Paint Stains

...resulted in a half-hour's worth of utter hilarity and side stitches. You hafta laugh, otherwise you're going to cry your eyes out, Dragonlance fans.

(I don't post fantasy or entertainment related posts often, but this one, I have to, I really do.)

January 2008 is scheduled release date for the animated movie of Dragons of Autumn Twilight. (If the word "animated" doesn't send a chill up your spine, it should.)

Music Video/Sneak Peek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Ure_45SSw&feature=related
The music's not bad. Background stills not spectacular, but still not bad. Try to ignore the somewhat dated-looking intro screen.

...And then it descended into TEH SUCK! Lucy Lawless could never have saved this thing.

The Official Trailer, apparently first shown at GenCon 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHrOfJ8_D0o&feature=related

I had to watch it twice to comprehend the badness. The best to hope for is Eye of Argon goodbadness to save this thing from the levels of hell below that reached by the D&D movie. My favorite comment somewhere among the 700 comments was something like "This looks like 3 kinds of ass".

Solace (hurhur) thereafter could only be found in old fan vids/trailers.

From Turkish fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hv305sXgqI&NR=1 (Autumn Twilight and Winter Night)

And another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFZnfzVjsY&NR=1 (Autumn Twilight only)

And the German fans beat them ALL: (If you don't watch any of the others, watch this one.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvhTFm_RwYY

Really got to get to bed now, but it may be a struggle with this bad case of giggles. I think my brain still can't comprehend that level of suck...

Art-wise

The con was pretty enjoyable. Part of it was having a con just 10 minutes away. The first day of the Con, we set me up in the Art Show and promptly came back home to nap. (I needed it!) The total space of 3 panels looked daunting at first, but it filled up quickly and some paintings were left off. Most of my pieces were originals (I have to display them somewhere, might as well be cons). I have to admit I was not very prepared in the area of prints - except for the Book Monster prints, all of which sold. (Nothing else did. The curse of the Book Monster!) Not that I'm complaining. It's nice to have at least one sure bet for cons.

Note to self: Make more prints. Learn, already.

Outside of the Book Monster, sales have generally been slowing on eBay too, and I hate to cop out and blame it on the economy, but I think it can't be avoided. I see the figures. They suck. Can I say it? I mean I am surprised and gratified to find anyone still spending their money on art when I keep in mind gas prices, inflation, stagnant wages, and etc.

But the con was very inspiring in terms of getting the motivation to paint. Really. Can't say that enough. It was great having time to talk with Patrick Meadows, who was very very kind!, William Nick Johns (his stuff is more vibrant in person than on his site, alas for online viewers), Daniel Trout (get your stuff online!) and Bob Snare (hmm...he's probably on DeviantArt somewhere).

I'm halfway persuaded to get a DeviantArt gallery but am still very afraid of the distraction it will bring.

Panel-wise

Generally lots of fun. As mentioned, this is the first Trinoc*Con where, in almost every panel, the current state of things/the adminstration was bemoaned to general agreement. In panels like "Writing as Social Criticism" and "Satire to Reality", it was expected, but when it pops up everywhere else, at a con that IMO has been apolitical before now, I am pleasantly surprised.

People should be mad. I just wish they'd been madder at the end of 2004.

And in the rambling spirit of this journal, I might as well tackle this now...

Good vs Evil and Dragonlance

Oh shit, I finally said the D-word on this journal after, what, 3 years? I left the series pissed because the good vs evil battle in the last Weis & Hickman books (I thought) were getting completely unrealistic. I wrote anonymous (and highly rated) critiques on Amazon.com, ranting about the weak "Good" characters, and how the Evil side had all the strong, conniving, charismatic figures. The evil characters preyed upon ignorance, apathy, personal greed and seductive brainwashing to win, and they were all too bloody successful, and reading the most recent MW&TH books in the DL series were an exercise in frustration.

My epiphany today was... I get the same fucking frustration today reading the US news.

And... Anne Coulter is the Queen of Darkness.