so that’s a picture of sea snake one of six figures in Marcel Dzama’s Uzama “monsters of winnipeg folklore” action figure line produced by Cereal Art, that jess picked up in Vegas. The other six figures are Uzama, Cloudinus, Evil Ugolinor, Tree Man, Xenophaner. The packaging reminds me of old star wars figures, and it serves it’s purpose nicely. Glady he didn’t go with the blind packaging which would have made it very hard to even try to get a complete set. As art toys go these at least move but there obviously using rip off star wars or gi joe molds with different heads. Jess got them on sale at Fao Shwartz so if your one of the few lucky people who still have one of there stores you can get the entire set for around 40$ thats a steal when Giant Robot is selling them at $20 each online. If you can’t afford a Marcel Dzama drawing and who can , then one of these figures will be cheaper than even buying one of his books, and they even come with a little book of his drawings inside.

Just received my copy of the Lovesick discography put out by Harlan Records yesterday and I am enjoying it a lot. The cd has something for everyone who was a fan of the band as it collects 33 songs, everything the band did except the last Makoto album. The earlier songs are more intense than the later ones, more filled with energy and enthusiasm. Favorites on the disc are When if not now? repeat the sounding joy, meet me at midnight. These are songs you can step to, and shake your hands in the air. Pure emotion. You can order it online from my favorite label Polyvinyl, thats where I got mine. enjoy.

So i played the card game Apples to Apples last night. It’s a pretty fun game that takes absolutely no strategy or thought, so I can recommend it to anyone, even those of you who can’t count.

O.k. so this movie has been rumored for a long time, but now that the teaser trailer is out I guess it’s official. The Simpsons, The Movie will be out July 27th, 2007. I have not been watching the Simpsons lately, I guess I just got a little burned out by it, but I’m pretty sure my butt will be in a theatre seat next year. I mean a big screen Homer episode? Of course! You can view the newly released teaser trailer here

Now Playing, Chaos FIeld(cube), Sonic Rush(DS), Tiger Woods(DS).
Now Reading, The Kite Runner.
Now listening, April’s Paste Magazine sampler.

New Avengers Illuminati Special. O.k. all those bad things about this book I said last week I take back. Great use of the players here. I’m a little surprised on Iron Man’s stance, and i couldn’t tell who Black Bolt was pointing at, but we will see. I think I know why I didnt’ enjoy last weeks story. I don’t think I like Deodata’s artwork. I guess I’ll just miss Mcniven. But oh well he’s doing the Civil War and I’ll be reading that. Too bad there going to kill Speedball.

Had a good lunch at Atlas today and picked up the first three volumes of Sealab at the Sam Goody going out of business downtown. Going to make some dinner tonight so I’m off to look up recipes.

“the turtle is in the water!”
So it is. What’s the big deal?
Can it swim? Yes. Can it fly? Maybe.
“Could you buy me a coke?”
No. Not right now. Can you come back in say, an hour?
“I’m busy then.”
Yeah. that figures.
“Have you met Pablo?”
Once, in Toronto. Swell.
“Once read a comic book.”
Twice, I played guitar, especially for him.
“And what did you sing?”
Can’t quite remember. Can’t quite recall.

Ds Fanboy Is my new favorite video game site for what is quickly becoming my most serious time waster. This and it’s parent site Joystiq are keeping me up to date and more importantly overly excited. and the geek beat rolls on. and on.

So our final day in Vegas we took it pretty easy. We strolled onto the strip at 1100 am and headed for the half price tickets booth outside the showcase mall. We ended up getting tickets for V the Variety show at the Alladin that night. We then went and had a wonderful lunch of Bento Boxes from Ra Sushi. I really liked this places menu and the atmosphere. Very young crowd and young employees. More Sushi places should have this hip youthful Japanese feel.

We then headed up and took a look at the Mirage at one of Sigfried and Roys famous white tigers. Uhm, where the Mgm Lions were happy and well cared for, this tiger looked bored out of his mind in his tiny garden and he just paced back and forth. Beautiful animal but shame on the Mirage.

