This weekend my wife and I attended the SCG Open in Las Vegas. When we first arrived the hotel was completely dead. There was no one at the front desk, no one at the doors, and no one outside. We were a little worried that no one was going to show up, but we were pleasantly surprised when over 400 people showed up for the event.
The first day was extremely busy. I ended up signing/drawing for 10.5 hours and I still had 30 alterations to take back to the hotel room. When I woke up on Sunday morning I was pretty sick. I ended up having a wicked fever during the whole show on Sunday. 8 hours later and I was able to go back to my hotel room and crash. I think I went to bed around 8pm that night.
This was the second show I was able to use my new DecoColor pens to do my alterations. I like them a lot more, but they tend to take longer to create. This show marked the debut of my new and improved Bobaghast!
I also tried to come up with some new alterations. Altering Birthing Pod is always a tricky one because there aren’t very many things that seem appropriate. I came up with the idea to turn it into a Chestburster, which was pretty fun to create. I still have around 18 more alterations and 2 playmats to do at home before Worlds in San Francisco next week. It is gonna be a busy week!
As is customary when I go on trips, I always forget my camera. I had to make due with my iPhone. We actually stayed off the beaten path in a hotel called Alexis Park. I wasn’t very fond of the hotel considering no one was around, there was no TV remote in the room (in order to watcht the TV you had to have the remote), the heater didn’t work, and we had problems with the booking. They tried to kick us out after 2 nights, even though we paid for 5 nights. The room was pretty cool, despite the minor setbacks. Cabbing it back and forth between our hotel and the strip was a bit of a pain too since not many cabs came out to the boondocks. I must say, some of the cab drivers were really interesting. We had one that is a doctor. He had practiced in India for over 20 years and then came to America to practice here, only to find out he is being forced to go back to school and start completely over before he is allowed to practice. Now he has to drive a cab in order to help pay for his schooling.
On Thursday we went to see Cirque Du Soleil’s Ka. As usual, it was an amazing show. I still think O is the best one, but Ka is great too. Some of the things they do with the set is insane. I had to sneak shots of the set before the show started just because it is so cool looking. The costumes are amazing in Ka. Some of them really inspired me to create some character designs, so I may have to sit down and do some quick paintings.
I also had to go out and get the soundtrack to Ka. It is also really great, but again, I still think O is the best. The soundtrack to O really reminds me of Final Fantasy Cyrstal Chronicles for the GameCube. Whenever I hear the soundtrack I always picture Selkies and Lilties running around. I really liked the soundtrack to Iris as well, but unfortunately they haven’t finished making it yet. I believe it is out later this month.
Right before the show we decided to eat at Shibuya. It was probably some of the best food I have had. The Wagyu Skirt Steak was amazing and definitely worth trying at least once in your life. I would rate it up there with the food I had in Japan. The Spider Roll is also very good, probably one of the best Spider Rolls I have had. The atmosphere of the restaurant is great as well, but I think most things in Vegas look really cool.
Wagyu Skirt Steak
Spider Roll
We also dropped by the Shark Reef, Bodies and Titanic exhibit, but unfortunately you are not allowed to take any pictures. I’ve been wanting to see the Bodies exhibit for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint. I really wished I had brought along a sketchbook, but I dunno if they would have let me draw from the bodies.
The Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay is really cool, but I feel like it is pretty small. I think we went through the whole thing in like 20 minutes. I took a lot of pictures, but most of them are pretty blurry because I wasn’t using a flash and everything was swimming around too fast.
It was a great trip and a great show and I would like to thank everyone that came out and waited in line. I hope you had a great time! Thanks!
More random pics.
Inside the Luxor.
