So, I just got home, and I see my friend Carl has put up an account of our/his day. Allow me to give you some of my observations.

First, let me get this out of my sexist, reductive system now: the girls at the con had some, to quote Tron from The Chappelle Show, "big ol' tittays." Not all of them, of course, but I was surprised by the number of fine racks at the Small Press Expo. Okay, now that I've been a piggish, Man Show stereotype, let me continue to the other stuff.

I've only been to one con before, and that was the SPX a few years ago ('99, I think). Despite all of the stereotypes (and there were a number who fit them to a T), I really don't think the geek quotient is particularly higher than your typical, say, indie rock show. Maybe it's because they're both "indie" in nature, but there weren't a lot of Comic Book Guy-types. Maybe those types are at the bigger cons, where the superhero comics are representin' and the collector/obsessive types are in full effect. Anyway, this year was fun. Did the walkaround of each room twice or thrice, picked up a bunch of stuff, saw (though did not speak to them...because there was always a fanboy there, and I'm not enough of a hardcore fanboy to actually wait to talk to people) Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer, to whom I gave some dough for a couple of comics (Dork #9 and Action Girl #19). I also bought The Bizmar Experiment and The Return of Bizmar (from Young American Comics), a couple of Fillerbunny comics (from Slave Labor Graphics), The Silent Pulse, Book One (from Bearded Baby Comics), Fred the Clown, Number 1-4 (from Hotel Fred Press), and a handful of free comics. A good haul to be sure.

After that, Carl and I had lunch at Outback Steakhouse, my last meal of the day, and I'm still full from it some 10 hours later. But bacon tastes good, don'tcha know.

We also hit up Olsson's (in search of music, which Carl eventually got) and Big Planet Comics to get some non-indy stuff (once again, was very tempted to pick up some porn comics, but refrained), but wound up buying nothing there, either.

Came home, then went right back out to see Melinda. We took a moonlit walk (cut short when we realized she was illegally parked--no parking after sunset? what kind of shit is that?), went home and futzed with our cell phones (she got a new one), then watched the stirring 4th quarter of the Florida/Miami game. (Go 'Canes!) Had a great time, and wish I could have stayed the night, but with me going over to Jamie and Jarod's tomorrow for football, it's probably best for me to be here.

So, left there, and on the walk from the Metro to my house, two things occured: passed a hot--like, legitimately hot, not trashy hot--hooker and ran into a former co-worker, who is now working at the Madison Hotel.

And that's really about it. I didn't catch the DJ Spooky/Re-Birth of a Nation thing, obviously.

Now I shall retire to boudoir (or will soon) to get my sleep on. First Sunday of the NFL season is here! Go Dolphins!

Clown hat, curly hair, smiley face,
Damian