Pen on the left, Tom on the right showing off his iPhone
To wrap up my mini-comedy vacation, I took in the Alamo Drafthouse’s Adventure Time marathon and feast. The impetus for the event is a new gallery exhibition for the Mondo Tees artists. I’m waiting to hear from the PR person about the gallery’s hours since I would like to see the various pieces on display in my old neighborhood of Hyde Park (c. 1994-97).
It’s a good thing I read and followed through on the e-mail alerting me to the exhibition because there was an announcement about what I attended. When the description mentioned that the show’s creator Pendleton Ward and voice actor Tom Kenny (he’s the Ice King) would be in attendance, you know I was racing for my credit card! I also made it Jeremy’s birthday present.
First were the 10 cartoons making up the marathon. Alamo/Mondo showed the key episodes, namely if they coincided with the items on the menu. There were two I’ve never seen. We don’t have cable and the DVDs I have aren’t organized by season, a source of irritation with Cartoon Network’s recent strategies. Then came the surprise; they showed “It Came from the Nightosphere” to get everyone ready for the two-parter the rest of the world didn’t get to see until April 30th! Pretty sweet!
The food. Holy crap it was amazing! I’ve taken in several feast before and they’ve always been great. The chef for Alamo South Lamar (John Bollington) pulled off a miracle by recreating the items on this menu.
What a meal! Click on it to see the menu in greater, amazing detail.
The only menus I can think of that could be harder would be the alien dishes on Star Trek or the non-sensical things from Dr. Seuss books. Despite what the descriptions say, everything was edible and I wolfed it down. The rainbow hot dog was tricky. Much of the condiments got stuck in my beard. It was a meal any diehard fan of Adventure Time would give a vital organ to eat, hence this is why Austin blows away NYC, LA and Toronto! I thanked the chef in person. I had to tell him it was my first one in which I was stuffed instead of drunk (there was wine at Princess Bride, Julie & Julia). He laughed.
After the marathon, the MC brought up the house lights and open the floor to a Q&A with Pendleton and Tom. Sadly, this was the first breakdown in etiquette. I think there needs to be a high-school course taught to people on how to ask a question instead of boring the rest of us about their opinions and/or life story before the possible question. What did I learn? Pendleton Ward is originally from San Antonio and has only recently seen A Boy and His Dog. If you’ve followed Adventure Time long enough, you’ll see the clues about what happened to the World of Ooo.
With the Q&A concluded, everybody filtered out to pick up their unique Mondo poster to commemorate the evening’s festivities:
Pen drew an LSP on mine (next to the sword) and Tom's autograph is on the Ice King's beard.
Next came the second breakdown in courtesy. Pen and Tom could only do autographs for an hour. People were asked to be courteous, keep it brief so as many people as possible would have an opportunity. No dice, there were some sucking down five minutes. We were lucky as we drew what was becoming the cut-off point. I demonstrated what an old pro I am by asking for the photo, Jeremy being in position to do it, telling them thank you for their awesome stuff, namely telling Tom Kenny I loved his Wally on Mission Hill. He said thanks and I’m sure he doesn’t hear about that obscure cartoon much. Boom! Done in record time, giving a some people farther back a better chance.
Currently, the poster is in its plastic bag until we get a good coupon to have the fine people at Michael’s frame it. I want to have something which will make the poster accessible for more autographs, namely John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog). The menu is in a safe place too because when I lose some more weight, I want to see if Somara can replicate the everything burrito!