Wizard World Philly 2007 Wrap

Well another WWP Babyman Spectacular 2007 is in the books. It seems these shows wizz by so fast when you're busy, or kinda' drag, like yesterday when I wasn't busy at all. As a result I walked the floor a lot talking to fellow artists and snapping some pics. I don't know how Wizard will spin it but I'd give the attendence at about 12-15,000 tops, and I think I'm being gracious.

Batman getting a sketch of himself.
This show was better than the last Philly show, but far off the mark from the previous years. Much smaller retailer presence, mostly guys selling toys it seems, and less guys selling comics...I think they were burned last year and chose either to not come or to do Heroes Con.

I can safely say I think this is a one day show. If you could do just one day, then do Saturday. Sunday and Friday are dead really, at least in artist alley. Also I'd say you'd do good as an artist tom sell prints as both Scotts (Neely and Cohn) sold a bunch of prints. I always thought people would rather have a sketch, but I think at $75 for a weekend pass, not including parking or food, the standard $40 a sketch is maybe just too much for the average fan. Also I think with both Heroes and Philly being on the same day and it also being Father's day Weekend this show was definitely effected. Why do comics people insist on splitting the ticket?
Hey, a Darkhawk Hero Click--I gotta get one!

I think what we need in this hobby is co-operation, not con promoters gunning for each other, trying to put the other guy out of biz. I think you can clearly see that this doesn't work. I'm sure people remember the battles Fred Greenberg had with that other con promoter back in the 90's, and where are they now....

There were several deatlers selling a lot of asian doll, fans, swords etc.
I also noticed the busiest areas were the gaming areas, not the booths for Marvel, DC, etc, or certainly Artist Alley. Kids are more into the games, the fast greying fanbase is what we have left and I know many of the deeper pocket art buyers were obviously in Charolette this weekend.

A guy drawing a big FF mural.

Two of my favorite people, Louise and Walt Simonson.

The always stylish Jim Steranko.

The eternal Joe Kubert!

Who knows if Wizard will keep this show going past what I hear was the booked date of next year. I'd set this show up very different and I would really try promoting on local radio shows like WXPN's Kid's Corner, run ads on cartoon network, Nic, etc. Take a page from successful retailers like Blue Hen's Joe Murry success with free Comic book day in his store. Get familes involved, find a way to make it like going to a theme park. They cleaned out the porn chicks from the show which is a great move. I have nothing against porn, but porn and comics just is a bad mix.

Camera shy Burt Ward.

Star Wars was big, lots of Jedi's walking around, in fact when we entered the show Sunday Scott and i were flanked by two rows of Storm troopers, funny. It's clear Geroge Lucas will never starve with this type of dedicated fanbase.



There were really serious people here practicing with their light sabers, holding mock Jedi training events. i think things like this are great because they are for a lack of a better word, "wholesome'. I have felt for a long time the hobby of comics was taken down the drak path, the grim, gritty, catwoman is a whore/stripper slut path. There was probably less of that at this show that I've seen in a long time. If i was a parent i would have been happier at this show because of this alone. No worries about taking my kids past Aria Giovani's fisting DVD's booth.



However the fact is that you need great numbers of people which Wizard has been very poor at getting for the show. Much was made about them firing the old staff and hiring new people to run the shows. I didn't see any difference. I don't think the running of the show for me was ever an issue. The staff is always great, the show is easy to load into and out of. The issue is getting people in the Tri-Stae Area to know about the con and come. If you are a mainstream guy drawing a mainstrean book, you might do ok, but the fact is the heat is gone for this show, and frankly I don't think they can get it back based on what I've seen. Maybe in the overall sceme of things it won't matter, Wizard will leave Philly and maybe another local guy will step up to run a slighlty smaller, just regional show. This will certainly drop costs for tables etc. The bottom line as a business man is $$$. If I don't make $$$ I don't want to come back.

Clearly Captain America is not dead.



DC's booth



A Dr. Strange Sketch I did.

As always I had fun hanging with my comic buddies and meeting soke new artists. I chatted with Steranko a bit, Mike Carlin, Bob Wayne and a few others. We ate our annual last night dinner at Sang Kee Duckhouse in China town. Overall I had a good time, wish I made more $$. but I did OK. much bettervthan the last Philly show. if next year the heroes con and Philly are two seperate dates I'll probably do both as Philly is so easy to do.

