The Woot Penguin is very appropriate for this post
So, I just (okay, actually a few hours ago) got back from W00tstock, advertised as "three hours of geeks and music" but which ran for more like five hours. And--it--was--AWESOME. My face hurts from laughing so fucking hard. Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage (WHY do I keep typoing his last name as "Save"??), a musical duo called Paul and Storm whom I hadn't heard of before but who were REALLY good were there, also Molly Lewis, a Canadian sketch comedy group called Loading Ready Run, and some other people that I can't remember. I took many pictures, I'll probably upload them tomorrow. My camera's batteries died in the middle of Adam Savage's set, though. >:/ Seriously, I JUST charged them fully this morning! I think I need new batteries for it altogether.
Sooooo, I was an idiot and didn't write down anything, much less the order it all went in, so this is basically gonna be a hodge-podge culled from my sporadic Twittering during the show.
I had totally forgotten the Aladdin is cash-only, and I only had my prepaid MasterCard with me. And, like an idiot, I hadn't eaten anything yet. I had fully intended to pour myself a bowl of Froot Loops or something before I left, but I forgot, and I was running a bit late. Did I grab something to eat at the KFC near the bus stop on Powell and 82nd? No, of course not, because I didn't want to risk missing the bus. (BTW that was sarcastic.) So, when I got to the Aladdin I was in line for food and noticed the CASH ONLY sign, and was like "FUCK." I got out of line and went to go find a seat, I got a pretty okay one, it was like fifth or sixth row back on the right hand side. I could see the whole stage pretty well. I noticed a girl in front of me and to my left Picto-Chatting on her DS, so I took out my DS (what, did you think I wasn't going to have something to do in the hour before the show started? Actually I'd been playing Zelda: Spirit Tracks beforehand) and entered the PictoChat room where she and about seven other people were. I scribbled "HI" and then "I'm fucking hungry, no cash. :(" Someone wrote back "There's an ATM" so I was actually able to get myself some cash for food, pizza and Coke, which came to like five bucks, and the rest of the cash I used to buy a CD later.
I got back literally just as the show was starting. Wil Wheaton came out and talked and was hilarious, although my brain is fuzzy and I can't remember what he said (oh, now I remember--basically "feel free to take pics/record, hell, we encourage it, but don't be a dick"). After a few minutes he introduced Paul and Storm, who sang a song that I don't know the name of but which I'd hazard a guess is called "We Are The Opening Band", as that refrain was repeated many times. There was also much banter with some audience members and each other as well. (Brain. Fuzzy.)
After P&S Molly Lewis came out and did three songs on ukelele. First one was about Lincoln's assassination, second was about having Stephen Fry's baby, and the third one was about breaking up with Wikipedia (that was my favorite). I think there may have been a fourth song but I did not Twitter about that one if there was.
BTW, there weren't just live acts, there were also short films and musical interludes as well, my favorite being a film from what looked like the '50s about proper school lunchroom habits, but that had been RiffTraxed. (Yes, I made that a verb. Basically RiffTrax is like MST3K, if you haven't heard of it.) Basically they were played after about every other act or so, and I don't feel like writing about all of them. However, they were pretty much all fucking hilarious.
At one point Molly Lewis and I think Paul and Storm came out again and sang "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function", which was awesome. (BTW, I'm trying to think of something that was NOT awesome about the whole show. Can't think of anything.)
Wil Wheaton came out again and read a chapter from his book The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, about his Rocky Horror Picture Show "devirgining", and I'm not entirely sure whether I just made that word up. (Note to self: buy The Happiest Days Of Our Lives asap.)
BTW, once again: I'm skipping A LOT of stuff (by this time it had been like two hours already) and absolutely nothing is in order. Disclaimer over.
....
Okay, fuck. I just came back from walking the dog and my mom was talking to me for like twenty minutes afterward, so this next part is going to be even hazier than it was before. Actually I think I'll just skip on ahead to Adam Savage's part. He showed clips and stills from an upcoming MythBusters episode in which they built a giant water slide down a hill and slid down it into a lake. There were many of these, from different angles, in slow motion, etc. The last one had a target added in the lake, but he stopped that one before he hit the water and said he couldn't show the ending. Afterwards he played the clip in which he was on the treadmill and fell off, in slow motion, with much self-deprecating humor. It was A LOT funnier than I'm making it sound here. "And you'll notice," he said as his film self did a slow-mo face plant on the treadmill, "Jamie has NOT MOVED." True, Jamie, who was holding a stopwatch in the clip, had not even flinched. Adam put on his Jamie Voice. "'Are you gonna get up? You have to do this for five minutes, it's only been forty seconds.'" (probably not an exact quote, once again I wrote NOTHING down)
Skip, skip, skip oh hell I'm tired of writing let's just skip to the end. Final act was Paul and Storm and Wil coming back out and singing "The Captain's Wife's Lament", a song which should have taken about five minutes but ended up taking about 20 what with more audience and show banter. The audience was supposed to say "Arrr", on cue, and there were different types of "Arrr"s. Surprised "Arrr", disappointed "Arrr", and my favorite, "Give me an 'Arrr' like there's a leech on your balls!" shouted either Paul or Storm.
