A friend and I Mod Macs, in layman's terms that means we paint them and add stuff to them to make them look different, last year we entered a contest for Mac Mods. We didn't win but our computer got enough attention that the website took it to Mac World (the big Mac convention). At Mac World it caught the attention of Mac World Magazine and to make a long story short our computer is part of a two-page article about Mac Modding.



http://www.macworld.com/2006/07/secrets/auggeekfactor/index.php.php

While your there also click on the link for ModYourMac.com That's our website. Where there are more pictures of the NecroMac.

Sorry folks this is a long one


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Report on APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco

Day 1: Thursday
I arrive into San Francisco at 11pm. Go to my friend Beth's apartment and promptly go to sleep.

Day 2: Friday
I awake and greet the day.
With map in hand I hop on a bus down Geary to Gough (pronounced Gof for some inane reason) and walk down to check out Isotope comics lounge. Isotope is a great store I do a lot of shopping at dingy old basement style comic shops but I do have to say there is something cool about the new style hip stores. I chatted for a while with James Sime (the fine proprietor of Isotope) about comics and the DC Conspiracy, who then pointed me towards a great burrito place where I had a burrito tortilla soup and two Corona lunch (man I love vacation).
Having gotten fine Directions from the ever-helpful Mr. Sime I wandered Down Fell to Market and over to seventh to check out the Concourse Exhibitation Center where APE was held. I then wandered the back streets of San Francisco to find the Offices of Last Gasp. Then took a long walk back to my starting point.
Later that Evening Beth her friend Tara and I went to the Last Gasp (www.lastgasp.com) pre-registration party. Once I was registered I proceed to enjoy their horderves and have a few glasses of wine. I also hung out with fellow East Coaster and DCC member Noppie (www.angrydogpress.net).
I then meet up with some San Francisco friends for dinner and drink a lot of sangria, then go back to Beth's and promptly pass out.

