"I want to be a race car passenger: just a guy who bugs the driver. "Say man, can I turn on the radio? You should slow down. Why do we gotta keep going in circles? Can I put my feet out the window? Boy, you really like Tide.""

-RIP Mitch Hedberg

just hit tha eastide in tha LBC, on a mission tryin ta find mista Wolverine

MUSIC: The Fugees - Fugee La

So, Wizardworld LA 2005: probably the most poorly-organized con I've been to(& lord knows I've been to several). I can't speak for Friday and Sunday of the show, but Saturday went a lil somethin like this:

We(that is me and my boss, Will), get to Long Beach about 9:45. The doors open at 10. Got tickets and then stood in line outside for about 20 minutes, narrowly avoiding the rain. We go in and look for the booth for the "event tickets". See, to get into any of the really cool panels(Kevin Smith, Batman Begins, etc) you need an event ticket. These are free, but you have to wait in line. Now, last year you just went to Booth A for Event X and then if you needed a ticket for Event Y, you went to Booth B. This was ideal for keeping the lines shorter and moving quickly. For some reason, this year ALL the event tickets were obtained from one LOOOOOOOOOOONG line. So long in fact, that it wrapped 3/4 of the way around the perimiter of the convention center. So you get in by 10:20, get in the line at 10:25...for a panel that starts at 11am? I don't think so. And the line wasn't moving at all. So seeing as how the only tickets we really wanted were for Kevin and I'd be seing him at Vulgarthon, we decided to bail on the line and actually seek out some fun.
Fun was quickly found at the NCSoft/Cryptic Studios panel. These are the guys that make City of Heroes, an MMP game that, if I wasn't so enthralled with WoW I'd certainly pick up. The head designer has multiple Master's degrees AND multiple PHD's...and was a huge comicbook geek to boot. A really good time.
After wandering the con floor a bit(and picking up some new shirts), I got in line for Tim Sale. The line wasn't too long and I was only looking at a short wait. Well we wait and we wait and finally someone tells us he's running late. Ok, no biggie. So we wait some more, and he's late AGAIN. While waiting in line, I saw Seth Green wandering around. He's about 4 feet tall. I should've gotten out of line and got a pic or something, but I thought that surely if I stayed in line, I'd get my sketch. Well Timmy finally shows...and is not doing sketches! He says come to the DC booth later on and he will. So out of line I go. If you're keeping score, that's Sale: 2, me: 0.5.
So I dash over to the DC booth to check the schedule and make sure Tim will indeed be there later. This is where the poor organization of this thing really shown through: They had booked Loeb and Sale at the same time, but at different booths! These guys are the friggin dynamic duo in my(and many others') eyes. Why the F would you limit a fan's chance of seeing both together.
So Jeph is already signing and the line is already capped. And the DC booth was just sillly. They had one line for the whole booth. You couldn't just wait in a small line to see one guy, but one giant line for everyone...and I didn't give a damn about who else was there at the time.
At that point, we wandered around some more, got lunch(EXTREME pizza:), and then went to the Marvel panel. Fairly interesting, but none of my fav guys were there. Actually, the writer of the absolute worst comicbook story ever(Wolverine: The End) was there...and it took all of my strength not to ask him "seriously, what the fuck?".
Went back down and the line for John Romita Jr. was already capped(see, Marvel artist line begins during the Marvel panel...bad planning on someone's part). Got some more stuff, me: great great deals on a grip of trades, Will: dropped about 150 bucks on Starwars toys...it was so bad we had to go back to the car so he could drop stuff off before doing more shopping. Guy's nutty for Starwars.
We went to the VUG booth and saw the new Hulk game. It looks really fun and should be a smashing good time. (sorry, couldn't resist). A friend of Will's was there working and told us that throughout the day she'd: Had dinner with a bunch of Marvel guys, met Kevin Smith and Jay, met Johnen Vasquez(!!!), and got pics with all of them. Just goes to show you, if you want to have a good time, it helps to be cute and blonde.
So despite the above annoyances, it was a decent time and a good primer for SanDiego in July. And I know that'll be a blast.
About the pics, there were almost no people in costumes, and the displays weren't all that either. So I took a grand total of one bigass Hulk pic...and that's it.

Vulgarthon is in 1.5 days! Pictures aplenty will be snapped there, rest assured.

