I know it's been a long time since the last update, but there's a perfectly good reason for it. And for once, it's not my usual "there's nothing going on worth mentioning" excuse.

There actually have been things happening in my mad, rollercoaster of a life (Ha! No life is less like a rollercoaster than mine), but there are so many things happening that I've had no time to mention any of them...it's a catch 22 (which is a very good book, by the way).

Just call me Rodney

So the big news: I'm back in school. It has been over ten years since I got my BS and now - to polish my very rusty and almost non-existent Java skills - I'm enrolled in a UCSD Extension course for Java.

I'd forgotten how fun it is to program just for the sake of programming. There are only nine class meetings in this course before the end, but that's 5 weeks of random nonsensical programming fun to look forward to (if I can figure out how to make them web-friendly, I'll add my goofy little Java apps here). And of lesser importance, I might even learn a thing or two along the way (actually, I already have). Oh, and the best part is that if I do well and prove my aptitude, it could lead to a full-time gig with SDG&E. Sweet! The worst part: I have to pay for this course out of my own pocket and it's costing me around $800. Ouch.

I've also been working on a several web sites over the past few months and thse have taken up a healthy chunk of my time. I'm not going to reference the URLs to those sites until they're closer to being completely finished, though the adept internet sleuth will find links to many of them that already exist on the site.

Goodbye, Time Warner

And though this isn't a strain on my time, it is helping to alleviate at least one strain on my checking account: I've switched from Time Warner cable to AT&T's Uverse. It's broadband internet, 360 TV channels (many of which are digital and HD, if I had the eqiuipment), includes a whole bunch of movie channels (not HBO, unfortunately), boxes for both of my TVs and a DVR - all for about $30 less per month than I was paying for Road Runner-non-digital-cable-HBO-single-DVRless-box. Uverse's broadband speeds are comparable to Road Runner's (maybe a little bit slower on download, but twice as fast on the upload), so there's no compromise there. And I had been thinking about DVR for months and haven't been able to bring myself to make the investment (the box is a big chunk of change and then there's the monthly subscription - it's as bad as World of Warcraft!). But now I'm all set. And everything works great so far! They also setup a wireless network for you house, though I haven't bothered to use it yet.

DVR is so cool. Pausing live TV - how sweet is that?

The latest batch of Drawrings

Here are a bunch of recent doodlings (that may, someday, make it to the gallery pages, but are only linked from this page at the moment). The scans of these sketches never quite manage to capture the character of the original drawings, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but you get the idea.

Now that the Fall TV lineup is back with its new programs (and several shows - like Chuck - that I'm actually looking forward to watching in addition to my returning favorites), I've decided to cancel my Blockbuster movie pass (or whatever they call it). It was nice - and well worth the $20 a month - to get movies in the mail and then swap them at Blockbuster afterward for new movies, but for the past month I discovered that these movies were just sitting on the bookcase for a week or more before we got around to watching them - so it just wasn't worth it (and that was before the new episodes of my favorite shows were on - so you can imagine how long they'd sit now).

I did see a lot of movies that I would have probably never seen if it wasn't for the Movie Pass, though: Soylent Green (everyone's heard if this film, but I wonder how many people have actually seen it. As I was watching, I got the impression that both Blade Runner and The Fifth Element "borrowed" from this film), The Handmaid's Tale (a lesser known film much in the same vein as Soylent Green. It's an interesting story and very similar to Children of Men), Pathfinder (I actually read a graphic novel of this story months before the film came out, so I now what it was all about - the "going native" aspect of the story isn't entirely original, but it is unique in its own way) and too many others to mention.

if I had more time, I'd do a better job reviewing these movies, but I don't have anywhere near the time to do them justice. And speaking of reviews, there are a few books I wish I had time to talk about, too. I just finished Snow Crash and would love to share my thoughts on it, but there's no time, no time...

Okay, that's about all I have to say.



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I accidentally nuked this post, so it was rebuilt from Google's cache. It may or not be filled with errors that were fixed at a later date...


Mandy Moore in Concert

I haven't been able to see the Police in concert, but I did just see....wait for it...wait...Mandy Moore!

