• We’re signing off on updates for this evening, and headed in to finish up the last film and Q&A of the night — “Oh What A Lovely Tea Party” is kicking off, followed by a Q&A with Jen and Malcolm, which we’re going to write up but don’t expect to have posted until tomorrow. We hope you enjoyed today’s coverage, and look forward to touching up these photos (removing red eye, cropping, higher resolutions, etc). Watch for that and more. Thanks for surfing with us today, and to everyone we met at the event today — Thanks for stopping by to chat. Loved meeting you all!

• Clerks II. What more can we say? The exciting moment of the day was wisely saved towards the end. Theater One had it on the program second to last, and theater two is watching it as we type, their final film of the night. For the audience, the film of course played absolutely pitch perfect. Roaring laughter, gasps, sighs, and even some pensive silence in all the right places. Not only that, but for this reporter, the few minutes of cuts between the last screening in Burbank and here weren’t even noticed, yet the film somehow moved just a little more smoothly. I can’t even tell you what exactly was removed, but the film FLIES by and is just packed full of laughs in each and every scene. The major culmination piece towards the film’s end, which many thought would be the NC-17 reason, rocks the house, and yes, every single obscene moment absolutely remains. Not one cut for content was made at the MPAA’s request, just some tightening up by Kevin which, amazingly, isn’t even noticed. Fans: You are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie.

Following the screening, Kevin, Brian, and Jen all took front and center of theater one for a nice Q&A session. This one proved to be the freshest of the evening, as most of the questions surrounded the film and other current events in the Askewniverse. Kevin treated us to anecdotes such as a tale of Mewes’ excitement and daily involvement on set, Harvey’s pivotal role in getting the film to Cannes, music rights, bra shopping with Jen, and much much more. Some related news:

• Jeff Anderson’s “Now You Know” (which also stars Trevor Fuhrman) is due for DVD in August.
• The R rating was a complete shock to Kevin and everyone. He figured that after the previous battles the MPAA just gave them a pass or just truly felt they deserved the R. Kevin also joked that perhaps they just didn’t WATCH the whole film.
• The Clerks cartoon movie will still happen, direct to DVD, but Kevin hasn’t finished the script yet. He’s been focusing on getting Clerks II absolutely perfect and hopes to get back to that project soon. Regardless of the box office for Clerks II, the Animated movie project is a go.
• Jeff Anderson wasn’t quite on board at the start, unsure if the Clerks sequel was the right idea — After a couple days of filming, and viewing Kevin’s cut together footage, he was incredibly enthusiastic and knew that he made the right choice.
• There WILL be a soundtrack for Clerks II! Kevin just found out last week. Pretty much all the music rights for the tunes in the flick have been secured.
• There’s currently debate going on regarding subtitling the film. The subtitle “The Second Coming” may be added, though at this point Kevin is asking the film simply be released as “Clerks II”.
• Clerks II will arrive on 2,000 screens on July 21st. This is double the originally thought of 1,000 screens, which means that the flick will absolutely come to a theater near you in less than TWO MONTHS!
• The 5 million dollar budget has already been covered by advanced foreign sales alone. Anything Clerks II makes theatrically is totally gravy.
• Kevin feels that Clerks II is his finest work to date, and rightfully so. He and everyone involved have a lot to be proud about. It’s a film that stands alone OR serves as a companion piece to the original. Universally appealing. And the stuff they get away with…Wow. Mark your calendars and gather up your friends. It’s going to be a great night out at the movies this July.

Watching the film with this east coast audience was a true highlight of the event. It’s a fast moving, hilarious movie…So good, in fact, we could watch it again right now. We’re excited for you all to see it.

• We joined our pal John “The Kiwi” Lovegrove for a beer and food run over the lunch break today — John was actually kind enough to bring a variety of beers from his home state of Oregon on the plane across the country with them, and keep them chilled all day long for us to enjoy. What a guy. Photos were taken on the cell phones, so they’re forthcoming, but needless to say, the beer was fantastic, and we drank a few at record pace to ensure we’d have time to grab a bite and not miss a moment of the next flick.

On the way back from the Holiday Inn, we stop at a nice pizza/sub place nearby and order some grub for all of us. Good stuff. Food’s always a very very welcome sight after sitting in the theaters for an extended period of time.

• Since we caught this one last year, we opted to only watch the opening moments of Jersey Girl Extended, where the majority of the new material is located. After that, it was out to the theater lobby for the internet hookup, allowing you all to see the wonderful images and stories that we posted earlier this afternoon. After prepping things, it was up to the Stash for some wireless internet access and finalizing everything. Walt was manning the register and took a few moments to chat up hockey between the busy comings and goings of customers. Gotta love when the ‘Thon’s in town.

During our work session, none other than Brian O’Halloran arrives in the store and greets us warmly. He’s kind enough to keep us company (and laugh about our spartan work environment, as we’re camped out on the middle of the Stash floor). We congratulate Brian on the Cannes success (he assures it was as amazing as it looked and sounded) and promise to catch up with him later. Brian’s kind enough to pose for some photos with fans and sign some autographs before he heads back to the theater.

Due to the Jersey Girl Extended cut’s length, Kevin only held a short Q&A session following the film, which we missed — If anything new was mentioned at the Q&A, let us know please! After getting the news to ya, we decided it was time to lead off to…

• “Small Town Gay Bar” is an outstanding documentary achievement for Ingram, and the audience digs it. The film focuses on not one but three gay bars in small towns in Mississippi: Rumors, Crossroads, and Different Seasons. However, it’s not the bars, but the people that are the stars of this one — Topics range from the bars themselves to such issues as hate crimes, tolerance, and gay rights. Ingram interviews both sides and the opinions are sometimes sad, sometimes shocking, and sometimes funny. The film presents an excellent picture of this small part of the world, though one gets the impression that this could take place in any town, USA.