"Arrrr?" collectively said the audience.
"That's not how you do it!" Wil Wheaton looked incredulous. He mimed looking down his pants, widened his eyes, and let out a high-pitched, terrified "Arrr", before toppling over in a feigned faint. Of course, that was the leech scene from Stand By Me, and it was fucking hilarious. As for the song itself, I don't think it ever actually got finished, and it only got about four or five lines in and it had been about 20 minutes.
So it ended, and I'd gotten a Paul and Storm CD (Do You Like Star Wars?) and a free poster, and they'd said they were going to be in the lobby signing things so I decided to get my poster signed. The line was long, but at least I wasn't at the very end. Now, when I meet anyone even remotely famous, my brain immediately goes into Dug from Up mode: "I have seen you on TV (or heard your music) and I like you!" P&S were first, they asked how I was and I said "Pretty good!" They signed their respective avatars on the poster and I said the show was hilarious (Dug Mode!) and they said thanks, and then Adam Savage was next and he looked at me and said "I love your shirt!" (I was--still am, actually--wearing my Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me shirt. Which will henceforth be known as The Shirt That Adam Savage Said He Loved. BECAUSE I AM A DORK.) "Thanks!" I said. "I am a huge MythBusters fan," I continued in Dug Mode, and shook his hand--he has a good handshake. Next up was Wil Wheaton and I was a superdork and didn't say anything to him besides answering his "How are you?" with another "I'm pretty good," as he signed my poster--mainly because I actually didn't notice it was him :/ although I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have wanted to hear about the first time I saw Stand By Me when I was nine years old, on vacation with my family in Boston in May of 1988, and was Completely Freaked Out by the train bridge scene. (Neeeeever forgot that scene, even though I didn't see the movie again for another twenty years.) Last up was Molly Lewis, who didn't have an avatar on the poster so she signed the white space on the bottom, saying "I'll write really tiny on the bottom so you can fold it over and pretend I wasn't here," which was freaking adorable.
Anyway, that's pretty much it, like I said there was a lot of stuff I skipped, but it would take me too fucking long to write it all.
Sooooo, I was an idiot and didn't write down anything, much less the order it all went in, so this is basically gonna be a hodge-podge culled from my sporadic Twittering during the show.
I had totally forgotten the Aladdin is cash-only, and I only had my prepaid MasterCard with me. And, like an idiot, I hadn't eaten anything yet. I had fully intended to pour myself a bowl of Froot Loops or something before I left, but I forgot, and I was running a bit late. Did I grab something to eat at the KFC near the bus stop on Powell and 82nd? No, of course not, because I didn't want to risk missing the bus. (BTW that was sarcastic.) So, when I got to the Aladdin I was in line for food and noticed the CASH ONLY sign, and was like "FUCK." I got out of line and went to go find a seat, I got a pretty okay one, it was like fifth or sixth row back on the right hand side. I could see the whole stage pretty well. I noticed a girl in front of me and to my left Picto-Chatting on her DS, so I took out my DS (what, did you think I wasn't going to have something to do in the hour before the show started? Actually I'd been playing Zelda: Spirit Tracks beforehand) and entered the PictoChat room where she and about seven other people were. I scribbled "HI" and then "I'm fucking hungry, no cash. :(" Someone wrote back "There's an ATM" so I was actually able to get myself some cash for food, pizza and Coke, which came to like five bucks, and the rest of the cash I used to buy a CD later.
I got back literally just as the show was starting. Wil Wheaton came out and talked and was hilarious, although my brain is fuzzy and I can't remember what he said (oh, now I remember--basically "feel free to take pics/record, hell, we encourage it, but don't be a dick"). After a few minutes he introduced Paul and Storm, who sang a song that I don't know the name of but which I'd hazard a guess is called "We Are The Opening Band", as that refrain was repeated many times. There was also much banter with some audience members and each other as well. (Brain. Fuzzy.)
After P&S Molly Lewis came out and did three songs on ukelele. First one was about Lincoln's assassination, second was about having Stephen Fry's baby, and the third one was about breaking up with Wikipedia (that was my favorite). I think there may have been a fourth song but I did not Twitter about that one if there was.
