So the motorcycle is up and running. I can’t wait ’till go get it, as it spent the winter in the comfort of my Dad’s garage, as opposed to my cold barren parking lot. So to celebrate the motorcycle season starting, I got myself a motorcycle jacket.

A lavender jacket.  I saw the ad in my latest Cycle World, so I visited the website of the company. I then looked around a bit for a green jacket, to match my bike (and my car), but the only green jacket that looked halfway decent was a Kawasaki jacket, and that wasn’t as nice looking as this jacket:

As you can see they had blue, pink and black along with the lavender jacket – but hey, purple is my favorite color. It not only has the nice reflective stripes front & back, but has armor to protect precious body parts and “vents” as too cool me off during the summer months. I just like the light colors that will be easier to see then my black leather coat.

Now just to go pick up the bike so I can wear my beautiful new jacket.

Is it Friday night yet? I’ve been feeling beat all this week. . .having to have a coffee (or mountain dew) at 2nd break is something I never do as the caffeine usually will keep me up tossing and turning not being able to get to sleep. Not this week. I still sleep better then a baby, falling to sleep withing minutes of lying down.

The other night when I came home from SPACE I went to bed and I had that feeling of almost going to sleep, but not quite there. . .a feeling of. . .not falling, but knowing that in about 2 seconds I’ll be unconscious and not able to remember any of it. . .A feeling that I didn’t want to fall asleep ’cause I might not wake up, but then I turned it around and said, I know I’ll be dreaming, I know I’m dreaming, so if I’m going to dream, let me fly. . .and then I was lucid dreaming that I was flying..

Then I would think, but I don’t want to go to sleep ’cause I might not wake up and I awoke myself. It was a bit odd. . .then I would have that sinking into the dream sleep again, and I would repeat my mantra about flying and I would be flying, but yet I could hear the rain outside and the slight movement of the blinds and the wind pushing them around. . .and I would wake myself up . . .even though I was having fun flying. . .

Like I said, it was an odd feeling. To be at once opposed to falling asleep (I might die and not wake up!) to the thought that I can do anything, including fly, in my dream so why not try to get some enjoyment out of it? Kinda like my id (run!) vs my ego (lets think this out). And while I thought I had control of my thoughts, it was almost like I was dreaming the whole repeating cycle, it seemed dreamlike in itself.

And when I awoke on Monday morning from that odd dream / awake cycle, which only lasted a couple minutes before I totally went into a deep sleep, I still felt well rested. While I woke up at 7am, I rolled over and went back to sleep just ’cause I could. And I didn’t wake up until about 8am. . .

I’ve had some interesting dreams this week even while I’ve been having caffeine past noon, but I can’t remember as much of them as I usually do. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get enough rest so I don’t need caffiene during 2nd break to stay focused and then I can start remembering my dreams again. . .

Sunday morning I woke to the protests of my bladder. Getting old not only means your tasty buds die (at least that is what 9 year old me thought when my parents would willingly eat creamed corn), but that little bladder gremlins come each night and not only steal a bit of it, but fill it up also. Gah! Of course when I got up to go to the bathroom, the movement (hahaha! no pun intended, but I’m going to leave it without clarification) awoke Jeff and the both of us couldn’t get back to sleep.

So we managed to get up and head out for another delicious breakfast at the Hometown Buffet. On our way out the door we said our goodbyes to Larry, Chris and L^enny. They had earlier flights then ours by the time we would reach SPACE they would be gone.

When we got to SPACE, the floor was noticeably more quiet then it was on Saturday. I mostly sat at Matt’s table, watching the people walk by, trying to sell the comics and other goodies at the booth (I think I managed to sell one CRIC #2) and just relaxing and chatting with Matt and Paula.

I did get up to go see Max Ink, and picked up the issues of Blink he had on his table. He did some cool sketches on the back of the comic, which he had left open for such things and we chatted a bit. When I skimmed through his mini-comic, the art is amazing. I read a couple when I got home, and the stories were just as good as the art.

