FBCD '13 & SWDay(s)

Hanging with Kenneth Rocafort at New Comic Book Day. Yeah, he came and did some signing at Legends Comics & Games. Well, I more hung out with his sister/translator/personal assistant as he was very busy DRAWING AWESOME THINGS FOR THE FIRST 10 SIGNEES & EMPLOYEES!.

 

And of course, had to get my first printing "First Look" & Issue #1 of Madame Mirage written by Paul Dini! Like a Boss

The Forth MAY not have been with me but there was revenge on the Fifth & Sixth! I wore my Star Wars Tie that Saturday and then Sunday & Monday I channeled the force and confirmed an event that will have some DEFINITE influences and I will keep you guys updated as that progresses.


Awesome, Right!?

Grasp The Force

As some of you may know I have been given the the great opportunity to Fight Direct "Pericles," in a space opera/sci-fi homage setting, for Shady Shakespeare this summer. *Spoilers* There may be some swords with energy beams for blades. Also, there may be anywhere from 3-9 of these weapons on stage. Now, anyone who's played with the licensed "light sabers" from a certain franchise know that the $130 dollar types are nice and solid but can still break down with heavy repeated use, say . . . once a night 2-3 days a week for an entire month, ALSO, not to mention those are someone else's intellectual property and even though this would be a parody, I would like to bring some more unique and original designs to this production.

That being said, many of the places to get these crazy future swords will cost approx $200 on average (there are a few who go as low as $50 and some who go as high as $6-800 or more [GAWD I WANT! SO HARD] but 2-3 seems to be the dominant going price for most) and although a couple bills for one, maybe even two for someone who REALLY wants one seems like an okay, one-time purchase, I'm looking at upward of 3 thousand dollars. Without being specific about what my armory budget is, let me just say that I am not familiar with ANY production house that allows for that much of a budget for one single show, let alone 1 of 3 shows for the season with only one fight in it. Plus, I share the budget with props and there are some things in the show that I feel will be MUCH more pivotal to the performance than my one tussle and the raw materials alone for them will take a well deserved chunk of the allocated funds.

Yes, one solid piece of wood, a "laser sword bokken"

The reason I bring all this up, is one, my blog post for today is just a smattering of the research I've done looking at different production houses and shopping for props. And two, I'm blatantly going to ask you, my friends, family and assorted readers to either donate, purchase and contact me about acquiring lightsabres for this show. I am currently working on some ideas for fundraisers, I have fiddled with the idea for a Kickstarter/indie-gogo, but the magic idea would either be a straight donation (paypal button to the right ----> please feel free to put "for theatre lightsabres only" in the message, or even in person if you've ever met me) Or even purchase a lightsabre from any of the sources I provide and contact me to allow me and several other full grown adults (physically, not mentally) to bash it repeatedly for a few moths straight. Or even should you have one or a few already, any help would be appreciated. Please, if you are even the least bit inclined, email me at t3h (dot) h4773r (at) gmail (dot) com  and we can chat about ideas and needs of the production.

For those of you who came for the shineys, thank you for listening to my spiel, and just reading my blog is doing more than I'd ever expect, so on to the goodies!

Advanced-Light Weaponry

AWL. Main site, high-mid price
http://www.advanced-light.com/index.asp
Ebay store. Damn they're divers
 http://stores.ebay.com/ADVANCED-LIGHT-WEAPONRY
These are cool. Huge collection, I believe every blade is a custom item. Apparently there's a Texas troupe that has tried other sabers in the past and only his stand up to their abuse. I've talked to him over email, very swift to respond, sounds professional.

Ultra Sabers, low-mid price
http://www.ultrasabers.com/default.asp
I know a bunch of kids who got their sabers from here. They've been at it for some time and have a large selection as well as the most competitive prices I've seen. I attempted to contact them once or twice, but I believe I saw they had a booth at Wondercon around that time so I understand if they were a bit swamped, hope to hear from them soon.