Yeah, I know. It's not even close to the same, but it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. She opened for Paula Cole (yeah, I don't get it either - shouldn't the bigger name on the ticket be the main act?) at 4th & B on Saturday. There was even an opening act for Mandy: Chris Stills.

There's no way I would have gone if the little wifey wasn't Mandy Moore's #1 fan, but...well, she is. Sadly, there weren't many people there (around 100, I'd guess), but I suppose that's to be expected for a 21 & up venue hosting a performer with fans who are generally 21 & under.

So in preparation for the big event, I did a little research with the help of my good friend, Google. I confirmed that her old music (what little I heard) was bad. Real bad. It sounds just like all the other soulless, monotonous teeny-bopper crap that was - and still is - infecting the radio airwaves. But I decided that her new stuff isn't really all that bad. It borders on country and still leans a little to the pop-side of the spectrum, but it's definitely better than her old stuff. Mandy has a little bit of country-crooner in her voice, so the "country" comparisons are probably unavoidable.

Man, did I ever underestimate Mandy's (yeah, I've decided we're on a first name basis now) music. On the album, she was wishy-washy, but live...she and her band rocked hard (except on the less "hard-rocking" songs, of course). There was none of that pre-recorded, lip-synched, carefully-choreographed pop crap here. Whatever Mandy Moore may have been when she started singing, she is now on her way to becoming a skilled musician, one that I would actually consider buying CDs from (though the wife will inevitably get one first, so I suppose I can just borrow hers).

There are 5 other members of the band: two guitarists (one of whom alternated between an electric and an acoustic guitar while the other stuck to the electric), a bass player (who looked totally out-of-place and also happens to be one of the album's producers, oddly enough), a percussionist and a pianist (both of whom are geeks from the Weezer school of geekiness) - all of whom were masters at their game. Mandy doesn't play an instrument, though she did have a brief stint banging on a tambourine. She did mention that she's learning to play the guitar...so she may be whaling away by the next tour. I suspect that Mandy is suffering from "instrumentalist envy" because she often played the air guitar throughout her performance (as well as the butt-bongos, which I found perversely fun).

Mandy and her band rocked so hard that my thoughts were drawn to another chick-led band that I like a lot: The Cranberries. I think, if Mandy can find the rocker inside her, she might just have the potential to become one of my favorite performers.

I wish I could share one of the live songs from the show, but I didn't have the presence of mind to record anything during the show and cameras were banned at the door (with some serious screening by big-guys-with-metal-detector-wands who seemed pretty intent on keeping the cameras out), so I have no photos to share either. Only the folks with camera-phones were able to take photos (I guess there's not much the door-dudes can do about these)...and since I consider camera phones to be for two kinds of people - teenagers and opportunist pervs - I don't have one. I'm sure the photos will turn up online before too long, though (I've only seen one so far - it's at the top of this entry).

As far as the show itself, Mandy seems to be following the same set list for all of her shows so far, so there weren't any real surprises there. She did talk to the audience several times (eliciting responses from a fat, flamboyantly gay, super fan next to me who was screaming, flailing his arms and shouting non-stop throughout the show - now I understand why so many gays get beat up), but most of her banter seemed rehearsed and insincere. The last song of the night was a less-poppy version of Candy that she told the audience she was only willing to perform because she felt that we had "a connection" with her. Goofy. She also mentioned the tour's Myspace page, Brown Tidal Wave, and told the story behind the name (I think it explains it on the page, it's not what you think).

I found Mandy's choice of attire for the show strange, but oddly endearing. She wore this baggy shapeless black shirt with tight black pants and 5-inch red heels with an over-long necklace sporting a huge gold pendant (not exactly rapper bling, but kinda weird). Her flat, parted-down-the-middle hair was definitely not "fresh from the salon" and covered her face for the first few songs (it was eventually pushed further back to show more of her very expressive features).

But it wasn't the clothes or the hair that made her performance. It was the emotion that she conveyed so openly and honestly as she sang. You can see some of this in the videos, but I think you have to see her in person to really understand the emotion she channels. Emotions ranging from joyful and aroused to frighteningly angry.

