So Nerdapalooza was this past weekend, and as I predicted it was the uberist of events. It was so awesome to get to meet Ian, Devo, and Luke finally. So since you care so much and I have nothing better to do. I'll tell you my Nerdapalooza experience keeping in mind that it wasn't as eventful or interesting as Devo or Ian's story.
I went to the show with my family, mom (Dede), g-ma (Barb), and uncle (Justin, the dude who does the stuff with the things on Pizza Guy). We left for the airport early on Friday. We took two guitars, my merch, one bag of clothes and other useless stuff, and something else that was made of matter. Our only carry on weighed 48 pounds, 2 off the amount before we'd have to pay a lot extra, so awesome! We went to a restaurant that was in the airport for some edible goods. We got on the airplane at around noon. This flight like many had to go to a place before it gets to the actual place. The weird thing was we had to go to Wisconsin. I know it’s going in the right direction, but it just seams strange to go north to get south. Oh well. My mom took a picture of the flight crew since she’s making a book of pictures from the trip. The ride was a few hours. I spent the time listening to my iPod that I just filled with new tunes. I listened to Perry Gripp’s epic short song album ‘For Those Who Shop, We Salute You’ in it’s entirety.
We got there at some point in time, I’m sure. Then I got a call from Ian, who apparently had missed not one, not three, not one hundred, but two flights, and had been at the airport in Maryland for several hours. Much laughter was had.
We got on the plane again finally on the way to Florida. Again I listened to music, and probably slept. The first time around I got to look out the window and see the awesome view cause I was at the seat near the window. This time around I was still at that seat, but the engine of the plane was unfortunately one the side of the plane and took up the view. I’m not certain, but I’m sure the manufacturing people for this particular model built it that way to specifically spite me. Jerks!
When we got off the plane, we grabbed our various stuff and walked around as we do not yet have the capability to teleport (It’s time to add a new feature to the iPod, Apple!). We got our 48 pound bag from the people who like to keep 48 pound bags for the duration of plane rides. At this point there was apparently no point in staying in the well air conditioned building that was the airport, so we ventured out side, where someone was to come and get us.
We stepped outside and immediately regretted it. It was so humid that I dropped some of my luggage. It would probably be better to wait for a car on the surface of the sun. Mostly cause at least it’d be over quicker. I saw while sitting a guy directing incoming vehicles outside the airport. I think that would have to be one of the worst jobs in the universe, to have to stand and direct traffic in blistering humidity all day, awful. So after a few minutes we got picked up by Nerdapalooza creator John ‘hexwarrior’ Carter’s girlfriend: Diana. She and I discussed all the acts at the event and general nerdiness while the fam sat in the back unsure what it was we were talking about. On the way there we saw the building for the Ripley’s Believe or Not Museum appropriately titled Odd-itorium. The building was built in a slanted fashion and looked awesome.
We got to the hotel after a surprising amount of time, thanked Diana, and walked in. The hotel was the Holiday Inn we went to room 7711. I cannot possibly describe just how good the immense anti-hot the room was. The cold felt so awesome. We set up everything for the weekend and then went out to dinner. We initially went to a place cleverly titled the Crazy Grill. They were… unique. There apparent plan was to take 3 or 4 piles of slop, put ‘em all together and serve it for $20. Then we taste it, and tell them which pile of slop doesn’t make us throw up. Then they’ll serve us more of that and charge again per person. So our obvious response was ‘Um… can you point us in the direction of a good restaurant’. He showed us into the normal burger place that was hidden in the same building for some reason. I do have to say that at least there name was accurate. At the good place we ordered stuff and I got word that Ian had finally made it to Florida after spending a little less then 10 hours in the airport.
I and the g-ma went back to the hotel, whereas the other two went to gander at stuff. After a little bit I went down to the lobby and met Ian. We talked about mainly stupid airplane related stuff. He had to wait for Devo and Luke to get there cause he was rooming with them and the room was in there name. I bragged about my smooth trip there in comparison to his obviously bad day, and probably sounded like a jerk. I went back to the hotel. Then an hour or so later my mom and g-ma told me to come outside. Just down the hall from our room was the legendary Devo Spice and Luke Ski, then… Ian. I went over, said hello, then went back to the hotel.
I went to bed cause I had to get up early to practice for my show which was to be at noon. I think I had a dream about a gorilla performing nerdcore. The next morning I got up at 8. I practiced my set for a while, and then at 10 Ian showed up to practice his parts. I went down to the building where the event was being held and gave my merch to the people there and had to count it so they could see how much I had sold at the end. At noon the event was supposed to start but they were running late. So at about 12:30 hex finally started the event with his opening address. Then I went on. To a raving crowd of maybe 30 people I performed my set with appearances by Ian on many of the songs, and Devo, Ian, and Luke on the first live performance of Vampires Suck. I think the show went pretty good. It felt strange however not having Patrick there. The big problem I had with it was we missed the two funniest parts of Filler Song, the celebrity hair line, and when we pretend to mess up. I guess I’m just too good to pretend I’m bad.
