace. We stopped at Union Square Wines to pick up xtra supplies and then we were lucky to find parking in Dumbo. Benjamen Walker came early to do an interview for WFMU radio. It was a pleasure listening in and gaining some xtra insight into Tony's approach to art. And then the faithful started to arrive...and they kept coming ALL night long. I wasn't sure what would happen because of the weather, but Tony has some great fans!! It was a helluva show.
Some people drank too much. Ahem. But everyone was quite well behaved...for a change! I made a lot of new friends and got to meet a lot of cool people! So a big shout out to all the friends and family who showed up and all the new friends we have. Dig the pictures here

cops !? & 2 more days!! TONY MILLIONAIRE art show...

2011-01-26T06:35:00.000-08:00

my latest run in with the law. oy!!! i was in Williamsburg postering for the latest show and wouldn't ya know it...the cops nabbed me! ug. i received a summons and have to show up in court. probably getting a $50 fine! it blows.

but everything else is shaping up well for the show. the silkscreen prints are ready, the walls are finished being spackled and painted...most of the art is already hanging! i convinced Tony to show up early...

Big snow storm here this morning. i love it when it's storming like this. the city is SO BEAUTIFUL in white.

s

Lucca Comics - and trip to italy....

2010-12-17T07:06:00.000-08:00

waaaaaaaaaaaay back around Halloween. yes....it was that long ago.
i had a great time going back to the Tuscan town of Lucca. It's been many years since i attended the comics festival there and there have been some major changes. the show seems to have gotten bigger! good...there were tons of attendees and a crazy energy about the town. "cos" players...as they're known it Italy...the people who dress up in costumes, were in huge throngs....probably the most elaborate and passionate cos players i've seen. The old Lucca festival used to take place outside the wall of the town...and now it's inside. I guess it's better for the show, and probably better for business in town...but gone is the tranquility of the town. the THRONGS of comix fans can get overwhelming at times. but it's all part of the scene now. the FOOD in Lucca is still fantastic. absolutely wonderful. i got in the que at my favorite Foccaceria...and it was just like old times! had wonderful dinners out with my friends Massimo & Marina (my kind hosts in Roma) and our other friends Martina & Giovanni (Milano), and also Carsten (Berlin) & his girlfriend. Many others...but the names are slipping into the either.

after doing some fine biz in Lucca, and suffering thru the bad weather (so typical) we headed back to Roma, where i spent my last 4 nites of the trip. the rest of my stay was tinged with the sadness for my friend Massimo whose father suddenly passed away. Massimo & Marina were kind enough to let me stay in their apartment while they attended to family matters down in Sorrento.

Roma is still Roma, although i was alone, and feeling a bit strange, i managed to have some very nice times. More time walking and just enjoying the good weather. I finally managed after years of visiting Roma to make it to the Castel S'ant Angelo which had some of the most impressive views of Roma i've EVER seen.

Bought some great shirts and sweaters for myself, and brought back some nice gifts for Marcia & Lena.

ciao

fedex...your worst nightmare....but

2010-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

I ship a lot of art. all over the world...mostly never have a problem. but this summer after
the San Diego comic con, I shipped home 14 boxes....mostly art. This is incredibly stressful for me because some of these boxes are VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY valuable. and i had good reason for this stress * fedex lost 1 of the boxes. a gazilion $$$'s worth of art in it.

This happened at the very beginning of the summer trip with still nearly 1 month of travel ahead. i only had a master list, so i couldn't say exactly what was in the box. the people at fedex have a SHITTY system for finding lost packs. It turned out that when we finally started dealing with the "trace dept" that they weren't even in the same state of the warehouse with the lost boxes!!! all they had to go on were the Keywords to search from. we went around in circles until they told me, sorry...just make a claim!! after this Marcia wrote letters to ALL the most important people at fedex, and we were beginning to negotiate with the insurers. when they called and our package was FOUND !!!! the letters worked...because they re opened the investigation. 2 months after being lost...it shows up in Utah. ??? ohhhhhhhhh, where they auction lost packs!!!! BASTARDS !!!!! they told me on the phone that they wait more than a year before things go to auction houses.

Moral of this story: don't give up hope!!!

summer highlights!

2010-09-22T08:22:00.001-07:00

soooooooooooooooooo, i've been outta the loop. guilty as charged. it was a long, fun, at some point difficult, at other times amazing summer.
the highlights:!!!
1- San Diego. Terrible marine layer the whole time we were in S.D., but we managed to have fun anyway. Fun at the beach except that nasty stingray assault on my friend's son Sam. He's ok...the kid's a trooper. and OF COURSE there's the food we love: Great Asian, superb farmers' market, 2- 2-our friends from the Netherlands (the Mokken family!!!)... they were in S.D., and they joined us for camping in the Sequoia forest. awesome times.
3-Camping in the Sierra's. ALWAYS a blast. Did some new things this time, the big fire almost blew our plans...but we ended up trying a new camp for the first 2 nites. absolutely amazing and completely pristine.
4- the drive North: short form...
a- dinner at a polish restaurant (chopin) in Walnut Creek
b- the drive up to Mendocino...passing thru wine country with a very nice afternoon lunch in Sonoma
c-MENDOCINO !!!! great seaside town. superb food, great coffee shops and nice architecture and lush gardens everywhere.
d- THE NORTHERN REDWOOD FORESTS !!! amazing.
e- Southern Oregon coast. DUNES !!!!
f- Staying with Marcia's Uncle Ed & his wife Anne in Eugene OR
g- Portland. great city, stayed with Marcia's cousin David and his family.

fri. s.d. Comicon report - ASHLEY WOOD ARRIVES!!!

2010-07-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

wellllll, after having his flight canceled on wed, and being held up with nothing to do till now, Ashley arrived around 1pm. All the faithful fans who've been following his blog and waiting patiently have been rewarded. There is a nice little crowd around him chatting and getting signatures and sketches. i'll have photos later !!

EATaly

2010-06-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

A completely crazy food experience is heading to New York City in around 4 months...

to find out what EATALY is..... CLICK HERE to read the article about Joe Bastianich's new project

just reading about has me juicy.

i can't wait.

s

counter culture heaven - MERMAID PARADE in coney island

2010-06-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

you gotta love people in costumes on parade...? well i do!!!, especially when it's the natty
Mermaid Parade of Coney Island.

scantilly clad mermaids & mermen...from clumsy to carnivale and everything in between, it's a great event with Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson leading the parade!

we had a sensational time starting off the day at the coney island aquarium, and proceeded to the parade route and then a fantastic meal of Russian cuisine on the Brighten Beach boardwalk
@ Tatiana. Cherry filled ravioli, Borscht and then Chicken Kiev & Osso Bucco .

Jim Woodring WEATHERCRAFT opening

2010-06-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, a big thanks to all the fans, friends, artists, bloggers, and Brooklyn neighborhoodies who attended the opening last nite. Those posters i put up in the neighborhood really worked!

Jim's Weathercraft art looked great hanging! We exhibited around 30 pieces including the 24 pages in a row from the end of the book. The art will be hanging for another month!...so try to come in to see it.

It was a great evening with Jim on hand meeting & greeting fans, signing books doing a sketch or 2 as requested...An old acquaintance of his brought in the first zine he made (1982 !!) that she got when she traded hers for his. This was quite THE artifact. very cool to see it.

The evening went swimmingly and the signed Weathercraft books, and limited ed. (50) silkscreen prints we made were hot items~! (contact me for the remaining few that are still available!! - artofcomix@aol.com )

*next time, a 50 lbs worth of ice! dang it was a bit hot in the gallery, and beers could have benefited from a tad more ice...note to self! tho i didn't hear any complaints ;-)

germany day 11& 12...final days of ERLANGEN

2010-06-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

it ain't easy stayin on top of this. so, excuse me if i ramble and continue to make no sense like i usually do! the final 2 days of the show were great. amazing times, great biz, and a lot of fun seeing old friends and great artists. to start with Thomas Ott came by and said hi. He, the Swiss master of scratch board art is still making some of the coolest art around. i had a lot of fun with him stopping by and saying hi. also, a real trooper award goes to Veronica in her Wonder Woman costume!!! yes. plus there's a pic of the special dish i was talkin about called Blaue Zipfel in Zwiebelsud.

also great news for my new friend , female artist Ulli Lust who took home several major honors at the awards : !!!!

ICOM prize- independent comic prize _ Erlangen & Munich comic festivals

best graphic novel of the year for "Heute ist der letzte Tag vom Rest deines Lebens" ok...that translates (courtesy of google translate) to Today is the last day of the rest of your life

and the german equivalent of the Eisner awards the Max & Moritz prize for the fans favorite!

and her book got the publishing rights bought by French, Spanish & Italian publishers!!!
so, congrats Ulli!!!!

so the last 2 days just flew by and next thing you know its time for dinner and another fine meal at the Kitzmann brewery....

final day of the show was great and then BOOM! it's over, time to pack up and head back to Munich. no matter what kind of show i've had there's always a sad feeling like "what?" it's ending already???? yep. so, we packed it all up and hopped in Christoph's van and were back in Munich in like 2 hrs. had an uneventful but convenient meal at a local beer garden down the street.
enjoy all these pix from the final days

germany day 10 - Erlangen Comic Salon day 2

2010-06-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

woooooo, it was a busy and fun day. a lot of biz, a lot of friends, and a lot of activity at the booth. Night before when we ate at the Kitzmann brewery i really over did it...woke up to major heartburn around 3am. remember the old Alka Seltzer commercial?: i can't believe i ate the whole thing! ???...yes, that was me. luckily there was some xtra strength ant acid pills from a previous trip. unluckily not a great nit of sleep. soooooooooooooo, the big and important thing to report about that meal is the name of that special sausage cooked (and served) in that vinegar based broth: Blaue Zipfel im Zwiebelsud mit Brot. the transalation is boiled (blue as opposed to browned from the grill) sausage in a vingegar onion base, with bread. This is an exquisite and specific Bavarian dish local to this area. ok, enuf about thurs nite! back to friday

begins with the great breakfast @ Konig Otto hotel. after arriving at the convention and setting up all over again, we settled into the groove of the day. Some art i forgot to bring with me for a customer was in transit via the post office so i was regularly checking the tracking info and regularly disapointed, finding that the delay was caused by a german holiday.

My Italian friends Giovanni & Martina (couple) and an italian dealer Umberto brought art that was part of a deal i did with another collector from Roma. and our plans to meet up later back at Kitzmann were set. The rest of the con went on swimmingly sales wise and with a major purchase/trade brewing in the works.

It's easy going back to the Kitzmann brewery. plus the weather finally turned out beautifully so it was really nice sitting outside and eating. i went easy and ordered the lamb again. all was tasty and then our Italian friends showed up finishing the evening with us.

Germany - days 8/9 ...Erlangen !!

