note: For those replying, this report is very heavy on pictures. Please do not include the pictures in your reply as a courtesy for those with slower connections.
Now onto the report.......
I had the fortune of arranging events so that I was doing work in Pasadena the week of the show so I left on Sunday avoiding the wet weather. I began Thursday at Cal Tech doing stuff.


After setting up the next experiment, I made my way through the LA freeway system to the Manhattan Beach Marriott. This year my room was ready early so I checked in and hit the show. Thursdays at the LA show is mostly a set-up day with the bulk of the traders and dealers still arriving. Still, this year a number of dealers and traders set-up early were ready to go. There was a lot of pen activity.
Of course, Susan Wirth was ready to go as usual.

The showroom. There were already a surprising amount of dealing compared to last year.




The outer corridor areas were pretty barren on Thursday. Moreover, the weather was not great so the lighting in the corridor areas this year since the corridor areas rely on natural light. This was an annoying problem most of the weekend.


Our own Pendelton Brown was set-up and working on nibs and pens. Pendelton was awesome and a lot of fun to be around. More on that later.



I was not planning to spend any money until Friday. I figured that things would be slow until Friday. I entered the showroom. Took a quick look around to get the lay of the land and went to talk to Sarj who was already setting up. The result was my first purchase for the weekend. It took only 10 minutes.

Some of Sarj's pens

Some Nakayas were on my list this year so I hit John Mottishaw's table as soon as he was ready. I was going to wait till Friday to buy the Nakayas but John said now was a good time. So I spent a few minutes with a few other people perusing the inventory. The guy next to meet had that delicious look of shock when I told John I would take a Shu, Kikyo, and Midori Neo Standards. While waiting for John to set the nibs on the new pens, I sent some FB messages to Lisa who could not make the show. Argh! was her answer.
John Mottishaw



Some Nakaya pens




Someone wanted a picture of a dorsal fin Nakaya. So here you go.

Detlef Bittner and Bob had set-up already. Meanwhile Bjor at Refill Monster started to unpack the inks and paper. Started was the operative word.


Brian Gray was already here but as usual he does not set-up on Thursday. He was hanging out and chatting with people. A common past time at shows.
Brian Gray and Bruno Corsi

My buds at Penopoly and Penscapes had also arrived in force and were already set-up and suffering from a lack of sleep.





Denise was not feeling quite herself



Edited by AltecGreen, 22 February 2011 - 05:47.