Hey, guys and gals, come check out the BG Crew out this weekend in Dallas!

Sci-Fi Expo (SFX) returns THIS WEEKEND April 24-25 at the Richardson Civic Center at 411 W Arapaho Rd in Richardson, TX just north of Dallas on US75.

Attending Media Guests Include:
Adam Baldwin (TV Chuck, Firefly)
Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, Babylon 5)
Cindy Morgan (Tron, Caddyshack)
Jaime King (My Bloody Valentine, Fanboys, Sin City)
Mira Furlan (Lost, Babylon 5)
Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica)
Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica)
Deep Roy (Star Wars, Charlie/Choc Factory)
Daniel Logan (Clone Wars Boba Fett)
Dick Beer (Star Wars Boba Fett Stunts and more)
Mike Quinn (Star Wars Puppeteer)
And More!

Check out the Official Sci Fi Expo Website here for more details!

Attending Comic Artists Include:
BusyGamer Illustrator Terry Parr, Halo, Brian Denham, James O’Barr, Keith Wilson, Ben Dunn, Chad Townsend, Andrew Mangum, and more!

General admission: $15. Kids 10 and under free! Free parking. Hours: Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 12noon-4pm.

We’re known for a few things on our site. Of course the main thing is our news and info for you guys… the busygamer. We know that you guys like the same things we do, because quite frankly you guys are a lot like us.

And since you’re like us… you must like girls a lot. I know we do. So much that I truly believe all of our convention parties, plane hopping, binge drinking, air hockey pwning, and assorted shenanigans on the road are spent in search of the perfect girl. We’ve met quite a few on our quest for ultimate nerd-dom, and we keep looking for more.

All our lives we were taught that chicks don’t dig guys like us. While that may have been true a few years ago, the one thing we have learned is that there are chicks that dig the same things we’re into… and they’re smokin’.

So we celebrate them. In our Gamettes. The Gamette has become one of our most popular attractions to the site. And despite what you may think, the main reason we have them on the site is to promote everything they stand for. We love women. I mean… seriously… and to find girls who are beautiful inside and out, that’s a treat.

Don’t believe us? Take a look at their profiles. In addition to being our queens of the month, they are all out breaking hearts and breaking heads in their prospective fields. It doesn’t matter if they are working in comic books, hosting internet shows, breaking into pro gaming, or modeling, these ladies kick our butts in a lot of things.

Being a Gamette isn’t easy. For one thing, we’re big jerks. In addition to being good ambassadors to our readers, these girls take the time to game, answer questionnaires, rep our site and their own personal ambitions, and be all around cool chicks at events and functions.

With the year ending, we take the time to look at the past year and all our awesome Gamettes 2009 brought us. Some wrote for us, some wrote TO us, some hung out with us at various functions and helped us push the site’s popularity. With that we take the time to say “thank you??? with our annual GAMETTE OF THE YEAR contest. This is where YOU get to vote to make this happen.

If you are friends of any of these girls through social networking sites, you may see them soon posting bulletins and notices asking for your help. Help them. We are remaining unbiased here and leaving the votes up to you and the girls.

So who’s it gonna be lads?

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR VOTING FOR GAMETTE OF THE YEAR 2009!

This Saturday, November 14th, the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew will be out to support the Warriors Never Die! charity event. Hosted at the Riverside Multiplex in Victoria, TX, this will mark the second year that the event will be taking place and we’re happy to say we’ll be on hand to help out this great charity.

There will be live music at the event and it’s worth noting that two of the bands include members of the Reckon Crew. Crutchboy will be performing with Return to Cinder and Timothy Danger will be with his band The Loveletter. There will also be music by two of BG’s favorite bands, AR-15 and The Cherry Bombers as well as other acts including special guest Cas Haley.

Along with the music will be food and drinks, a silent auction, and booths. Busy Gamer will have a table to hawk some of our popular “Man’s Ruin” t-shirts and to take donations for the event in exchange for koozies, buttons, and some other goodies. We may even give you some sweaty Reckon Crew love if you donate enough… You know you want it!

Last year’s event was a huge success, raising $2,500 for the Adopt-A-Pet foundation and we’re out to do even better this year. Tickets are $15 at the door and the event begins at 4pm and goes on till the last guy leaves. So if you’re in good ol’ Victoria, Texas for the weekend and want to help out a worthy cause, you might as well swing by and donate to Warriors Never Die. Or we’ll track you down.

And if that’s not enough to convince you to come out, we have this PSA from Gamette and the co-host of Coin-Op TV, Hailey Bright (featured above, clicky clicky).

