(Arc II) Act 8: Virtual Cooking and Tourist for a Day

(Arc II) Act 7: Summertime Celebrations and Fashion Conversations

2 Comments November 18, 2021 Kevin C.

I can’t believe it’s already November with the holiday season coming around the corner! Summer flew by so quickly, but I’m also enjoying the transition into autumn and winter with seasonal treats lining grocery store shelves and the cooler weather. They are also playing the Hershey’s Kisses We Wish You a Merry Christmas commercial on TV right now so that’s certainly setting the mood.

I’m going to cover a few things in this post including a birthday dinner and brunch with friends in early July and a few site updates.

A few things popped into my mind when adding in new sections on my site. One section I was thinking of adding was a library section. It was similar to one which I had on my old site but instead of just listing the books which I’m reading, I might provide more information or restructure it another way. I’m also working on the page to transfer the Prezi presentations I made when working with ESL clients in the past. Stay tuned for those!

Recipes / Music

I cleaned up the formatting on my Recipes page and added a few more since my last post. With the new format, everything looks more organized and neat. It was a bit difficult at first since I had to rewrite some of the sections due to some of the recipes being indented improperly.

I have around 10+ recipes on queue to add before moving on to the next set. I’m going to add a few more from the list.

I know it’s a bit random that I’m including music under the recipe section but I have some stories to tie them together with (I promise!).

One of the things that I enjoy when watching food shows is the music. The catchy instrumentals paired with the eye catching dishes create the perfect combination. There were two songs in particular which I tried to look for in the past but couldn’t find their exact names.

One was the song from the Season 4 promo for Next Food Network Star and the other one was from an episode of Nigella Lawson’s show Nigella Express where she made Caramel Croissant Pudding. I finally found the name of the two songs (after 13 years!) just a few weeks ago. The Food Network song was Funky Stars by Xavier Decanter, David Mespoulet, and Steve Halford. The one from Nigella Express was Latino Nuevo by Shahrooz Raoofi.

You bet I searched for them on the store to purchase and unwind to! I was just really happy to find them since I really dug the tunes.

Reading

When I was going through books on Amazon in late July, I noticed that some purchases had points attached to them. I was not aware of the Kindle Summer Rewards program but saw that I was eligible for the beta launch. I liked how they added bonus incentives such as badges. I already knew that there was no way I was going to get them all. haha But it was fun trying to get what I can along the way.

The program had been enjoyable. When you reach 400 points you would get a $4 ebook credit. They provided a lot of opportunities to earn double the points for purchases or getting 350 points for spending $15. At first I was like, I don’t think I would be able to reach the 400 points but with the special offers, I was able to get to more than 400 points and redeem the credit. I definitely would like to see how this would develop in the future when it launches. I was able to purchase a couple of books from food writer/chef Ruth Reichl which I had not read yet. I love reading through her work such as Garlic and Sapphires and have put Save Me the Plums and Remembrance of Things Paris on queue to read.

I used to go through books quickly to try to have a record that I read through “X” number of books, but then I realized that I wasn’t immersing myself and fully appreciating what I was reading. In the past few months I started rereading a lot of the books which I had completed in the past to see if I would gain some new takeaways from them which had not come up from my initial reading. I was surprised to see the difference from this deep dive (and it’s not just from understanding the plot of the story), but I tried to direct my attention more to the characters and themes which the author is conveying.

Toward the end of August, I completed A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa which provided an emotionally detailed account of his family life in Japan and subsequent survival of navigating through North Korea after his father moved them there with the intention of providing them all with a better life. I wrote my thoughts on the book here on Goodreads.

I’ve been catching up on writing reviews on Goodreads for a few books I had reread recently. I think I got the hang of it! I wanted to provide some foundational info on the book without revealing spoilers.

Tying in to what I discussed in with what I had discussed in the introduction, I’m still deciding on what approach to use when having my library page (would Goodreads be the place to have the reviews while I provide smaller thoughts/snippets on the site?). But again, it’s very exciting to continue branching and developing kevinnissimo.

Birthday Dinner

In early July, I met up with a few close friends on separate occasions to catch up. One of my close friends took me out to dinner. Earlier that week she told me to meet her in front of the Barnes & Noble at Union Square around 6 PM.

She took me out to a French restaurant called Boucherie at Union Square. After the hostess showed us to our seats, we sat down and settled in. The environment was lively and absolutely beautiful. We were seated next to the piano which gave us a nice view of the restaurant.

