Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Back.

I don’t know how to explain the last week to you. And I never got the chance to take any pictures but I don’t know if that would help. I have been attending the San Diego Comic-Con for about ten years now and I still can’t describe what it’s like.

First of all, and this is the part that most people don’t seem to understand. I am not really there as a fan. Yeah, I read comics and I am a fan of sorts but if I didn’t work in the comic industry, I probably couldn’t really afford to go to comic-con. The hotel, the food, the passes and then all the stuff you end up spending money on that you really didn’t think about, it adds up. So I am there. And I enjoy it. But it’s not exactly fun. On the other hand, it’s not NOT fun either. I love it. And I hate it. And there are wonderful people, both fans and friends, there and there are horrible people there. And in so many ways it’s just incredibly overwhelming. The sensory overload is intense. The noise of 100,000 people, the heat of the lights and the bodies and the sight of the crowds is enough to make any sane person run in the other direction. But I am there to work. And I do. I worked two jobs again this year and it was…tiring.

Now, I have worked in retail before. And this is retail. But it’s taken to a whole new extreme. I have also worked in an amusement park and at that time, I thought there would never be anything worse than making and serving pizza to thousands of people on the fourth of July, in New Jersey, on a hot day, in a tiny, unventilated building that had 4 pizza ovens working at about 500 degrees each. But comic-con is…something else. I currently have only about 70 percent of my voice because I had to talk, all day, every day. I had to answer questions and pitch products and sell, sell, sell. And yes, sometimes yell, yell, yell. NO, THOSE ARE NOT FREE! But, I do love it. When I am not hating it.

It’s fun and it’s terrible and it’s everything you could ever think a group of 100,000 people with strong opinions and obsessions and no clue and too many clues could ever be. And although the news and the media would have you believe it’s a total freak show…well, there is an element of that but in general it’s people you know and like and sit next to at work and school and it’s your neighbor and your brother and your sister and you. You are all there. And I probably spoke to a lot of you.

I got back to L.A. yesterday afternoon and I was tired. Today I think I feel even more tired. I am hoping by tomorrow to be somewhat closer to coherent.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Gone.

Things that are conspiring to keep me from sleeping

1. stress, both real and imagined
2. fear, both specific and generic

and speaking of fear…can I just tell you that I have been programmed by my education to not sleep? Seriously. And I am betting it’s a generational thing because I am pretty sure anyone who went to school with me has this lingering fear of nuclear holcost and if everyone in my eighth grade class has it, then I am betting that pretty much everyone from that era has it. I can’t be the only one who spent an entire semester in a darkened classroom watching movies about nuclear winters, can I? And when I say movies, I mean MOVIES, Tora Tora Tora, The Atomic Cafe, The Day After…lots of them. And the teacher wore fatigues! Ok, maybe we were the only ones but that one semester of eighth grade social studies has trained me to lie in bed at night and fear the worst. It’s bad enough that the kitchen floor is dirty or that the cat box could use a good cleaning or that I may have spilled paint on the counter and forgot to clean it up but then I start to worry about faces melting and ducking and covering and…oh, you get the picture…anyway

3. tossing and turning of husband
4. whirring of fan…why, oh, why don’t we have an air conditioner in the bedroom?
5. That damn bird that has learned how to mimic an alarm clock. SERIOUSLY. And he starts going off around 3 a.m. Bastard.

BUT THAT'S ALL RIGHT, THAT”S O.K. I DON'T NEED SLEEP ANYWAY!

Why? Because I am a TIRED GIRL, that’s right. And the Tired Girls are about ready to take over San Diego once again. And when I say “take over” I pretty much mean sit quietly at our table and talk nice to you when you walk by. But we will be there, at the convention center, from Wednesday night to Sunday evening and we will be peddling our wares. And I don’t mean anything dirty by that…unless you have a lot of money, then we can talk. NO, NO! I keeeed, I keeeed. (Good Lord, can you tell how tired I must really be if I am making prostitiuion jokes?). We’ve got all kinds of cool stuff and most of us are reasonably nice people so please, stop by if you are in the neighborhood, won’t you? Say “HI” to Anna, Jodi, and Sherri…and me too!

And don’t forget to go see our boys at Big Boss. They are super swell and we love them, especially Jason! Stop by his blog for more Comic-Con pimping and see if you don’t get all excited over the geekery.

See you in a week or so!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Choices.