Park Sabers, mid-high price
http://www.parksabers.com/
An old school "forge." The phase blades they use are SRZ BZNS and MAKE the eye see the blade trail. as well as using internal lamps so that the blade will "ignite" properly. I really like their double blader. I have only recently attempted to contact them, no word back yet, but they have one of those "on the site, enter your email & message" add ons and I'm not sure if my large message went through or even coded correctly, I guess I'll see.

Custom Saber Shop, low-high price.
 http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/Default.aspx
Another "old school forge" no single hilts & blades for sale BUT they have a custom builder interface I have played with a bit. I have not contacted them yet, and will try to in the near future.

FX Sabers  
http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php
More a resource hub & community than a one stop shop. A very active culture with a lot of info.

Saber Forge, price mid
http://saberforge.com/index.php
A newer guy to the field, met him at Anime Expo last year. He was quick to contact and nice enough. Many unique items there. My current favorite, mostly because of the items below . . .

Yes, Light-tonfa. Ah hahahaha!

Need some reach, how bout a pole-arm saber?

JQ sabers, High price
http://www.jqsabers.com/
Crazy High end, awesome sabers. clean pro site. UK crew. they do offer stunt sabers for about $200U.S. with a few customizable features.


Legacy Weaponry, mid-high price (
http://www.legacyweaponry.com/index.html
A student of AWL, started making his own when he moved. Not sure if he's still cracking them out, have not contacted. REALLY cool stuff though, You can definitely see the attention and, well, legacy, from the work with AWL.

I'm know I have missed/left out a few different lightsaber houses and maybe I will post on them later or even find a few more. I have even attempted to sift through numerous dead sites and un-informed reviews to try and gauge how "good" each company is and quite honestly I can't find enough to make a reliable assumption about any of them. Although, I think anyone who has time and energy to honestly crack these things out is a step above any sort of massed produced thing, so, I'd start with kudos to all of them and then go from there.

And, just to jazz you up, here's Ray Park being awesome, apparently something he does A LOT!

Phenomena Dump

So, last week I PROMISED I would post again before Tuesday. Her it is and because I have had some issues with work and classes and families I wasn't able to finish any longer posts with more meat.
Also because I was trying to finish two chapters AND make a level 13 one shot for two gunslingers and a were-polar bear Ranger with a boar animal companion plus one "other thing" which dropped out last minute.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about   START HERE   and come back when your thuroughly addicted.

And now, for the DUMP:

fun stuff, downblaoded the mix. dissapointed that "accordian Vader" was not also on the track. maybe next time.
Have I mentioned I really want a concertina?

P.S. In my constant need for things I can not currently afford I have fallen in love with TAD gear in San Francisco. And does anyone have any good explanation on why the section of San Francisco is called DOGPATCH

As for other goofy semi-hardcore/boy scout, mil-spec stuff, . .  I complained recently that for lanyard beads on knives its a real "yo dawg" with skulls out there, but then THIS SKULL IS NAMED YORICK so the inner theatre/lit nerd in me goes, That's okay, cause it makes you better.


I really liked this video, and mad kudos to alternative actors (wheel chair? little person? FUCK YEAH!). But, I'm gonna be honest, I don't know how long they rehearsed or blocked, or what sort of training there was or how much they cared, but the fights and the sabre hilts felt a little weak. They were sufficient, I got the jist and it could have been MUCH worse, but, I expected a bit more.



Otherwise, hope that holds you over till tomorrow when I attempt to post something ELSE before midnight. tune in won't you? all half-a-dozens of you?

Nothing to See Here, Now.

Yeah, sorry folks. Late post week, check back in later.

By the time I figured out what I really wanted to post it was a little late for me to finish it correctly between work & sleep & moping around feeling lethargic. I think it will be a fun post, hopefully done by Friday.

In order to not leave you totally without something, let me direct you to a couple of my weather sites. Any time I want to know what it's like anywhere, I visit these sites . . .