2010-06-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

So, my good friends....we left Munich around 1pm on Wed and headed off towards Erlangen. got in around 3:30pm and went straight for the convention center to make sure everything was ok. picked up my badges, check out the stand, fixed a few issues, and then met up with my good buddy Marc Mokken from Amsterdam (a fellow comic/art/dealer/collector /friend) who was finishing his set up. the 3 buddies then set off in search of a much needed beer w food. so, we headed into the town center towards a restaurant i knew, only to find out it was now serving spanish food. uh uh. no thanks.

our next course of action was to go towards a wonderful brewery i knew about not far from the hotel...i remembered the general direction but not the specifics...like a name! anyway when we go near to where i thought it was we asked a shop owner and she kindly directed us towards the Kitzmann Brauerei
this is a wonderful place with EXQUISITE BAVARIAN cuisine. really special! so for dinner i had roasted lamb, with potatoes , marc had the duck w french fries and red cabbage kraut, and Christoph had this great speciality of Wurst cooked in a vinegar based sause with onions. MMMMM it was all fantastic. and the beer was great. we sat around blabbing about all kinds of stuff until it was time to split for sleep. yes the beer kept coming.

onto TODAY and the first day of the show. woke up and had the hardy german breakfast courtesy of my Konig Otto hotel. and then off to the show for start up. not the easiest thing limpin over there because of my sore calf. ug, getting OLDER sucks! presently i have 3 injuries...but that's another story, THANKS BJJ !!!!

anyhoo, at the show the set up went well and eventually all the old friends and customers started showing up, and the days business got off to a very nice start. Ulrich Merkl*a collector /friend and publisher of a wonder Winsor McKay book called Dream of the Rarebit Fiend
stopped by to say hi, Alexander Braun who helped create an art show at the Salon from his collection came by, and a bunch of other local dealers and neighbors from previous shows.
a great morning.

sadly i can't report having ate anything noteworthy for lunch. but, as the show winded down we attempted to reserve for dinner at a fave place close by the convention center only to find out that this lovely little Bavarian place was now serving pizza and pasta? there was only 1 thing to do!!! KITMANN BREWERY !!!! yes. and glad we did. another really fine meal accompanied by their delicious beer. C & i started off with sharing Baggers (german potato pancakes) with a very tasty type of kraut, plus the side order of those delish wurst in vinegar w onions...i'll get the name of it later! mark had bavarian carpaccio. then for the mains, marc ate what i had the night before and C & i order the Schäufele (roast pork shoulder) with dumplings and kraut. it was absolutely amazing and the crispy skin perfect! i was stuffed and couldn't even finish the dumpling. oh it was delish!!!!

we ate outside and there was no rain in site. the weather starting to get nicer.
it was great day!

munich - day 7

2010-06-02T01:09:00.000-07:00

Grüß Gott,
hey everyone...another nice overcast day in munich....so what did i do? had a nice lazy morning with bernadette at home. and then headed off by bike towards the Pinakothek's . Stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant part of a wine shop called SoulKitchen . A nice prix fixed lunch special (5.90eu) which consisted of a potato soup (brothy kind), and schweine schnitzel with bbq sauce, baked potato and salad. All very nice.

then it was off to the Alte Pinakothek to see the great old master collection of art. It's really an incredible collection with great examples of Rubens, Van Dyck, Durer, the Flemish school, Rembrandt, and of course other great German painters: like Albrecht Altdorfer. I've never seen his work in other museums but i can assure you his skill and hyper detail of battle scenes (Alexanderschlacht ) and exquisite landscapes is second to NONE. It's really astonishing
and incredible. As far as Rubens, i doubt there is a better single collection of Rubens art any where. they have in 1 room 15+ GIANT paintings, and then scattered about beautiful prelims and other paintings by him. They also have a strong collection of Italian Masters as well.

After a nice after noon at the museum i biked back home, and then after a little tooling around it was time to head to the park for my bi annual soccer match with Christoph & Bernadette's friends!!! i was nursing a calf sprain coming into the game and about 3/4 thru the match i was Kapput...so i spent the rest of the time in goal. actually it was a lot of fun (except for the not being able to push off on the right foot.)

afterwards we went back to B's cousin Erme's house for dinner and they're theatrical practice session for a friend's wedding coming up. they had a comical musical performance they were working on. i couldn't understand a word of it, but from their laughing i inferred a lot.

Everyone was very nice ...Marcus and wife, erme's husband, and their kids....the eldest (a big soccer fan...6 yrs old!) took the group picture.

a very nice day. ok, i need some aspirin, but today (day 8 morn) it's easy as we're finally heading off to the ERLANGEN COMIC SALON .

i'll give my calf much needed rest for the weekend!

ciao,

tschüss

munich - day 6

2010-05-31T10:36:00.000-07:00

Cold and rainy today. kind of the weather i expected for the whole trip...but luckily until now i avoided it.
so, everything is closed today, i went for lunch at the Augustiner Brau ....Munich's oldest brewery.
Sauer braten, with semmelknödel (dumplings!), and a red cabbage slaw. but the food isn't the point here...it's the beer. and the atmosphere. so it was a lot of fun.

afterwards i attempted to go to the pinakothek's but was thwarted as all museums were closed today. it's ok...went for a very nice 1hr walk home via the englischer garten. a pit stop at a nice cafe on the way was all i needed.

now i'm chilling, my hosts forgot about a dinner date, and invited me to join but i decided on staying in and drinking BEER and eating some nice leftovers.

so...that's the day.

munich - day 5

2010-05-31T02:33:00.000-07:00

after a quick little breakfast and coffee we were on our way for our day's adventure. 1st stop to
meet at Michael & Veronica's house. M is a comic convention promoter in Munich. Also, C& B's friend Renata showed up to join us. M showed me his very nice apartment and art collection and a little more coffee and then we were off to our special destiniation: the countryside south east of munich about an hrs drive. the drive was very nice, as we got closer the views were incredible- in the distance the beautiful alps were rising up in front of a gray/lavender curtain of rain clouds...very beautiful.

we arrived (all of us hungry) in the pleasant little town of Sonnering where the restaurant Gasthaus Angstl awaited us! and we were treated to a glorious bavarian meal complete with Schweine Haxe, Dumplings, potato salad and several types of kraut. + GREAT BEER.

after lunch we headed back towards munich and made a pitstop in the historic town of Wasserburg (along the Inn river). We spent an hour or so roaming the beautiful quiet streets and finished with some nice coffee in an outdoor cafe.

I drove back with Renata, who practiced her english very well! it was a nice ride home. we arrived around 7pm. then C&B were showing stuff to their friends in the apartment...art, trophies from the flea market the day before...

for dinner i had leftovers from lunch and some left over food from the day before which was just as good reheated (german burgers & potato salad!)....

a great day

munich day 4

2010-05-30T14:51:00.001-07:00

kicked back with a chill morning at home. and then went off to a local outdoor food market. this is a really great treat. so...here are a bunch of pictures.

afterwards i went for a long bike ride back down to the exercise park. it's such a great city for biking in. finished the afternoon off with a beer in the beer garden . it was packed with people and the bavarian horn band was playing a top the chinesischer turm.

later when i got back to C & B's home, we had a lovely meal with some tasty german burgers, and potato salad...of course accompanied by a fine beer!

then Christoph wanted to see what art i was bringing to the show, so we hung out and looked at the first batch.

enjoy the pix

munich day 3

2010-05-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

i barely used the camera today, so pix will be from other days! except for the food pic from the englischer garten!

woke up to lovely weather...went over to the local bakery/food shop (i need to get some pix of this place!) and got some yogurt, fruit, and a wonderful little roll called a Krusti. delicious with butter. not a great nite sleep so it was harder than usual to motivate to go out for exercise...but i biked over to the park and went for a little jog before lunch.

i went back to the Englischer Garten for lunch and kinda went crazy a bit over ordering! Stecker Fisch (Mackrel on a stick), weisswurst, bratwurst, sour kraut and a big pretzle! and NO i didn't finish it all!

after eating i went for a great bike ride to the southern end of Munich via the Isar River park. This is one of my favorite things to do. it was warm out and i decided to spend the day out instead of going to a museum. hit the exercise park and did a nice little work out. and then finished the afternoon with a long bike ride home (roundabout and with heading north to the wilder part of the Englischer Garten. a nice nap set me right for the evenings festivities...and festive they were!

it was off with Bernadette to the opening party for the film she starred in! and Christoph was in it too! yes, she was the star...however it was just for a friends project. nothing big or fancy. it was a zombie movie with a twist! called night of the living! food wise just eating snacks for dinner. Had a really nice time seeing some of the people i've met before and meeting a few new people.

then a great quiet nite time bike ride home!

munich day 2- evening

2010-05-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

dinner tnite: a snack of a cheese spread with pretzels, and then the wonderful käsespätzle (spätzle is german pasta! & käse is cheese- put them together and what do you have? a very happy mr eder!). earlier while the batter was being prepared...yes it's more like a pancake batter than the drier italian pastas! i really worked up an apetite learning how to make spätzle... in addition there were fried onions served on top! and there was a fine german beer to accompany, and for desert a type of rhubarb preserve!

munich day 2

2010-05-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

wie geht es innen? (how's it goin?)

i went to the museum brandhorst today. it's a new museum (next to the modern pinakothek) that was being built the last time i was in munich. they have a great pop art collection, and the museum itself is a modern masterpiece of architecture. i even saw a damien hirst that i liked. i went with bernadette by bike to christoph's work place neighborhood for lunch where we went to a special little place (it was pouring and we ate standing...that's how tiny the place was. we had a dish called Schaschlik (which is a kind of kebab marinated and cooked in broth...stewed as it were. it's of hungarian/german origin. thy drizzled it with curry powder. and i had a lurid old fashioned german soft drink ( neon green) at christoph's behest. all was yummy, and a nice brezel (pretzel) to accompany. it's been pouring on and off all day, very overcast when not pouring. and yet it's all good. again one of the most chill cities ever.

so i'm back at their home now drinking a nice beer Bergbock Hell by Kloster Andechs. bought at a great beer store. basically a miniature version of our fave upper manhattan beer distributor, but with only great german beer of course. .80 cents per bottle! mmmmmmm. it is good here.

the dinner post to follow

Munich - day 1

2010-05-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

well travel day went as easy as pie.
got to munich and my friend christoph was was there to greet me within a few minutes of arrival.
went back to his place....had some coffee and rhubarb pie! very nice. my bagels, coffee, and brownies travelled well, and he and bernadette enjoyed.

after getting set up with the bike, it was time to hit the road and get some lunch...as it was 12 noon i decided the best course of action was to bike down the englischer garten and stop at a beer garden for wurstl (sausage) bread and kraut. jet lag was hitting pretty hard post eating, but i chilled a while and then continued my bike ride along the isar river south. heading back home in order to take a nap around 4 pm.

bernadette made a lovely dinner with fresh asparagus, potatos and schnitzel of pork with a horseradish bread crumb mixture. prior to dinner christoph and i biked to get some beer. we each had a nice Augustiner beer.

after dinner we played around on rhapsody...and then all were ready for bed.
pretty simple but very pleasant day.
havin truble uploading pix...will work on it tomorrow.
gotta crash now!

birthday conclusion! with pix

2010-05-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

it was a great day.

we had dinner at a very special tapas, & paella restaurant Socarrat. something i was VERY skeptical about because paella isn't

something that is normally good in restaurants...it takes longer than risotto to make. so usually restaurants cheat and have it pre-cooked. YUCK..

but this place is different. they warn you that it will be 40 minutes!!

the tapas were wonderful....fried artichoke hearts, mushrooms sauted with pork and drizzled with tartuffo oil, fried whole peppers, and croquettas!

instead of paella we had fideo (short spanish pasta) in squid ink w seafood! it was YUMMY.

and then marcia and lena baked a special birthday cake...lotsa chocolate !!! mmmmm

may 19th...happy bday to me!

