pictures are of quimby the monster cat, a great katamari costume, of montreal from last nights show, and a sculpture in cedar rapids. ia.

found today in our journeys
lp’s of a james bond soundtrack and a tracey chapman album,
4.99 copy of A Very Long Engagement on dvd
Civil War Frontline # 5 still very good.
and we checked out the next disc of season 2 of deadwood and woody allen’s match point.
very good india buffet at exotic india.
scanner darkly in two hours!

Just got back from Anime Iowa 2006, very nice con, with very nice people. Have to admit my fandom for anime is not extreme like my fandom for sci-fi or comics, but there is a periphery(sp?) knowledge because of cross-polination. I know the basics, and can tell my Ranma’s from my Rick Hunters. So yeah it was a nice weekend but I took more of a laid back aproach to everything, since I really wasn’t as in to it.
Friday was pretty fun, glad i preregistered as the line for others was pretty long. The elevators at this hotel were too few and I learned pretty quickly how to navigate the 16 floors of the con by stairs by late friday night. Opening ceremonies kicked things off and I attended a room party panel to learn some ins and outs. Played some Smash Bros, watched some Anime, watched some Karoke got a new Lupin Radio and some Pocky in the dealers room and headed home.
Saturday was the long day for me. Got there pretty early ate plenty of rice throughout the day, played some Pachinko, watched Kamikaze Girls(awesome live-action movie by the way). Played in an apples to apples tourney, went to a great panel by Lea Hernadez, and headed out to watch the cosplay at the beautiful Paramount. This theatre is amazing. I hope Cedar Rapids uses it. After this I got a drink at the Gojira party and went to see some great skit readings by the folks at Gaurdian Sun Studios It was really funny stuff. Headed upstairs to see Final Fantasy:Advent Children which I had been meaning to rent. The Computer Animation is like nothing I’ve seen before and since FFVII was so important to us video game geeks the movie was really pretty good. 3:00am lets drive home for six hours of sleep.
Took today really easy. Watched some anime, that wasn’t really that good, went to the Anime Improv, went to a j-pop music panel and did one last hunt for pocky. Next years Anime Iowa will be closer in Coraville, so I guess I’ll be heading out to that then. I’ll put up pictures tommorow. Pretty good con out here in the middle of corn.

We went to Adventureland on Sunday and I think it’s a pretty nice park out here in the middle of nowhere. One benefit that the six flags across the country could learn, is put up some trees! It was a very hot day but thanks to the parks trees and the raging rapids ride, this was not a hot day at all. Hey they even have a circus. Pretty fun little park if your driving near Des Moines.

so the heat is everywhere in this country today. 90 or higher. ouch. the air is cranked and i’m left to play with the old fat cat and the new energetic kitten. oh the joys of summer.

Meanwhile a Secret Agent is reporting of an influx in the desire for sunkist. oh the horror. Where is Cool Spot hiding these days? remember him. he even had his own videogame. its amazing how many lame mascots the 80’s had. anybody remember the noid? yep. we were tortured our entire youth. Or are the kids of today missing out? Where have the mascots gone?

O.k. I just got back from Convergence in Bloomington Minnesota, and gotta say this may be my favorite convention ever. but first a word about pirates, especially Mr. Johnny Depp

Went to see the sequel on friday night and it is really quite amazing how much better this second film is than the first one. All the actors have more to do here and Johnny Depp is still amazing as Captain Jack Sparrow. Well this was great start to my geek weekend, on with the show.

Got up at 3am on saturday and drove to the Sheraton South arriving at 8am. COuldnt register for the con till 9 so i wandered around unable to participate in anything but free to get a lay of the hotel. This is a pretty big con with alot of the panels in one tower of the room and the other side parties and consuites.