After this we went and really relaxed at the Forum Shops at Ceasers Palace. It was a day for strolling and we found some unexpected things. At Fao Shwartz Jessica picked up a complete set of artists Marcel Dzama’s action figures for under forty dollars. I’ll review them sometime next week. I bought candy. Yes the universe was reversed. She bought toys, I bought candy. We then watched the Animatronic show the fall of Atlantis. Wish more malls had free entertainment like this, they wouldn’t feel so stale. But anyway, we wandered for an hour or two and then headed out to The Alladin shops where our show for the night was.

The alladin has a cool rainstorm that happens every hour where it thunders and gets louder and then goes off in the distance. It was beautiful outside but we were so tired we were happy to sit at a pizza joint with slices and watch the rain come down for an hour or two.

V the Variety show was very good Vaudeville type acts. It’s a small intimate theater and it works well for the acts like the strongmen because you can really see there motions clearly. It’s definetly a very fun, very vegas show if you get the half price tickets. The host was hilarious and I wish i remembered his name.

After the show it was nine, still early so we crossed the street and watched the Bellagio fountains dance to Elton John and then a classical song and headed back to Circus Circus where we got fries and a milkshake at Mcdonalds, before calling it a night.Our transport to the airport would be picking us up at 345am, we better get our four hours of sleep. All in all a wonderful vacation, and Im pretty sure with all the construction going on In Vegas, I’ll be back again to see what’s new and to hit my favorites again.

So wed night in Vegas we went to see this Cirque show at Treasure Island. I admit i was aprehensive about paying so much for tickets, but it’s worth every penny and there are no bad seats in the house. we got the cheap seats but the action is visible no matter where you sit and there is so much visual entertainment going on that you can;t catch it all in one viewing. If you’ve never seen a cirque show before it’s a mix of dance, choregraphy, circus acts, and really crazy costumes. It’s larger in scale then anything you’ve ever seen before and probably will again. If we ever go to Vegas again I’m getting tickets to O, and Ka, and if they come though chicago with one of there traveling shows I’ll be going. The neat thing about a Vegas show is that the theatres which are multi million dollar venues are built just for them so they can incorporate a lot into the stages. Mystere had huge ceiling acts, a sinking and revolving stage and so much more. Truly a feast for the eyes and at moments very beautiful. If we had done nothing else in Vegas, (but as you can see we did plenty) this would have made the trip worth it.

so we left star trek the experience and took the monorail up to the huge mgm on the other side of the strip. The MGM has one of the best free events in the MGM LIons. These animals are not like your normal zoo animals as they are happy and are playing with each other and even humans who just sit and hang out with the lions. You can tell there well cared for and probably treated better than even the high rollers in Vegas. There is a neat viewing tunnels where your right under neath the large cats. Truly the best attraction in Vegas if you have no money.

After MGM we crossed the street to Mandalay Bay which despite it’s luxury, it and it’s neighbor casino The Luxor, shaped like a pyramid, bored me senseless. Maybe i was burning out or just tired but nothing much to see here, move along little doggy. We then went to New york New York which as you can see from the picture is a replica of Manhattan, including coney island inside. We had beers on a street inside to rest our feet and soak up that east coast atmosphere.

Next we went down to the Bellagio with it’s beautiful inside botanical Garden. The flowers were amazing, and I hate nature. really the nicest place on the strip, this is the hotel to get married at. Also this picture is of the glass ceiling made by Dale Chihuly. It’s all blown glass shaped like flowers. Impressive.

And outside is the wonderful Bellagio fountains, which play in rythm every 15 minutes to a different song. they are a wonderful spectacle that could be watched over and over. In Fact we came back the next night to watch them some more.

We then headed down to Treasure Island for our cirque du soleil show at 1030pm but first we caught the Sirens of Ti show outside. The pirate ships and explosions are pretty cool, but the acting and the show itself, need much drinking before you watch it. It’s probably the cheesiest thing in Vegas, and that’s not a good thing. Still for free to watch two pirate ships battle and one sink, is pretty darn cool.

On to Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystere! Next blog!