About 2pm I was getting thirsty so Jeff T and myself made a run to the store. I picked up a Red Bull and downed it in like 5 minutes when I got back to SPACE. But it didn’t help. I was still pretty tired. Soon enough it was 4pm and people were already starting to pack their stuff up to head home even tough the con didn’t finish until 5pm.

When the time came, we picked up our stuff and hauled it out to the mini-van. We said our good byes to Matt and Paula who weren’t leaving until Monday morning, and headed out. Jeff S had to get his flight itinerary so Bob Corby helped a great deal by being our navigator to the local Kinko’s where Jeff S could use the internets.

By the time we dropped off Bob back at SPACE, we had about 10 minutes to get Jeff S to the airport. We couldn’t remember which rental car place Jeff T had gotten the mini-van, and the information wasn’t on the key chain or the paperwork. Odd. So we took a guess of Budget and pulled in to the return spot.

Wrong answer. We were Thrifty. So while we waited for the guy to pull out the three cars ahead of us, Jeff S went to grab a cart for his 35 pounds of comics and his bag. Jeff came back and we said our goodbyes and then drove down one level to the Thrifty place. Once again there was little to no line at the United counter and no line at the place to check our baggage. We made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare.

The flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful, other then the funny stewardess, who had a great sense of humor (“Hello from the flight deck. I’m Cathy and in the back of the cabin is Martin. We won’t be serving beverages on this short hop to Chicago, but if you need anything, feel free to ask Martin.”) . But once we landed in Chicago, we were early. So of course we had to wait about 30 minutes for our gate to open up.

After hoofing it to our next flight and just making it in time, we boarded the final flight home. And then we waited. . .and waited. . .and waited. A flight from Aruba was late and we were not waiting for the passengers, they had boarded when we did. We were waiting for their luggage. I made some loud obnoxious comment that they could wait for their luggage, ’cause they should be happy after a week or two in Aruba. And as Jeff T later pointed out, they’d have no use for shorts, tee shirts and bathing suits in Providence. So after an hour of waiting for them, we finally took off.

Chicago was a mad crazy busy airport. All the time we were sitting on the tarmac, I could see plane after plane in line to land. One right after the other in the air coming down on descent. We swung around out pass the shore of Lake Michigan and back to land, and when we did I could see planes making the same u turn in the sky.

So of course our flight was late coming in to Providence. . .and then we had to wait at the luggage carousel because “due to the heavy volume of luggage, there would be delays”. . .so if we had left the Aruba tourists’ luggage at Chicago, we would not have only gained the hour at Chicago airport, we would have gained the 20 minutes we waited for our luggage at Providence. . .umm.

By the time we got to Jeff’s place it was close to 2am. . .but I had to see them! I had to see all 100 tracing paper sketches that Jeff posted to the Cerebus Art site. I just wanted to lay them out on the floor and roll all over them. . .but Jeff’s wife was there and the room was crowded with other Cerebus goodies. . .so no go on that. But there are a couple that I have my eye on . . .we shall see.

Overall, another great SPACE weekend. This trip seemed to go faster then the past 6 years (6 years! yoinks!) for some reason. Jeff T even made a comment to that effect as we were leaving the airport. . .And I still haven’t caught up on sleep (though I understand that is a fallacy), as I’ve been dragging ass at work for the past couple days and sleeping right in to my alarm clock (which usually doesn’t happen). What an excellent time I had!

So after being up until 2:30 am eating wings and discussing sundry topics, I finally got to sleep. I had reserved the airplane tickets and Jeff T had gotten the room. Yes, I shared a room with a guy. Hoooboy. Though what the hotel people didn’t tell Jeff (or maybe he hadn’t heard them tell him, I didn’t get the entire story) is that the hotel room only had one queen size bed. One. And it didn’t seem like a queen to me. I have a queen size bed at home and the hotel bed was a bit smaller – maybe it was double.

