av geeks: when mascots attack

Tonight Georg and I and our friend Joe went to a great AV Geeks: When Mascots Attack! Lots of short films which use mascots to teach a lesson. Mascots like a giant bar of soap who teaches kids to be clean, Muppet knock-offs who teach kids not to vandalize, a talking train engine who teaches kids fire safety, a Wonder Woman knock-off who teaches kids general safety, and a turtle who teaches kids how to duck and cover. My only criticism was that, since the films were all aimed at children, all but one featured songs. Lots and lots of songs, sung loudly by children. But other than that, the movies were great.

It was fun to be there with Joe, who had never seen AV Geeks before. He didn't know what to expect, and I think he enjoyed himself. I hope so! He's not the type to pretend he was having a good time if he wasn't.

And I won a DVD! At every show Skip asks a couple of trivia questions based on the films. The question I answered was, what was the graffiti written on a wall in the film about vandalism, that revealed the Canadian origin of the film. Sounds like a tough question, but he gave it away by saying it was a common Canadian expression in the 80s, popularized by -- at this point I knew he was going to say "Bob and Doug Mackenzie" so I called out "Take off!"

I won a DVD called Dag, it's Cold! Movies about building an igloo, surviving in cold weather, and driving on ice. Also the "Disney snuff film" where they drove the lemmings off the cliff. I don't want to watch that one but I'm looking forward to watching the rest.

I've never won anything at AV Geeks before. (I rarely win anything at all, but especially not at AV Geeks.) I attribute my win to the lack of regulars in the audience. The folks who come every month are really fast. Usually I'm still trying to think through the question while they're shouting out the answer. But most of them weren't there this week.