Yup, I'm going to the Vinyl Toy Network show again this December - but this time as a vendor! I'll have a booth to peddle my "Happy Beaver" toys to Southern Californians in person. I figure the attendants for this show are my core audience, so it seems like a good one to set up shop (plus, the vendor space is very affordable, and it's super-close to Christmas)!). Here's the info:

Where? - Pasadena Convention Center 300
East Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91101

When? - Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
For How Long? - 10 AM - 5:30 PM
How Much? - Free admission!
Why? - The core audience thing

Hope to see you there!

Technically, the "Happy Beaver" toy made its debut at San Diego Comic-Con, but I couldn't throw a party if I got all technical and everything!

Brian Flynn has generously allowed me the use of the Super 7 store for the party! Here's the info:

Where? - Super 7, 1628 Post Street, San Francisco CA 94115
When? - Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 7-9:30 PM
Why? - "Happy Beaver" makes its Bay Area debut!

I'll have plenty of the toys for sale, plus I'll be there to sign them, too! Hope to see you there!

At last - my "Happy Beaver" vinyl toy can be shipped right to your home! To order, simply go to my blog at jeffpidgeon.com and pick the appropriate PayPal button. Shipping is available to anywhere in the U.S, Canada, France or the U.K.! You don't even have to be a member of PayPal!

This edition is limited to just five hundred pieces, so order today!

If you're going to Comic-Con this week, you can buy one of my "Happy Beaver" vinyl toys early! I've set up a simple shopping button on my Blogger page so that you can set aside a beaming, toothy pal of your very own! There'll be just one hundred available in San Diego, so reserve yours now!

The figure costs $45.00 USD, and is packaged in a box decorated by yours truly. Yum!

You can pay me through PayPal, but you don't have to have an account there yourself. It's super easy! The buttons are at the bottom of my link list.

The only catch is:
Right now, I'm ONLY taking orders for customers who'll be picking up their figure at the 'Con.

Rest assured, though, that mail orders will be available soon!

By Choire Sicha, Special to The Times
April 8, 2007

KURT RUSSELL, the leading man in films as varied as "Escape From New York," "Silkwood" and "Dreamer," was in Austin last week for the Texas premiere of "Grindhouse." The 56-year-old stars in Quentin Tarantino's slasher half of the double feature, whose zombie half is directed by Robert Rodriguez.

*

You're getting ready for a premiere right now. What designer gown are you wearing?

I'm just getting ready to go! As is often so, something Western. Uh, designer boots? Should be a lot of fun here — it's a hometown for Robert Rodriguez.

*

You've been doing huge amounts of press out in junket-land. How are they treating you?

Great! They get it. Which is nice to see. I think because it's Quentin, they understand to look. They understand they're seeing an incredibly detailed love letter. To me, watching them is understanding that we're getting from Quentin and Robert the other side of "Cinema Paradiso." It's made with that same kind of love and care. To have been a part of, in a weird way, the process of their love affair with movies, going back to the things I did, especially with John Carpenter, was a special feeling.

*

Did you happen to read the recent memoir by Adrienne Barbeau, John Carpenter's ex-wife? She talked a lot about life among the B movies.

No! I've had a career of making all kinds of movies. For us, the process is always the same: You create something that you think an audience is going to have a great time with. I had a conversation with George Lucas once, and he said, I don't think I trust anybody over 14. They become not jaded but contaminated. They begin to have an opinion. I'm paraphrasing. But I had conversations with Walt Disney a thousand years earlier in the same vein. I'm of that belief too.

*

We forget that these films were also shocking — brutality and blood, and on a good budget. It was an innovation.

When we were doing "Escape From New York," "The Thing," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Used Cars," you know, to me there was an audience out there that would get a kick out of the style and feeling that you had at the show. And through the years these pictures have gained weight. These audiences have grown because of DVDs and tapes and stuff — and had the life they were supposed to have had. I'm happy for that.

*

With "Poseidon," you lapped two generations of movie-goers. But the original wasn't inflected with irony. That relates to what "Grindhouse" is up to — to plow straight through the irony that deadens violence and horror and come out the other side.

When you do that, it's gonna be compared. They're talking about remaking "Escape From New York" — great, go ahead. But now that's gonna be compared to John Carpenter's "Escape." And the actor's gonna be compared to the guy who created the role. I've been through that a number of times.

*

Touching "Escape From New York" is crazy.

John and I were not interested in building a franchise. He wrote a character that I realized. That was a strong sharing process that was a blast. A lot of young filmmakers saw that, and that turned them on. I'm an actor! "Poseidon," it's not my decision. It's not something I would have thought of to do. But Wolfgang Petersen had his desire. So, great. He did "Das Boot"! So maybe these fellows who'll do "Escape," they've got their reasons.

*

You've referred to your politics a bit making you an outcast from Hollywood. How crazy could your politics possibly be?

Aww, I think that was something I said years ago. That started to change about 10 years ago. Writers stopped trying to turn me into a strange wooden Republican along the lines of what they were doing to Charlton Heston, whether he deserves it or not. There were things, instances where guys would call me up and say, "This director was afraid of working with you because of your politics!"

But I've always kept them to myself. I've never done any candidate-supporting stuff. I can't stand that. Now, I can go to a party and not feel so horribly outcast. I don't say that lightly. Many times at parties, it was just a long, long uncomfortable night and I didn't want to be there. But not so much now. I never cared to go to the party anyway!

BC cartoonist dies while drawing

Cartoonist Johnny Hart, who won awards and acclaim for creating the B.C. comic strip, has died at the age of 76.

B.C., which depicts a world populated by cavemen and dinosaurs, first appeared in 1958 and eventually reached more than 100 million people.

Mr. Hart also co-created The Wizard of Id, the story of a run-down kingdom ruled by a tyrannical monarch.

Mr. Hart's wife, Bobby, said he died of a stroke on Saturday while working at his New York home.
"He died at his storyboard," she told the Associated Press.

Richard Newcombe, the founder and president of Creators Syndicate, which syndicates both B.C. and The Wizard of Id, said both cartoons would continue.

Family members have been helping produce the strips for years, and they have an extensive computer archive of drawings to work with, he told AP.

Mr. Hart won numerous awards for his work, including the National Cartoonist Society's prestigious Reuben Award twice for Cartoonist of the Year.

In his later year, Mr. Hart's Christianity began to play a more prominent role in his cartoons, courting some controversy.

Once again, my Blogger blog has seized up - this time, PidgeonBlog only ran for six months, as opposed to eight months the first time around. I'm hoping my blog readers also go to my MySpace page occasionally, since this is the only way I can notify people what's happened. I'll try to get it back up and running, but I'm not sure how long that'll take. If not, I'll have to switch my focus to the web designer I want to work with, and have her build a blog for me that's more dependable.