(Arc I) Act 1: The New York Comic Con 2015 Experience

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As I had shared in my post from Arc 2: Act 4, my first post for my archive section will come from my visit to New York Comic Con (NYCC) back in 2015. This was my first time attending Comic Con in person, so I didn’t know what to expect. Most of what I had learned about Comic Con were from people’s stories as well as media (pictures and videos) which were very descriptive about panels, booths, unique merchandise, and guests (including artists showcasing and selling work, individuals working on television shows, comics, etc.).

As I had discussed in my Arc II blogs (the ones started in kevinnissimo), Arc I will only cover blogs I had written from my past site. Any new pictures and updated work will appear in Arc II. I’m stoked to be able to bring back my past posts and provide it to all of you here on kevinnissimo to read.

This entry was originally posted on my previous site, LCDK on October 20, 2015.

(Side Note: After rereading through my NYCC entry here and seeing all of these themes, I planned to read through Kent Wayne’s (Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha) Echo series. I love reading through his updates and am quite stoked to dive into his work!)

I wanted to devote a special individual entry on Comic Con here on LCDK. Originally, I was contemplating on whether to combine it with the regular monthly entry. However, I had seen that both the Comic Con experience and the regular monthly entry for October were packed with a lot of pictures and information which would be a bit much for one entry. I’ll include all of the pictures that I had taken so that you can get immersed in what New York Comic Con was like.

This was my first time at New York Comic Con (NYCC), so I didn’t know what to expect. I previously saw panels, events, and pictures in the press, but I knew that physically being there would be a whole new story. I’ve heard stories about tickets for popular days and the 3 or 4 day passes selling out within minutes. Tickets are usually sold in the spring and the event is held in October. For 2015, the tickets were sold at the beginning of May.

My brother and his friends are veterans of New York Comic Con, so they know the process better than me. During mid-summer my brother invited me to attend this year’s Comic Con. It was a nice surprise. I don’t think I would’ve been able to go if it wasn’t for him (from hearing all of the stories of the ticketing process being competitive!). He gifted me with a Friday pass for October 9, 2015. He had the 4-Day Pass so he would be able to attend the entire time.

NYCC does not usually announce main guests and panels until it is close to the event time (I think they usually announce it around August or September). I believe it’s because schedules change for many artists and actors/actresses, so things can only be solidified when it’s closer to October. When my brother invited me during the summer, I didn’t know which artists or celebrities would attend that Friday when I would be at the event.

Fast forward to September 2015, my brother texted me asking me if I was ready for the big event in October. He gave me a few instructions before attending such as activating the badge, bringing snacks and water, wearing comfortable shoes, and checking the NYCC site to plan out what I wanted to do for the day. When I met up with him for lunch one day, he gave me my physical badge and lanyard.

My Friday badge

Before the event, I checked out which panels I would sit in on. I was excited to see that there was an Adventure Time panel! As many of you know from reading my past entries, I am a big fan of Rebecca Sugar and her work on Steven Universe. There was also a panel on Surrealism and Pop Art that I planned to attend. This brought back a lot of memories when I took the East Asian art classes and doing a presentation on Murakami Takashi.

It seemed a little bit overwhelming since I only had one day to take in the experience of NYCC. However, in the end I just decided to go with the flow and enjoy the day (with the two panels: Adventure Time and the Pop Art being the only ones set in stone).

On Friday morning, I met up with my brother and his friends at 34th Street. Prior to the event, I told my brother that I planned on attending the Adventure Time panel to see the executive producer and cast of Adventure Time. He agreed and said that it would be nice to experience it. His friends had plans to go wait at another panel at the Javits Center, but decided to attend the beginning of the Adventure Time panel.

The Adventure Time panel took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I checked NYCC’s Twitter page on my phone to verify the time and location.

Adventure Time panel tweet, Courtesy of New York Comic Con

I thought that it was better that NYCC moved some events into venues outside of Javits since it probably would have been insanely crowded had they not done this. As we walked down W. 34th Street, we saw groups of people lined up. We didn’t know if they were waiting for the panel, so we asked and confirmed. We arrived there at around 10:45 AM and the wait wasn’t too bad. People were eating their breakfast sandwiches, talking, reading, and pumping themselves up.

The line started moving at 11:20 AM. Hammerstein was spacious with plenty of seating. Everyone was settling in and finding their preferred seat. Security and staff were guiding people around and made sure that each available seat was occupied. We sat down and Cartoon Network provided the audience with little sword giveaways.