2010-05-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

woke up to 3 lovely presents from the wife and kid.

a coffee mug (i drink lotsa coffee) with my daughter's picture on it!

a T shirt that has "scotteder.com" in a word bubble. what can i say?...the merchant in me has rubbed off on the missus.

and a new FRY PAN...stainless steel. i've been whining about it for a while...i guess she heard me! it's awesome, and has delicious cheese omelette written all over it. than pan won't be a virgin for much longer!

and then a nice cozy breakfast out at Cookshop with marcia after dropping lena off at school. had a pretty darn good version of huevos rancheros! no need for lunch today...it was huge!

i'm at the gallery now and YES, thars coffee in that thar mug now!@!!

anyhoo.

i'm 47 today!

you be the judge....

2010-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

fun at an nra (national rifle association) gathering, pictures are worth THOUSANDS of words...

see this movie !!! + grillin

2010-05-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

take the soprano's and mix it with iron chef and what do you get?

DINNER RUSH

this is a fun movie with a great ensemble cast...it's not 4 foodies only.
it has a stylish vibe, moves quickly and i loved it!

--------------------------------------------------

had our first cook out of the season last nite, in out community garden. just me and the girls.
had to start with the classics (almost) buffalo burgers (with cheese, tomato & onion)
hotdogs (who isn't a sucker for good dogs off the grill), potato (trust me, cut an 1/8 to a 1/4 inch thick and slathered in olive oil, salt & pepper...it's awesome), and a veggie skewer!~
beers and good weather...what a pleasant evening it was.

quiet about brazilian jiu jitsu....until NOW

2010-05-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

after getting my first promotion about 3 months ago...i had to stop training as my hamstring tendon was giving me fits. very confusing thing tho as i could jog without pain and do lunges, stair climbing, etc. but in certain positions, sometimes doing nothing at all, i would just have an aweful spasm of pain suddenly. only a certain type of stretch could relieve it. went to the doctor, got some knee strengthening exercizes and therapy to do. after 2 months, a little better, but i decided that it was time to go back to class! i had my apprehensions as you could imagine. so i decided that if i had to i'd favor one side, avoid movements stressful to that area. prior to going to the class i did my workouts to test the tendon and found that i was mostly ok. if you recall, earlier when i posted about braz jiu jitsu, i mentioned what a great physical challenge it is. so, i was a tiny bit nervous returning to class...but it turned out that i kept up a good routine on my own and i mostly breezed thru all the workout, with only a minor moment where i needed to stop and stretch.

i'm now proudly nursing my sprained wrist!! war wound i'm proud of! i missed this class. and it's good to be back. still, i'm off to Germany to attend the Erlangen Comic Salon in around 12 days...so it's on and off again with bjj. i'm just happy all's well.

JUNE 18th -- MARK THIS DATE DOWN

2010-05-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

because we are having a JIM WOODRING show. yay!!!! JUNE 18th....just over a month away...

Jim's incredible book WEATHERCRAFT just came out, and we're the lucky lucky folks who get to exhibit and sell the art from this masterpiece of graphic novel fiction!

sooooooo, come by and say hi june 18th.

italian trip...the final days

2010-05-10T18:20:00.001-07:00

before it all fades away...one last attempt to remember the last days of a short but epic trip. on the last free day...i spent the morning with my host Marina, chatting about life...as it got later, i realized i had to get out of there. so we dashed off by car to drop me off at the metro station. i jumped out of the car, dashed off waving to marina. and, yes, the train station was closed! STRIKE UNTIL 3pm!! i frantically grabbed my cel phone called her and she was still nearby :-). so she drove me off towards a bus stop closer to town. and being the native of rome that she is, she thought of a special forno (bakery) near the bus stop which would have my beloved pizza bianca! u know they had way more than that of course...i couldn't resist and had a piece of pizza with fresh funghi porcini! mmmmm, it was great.

it was raining or drizzling all morning. i waited for the bus, which was sooo crowded i could barely get on and stood at the top of the well. the bus was so packed i couldn't even stamp my ticket. thanks to the strike!! and when i got to the piazza where the church of san Giovanni was, i jumped off...i had enuf of the bus. fine with me, another visit to the church was well worth it. afterwards i headed in the direction of the colosseum knowing full well that i would stop in the church of San Clemente and see the excavations below the church (which i hadn't had time for previously in this trip). WOW...this is a really cool thing to do. there's a complete complex of the ancient church below it. it was really special.

near the church is a gorgeous park over looking the colosseum. chilled there for a while and tried to find a church i had stumbled across the last time in roma. i found it and the crazy cool Michelangelo sculpture within. there was a cool sign forbidding tour leaders from stopping in front of the statue and giving lectures about it. nice.

and that was the end to a perfect day in Roma. we were supposed to meet our friend Giovanni for dinner but the baby was sick and we ended up relieved a little bit ourselves because we could now chill at home...Marina cooked us a lovely alla matraciana, with frittata. we had antipasti of home made cured artichoke hearts, some pecorrino romano and some nice hams. and yes...the vino from their food collective they belong to. it was lovely.

and if that wasn't enuf...massimo and i stayed up late into the nite trading art, and his other friend massimo came over and when it was all said and done, i did some great biz with both guys and ended up with Magnus, Manara art! i was very happy...so were they. treasures were swapped and all were happy.

but i must go in reverse for one last blur of a crazy meal we had the nite before. no need to go on about the churches and sites of Roma...oh yeah there was a Leonardo show about his drawings of mechanical contraptions from the various codex' . accompanying the drawings were full size constructions based on the drawings!!!! it was incredible. genius is an understatement for this man.

so...this meal. right now i can't remember the restaurant name! uggggg. but it was a place in the middle of nowhere (more or less a suburb of Rome)...u'd never find it in a million years and you'd have to drive there.
check out what we had:

entrees: stuffed peppers with baccala with pesto of pistachio and rucola
scallops with salad of artichoke and radicchio
ravioli of lardo (speical pork fat) di " cinto senese"stuffed w potatos, porcinis & curry
nuts i know!!!! totally nutz!!!

primi: ravioli filled with mussles with ratatouille sause
risotto w julienned peppers, sweet tomatos, and sausage
spaghetti with sardines, mezzancolle and pecorino

secondi: sandwich of sword fish filled with tomatos & bananas with lemon couscous
chicken with truffles, asparagus and avocado cream

on that note....
buono note!!!

s

primi

napoli: days 7-10 redux

2010-05-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

wow...before i forget all this, i'll digest it for all. the last free day before the con is but a blur now. i came to the great realization that the perfect pizza is the margherita (simplest, also cheapest on the menu)...it's ok with light supplement (funghi, maybe salcicce, etc) but not too many items. The day now fuses into a mix of churches (san gregorio in armeno again!...) and the fantastic National Archeological museum. where i was treated to the fabulous Farnese collection. a collection of roman sculpture dating back to ancient roma. the entire collection is on display permanently now. it's totally incredible. when i headed back to the hotel for a beer and rest around 5pm i bumped into giselle who reminded me about the opening of the museum show at Villa Pignatelli (with dinner!) and so after a nice time resting the feet, it was off to see the show. i lent about 30 pieces by the following artists: Gilbert Hernandez (who was a guest at the show), Ashley Wood, Jack Kirby, Chester Gould, Winsor McKay, Milton Caniff, and it was a great show. during the dinner i met a couple of really nice german artists.

so, the next morning the show would begin. cost 25 eu to take a cab to castel s elmo where the show was being held. luckily i got a great view of the city on the way up...25eu~!!!

the quick review of the Napoli Comicon as follows: i did very well sales wise day 1, and thankfully Bernard the french dealer who was to share the space didn't show up...so i spread out into his space. my day 1 sales equaled the sales of all the sales of the previous show i did in napoli. my buddy (and host from Roma) Massimo came in around 10:30 bearing food~! i was thusly even happier to see his smiling face. our neighbor to the left was Sergio who runs the the little Nemo auctions, and on the right the art dealer Stefano (whom i met on Massimo's last trip to NYC back in march). surrounded by cool dealers the day proceeded smoothly. we ate dinner at Gorizia which is an incredible pizzaria but also nice restaurant...we would end up eating here every nite. i have vongole veraci (surprise) but also shared some nice apps, and good wine. The publishers of the now defunct Glamour art magazine joined us. a very nice evening.

day 2- another good day, with some *notable trades added to sales (that exceeded day 1 !) not by a lot, but i was happy with the result.

and finally a slow day 3, Marina (massimo's wife) showed up and they spent a lot of nice time in Napoli...then we had dinner (at Gorizia) again....on other nites i had the Ripieno (a specific type of calzone) but when massimo went for the fruiti di mare, i knew it was MY destiny too. a YUMMY pannacotta followed for desert....and drove back to Roma (about 2 hrs).

day 6 - Napoli !!!

2010-04-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

klakakakakakaka
klakakakakaka
klak!
i haven't lost my mind...every time i go to naples it seems that there's some new fad of sorts going on here. sometimes those fads aren't so new...4 years ago every woman and girl below the age of 20 had on cowboy boots! this year's disernable fashion trend is the color(s) purple & lavender. but what does that have to do with klak klakakakakaka?
that's the sound 2 plastic balls (held together by string) make when you wack them in just the right way! remember those things? i was in elementary school the first time i saw them. they were bigger then, and thankfully WAY more dangerous! the story was some kid took an eye out or something, or did he split his head open? anyhoo, they went away.... but now they've resurfaced and shown their ugly klakity heads in Napoli. you can't go anywhere without hearing the vendors who sell them, or the kids who buy them KLAKAKAKKAKAKA. if you really want to make me laff....bring one to a con, sneak up behind me and start klaking! please video tape my expression ;-)

in other news my camera is kaput! so no more pix until i get back and upload them from my phone. i need the right usb cable. ug.

so, i got an early start and made a bee line for the restaurant where i left my credit card from the night before. yes, i called them that nite! went an alternative route there...but found out that a certain part of the street was private. so i went a bit out of my way. no worries.

then i tried to add money to my vodaphone card...long story short, after everything...it doesn't work. so a bit of wasted time.

luckily right down the street was a Caraggio in a historic building (owned by a bank). they charged me 3 euros to see it. only a sucker for the big C would submit to it.

then as time was running out i rushed desperately off to the cloister San Gregorio in Armenia. which closes at noon. i went an alternate route and found the adjoining church open for once and boy was i rewarded! what a glorious church it was....probably the best one for it's size in Napoli. and then i went to the cloister and chilled a bit.

next i had lunch at pizza Sorbillo ....a great place, quite well known in Napoli. i had a special one with a bitter brocoli like green and sausage and cheese. no sauce. it was yummy. my stomach expanded to acomodate all of it.

finished with gelato (pistachio & strachitella)
while sitting in the sun i decided my next plan.

