I got an ipod
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 8, 2006
So the other day I finally got an ipod. It’s the 60 gig black video ipod and it rocks. Music sounds great on it. Photos look great. Even video looks amazing on it.
I was going to write this big post about getting it and how excited I was, but I’d rather be playing with my ipod than writing about it.
:)
View Askew trip to New York City: Clerks II
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 7, 2006
The whole reason I went on this trip was to go to a private advance screening of Clerks II. There, I’ve said it. Not the Comicon, as I’ve been telling people for months now. I don’t know where to start. I can’t talk about the movie because I signed a non-disclosure agreement, but it was amazing and more than I could’ve even imagined it would be.
It’s definitely worth going to see, even if you have to drive forever to find a theater that will play an unrated movie (that’s right, not R or NC-17, he’s going straight for the unrated). My only advice is to rewatch of Clerks before you go see it, just to put you in the mood (I did on my PSP on the flight to NYC).
Most of the time, sequels just leave the audience yearning for the original. Taking beloved characters and essentially ruining them by making them do something that would be completely out of character to eliminate them from the sequel or just making a sequel out of a movie that simply doesn’t need one (Speed 2 comes to mind).
Kevin Smith didn’t do this though. The characters are the same, just 10 years older and dealing with life in their early 30s. There really isn’t a bad thing I could say about this movie. It is amazing.
But since I can’t really talk about the move, I’ll talk about experience of going to see this movie, because it really was a blast. Darren, Kat, Tommy and I spent the day together just hanging out. After stopping by the say hi to Steve, we grabbed dinner before Kat had to go to the airport and Tommy went home to
Luckily the process of signing the NDA went by pretty smoothly, though I did have to suffer through some teasing from Ming due to the events in
Noticing a bar in the theater, Darren and I decide to grab a couple drinks and a smoke before the movie. Turns out we weren’t the only ones with that idea. Donnacha and Greg as well as a few others were in there grabbing drinks, too. Bunch of drunks in this group.
Going outside for a smoke, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Kevin’s wife, the very beautiful Jen Schwalbach. She’s such a sweetheart, so nice and down to earth. As well as being a total gossip whore, which is great because I am, too.
After talking for a few minutes, we all went inside to watch the movie, afterwards filling out comment cards for use by The Weinstein Company and Kevin for any tweaking that must be done on the movie before it’s released. I don’t see the point since the movie is amazing and anyone who doesn’t agree is smoking crack.
Of course, Darren and I fill out the cards and rush out to smoke, where we again meet up with Jen, who drags us inside for a drink. I say drag, but it’s not like she had to twist anyone’s arm as it was freezing outside. This tiny little movie theater bar turns into the spot to be for anyone not participating in the focus group. A few turns into about 40 people all hanging out and talking about whatever. Even Brian O’Halloran stopped by (and is immediately attacked and engaged by a female board member for the rest of the night). I would feel so self conscious hanging out with a group of people immediately they had just watched me star in a movie, but he’s been acting awhile, so I’m sure he’s used to it by now.
The always adorable and sweet Ming popped in as well, continuing to rag on me. I’d get upset, but he’s such a sweetheart that I can’t be offended. I wish I had more time to chat with him, but there were so many people around that it was hard to chat with anyone for more than a minute or two. Kevin also stopped in after the focus group, but I didn’t get a chance to say hi.
All in all, it was an awesome night ending shortly after last call. It was also the earliest night I’d had my whole trip, ending with me going to bed by 2 a.m. with barely a slight buzz.
Again, I just have to say, awesome movie. A definite must see. Kevin did brilliantly, as usual, and I look forward to seeing this movie again. Alas, no photos from this night becuase I was way to busy having fun.
View Askew trip to New York City: Party! Party! Party!
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 6, 2006
It’s been a long time since I’ve drank as much as I did over the last week. And it’s not so much that I drank a lot, but more that I was drinking every nice, because I didn’t have a hangover at all my whole trip.
My second night, after Kat got into town, her and I along with Joe, Nicole, Adam and Karla decided to grab some BBQ at this great restaurant near Times Square called Virgil’s. On our way there, we were stopped by someone who works at the Laugh Factory who offered us 75% off tickets to that night’s show. Since we had no other plans for the night and the tickets were cheap, we bought them. At dinner I had a drink called a Fall Off the Porch tea. Delicious and left me with a slight buzz. From there, with time to kill, we went to the four-story Toys R Us in Times Square, complete with a two story Barbie house and a four story tall Ferris wheel in the middle of the store.
The show at the comedy club was pretty funny, and Cori finally showed up halfway through. After the show, we decided to hit the bar at our hotel, where Cori, Kat and I met up with a couple comic book artists. Cori’s goal for the weekend was to get herself drawn into a comic book and she succeeded thanks to these guys. We also met some guys in from Ireland for a few days of partying. Amazing the people you meet at a hotel bar.
