Second Saturday in October

That was one busy Saturday eight days ago. Some of you will understand the need (of my wife) for us to clean the house in anticipation of someone coming over to clean the house; that was the post-breakfast activity. And we were also trying out a new babysitter, Annie, to replace our old sitters Anna (who went to college) and Anne (a busy HS senior).

So the babysitter came, the housekeeper came, and I got picked up by my friend Rocco. Rocco was a kid who used to be a FantaCo customer who became a FantaCo employee in the early 1980s. We traversed over to the Elks Lodge in Troy to go to a comic book program, organized by former FantaCo customer Dave Palladino.

We went to the artists’ table and talked to three guys with a strong FantaCo connection:
John Hebert was the artist on a book I co-wrote, Sold Out and worked at a couple FantaCons, before moving on to fame and fortune. He’s getting married next year, and herein is the proof:

Fred Hembeck, who I saw for the third time this year (yay!), was doing the big reveal of an anthology of his seven books published by FantaCo, plus over 600 MORE pages, news that would soon be wildly and exuberantly cheered by the comics blogisphere. He had on hand a binder that featured the black and white version of the color cover:

and
Bill Anderson, who I see more often than the others, worked at Fantaco, off and on, between 1984 and 1996, but even before that, embellished some of Hembeck pages, before becoming the inker extraordinaire.

Rocco and I had great conversations with them and with Fred’s daughter Julie, between her stints reading homework. She told me she likes doing these trips because it gets her out of the house and because Fred “really needs a navigator,” which even he would admit is true.

I also had some lengthy conversations with other former customers and employees. Talked at length about the late Raoul Vezina (a post for next year) and FantaCo’s founder, Tom Skulan, who has gone into a different line of work.

At some point, I returned to the artists’ table, and a couple little kids asked me to sign a Mars Attacks mini-comic that FantaCo had published. I didn’t have anything to do with it, except shipping it to distributors, and escorting its writer Mario Bruni a Capital Cities Distributor show in Madison, WI back in 1988 so we could promote it. But I signed them anyway.

I now remember why some folks find comic book people really weird, as I heard a number of stories, including Golden-Gate, some debacle involving Michael Golden and a Doctor Strange drawing. It’s interesting in a very bizarre way.

I had a surprisingly good time, though I didn’t buy anything, except for some food. Check Fred’s October 20th post for his take on the event.

Rocco dropped me home long enough to go back out to the drug store and grocery store, before a second babysitter came. We’d NEVER had two babysitters in one day, EVER, but we really wanted to go the 30th anniversary party for our friends, Paul and Mary Liz Stewart, as it turned out, at my church. After a wonderful dinner, there was a short segment of singing to and telling stories about the Stewarts, MCed by me (I learned about this at 10 a.m. that day), thus once again ruining my self-image as a shy person.

It was a good day.

ROG

Rock Hall QUESTIONS

A couple weeks ago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominated these folks to be voted on:
Madonna
Afrika Bambaataa
The Beastie Boys
Leonard Cohen
Donna Summer
The Ventures
Chic (third year)
The Dave Clark Five (third year)
John Mellencamp (second year)
The results will be announced early next January, with the awards ceremony in March.

1. Who will be selected this year? I’m guessing Madonna, Afrika and the Beastie Boys – I don’t think you can pick the Beastie Boys (or indeed most hip hop/rap artists) without picking Afrika; but as to the other two, I really don’t know. Maybe DC5 and Chic because they’re repeaters. Leonard Cohen should be in the Hall as a songwriter, not a singer.

2. Who would you like to be selected this year? For me, Madonna, Afrika, and DC5.

3. There are a number of people, some of whom are listed here (lower half of the page) who’ve been bypassed for the Hall. Who would you like to see? My picks: Peter Gabriel and/or Genesis, Graham Parker. I also would love to see some consideration to some more commercial bands such as – OK, I’ll admit it – the Doobie Brothers.

Oh, and on another topic:

4. What do you think of the FCC plan to ease limits on media owners?

ROG

(W)rap-Up

Did you miss me? I was gone a couple days at a conference of the New York State Data Center Affiliates, and I didn’t have any Internet connection (though I was able to purloin someone’s computer to post yesterday.) Did anything happen? World War III didn’t happen yet, apparently.

