San Diego is host to a ZombieWalk that happens regularly at Halloween and irregularly throughout the rest of the year. On this day the zombies were marching for equal rights so the undead marched through Gaslamp District at the height of dinner rush with an un-grunted ultimate destination being the grounds of the convention center and the Comic-Con crowd.

    ZombieWalks are free and all zombies are welcome and encouraged to attend the walk and many did. Basically, once the undead mob is pointed in a direction and set loose, it is a slow motion movie from Horton Plaza, through Gaslamp District all the way to the Hard Rock Hotel and the madness of Comic-Con.

    The walkers of ZombieWalk do it out of a love for Zombies and just to have a little fun. Not everyone understands this concept, but that’s OK; they’re probably zombies of a different sort anyway!

    I’m sure you’re clawing with excitement to see the rest of the photos, so I’ll let you get to it. Don’t forget to follow San Diego ZombieWalk on Twitter or visit the San Diego ZombieWalk website for their blog and contact info. If you see yourself in any of the photos, mention it in the comments or Tweet me @TheWorldIsRaw! Cheers!

    I’d like you to take the time to notice the Zombie couple in the photo above. In the real world I know her on Twitter as @WarptWendy. She responded to a ZombieWalk related tweet of mine which lead to me to see her recent pics posted to Twitter which lead me to recognize both her and her husband in a photo of mine; the photo posted above. I offer this as proof that Zombies are social creatures so even as abominations of the undead they should be afforded SOME of the rights they enjoyed during procreated life. I do not agree with or support their demands for food. If I have to roam my ass to the grocery store, they can roam their undead carcasses to an elementary school or graveyard and pick up their own damn lunch. Cheers again!

The Core Of Technomania Circus

    In San Diego we have our own circus; Technomania Circus. Victory Theater is the place where they chart a monthly course of comedy, acrobatics and music. Their theater was a Christian church in a former life and the Technomaniacs have done a wonderful job of incorporating their own style over and above what the original church goers had going on. Usually the décor & ambience are for the benefit of the adoring fans but on this night, everything was done up for one of their own. I was honored and privileged to attend the 40th birthday party of the magnificently talented Valerie Power.

Nick – A Welderman and Technomaniac

    Every party needs a campfire for roasting, warming and gathering. This one got started early and was just the perfect thing. Yes, there is an outdoor experience as well as the theater. Technomania Circus has much more room at Victory Theater than they had at their old place allowing for much more freedom, artistic creation and bigger audiences.

Music Is The Heart and Soul of Technomania Circus

    Music played continuously throughout the evening and at one point I even jammed on a drum set, which turned out to be just as fun as I thought it would be. The group that is Technomania Circus is one of those groups of ridiculously talented people that are changing the world one audience member at a time. They all play instruments, they all perform and they always want the people around them to smile, laugh and have a bang-up great time.

Valerie Powers Celebrating Her 40th Birthday

    Singing “Happy Birthday” and watching someone blow out the candles as they make a wish on their birthday is just about the best thing to be a part of and I was glad to be able to take some photos of the occasion. I’ve known Dr. Techno and his Technomania Circus for 3 years and they have only gotten better with age.

Bring On The Candy!

    The piñata was taken care of in short order, with Nick being the one that actually busted the thing apart.

The Pinata Comes Alive!

    Anything can happen at Technomania Circus. For example, have you ever seen a piñata come to life, sprout legs and then have to be beaten down by the birthday girl? I didn’t think so.

Happy Birthday, Valerie!

    The next Technomania Circus show is at 8pm this Saturday at Victory Theater and it’s called, “The Western Show.” The theater is located at 2558 Imperial Ave., in the Logan Heights area of San Diego; easily accessible by car, bus or trolley. Head down there and be ready to have the best night of live theater comedy you will have seen in a long time. Cheers to all the readers and Happy Birthday to Valerie!

    I am fortunate enough to have cousins that always know what there is to do in San Diego so when I was bored yesterday I gave them a call. Before I knew it we were enjoying delicious burgers from Hodad’s followed by a movie in their art and dog filled home. After that we headed up to Balboa Park for a showing of artists sponsored by the San Diego Sculptors Guild.

Benjamin Lavender Sculptures Always Make A Statement

    Benjamin Lavender, the sculptor responsible for the piece above and many others at the show was our reason for going to this celebration of sculpture. I’d seen his work at a show at the Oceanside Museum of Art last year and was very impressed by his work.

Golden Art In Balboa Park

    Even the art on the wall found a way to be off the wall. There is an amazing amount of talent contained within these artists and most of the pieces are most obviously labors of love. We are very lucky to be living in a time and place where artists are allowed to create whatever their minds have whipped up.

