What we’re doing now
We are working. We are reading up on all the Nerdmageddon posts and douchebag rallies and everything, and working on a con report which hopefully will be up Friday morning. Can’t be done sooner, alas. Tomorrow is another travel day. Today, more meetings. We honestly don’t think anyone gave a flying frak about Comic-Con by, [...]
Continue ReadingDay 0 and my feet already hurt
Okay, we're on the ground and ready to get Preview Night and there are some press events already going on, notably this: We had flight delays and other unpleasant stuff like a server meltdown that near about gave us a heart attack yesterday but it's all over now and the real suffering can begin. Oh, we kid. There was a South Park marathon on Comedy Central that made the flight very bearable, including the classic World of Warcraft episode, the Logan's Run episode and one about sex education where Kyle...oh we can't say but we know you remember. We haven't had time to take the temperature of the town, but let's just say San Diego couldn't be more eager to welcome Comic-Con! There were e-signs up at BAGGAGE CLAIM for crying out loud. The signs at the trolley stop have been made over in Klingon. Signs, banners, parties, breakfast specials...the red carpet hasn't been rolled out, it's been shot out of a t-shirt cannon over the whole city.
Continue ReadingThings to do!
I'd like to introduce the improved Events page! Now you can just go to our all purpose Events Page and see what's coming up! It's a little barebones now, but eventually it will have the week's events listed. You can also see the three upcoming events in the sidebar. (Sorry about that dingbat -- still trying to fix it.) As very observant readers may have noticed, I've been struggling with events for a while -- they were way too NYC-centric to be really useful, but this way, events can be quickly added and a database maintained. I'll still be doing some spotlight posts, as well, but this is, hopefully, a useful resource. So keep those events coming!
Continue ReadingGetting there
The expected tsunami of San Diego news is well under way, and we'll start our annual mega posting tomorrow. In the meantime apologies for the erratic Beat posting schedule of late due to conflicting deadlines on a variety of fronts; juggling all this stuff seems to take as much time as getting it accomplished. Despite all the problems, I hope you can stick with me. Of course, I'll be in San Diego to report on as much of it as one human possibly can -- we'll have a few stringers and correspondents on the scene as well and hopefully we can dig a little into the behind the scenes of the hype and hoopla.
Continue ReadingThe merry month of meta
We're back from our little working vacation, but sadly, we're more tired than ever! How does that happen? The Beat feels relaxed for about five seconds upon returning home, but then. the stress of catching up on everything we missed erases all progress. Plus, there is so much to see. Within five minutes of alighting at Penn Station we had already seen TWO men wearing eye bandages!
Continue ReadingThis ‘n’ that
Housekeeping notes: • The OLD Beat is up at a new URL: whenmonkeysattack.com. Believe it or not we’re still trying to get all the old posts imported into the newer Beat, but it looks like I’ll have to clean up the database by hand which will take….well, there were over 8800 posts at the Old Beat. [...]
Continue ReadingJerk-Net: Activated
This blog has been getting around lately -- links on Boing Boing, Reddit, Digg, Kottke, and so on -- with a corresponding increase in commenting. Without wanting to play Dean Wormer here, I am scrutinizing the comments a bit more closely, and personal attacks, trolling and general asshatery will not be tolerated. I will PARTICULARLY not tolerate jerkishness in obituary threads because they are often read by family members and believe me, you'll thank me later. ... And to all you lurkers out there, feel free to bust out if you are so moved.
Continue ReadingRIP: Alan Coil
I was saddened to learn this morning that frequent Beat poster Lewis "Alan" Coil died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 55. I never met Alan in real life, and certainly he had his disagreements with many people on the internet, but he was a constant presence here and at many other sites, and obviously passionate about comics and participating in the discussion. Alan was a ubiquitous internet presence in the tradition of the great letterhacks. On Peter David's site, Alan's friend Paul Shiple wrote:
Continue ReadingFriday afternoon tech musings
Things have been a little erratic around Stately Beat Manor this week, and although there's no way to write about this without sounding like a whiny ingrate, the Beat is just burnt out from some annoying ongoing problems. But now they look like they are getting partially solved so maybe happy faces are coming soon. But before I delve into tech-moaning, I wanted to grouse about something else. I have just been going through my emails and putting together some FCBD listings -- not comprehensive but if people bothered to promote their events, they should get some promotion. And I learned some things.
Continue ReadingCalling all WordPress experts
Aid The Beat and the Elite Beat Squad! We’re trying to import the old posts from the Old Beat, so we can shut down the site completely, but the old server won’t allow us to download the entire back-up file, either via the WordPress back-up plug-in or the MySQL database. I asked customer support on [...]
Continue ReadingChicago dreamin’
Despite being sick as a dog, The Beat and crew have made it to Chicago! If the flu didn’t kill us, the red hot at Johnnie’s Beef would have, but we’re sort of back in the saddle. At the moment, we’re off to the Diamond Retailer Summit, where people will probably talk about the internet. [...]
Continue ReadingAlmost made it
After a couple of months of non-stop travel and activity, The Beat finally got sick; not so sick that we can’t go to C2E2, but sick enough that The Beatis seriously dragging and a lot of stuff we had planned isn’t going to happen, or won’t happen when we promised it would. So hang in [...]
Continue ReadingWonderCon bound and other housekeeping
Due to a last minute offer, it turns out The Beat is going to WonderCon. This is my first trip to this great show in a decade or so, so to say I'm psyched would be an understatement. I'm just firming up my schedule now, but if you see me hanging round, be sure to come up and say hi! Also, please send me your booth/panel/event listings.
Continue ReadingAn even NEWER Beat
Hey guys, as you may have noticed, the Beat is changing some more! In the middle of the night, the elves tiptoed in and started tinkering with the design. For the next few days, we'll be evolving a bit more. Sorry it had to be live and in front of the children, but you're all old enough to know the truth. However, consider this your SUGGESTION box.
Continue ReadingNotes from the road
By some miracle, we are safely back at Stately Beat Manor, after a continent-crossing turn as a tagalong on the CHOKER Tour. The Bens Templesmith and McCool (and yes that does sound like a detective agency) are still out there barnstorming the Southwest and getting tattoos, but we’re home reacquainting ourselves with things like [...]
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