San Diego Invasion

Last night I grabbed dinner in the town of Los Angeles with some friends at a place called East India Grill. As hinted at in the name, it is an Indian restaurant. It was pretty great but I weirdly was unable to stuff my face as much as I usually can when presented with piles of Indian food.

After dinner, we went to some bar called El Carmen that specializes in tequila (over 300 varieties, some say). The douchebag quotient was pretty low compared to a lot of bars I have been to in L.A., so as of this writing I would recommend it (but then again what the hell do I know). However, I am generally trying to avoid tequila of late because it pretty much turns me into an instant jackass. I gave in last night though and had some Cabo Wabo, the popular tequila made by the Red Rocker, Sammy Hagar. Sammy makes some sucky music, but his tequila is pretty good. I’ve pretty much decided to stop fighting Sammy and his fun-loving ways even though he did ruin Van Halen and wears Hawaiian shirts all the time (For the record, I am 100% pro-David Lee Roth when it comes to Van Halen, but who isn’t?). If you were going to grill out and have margaritas and stuff, he seems like he’d probably be a good guy to have around. I just wouldn’t let him pick the music though.

This morning I flew to scenic San Diego, a city I have never been to before. It seems like a pretty nice, fun-in-the-sun kind of place. The area I am staying in seems pretty touristy, which I’m not too crazy about. Maybe I will wander out later and try to find the seamy underbelly of this town or something. The truth is, after being away from home for four days now, I’m pretty much ready to just be back in New York. But I am trying to make the most of things. The first picture is of me standing on the balcony of my hotel room, which overlooks a harbor of some sort. Maybe it is called San Diego Harbor. I should look it up or just ask someone in the lobby or something.

I am in San Diego for the next four days doing man-on-the-street type stuff for assorted entities at Comic Con, the biggest comic book/video game/other crap convention on the planet. Since I have what I would describe as little to no interest in any of this stuff, it is nightmarish in nature for me. I like drawing though, so I can relate to things on that level at least.

As you can probably imagine, Comic Con doesn’t skimp on nerds. The second picture is of a nice self-proclaimed nerd I met who was dressed up as Doctor Spock, the popular character from Star Trek. He came to this thing by himself he told me. I was stunned.

The picture above is of a character named Caveman Robot, a comic book character come to life. As hinted at in the name, he is a caveman who is also a robot. His costume was pretty sweet and appeared to be largely homemade in a really great way. He got really pissed at me while I interviewed him for some reason only I thought he was joking because I couldn’t see his face. It’s weird to have a big guy dressed as both a caveman and a robot yelling at you. You just don’t expect that sort of thing to happen in life. And then it does and something about it makes you feel alive again and not as bummed to be in San Diego all by yourself.

For some reason this week, I have been listening to the song “Headmaster Ritual” by the Smiths over and over again. It’s a really good song that seems to be about how Morrissey’s teachers used to beat the crap out of him in school. It’s pretty catchy. I am debating continuing listening to it over and over again while I am in San Diego though because I am worried it will always make me think of Comic Con and angry cavemen who are also robots and- in my opinion- overly sensitive.

Dave Hill