Clockwise (from top left): Everyone entering Hammerstein Ballroom and settling in, me posing with the sword, Adventure Time sword giveaway

I was pretty excited since I was about to experience my first panel. I was also going to see the talented voice actors/actresses and the producer in person. I snapped another picture of the panel stage as everyone prepared to begin.

Panel Stage at Hammerstein Ballroom

The moderator for the panel was the talented voice actor Eric Bauza. He voiced many characters on shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Uncle Grandpa. He began with his voice of Belly Bag on Uncle Grandpa which made us all laugh. Eric introduced everyone starting with the executive producer Adam Muto. Adam discussed the main story for the upcoming season. The discussion between Eric and Adma led to the advanced screening of three future episodes of Adventure Time which are set to release in November. Everyone cheered when Eric asked the audience, “So, do you want to see some episodes?”

The episodes were projected onto the large screen (in the picture above which has the New York Comic Con over the skyline). The last two episodes they showed are going to be a part of an 8 episode arc focusing on the character Marceline. It had a deeper story which was really nice to see her character fleshed out more. I don’t want to spoil it here. They are going to premiere it in a few weeks anyway! 😄

Eric introduced the cast after they showed the first episode.

[Left picture] From left to right: Eric Bauza, Adam Muto, John DiMaggio, Jeremy Shada, Niki Yang, and Olivia Olson
[Right picture] Rebecca Sugar at the far right (next to the staff member wearing black)

They were all charming and warm. You could tell that they all had great chemistry. Niki discussed the story behind Lady Rainicorn’s lines. In the show, Lady Rainicorn speaks Korean so when she asked the supervisors, “Are there going to be subtitles for her?” She told us that they replied, “Nah, it’s fine“, and we all laughed.

After the panel discussion, Eric introduced Rebecca Sugar by stating, “If you all noticed, there’s an extra seat next to Olivia…” Once he called out Rebecca’s name and Rebecca walked on stage, everyone screamed and cheered. Rebecca spoke about their work and ideas from Adventure Time. They then sang “Everything Stays,” a song that will be featured on a future episode of Adventure Time. If you have ever heard them sing, you know about their amazing singing ability. It was so nice to hear them sing in person and they were absolutely sweet to everyone (the cast and audience) throughout the panel. Here is a clip of them singing Everything Stays:

After the producer and cast spoke, they had a Question and Answer session where they gave away free DVDs to those who got up to ask. John DiMaggio (who is the voice of Jake the Dog and voiced other known characters such as Bender on Futurama) was hilarious. He was sarcastic and rolled with the punches when people asked tough questions. He also sang the Bacon Pancakes song after someone requested it (you can find it online…I wasn’t fast enough to record it!). He made a joke about sausage waffles with the cast before singing the song.

Olivia’s character in the show sang a song about her father eating her fries. Someone asked her if a situation similar to that happened to her in real life. She told us a story where she made a birthday cake for her friend and put it in the fridge. Her father ate a slice of the cake even though it was labeled for her friend. Olivia had to then cut the cake where it was sliced and refrost it because of that. She then said, “That was when I decided to move out of the house!” John DiMaggio then rolled with it and said, “I think your dad did that on purpose to get you to move out” and then laughed. Jeremy told everyone how crazy it was when everyone did the Lumpy Space Princess voice for one episode. He started mimicking it which made us all laugh.

All in all the panel was incredibly fun. The audience was engaging and the panel had amazing chemistry. Eric discussed a line that he had to say in Japanese for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and he said that the supervisors said that it sound Italian. When he actually said the line, John DiMaggio replied, “That doesn’t sound Italian!” We all had a great time and the hour and a half flew by quickly.

As Eric concluded the panel, everyone clapped. Some people went up to take pictures while the rest exited to return to Javits. My brother’s friends left earlier in the middle of the Adventure Time panel to attend another panel at 12:15 PM. My brother and I head down to the Javits Center together. The closer we got, we saw huge groups of people–costumed and uncostumed. It was a sight to behold. The weather was nice, but the forecast stated that it would rain for a bit (luckily we were inside Javits when it had rained).

The Javits Center is huge! It’s all the way at the west end of Manhattan, so it took a bit of walking to get there. You could feel the energy and excitement of the people.

We followed the sign and instructions on where to enter. As soon as we entered, you could see all of the decorations and monitors. I love taking pictures, so I felt like a kid in a candy store!