After the show I stayed to catch some new fans to tell me I did well. Signed a few things, the most memorable of which was a Guitar Hero guitar, after signing it I mentioned that he should get Insane Ian to sign it as he actually had a song about the game. Soon after it was Devo Spice’s set, which I was really looking forward to. He rocked it so freaking much. Devo is amazing, the set was perfect. After that I went to eat food, which I was holding the whole time Devo did his set. After that I went to the hotel for some sleep. I felt really tired for some reason. Then to get back at me for my earlier jerkitude Ian called me and woke me up from my half-slumber, and now I sound like more of a jerk for making it sound like an evil plan. I went back to sleep.
I unfortunately slept for a while so I got back to the event at 9 during I Fight Dragons set. During that I had to get water a lot from the bathroom (No drinking fountain!) since I was going through some sort of dehydration. I Fight Dragons was… loud, but good. You couldn’t understand there lyrics much, but I liked it.
Then I decided I should go buy the new album by MC Lars, This Gigantic Robot Kills, since I’ve heard from many people that it’s amazing. As the girl hands me the CD as I give her the cash, out of some sort of awesome nerd magic MC Lars himself suddenly appears right next to me. ‘You just buy my CD?’ he says. I’m still a little star struck that I’m standing next to such a legend. He sees my artist idea badge and asked if I performed there. I said ‘Yeah, I opened the whole thing’. He asked who I was, I pointed to my album which just happened to be right next to his. He apologized for missing my set, and signed my album I just bought, and graciously signed a second thing for my friend Stepheny.
The last three performers of the night were YT Cracker, MC Lars, and MC Fronalot. They all did amazingly. I personally enjoyed Lars’s set the most. After the show I went out into the artist and staff area and met MC Frontalot who was obviously tired from his set but still signed something for Steph. Then I left and went to the hotel for some sleep as the show ran 2 hours late and ended at 2 in the morning.
The next morning I got up at 11, and quickly left to catch the show, where they once again were running late. The first thing was the open mic, which was very, very awesome. The two I remember the most were MC Cool Whip who sang the song that I would pay 10 dollars to get a ring tone of about Helen Keller in space and MC Shammers (Or something like that), that did a cool song about Pokeman. After that was mCRT. His set was great, with many a private part joke. I had met him the night before, he told me that he had been one of the main supporters for getting me out there, so a huge thank you to mCRT! The next set I remember was Luke’s. He did awesome as well. This was the first time he ever performed with accompanying video. It added a nice touch to his already great set. His last song was Dementia Revolution that Ian, Devo, Lars, and I went up to assist him with.
After that I left for Universal Orlando, which I’ve been wanting to go to for many years. We went to take a trolley. The first two we tried to take said they couldn’t take us there. The third one didn’t come till a half hour later. The driver told us he could drive us there, we paid got on, and he took us 20 feet! What a jerk! We got off, and walked for a half hour till we got there. My feet were hurting already from all the standing at the show, and all the walking didn’t help. We got there and went on the 3-D Terminator ‘ride’. It was kind of lame, the next one was The Simpsons Ride. That one was AMAZING. You’re in a room sitting in a normal ride cart and all the walls light up with animation and the cart moves to make it seam like your on a ride, but really your not going any where. It’s a very mental ride. After that we went on the best ride ever, a ride called Disaster, a ride that was an apparent casting call for a disaster movie directed by some guy played by the hologram of Christopher Walken.
Disaster had 4 stages. One, a girl picks out the stars of the show. Then everybody but the ones they chose goes to stage 2. Here the hologram of the great Christohper Walken talks about the film. Three, you go to the filming area where they film the chosen stars doing stuff. Stage four you go to film something for the rest of the audience. You get on a bus and it crashes, much fire and water appears. Then they show you the trailer for the ‘film’ using the actual footage of the people there for it. Sounds amazing, right?
After a few more rides we had to go home. The thought of walking so far again sounded like torture so we got a cab back to the hotel. I have to say, it was indeed the best 5 dollars ever spent. Then I went back to the show and saw MC Chris. I couldn’t stay for his whole set cause it was getting late, as they were as mentioned before running late. I said goodbye to my comedy pals, and went to bed.
We got up, packed up all the stuff, then went to the airport and did it all over again. Our first flight went to Atlanta, the second went back to Colorado. The lady we were sitting next to was a nice old lady. It kind of sucked though, my iPod died (It’s been in need of new battery for a while, it costs a lot to replace though), and so was my laptop. So I just tried to sleep for the 3 hour ride. So now we’re back, and it’s kind of hard getting back into things. I’m sure you stopped reading a while ago, though I guess not if you’re reading this now, but I thought I’d talk about the coolest weekend I’ve had probably ever. I got to meet heroes of mine, and perform some where that’s not Colorado. I hope I can make it next year. See y’all at MarsCon.