The Fucking Weather
or a more subdued version (i.e. dark, or environmentally friendly version)
The (earth friendly) Fucking Weather

Or, when I need a Terra-specific description
Star Wars Weather

Tired Post, S.G.I.S.Con V

Just as a Note, Registration for Sad Geek In Snow Con Five has not opened yet, nor have I set a date for it to open, AS WELL AS, I'm still not sure it's even going to happen.
DONT FREAK OUT
there are a few factors out of my control that would influence whether or not I would want to have the party, and none of them are linked to anyone or anything to do with the party in the past.
Just bare with me, keep in touch, and stay tuned, I will update you as soon as I know.

until then, something I find, just my style.

I'm Spent

So, very sorry, nothing AWESOME OMFGROFLCOPTER today. I kinda shot a lot off last week and didn't have a lot prepared for today. I am posting before midnight as per my personally set standards and worry not, I have a Meme-Orable in the pipe ready for your consumption come Thursday, as well as the 3rd 4 T3h Nrrd from yesterday. Entertain thyself!

Oh yes, and being a HUGE Star Wars fan I can't leave Star Wars Day without something, so here . . .

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!!!

"Galactic Empire State of Mind"

There are no words. I must only post it, immediately.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

S.G.I.S.Con IV Recap

Only 1 month late! Okay, so I lied about blogging the entire Con. I was having too much fun actually being at the Con . . . and Raiding. Heh.

A couple resources Care of T1nk The Con Fairy!

If you didn't already know, this year was Star Wars themed. We HAD the Christmas special, but due to technical difficulties we were unable to watch it. However, we did have a showing of "Something Something Something Dark Side" and "Spaceballs" for those who had not been exposed to it's awesomeness.

Overall this year was a success even though there were a few bumps for the management.

We had 2 tv's set up next to each other with a PA system and 5 different systems hooked to them, ACROSS from another TV, with D&D & Laptopery 2 yards to the right and board gaming 1 yard to the left.

Upstairs Sexy Chris and myself had set up our desktops (we had raids Saturday & Sunday night. WoW is SRZ BSNZ. true story, while we did cake and they sang happy birthday, I was IN an Ony 10 and they were waiting for me to do cake cause I had mentioned WHY i was gonna have to AFK for a few minutes.) And there were numerous netbooks as well. Oh, and fun fact . . . Idevices (iPhones, iTouches) will suck up your bandwidth like a 50 cent hooker sucks up . . . water. They have to stay hydrated.

Let me correct myself right now, there was no D&D from late Friday night until late Sunday night there was Pathfinder, led by Steve Wes, and half of the Con rolled characters and proceeded to have ridiculous adventures. I will see if I can get a guest post from Mr. Wes detailing the adventure, but if you cant wait, look HERE.

Closing ceremonies went swiftly and the Sad Geek in Snow this year was Mr. Robe Guy, he also donned a snuggy a few times and accepted his new "friend" graciously.
I hope you all had as much or more fun than I did and I will leave you with one last peace of shameless self admiration. This was caught by T1nk/theatreg33k while I was stretching my pipes. You can also hear the shenanigans of the Pathfinder group in the background, just as amusing. Thanks, love.

Blogging My Con

Quick Update, I will not have the regularly scheduled Tuesday update today because I will be posting a Blog about S.G.I.S.Con IV!! And I have not yet finished recuperating, transporting, nor detoxing from the weekend. I will also try and find some pics from T1nk and give a breakdown of events. Stay tuned, I hope to have it up by the end of the week. thanks for sticking around . . all 8 of you.

The Mercutio Complex

Why awesome secondary characters have to die.

Now I'm sure there are studies for this sort of thing in scholarly journals and maybe even classes on it, but I've never seen them or taken them, so here is my rambling theory and B.S. explanation.

From a young age I have enjoyed, gravitated towards, and enjoyed, the supporting characters.

