Rhode Island Dressing?

dressing, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

This just cracked me up. I would have loved to be in the marketing meeting where they were trying to come up with the name for this new flavor. What'd they use, a map?

Staten Island?
Long Island?
Block Island?
Rhode Island?

Rhode Island?! Perfect!!

Way Up North

lacko, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

I'm not really sure where to start with the Sweden pics. I want to try and post something that really captures the essence of this beautiful country. But as I don't have any pictures of all the hot blondes we saw, I guess the next logical thing to show you would be a Swedish castle and flags. So here you go... Lacko Castle! And yes, mom, I know it's spelled with two dots over the A and O, but I can't do that on my crappy American keyboard.

Classy!

classy, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

While it's true I didn't have a bad meal the entire time we were in Italy, a few things the restauarants there did surprised me. Take this, for example.

It was our first night in Amalfi and we went to what was supposed to be one of the nicest restaurants in the town. And it was... the atmosphere and food were fantastic! However, imagine my surprise when my main course, a wonderful Veal Franchese (sp?), comes out and the plate is decorated with the classiest of garnishes... Pringles?!?

Ride The Wind Redux

It was around 1998-99 when, much to the amusement of my co-workers, I coined the phrase "Never drink and eBay". I used to get hammered and go onto the then-fledgling auction site and bid on shit like Charlie's Angels lunchboxes and A-Team remote contolled vans. I usually lost. But when I won and finally had to pay for the "B.J. and the Bear Tool Kit", I vowed to stop bidding. (I still have it as a reminder.) I should have bought their stock instead.

Now, before the internet, we used to use the term "D&D". (No, not Dungeons and Dragons, you geeks.) In this case, D&D stood for Drunk & Dial, where you would get hammered and then call your friends, and usually, even worse, your ex-girlfriends/boyfriends. And your bastard drunken friends would usually egg you on and encourage it so they could give you shit the next day. Then, eventually, with the advent of cell phones (still hate the fucking things!), D&D got worse. You could now call anyone from anywhere no matter how drunk you were no matter what time it was.

But this was all only the prelude to something much worse... D&E: Drunk and E-Mail.

As e-mail became more popular, I started hearing (and using) the phrase "Never D&E" more and more. No one wanted to go home and type out a drunken note for fear of regret. A phone call could be easily forgotten over time. An e-mail would be saved, remembered and preserved for eternity.

I was (and still am) a notorious D&D guy. However, as a computer illiterate, when it came to D&E, I was usually cool. Except for one time...

I got utterly bombed one night last year, came home and put on an old 1988 rock mix. In my drunken stupor I wanted to share my old high school memories with my fellow Marvel editors. So I wrote a three page letter to everyone I worked with that explained how my past exploits, influences, adventures and experiences all directly related to my current job in comics with them. Fortunately, if that's even the correct word to use in a situation like this, I was "sober" enough to realize they'd think I was crazy if I sent them the whole note. So I edited it down.

The following is the text I sent to my co-workers and bosses at Marvel that night. It was titled "Ride The Wind".

They still thought I was crazy. And to this day they have never let me live it down.

Ride the wind,
C.B.


-----Original Message-----
From: Cebulski, C.B.
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 3:41 AM
To: Buckley, Dan; Macchio, Ralph; Cadenhead, MacKenzie; Lowe, Nick;
Barber, John; Bogart, David; Quesada, Joe
Cc: Marts, Michael
Subject: Ride The Wind

I would love to.... but I'm riding the John...

I will try to make it in on Wednesday but may not be able to...


Watch out for baseball bats.

I'mmmmmmn sooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy.....

This wasn't supposed to happen... eyes wide open... i've been hit....

87 seconds, two for the road...

Let's get haircuts and lose weight... or lose the wait... or lose the
hare...

I'm a neomaxiezoomdweebie.

Be cool about it, my comdrades-in-arms.

C.B.

Piazza Navona

piazzanavolo, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

I have a backlog of stories and pictures to post from the "European leg of the tour", so I thought I'd start with one of the best memories; our time in Rome with Andrea DiVito and Laura Villari. Our Roman experience started a little shaky, but with their help, it turned into one of the most memorable. Here, in Piazza Navona, they explained the meaning the pose of the Bernini figure behind us. (Buy me a beer at the next con and I'll tell you the secret!) And it always helps to have native Romans with you when getting around town and ordering at restaurants. :) Long live true Parma proscuitto!

