A full day of Irish Fest

Irish Fest from yesterday is sort of this blur of happy activity. Yes, I can hear you chuckling at 'blur' while you think 'I know what that means!' but no, there was no drunk involved. Drinking yes, but no garbled 'whee! ThIs iS gReat! *hic*'

As a volunteer, I got to enter before the Fest officially opened. This pleased me as it falls into my 'Not allowed? Me? I'm allowed everywhere.' belief. I was the first of my group to show. What can I say? I was eager.

Ticket taking is pretty easy when the price of admission is 'free' for half your shift. Originally, it was free from 4-5. That became 4-5:30 because, from what I heard, there was a typo somewhere and they decided to honor the typo. In the end, they opened the gates a bit early and extended the free a bit due to traffic issues (Brewers game, State Fair, and Irish Fest all in the same day?) so it turned out to be free from 3:45 to 5:45. More or less.

When it's free what do you do? You welcome people in, hand them the information brochure and encourage them to have a good time. No script, no specific words to say, which meant a lot of me burbling in a silly fashion to whomever walked up. 600 some people walked through my gate so a lot of people had to deal with me, including my buddy Jesse and his girlfriend, which was nice.

Once the free was over, the flow of people died off a bit. We were at a gate that probably gets the least amount of traffic so that wasn't totally unexpected. In-between us sassing each other and the people, it was a lot of fun. Most of the people were nice. Some were chatty. Some were happy to be there. Some would be happy to be there. I remember telling a gentleman and his wife that they'd arrived while admission was still free. He shook my hand and blessed me rather sincerely. It was different but not unpleasant. The crew that took over from us was led by an old work friend of mine. That was unexpected but not unpleasant.

After that was eating and drinking, wandering about, and some listening to this and that; basically the loosely planned, relaxed sort of thing that I enjoy. I think that's part of why I like Irish Fest so much. There's no real pressure to have to see one thing or another so you can just soak in it and enjoy.

5 Snakechasers and a shot of Powers whiskey. Reuben rolls and a bridie. Good times.

It begins!

I walked around Irish Fest for about an hour and a half by myself last night. I was grinning, walking at a rapid pace, burning off the excited energy of being back at Irish Fest. I took some pictures because there weren't many people about when it first opens on a Thursday. It was fun and happiness.

I don't know that I have a good story to tell yet. I'm volunteering at the Gate today, finally giving something back other than just money. I'll be leaving for that soon. Blame that for the brief quality of this entry.

Potato Pancakes with apple sauce. Shepherd's pie. 4 Snakechasers and a Sprecher's Stout. Good times...

A Few Thoughts on Comics from this week

Lots of starting this week or re-starting as the case might be.

I had grown a bit uncomfortable with the relaunch of the Ultimate Marvel line as Ultimatum wrapped up. Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Avengers both arrived this week and both were good, at least as good as the books were before the big change. Ultimate Avengers starts three weeks after Ultimatum and features the appearance of a freaky new villain. Spidey is six months after Ultimatum and spends much of its time setting up the new status of the book, with much the same humor style as before. So far, so good. We'll see where this goes for awhile.

The Marvels Project is a miniseries set at the beginning of the 'Marvel Age', 1939. The expectation is that the story will show some of the connections that existed behind the scenes, things that act as the 'origin' of the 'Marvel Age'. It's done by Brubaker and Epting, the guys that have been making Captain America so interesting for the past few years. Nazi scientists experimenting with Atlantians? Fury and Dugan to sneak Erskine out of Germany? Neat!

G-Man: Cape Crisis is a silly kid super-hero story from Image. G-Man's powers come from his magic cape. His school friends want to fly and have 'super toughness' as well. He's smart enough to not share, at first. This is funny, cute, and innocent enough for kids. I like it.

Didn't I just get a Hack/Slash last week? I did. The next issue came out this week. It doesn't quite explain what I expected but it does wrap up a number of storylines and resets the normal. The story felt important. I honestly thought things would get worse than they did. Good stuff.

Hell's Kitchen Episode Four

Since the new episode airs tonight, I figure I'm not spoiling anything by going through last night's episode today. Besides I need to catch up.