New York being the city that never sleeps, once the bar closed, Cori, Kat and I continued our little party at a bar down the street until about 4 a.m. when we finally realized the time and headed back to our room for sleep.
Friday night was a big group meet-up at Pianos on the lower east side. Here I met a whole bunch of people from the board, most of whom were really nice. Some I got to know real well as the bar was packed and I think a couple people grabbed my ass once or twice. Although I grabbed a couple myself and it was all in good fun. Better someone you know grab your ass than some random stranger.
Since Pianos was very small and very crowded, a bunch of us migrated to the bar next door. Again, much alcohol was consumed, but I will say that since I stick to Malibu and coke with a few shots mixed in, I didn’t get very drunk (Malibu is only 20% alcohol, barely more than a beer).
Saturday was the big night, and the night where I had the most fun. About 30 of us ended up at a bar / restaurant called Red Fusion in Ashbury Park, New Jersey. Of course, it would take a lot to drag so many people out of the city for a bar in Jersey, but they had the ultimate lure: the ability to smoke cigarettes indoors, away from the bitter cold of the northeast in winter. I kid, though, because the reality is the bait was the chance to watch Darren, Tommy and Steve play guitar and sing and it was amazing.
I will admit, though, that I did get pretty drunk that night, having at least seven Malibu and cokes and six or seven shots of Absolute Citron. I know I was drunk because 1 – there are a couple points throughout the night that are blanks in my memory (mainly my walk home from the bar) and 2 – because Kat and I were kissing in the middle of the bar (although it was on a dare and produced the funniest photo of Ming looking severely shocked).
Other memorable events of the night include Darren smacking me in the ass a couple times, Adam drunk and kissing Tommy (albeit very briefly, they are both straight after all) and Darren making out with everyone in the bar (male or female), because he’s a complete manwhore.
Sunday I actually didn’t drink at all. We didn’t even leave the hotel room. A few of us just sat around and bullshitted for the night, listening to some music and eventually grabbing some food at the diner downstairs before crashing for a few hours.
View Askew trip to New York City: The Comicon
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 3, 2006
Once we got on the convention floor, our first stop was the View Askew / Graffiti Designs booth, where we met Kevin Smith’s brother Don and his husband Jerry. After saying hi and buying a Kevin Smith East Coast Stash Inaction Figure, we were off to explore the con.
Now, this being my first con, I fully expected to see a bunch of overweight geeks who reeked of body odor and still live in their mother’s basement. While I wasn’t completely wrong, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that most people at the con were fairly normal.
I was also excited to see that there weren’t just comic book writers and publishers there, but various other booths as well, including a guy who designs and sells corsets. Cori, Kat, Karla and I all were talked into getting sized for one and trying them on. While I could barely breathe, it was nice to finally have boobs and it did give me a tiny little waist. So I of course bought one.
After scoping out the rest of the con, Cori and I decided to run outside for a cigarette. In an ode to being at the right time and the right place, we were behind these two guys on the escalator who are bitching about how crowded it is. We laugh and agree with them and end up outside talking to them. Turns out, they work for Dark Horse Publishers, who just so happen to publish Frank Miller’s
Being the resourceful bunch we are, we decide to run back to the VA booth to find out if they are doing the same for Kevin’s signing and Q&A. Don tells us he’ll make a couple calls and get back to us. We get back and get the best hook up of the trip because Don has been told to get our names and just show up prior to the Q&A and we’ll be all set. Deciding that night of the con can’t get any better, we decide to leave on a high note.
Since we didn’t have to be up early Saturday, Kat and I slept in before heading to the con around noon. Stopping by the VA booth before the signing, I finally get to meet Ming, the VA Webmaster. He’s such a sweetheart and I’m so glad I finally got to meet him.
After that, we head over to the line for the Q&A to meet a few more of the board members and wait to get in. Turns out, by putting our names on Don’s list, we got VIP seating, putting us in the front row, center for the Q&A. I’m not going to lie, though, the Q&A was shit. It was funny, as Kevin always is, but the majority of questions asked were things he answered on his “An Evening with Kevin Smith” DVD, which all of us have seen too many times to count. At one point, Kat and I were so bored / tired, we both started to fall asleep (though part of that had to do with the previous night’s partying, no doubt).
By the time to Q&A was over, the con had become a nightmare. More than 10,000 people were being turned away from the con because the place was packed. Deciding it was not worth the trouble as we’d seen what we came there to see, Kat and I left to head back to the hotel for a nap, unfortunately missing a chance to meet the super sexy Jason Mewes.
