Weekend Wind-Down #151

This past saturday, Missy and I got up earlier than usual and headed into Atlanta to attend the DECATUR BOOK FESTIVAL. They say that "PRINT IS DEAD", but it certainly isn't in Decatur, which hosts the nation's largest book festival every year. This was our first time attending the festival, and we brought a short list of authors/artists that we wanted to see...





First on our list was writer/zinester/artist/crafter/musician/performer extraordinaire DAME DARCY. She and another writer, Conor McCreery, were giving a talk about GRAPHIC NOVELS at this Baptist church. We met up with our friend, Marla, who lives in Decatur, and from her place we walked into town and to the church, passing long lines of people waiting to meet various book authors along the way...









The cavernous church seemed like a strange backdrop for Dame Darcy and Conor McCreery who's work veers from the supernatural and pagan to bloody murder, respectively. Darcy talked about her new book, HANDBOOK FOR HOT WITCHES, and she talked about some of her older graphic novels, comics, and zines. She talked about the notion of WITCHES as a feminist archtype and PAGANISM as the original eco/green movement. While Conor talked about the graphic novel he wrote called KILL SHAKESPEARE, which features characters from several of his plays...he even showed an animated "trailer" to promote his book. Again, it was all very surreal and funny that they were discussing these things in a Baptist church...











Missy was able to get Dame Darcy to sign her out-of-print FRIGHTFUL FAIRY TALES book. She even drew herself as a MERMAID, a character that she is notorious for dressing up as:



During our lunch break we came across this mural on the back of this pizza shop. There was a whole lot of NYC PRIDE on display, with Spider Man, KISS, The Ramones, The Harlem Globetrotters, King Kong, John Lennon, and Big Bird repping the Big Apple...there was even a tribute to the World Trade Center towers...







We saw these large PRINTS ON CANVAS hanging on and around this gazebo near the old courthouse...they looked like giant woodblock or lino-cut prints and were pretty impressive in person...



















The author talks were a welcome relief from the throngs of people and the unrelenting heat and humidity. We popped in to the Decatur Conference Center to hear KARI CHAPIN talk about her new book, GROW YOUR HANDMADE BUSINESS (we have her other book, THE HANDMADE MARKETPLACE, which is awesome). She shared some great business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and Missy even chipped in with some Etsy knowledge:



After that, we rushed over to the Decatur Library to hear writer/illustrator/bellydancer LEELA CORMAN talk about her new graphic novel, UNTERZAKHN...her presentation included a slide show featuring art from her new book. At the end of the Q & A session, we all decided to call it a day, thoroughly beat by the heat and running around all over downtown Decatur...



















FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Three-day weekend!
RAOUL - Yup...the moment the three-day weekend started!

WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - End of the three day weekend!
RAOUL - Realizing that we hadn't done a Weekend Wind-Down post in a looong while...

FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - I ate a miniature sweater in my dream and it tasted terrible.
RAOUL - Some moments of Ballooniversity were pretty surreal/funny.

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE WEEK?
MISSY - "Craft party"
RAOUL - "Exploders"

FAVORITE MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Beet salad and pizza at Ted's.
RAOUL - Personal pizzas from Ted's Most Best.

THREE THINGS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST FOR THIS WEEK?
MISSY - Sew cheese doodles, Tofu Baby comics, commissioned illustration work for a wedding.
RAOUL - Dub some Popgun tapes, buy blank cdr's, jump start Extra Credit Crafts' Etsy page.

PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, Alessi's Ark, Rose Melberg, Joanna Newsom, Kicking Giant, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Polaris, Professor Blastoff podcast.
RAOUL - Folk Implosion, Superchunk, Beastie Boys, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Guided By Voices, The Bats, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, The Smiths, The Vaselines.