Long update
Been more on Facebook lately, because it's quick. But I find I miss the longer journal entries I used to put here.
We went to Comic Con in July. It feels like ages ago. This year was weird. Preview night was light. Saturday sales were really slow, but Sunday sales were the best of any day we've ever had. We were bracing ourselves to be down about 10% in sales this year, but it ended up only being about 4% down. We tried out a new booth layout, and we're not sure if it had an impact on sales at all because it felt like traffic in our end of the hall was light. We're going to try it out again at GenCon and see how it works. We kept one half with the tables pushed to the aisle with shirts, and one half set up as a walk in area so we could have more display area for posters, prints, sculptures, books, and other non-shirt items.
I was able to get away from the booth for a while each day. I made it all the way through the hall this year, picked up some stuff from David Mack (he is so freaking cute and talented) and snapped a picture of John Barrowman as he was posing with a fan. I was too flustered to ask him to take a picture with me, and there was no one with me to take one anyway. He's dreamy in person too! We're pretty sure that Grant Imahara bought another work shirt from us. One of these days I will be able to actually speak to a celebrity without sounding like an idiot!
After Comic Con, we spent a two days hanging out with Brian's sister. Well, we spent most of that time sending out orders and getting ready for our trip to Amphi Festival. Cologne for 4 days - 2 of which were the music festival. We met up with Joanie, Shy, Matt, and Misha at the pre-party the night before. The club venue was in a space next to the train station, had 2 dance floors, 3 bars, and was quite nice. After leaving there around 3 am, we found our way to another pre-party that we were told about as we shopped at the only goth store in Cologne. It was way grotty and underground. Literally under the train tracks in this concrete bunker-like space. They were playing rockabilly and goth rock all night. By the time we showed up it was a drunken mix of the Ramones and swing dance tunes. Wish we had gotten there a little earlier. It seemed like a truly underground thing, and those are rare in my experience. Amphi lineup was awesome, which is why we went. We caught Assemblage 23, Eisbrecher, Sisters of Mercy, Mono Inc., Apoptygma Berzerk, Blutengel, 18 Summers, Camouflage, The Cruxshadows, And One, Project Pitchfork, and DAF. funny story about DAF: as we exited the indoor stage, Brian was stopped by a German fellow who asked him something in German. Brian was like, "sorry, English!" "Ah! ok, so, is DAF still play?" yes. "Is he still beep beep boop beep beep!?" Yes. Ha ha!! Experimental music can't all be Skinny Puppy, I'm afraid.
Monday morning, after the festival, we took a train to Munich. Germain rail can be incomprehensible, especially if you don't understand the announcements being made. Trains switch tracks, they're late, they're broken, the car numbers skip and restart. Amazingly enough, we managed to get where we wanted to go, if a little late. Arrived in Munich around 8pm, checked into our hotel, went to a beer hall for food, came back and went to bed. Got up early the next morning, checked into our next hotel, then went on a never ending trip to Neuschwanstein castle near the southern border of Germany. It was arduous in the way that only trips where everything goes unexpectedly wrong can be. The trains had a problem halfway to Fussen, so we had to switch to a bus. That added about an hour to our outbound travel time. Because we were so delayed, we ended up having a later tour of the castle and spending about an hour in the village of Fussen, where we had some tasty food. There was a bus to the base of the mountain, but no buses were available the rest of the way so we had to hoof it. There was an elderly Australian couple on our tour and the gent was beyond mad. "Ow the 'ell am I supposed to git up thiyah?!" (because the tour company brochure assured us that there would be a bus procured for those who didn't want to hike up to the castle.) Our tour guide was a strange bird too. A retired history professor who started out by saying, "you are not going to see a medieval castle." and then sort of insulted a lady from Michigan who taught 4th grade by pointing out the difference between her and him. Him having studied history for years and years and years. (Oh, you teach 4th graders history? Isn't that cute!) Neuschwannstein is gorgeous on the outside, but only 6 or 7 rooms are finished. Ludwig was removed from the throne and the day he was dethroned, all construction stopped on his castles and they were opened to the public for tours. The rooms that are finished are spectacular. Amazing woodwork and finishes, a fake cave grotto, a singers hall decorated with odes to Wagnerian opera. After the castle tour (they hustle you in and out) we walked up to the Mariensbrucke (a bridge over a giant gorge) for a breathtaking view of the castle and the lake behind it.