BTW, there weren't just live acts, there were also short films and musical interludes as well, my favorite being a film from what looked like the '50s about proper school lunchroom habits, but that had been RiffTraxed. (Yes, I made that a verb. Basically RiffTrax is like MST3K, if you haven't heard of it.) Basically they were played after about every other act or so, and I don't feel like writing about all of them. However, they were pretty much all fucking hilarious.
At one point Molly Lewis and I think Paul and Storm came out again and sang "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function", which was awesome. (BTW, I'm trying to think of something that was NOT awesome about the whole show. Can't think of anything.)
Wil Wheaton came out again and read a chapter from his book The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, about his Rocky Horror Picture Show "devirgining", and I'm not entirely sure whether I just made that word up. (Note to self: buy The Happiest Days Of Our Lives asap.)
BTW, once again: I'm skipping A LOT of stuff (by this time it had been like two hours already) and absolutely nothing is in order. Disclaimer over.
....
Okay, fuck. I just came back from walking the dog and my mom was talking to me for like twenty minutes afterward, so this next part is going to be even hazier than it was before. Actually I think I'll just skip on ahead to Adam Savage's part. He showed clips and stills from an upcoming MythBusters episode in which they built a giant water slide down a hill and slid down it into a lake. There were many of these, from different angles, in slow motion, etc. The last one had a target added in the lake, but he stopped that one before he hit the water and said he couldn't show the ending. Afterwards he played the clip in which he was on the treadmill and fell off, in slow motion, with much self-deprecating humor. It was A LOT funnier than I'm making it sound here. "And you'll notice," he said as his film self did a slow-mo face plant on the treadmill, "Jamie has NOT MOVED." True, Jamie, who was holding a stopwatch in the clip, had not even flinched. Adam put on his Jamie Voice. "'Are you gonna get up? You have to do this for five minutes, it's only been forty seconds.'" (probably not an exact quote, once again I wrote NOTHING down)
Skip, skip, skip oh hell I'm tired of writing let's just skip to the end. Final act was Paul and Storm and Wil coming back out and singing "The Captain's Wife's Lament", a song which should have taken about five minutes but ended up taking about 20 what with more audience and show banter. The audience was supposed to say "Arrr", on cue, and there were different types of "Arrr"s. Surprised "Arrr", disappointed "Arrr", and my favorite, "Give me an 'Arrr' like there's a leech on your balls!" shouted either Paul or Storm.
"Arrrr?" collectively said the audience.
"That's not how you do it!" Wil Wheaton looked incredulous. He mimed looking down his pants, widened his eyes, and let out a high-pitched, terrified "Arrr", before toppling over in a feigned faint. Of course, that was the leech scene from Stand By Me, and it was fucking hilarious. As for the song itself, I don't think it ever actually got finished, and it only got about four or five lines in and it had been about 20 minutes.
So it ended, and I'd gotten a Paul and Storm CD (Do You Like Star Wars?) and a free poster, and they'd said they were going to be in the lobby signing things so I decided to get my poster signed. The line was long, but at least I wasn't at the very end. Now, when I meet anyone even remotely famous, my brain immediately goes into Dug from Up mode: "I have seen you on TV (or heard your music) and I like you!" P&S were first, they asked how I was and I said "Pretty good!" They signed their respective avatars on the poster and I said the show was hilarious (Dug Mode!) and they said thanks, and then Adam Savage was next and he looked at me and said "I love your shirt!" (I was--still am, actually--wearing my Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me shirt. Which will henceforth be known as The Shirt That Adam Savage Said He Loved. BECAUSE I AM A DORK.) "Thanks!" I said. "I am a huge MythBusters fan," I continued in Dug Mode, and shook his hand--he has a good handshake. Next up was Wil Wheaton and I was a superdork and didn't say anything to him besides answering his "How are you?" with another "I'm pretty good," as he signed my poster--mainly because I actually didn't notice it was him :/ although I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have wanted to hear about the first time I saw Stand By Me when I was nine years old, on vacation with my family in Boston in May of 1988, and was Completely Freaked Out by the train bridge scene. (Neeeeever forgot that scene, even though I didn't see the movie again for another twenty years.) Last up was Molly Lewis, who didn't have an avatar on the poster so she signed the white space on the bottom, saying "I'll write really tiny on the bottom so you can fold it over and pretend I wasn't here," which was freaking adorable.
Anyway, that's pretty much it, like I said there was a lot of stuff I skipped, but it would take me too fucking long to write it all.