POMPEII

an awesome time... you can not visit this place too many times. especially since the restoration process continues and you're likely to see something that wasn't open yet. 3 hrs just flew by.

when i left i literally ran to catch the train. got it !

got a little lost for a bit after leaving the train station, and luckily stumbled across a granita stand. it's an italian slushy. and i had the cafe granita. mmmmmm

after walking all day i was quite relieved to rest my sore feet in a wine bar before dinner. then headed back to the restaurant umberto from the nite before. it was just too easy to go back, i was in the neighborhood, tired, etc...
i had a nice salad of asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and calamari. and then for the pasta (so secondo for me tonite) i had potato gnocchi with clams, mussels, calamari with zucchini & pumpkin. yes, it was very very good. each nite i'm drinking Falanghina.

i took pix...i'll show all when i return.
then i nice walk home and yes...more gelato on the way.

ciao

day 5 - Naples - italy

2010-04-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

ed

another fine day in Bella Napoli.
woke up really late, and rushed off for the 30 minute walk to the old center. had a great pizza at matteo's. margherita con funghi!

but before i ate, knowing that all the churches close by around 1pm, i squeezed in as many as possible. i made it to the duomo with just a little bit of time to spare....luckily i got to see the San Genaro chapel and then they kicked me out! Pizzeria Mateo was just a couple of blocks away. BIG difference between the place i ate the day before (Da Ettore). first of all...Da Ettore, while they have excellent food & pizza, jacked me by charging a 3 euro cover! considering the pizza was 8 euro...this is highway robbery. usually the cover is for bread, but with pizza? come on...they don't give bread. needless to say...i didn't tip. fast forward to today. 5 euro's for the pizza pie, and 1 euro for the aqua gassata. 6 euro total. yeah... and the pizza is great.

so, after lunch i started off in desparate need for my first coffee of the day. i passed the entrance to the subterranean aqueducts and decided this trip i'd do it. and i have to say it was well worth it. we had a humorous young guide (who shared a coffee with me afterwards) and it was totally fascinating getting the history and the amazing scope of what was going on down there! first we went to a home where they recently rediscovered the ancient greek amphitheater! i've included a pic of us entering via the stairs thru the floor. the whole experience was great.

and then i discovered that my camera died! now what to do. i can take pix with my phone...but i don't have the usb cable to upload the images to the laptop. stay tuned.

after this i went to a few more churches and then headed off to a couple of different wine bars. after that it was time for dinner at Umberto
i had mixed fried veggies, and then pasta con vongole veraci. for desert pastiera.

a nice walk home.

Day 4 - Napoli - italia

2010-04-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

well, what a day it's been (and again if you're starting here....go BACK TO DAY 1).
caught the high speed train at Termini station from Rome to Naples at 10:05 am. it was 20 minutes delayed. 1 hour instead of 2. while on the train i got a text from the convention promoter that my hotel had been changed...lucky i got THAT text. the new hotel is actually way nicer...but not as well located. the taxi was 25 eu !!!! dropped my stuff off and as i have a savant's memory i found a great place for lunch that i ate at 2 years ago. Da Ettore... aside from them ripping me off with with a crazy charge of 3 euro's for the cover...it was great.

after lunch i headed off to the old center of town. the streets were teeming with life along via toledo. as i got closer i saw that all the churches were closed for the afternoon (i kinda knew this). i got a wonderful gelato at the classic chocolate shop Gay Odin (caffe with pistachio). then i walked a bit more, sat on the steps of one of my favorite churches "san domenico maggiore" (closed...but we'll get back to it later) finished my gelato...and nearly passed out! ok. severely sleep deprived here. and decided wisely to head back to the hotel for a nap. since everything was closed this was pretty easy decision making.

had my much needed nap, and headed back to the center of town where i made a stop in a church i'd never been in before (chiesa di S'anna dei lombardi...also known as the church of Monteoliveto). i had passed it before, but either never really explored it or ...??? i don't know. it was very quiet, no one in, and a guy started talking to me in italian and kind of ushered me towards the back where i could see signs about Vassari...so i followed him. and low and behold he led me way in back to the Sacristy where Giorgio Vasari did the most amazing frescoed ceilings !!! (this is the same Vasari more famous for being the first italian art historian...and also a great architect as well.)...but he was no joke as a painter! what a special art treat this was!!
after this i headed off to the church of Gesu Nuovo. another stunner! nothing specific, but glorious architecture and design everywhere.

after that i headed off for the church of san Domenico Maggiore (where i nearly passed out on the steps), had a great time... now it was time to head off in the direction of where i would eat dinner. back along the via toledo, where it was swarming with the pre dinner walk. made a right turn on via chiaia. first stop a nice little wine bar where i had a couple of glasses of proseco with olives on the side. perfect way to kill time before dinner, and then i walked over to the restaurant Manfredi. a simple fried mozarella app, then linguini with fruiti di mare (mixed clams), and a bronzino (sea bass grilled). all awesome....took the nice stroll home and enjoyed (oink) a way too big cup of gelato!

bout to head off to sleep!
buono note!
s

italy - day 3 - roma

2010-04-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

don't forget to start with day 1 !!

ok...so, i didn't sleep well. it always happens to me on after these red eye flights to europe. i catch some kind of cold. been there, done that, doing it again. thankfully massimo woke me at 11:30am...it wasn't really waking me, i just couldn't get out of bed. Marina made us Rigatoni alla Carbonara. the classic romano dish. mmmmmmmm. you need a special type of bacon for this called guanciale (pork jowls), and eggs & pecorino cheese, and some black pepper. very simple but also very easy to not make it well. and marina made a beautiful version! after this we went for a walk on the antica appia (the appian way...the first great road of ancient Rome)...incredible park along the road with ruins and monuments. just lovely.

after this we headed for another part of Roma unfamiliar to me... Villa Torlonia & the beautiful surrounding parks...in Nomentana district. 3 different museums ...we went to the Casina Delle Civette (hut of the small owl). built in the 1840's it had a great display of art nouveau stained glass and mechanical drawings of the artists work.

we were dropped off at the piazza del popolo...where i made a pit stop to see a couple of caravaggio's...but it was too dark and there was a mass going on so i didn't want to disturb with the bright lights. then we walked down the via margutta...a great quiet street lined with art gallery's. after this every restaurant we wanted to go to was closed! we were dead tired and near the jewish quarter so we went to the classic roman jewish place Giggetto...where we had the Carciofi alla Giudia (artichokes jewish style)...i had bacacala, and then we had spaghetti con pepe Y cacio. (black pepper and creme sauce) and lastly the Ossobuco! it was all good...and it hit the spot. on the drive home we stopped in the outskirts of town for gelatto.

time to crash!
ciao

day 2 pix

2010-04-24T16:47:00.001-07:00

top right day 1 with the roman forum in the back ground, polenta gnocchi (more like polenta cakes if you ask me!), 3-in the orange garden atop Aventino hill, 4-marina & i in the cloister of San Giovanni, 5-yummy apps from that delicious dinner, and lastly the desert.

italy - rome- day 2

2010-04-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

i had a great nite's sleep, and after a nice breakfast, some good cafe was ready to head out to lunch with Massimo & Marina with our friends Giovanni Tarquini (owner of Forbidden Planet in Roma) his wife Luisa and 11 month old daughter Vittoria (a little sweetheart!). we had the classic pasta (massimo's fave place for it) bucatini all'amatriciana! it was awesome, and it was HUGE! oy...i was stuffed. but it was great. then we headed off to to Gio & Lui's beautiful home which is decked out to the T with beautiful architecture and design, we had some nice pastry and cafe.

then we headed off to see the church of San Giovanni (the duomo of Roma...that's main cathedral for those of you not in the know). the highlight was the great cloister. I hadn't been to this church before...so i was psyched. on the way back to the car we stopped off for another quick espresso (cafe). also we hit up to nice smaller churches on this little walk (San Clemente, and San quatro sainti sp?). then a quick pit stop to the newly finished renovation of the Trajan's column area.

after this i had the special treat of going to yet another spot i've never been to: the Aventino hill district! Amazing views of Trestevere and the rest of Roma from the drop dead gorgeous San Sabina "orange garden". Also quick visit to the Church itself (San Alessio). then a walk thru the stunning neighborhood over to the lovely San Anselmo church and mini gardens.

next it was time for dinner...we headed off to the Testaccio district and ate in this funky cool restaurant funkiest place Ristorante della Citta dell'altraeconomia ("City for Another Economy")

we started off with 3 apps: 1- Antipasto (fiordilatte, tostine di pane con pate di verdure, formaggi & salumi di maiale nero reatino)...mozarella, little flat breads with veggie pate, more cheese, 2 tops of cured ham from the specific breed. 2- Vellutata di cannellini con verza stufata al profumo di balsamico (cannillini bean puree, with a little fried cabbage with a touch of vinegar).
3-Sformatino di finocchi e pecorino (sort of a fennel quiche). all were yummy and we shared.
then because i'm a sucker for polenta i had a primi of Gnocchi di polenta con salsa di gunghi & pomodori ( polenta gnocchi with mushroom gravy and cherry tomatoes.) and yes...it was off the hook. and YES i shared!

also served with the meal...a nice Primativo red wine from the south of italy.

for our 3 mains (secondo) we had 1- Lombata di maiale nero dei monti reatini (a nice piece of grilled pork), 2- Pollo ruspante con salsa masala (chicken with a delicate indian masala sause), and 3- TAgliata di manzo (beautifully grilled strips of beef).

our deserts were apple crumb tart, and baked pears with cream.

a great day...!
back at you tomorrow.

day 1- pix

2010-04-24T16:01:00.001-07:00

clockwise from upper left- dinner at il san lorenzo- 1-this strips of squid with artichokes mint & lemon/olive oil 2- primi- home made pasta with sea urchin 3- appetizers.....it was all awesome!