Left to right: Menu, dessert menu, our seating next to the piano, and restaurant

The server was amazing. He was very friendly, attentive, and helpful throughout our dinner. As we were looking through our menus we were deciding on what we wanted to have. We settled on the filet mignon (Filet de Bœuf) and the mushroom ravioli (Raviolis aux Champignons). My friend asked our server for a wine recommendation to go with our meal. He recommended a red wine which paired well with our dishes. For dessert, we both got the chocolate mousse (Mousse au Chocolat), the Pistachio Bombe Glacee, and espressos.

Throughout dinner we were just catching up on how family and loved ones were doing, any future travel plans, and other birthday plans I had coming up. I was surprised seeing the birthday candle on the dessert but was touched by the thoughtfulness.

At the end of our dinner, the server handed me a signed book from Boucherie with a warm birthday greeting. He thanked us for a wonderful dinner. We thanked him for being so hospitable and providing the great recommendations. It was such a great experience, and I highly recommend coming here.

Signed book from Boucherie

After dinner we headed off to Ampersand Bar for drinks to end the night. We mainly stayed with The One with Cucumber since that one was delicious but also tried the Flamingo to mix it up a bit. We continued our conversation and this time I shared stories with her about past dating experiences. Aah! At the end of the night, we gave each other a hug and parted ways. We promised we’d meet again sometime in the holiday season.

Brunch

The week after, I met up with my friend Chris for Brunch. He wanted to go down to the Seaport since he hadn’t been there in a while. He originally planned for us to meet at Industry Kitchen, but they didn’t have any openings ready until 3 pm on the day we were meeting. I suggested either Barbalu for Italian or Seaport House for seafood. He decided Italian so we planned to meet at Barbalu.

We started off with some sangrias (they were really refreshing!). Our server recommended it since it was a warm summer day. For the appetizer we decided on the Burrata with Prosciutto di Parma. The server informed us that they didn’t have burrata and if mozzarella would be okay. We said it was fine. For the main course, I got the Fettuccine with Meat Ragu while Chris got the Spaghetti Alla Carbonara.

The food was really delicious! He and I were catching up on work and how our families were doing. I hadn’t seen him in more than a year so we just got into random topics like coding, data science, and other interesting topics. We also talked about outdoor activities (he’s a big fan of them) and summer plans.

For dessert we had espressos and shared a tiramisu.

He had another event to attend afterward so we both walked together to World Trade Center to catch our trains. We gave each other a hug and parted ways. We planned to catch up again soon.

The summer was great to catch up with friends and family. I was catching up with my brother and aunt, talked to Dr. Cowart before she visited family over the summer, and started on my continuing education requirements. It was really nice to spend time with others while doing some leisurely reading.

Fashion

I decided to separate this part from the reading section since I also wanted to cover one of the past events I attended at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Back in March 2016, I attended one of Fern Mallis’s presentations where she discussed her newly released book Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. I wrote a lot of notes throughout the presentation and wrote up an entry on my previous site. I’ll share this with you before I finish with a note on her upcoming fashion talk at the Y.

One of the great things about New York is that you can experience these talks from professionals in a diverse range of fields. I remembered how lively her talk was and she kept our attention throughout the entire hour. She integrated her own personal stories about how she got to where she was at that point of her career and how her passion for the field pushed her in directions she never would have imagined.

I loved how heartfelt and honest she was (discussing being let go from a job due to the economic climate at the time but then finding another new opportunity). She regaled us with stories from her fashion interviews with designers in the business such as Tom Ford, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors. I noticed how engaged she was with the audience throughout the talk. Although the lecture hall was big, she made an effort to make eye contact and address the different sections while peppering in some witty remarks.

She began fashion week in New York City at Bryant Park. In one of the fashion shows, pieces of the ceiling were coming off and sprinkled the stage and some of the models. Fern then remarked, “We love fashion, but we weren’t going to kill ourselves for it!” She reassured us that everything turned out okay in the end with nothing major happening. It was quite the experience for her and she continued working on New York Fashion Week for the next several years.

After discussing her background in public relations and the beginnings of her career in fashion, she continued with stories of her fashion interview work at the Y. A few stories which she shared included trying to get Bill Cunningham, a fashion photographer for the New York Times to come in for an interview at the 92nd Street Y. Since he was a pretty introverted person who rarely shared the details of his personal life, he declined. It wasn’t until Fern returned from India that the interview came into fruition.

