SDCC 2007 Report, Part 3

OK, after a brief interruption with the King, here's my big San Diego finale. We've seen stars, we've seen a lot of freaky things, and finally we get to buy stuff. I love the Comic-Con... it's the one of the few times during the year that I actually buy stuff from real flesh & blood people. Otherwise, its all online for all my comic-related needs.

So what did I get? Good question.

The latest volume of Mark Schultz: Various Drawings, signed especially for me!

Tripwire, a British comics magazine that's come back to life in a new annual format...

Matchbox Labels, a neat book I got from Bud Plant depicting matchbox cover art from around the world...

A hardcover edition of The Professor's Daughter, a graphic novel about a romance between a woman and a mummy in Victorian London...

Belle du Jour, a collection of cheesecake drawings by Bill Presing...

Uptight number 1 and 2, both signed with a sketch by Jordan Crane...

The Comics Journal number 284, with a Roger Langridge interview...

Captain America: Winter Soldier TPB - because you can never have too much Captain America...

Fleet Street Scandal: A Collection, with some really cool art by Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham...


Plus much, much more! Too bad Comic-Con comes only once a year.

The King & I

Last week I was in Memphis for work, and by sheer coincidence it was Elvis Week. I'm no Elvis fan, but I felt obligated to go to Graceland since I was in the neighborhood.

First of all, it was hot in Memphis. Hot as in 103 degrees hot and plenty humid. It wasn't pleasant. Elvis would have thought it was really hot and flew his jet to somewhere cooler. If I was feeling truly unmotivated (which isn't a stretch for me), I would have just stayed in my air-conditioned rental car and did a drive-by of the place. However, I miraculously decided to get out of my car and check out the visitor center.

Apparently, a lot of people still love Elvis. The place was packed. There were a lot of Elvis fans waiting in line to take the guided tour of the mansion. There were a lot of fans trying to stay out of the sun. There were a lot of fans just milling about, buying anything with Elvis' picture on it. That was enough to convince me that that I really didn't want to see Graceland. I decided to save $25 and see what I could from the street for free. Here's what I saw:

The wall in front of Graceland where everyone writes, "we love you, Elvis"

The sign in front that told me I had the right house

Look! Past the trees...Graceland!

Mission accomplished!

SDCC 2007 Report, Part 2

Let's have a look around the exhibit hall, shall we? If you concentrate hard enough, you can just smell the enticing odor of the unwashed hordes...

Hey, its Sgt. Slaughter!

Original Tim Sale Heroes artwork

Clever...

DC Booth

Carmen Mirandarth

Hey, its Danny Trejo - badass of the silver screen!

Who's that guy behind Captain America? Get out of the way, fool!

Warner Bros. booth

Lionsgate had a real amputee (no Rose McGowan, though)

Look at that guy in the headband! Ha ha ha!

The original version of the Iron Man armor...sweet!

Once you reach one end of the hall, you turn around and walk back. That's just the way it is.

Get it? Pea standing up! Ha ha ha!

Next time: A cornucopia of riches!
(Or...what I bought)

SDCC 2007 Report, Part 1

Now that over a week has passed since the San Diego Comic-Con ended and no one cares anymore, it's time to tell everyone how the trip was for us. By the way, how do other bloggers blog so quickly? Sure, it's great to get information right after it happens, but where do these people find the time? Don't they have other stuff to do? Don't they watch TV?

But back to San Diego. Whenever someone asks me, "So how was Comic-Con?", I never say, "Well, I saw a guy in a Spider-Man suit. He was a lot shorter than I thought Spider-Man would be, and not nearly as muscular."

No, the thing that impresses people the most is the celebrities. We sat through hours of panels to see the stars, and we weren't disappointed. This year we saw Steve Carrell, The Rock, Ed Burns, Shannyn Sossamon, Kate Beckinsale, Clive Owen, and many others.

I could just list them all out, but this year, I have blurry photos to share:

Edward Norton!