As far back as grade school I can recall other kids emulating the main characters from movies, comic books, cartoons and video games. Me, however. I liked the friend better. I might blame Star Wars as the source of this. Han Solo being the cool dude who only got tortured and frozen in carbonite, compared to Luke who had to watch his entire assault force die (minus Wedge) then blow up a DeathStar, face his father (a bad mofo Sith Lord) alone after (stupidly) not completing his jedi training and getting his hand cut off, not to mention getting raped by a Wampa (the cave yeti thing) on Hoth . . . you know the rest.

I started to emulate the "other" heroes, even begin to create my own, in the same time lines but with their own stories. (Somewhere I have like 3 SW fan fics of a force sensitive rogue fleet commander as part of a special forces unit of the Rebel Alliance. Maybe I should dig those out?)

These other dudes that hang out with the main character have a sweet gig. Until I was exposed to further media. In the Matrix, you get this whole crew of badasses, then "oops" one dude is a D-bag and they all drop, never to return for an entire 4 part saga (I include Animatrix, which was badass.) Even in comedies, Old School, they kill Blue. Even more recently, in a certain Disney movie, one of the characters passes. Lord Of The Rings, they "kill" Gandalf and then Boromir. In Dune, they pop most of the house Atreides. In Gurren Laggan one of the main characters meets an untimely end, I cried. (Has my g33k cred been cemented yet?)

The Obvious answer is that these secondary leads, these "other heroes" are necessary to build a sense of family and give comrades to the Main. Then, when these well fleshed out pillars of awesome tumble, we feel the emotional tug, which pulls us farther into the world of the story, and it also gives the Lead another hook to fight on and appear more epic. Martyrs FTW!

My brain clicked around just now and thought "Man, there should be a movie where just bad ass supporting characters get together and accomplish great feats." But then I realized these are ensemble films OR all of the members have their shit together, there is no conflict and everyone succeeds at what they're doing. Great, but not much fun to watch. Hrrmm .. . maybe not. I will have to think about that one more. For some reason the "Ocean's" movies come to mind. Another story that I liked that was a "main character is a supporting Character" were the "Shadow's of The Empire" book and Game for the N64, Dash Rendarr was abad mofo, and I STILL beleive he made it out of the Skyhook.

S.G.I.S.Con 4 is ON!

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh. I'm just gonna let that one sit for a second.

Aright then, on to business, Its almost that time of year again! Sad Geek In Snow Con!!!
A weekend of blatant and unadulterated geekery in a secluded location somewhere on the western seaboard! There's even a possibility you wont be able to leave the entire weekend nor a few days thereafter! Oh yeah, you proud veterans of this valiant event, you remember!

If you hadn't figured it out yet, *looks up pointedly* This year is Star Wars themed. Plan accordingly, and I'm counting on someone to find a copy of the Christmas special. Eh? So, In case you didn't get enough of that goodness up top, here you go, the flier . . .


And now a message from your friendly mentor Jedi . . . .



AND, if you wish to help promote knowledge of this event, (like to your buddies who cant remember anything but you want them to come along) I whipped up this, just print, cut and distribute . . .

San Diego Comic Con 2009 Part 2

Next morning, got off to a late start. rolled down the hill, took a left at Albuquerque when we should have turned down at Timbucktoo. (If you dont know that joke, grow older by five years or more, watch some loony toons, or GTFO mah bliggity blawg!) but still rolled right into downtwon San Diago(yes, Anchorman jokes were in full swing from celeb tweets and beyond)

By this time T1nk was in full "im-late-and-i-will-kill-if-i'm-not-on-time" freak out mode, so I dropped Pievuhg and the better half at the first good looking stop, and moved my way up to $15 parking lot that was a good mile away. hopped a bicycle taxi, tipped the poor guy with a roll of quarters (do not underestimate my brokeness) and schlepped up to get mah badge.