The next day, we walked out to the town hall to see the Glockenspiel go off at noon. It was less amazing than the clock in Prague, but nonetheless beautiful. Had my first Leberkase at the Viktuelmarkt. Literally translated it is "liver cheese". The guide book said it's akin to american meatloaf. I have to wonder if the writer actually had any of it, because it is more akin to Spam, but even more delicious and less salty. After that, we did a hop on hop off bus tour of Munich. It's an impressive town. We could have spent several days there. The one thing I pushed to do, and am glad we did, was a tour of the Residenz. It was the in-town palace of the rulers of Bavaria. Decadence to rival Versailles. The amount of gold leaf in this place was quite distracting. We didn't have much time, so we sort of trotted through and took a lot of pictures. Last stop was the Hofbrauhaus, the oldest beer hall in Germany. We had some food, a giant beer, then we were running to catch a train to Berlin.
Arrived in Berlin around 11:30. We were supposed to meet up with Joe Pulver and Lady Lovecraft, but the buses had shut down, so we rescheduled for lunch. The Arte Luise Kunsthotel where we stayed in was an art hotel, the kind where every room is different and featured a work of art by a different artist. The room we got had a shower coffin and a painting of a goldfish. It was pretty cool, I'd stay there again. Next day (this would be Thursday now) we got up and left our luggage at the desk and trekked off to meet up with Joe and Kat. We ended up at an Italian restaurant and had a breakfast that consisted mainly of charcuterie, cheese, bread, and a bit of fruit. (it was awesome) spent about 3 hours with them, and it was interesting hearing about the city and country from a native. We parted ways after taking pictures and hugging and slapping of backs. Did another hop on hop off bus tour and ended at Museuminsel. Literally an island with 7 or 8 museums. At the advice of a "what to see in Berlin if you only have 1 day" blog, we went to the Pergamon museum. It was amazing. The Pergamon altar is reconstructed inside. All along the walls are larger than life sized bas reliefs of Gods and Giants fighting an epic battle for dominance. Many pieces are missing out of it, and there is an interesting drawing of a recreation of a section of the relief from an artist based on his many years of research. Other rooms held a Roman gate and courtyard, an Ishtar gate and tiled walls with scenes of lions from Babylon, great winged sphinxes with bearded heads. It was incredibly awe inspiring. Sadly, we didn't have much time and only got to see the first floor. Berlin is another city we could have spent days in. Around 7 pm, we took a train to Dusseldorf. We stayed in a hotel near the airport because they had a free shuttle. The next morning, bright and painfully early, we got on a plane back to LAX.
We drove back to PDX and reminisced about the great time we had, planned for GenCon, listened to Stephen King's time travel novel (the one about JFK). Prepared for GenCon, drove to Indianapolis in 2 days, had a good time at GenCon, (we sold the shit out of everything!). Now I'm home to do a bit of restock and send out orders. Brian is roaming the Texas/Arkansas area of the country killing time before DragonCon. Wednesday I fly to Atlanta and the whole cycle begins again. I'm having a hard time staying motivated. I know in my brain all the things I have to do, but when it comes time to do them, I just don't want to. It doesn't help that I'm fighting the beginnings of a sore throat. It makes me want to do nothing but play video games and watch tv. I got some printing done, but there's tons more to do. Everything needs to be shipped on Monday or else we won't have it for the show. Tomorrow I drive to Cannon Beach with a fellow LMT to massage Hood to Coast people. I have clean sheets and lots of business cards! Should be fun.
