More By 3AM Than Most Do...

This five year nonstop ride on the DDP roller coaster has been such a fast one that sometimes it's hard to enjoy the moments amidst all of the chaos.  Scratch that, it's ALWAYS hard to enjoy the moments.  I have to say, though, that the past week's jaunt around the nation was too much to let pass by without thinking about just how cool this job can be sometimes.   

I spent a lot of time as a kid thinking about the day I'd have my own studio, or drawing and writing my own comics and characters.  What I DIDN'T even consider was all of the TRAVELING that the career entailed.  My family never traveled much.  Mostly it was because of money, but I also just don't think it was something within their comfort zone.  Traveling was always a BIG deal.  Hell, just getting my parents to drive 5 hours to Chicago from Cincinnati is a challenge. 

Because of this job, though, I have traveled more in the last five years than many people ever will in their entire lives, and I can't see myself ever stopping.  Somehow I haven't managed to venture beyond our borders save for trips to Toronto, but that'll come soon enough. 

In the past week I went all over the damn place, and had a blast doing it.  Here's a breakdown:

Saturday: Took off for Cincinnati with Crank and Susan, headed to crash at an old friend's house, and see some more old friends playing alongside the Horror Pops and the Tossers at a small venue called Top Cat's.  They're called the Vladimirs, and if you're into horror punk, metal, or anything in between, you should check 'em out!

I was able to interview Patricia of the H-pops for an upcoming issue of LO-FI Magazine, and showed them some pix of a potential project that gives me an excuse to draw cool stuff  (more later).  It went great, met the band, and proceeded to watch the show, and probably drank a little too much.  Well, okay, not probably.

Then it was up at 6AM to head out to Los Angeles.  I was takin' off from Cincy while Susan and Crank would drive back later.  Thanks to the miracle of timezones, it was only 10:20 when I got there.  First on the agenda was a stop-in with the wonderful Debbie Olshan at Fox to say hi, and go over some top secret Family Guy details.  Okay, maybe not so top secret, but that sounds more exciting, doesn't it? 

Then it was lunch with Daniel Alter and his assistant Howard in Beverly Hills.  Dan's our manager out in LA, and partially responsible for Hack/Slash making it to the big screen (hopefully) next year.  That lasted for a couple hours until it was time to head down the street to William Morris, one of those fancy pants Hollywood agencies.  I know I'm only one of thousands of people to be invited to one of these places, but at the same time, fuck it - sometimes you gotta sit back and just appreciate shit and say "This is pretty cool! Who ever thought I'd be doing THIS?"  I can't say much more than that, except that from there it was onto see another old friend, Lauren, from way back.

She conveniently lived right there in West Hollywood, and down the street from a kickass Sushi place where we met with upcoming Hack/Slash director/screenplay writer Todd Lincoln, and his girlfriend Mandy. We bullshitted about this and that, amidst our hopes for the film. Super nice people, who then took me out to a club which I don't remember the name of.  Who should be there, though, than a guy that's on my MySpace.  That silly MySpace.  Speaking of, check out Todd's, or if you're old fashioned, I GUESS you could always go to his website.  Here's to hoping we're filming later this year!

It was at the club that I realized I'd been up for 20 hours, and I'm not very much use without at least 4 hours of sleep in a day, so it was time to hit the sack.  Suddenly Tuesday was there, and it was time to drive up to San Jose, about five hours North, to meet the guys from Kunoichi (my side venture), to try and help drum up some new clients at the Video Game Developer's Conference.  We were lucky enough to hang out with Eric Holmes from Radical Games for a couple of beers.  Eric's the lead game designer from the Hulk video game, and is now working on something else that he won't tell anyone a damn thing about.  Hope it's cool!

Unfortunately, we goofed on the scheduling.  The actual show floor didn't open until Wednesday, when we were all supposed to leave.  Oops.  Until then all we had was a building full of industry pros going from workshop to workshop, discussing the details of various gaming technology, and trading info.  Fortunately we had a couple good meetings.  After that, though, the night was young and San Francisco was too damn close to pass up a visit.  Somehow I had ANOTHER friend from way back living in Cali.  So I drove in to run around town with my friend Liza, and we hit the coolest dive bar I've seen on the West Coast yet, called Delirium.  Nothing huge and fancy, just black walls, lots of writing on the walls, straight outta Sin City.  Those are my favorite haunts. 

Damn if San Francisco doesn't have some FUCKED up parking.  It took a mere 45 minutes to get there from San Jose, but a friggin' hour to find a spot.  After all this traveling, I have never seen anything like it.  It simultaneously gives the city so much character yet compels one to ask "Why the hell would anyone build a CITY here?"  I mean, Chicago's no cakewalk for parking, but San Fran, you kick our ass in inconvenience! Some kind drunkard took the time to write the words "muff munchin" in the sidewalk concrete, though, which was way funnier to us than it should have been.

So... somehow it was already Wednesday, which meant I was off to my last stop: Boston.  Yeah, that's right.  How do you cap off a week like this one?  By rockin' out the PLA, fools!  (that's the Public Library Association conference for the layman).  Hells yeah! 

The flight was delayed by an hour, but only AFTER we were all boarded, which is not the best scene before a five hour flight.  I, ironically, had a layover in Chicago, my home base.  It was a great time to catch up on some sleep, though, in between taking care of a lot of paperwork.  For some reason, when you travel for business, the businessy stuff back at the office doesn't stop piling up. 

Okay, so a library trade show is more of a winding down than anything, but I thought the nightlife in Boston would be another kickass experience.  I gotta say, though, I'm just not feeling it.  Susan and Sam had been here for two days scopin' out the scene, and collecting hella lots of librarian business cards (pure badasses), so at least they knew of some places in Cambridge to go.

So Boston really LOOKS cool; the architecture's amazing... but I don't know.  I can't place it.  I guess this just isn't my kinda town.  So far Newburry Comics has been the highlight.  Maybe I'm just partied out, and my brain left its charger back at my condo.  I find myself anxious to head home, which is fine by me.  Even after an awesome week from coast to coast, I still look forward to heading back to Chi-town, the best city in the Universe, reaffirming that despite my lack of origin there, for now it's home.