The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth

I have always considered myself a movie geek. Inasmuch as I know who all the actors and actresses are, I can spot people in smaller roles, I know what is coming out, what has been out and what is out. When it comes to films...I know my shit.

The more times I go to things like Collectormania London (which took place this weekend just gone at London's Olympia 2 venue) the more I realize I'm not at the level of geekdom I thought. And this pleases me.

I don't do Cosplay. I have yet to dress up like Wonder Woman. And I have yet suppressed the urge to walk up to an increasingly pissed off looking Michael Biehn dressed as Arnie circa Terminator 2 and start shouting at him. These are all things we saw at Collectormania London.

My mission with these things is always straight forward. Get in, get my stuff signed, let the actors know how much I respect their work and get the hell out. But sadly this isn't always the way.

This time I was going to meet Carl Weathers, Cary Elwes and Michael Biehn and as soon as we arrived at the venue my flatmate Wayne and I grabbed tickets for all three. How it goes is you are given a numbered ticket and you check back every now and then to see if they are serving the correct number yet. For example I had number 195 for Carl Weathers and they were serving 1-100 when I got the ticket.

We had a wander round the hall first and saw quite a few people - some great guests this time around. There was prolific character actor Marshall Bell, Buffy star Mercedes McNab, the usual assortment of Star Wars guests who make their living at these events, and some real nobodies out of The Matrix , and kids who had one line of dialogue in Harry Potter.

After a while Carl Weathers was ready for us, so we met him. Sadly we were not allowed to have 'posed photographs' meaning the only photos you could take was during him signing. But worry not, he signed my Rocky boxset, I shook his hand and it was an amazing moment.

Next up was Cary Elwes, apparently doing his first European convention appearance. He also had the 'No Posed Photographs' sign above him but none of that mattered as he was one of the nicest guys I've met at these things. Asking how I was, thanking me for coming, it's little things like that which make the whole experience that more personal. And he also noticed Wayne had taken a less than satisfactory photo so he allowed him to take another one - this time with me in it! Take that sign! Top bloke.

Our tickets for Michael Biehn unfortunately were 273 and 274 respectively and he had spent the best part of 90 minutes on 1-70 and time was a factor for us. Thankfully we found our friend John who in turn is friends with someone who runs one of the DVD stands there and got a pass so we could jump the queue!

I can't blame him at all for this but I don't think Michael Biehn wanted to be there. We couldn't decide if he was hungover, ill or just in a bad mood but having a camera thrust in your face by a balding, middle aged virgin can't help. The sheer rudeness of that guy, and many others like them is just amazing. When I want a photo with someone in this situation I politely ask and am in the photo too. Guys like this walk up with a expensive camera, don't ask anything and just shove it in their face. But he seemed nice enough managed to get a smile and a handshake out of the guy.

We left not long after that, but not before noticing the guy who played Mayor Goldie Wilson in the Back To The Future films has not aged a day, and also almost being evacuated because the Pizza Hut next door was on fire.

All in all it was a good day out. Well I say day, but you can only really walk around once or twice once you've met who you want to mainly due to the cringey embarrassment caused from people dressed like Stormtroopers, Judge Dredd, a little person dressed as Yoda...hell I went to the toilets in there (note to self: never again) and took a leak next to a guy dressed as a Ghostbuster.

I just like to get my films signed where I can, and it's always a good story to tell people how you met soandso but some of these attendees give movie fans a bad name (and jeez are they aggressive, I got shoved out of the way 2 or 3 times by people trying to look at things - maybe they lack the necessary social skills from living in their parents basements for so long).

Anyway, before I even start talking about the Anime and Cosplay lot (Urgh) I shall sign off and link you to some photos we got. Enjoy.

Carl Weathers

My flatmate near Carl Weathers

Cary Elwes

Cary Elwes and I (The posed photo!)

Michael Biehn

My flatmate and Michael Biehn

Michael Biehn and I

Signed Rocky boxset

Signed Terminator DVD

Signed Princess Bride DVD

Now Playing: 9th November 2010

The first in a (hopefully) regular series about what music is pleasing my ears as at the moment. Or not, as the case may be.

