In Which Adam Goes to New York Comic Con

Ah, so last week I went to Comic Con! This is my fourth time attending, so it wasn't really anything I wasn't expecting. Still, it is a fun place to go to if you want to people-watch, or buy lots of strange merchandise, or look for people who might be in need of an illustrator.

Absolutely, horrifyingly crowded though. It gets to the point where it becomes mentally exhausting just to move around though. Twas completely, and utterly wiped out afterwards, which is why it took me so long to post these.

But anyways, on to the photodump!

I hate you, camera.

In Which Adam Goes to Europe: Part 1.1.3: Berlin

Today is museum day! So to Museum Island we go!

We begin our day at the Neues (New) Museum. Having originally opened in 1855, it isn't exactly new, per se, however, it was severely damaged in World War II, and was not completely rebuilt and reopened until 2009.

Here I am!

Anywho, the museum!

The Neues Museum is particularly noted for having a very extensive Egyptian exhibit. In particular, they have that rather famous bust of Queen Nefertiti which I am sure all of you have seen somewhere or another. Alas, for that room did not allow photographs, but then again, that is what I have a sketchbook for.

So here we go, sketches:

In Which Adam Goes to Europe: Part 1.1.2: Berlin

Day two of Berlin!

Starting off where I left off, we got up in the morning, and headed towards the Bauhaus.

History lesson!
The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius, as a means to apply modernist thought and practicality to architecture and design. Specifically, Gropius felt that artistic value could be applied to mass produced items, and set out to devise a means where people could work out ways to create aesthetically pleasing items on a mass scale. The aftereffects of the bauhaus movement can be seen just about everywhere, from the chairs in your living room, to that condo your grandmother in Florida lives in. There were three Bauhaus schools founded, with the one we visited being comparatively the most recent one.

Here I am.

In Which Adam Goes to Europe: Part 1.1: Berlin

So off I go to Germany! But first, the flight. The long, long flight. Eight hours of sitting there, reading my Rober Bakker book that I got out of library, listening to the Kamen Rider OOO soundtrack on my ipod, and ingesting terrible airline food. In spite of this though, I have always had something of a fondness for flying. Look down at the clouds or the ground from so high up, it just seems to give a very strange quality to the scenery. Fields of clouds look more like a range of snowcapped mountains than anything else. And once the plain begins flying over Europe, the long tracks of German farmland begin to resemble something like a grid of computer circuitry. Its all a bit odd, but I like it.

Anywho, I get to the Berlin. Local time is about 9:00 am. New York time is 3:00 am. Yikes.

But I meet my brother in the airport, and we get to the hotel. The Adrema hotel, which we are staying at, is quite frankly, absolutely lovely. The lobby is a big mass of marble and pillars, and the dining room has magnificent lighting, and overlooks a nearby river.

The breakfasts at the Adrema are equally splendid. Fresh bread, coldcuts, eggs, sausage. Oh, and the honey and butter are something I must describe separately. The honey is dark and thick, much richer then what you can get in most stores at the states. And the butter, and I am not particularly much of a butter person, mind you, is so much more creamy and flavorful then what I am accustomed to. Just lovely.

Also of interest are the eggs. The yolks are orange! How peculiar.

 

My brother, stuffing his face. Delightful.

In Which Adam Goes to Europe: Prologue

Well, for those I have not told already, tomorrow I will be leaving for Germany, and will be traveling around Europe for the next two weeks. I've never traveled abroad before, so I am super excited over this. Basically, the trip will be Berlin -> Battenburgh (Small town where my grandma grew up) -> Long train ride -> Paris -> Long train ride -> London. I shall take lots of photos and sketches, so expect some interesting adventure tales in the next few days. Weee.

---

Also, check out what Tiffany Turrill (seriously one of my favorite recent artists) said to me on her tumblr: http://tiffanyillustration.tumblr.com/post/7918108478/this-isnt-really-a-question-but-id-just-like-to-say#notes

I am giddy as a schoolgirl.

In Which Adam Goes to the Museum (Again)

There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Ah, well, as I had mentioned before, I am currently working on writing/illustrating a children's dinosaur book (an alphabet book, specifically.) And while currently, my main attention seems to be figuring out just what microraptor plumage ought to look like...

I am still working on it, you see.

I may as well go to my absolute favorite place on earth, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH.) I haven't been there since that conference on lizards. So I figure I will make a drawing day of it, get a bit of dinosaur anatomy worked out, otherwise have a grand ol' time.

I really cannot stress how great this place is. Even the subway nearby is awesome. The walls are covered with different tile mosaics of different animals. Just lovely.

=3

I'm afraid you will have to forgive the quality of these photos. My brother off in Germany is borrowing my camera, so I had to take these with my cell phone. Ah well.

Anyway, as I start to get weird looks for being that crazy person in the subway taking pictures of the walls, I actually make my way inside of the museum.

This rather grandiose display of an Allosaurus engaged in combat with a Barosaurus. And this is just the main lobby.

So, after a half an hour's waiting on line (Its a crowded summer day, what do you expect?), I am inside the museum!

And I promptly get distracted by the gift shop.

They have hanging pterosaurs! And this is just the gift shop! Sweet!

I mean, there are just so many books! And toys! And fossils! And, and, and....

I am distracted easily. Oh, and also there was a rather charming invertebrate display by the Real Insect Co, who I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the people from a few months back. They're really helpful, and if you have any interest in preserved insects, they are worth a checking out. I am getting myself distracted again.

But yes! Drawing! That is why I am here! Yes! So I am going to draw some extinct dinos...

Well, close.

Okay, so I manage dinosaurs, though not the extinct ones yet. I end up in the the African Bird exhibit, totally on the wrong floor. Still, no loss, and I want to draw plumage anyways.

