No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on May 8, 2015

We have discovered that due to road construction, it is now not possible to leave Long Island without a minimum 20 to 30 minute delay depending on the time of day and traffic conditions. We added an hour total to our journey getting down here.

Once we were off the Island, we hit a little traffic on Staten Island and then nothing all the way to Philly.

Hotel is nice. Staff is pleasant. Convention Center is about three blocks away. So all in all not a bad local.

We are at Table B18 in Artist Alley. Bring your walking shoes because this thing is HUGH.

Caroline and I took the time to look around because we are all going to hide on Saturday behind the table.

It amazes me how far fandom has come from basement conventions in churches to mega conventions in convention centers.

It is nice to see so many families and that the kids are enjoying themselves as much as the adults. And no one seems to be drug along. They are having fun at a convention as a family. Makes me smile.

I do have a slew of puppets with me but performing is a bit of an issue since I took a nasty spill on our way back to the hotel. Nothing is broken but the palm of my left hand is just one big bruise and I am having trouble closing my fingers. Typing has been quite the challenge. Rod operation is not happening so I think I am going to stick to the hand puppets.

It was nice to have a day to slide into the convention since today is going to be a long one.

I am grateful for conventions with very helpful volunteers and staff.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 6, 2015

I have had a couple of people ask me if everything is OK since I have been kind of quiet and we have had a slew of bad news.

Things are fine here for the most part. It has more to do with some fictional writing I am working on that is taking up most of my free writing time. I can write non-fiction or fiction but for some reason not both in the same day.

I also needed to take a bit of a break to stop me from saying some things I probably shouldn’t be saying on the Internet due to some kerfuffle on various social media platforms. Both those and I have calmed down so no longer a problem.

I never blog when angry for various reasons.

Now on to the bit about Caroline who has had three marking periods of straight A’s. She also scored a 28/28 on her NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) solo in flute. She is being encouraged to take a leadership role at school. She was the only girl in the sixth grade of her school to go to the Hofstra Robotics meet. She is passionate about social issues that affect her and is willing to talk about them. Middle School has really worked out for her in ways I couldn’t possibly imagine. And she is getting so tall. I don’t have to bend over to put my chin on her head anymore.

Peter has finished writing the three Star Trek New Frontier e-books. He is now working on another project along with his Marvel work. He has a new game out that he wrote the dialogue for entitled Marvel Future Fight. We were highly amused that when we went to see Avengers Age of Ultron in 2-D there was an ad for the game in the previews. Peter had no idea that they did that and the plus was that they used his dialogue in the promo. That was a RL easter egg if there ever was one.

I am working on some puppets again. I finished the Doctor’s Daughter.

( For the VI: This is a puppet based on the character Jenny from the episode of Doctor Who entitled The Doctor’s Daughter. She has blond hair and blue eyes and is wearing a dark green shirt with a light brown belt. She is propped up against a bunch of fabric and puppet parts)

And am now working on a Zelena puppet to give to Rebecca Mader as an apology for all the crap that got toss at her for her fine acting job as Zelena. Fandom sometimes can be really thick and not separating the actor from the roll is just not cricket. If anything it proves just how good an actor she is.

The beginnings of Zelena the puppet

(For the VI: To the right is Zelena who has green skin, red hair and blue eyes. Next to her is Jenny. They are propped up on a pile of fabric and puppet parts)

This weekend we are at Wizard World Philly. Peter has a table in artist alley. Please come by and say “Hi”. I love to meet the people who read this web log. Caroline will be selling drawings and Peter will have plenty of books for sale. I will have various puppets with me including Sherlock if I can get the coat redone but I am not holding my breath. But I will have Rumple, Mr. Gold, Nick Fury and the War Doctor.

I am grateful that I am building puppets again. That was a long drought for me.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 29, 2015

Short verison: Awesome!

Longer Version

Well Joss had a lot to live up to since the first Avengers film. We have had several movies and TV shows that tied into that film. So how is the next installment of Marvel’s plan to take over the world (of entertainment)?

Pretty gosh darn good.

Whedon wrote the script and managed to take a pretty convoluted story with lots of abstract concepts and make it work on so many levels. I felt that all the characters were given moments to shine and that is not easy considering how many characters there are now.

The acting was top notch. The actors were given some impossible tasks to make us care about things that don’t exist outside a computer and we believed them.

Speaking of which, James Spader was really wonderful as Ultron. Since I watch the Blacklist, I found it funny how he, the actor, has certain mannerisms that translated well to Ultron especially his habit of cocking his head when imparting information.

The addition of Aaron Taylor-Thomas and Elizabeth Olsen’s characters didn’t feel forced.

Joss got his Michael Bay on and I think may have blown more stuff up than the first Transformers film. Lots of things go boom.

Also we had a number of Matrix slow-mo moments that didn’t hinder but enhanced the action so the audience could figure out what was going on before bring it back up to full speed.

Are there some overused tropes? Yeah, but I didn’t care I was having too much fun.

And that is all this film really needed to be for me. It had to be entertaining and I was entertained.

Quips were had and there are a couple of running gags that were fun.

It does need to be seen on a really big screen. I was lucky enough to see it at the Zeigfeld and that screen barely did it justice. 3-D was fine but not totally necessary.

I do recommend it highly for some solid entertainment and great acting.

I am grateful that I got to see this at the Marvel Screening sitting behind Larry Lieber.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 27, 2015

Or most weekends in May will be spent in another state.

The line-up

Wizard World Philadelphia

Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention

Comicpalooza Texas

It will be Peter, Caroline and me.

Yes, I will have puppets with me including some new ones.

Yes, Peter will have books and scripts for sale.

Yes, Caroline will be trying to earn money with her artwork.

Our house/cat sitter is happy because we have cable and a Google TV.

It has been a while since we have all been at a convention together (Farpoint) so it will be nice to have the family together while traveling.

Please feel free to come by Peter’s table and say Hi.

I am grateful that we have the next month all sorted out.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 24, 2015

And we are home

The funeral went well or as well as funerals can go.

I thank you for your kind thoughts and sympathies. They do help.

We do miss Gunter a lot. Caroline had Peter tell her the story about Gunter’s speech at our wedding among others. I can barely remember that day, I am glad that Peter does.

We got home yesterday evening and now are sorting out the month of May were we are doing about a convention a week except the first weekend.

We are working our way back from the events of this week and it is going to take some time to process it.

And that is OK.

I am grateful for all the support we have been given.

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