Day 3: Saturday
I awake at 5:45am and am in a panic to find my glasses (they get found). Around 7am Tara and I get lost in Beth's neighborhood and eventually find a greasy spoon called the Lucky Penny to eat at.
I take a cab down to the Concourse Exhibitation Center with my big ass bag of wares. Since I only got a half table I am sharing a table with Joshua Boulet from Texas he is a stellar artist and had a great comic of short stories. To our right is Joshua Moutray and Eve Engleyos with their comic Icecreamlandia (www.icecreamlandia.com) a brilliantly drawn and hilarious comic. To our left are Mike Wellman and Guy Leman of Atomic Basement Entertainment (www.atomicbasement.com), who produce the great comic "Gone South" and Rafael "SONAMBULO" Navarro (www.sonambulo.com), I've been lovin' this book long time.
This was a great day I spent most of it carrying on with Mike and Rafael or quietly commiserating with both Joshuas. I also met Jett Boy and ShRiek of 7000 BC (Bram and Monica's Santa Fe comics group www.baaadasssscomics.com) and picked up Jett Boy's great 24-hour comic "Crossing Lines" and "Re-enactment" ShRiek's beautifully rendered adaptation of a poem by Ariadne.
Around mid-afternoon Beth came to give me a break from my table. I ate at the greasy spoon across from the center (this was a bad idea, which my tummy regretted later) I then did a bit of wandering around. I chatted with Scott Morse and picked up his new book "Nobel Boy" (available through Ad House). I then stopped by Rick Geary's table and had a long chat with his wife where I gushed like a fan boy over "Junior Carrot Patrol", "Tales of Victorian Murder", and the "Blanche" series, which it turns out is loosely based on Rick's grandmother. Rick and his wife were very kind and indulged my fanaticism. I picked up "Cravan" written by Mike Richardson and the free preview ashcan of the "Gumby" book illustrated by Geary and written by Bob "Flaming Carrot" Burden. I never cared for Gumby much as a kid but I loved this ashcan I am very excited for this book to come out.
Back at my table things were business as usual. I only sold one t-shirt and as usual my best seller was the "Death by Sexy" flyer comic (people just can't resist the concept or the giant space cherries). I did learn that it is harder to sell a jam book by your comics collective when you are across the country from where they are based.
At the end of the evening Mike Wellman invited me to meet up with his crew for dinner before the Isotope party. I hooked up with Jamie of "My Fair Matey" (www.cantaloupecounty.com), another DCC member and East Coaster, I proceeded to get us lost getting to Isotope by confusing Mission st for Market st. We finally found our way there and then found a pay phone for me to call Mike from when I realized that I had left Mike's cell phone number at my table. Luckily the phone had a phone book (a rarity now-a-days) and we looked up the restaurant, which turned out to be right across the street with a giant sign on it (D'oh). Then as we walked across the street we ran right into Mike and his party posse. We gathered in the restaurant and drove our waitress nuts because our group kept growing (final tally was 16). At the restaurant I met Joey Andrade the writer of the mystical adventure comic "The Descendants" (www.descendantscomic.com) and his buddy whose name I forget (because I am a jerk) but who was a great fountain of knowledge about the band Fantomas and Mike Patton. I also met the lovely Ms. Barbie, Mike and Rafael's friend and our local guide around SF.
After we finished up our meal we all wandered over to Isotope, where the party was runnin' full steam with both engines. If you are ever in San Francisco be sure to go to Isotope it is a great store, but if you are ever in San Francisco for APE it is imperative that you go to the Isotope after party. The place was packed wall to wall with comic creators and their friends and there was an open bar, I repeat OPEN BAR, how do you fuckin' beat that. There was much cavorting and mingling as I was drunkenly thrust into the world of West Coast independent comics. Barbie tried desperately to keep us in line but it was to no avail, Mike was all over the place, Rafael was all over the ladies, and I just all over two fistin' it. They handed out the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics and in a brilliantly humble move winner Danica Novgorodoff said some thank yous and simply requested to wear the Dr. Strange cape. Another thing to mention is that the bartenders at Isotope had to be the some of the nicest I've ever dealt with and they were working solely for tips. At the end of the evening one of the lovely bartenders Kirsten Baldock, special projects director for Isotope convinced me to pick up her graphic novel "Smoke and Guns", which is one of the few things a girl has convinced me to do while drunk that I was not ashamed of the next day (not only was I not ashamed but I quite enjoyed reading it).
I left around 2am when the party was winding down and caught a cab back to Beth's where I passed out.

Day 4: Sunday
I awake, eat some buttery croissants and get a ride from Beth to the show around 10:30am.
I re-setup my table and wait for the show to begin. Joshua stumbles in a bit after me and Mike, Rafael and Guy stumble in about the time that the show opens up (they stayed at Isotope until around 3am). Barbie comes by later and we all complain about how we don't want to move, but the show is on and the adrenalin soon returns.
The lesson I learned today is that it is hard being across from the Nucleus table mini-comics just can't stand up to fine art prints and cute hand bags.
This day was a lot slower sales wise at-least up top Jamie said his sales were better (he was in the lower hall). But the slowness allowed me to not feel bad about escaping my table and I wandered around a lot more.
Today was my day to wander around and pick up stuff that caught my eye. My best purchase was a comic made on an old Rubik cube by Peter Conrad (www.peterconrad.com). It is an amazing follow up to his cigarette box comic. A review and better explanation of the comic can be found here www.sfsite.com/columns/matt008.htm.
Despite being a slow sale day I had a great time. I picked up some great comics got re-acquainted with people I had met the night before (like Shannon O'Leary of "Fortunes Bitch" and "Pet Noir" www.fortunesbitch.com) traded some comics traded some business cards and capped the whole day off with a shot of tequila.
I have a dinner of Indian food and pass out.

Day 5: Monday
I awake read some comics and pack.
Eat a breakfast of buttery croissants, walk a dog, go to the top of a hill where I can see all of SF, have lunch in Berkeley with John, Beth and Tara, eat a sushi dinner and get on a red eye back to the east.

