Renn Faire 2011: An Ongoing Car Ride

So, here I am in the backseat of my friend Jenn’s car. In the front are, of course, Jenn driving and in the passenger seat is Mae, a longtime friend of ours and fellow gamer. Currently, we’re stopped in traffic on I-64 in Chesapeake, Virginia on our way to our yearly visit to a renaissance faire in North Carolina.

Jenn and Mae are eating their Subway meals that we acquired prior to our excursion onto the interstate. I, however, chose not to purchase anything.

“Deploy the lasers. Why haven’t the lasers been deployed?” I asked, viewing the ridiculous amounts of traffic before us.

 “They haven’t been affixed to this car yet,” Jenn replied in typical deadpan Jenn fashion. When Jenn replies with this tone, it’s difficult to determine if she’s actually joking or not if you don’t know her well enough.

I pull out my laptop and begin writing this entry as the girls begin chatting about various topics, bouncing to and fro in their discussion about nothing in particular. We pass by two cars pulled off to the side, trapped by the sea of barely-moving vehicles.

“I wonder if they’re trying to get off,” Mae inquired as we passed by the motorists.

“If they are, they’re SOL,” Jenn replied.

“Yeah, ‘We’re going to just cross the five lanes of packed traffic to get off at the Battlefield exit!’ Wait, you can’t GET to the Battlefield exit from this side of the interstate. Well, they’re fucked.”

“Yup,” Jenn concurred.

The girls asked me what I was doing in the back, laptop out and the tippity-tap of my typing evident of some sort of activity. My writing ceased momentarily as I grinned up at them from my backseat haven.

“Writing fan fiction. ‘Ron slowly crawled into Harry’s bed. Neville was awoken by the sound of Ron’s…’ I think I’ll stop there.”

The girls chuckled at my admittedly immature joke, my joke that segued their talk into a discussion about the most recent, and last, Harry Potter movie. This, in turn, led into a broader discussion about Harry Potter in general between the two of them.

I continued to remain silently detached from the talking.

“I hate Katy Perry so much,” I stated simply, hearing Firework start playing on Jenn’s radio, "Get ready to hear this song every fucking 4th of July."

 “I don’t mind her so much,” Jenn said.

“Have you ever heard her sing live?”

“Oh, I know that many artists are so studio altered that they sound nothing like they do in real life, and, in actuality, can’t carry a tune onstage. That doesn’t stop me from having their songs on my iPod if I like them.”

Admittedly, I like Perry’s E.T. for god knows what reason.

Then the conversation turned to Glee. Being an out-of-the-closet fan of the show, and Mae being an openly enthusiastic fan of the show, her and I kept talking about our favorite songs, mash-ups, lines, characters, moments, and so on. Even Jenn, who hadn’t seen much of the show, added to the conversation every once in a while.

This lasted for a good 30-40 minutes of nothing but Glee-related talk. This is what happens when you get diehard geek fans together. 

 Jenn, feeling inspired by the talk of show choirs, decided to turn the course of the discussion to the Evil Dead Musical, the music of which she happened to have on her iPod and wanted to share. We obliged her, Mae and I having never seen or heard the songs before.

I have to say that the one about every man one of the female characters had known was killed by a Sandaran demon was pretty funny.

And, as inevitably must happen between three hardcore gamers that had once gamed together in a memorable campaign, the conversation turned to Dungeons and Dragons.

To be fair, Jenn had told me a week or so beforehand that she was trying to work on putting a timeline of the game she had run a few years ago together. She was having difficulty remembering several of the parts and required the assistance of Mae and I during the car ride to try and fill in the missing bits. However, these talks always start out under innocent pretenses like “filling in the missing bits” and somehow always devolve into laughing and reminiscing about the old games and characters and on and on.

We continued to talk about D&D for the next few hours. 

 Then we picked up Tim. Tim is one of those few whose intelligence is something I admire and envy. He was my DM once upon a time. I cannot express how terribly he traumatized me during the two games we played in together.

So, obviously, we continued to talk about D&D for the rest of the car ride.

What can I say? Geek pride lives on in the proud.

MonsterFest - Red Knight by Justin Cristelli

And we're back. For the next installment of our local talent spotlight that I encountered at MonsterFest, I'd like to introduce you to the newest hero on the block...Red Knight!

