Friday, June 11, 2010

My Friend Has a Manga and You Should Buy It

Two good things for me today. First, I had lunch with Sam(antha) at a ramen place in the Marukai Marketplace. And second, I had a solo shoot for Norwalk that was to cover a pep rally for the Special Olympics. Both were good, uplifting activities to participate in. Though I the food was WAY better at the Sam lunch.


To start off, for the lunch with Sam, I punched in the destination into my GPS, Sheila… and was led down a direction that got me to the place, but took way longer than was necessary. Sheila has rarely led me astray, so it was troubling to have such an obvious betrayal of my trust. We will have to talk about it at some point…


I met up with Sam at Book-Off, a used bookstore next to the Marukai Marketplace, and we headed out to get some ramen. Once we got our food, I was presented with Sam’s self-published manga, The Piper’s Promise. She had worked for two months, from writing to drawing to printing, and had just received the copies a few days previously. And she gave me a copy! I gave her all the money I had at the time (three sad, measly little dollars), but figured I would blackmail her into having lunch with me again by promising to give her the other $3 when we meet up again.


Quick Plug for Sam’s Manga!:
Have you ever read the Pied Piper? Have you ever wondered as to the background of this mysterious figure? Who was he? Was he the bad guy? Was he the good guy? Was he human at all? In The Piper’s Promise, the prologue to the much anticipated follow up, all these questions will begun to be answered. But like any fairy tale, Once Upon a Time is only the beginning…





Sam (Sammi G. for print), is only asking for $6 for these little one-of-a-kind babies! The art is completely original, and all the money goes to paying off her publishers (i.e. PARENTS). And it does not get any more Independent then this gal. Hand-made manga, what else do you want? She’s also going to be at Anime Expo, so hit up her table!

So yeah, my friend has a manga and you should buy it.

The ramen at the place was pretty good, but I confess that I still like Santouka more. No place has beaten it for me, yet. But who knows, the future is big and wide and unknown. That’s why it’s the future. After the ramen, we hung out and talked, catching up on all the different people and events in our lives. I eventually had to head to work, and we said our farewells.

Norwalk was a little intimidating, because I would have to shoot everything by myself. No backup. Nobody to ask for advice on a shot. Yes, this is good for me, and it helps me grow and learn. But it still kind of sucks. Especially when the damn white balance changes so damn much!

(“White Balance” pertains to the balance of light and color in a shot, and is a film/video term, NOT a racial one).

The Special Olympics Pep Rally was pretty cool, after all was said and done and video taped. The athletes were happy, as were the parents, and the staff involved seemed to be having a ball. There was a slideshow of all the pictures from past events, and the training that the athletes had undergone. And then there was a big dance party after the Pep Rally was over. I didn’t dance, but everybody danced for the video camera.

After I stressed out if I shot the entire event wrong, or hadn’t recorded enough (I actually recorded too much, but it didn’t hurt to have too much footage), I dropped off the equipment and headed home and caught the Doctor Who episode, Amy’s Choice. Britain was now three episodes ahead of us. But at least I was this far along. The episode was really good, with a great threat and even better character moments. I can’t wait till the next episode. Maybe I’ll charm Vic or Justin into letting me catch the next two episodes before I have to die from old age waiting for America to catch up.

Topics of Conversation: Self publishing, Diet Milk Tea, first autograph, Greased Lightning, AX, music videos you can’t say no to, mango flavored, Free Radar, new Aunts, happy noise, sandals for stilettos, those that we can’t forget, turning green, camera hogs, gentlemen, etc.

-Nate

1 comment:

Sam said...

...You make my comic sound much more exciting than it is. :)