This was a great trip, in a great town, at a great comics expo.
I defiantly want to go back next year and get into trouble with my new West Coast friends.

Lessons I learned
Bring business cards everyone wants one so that they can "check out" your work later, it's not exactly a sale but at least they have your name somewhere on their person.

People may find the shirts I'm selling cute and talk to me but they will most likely not come back to buy one.

Bring your own soda, $2 for a can of coke that's fuckin' ridiculous. The $6 sandwiches were a little more of a value, but not much.

Even though you make your comics cost pocket change people still want to look at everything in the show before buying. Ah who cares if I wanted to make money I wouldn't be in comics.

And if you get a chance go to APE!

End of report.

The DC Conspiracy will be hosting the Washington DC Counter Culture Festival on November 12th, 2005. The press release can be viewed here in case you have no idea what I’m talking about. I’ve been fielding a bunch of inquiry emails and I wanted to give some further information to clarify a couple of things. 1) At the moment we think we can accommodate 40-50 presenters depending on who is presenting and how much space they’ll need. For the most part each presenter will get a 4’x3’ space and some larger spaces will be available for people that require it. 2) Once the application for a table deadline passes (October 1st) we will sit down, see who we have and decide how to allocate tables in order to guarantee an even balance of all styles and mediums. 3) Tables and admission is free, no strings attached. What ever money you make you keep. We’re honestly just trying to promote our community and encourage cross-talk between creators. 4) We hope this will become a yearly event. The plan is to get as many presenters in there as we can and pack the hell out of that place with attendees come the 12th of November. We want Dremo’s to not only invite us back next year but give us more time as well and the best way to do that is to deliver them a lot more customers than they’re accustomed to on a Saturday afternoon. 5) For promotion we will be working with local bookstores and other community hubs, papering the town with flyers, taking out ads and making sure we tell everyone we know to tell everyone they know that this event is going down and it is going to be a good time. We will have the flyer available for downloading once we finish it. 6) Dr. Dremo’s is a bar and a smoky one at that. Keep that in mind.

Washington, D.C. is synonymous with granite, marble and limestone monuments, politicians and a democratic republic which is at times more republic and at times more democratic. White shirts and stuffy suits, blow-hards and bureaucrats. But we also create here. The D.C. Comics Conspiracy, a local comic-creators’ collaborative, will host a D.C. Counter Culture Festival at Dr. Dremo’s Taphouse in Arlington, Va., on November 12, 2005. The festival will be a venue for creators of all types to promote themselves and their products, whether it is comic books, zines, novels, artwork, music, movies or fashion. Tables for the event are free, but you must apply for them in advance. Tables are limited and we want to ensure that we have a healthy mix of cultures, products and interests represented. For this reason tables will not be assigned on a first come, first served basis; accepted applicants will be chosen solely at our discretion. If you are interested in presenting, or want further information, please send an email to CCFest@jasonrodriguez.com with your name, number and information on your product by October 1st. The tentative schedule for the show will be: 3PM-4PM Table Setup 4PM-7PM Table Promotion 7PM-9PM Film Screening 9PM-12AM Live Music We look forward to hearing from you and hope this can be the start of something big. For further information, please go to http://home.dcconspiracy.com/CCFest/. More on the D.C. Conspiracy (DCC): DCC was founded earlier this year by a group of local comic creators. They meet once a month at Dr. Dremo’s to drink beer, discuss comic-book art, exchange book-making techniques, create jams, you name it. The group has grown to include cartoonists, writers, editors and fans. Our first collaborative book, the Dr. Dremo anthology, will premier in September at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. For more information on the DCC, visit http://home.dcconspiracy.com/blog.html. More on Dr. Dremo’s: Located at 2001 Clarendon Blvd. in the Courthouse section of Arlington, Dr. Dremo’s (http://www.drdremo.com/) has been a favorite watering hole for many D.C. area residents for years. Built from a gutted car dealership and never compromising its image for the sake of the up-and-coming neighborhood, it is the ideal venue for the festival.