Ornate Victorian & Steampunk Flavored Sculpture

    The Steampunk styled viewing contraption above is a great example of what an artist can do with some welding equipment and forty pounds of metal. I am happy with my medium of photography; sculpting with metal has never been a creative outlet for me.

Larger Pieces Shown In The San Diego Setting Sun

    Since we live in San Diego, we get to enjoy an outdoor showcase of beautiful sculptures in lovely Balboa Park. This show was in the Spanish Village area of the park, so it was a very quick and easy outing for a pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Ken & Chris Callaway Turn Up Ace Of Spades

    As the sun began to set our attention shifted from fine art to fine food. Our burger filled lunch was quickly wearing off and so, after seeing all the sculptures in the wonderful garden we took our leave. Dinner would turn out to be some great Mexican food from Don Panchos, my neighborhood taco shop. It was a good day, just what I needed. Cheers!

Nightclub & Bar Convention 2012

    Last year I went to the Nightclub & Bar Convention in Las Vegas as a patron of spirits and member of a group of old friends. This year I went as a member of the press and I was only in town for 1 night with 1 friend, so I packed light and hoped for the best.

Shawn Barnes In Las Vegas

    The imposing fellow above is one of my best friends and has been so for almost 20 years. He’s a friend that’s always on my side, no matter how abrasive my personality happens to be on any particular day. Together we have cut a swath of mayhem from Hawaii to Mexico and from Dallas to Denver.

Las Vegas International Airport

    Las Vegas Airport, also known as McCarran International Airport is quite vast, which gives you something to do if you have to kill 3 hours like I did. You can wonder through the terminals without having to go back through security, which is very convenient.

Slots Inside Las Vegas Airport

    If you want to get any last minute gambling in, Las Vegas Airport will accommodate you. It’s all been arranged to get your money, make no mistake about that. Go ahead and hit the ATM a few more times, you’ll get it all back, I promise.

Rob Hurlbut In A Las Vegas Elevator

    I’m really starting to get into self portrait photography while in Las Vegas. Mirrors and other reflective surfaces abound if you look around. I can’t wait for the days when DSLR quality photo capabilities are implanted somewhere behind our eyeballs because in a place like Las Vegas, carrying around a camera can be a real drag. Until then, carry your camera with you everywhere all the time. Cheers!

A Lamborghini And Josh At CES 2012

    Whether I’m in front of or behind the camera there is one type of photography I’ve never been a fan of: Evidence of being there photos. These are the photos people usually use as proof they were at a location or met a certain person and usually they’re just standing there looking at the camera. Years later do people in those photos look at them and reminisce about how they had to stop what they were doing in order to turn around and grin at the camera? I would much rather take a photograph that shows a person in a natural pose, held for a moment within a beautiful scene than a picture that represents an interruption of that moment. Of course for this trip to Las Vegas, my friend wanted some evidence shots, so I willingly obliged. The two shots in this post represent the work and the play side of the trip. I was there to cover CES 2012 which is where the Lamborghini above was displayed and the convention was in Las Vegas, home of casinos, liquor and gambling, which is what the photo below is evidence of doing.

3 Nines on 2 Machines Inside Hooters, Las Vegas

    After long days of walking for miles at CES, enduring crowded monorail rides and walking even more miles to get to my room, I was ready to relax by sliding up to a video poker bar, feeding it some money and then drinking for free until the wee hours while catching up with my old friend, Josh. The evidence photo above was taken as evidence not of being at a certain place, but for us both winning on separate video poker machines at the same time with 3 nines in our winning hands. Something like that deserves a shot and a picture. The above photo was taken inside Hooters Casino, in the back bar. We weren’t staying here but we still spent a lot of time here because it is very chill, has a great restaurant and is just a great place to waste a few hours. Until next time, happy travels!

Green Army Man & Miss Pan Am

    Halloween is a fun time, no matter how old you are or whether or not you have a costume. As you get older, the candy we seek is of the liquid variety and the costumes lean towards sexy & clever rather than scary & traditional. That’s just awesome isn’t it?

Puss ‘n Boots

    At a Halloween house party, couples will match up their costumes for twice the fun and twice the laughs. Above we see Puss n’ Boots out by the pool, enjoying the party and the San Diego weather. Not shown in the photo is the great pair of black leather boots, complete with a flared cuff at the top. Little details like that really bring a costume together.