Before we begin, I have it on good authority that the energetic Texan Van is the son of wrestler Luna Vachon and therefore the grandson of Butcher Vachon and grandnephew of Mad Dog Vachon. This would explain a lot about him. By that I don't mean that he's a crazy hot head because he's got wrestlers in the family, not at all. I'm saying that his wrestling family have often portrayed themselves as hot heads and, maybe, that wasn't that far from reality.

Onto the show!

- The first thing the recap shows? Van and JP's arguement. Ha!

- Recap: women win challenge, injury prone guys, women lose service but no elimination due to Joseph eliminating himself.

- Lovely starts thinking too much of herself right away, believing that Chef Ramsey believes in her and wants her around. Tennille and Suzanne start bickering right away. Suzanne says her statements haven't been personal but Tennille is taking them that way. Van and Kevin discuss Andy and his weaknesses.

- Noting the tensions on the teams, Chef Ramsey notes that people in his kitchens need to be able to work together. This leads into Challenge! He immediately starts creating two person teams, lumping Suzanne and Tennille together, then Van and Andy. Ha! This should be fun. In interview Van refers to Robert as 'Big Uns'. Double Ha! Amanda lucks out by not getting a partner and gets to sit out.

- The two person teams are to make six-inch sausages. The first team to fill their rack with six chains of properly done sausage will win. Entertainingly, the female team expresses no experience with making sausage while the men do. This leads to a lot of snickering and double-entendres as the challenge is explained.

- Suzanne and Tennille are the first team to bring up a link and it's correct. Suzanne's from Wisconsin so she must know something about sausage, inna? In interview, Suzanne notes that they don't get along but can work together. She tried to brush off their personal differences when they got teamed up.

- Kevin and Dave get a chain up for the Blue Team. With that, the sausages start flowing... from the inexperience ladies. Van and Andy gets one up as Andy explains, and we see, that Van's a yeller as a communicator. Jim keeps popping the skins and irritating team-mate Robert. With the score 5-4 Red Team, Ariel brings up what could be the winning chain of sausage and we go to commercial.

- A couple sausages are too thin, the Blue Team still has a chance... until Lovely and Tek bring up a winning chain. Robert and Jim produced nothing and get hollered at.

- Punishment: Cleaning the Dorms.

- Reward: private 'Oktoberfest' style party.

- The men are not happy about losing. Kevin starts grumbling about executive chefs that can't make a sausage and Robert gets upset. He gets in Kevin's face and then expresses his displeasure to Jim about what happened with them. He seems to calm down quickly, noting it's frustration with what happened with the team. In Interview he notes that he's been called a loser all his life and that no one has had any faith in him. He doesn't have to take it and won't. Last season he explained to Chef Ramsey that relatives called him by a nickname Chef was using for him and that they didn't treat him well. As a result, he associates the nickname with abuse and asked Chef to stop using it, which he immediately did.

- The girls get sent to the best sausage joint in California. It looks like half-a-dozen places in Milwaukee but not as homey.

- As punishment continues, Robert explains himself more calmly to the guys, especially Kevin, and they grasp his desire to win, blaming Jim for that team's failure. Sous-Chef Scott gives him a hard time, noting Robert's competitive spirit should come our during the challenge, not punishment. Robert explodes, noting he almost died for this last season and breaks a mop. Wow. I have the weirdest feeling he's not going to make it close to the finals. Not that he'll get sick and fall out again. It's just that he hasn't seemed to click yet upon returning. This new group seems to have him more agitated than he was last season. I can see him just not finding a groove and getting eliminated halfway through.

- The rest of the day goes by without incident. As the Teams prep for the next night's service, the Red Team is still on a high from winning the challenge. The Blue Team is failing apart a bit, in part from losing and in part from the remnants of the injuries. Dave's wrist is killing him. The doctor calls Dave and informs him that the MRI shows a fractured wrist which is normally treated with a long arm cast. It would mean being unable to move the thumb on that hand. As we go to commercial, Dave considers what to do.