Left to right: Outside Javits Center, Entrance at Javits Center for NYCC 2015, another view of the Entrance

The check-in process went smoothly. I think it was already 1:45ish when we arrived at the Javits Centers, so we didn’t have to wait. Everything worked out perfectly in terms of scheduling since the Adventure Time panel took place late morning, and I had the afternoon and evening to enjoy myself. The NYCC crew member tapped my badge with the handheld tablet so that I could enter.

At this time, my brother and I parted ways. I thanked him for giving me an opportunity to attend Comic Con. He had his own schedule and plans to attend to (as well as meet up with his friends). He asked me what my plans would be and what other panels I would be attending. I told him that I would attend the Pop Surrealism Art panel and look around the booths and take pictures. He smiled and wished me a good time. I gave him a hug and we went our separate ways.

As soon as I headed in, I was greeted by the Jurassic World sign and groups of people. I already knew what to expect with attendance for NYCC growing larger each year. There were press crews recording and photographing the event, people were looking around, and I was just taking it all in. It was nice to finally experience NYCC!

At that point, I headed down to check out the cafe and locations of the conference rooms for the panels. I was also really hungry and needed to eat my lunch. Luckily, I brought a spicy chicken sandwich that I had bought beforehand. I saw an outside eating area earlier when my brother and I headed to Javits. I moved through the crowd to get to the area outside. I loved that despite it being crowded, everyone was incredibly polite. People would say excuse me or I’m sorry if they accidentally bumped into you. People were also patient as everyone navigated the venue. I got to find a cozy spot outside, settled down to the warm sun, and opened up my food.

As I ate my lunch, I looked through the panels and other information for the day. I wanted to see if there were other panels I could attend. This was my time to relax since I knew that I would be walking around and exploring for the rest of the day. There were people speaking with and photographing cosplayers.

As I got up to head back inside, I saw people turning their heads and pulling out their phones. It was someone in the Iron Man Hulkbuster armor and the Hulk next to him. They were surround by NYCC security and crew members. One the day I attended, Marvel had two panels at the Main Stage, I believed there were a lot of promotional and press work being done.

They were very friendly and posed for everyone. After a bit, Iron Man said, “It was nice seeing you all, but it’s hot so I have to get to somewhere cool now.” We all laughed, and Iron Man and the Hulk waved goodbye to us.

I headed back inside and went up the escalator to check out the exhibitor’s booths at the Show Floor.

There were a lot of booths to visit. I didn’t have anything in mind to purchase, so my plan was to just look around. When I got upstairs, the first thing that came into my mind was “which direction should I move in?” There was always something interesting to see.

I decided to move to the right and make my way around counterclockwise. The following will be pictures which I took while walking around. NYCC had unique diverse booths, artists, and panels.

Left side (from top to bottom): Chevy’s display at NYCC, Glass Eye Pix Inc.’s booth, and posters, toys, and cosplay wigs (with characters from Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and the Tales series)
Right side: Tall Pumpkin display (Happy Halloween!)

Moving around some more

Top three pictures
[Left: figures of Nintendo characters including Link, Super Mario, and Yoshi]
[Right top: Bandai Namco’s booth with Sailor Moon playing on the TV screen / Right bottom: Figures of Sailor Moon, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Neptune from the Bandai Namco booth]

Middle: (left) Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans poster / (right) Super Mario

Bottom: (left) Cosplayer as Kakashi from the anime Naruto posing for us. We all loved the use of the smoke from the Jurassic World exhibit! / (right) returning to the entrance

More awesome displays and booths

Top: The Hobbit display (very nice and loved the detail)
Middle left: tokidoki’s booth (I’m always a fan of this style!) / Middle right: A look at the extensive aisles at NYCC
Bottom left: Various character designs (including those from Star Wars, Batman, and Spiderman / Bottom right: Taking a break at the outside general floor area

There were so many things to see at the Showroom! I went outside to the general floor area to take a short break. Look at the line at the Starbucks! It was amazing (and I only covered less than half of what NYCC had to offer). As I was looking through the NYCC book, a nice man in cosplay asked me where Artist Alley was. I knew it was at Level 2, but didn’t know which direction. I apologized and told him that I only knew that it was in Level 2. He smiled and said thank you. I just enjoyed the vibe of the entire day.

I walked around and saw a large balloon display of We Bare Bears (this is one of my favorite cartoons!). I thought it was adorable.

Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear

After my break, I headed back to the Show Room to check out the other side. I planned to visit Artist Alley before heading to the Pop Surrealism panel at 6:30 PM.

Top: (Left) Another display from Chevy, (Middle) A display of Ninja Slayer, (Right) People dancing Macarena on Just Dance
Bottom: (Left) The NYCC Livestream Village presented by Twitch and Courtyard by Mariott / (Right) To the left of the NYCC Livestream Village (very busy!)

As I was watching the people dance the Macarena, a man came over and asked me what it was. I told him that they were dancing to the video game, Just Dance. I still have my Just Dance games which I enjoyed breaking a sweat to! I also noticed that I was at the NYCC Livestream Village where they had cameras and media coverage. Many people were sitting down and relaxing. The monitors were live streaming NYCC online.

[Left to right] Colorful toys and displays at a booth, display for a video game – Phantom of the Kill, Me with a cosplayer, plush organs display

As many of you know, people put in hard work to design and create costumes for Comic Con. One of them was a great sport and posed with me to showcase the detail to his costume. He was awesome. I know a lot of people devote time and energy to perfect their outfits, so kudos to all of you cosplayers out there!

The plush organ display in the Showroom gave me such a big smile. Coming from a health background, it was no surprise that I had to take a picture of them!

It was getting late and my brother texted me asking me if I visited Artist Alley yet. At that point, the sun was starting to set, and I was getting ready to head to my final panel to conclude the day. I told him that I was going to check it out on my way to the panel. I also looked around to make any last minute purchases as a souvenir of NYCC 2015.

A few evening shots of Javits as night approached

I checked out Artist Alley and was pretty excited that I was going to see some artists at the Pop Surrealism panel. I looked at the artwork, designs, jewelry, and other trinkets that these artists made. Unfortunately, I absentmindedly forgot to take pictures due to the time crunch. Now I know why my brother said that you’ll need more than a day to be able to take in everything!

Left: A few souvenirs from NYCC 2015 composed of comic books, post cards, and artists’ business cards
Right: Jurassic World Exhibit with the famous raptor

At that point my legs were exhausted. Even with my comfortable boots, I knew that I needed to take a break. I walked to the other side to head to the B rooms for my Pop Surrealism panel. On my way, I snapped a final picture of the floor of the Jurassic World display. The individuals were dressed up as the guides you would see in the movie.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the Jurassic World display. After taking the Jurassic World picture, I went to the B wing to wait for my panel. I was just sitting down and reading the NYCC book.

Left: Pop Surrealism Panel, Courtesy of NYCC 2015
Right: (Top) Inside the Pop Surrealism panel / (Right) Panel concluding and going up to the artists

It didn’t take long before the NYCC crew ushered us into the room. I was pretty excited since this brought back memories of the art courses I took when I was an undergrad.

The panel was moderated by Carlo McCormick. Carlo is a culture writer and curator in New York City. I loved his laid back demeanor and wit throughout the panel. During the panel the artists’ work was projected onto the screen while they discussed their background and styles. The panel was composed of artists (Camilla d’Errico, Tara McPherson, Travis Louie, and Mab Graves) and a gallery owner (Jonathan LeVine). If you check out their sites (I will put links after I discuss the panel), you can take a look at their bio and artwork.

One of my favorite art pieces came from Camilla d’Errico’s Rainbuns. Who doesn’t love colorful bunnies? For Tara, it was Secrets of the Polar Aurora. There was a mystical quality to it and the blue color was hypnotizing. Alice in Wonderland is a favorite childhood story of mine and that’s what caught my attention from Mab’s work. Travis Louie’s work focused on its Victorian quality, and I loved how he was able to meld that style with mythical qualities seen in folklore. I was pretty excited when Jonathan discussed his gallery and featured artists. That will definitely be a gallery to visit soon!

Here are their sites if you want to go check their work out:

Camilla d’Errico / Tara McPherson / Travis Louie / Jonathan LeVine / Mab Graves

That concluded by day at New York Comic Con 2015. I had a such a great time and the experience was quite breathtaking! As I was heading home, I sent my brother a text to thank him for inviting me to NYCC. He was happy to hear that and told me that he was still attending panels for the evening. I wished him a good night and safe trip home. Overall, it was incredibly memorable. In one day, I got to see the cast of Adventure Time in person, meet artists, see a variety of displays and exhibits, and basically get immersed in the NYCC experience.

