Imagicon 2010

I attended Imagicon 2010 in Birmingham, AL last weekend. I had a good time, but sadly, there were more negatives than positives.

First, I'd like to say this is only their second or third year. Hopefully, they learn from problems that arise, and improve.

The convention was held with a split venue (the first mistake). The science fiction, fantasy, and comic tracks were at the McWane Science Center, while the Anime and Paranormal tracks (how in the world do THOSE two genres end up together?) were halfway across town at Old Car Heaven. You had to take a shuttle between the two (or pay $5 for parking each time you left the McWane).

Then there were the shuttles. While nothing wrong with the shuttles in particular, it still made for a miserable experience. The shuttle travelled between McWane and OCH, which was a twenty minute round trip. Now, a twenty minute wait doesn't sound so bad, but lines to get on the shuttle were so long on Saturday that I ended up waiting three shuttles- an hour- before I could go. In this time, I missed several panels and events (though I did make some friends in the bus line =D ).

As far as the venues go, McWane was a neat place. There wasn't always something going on that fit my specific tastes at the con, so the exhibits gave me something to do. Unfortunately, it was still operating as the Science Center during the convention. This meant children, EVERYWHERE. Non-convention-going parents would give me evil glares because their children would scream and cry upon seeing me in costume (really, I'm not THAT ugly, am I? ;-;) I shouldn't be treated like that for normal convention behavior while at a convention.

Gaming was split up between the McWane and OCH- yet another bad choice (although I do find it funny that the table top gamers were in the basement).

Despite all the negatives, I did have fun. With the exception of a couple of pirate cosplaying staff, the people running the convention were friendly and helped add to the entertainment. The Aliens diorama (run by a predator cosplayer o.O) was well set up, though it could have been in better lighting for photos. The costuming panels were excellent. I learned quite a bit from those.

I will probably go to the con again next year, but only if they fix the split venue problem. Heck, I might volunteer to be staff.

Now, for Pictures!!

Free Comic Book Day!

Going to Comix in-costume for Free Comic Book Day! Will be sure to post photos. As soon as I can lasso someone to be the camera holder for me. D:

By the way, I started a DeviantArt page.

http://www.jokezonyou-cosplay.deviantart.com

Emperor Joker? D=

So, the way blogs are supposed to work, the blogger (me) researches all sorts of information on relevant subject material, and the bloggee (you) goes "Oooooh, Ahhhhh! Thanks for the information, omniscient blogger!"
Unfortunately, I'm finding slim to no information on what I want to talk about. Yes, I manage to suck at Google.

Apparently, Batman: Brave and the Bold is going to do a story arc of the Emperor Joker storyline. From what I've heard, Bat-mite will be in the episode. I'm not sure if he will be replacing Mtsl... Mytzy... Mjhasjkflghfkgsd. That GUY that bugs Superman all the time, or if he'll just happen to be in the episode for another plot point.

First: Information! Do any of you guys have information on this I don't? Will it be an animated film? A one episode plot, maybe a two-parter? I wanna know!

Second: Speculation! Emperor Joker is not my favorite story arc. Far from it. There were a few witty one-liners, but otherwise the entire concept was slaughtered with bad writing and inconsistent artwork. If this plot were taken seriously for an animated adaptation, it would likely suck horribly.
FORTUNATELY, it's Brave and the Bold we're talking about here. It has the zanney-ness of the 1960's show, with a few dark Batman aspects thrown in. If anything could make this story fun to watch, it's BATB. Here's hoping it's good!

Now Hiring

So, I said to him, "You know, Jim. If you keep this kind of behavior up, we might have to go from reprimands to just letting you go."


And he said nothing, because I had reprimanded him in the face with a .45 .

That's what he -gets- for hitting that speed bump too hard while I was drinking lemonade in the back seat. He made me spill it all over my new tie.

OOC Blog!

Yeah, it's not bad enough I give you guys those out-of-character videos. Now I'm doing it for blogs, too!
Well, I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I have papers due, I need to start looking for a summer job, and what did my dumb butt do? Audition for another play. Now I've got four rehearsals a week in a different city than I live. That was smart of me, huh? Oh well.
Currently finishing up a rough draft for a report of information on Non-Equity acting tours. It took me forever (and a few e-mails to actual professionals) to figure out what I was gonna write this paper on. Honestly, this paper is serving one of its purposes. The research I've done for this topic has let me know what I'm going to need to do to hope to be successful as an actor.
Now, if I could only figure out how to re-word all this. Honestly, this paper is crap. Oh well, good thing it's a first draft. I guess my professor will give me guidance on how to fix how screwed-up it is, and then I can rewrite it all NON-sucky.
Anyway, I've got some Joker Vlog ideas lines up, including a visit to a humane shelter in-costume, a threat to Catwoman, and the Phantasm having a little revenge on poor helpless Joker. D= You can probably expect these videos to start coming in during June.

Prom Paddling Predicament!

So,recently, in good ole Alabama, 18 students got in trouble for wearing apparently too-reavling prom dresses. The code was something along the lines of no cleavage, and skirts should not be six inches above the knee. While this may be a tad bit conservative for a public school, that doesn't sound TOO odd. Only just a little ridiculous.