A Guy Gardner sketch I drew for a fan.


The guys from Imagination studios had a nice booth and brisk sales. I'll be covering them in an upcoming issue of DRAW!




Scott and the Iron Avenger.




Starbuck AKA Dirk Benedict.



Jamar on the move...


And no event in Philly is done without a good cheese steak! And Rick's in The Reading Terminal across from the convention ceter fits the bill.








Scott Neely does some Scooby Business.

WIZARD WORLD SATURDAY

A Thing Sketch done for a fan

Yesterdaay was the big day of the 3 day show and I have to say it was much smaller than the last Saturday of the con I attended. I think the show has really been hit hard by a variety of things, other cons, and maybe just the natural flow and ebb of things.

Even at it's bussiest it was 1/3 of the best show, the first WWP 5 years or so back. Artist Alley had business, but often there were dead spells and of course lots of lookie-lous kick'n tires. A few families, but not a lot. The Marvel and DC booths had traffic, but when I went by, nothing like previous years, where lines would stretch. I would call it a small regional show now, like Pittsburgh. I've done OK, not great. made my costs back and depending on business today, amybe some extra cake, but not a lot. I know some artists in artist alley had probably almost no business. At no point was it ever hard to walk the isles.

I never go to any of the panels, in fact I never liked panels much, even as a teen, and realy sort of find them boring. I hear from some fans they had less of them this year and overall the show has a calmness to it, not a lot of energy. A few customers told me they thought they'd try this show as a change from other regional shows like the NYC shows, but let's face it...there are too many goddam comic book cons now.

This is a fact nobody can deny and I think as a result we are seeing people now really have to pick and choose. There is literally a can a week it seems or every other week and most fans are aging fans, many with families and since there is virtually no new blood coming in people have to start making choices. There isn't a lot of money now in comics, publishing, artistically and as a business. people have to cut corners and miond the budget. You can clearly see the results at a show like this.


An Aquaman sketch

There was plenty of room in artist alley so there was no where near a sell out. I have to say I admire the moxy of some of my fellow comic creators , especially the small press guys who buy tables each year, many loosing money it seems as they do almost no business. I even saw Marv Wolfman with nobody at his table. Maybe artist alley wasn't the place for him. Wizard does little to promote or help this end of the con which has to contribute a fairly significant dollar amount to their bottom line at $300 a pop. I think they could continue to announce to the crowd to visit some of the people in artist alley, hell , even call out booths. I think many people still don't know about artist alley, and certainly who's there.

I think it's a shame in a way this show has suffered. Philly is easy and very cheap compared to most major venues and cities, easy to get around and get to with bus and regional rail. I think its clearly poor marketing on Wizards part coupled with the crazy amount of shows every month. Wizard does have a great show staff though i give them AAA for that, nice, friendly helpful people all around. San Diego could learn a few things about being nicer, the security there is like WWII germany at times.

But I am having a good time. I got to meet a lot of nice fans, do some fun sketches and drawings and chat with comic pals which I always enjoy the most. We ate great Vietnamese food last nite and hung at the marriott in the bar, the annual bar hang of the con, but there wasn't much of a crowd or any peeps we knew so we booked early. So off to the last day of the show....

Wizard World Friday

Friday is usually the slow day at most shows, and it was a slow day today at WWP. I did a few commissions like the one posted here. i had plenty of time to walk about a bit. Artist alley is in the back of the show again this year, moved from the side it was last year. once again tables don't have any drapping, so if you don't bring any yourself your art junk is clearly visible under the table.

The show also seems smaller this year as well. Not many publishers here, Marvel and DC have small booths as does Top cow and there seems like a few less dealers as well. Some I know personally choose Heroes over Wizard this year. Attendence was a few thousand I bet and traffic was never heavy. But if saturday is big, I guess I'll do OK. One of the strangest things is walking artist alley and not knowing who a great portion of the artists are and seeing many spaces empty. I guess many feel now it's only worth doing one day, Saturday. I'll have a more in-depth report tomorrow including some pics.