Italy - day 1 - ROME

2010-04-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

i what a day! starts off with the fast security check at newark int'l airport i've ever seen. i guess the backlog from the volcano inspired them to move things along. i didn't complain! flight took off 6pm....u know what that means! ? no sleep. 8 hr flight, so i made the effort anyway...shut my eyes for a good 3 hrs at least. arrived in Rome got my packs, and breeeeeeeeezed thru customs. this is a big deal for me for many reasons. 1- i'm carry art! 2- $1000's and $1000's and $1000 of dollars worth of art!!! i'm always a bit on edge worrying whether some customs police guy is having a bad day and decides the bone up his ass oughta be up mine. 3- i was acting as mule this time! bringing in for a friend 3 very VERY VERY valuable pieces! luckily my good buddy in Naples helped me created a good customs form stating all the art was on loan to a museum (a real musuem...which i actually lent art to! so it's only a half lie...just not any of the art i brought on the flight ;-). oh yeah, back to breezing thru customs and there's my good buddy Massimo waiting with his friend (whom i brought the art for...for rewards we shall keep private for the moment). so, an uneventful customs crossing is a good crossing! i brought my friends Massimo & Marina (whom i'm staying with) bagel's from Murray's. they had that for breakfast and i had some pastry (yummy) and cafe with steamed milk. next massimo & massimo (yep his friend's name too) left for work, i hung out with Marina a bit and got directions on how to get home via metro & bus. and i found out that there was a Caravaggio show in town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so there was the plan for the day.

i took the Metro to the Coloseum stop, strolled by (not in) the Roman Forum, went up to the Capitoline Hill, and went in one of the my favorite churches up top there. then strolled down the steep steps and headed to the ghetto (the jewish quarter) scoped out a few old haunts to eat but decided to keep on going and head to the Campo Dei Fiori where i would hit up my fave bakery! bought some nice warm Foccacia (im too tired to check sp?) and some pizza con Fiori di Zucca (zuchini flowers! & cheese).
i sat and ate it up on the central statue, when it started to drizzle i popped my umbrella and was happy as all get out.

then i proceeded on to the Caravaggio show. the line was long. but what the heck...i got on. and there i stood for the next 2.5 HOURS...i couldnt fuckin believe it!!! once i was on a half hour i couldn't quit...but it just kept movin along at a snails pace...just when i was about to give up i met an american student on line and that helped the time fly. well, not really fly, the student had a limit time wise and was forced to get off the line after waiting for 2 hrs!!!!! horrible. but the show was MIND BOGGLING. a dream, and even tho i was delirious with fatigue, it was a great dream. a shot of espresso helped a lot!!! i had seen many of these pieces before (vatican, and other roman museums, napoli, the met, etc...) but the ones i had seen before and finding out where they were on loan from (fort worth texas??? !!!! ....sheeeeeiiiiit they're cara is better than the mets'!!! it was a stunning st john the baptist. and then there was another stunner from a museum in dublin! awesome...but the kicker (not the best piece in the show....but close) was from a private collection!!! PRIVATE???? i mean who the hell has a caravaggio in their collection. it was a big masterpiece...i could see it selling for $250mil minium!!! unbelievable!!!!!

ok, then it was back to the jewish quarter for dinner. i stopped in a sweet lil wine bar, had a glass of Prosecco (almost passed out 2-3 times...that jet lag was bangin round 6pm...hadnt had a chance for nap!) and had the common sense to ask the friendly bar tender for dinner recommendations and he provided me with 2 i hadn't heard of. BOTH were totally booked! the second one, i asked if they could help me out and they sent me off to a very elegant seafood place!
name of Il San Lorenzo
...first of all i got there right when it opened at 7:30pm, and i knew i was in for a good meal as i watched some locals eating fresh shucked oysters and raw sea urchin at the bar. i was eyeing them with extreme envy. everything is home made in this restaurant including the bread sticks!!! and here's what i had: they started me off with some free apps of lightly fried sardines (not the fishy yucky kind we get in a can here) with some bocancini (fried rice balls). I had a nice glass of dry white wine and bottle of Aqua con Gas (mineral water with bubbles!).

i looked over the menu and was THRILLED to see that they were serving a pasta con ricci (sea urchin), and i knew i was going to order it! i haven't had this for a few years, since i had it last in Naples. first my appetizer was thin strips of delicate squid over steamed artichokes with mint, olive oil and touch of lemon.

stuffed, i head off for a much need walk to the train. it was pouring...but the walk was fun. and then the metro to the bus, and all is cozy now.
gonna crash.

new ashley wood robot model...special name

2010-04-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

the brandnew ASHLEY WOOD ROBOT

lots of news...good and sad

2010-04-21T07:01:00.001-07:00

the news i just got inspired me to voice my thoughts. first on the sad news: today i heard about the passing of a rap music legend. MC GURU of the group Gang Starr. someone i grew up listening to and have long had the deepest respect for the intelligence and power of his lyrics. his style was very unique, a smooth monotone voice with very witty and clever rhyming. Combined with the jazzy samples of DJ Premier they were easily one of my favorite rap bands of all time. and he will be missed as an artist. if there's an afterlife i know he's tearin shit up there!
i'm listening to Step in the Arena...

on to brighter news, my fears about missing my trip to italy are passing! seems the volcano with the ridiculously confusing spelling (to someone not from iceland) is chillin now! All the wonderful art is sorted and packed, and i'm VERY excited about this trip. i'm staying with my good friends Massimo & Marina in Roma, wonderful people, excellent hosts...i'm stoked! and then on to Napoli Comicon! you'll hear all about it.

ta

San Francisco, Wondercon redux, and L.A.

2010-04-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well that was some kinda cool trip! first stop San Francisco for the Wondercon. last year it was possibly the shittiest big show (sales wise) i've EVER done. but hey, it's San Fran and they have some great food there, several awesome museums and my good buddy art legend SPAIN RODRIGUEZ...whom i spent good time with. after the show i did some good trading and buying so i was hopeful about a return trip. and i visited my brother in L.A. so i had more excuses to come back to wondercon. aiiiiiiiight, fast forward to this year!-:

Packed a crazy cool selection of art and with a few last minute adjustments at the check in counter i was able to skirt the xtra fees regarding overweight baggage. yeah, i zig and zag when i have to. Got to San Fran with a day to spare and spent a great chunk of it with a walk to the Embarcadero, where i had lunch at the Ferry Building's Farmers market. OMG this place rocks...think the chelsea market and then magnify 2-3x. after i had a nice mexican lunch (tortilla soup, 2 fish tacos) i headed over to san fran MOMA. i must say this might have been the single most perfect museum visit i've ever had! how? i know, i mean think about it: i'm a museum HOUND!!! i love museums and i've been to many of the best in the world (Prado, Moma NYC, Louvre, Vatican, Alte pinacotec munich, Rijks Museum, etc... BUT, what makes this museum is it's size (small-mid) which enables you to see everything without completely blowing your senses and wearing yourself out, and of course the incredible quality to the collection and shows of this particular day i went. there were 2 great shows going on.

-first was the Belgian painter LUC TUYMANS. i wasn't very familiar with him prior to this show. i knew a little about him, but after this show i was blown away and regard him as a giant in the world of figurative painting. there are often motivations and explanations behind good works of art (and bad), but i found what was going on behind the paintings really poignant and significant, adding tremendous weight to works of art that stood by themselves without explanation.

-2nd was the great 75 years of loooking forward show. celebrating the 75th anniversary. Entirely from their collection. As you'd expect there were phenomenal pieces of art, but one of the most interesting and charming parts of the show revolved around the first Jackson Pollack painting they purchased. This was early in Jackson's career and way before the drip art success. he was largely unknown outside the New York area, and completely unknown in California. The fledgling museum had to scrape together the money and ask J's dealer Peggy Guggenheim for a discount!!! and then they still needed the purchase to be approved. i know this because the documents and letters were there and i really got a kick out of it. the asking price of this Pollack masterpiece was $750!!!! and they haggled it down to $500. wow. u gotta love it.

-3rd was the great photography show The View From Here with work from the 1840's and on.

a perfect museum day.

Now on the Wondercon. first 2 days totally uneventful. crapola sales...but that wasn't unexpected, however saturday nite i went out with Mark Bode and his wife Molly. had a great Mexican dinner and then over to their house to hang and do some art deals. Mark is the Son of art legend VAUGHN BODE
and visiting his home enshrined with great art by Mark and his Dad was truely a great experience! and we did some great deals...picked up awesome art by Cobalt 60 (by mark) and a few nice pieces by his dad!
Sunday, the show started off well with a coupla good sales (totaling more than fri/sat combined), and then it just got better and better with some significant trading, more sales, and a coupla great purchases (wally wood art!@!!!!! from early Mad Magazine). AWESOME!!!!

so all in all it was a great show.

flew down to L.A. and spent some super quality time with my brother EVAN (a musician and sound guru). well, we ate like nobody's biz, cuz he lives one block away from Sawtelle the home to a gazillion cool Asian eateries. and we did 3 big hikes in Malibu Canyon, so i just had a great time every minute.

also paid a visit to a well known collector and made a nice purchase, and had a great time hangin out.

art openings, and more!

2010-03-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

i've been crazy busy this past week. i'm lending art to all kinds of museums and art shows at comic festivals: and so workin overtime trying to get the art out before i leave for the San Franciscoon March 31 to attend Wondercon (april 2-4)

-Kirby art for Luzern Switzerland (Fumetto 2010).
-A whole mess o stuff (Caniff, Gould, McCay, Ash Wood, Dan Clowes, Dave Cooper, and more) for my good buddy Claudio who runs the Napoli, Italia Comicon.
-Jim Woodring, and Peter Kuper for "The Collection" at Lincolnshire, England

and tonite i attended the art openings for Blab! A Retrospective at The Society Of Illustrators . We lent art by Tim Biskup, Ryan Heshka, Jonathan Rosen, John Pound, and Mark Todd.

and later we went over to MOCCA for the Neointegrity: Comics Edition where i lent an incredible amount of art: Moebius, H Pratt, Tony Millionaire, Dan Clowes, J Doucet, Jim Woodring, Winsor McCay, Gluyas Williams, Gary Panter, R Crumb, Trina Robbins, Gilbert Shelton, Chris Ware, Dave Cooper, James Sturm, Mark Beyer, Vaughn Bode, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Al Columbia, Seth, Rick Griffin, Rory Hayes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Spain Rodriguez, Jay Lynch, Joe Matt, Brendan McCarthy, Ted McKeever, Victor Moscoso, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Skip Williamson, S. Clay Wilson.
and,,,,,if you can believe this, it's only a fraction of the show. it's madness inspiring, eye popping list of artists hung "Salon" style floor to ceiling with every inch covered with art.

Both shows are fabulous and i highly recommend you go out and see it!!!

Sunday in NYC 3/14/10

2010-03-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

saw a great art show at MOMA today. william kentridge - from south africa - the guy does very expressive animation, but it was a thrill to see his paintings. read a cool article about him.
and check out a cool video

saw a bad art show at MOMA today. Marina abramovic - performance art. naked people standing around...lotta arty contemp crap. i know i know, she's a legend in the contemp art world and world famous performance artist. still, i found it boring.

saw a great b movie - The Brain From Planet Arous

Village Voice review of HOTWIRE #3 show!!!

2010-02-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

yes.
the Village Voice review our show! read it here...

cheers,
scott

bjj, & important comic book news!

2010-02-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

lets get it out of the way. my brazilian jiu jitsu instructor Babs Olusanmokun gave me my first promotion a week ago... i have a stripe on my white belt! yay...er, now i have to live up to it and train even harder! great!?!

in the comic book world a record was set for the highest price paid EVER for a comic book. get the story here
a slabbed (cgc graded 8.0) of Action comics #1. first appearance of Superman, sold for $1 million smackerooooos~!
nice huh?

coming up in a post soon...why i love canada, winter sports, the winter olympics, and travelling!

and a question to you: should i go on the public access Chess Now
???? it's hokey, and i'm sure to get publicly humilated, but what's the downside?