- Dave goes to discuss this news with Chef Ramsey. Chef doesn't make the decision for him, pointing out that the injury isn't to his dominant, stronger hand. He has no reason to believe Chef will bring him back like he did Robert. Dave decides to stay. Chef Ramsey doesn't disagree and seems pleased that Dave is staying. Dave is relieved that he's staying. He explains what's going on to the team and rushes off to get the cast put on his arm. I like Dave. He seems to know what he's doing in the kitchen. I hope this works out for him.

- Service starts without Dave. Chef Ramsey picks a 'Greeter' from each team: Ariel from the Red and Jim from the Blue. Hell's Kitchen is open! And celebs show up for tonight's service. I use the term loosely as Tom Green is shown walking in. He's not that funny. Out of the bunch they show, Christopher 'Kid' Reid is probably the biggest star. Oh! I take that back, there's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristy Swanson.

...Who did you think I meant?

- Nothing can leave the kitchen until the Greeter makes and delivers an amuse bouche, a small pre-appetizer, along with a little conversation. They are still meant to work in the kitchen. Ariel is quick about this task. Jim is not.

- Suzanne immediately starts giving Tennille advice on the appetizer station. This is not well received. Tennille's food goes out well. It's Tek's spaghetti that gets sent back for being too salty, despite us seeing her taste it before sending it out. She freaks a bit and Tennille lends a hand. Second attempt goes down well with John O'Hurley.

- Pressure is on Robert to succeed on apps, from Chef, from his Team, and from himself. He gets a compliment and starts to click. Red Team is ahead until Lovely starts to drag them down. Sabrina tries to help and gets thanked by Chef. Over on the Blue Side, Kevin's Fish and Andy's Meat orders for a table approach the pass at the same time. Kevin's fish is good, Andy's meat is not. As we go to commercial, Chef Ramsey explains that he's letting the fish go out without the rest of the order so that Andy's mistake won't screw Kevin. This is rare. Normally everything has to go out as one. Andy must be about done here.

- Robert starts yelling at Andy, trying to get him to focus but it probably has the opposite effect. He prepares another serving, hashes it up, and Robert tells him it won't pass muster. Once he confirms this with Sous-Chef Scott, he hollers at Andy to try again. If Robert can be accused of taking this too seriously, the Interview footage of Andy could lead you to accusing him of not taking it seriously enough. Andy's quieter and doesn't seem like a bad guy, but he's not showing skills in the kitchen. If he was quiet and had skills, he could go far, like last season's winner Danny. Robert's too loud and Chef Ramsey has to tell him to take it down a notch. Andy's third attempt at the lamb finally goes out successfully.

- Over on the Red Side, Lovely crashes and burns on the garnish section when she blanks out, having no clue what the order is or what she should be making to support it. Don't get me wrong, everyone has moments like this, but you look dumber when you do it in front of camera. You look even dumber when you act like this consistently in front of cameras and then later celebrate little non-victories when you fail in the big time. She's showing no skills.

- Suzanne's lamb gets her yelled at as well. Interestingly, she takes Chef Ramsey to look at the lamb they have in stock in order to defend herself. This apparently turns into a brief instructional moment. The editing isn't clear but that's what seems to happen. There's no real yelling but it shows that Suzanne's not perfect, which is going to make her advice harder to take from people who already don't like her, aka Tennille.

- As we see the Blue Team fall apart from lack of communication, Dave returns with his cast on. He's sent to the dessert station and hustles to help. Chef Ramsey notes that he's only got one good arm and he's outdoing the rest of the Team.

- Chef Ramsey calls a quick huddle of both Teams. Both have three tickets to go. He announces that the first to complete the tickets, wins. Both teams hustle. It's neck-and-neck. Andy brings up a chicken order that's raw. Sous-Chef Scott gets in his face and orders him to fix it ASAP so that it's ready with the rest of the order. Scott's got a gravelly voice in general so he doesn't really need to yell to put some fear in you. This is more intense than I'm used to seeing him. It's interesting. Commercial.

- Both teams have one ticket remaining. Andy's refire is successful. Red Team stumbles. Both Teams scramble to finish. It's very exciting, like the end of a close sports game. The Blue Team pulls out the victory and the guys thank each other, slap on back, etc. According to Chef Ramsey, the Red Team lost by garnish, Lovely's station. Suzanne's confused, thinking that their veg was ready to go before the Blue Team finished and, therefore, Red Team should have won. As they're lined up to discuss what happens next, Suzanne raises her hand and asks for a 'play-by-play' on the ending. Chef Ramsey verbally slaps her down, noting that he says they lost and that they did it with Dave's bad hand and all. Ha! Her intent was good but her timing was poorly chosen.

- Sabrina is chosen as the Best of the Worst for her assisting on all stations and it's her job to chose the Nominees for Elimination. While the guys celebrate their victory, Sabrina has to talk to everyone and discuss the service. We see her talk to Lovely and Tek. She doesn't think Lovely will go home. She says Tek dragged them down all night, whereas Tek admits only to a weakness on the first ticket. In our defense, that's the only failure we saw of Tek during service. Lovely was shown as lost more than once.

- Nominees for Elimination: Tek, lost momentum, and Lovely, failing the garnish station. Lovely's up for the third time.

- Lovely thinks she's defending herself but no one else agrees by their expressions. Tek tries to defend herself, but does so in a very generic way, speaking to her love of food rather than anything specific about lessons learned or accepting her failure. Chef Ramsey considers all this for a moment. Suddenly he frowns and calls out Suzanne's name as we go to commercial. Wha? he might drag her up for questioning him but I'm guessing this is a diversion and he's just going to ask her a question or something.

- Chef Ramsey asks Suzanne, since she's not shy in sharing her opinion, who she would send home. After a moment, which is probably more 'phew' than thinking, she states "Lovely". Chef agrees with her and Lovely is eliminated from Hell's Kitchen. Lovely seems to believe she's learning something from the experience and vows to use it as she goes forward.

- Chef Ramsey warns Tek that's there's no safety net. He then warns everyone that this next dinner service will be the most important of their careers and that something will change. Hmm.

- In Interview, Tek resolves to bounce back. Suzanne seems to think that Chef values her opinion and that the ladies should be concerned because they haven't seen her bad side yet. Robert wants to keep the pressure on the Red Team.

- Teaser for next week, well, tonight I guess: the next dinner service is a 'welcome home' dinner for a soldier. Service seems to go horribly and, based on what they show, it looks like the Red Team loses but Tennille is the Best of the Worst. Robert is celebrating so it really looks like the Blue Team does poorly but not as poorly.

- Did well: Dave (for gutting it out), Kevin, Robert, Sabrina.

- Looked bad: Andy, Jim, Tek, Suzanne (just for mouthing off).

Me and Piper : Additional

This morning another thought triggered a memory from the Piper experience that had disappeared while writing yesterday's entry.

As I walked up and he was cheerfully greeting me, Piper started talking about how we should go out on the town. He promised that it would be a night to remember but would probably end with us walking up in jail tomorrow so maybe we had better not. It was funny and no doubt one of those things he was saying to a lot of people. It reminded me of being twenty and meeting the band Therapy? at the Rave. The lead singer, Andy, said he would have invited us on their tour bus but they were low on beer. Had I been 21, I would have offered to go get him more. They were really nice guys as well.

The overall Piper experience may have triggered a story idea as well. This would be a good thing.

Me and Piper

I've been in a position to meet a number of celebrities, mostly in the arena of the convention. This makes for an odd situation. You've been walking around all day, see that Person X from that TV show you like has no line by them and you go up to say hi to them and get an autograph. You feel that you know them a little from watching the show and reading their interviews and discussing them with your friends whereas they have no clue who you are. Are you creepy fan? Over enthusiastic fan? Good-natured fan? They've been meeting people all day. They might be tired. They might be hungry. They might have to go to the bathroom. The fan before you might have talked their ear off about details of the show they have no control over. Now you two will meet and your opinion of them may change based on a couple of moments of shared time. It's a weird situation.

Thankfully, most everyone I've had the pleasure of meeting has been nice in some way. Some were nicer moments than others. I try to have something planned to say to them, even if it's nothing to do with their career. At a Doctor Who convention some years ago, I got to meet Sylvester McCoy early on a Sunday morning. Understandably he looked tired and I led with a comment about the length of the weekend. We had a nice chat about the convention in general and when he'd be going home and things like that. I liked that moment. I like to think he did too. He seemed a bit more awake after it. He may just have been pleased that I didn't have a question about 'Ghost Light'. That I don't know.

