Friday at the 2010 Phoenix Comicon – the awesome hour and rock band

Since I didn't write about it while I was there, I'm recapping some highlights of the 2010 Phoenix Comicon in the next couple posts, starting with Friday.

Friday:

I have felt creatively stagnant for months, and unable to write much of anything. I suspect it's because the creative part of my brain has been busy with various acting gigs, so it's not something to complain about, but the end result is that I just don't have any new narrative stories that I feel are worthy of performance.

I didn't want to read something I've done a bunch of times before (I joked that I felt like I was just playing Freebird over and over again) so I looked at some columns I'd written for LA Daily last year, and ended up telling two stories about classic gaming on the Atari 2600. I was nervous about it, because I'd never performed them in public, but I figured that it was worth taking a risk to give the audience something they'd never heard before.

I thought the reading portion of the Awesome Hour went very well. I had a good time telling the stories, and as far as I could tell, the audience enjoyed it as well. I was particularly happy that I only used up half of the hour when I was done, so I had time for more than just one or two questions during the Q&A, which ended up lasting almost an hour, because the audience demanded it. Awesome.

The entire presentation was streamed live, and is available as a podcast from Versus The World Productions.

Friday night, we did our second annual Rockband party, which was a HUGE SUCCESS. Like I said last year, it didn't make a difference if we looked cool or not, because just having fun was all that mattered to us. 

I want everyone to take a moment and applaud the fearless people who got up on stage and played with me. This era of ubiquitous internet videos and the inevitable internet dickwads they attract makes me think twice about doing anything that could look silly, and I'm a professional performer. All of the people who played with me were very brave, and as far as I can tell, we all had a great time.

Here are three highlights:

That was as fun as it looked, and I think it was my best performance of the night. I especially love that the guitarist threw caution to the wind, embraced the cheese, and elevated Livin' On A Prayer from "didn't suck" to "was awesome."

As I pointed out to the audience, this was the first time I had ever heard Poker Face in its entirety, so I didn't really have the freedom to … perform … this the way I did Livin' On A Prayer, so I was really grateful that John and Felicia grabbed the Cheat's glowsticks and threw a lightswitch rave on stage to back me up. 

I'm a little disturbed by how much fun it was to sing this song, once I figured out the pattern.

Finally:

I thought I liked Journey a quite lot … until I found out how much John likes Journey, and realized that my scale was in desperate need of recalibration. Note that we did this song at 2am, after we'd been playing Rock Band for 4 hours, after we'd been at a con for 10 hours.

Up next: Saturday.

in which a list is completed

Belle and Sebastian played in my office, while I got ready for this weekend's convention.

I zipped up my backpack, stood up, and stretched. I made that ughh noise that, as a child, I always associated with old people.

I walked a couple steps across the room and sat down at my desk to look at the big list of things I needed to complete before heading out to Phoenix for the comicon. I uncapped my pen, and put a line through "pack the nerd bag."

"Hey," I thought, "the only thing left on the list is 'make the setlist for the awesome hour!'"

I jumped up and ran into the back of the house, where Anne was dumping a basket of laundry onto our bed. "Dude! I finished almost everything on my list!"

"Are you going to relax, now?"

"As soon as I figure out what my setlist is going to be," I said. I pulled a still-warm T-shirt out of the pile and began to fold it. "Oh, I'm totally taking this to Phoenix with me."

Before she could speak, I added, "Nnnnnnnerrrrrrd … shhhiiirrrttt!"

She looked at me and barely suppressed a smile.

"Sorry, I'm a little relieved that I'm basically done with my list, and super excited to go spend a few days among my tribe."

The smile appeared. "I know."

I reached into the pile of clothes and pulled out a pair of jeans. "Remember how much you loved putting on jeans right out of the dryer when you were a kid?"

"And you'd jump into them and try not to let the rivets burn you," she said.

I tentatively touched a rivet near one of the front pockets. It was warm, but not hot.

"When the kids were little," Anne said, "I'd put their jeans into the dryer before school on really cold days."

"Ha! I totally remember that," I said. I folded up the jeans and began sorting socks.

We folded in happy silence for a few minutes.

"I really don't know that I'm going to do for my Awesome Hour," I said. "I think I want to read two short stories, and then spend the second half of the hour doing Q and A."

I began the process of sorting my socks, which really should be easy, but never is.

"Some day, when I have 'fuck you' money, I'm totally buying all new socks, and they'll all be exactly the same, so I don't have to do this ever again."

"It's good to have goals," she said.

A light went off in my brain. "I know what I'm going to read."

"Oh? Is it a story about your socks?"

"Nope." I told her what my plan was.

"Yeah, that's entertaining."

We finished folding our clothes, and put everything away.

"I'm going to go play Red Dead Redemption, now," I said. "I think I've earned it, and I need to decompress a little bit, after such a busy day."

"Just don't shoot your horse this time," she said, dryly.

"Hey! That was an accident!"

Earlier in the day, I'd related to her how, the night before, I'd been out hunting coyotes (you know, like you do) and while aiming down from my horse, I accidentally shot it in the neck and killed it. I was so traumatized, I broke my personal rule about never reloading from a saved game file if things don't work out the way I want them to.

"If you say so," she said. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't."

I kissed her goodnight, and a few minutes later found myself roaming the old west.

"Hey, Wil," my brain said.

"What, brain?"

"You're a cowboy…"

"Don't you fucking dare, brain."

"On a steel horse you ride…"

"I swear to god, I'm going to kill you with so much beer…"

"You're wanted…"

In spite of myself, I sang, "WAAAANNNTTTEEEEDDDD…"

My brain joined me: "Dead or aliiiivvvveee!"

I tried to pretend that it wasn't awesome, but my brain pointed out that, being my brain, it knew exactly what I was thinking.

"Hey, just look at it this way," my brain said, "I'm preparing you for Rock Band at the convention this weekend."

"I … you … just …" I had trouble speaking.

"Yeah, that's me fucking with you. Just say 'thank you', and you can get back to playing the game.

I sighed. "Thank you, brain."

"You're welcome. Now try not to shoot your horse."

dejected arr

On my patio, birds alternately sing to each other and furiously jostle for position on my bird feeders. Baby birds in a nest above my kitchen window chirp at their mother for food.

The inexplicably comforting smell of wet grass rides a gentle breeze through my open window and fills my office with memories of childhood days when spring was warm enough to play in the hose with my brother and sister.

A few houses up the street, a lawnmower drones on, more of a resonant hum than an actual sound. 

My dogs, until recently chasing each other all over the house and through the open doors into the yard, sleep on the floor, their favorite rope toy between them.

I have a ton of work to get done before I leave for Phoenix tomorrow, and I'm feeling more than a little stressed out and overwhelmed. I'd hoped that taking a few moments to appreciate the peace and serenity around me would have calmed me down, but now I just feel like I've wasted time I should have spent working.

Dejected arr.