I didn't stick around for Paula Cole's set (there were no seats and I didn't feel like standing in place for another hour or more). I did wait about twenty minutes for Paula Cole to start her act, but when nothing had happened by then, I gave up. So I didn't get to see or hear Paula Cole. Oh well.

There are still no movie or book reviews. I just haven't felt up to it. I do have a bunch of crappy sketches I may put up one of these days...







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It's been a couple of weeks since the 2007 ComicCon, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. It's sad, I know. Even more sad is how long and monotonous this recap will inevitably be, so find a comfy chair (a comfy chair!!) and set aside a big block of time...

I ended up having two full days of Con fun this year, thanks to the beneficence of my new friend, Tyler. I had planned to wait until the last minute (as I always do) to buy tickets for Saturday, when I heard that Saturday had already sold out.

Wait...what? Sold out? How could that be?

Apparently, the powers-that-be who run the Con decided to cut down on the over-crowding (I'm not sure if it worked - it still seemed awfully crowded on Saturday), so they placed a much lower limit on the number of tickets available for Saturday. And having no vacation with my current employer (I think I've already complained about this a time or two, so let me just repeat my new mantra: "contracting jobs suck!"), I was seriously bummed that I would have to forego a day's pay to attend the convention, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...

I went to the ComicCon web site and bought a ticket for Friday and then, after complaining about this very turn of events elsewhere online, received a message from a guy named Tyler who I had seen around, but didn't really know very well. Do you realize that nearly every comic book publisher has an online forum of readers discussing anything and everything? Abacus and Dynamite are a couple that I pop into occasionally. Anyway, his message asked if I needed passes to the Con and I figured he meant for days other than Saturday, so I told him that I wished I had heard from him earlier. But, as it turned out, he also had passes for Saturday and was willing to share.

So, to make a painfully long story even longer, I was able to go to the Con on both Friday and Saturday, thanks to Tyler. And it was a whole new experience, as I will explain shortly...

Friday

I actually did something I never do this year: I compiled a list from the online Con program of events and checked for panels that I wanted to see (knowing I had a second day to wander the massive show floor) as well as locating the booths of the artists & creators I most hoped to talk to.

I was somewhat disappointed to not see many of the names I had hoped to see on the exhibitor list: Mark Oakley (he never comes anymore, so it wasn't really a surprise), Ryan Woodward (that's two years in a row he's missed), Summertime books (it's Ryan's company and even though he was AWOL last year, there were a few others - Courtney Huddleston and Mike Garcia - there), Mike Kunkel (he was actually wandering the floor and I ran into him at Bobby Rubio's booth, but he wasn't exhibiting), the great Mark Schultz (who actually DID turn out to be there, he just wan't listed by name), Justine Joli (yeah, she's not really a "comic book" industry person, but she definitely adds something to the Con-experience), Dynamite Comics (I actually knew they weren't going to be there, but I still hoped they'd show up anyway - probably a third of the comics on my current reading list are Dynamite books) and Abacus comics (a new company formed from the ashes of Alias comics - the publisher of the wonderful Lullaby series).

And there was even one surprise: Joe Linsner. He has been absent from the San Diego Con for several years now (he goes to all the east coast cons, but stopped coming to San Diego because of the trouble and expense, I think). He's not the same hungry Joe he was in the cons on the 90's (he's definitely not going hungry - the dude has packed on a lot of weight), but he's still somewhat approachable. I remember getting him and Joe Monks to sign my old Cry for Dawn Con-exclusive books back in the day...good times.

So I had a list of exhibitors to see, a Neil Gaiman panel I didn't want to miss and even an autograph session with Jane Wiedlin that I thought would be fun. I was ready.

My first stop of the day was actually just outside of the Convention center: the Blood Mobile (to be drained of a couple gallons of blood - give or take). I missed last year's opportunity to be leeched because they weren't open all four days of the Con, but this year they were there all day, every day so I had no problem getting in. I was leeched, drank some juice and made off with my bag of comics and an unpainted Buffy action figure (exclusive "T1" unpainted "Lessons" Dawn action figure. Limited to 250 pieces - mine was #19).

