Well, after 5.5 years my car has finally hit 100k miles. It has been as far west as Albuquerque, south to Atlanta and North to Boston. And has yet to have a major repair (not counting the repair from when I hydroplaned off the road). Now that the extended warranty is out, I expect the drive train to fall out on the way home.
I am not one to discard things just for change sake (look at my outdated wardrobe), so until my little Jag Wannabe gives up the ghost I will continue driving it around.
What a fun day in the sun. Today was spent at Morven park in Leesburg at the 15th annual Potomac Festival. This is my first time back since they moved locations 2 years ago and while the show has scaled back it was still a good time.
Joining me today were Dave, Rob, Chrissy, Stephanie and Eleanore. We got to see plenty of traditional Irish dance, listen to live music, see lots of arts/crafts and gifts from the British Isles. The living history people were also very interesting, ranging from Roman times up through WWI.
Dave came out in full Marines finery, wearing the tartan pattern for the Corp on his kilt. And of course getting plenty of flirtatious advances due to it. Robs kids enjoyed being out and were not often seen (good kids). Stephanie and Elenore I think were expecting something larger (I was too) but still seemed to enjoy themselves. Me, well I had a grand time…Even if I am now suffering a nice sunburn on my neck and have hail damage on my car. Oh yeah, big storm blew in right when we were leaving…Fun stuff! Can’t wait till next years!
So this last weekend I was in Oklahoma City. Primarily I went to see all my friends at SoonerCon, an excellent way to see a bunch of people all at once. But I also spent a little time outside the con taking care of business and seeing some other friends.
Friday I arrived and met up with the people renting my house in Moore. They have been there for 17 years, so when I found recently that they would be moving out (do to health issues) I scrambled to find a replacement. Luckily an old friend of mine was looking for a place, so a deal was made to ensure it all went down well. This next weekend will be the changing of the renters, and I don’t even have to be in town…sweet!
That evening I spent my time at the convention seeing all of my old friends. Sharing drinks and stories in the bar and roaming between room parties.
Saturday I got to eat at one of my favorite places in the world, The Grand House for Dim Sum. Only had a couple of people show up but we enjoyed ourselves with good conversation and great food.
Back to the convention and catching up with everyone. I did get some bad news upon my return though, my friend Jim Lane had apparently announced that he would be closing his comic shop in a couple of weeks. This depressed me since I really like Jim and his shop was the best in the city. I went over there right away to get the scoop directly from him and to say my goodbyes.
The convention that evening went very smooth, lots of parties and good brews in the bar.
Sunday saw the convention close and my chance to see some non-con people. I met up with my friends Damon and Brad for lunch which was special. That evening, my pal Clark and I headed to the “largest luxury seating theater in the world” for a film. The Warner in Moore was truely living up to its specs. We enjoyed the reasonably priced beer and the movie Zohan was made all that much better due to it I think.
Special thanks and greetings to all the friends I saw this weekend, Stanton family, Ken, Gerald, Kimber, Mary, Leonard, Jonathan, Tim, Mike K, Mike M, Beverly, Marc, Dirk, Shawn, Jim, Chad, Damon, Brad, Clark, and all the others that my poor old mind can’t recall.
So this week the movie Transformers 2 is filming in Bethlehem, PA. They are utilizing the old steel mill there as a location shot, supposedly in China, gotta love that Michael Bay!
My friend Angel lives there and has been kind enough to send me some pics and a short video. In the video you see an explosion at the mill…and you hear the explosion of Angel on her kids.
Things that go BOOM!
I have updated my gallery with all my 2008 photos now. Hopefully I will keep it more up to date in the future.
Today I am wet. And in wet, I mean soaked to the bone. I am also sunburned on my face and was more than a little bit tipsy. But believe it or not, today over all was a good day.
I met several of my friends out at Bull Run Park for the Vintage Virginia wine festival. With over 50 different local vineyards, lots of food, music and crafts I figured it would be a great day. I was right, even if the rain was going sideways for awhile and we kept waiting for the funnel cloud to form over us. And frankly I knew that it would rain today, though I was a tad surprised at the tanasity of mother nature. She must have be a beer drinker.
Dave, Rob and I rode out the 2 big storms that came through inside some of the tasting tents. Thank you Veritas and Loudoun County winery’s by the way, I am a lot less wet due to your generosity. Of course while we were there we bought a couple of bottles and drank them during the wait. I do not think that Scott and Erci fared as well since they left after the first round of storms.
If you get the chance, I do recommend the festival. Its held around the first of June each year at Bull Run Park.
