first time i came to this show (i think 2001) i didn’t know jack shit. i remember waking up the first morning and not having anyone to call to go eat breakfast. at the buffet alone and pretended to like reading the local paper. sad. i swore that if i ever came back, i’d have a crew…a solid road trip crew. (well not like i got on my knees and swore like Kirk in Wrath of Khan but still, i made a “note”…)  so i made it my business to assemble a team…a crack squad of solid drinkers, talkers, and night owls. spartans all. there’s azz, cliffie, jason, jill, woody (ok, no one calls him that but maybe we should), lee x 2, jock (the heart and soul who we miss already), the big dog JL, the winter man, usually about a dozen italians (this year franz is repping them all), and many many more…sorry if i left anyone out, you know who you are…this year we’re adding some new SA members…they have to buy the beers tho.

we’re deep but inclusive. there’s really only one rule…don’t be ON all the time. 3 AM is not the time to be complaining about how someone screwed u over on a book or such and such writer sucks and your better than him/her or pitching that fantastic space opera that’s a cross between 2001 & Jules & Jim…save it. just hang loose, pick yer spots and have something else to talk about besides comics. i know that’s a bit controversial in this day and age but try it…feels good, right
anyway, you’re as liable as not to find us drinking luke warm beers behind the hyatt…join us if u want. last year we had a sintilating (spelling? who cares) conversation about “what doesn’t talk”…the consensus was that a peanut butter and jellly sandwich dosen’t talk. i wish somebody would go make me one…
every road trip needs a song…so on the eve of SDCC 2008 — a post dark knight bloodbath that starts tomorrow and end about 170 hours and 17000 beers from now — i’m calling CONSTRUCTIVE SUMMER by THE HOLD STEADY (ryan kelly…yer wrong about them – sorry!)  this years anthem.
an obvious pick? maybe to the ironic t-shirt crowd but i really don’t care. it’s a transcendent rock n roll song…remember those?…and it’s proof positive that there’s something special in the heartland water…u can draw a straight line to this record from bobbie zimmerman –> the stooges & MC5 –>the placemats & husker du –> the guided by voices boys — > ok…maybe the line takes a detour or two thru asbury park and the clash at the bond theater but “you follow me, right?”….(azz got that one)…it’s just a kick out the jams fuck around song that makes u wanna drink a beer and then toss the bottle out the car window (it’s like recycling…).
that’s all for now…reports as news happens. shocker fotos in homage to jock (like missing an arm!). see ya on the other side:
“We’re gonna lean this ladder up against the water tower
Climb up to the top, and drink and talk..this summer!

Me and my friends are like “Double-whiskey-coke-no-ice.”
We drink along in double time; might drink too much, but we feel fine…”

xoxo

~peter pan