Marilyn Ghigilotti is one of the fine folks we’ve chatted with over the years since starting News Askew, but never had the
pleasure of meeting in person. So we’re happy that she’s asked if we’d like to hang out and grab a bite to eat tonight.
And since we don’t know our way around this area that well, it’s even cooler that she’s offered to pick us up at get us
somewhere! We wind up a mile or so up the road in a small restaraunt/shopping district here in the Valley for a spot of
pizza. The best opportunities to meet View Askew celebs always seems to be the quiet moments like this, when you can just
shoot the breeze about stuff. Marilyn’s a total sweetheart; it’s a pleasure to finally meet her in person and the perfect
way to cap off the night after a long day of traveling and running around the city. Thanks, Marilyn!

We’re now headed across town, as Priceline’s hooked us up with a hotel all the way in Glendale. It’s the first time we’ve
headed to this part of the city, so we catch a couple neat sites along the highway…The ABC Building and Disney Animation
Studios sure do put out a nice presentation. Check-in goes perfect, and it’s a nice place they got set up for us here.
There’s a nifty view of the mountains from our 10th floor window.

Next stop — Our initial visit to Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash West! Yep, we’ve seen the photos, now it was finally time for your two webmasters to take our Stash knowledge bi-coastal. After some simple directions from Scott Kramer, we take a ride through town, which proves only a few miles but takes over a half an hour (traffic in LA moves SLOWWWW)….We arrive at the Stash in Westwood. It’s a beautiful-looking store. You’ve seen the photos, and we’ve taken a bunch more of our own here, but they just can’t do it justice. You really need to see this place. Tons of unique props are everywhere the eye can see. Flat screen TVs run a custom clip reel of highlights from all of View Askew’s DVDs, rapid fire. Big ass Jay & Bobs run across the top of the place. And props like a full wall of clothes from Jay & Bob, Affleck’s wings and Daredevil suit, and a gigantic case just packed with more props than you’ll ever see in one spot are just a few of the eye-catching items.

The organizaton here is second to none. They’ve got 2 staffers working in the back of the place at a table, where a bag containing your t-shirt, free comics, a View Askew almanac, and a Vulgarthon guide await every guest who checks in. It’s a smooth operation, with no waiting though a steady stream of fans have been oogling the store as they pick up their tickets. We get to spend a few moments with Graphitti Design’s Bob Chapman, just the friendliest guy who takes a lot of pride in the store. He tells us that he’s overjoyed and loving the crowds that are coming in and brining the store to life this weekend, whether it’s just to stop in or to hang out for a couple hours with fellow fans, checking the museum of props out. Bob shows us the exlusive Kevin Smith inaction figures, and explains they’re selling fast in in very short supply (just 1,000 were made, folks). When asked about the Chasing Amy line, he reveals for the first time a new concept they’re trying for this run — A playscene diner for Jay & Bob, since that’s the only scene in the film for which they appear. Following Chasing Amy, a Clerks 2 set is in the planning phases, with hopes to revisit ALL the earlier waves with previously unreleased characters. Bob’s the man.

Mike and Scott are both timely and easy to get a hold of. The roads of Los Angeles are quickly coming back into memory,
so finding Pinks proves to be a simple prospect. The line’s around the building, as always — It’s absolutely amazing how
popular this place continues to be — A true Hollywood staple. After about 50 people in front of us and an hour of waiting,
we’re served up some delicious looking grub — Chili dogs with a variety of toppings for all! Mmmm, they’re so terrible
for you, but just so damn good! Waiting in line went fast, as the four of us took some time to get caught up and chat about
the latest happenings in our lives. Mike’s even good enough to pick up the tab — Mike, we thank you. The only thing
better than a Pinks dog is a Pinks dog that you don’t even have to pay for.

We’ve arrived in Burbank about 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Since we haven’t checked any luggage, we’re able to make a
beeline for the rental company. I’ve done some zen preparation to allow myself to stay calm and cool on the LA streets,
as I’ve volunteered for driving duty all weekend long since Chris handled the airport leg. As we did with our last visit
to Cali for the Jersey Girl test screening almost 2 years ago, our first order of business is a fuel-up (of the food type)
at the place that makes some of the best chili dogs on the planet — The famous
“Pink’s”. We’re meeting a couple of big
fans at the joint — “Mysterio” Mike, of Ain’t It Cool News fame, and
Scott Kramer, of
“Chasing Kevin” fame. Both will be attending
the thon and wanted to touch base with us since it’s such a rare time that we’re in town.

Note: We’re on WEST COAST time now…

It’s a beautiful time of the year for a flight down the western coast…One we got out of the Seattle area, clear skies gave way to snow covered mountaintops in Oregon, offset by lush green trees and then, bright urban areas. This flight so far has been a lot more bearable that the long stretch from D.C. to Seattle, which we both agree was the longest single stretch either of us had even taken on a flight before.

