Big Dork Weekend

I went to the NYComicon this weekend. I bought a lot of comic books and graphic novels, sat in on a few horror movie discussion panels, I even (*gasp*) got a poster signed. (In my defense, it's a poster for Hostel 2 that Heather Matarazzo, Richard Burgi and Eli Roth were signing and giving away. I didn't seek them out to sign it.)

Anyway, I let my inner geek come out to play, and he had a relatively good time.

I passed this one booth where a guy was selling bootlegged DVDs of complete crap. But on a quick perusal of his wares, I thought, "maybe this guy has some interesting hard-to-find stuff".

"Can I help ya pal?"

"Do you have Mr. Mike's Mondo Video?"

"Wha-who?"

"Nevermind, " I said, and started walking away.

"Whoa! Hold it! You just hit me with a thing I never hearda. I mean what is this? This lady here," he said pointing to a woman behind him. "She comes at me with this obscure TV show and now you pull this rabbit outta nowhere. Like a one-two punch and I'm K-O'd. Jeez..."

"It's a movie that one of the original Saturday Night Live writers..."

"Oh! SNL. I got that! SNL Season 1 right over here."

"Yes. I see. You've got a lot of wonderful bootleg copies of things you can find in any store on the planet," I said picking up a bootleg DVD of Kill Bill Vol. 1, the faded home printer-made insert looking even more amateurish upon closer inspection.

"I mean, really, what are you offering?" I asked. "I thought you might have some rarities of some sort. Ya know, maybe in that stack of Star Wars DVD rips, you'll have a copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special or something. I mean, at least the Chinese woman selling bootleg DVDs on the subway has bootlegs of movies still in the theater. What's the point of a bootleg if it's something you can find in any store for less than what you're charging?"

(The Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD I was holding was selling for $25. You can buy a proper edition of the film at Target or Best Buy for $12.99!)

I left him to think about that and wandered over to the gaming area, where they had tables set up for people to play a variety of roleplaying games. Along the wall of the room were booths where various people were doling out autographs. In one corner, sitting all by himself looking sullen, was Gary Coleman. There was no one in line to get his autograph. I thought about asking him to sign the one sheet I picked up for the new David Fincher film Zodiac.

"I ain't in Zodiac, man!"

"But it'd be cooler if you were! 'Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Zodiac Killer?' Sign it like that!"

Alas, I didn't.

I eventually ran into my co-worker John and we spent the rest of the day checking out the horror panels for Hostel: Part 2, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and the Showtime series Masters of Horror.

Also swung by the Pokemon booth to say hello to Sarah, who was signing autographs for kids and creepy old men. (She does the voice for the character Ash on the show).

And now I shall finish this weekend of dorkdom by watching the Oscars.
And then working 8 hours loading footage of the damn things for a daytime talk show's Oscar Night wrap-up.