Prior to this I didn’t know what to expect and thought that the crowds would be a lot, but it ended up not being too bad. I was still able to take a variety of pictures and look around. When I spoke to my brother, he asked me if I would ever consider cosplaying if I attended NYCC again in the future. When I thought about it, I didn’t know which character I would choose to cosplay as. The designing wouldn’t be too bad from what I had learned in designing/tailoring. But making a costume would definitely be a new experience!

It did feel like an early Halloween and there was nothing better than seeing people from all backgrounds and walks of life have fun. I think that’s a major thing I liked most about Comic Con–everyone was able to enjoy their time and be who they wanted to be without any judgment. I also loved that I was able to get immersed in art and pop culture. It really did feel like an adventure infused with fantasy and real life!

Leaving Comic Con for the night

Goodbye New York Comic Con and thanks again for the exciting day! If I do get another chance to visit New York Comic Con (or another one at a different geographic locale), I’ll know that I’ll need more than one day. And yes, I did crash after I ate a small dinner when I got home! 😁

(Arc II) Act 5: Iconic Dining, Night Strolls, and Artistic Finds

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Thank you so much everyone for your support! I’m really loving how kevinnissimo is progressing and hope you’re enjoying reading through my adventures. There are a couple of things I wanted to highlight in this entry (since I post updates on Arc II entries while Arc I entries will remain unchanged and keep to the original post from my past site). So I decided to create a new entry here before posting my first entry for the Archive section.

As I was going through my old phone (it was a Nokia Lumia 635–I had to plug it into my older laptop to access the photos 😅), I saw that there were a lot of pictures which I had not published online. I decided to organize them into folders and include them for future posts in Arc II. I was surprised to see a lot of them since I had forgotten that I had these pictures. These past pictures are what gave me the idea to write certain sections in this post.

Recipes

Another thing I was doing this past weekend was organizing a collection of recipes that family members gave me throughout the years. I was scanning them because I wanted to save them electronically in the event that I lose them during a move or they just get misplaced or become illegible and hard to read (some of them were from recipe cards from the 80’s as well as handwritten ones which look a bit fragile). This gave me an idea to put up a section on my site with these recipes so that you all can have access to them.

As I was reading through the recipes, one thing I noticed was that a lot of them were easy to make and can be modified as needed to suit your tastes and nutritional needs. I think I’m going to try out these recipes and post them here. I’ve tried variations of some of these dishes but have not made these specific recipes. This is exciting! Now I can liven up some dishes (off to the grocery store later!).

When I was looking for a style idea for the recipe page, I saw that one of the recommendations was an online menu from a restaurant. I thought it was clever and adorable, so I formatted the style to fit the recipes on the page. The recipe page has been published so go check it out if you’re looking for some meal ideas. I’ll try to update that page regularly as I get through the recipe stack. The main picture I put up on the page was a tasty dish from a wedding I attended which was Pecan Salmon in a champagne cream sauce with potatoes and asparagus. (It was absolutely divine!)

I should have the first two recipes put up: Swiss Chicken Cutlets (from Healthy Meals in Minutes) and Gwen’s Country Butter Cream Ribbon Chocolate Fudge Cake. Hope you enjoy them!

Reading

I’m finishing up My Life in France so that I can put up my mini review on Goodreads. After that I’m deciding on which book to cover next. There are a couple that come to mind such as The Girl with Seven Names by 이현서 (Lee Hyeon-seo) and David John, Tina Fey’s Bossypants, or Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.

It’s nice revisiting these books as I begin putting up my reviews on Goodreads. Whenever I read books, I try to rotate through different genres and/or topics (for example, I would read a comedy after reading a political thriller). It was interesting for me to see how people who are learning English as a second language choose books to start reading with because whenever I’d ask them, the majority would say Harry Potter. Back when I was in grad school, one of my students was so excited reading the Twilight series. She would come to class and she’d give me a synopsis of what she had just read (she’d always tell me beforehand, “Oh! I hope it’s okay, so I don’t ruin anything by giving away spoilers for you!). It’s so nice seeing individuals be passionate about their interests, and I think it’s great when people find books which captivate them.

While I do enjoy the current books on my reading queue (which you will all see through my Goodreads as I continue posting reviews), I still revisit many of the ones I had read as a child like Stephanie Spinner and Steve Bjorkman’s Aliens For Breakfast. Roald Dahl’s Matilda was another one of my favorites (oh that chocolate cake part!). These are fun reads and can be done in one sitting.