Hotwire #3 opening party report

2010-02-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

The Hotwire opening party is in the bag. Wow...what a phenomenal turn out! It was a cold wintry night, but thanks to all who came. We drank a LOT of wine & beer, and a great time was had by all...don't believe me??!!?? check out the pix!!! Thanks to Glenn Head for all the assistance leading up to the show and for putting the good word out. Also, big up to all the artists in attendance: Chadwick Whitehead, Jayr Pulga, Sam Henderson, Glenn Head, R Sikoryak, & Danny Hellman. , Other news: We're getting reviewed in the Village Voice !! Plus, a big up to my cousins Melissa, Debra, and the surprise visit by Liz (and husband Doug and daughter Alana) all the way from D.C. !!! Minutes before the opening....i had my doubts, i mean the weather sucked and there's still tons of snow on the ground from the recent storm, but then the faithful kept streaming in, and it went off without a hitch. So thanks again to all who came out to make it a memorable evening and thanks again to all the artists for creating such fabulous art.

book review!!! and the opening HOTWIRE tonite

2010-02-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

well friends, it's been a crazy whirlwind week leading up to the HOTWIRE #3 group show opening tonite in my gallery. earlier today an art critic from the Village Voice came to review it. cool huh? sooooo, more to report on the opening later. right now the gallery's clean (nothing short of a miracle), all the art's up, all the wine/beer/and snacks in place, just a few touches to take care of and we're good to go.

on to the graphic novel review of Alex Robinson's To Cool to be Forgotten.
a fantastic graphic novel about hypnosis, smoking, high school, and TIME TRAVEL...well sort of.
Alex really captures some powerful emotions, laffs and heartache with his beautiful cartooning technique and superb storytelling. i HIGHLY recommend this book.

it's cold outside

2010-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

after my morning brazilian jiu jitsu class, which was brutal btw, i went back to the union sq farmers market to pick up the Moscovy duck i paid for earlier, from Quatro farms. I can't comment on it yet as it's in fridge for tomorrows dinner * more on that later, but i can comment on their whole chickens that i buy regularly. DELICIOUS!!! and yes, i roast a nice chicken. few things are quite as satisfying as a good roast chicken...and i succumb to it weekly. also picked up some eggs from them. next stop Terhune farms where i bought some Honeycrisp apples, they've been around at the market for a coupla years and their a great variety. sweet and u guessed it...crisp! and then headed over to 3 corner farms where i picked up a rack of lamb, and some of their exquisite cheese. a Brebis, and a Camenbert. Thing is about these folks, that their lamb is superb. best i've ever had. but they also make fantastic cheese. so good, i'm sure they could easily just do just that, and only that...that's how good the cheese is. lastly i went to look for some bacon...but everybody was sold out, so i picked up some bratwurst to go with the waffles marcia made from scratch (as she always does). so, as you can imagine...it was a good food day. roasted the lamb with a coating of breadcrumbs, olive oil, mustard, rosemary and black pepper. also made some polenta to go along with it. awesome.

tomorrow's looking great too...will let you know how the whole duck comes out !!!

bowling HISTORY....kelly kulick

2010-01-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

i grew up bowling. carrying my ball to lanes, eventually getting a locker. winning super cool (to a kid) trophies. going to pro shops, getting my first cool shoes, finger tip drilling. watching bowling tournies on t.v. as a kid. seeing legends like Earl Anthony and Mark Roth and marveling at their accomplishments. my high game is 247 ! high 3 game series 603 !(of course...when i bowled that 247). i haven't kept up with bowling over the years (it's prohibitively expensive in NYC) but every now and then i'll watch a little on T.V. and yesterday i happened to luck out and witness history in the making! **Kelly Kulick became the first woman to ever WIN a PBA tourney!!! and she did it in style crushing her worthy opponent Chris Barnes. This wasn't just any tourney tho, this was THE TOURNEMENT OF CHAMPIONS !!! a major in bowling.

so BIG BIG PROPS to KELLY !!! you GO GIRL !!!

book review - INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS by jeffrey brown

2010-01-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

chee chu chook~! choo chee chuk !! (one of the sounds change-bots make when they "change" to another form). they're "more than just machines", incredible change-bots are sentient being machines from the planet of Electronocybercircuitron ! if you think that's mouthful, then get ready for a brainful of robots that change from robot form into vehicular form at will! and struggle with the 2 party system much as we do here on earth! if this sounds familiar in anyway (errr the part about machines that change)... it should for this is a loving homage to the Transformers toys and cartoons of the 80's. only spun in a fun and intelligent way counter to the Michael Bay Transformer movies which continue to gross gazillions of $$$.

This epic tale of love & war & betrayal, good vs evil, cool and not so cool has it's teams and players : Awesome Bots & Fantasticons, and the humans which help them.

i love this book, Jeff's adoring treatment of the subject and his unique humor prevails in this sort of cosmic tale. plus the art rocks...

be prepared to be converted!
published by Top Shelf productions

top secret info... HOTWIRE #3 ARTSHOW feb 12th

2010-01-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

yes...no longer a secret. on FEB 12th , i will host the HOTWIRE comix anthology opening party at my gallery in Brooklyn! free drinks from 6-9pm !!!

check it out!
best,
scott

meals, movies and milestones

2009-12-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

I suspect by now you all realize that i LOVE to eat. well who doesn't? so it should never surprise you when i have something to say about it...
last nite's dinner (center cut rib steaks) bought from Grazin' Angus Acres at the Union Sq farmer's market was an amazing example of grass fed beef, raised to increase the fat content naturally (letting the cow live longer) and to also promote the development of Omega 3's (essential & healthy fatty acids). For those of you raised on corn fed beef (me included) the transition to grass fed isn't always easy. For 1 thing grass fed cows are always leaner (less marbling of fat), earthier in flavor (some would say a bit of "game" in them), and not always as tender. But in closer inspection and with the help of your purveyor you can find a great cut, with the proper amount of fat and end up with a very satisfying steak. leaner meat always requires an adjustment in cooking time (less time or lower heat). but i find that i can cook these steaks with almost the exact time. maybe the brushing of olive all slows down the cooking time? :-) the last word on grass fed: don't make up your mind on one try. pick carefully or let someone who REALLY knows pick for you!

movies: i saw a really enjoyable flick called Bottle Shock (2008). About the wines of Napa Vallery CA. before they were known to the world circa 1970's. I think anybody will enjoy this film, but if you're a wine lover or foodie it's irresistable.

milestones: a mini of sorts for me. i went to my first "open" class at my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school Alliance . in addition to the very rigorous 1 hour training we finished the class with a half hour of "rolling" (grappling). i had been quite cautious up this point, sticking with the beginner class (which often has advanced students) but doesn't involve rolling (just drilling and practicing). you learn at my age (46) it's easier to injure yourself and it takes longer to heal, so caution is the better part of valor, but i finally felt ready and it was quite an experience. in my first match i got submitted (i had to TAP out to quit the match) 2 x. that was the LONGEST 6 minutes i've ever experienced. Ignazio my opponent (an advanced white belt...should be a blue any time now) was quick and strong and flipped an arm bar on me when i got gassed. i learned a lot from this match, i was quite tense and a bit nervous before. arden and i had a good bout following that and it was quite close (i call it a draw!), and then i grappled with Yuko (black belt woman), i had to have at least 50 pounds on her! but wow is she fast, the only thing that prevented her submitting me was my strength, but she tossed me quite nice by planting her feet on my hips and flipping me over. Yuko reminded me to loosen up.
today, i'm nice and sore. but boy that hot shower felt good!!!

cheers,
scott

news news news, and happy holidays

2009-12-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

it's been a long time since the last post. everybody with a blog knows it's hard to keep doin it. i know that. and you know that. still, there's plenty to talk about and i'm gonna do it whirlwind style incorporating random thoughts.

firstly i'm working on my TOP SECRET comic book original art website! yes, different from the gallery site. a lot of kick ass art has been uploaded and i'll shortly go live, and art addicts will get the email about the launch. there's a lot of top notch stuff listed already.

HOTWIRE 3 show in mid FEBRUARY!!!! info about the wonderful new anthology here http://www.hotwirecomics.com/

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu !!! i'm still goin strong. a few aches & bruises won't keep me down...i lost count of my classes when i got to 25 ! today's class was fantastic as a new technique was clicking fast with me.

Movies: why are bad movies sometimes great (plan 9, Hammer Horror, certain Planet of the Apes, certain Shaw bros & other Kung Fu flix, etc...)? because there's a charm in it...somewhere, somehow...maybe it's the naive production standard, the amateur actors, or just the novelty of it all, and if there's at least 1 redeeming quality, we fall in love with it. that's why in a nutshell.

but sometimes, bad movies are just that. BAD. i like bad movies. heck i like movies NOBODY likes: Battlefield Earth for example. Bad movies are fun to watch, they pander to your interests...soapy love stories if that floats your boat, or gratuitous violence (like the last Rambo flick...AWESOME!!!!), or predictable comedy, etc...but nothing is worse than watching a bad movie with all the expected pandering you crave and being let down. One such film is Pride and Glory from 2008. plenty of good actors: Ed Norton, Colin Farrell (um is he good?...well at least famous) and JON VOIGHT !!! (...i know he hasn't made a great flick in years, but still, he made some great films back in the day))). This film has action, and well, a family drama that is BORING. some action, and then some more boredumb. Ed Norton as an Irish cop? what's not to like? for 1: Ed Norton as an Irish cop!!!! who cares? is it good? no. and Colin Farrell?? again no. they're brothers, and opposites. 1's a good guy the other not so good!!! wow. NOT. do yourself a favor and don't watch this flick. a lot of nothing.

food: i spent WAY too much money the other day eating at the wonderful Tapas place Txikito
http://www.txikitonyc.com/ this tiny tapaseria in chelsea serves outstanding food, has a great wine list, and if you don't mind indulging (and emptying your wallet) it's the place for you!! can you say VEAL JOWL TERRINE !!!!!??? this is some insane decadence. Chelsea is a hotspot for great Tapas. I love all the Tapas places in west chelsea btw.

i had a food product imported to the Fairway Market (my fave market on earth) i will not stop talking about this product. Ham infused with truffles. game over.

UFC...lastly, BJ "the prodigy" Penn defended his Lightweight crown again against Diego "the nightmare" Sanchez. props to Penn who completely dominated the fight.

signing out for now!
cheers.

THE DEAD WEATHER !!!!

2009-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

went to a special nearly secret show of Jack White's band THE DEAD WEATHER. well, it features musicians from the Raconteurs, the Kills, and QotSA.

fabulous show at Music Hall in Williamsburg Brooklyn.
we (micah & i) got there, had a beer and hung out in the lounge until the opening act came on, a grunge outfit from Australia called Violent Soho with all the flannel trimmings. not bad, not very original either.

then we waited for The Dead Weather to come on...the roadies very neatly dressed with suit & tie and of course, those hip little retro hats i could never rock properly. they prepared the stage, and the band came on and played promptly at 10pm. Unlike in his White Stripes roll, Jack plays drums in this band. at first i'll admit i felt like i was kind of settling for seeing him as a drummer. i mean it isn't his main instrument right? well, even if he hadn't picked up the guitar for 2 songs (!!!...easily and arguably the best performer of his generation), i would have been very impressed and satisfied with the show sans his guitar. He's a very solid drummer. and just as good a performer behind the kit as he is when he's fronting.