Wizzzarrrddd Wwoorrrllldddd

This is s shot I took yesterday at the Philly Convention center as the WWP show was being set up. Echo and I picked up our badges early as yesterday Echo swore the oath along with about 750 others to become American citizens in the next big hall in the same place. So she's 100% American now!
Hooorrraaahhhh.

Stop and see us at Booth 1411 in Artist Alley. Now I'm gonna go load the Jeep and head out.

Wizard World Philly

Friends, aquintences and fellow comic mavens it's countdown time here at Casa Manley to the annual Philly Wizard World con held just about this time every year at the Phila. Convention center located in the heart of center city. I hate to say it, but I say it every year, I have pretty mixed feelings about this show. Partly because I have mixed feelings about many things Philly related, but also because after a fine debut this has been a piss-poor show, execept in the men's room where it could be dubbed a piss floor show 20 minutes after the show is open.

I like the convenience of the show since it's a hometown show, but I think the continued maarginalizing of most of the talent that's not the same stale Top 10 guys Wizard hails in it's mags is an issue. I'm no fan of the mag itself, I haven't read an issue in years, but the thing that gets me is the fact the arrangement/placement of Artist Alley has also not been great. I didn't attend last year as I went to heroes in NC to support Sheldon's show when Wizard tried to go against him by scheduling the same weekend, but this year I couldn't swing it with just coming back from China, plus that show has also gotten very expensive.

The 05 Philly Wizard show was the worst con I had been to in years. I didn't even break even $$ wise and that's saying something. I realize I no longer draw monthly comics and I am not the demo of Wizard Magazine, but the fact is without stirring the local population into attending nobody will have a good show based just on babymen traffic. How many more copies of Aspen of Sin City trades to 40-year-olds need anyway?

I see they are running a pretty crappy looking ad on the Sci-fi channel, so who knows. Better if they also run it on Nic and Cartoon Network. If this is another bad year this will be my last show as an attendee, even if it's the home town show. I imagine it may also be their last show too. I'll start packing up the jeep later with the stuff, boxes of Draw!, display, signs, and I'll be bringing along some art to sell and I always do sketches. I'll be at table 1411 with Echo surrounded by fellow bros in arms Scott Cohn, Scott Neely and Jamar (Poobah) Nicholas. Stop by and get a sketch, buy somne art, get a great caricature by Echo and eat a Cheese Steak!

Chinese Comics part 2

I finally have a bit of time to blog the 2nd part of my Chinese Comics experience. Like I said in the first post I didn't see any American comics my whole time in China. I guess you could call the Disney comics I saw in the kiosks and newstands American, but since I never opened the bagged issues I saw I am not sure where the material originated. Disney does have studios around the world that produce comics so perhaps that work was merely reprints. That's what I imagine anyway. I saw no Civil War, 52, Hellboy, Sin City, Batman or even Spidey comics in either shop I visited nor on the newstands I saw. For that matter I didn't see any indy comics and no Euro comics like Tin Tin. I don't think American comics exist in China for the most part. I did see ads for DVD's of the Batman/Superman cartoons and Tom and Jerry that Warners Bros.is releasing in the big bookstore I shopped at in Kunming.

There appears to be no direct market in China, I think most of the comic shops import products from Japan, go through regular books store distribution, or buy from the distributors of publishers who reprint the unliscensed versions of the comics, translating them into mandarin, the official state language. Pirating of many items in China is a huge issue,not just comics, but any product you can imagine, copyrights are a big issue the Chinese have to learn to abide by and deal with in the long run. The super popular Deathnote albums in China are bootlegs. The Chinese publisher evidently did not obtain the printing rights to the material before reprinting the books in China. This came to light when the goverment cracked down on the book and DVD removing copies from store shelves. The Chinese publisher (or bootlegger)said they would fight this along with help from Shueisha the original publisher of Death Note. Shueisha however said it wasn't lending a hand and wanted nothing to do with the situation as the copies were bootlegs.

A store devoted to Snoopy I saw in Kunming. I saw a few more, one devoted to Betty Boop. I wonder how much of this stuff is bootlegged? Is that TM symbol on the sign for real, irony, or to throw off the lawyers hunting for bootlegs?


I wonder if a lot of this is bootlegged as well?

