Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
Friday night, Izzy & I partook in a Mangria Bar Crawl through the SOMA neighborhood. For those who don’t know what Mangria is, it’s essentially a signature cocktail from podcasting legend, comedian and filmmaker Adam Carolla that allegedly is a mixture of red wine, vodka and orange juice… but in bottle form, it’s essentially a fortified wine that comes out at a hefty 19-21% ABV depending on the flavor (there are also options involving peach, pear, etc). I have a few bottles at home for special occasions. However, the bar crawl portion is when Adam’s wife Lynette, his buddy Ray Oldhafer, and a few of the “lackies” of the Adam Carolla Show podcast host events at four different bars across the city… and there’s even bus transportation provided to try one of the different cocktails at each location, and there was entertainment (and plenty of swag) as well…
The first stop was MoMo’s across the street from AT&T Park where there was a warmup cocktail provided by the hosts… and a live musical performance from Chris Laxamana & his band…
Then we boarded a bus and drove over to Union Street in my deck of the woods, along the way socializing with the hosts… and they were handing out their own cocktails in Dixie cups (seems shady, but other than being very orange juice heavy, not bad & very appreciated) and the bus took us to our second stop, The Brixton…
We walked a few block over to our third stop, Sabrosa, ahead of the group as the bar was a little overcrowded… and we wanted to beat the rush at the bar that is typical of large scale bar crawls… success… and here are some horrible pictures of Izzy with the hostess Lynnette Carolla…
Since it was already pretty late in the evening… and we didn’t want to regret getting a few extra drinks when we had so much to get ready for the next day… we decided to skip the 4th stop… and just walk the mile or so to my apartment. Overall the bar crawl was a lot of fun & a great experience that I would highly recommend… and who knows, maybe when our podcast becomes a screaming success we’ll have a bar crawl or two of our own. Until then though, check out the Mangria Bar Crawl in your neighborhood… if it happens.
Saturday, we had a lot of stuff to do to get ready for Sunday’s event… but we started off the morning with transferred our Belgian Chocolate Stout to secondary fermentation… and we’ll be kegging that soon… probably next weekend…
Sunday, we awoke early and drove out to Modesto to host a booth at Central Valley Con, which is essentially a comic book convention where we were able to sell our wares and check out some other amazing artists. This is the first year of this convention… but there was a GREAT turnout and LOTS of great people in cosplay and just enjoying the atmosphere with their peers. There were some special guests including a few former Power Rangers, Dino Andrade (of video game voice actor fame), some great feature comic artists, and even Debbie Lee Carrington… who you might know as the gun-toting little lady from “Total Recall” and she also played an Ewok in “Return of the Jedi” a few years back. She was actually a LOT of fun to talk to & has a great bubbly personality.
As for our booth, we did pretty well from a financial standpoint (not as good as Treasure Island) but we definitely found that certain things move at comic cons and some things don’t. A lot more prints sold at the flea market… but we did a LOT more commission work at this event. Obviously the big sellers were the art of known entities like Dr Who, Pokemon monsters, and the recognizable icons… which makes total sense. However, there was also a LOT of interest in the original work… just not as many purchases… but they instead requested business cards. I know, I know, this is my whole business analysis of what happened… and that’s not what you came for… so here are some more pictures of some the events & cosplayers as well as Izzy & Katie at work…
Overall, it was a GREAT experience and we’re already looking into doing other comic book conventions in the area ran by this group… and now armed with more knowledge about what the customers & fans are looking for. Truly a fantastic & fun weekend!
This week… more of the same… as we have a booth at Zoo Lights at the San Francisco Zoo on Friday & Sunday… and of course there are always adventures that pop up in between. Until then though, have a great day everybody!!!
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