Trader Joe's Indian Fare Pav Bhaji...

Yay, another food review from you friendly frog fatty.

Eventually I'll go through all the Trader Joe Indian Fare foods. I'm not sure if my stomach will survive, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

This was very good. It's more of a paste than chunks of stuff, but you can taste the potatoes. The smell is wonderful; peppers and starch with a hint of ginger.

It's the most spicy of the Indian Fare food so far. If you look close, you can see the flakes of some kind of pepper. Not overly spicy, but close. Makes if feel a little more authentic.

This is another must try. I'll be buying it again.

I should come up with some kinda sign off. Hmm. Spoon?

No Doubt is charging how much?!?!?!?!?!?!?

No Doubt regrouped for a summer tour this summer.

This was good news. I'd love to see No Doubt. I'm happy their back together. Tragic Kingdom is one of my favorite albums. It helps that I find Gwen Stefani unbelievably sexy. She was the best part of The Aviator playing Jean Harlow.

So I remember to check dates and ticket info today.

They're playing in AC at the Borgata on May 2nd. Sounds cool, but don't feel like making the drive. Might be cool to see them in a small theater like that. It's standing room only and the tickets cost $105. WTF. Really, $105 dollars. OK, that's out. Maybe it's the size of the Venue.

They're playing in Camden at the SB Center in June. The day after my birthday(June 10th, send cards). They have lawn seats for $12. I won't do that again. I saw Aerosmith on the lawn. You're better off sitting in your car. The $40 tickets are sold out. My fault for waiting I suppose. So I would be stuck with the $80 tickets.

I'm probably going to go to the Camden show, but is that what tickets normally cost?

I admit, I don't go to alot of shows, and the ones I goto are lesser known bands, but $105?

I think I spent $25 on Dead Milkmen and Pennywise tickets. Page and Plant may have been $40, but that was in the late 90s. I won tickets to Kiss and Marilyn Manson so I didn't have to pay for them. Would the Manson/Slayer tickets have been $80?

I saw Kepi Ghoulie, Kevin Seconds and Joe Jack Talcum in a room that held 50 people and it only cost $15. The Groovie Ghoules, 7 seconds and the Dead Milkmen were fairly big in thier day.

Since people like Kepi and Kevin put out their music through Indy labels now, do they make more money from Albums while No Doubt has to make money through tours because the label takes all the money from CD sales?

I'm sure I'll have fun seeing No Doubt, but money aside, I'm sure I enjoyed the Kepi, Kev, Joe show more than I will No Doubt. Three guys who loved what they're doing and really did it for the fans.

I spend HOW MUCH on comics in a year...

I'd like to start saving money.

I figure the first way to do this is to keep track of how much I spend.

I've gone through some statements and made a record of how much I've spent on comics so far this year. I've already noticed that this is a problem. I've even dropped a couple of monthly titles. Scary stuff. I might as well take up heroin.

Click the link to find out the damages.



I have a small php script I go back to every time I want to make a table from a SQL db. It's probably the script I'm most proud of.

I focus on the pain...

I'm not sure how, but some time over the weekend I pinched a nerve in my back.

I don't remember any point going, "Damn, my back, WTF!" but it started with a slow ache that turned into a sharp stabbing pain every time I move.

Oh well.

I get to lie on my couch for a day or two and catch up on movies. According to the doctor it could take anywhere from 10 to 90 days to heal completely. I should stand or lie down, no sitting. It's a good thing I don't work at a desk... oh wait... bummer.

I took off Monday and Tuesday(today). I'm going in tomorrow. It'll take more than crippling back pain to keep me from new comic day.

I'm also in the middle phase of a head cold. Stuffy nose, sneezing, itchy eyes. My mom just got over one and at least two of the guys I work with just got over one too. I guess it was my turn. At least I have it while my back hurts. Might as well deal with everything at once.

Monster Mania Con...

First con of the year for me.

Usually it's New York, but skipped it this year. Combination of being broke and not having anyone great listed in the guest list.

I really just popped into Monster Mania. I wasn't planning on going. Again, no one that great and still on the broke side. Turns out my paycheck hit earlier than expected and Lloyd Kaufman signed on as a last minute guest.

Monster Mania takes place, several times a year, at the Crown Plaza (formerly Hilton) hotel in Cherry Hill. It's literally right down the street from me. Sometimes they have amazing guests, other times not so much. I've met such horror classics as Bruce Campbell(Evil Dead/Army of Darkness), Jeffrey Combs(Re-Animator/Frightners), Malcom McDowell(Clockwork Orange/Caligula/Cat People/Time After Time/Heros), John Saxon(Nightmare on Elm Street/Enter the Dragon) and some lesser known stars such as Hal Delrich(Scotty in the Evil Dead), Tom Sullivan(art director on evil dead), The Chiodo Brothers(writers/directors/creators of Killer Klowns from Outer Space).

