I fear another four years of reactionary, steeped-in-tradition, out-of-touch short-sightedness. Please oh please vote for change. I don't want someone who thinks humans and dinosaurs co-existed 6000 years ago to be one heart attack away from presidency.

Or so they claim. Even though the debate begins in 15 minutes. Oops!

You know how when you get older you actually start to become more and more like a baby again? Yeah, well, McCain is really old.

If this country falls for McCain's latest tactic, it deserves the next 4 years of regret. What good is a president that can't handle two things at once?

The Totoro Forest art show/auction was a blast (and a complete success). After checking in at Hotel Kabuki we headed out to Pixar where festivity ensued. They wouldn't allow my camera inside; the photo above is from one of the on-site photographers for the show. A humble watercolor by Miyazaki himself greeted us upon entering the doors, and the rest of the show was packed with stellar work. It was great seeing old friends, making new ones, and watching the live auction (in which John Lasseter easily seized most of the pieces). It seems that every piece sold, and Dice, Enrico, Ronnie & co. raised over $200,000 for the Totoro Forest fund. The Pixar offices are inspiring as well. I thought the sign that said "Check-Out Upstairs" meant: "Check Out Upstairs." So I did. I found out later that was intended for purchasers of art. Ha! Well, upstairs was cool anyway - lots of pre-production concept art and models for the films. The eve ended with us claiming our copies of the wonderful art book (my name's in the credits!).

We spent the next day milling about the wharf, checking out the sea lions at Pier 39, exploring the submarine and battleship at Pier 45, and eating breadbowls. This day was a photo-taking treat.

On Tuesday night we went to see Brian Greene give a lecture at CalTech about black holes, gravity, and science in storytelling. I was hoping for a little more scientific meat to the lecture, but I suppose it was in support of his latest book which is directed towards a very young audience... so I'll let it slide. That and he did explain what gravity actually is as opposed to just how it behaves, and this is something I've always wondered and never looked up. Still... he reminded me of Gilderoy Lockhart, and the whole time I kept thinking Brian Greene was the author of Magical Me.

If you were looking for us last night, you'd have been at the Roxy where we saw the Toadies! That's right, the Toadies. From high school. Flash-forward 10 years and they have a new album and new-fangled touring-energy. It was pretty surreal watching them from right up at the front of the stage (I-can-read-your-setlist-distance), and singing along to some old favorites from Rubberneck and Hell Below / Stars Above. There was also this dude next to us who was dressed in such a way that - I can't even explain it. There's a fine line between douche and awesome, and he was still standing on the awesome side. He was like a superhero that doesn't really have any powers, but still has a costume, if that makes any sense. Or an extra from Nacho Libre. It was also neat to see some younger folk out there - I wonder how they're getting into the Toadies.

If you were looking for us tonight, we were celebrating Tim's birthday at the Largo watching Jon Brion, who is basically a musical genius. One man should not be that talented at so many instruments, but I'm glad that he is, because the show is incredible. He'll take pretty much any request and he can play it - right there, no hesitation. The drums, the piano, the guitar - whatever. Just let him hum it for about 3 seconds and he'll have extrapolated the main chord progression. You can catch him there pretty much every Friday night for $30.

Tomorrow is the Figures & Grounds show at Nucleus - some huge pieces this time which really take advantage of our new gallery space. See you there!

Lots of traveling up ahead. Ben, Kazu, Amy and I are headed up to the Totoro Forest Art Show/Auction at Pixar this weekend. It should be an awesome night - mingling with all the amazing artists, checking out Pixar's studios, and hopefully some surprises.

Next month we'll be heading to Italy and Germany... still in the planning stages.

Want to read something amazing? Your brain actually invents an interpretation for the color magenta - it is not actually found in the visible spectrum of light, but is a combination of the ends of the spectrum. Read.

I now have weekends free. In my opinion 2 days off in a row (amazing!) is a complete u-turn from my usual 6-day work week of the last couple years. I used to use Sunday to catch up on sleep and get some errands done - but Monday was too close for comfort and I couldn't get anything started (drawings, music, etc). To kick off this normal weekend tradition, I bought a drafting desk. I've been crouched over my spool-table for a while, but it's killing my back so I hooked myself up proper and I love it. I love the stool too - it's springy.

The desk is conducive to sketching, and here they be: