Dia Dos...

Just because.......

 

    Today was a day where I swore off the long lines of the big halls and refused their shenanigans.   We saw two panels- Frazetta and MST3K!   Sure, I could have seen James Gunn, Rainn Wilson, Liv Tyler, Nathon Fillion, Joss Whedon and Seth Green......but, I would have had to sit in one spot for hours and hours.  No go. I've done it before and it was really only worth it for the Frank Miller and Kevin Smith panels.  It was totally worth it.  The more I claim being a native, the less worth it the tourist lines seen to be. 

   All was not lost though, I learned much during the Frazetta tribute panel.

  http://www.frankfrazetta.net/index.html This man's work is phenomenal.  My father had the privilege of spending time at this artist's museum out in Allentown, Pa, before it was shut down.  Most of his paintings were on 18x24 cheap-ass student board, he had barely any supplies at hand and even resorted to working on random, spare kitchen tile.  Not the studio one would envision for such a widely known and well-respected artist. He apparently had a photographic memory, from which he could pull any image he had seen and instantly sketch it. Upon being criticized early on in his career for not formally knowing human anatomy, he read an entire massive anatomy book over a weekend and memorized every single image.  Kind of like if you were in the Matrix and had to learn to fly a helicopter real quick. Plug in and go...

   The only other panel we saw was the RiffTrax/MST3K boys. 

They were amazing!  They did a live read of an ancient informative video about how to choose the right foods at the market.   Back when foods had grades and women were the only one's who were 'smart enough' to shop and cook for their families.  An easy out for the guys, who were shown to only be able to make impulse buys like buying quarts and quarts of oysters.  What a way to put sexism nicely and in a disguised manner. Ahh, early 20th century America!   The live read was amazing and hilarious. Every year, they ask the audience to pitch them ideas of movies to spoof and they actually listen and do it!  Quality people, they are. The line of people suggested Super Mario Brothers, 2012, Warriors, and Hook to name a few.  They ended up voting on and choosing Mr. M.Night's Last Airbender. Gotta love the southeastern Pa boy to a certain extent, but Night does have it coming.  They'll be doing a national and live reading for Reefer Madness in August: http://www.rifftrax.com/
 Buy tix!!!

Ahhh..........must sleep before flight..................

More pics are on fb.  Check them out!  



 <3

Get a pic, do a blog.

Done and done.  So many pictures, so much to tell!!!   Day one = success.

First on the list was the adorable and humble: Danny Elfman.

    How did I not know that the same man who composed the amazing scores for PeeWee's Big Adventure, Batman, Scrooged, and Beetlejuice was also the lead singer/songwriter for Oingo Boingo and was married to Bridget Fonda?!  Not that one really needs to know, but it's still quite interesting.  He was leading a panel to celebrate his and Tim Burton's 25 year collaboration.  Apparently there's an epic pack of cds and movies being released together near Christmastime (...of course).
   He opened by mumbling, "...This is really embarrassing for me." Funny, that a man who's played on stage and composed music that millions of ears have heard and fallen in love with, is super awkward in front of people.  He was quite nice. He shared that the toughest score of all was Batman, being that the producers didn't want him at all.  They wanted Michael Jackson to write the 'Batman theme', Prince to write the 'Joker theme', and George Michael to write the 'love theme'.   Ha!  ...I think it worked out pretty damn alright, being that he hadn't worked with an orchestra before and was able to pull it off anyway.
     No wonder he has some issues with public places- most geniuses do, and the more I heard his accomplishments, the more I categorize him with that small Earthly group.  He can't go into a restaurant if there's music playing because he analyzes the music and he can't listen to a commercial's jingles because it gets stuck in his head.  I suppose there's a price to pay for everything.  He also hates everything he's written, as a true artist would. He does, in fact, like 'Jack's Lament' being that he feels most similar to Jack- comparing Jack as being leader of his world to him, having been a lead singer of a band- and the loneliness that accompanies the role.
    Sorry to report, dear Oingo Boingo fan club members, but there will be no reunion for the 'Little Girls' band.  (The song, he explains, came from a time when he was reading news articles and creating character pov lyrics, not that he is a 'quasi-molester'.  ....Sure.  ;)   )
   Here's a song to hold you all over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0TfEcSyJDE
(Thanks for the inspiration, Duckman.)
As well as his favorite composition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1HX80u5x4
  In a word, he was: adorable.

     Though the voice talent wasn't on hand at the next panel, the animators and creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force were.