I did buy some art supplies in the comic shop in Beijing. I was always on the hunt for art supplies of any kind on the trip, and while I came cross many places selling sumi brushes I never found a legit, full size art supplies store. They still make what we used to call Zip-A-Tone in Japan. I think the managa market in Japan is bigger than the comics market here in the US, so there are several companies which make art supplies specifically for comic artists. This includes ink, pens, and various screen patterns as well the amazing amount of markers you can find today.

I picked up some ink, both black and white ink, a few packs of drawing paper and some screens. The paper was manufatured by a company called Mantain and came in 2 sizes, 8 x 1/2 x 11 and 10 x 14 1/2 and is called Comic Manuscript Paper. The bigger pack sold for $25 RMB which is a about $8 US and the smaller for $15 RMB which is about $2 US, each pack has 36 sheets. The weight is similar to 1 ply bristol, maybe a bit lighter.

I bought 2 pen sets, one a Memory Comic pen set that had two holders and four nibs for $15RMB (2 bucks) and another from xxxxxx for xxxxxxxx. I haven't tried the inks yet or the pens but I will.

After doing a kinda crappy drawing of Superman while leaning over a small shelf for the manager of the Cool Comic store in Beijing he gave us the address and phone number for the sister store in Kunming. We said we'd look it up when we got there. Echo was really looking forward to replacing some of the series she used to have years ago which were lost or given away.

A few days later after we arrieved in Kunming we went for a walk and decided to try and find the comic shop, but along the way we cam across a bookstore in the main shopping area downtown. It was big,three floors, like the Chinese version of Borders or Barnes and Noble. I asked for and found the art section and was kinda' flooored. It was pretty big, but that's not what got me. What got me was the huge amount of drawing books and painting books available, most really good, much better than most drawing books you see here in the US. Many were on cast drawing, still life drawing and drawing portraits, people etc.

I bought a huge batch, including 2 copies of one of Zhaoming Wu's sketchbooks I have been unable to get here in the states. I'll go into detail later on these books, but the art section did also include books on cartooning which were almost all pretty bad. Again, I think the domestic market for cartooning in China is rather poor. It's hard to imagine this, with over a billion people, that there is really not a great demand for cartooning from the home grown markets, but this seems to be the case.

Again Echo seemed to back up this thinking. Without a real market, a real demand, the Chinese publishers are not turning out their version of Spider-man or The Monkey King. Without a direct market you don't get amature comic artists self-publishing books as there is really no effective way to reach the audience, besides I think anything that was probably too violent, cutting edge, weird or cool would soon bring the ire and might of the Chinese goverment down on the artist and publisher. With this situation in place I don't see there being a ready-made solution to growing a domestic Chinese market, though it is clear there is a huge fanbase and obiously fans who love to draw. As a result the Chinese comic fan is by default I think left no choice but the mostly Japanese products and little outlet besides the fan art I saw displayed in both comic shops.




One thing I noticed about the store in Kunming, besides it being 2 floors, with the entire second floor designated as a reading and video watching area complete with a really large collection of manga to read and snack bar, was the fact that the store was full of girls and managed by one who looked like she was about 16.


The reading library.

The few boys were crowded around the TV watching some samurai animae type DVD.




In the back were lots of photos of kids dressed up in cosplay, some looked pretty good. The shop also sold pre-made costumes as well. In this shop I did find two weird American superheroe figures that were super deformed, a Batman and Capatin America.

As I scaned the store again I noticed basically the same type of manga and anime material I see in shops and cons here. Narruto, One Piece and the boy-on-boy comics too. The store also had plenty of Nightmare before Christmas as well as Miyazaki inspired product too.



Echo was happy as she was able to buy the complete set of 3 Eye by Tezuka she'd been looking for.
Several girls crowded around as Echo chatted briefly with the manager and then we left.




But as we walked out I noticed that almost right next door to cool Comics was another comic reading room called Comics World. Here you could sit, order food and read, like a comics cafe. I know these are common in Japan but it seems they have become popular to at least some degree in China as well. Though I suspect from what I've read the local authorities do police and keep an eye on some of these businesses and the material they display. We didn't stay as the huge package of art books I bought was starting to get realllly heavy, so he hailed a cab and went back to our hotel.