But Jeff, being the kindly sort he is, told me he’d take the floor – even though there was a reclining chair. . .said the floor would be fine for him. Besides, we were both up since early morn and dead tired. We didn’t set the alarm clock or if we did I couldn’t remember it. . .as I woke up early, well, before 10am at least. When Jeff S knocked on our door and a discombobulated Fangirl answered the door. Jeff was looking for his camera (a disposable one he had picked up at CVS, Jeff T had gotten one exactly like it). About 30 minutes later he came back looking for Dave. . .how could you lose Dave? Turns out he never saw him. . .after locating Dave, Jeff S, Larry, Chris W, Matt D and Paula took off for the convention. We didn’t know where John L and family were, as their car had disappeared from its spot right outside our window.

So Jeff T, L^enny and myself headed off to get eats. We turned left going out the hotel, took an immediate right and about 15 seconds later pulled into a parking lot: Hometown Buffet! And boyohboy, did it live up to its reputation. Lots of food at a reasonable price. Eating half a plate of grits and bacon (with a cinnamon roll for dessert), I had found happiness. Even if it was only for 10 minutes. What do you expect for $9?

We headed back to the hotel to get the battery that L^enny had left charging for his camcorder and then we headed to the show. Dave Sim and the crew, Larry & Jeff S with CRIC #2 and Matt & Paula with Racecar Comics #3, were in the same corner as they were last year. I said my hellos to them and picked up Matt’s latest comics and an issue of CRIC #2 (signed limited edition of course). Then I headed over to see Paul Hornschemeier as I wanted to get a copy of his latest book, the one he was premiering at SPACE: The Three Paradoxes. I wanted to pick up a copy before he sold out.

So I headed over and said my hellos. He had a couple of books with some original art in them, so after I had picked up a copy of The Three Paradoxes I skimmed through them. I always enjoy looking at original art, seeing the things that go on behind the comic – the blue line pencils that don’t reproduce on the printed page, the little notes scribbled in the side line, the white out. . .then one piece caught my eye. I asked how much, and said sure to his price:

How Could I pass up such a succulent orange? And a television? The graphics looked really nice and struck a nerve in me. I asked Paul about his most recent work in Mome, which he said is going to be reprinted in a year or so. He also said he is working on a thing for Marvel, a short story in an anthology of small press indy guys similar to DC’s Bizzarro collection. We chatted for a few minutes and I headed back to the table in the corner as I wanted to find Jeff T to get the key to the minivan and put the page in a safe place.

When I got back, only Matt and Paula were at the table. I asked Matt where Jeff T was and he said prolly in at the Day Prize award ceremony. D’oh! How did I miss it? I had totally lost track of all time. So I put the page or art in with Matt’s mini-comics in a box and sat down to relax for a minute or two before getting back up for a sweep of the show. I picked up lots of cool comics, but haven’t had a chance yet to read them all (I’ve only gotten around to Lackluster World #4 and Under The Midnight Sun. Both were really good.

I picked up Dave’s latest print, a recreation of a commission he did, for a cheap $10. I bumped into Jeff T and L^enny a few times while they were doing their podcasting from the hallway in the back. I enlisted Jeff S and John L, who had made up a really funny shirt that said “Moderator Wannabe”, to help hang up the huge poster (on really nice paper) of Estarcion – the map that is on Jeff T’s website, www.cerebustheaardvark.com, he had printed out at a super high resolution. It looked really nice. Jeff had surprised Dave the night before with it, and Dave seemed to like it. Either that or he was faking it really good seeing as how it was just him and a bunch of Yahoos in a hotel room. . .nah, he seemed sincere.

The con let out about 6pm, and we started packing up. I was about to head out to the minivan, and someone called me back. Turns out that Steve Peters had written a song for Latter Days sung to the tune of Hendrix’s Purple Haze. And it was great. Laugh out loud several times.

We got back to the hotel, Dave had his prayer time, and we headed out to the Sausage Haus. It still is a bit . . . odd to me to have Dave just walk into our hotel room, as we had left the door open to let the other Cerebites in while we were waiting for Dave. But it was just Jeff and I for a bit then in walked Dave. . .then slowly the other yahoos poured in. We had plenty of cars (and the minivan sat 7! well, 6 comfortably) and we formed a caravan. Someone in the minivan asked about how the “tradition” of going to the Sausage Haus had been started. So I told the story of Sarah Fist and the sausages.