Well the time is getting close to when the bus arrives. It has been a good weekend here in NYC and the convention was a lot of fun also. With the cost of travel by bus being so little, I look forward to perhaps a few more long weekends in the big apple over the next year.
I know that Brendan Fraser gets a lot of guff from the film critics, but I like the guy. Not only does he do a decent job of presenting fun movies, he has a range. Whether its as a Jewish teenager trying to make it in a private school, gay man bringing solace to a dying older man, goofy jungle man or treasure hunting adventurer, he has always done a good performance.
This summer he is doing the adventure thing again with the release of a new vision of the Jules Verne classic, Journey to the Center of the Earth. I hope this thing flies…cause in my mind it has a couple of hard things going against it.
First, the whole 3D experience. Yes the technology these days is amazing, so much better than the blue/red lens system from the 50’s. But there are still several stumbling blocks. First, you have to wear glasses. For some that is not a bad thing, just something to get used too..but for some, including people who wear glasses normally, its a burden. And it is not possible to have a huge release of this film like other summer blockbusters, since you have to supply all the theaters with the glasses.
Next, the film is shot almost entirely on a green screen set. While special effects technology has greatly improved over the years, some of us (and I fall into this category) can see the flatness of effects shot entirely this way. Guillermo del Toro yesterday during the Hellboy presentation called films like this “Lazy”. I don’t think that quite fits this particular film, but if you look at all the Sci-Fi channel made movies you can definitely understand where he gets this opinion. And to my knowledge, films that are entirely shot this way (such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) typically do not do so well financially.
The trailer they showed today was very good and you could get the feeling the effects will be even better with 3D. And Brendan was a good guest and answered the questions well. I think he might have tried just a little to hard to be goofy as some of his humor seemed forced. But perhaps that is just his normal personality.
You ever have those guilty pleasures. Well there are some movies that fall in that category for me. One is the film Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. A film about two pot head friends and their quite unlikely adventure of a road trip to get some White Castle burgers.
Well obviously it is not just my guilty pleasure, since the DVD sold so incredibly well that the studios decided to make a sequel. This time it is Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. It is following immediately after the first movie and the guys are on their way to Amsterdam, home of the fully legal weed! Course, things don’t go quite as planned and hijinx ensue!
To promote the movie and answer questions from the audience, Kal Penn (Kumar) and Neil Patrick Harris (umm…Neil Patrick Harris) were on hand. While there were some good questions and banter from the guests, one question…the first one actually (which came from a NYCC volunteer) stands out in my mind.
Fan: Umm…I have a question for Kumar
Penn: Its Kal
Fan: Yeah right…umm so are you like really a pot head
(laughter from audience)
Penn: I really hate this question (snidely) because it always kills my fans. But no, I am not a pot head, and in fact during the first movie I was a vegetarian.
(at this point a small story about how the producers made special veggie burgers for Kal to eat goes on)
Fan: Oh…and I have one more question, Neil…were you using real crack in that scene
NPH: What? I can’t understand…
Fan: Umm…in the scene where your like half out of the limo, were you using real crack?
Kal: He’s asking if you actually snorted cocaine off the ass of the hooker
NPH: OH Yeah…totally man, 20 takes and I was FLYIN! (sarcasm)
This is one of those times when I cringe at who gets up and asks questions to the guests. Luckily it seemed that both enjoyed answering the guy even if he came off as quite the stoner (which I am pretty sure he was tripping at the time anyway).
Well the con is just barely shaking the sleepies out of its eyes when I show up. Everything is in full swing, but perhaps a slower less enthusiastic swing. There are a lot more kids present this morning and that I am glad to see. Officially it is Kids day at the New York Comic Con, and without kids there will not be any future comic cons.
My first panel of the day is for the TV series Moonlight. And no, as I had to explain to someone in line, it is not about the old Bruce Willis show but rather a new (last season) show involving Vampires. Now truth be told, I am not a fan. I have seen a few and they are okay, but just not enough meat (no pun) in the story to compel me to watch. But my friend Angel is a fan and I felt it my duty to represent for her.
As soon as I saw that the room was filled with mostly rabid women, I quickly understood more as to why this show might not appeal to me. Obviously it is geared toward a female audience. More power to them!
Two of the main actors of the show were on site to answer questions and give a presentation, Alex O’Loughlin (Mick St.John) and Jason Dohring (Josef Kostan). They were both humorous and perhaps not quite used to the undulation coming from the women in the crowd. They even stuck around afterward to sign some autographs from the stage (not normally done). I didn’t even try to get one though since the stage was 8 people deep and I know crossing a woman usually gets my eyes clawed out.
