Holiday Fun
I'm not really a big July 4th person...it just doesn't feel like a holiday. What was cause for celebration was Saturday, July 3rd...Free Comic Book Day!
For those not into comics, FCBD is a day to promote comics and entice people into exploring the wide and variety-laden world of sequential art. It's not just for kids, "geeks" and superhero-worshipping fanboys anymore...it's a unique form of storytelling that utilizes the visual and textual to tell any kind of tale you might imagine. Anything you want, you can find if you look hard enough. FCBD provides an array of special edition issues for free in almost every comic book shop in the nation, and all the average non-comics reader has to do is overcome their prejudices or misconceptions and walk through that poster-covered glass door.
I called up my friend T and persuaded (or "strongarmed", some might say) him to meet up with me downtown to hit the shops. I haven't been comics shopping in ages, so it was a real treat to see what was new and pick up some very promising graphic novels (my preferred format: vastly easier to carry, read and shelve), including an anthology about AIDS to benefit AIDS patients (co-edited by Trina Robbins) and another anthology centered around cutting-edge visual presentations of short stories.
After two shops where I blew my wad and slapped my wrist in penitence ("Bad girl! NO!" "But it's my birthday month!" *whine*), we went to the diner and refueled on marathon cups of coffee and down-home fare. T took off his pesky nicotine patch so that he could smoke with me...what a pal! As I joked earlier: "I'm not just an enabler...I'm your pusher, baby!" Seriously though...I swear I didn't employ peer pressure - I just let him know that I had 2 packs with me and he was free to smoke as much as he wanted with me. (really, is that so wrong??) Anyway, T regaled me with updates on the RPG campaign he's been playing for the past 3 years ("Vampyre: Dark Ages", for the gamers out there...the Storyteller is a friend of ours and the best all-around storyteller I've ever had the privilege to know, hands down).
Next, we stopped by his office because he was on-call and needed to do a quick check-in, and then we went to the final shop, split up at Broad Street for opposing errands: he to Borders to find an RPG book for his wife, who also games (unsuccessful), and I to Tower Records to try to find Season 1 of Cold Case (unsuccessful, I guess I have to wait until they run Season 2) and/or to pick up some Prime Suspect series DVDs (success! Helen Mirren British police procedural mystery = LOVE). T did manage to get the book elsewhere, so all too soon we hiked back to the car and I dropped him off at the house she was cat-sitting in. I spent the rest of the day reading my graphic novels and free comic issues.
Yesterday, the 4th, I watched the first half of Prime Suspect 2 and then picked up pianogirl16 (I was late, due to 676 being completely fouled up by cookout-seeking vacationers). We drove down to South Street to visit some shops, then got chocolate cherry cokes and sat on the stoop of a deserted sidestreet shopfront for a while, just talking, sharing and laughing...hanging out with the little missus is always restoring and refreshing, and so much easier for us now that I have a car. I wanted to be home before 8pm for Cold Case, so after a few hours I drove her back to her house and made it back to mine by 7:45pm. The episode last night was a (summer) repeat of the first episode I ever watched, which was a nice touch. I watched most of the second half of Prime Suspect 2 for the rest of my fix.
I decided to go to Fast Cheap & Out Of Control, even though everyone else wussed out and I had to go all by myself. A lot of times I'll run into people I know there anyway, but last night was not one of those nights. I also assumed that people would be a little more daring in their fashions, but I forgot that the normals come out on holiday weekends, so there was a sweaty morass of vaguely indie rock/80's room kids (you know the type: striped shirts, white belts, jeans, faux mod haircuts, ugly shoes...*shudder*) supplanting the usual Fast Cheap attendees and getting in everyone's way. Consequently I attracted an abnormal amount of attention when I arrived dressed as a fuzzy bunny:
jaded_serenader took these in our stiflingly warm kitchen nook/computer room...hence, that "healthy glow". Yah, new hairstyle too!
"Wink!" says the Baileys in my coffee.
"You're too tall! Get up on the chair!" almost caused a fatal accident here.
Danced a few songs but mostly stuck to the balcony/"observation deck" a heads-height above the dancefloor. Had to dodge some creepy people (like the big punkish overly friendly guy who pointed out his GF on the dancefloor and then kept trying to make passes, which brought the GF running to hang herself all over the guy as though she actually needed to mark that territory...a pointless display since I was patently disinterested and just wanted to watch the crowd), but dodging's usually a given at Fast Cheap. Bonuses: bumped into a tipsy social acquaintance I hadn't seen in a while and she and I danced a song together; some random yuppie bought me a drink "just because"; I attracted the attention of a flaming little gayboy who liked my campy outfit, and we dished and giggled for the rest of the night. So I ended up having fun, even without the rest of the gang...but they were much missed nevertheless.