Liv Tyler!

Milla Jovovich!

Josh Hartnett!

Gwyneth Paltrow! Robert Downey Jr.!

Captain America! Wait...Captain America?

Next time: The Wild & the Woolly from the Exhibit Hall...

Off To San Diego!

It's that time of the year, folks. We're headed off to the annual San Diego Comic-Con for another four days of celebrity sightings and crowd surfing. Here are my goals for us this year:

1. Take more pictures

2. Walk around aimlessly until our feet hurt

3. Buy lots of books I probably won't get around to reading for a really long time

3. Get super close to Robert Downey Jr. and scream, "Iron Man rules!"

4. Belittle and mock as many people as possible. OK, maybe only those that deserve it.

Let's get to work!

Crossing the street from the convention center is always a highlight of the convention

Dios Mio

I received a piece of mail from Mexico the other day, and their postage stamps are rather colorful. However, the stamp with the mask kind of gives me the willies.


Whatever it is, the eyes are creeping me out. Yeesh.

Wall Map

From the Skymall catalog, its the 9 foot high by 13 foot long wall map mural!

Little Esmerelda knew much about the southern parts of South America, Africa and Australia. Sadly, she did not know where the US and Europe were located.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be the president of Antarctica!"

Peaceful Warrior

Last week we saw Peaceful Warrior on opening day. Why? Because we had free tickets. We like free. Who doesn't like free?

The movie is about the story of a young, arrogant UC Berkeley gymnast who learns a lot of life-changing lessons from a mysterious old man he calls Socrates. He suffers what should have been a career-ending accident, but with the help of the old man's teachings, he pulls himself out of it and becomes all he can be. It's a semi-true story based on a book of the same name.

Nick Nolte plays the wise old man. That's right, this guy:

There are little bits in the story about being able to jump really high or having super reflexes, but the heart of the movie is about the old man's ideology. Here's what I learned: Live in the moment. Do what you love. It's not the destination, it's the journey. Measure twice, cut once. The movie provides many more of these nuggets, but these are the only ones I remember. For a short while, I was semi-inspired by this new age, spacey movie, but as time has passed, it's ultimately kind of forgettable. Thank goodness it was free.

"Socrates, what is the meaning of life?"

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!"

300

Being the comic book geek that I am, I have a built-in love for Frank Miller's 300. So I was really looking forward to the movie adaptation. We finally saw it on an IMAX screen last week.

So how was it? It's awesome. I think they made this movie with me in mind. However, I think it really has something for everyone.

Go Spartans!

For the guys: 300 is a big, bold, loud, violent movie. The story is pretty straightforward, so it's not too taxing on the brain. It's got plenty of cool slow-motion battles with buckets of CGI blood splashing all of the place. The testosterone level is so high in this movie, you'll want to to whoop someone's ass after you leave the theater. Did I mention it was violent?

For the ladies: This movie has a lot of half-naked Spartans, and every single one of them has a six-pack. Let me tell you, Greeks love to do stomach crunches. They also love to stand in heroic poses, all greased up with muscles glistening. It wouldn't surprise me if a Chippendale's-type show opens in Vegas soon called "Spartans".

For the kids: Why would you want to bring your kids to this movie? It's rated "R", for pete's sake. What kind of parents are you? Didn't I just say it was a violent movie? Let your kids sneak in this movie on their own.

If you need a piece of quality blockbuster entertainment, look no further than 300. Don't forget to bring your spear, shield, & codpiece.

"Hey, stop pushing. Aieeeeee!"

It's Good To Be Prepared

If you are the type to go up and down the aisles of the internet, you've probably seen this many times. If not, then a zoo in Tokyo recently conducted an "animal escape drill", where some lucky employee got to dress up in an orangutan suit and pretend to shot with a tranquilizer dart.
If I were the orangutan, I would totally depart from the script, lower my furry orange shoulder and bust through the line. Hopefully I would be lucky enough to escape from the zoo and make it to the subway.

