• It’s been a while since we’ve seen Kevin do the Q&A thing live, due to the remote locations that he’s been visiting lately — So, we’re STOKED for his triumphant return to Red Bank, New Jersey’s Count Basie theater tomorrow night, for a SOLD OUT Q&A at the Count Basie theater. Kevin’s celerating his 37th birthday with what’s sure to be one of the most memorable Q&A appearances in View Askew history, and we’ll be on hand to cover it all. The last appearance at the Basie set records, this one’s likely to do the same. With Zak and Joey behind the cameras to record all the action for an upcoming DVD, arrive early and stake out a place in line for your chance to be immortalized in DVD history.

  
  We’ll be hanging out for the duration, so do stop by and say hello if you manage to see us among the masses. And look for a complete report this weekend, though obviously due to the recording, we won’t have audio or lurid details on all the anecdotes (we’ll save that for the DVD). However, if any major news breaks, we’ll of course be dishing that up right here for ya exclusively at News Askew. We look forward to seeing you there — If you can’t make it, we look forward to seeing you HERE!

• The con news continues to filter in! The excellent folks over at one of our favorite sites, Cinematical, have an audio interview with Kevin that was record an hour after the Q&A this year. They say:

This one’s a great listen, folks. Get on over to Cinematical and check it out.

• The venerable DVD Review website DVD Talk has GREAT things to say about the upcoming DVD for “Small Town, Gay Bar”. Some interesting tidbits from their review:
  Co-financed by Kevin Smith, “Small Town Gay Bar” arrives on DVD with a full “View Askew” assortment of extras, giving the viewer a basic understanding of how this meager indie documentary came to be.

  Shot with an accomplished visual palette (by Jonathon Cliff), using both stark and affectionate film and HD sources, “Gay Bar” induces a strong feeling of location and welcoming personality, which Ingram uses as clay to create this lovely snapshot of people gathering to celebrate themselves and an infrequent feeling of freedom. It’s an accomplished documentary, thankfully showcasing Ingram’s growth as a filmmaker, and provides a hopeful encapsulation of muted struggle inside a larger, overwhelming portrait of intolerance.

• The DVD for the hilarious “Hot Fuzz” hit stores yesterday, and is of course loaded with special features. One of them happens to be a 30 minute piece featuring the boys’ trip to America when promoting the film — In the last 2 minutes, you’ll catch a brief clip of the Q&A that Kevin hosted in New York, as well as a brief clip of him talking to the guys. “Fuzzball Rally” extra on the “Hot Fuzz” DVD. The extra is the documentary called “Fuzzball Rally”, and for the record, they refer to him as “Young Mr. Smith”.
• Matt Damon briefly mentions Kevin during this interview he did for Latino Review. Here’s the clip:
  In terms of my hetero life mate, as Kevin Smith once said in one of his movies, we’re [He And Ben Affleck] not working on a script right now, but we’re talking about a bunch of different things. And his career has gone in this new and exciting direction because I’ve seen the movie that he [Affleck] directed and it is really good. It’s fantastic. And the performances are great. Every actor is going to want to work with him [Affleck] after they see this thing.
• After Elton (the male version of “After Ellen”) has a blurb from Kevin about directing the Heroes: Origins pilot:
  Kevin Smith to handle the first episode of Heroes: Origins. Smith says that when he was offered the job, he said, “I would love to write and direct an episode about the two gay heroes…you know, the Japanese dudes. They’re gay, right?!” He also added, “If you can do an autopsy on a cheerleader, you can show a couple of heroes making out.”

• A few scoopers dropped us a line to let us know of a webcomic featured at Drunk Duck called “BLACKOUT DRUNK”. It’s filled with View Askew references, including a Clerks poster and the Quick Stop in the background, as well as a couple memorable quotes on pages 26 and 29. Viewer discretion advised, this is an adult-oriented web comic from what we’ve seen.