As I was herded like an animal of the field among a multitude of other geeks attempting to get into the convention center, I began to feel that familiar sensation of elation. These were my people, and I immediately began to judge them. But elitism aside, I never feel more at ease than at a con. this is where my kind, the geek, the nerd, the outcast, the goth, the Trekkie(wow, spellchecker corrected that for me, yikes), the weird guy, the gamer, the hacker, the candlestick maker, this is where we congregate and only our own judge us, not the entire locale. And if they're our own judging us, we at least feel the comfort that, they have an understanding, and don't come of their opinion blindly but from a mutual understanding that most of us know, we're still not considered "normal." And I don't know if I'm getting soft or just have gained more wisdom, but now I often think before I pass judgment, assessing the previous thought as well as playing devils advocate for a second. A good example of this is actually from a panel I missed entirely.
(for the extended version seek out Kevin Smith Q&A from Hall H Comic Con 09, there should be a link here somewhere . . . there's a good one, for shorter, try this, But I suggest starting at the top and writing off your next 2 hours.)
Kevin Smith effectively said GTF-OFF Twihards, they are the geeks of the future, they are girls w/Vamp hard on's, WTF is wrong with you dude?"

Oh look, a tangent, never had one of those, or sarcasm for that matter *false belly chuckle* Oh ho ho ho . . moving on . . . .

Grabbed my badge for Fri, was told I could grab my badge for sat after 4 pm, was tossed a swag bag (very literature heavy, less on the swag) and really started taking in the sights (see pic, the 2 Astromech droids in the general Lobby. Fear the SW fans!) , the sounds (general cacophony with strange snippets, and of course, the smells [if you are, know, or have interacted with any sort of social deviate for longer than two days, we don't smell the prettiest, no, not even some of the girls. It's unfortunate, but we are making strides towards change[its here that I wanted to link to a flyer/handout/thing by Something Positive about using a shower at conventions specifically targeted at geeks. i.e. undress, we know it's embarrassing, get under the water, we know, its cold, turn it towards hot. use the soap, no those aren't demon creatures eating your flesh, they are bubbles, and normal, then rinse, dry, and dress again.] Unfortunately I cant find said pamphlet, if anyone else can, please notify me). I then hustled to get to some hall where T1nk was already in line even though the panel was about to get out in less than 10 minutes. To be fair, it was a Coraline panel with Niel Gaiman. while waiting for Pievuhg to recover me, (I was a bit lost, but she had explored the con the day before) I am very confident, I saw Stan Lee. I heard the voice, looked back, there was a white suit upon an older gentleman wearing glasses, all attached to a mustache, and surrounded by an entourage. Liz found me, and took me to T1nk. ( ComicCon Nazi's/Elite's are, well, doing there jobs, to them; "please stop being dicks," if you encounter one; "they are doing their job's, don't bug them more than twice, don't be dicks to them, they're trying to keep the Con form being lame. If you have a problem, join staff and fix it." gee? sounds like cops.)

T1nk was still in line and concerned we wouldn't make it into the "9" panel at hall H because, well, it's Hall H. So, I told her, as her Man-Pack for the weekend I was gonna head over there and get in line. ( I had attempted to establish a couple times, that since I would be attending Aftercon, and dragging her along, AND since she paid for my tickets for ComicCon, I was there at her whim to carry swag [ill-gotten or otherwise], supplies, and hold spots in lines)
Pievuhg led me down to the bottom level and we popped into the dealer hall. What a ridiculousness. To say this hall is large, crowded, or noisy, is to call an ocean wet. Picture a pulga(that's flea market for you non-ethnic's) and put it under a large concrete ceiling and sink it about 5 feet under street level, and you've got an idea of how this place looked.
Pievuhg stopped at the ComicCon booth (not as awesome or impressive as you might think, very simple, one booth) to buy a sexy ComicCon shirt. I took the opportunity to find, as Scott Kurtz put it, The "Penny Arcade Elbow" which he was in, and it seemed, so was most of the rest of the WebComic Industry. MC Frontalot was holdin down a Corner of the PA booth as their official . . um, something fancy sounding, as Tycho likes to do, that effectively means Front is their official Rapper. I stopped, saw MC Frontalot in the flesh. Got my copy of Nerdcore Rising signed, Front regaled me with the fact that my copy was early run copy and superior to the merchandise in front of him. I was pleased. I then rolled around to the other side of the booth and had Gabe of Tycho and Gabe sign my "I roll twenty's" Shirt with the phrase "I thought you were supposed to get better at this" If I could get Wil Wheaton to sign that same shirt, I may end my life as a geek in peace.With geek/fanboy Nirvana almost attained I unerringly head to find THE LINE TO H! Found it, stood in it, T1nk showed up, stood in it. Met two groups of people, one groovy, one annoying, none worth more note than that.