No, no, but HERE'S the good part. The choice in punishment was 3 days suspension... or PADDLING. Given, these are juniors and seniors we are talking about: Far too old for paddling punishment, for sure, don't you think? That's not what makes this such a strange, sad little case. What disturbs me- yes, disturbs ME- is the fact that somewhere along the line, someone thought it would be appropriate to spank 17 year old girls- you know, minors? that the school had already deemed as "under-dressed". Really? Did anyone THINK about how that would look? Cuh-reeeepyyy. Well, that aside, 17 of the 18 skin-baring damsels prefered paddling to suspension. For some reason, I get the mental image of some eager middle-aged man smiling his creepy, redneck little smile as he carries out the sentence, but hey. I don't know that for sure, so I can't judge, right?
Hell yes, I can!

Honestly, I don't know what else to say about these "recent events" kind of things. There were things. These things happened. I wasn't involved, so aside from the creepy mental images of said spankings that I can't get out of my head, what else is there for me to really have an opinion about? I'll just say, good thing the guy doesn't live in Gotham, cause I'd love to let Harley turn the tables on him in the LEAST pleasant and most ironic of ways. Just 'cause it would be funny to see.

Soooooo.

You know, sometimes, it's the little things one enjoys. Sure, robbing a bank or beating Robin within inches of his life with a crowbar may be fun, and mass murder gets me in headlines and my own regular spot on the 10 o'clock news, but you just have to sit down and take a break, cuddle up to your current hostage, and totally throw them for a loop by watching an old Disney movie.
Now, now, I don't mean the amazing classics such as Lion King or Little Mermaid. Noooooo, apparently, Disney does EVERYTHING in their power to keep those from being found anywhere but yard sales. Instead, I put in a less-known but fun-to-watch DVD, "Hocus Pocus".

It came to my realization, after watching it after years and years, that no one gives to spits about the main character. For all anyone cares, little sister could have had her soul sucked through a jet engine, and with the exception of "yaboos", the love interest could have been eaten by a zombie.
No, no, no, it's ALL about the witches, with a little side of Binks the cat. The so-called heroes are written so horribly that I'm sure none of you can even remember their names without Google or Wikipedia or IMDB or some other crap!
But everyone remembers Winnie. Remember, Winnie, remember! Mnnnn, and at least all the GUYS remember Sarah. And... well, I'm sure SOMEONE remembers Mary.

Those witches made that movie. It goes to show- everyone loves the villains these days! So, why do I get no appreciation from vigilantes? Why can't Batsy just accept me for giving his life substance, watchability, good ratings? Probably has something to do with Jason Todd or Barbara Gordan or a few dozen Gotham citizens, or maybe that one time I tried to gas all the leaders of- ehhh, okay. So, maybe Batsy's got his reasons.

In any case, I need to get going. I've recently come into possession of a large amount of Rob Schneider films, and they'll be PERFECT torture for my current house guest.

Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig!

So, I can assume that, by this point, you have all (and by all, I mean the total of THREE people who have followed this blog so far- now I see who my TRUE minions are! D=< )heard about the Spider-Man movie franchise reboot. Oh, you haven't? Well, yeah. They're rebooting the Spider-Man movie franchise. This means old cast out, new cast in! Buh-bye, Tobey Maguire! Hello, uh... well. I'm not entirely sure if they've CAST anyone yet. The first two movies in the Spider-series were pretty good, but it seems the third movie had the same problem Batsy's third did. Well, the same problem OTHER than Joel Schumacher. It was just cheesey as a big, smelly block of biodegrading limburger. I mean, yeeeaah, they did a decent job giving Sandman a backstory and motivation, but the rest of the film was just crap!

In any case, I digress. If you want more information, here's an article for you guys.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/01/urgent-spider-man-4-scrapped-as-is-raimi-and-cast-out-franchise-reboot-planned/

Now, it's said that this will land our dear old Peter Chumbucket back in High School. That's all good and everything, I guess. I was just never much into the idea so strongly held in the comic books that an average, if not a little nerdy, High Schooler can develop webbing cartridges and high-tech trackers that work better than anything Uncle Sam's got. (On that thought, maybe we should send geeky high schoolers after ole' Osama.)

So. Anyone interested in this at all? Opinions? Tell me what you think! Leave comments, and all that jazz.

A little Info.

Yeaaaah, I could have chosen a much more popular blogging site for this. Just to let you guys know, you'll need a Google account to follow this blog.

Blog!!

That's right, I've caved into the pressure of joining the current decade... er.. century, or millennium, I guess?
In any case, this in no way means I am abandoning my vlog... any more than I already have, anyway. This is simply easier to update. However, it's also less flashy, less pretty, and gosh-darnit, it just DOESN'T have my face all over it!!

So no, you don't have to worry about me giving on on my pretty little videos. I love those a little too much!
At the moment, I'm just getting set up here. Don't worry your little heads, more content is on the way. If anyone has a request for specific content, I MAY be a gracious clown and let you have it. And oohhh, boy, will I let you have it. [[Insert the muah ha ha's here]]

Otherwise, I'll be posting ideas for potential problems I'll pose for a poor bat. Of course, that's really self-defeating, as I'm sure you-know-who will find and read this blog. Maybe that's what I WANT. Maybe, just maybe, he'll be forced to walk into a trap. And of course, he'll KNOW he'll be walking into a trap, so... huh. Wait. Why was this a good idea, again?