This was a VERY memorable rock show. i'm lucky to have seen it.

outtaheah!!

king hell !!!!!

2009-11-18T08:45:00.001-08:00

yes...my dear good friends KING HELL played Santos House Party (club) on Monday for an industry showcase. it was a great show (as usual). they rocked. we rocked. and a great time was had by all.

KINGHELL in concert!!! nov 16th @ Santos House Party 96 Lafayette

2009-11-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

yes. KINGHELL plays again....there will be rejoicing! there will be metal, costumes, and a good time. nov 16th @ Santos House Party 96 Lafayette st, nyc.

in addition to this they forwarded me the image and critiques to one of the worst metal album covers of ALL TIME !!!! thank you Raven...without you, i wouldn't have laffed so hard today.

#2 - Raven: The Pack Is Back

A warning to all you former football jocks who got off on stuffing dweebs in lockers: They're all grown up, they're coming for you, and they're completely deranged. We've seen homeless nuts who look more coherent than Raven. The two on the left and right are so far gone they put their Fruit Of The Loom and banana hammock undies on over their tights. And center stage we have Space Admiral Barney. We're betting the pack were shortly back in a locked ward.

BAUHAUS !!!!

2009-11-07T07:09:00.000-08:00

an amazing exhibition of Bauhaus masters at MOMA !!! wow, i won't give you the history lesson on it (go to wikipedia for that!) but the genius of the faculty and students from this important period of art history still dazzles!
one of my favorite exhibitions at moma in years.

GO !!!!

movie questions

2009-11-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

what does boston, judd nelson, italian mobsters, irish tuff guys, and EVAN EDER (my brother) have in common?

answer:

The Boondock Saints ll : All Saints Day !!!

yes, my kid brother has finally gotten himself into something there's no escape from. he successfully weaseled his way into this storied cult classic franchise by scoring 3 songs in this epic B movie !!!! and that music is gracing several scenes including the final all out shootout sequence.

so, see this !@%%**@#$^ fun movie.

kid bro evan, might actually make a penny from it someday.

we'll see!!!!

i liked it. reality suspended. music vid style not withstanding...a very good cast tho.

most pathetic comic con appearance

2009-10-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

and the award goes to:
big apple comic con this upcoming weekend for the following-

Wax Steven Spielberg
(Wax Figure)
*Appearing Courtesy of Madame Tussaud's
*Appearing Saturday ONLY

(wax figure) *appearing courtesy of madame Tussaud's *APPEARING SATURDAY ONLY!!!

brazilian jiu jitsu

2009-09-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

at the end of the summer i enrolled at Alliance Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. today i finished my 6th class !!!! WOW, i'm sore!!! great thing about it is the class is sooooo tuff, i HAVE to work on my cardio and other aspects of my fitness in order to keep up. also in the hopes of increasing my # of classes per week. right now best i can do is 2 classes a week. in between i keep up my normal workouts for upper body ... but most of all i really need to improve my core strength...so lots of ab work, etc. i've thrown in some jogging (which i hate!!!!) but it's really helping my leg strength and cardio fitness.

this is the hardest atheletic thing i've ever attempted in my life. my knee hurts, my lower back is sore, oy i ache!!! but i'm hanging in there.

harvey KURTZMAN book signing

2009-09-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday nite, i went to the Museum of Cartoon & Comic art (MOCCA) in downtown Manhattan to listen to Denis Kitchen speak about the recently published book The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics. Mostly Denis, and one of Harvey's children just spoke about the great creator and the people influenced by his art. His history and career ups and downs. etc.

The book is gorgeous...so go out and buy it (published by Abrams ComicArts).

the following morning Denis came by for a cuppa joe. I wish we had more time. but there are some interesting plans in the mix (wink wink!).

cheers!
scott

you guys know i'm a fight fan...

2009-09-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

and that i watch most of the mma events on tv. heck i'm even making an attempt to learn brazilian jiu jitsu (2 classes so far...and man am i SORE!!!!). i've been a big fight fan for years. took judo when i was a kid, took karate in college, and now bjj, and always a fan of watching the related sports from olympic wrestling to pro boxing to mma!
and i'm a kung fu movie fan (and know way too much about that genre) going back MANY years to the days of going to 42nd st to watch triple feature flix in the early 80's. way before the transformed times square of nowadays.

so fast forward to today. listening to howard stern (at work at the gallery), yeah i do that. and Rodney King (yes...of police brutality fame) is being interviewed about his upcoming fight (yes...he's spent all the settlement money) this sept. 11th, and the guy he's fighting Simon "the renegade" Aouad is there being interviewed too. ok, this is funny enuff, all the postering about who's gonna kick who's ass, how big each guy is, and lotsa huffin and puffin about breakin bones, yadda yadda yadda....and then the greatest nugget of hilarity is revealed...and that is if you want to know how bad ass simon is....just watch his workout video on youtube.
OMG this is the funniest thing i've seen since, tropic thunder. i mean BIG CHEERS to the guys who produced this and MORE power to simon for demonstrating how tuff he is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6yu9lmIDbE

everything is great about this video. EVERYTHING!
laff away friends....

san diego COMICON ...my summer so far

2009-08-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

on july 18th we took off for san diego. weeks prior i was working nite and day preparing for the comicon. i was a little worried about the show for a couple of reasons: 1- THE ECONOMY !!!! i worried a bit about this... 2- i was in a new location at the complete opposite end of the convention center.
and so i MADE SURE that i had KILLER art for show. lots of private collection art and stuff i had squirelled away for years!!!
but let me back up a bit. we got in to s.d. early and we stayed in a great area near Del Mar. went to the beach everyday and ate at our favorite asian places in Kearny Mesa!

and so, after a bit of sun and fun and evenings full of prepping for the show, we opened the preview nite with a bang. sold a gorgeous G Herriman KRAZY KAT sunday. yes. it's expensive. and so the show began very nicely. the end results were very good. so CHEERS to everybody who stopped by and said hi and all the customers who walked away with wonderful art!!

after the con we stayed for an additional 3 days and went to the beach everyday and continued our eating ways gobbling up all the delicious food of the area and farmer's market fruit and veggies! aside from the shin splint i developed (it didn't stop me!) i was happier than the proverbial pig in shit.

Next we headed north to L.A. where i stayed with my musical brother Evan, and we continued eating in the great Japanese restaurants of Sawtelle. i played poker with his friends (i won...after grinding away!). and now to the highlight of the trip:
10 DAYS OF CAMPING along the KERN river in the southern Sequoia forest! NO cel, NO puter the whole time. Marcia, Lena, my brother Evan, and our good friends Ed, Alix, and Ella joining us. eating out under the stars everynite, and sun and swimming and great hiking!!! it was heaven. discovered some new spots (this is our 5th year inna row) and found some great new swim spots. i miss it all already.

ended the trip in L.A. with my brother and now we're home. i'm busy planning the year ahead...i can assure you of some great art that's going to be available shortly!!!!!

cheers!
scott

ashley wood news !!!! POPBOT 8

2009-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

i have the original art plus lots more. gonna bring it to the San Diego, Comic Con Int'l: July 22-26 Booth 4515

there will be a sneak preview shortly!!!
s

(women's) tennis rankings (rant) question

2009-07-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

if you haven't won a grand slam tourney how can you have a #1 ranking?

the rankings didn't put enuf emphasis on the importance of grand slam events. that's changing next year, so you probably won't see the William's sisters playing higher ranked players anymore.

al franken...it's too good to be true

2009-06-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

Al Franken is one of the funniest, brightest, and most intelligent Americans to ever draw swords with the Republican media machinery. His entertainment background, and politically motivated career path has led him to putting a stake in the heart of the conservative right wing movement.

we finally saw an end to the bush regime (mccain and that aweful palin into the white house) with the election of Obama. we witnessed an END to pull of the nasty republican party and we thought....what could be better? well, i'm not sure it's better but i'll just say that Franken as the newly "recognized" senator of Minnesota is the cherry on the cake we're happy to have.

this race was determined by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast and was contested by the incumbant senator m coleman. not only would Franken's win give the democrats a "super majority" in the senate, but at the same time it would also extinguish the republican grip on things American.

essentially this is like winning the lottery 2x in one year. don't be too happy tho, the soul/blood sucking republican party is retooling as we speak, and from the ashes anything can arise. but for now, we must rejoice.

PLEASE read Al Franken's book

Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Hardcover)

you'll get a great idea about what this important american figure is all about.

2009 complete bastard awards!

2009-06-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

with no reason at all i give you my 2009 COMPLETE BASTARD awards!!

1- city drivers who honk at you so they can speed to a red light. where they get to wait.
2- people who use seats for their bags on the subway.
3- ann coulter. just read what this cunt said about the murdered abortion doctor.
4- people who jump out of their plane seats and step in front of you so they can deplane first.
5- people who let their cel phones ring a little longer...cuz they just luv that ring, and they want u to hear it.
6- my old neighbor, even 2 years after moving away from this nut, he is still top 10 total complete bastard material.
7- reckless skiers
8- bars that charge $16 for a mediocre margarita
9- my brother evan, for ordering 2 of the above margaritas while i was treating
10- the cop who gave me a summons for riding my bike into washington square park.
11- the legal system that requires you to show up in court (july 10) for the above summons, instead of just paying the fine.
12- the parks dept. which did not have visible signs asking bikers to dismount.
13- the police officer who told me i could bike in washington square park a few years ago.
14- Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball. when home run records were being broken and attendance, ratings, and profits were up...this scumbag smiled benevolently upon the roided out atheletes who made the owners rich. and now the stupid atheletes take the fall for succumbing to the pressure to perform. fuck you Bud Selig.
15- corn fed beef. do you have to taste sooooooooooooo fuckin great?
16- grass fed organic beef. what's up? hurry up and taste good so i can stop feeling guilty about loving corn fed beef.

mocca comix convention this past weekend

2009-06-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

another favorite con come and gone! met sooooo many artists and friends there. bought a decent armload of books. made new discoveries~~~~...more on that later! and had a great time seeing this show in a new venue. i hope all the publishers and exhibitors had a great time. cheers to Alvin at Buenaventura press. soooo many great books. Cheers to my good bud Alex Robinson for a nice batch of art!
Cheers to Dan Nadel for putting the mazzucchelli show together at the museum, and for bringing out soooooo many cool books and artists signing.

performance art a la MIKE BIRBIGLIA

2009-06-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Marcia and I went to Mike Birbiglia's one man show Sleepwalk With Me at the Bleeker St Theatre yesterday. Great show...that's the fastest 90 minutes i can recall. no intermission and it just breezes by.
Cheers Mike and congrats on such great run!!!

Popbot 8 .....Ashley Wood

2009-05-12T07:47:00.001-07:00

soon. soon we will have the original art from this latest epic art tome from Ashley Wood.
Go and grab this cool book: PopBot 8!!!. Tomorrow Kings, Mortis, and plenty of legendary story and art in this book. Although this book is juicy, u can imagine that the originals will be on a whole OTHER level. sooooooo keep your eyes out for it soon.

gallery NEWS

2009-05-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

we just renewed our lease for another 2 years!!!! that means more shows (and i promise you all more frequently too).