Dining and Warm Company

In December 2017 my cousin and her friend from the West Coast came to visit to experience the holidays in New York. We were discussing what restaurant to have dinner at and she told me that her friend wanted to go to Beetle House since he was a big fan of Tim Burton. My cousin made a reservation for three for the evening.

When we entered the place, we were surrounded by iconic art from many of Tim Burton’s films. I’m sure you can recognize a few from the pictures below— The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and of course, the renowned Edward Scissorhands. We still had to wait a bit since they were cleaning and setting up our table. We waited at the bar and my cousin’s friend B ordered The Nine (which had absolut citron, triple sec, midori, and I think a sour pucker and lime juice) while I got Alice’s Cup O’ Tea (anyone close to me knows that peach is my favorite fruit so when I saw that it had peach vodka I knew I had to get it!).

I ordered the Butcher’s Stew (a take on Firehouse chili topped with cotija cheese, sour cream, and scallions served with garlic toast points), another Alice’s Cup O’ Tea, and the Willy Burger (which was a half pound burger with grilled pineapple, pepper jack cheese, smoked bacon, french fried onions, maple barbecue sauce, on a honey garlic butter bun). My cousin got Jack’s Jambalaya Risotto and B got the Sweeney Beef and they both shared the Cheshire Mac and Cheese.

During our dinner, there was also a group celebrating a bachelorette party. With Beetle House, there would be costumed characters who would come to the tables and chat with the guests. The character would change for each day. During our visit, it was Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka. The bachelorette party had a blast talking to him and taking pictures. The actor was so in tune with the character. The way he spoke and his mannerisms were exactly like Depp’s character in the movie. B took a picture of my cousin with the Willy Wonka character.

Throughout our dinner we were just catching up on life’s musings. B was asking us trivia on Beetlejuice and we were just laughing throughout the meal. “How many times do you call out Beetlejuice for him to appear?” The combination of the vibrant environment with good company made it incredibly memorable. I’m typing this entry in 2021, and I still vividly remember that night from December 2017. It’s bringing back so much smiles!

After dinner, we walked around the City (at the time it was past 11:30 PM). We started around the Bowery area and moved all the way up to Rockefeller Center. Below are a few pictures I snapped along the way from the tree at Rockefeller Center, the Macy’s Holiday Window displays, and Grand Central Terminal. We were just taking in the atmosphere and enjoying each other’s company. I’m sure you’ve all had those moments where you are walking and talking with a friend, loved one, significant other, or another individual and you end up just getting immersed in the dialogue. Then you look at the clock and it’s 3 hours later or you realize that you just walked down 25 blocks from where you started.

It’s these impromptu moments which make some of the best memories. We don’t expect what will happen next but everything falls into place. This is why I love writing these blog posts. I love sharing these memories with others and in a sense, I’m having “conversations” with everyone through my posts here at kevinnissimo.

Art

As I was going through my other photos, I found a picture I took with Sebastian Masuda’s Hello Kitty Time Capsule back in May 2015. I met up with my friend J and Rob to catch up after work. They spent the day shopping and playing around at FAO Schwarz.

As we walked down Hammarskjold Plaza (around E. 47th St. and 2nd Ave.), we stumbled upon this piece. It immediately caught our eye and we all took pictures with it. I was so excited when I saw this because it brought back memories of when I made a presentation on Murakami Takashi and his Superflat approach during my senior year at Rutgers. Seeing artists develop their style and come up with new works is great because you can see their evolution as you follow their exhibits and presentations.

Now that I discussed this, I’m going through book recommendations to see if there are any art books I can dive into next. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know! I still have my art history books (do you all remember Gardner’s Art Through the Ages from Intro to Art History?) and love perusing through chapters from time to time.

Hello Kitty Time Capsule by Sebastian Masuda

As I’m writing my entries, more focused ideas come to mind as I’m building up kevinnissimo. It’s great to have that creative spark reignite, and again, I appreciate everyone’s kind support for visiting my site! As I had said before, I love sharing my stories and adventures. I look back at these photos, documents, and other memorabilia, and I get a chance to revisit these memories.

I do have some movies to watch which my friend recommended during our video call–Nomadland and Minari. We also planned to do a virtual movie night and dinner sometime soon. She’s amazing when it comes to new films to check out or what beauty products to try. We’re anticipating when we can see each other again in person so that we can catch up over some good food.

