Been an interesting Con thusfar. Got my Transmet page signed by Ellis. Chatted briefly with Chief Tyrol of BSG. Got one cool toy. Bought another Sheldon strip. Am tired, though. Writing from Treo. Back to frontlines soon.

2nd album updated, and 3rd album started! Links to all below!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kermit007/Japan1?authkey=J5-sSlZMrcI

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kermit007/Japan2?authkey=1sobVl4lnz0

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kermit007/Japan3?authkey=GWFRDS1777o

San Diego Comic Con approaches. Today I have to get my things together, get the bag packed, get ready to get going. It's going to be an odd year, but I always look forward to it. This year, I'm going to get my Transmetropolitan page signed, which means a lot to me. It's already signed by the artist, obviously, but I'm going to get Warren Ellis's signature on it. Ellis is perhaps one of my favorite writers working today, simply because he approaches everything with such a mad-scientist glee. People who dabble in sci-fi have a tendency to get stodgy, overly serious, as if Neuromancer set our entire sci-fi generation to bleak. And don't get me wrong - I love me some William Gibson (but not all Gibson ... some of his books just don't work for me) but I like to see a bit of mirth among the madness. Maybe that's why I like what Philip K. Dick I've read -- that sense that these are real people, and that people tend to keep a little humor around them. Transmetropolitan was like that for me.

Beyond that, I'm going to get to meet Joseph Michael Linsner, and get my copy of Dawn signed. Joe's another guy I have a lot of admiration for, not because he draws beautiful women (which he does, certainly) but because he's great at writing a story that is both epic and personal, that is both massive and intimate. While I wasn't incredibly impressed with Dawn book 2 (I liked it, but it didn't move me), both book 1 and 3 were phenomenal works that hold a very special place in my heart. It'll be nice to tell him so.

Last but not least, there's always the chance I could stumble into someone who'll give me a shot at writing a script for a comic, or at least explain to me how one goes about auditioning for the gig. Or maybe I'll find an artist who's willing to take one or two of my ideas and try and put them into a book, so I can just go straight to Image and say "Here we are, we're fucking brilliant, so print it already!" Ah, it's nice to dream...

I leave Wednesday evening and will return Sunday evening. Hopefully there isn't too much chaos while I am away (of course there won't be -- I take all the chaos with me), and when I return, I am off to see the Smashing Pumpkins at the Fillmore the very next night. Talk about your whirlwind weeks. I think sooner or later this fall I'm going to take a day off that's mine to do absolutely nothing... and do absolutely nothing with it. Ha!

Now playing: "Nobody Girl" by Ryan Adams

Hah! Japan pictures part DEUCE are up! Hooray for Picasa being gimp, and allowing only 500 images per album! Ohhhh my head hurts. I hate you chu-hai! *cracks open another can*

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kermit007/Japan2?authkey=1sobVl4lnz0

At last! The photos are going up! 499 pictures to date! I really haven't had time, nor wanted to take the time to cull the mass of bad/blurry pictures, turn the panorama shots into one shot, etc to drop the count down, but people keep after me bout getting my shots up. No captions yet. Those will come after I get back home, and can think a bit about what I've done vs. wondering what the hell I'm gona do today, and where the hell I'm gona sleep.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kermit007/Japan1?authkey=J5-sSlZMrcI

This post brought to you from a manga kisa. The greatest thing to ever hit someone who can't find an F'ing room at a motel under $100.

Oh, and have I gone native yet Cliff? ^^

So damn sore...

Yesterday I went back into the gym for my first full workout since the surgery last month. (Actually, it was probably the first time I've had a workout in almost two months -- I was told not to workout for the week or two prior to the surgery, when it was determined I needed surgery.) Let me tell you, I am fucking sore. I dialed back the amount of weight on a lot of the exercises, but I'm still feeling it like nobody's business. My arms don't hurt quite as much as my legs do, which means I've probably still been working out my arms one way or another, but my legs are killing me -- just the quads, though, which, come to think of it, was the only thing I *didn't* lower the weight on. I realize I probably should've gone back to working out earlier, but I just didn't get around to it. It's an easy enough thing to slack, what with the vacation right after the surgery. But I'm back to drinking my endless amounts of ice water, avoiding soda and trying to watch my portions (which I've been bad about the last month or so, I'm well aware).

I'm on bottle three of water today already, so let's hope I don't drink TOO much water.

Also in news, I'm about ready to start screaming at my iPod as it doesn't seem to want to play some music I bought from iTunes... Grrrr...

w00t! So I've been in Japan a lil under a week, and man does this country kick my ass! If anyone wants anything while I'm here lemmy know! I'll have an album up in the coming days as well.

An open letter:

Dear Music Industry,

Seriously, fuck you too. I don't know if it's idiotic artists or (my personal guess) marketing divisions trying to exploit a handful of overzealous fanboys, but you're pissing everyone off and driving people TO piracy, not away from it. I'm talking, of course, of this ridiculous trend you have of putting out multiple versions of the same album, each with one or two bonus tracks. Do you honestly make enough money from people buying it multiple times to compensate for the ill will you are generating towards your record label? Is it really worth it, artists, to make people want to download your records instead of paying for them? Two songs here, a song or two there, all the preorder tracks you can get -- they're all being swapped online by now, I'm sure. And really, you brought this down upon yourselves. But maybe you don't care. Maybe this is the kind of thing your record label is forcing upon you, and you don't give a shit. In fact, maybe you're hoping people are downloading all of these bonus tracks, just so people hear this music you worked so hard on. I mean, if I could, I'd give you a dollar a song for them on iTunes, but they're "Target exclusives" or "Best Buy exclusives" or, god help us, "Starbucks exclusives!" Give me a fucking break. Who buys a CD from Starbucks? Are we that stupid as a culture that we need to buy our music with our fucking coffee? And you're wondering why record sales are down. Record sales are down because of stupid shit like this! (Oh, and the "new album, same as the last album" we're getting on a shitload of albums coming out. And the "me too, me too!" of so many bands, trying to sound like someone else. Sound like yourselves, for the luvva God.) You want to make us buy CDs? Give us good music, one version, lots of songs, available any way we want it, anywhere we want it, not this compartmentalized, marginalized, half-baked bullshit.

Sincerely yours,
~c.
Cliff Hicks

7/7/07 Lucky?

Think about it. If more people gamble today because it is suppose to be lucky the odds that more people are going to win goes up. Vagas will most likely have more winners tonight because more people are playing. Same with the good lucky vibe on weddings. The more people who get married today. only means that the number people who are likely to be married longer goes up.

Luck is crap.

Live life and good things will happen.


just had to vent

So, we haven't made any posts here in a week or two, so I guess I should say something. My car hit 100,000 miles a few days ago, which is always fun, and the state of California needs to get its shit together on what it does and doesn't want when you're renewing your registration. Oh well, to be expected, I suppose. Other than that, not much new to report. Survived Vegas. Went shooting. (That was fun.) Gambled. Didn't lose anything. (No big wins either.) Saw two Cirque shows as well as Penn & Teller. (Cool guys.) Saw Bob Saget last week. (Man needs to do less cocaine, but is funny as hell.) This month: Comic Con, Smashing Pumpkins, and that's just shit I know about...