I Was a Spider-Man Handler

So this Thanksgiving was a pretty cool one for me as I got to be one of the Spider-Man balloon handlers for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! Marvel managed to work it so that we could get some of our employees in on the Spidey balloon action. Last year was Spidey's return to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since his departure in 1998. I stupidly did not volunteer to help him get through the day which I remedied this year. It was a great time.


I had to get up around 4:30AM (the downside to all of this), get to the New Yorker hotel by 6AM, change into the awesome outfit you see above and take a bus uptown to 81st St. Where Spidey was "parked."

This is my assistant Alex and I on the bus:


My other assistant, Nelson, on the bus. He brought his own special hat. Lucky!

Here's "parked" Spidey. You can see the netting on him to keep him tethered.

Spidey's balloon neighbors:




We had a little time before we had to grab hold of our ropes, so I walked around the immediate vicinity to get some pics of what was going on around us.

There were a TON of these awesome penguin peeps.


I made a lame joke about having our ducks in a row here, but then heard the announcer make the same joke. haha


These are "Springtime" clowns apparently (the sign you can't see says so):


Some cupcakes. Obviously.


"Sleepytime" clowns:


Some pirate ship I thought was cool:


These guys were my favourite. No idea what they're FOR though...


HOOPER'S STORE!!! Made my day! :-) Big Bird's mailbox is there too!

Woodstock. I believe this float followed behind (or maybe he was in front) of the Snoopy balloon:

If you look closely, you can see Snoopy peeking out behind the trees! I was in a rush to get back to Spidey so I couldn't get closer, but I kind of love the way he looks there!

On the way back to my post:

Unfortunately, my handler duties prevented me from taking pictures DURING the parade. (Though we snuck a few, you can see them on the Marvel Trades blog that Nelson regularly updates here.) But here's Spidey being deflated almost immediately after we passed by Macy's...

Then they roll him up and everyone lays down on him to get the most helium out that they can.

After we were all done, I got to see some of the other balloons turn the corner on their way to deflation:



This is one of the Pokemon floats that followed the Pikachu balloon. I think its pretty. :)

Oh and this Macy's train. I am down with this. haha


All in all, it was a great time. It was about 6 hours from when I got to the hotel to get my costume to when I got back to take it off. Then I had to rush home and shower and drive out to my aunt's house for dinner. I'm AMAZED I didn't take a nap once there. I almost ALWAYS nap on Thankgiving. This time, when I've been awake since 4:30AM, I end up playing Scene It: Box Office Smash for XBox (I'm addicted to this game now) with my cousin's until 2AM! Ridiculous. But a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving. There's a good chance I'll volunteer again next year. :-P


The End.

Break for Funny Political Video

Don't Ask Don't Tell is a huge pile of bullshit. Just another way to suppress the rights of people that OTHER people find "icky." I cannot believe this still exists. (You suck, McCain.) But then again, I can't believe there are actually laws that prevent gay people from getting married. Seriously?! Do you listen to yourselves?! You think it's OK to actually tell other people they do NOT deserve the same rights as you do!? That is UNBELIEVABLE. That is so far beyond arrogance. It'd be FUNNY if it wasn't so damaging. ARRRGHHH!

Anyway, funnyordie.com (love that site) has a great video up about this very issue! Watch and enjoy!

G.A.Y.S. (Guys Against You Serving) from Thomas Lennon

And while you're at it, check out Louis CK's comments on the gays...




Love that guy.


The End.

Busy Bee Part 2

OK! SO! After getting home at 4AM, I was VERY lazy on Saturday and didn't make it to the convention until around 5PM. Yes. I spent a mere 2 HOURS at NYCC (not counting my booth shift on Friday) in total. I just went directly to Artist's Alley to hang out with friends and get a few sketches. I managed to get three from Katie Cook, Declun Shalvey & Leandro Fernandez (I don't have them scanned right now, but I'll post 'em eventually)!

After that a bunch of us went out for dinner. I forget the name of the place, but THIS is what I saw on the wall on the way out. Why?!?!?!?!?!

Saturday night was also the Marvel after-party, hosted by none other than the famous C.B. Cebulski! I was PLANNING on not staying out too late because I had to be up at 8AM to drive to Pennsylvania the next morning...but I should've known better. Here are the only pics from that night I will share...

Me, Jeph Loeb & Brea Grant!


And this is me with Scott Porter (of the famous Friday Night Lights that I have to watch soon)!

This guy decided around 2AM that we should turn the party into a karaoke party! It was a great idea. Everyone went nuts and had a fantastic time. I left AGAIN around 4AM, but this party was still going STRONG. Scott was a sweetheart and definitely helped turn this party up a notch. (Also, Brea was so adorable that night when she sang! haha)

So, as I mentioned I had to get up at 8AM the next morning. Which I managed to do (ok, 8:30!). And this is why. For the 8 weeks preceding this day, I had be VERY good about keeping up with the gym 2-3 times a week (a big deal for me as ever since I stopped kickboxing, I've been VERY lazy). What finally got me motivated? THE WARRIOR DASH!

