José the Bronx Rican

I'm excerpting from my large post at 1up: Everything was exactly 100% as I expected. Except for Sam, every single human was a waste of screen time, Cullen was the shit, and there was plenty of action to offset the cinematic garbage we all should've seen coming. Overall, excellent popcorn flick. So much of that film did kick ass, but it was such a LONG, PAINFUL, HIGHLY ANNOYING trip just to get to all the good stuff. That whole "masturbation" dialogue almost made me want to walk. This movie could've been 110 minutes, easy. Yes, it was worth it, and here's my full disclosure, for those who didn't know already: I'm a true G1 fanboy, and I still watch the original series, NOT out of nostalgia; I still love, LOVE, the 1986 movie to death, but in all honesty, my opinion it that only the concept, the characters, and the fact that it was animated well most of the time kept it from being a pile of crap for the ages. This new flick, I would say, is actually on par with the '86 film overall, but it only has the concept, so it's not a keeper. Next time I see it will be a rental at home after I set up my new home theater. If I didn't have a coupla buddies with me, I would've stayed during all the credits, but I asked to stay long enough to catch the cast list. Went too fast for me anyway, but I did see who did Starscream: Charlie Adler, who is quite the voice talent veteran himself. Some of you know him as Buster Bunny, as Cow AND as Chicken.

There was only one way this Meet could have been more awesome, and that was if zirkietricks could only have made it here. And if I had a ticket for the second show so I could catch the Sonic segment. I got nothin' but love for all ya. Strap in, folks, because I'm enough of an idiot to wanna caption every single worthy pic I took. So, it's Four At A Time Time. Entering the Kennedy Center for the first time Friday afternoon. We were all introduced to Tommy Tallarico, and he showed us the concert hall where everything was happening. How low can we sink, er, go? Ask Will Roget. Nice Work, natch! (well, most of us, anyway.) From left to right: Geoffrey Taucer, Harmony, The Pezman, Arrowned, Escariot, DragonAvenger, DJSammyG, myself, Andy (DragonA's brother), Moguta, bustatunez, Kroze, q-pa, big giant circles, Tim, RealFolkBlues, Liontamer, djpretzel. More milling around outside the Center, looking for a place to hang and snack, still, I believe, discussing the true identity of the Nice Work Guy. At the CuppaCappaKopa-ka-banana or whatever it was called, another shot of Taucer surrounded by the group at the dying piano. Hanging at Watergate, still marvelling at either the urinal cake or that fossilized turd Taucer found. See, because the camera was aimed just the right way, see? Love the reactions, but i dunno what Will was "quoting." Panoramic! At a gate, at Watergate. Dinner. I fail at taking pics without flash. Or could we be at a Bertucci's in a parallel universe where everything is blurred and reads backwards? Just before the show. The famous bootleg Tetris block outfit, modeled by blockhead DJSammyG. Highlight of this meet is when a little girl walked by and said, "Mommy, is he from the Rubik's Cube?" Contest. Now you young'uns blaze through all these modern games, but y'all are a bunch of n00bs on the over-25-yr.-old "Space Invaders." Work the corners! I LOL'ed. But I expected someone to walk up to that kid and scream, "OLD!!!" I went up to the highest balcony to take some shots, and our group obliged. OCR, beetch!! Another balcony shot. Good crowd. Show's about to start. Mega Man came in second in the cosplay comp (after our Sammy), but his package was left undelivered. Yeesh. Afterward, five of us were in our hotel room, secret headquarters of the new superheroes collective: Minority Rapport! (coined by Darkesword, far left, who joined us at Bertucci's along with Bahamut, second from right.) Saturday. Everyone was watching djp PC'in it, when I noticed Anna sittin' there, and said, "smile!" TAUCE, DO A... (wait for it...) ...BARREL ROLL!!! After that, Will started flying away from us. (You didn't know he could fly?) Panoramic! Dunno what Shariq was embarrassed about, 'cause I was trying to capture some discus throwing. So when are the franks gon-- AAAAHHHH!! CONFLAGRATION!!!! At the park, we survived the flames, had good hot dogs, then some of us played Ultimate Frisbee! Some action shots following. Panoramic! After the game, the players struck a pose, once we scattered the squirrels and spiders. We then boat rentaled. Well, everyone else boat rentaled; by the time I finished waiting forever on line and relearned how to row a stupid boat, the others were done. RealFolkBlues and BGC above. Can't believe I forgot to buy tix for the second show. While that show took place, we (Wes, q-pa and myself) spent the time driving, and looking for a parking spot. Night life in D.C. was that hectic. We finally got into the karaoke bar we headed for, and q-pa did his part on a rap song (yes) and helped get the crowd into it. OMG Jack Wall! Everyone involved with the show was cool as hell. Jack poses with Jimmy and Larry. Sunday morning. Don't fuck with the Lens Crafters technicians. Finally going home. In q-pa's vehicle, my Sonic plushie makes nice with q's Mario dash figure. Drunk, maybe? Now, because I'm nuts like that, 2007 VGL Meet .gifs! Ai feiru atto efurizingu ekkuseputo animeshiyon! Dave shows us his award-winning Wii Bowling technique. WITH DRINK IN HAND! Not guitar heroes, but guitar GODS! The burst on my cam caught Tim's special Frisbee-launching Spin Move, and had I not a warped sense of humor, I would've cropped the pic to just him. But I LOL at the others. Terry Gilliam can eat it. I still have videos coming, hopefully tomorrow. After the show, which kicked enough ass. Those cute little Phoenix Wright ladies seemd nuttier than all get out, and were always in a dancing mood. But I'll be honest... ...I wasn't complaining. Late night at Dave's (djpretzel). And I do mean late; after the meet-and-greet during the show wrap-up, the clock reached midnight. Thrashing on "Guitar Hero" for the 360. Dave's entertainment and studio setups are to be admired.