We went to Comic Con in July. It feels like ages ago. This year was weird. Preview night was light. Saturday sales were really slow, but Sunday sales were the best of any day we've ever had. We were bracing ourselves to be down about 10% in sales this year, but it ended up only being about 4% down. We tried out a new booth layout, and we're not sure if it had an impact on sales at all because it felt like traffic in our end of the hall was light. We're going to try it out again at GenCon and see how it works. We kept one half with the tables pushed to the aisle with shirts, and one half set up as a walk in area so we could have more display area for posters, prints, sculptures, books, and other non-shirt items.
I was able to get away from the booth for a while each day. I made it all the way through the hall this year, picked up some stuff from David Mack (he is so freaking cute and talented) and snapped a picture of John Barrowman as he was posing with a fan. I was too flustered to ask him to take a picture with me, and there was no one with me to take one anyway. He's dreamy in person too! We're pretty sure that Grant Imahara bought another work shirt from us. One of these days I will be able to actually speak to a celebrity without sounding like an idiot!
After Comic Con, we spent a two days hanging out with Brian's sister. Well, we spent most of that time sending out orders and getting ready for our trip to Amphi Festival. Cologne for 4 days - 2 of which were the music festival. We met up with Joanie, Shy, Matt, and Misha at the pre-party the night before. The club venue was in a space next to the train station, had 2 dance floors, 3 bars, and was quite nice. After leaving there around 3 am, we found our way to another pre-party that we were told about as we shopped at the only goth store in Cologne. It was way grotty and underground. Literally under the train tracks in this concrete bunker-like space. They were playing rockabilly and goth rock all night. By the time we showed up it was a drunken mix of the Ramones and swing dance tunes. Wish we had gotten there a little earlier. It seemed like a truly underground thing, and those are rare in my experience. Amphi lineup was awesome, which is why we went. We caught Assemblage 23, Eisbrecher, Sisters of Mercy, Mono Inc., Apoptygma Berzerk, Blutengel, 18 Summers, Camouflage, The Cruxshadows, And One, Project Pitchfork, and DAF. funny story about DAF: as we exited the indoor stage, Brian was stopped by a German fellow who asked him something in German. Brian was like, "sorry, English!" "Ah! ok, so, is DAF still play?" yes. "Is he still beep beep boop beep beep!?" Yes. Ha ha!! Experimental music can't all be Skinny Puppy, I'm afraid.
Monday morning, after the festival, we took a train to Munich. Germain rail can be incomprehensible, especially if you don't understand the announcements being made. Trains switch tracks, they're late, they're broken, the car numbers skip and restart. Amazingly enough, we managed to get where we wanted to go, if a little late. Arrived in Munich around 8pm, checked into our hotel, went to a beer hall for food, came back and went to bed. Got up early the next morning, checked into our next hotel, then went on a never ending trip to Neuschwanstein castle near the southern border of Germany. It was arduous in the way that only trips where everything goes unexpectedly wrong can be. The trains had a problem halfway to Fussen, so we had to switch to a bus. That added about an hour to our outbound travel time. Because we were so delayed, we ended up having a later tour of the castle and spending about an hour in the village of Fussen, where we had some tasty food. There was a bus to the base of the mountain, but no buses were available the rest of the way so we had to hoof it. There was an elderly Australian couple on our tour and the gent was beyond mad. "Ow the 'ell am I supposed to git up thiyah?!" (because the tour company brochure assured us that there would be a bus procured for those who didn't want to hike up to the castle.) Our tour guide was a strange bird too. A retired history professor who started out by saying, "you are not going to see a medieval castle." and then sort of insulted a lady from Michigan who taught 4th grade by pointing out the difference between her and him. Him having studied history for years and years and years. (Oh, you teach 4th graders history? Isn't that cute!) Neuschwannstein is gorgeous on the outside, but only 6 or 7 rooms are finished. Ludwig was removed from the throne and the day he was dethroned, all construction stopped on his castles and they were opened to the public for tours. The rooms that are finished are spectacular. Amazing woodwork and finishes, a fake cave grotto, a singers hall decorated with odes to Wagnerian opera. After the castle tour (they hustle you in and out) we walked up to the Mariensbrucke (a bridge over a giant gorge) for a breathtaking view of the castle and the lake behind it.
