Sarcastic Voyage blog

That’s about it, really. Sarcastic Voyage episode 54 will post this coming Friday and you can hear all about it then.

I thought about sprinkling these pictures throughout the blog entries where they were relevant. I also thought about captioning each one of them. Then I got bored with all that. What I did do was organize them in roughly chronological order, so you get Thursday night’s hangouts, Friday night at karaoke, Saturday at the con, Saturday at dinner and Sunday at the con (including podcast recording) in roughly the order it occurred. That’s the most I’m committing to. Enjoy!

Pretty much every one of these was taken by Amanda.

http://gallery.me.com/aalgar#100035

Because, as I have mentioned, I am quite old, it took us awhile to get moving on Saturday morning and make our way to the convention. Plus, to be perfectly honest (as I have also mentioned) I’m not actually as into the con stuff itself as some people are. So arriving at the event around 2:00 really wasn’t that big a deal when you come down to it.

Getting there, unfortunately, was a major pain in the ass. It was like some horrible old video game, beset with reflex-timed obstacles at every turn. Some (leaving our tickets at home) were my fault. Others (several blocks along Pike closed for no apparent reason) were not. Even the drawbridge down in my neck of the woods was not cooperating.

Anywho. Somehow we finally made it. We walked around and did the whole “admiring things we couldn’t afford,” the “gawking at people in hot costumes” and the “gawking at people in ill-conceived costumes” thing. We visited Pat Loika, Adam Witt and Chris Page at their table, and bought a copy of Adam and Pat’s graphic novel, Blacklisted. 

But yeah, like I said… I’m not as into this stuff as I used to be. Had I had some money on me, I may have taken more of an interest in the various booths. Had I read more current comics, I may have taken more of an interest in the panels. And had I had the patience of a camel, I may have stood in line to touch Stan Lee or sniff Leonard Nimoy. But none of these things apply to me. Ask Matt; maybe he’ll tell you about some of that stuff.

We split from the thing at around 5, and met back up with Matt and Angel around 8, to head out for our big gathering. Chris Page, who was an absolute lifesaver during this entire weekend in terms of planning (I know Seattle pretty well, having been here four years — but only my little corner of it) chose the Rock Bottom restaurant and brewery to assemble everyone for dinner, drinking and general shouting of nerd jokes.

And shouting was definitely required, since we were stationed quite close to… well, I don’t know what it was. There were a bunch of very young people dressed up semi-formally, so my original guess was some kind of prom or homecoming. But it was a Saturday night in March, and besides, the girls were all tarted up like whores. (Look, I’m no misogynist — a consensus of males and females at our table concurred: these chicks looked like whores.) They were quite loud and they remained on my lawn in the room for some time. But when they left, the fun began.

Then the restaurant closed and the fun ended. Sad, really.

I got home from work at about 5, and we were downtown with Matt, Angel and the Ziolkos by around 6:30. I had a couple of places in mind, thanks to some input from Twitter friends: Shorty’s (which seemed nerd-friendly and whose clown motif I was hoping would horrify Matt) and the Two Bells Bar & Grill.

Shorty’s ended up being a nice place to go with a couple of friends, get a greasy hot dog and play old video games. But for the six of us… not so much. We tried squeezing around one of their pinball machines-turned-restaurant booths, but it just wasn’t happening. So we ended up at the Two Bells. Which was just as well — I wasn’t really comfortable eating at any place with less than three bells, but I could live with two. So that happened.

The food took for-fucking-ever to arrive, but it was really worth it; that was one of the tastier burgers I’ve had in town here, and it wasn’t terribly expensive. Also, Amanda had a hot toddy for some reason.

Next, we headed to Hula Hula (pre-chosen by Chris Page) for karaoke. The place was nice — there was enough room for us all, the waitresses were cute and attentive and, oh yeah, Amanda got an aquarium of a rum drink (or “rumdrank” as our southern contingent seems intent on calling them), which was brought to her ON FIRE. Much hilarity was had.

Pat Loika arrived soon after, in what appeared to be a limousine (or at the very least a Towncar). In true modest Loika fashion, he denied that anything special had occurred on his behalf, but we all knew it: the man is a goddamn rock star.

Chris Page showed up shortly thereafter, with a SURPRISE GUEST in tow: two-time SV guest (not to mention cohost of her own little hobbit-based show) Laura, aka El Cinco. Quite the pleasant surprise, if you ask me, and I can now confirm that the rumors of her alarmingly diminutive stature have been greatly exaggerated.

We put in our slips for karaoke, but sadly the place was ridiculously packed and none of us got a chance to sing during the entire 3.5 hours we sat there hearing the likes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Parents Just Don’t Understand” get mangled beyond all recognition. Also something called “Sweet Caroline,” which the entire bar knew and sang along with. The entire bar, that is, except for yours truly. Never heard of it before.

Oh, and when I say “none of us got a chance,” this omits the fact that one of us did indeed get a chance: Scott Ziolko sang an amazing rendition of “Punk Rock Girl,” complete with a little jig and everything. Pictures to follow. There was also a video taken of this performance, but I’d like Scott’s blessing before I plaster that all over the Internet.

The group broke up around midnight, and we headed home. I wish we’d gotten to sing (Matt and I tossed around the idea of performing “Afternoon Delight” together, a la Arrested Development), but it still wasn’t a bad time. If nothing else, I got to watch my future wife put away an aquarium of rum. So it wasn’t a complete loss.

Plan for today (Saturday): post last night’s pictures, have a shower, head to the con. Watch this space; apparently I can post semi-live audio directly from my phone to Tumblr. So we may attempt to semi-live broadcast from the event.

I get really defensive about the hacky stereotypes about Seattle weather, so I was none too pleased to discover that it’s going to be raining throughout Emerald City weekend.

Amanda and I met up with Angel and Matt, and had pizza at Zeek’s, a decent local chain with a bit of nerd cred (apparently Nathan Filion speaks highly of the place). The three of us got the meat pizza with extra meat, while Amanda got some kind of tree bark and soy goat cheese mess. Ever the contrarian, that one.

Apologies in advance for the sucky pictures; they’re being taken on a cell phone being held by a very shaky hand. I’m very old, you see. I’ll be dead soon. (Cue Matt and Amanda singing that song from the thirties that proves I’m old.)

This was just an informal Thursday night affair - I had work the next day so I was out of there by 9ish. The real fun starts Friday.

Basic weekend itinerary

Friday night - karaoke, at a place called Hula Hula

Saturday - the actual, you know, convention. I personally expect to be bored, but Matt seems to enjoy this crap. Also, friends of ours are selling books and sketches, which is exciting.

Saturday night - gathering of SV listeners/guests for dinner, drinks, et. Al.

I’ll be posting stuff here throughout the weekend, so keep an eye on this thing if you have any interest in our activities shenanigans.