SPBURKE

NOTE: Yea, this is long overdue.  Caught myself a bad case of the sick after getting back from the show.  
It becomes such a weird experience every time I come back to Chicago since I’ve moved to Portland.

I miss Chicago.  Chicago is my home.  All my family and friends (or the ones who know me best anyway) are here.  My roots are here.  And yet…I can see now how the city was killing me and I really couldn’t live there.  It’s too expensive, too big, it takes forever to do anything or get anywhere, etc etc.

Portland, meanwhile, has given me the resources and support network to finally live on my own for the first time since college.  This last year I’ve finally managed to achieve regular work (freelance and rent payer stuff), pay my own bills, and fall into a relationship with a wonderful girl.  Portland trains?  It costs you $5 to get around the entire day.  Chicago trains?  Costs you that much to go in a particular direction.

And I won’t lie when I say I’ve gotten used to not having any sales tax.

…That being said though, I’ll always make it a point to come back for C2E2.  Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Maybe there will be a year where my set-up at C2E2 won’t be accomplished on a wing and a prayer, but it certainly wasn’t this year.  It was something of a miracle that I even got to set-up at all, considering I initially got wait-listed for the first time in three or four years when I applied for my table.  There was a whole two month period where I was inconsolable and wondering what to do next, since I usually premiere new books and other things at the show.

But miraculously something opened up and Pab Sungenis was willing to share the table with me to promote his new copies of “Sidekick“.  Even that turned out to be a journey though.  I finally managed to get my shit together and complete “Oh Goodie! Vol. 3” (after almost two years of having the material), but my printer messed up orders YET AGAIN to the point where I didn’t even get my books until the morning I left to set up at McCormick Place.

Printer said, because I got the priority shipping but they did not meet that, they offered to refund my shipping (though not the money for the book printing itself) and offered to “throw in a free T-shirt for you”.

Why would I want to wear your swag promoting your company when I’m fed up with its service?

So yea, needless to say I’ve finally had enough and I’m looking for a new printer.  More on that when its confirmed.

Pab had his own difficulties (financial and logistic, but I won’t go into that) getting to the show, even down to the parking when he arrived at the venue.  So my face lit up when we all sat down Friday morning and we were able to enjoy the show.

It was amazing that the show was happening when it did, because it seemed like everyone’s birthday was going on, including my step-sister Nicci (at the beginning of the week), and my older brother Michael’s birthday (at the end of the week).  Michael had gotten his own three day pass in celebration, and started to feel the exhaustion we all felt somewhere around the second half of Sunday (“Welcome to my world,” I said).  Elanor had gotten a three day pass as well, and it was awesome to see her and Michael exploring the floor together on Saturday.

In spite of being my best friend since high school, Elanor hasn’t really had an opportunity to meet my family outside of my parents.  Not only did she get to hang out with Michael, but she got to tag along with us on two family occasions: Nicci’s birthday at the Boiler Room on Thursday, and pizza with my cousin Anna and her husband Brian on Saturday.  I was crashing on Nicci’s couch in her Logan Square apartment, and it turns out Anna and Brian didn’t live very far away from there.  We managed to rope in my cousin Kelly (finishing her latest semester at VanderCook) and had a blast catching up.  Missing Anna and Brian’s wedding when I moved to Portland was one of my biggest regrets, so it was fitting we got to spend time together when the show began.

As per usual at C2E2, I was bolted to my table the instant the show began.  By the end of Saturday I had started to go loopy from all the activity and lack of food.  Those days I basically survived the entire day on a McDonald’s sausage biscuit and black coffee.  Elanor was kind enough to indulge me though with not one but two visits to the Portillo’s on Ontario St over the course of two days.

The only thing that could possibly make a Portillo’s Italian beef sandwich better is washing it down with a giant schooner of beer.

Being bolted to my table made it even more special when people I knew stopped by though.  A number of my former Blick co-workers stopped by, and my former co-worker Monnie (now a professional actor) more or less did a dramatic reading of the chapter in my “Vol. 3” afterword talking about how our insufferable former manager inspired me to finally move to Portland.  The chapter seems to be becoming an underground hit amongst our circle.

The big highlight was Brad Jones AKA The Cinema Snob stopping by.  I’d had the pleasure to first meet him when I first displayed at C2E2, and he’d bought a copy of the first “Oh Goodie!” volume and roped Doug and Rob Walker into doing the same.  He was kind enough to trade copies of “Paranoia” and “The Cinema Snob Movie” for the second and third volumes.  I know for a fact Brad had been through so much personally and professionally since the last time I saw him (not to mention his crazy weight loss), it was crazy to think what widely different places we were in in our lives a few short years later.

My old pal Hot N Tawdree of Plan 9 Burlesque offered me the chance to show off my art and do live portraits at the C2E2 after-party (seems the only time I come out of retirement for portraits , and she was kind enough to comp Michael’s ticket to get him in.  I wish I could show off pictures of that, but of course burlesque etiquette dictates you don’t take pictures because a lot of performers have day jobs and need their anonymity preserved.  We both enjoyed the show, but by the end of it we were both so tired we just returned to my mom’s house in the suburbs rather than go out with the performers to celebrate afterwards.

It was right around then that it hit me how much my life has changed in a year.

Last year at C2E2, I had a real bug up my ass.  I was depressed and stressed out from my first few months in Portland, and really had something to prove.  My stuff shipped late, my table mate couldn’t make it, all this stuff went wrong in the interim.  While I had my best take ever and some unforgettable experiences, I was so wiped from it afterwards I remember going to a bar with Tawdree after her show (still wearing her Silk Spectre wig from her performance) and drinking myself stupid.  Forget pints; you know you’ve upped it when you have the glasses of barley wine that comes in a goblet because the alcohol content is so high they legally can’t serve it in a pint glass.

This year?  I had no desire to drink myself stupid or party until dawn.  I just wanted to relax, spend time with friends and family, and go to sleep when it was all over.  And that’s probably because I’m in a much better place than I was a year ago.

So thankfully, for the moment, it seems like I don’t have a bug up my butt.  Here’s hoping I don’t for a while.

FUN FACT: The Southwest looks super cool from a plane.