Freedom!

Not The Jam

I saw an article the other day that The Jam was reforming and going on tour in the UK. Gasp! The Jam is back? That would be something I would pay money to see. I would eat a bug to see The Jam live.

However, it turns out it is just two out of the three members, minus Paul Weller. They are calling the act "From the Jam: Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler". Sounds very Vegas to me.

The Jam without Paul Weller? That's so wrong - he wrote and sang most of their songs, for pete's sake. That's like The Police without Sting (get your tickets now, folks). It's like Hüsker Dü without Bob Mould. It's like The Chipmunks without Alvin.

You get the idea. Why can't they leave well enough alone? Sigh.

Mmmmmm....Lobster?

I love lobster, I love crab, I love shrimp. God help me, I could eat crustacean until I'm sick (and I've come close to doing it, believe you me). However, eating and cooking these kinds of shellfish usually takes a little work, mainly the separation of the meat from the shell. We've spent many an evening in the kitchen removing the shells off of shrimp tails (and sometimes the little vein of poo in the tail).

When it comes to lobster, my parents usually take a live ones and drop it into a pot of boiling water, where it makes an "eeeeeeee!" noise as it hits the water. I remember being told that it's not the sound of the lobster screaming in agony, but something to do with the air being forced out of the lobster's body. Right.

Well, according to The Lobster Blog, there's a new method of getting lobster meat: the Avure Technologies Hydrostatic Pressure Processing System!


All you do is drop your live lobsters into the machine's large metal tube, flip the switch, and a huge amount of compressed water pressure is shot at the the lobsters, blowing off their shells and leaving the meat behind. What you get is this:


Disturbingly efficient? Yes! Creepy & nauseating? To be honest, a little. I'm sure the lobster in the picture was arranged like that after it came out of the machine, or then I'd really be freaked out. The whole process is supposed to be a more humane way of killing lobsters - death is supposed to come much more quickly in the machine versus a slower death in boiling water.

What does it all mean? You got me. But I'm sure we'll have a bunch of naked lobsters coming to our supermarket freezer section real soon.

Vengeance will be mine!

Nap Time

From my daily dog calendar:


"When you can't figure out what to do, it's time for a nap" - Mason Cooley

Autobots, Transform!

This is the coolest thing I've seen today: Transformers that change from Nike tennis shoes to robots!


Awesome! Why didn't they have these when I was growing up? If you've got the disposable income, you can get these bad boys here.

Squids 'n Sharks

Last month, Japanese marine researchers caught a giant squid and hauled the poor bastard up to the surface. Reportedly, it was the first time a live giant squid was captured on film. The video actually isn't that great, but you can see it here. Better yet, here's a picture of the squid.


Great Googly Moogly! It's the beast from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! Pulled up from about 2,000 feet below the ocean surface, the squid died shortly afterwards. Duh.

Well, move over squid. Check out this video of the frilled shark:



Cheezus! What a monster! Oddly enough, this video was taken by more Japanese researchers. The frilled shark usually is found at depths of 2,000 feet, but this particular one was found near the surface. It probably was on its last legs (so to speak), like a dying beached whale. The Japanese researchers captured the shark, and not surprisingly, it died a short time later.

Gah! Flee! Frilled Shark!

My Favorite Gift

Even though the warm fuzzy glow of Christmas is a couple of weeks past us, let me just say that I love all the gifts I get to read, to play, to wear, to listen to, and to spend. But the one gift I'm having the most fun with right now is the Skull Horror Ball!

My sister and her family gave me this small rubber skull - when you squeeze it, all sort of gross things come oozing out of it's eyes.


The one I have has rats and blood coming out of it's eyes. It's delightful. I call him "Skully". I'm considering buying a whole case of these to give away as party favors, or just to give to anyone who needs cheering up.

This is my favorite gift from Christmas... right after our new 32" LCD HD TV, that is! Hoo hah!