We made the trip safely, timely and without incident to the Sausage Haus. We had even gone a different way this year (going to the exit prior to the Sausage Haus rather then after it). It was a warm beautiful night outside and it was a nice wait: just chatting, hanging out and in some cases, enjoying some drinks. At dinner the table I was at, with Paula and Jeff T, all got the sausage buffet. Paula took up valuable stomach space with salad and bread while Jeff and myself started in on the sausages and kraut. Very very tasty. Two plates later and it was time for the 1/2 pound of cream puff and a coffee. Those were some very tasty eats.

The ride home was not as . . .incident free as the ride to the restaurant, as we somehow managed to get lost. Though I didn’t care, as I was in the waaaaaay back seat. Paula was entertaining me of stories of her work (in the ICU clinic of a hospital) and Dave was listening in. He would pipe up with a comment or two here and there, but mostly left the talking to Paula, as I only chimed in when I got to talk about what I do for a living.

When we finally go back to the hotel, it was late and Dave had to be getting back to his room for his midnight self imposed curfew. So we bid our farewells and headed to my room. Jeff T pulled out his ipod and turned on some tunes, Chris W pulled out his laptop and started posting to the group, and we all started talking about this and that.

Until 4 o’clock in the fucking morning. Jebus! I was exhausted. Jeff T finally gave a not so subtle hint (Get the heck out!) and the room was cleared as we had to get up at a reasonable time in the morning for Day Two of SPACE.

Three days this year. Gone in a flash. The only way to prove it existed: YouTube videos and pictures. The videos aren’t up yet (they need to be edited together), but the pictures are up on my flickr page. What a wild and crazy weekend. The days blurred together. Literally as we stood up to 3 – 4am almost every day. . .or would that be night?

Jeff T and myself had an early flight out of TF Green – so I had to head down to Warwick about 5am. I ended up waking up at 3:30 am and not being able to get back to sleep. At least the roads were halfway clear that time of morning and it was the first time in a long time that I’d seen that side of a sunrise.

So I get to Jeff’s place, he is still asleep, but manages to get showered and dressed in 15 minutes and out the door we went. It was perfect timing: we got to the airport, checked in without a line in 5 minutes, checked our luggage and went through security in about 20 minutes. When we got to our gate the plane was already boarding. So we got in line and from the time we step into the airport until we sat in our seats on the plane was approximately 30 minutes.

Chicago airport was just as uneventful and a two hour flight later we landed in Columbus. We headed down to the car rental place and picked up the minivan (seats 7!) that Jeff T got for the weekend. We met up with Chris W and Jeff S and headed off towards the hotel. We passed the Shriner’s Complex on the way to the hotel. It wasn’t that far at all, about 5 minutes away from the airport.

We quickly checked in and then headed to Ohio State University for the Will Eisner exhibit: original art pages by Eisner. The Eisner exhibit was cool to see, I was interested by the different way he composed his panels. It seemed so . . .ordinary now, but I reminded myself that it was drawn in the 1930s / 1940s, good stuff. I was looking at a page from the Mr. Eisner’s Vietnam book, Last Day in Vietnam, where he used a textured paper that when drawn upon produced what appeared to be a zip-a-tone effect. It was interesting to see how he would make a solid straight line on it then just quickly fill in the shading for the zip-a-tone look. While I was looking at that page, Jeff S came up to me and pointed out another page right by it.

The page had what appeared to be a sepia tone to it. It was pretty nice looking, but we had no clue how he got the look. About 10 minutes later, Dave showed up and immediately asked to be left alone, as he wanted to see the Eisner art. Who could blame him? He hadn’t seen any from this period before and was just as excited as we were to see it. While he was looking at the art, Jeff T was doing a post to the Yahoo!Group. As he finished, Dave finished and Jeff asked Dave if he wanted to say a few words. So Dave sat down and typed a message to the group.

