Gonzai Gallery

Home and trying to catch up on the DVR now.

Got to meet Giancarlo Esposito and talk H:LotS with him; talked board games with Felicia Day and hockey with Lee Arenberg; and Bonita Friedercy & John Billingsley were hysterical. I want film of their panels, I will PAY for those films. I was part of the fun on Saturday, when my attempts to get Bonita's opinion of Timothy Olyphant's backside turned into John attempting to instigate a Ravens/Steelers brawl. They are SO funny.

Meanwhile, I learned to play the card game 'Poo' from jslinder and returned the favor by teaching him, another gamer and a complete stranger to play Castles of Burgundy. Panels didn't go quite so well, problem wasn't the panels but that once again the con put children's programming in the next room and once again the kids were allowed, if not encouraged to run wild. Noise, noise & more noise, drowning out our attempts at discussion. Similar problem with the inaugural Geek Speed-dating - we were all crammed into a small room and we couldn't hear each other. I had almost no voice left afterwards. And only one guy professed interest in me. Plenty of visiting with folks I know, unusually good eating for a con, etc. Generally a good weekend.

I'll Have Another may not have run, but the Belmont turned out to be quite the race anyway. I thought Paynter might actually pull off the wire-to-wire thing. Darn close though. And the race before it, the Manhattan, was televised as well and that was needed a photo for the finish as well. Good stuff.

Now I'm watching the Devils & the Kings. Glad to see the Devils not taking this elimination thing lying down. Kinda scary though, that I first met/got an autograph from Marty Brodeur - almost 20 years ago Meepers.

[Error: unknown template qotd]I don't really collect anything these days - I still get games, DVDs and CDs from time to time, but I don't get much and I don't really consider them collections.

In the past, I collected baseball and hockey memorabilia (including a lot of autographs), and as a kid I collected glass animals.

( Read more... )
I'm actually starting to feel glad I'm not into hockey anymore, because this year is turning into a nightmare. All but one person on board the plane died, and while no one has been confirmed dead, I knew to one extent or another several of the players believed to have been on board. Coaches Brad McCrimmon, Alexander Karpovtsev and Igor Korolev; and players Ramzi Abid, Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karel Rachunek and Josef Vasicek all played in the NHL during my heyday with the sport and somewhere in the basement is an assortment of autographs from and photographs with all of them. Can anything else possibly happen to hockey this year? Do we even want to think about it?

Updated: Abid & Salei were not on the plane.

Further Updated: Now they say Salei was on the plane.

Seriously people? WTF? 

One of my past lives was as a diehard hockey fan (and, for a time, journalist) and normally when the Capitals aren't involved, I root for the Canadian teams. And I've never been especially fond of the Bruins. But the boorish-at-best and thuggish-at-worst behavior of the Canucks' players already had me rooting for the Bruins, and now, given the fans' behavior, I'm very glad the Canucks lost. Neither the team nor its fans deserved playoffs, much less finals. What losers.

This morning came the news that former NHLer Bob Probert died suddenly yesterday at age 45. Well, maybe not entirely suddenly - Bob seemed to have been working on dying for most of his life. ( I think Mitch Albom summed up Probert much better than I could. )
I did manage to get his autograph a couple times. Not exactly a work of art, but then, neither was Bob. And considering the condition of his hands, it's rather amazing he could hold a pen. He was doing well on the occasions I met him, sober and trying to rebuild himself, but it never lasted for long. Be at peace, sir.

What was that, Capitals? Seriously, WTF? The best team in the regular season and it wasn't even close? Dominating all season long against all comers? Prohibitive favorite for the Cup?

Eliminated in the first round by an 8 seed that barely made the playoffs.

Again, WTF?

According to the early ratings returns, 80% of Canadians watched the Canada/US gold medal hockey game Sunday. Let me say that again: 80%. You couldn't get 80% of Americans to agree the sky is blue, much less watch the same TV program.

Wow.

Normally, I don't root for the US teams in sports. I don't care for the mentality in the USA that only the Americans count. But in the case of ice hockey, it's the Canadians who make me feel that way. The attitude that if they put together a team of All-Star NHL players they should be given a gold medal without actually playing galls me no end. So the USA's defeat of the Canadians last night amuses me no end. Especially since the US hasn't beaten the Canadians in 50 years (yes, 50) and the team is almost entirely youngsters chosen for the ability to play as a team (shades of 1980...). Of course, given that Switzerland took Canada to the mat earlier in the tournament, I suspect this Canadian team just isn't anywhere near as good as they'd like to think they are.

Oh yeah, and I picked the Swedes before the tournament. Not backing off that pick yet.

But apparently the Caps didn't need me in red last night. Ovechkin and Varlamov handled everything just fine, thanks. And dueling hat tricks. Nice game.

Although, Crosby complaining about people throwing hats after a hat trick? Huh? Yo, traditionalists, your golden boy just trashed one of your most cherished traditions.