I think the Chinese market is ripe for some good home grown Chinese comics, If they could develope some cool concepts and characters and stay free of the Chinese goverment's censorship who knows, 10-20 years down the road the next huge comic/animation property could be Chinese, not Japanese.

One thing was clear from my trip, China is goiing through a huge revolution, bigger than the old cultural one, as it is trying to leave the 3rd world and the boarders are open to a lot of culture from around the world in a way they never were before. Just like the comics and animation hugely influcend the Japanese artists like Tezuka after WWII I think the same is going to happen or is already happening in China now. Somewhere in China there is a teenager scratching away with a fevered imagination, ink and some blank paper dreaming of being the next big world wide comic star.

Chinese Comics Part 1

Rather than post this on my China-Manley Blog I thought I'd post this here since this blog is about comics. One of the things I was interested in seeing when visiting China was what the comics situation was there. My Fiance Echo had done some comics for a publisher in Beijing before she moved to the US, we even passed that publisher one day riding to the Forbidden City in a cab. The only Chinese comics (manhua)I had been exposed to previously were some I had picked up downtown in China town here is Philly. They were basically comics where dudes were fighting each other, like some kind of Dragonball crossed with Fist of the North Star. Echo said these are comics from Singapore, Korea or Tiawian.

The father of Echo's friend Summer, ran the dorms for international students, and he was able to hook us up with a dorm for a week for a rediculus price of about $170 US. The dorm wasn't bad and had airconditioning, something none of the other far more expensive hotels we stayed at had. Being near several universities like the Schools of Language, Geophysics etc., had a lot of benefits as ther were many internet cafes, book stores etc. One day after having breakfast at the local McDonalds Echo and I noticed a sign for a comic shop called Cool Comics.

Echo said that there really wasn't much done comic wise in China as the publishers didn't last long and most Chinese readers wanted Japanese comics. That the government would crack down on anything that was deemed too far fetched, lewd, etc., and there really wasn't the local fan support.


A shot of the closed shop .



A shot inside of the closed shop showing that it pretty much looked like a shop here in the US, except it's all animae.

The shop was located in the small mall in the bottom of the same shopping complex at the McDonalds at a busy intersection about a half mile from our dorm. There was also a jewelry store, music store and a caligraphy shop where some artist did signs and gave lessons. When we showed up the comic store wasn't open yet. We peered into the dimly lit shop, which reminded me of the trips my parents took us on to Ann Arbor from Detroit as kids. Before we moved to Ann Arbor we visited often, and always on a Sunday as that was my dad's day off. We'd often pass a comic shop which was always closed, I'd longinly staer into the door wanting so bad to be able to go inside. years later I did after we moved to Ann Arbor. Echo's comments about there not being many if any local Chinese comics seemed to be proven true when we looked around the shop. I didn't see one local Chinese comic as I scanned the shelves and walls filled with figurines, buttons, cosplay costumes, book bags, backpacks, many featuring Nightmare before X-mas characters. maybe there was but i didn't see any and we asked the shop manager and he said he didn't really sell any. The only other comics I had seen on the trip were a few bagged Disney comics in the local newstands. The Chinese LOOOVVEE Disney.

We both looked around the mall a bit then to wait till the shop opened at 9:30. Our hours were pretty screwed around still as beijing is 12 hours difference from Philly, so we'd waked up at 4 AM and be sort of out of sorts as noting was open yet except for places like McDonalds as it was 24hr.


Soon the shop owner came by and we were able to go into the shop. It was pretty much just all Japanese stuff, in fact the same stuff you'd see here in the states, translated into Chinese of course. I didn't see one single American comic, no Hellboy or Sin City even, though I did see a TMNT figure. As we perused the shop a few more teenagers came in a shopped. I had Echo introduce me to the shop owner who's name was Lai Yongxiang or translates to something like Eternal Peace. They did have some managa drawing supplies so I bought that up, zip-atone, paper, pens, inks just to try and for presents for friends back home.