Then, finally made it into the SUB-FUCKING-LINES INSIDE HALL H!!! which are there to further torment those who have endured the outside for 3+ hours. Apparently other situations have been explored and I pray and keep myself ignorant of the truth in the hopes that Comic Con higher ups have assessed other options and find that this is the most effective.

Once inside Hall H we find that the end of the Disney Panel is underway and find seats.
Disney panel: Tons of Fun. Beauty and the Beast in 3D this coming Valentines day ( I know what T1nk and I are going too).
But the one I am really excited for is The Princess and the Frog. Oh yeah, all hand drawn, full blown musical numbers performed by the characters. Good jokes, a nod to more mature audiences than just kiddy fare, a gator named Louis who solves problems with sharp sticks and plays jazz trumpet(after my own heart, I assure you) and a Cajun firefly named Ray who thinks as disjointed and quickly as he talks. I laughed my ass off at the 3 min clip they showed. I'm seein that one. Only down sides I can think of, the first black Disney princess isn't actually a real princess from the start, and as if New Orleans square in Disneyland wasn't crowded enough already, with Fantasmic, Haunted Mansion, three or so restaurants, one of the easiest to find bathrooms, the train station, and of course The Cpt. Jack sparrow ride, sorry, Pirates.
Also, Miyazaki, or, J-colonel Sanders, was there to promote Ponyo's release in the U.S with full Dub, and was awarded the g">Comic Con Inkpot award, those things are metal, I want one. Paton Oswald came out, made the Disney panel a little PG13 with the Q&A, awkward geeks were awkward cause it was friggin Miyazaki-san, and the panel ended.

There was than a lull in between panels and t1nk and I moved up for a better seat and settled in for an awesome panel. Some dude I didn't recognized was moderating but introduced the director, Shane Acker, as well as Acker's two "mentors" on the project, Tim Burton, and Timur Bekmambetov (the director from Wanted). Hrmm . . Tim Squared helped shane, lol. And two huge names working on the movie, Elijah Wood, and Jennifer Connelly. In Short, "9" looks awesome, and even if it's not the deepest movie, it will have a crazy nifty hook and be very pretty to watch. After this panel, T1nk and I left to locate Pievuhg and wander the Con Some more.

We wandered the dealer room, apparently Amanda Palmer(lead singer of Dresden Dolls) was doing a book signing that afternoon/evening and T1nk had to stalk her, we ate Con food, and were charged too much for it.

Around 5 PM was a lil in booth concert by MC Frontalot and the Categorical Imperative (his drummer) at the PA Elbow! (see Pic above, I know, its a shitty pic from my cell phone. I will get a better phone and try to take better pictures, never guarantees.)

Finally, due to the fact my parking pass was only good till 8:30 pm, we all decided to call it a day and headed back up the hill.

S.G.I.S.Con 4 Spoiler

A friendly reminder to those in the know. SAME BAD PLACE SAME BAD TIME!

I anticipate both trilogies being played the entire weekend, with special screenings of SW-centric movies. I'm hoping for FANBOYS , SPACEBALLS , and maybe even the terrible X-MAS SPECIAL !!!!

I also really want to do a Lightsabre building workshop, and I'm sure we can dig out numerous SW-themed games to play.

More itinerary as we get closer to the event.