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise

As if there wan't a wealth of B-Sides in Springsteen's 'Tracks' boxset, here comes 22 more taken from the time around the recording of 1978's 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town'. The quality of the music on this speaks volumes about the output The Boss was putting out at this point. Long time live staples like 'Fire' finally get a studio outing as does Springsteen's version of the song he gave to Patti Smith (which went on to become a huge hit for her) 'Because The Night'. And songs like the title track and 'Save My Love' goes to show what a hard choice it must have been to choose 'Darkness'' final tracklisting. 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' is being released the same time as this, fully remastered and I can't wait to hear it.

Ray Davies - See My Friends

Always a interesting listen albums like this - an album of an artist re-recording their old songs, but this has the added interest of being re-recording versions with guest artists. A fantastically eclectic mix of acts from Paloma Faith to Bon Jovi, from Mumford & Sons to Metallica. Some of these covers work well, some do not. But it's all listenable enough stuff and it doesn't want to make you run to the Kinks albums, never to return to it again.

The Kinks - Picture Book

Which doesn't mean I didn't though. One of those bands where it's impossible to hear a cover version and not want to go hunt out the original. This boxset covers everything The Kinks ever did essentially condensed onto 6 discs. Listen to where your favourite bands got stuff from and shake your head...

Nelson - After The Rain/Lightning Strikes Twice

Nelson burst onto the rock music scene in 1991 looking like a slightly more mature Hanson scoring a US number one with '(Can't Live Without Your) Love And Affection, from the 'After The Rain' album a collection of piss-takingly catchy Bon Jovi lite anthems which literally does not have a bad song on it. Who knows how big they may have become but of course grunge came along and destroyed everything in it's path with the exception of the aforementioned Jovi (But at what cost? Look at them now, they're almost like Vegas lounge singers) and possibly Motley Crue.

But Nelson are back this year (they did do albums in the meantime but this is the only one that has the feeling of a true follow up, and hell even the title has the rain references) with 'Lightning Strikes Twice' and it really does. Another collection of fantastic soft rock songs. Will do nothing for the stock of the band unless Journey pick them up as a support band but its good to see an effort is still being made.

Skid Row - Selected Discography

Starting with the self titled debut (another album that has no bad songs on), continuing with the heavier 'Slave To The Grind' - two albums that really don't need much more said about them, I skipped over 'Subhuman Race' to have a first listen of the Seb Bach -less material Skid Row have been putting out, starting with 'Thick Skin'. New singer Johnny Solinger has a great voice and some of the stuff isn't that bad - songs like 'Thick Is The Skin', 'Born A Beggar' and 'Mouth Of Voodoo' absolutely rock, 'See You Around' borders on post grunge territory but works nonetheless. Sadly the punk cover of 'I Remember You' is diabolical. Haven't got round to their last album 'Revolutions Per Minute' though, I will have that for you for next time.

Still Playing

The albums out for a while that I'm still spinning...

Alter Bridge - ABIII - Not the best album of their career, but possibly the most consistent. This does not let up and gets better and better with repeated listens.

The Wildhearts - Chutzpah!/Chutzpah Jr. - The best album of 2009 in my opinion still does not fail to disappoint and the 'Jr.' B sides release is pretty damn good as well. Will be very interested to see how Ginger and the guys will top this.

Black Label Society - Order Of The Black - Another totally bludgeoning album from Zakk Wylde with the usual mix of massive guitar riffs and equally massive piano ballads. And the video for 'Overlord' has to be seen to be believed.

FM - Metropolis - The latest album from the UK's answer to Journey is probably up there with 'Tough It Out' as the best of their careers. Not one to sound like a broken record but there is nary a bad song to be found on here either!

The Chuff

Because sometimes good bands go bad...

Bon Jovi - The new songs on Greatest Hits - Oh God. These coupled with the dreadful 'One Night Only' show broadcast on ITV hammer another nail into the Jovi's respectability coffin. Sure enough the album has sold loads and nearly topped the album chart but the band have been totally de-balled by their singer. I hear Jon Bon Jovi wants to do a solo album next...the only good that would come of this is if 'Only-good-thing-left-about-the-band' Richie Sambora did the same.

My Darkest Days - My Darkest Days - After hearing the excellent 'Porn Star Dancing' I had high hopes for this. Turns out the song was a total one off, and as it turned out was only really that good thanks to the guest spots from Zakk Wylde, Chad Kroeger and Ludacris. Even that song is ruined on the album, split into 'rock' and 'rap' versions (I'm pretty sure people can handle 2 different genres at once) and the rest of the album makes the most middle of the road post-grunge band sound like Slayer. Don't want to call them a bunch of pussies but...well I have no way of finishing that sentence.

Till next time.