I spent a good chunk of yesterday at the Chicago Comic-Con with my buddy George. There were a ton of what we can call 'media' guests; people that aren't necessarily from a comic book related product, but have some appeal to geeks. This year there were some movie actors, cartoon voice-over artists, ladies who had posed for Playboy and died early in some low budget horror film, Star Wars actors, and a number of wrestlers. There were lots of people I would have enjoyed meeting and greeting but the expectation if you approach someone like this is that you don't just some up, say hi and thank you and leave. You buy something from them. Maybe not buying something is acceptable, I don't know, I just feel like I'd be the guy that, as soon as I walked away, they'd turn to their buddy and go 'Did you see that? Didn't buy nothing'. As I have that stuck in my head and I was attending the Con on a budget, I'd have to pick my moment and my celebrity. When the line for him died down, I queued up for Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Piper is awesome. If Robin Williams wrestled, he'd want to be Piper. Piper's funny, a good worker, and has 'They Live' in his credits. His career has been up and down. From interviews, he strikes me as the kind of guy that loves his family and knows he's blessed with what he's gotten, not that he hasn't worked hard for it, but that it all came together for him.

For the record, Piper's been out of shape the last couple times he was on TV. He was sick, had been in a car wreck, generally had some problems. The Piper I saw at the Con was in shape, raring to go Piper. The man looked like...well, he looked like Roddy Piper, not some guy that ate Roddy Piper.

The line was only a couple people deep at the point I got in it. I handed my bag to George for safekeeping. He'd take a picture of me with Piper. I discussed a purchase of an 8 x 10 from his manager fellow and waited for a moment.

I had no clue what to say. At all. The only thing in my head at that moment was 'That's Roddy Piper!' The excitement wasn't dying down. There was a good chance that I'd look like an idiot in a moment. Wouldn't be the first time. Suddenly, the people cleared. I was three steps away from the Rowdy One and it was my turn to approach him.

Lots of celebrities sit in their little booth. Why wouldn't you? It's a long day. My feet and back were sore from all the standing and walking. Piper was out front, standing, smiling. "Look at this guy, all full of life," he noted, reacting to my excited grin. "How's it goin'?" Hands were shook. "Got an autograph comin'? Okay man, what's your name?"

I was instantly at ease. Excited, but at ease. He greeted me like my presence was a pleasure to him. It was like he was welcoming me to the family. Like we were new buddies.

He continued chatting to me as he signed the picture of him that I'd chosen, pausing occasionally to look up at me because he was talking to me. "How're things going?" I wasn't going to go into a long story with him about my situation but I told the truth from my perspective: okay. Piper's serious voice kicked in. "That's good. Times are tough for a lotta folks right now." Yeah, well, I try to focus on the positive, was my response. He paused, looked up at me with a big grin, and winked. I'd said the magic words. This was the right thing to say.

"You got family?" I was thrown off by this new question. It was related in a way but I hadn't expected it. I stumbled through a yeah, in a way that everyone has family, but not one of my own, no. Two of Piper's children were also guests at the show. Their booth was right next to his. "Ya want one'a my kids? The youngest is pretty good at mopping and cleaning floors." This drew an annoyed 'hey!' from the daughter in question. "Aw, no, they heard me again." Shtick! Love it!

Then it was picture taking time. George was ready. Piper put an arm around me, and I him. "Make a fist man, the girls love it." That's what he was doing with his left hand. I did the same with my right. Suddenly the formerly silent voice in my head kicked in. "That's not how you pose!" At the last moment, my hand reconfigured into the four upraised fingers of the Horsemen salute. If he noticed, he didn't mention it.

We shook hands. I got my autographed picture. I thanked him. I called him Mr. Piper and sir a lot. I walked away giddy.

He was extra super nice. He was probably doing the same routine for everyone but that's not a problem. For those couple minutes, he was paying attention to me, making me feel like my presence was wanted. It was awesome.

Thank you Roddy Piper!