As all Jeff T and myself had for eats all day was a hot dog for breakfast in Chicago, and it was about 3pm, we decided to get some eats. I thought the Steak & Shake would be fun. Dave and Bob Corby came along, but they just got coffee. After a yummy dark chocolate shake and a bacon cheeseburger, we headed up to the Laughing Ogre while Dave went back to the hotel for prayer time. We perused the comics and Dave showed up shortly and looked around also.

We went back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the yahoos who had come in by now and do the interview with Dave and the Cerebus Live! 2 readings. When we got back the crew assembled and Matt and Paula D, Larry, John and his cohorts (wife Boe, daughter and future son-in-law), Lenny and Nate and three friends of his showed up. The camera and mini-disc recorder were set up, everyone sat down and Lenny began interviewing Dave. After he was done he opened the floor to questions, but only Jeff S and Nate had a couple.

After the interview, everyone pulled out their High Society phonebooks. Dave called me over and said we should do the short story “The Goat” from High Society. So Dave played Lord Julius and I was the Abbess. We did a “walk through” then we recorded a take. It was pretty fun, and I did all I could do to not laugh – just focus on my next line. For Dave plays a great Julius. It was fun trying to keep up with him.

The next reading was an Elrod scene that Jeff S wanted to do and it involved Jeff S as Elrod, Jeff T as Cerebus, Chris W as the Cockroach and myself as Astoria. Everyone did a pretty dang good job, now I’ll be hearing their voices in my head as those characters. The last installment was Summit Enchanted Evening with Dave reprising his Lord Julius role, Jeff T as Cerebus, Lenny as Duke Leonardi and Matt as the Army Commander. It was hilarious. During the walk through everyone was laughing like madman. It was great.

Dave called it a night after that and a few of us went out for hot wings. The service was slow and the music was too loud, but the wings were pretty dang tasty. I only got 12 boneless medium hot wings. Lenny and Jeff T got 25 very hot wings a piece. And ate every single one. Tasty stuff. After the hot wings we called it a night and went to sleep to get ready for the convention in the morning.

2 hours of Cerebus and Dave Sim goodness, plus Lenny thrown in the mix also.

Yes, Dave and Lenny were on the Comic Geek Speak podcast wherein the CGS guys read  Church & State I and II and then gave Dave a call to discuss the two phonebooks and Cerebus in general. Lenny being a regular over on the CGS forum and a Cerebus fan who help set up the interview participated.

And it was 2 hours of geek out fun. A pretty interesting conversation and always a pleasure to hear Dave speak, as new tidbits are always picked up. I won’t give them away, as you  should go listen to the interview yourselfs – well worth your two hours of time. And being a podcast, just download it to your mp3 player and listen to it through the day / on the way to work / walking around town.

In other Sim / Cerebus news, SPACE is only a couple days away! w00t!

I don’t read too many comics nowadays. I don’t have a hold slot any more since Marshak’s is no longer Marshak’s (and about 1,500+ miles from my house). I don’t have a LCS to shop at – the closest thing is either the Borders or the Newbury Comics. . .or if I happen to be in Boston for something or other I’ll stop at Comicopia (the last time I did that was when a friend and I went to see the Sox last game last season).

The most recent comics I’ve picked up were DMZ volume #2 collection, All Star Superman #1 – 6 (I only picked up ’cause I like Grant Morrison’s writing and Frank Quitely’s art is soooo beautiful),  the New X-Men omnibus that collects all of Grant’s X-Men and a small indy title call Violin by Lee and Valerie.

Not much in the last 6 months or so. If I were you, pass on the X-Men omnibus. Total blech. Some purty art, some so-so story, but for $10 not $60. Not worth it even if it was 50 comics in color. Though the book itself is interesting to me as an example of what Dave Sim could do for the Cerebus color volume (all 300 covers, the epic stories, etc).

All Star Superman was fun. Entertaining stories and some really nice art. Worth my $2.95 a piece. Damn, are comics really that expensive now? What happened to 35 cent comics? Damn punk kids get off my front lawn!

The DMZ collection was an entertaining read on a topic I love to read about (a post / at civil war america). If you like Brian Wood’s other work, it is worth a read.