Lloyd Kaufman is one of my idols. He was suppose to be at several past shows, but never made it do to last minute scheduling issues. He's the creator of the Toxic Avenger. He's the founder of Troma Studios, the most successful independant movie company of all time. Troma is the big daddy of B movies. You look through my DVD collection and you'll see a whole shelf devoted to them. From such greats as the Toxic Avenger, Surf Nazis Must Die, Tromeo and Juliet, Class of Nukem High... to not so greats like Girl School screamers and Sucker the Vampire.

Billy Bob Thorton, Kevin Costner and Marisa Tomei all got thier starts in Troma movies.

Lloyd was fantastic. He's part comedian, part buisness man, part geek. He understands it's the fans that makes his company successful and loves us more than we love him.

Thank you Mr. Kaufman.

PS: He had a NYU film student following him around for a documentry. It'll probably be included as a special feature on some upcoming Troma DVD. I brought some Marvel Toxic Avenger comics and a couple of Indy Troma books to get signed. Lloyd showed them to the camera and did a little talk about Marvel and Troma's comic history. My comics are stars. Cool.

Feed Update...

That was fast.
It seems to be a global problem. Not just me.
Bummer.

Feed Test

My feeds stopped working. That's not so good.

urm...

I had something I wanted to post, but I got distracted.
Bummer.

I remember it being fairly entertaining as well.

We would have all rejoiced.

I would have gotten it down too, if not for vidoop and it's stupid picture login.

I was trying to edit my twitterfeed and for some reason it wouldn't recognize my browser as being the one I used to create it. By trying to simplify things vidoop really fucked things up. I also couldn't reset my password because the forms page wouldn't work in firefox. Didn't give any indications that it wasn't going to work, it just never sent the email. It was pure luck that I happened to try it in IE.

Grumble...

I fuckin' hate IE.
Things look fine in firefox, IE seems to think the sidebar needs to be under everything else.

Changes...

Working on making things flow a little better.
Finally got rid of the profile and links.
Working on making colors match accross pages as best as I can.
The colors on the main switchboard are really bright. Never realized that. I've tried muting them a little here. Just knocked them down a notch or two.

I usually like working on the site, but I feel just really down today.

Don't know why.

Oh well.

Kat von D was in Philly...

I missed a Kat von D signing at Borders in Philly by going to NY to the Gaiman signing.

My head tells me I made the right choice. My pants tell me different.


more pics

I'm in line...

2 hours early. 3.5 hour train ride.
The line isn't bad at all, unless there's a lot inside.

Grabbed a huge snickers bar from penn station. Brought a quart of water with me. Should be all set.

Passed a halel truck on the way to books of wonder. Will stop there afterward. Almost half done starship troopers. Highly recommend it. Glad I picked up the running man as well. Didn't know it was a stephen king book. I'll watch the movie when I finish it.

At first when I realized how cheap the train was I was upset I didn't go to to the ny comicon. Now I realize I'd have to leave my house at 5 to make it just an hour earlier. Never would have happened.

The wait begins.

On the way to NY...

Going to a Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess signing at world of wonder books.

The first time I ever went to NY was for a Neil Gaimen signing.

I decided to take NJTransit so its a 3-4 hour trip. Luckly I've made all my connections so far. It's so cheap to get to NY if you don't mind doubling your travel time. The trains are very nice too. Especially the NJTransit trains, big comfy seats. Just left Trenton for NY Penn. Once I hit Penn I take the NY subway. Then a brisk walk through downtown to the store. Hopefully I gave myself enough time to not be so far back in line at the signing.

Alyssa from Fat Jack's is going to be in NY and might stop by the signing. That would be awesome. I'm finally able to speak with her without stuttering... too badly.

I love NY. I would love to work there.

Oh well. I picked up the books: The Running Man and Starship Troopers for the trip and I'm a third of the way through Troopers. It's very much different from the movie, so far so good.

We are the pure and chosen few, and all the rest are damned.

There's room enough in hell for you--we don't want heaven crammed.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

A movie based on Watchmen has been in production for over 20 years.
It has long been considered unfilmable, but this Friday it finally comes out.

Who is going to go see it?

In the geek subculture Watchmen is heralded as "The GREATEST graphic novel of all time" and it is, but the normal world...

It doesn't have the name recognition of a Batman or a Spider-man. It's not going to have the built in audience those movies have.

Warner Brothers seems to understand this and is doing a fantastic job promoting. But will it be enough?

We should see Spider-Man numbers with Watchmen. Early reviewers have loved it, but they've all been geeks. It's suppose to have a very hard R rating. Nothing has been held back. This will keep kids from seeing it. It's going to be tough.

I have faith in Zack Snyder (aside: I did a imdb search to verify spelling and see he's attached to a cobalt 60 movie, WOW). Dave Gibbons, non insane co-creator, has been an advisor since the beginning. This has the makings of a geek's wet dream. I plan on buying a blu-ray player when it comes out on disc. I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Anyway... I'm thinking of writing some Watchmen history all this week to keep me geeked up for the movie. Keep your eyes open and try and check out the movie this weekend.