Red Knight is a comic written by Justin Cristelli, drawn by JC Grande, and published by Primal Paper Comics. All three are local to the area and I was fortunate enough to meet Justin at MonsterFest, talk with him briefly, and buy the first two issues of Red Knight.

Having finally read them, I can honestly say that I'll make a concerted effort in attempting to buy the future issues (issue #3 should be coming out sometime in the near future). 

One of the things I really enjoy about this comic, thus far, both in and out of the storyline, is the local flavor of the whole experience. As I stated previously, the comic itself is produced by the local Cristelli and Grande and published by the local Primal Paper Comics. Currently, it's circulation includes all local comic stores that have a brain. If you have a local Hampton Roads comic store that doesn't carry Red Knight, you should definitely inform them of their error. 

Within the story, however, is where the real magic happens. The setting itself is local Norfolk, Virginia. I have to admit that it's a VERY cool feeling to be reading a comic where the heroes are stomping around your own area. On top of that, the experience isn't the same as it is for, say, New York City citizens with the many comics being set there, considering that Norfolk and Hampton Roads are small enough that it makes the experience much more...personal for local readers.

The setting of Norfolk also plays a role within the plot. Many of the characters reference how Norfolk, being a much smaller city than the more major ones in the country, doesn't seem worth having its own superhero/villain. Several characters even mention how super criminals that get trashed in Washington D.C. only show up to Norfolk to lick their wounds. 

The entire premise revolves around the two parties involved, the superhero trio (including Red Knight, of course) and the super villains basically proclaiming that, since Norfolk has not warranted its own super-community yet, that they'll take it as theirs, whether for good or ill.

This brings an entirely different bend on the superhero angle considering many readers of mainstream comics forget that small towns DO exist in the world of superheroes despite the fact that the heroes themselves are stationed in the major metropolises.

 

Anyway, the story revolves around Todd McClain, the titular Red Knight, who only wants to be a superhero and fight crime. However, he lives in a world where vigilantism is not only illegal, but a serious offense, and superheroes have to register to do any sort of do-gooding. Ignoring these, however, he does his best to fend off drug dealers and thieves with the help of his two friends, Fireball and Nonstop. 

I won't go into too much detail about the initial story, considering it's only two issues long and telling you ANYTHING would ruin the better bits, but I highly recommend finding it and picking it up for yourself. Cristelli was telling me how Red Knight has a good mixture of Batman and Spider-Man in him, and it shows in the humor and nature of the character.

All in all, a very enjoyable read thus far. I DEFINITELY will be picking up issue three when it comes out and you should check all of them out if you haven't yet.

Oh, did I also mention you can get a chibi Red Knight plushie too?

MonsterFest - Dr. Madblood: Scientific Master of the Horror Film!!

Recently, I attended a local yearly event that I had been putting off for quite some time. Having, at one time, been involved with the areas resident Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast, I had known one of the long-time-associated individuals by the name of Rob Floyd. Rob is one of the coordinators of the event in question and every year he got up on that Rocky Horror stage and promoted the hell out of it.

What is that event, you ask?

Well, it's MonsterFest.

MonsterFest is a somewhat small, local convention that specializes in current horror and older horror films, along with a splash of fantasy and science fiction thrown in. Located at the Chesapeake Central Library in the Great Bridge division of Chesapeake, MonsterFest isn't widely known, but IS widely loved by its loyal attendees.

This past Saturday was, in all honesty, my first time going to MonsterFest. Ever. I had been aware of it for quite some time and never made the effort to go. While it doesn't have the glamour and scale of other large conventions in the area (Nekocon comes to mind...), it certainly makes up for it in heart and local talent.

So! Now that I've concluded my introductory stretch for this article, I'll get into the reason for this series.

One of the charms of MonsterFest is all the local talent that shows up to showcase and share their work with the public, hopefully gaining some new fans. I will highlight several of these artists/entertainers here in my blog in hopes that I can generate at least a LITTLE more fanbase for them.

Today, I'm here to talk about Doctor Madblood.

Pictured here: SCIENCE!

Doctor Madblood is a horror movie showcase program that began in 1975. Trying to differentiate himself from the other horror show hosts at the time (who were all vampires...I guess it was the "thing" to do), Jerry Harrel created the titular Doctor Madblood to be the host of a Halloween special.