What is the Warrior Dash, you ask? Well, it's an approx. 3 mile race complete with obstacle! There's climbing cargo ropes, schlepping through ICE FUCKING COLD WATER and over logs, climbing up muddy hills, crawling through mud under barbed wire, jumping over fire and MORE. So after 4 nights of drinking and being out late, and about 4 hours of sleep, I took a 3 hour drive to Quarryville, PA to compete in this.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to win. Actual athletes will compete in this. My main goal was to a) FINISH it and b) NOT be the last of my group of friends. And in these two things I succeeded! WOOT!

Yeah, they give you a little finisher medal at the end which was pretty cool. The race was really fun. It would have been MORE fun had I properly prepared for it. I was out of breath JUST WAITING AT THE FINISH LINE. And the hardest part of the whole race was the RUNNING. I HATE running and my stamina is CRAP. Most of the obstacles were fairly easy to complete, but all the running throughout was ROUGH. Also, at about the second obstacle — climbing up and over these truck-like constructions — I jumped down off the second one and really hurt my leg, so I had to go through most of the race with THAT pain (which I'm JUST this week FINALLY getting over). But I made it through in 45 minutes! 7th out of my group of 16 friends! (Approx. 3800th out of 5111 people. haha) The best of us did it in 24 minutes (I have no idea how that's possible! :-P) and the last of us I THINK in like 58 minutes. Still pretty fucking impressive!

Throughout the race, Brightroom Photography was taking pictures of us, this is the only cool one of me that I found from the very end (I really wanted one crawling through the mud-pit under the barbed wire) but I'm not buying it b/c they are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Jerks. (Hence the copyright logo over it, it's just the preview so you can choose which to buy.)


Here's a great group shot someone took of us. So fun.


After the race, you get hosed down (though it only does so much) and a free beer. You can also buy more beer and food and stuff. It really is a lot of fun and we're already planning on doing it again next year. This time I WILL GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP!! :)

Oh and these were my poor knees at the end of it...


So, that being the ROUGHEST part of my crazy-busy month of October, there's still so much more to come! The following Tues, I finally went back to The Comic Book Club (a weekly, live talkshow about comics that's REALLY funny) since my friend Declun was a guest on it and I had been neglecting the show (I used to go very frequently). I LOVE the guys who run the show and since I hadn't been there in so long, I hung out afterwards with them AGAIN a little too late that I should've. Oh well. It was fun.

I then followed it up on Wednesday with a ladies night with some of my favourite ladies. We had a delicious meal at Josie's East with lots of girl talk. I actually made it home at a decent hour THIS time. The other thing to happen to me on Wednesday was my good pal Scott Adsit (who plays Pete Hornberger on 30 Rock) invited me and a friend to watch the 30 Rock live episode from the luxury of the SNL Green Room! I decided to bring Declun because I honestly can't think of a bigger fan of the show (and also because my poor little cousin who I originally asked was out of state and couldn't come).

So then on Thursday we went to the SNL studio (EEEEEE!!!!) and did just that! There was free pizza, sushi, wine, coffee and cookies in there. I saw Brian Williams in there (too nervous to talk to him, he's AWESOME) and watched the HILARIOUS east coast taping of the show on the many big screens they have there.

The guy who runs the 30 Rock twitter account took a pic of our group hanging out in the green room before the taping started and posted it on twitter:


Scott took us around for a tour of the set in between the east and the west coast tapings. We got to meet Tina Fey, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, John Lutz, Jack McBrayer, Bill Hader, Judah Friedlander and more. (I actually have met Tina, Bill & Judah before and they are super awesome.) We then took this awesome picture in front of their fake FOX news set:


Then we went back to the green room to await the west coast taping. We noticed that the screen where we watched the show was just showing the floor of the set (meaning the camera was just sitting on the floor). So when Scott left to go tape the next show, he found it and brought Rachel Dratch to say hello to us:


I have to say, it was pretty hilarious to see that in the room all of a sudden. haha I wonder what everyone else in there thought of that...

Anyway, the second taping was just as awesome as the first and included a couple of little differences that made it fun.

I got a couple more shots of the SNL studio before I left. Here's some retired costumes that are great. That's Church Lady in the middle who I LOVED when I was a kid:


In this very hall, I also met MATT DAMON!!!!!! Just a quick handshake and hello, but that was so cool. He's so awesome.


Part of the 30 Rock set being taken down at the end.