One of the things that happened comic wise that we noticed was on the CCTV English channel we had on the cabel in our dorm, a news story about Death Note. As I reported on my blog from China, it seems the popularity of both the manga and the movie have caused a little controversy in Beijing at least. It seems the local authorities had become upset over the comic, especially I think the liscensing, specifically the Death Note Notebook which had been made. I guess the idea of disgruntled teens writing down the names of people they wanted to "punish" didn't sit well with someone. The funny thing was in the news story they showed books being taken off shelves, DVD's confiscated and they were interviewing little kids, kids under 10, who he book certainly isn't written for nor woruld I imagine appeal too. i had to laugh, it was the sort of chinese version of the lame old story we see here "Bang! Zap! Comics are not just for kids anymore".

I asked the manager about this, or had Echo translate for me. I asked him why he still had copies as I had seen on TV that the local authorities had been removing copies from stores all over. He said that they really only wanted the note books, not the comic. He had a full set in his comic shop. I've read many of the volumes so far and have enjoyed the story, and I was curious why it was so popular with the Chinese fans. So I asked one who was shopping who appeared to be in his early 20's. He said that he liked the story because it required thinking and strategy over super powers or some other type of magic ability. That thought was also echoed by the manager and the other teen shopping. It seems that the more cerebral approach really appealed to the readers. This wasn't the Narruto crowd, though clearly he seems as popular there as here in the US, they even had a ready made Cosplay Narruto costume hanging from the ceiling of the shop. This store was part of a chain and when Echo mentioned we were traveling to Kunming, the manager gave us a card and said they had a sister store there which we did visit and I'll talk about that in my next post.

A pic of me and the manager.

Back in the USA

A shot from the Forbidden City


After about 7000 miles and 18+ hours of travel that inclused 2 plane flights, 2 cab rides and Amtrak, Echo and I arrived back in home in Philly. We spent and entired day in transit but gained time back when we crossed the international dateline.

Wow, it was a really great trip it was to China in so many ways, especially visually for me. I know it will take some time to proces it all as well as the nearly 3 gigs of photos I took. I meet and was helped by many great old friends of Echo's as well as got to meet some of her extended family.

I think what I will do is start a seperate blog dedicated to my China trip, where I'll post pictures and thoughts on the trip rather than try and do it here. Here is the link:

The jet lagg will take a few days to recover from since it's a 12 hour difference between EST and GMT which China is on.

Recovery Day

Yesterday Echo and I took the 5 hour bus ride back to Kunming from Dali. Today there was an earthquake somewhere in southern Yunnan. We didn't feel anything here, but we might have in Dali...who knows. After we got back and checked back into the hotel Camilla, where we stayed the first time, we went for something to eat. I have to say the food is a bit of an issue. You really have to be picky about where you eat because the health and cleanliness of most resturants is poor to bad. The rule seems to be pick a place that is a bit expensive. Everything here seems to be fried and swimming in lots of grease and oil. I really have a decent constitution, but that much grease will really get to me, besides I'm watching my colesteral. Echo says in the northern part of China things are steamed more. So yesterday we found a decent place and asked for the dumplings to be steamed. They looked at us funny...but complied.
I don't know what you'd do as a diabetic here though, or a handicapped person. I think your health would be greatly effected. there are no Handicapped signs of facilities like the states. No Sweat-N-Low on the tables. usually there isn't even any salt. I brought a pack of Splenda with me. Diet Coke or Coke Light as they call it is found rarely here. Coffee? hahah-try Nestlie instant fool! At least here at the Camilla Hotel the breakfast is a real western breakfast with real good brewed coffee. I think I will drink 7 pots when I get back!

I've learned you can't trust the picture on the menu, the picture will look good but the real dish will be swimming in grease and you MUST always make sure any drink has no ice or iosn't made with water that isn't boiled. Echo's mom got bad diareah for several days, lossing almost 10 lbs., by eating in a local resturant that Echo and I refused to eat in. Her cousin wanted to meet us there for lunch, and when I walked in and saw all the raw food, filth on tables and floors, dozens of unbussed tables, raw meet with lots of flies I said-NO WAY! We beat it outta there-lucky too as that's where mom got the bad food.


