The Lucky Art Show: Spicy Brown @ Leanna Lin's Wonderland!

Eagle Rock is not a totally new area for me, but Leanna Lin’s Wonderland is like a different world. I wanted to get there early for the Spicy Brown art show today, which started at 6 PM. We managed to get there at around 4:30 PM, when they had just started setting up. It was a very cute and family friendly event, with the Spicy Brown couple, Scott and Laura, and their kids.



After meeting them at Anime Expo and Nisei Week, I feel like I already know them and am possibly stalking them - though that’s what you do when you appreciate what someone does, right? The first 25 people there all got free goody bags, which made it worth the trip alone! I bought a couple pairs of Spicy Brown socks, along with a cute cupcake shaped manicure set, and a bundle of earrings.



The goody bags included a Lucky cat shirt, a sushi cat bag, a small ID/card wallet, a pair of socks, postcards, and Lucky Charms! It was great to chat with the nice people of Spicy Brown and Leanna Lin’s Wonderland. I look forward to future events with both. We were even introduced to one of the designers of Spicy Brown, Kazuko Shinoka. She created the Sushi Cats and Tofu Robots! For more photos, you should check out my Flickr photo set.



After the Lucky Art show, we made a short drive to Alhambra for Sweet Streets II. I had gone to last year’s Sweet Streets, and this year seemed even bigger. Lots of interesting outfits there, bright and colorful clothes and plenty of Lolitas. It was very crowded and there was a long line to get in. I took a bunch of photos of the cool art there too, but didn’t stay too long. There were lots of cool postcards and free CD’s and magazines.

FYF... more like FML!

I had previously written about how excited I was to attend this year's FYF Fest. The line up looked good and the price was right, so I thought "Why not?" I didn't realize that it would be extremely hot, dusty, smokey, and crowded. On top of that, no in's and out's and no outside food or drink... meaning big bucks for vendors.

Lines for food were really long and I have not idea even how expensive it must have been. I know it's expensive to put a big festival like that on, but it was a largely unpleasant experience for the mere 2 hours I spent there. I arrived around 3:30 and left soon after the Soft Pack finished their set.

I know the people in charge of the festival had good intentions and even tried to make up for it by reducing the price of the after shows. That is very cool of them, but I am still soured on the whole festival thing. It was the kind of experience that makes me never want to return to an outdoor festival. I am planning to go to Filter's Culture Collide in October, but it's indoors and at night.