Romania blows...part 27

In addition to being insanely boring for tourists, apparently their movie industry is much the same. I'll use any excuse now to take a dig at that painful Dracula Tour.
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2009/09/police-adjective-review

Shameless self-promotion

I've been encouraged to post this. I was reluctant. However, Saturday went very well so I'm feeling a bit bold today.

I'm part of a new band called Lord Bowler. If you have ever watched the 90s tv show called The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. , then you might recognize the name. Lord Bowler is myself, my husband Matt, and two different guys named Mike. That's us in the photo above (I like that one best cause I prefer the sillier pictures instead of us looking very serious, I am a silly person). We've been hanging out and writing original songs together and finally played our first show on Saturday. The show went surprisingly well given the closet-sized space that we had to work with. The feedback has been very promising and encouraging.

Please visit http://www.lordbowler.com/ and check us out. We have a mailing list, a Myspace and a Twitter. We should have a Facebook soon, I think. If you have any of these thingies, please hook up with us if you like what you hear on the website. We have a five song EP called "The Warehouse Brian EP" and we'll sell the whole thing to you for only $3.00 (cheaper than iTunes!). If you really like the sound and you want to experience it firsthand, come out to Norfolk on October 24th when we play The Boot with bands Seasons Collide and Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie from D.C.

So there's my shameless self-promotion for Lord Bowler.

More DragonCon

On the Saturday evening of the DragonCon, Matt and I went to a panel discussion about a new movie The Fading of the Cries. I didn't know anything about the movie. I didn't even know the title. All I knew was that the panel involved actor Brad Dourif. I adore Brad Dourif for his work in John Huston's Wise Blood, Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the television show Deadwood. I found out only today that Brad Dourif is famous to most people for doing the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play films. I had no idea, especially since I've never seen an entire Child's Play film.
Anyway, I digress. Matt and I are fans of Dourif so we made sure to be at the panel. It was announced very late, just days before the convention. It was odd, very few people attended. I suppose word just didn't spread. Anyway, the panel also involved Elaine Hendrix (who I immediately recognized from Romy & Michele's High School Reunion) and Thomas Ian Nicholas (name seemed familiar, turns out he was Kevin from the American Pie movies). Also in attendance was the director, Brian Metcalf, and the producer. The panel was interesting, though I'm still not entirely sure what the movie is about. I'm not sure that the actors are exactly sure what the movie is about. You can see the trailer here. I think it actually looks pretty cool, strangely enough. Apparently they're searching for distribution so it will be summer 2010 before it sees a release.

Also, Brad Dourif is an awesome guy, very friendly and cool. He signed my copy of Wise Blood. Did I mention that DragonCon was wonderful?

Best Photo Ever

Despite the fact that it's out of focus, this is perhaps my favorite photo of all time. It needs some cropping, but otherwise it's the best. I generally dislike photos of myself, but this is an exception given my company.

Kidrobot DunnyFest 09

I went to Atlanta not for kisses but for toys (hurray, I got both!). I attended Kidrobot's DunnyFest 09 pre-release party for the new Dunny series. I was so excited, I waited in line for nearly 2 hrs just to make sure that I scored the special Doktor A toy. However, I also managed to scored some new Dunny toys and see some exciting artists do their thing. It was a night to remember, that's for sure.

I was a big dummy, though. I arrived with no blank toys and not one piece of paper. How silly! They had posters but the supply was so limited that you had to win one. I had nothing to be signed and I felt like a right idiot. I found some sort of flier printed on card stock at our table that someone had left, so I had one blank side of paper. I wasn't sure what to do so I chose to ask the beautiful Tara McPherson to doodle for me. She actually made quite a lovely drawing on this sorry piece of card stock. I plan on framing it, it's so delightful! I feel so lucky.

I had the darling Doktor A sign the special edition Dragon Con toy that he designed and it's fantastic. I adore it and I adore the charming Doktor. I also met the very cool Voltaire who signed some little toys. He's a hoot, very funny and definitely a unique character. Later before I left, the coordinator (who was an awesome guy) hooked me up with a poster. It was so late that all the artists were wrapping up. I got the good Doktor's last drawing that evening and I think this poster is getting a frame.

The beautiful Toy Baroness was there celebrating and taking photos. She's so pretty and she has a collection of seriously badass tattoos. I want to be her when I grow up. She snapped a photo of me cradling my new Amanda Visell bee Dunny, and you can see that clearly on the Kidrobot blog. Click here to read the article and check out the Flickr slideshow. I've got red lipstick and I look sorta stoned (sadly, I wasn't stoned, I was just completely exhausted but really blissed out). I can't believe that I was able to be a small part of Kidrobot history. I think that if I could have a Groundhog day to live, I might choose last Friday. A big thank you to all of the artists who were so friendly and accomodating and so damn talented.

Coming down

I am still reeling from the excitement and bliss that I experienced at the Dragon Con this weekend. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more (in fact, it was the exact opposite of the Romanian vacation, thank goodness). I met everyone I had hoped to meet and then some. I missed out on a few panels that I should have gone to, but I attended a number of interesting panels that were outstanding.

I have photos to share and stories to tell.

I met all of the artists that I admire so, and each person was just as friendly and gracious as could be. I was actually a bit starstruck and tongue-tied when I met Doktor A.

Yes, I did get to meet Terry Gilliam and it was just as wonderful as I had hoped!

Yes, I attended Kidrobot's 2009 DunnyFest release party and it was pretty great. I was able to snag great toys and get some custom drawings. The people were fantastic.

Yes, I did get to meet Brad Dourif and he was so kind and accommodating. He's very cool.

Yes, I met Doug Jones and he was truly a character!

Yes, I did get to meet Malcolm McDowell. No, he didn't spank me. But it was better than that, better than I thought it would be. I think I'm in love a little bit. No, actually, I'm in love a lot.

The trip was wonderful. It was exhausting, I'm sure that I walked at least 6 or more miles each day and stood in infinitely long lines. I battled massive crowds and spent too much money. It was all worth every penny and every step and every missed minute of sleep. I think I'll have to go back again some year...perhaps 2010.

I will post pictures and more stories later. I do not have photos of artists, which makes me a little sad. I am very terrible about taking pictures, I get very caught up in the moment and then I regret not taking photos later. Heck, I didn't even have my camera most of the time. Also, I will tell about each day in greater detail.

It was one of the most memorable and lovely times of my life.

This time

tomorrow I'll be drinking in that lovely scent of fresh vinyl and hopefully holding hands with Terry Gilliam. Dragon Con is only a breath away now. Plus, more guest announcements! Brad Dourif is going to be there hocking a new movie! I adore Brad Dourif, even more so after recently watching his remarkable performance in John Huston's Wise Blood (easily now one of my favorite movies).

Also, there's a decent chance that I'll be on the cover of Veer Magazine (a local news rag that promote local entertainment and nightlife). That's a tad bit scary. No, it's actually terrifying. Yet I'm kind of excited and certainly very honored that I would be asked to do this.

I'm already working my way through Season 2 of Mad Men. I haven't watched movies which is bad cause the John Huston class begins on Sept 15.

My parents next door neighbor's kid is embroiled in a sex scandal with a local firefighter.

I hope to get Malcolm McDowell to at least pretend to spank me. That would be the best thing ever, I think. If so, I promise to post the picture here.

I'll be back after Dragon Con with updates and such! Oh, yes, and thanks to my work I now have a twitter so you can find me here if you do this thing. I won't be twittering from DragonCon cause I don't know how to do that from my phone. I actually think it's a bit ridiculous, but whatever.