And now the good stuff

I can't believe we're going to have NINE songs on the new record! Right now I'm butting heads with Ron over the level of the vocals in comparison with the rest of the tracks. He puts them at a volume where it seems like the instrument tracks are an afterthought, which doesn't sit right with me. It sounds... off somehow. I understand that the band has my name on it, but the songs still need to have balance. If the vocals are too loud I can't market the song's mood to film and television as easily. We're working on it. The head-butting isn't that severe.

Other than that the tracks sound AWESOME! How awesome? So AWESOME I have to write AWESOME in ALL CAPS! I'm particularly proud of Woman Wonder and can't wait to upload it to share with the world. With people (and bands) abandoning MySpace at a record pace, I was at a loss for where I could share it easily. YouTube was in the plan, but now I think I might go with SoundCloud.

As for shows, it looks like we're confirmed for the Skylark Cafe in West Seattle on April 17, and we'll be playing The Comet with SeaStar on May 15. Once I know more about the rest of the lineup I will post Facebook events on my band page. Mark your calendars and come on out -- the more people we have coming to shows the more shows we can do, dig?

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I wasn't going to, but I ended up at the 9th Annual Emerald City Comicon this weekend. It was twice the size of the convention I attended two years ago. I was a little amazed at how much it had grown. A friend of mine who comped my pass back in '09 had graduated from booking the venue to driving celebrities to and from the airport. I got to talk to him a little bit in hopes of having him listen to Woman Wonder and tell me what he thought of it. I'm still working on getting my thumb drive back from him. Oh well.

There were lots of cosplayers there, but the masquerade sucked hard. Two jerks got up on stage in street clothes and called themselves "Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne," and what passed for Steampunk was just a bunch of Victorian outfits in brown and brass. Maybe I needed to be closer to the stage. The kids' division stole the show, though. This is what happens when comic book geeks multiply.

While I was there I spent a lot of money. My first purchase was a Blue Lantern Power Ring from the Graphitti Designs booth. A whole spectrum of Lantern Corps is still a relatively new concept to me, but I like it a lot. My ring holds the power of hope and lights up like a BAMF, yo. I probably would have bought a t-shirt from them, too, had I not spent all my time gallivanting about the exhibition hall.

I ended up buying a lot of artwork. Cody Vrosh caught my eye with his technology and fantasy inspired illustrations on wood and watercolor paper. I ended up buying prints of "The Thieving of the Music Hat" and "If we're to escape with our lives, we must put our differences aside." His booth-mate was selling original screen printed shirts, so I picked up a Gasmask Squirrel scoop-neck top from her. She doesn't have any of the style I bought online, but the design (along with the rest of her work) can be found at her Etsy shop, Binary Winter.

Because I met her at the 2009 ECCC (and made paper stars with her at her booth), I tracked down Erika Moen to see what she was up to. Last we spoke she was writing and drawing DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary. She wrapped that up in 2010 and teamed up with a writer for her new comic, Bucko.

Sharing the booth with Erika was Dylan Meconis, author and illustrator of Family Man. As she handed me a bookmark with her main character's image on it she and her assistant gave me a brief description of the graphic novel on the table. I loved the drawings but was lost by the story, so I bought her prints of two main characters as Tarot cards. They're awesome! I just need to find frames for them...

Amy Mebberson had a booth in Artists Alley and was selling original drawings from her collection for $20 a pop. By the time I screwed up the courage to buy my favorite it was already gone, and a gal with a resume like hers doesn't do commissions cheap. I will have to be content with either attempting to draw something awesome myself or enjoying her Flickr stream.

Ken bought me an adorable 5x7 Wonder Woman print by Jennifer Cox. She's got an impressive selection of prints for sale at her Etsy shop that includes non-superhero fare as well. He bought for himself a 5x7 of Thor that the artist describes in detail on her blog.

I'm running out of steam here for complete descriptions, so I'll sum up with some links to ECCC vendors and exhibitors I thought were worth telling my friends about:

Wondermark Comics: I wanted very much to buy their Engineering t-shirt, but they had run out of my size. Darn.

Gin and Comics: The handout from this booth included strips that featured a Wonder Woman Snuggie. Heh.

Giddy Girlie: Peg People!

WereGeek: Lycanthropy meets nerdiness.

True Cat Toons: TRUE comics about real kittehs, written by their hoomans, drawn by Roberta Gregory. Find them on Facebook!

Rhapsodies: "Join us in a comic strip about life, love, accounting, progressive bookstores, and the divine power of jazz!" How could I not share that?

And last but not least, Monster Commute by Steam Crow. Originating from lovely Spokane, Washington, by music veterans from the era of Grunge.