I am not one to discard things just for change sake (look at my outdated wardrobe), so until my little Jag Wannabe gives up the ghost I will continue driving it around.

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!

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.

SoonerCon 2008 Photos

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!

Johnny’s 2008 Photo Gallery

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.

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.