For the record, the movie that isn’t being made wasn’t mine, but it was important to me. But I threw it in there because it was just one more thing in a list of things that seemed endless and annoying at the time. And then people got all curious. But really, it just seemed like a complain-y L.A. sort of thing to say. And that from me, the first person to point out to my husband when he moans that “everyone thinks they are a screenwriter” that L.A. actually has a lot of people who aren’t writers. Go figure. And surprisingly, a bunch of people who don’t give a damn about the movie industry. AMAZING!

So, no movie but I do now have a brand spankin’ new stove! How exciting! After ten years of having to crawl on the floor with a long handled lighter and worry about scorching my face off (you heard me, TEN YEARS) I now can just turn the dial and…FIRE. Now I know how the cavemen must have felt! Oddly, so does my cat. For the week that we had that giant box of stove in the living room, it was like watching an endless loop of 2001: A Space Odyssey you know, that part with the monolith? Every night she would sit at the foot of the box and gaze at it. Lovingly? Perplexed? Don’t know. But after a while she would get angry and start pawing at it madly and then, suddenly, she’d lie down next to it, her little face nearly pressing against it and fall asleep. Um…weird. She seems a little blue now that it’s gone. But I am happy and I see many cupcakes in my future (there have already been some chocolate cherry breakfast muffins!).

And now it’s the seemingly endless ramp up to Comic-Con. My poor little printer is buzzing at all hours. But I am looking forward to it and hopefully all will go well. New this year are some “nerdy girl” and “nerdcore” tote bags, which I am sure will make an appearance here. And hopefully, some key chains, which will mark my first foray into the art of shrinky-dink-age. We’ll see how that goes.

Now, aside from making silly little cards and tote bags and the like, I do occasionally get asked to whip up a business card, or a logo or something like that and for the most part I am happy to do it. But what very often happens is that the person asking will have no idea what they want. Or worse, they will have a very vague idea but won’t be able to express it. Not that long ago I was asked to make a logo and I was only given this information:

1. Use orange and turquoise (Oh dear!)
2. The woman who is using the logo likes scrap booking
3. The theme is “touching lives, making memories”
4. If possible, it should have a star and/or a daisy in it

OK…well…OK. But here is my problem, when I am given such vague instructions I tend to overload the recipient. Give them too many choices with the Chinese menu philosophy. They can take the font from this one, the color from this one, the shapes from this one and mix and match, which never, ever happens. They just see choices and panic.

So, for the sake of posting something, here are the choices I gave for the above instructions, I went with the idea of “lasting memories” i.e. quilting, embroidery, photographs and scrap booking, but I threw in some other things as well. So, which logo do you think was the most successful?

Friday, July 13, 2007

Meanwhile...

I should have been working. Printing, scoring, cutting, packaging. And I did…some. On the fourth of July, no less. But not so much since then. But I have been to the Hollywood Bowl with a SnarkyDork to see The Decemberists. That was good. Very good. And wine-y…blueberry wine-y. And I did perform in the capacity of a Doggie Do-Gooder, finding a sweet little runaway and returning her home. (I swear I almost kept her, she was so good-natured. And my cat has always wanted a dog to call her very own…)

OK, now see, since I wrote that bit above I have gone to see Eddie Izzard. Gosh I love you Eddie. Kind of hate your audience though, except for those nice people that I sat with. But that lady behind me, not so keen on her. And the one who interrupted the show to give you a lecture on sharks, I could have done without that. And that lady down front who felt the need to chat with you mid-show…yeah. What was up with all that chatter? People, I paid $25 dollars to listen to Eddie Izzard forget his jokes and talk about bees. Not to hear you yell out to him that you’ve been watching The Riches. I have too but I kind of assume he already knows.

ANYway…it’s been a bit of a madhouse around here. Well, it has and it hasn’t. I’ve been working and playing and getting things done and not getting things done and now there is a brand new gas range sitting in the middle of my living room and I need a hair cut and the movie deal fell through and I did pot all my plants but I have yet to pot my gothic terrarium garden and…wait…what?

Yeah, that’s pretty much how it’s been around here lately. But come Monday, I will finally have a stove that does not require me crawling around on the floor to light it every damn time I want to make a cupcake (ten years of this!!!). And by next week I hope to finally have a haircut (after a year…ugh). And maybe, just maybe, I will get everything done for comic con and then I will do something…interesting…that I can write about…because that’s not been happening lately. Well, I mean, I saw the Decemberists…that was interesting. And I saw Eddie, that was interesting. But I don’t suppose just saying those things makes interesting reading, now does it?

