Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston played two fantastic shows at the Fonda last week. Thanks to our friend Jason, we got to meet him backstage after each show. He very carefully signed and drew a picture on the Casper lyric sheet we found on stage, which I gave to Ara because he’s the best person in the world.


Daniel Johnston painted as a Daniel Johnston character.

The day after his first show I spent the whole afternoon on a simple, little painting to give to him. I painted him as one of his characters. Ara’s idea was to write “I’m doing just fine”, a positive response to his famous “hi, how are you” line scrawled on the cover of one of his early recordings.


Signed lyric sheet I gave to Ara.


On the second day, we went down to the dressing rooms before the show. His manager took me in to meet him again. I handed him the painting and he loved it! He said, “It looks just like me!” He then told me he wanted to use it for the back cover of his new album which I thought would be an honor. We also got to meet the director of the documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.”


The drawing Daniel did for me after the show.


The second night Daniel played a much longer show with some of my favorite songs off of the “Live in Berlin” recording. I heard he wrote one or two of the songs down in the dressing room before the show and played them that day. I recorded some songs for Ara because he was in Mexico for the weekend and I also took about a hundred pictures. I'm so glad I decided to come both nights because they were both very different from each other.


Daniel’s custom-built guitar and outfit he wore both nights.


Jason, Jamie, & me backstage.


“Casper ... the friendly ghost.”

Super Girl

I don't know what's worse: hosting and trying to entertain two crazy Germans (ok, just one was crazy) for four days, or drawing characters for a new cartoon series with no prior cartooning experience. Luckily for us, we had to do both simultaneously.

+ Click to enlarge

Ana received word to work on character concepts for a new cartoon series for Warner Bros called Super Girl and thought it nice for us to collaborate on the project. At the same time I received a text message from my German friends saying they were coming into town.


First vectored "hippie" Super Girl with "magic seeds".


Second vectored Super Girl.

Throughout all the madness that ensued in those hellish days, we survived and came up with a few characters. I ended up sick and lost my voice venting (shouting) to my friends at the stupidity of said crazy German. In the end, the client went with another illustrators direction.. which seemed to be inspired by high school anime drawings. But we had fun nonetheless and it was our first commercial project together as Anra.

Tropicalia - Review

The one dish that I will keep going back for.. Seafood Quesadilla.


A refreshing glass of San Pellegrino Limonata.

Seafood Quesadilla

I wasn't hungry and since it was listed as an appetizer, I figured it would be something small to nibble on during our business meeting. WRONG. This thing is huge! The second time I had it, I split it with a friend and it filled both of us. Its about an inch thick, stuffed with cheddar cheese, tender shrimp, soft white fish, and squishy squid all covered with a crispy, flaky, deep fried tortilla. It comes with a dollop of sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo on the side. I layer the sides on top of the quesadilla for a creamy, crunchy, texture that melts my taste buds. I finished half and had to stop myself from eating all of it. I think it could still use some more kick in the flavor, maybe something spicy other than tobasco sauce...but this is definitely the best quesadilla I've had.



Profiteroles

The profiteroles themselves were bland but the frozen custard-y ice cream that comes with the profiteroles was a tasty treat. I have a weak spot for anything that tastes like condensed milk.

I got a refreshing glass of San Pellegrino Limonata but they have a nice wine selection, sangria, a variety of coffee drinks, sodas, etc.

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Service

We got our food fairly quickly and the waiters were very friendly. My friend found a piece of plastic (that looked like chocolate) on the profiterole plate and they explained that it was from the box that the profiteroles came in and apologized and took it off our check. It really wasn't a big deal, it could have been worse but they handled it well.

Atmosphere

Clean, fairly quiet, upscale decor but casual.


Tropicalia

1966 Hillhurst Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027