#animazing gallery

[tomoleary]

Neal Adams "The Art of Marvel" Stan Lee and Neal Adams Signed Limited Edition Print (Marvel, 2010) Source

[thedaveandkimmershow]

The point of yesterday was to see The Venetian, up close and in person, because we love outdoor things that’re indoors.

Case in point: there was this one time we went to a haunted house that was south and west of Sea-Tac airport along the water. What it really was... was a warehouse. And inside they’d built a haunted house complete with graveyard in the front yard and a perfectly gothic “outside”. When you went “inside”, it was the inside of a haunted house inside a warehouse. 

So we were going to see something similar in Vegas... just, you know, Italian.

And not... scary.

After a long Saturday in Vegas that itself followed on the heels of a late party night... we ended up sleeping in ‘til 10. And then sloooooowly entered into our day a little after noon.

Mile-and-a-half later, we’d managed a walk to Fashion Show (a mall), Treasure Island, and, finally, The Venetian.

The outdoor setting we wanted to explore is called Grand Canal Shoppes. It’s an evening in Venice complete with canals, gondolas, and gondoliers performing opera. We wandered and soaked it all in, strolling, perusing, instagramming the heck outta the place. I’m pretty sure Kimmer even did a little Facebook Live action.

At one point, we found ourselves enthralled by the art of Animazing Gallery. Check ‘em out online... it’s an eclectic collection of original Dr. Seuss, DC Comics, Peanuts gone surreal, as well as modern art that actually engages and doesn’t make me think “God, a two year-old could’ve done this”.

Had a great conversation  with Dolan Forcier, the gallery’s Creative Director, about his own career path as an artist. Originally from Gig Harbor, he attended the Art Institute, graduating in the late 90s. About a decade after me. 

Small world, right?

After The Venetian, we walked the mile-and-a-half back to our hotel pretty much by going through as many hotel/casinos along the way as we could. You see, even though Kimmer enjoys the sun and hot weather, apparently 95 degrees in the late afternoon of Vegas is pushing it. So we walked as much air conditioning as possible and even managed a couple Slurpees at the local 7 Eleven.

An hour’s nap later, we were getting ready to hit the Hard Rock for our evening’s concert “Raiding The Rock Vault”. Another Classic Rock trip down memory lane for us.

Earlier in the day, I’d checked up with one of the hotel staff about the best way of getting around Vegas from the hotel. Here’s what she said:

“Have you heard of Uber?”

Got it.

So we were just about ready to when I hit up the Uber App and was promptly informed our ride would be downstairs in 3 minutes.

Whoops.

Turns out you’re supposed to be at your pick-up spot when you book your ride.

Our bad. Won’t ever happen again.

Plus, Carlos was totally cool with it. He hung out the few minutes it took us to get our act together. Thank you, Carlos. :-)

Raiding the Rock Vault was our absolute favorite thing so far. We can totally see ourselves coming back for it again and again and again. I’m going to have to put some thought into what it was we enjoyed about it that went above and beyond the previous night’s tribute bands. All the songs last night were essentially covers... it’s just that they were performed by musicians of the classic rock era. Musicians who’ve performed with Yes, Dokken, Journey, Heart, Survivor, Quiet Riot, and so on. The 70s and 80s we remember.

After the show, we managed to find our way to the Uber pick-up spot with three dead cel phones. So yeah. That didn’t work.

We ended up in a cab ride back to our hotel with a driver from Ontario who’d moved to Vegas in 2006, spent a year working a casino, hated the experience, and took the advice of a cab driver he used to get to work... becoming a cab driver himself. The lifestyle seems to suit him just fine.

So yeah. That was our Sunday.

Today... it’s Paris.

[faerypotter]

Preview of Brian, Wendy and Toby Froud exhibition at Animazing Gallery in New York.

It says that it is 12:20, but the actual video runs less than 9 minutes.