At 2:15, director Malcolm Ingram takes the stage to bunches of appluase. Malc fields questions ranging from coming out to tolerance to his thoughts on filming and interviewing the Reverend Fred Phelps. He reveals that STGB will continue on the festival circuit, even celebrating a screening at the old “Crossroads” site, followed by a bow on Showtime sometime in 2007. Regardless of your sexual orientation or opinions, “Small Town” is a recommended watch, and a true portrait of a segment of this country that many folks ignore, or just misunderstand.

Kudos to Malc on a well filmed and well assembled flick. We’re happy to have finally seen it. At tomorrow’s event, Malc will be debuting a newly cut version of the flick which he says is radically different. He also promises that the eventual DVD release of the film will be loaded with extras, as there’s tons of extra footage around.

• It’s a big honor for us today, as Kevin takes the stage to welcome us to the thon and also reveal that we will indeed be the FIRST audience to see “Catch And Release”. Writer/Director Susannah Grant takes the stage and lets us know that we’re also seeing a version that no one else will never see, and we’ll have a chance to give feedback after the film. The ending that is attached to this print is apparently going to be reshot and changed.

“Catch & Release” is an excellent, fun, flick — Should be the PERFECT date film when it arrives in theaters January 2007. Since we’re privy to such an early look, we’re going to keep spoilers to a minimum here, but we can let you know that the film opens finding lead Garner’s character “Gray” with a suddenly deceased fiance and three male friends (one of which is our own beloved Kevin Smith, as Sam). The flick proves a surprise as the Garner/Olyphant relationship that you saw in the trailer, while important, is only treated as one of the plots, and all the characters get lots to do. Kevin himself probably enjoys more screentime than anyone, and gets major laughs in pretty much any scene that he appears. The dude’s multi-talented, for sure, and many say even carries the film throughout.

Following the film, Grant returns to the stage for a Q&A. We learn that she filmed over three hours of material and quite a bit was cut, including a few subplots. Kevin, however, got most of his material in there, in fact, managed to ad lib to extend the screentime ever more, she joked.

So why the delay in release? “Catch” was due last month originally and would definitely play fine anytime, but since Garner was pregnant, than busy finishing up Alias, the studio decided they wanted to wait for her availability to promote the film to its full extent. Thus, the current January 2007 bow is scheduled. We’re predicting a fine take for the film, which should have couples filling up the seats. Really enjoyed this one. Congratulations to all involved.

• We’ve got ourselves parked in our usual location here, feels like home — Back row of theater one, allowing us easy in and easy out to post updates, as we’ve just realized there’s no service reaching the cell phone inside the theater. We’ve also realized that we really need to watch BOTH the first two films as well as the Q&A’s, as they’re both going to be new to us — First up, top secret flick #1 – Kevin’s first non-Askew starring vehicle, “Catch And Release”. Then, Malcolm Ingram’s documentary “Small Town, Gay Bar”.

The crowd shuffles in and takes their seats, snacks in hand, and we start pretty close to ON TIME (right around 10 minutes past the 10 AM hour) with Kevin Smith and the reveal of our first film.

• We’ve arrived in Red Bank with plenty of time to spare, and while the weather remains overcast, the temperature is just perfect for the massive line that’s formed outside — Looks like everyone’s pretty much claimed their spot in line and ready to rock, as we run into Thonmaster Ming leaving the Stash along with Betty Aberlin. Perfect timing, actually. We’re outfitted with VIP passes from him, and make our way towards the famous Clearview Cinema. On our way, some superfans are waiting towards the front of the line that we recognize – Karla, Silent Boba Fett, and Douglas Fir, who comes in from the UK for all of these events (good on you, sir!). Gotta thank Karla for that cookie, too. Gramp’s lurking outside as well.

We took some shots of the crowd outside to give you an idea of what a sold out crowd here at the Clearview looks like. So check out the photos and see if you can spot yourself. Ming set us up with a couple goodie bags, which you’ll see a shot of here as well (the contents inside).

Right on schedule, the doors open with Kevin Smith himself greeting each and every attendee with a firm handshake and a hello as they enter the doors. Two wristband colors this year, purple and yellow, each indicating the theater which patrons are supposed to file into and stake out their seats. We’ve decided to set up camp inside our usual theater one, the larger of the two.

• Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, we’re happy to bring you our first update on the day of Vulgarthon 2006 while we’re actually EN ROUTE to Red Bank, New Jersey. We’re quickly approaching the Clinton area which will soon have us turning towards the Garden State Parkway. Then, it’s only around 15 minutes or so (depending on rush hour traffic) into town. Weather’s looking a bit overcast at the moment but VERY warm, we’re expecting the clouds to burn off and leave us with a beautiful day — Quite possibly the best weather EVER for a Red Bank event.

We’re now activating the link to our Vulgarthon 2006 coverage page — All the postings through the day will not appear on this front page then, but rather, on the Vulgarthon 2006 On Location area. Click the image above to get there and check it out.

We’re likely to learn more about the secret films, special guests, and the plan for the day once we roll in Red Bank. Look forward to spending the day with you here at News Askew! We just hit a traffic jam so the GPS is estimating us getting into town in around an hour. Check back for live updates all day and all night. See you back here soon!

• We’re still stuck in that traffic jam so time continues to slip on our Red Bank arrival — Luckily we left plenty early (though waking up at 4:30 AM, not really recommended)…We don’t anticipate any problems getting into town in plenty of time, and look forward to checking out the line outside the theater and saying hello to all of the fans throughout the day.

Those of you checking us out through your mobile internet methods at the event — Hello! And for the rest of you who can’t be here…Stick with us for the latest breaking news from Vulgarthon 2006!