I’m currently working through the Comic Con 2015 blog which I plan to post this weekend. I resized a lot of the pictures in my original entry from my old blog, so I’m going to replace them with the original ones when I publish the blog post here. The pictures were on my old phone (which I discussed at the beginning on this post), so I transferred them over to a folder here on my laptop. The one great thing with the format here is that I can create the tiled galleries and collages for pictures (which my old blog could not do). What ended up happening was that I had to place individual pictures and it made the entry become a long scroll down the page. At least here I can group them together and make it more manageable (plus you’ll get to see when I attended the Adventure Time panel). I’m pretty stoked and look forward to publishing it for everyone to read.

(Arc II) Act 4 Sweet Gifts and Artistic Delights

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I’ve been looking forward to getting back on the groove of writing blog posts. Just sitting down and going through my notes and pictures, I start to bring together what I want to cover for the post. Whenever I would write blogs in the past, I would outline different topics in my notebook and see which ones would flow well.

I purchased a new notebook a week or two after I started kevinnissimo since I knew that I would get back into writing (after taking a break from blogging on my old site). Continuing from my discussion of changes to the site (as I had mentioned in the past few entries), one of the changes I will make regarding my entries is that I won’t overload too many topics into a blog post. For my past site, I remembered deciding to just post a detailed entry once a month to try to space things out; however, it ended up with me cramming so many pictures and topics into one post which made it a lot more difficult to navigate. I think having these bite sized posts would be more manageable, and I can expand a lot more on a few topics rather than brush several ones superficially.

I decided to choose a light-hearted topic from my past blog to start as my initial post in the blog archive section here. It will be on my visit to New York Comic Con in 2015. It was an incredible experience where I got to see the cast of Adventure Time and hear Rebecca Sugar sing. Her series Steven Universe was one of my favorite shows to watch (not to mention the songs on the show were incredible! “Giant Woman” and “Love Like You” are two of my favorites.).

Food and Reading

I was going through my book list and decided that my next little mini-review on Goodreads will be for My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme. I initially read this book on January 2010 and wanted to learn more about her life and background. I remembered watching her cooking shows, specifically Baking with Julia in the late 90’s. She had such passion for the ingredients and dishes (both in her cooking as well as the ones shared by guests chefs on her show). During the time period in the late 2000s, my interest in cooking and other food related activities was at its peak. I tried to cook new types of dishes and also started typing out handwritten recipes as backup (in the event, the recipes become hard to read or get misplaced). I also watched a ton of Top Chef and other reality shows haha.

One of my favorite things when I frequently blogged on my old site was that I would take pictures whenever I would cook to keep a record of different food recipes I had experimented with. You’ll see a lot of my food pictures from past posts in the blog archive section. Now that I’ve restarted blogging again here, I started documenting my recipe experiments again. I’ll be adding more food pictures along the way so keep an eye out for them! 🙂 Here is a little collage I made back in May 2015:

From top left moving clockwise: Thai Basil Shrimp Fried Rice, beginning to prepare curried chicken, Herb meatloaf with rice, and Udon noodles with edamame pesto

The udon noodles with edamame pesto came from an America’s Test Kitchen cookbook I bought during that time. It was absolutely delicious and full of flavor! A couple of the ingredients included basil, coriander, toasted pine nuts, and edamame. It was refreshing and light but very filling.

Significance of Experiences

As I had mentioned in my previous post (ACT 3), sharing moments with loved ones through food have been key highlights whenever we’d share stories and catch up. I remembered my 10th grade English teacher telling us a story about how she met up with her friend for lunch. She ordered a tuna sandwich which ended up not tasting good, but the outing was still a positive experience for her because they both enjoyed catching up and seeing each other again. She emphasized how focusing on positive aspects (in her example, company) can serve as the highlight / central component for an experience. However, it’s not just solely applicable for social components, but can also be applied to the importance of one’s individual experiences.

An individual might venture on a solo trip or take a “me day” to examine things without distractions. In this case, their personal goal and what they want to gain from the experience are what serve as the highlight. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed times having a solo meal or going to a museum for my “me day” to center myself. It helped me focus and gain insight into my own personal plan for that day.

