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Trace says he'll be working with Dreamworks SKG on a comic book project. Kevin (I think) says Joel stopped BBI last week and told them to say "Hi" to the fans at the con. Someone from AOL throws Trace a pair of size 8,923 underpants signed by AOLers in some kind of odd gesture to get him to stay. Bridget's favorite episode is "Girls Town" (she does a little jig). New guy Bill Corbett is "a Manos man." I think one of even them said "Castle of Fu Manchu" was their favorite. Others were less commital. After a question asking Kevin what it was he found so funny in a scene during "The Sinister Urge" that Tom fell out of chair, he is unsure. Mary Jo Pehl says she thinks it might have been a shot of a phone as someone in the background says "Bbbrrrrring!" A few audience members point out that was in "Monster A-Go-Go." Kevin (or was it Jim?) advises Mary Jo "not to disagree with these people."
11:30 Off to the Market Barbecue with BioKen, Sheryl Gere, Jim Ellwanger. Early signs are good -- we're seated in a booth featuring autographed pictures of various minor celebrities, including MST star Mel Torme (Girls Town). The onion rings come out. Frozen and baked in the oven. Then the sandwhich and fries. The chicken wasn't bad, and the bacon wasn't crisp. The french fries were frozen and warmed in the oven. The Coke was a bit off. If I had any lingering good feelings about the place, the were quashed when I walked out and saw several pictures and news stories on the wall of Jay Leno declaring the place to be the country's best barbecue.
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Next, the magic: the Sattelite of Love and Deep 13 sets!! They're right across from each other in a rather small room. The SOL bridge is roped off and we basically walk around in Deep 13 while Mike and Kevin host a video tour of the sets. I asked some little kid to get a picture of me "pushing the button." As the crowd moves into the writing room, BBI editor Brad Keely wanders in. I figure he's a photographer, he can take my picture with the bots and the SOL behind me. Even BBI's technical guys goof around - he looks at my disposable Kodak like it's an MX missle. But he's very nice and takes the picture.
Into the writing room. A lady
whom I am later told is Kevin Murphy's wife shows us around, and then we watch a
video with Mary Jo and Paul plays explaining the writing room. (Basically: a big
room with couches and a big-screen TV. They watch, and a typist types the jokes.)
I scan a
bookcase of videotapes...
Colossus: The Forbin Project, a Jackie Chan
movie, and what's this? About eight or nine blank tapes with blank Best
Brains labels. "SEASON 8" is written on them in big black markers, as
is the title of three movies... each title on two or three cassettes.
"The Mole People," "Revenge of the Creature for the Black Lagoon," and
"The Leech Women."
After seeing how the Brains kind of skipped over the
question this morning, I think the tapes may be some kind of decoys. I
didn't ask Mrs. Murphy anything, since at the time, I thought she was
someone from "Design Firm," a private contractor that was giving BBI a
lot of help during the weekend, so I didn't ask anything. I figured
that since there were a few tapes of each movie, they might be
videotapes of writing sessions. Time to leave.
3:30 Back at the Convention Center, I go into Gypsy's Basement and buy a bunch of stuff, including the calendar, for the Brains to sign (I left my episode guide in Virginia, and my movie poster is in New Orleans). I go into the autograph waiting room, and I see a volunteer wearing a shirt with the MST Variety ad. "Harney?" Yes, it's him -- the guy who organized the full-page ad in Variety during the cancellation crisis. He tells me to sit in the back, and I'll get there faster. During a 30-40 minute wait, the Sci-Fi channel plays the end of an episode of "She Wolf of London." Marcus from Babylon 5 is playing some kind of evil circus ringmaster. Swamp Thing begins. Do not bring your evil here. I spot Juliewa, and decide to introduce myself. She's very nice, and very busy, so I let her go.
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4:15ish. In the RATMM room, Todd Gilbert reports that he asked Mrs. Murphy about the Season 8 movies, and she said those were indeed the first three movies of season 8. More general hanging out. At one point, none of us can take the hunger any more. We make up nametags bearing the names of infamous net.pests Neuron and Jonah13 (actually, I was Jonah14), wander into the AOL room, and help ourselves to some cookies.
In the afternoon, I ran into Robert "Silver Surfer" "KTMA" Bukoski who was talking to someone who claimed to have two of the four missing KTMAs. He said they were 8th or 9th generation. So, I doubt his story. If they're eighth generation, they would have filtered on to the net by now.
5:55 Lots of people want to see the 6:00 show of Season 1 rarity Moon Zero Two, which I have on tape. I volunteer to make a McDonald's run. It's farther away than I thought, and as I walk there, Jim Ellwanger is subject to my relentless bitching about the inadequacy of eating choices, and how there's a McDonald's every two blocks in DC, not to mention Burger King, Roy Rogers, etc. etc. He takes it well. The woman at the McDonald's took FOREVER filling the order ahead of mine -- more than ten minutes. Lots of flies in there too. On the way back, Jim and I spot Kevin Murphy. We consider offering him some fries, but a couple other MSTies pull him aside for a picture.
6:35ish. Back at the Hilton. Moon Zero Two is playing in the smaller room, and it's packed. I look in vain for the McDonald's recipients. I finally just wait for the next commercial break and call "Todd, Sheryl, Doug, McDonald's!" [I guess I still owe Todd like 12 bucks in change. Ouch.] to get their attention. Jim and I head over to City Limits to study up for the scheduled Kim Catrall appearance the next day. With one segment left, we head to the Convention center for the Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie extravaganza. We join Sarah, Kelly (thanks for saving us those seats!) and Kelly's friend Susan from Alaska, who has an Alaska MST3K liscence plate. After the aural disater Friday night, we sit back a bit -- 15th row or so. Across the aisle, Rick, Col. Di, Beloved, and Sid peer around the ballroom nervously. Kelly tells me they're looking for Jess, whom a bunch of them lost at the Mall of America earlier that day.
After a short panel and Q&A session, we see some slides from the making of the movie. Then they screen the cut sequences: the storm shelter sequence was great, and the original ending was good also. The movie unspooled, and everyone just lapped it up. Kelly had never seen it before, and seemed to enjoy it. I was seeing it for the second time, and the bigger screen brought to light some nice details: Mike reading the Satellite News, the clearly marked "MANOS" switch. Overall, better on the second viewing.
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left in the Jim's Journal shirt, Todd Gilbert seated in the Tom Servo shirt and Sheryl Gere in the shadows on the right. Everyone else I either can't see or don't remember. |
Around 12:30 AM, in a fit of boredom, I call up the AOL room, and get everyone in the RATMM to cry "You've got mail!" Apparently, the AOLers can't take a little funnin'. Someone came in, threw the "Internet MSTies" sign on the table, and said something like "You guys suck!" Before I set the sign back out, I wrote "Elitist Clique... and Proud!" on the sign. Then someone in our room decided, for no apparent reason, to write on the AOL sign. Apparently, this really troubled them, as a report came in that the AOLers were having some kind of group therapy session to deal with their feelings about us. Whatever. If anyone on AOL is reading this, it's all in good fun, for Crissakes!
1:00 am Pod People. I settle on the floor with a couple of pillows. I admit I napped for a few minutes, after the excitement of Trumpy doing stupid things died down.
2:45 am bedtime.