Amazingly, though they have a massive cult following and their own movie, the team is still based out of Atlanta and have such a low budget that they can't even animate a crawling spider with several moving legs, if they wanted to, for more than a few moments without it using up their per-episode costs.  Crazy.  In upcoming episodes, you can keep an ear out for Stephen Wright (HIGHlarious) and a rip off of the alien face-eater from Alien (which they were giving out cardboard fans of somewhere, because everyone had them walking around the Con halls).  Though, in order not to damage copyright laws, the animator who draws all of the original characters drew an Elvis-like quaf on the little Alien guy.  Easy fix and also, quite funny.  Two birds- bam, boom.
     I learned that Frylock is 43 years old (you'll learn in upcoming episodes that he predicts that his 44th year is a good year for him and the ladies, sexually speaking), Meatwad is 6, and Shake is still undetermined. The inspiration for adding Carl to the show came around because he was apparently Space Ghost's neighbor. The inspiration for Carl's portly and heavily Italian look came around because the crew thought that that's just "what everyone from New Jersey looks like."  ...I can't quite disagree with them there. Give the 'Situation' a few years and bada-big......it's Brutananadiluski time baby! 
     Remember when Boston shut down because Mooninite Err decide to go all LED and flip off the city?  They wrote an episode about it, script to post production, done in full, and then Adult Swim denied it from being aired.  Not even onto dvd.   Bastards.  They give these guys no budget and they go all PG on them too?  They were right- had that happened to Family Guy, they would have been greenlit from the beginning.  All I know is that I was able to have a little trinket signed by the original character artist and now I have a present for Cassel for his wedding on Saturday.  What a bomb present!


      So, I did miss out on the Abrams and Whedon panel because the line was super long.... I blame Angelina Jolie and her residue fans who lingered on inside and held on to their seats for whatever reason, leaving the line outside longer than normal.  She broke Jennifer Aniston's heart, people!!! She has no soul!  ...I secretly do love her. I'm just lashing out because she hasn't returned my calls.  I'll have to grow a big, I-like-to-pretend-I-live-in-the-woods beard like Pitt. Girl Interrupted was sick- though Winona deserved awards too...sigh, don't get me started.
    ...Though I missed out on the scifi (sorry...'syfy') rulers of the world AND I missed out on the LOST composer due to another long line, I was able to hold my spot for my night's triumphant conclusion and find some happy accident panels along the way.
     The first of which being, Quantum Leap!  Aww, yeah homeboiiiii.  How is this man still so hot?

    I figure that that time teleporter is real and it somehow keeps him young always so that he can continue saving lives and soothing hearts.  It makes sense.  He was also another humble one.  Very sweet.  And very beautiful.   Al!!!!!!!!!!!

      The most extreme happy surprise was that the panel following this was "Look Around You".  A BBC show by none other than freaking Peter Serafinowitz!!!!!!!!   (DAMN, did he get hot!)

 

If you know Shaun, you'll know that he is the douche-ass of a roommate who dislikes the front door being left open.  Better yet, if you know Spaced (which you should, as it is important to our friendship and me respecting you as a human being) (kidding, but sorta not kidding), he is the douche who take's Tim's lady love.  Also, more recently, he directed the video by Hot Chip which is both hilarious and disturbing: http://www.youtube.com/user/PeterSerafinowicz

This is his channel, by the by.  Check out his impersonations, they're spot on!  

     "Look Around You" is a spoof on the school age informative videos of yesteryear, mainly focused on the topic of Science. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CBF54943AAB970FC This link is the beginning of a playlist of 17 "Look Around You" videos that I cannot wait to watch when I have more time and when the delirium of this weekends events wears off a bit and I understand reality again.  British humor is what I was first turned on to as a child and I'm really glad it was.  American humor is funny, laugh-out-loud funny, but British humor is a bit more sarcastic and odd and makes you think a bit more.  Serafinowitz and his partner on the project, Robert Popper, claim that the difference in humor between us is because England is "a bit nice, but a bit shit. Boring."  I suppose there's not as much to laugh out loud about over there- which works out just fine for me, because their humor, despite the reason for its origins, suits me quite well.  Keep your eyes open for Radio Spirit World and Markets of Britian by Lee Titts. 

     The conclusion of the night, the reason for saving our seats for the hours (us, being my father and I...he was a trooper!) was the............drum roll please!!!!............DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-A-LONG BLOG!!!!

No, no one from the cast was there, but still. It was worth it.  There was a lyric book with call-backs worked into it.  When the Bad Horse songs came on, everyone was to pretend that they were riding a horse.  The ENTIRE damn floor shook.  It was terrifying and amazing. Not a seat was empty in that place.  

      There was hand waving going on. 

       A million more pictures are up on Face Book...these are just the panels I saw.  Other pictures will include a few random people from Heroes (not the people you think...the Puppet Master is one!), a very pissed-off-that-we-didn't-pay-to-take-her-picture Morgan Fairchild, the hottest alien I've ever seen, and me posing with My Little Pony.  

<3   More tomorrow!!!  <3