With the special having a resounding amount of success, the show has, since then, been aired weekly after Saturday Night Live,  been moved around to various other time slots, been taken off the air for a few years, and eventually returned with a resurgence in televised and online media.

During it's 36 year, on-and-off tenure, Doctor Madblood has introduced a variety of characters and storylines into the Madblood universe. These stories and characters have ranged from the comedic and one-shot to the serious/scary and recurring, showing the extensive creativity that Harrel and his team still continue to draw upon even after more than three decades of doing it.

One notable cast member, a personal acquaintance of mine, is one Craig T. Adams.

Pictured here: TIME TRAVELING SCIENCE!

Involved with a local childrens theater troupe in the area, Craig also portrays Uncle Felonious, Brain, and several other recurring characters on the program.

Now, as of the posting of this article, I've only watched a few of the complete episodes, "The Goodbye Button" and "Wonderman" that I found on Youtube, and the special sneak preview of their upcoming movie at MonsterFest, and I have to admit that the team involved is talented and funny. Personally, I'm going to look for more episodes and try to catch their show more often.

I recommend all of you do the same too!

Long days and pleasant nights, readers.

A Taste of India Special Event

Ah, India!

A week or so ago I saw this ad on...Facebook, I think it was? It was for a local event called A Taste of India being held at the Ted Constant Center (located on ODU campus). Me not being a biggot and a worldly individual (or try to be at least), decided I wanted to attend. Viewing this as an opportunity to spend time with my lady, I invited her much to her delight and happiness (she'd been wanting to go but had no one to go with).

So, we went! And it was quite fun!

Granted, it didn't have the varied enjoyment of, say, a renaissance festival or a theme park, but it still had it's own appeal in opening up certain aspects of a strange culture for people such as myself to experience. You initially walk in realize that this is not only a chance for regular joes like me to get a literal "taste" of India, but also a chance for the local businesses run and owned by Indian people to advertise.

The entire first stretch of the event was lined with booths of various Indian-owned businesses. Everything ranging from real estate, law practice, wedding photography. It was quite the site to see considering there must have been, oh, 10-12 different booths?

None of these interested me, however, so Julia and I moved right along.

Rounding a corner, we walk out into the main stage area.

This area was encircled by food vendors offering a variety of Indian cuisines (along with other cuisine vendors on the upper floor), and the main stage area where dancing performances were being done to the delight of the audience.

I didn't actually see many of the dances, but the ones I saw were almost entirely children. I have nothing wrong with children performing the dances of their native homeland, but I expected there to be some real professional-level bollywood-style dancing going on up there. Maybe it was later in the day, after we departed.

Ah, well.

Finally, there was the dealer room with a large number of stalls selling Indian-related goods. Specifically, but not entirely limited to, jewelry and female clothing. I made good use of this opportunity to splurge and buy my lady a few nice blouses and whatnot to enjoy. She, in turn, bought me a kurta! A nice black (go figure) kurta to enjoy and possibly use in future videos and movie projects.

We HAD a picture of me in said kurta, but Julia accidentally didn't save it haha. Poor thing was so upset about it after the fact.

The event was enjoyable but if I noticed a few things I would do differently to improve upon things. As I stated earlier, try and mix older dancers in with the children's performances. That way we can see the up-and-coming young'ns giving it their all AND see some semi-professional dancers. Next, I would like to see a little more variety in what was offered. Maybe have some booths set up discussing the history of India or some of the key sites IN India. It would have been nice to actually LEARN something y'know? Back to the main stage show, they should really get some better people to host because those ladies, as nice as I'm sure they were, did NOT grasp my attention to want to watch anything. I did anyway because I wanted to see the performances, but those hostesses KILLED it. Finally, and this is really nitpicking, but do NOT put the only exits in the entire building in a place that requires no food or drink. What if I want to leave with my drink? I can't do that if the only exit door is in a room that DOESN'T ALLOW FOOD OR DRINK.

People are nuts. Haha it was fun though and I'd like to go back next year if possible. Check it out.

EDIT: OH! I almost forgot! One of the foods Julia and I tried was a dessert called "rose ice cream". It's just like regular ice cream but it had the SWEETEST taste with, I kid you not, a floral aftertaste. It was amazing!

Halloween Special: Survive Norfolk