Unfortunately I don't have any pics from what followed but we ALSO went to the after party!!! Free booze, free cupcakes, mini hamburgers and other snack foods, and even free milkshakes!! I met Dot com and Tracy Morgan bumped into me. Talked to Jane Krakowski about the fatty milkshakes and stood there while Alec Baldwin talked to her right over my shoulder (it was very crowded). Had a great time hanging with Scott and his lovely lady Sandy, and also Christina Gausas who is such a doll! (She and Scott do a 2-person improv show at UCB theater called Adsit & Gausas. The next one is 11/10! GO!)

So, yet another late night home, but WELL worth it. I had such a great time and now Declun owes me for the rest of his life. haha I was so wiped out I just spent the entire weekend home playing Final Fantasy XIII, watching TV and knitting. I needed to replenish for the REST of October....


To be continued...

Busy Bee Part 1

Holy crap! October has turned out to be the busiest month for me! The last two weeks have completely drained me (to the point of just sitting in my room knitting and watching TV this weekend)! And I've still got more to come!!!

OK, first, last Tuesday I went to see Sam Harris talk about his new book, "The Moral Landscape" at The Great Hall at Cooper Union. It was really interesting and I bought the book and had him sign it. His book is basically about the idea that morals CAN be determined by science. Obviously there's more to it than that, but you can just read the book. haha (I've only just started.)



(After the talk I walked over to Luke's Lobster again...holy jeez that shit is DELICIOUS!)

The next night, my super cool awesome pal, Brian Bendis took me to see "A Life in the Theater" by David Mamet, starring Patrick Stewart & T.R. Knight.


This play was great! Patrick Stewart was so great!! So adorable and funny! Funny thing about this play was that it was running in London when I was there in 2005. I really wanted to see it but the people I as traveling with didn't want to, so we didn't go. So it's really cool that I finally got to see it. Only problem is, instead of T.R., it was JOSHUA JACKSON! Whom I love. (WATCH FRINGE!!!) Ah well. If you like going to the theatre, I recommend this highly! This was also sort of the first night of comicon partying, so I went out after this to hang out with some of the creators that already made it to NYC. I tried to make it home at a semi-reasonable hour and left at around 12:30. However, what would normally have been a 40 minute trip home turned into a nightmare with the Q only going to 57th St. (after waiting 15 minutes for it), then waiting 10 more minutes for the N, which then only went to Queensboro Plaza (first stop in Queens) because of an investigation at the next stop. So then I had to take a shuttle bus home. Ugh! Took an hour and a half. Blerg. (Although I was very annoyed by this, I have to say, the MTA was crazy quick with getting those shuttle buses there, so I was very pleased about that.)

Anyway, the next night I went to City Winery to see Fran Healy (the lead singer from Travis) perform. Oh man, I love that guy!!

City Winery is a really cool place. I had a fancy cheese plate. Soooo gooood.

He was just so cute the entire time. He's awesome. And his new album is great. I'm hoping for a new Travis album too. They're definitely one of my favourite bands!!

I actually got to meet him last year (along with Andy Dunlop from the band) when they did this AWESOME show that was just the two of them going through their catalogue of songs throughout the years, talking about where they were as a band at the time and stories behind how some of the songs came about. It was one of the best shows I'd ever seen. And they hung around after to sell CDs & t-shirts and meet anyone who wanted to! They were total sweethearts and Fran actually took the picture of us with my phone:


Anyway, after that excellent performance, I booked it over to The Village Pourhouse (on Restaurant Row) for the CBLDF Comicon party. I had an awesome time there (helped by all my drinks being bought FOR me! hehe) hanging with all the comic peeps visiting, good friends new and old! As I had taken the day off on Friday, I had no problem staying out all night, I think I headed home around 3:30. I love walking through Time Sq. that late because it's the only time you see it empty. Freaks me out in a good way every time!

The big M&M screen is one of my favourite things in Times Square. :-P So awesome!


While I DID take off from the office on Friday, I actually had a 5-hour shift at the Marvel booth at the con. This ended up being the most time I spent at the actual convention (spent about 2 hours in artists' alley the next day, and that's it). I had a good time at the booth, the best part being the pictures with the Cap shield! :-)



After the con, my super cool awesome pal Joe took me to see the GORILLAZ!!!!! First we stopped over at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries for some delicious burgers (seriously, GO HERE). They have a little tack board where you can write/draw stuff and post it. This was my favourite one (only funny if you know about the terrible interenet sensation "Two Girls, One Cup" which I have never actually seen but have had described to me. I don't want to throw up...):

Anyway, the Gorillaz KICKED ASS!!!! They are touring with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash! And they had special appearances by Mos Def & LOU FRIGGEN REED!!!

Snoop wasn't there, but they had a pre-recorded video of him on screen.


That's Lou Reed up front in the spotlight. I love the drawing of him they came up with.


So they basically had their videos playing up on that screen the whole time. It was pretty great. They were seriously amazing.

More good times drinking with Comicon peeps that night at The Irish Rogue. Ended up getting home probably around 4AM again, which meant I wasn't getting up until AT LEAST 12PM...


To be continued...