Gritskrieg – End of Line

What’s the perfect way to end a weekend excursion of Star Wars In Concert? This weekend, The Busy Gamer Reckon Crew attended Star Wars Fan Days 3. Which was pretty much just what it sounded like. (If you think that it sounds like a bunch of fans getting together and reveling in the magic of the house that Lucas built.)

Fan Days was a great collection of Star Wars fans, clubs, merchants, exhibits, celebrities, and many other great things in the name of the Great trilogy (and the prequels and cartoon series too) So where to start? How about a quick walk through of what we saw?

When we arrived, the first thing we noticed were the guys and gals of the 501st. For those that don’t know, the 501st is the Star Wars replica costume club (for the dark side). They specialize in making appearances at events and charity functions in awesome movie quality costume all over the world. The Texas branch was in full force and even came out in pink (yes pink storm troopers) in support of the pink ribbon breast cancer campaign. This was a noble cause and many kudos to the 501st for showing great support.

There was also an awesome replica room in which the DENTED HELMET fanclub (they make Mandalorian armor and the Astromech builders club (R2, R4, and various other droid makers) showed off their latest creations.

A walk around the convention center showed more costumed people than you can shake a stick at, and also take pictures with, a walk in the exhibitor area also displayed many cool things to buy like Tshirts, posters, buttons, art from Lucas approved artists, and of course toys. A boy could go broke here. (and one did!)

The special guests were also really cool. We saw Ray Park (Darth Maul, Snake Eyes, Toad) give a really cool panel where he talked about his future roles and the fun of playing a sith. The autograph room boasted tons of talent… From Ray Park, Peter Mayhew (Chewie), Jeremy Bullock (Boba Fett), Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) and many more people from the movies and cartoon show. And of course we can’t forget to mention guest of honor Anthony Daniels.

We ended the day with an auction. Where several old collectables were available to be bidded on, and all the proceeds went to cancer research. There were some great finds here, but alas, we were pretty much broke by the time the bidding war started. (shouldn’t have bought that Jar Jar bank) .

Check out some more of our photos from Star Wars Fan Days III in Plano, Texas!

-Timothy Danger

Here’s some Star Wars facts about me:
1. I once kicked a girl I was dating out of my apartment because I wanted to show her STAR WARS at my place on our 3rd date. She said the movie was “dumb??? after an hour of watching it. It never would’ve lasted.

2. When other kids were playing “Cowboys and Indians???, my brother and I were playing “Rescue Han from Carbonite”.

3. My first action figure was C3PO.

4. I was invited to an advanced screening of Episode III and a girl I was seeing tried to forbid me to go so I broke up with her. The theatre was showing the movie 4 days before America got to see it.

5. I was a boy in a small Texas farm town… and Star Wars changed my life.

So when we found out that “Star Wars In Concert” was coming to Texas, we were intrigued. And once we looked up the info on the internet and played the preview trailer that advertised it, we knew we had to go.

On October 23rd, 2009, in a vehicle displaying the Imperial symbol, Crutchboy and I took off to Dallas, Texas to watch the spectacle. What is Star Wars in Concert? Well, it’s just what it sounds like… but more. It’s a concert. With a complete professional orchestra and chorus. They play music from John Williams epic Star Wars movie scores which alone is worth the ticket price to see… but there is more. The folks at SW In Concert have expanded this concept into an all encompassing experience that really submerges you in the magic of these movies. Along with special scenes from ALL six movies, the show (hosted by Anthony Daniels of C3PO fame) moves to tell the story of Star Wars. Along with laser lights, pyro effects, and more the show is around 2 hours long but literally doesn’t feel like it. If anything it felt like the time wasn’t enough.

Along with the show is a travelling exhibit which shows props and models from all six movies. In addition to the concert, this was also very cool to see. About 9 years ago, the Smithsonian did a travelling exhibit showing various Star Wars props and models that made its way to Texas, this one was very cool because it showed a lot of stuff from the prequels we had never seen. Also on hand were tons of Storm troopers courtesy of the 501st and various other costumed fans.

The sound was great, the orchestra was top notch, Anthony Daniels was a great host, and the live experience was a sensory overload from free wheeling R2 units to cheering fans.

Besides the show’s physical features, there is one thing that they don’t advertise. That’s the feeling of being 6 years old again. When I was a kid, we didn’t have VCRs or DVDs. When my parents took me to the movies to see Star Wars, it was once maybe twice. The movies made such an impact, I memorized every scene in my little elementary school brain. I took those scenes and imagined a galaxy far, far away. I was reminded of this when I looked around and saw kids, hundreds of them dressed in Star Wars costumes. They were so happy to be there, they marveled at everything the old folks did, and appreciated it all the more. They had lightsaber battles in the aisles and they never missed a moment to revel in the fun.

