Up Next- Sven Returns to Joliet!

Our visit to the 10th annual Flashback Weekend convention was another great time ! Thanks to everybody who came out for the event (BTW- though I won’t be in attendance, you can still visit the convention today at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont!)- and I’ll elaborate about that in tomorrow’s blog-but-just when we thought the Sven summer tour was over- another date popped up on our calendar! So, get set to head out to Joliet on Saturday, August 25th! (You might recall our epic visit to Joliet's beautiful Silver Cross Field for the Joliet Slammers game, where we met a huge number of fans and had a wonderful time!) This time out, we’ll be at another Joliet location- we'll be appearing at the Bill Jacobs Auto Group, 2001 W. Jefferson Street in Joliet! I’ll be there from noon until 2 pm, signing autographs, posing for pictures with you, and eyeing the shiny new automobiles- Chevrolets, Cadillacs, and Subarus! The Bill Jacobs staff invites you to bring the entire family to meet me, and take a look at the great deals at their big “Backyard Sales Event”!Be advised-when we’ve done appearances at car dealers before, we’ve always had plenty of fans show up- so, please plan to get there early to make sure we’ll get a chance to visit! I’ll be reminding you about this appearance during the next couple weeks, but, since, without failure, every time I do an appearance, I get e-mails from folks the next day who say “aw, I couldn’t get out to see you there yesterday- where will you be next?” – I wanted to make sure those of you who were bummed that you couldn’t meet me at Flashback to know- there will be more opportunities to come (and, believe me, it looks like that will be true , as our Halloween season appearances are already shaping up to begin in September!) Also, let me answer the e-mails I got from fans asking “why weren’t you signing at Wizard World?” The answer is simple- they didn’t book me to appear there. I had many friends who were there that I would have loved to see. Maybe now that we’re on nationally, one year they may just invite me. A Beatles convention was also going on right across the way from it at the Hyatt Regency, but chances of me being booked for that are pretty slim… I also got a few e-mails regarding our WCIU 11 am show being pre-empted for the Bud Billiken Parade. It seems some of our viewers panic when the show isn’t on, thinking the worst. As those of you who read the blog or subscribe to our monthly newsletter know, it was just a one-week pre-emption; next week at 11 am, you’ll get another look at “The Creature Walks Among Us”! Please know that I will always alert you if one of our shows on whatever station is being taken off the schedule, or moved to a different time or station. Another significant contributor to horror/sci fi/fantasy films has passed- we say goodbye to Carlo Rambaldi- three-time Oscar winner and master special effects creator. First brought to Hollywood by Dino De Laurentis to create a problematic robotic "King Kong", he went on to be much more successful- working on impressive effects for "Alien" and , what some consider his masterwork, "E.T."! "He was E.T.'s Geppetto" said Steven Speilberg, for whom he created the mechanical and electronic robots and copstumes for the beloved space creature. He wasn't a fan of c.g., and combined his artistry and inventiveness with mechanical know-how to make tangible three-dimensional effects that are still impressive today. Farewell to another master. Okay- please come back here to the blog tomorrow for our report on our Flashback Weekend visit… and keep August 25th marked on your calendar for the next Sven public appearance at Bill Jacobs. Be watching for our reminders on our TV stations as well!