I wanted to take the time here to thank Laura and Andrea for taking a break from Young Avengers (Thanks, Jimmy. Sorry, Tom.) to spend the day with us. We truly appreciate it. And don't worry, the wine and olive oil made it back to the States safely and are being greatly enjoyed!

Underrated Album of the Day

The Outfield - Play Deep

Yes, everyone knows "Your Love" and it's one of my all-time favorite songs, but this entire album kicks ass! Listen to it. Really...

This was one of those albums that benefitted from radio back in the day, where you heard the one popular single and then thought every other song on the record would be equally as good, so you bought it. In this case, the whole album was, at least in my opinion, outstanding. I still listen to it today... like now.

However, my opinions may be slightly jaded by the unforgettable experiences I shared with Scottie in Easton Maryland as we listened to the album under the weeping willow tree at her parents' estate...

Cardboy!

So my London Drink-Up was a bust with almost every artist and writer citing "too much work" and a "beat down from Ralph Macchio" as the reasons for their no-shows. However, my bud Adi Gravov and his wonderful wife Tamsin made the trip down from Leeds to see Mutsumi and me and we had a fantastic time walking around and chatting and finding a great Indian place near Piccadilly Circus that we all loved! Adi and Tam also turned us on to the coolest of new toys, Cardboy!! as we are affectionately calling him/them!

Yes, We're In Italy

mewithpizza, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Whenever I've asked for restaurant recommendations here, everyone is quick to point out that you can't get a bad meal in Italy. And while I would have argued this point after my last trip here, this time around we have been blessed with nothing but fantastic food! The pizza you see here posing with me was amazing and the pasta has been nothing short of phenomenal!

At least I'm walking like 10 miles a day to help burn off all the calories...

Not Melons

lemons, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

At first I was a little confused by the Italian phrase "She's got nice lemons!" I thought they had confused their fruits... until I saw the size of the lemons here in Amalfi.

No Luck Monday

noluck,jpg, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Even with convention commitments, Mutsumi and I managed to see most of Barcelona between last Thursday and Sunday. But we decided to also take an extra day on Monday and catch up on anything we may have missed. Not the best move ever...

We quickly discovered all the museums in the city are closed on Mondays. So no Picasso and no Miro. We then went to Gaudi's Guell Palace, and that was also closed for renovations. (See pic.)

We looked around for one other landmark Mutsumi wanted to see, I forget the name, and couldn't find it. Oh, well...

Barcelona is such a beautiful city though, it didn't feel like a wasted day at all. We wandered the streets, checked out the architecture, stopped at cafes, shopped, and even found the graffiti park. We also had the best meal of the entire trip yesterday so that more than made up for missing a few paintings.

I could not recommend this city highly enough to anyone thinking of planning a European vacation.

Next stop... Rome!

And just so you don't think...

mmclara, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

...I'm drinking alone, here's proof!!

It's been over a week...

clara, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

...since I've been gone, so I thought I'd post a pic of me in a pose many of you will find familiar. Just imagine I'm right there by your side!

Short Guy in the Middle

esadandleo, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Esad Ribic, me and Leandro Fernandez after a night on the town...

La Perdrera

laperdrera, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Another of Antoni Gaudi's architectural masterpieces... Casa Mila.

My Two Wives

mutsuandmac, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Mutsumi, my home wife, and MacKenzie, my office wife, at the Olympic Stadium here in Barcelona.

Paella!

paella, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Yum!!

Just the dos of us...

us, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

...enjoying a few cervezas on our first day in Spain!

Hola!

sagrada, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

It's official.... I love Spain! What an amazing country! From the people to the food to the architecture to the beer to the overall atmosphere, we are having a wonderful time!

The picture here is of the The Temple of the Sagrada Familia, probably Barcelona's most famous site. Designed by Antonio Gaudi, construction began on this church in 1882, and now, 123 years later, they are still not even close to being done with it. Gaudi himself predicted it would take 200 years to build, and this was before he's even heard of cranes, trucks and elevators. It is simply breathtaking to behold! Words really can't describe it...

Mutsumi needs to use the computer now, so I'm signing off. A longer report soon... Ciao!

Layover

Greetings from merry ole England! We're sitting here at Gatwick Airport waiting for our flight to Barcelona. Just finished off an English breakfast of beans on toast and a pint. Yum!