For those not into comics, FCBD is a day to promote comics and entice people into exploring the wide and variety-laden world of sequential art. It's not just for kids, "geeks" and superhero-worshipping fanboys anymore...it's a unique form of storytelling that utilizes the visual and textual to tell any kind of tale you might imagine. Anything you want, you can find if you look hard enough. FCBD provides an array of special edition issues for free in almost every comic book shop in the nation, and all the average non-comics reader has to do is overcome their prejudices or misconceptions and walk through that poster-covered glass door.
I called up my friend T and persuaded (or "strongarmed", some might say) him to meet up with me downtown to hit the shops. I haven't been comics shopping in ages, so it was a real treat to see what was new and pick up some very promising graphic novels (my preferred format: vastly easier to carry, read and shelve), including an anthology about AIDS to benefit AIDS patients (co-edited by Trina Robbins) and another anthology centered around cutting-edge visual presentations of short stories.
After two shops where I blew my wad and slapped my wrist in penitence ("Bad girl! NO!" "But it's my birthday month!" *whine*), we went to the diner and refueled on marathon cups of coffee and down-home fare. T took off his pesky nicotine patch so that he could smoke with me...what a pal! As I joked earlier: "I'm not just an enabler...I'm your pusher, baby!" Seriously though...I swear I didn't employ peer pressure - I just let him know that I had 2 packs with me and he was free to smoke as much as he wanted with me. (really, is that so wrong??) Anyway, T regaled me with updates on the RPG campaign he's been playing for the past 3 years ("Vampyre: Dark Ages", for the gamers out there...the Storyteller is a friend of ours and the best all-around storyteller I've ever had the privilege to know, hands down).
Next, we stopped by his office because he was on-call and needed to do a quick check-in, and then we went to the final shop, split up at Broad Street for opposing errands: he to Borders to find an RPG book for his wife, who also games (unsuccessful), and I to Tower Records to try to find Season 1 of Cold Case (unsuccessful, I guess I have to wait until they run Season 2) and/or to pick up some Prime Suspect series DVDs (success! Helen Mirren British police procedural mystery = LOVE). T did manage to get the book elsewhere, so all too soon we hiked back to the car and I dropped him off at the house she was cat-sitting in. I spent the rest of the day reading my graphic novels and free comic issues.
Yesterday, the 4th, I watched the first half of Prime Suspect 2 and then picked up pianogirl16 (I was late, due to 676 being completely fouled up by cookout-seeking vacationers). We drove down to South Street to visit some shops, then got chocolate cherry cokes and sat on the stoop of a deserted sidestreet shopfront for a while, just talking, sharing and laughing...hanging out with the little missus is always restoring and refreshing, and so much easier for us now that I have a car. I wanted to be home before 8pm for Cold Case, so after a few hours I drove her back to her house and made it back to mine by 7:45pm. The episode last night was a (summer) repeat of the first episode I ever watched, which was a nice touch. I watched most of the second half of Prime Suspect 2 for the rest of my fix.
I decided to go to Fast Cheap & Out Of Control, even though everyone else wussed out and I had to go all by myself. A lot of times I'll run into people I know there anyway, but last night was not one of those nights. I also assumed that people would be a little more daring in their fashions, but I forgot that the normals come out on holiday weekends, so there was a sweaty morass of vaguely indie rock/80's room kids (you know the type: striped shirts, white belts, jeans, faux mod haircuts, ugly shoes...*shudder*) supplanting the usual Fast Cheap attendees and getting in everyone's way. Consequently I attracted an abnormal amount of attention when I arrived dressed as a fuzzy bunny:
jaded_serenader took these in our stiflingly warm kitchen nook/computer room...hence, that "healthy glow". Yah, new hairstyle too!
"Wink!" says the Baileys in my coffee.
"You're too tall! Get up on the chair!" almost caused a fatal accident here.
Danced a few songs but mostly stuck to the balcony/"observation deck" a heads-height above the dancefloor. Had to dodge some creepy people (like the big punkish overly friendly guy who pointed out his GF on the dancefloor and then kept trying to make passes, which brought the GF running to hang herself all over the guy as though she actually needed to mark that territory...a pointless display since I was patently disinterested and just wanted to watch the crowd), but dodging's usually a given at Fast Cheap. Bonuses: bumped into a tipsy social acquaintance I hadn't seen in a while and she and I danced a song together; some random yuppie bought me a drink "just because"; I attracted the attention of a flaming little gayboy who liked my campy outfit, and we dished and giggled for the rest of the night. So I ended up having fun, even without the rest of the gang...but they were much missed nevertheless.