And the one non-main stream comic these past 6 months? Violin. By Lee (art and story) and Valerie Hudson (story). So far it is only issue #1, published by Lee himself. The art is beautiful and the story spans two (currently separate) stories: one of an old man who is the last of his kind and one of an alien being who is trying to hunt his dinner. Doesn’t sound like much, but the story made me want to find out more about both characters.

I hope to see an issue #2, but right now you can issue #1, which was just released March 26, for $3 at Lee’s site.

With the X-Men hardcover I could care less what happened to the characters. It didn’t really seem to matter since the next writer would just do their own thing anyways. The Superman comics were pretty much the same, I was just along for the fun ride. With DMZ, the characters were Brian’s and he is taking them in a direction which is interesting to me. But with Violin? I think of them the same as DMZ and more then the Superman and X-Men books. These are Lee’s characters and he is doing what he wants with them and showing us a (so far so) good story and publishing it himself. Good stuff for only three bucks.

This crystal bunny / rabbit was one of things from my mom’s house that I got:

My sister found it for me and cleaned out all of the old crusty jellybeans left in it. My mom said she got it from my cousin Kyle for Vanessa’s christening. I can’t find anything else out about it – like where it came from, who made it, etc. . .it seems more of an Easter gift, the bunny and all, but perhaps that is just my preconcieved notions of what the bunny is to be used for that dicate that it is an Easter gift.

Every Easter that I can remember at least, my siblings and I would head downstairs early to find our Easter baskets on the dining room table, along with some colored hard boiled eggs and this crystal bunny filled with jelly beans.

What a bunny, jelly beans and colored hard boiled eggs have to do with Christ rising from the dead (unless all three are zombie food?), I don’t know, but those are my Easter memories.

Yeah, yeah. I know this is a couple weeks late – if I wanted to blog about the crystal bunny on Easter. But it looks like I had other things to talk about then.

One side claiming foul that he spew racist and sexist comments. The other side claiming it was just a joke, get over it, why was he fired?

Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. And everyone just needs to shut the hell up.

My goodness. There are so many more things newsworthy going on in this world that deserve our attention then Imus. But like the media, they love to hook onto a good drag ‘em down and throw dirt on to ‘em “scandal.” The heck with all the people dying in Darfur, or all the crazy despots still in power around the world, or the crappy conditions our wounded vets have to endure in the VA hospitals.

I don’t know why the American public chooses to feed the media frenzy about Imus. So the companies that advertised on his show didn’t want to be associated with him. . .or more likely the three little words he said. Find that is their choice. That these companies prolly even advertise on other shows, print and other media that use racist and sexist terms is just a bit hypocritical.

Ohhh, but it is okay they say – a black man can call his friend “my nigger” but a white man who says that is racist right? But that is the clincher of the deal. We can never know what lurks in the heart of another person. Was that white man saying nigger in a racist way? Is there any other way to say it? There must be if the black man can say it with immunity.

But, they say, he is just reclaiming that powerful word for his community. Which makes it “okay” for me to call my girlfriend a dyke, and call myself a lez, but if someone else does it they must be homophobic right?

Wrong. Like I said, you don’t know what lurks in the heart of another. They are just words. Do you remember that old adage: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Someone should have added the word physically in front of hurt. But the emotional pain one suffers when called a degoratory name is just that: emotional.

Get over it. As long as that other person isn’t refusing you the promotion, or denying you a place to live or beating the holy living tar out of you, then get over it. They are just words. Stupid words, but words. They may create “an atmoshere of hate”, but so what? As long as that hate doesn’t turn physical, doesn’t turn into denying others the equal opportunities that all should have, then why do we care what others think of us?

So even if Imus said those words with racism and sexism in his heart: who gives a flying rat’s arse? He isn’t taking away anyone’s right other then the one to listen to a decent radio program. But if you don’t like what he has to say: then just switch the channel.

Just a reminder: the SPACE, Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, is less then 2 weeks away:

From the site:

SPACE 2007 is scheduled for April 21 and 22, 2007 at the Aladdin Shrine Center, Columbus.

10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturday and
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Sunday

Admission $5.00 for one day and $8.00 for both