We're gonna re-paint the floors and walls, and rearrange things...runnin out of storage here so the office will be moved into the main space to better utilize our storage options...the main part of the gallery is starting to feel like a big closet, and this will no longer do.

yay

what is FANBOY ?

2009-04-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

we all the know the term Fanboy. it's been in common use since the early 70's, when according to the underground artist Jay Lynch it was coined by him and Glenn Bray (tho it's use predates their epic collaboration).here's a an aproximation of what A fanboy is: a person usually characterized by an obsessive loyalty to a specific realm of media (music, comix, film, etc...). yadda yadda yadda.

But what i'm asking is "what IS fanboy" as opposed to "what is A fanboy". get it? good! ok, Fanboy IS a fanzine created by the mythical Alfred Judson & Bill Beasley (Jay Lynch & Glenn Bray) in 1972. Originally conceived as a goof to give away or sell to colleagues or other fans. Most of the original 12 copies were sold or given away at the Chicago Comicon. In future printings several other underground artists (Justin Green, Denis Kitchen and Jay Kinney (all with pseudonyms) also contributed.

And so, i have recently acquired all the original art and writing to this zine and intend to do a show with it. we will reprint it in a very limited edition and offer it with some of the proceeds going to some charity.

trip to italy

2009-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

we ate up a storm in italy, and had a lot of fun hangin out with our italian art friends!! woooo boy there's a lot of good art out there.
highlights of the trip: food in Parma. Serenity & food of Ferrara, the mozaics in Ravenna. countryside driving & eating. CULATELLO !!!!

special super intriguing FANBOY show coming up!

2009-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

i can't give you all the details but suffice it to say there will be an online artshow revolving around FANBOYS !!!

Something you've never seen before. weird, funny, eclectic, demented...all the things associated with our beloved Fanboys (yes...i'm one).

soon!
scott

S. CLAY WILSON...it's important

2009-03-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

some of you may know that at the end of last year S. Clay Wilson nearly died after suffering brain injury following a fall.
please go to this website
http://www.sclaywilsontrust.com

treacherous three ..... yeah boy!

2009-03-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

sounds like a good comic...but it's the name of a very early hip hop group.
one of their hits floated across my brain thru the ether of time this morning. it took about 15 minutes of searching on the internet and in the music service Rhapsody before i found it. digging thru mountains of songs with the lyrics rock the body, body rock, rock the body body...etc.
the name of the song actually turns out to be "rock the body"

old school rap sleuthing and determination helped me track down this gem of pioneering nyc hip hop.
the treacherous three were DJ Easy Lee, Kool Moe Dee, L.A. Sunshine, Special K, & Spoonie G (left in the late 70's). Kool Moe Dee went on to fame and rap history, most notably for his feud (on vinyl) with LL Cool J. Spawning the classic "how you like me now" hit single as well as the album with the same title.
i'm gonna rock my Kangol in honor of these vibes today.

while i'm on the subject of old school hip hop (i was in high school in the bronx during the early evolution of rap music), i gotta give shouts to my all time favorite homies of hip hop. These are da classics:
1. Big Daddy Kane
2. Eric B. & Rakim
3. Boogie Down Productions - KRS 1
4. Kool G Rap
5. Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five
6. Afrika BamBaaTaa
7. GangStarr
8. Public Enemy
9. Run-D.M.C.
10. Wu Tang Clan, Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Mobb Deep, Special Ed, NWA, Ice Cube, MC lyte, and and and....

JEFFREY BROWN.....super online art show! mid april

2009-03-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the release of Jeffrey's latest book FUNNY MISHAPEN BODY put out by Simon & Schuster.
We will be putting together a beautiful online art show ! Yes it will be available for viewing by appointment only.

yes!

watchmen movie....no spoiler

2009-03-16T14:15:00.001-07:00

probably is and will remain the best comic book movie (with super heroes) ever made.
there are some faults with it, but none that ruin what's good about it. faithful to the story (with some changes that make the film work better), visually incredible, some great performances by several of the actors...all in all a very enjoyable film.

WonderCon S.F. and L.A. trip redux

2009-03-15T15:00:00.001-07:00

maaaaaaaaaaan, that was a fun trip. the WonderCon was a great show. A lot of cool art and people and great vibes at the Moscone Ctr. We ate fabulously every nite, and my highlight has to be having a home cooked meal with my idol Spain Rodriguez making me his special sauce with pasta. !!! absolutely delicious and one of the finest evenings i've had. After that i headed down to L.A. to visit my kid bro Evan, and there i indulged in plenty of fine food, hikes in the Malibu Canyon, and good southern Cali weather. I was sorry when it ended. I also visited to private collections of comic art and that was fabulous as well. Several wonderful art treasures found their way home with me and now i'm back on the east coast dreaming about spring time.

New York Comic Con redux

2009-02-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

It's long, and it's long overdue...and here it is.
A con like this in NY is special for a # of reasons:
1. There hasn't been anything of this quality & on this scale in NY ever!!!? Maybe the old Creation conventions came close (at least it felt that way to me as a kid), but i'm sure they weren't even half the size of this show. And Great Eastern Conventions...well the bigger they got the worse it got any body remember the Titanic?? or Hindenburg?? yeah, that sums up what happened there.

Bigger isn't always better, but in this case bigger IS WAY BETTER as there's very little overlap (for now) or insane repetition. Unlike the San Diego Comic Con where you have dozens if not 100's of vendors selling the same thing (t-shirts, toys, etc), NYCC is still managebly huge.
This is great for collectors of all types of comics/toy memorabilia, books, posters, etc. Enough variety and healthy choice to create a competitive selling environment. You can see it all in a day, but you could keep yourself occupied over the course of 3 days too. There are lots of artists attending, and the show is well run, and now that they're moving it to the fall of 2010 it's even better for tourists who want to enjoy the city more.

My only regret is that i'm too busy to run around and have more fun as a fan myself!!

2. Conventions in general, take me back to the beginnings of my dealing experiences. No matter how swanky they get there's still the old school feeling of setting up and putting out art, LOTSA ART, and no pretenses or "hoyty toytyness" (Ralph Kramdon be proud!!). The art's on the tables and on the walls just like i've been doing for nearly 20 years. Lots of chatting, meeting old friends and making new ones, and the action of the deal!! Making people happy. This is the way it's been done in markets since the beginning of time...and i'm happpy to be part of this tradition. This leads me to-

3. The inventory!!! For those of you unlucky enough to have never seen me at a show, you don't know what you've been missing. I bring 100x what i could possibly sell, 100x what i'll ever list online, and pieces from my personal collection (some of them 10 years or more), and items that will only be seen in person, and many of them only offered once! why? because that's how i do!! And you get my spiel (pronounced by me: shpeel) about what's so frickin great about this piece or that... or why i won't come down a penny in price because this one's from a museum collection, or that one's been in my collection for X years, or whatever. And that's how i've always done it. There's a lotta spontanaety and exciting energy at my table, half of which is me being amped up with little sleep and LOTS of coffee. Any thing can happen, here's an example: one guy, smitten by Ashley Wood's gorgeous art bought a couple of beautiful pieces online (a few days before) and looked forward to picking them up in person and seeing what else i had, when he saw what i brought he nabbed another fine piece and i gave him a nice deal on it too. A reward for jumping into the game feet first and making a big splash. This guy (he might be reading this ;-), came back later because the bug still had him and picked out a gorgeous little ink drawing (not expensive) and was digging in his pocket when i stopped him and said Take it!!! on the house. Don't ask me why. I don't know. What i do know is the live con is just on another level. does that mean you'll get the same treatment?...it all depends on the piece(s) of course and the moment. The spiel is guaranteed!!! ;-)

Don't get me wrong, the online experience is amazing and many of you out there have gotten the great treatment from me, but at a con...when it's all live, and i've lugged this all out and busted my ass to do this to make a big exhibition and all this work, well it means i'm ready to do some deals. And they get done!!! One thing tho, looking is free!!! this is a unique opportunity to see masterpieces by many extraordinairy artists! and i'm happy to have people lavishing their attentions on the art even if they can't afford to buy.

All in all, the con experience is truely unique and one that i put great effort into.

SO....make sure you see me at a CON!!!! ok?
This weekend i'll be in San Francisco WonderCon: Booth #1022 - Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2009

come out and see me.

new things to like

2009-01-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Humanbeing Lawnmower #2
by Avi Spivak www.avispivak.com

it's cool, a lot of inspired tributes to comix, punk & music culture, and more.
excellent art, great contributions by true fans, and comix!@!!!

buy it!!!

2009 is a good year

2009-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

lots of fun stuff planned ahead in 2009. big show featuring ASHLEY WOOD's art coming soon.
and many special show's and mini shows with the likes of Gary Panter, Thomas Ott, Tim Lane, Peter Kuper, and surprises.
stay posted!

i like jack kirby

2009-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

i lied. i LOVE jack kirby's art. from a pure art perspective mainly the 70's stuff. 4th world, later marvel, etc... outer space ships, shiny metallic objects, those crazy faces!!!! nobody drew a zoftig woman better!!! and jack knew how to draw them. while jack's legend and impact on modern comix is the stuff of well beaten horses...the true scope of jack's genius may never be understood.

Blab! art show.....beach art museum

2008-12-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

kudos to a great show and a super cool catalogue featuring art from Blab! from the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art which featured several fine pieces from our collection! info at
http://www.k-state.edu/bma/exhib/index.html

try to get the catalogue...it rocks!

ashley wood NEWS

2008-12-17T17:57:00.000-08:00

shhhhhh. there's gonna be a big online show of ASHLEY WOOD art at my gallery sometime in January. on view by appointment only.
with many important pieces from the recent 48 MORE NUDES book. gorgeous oil paintings and pen & ink to die for. plus some recent projects like Hellspawn, and World War Robot.

cheers,
scott

jerry lewis holocaust film. uh huh?

2008-12-11T16:34:00.000-08:00

in 1972 Jerry Lewis finished a french/swedish holocaust film called Tears of the Clown. He played the part of the clown who had displeased Hitler and found himself on the fast track to Auschwitz. This bum ticket was on a train filled with children also en route to the big A.
The clown tries to amuse and distract this terrified group of children who're going straight to the gas chambers.

Sounds like a good idea for a film right? To the french it did...many things sound good to the French and one of those inexplicable things is Mr. Louis himself.

Now before you tangle yourself in the absurdity of this true farce, keep in mind the film was never released. Wise me thinks. So the French are smarter than they look? Apparantly so.

The American cottage industry of ridiculing the French love affair with Mr. Lewis, doesn't even need this little stinky brown nugget of info. But it gets you wondering what might have been? If only....

Fast forward to 1997 and a certain lovable Italian comedian wins an Oscar for best actor in Life is Beautiful. hmmmm? A film where a comedian tries to use his physical brand of humor to distract and ultimately save the life of his son in a Nazi death camp.

One movie destined to be ridiculed...the other destined for international success and Academy award fame.