Auckland, NZ 2015 - Day One
Day 1 – Getting the hell to the other side of the planet – the (technically) three day journey.
The awkward wrestle of transporting our chimeric towers of luggage has become a familiar choreography. A cantankerous jig of squeaking wheels, clanks, clunks, and the occasional profane outburst.
Checking in to our flight, we are surprise ambushed by a monster so common it needs be in no Dungeons & Dragons manual. Perhaps the most sinister of their genus, the red-tape viper, (technically an elemental,) has many natural nesting grounds, preferring dreary cubicles, but has also become an invasive species of the wilds of the internet as well. It paralyses its prey with a long tail of paperwork, and has two sets of venomous fangs, colloquially referred to as their fees, and their more poisonous penalties.
This particular species we had not encountered previously, despite the great deal of time we’ve spent navigating through its preferred territory. But we should have known. We were, after all, travelling through Australia, land of everything-here-kills-anything. The Temporary Visa Even Though You’re Just On A Connecting Flight Sidewinding Red-Tape Viper struck as soon as we presented our passports at check in, and though the bite was a small $40, the paralysis a brief forty five minutes, we started our journey with the lesson we needed to be wary in this new land.
I have no idea how people survived long-haul flights before there were prolific electronic devices, and video players in the back of every seat. I can only assume that every single passenger on every single long-haul flight in those dark ages would stop by the duty-free store before their flight. Selecting a bottle of their preferred 80-proof way to wash down the fistful of pills they’d talked their doctor into prescribing for “nerves” and/or “back pain.”
Personally, I use the time to watch bad movies that I secretly wanted to see, but had to wait for the excuse of “Well, I ran out of everything in their ‘Critically Acclaimed’ section. Therefore ‘the Hangover’ trilogy was all that stood between an uneventful flight, and an emergency landing to expel and probably arrest me after what happens when I get bored!”
Even so, I will echo the cries of countless airline nomads. The seats are apparently designed by devious chiropractors who have turned to the dark-side; sinisterly engineered to turn the human spine into an aching bramble of tangled vertebrae.
Upon arrival in Sydney airport, we begin our forage for snacks, and survey for a lounge for our eight-hour layover. (Which became a ten-hour layover. Thanks, cyclone Pam.) Kat, for the umpteenth time of the day, uses her mutant power to Cerebro-style detect every person from the Phillipines within a two-mile radius, finding some very helpful lounge gatekeepers. Phillipinos are always incredibly friendly and open, marveling at Kat’s proficiency in a very uncommon second language. At least I think that’s what happens. They’re speaking Tagalog, so for all I know, it’s a cultural thing to argue with bright smiles, and they were actually in a vicious verbal duel. If that’s the case, Kat is deadly. And victorious once again, we find ourselves in the American Express Lounge, surrounded by snacks. And for many hours, solitude and serenity.
I semi-industriously scrawl sticky paintmarker across the tiny, but remarkably expensive canvases of Magic cards. The rare interruptions are pleasant folks asking what I was doing, or hovering ever closer until I offer for them to take a look. I’m reminded how few adults engage in creating art every time I’m in a public place doing just that. People orbit around me, their eyes tethered with a quiet curiosity as though I was practicing a craft they’d only heard of in legends. Long before anything interesting is on the page, mind you. And when they finally decide to swoop in for a brief conversation, it does not matter how far along the drawing is: I am seven years old to them. I can have four wobbly lines, and they will exclaim “Oh my gosh! You’re such a good drawer! That’s so amazing that you can do that! Boy, I wish I could do that. I bet your parents are very proud!” And if they happen to have an actual seven year old along with them, I get introduced to the children as though I am the Avatar-god of Dreams Fulfilled. Steeped in myth, with the power to inspire a young mind with but a few words, gifting everlasting keys to forge destinies, conquer all obstacles, and live every hope one will ever have. This, of course, always ends in disappointment when I offer up something like “Yeah, it just takes practice. Art is no different than anything else. Put the work in, and you can do whatever.” It’s like they expected my words to call a rainbow on a bolt of lightning, revealing the gift of a talking pegasus, hand them an amulet that fulfills desires; and what they got instead was a grunt of “meh,” and mildly farty dog wanders in from somewhere and won’t go away.