Sufficiently re-juiced, I was off to the show floor to visit the booths I had noted in the program. Sadly, knowing the "addresses" of the booths, autograph areas, etc isn't really very helpful unless you're looking for one of the standard-numbered booths. And even then, it can mean a trek of a quarter mile to get there. Unfortunately, several of the stops I had "scheduled" were in the non-standard-numbered locations, so I sought out the booths I could easily find first and then wandered around in hopes of finding the others (this is the first time I can remember that I haven't combed the entire show floor, criss-crossing every single row).

First stop (inside the Con): Bobby Rubio (Alcatraz High).
I met Bobby at the con a couple of years ago after hearing from Dirty Dan that his friend from High School had created a comic book and would be at the Con. Bobby's book, Alcatraz High is self-published, so you've never seen it on the shelves of your local comic book store, but you can buy it from him at the Con or get it from his web site. The first three issues are such high quality stuff that it's surprising they're self-published. Bobby has worked for Disney, Nickelodeon, and is currently employed by Pixar - so the guy knows what he's doing. And it shows in the books. Unfortunately, I think the demands of the job have been a little high for the past couple of years because he hasn't been able to publish another issue to rival the first three. He did an issue #3.5 last year and an issue #0 this year, but these books - while still well-illustrated, are smaller and printed on less high quality materials. Regardless, it was great to see and talk to Bobby again. One last thing about Bobby - he will sketch a character in any book you buy from him, which seems to be more and more rare with comic artists these days (the "free" part, especially).

Next stop: Konsequential Studios.
I met Laurie, Kandrix and Jess at 2005's Con (Laurie and Kandrix were married last year) and have looked forward to seeing them again and picking up their latest books each year since then. Their books are also self-published (a comic series called A Monk's Tale). The art is very nice black and white tonal work and their books are all produced with high-quality cardstock covers and heavy paper on the interior pages - there's none of that flimsy crap you get from DC/Marvel here. Jess hasn't been to the Con the last two years due to demands with her schooling (Laurie explained that she has now finished school and will be...doing something else). Laurie is the heart and soul of Konsequential. She's also willing to do a sketch for you, if asked. And her sketches are really super cute. One last thing about A Monk's Tale: The trilogy (7 issues plus an issue #0) is finally complete, so they're going to be soliciting their book through Diamond. A Monk's Tale, previously only available online or at the Con, will be coming to a comic shop near you!

After talking to Laurie and Kandrix for a while, I didn't really have any other booths I was dying to get to (I did have many more listed, but figured I'd get to them eventually) and I went looking for back issues to comics I had missed throughout the year (there are always a few) while I waited for the Neil Gaiman panel to start. I found a few issues I was missing and even found a few issues for books that I thought were dead: Wonderland, Red Star and Arhena Voltaire. The Artist of Wonderland, Sonny Liew, even signed and doodled on the three issues I picked up. Very cool.

With the scheduled start of Neil's panel quickly approaching, I went to see if I could find Jane Wiedlin on my way. I was sure that I knew where she was supposed to be, but I could find no sign of her. So, head hung low with dejection, I headed to Hall 6 to see the Spotlight on Neil Gaiman panel.

I did see Olivia Munn and her co-host (Kevin...something) from Attack of the Show signing autographs. Man, you wouldn't believe how long that line was! I considered waiting in it for about two seconds and then just took a few photos of Olivia from the periphery of the signing.

Hall 6 was big. Real big. But, as big as it was and even ten minutes early, the room was packed. So I looked for a semi-close seat, but ended up sitting very near the back of what appeared to be a 2,000 seat venue. At least I wasn't one of the many who stood along the walls. Luckily, there was a huge video screen and a camera on Neil at all times, so I was able to see him well enough.

Neil was just as brilliant as everyone expected him to be (I heard him speak at the signing for Anansi Boys, so I wasn't surprised by his performance). He had been, apparently, expecting an agenda of topics to speak on or an interview, so he had come completely unprepared, but that didn't stop him from talking for over an hour. He was witty, intelligent, and told stories in person as well as he does in any of his books. Mainly, he spoke about Coraline, Beowulf, Death and a few other movie projects that aren't exactly going anywhere, but he didn't limit his comments to movies. He told stories and talked about his family and was...just Neil.