The Wal-Mart Couple with Poke-a-Hottie and our Local Sherrif

    This was no ordinary Halloween house party; there was a costume contest and prizes, not to mention a complete buffet with some scrumptious food along with a bar that was very complete and free flowing. The couple on the left is The Wal-Mart Couple and they were the big winners of the night. On the right are Poke-a-Hottie (Barb) and our local sheriff (Tim), the gracious hosts for the evening.

The Backyard of the Halloween Party

    Tim & Barb’s house is a great house to hold a party; plenty of room, wide open floor plan and speakers placed everywhere, so the music was everywhere. The decorations, the catered buffet and the effort put into the costumes made this a very fun party indeed. As I said my good-byes, Barb said this party is held every other year, so my 2013 Halloween costume is going to rock and it might be water-themed in some way, do I have an excuse to end up in their clear-as-glass pool!

Me As A Monk, Holding A Rifle

    The best shot of the night was taken by Chris Callaway. Above we see a monk with a rifle, his shadowed eyes hide his gaze, but that smirk and chin are unmistakable. I was picked up at San Diego Airport and brought more or less directly to the party, so my borrowed costume was hasty and easy, yet perfect for me. I can’t explain why I’m holding the rifle like a breadstick other than I must have been in character and monks don’t know how to use rifles. Happy Halloween!

A Woman With An Amputated Arm

    Somewhere between acrotomophilia, sexual attraction to amputees and apotemnophilia, the desire to become an amputee, live people that like to collect and look at amputee photography.  I suppose I could have guessed there are specific names for those activities and loads of people that engage in them but, until I included the above photo of an Imperial Beach amputee in a blog post, never acknowledged any of it.

    The photo above was taken by me and posted with my Imperial Beach 4^th of July Fireworks article.  The woman and her amputated arm grabbed my attention for a number of reasons; her leathery beach skin, her green star sheriff tattoo or her wild dress by themselves were cause enough to snap a photo, but it was the way her amputated arm contrasted with her other good arm that made it gold for me.  I cropped her legs at the knees to enhance the amputated feel of the photo.

    This morning, a month and a half later, I posted my amputee photo on Twitpic and then tweeted about it, trying to give it some new life because even though I like the photo, I did feel it was out of place in the 4^th of July post.  In the course of doing this, I found my photo on a Flickr stream that seems to be for people that like to look at, feel sexually attracted to or want to become an amputee.  My photo has hit the acrotomophilia & apotemnophilia big time! Cheers!

Disney Girls At Comic-Con

    There are people that wear costumes to Comic-Con because it is their job. They are paid to be there and their costumes are provided for them. I don’t count this as cosplay, but I do think it’s awesome that people are able to land paying gigs like this thanks to Comic-Con. As the Disney princesses above prepared for some photos, someone actually had to go ask the guy in the background to please move somewhere else. I’m sure it was a great view but, move along there, Chuck-O!

    Comic-Con is used by some women as a mid-summer’s night’s Halloween. For them it’s not about what the costume represents, it’s about dressing in a manner that is considered normal on some planet in some far flung science fiction galaxy. On this planet, tits on display get attention and at earthling Comic-Cons they are proudly displayed for photographers.

    The 2 people above came to Comic-Con together as a couple of warriors from “Mortal Combat.” When someone would ask for a photo they would strike a street fighter pose until a crowd formed and the impatient photographers began requesting shots of “just her.” I think the look on his face says it all. Above on the right Power Girl reminds the photographers where her eyes are. Someone in the crowd pointed at her chest and said, “That’s where my eyes are!”

    The point of the game is to have fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re in costume or not, just have fun with it. It’s a given that Comic-Con is a place of imagination and play, so cut loose and explore the venue. The patio area outside the Sail Pavilion is a very popular place to rest, hang out and most importantly, to sit down. There is practically nowhere to sit in the exhibit hall; I would recommend heading upstairs for some fresh air and a view of San Diego Bay.

    In the end, Comic-Con is as big a deal as you allow it to be. All the things that can ruin your trip apply to everyone else and the same thing goes for the good stuff. Sore feet, missed panels, lines, oddly located hotels, and overpriced food aren’t the stuff of memories; they’re the stuff of blog posts explaining how to have a better time next year. At Comic-Con, you only make mistakes once and it brings an unbelievable amount of joy to offer guidance to a newbie that heads off a mistake you have personally made. Everyone there is trying to have a good time and everyone there wants you to have a good time so share what you know, tweet about what you see and when you get home, blog about your successes and failures.