Fern was wearing a chiffon top and met up with Bill. During the meeting he accidentally spilled vodka on her chiffon top and was profusely apologetic. She told him it was okay and to not worry about it. He still continued apologizing and finally told her, “I’m so sorry. I will do anything…anything!” At that moment, Fern smiled and asked him, “Would you do an interview with me at the Y?” (to which he agreed to). We all laughed. It was an amazing story and set the stage for the fascinating details she continued to share from her fashion interviews at the Y.

One interviewee who was known to be quirky in the fashion industry kept asking Fern if she could smoke during the interview. Fern replied, “No! We’re inside a building in New York City!” The interview continued, but the interviewee asked again if she could smoke. At that point, the audience at the Y was laughing and Fern was thinking, “How can I get her to answer the questions?!” After a bit of time, the interviewee stood up and asked the audience at the Y, “Do you have any questions for me?” Fern replied, “You’re asking them that when you’re not even answering my questions!” Fern then started laughing.

Left: Poster of the event outside the auditorium
Right: Fern sharing her stories at the podium

She then continued discussing other fashion designers such as Tom Ford who had a sold out event. The place was so packed at the Y that they also streamed at another section on a wide screen on one of the other floors to keep up with the demand. Tom Ford charmed and seduced the audience (as he always does during his interviews). Tom shared a quote with Fern, “The most important thing anybody ever taught me is to only hire people you want to have dinner with.”

You can check her out in Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She told us that the next interview will most likely be in the summer, but she’s not sure yet since she’s still ironing out the details.

Although she discussed her work in the fashion and public relations world, she also provided a lot of sound advice and information for all of us in the audience (this is also applicable to any other other field). Someone in the audience asked the question, “Do you have any advice for aspiring fashion designers?” Fern replied, “Be nice to everyone because you never know who you will bump into in the future.” She then continued with, “…also, people like to hire and work with nice people. No one wants to deal with diva behavior.”

Regardless of our backgrounds, we all form relationships with everyone whom we collaborate or work with. There are always things you can learn from others, and Fern’s stories showcased this aspect.

At the end of the event, Fern signed copies of her book for the audience members. It was such a wonderful talk and really made the night enjoyable.

Fast forward to November 2021. I started rereading her book again in anticipation of one of her next talks on November 22 with Prabal Gurung. She has a great way of steering conversations and making her interviewees feel comfortable throughout the talks.

My signed copy of the book (such a great read!)

I’m very excited to watch the event this coming Monday! Since I have work, I will be attending virtually rather than on site at the 92nd Street Y. The upcoming event brought up so many memories. I didn’t anticipate including this section for this blog post, but it all tied together after reliving these memories as I wrote about them.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! I do have other things I wanted to write about (such as things I’ve cooked), but as I had discussed in a previous entry, I don’t want to put too much information in one post. Definitely looking forward to providing you with more updates on the recipe and food side of things as well as adding in new sections on the site. Take care everyone.

(Arc II) Act 6: An Overdue Outdoor Reunion

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

Leave a comment March 28, 2021 Kevin C.

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.

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.

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.

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

(Arc II) Act 3: A Path Forward

1 Comment January 12, 2021 Kevin C.

Before I begin, I want to wish everyone good health, continued safety, and peace as we move into 2021. 2020 has been quite challenging for the world (with 2021 having a rough start), so I’m hoping that we can return to some semblance of normalcy moving forward this year.

Arc I started as lecahierdekev and now Arc II will continue as kevinnissimo. I started kevinnissimo around Fall 2019 because I reflected on what I wanted to work on moving into the new decade. During my time with lecahierdekev I wanted to cover a lot of topics since it was my first website. It was exciting to dive into writing handouts for English writing and grammar, ethics, and mathematics. However for kevinnissimo, I am going to primarily focus on topics related to the health sciences and biostatistics as well as hobbies outside of work. I plan to take a more focused approach to this site after experimenting with lecahierdekev.

In terms of the blog entries, I’m going to continue with the spirit of my past entries. I always loved taking pictures and videos to accompany my posts. (1) It helps jog my memory when I’m writing the draft of my entries and (2) they bring in a lot of inspiration as I relive moments as I write.

I’m sure all of you already know where this is headed 🙂 I was going through the pictures on my phone, and I came across a few dessert pictures on a night outing with my friend back in November 2019. When I had first met my friend earlier that year, we instantly connected over a discussion about food. Ever since that time we continued to have our dinners and impromptu outings to catch up and talk about life. We would sometimes surprise each other when one of us would choose a restaurant and get each other hyped up on the way there. For this evening, she first took me to Ribalta in Union Square. We were so hungry that evening that we ate our food before taking pictures. The food was absolutely amazing.