My expectations so far: 1. CGI looks admittedly awesome. 2. We know the drill about Bay. 3. Action may be all we get, so there'd better be plenty of it. 4. If I give a shit about any of the human characters, it may be a miracle. 5. Despite all the potentially upsetting changes, the original idea is pretty much still intact: giant morphing robots beating the energon by-product out of each other in the service of selling merchandise. So it's still not a total loss. 6. PETER FREAKIN' CULLEN!! I think it'll be, at the least, okay. I hope to see it on the 4th with a friend.

'Cause the VGDJ shirt might not cut it. And since we meet up and head right to Kennedy, I need to figure out what to do with my luggage.

I can still stay for both nights, especially since it seems everyone's covering their own costs for the room. And if we face the same costs for a room for Otakon, I'll be perfectly satisfied. Best I can manage is a VGDJ shirt; my hoodie is lost.

I am nothing if not belated. HAPPY BDAY. Speaking of the irony of speaking on belatedness, my gift to Andy is a big fat reminder to update his Otakon thread, "dammit." That first post doesn't want me to come to the event.

I lean towards HELL no on taking an Amtrak that early. I work the evening before, and I'd be lucky to wake up before 8AM. My job is not gonna like it when I call in Friday.

Well, according to page 1, after three reminders, I'm still not coming. There's a limit to the size of the text here, so tonight I'll gently beat zircon over the head with PMs and ask him to pay attention.

Only wedding march I recall is the usual one, from Ken's ending.

Yeah, and on a breezy day, no one knew how to hold the damn thing without it constantly bumping into people and in danger of being ripped by trees, stoops and lampposts. I had it hands-free, looped around the waist and floating from my front side; that's how it's done. But that was probably no fun to a lot of you.

Never did get my coffee today. Just got home because the 11PM bus was filled to capacity and I had to wait for a backup - which didn't come until well after midnight - then took a medallion home, and I feel like utter shit. I'm goin' to bed. Love the pics.

Baltimore was longer than I thought. I dunno why I didn't make that connection: Baltimore = Maryland = close to D.C. Eep. I'll be on my way in the morning; as usual, I hope I make it on time. I also hope the BBQ doesn't run too late, 'cause I'm afraid I can only spare that day, and will have to head home that night. I'll call if there are any difficulties.

The first post isn't paying attention, I suppose, so, one more time... I AM COMING!! See, now you've made me sound dirty. One question: the Otakon site says to pick up badges on Thursday. I can't be the only one who can't make it on a day where nothing's even happening. Is it safe to assume I'll be able to get mine on Friday afternoon?

Same here, Wes. *saaaalute*

Cool on both counts; good lookin' out. Actually, now that I save a few bucks for Otakon, if we get a room for D.C. at a good rate, I would cover a bit more cost, and I'd also be tempted to stay till Sunday morning, and catch both shows.

Keep it on that date, and I'm definitely in. Google Maps is my good friend, and I'll find my way to you guys no matter what. Last time I forgot the cheesesteaks, so please force-feed me!

Here's my rather practical plan, realizing of course that things are expected to go wrong: I'm coming from NYC, natch. Provided I manage to be ready for the trip by Friday morning (I work on Thursday evening) and wake up on time, I'll be on the 9:35AM Amtrak to the Washington station, arriving around 1PM. I'm catching the Friday show, and can hang with everyone until Saturday evening (around 6 or 7PM) before taking the train back. That's about $160 for travel. Here's the important part: I'll need a place for Friday overnight. I'm willing to be generous on a hotel stay if it comes to that, that is, if someone who knows more about booking a hotel than I do can do that sort of work for me. If so, I'll cover about half the cost on a one-night stay for three or four of us. I figure to do the same thing (for two nights) for Otakon.

Three more now:

I'm now a youtube member, and the two-part NYC Meetup of 2005 is available: I'll see about the Otakon video this weekend, then I can put my own site's videos up.

I just converted my copies of the Otakon and NYC Meetup videos for play on my Zen Vision M. I can get right on this for youtube, no sweat.

*ahem* I repeat: I'm comin. *grin* And this non-driver who never had a need to book a hotel in his life might need something worked out soon. More later...

I'm here to say that I'm with bladiator 100%, and really appreciate that he managed to express my opinion before I had to bite a bullet and use up precious free time doing it myself. This issue - which probably affects a negligible amount of us artists who already risk violating the rights of others with our derivative works - should never have gotten this far. Dhsu followed up with reason that is also welcome. Time for me to go YES this....

If I have the discipline to catch a train at the time I'm supposed to, that'd be cool. I'll check the sked soon.

Oh, okay, Bah. It's no biggie, really. Assuming zirkietricks posted right after buying, they'd be #25 and #26, and they really oughta be there with the rest of the first pack. BGC: That's why I "got your backs." S'all good.

Makes perfect sense to me: why put themselves at risk for future "removal requests" (read: the next mood swing) from the same person? Everything looks fine where I'm sitting.