Four out of the last five weekends I have been on the road, through ice storms, snow storms, hail storms, rain storms, and haven't updated my blog like I should.
First I went to Bloomington to check out the Indiana Festival of Independent Film and Video with my brother (reviewed earlier, just scroll down), then the following weekend I was off to Cincinatti visiting a media center in Over the Rhine for day job work, seeing the great effort those folks are leading their to empower residents with community media and cable access. A worthwhile trip though I got snowed over there and spent more time in the Queen City than I intended (though I had some really good Cincy BBQ, almost as good as Cincy chili).
Regular readers know I went to Pennsylvania the next week to pay my respects to the family of b-movie filmmaker John Polonia, who passed away suddenly. On the way back I hit a heavy snowstorm and ended up stranded with a lot of other folks at a hotel somewhere in Pennsylvania, a welcoming little town whose name escapes me at the moment.
Since I had an extra day of travel I stopped at the Small Press and Comics Expo on the way through Columbus Ohio the next day. I don't know if the inclement weather played a role, but the show didn't seem as well attended by visitors or vendors. However, I was glad to see fellow Hoosier Pam Bliss, as well as Matt Feazell, Tom Scioli, and Pat Lewis, whose work I enjoy. A group I hadn't seen there before was Sparkplug Comics, and I ended up buying a big stash of their stuff as they were carrying a lot of indy people I like. I am still chewing through my swag from the show, but I picked up the most recent pair of King Cat Comics from John Porcellino and the latest You Don't Get There From Here from Carrie McNinch, two of my favorite creators of independent comics. From people I was less familiar with I got Clutch McBastard's autobiographical Clutch 16 and Jeremy Massie's superhero adventure The Deadbeat, which I enjoyed.
Last night I got home from Athens Georgia, where my brother-in-law lives, and I got my first taste of actual sunshine in 2008, though a series of Georgia tornadoes damped our enthusiasm, so to speak, towards the end of the week. But I ate really good pizza at the Mellow Mushroom and got to visit Bizarro Wuxtry, a legendary independent record store/comic book store.
Though I do enjoy road tripping, I hope to be done for a bit. I'm going to update the blog soon with some changes, methinks. Until then, give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
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