We shared a bottle of wine and ordered pizza (the Margherita), fried calamari with shrimp, and the truffle gnocchi. Throughout dinner we spent a bit of time bouncing thoughts with each other (one of those things where I asked her, “Am I reading too much into what _____ texted me?” haha). She has such a warm and open attitude that I can tell her whatever is on my mind. We continued with our banter and jokes which always ended up with huge smiles on our faces.

After dinner, she took me to Patisserie Fouet for dessert. Luckily, we remembered to snap pictures this time!

After our heavy dinner, we settled for the 70% chocolate cake and caramel cheesecake. She wanted me to try another dessert that she really liked the first time she came here, but it wasn’t available the night we were there. We both had tea to accompany our desserts (we might have been up all night had we ordered coffee). She got Earl Grey while I got Chamomile.

The chocolate cake above and the caramel cheesecake below

It was a nice, quiet evening. We shared some more lighthearted stories as we settled into our cozy spot inside the café. There were a lot of events happening in my life during that time and with the holidays coming up, we didn’t know what to expect for the new year. I discussed my thoughts on starting a family in the future and personal endeavors I wanted to pursue regarding research. I also provided her with my two cents when she shared her own thoughts and plans. This reciprocity is a major thing I value in relationships (be it a friend, family member, or significant other). It’s a great feeling when you have close people in your life who you know will be there to be supportive and keep you grounded.

I snapped a picture of the interior before we headed out and parted ways

Books

I was organizing my reading list on Goodreads because I thought it would be a lot easier to have everything grouped up together there. However, I realized that I should have been writing the reviews after I had finished each book! So what I’ve been doing now is rereading the books which I had completed. It has actually been refreshing since it brought back a lot of memories from when I had first read them. I started with Alexa Land’s The Rest of Forever which I had originally finished in 2018 since I really enjoyed the story overall (who doesn’t love a heartwarming romance novel?). I completed rereading the book and wrote up a review on Goodreads.

The story is cute and full of heartwarming moments but that’s what makes it so fun to read! This reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend prior to the holidays. We both talked about watching cheesy holiday movies on the Hallmark Channel and getting engrossed in them.

I don’t think I’ll write a review for every book that I have read, but I’m going to do them for ones that stood out. I’m still deciding which one I will write up next.

Blog and Redesign

I aggregated my past blog entries into a Word document and will slowly add them to the archived blog section of my site. Some of them have videos and other formatting considerations which I will reorganize as I transfer them here onto kevinnissimo. Rereading these past entries brought back a lot of memories, and I’m happy to share them with all of you. They will be labeled with (Arc I) for reference purposes.

I’m enjoying the redesign of this site similar to when I had first worked on lecahierdekev back in 2012. It allows me to be creative and experiment on new styles. If you followed lecahierdekev since the beginning, you saw all of the changes that the site went through. It was sometimes a challenge to decide on the next theme to incorporate while keeping the essence of the site.

I took a look at this site on mobile and really liked how the layout came out. Right now I’m figuring out which pages to include in the menu bar. One of the major things I need to migrate are the handouts and presentations which I kept on different websites such as Weebly and Prezi. Indeed, it’s a work in progress!

Shows

I completed Hotel del Luna this past November! After a year of starting the first few episodes, I finally marathoned Episodes 11-16 while eating my dinner. It was nice to see the backgrounds of the hotel employees get fleshed out and understand what they had gone through in their original lives. The story arc with the killer felt a bit rushed, but it did have moments of intensity which were paced out well.

My friend who keeps up with a lot of dramas also recommended Crash Landing on You on Netflix. My other friend (from the dessert section above) highly recommended Schitt’s Creek so that’s on my to watch list. I generally don’t watch a lot of television, but when I find something that captures my attention, I go all out. 😉

I can’t count how many times I watched Home Alone 1 and 2 this past holiday. There were so many interesting movies on the Freeform Channel and both Home Alones would show up back to back on certain days. It was fun to just have it on the background while I cooked or took care of other things since the soundtrack is fantastic.

Writing this entry and redesigning everything brought back so many warm feelings whenever I outlined topics for my blog entries years ago. I’m really happy to get back into the groove of writing. It was exciting to organize the outline for this entry and choose the dessert pictures accordingly. It’s not only with blogging or working on the site, but also doing new things like writing mini book reviews.

Definitely looking forward to getting kevinnissimo up and running!

Kevinnissimo: Adventures and Inspiration

My quirky adventures, notes, and musings. Helping to make financial and health information more accessible to the public.

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