One of his stories was related to a nickname he picked up from Alan Moore: Scary Trousers. The story came up because a company called Never Wear had a booth selling two Neil t-shirts (an Anansi Boys shirt and the Scary Trousers tee). I thought the Scary Trousers story was great and the graphic on the tee captures Neil so well that I picked one up after right the panel. Unfortunately, it was only a size large (the biggest size available) and, despite the assurances of the girl who sold it to me, has managed to become a bit tighter than I'd like it to be.

After the panel, I returned to the show floor and sought out the other companies on my list. I found, quite by accident, Mark Schultz and picked up Volume 2 of his sketchbook series (beautiful), found Joe Linsner and picked up a hardcover of his latest pinup book (which he did a little drawing inside of) and a couple of smaller con-exclusive sketchbooks. I visited the Star Wars area, the Pirates display, and many other bright and colorful exhibits.

At some point in the afternoon, I met up with my new friend Tyler (I don't really remember exactly when this happened). We made fun of the costumed attendees, talked about the ever-evolving nature of the Con and just stood around like two old guys...standing around. I also saw a couple of my neighbors with their kids, which was a bit odd. Speaking to anyone other than the small-press folks who I've forced myself up every year feels a little strange. It just goes against my anti-social nature.

Finally, around 6:00, I called it a day.

Saturday

I had decided to make Saturday a panel day, so I highlighted those that looked the most entertaining...and then failed to go to any of them.

Well, almost any of them. I did get to see Neil again (very briefly) as he spoke about the film version of Coraline and the special viewing to be held later that night in a theater downtown. I didn't go, so I missed out on another signing opportunity (apparently even Maddy was signing this time).

One of the missed opportunities was the Heroes panel. It was impossibly crowded and closed early, so I missed out on that one. There was supposed to have been a sneak preview of the next seasons premiere, but...I missed it. sigh

I ended up staying with Tyler and a few of his other friends in the massive (three times the size of the room Neil had spoken in on Friday) hall I was in, so I saw several movie panels for upcoming releases. Some good, some bad.

The first, for Balls of Fury, was one of the good panels. Not only does the film look hilarious, the panel members were joking non-stop. Lo Pan (Big Trouble in Little China) is in the film and was a late appearance on the panel. Hilarity ensued. I hadn't planned to see this film before the Con, but I just might now.

Then there were the mind numbing panels (with a few bright spots here and there) for "less-than-memorable horror movie" and "generic post-apocalyptic action flick" 9and possibly others that I've already forgotten). Liv Tyler was on the horror movie panel and spoke Elvish at one point, but the film itself was...unremarkable. A later panel for the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie also co-stars Liv, but Ed Norton managed to drag that panel into the ground with every rambling response (plus there was no movie footage to share yet, so it was...dry).

Disney had a couple of interesting panels: Narnia 2 (Prince Caspian) and Pixar's Wall*E. There was a lot of exclusive footage for both shown (accompanied by men in black on the lookout for hidden recorders) and some interesting revelations about the continuing Narnia series (one was that Disney plans to release a new film every summer for the next five years). Wall*E looks especially good, but I'm sure I'll see both.

The highlight (judging by the capacity crowd) was the Iron Man panel with Gwynnth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. There had open seats everywhere all day long...until this panel was scheduled to begin. There was also a line outside the door to get in (many, I was told, did not get in). I had my doubts about Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron man, but after seeing the exclusive comiccon clip (not my recording - I just linked to somebody else's youtube upload), I'm sold. This movie should be every bit as good as Batman Returns. Or it might just be another Superman Returns (is that what it was called? I forget). Who knows? I suspect it will be awesome, though.

And that was it for panels. It was around 5:00 by now, so I scurried off to the show floor for a few more quick photos and booth-checks.

Here are all the photos I snapped (and a bunch of photos I snaked from Sci-Fi.com, Darkhorse.com and anywhere else with Con photos I recognized).

Now that I've got that out of the way, maybe I'll get around to mentioning some of the books I've picked up (some of which have even been read - Harry Potter was well worth reading), movies I've seen (mostly DVDs, but The Bourne Ultimatum was awesome) and any other madcap fun I can remember from the past several weeks...



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