This concert took me back to those days. For two hours, I was that little boy again. I knew I was going to age instantly when the experience ended, but for that moment, it was magic. That alone is worth the ticket price.

-Timothy Danger

For more information and touring dates on Star Wars in Concert, visit the official site at www.starwarsinconcert.com.

To spice up your weekend fun we’d like to share these gaming cocktails we recently ran across. Enjoy and drink responsibly. We do.

Boomer Bile
Slice up five pieces of cucumber and throw them into a glass half-filled with ice, then crush the lot with a pestle. Pour 45ml of gin, 1 oz of vodka, a dash of lemon juice and Worcester sauce. and 3oz of elderflower cordial into a shaker. Now shake until mixed and pour into the glass.

Flaming Hunter
Add into a cocktail shaker the following: 50ml Maker’s Mark. 10ml Cherry Heering, 10ml Contra and a dash of Angostura. Shake the contents well, then pour into a small glass and drop in one or two cherries to sit in the bottom of the glass.

Bum Rush
Run a lemon wedge around the rim of a cocktail glass then cover with coarse salt. Crush a few ice cubes into a cocktail shaker then pour in 50ml Arita Tequila, 22ml Triple Sec, 20ml lime juice and drop in a couple of chilli seeds. Shake and pour into the glass and attach one chilli pepper onto the side.

Plasmid
Fill a tall glass with ice and crush with a pestle, adding to the ice until it fills the glass three-quarters full. Grab your cocktail shaker and pour in the following: 30ml Smirnoff vodka, 20ml Blue Curacao, 10ml Myrtille and a dash of lemon juice. Now pour into the glass until you fill it three-quarters full. Top the rest with champagne then add fresh blueberries and blackberries.

Spinning Piledriver
Carve off a lemon skin in a spiral shape and wrap the skin around the inside of a glass, using ice cubes to prop up the skin to the inside of the glass. Take your cocktail shaker and mix in 40ml cognac and 20ml lemon juice and pour into the mixture. Now repeat with 50ml crème de pèche and 15ml crème d’apricot, then pour the mixture slowly into the glass via the top of the lemon spiral.

Poison Arrow
Fill up a shot glass with lime cordial and add a dash of Grenadine to the top. Now very slowly pour Baileys into the centre of the shot glass until the liqueur hits the bottom of the shot. Take a straw and slowly twirl it round so the Baileys twists around the tube. Retract the straw and serve.

[Source]

At the Dallas Comic Con back in January, we had the opportunity to sit down with Terry Parr and get an interview out of him. We held off on posting it until we were closer to attending Staple! in Austin, Texas where Terry will be kind enough to share a table with us. Terry’s a talented individual with a sharp wit, a formidable artistic skill, and a Gamette for a girlfriend.

BGG: What was the first comic that you ever read?
Terry Parr: First real comic that I really read and enjoyed or first comic…?

BGG: Was that comic the reason you decided to start drawing or what was the reason you started drawing?
Terry Parr: Well, I’ve always drawn, probably since the second grade. I used to draw stuff like Snoopy and all that. But when Dragon’s Lair came around and I saw that, that was what I constantly drew all the time. And then around that time was when I started getting into Swamp Thing, like middle school, and then I kind of dropped out. I still drew but I didn’t really have a focus. I mostly drew Iron Maiden stuff. I drew Eddie all the time. I probably drew him for like two years straight. I was always the Iron Maiden guy. Even in my high school photos, I was wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt. But I started getting back into comics, right when conventions started up, and I was a huge Jim Lee fan. If you look at my old stuff, way back when, I drew just like Jim Lee. It was kind of sad. Right now, I’ve moved on.

BGG:It seems like you have a pretty free flowing style. You can go from some of your dark, gothic work right into the pin up styles. Is that something you’ve always been able to do or is that something that’s recent?
Terry Parr: I would like to say that I’ve done that all the time but I think it’s been the last couple of years. I try not to be classified by one style. I feel an artist has to grow. But I’m still improving on that and it’s pretty tiring.

BGG: When you sit down to draw do you know what style you’re going to use or does it just flow as you go?
Terry Parr: It can happen both ways. Sometimes I’ll have an idea in my head on how I want to approach it but then again, once I approach it, I’ll just bug and won’t do that, I’ll do something else. It just depends on the need. Most of it comes out the way I want, others I end up altering and changing. 

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