Our trip into Dulles went smooth, and we’re running right on schedule. The budget flights we picked up are actually taking us out to the west coast via Alaskan Air. Unfortunately, instead of a straight shot across the country, our first leg is taking us all the way up to Seattle. The second leg will then shoot us down the coast to Burbank (“don’t fly into LAX”, everyone tells us). Alaskan Air’s got a crazy boarding process (“now boarding all rows!”) instead of anything orderly, and the flight’s pretty packed. Thankfully, we’ve got some flicks pre-loaded to the laptop for entertainment purposes during this 6 hour stretch, and the crew’s been passing by regularly with drinks and, a big surprise, an actual breakfast (a rarity with airline travel these days). A pretty decent egg mcmuffin, fruit cup, and a muffin of some sort. Kudos to Alaskan Air for feeding us.

• It’s early…REALLY early here in Central Pennsylvania as we gather up the supplies and head for the
  Dulles airport — Yep, it’s Vulgarthon West time, and we’re on our way to Dulles airport to begin the journey. We’ve
  got a cool weekend planned, meeting up with friends old and new, seeing some new spots in the greater LA area, and we’ll
  probably even manage to get some cheesy tourist type stuff in there as well (we can never resist). We’ll be documenting
  this one from start to finish (those of you unfamiliar with our trip reports can visit our
  ON LOCATION section), so next week, expect a HUGE wrapup.

We’re also going to be announcing a new feature to this year’s event…ASSUMING that all goes well technically and
our equipment hookups are cooperating, we’ll be coming to you live from the Vulgarthon on Monday with updates AS THEY
HAPPEN. So watch News Askew all day on Monday for breaking news, exclusive photos, and lots more. Again, this will
happen only if technology agrees with us, and our internet hookup works at the Arclight. If all goes well, it should be
an exciting day for those of you not able to attend the big show.

Until then, wish us well on the flight, and we’ll speak to you again soon. We’ll be monitoring e-mails and keeping
the site up to date as much as possible, though it’s naturally a bit tougher on the road.

For those of you attending Vulgarthon on Monday: Check the site first! We’ll try and let you know how to spot us if
you’d like to come up and say hello. Either look for the dudes in the front snapping photos and lugging around a
laptop all day, or just ask around. We’d love to meet you all. Even for just a handshake or a hello. And hey,
if anyone catches wind of a big fan get-together happening over the weekend, drop an email our way. See you all
in just a few short days…

• It’s early…REALLY early here in Central Pennsylvania as we gather up the supplies and head for the
  Dulles airport — Yep, it’s Vulgarthon West time, and we’re on our way to Dulles airport to begin the journey. We’ve
  got a cool weekend planned, meeting up with friends old and new, seeing some new spots in the greater LA area, and we’ll
  probably even manage to get some cheesy tourist type stuff in there as well (we can never resist). We’ll be documenting
  this one from start to finish (those of you unfamiliar with our trip reports can visit our
  ON LOCATION section), so next week, expect a HUGE wrapup.

We’re also going to be announcing a new feature to this year’s event…ASSUMING that all goes well technically and
our equipment hookups are cooperating, we’ll be coming to you live from the Vulgarthon on Monday with updates AS THEY
HAPPEN. So watch News Askew all day on Monday for breaking news, exclusive photos, and lots more. Again, this will
happen only if technology agrees with us, and our internet hookup works at the Arclight. If all goes well, it should be
an exciting day for those of you not able to attend the big show.

Until then, wish us well on the flight, and we’ll speak to you again soon. We’ll be monitoring e-mails and keeping
the site up to date as much as possible, though it’s naturally a bit tougher on the road.

For those of you attending Vulgarthon on Monday: Check the site first! We’ll try and let you know how to spot us if
you’d like to come up and say hello. Either look for the dudes in the front snapping photos and lugging around a
laptop all day, or just ask around. We’d love to meet you all. Even for just a handshake or a hello. And hey,
if anyone catches wind of a big fan get-together happening over the weekend, drop an email our way. See you all
in just a few short days…

• If you haven’t been keeping up with Kevin’s diaries, you really should. While Kevin claims they are his “boring” life, they’re chock FULL of tidbits of upcoming proejcts and news mixed in with his day to day life. Here’s just a taste of some of the interesting stuff to come up this week:

• Kevin will be doing a book signing for “Silent Bob Speaks” at the Red Bank Stash after the big Q&A session a week from today.
• Kevin might be writing a Newsweek piece on “Revenge of the Sith”.
• A new re-cut of Mallrats will be included with all the other goodies on the Mallrats 10th Anniversary DVD. It will be a two-disc set. Street date should be around mid-September.
• Kevin called Zach Braff and it looks like they’re a step closer to bringing him on board the future Fletch project.
• “The Passion of the Clerks” will hold the honor of being the first film put into production at New Co., the temporary moniker of Miramax v.2
• An exclusive, brand new cut of Jersey Girl is being assembled NOW. This means it’ll even be different from the early test screenings. Never before seen until Vulgarthon. Kevin says: “It’s about 2 hours and 25 minutes long, and based on the patchwork nature of it, we’ll be projecting a BetaCam copy onto the Dome screen that day. It won’t be as lush to look at as a film print, but it’ll get the job done.”
• “Tea Party” will close out the Vulgarthon and now runs around 2 hours. A longer version may eventually hit DVD.
• Kevin intereviewed Rodriguez and Miller about Sin City for NPR radio.

We’ve got the full page of entires here at News Askew, and will be organizing it in a digest form as the entries continue to come in from Kevin. Stay tuned.