I find the diet to basically be the same everywhere except for more or less spice and more or less grease. Pork, some times thin slices of meat with a 3 times the size unk of fat attached, or diced up pork, chicken and hardly any beef. Greens, your mustard grens , bok choy type, and soups. In Beijing I ate a dish of the largest snow peas I have ever seen...and it was awesome. they were the size of banannas! I have enjoyed the food for the most part, even the greasy stuff tastes good, who doesn't like a greasy burger now and then for instance, grease has a lot of flavor.

We ate, walked a bit and shopped and hit the bookstore again where I got two more fantastic books on figure drawing which I can't rerad because they are in Russian and Chinese. Tghen we went to Karioki again with Echo's mom, aunt and cousin. I was pretty burned out after dali, it was so beautiful and there is so much to see here it is like a sensory overload every day. Artistically it is really a magnificent experience and I would like to make another trip in a few years, but this time just to draw and paint, so we'd travel a lot lighter and stay longer, not constantly be on the go. I felt last night like my head was just worn down from all the cool, fantastic and strange things I've seen in the two weeks.


Also it's a good experience to be out of your little pool, being in a place so different in some respects and in parts, the same, like all the trendy stores. I don't mind not speaking chinese that well, and I learn a few things each day, my ear ofr the language is up now, I can tell repeated phrases and sentences.

So today we are gonna just relax, eat, maybe walk, maaaaybe hit the museum, or not. We have been go-go-go since we came here and we both would like to chill a bit. 2 days and we head back home. I miss my pooch Shazam and a good Wawa hoagie right about now.

Mike

Dali, Dali

Well Echo and I have been moving around a lot. We stayed 2 days in Kunming, then took a bus 4 hours south to DALI, yes like the artist. This is a very beautiful region with a large ethnic population that are smaller and darker than the northern Chinese. Echo's Grandpa was a member of this tribe. They wear a dress that looks like a combination of greek and American Indian. the women all wear this beautiful head dress. the area was so beautiful, I took a lot of pics. It was about 8 hours from Tibet. We visited Xizhou, an old tribal village that was built in 1390. We watched the marriage ceremony and had a tea tasting and bought some gifts....

Then we went up to a something called dragon mountain, took a cable car ride way up into the mountains, visted a cave, then bought more gifts...

We hired a guide, a taxi guide for teh day and he drove us all over which was great. then we visited the Old City, an old walled city built in the Ching Dynasty. it was verrrry tourity, as was just about all the places, but we got some good food and had a great conversation with an older couple from sacramento.

Dali is great for a day, but the people are not very western oriented at the hotels, though they constantly boast "western this, western that". We did eat at on Western Street and as I ate a hamburger as a break from the rather repetative chinese diet, Echo sketched as we were constantly bombarded by locals trying to sell us stuff. Old chinese ladys come up and fucking hard ball you, grab you try and make you grab your money, I thought when the one grabbed Echo she was gonna meet Budda quick! Echo said "Don't fucking grab me!" The owner of the resturant came out and drove the lady off, but she came back 4-5 ,ore times as well as another old lady who was "over 90" according to her. She had teeth that look 1000 , and she'd poit to her eyes, pulling them down, her shoes, with the toes coming out, begging. I gave her a little money as I felt sad...oh boy, that was like pouring sugar on the ant hill!

We are now back in Kunming for the rest of the trip, we may go to a hot spring for an afternoon. Ecgo wants more messages, but frankly, I am done with them. They hurt! I don't feel relaxed, pressure points, vise like fingers...no sir.

Now you wanna get a few young gals to later up with oil and slide on my budda belly--well ok!

I will have exhausted the 3+ gigs of memeory cards with pics. Echo is very harsh with how she feels about the way chinese people are so dirty.

You wanna blow your nose/ lace the finger against the nostril and blow out the other while facing groundwards--or not. Blow your snot gobs out for all to see or step on. same with spitting. Fuckers hawk looggies like a pitcher with a mouth of tabacoo-

I am having a really good time though. I was mad at the hotel in dali as they were more expensive but it was Mayberry Chinese style. Okidokes from the Ching Dynasty:-) nobody knew shit!

The police wouldn't let us use the internet in Dali, they were either angeling for a bribe or thought it was the work of the devil.

Anyway I need to get some chow. I'll e-mail later on, just wanted to give you all an update. Also, I can post to blogger but I can't see my actual page here, it has been blocked since Beijing.

Mike