The next day, we walked out to the town hall to see the Glockenspiel go off at noon. It was less amazing than the clock in Prague, but nonetheless beautiful. Had my first Leberkase at the Viktuelmarkt. Literally translated it is "liver cheese". The guide book said it's akin to american meatloaf. I have to wonder if the writer actually had any of it, because it is more akin to Spam, but even more delicious and less salty. After that, we did a hop on hop off bus tour of Munich. It's an impressive town. We could have spent several days there. The one thing I pushed to do, and am glad we did, was a tour of the Residenz. It was the in-town palace of the rulers of Bavaria. Decadence to rival Versailles. The amount of gold leaf in this place was quite distracting. We didn't have much time, so we sort of trotted through and took a lot of pictures. Last stop was the Hofbrauhaus, the oldest beer hall in Germany. We had some food, a giant beer, then we were running to catch a train to Berlin.
Arrived in Berlin around 11:30. We were supposed to meet up with Joe Pulver and Lady Lovecraft, but the buses had shut down, so we rescheduled for lunch. The Arte Luise Kunsthotel where we stayed in was an art hotel, the kind where every room is different and featured a work of art by a different artist. The room we got had a shower coffin and a painting of a goldfish. It was pretty cool, I'd stay there again. Next day (this would be Thursday now) we got up and left our luggage at the desk and trekked off to meet up with Joe and Kat. We ended up at an Italian restaurant and had a breakfast that consisted mainly of charcuterie, cheese, bread, and a bit of fruit. (it was awesome) spent about 3 hours with them, and it was interesting hearing about the city and country from a native. We parted ways after taking pictures and hugging and slapping of backs. Did another hop on hop off bus tour and ended at Museuminsel. Literally an island with 7 or 8 museums. At the advice of a "what to see in Berlin if you only have 1 day" blog, we went to the Pergamon museum. It was amazing. The Pergamon altar is reconstructed inside. All along the walls are larger than life sized bas reliefs of Gods and Giants fighting an epic battle for dominance. Many pieces are missing out of it, and there is an interesting drawing of a recreation of a section of the relief from an artist based on his many years of research. Other rooms held a Roman gate and courtyard, an Ishtar gate and tiled walls with scenes of lions from Babylon, great winged sphinxes with bearded heads. It was incredibly awe inspiring. Sadly, we didn't have much time and only got to see the first floor. Berlin is another city we could have spent days in. Around 7 pm, we took a train to Dusseldorf. We stayed in a hotel near the airport because they had a free shuttle. The next morning, bright and painfully early, we got on a plane back to LAX.
We drove back to PDX and reminisced about the great time we had, planned for GenCon, listened to Stephen King's time travel novel (the one about JFK). Prepared for GenCon, drove to Indianapolis in 2 days, had a good time at GenCon, (we sold the shit out of everything!). Now I'm home to do a bit of restock and send out orders. Brian is roaming the Texas/Arkansas area of the country killing time before DragonCon. Wednesday I fly to Atlanta and the whole cycle begins again. I'm having a hard time staying motivated. I know in my brain all the things I have to do, but when it comes time to do them, I just don't want to. It doesn't help that I'm fighting the beginnings of a sore throat. It makes me want to do nothing but play video games and watch tv. I got some printing done, but there's tons more to do. Everything needs to be shipped on Monday or else we won't have it for the show. Tomorrow I drive to Cannon Beach with a fellow LMT to massage Hood to Coast people. I have clean sheets and lots of business cards! Should be fun.