Started the day off by hitting the dealer room, got a firefly shirt for me and a Dharma logo shirt for Jess who opted out of this geek fest. Checked out the art auction which had some neat pieces but mostly out of my price range. Also bid on a few items in the silent auction, didnt win any. :<
Went to my first panel at 1100 We call it acting with my two favorite Klingons Robert O rReilly and J.G. Hertzler. I’ve seen these guys before in boston at a Slanted Fedora show, and they are pretty funny, and easily two of the nicest actors I’ve ever sat through a panel with. Good thing too because I went to see them on three different panels throughout the weekend, plus watched them rap, yes rap, at the masqeurade.
Some other panels I went to, were a lost one, battlestar galactica, star trek, serenity, dead fandoms, and a few more. The con excels at treating you well as the consuite always had food of some sort and soda. There was also a separate room, for espresso drinks which came in handy in the morning or late at night.

The Masquerade was by far filled with some of the most talented costumers, and entertainers I’ve seen, and I’ve seen alot. As I was laughing through pimp my ride, the british edition, I think I had an overwhelming sense of, I guess you could say joy. I don’t think I stopped smiling the rest of the evening. And why should I? There was the most well decorated, fully liqoured stock room parties in convention history. I was so drunk in say 1 hour that I even watched an episode of doctor whom to sober up. Favorite room parties were Wonka’s Night Out, Bacon, Galactic Geisha’s house of Tea, House of Toast, and The Terran Empire. All great, all different and all filling me with either food, or spirits. Luke Ski perfomed his usual hilarious comedy-fanboy rap rock and was enetertaining as always. What’s great about this con is it had so much going on that things I would normally spend alot of my time at a convention at that I barely entered here. A great film room in CInema Rex, which I didnt find time for, and Anime room, and a whole 22nd floor for gaming. I didnt even realize I barely watched any sci-fi until I was driving home. That’s a pretty great con, to keep me entertained for 48 hours, minus six for sleep. I’ll definetly be back next year. This time well armed for all you partiers.

hey everyone. happy fourth of july. some important links for ya.
our message boards/forums are back up. you can post whatever nonsense you want there. talk about our releases, talk about your drinking problem, your band or anything you want to really. You can find the forums HERE

Another important link for ya is Jessica’s zine machine which is located in the University of Iowa Libary and contains some really cool zines from all over the country. check it out at zinemachine.org

cool? alright. lets see some nonsense posted on the forums.

O.k. First I don’t really like Superman in the comics. He’s too one dimensional. No Batman by any means. I have a feeling if you are a Superman comic fan you may feel cheated by this movie as it does mess with the real storylines. For me who only has a small fondness for supes on film and in animation this movie was just what I needed. It looks gorgeous and Bryan Singer has created another one of his disticnt films just as he did with X-men. The only difference is he borrows so much from the Richard Donner Superman, right down to the 70’s font at the opening credits. I couldn’t help but wish I was a kid watching this movie. It has that magical quality about it that will make kids excited make kids run home and draw superman, and where the PG-13 rating came from, I have no clue. It’s not overly violent, there is no language to my recollection. One thing that I did notice and this must be so they can make money overseas (which is very important to Hollywood) was the line truth justice and the american way, has been changed to truth justice and all that stuff. HUH? that’s kinda weird sounding, but it makes sense considering half the world doesn’t want an AMERICAN hero. But I have a feeling they won’t mind a Superman. I sure didn’t.

so this may be our new kitty. o.k. i admit it this is most likely our new kitty. If araby doesnt kill it the first chance she gets. the little boy was ‘ rescued’ by jess from the gutter the other day and has been living in our hallway until he gets the vets clearance to move into araby’s domain. he’s cute, and small, and just a little too hyper for my tastes. He has no name. more as the drama and ruffled fur unfolds.

The new album St Elseweher by gnarls barkley aka danger mouse who brought me the much loved danger doom cd with mf doom, has come back with this strange mix of marvin gaye and rand b from the fifties all with that nice recording sound danger mouse made famous with his animated project gorillaz. Truly an innovator where innovation is needed, and with a cover of Violent Femmes gone daddy gone to boot. Get it. dance it, hum it.