Fanboy Micro-Summit and NolanCon Meeting
The Durango Steakhouse, a part of the Best Western Hotel, serves as our sanctuary for Fanboy (micro) Summit II. L - R: Ed Tucker, Byron Rocher, Dan Tuchman (holding Will's book), yours truly in my usual slouching position, Will Moriaty, Andy Lalino. Photo by our waiter--thanks buddy, sorry I didn't write down your name.
Long-time readers may remember last year’s “Ed Tucker Invasion” when Ed came to Tampa on business and William, Andy and I were able to spend much of his first night here regaling stories of fandom. It was a great experience and set the stage for Will’s and my road trip to Jacksonville, and to a lesser degree, this year’s MegaCon and NolanCon. It was here the Creature Feature Fan Database was first proposed by Andy Lalino. I think it was Will Moriaty who later casually referred to this night as “The Fanboy Summit”.
Fast-forward to summer, 2005. With NolanCon looming on the horizon and that time of year when Ed threatens to travel southward, plans were made for Fanboy Summit II.
Planned for weeks and with the last-minute addition of the returning Andy Lalino, this year’s Fanboy Summit took place last weekend at the site of NolanCon, The Best Western Hotel (nearest the airport), and more specifically, The Durango Steakhouse which is conveniently built into the hotel. Friday night would be the Summit. Saturday would be when Ed and I would talk turkey about NolanCon. Lots to do in a short time.
From my slouch I grab my camera and start snapping. Sharing my booth seat, William Moriaty (left) and Andy Lalino.
Andy Lalino was already at the hotel when Will and I arrived about 8:00pm. We got seated in the Durango and chatted up while we waited for Ed and company. Will showed Andy his new book, “William Moriaty’s Florida” and Andy’s mentions inside.
About quarter-to-nine, Ed Tucker, Byron Rocher, and Dan Tuchman arrived and joined us at our booth. PCR readers may possibly remember Byron from his many mentions, most notably from MegaCon articles and an inclusion in Ed’s “Salvageland” article. This is a first for the elusive Dan Tuchman, however, who Will and I missed at last year’s 4th of July shindig at Ed’s. We were very pleased that Dan was able to make this trip! (This is not Dan’s first appearance on this website—he is pictured presenting Dr. Paul Bearer with his plaque in Ed’s historical interview.)
Directly across from Will and Andy sit Byron Rocher (left) and ED Tucker. Thanks to forced perspective, my two fruit marguaritas look positively enormous!
I hadn’t planned on such late arrivals (which they all blamed on Dan, ha ha), or I would’ve taken the night off from the hell-pit. As it was, Will and I had barely an hour together with these gentlemen before I had to leave to clock in somewhere in the neighborhood of 10:00pm. William and I said our goodbyes, Andy decided to stick around a while. The others threatened to visit me at work and take pictures (Yeegads!! Evidence!!). That’s why, due its unfortunate brevity, this year’s meeting was more of a “micro”-Summit. True to his word, Ed & Co. showed up at the hell-pit (OK, OK, it’s a 7-Eleven) just before midnight and we took a couple pictures for posterity. I’m sure posterity will be very grateful.
Saturday. My cab was over a hour late (I had to call two companies to get any attention) so my 9:00am breakfast with Ed &Co.didn’t start till about quarter to 10:00am. One delightful hash browns and egg breakfast later (I’m really amazed there aren’t more Durangos around—all of our experiences at this one have been very positive), and we’re off to the conference rooms.
Continuing my pan to the right we see the man directly across from me, Dan Tuchman. Long-time readers may remember Dan as the man who presented Dick Bennick/Dr. Paul Bearer with his plaque in The Lost Interview of Dr. Paul Bearer.
Ed set up his very impressive 16mm film projector in one of the two film rooms and started playing some trailers. We were soon joined by our concierge, A.J., who stated he was there to help for whatever he needed, and helpful he was (thanks for the passes, man!). Turns out, while we were talking films, A.J. and I discovered we have a mutual aquaintance I haven’t seen in 15 years—so decides to call him right then an there on his cellphone and put him on! Jose Ortega, comic artist of some repute and actor in Brain Robbers From Outer Space, and I exchanged our first greetings since the early ’90s.
OK, so we decide the acoustics in the film room are fine and there won’t be noticable bleeding from the room next door.
All the convention rooms check out, everyone is very agreeable and the team is pretty excited.
I should've know better than to think I could get out of this! Ed & Co. follow me back to the legendary "hell-pit of despair" to see where I make a living (sort of). Holding gen-u-wine 30-year-old super-hero Slurpee cups are L-R: Byron Rocher, yours truly (in my native red smock), Ed Tucker, and Dan Tuchman. Although we both took versions of this picture, Ed's came out an eensy bit better, so this is from his camera. Photo by my work partner, Tom Green.
Then Ed sat me down for the reality check about finances. I had to admit that I am confused and disappointed that, so far, I haven’t gotten the support that I’d expected from the very artist community that I’ve fought so hard to support all these years. After further discussion that more fine-tuning was needed, we wrapped up and they brought me home. Theoretically, I could see them all again as soon as the 4th of July if things work out.
A note about NolanCon: The underwhelming support mentioned above is making it very difficult to predict and budget this project effectively. Even more shockingly, co-sponsor Neil McCurry hasn’t had much luck interesting anybody in FREE MONEY via winning the NolanCon Film Fest, at least not yet. A renewed effort is underway to publicize the event, put out notices, print more flyers, and put out the TV commercials. The logic being probably not enough of the right people know this is going on. Please help us out and send the NolanCon.com link to anybody and everybody you know. The film fest is part of NolanCon. I trust through better publicity we can find some hopefuls willing to take a shot at winning anything from a couple hundred bucks to several thousand dollars for their film project!