And if I didn’t think my weekends would get any busier, they do. This weekend included the September model build gathering, a visit to the Getty Villa, the annual Fire Knife competition, and hanging out with the friends as bookends to the four days of fun.
The weekend actually started on Friday, as when I woke up, I didn’t feel like going into work. I typically have every other Friday off as my schedule, but since there was a holiday, I could have potentially worked my usual Friday off to earn the holiday, but waking up I decided against it. Work was probably going to be a ghost town anyways, especially with the holiday. So I ended up doing some errand in the morning, which included getting some new brake pads for my front wheels. I had lunch with a friend, then we did a few more errands and later met up with Angel and Nicky. I had prepped some grilled cheese sandwiches and a few other fruits and when Sam showed up, we drove out to Pomona for an evening at the Drive In. We went to see Machete. (yes, it was bad, but it was good in that Desperado kind of way) And come on, what do you expect from a movie for which its original premise was as a bad B movie trailer from the Grindhouse films set. Oh the brown folks were out in force at the drive-in. We had a pretty good night that ended at the Tea Station out in Hacienda Heights. No more outdoor seating….
I crash out around 2 or so and expected to wake up around 10:30 and prep the house for the build gathering. Hitting my snooze one too many times, I don’t actually wake up until 1:30, thirty minutes past the scheduled build gathering start time. The dogs didn’t bark so I guess no one has come by yet. Opening my front door, I see Eddie drive by and park, perfect timing. Folks start showing up and we get into building. I spend the first part of the build gathering pinning a new kit I received earlier that week. There are far too many gaps in this kit, serves me right for picking up a recast, but I was outbid when trying to get an original at every turn. After pinning my kit, I got a little work on my Asuka, but stopped and gave my spot to Brandon when he showed up.
We had one new guy that a few of us had met a few months earlier when Sugoi Life had their model build seminar at their shop. The guy blames me for igniting the spark for model building. He also showed up at the panels I held at AX. Some of the newer guys learn to airbrush with my and Ed’s help. X shows up with a stack of bandai catalogs from Bluefin for which a good number of people grabbed. It’s always cool to see folks helping out the new folks. Learning is fun!
Manny’s still working on his Gouf Custom, but brought over his Megaman Exia. Sean working on a ship measuring very precisely, and Vin is working on another resin kit, having accidentally sanded down the zipper of his kit, he used putty to re-sculpt it.
Rock band make its triumphant return to the build gathering.
And of course a short video of the group playing.
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The best thing? Our plan for “not” drinking worked out perfectly. We got plastered! The Latinos’ got frisky, and Terry passes out on the floor.
After a few sets of rockband, we pop in The Kentucky Fried Movie, we drink every time we see boobies. After that, we put in Big Trouble in Little China, and follow this up with The Princess Bride. I’m cleaning up the house during the last movie and pretty much sober. Dan is the last person to leave the house at around 3 in the morning after the movies. Terry moves onto the couch and settles in, and Nicky has long ago crawled into the guest room to pass out. Angel and I are still up and chatting for a bit. For which Nicky comes out, throws up, then asks for some food so I make her some toast and a grilled cheese sandwich. Angel goes to sleep and I end up sleeping around 5.
More pictures from the build gathering are here: http://gamerabaenre.com/mbg39.htm
We wake up just before 10:30 and decide to visit the Getty. So they run home to shower and get ready. I pick them up around noon and we head out to Malibu. Traffic on the 10 sucks, apparently I had forgotten that it was a long weekend and there were tons of people heading towards the beach. Oddly enough, it was overcast and considerably cooler along the coast than where we lived. But here are some pictures from the Villa. First up, the flora.
For their temporary exhibits, they have a molten glass exhibit which was pretty cool.
And Nicky if she were painted on a vase.
Pictures of the Villa. I cannot imagine living in a house such as this…
And I was able to capture this humming bird drinking from water falling down along a wall.
I dropped Nicky and Angel off and headed home to meet up with another friend for the Fire Knife competition. Apparently, it is a weekend long event with various competitions and exhibitions. Sunday night was the finalist round for the Fire Knife dancing. Pretty damn cool. I didn’t take many pictures because we were sitting a ways back and I didn’t want to blind the competitors with my flash like others were.
I took a few videos:
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More videos and all the pictures I took from the Getty Villa and the Fire Knife competition are here: http://gamerabaenre.com/getty_fire_knife_9_5_2010.htm
Monday was spent first changing out my break pads and teaching a friend the process, then lunch at Bordard, hanging out at Laguna Beach, then a half assed thrown together sushi/takoyaki dinner with Angel, Nicky, and Helen. Two and a half days of work and I’ll be on my way to Toronto for a family wedding. I’m hoping to get some rest when I’m there :)