Flight was uneventful enough. Snoop Dogg's How The West Was One tour is winging over to Europe so we were on the flight with his band, dancers and crew. Seemed like a fun bunch. Why do I get the feeling they were headed to Amsterdam first?

More soon...

Comics and Cheeesteaks

littlered, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

I've been swamped since I got back from Philly and haven't had the time to file a full con report yet here on the blog. Needless to say, it was a good show, the first where I didn't have to work a booth, do portfolio reviews or speak on panels. This newfound freedom was nice, but I must admit that I did get a little bored after a while. I actually found myself spending a lot of time at the Marvel booth as that's where most of my friends and creators were hanging anyway. It was great to see guys like Dave Finch, Skottie Young, Tom Raney, Paul Jenkins, Mike Oeming, Dave Mack, Tony Bedard, JMS and Claremont. But you have no idea how many times I heard "Didn't you leave comics?!" Oh, well...

Our second annual Geno's Cheesesteak Outing took place Saturday night. Compared to last years 4 people, this year's 20 attendees made it a real event! Even creators like JMS, Claremont and Jenks came along. I polished two with onions and wiz and an order of cheese fries. Nick Lowe and Claremont crossed the street and ordered Pat's steaks after they had finished at Geno's so they could compare the taste. Both report that Geno's made a better cheesesteak.

I did bring a digital camera and was all set to take and post all kinds of pics here, but that didn't happen. I actually ended up taking only one shot, and here it is... me and Little Red Riding Hood. I was just walking by the booth and she was standing there so she's the lucky girl who gets to be immortalized with me here on Chestefest!

Well, hopefully I'll have more stories and more photos from Barcelona. I just hope I have better internet access in Europe that I did in Trinidad.

Off to the airport...

X3 Gets Ratner

Well, looks like my X3 gossip was wrong. The person I was told would be dirtect the movie is not. Instead, they have announced Rush Hour director Brett Ratner will take over the film. From Newsarama:

With last week's announced departure of X3 director Matthew Vaughn, a mutant-tinged vacuum was created. Today, Variety confirmed that the director's seat for the third X-Men film installment will be filled by Brett Ratner. According to the trade, the director of Rush Hour among other films, is eyeing an August production start, with no change in the film's planned Memorial Day 2006 opening. Variety also stated that Ratner was on the short list of directors for the first X-Men film, which went to Bryan Singer.

The report also confirms that Lost star Maggie Grace will play Kitty Pryde in the film.

Impostor!!

fakeclyde, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

No, that's not Clyde. That's a picture I took of a poster in Bryant Park promoting a new book that's coming out, CATS 24/7. This is one of the cats featured in the book. I walked by and did a double-take as this cat is the spitting image of my Clyde. At first I thought he was doing some modeling on the side and cutting me out of my royalties, but then I saw the white eyebrows, which Clyde doesn't have. Must be his long lost brother. Too weird...

We Drank What?!

mamajuana, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

As you may have heard, last week was the lovely Jenny Lee's last day at Marvel Comics. And as is tradition, we threw her a nice shindig to celebrate all her hardwork for the company and to send her off in style. As we ate and drank and partied away, I guess no one bothered to read the menu. It wasn't until we were paying the tab that evening that I happened to notice that they offered turtle penis! Sure, it was cured in rum, but it's still a dick in a drink!

Anyway, we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I slapped down eigtheen of my unemployed dollars for a glass, which we all then shared and tasted. Sure there were plenty of jokes and comments made about size and taste and technique as the glass was passed around, but most are unsuitable for print. So instead, I'll simply pass on a word of advice...

If you ever get offered turtle penis, tell him to put it back in his shell.

Meeeoooww!

lottogrowl, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

Certain Chesterfest readers have been complaining that this blog seems biased towards our cat Clyde and neglects Lotto. So in order to avoid any future controversy, here's a cute look at our white spotted ball of fuzz.

A Chesterfest Classic

nickwithmanjuggs, originally uploaded by C.B. Cebulski.

This much-rumored "lost" Chesterfest photo of Nick Lowe has finally been unearthed!

Dear Mr. Vernon...

This news made my day:

The cast of classic '80s movie, The Breakfast Club, planning to reunite at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, airing on June 9. Former Brat Packer Emilio Estevez is the sole cast member yet to confirm.

E2 better gets his ass on stage for this!