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| Air travel is a wonder of the modern world. The very concept of it as it exists today would be beyond miraculous to consider only just a century ago. And, as wonderous as it is, it is also often quite baffling in many respects. One such respect was how, as we undertook to fly to Milwaukee for the convention that once again our flight was delayed - not for weather or mechanical issues but instead because a crew member was missing. |
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In time, the errant stewardess arrived or perhaps was replaced and Dr Grift and I were on our way to the first Beer City Tattoo Convention. The convention was put on by Tattooed Kingpin. Beginning in Calgary and throughout the year thus far we had seen and hung out with Chrissy from the Kingpin staff and it was she who contacted me about coming to Milwaukee. Chrissy is a lot of fun and great to hang out with.
Chrissy in Calgary. |
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Once we touched down in Milwaukee, it was a simple matter of catching the hotel shuttle from the airport which came within minutes of a phone call - not surprising since the hotel and venue were nearly right across the street from the airport. I made a quick call to Chrissy who gave us our room keys. We dropped off our luggage and then walked out for some food at the nearby Denny's, not realizing there was better food to be had on the other side of the hotel. That night (Thursday) there was a welcome party in the hotel lounge. The party was the usual mix of greetings, "haven't seen you since the last one in city x", and beer swilling. In short, a good time. |
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Friday began at the reasonable hour of 2pm. We went through the usual setting up process and then settled in for the day working the booth. The attendance was steady but not overwhelming. We had good sales on merchandise and the artists around us seemed to keep busy. We performed that night at 7pm but we weren't the only entertainment at the show. Living legend Red Stuart preceeded us and we were followed by midget wrestling! |
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| Saturday is the long day, noon to midnight, but its easy to pass the time with good people. The show had a strong turnout of members from BME. Actually, the show had a strong turnout - period. Saturday was busy to the extent that the contests drew so many entires that things got delayed and we ended up having to move our second show to Sunday. Saturday night also brought about the requisite hotel hallway fun. |
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| Sundays have the potential to be boring as people pack up and look to get a head start out on what is already the short day of the show. But its hard to be boring when you have Brandon Bond across the aisle serving up shots of whiskey and people getting their nipples tattooed black. Not to mention a highly anticipated performance to give for a crowd who apparently had never heard about Sundays being slow. |
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| Both of our performances were very well recieved, we sold a lot of shirts and photos, and we had a great time. In the Lizardman book, the Beer City Convention was a huge success. |