Sucker Punch At Comic-Con

    Look, we all know that in the future the lines of Hall H will be formed atop portable moving sidewalks, themselves covered in lush, green, peppermint scented turf, changes to panel locations, times and guest lists will be as live as a stock market ticker and there will be a new gold standard for what sexy cosplay is that is not Princess Leia in a gold slave girl bikini. One day SWAG will be distributed from booths in a line-free manner that my mind cannot even invent right now and there will probably be a shrine at future Comic-Con dedicated to the demise of Princess Leia in a gold slave girl bikini as the gold standard for what sexy female cosplay is. Until that time we are all in this together so spread to love, help some people out and take lots of pictures while you’re at Comic-Con. Cheers!

The Cast Of Fox TV’s “Fringe”

     You don’t have to stand in lines at San Diego Comic-Con to see celebrities and you don’t need to use a flash when you take their picture either. What you do need are comfortable shoes and patience. I very much prefer a spontaneous style of human photography over posed and static, smiling portraits. Leonardo Da Vinci did such a great job with the Mona Lisa that photographers have forced every woman in the world since then to stop what they are doing, look at the camera and smile in a way that says something without talking. I prefer the moments that happen before and after the party starts, like cast of the Fox TV show “Fringe working out seating assignments just before a signing.

Adam Hughes

David Finch

     I don’t collect SWAG or autographs and I prefer to watch movies at home on DVD so movie screenings aren’t my thing either. I collect photographs at Comic-Con, mostly for use on my blog here. What that means is that I spend my time on the move, constantly. It’s exhausting, and on Saturday this year my body forced me to rest for about an hour, which was torture for my mind because it hates not to be in charge.

Emilia Clarke

Matt Smith - Dr. Who

     I don’t live under a rock but I don’t command a starship either so I really have to pay attention to the crowd and Twitter to find out where things are happening and who people are. Many of the photos I take, successfully or not, were taken not because I knew the subject but because of the stir around them grabbing my attention. Comic-Con is a crowded and noisy place so it’s not exactly easy to notice every single thing happening right in front of you, which is why the photo of Matt Smith of “Dr. Who” is mostly of the back of his head. I don’t watch Dr. Who so I didn’t know who he was. He had a clamor of people and a film crew following him around, but I lost a few precious seconds trying to figure out who he was or if he was famous, so I missed what would have been a great shot. Shoot first and ask questions later, especially at Comic-Con.

Kit Harington and R.R. Martin, Writer – “Game of Thrones”

     The celebs do have the ability to put themselves in a bubble, which is a big help for me. Take Kit Harington and R.R. Martin for example, pictured above during a signing for “Game Of Thrones.” There were hundreds of people clamoring in front of them but they managed to ignore all of them, and that’s when I took the shot.

Danny Devito at San Diego Comic-Con

     I have some ideas that should bring a whole new level of excitement to my photos and posts during Comic-Con next year. Since I roam around the entire time, I think I’d like to be a roving line reporter, bringing updates for all the lines with video, photos and tweets. Since I never have an agenda during Comic-Con, I think it would be an amazing story to embed myself with people that live their lives by the panel and screening schedules. I think the world is finally ready to see the seedy underworld Comic-Con, don’t you? I think back door deals, black market SWAG vouchers and organized line cutters are just the tip of the iceberg, just wait and see. Cheers!

Golden Hour Approaches

        Silver Strand State Beach Campfire Program is something I stumbled across yesterday as I strolled along the beach. It turned out to be exactly what the name implies. About 45 minutes before sunset, Park Ranger Heather lit the fire and assembled people into the waiting rows of chairs. This is an educational type thing with a different topic each week. Think of it as a neat, free way to enjoy a sunset campfire and learn something on Coronado’s southern most beach.

Silver Strand Beach Campfire Program About To Begin

        The whole thing just sort of happened out of thin air, because earlier I wondered why all those empty chairs were around a barren campfire. What the triangle dinner bell is to a ranch, a campfire is to the beach; people just come running. Once the fire was going and the people were seated I saw it was a good set up for a sunset photo which had me wanting to stick around. Once the sun set, it got chilly so bring a hoodie. The first five minutes of my bike ride home, until my blood got pumping, were not pleasant. I hadn’t planned to stay until sunset, so it goes to show that you need to be prepared and think ahead even in sunny San Diego and even when you are just a few miles from home.

Golden Hour At Silver Strand

        I am lucky enough to have Silver Strand State Beach as my backyard, which is just about the greatest thing anyone can say. If you were to look at Coronado on a map and imagine it as a balloon, Silver Strand is the string of land that hangs below. I recommend riding a bicycle to get there because you won’t have to pay an entry fee and the massive length of the park is much more fun to navigate with a bike. So, jump onto Bayshore Bikeway and join in the fun!