Quack.

 Okay, okay, must go on, mustn't be distracted. Up to the top floor, I make my way to the extinct animal exhibits. The dinosaurs have two rooms, one for Ornithischians (bird-hipped dinosaurs) and Saurischians (lizard-hipped dinosaurs.) (Note that despite the names, modern birds are actually descended from the lizard-hipped dinosaurs. Odd, but true.) I start with the Saurischians.

There we go.

I sit down, I draw some sauropod skulls. Its peaceful, though I do get harassed a bit by some kids crowding around trying to look. Oh well, life goes on.

But then, tragedy strikes.

Gasp

I begin sketching a Plateosaurus (a basal sauropodomorph ("basal sauropodomorph" is quite fun to say outloud. (I like recursive parenthesis, if you haven't noticed.))) But alas! My pencil runs out of lead! Despair! I quickly run to the gift shop and buy a pen, and while it is pretty cool that I now have a pen with dinosaurs on it, it is still not the same drawing wise. So if the further drawings here are a little wonky, you can at least know why.

Anyways! More from the Saurischia exhibit:

Allosaurus and Dilophosaurus skulls.

Obligatory

 Struthiomimus, not reconstructed.

And two other things of interest from here:

Archaeopteryx. I always forget just how small these guys are.

And.

Deinocheirus. Look at those big honkin' arms!

Alright, that is all for Saurischia, on to the Ornithischians!

Edmontonia, Anatotitan, and Protoceratops

And photos!

Styracosaurus. An old childhood favorite of mine.

Anatotitan (A Hadrosaur.) I noticed that I took this picture from the exact same angle as the picture of them in the museum's wikipedia page.

Protoceratops with a nest of eggs.

A stegosaurus's thagomizer.

Well, that's all for the dinosaurs. But still, there is more! In addition to the two dinosaur exhibits, there is also a room devoted to other extinct reptiles, amphibians and fish, and two other rooms for extinct mammals and synapsids. Here's a sample:

Pteranodon

A phytosaur, and another archosaur that I (tragically) cannot recall the name of. Anyone able to help on this? a Prestosuchus. Thanks Albertonykus!

I'm pretty sure this is a mosasaur of some kind.

A large bony fish.

Dunkleostus's big, bony skull.

And from the mammals, a Brontothere.

And thus, my trip to the museum comes to its conclusion. I exit, in an almost zenlike state of peace (seriously, the place is really calming.) I stop by a nearby Japanese restaurant and have some ramen, and then I am on my way home. A good day is had by all.

Later on, I find this in a bookstore for surprisingly cheap. I think I may find it helpful for my book. (Again, plumage.)

It's huuuuuuuuge.

Anyways, just as a recap, the AMNH is really a wonderful place. If you're not native to New York, but plan to visit at some point, really do include this as a high priority on your places to check out. It is worth it.

With that said, I will leave you with this additional book I had come by at my stop at Borders:

Goodnight Everybody!

In Which Adam Eats Something While it is Still Living

Now, here's an interesting little story I can all recount for you lot. You see, last month was my birthday, so I went out for some dinner. Now, I could have gone to somewhere ordinary. A good slice of pizza is a perfectly acceptable standby. And I have a longstanding fondness for good sashimi.

But no. It is time for something more adventurous.

Oh yes.

So we head down to Sik Gaek, this amazing Korean place in Flushing. The place is abuzz as usual, with the lull roar of relaxing young couples and businessmen amidst the bubbling of lobster tanks. The whole place is decorated with big posters of Korean Models, and it smells faintly of kimchi and beer. Now, I have been to this restaurant once before, but now I have a singular goal in mind. That goal being some maewoon tang.

Ah, but first a salad!

A salad with tentacles.

Yes, atop a bed of lettuce and some hot peppers are a batch of freshly caught and snipped octopus tentacles, still wriggling. After a brief warning to be sure to chew them thoroughly (The suction cups are still quite functional, and the darn things can get caught in your throat!) we dig in.

Its admittedly a bit of a challenge. They're often too slimy to pick up with chopsticks, and when you get them by hand, they cling on as tight as they can. But oh, is it worth it. They're chewy, but they have a very light taste, almost lemony, certainly very fresh. You can practically picture yourself plucking it right out of the ocean, that's the sort of taste it has. Ah though, this is just the warm up. The main course comes next.


That maewoon tang I mentioned? Its a great big pot of seafood, complete with razor clams, snails, muscles, crabs, scallops, conch, abelone, and a full lobster, all in a bright red broth. Its placed on a little gas stove built into the table, and continues to boil the food while we eat. (And it needs to! That lobster is still alive when they first bring it to us!)

Ah, but that is not all. With the stew brought to the table, a waitress comes over and tops it off with another octopus, this one intact and still quite lively. Technically, you are supposed to wait until it is cooked through before eating it, but I am impatient.

I have stared into the eye of madness, and it has stared back.

The taste... Oh goodness, where do I begin. The broth is pungent and spicy, adding just the right hints of flavor to the mild octopus, which still squirms as it goes down. The lobster is absolutely perfect, fresh and light and with a natural buttery taste. The crab meat is sweet, especially the thin strip of yellow roe at the back of their shells. And the abalone, which I have never had before, is very chewy, but with that wonderful fishy sweetness that all good shellfish have.

Ah, it was a wonderful time, and a great deal of fun. I know some people are somewhat squicked by the concept of eating live food, but there is just something exciting about it to me, like going on a culinary adventure. This sort of thing is what I really like about New York, that you can have all these different cultures and their effects crammed in together, hopefully with some of their collective intact.

If anyone would like to try out Sik Gaek, I would heartily recommend it. They don't have a web page, but here they are on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sik-gaek-flushing

Oh, and look, Tony Bourdain ate here as well!