The Boston Red Sox are still alive. They’ve decided they need one more game then one game after that, rather than thinking, before yesterday’s match that they needed three wins. Reminds me, actually, of a racquetball match my partner Ty and I were in earlier in the week. We were down 2-8, game to 11, but instead of thinking we needed 9 points, we decided to try to win a point at a time, and it worked.

I’m sorry that Joe Torre’s gone from the Yankees, but $5 million plus incentives ain’t bad for an MLB manager.

I’ve figured out my daughter’s hip hop name. There’s a sign near our day care that says EMERGENCY, and Tuesday, I was showing her our last name, GREEN, which are the middle five letters, scrambled. So, she can be EM CY GREEN, or maybe just EMERGENCY.

More content tomorrow, I’m hoping.
ROG

Three word answers

I snagged this from Jaquandor, again. “You answer each question with three words, and only three words. Three. ‘Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.'”

At least three answers I just stole outright.

1. Where is your cell phone?:

Missing in action.

2. Your boyfriend?:

I need definition.

3. Your hair?:

Less than most.

4. Where is your father?:

Buried in Carolina.

5. Cheesecake?:

I’d love some!

6. Your favorite thing to do?:

Listen to music.

7. Your dream last night?:

Out of focus.

8. Your favorite drink?:

White, white wine.

9. Your dream car?:

Do not care.

10. The room you’re in?:

Warm and messy.

11. George Bush?:

Well, which one?

12. Your fears?

Nothing jumps out.

13. Nipple rings?

No, thank you.

14. Who did you hang out with last night?

My work colleagues.

15. What you’re not good at?

Most mechanical things.

16. Your best friend?

Pick just one?

17. One of your wish list items?

American Beatles discs.

18. Where did you grow up?

Binghamton, New York.

19. The last thing you did before survey?

Attendede a workshop.

20. What are you wearing?

The usual fare.

21. Tattoo on the small of a back?

No tattoos, thanks.

22. Ketchup?

On French fries.

23. Your computer?

A necessary evil.

24. Your life?

Usually in flux.

25. Your mood?

Usually in flux.

26. Missing?

Raoul, Nancy, Donna.

27. What are you thinking about right now?

Three-word answers.

28. Your car?

Don’t drive it.

29. Your work?

Stimulates my brain.

30. Your summer?

It’s all right.

31. Your relationship status?

Off the market.

32. Your favorite color(s)

Green, blue, purple.

33. When is the last time you laughed?

Just this morning.

34. Last time you cried?

Not that hard.

35. High school?

Was all right.

ROG

Pulling an Eddie Mitchell

The title comes from this post by Lefty Brown, where he defines it as not blog posting as much as you should. In this post, Lefty also wrote: “I want Roger Green to dress up as Cornel West for Halloween…and post a pic on his blog.” Ain’t gonna happen; not only do I not have the hair, but if I walk around looking like Cornel West, NO ONE WILL GET IT.

And in honor of that: Cornel West on what does it mean to be a leftist; it’s only eighty seconds long, unlike some of the other 160-odd pieces about the author on YouTube:

I wrote something nice about the Lefty Side of the Dial podcast – it’s somewhere in iTunes – and Lefty hasn’t podcast since. I’m feeling almost guilty that I may have somehow embarrassed him. Come back, Lefty!

Oh, and speaking of Eddie Mitchell, he did a video-infested post. I want to discuss two:
The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun- Julie Brown: Some people seem to think that in a post-Columbine world, it should be banned. I guess I just don’t, though I have no good argument why, except for my general disdain for censorship. Also, the line about throwing down “your gun and your tiara” always cracks me up.
Johnny Get Angry-k.d. lang: I saw this at the time it originally aired. It led indirectly to a shared obsession with lang that I had with my ex. Actually, she was even more k.d.-centric than I. Nice memory.

I’m now watching about an hour of TV a day and taping about two; recipe for deleting programs on the DVR, unwatched.

Please vote for Binghamton, NY, my hometown, as pierogy capital. You can vote every day, once a day, through October 23. Yes, Buffalo, the defending champion, is on the list again, and even enlisted some high-powered female politician who’s running for President to help in the cause, but, believe me, Binghamton needs it more. What IS a pierogy? For one thing, it’s spelled several different ways. For another, it’s a “pocket food” that I first had when I was five or six, growing up in a Slavic neighborhood, as I did.

I love adjectives. Here’s list of eponymous adjectives and one of animal adjectives.

ROG

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