You know, I haven’t even really watched any TV or read any books or…ok, well I did watch two episodes of the “World Series of Pop Culture” the other night. Apparently, I am no longer well informed in the matter. I did ok in the “name the album these three songs are found on” category but I anticipated too much in the “Kevin Bacon movie” category and I screwed it up. Just remember though, in case you are ever asked, Animal House, She’s Having a Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. They will come in handy someday.

Currently, I am just trying to get all my ducks in a row for the big ol’ geek fest. Last year my goal was to sell something to someone cool. Someone who would make me kind of geek out…and it happened. An author I really like stopped by and bought some t-shirts from me. Well, an author/actress. You may have heard of her. She was in a little movie called Drop Dead Fred? No? Oh well, she was in some sci-fi thing too…
Well I am hoping for that again. Someone cool to stop by. Maybe an artist I like or perhaps…well…I am hoping anyway.

OK, sorry. I’ll try to be more interesting later. For now…dammit. Kevin Bacon WAS in White Water Summer I KNEW IT! James said I was just thinking of River Wild! Ha. I am better at trivia than…ok, maybe not.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Fairy.

Oh that Danny Boyle. He knows just how to hit me where it hurts and make me love him for it. A movie that has ensured I WILL NEVER EVER DO DRUGS EVER I PROMISE MOMMY! One that made me love “zombies” (do I really need to tell you that they weren’t really zombies and thus much easier for me to love?) Oh, OH, a movie that has ensured that I will never again have roommates and will always get twitchy when I hear someone walking above me…and now this. Sunshine. Way to scare the bejeezus out of me Danny Boyle, make sure there is not enough oxygen before revealing that there is also a “monster in the closet” (not really, that’s not a spoiler, it’s kind of a metaphor…or is it simile? No, no, it’s a metaphor. Right?) Watch the trailer here if you have no idea what I am on about and then tell me everything is going to be all right and there is enough oxygen for us all. And that I probably shouldn’t see Sunshine if the trailer gets me this worked up.

Oh and speaking of annoying, how is this? Last week we finally replaced and old second hand bookshelf with a lovely new cabinet. It’s technically a “buffet”…well, no, it was called a “buffet” in the store but technically, it’s a liquor cabinet. And man do we have a lot of liquor! But it’s finally all nice and in place and we went to get rid of the old bookshelf but after muscling it down the stairs, we discovered that it would fit in my car, but not with the hatch shut. It was Sunday evening and I didn’t want to leave my car open overnight so we decided to leave the bookshelf by the dumpsters and if no one had whisked it away within a day or two, I would come home early one day and truck it over to Goodwill.

Secretly, I hoped that someone would come and take it. It was nice enough and we do have a lot of dumpster divers that come through our neighborhood. But, as I had seen a pretty decent shelf sit there for two weeks, I had a bad feeling about our pretty decent but not all that great shelf. And we didn’t want to just leave it there. The landlady gets kind of pissy about stuff like that, even though I think it was her entertainment center that sat out there for like 18 days. And she was sneaky about it too; she put it out right before she went away so no one could complain to her about the abandoned furniture.

Anyway, I didn’t get home early enough to take it to Goodwill all week. And I noticed that someone HAD come to look at it. They had put the shelves in place, where I had left them leaning against the frame. And a few nights later, I noticed that some of the trim appeared to be peeling off. That worried me. What would we do with it if Goodwill wouldn’t take it?

Finally, on Sunday, we went out to load it in the car. I tried to pull the shelves out and discovered that someone had glued them in. Weird. We loaded it but when I went drag the shelving unit a little bit higher in the bed of hatch, the top ripped off. Whoops. So we decided to just tear the whole thing apart and chuck it in the dumpster. That was when we discovered that not only had someone glued it, they had also screwed it together at all seams, driven some nails into the edges and generally just made it…stronger.

I guess at that point we could have just thrown our hands up and said “Hey, it’s not ours. Someone else took it and repaired it and put it back. LAST TO TOUCH!” But we felt obligated to break it down and chuck it. Which took considerably longer now that it had been shored up. Thanks furniture fairy. Thanks a lot.

OH OH! Guess what else?! Guess where I went last night!!! JUST GUESS!!


OK, you guessed.