Our oasis paradise of free snacks and power strips was not to be entirely blissful, however. There is another sort of family, with another sort of child, that you’ll occasionally encounter out in the wild. The family that advertises vasectomies far better than any pharmaceutical company ever could. The family of gremlin children born to zombie parents. This will be how we spend our final hours in the airport lounge. Peace broken by a dozen adults, trailed by what seemed like a thousand grabbing hands and slobbering mouths. A rising tsunami of smelly bodies, screeches and howls, leaving everything in their wake sticky, gross, and somehow violated beyond the realm of physicality. The “adults” scavenge the free bar like starving, shell-shocked survivors of the apocalypse, drenching and drowning what was left of the awareness of the multitudinous horrors they’ve unleashed, with whatever bottom-shelf liquors they could find. In the meantime, those tiny humanish-shaped horrors descended upon the lounge as slimy pink locusts suddenly let loose from their 12-hour imprisonment on a plane.
These people and children are… less than pleasant. I had to save several Liliana of the Veil from literally being eaten.
Arriving at the hotel after midnight, the instructions for getting in included getting our room key from a safe in the lounge. We arrived along with a handful of players, who opened the safe and rifled through a handful of envelopes exclaiming “Steve Argyle!” Silly me, I thought they had recognized me, and wandered up to claim my envelope. “I’ve got a ton of stuff to get signed. We should totally wait in his room and ambush him.”
“Hi guys! Hope to see you tomorrow at the show! Have a good night!” And gestured for my envelope. They looked at me with an inquiring scan, suspecting I was a crazy person. While not wrong, I clarified “that one’s for me.”
“Nice try. There’s just ours, another group we know, and Steve Argyle’s”
“Yep. Steve Argyle. … Um, that’s me.”
They then delightfully lost it for exactly seventeen seconds. A frantic whirlwind of questions and compliments later, we parted ways to hibernate in our remarkably large suite. We were in Auckland. The GP was about to begin…
Want to work on your art with me? Want a tutorial and QA just for you? Want to just put me to task for an hour and watch? Want to play a couple games of Magic? Or just whatever. The hour is yours.
There isn't a whole lot of time left. Ten days and counting.
www.indiegogo.com/projects/pac…
Continuing preparations for the Las Vegas Magic Grand Prix 2013
It's pretty well agreed that this is going to be the biggest GP so far, casting a monsterously impressive shadow over all prior. Which I'm sure we'll all appreciate in the relentless Vegas sun.
If you've been to a GP with me, you may have noticed that I make the closest I get to a Herculean effort to get everybody what they want. Well, shy of a souvenir of my severed painting hand anyway. But even at smallish events, I'm a wee bit outnumbered. There's not a ton I can do about the sometimes intolerable wait in line, except getting all Judge Dredd with rules, limits, and a Stallone-ian accent. And I can stay, overclocked on Mountain Dew, until they kick us out of the hall, but at some point, we all must go shambling home. Hopefully with, instead of tears, a gleeful glint in your eye as you giggle at a couple card alterations.
I always try to have a handful of alterations done ahead of time, some sketches, and the like, but they usually vanish into coveted binders within a couple of hours. It's also not uncommon for a vendor to buy up the lot, add a zero to the price, and throw it under the glass.
This time, I'm commandeering a much larger slice of schedule for pre-fab fanservices. That's of course no guarantee that it will last. But I'll have quite a bit of the stuff most requested done in advance. And something totally new, but often asked about - original oil paintings.
If you're registered with the Ascended Minion Project - I've got some special stuff for you wonderful folks. (And only for you wonderful folks. So if you've been on the fence about joining - now would be a dandy time.)
And if you're on the fence about attending: I can't know your circumstances. But this is basically our Woodstock.
More info on the GP: www.facebook.com/events/173603…
More sneak peeks as I finish them, and as new swag is delivered to my studio. BE AS EXCITED AS I AM, DAGNABBIT!
XOXO
Steve "Three Screws in Place, All the Others are Loose" Argyle
The Hand in the Iron Mask is FREE!
Freedom has finally come for the Hand in the Fiberglass Mitten. After seven long weeks of incarceration in a prison with no room to wiggle, no water, no light, nothing but the rigid, bitter embrace of an iron maiden (fiberglass) the Hand is finally free.
Perhaps I should back up. The first week of August, in a bizzare accident while saving orphan babies from firey mutant cyborg ninjas riding radioactive pterodactyls, I broke my hand. (You should see what they look like though.) And yes, the one I draw with.
So basically the last two months have been depressingly artless for me. Oh, I did some rough crayon drawings with my left hand, sure. Thank you notes to the fine folk who brought my comfort food, comfort candy, comfort drink, and various other flavors of comfort. (I live in Utah, we pretty much just find any excuse we can to eat. Pretty much every other form of joy is banned here.)
I'm thrilled to say that I'm back in the saddle. The saddle of a comfy chair behind a computer, tablet, and a stack of assignments that have been waiting for a little love.
As far as the details, for those interested, I've kept a little itty bitty photo log. Head on over to my website to see it. steveargyle.com/news/new/index…