Til next time,
one word: Lumines

knockin one back for the homies

MUSIC: The Breeders - Son of Three

Damn...my boys are out and up to no good in Pburg, and me stuck in LA with nothing to do. Is that some backwards-ass shit or what? Seriously, I miss y'all.

Point of Interest:

In order to maintain the high quality and wide selection of the music currently being enjoyed in our cubicle, all potential hires will now be asked the following questions(key below):

1) Pac or Biggie?
2) Bitches ain't _______?
3) What are your feelings on skeet?
4) I'm Mike D and _________?
5) Name as many members of WuTang as you can.

Key:
A1) Jigga
A2) Shit but hoes and tricks
A3) From the windows to the walls! or Aww skeet-skeet muhfucka! is also acceptable.
A4) Any five-word sentence is likely correct
A5) This question will be used as a tiebreaker in the event of equally qualified applicants.

Thank you for your continued support. Go Team!

You've got Maverick, the Iceman, and me.

MUSIC: Shivaree - Goodnight Moon

Aloha internet!
So I had an interview for a promotion last Thursday...they said "early next week"(meaning this week), but it's been a week and still nothing. The longer it goes, the less I think I may get it. On the upside, promotion or no I am going permanent and getting a raise. And with said raise I am joining the gym across from work...and while I'm not looking to get Girth Johnson-type buff, just getting into any kind of shape other than squishy should be good.

Wizardworld is this weekend. My goal is to get Tim Sale (he of Batman: The Long Halloween fame) to either do a new Batman sketch or finish the one he started damn near 2 years ago...
I was at the San Diego Comicon in 2003 and on the last day I wandered back to the artist area (for about the 4th time that weekend) to look for Mr. Sale. Well, this time he was finally there, so I asked for a Batman sketch. He uncaps his pen, settles in to start, then gets a phonecall. Now, I'm no bigtime artist (stick figures is as far as it gets) but you'd think if a fan takes the time to come over, introduce themselves, and praise their work, that they should at the very least acknowledge said fan. But no, as soon as he answered his phone, I barely existed. He quickly doodled a bat-shaped thing, slipped my book back to me, and gave me a shrug and a "sorry". Now, I don't know who was on the other end...maybe something important, maybe not. But c'mon...either tell me to hang on or tell me to come back later or something. I ain't mad at the guy, and I'm still a fan...but I wants me a proppa bat sketch, knowhutahmsayin? Anyway, I hope to get a Tim Sale Batman and then go and take it to Jeph Loeb and get him to write something for Bats to say. A Loeb/Sale original ripe for framing...the perfect piece of flare for any geek's wall. In any case, I hope to take mad pictures of all manner of comicbook/scifi shennanigans, costumed or otherwise...so I'll post em up here shortly.

St. Patty's day is wasted on a Thursday...especially if you have to work on Friday. Hopefully we can properly remedy the drinky situation tomorrow night.

So I've realized (imagined?) lately that I may come off as something of a braggart(braggard?...I mean one who brags). Things have been going really well for me lately and talking to some folks (probly no one reading this, don't worry:) who maybe aren't doing so hot, I am becoming concerned of sounding overly all up on myself. I really don't mean to...but if someone asks me what's going on and I say that I got new limited edition Underworld Adidas, I am not bragging or rubbing it in anyone's face, k? If that's what I'm thinking about, then that's what I'm gonna talk about. I don't expect anyone to edit themselves for me, so I don't for you, got it? If I bring my PSP to work, it's not to say nyah-nyah, it's because if you got one I'd damn sure want you to bring it in so's I could play with it. Maybe I'm imagining things...

FYI, the new Daft Punk album is a big ol' let down. It's not terrible, but not great. Save yer money, it's no Discovery.

MFYI, the new Out Hud is reeeeeeeeeeeeally good. Look past the terrible cover and buy it next week.

EMFYI, the James Hyman/Audioshrapnel bootleg A Quentin Tarantino mashup is fucking brilliant...I am looking for a way to post this up somewhere handy for the illashare folks, since at 55 tracks, I can't really use the gmail.

A final note: I had been kicking around the idea of a KMFDM mashup mixtape for my next lil audio outing("Son of Cranberry"(?) due summer 05), but after listening/thinking about it, I'm bailing on that idea. Their music is too fast in general for hiphop vocals, and the slower stuff isn't as fun as I want it to be. I still think Godlike will mix with 99 Problems, but then again what doesn't?

Til next time,
I'm taking bets...Cookie Puss vs. Fudgy the Whale