With my loved ones (family and friends), we would usually gift each other food whenever we would meet up. It could be chocolates, snacks, or ingredients for cooking. One of my close friends (the one who I had dinner and dessert with in the previous entry – ACT 3) started our friendship on our love of food and dining out (we were talking about Indian food at that time). We told each other we would still continue our tradition despite not being able to do it in person this year.

It was such a wonderful surprise when I received a package from Levain Bakery which is known for its massive cookies. I had the biggest smile on my face and thanked her for the thoughtful gift. I received it on a Friday which was a nice start for the upcoming weekend. The cookies are really good when you warm them up in the oven for a bit!

The oatmeal raisin cookie from the Signature Cookie Assortment (they’re huge!)

Books and spa / self care gifts were also main items we would give each other. She introduced me to Lush products and gifted me one time with the Rosy Cheeks face mask which she highly recommended. Since it has to be kept in the fridge, it provided a nice coolness when you set it on your skin.

Rosy Cheeks from Lush

I sent her the Hello Gorgeous gift set, Sympathy for the Skin lotion, and Angels on Bare Skin cleanser from Lush. She loved it. If you know both of us, we’re big on symbolism and the gifts we give to each other (and to others) would reference to something significant (like an event or something we learned about the other person through conversations).

Art

Outside of science, my interest lies in art and design. I enjoy going to museums, reading books on art history, and learning about different types of crafts. One of my art history professors, Virginia Bower was a big inspiration for collaboration and developing my handouts. During class she would cover the time period and other important details for a piece without information getting muddled. Too many times I’ve written notes in the past where I wrote so much information that I might as well have read the textbook!

Professor Bower’s background (Courtesy of Smithsonian Journeys – 2015)

It wasn’t just her handouts, but her passion that was so refreshing in her class. The way she described each piece, the cultural significance of the work in relation to the time period, and her stories traveling around Asia (it was so sweet when she spoke Mandarin to us!) really engrossed us for the entire semester. I took it over the Summer of 2006 and it was twice a week for four hours in the evening from 6-10 PM — Kudos to Professor Bower for keeping us engaged the entire time!

A snippet of East Asian Art – Courtesy of Professor Virginia Bower

Her notes had a conversational tone to them and reading through them felt like I was talking to her again. It brought back memories from when she would go up to each of us before class and start a conversation on art or ask questions about our major (ahh I miss Professor Bower!). Each experience afterward through cancer outreach and research built upon this foundation that I had learned from her. (I’ll elaborate further in the next few paragraphs)

I do have pictures from my past trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in July 2019 which I plan to include in an upcoming blog. However, I did attend a small art exhibition during autumn of that year which I will share here. My friend and I went to an art exhibition in the Lower East Side at Van Der Plas Gallery in November 2019. Many artists showcased and were selling their work on site. As you can see from the pictures, they are incredibly talented and have such unique styles. He and I grabbed a cup of wine and walked around and spoke with artists about their work. (We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner afterward but I’ll save that for another entry!)

One artist described a winter landscape which had been inspired from her childhood growing up. She had a big smile on her face and was very descriptive when describing the different elements of the piece. Similar to Professor Virginia Bower you could feel how much the artist enjoyed her work and wanted to share her pieces with others.

A major theme I had recognized from all of these experiences was how the delivery and presentation of information played a crucial role with how you engage with what had been presented. I still remember a majority of the art pieces I had encountered years ago as a result of the stories and vivid descriptions with which they were paired with.

When I was in graduate school, Dr. Cowart and I had a writing assignment for the students in the Culturally Competent Healthcare class in which students reflected on their background (covering facets such as their cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds) and how those influenced their approach to navigating the complex healthcare system in the United States. Everyone had such unique perspectives and we both learned so much from the class through their personal experiences. As all of you may know, with health it’s more than just preventive care or diagnosing an illness. There are many aspects which also play a role to provide a high level of care for these populations (e.g. understanding the importance of the family system, addressing language barriers, or taking into consideration cultural values when caring for a loved one).

Including the elements which I had learned from those past experiences in art and public health have been a strong influence for my current work. When presenting health information or working with populations to move their health in a positive direction, making the information accessible and relevant increased engagement and provided more successful outcomes. This made me appreciate how a course in another field unexpectedly played a major role in my subsequent work. (This is why I always try to keep an open mind about things 😉 )

I’m continuing to update more things on kevinnissimo in terms of pages and what types of topics to include. As I continue to write these posts, it has been helpful trying to preview different styles and see what works and what doesn’t. It’s a work in progress, but I am certainly loving it!