Phew! We just got through the hottest June on record and now we’re headed full speed into the broiler with July. Note how the Climate Deniers/Right have changed their position from “it’s not happening,” to, “we’ll have to live with it.” Despite the horrible politics of the Stupid Ages we’re living through, July is often a good month in my life. Sure, it wraps up with my birthday but a lot of cool people share this month with me, many good movies hit their stride around this time and back in the Midwest, we’ve been acclimated to the warmer weather.
In Austin this Summer, my favorite month will be action packed! Tomorrow will be Brick Rodeo (formerly Brick Fiesta) and I will be nerding out over all the incredible designs the LEGO Master Builders of Texas. I wanted to see it all last year in Houston yet the money and time wasn’t available.
The following weekend is the long delayed Austin Comic Book Convention which has been on hiatus for two years so my ticket from 2020 will be honored. The biggest guests will be Billy Dee Williams obviously Lando Calrissian), Vanessa Angel (Lisa from Weird Science the TV show and Kingpin) and Kevin Conroy (the best-known animated voice of Batman, namely the Nineties through Aughts run). I’m also stoked about the two people who provided favorites from Avatar the Last Air Bender, Jessie Flower – Toph! and Jennie Kwan – Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors! Side note, Nick and Paramount are going to do a movie about Kyoshi’s time as the Avatar; for us fans, we know she held the role before Roku of the Fire Nation.
Then comes a weekend off! I hope to finally get an interview or two done for Gifts of the Maggi as I want to put in the can. My designs are bigger than reality due to the guests, the setting or juggling the schedule with my producer. At least we have a third microphone for interviewing two guests at once.
One event I’m cutting back to just attending for one day is the Classic Game Fest. Jennifer will be out of town with her friend Shannon and truthfully, it’s something you can take all in with one trip. It will be cool to meet the guy who developed Q-Bert, one of the few video games my parents would play during the Arcade Boom of the Early Eighties. Not sure what I’m hoping to find beyond it. I do enjoy all the nostalgia and I hope to let the people who sold us the Cyndi Lauper trading cards, how well our Xmas cards went.
For my birthday weekend, the biggest and best fun will be delayed a weekend as Jennifer has to work. This is alright with me. When she had to tell me the bad news, Jen worried I would be upset. No. Getting settled into the new job is more important and Kalahari isn’t moving away. If the Spring tornado didn’t destroy it, we’re good! I am so excited about going to an indoor waterpark! No need for sunscreen. No worries about sunburn. No worries about a cold front suddenly happening. We’ll have a room to crash in for the night to get up and hit the slides before we leave the following day!
Now to close out with this month’s header. Washington jumping over the Delaware River dressed as Evel Knievel. You may have recognized it from Stephen Colbert’s office during the Covid period. I’m sure it was in the background. It might have been a souvenir from his time at Comedy Central CBS let him keep and/or post. The parody also reminds me of what a sad joke Amerika’s culture and government are. We’re ruled by rich assholes manipulating a backward-thinking, hateful minority who fear anything that isn’t them and they’re enabled by a too easily cajoled Center. They prefer to be called “Moderates” yet all they care about is cheap gas for their guzzling SUVs, crap products from Wal-Mart and are the noisiest NIMBYs; they fear “the poors” are contagious. Ergo, Washington acting like a Hillbilly Redneck is probably how MAGAts see him. Might as well. There are those darkly hilarious paintings showing Girth Vader with Jebus by his side. What I really fear is how we’ll be required to have a portrait of Herr DeSantis in every home or be arrested by the “Don’t Say Gay,” Police. It’s going to be a long, long century.