Getcher Signed Books Here!

He drives the Right right over the edge! Now, you can save 10% on autographed copies of books by political cartoonist -- and EschaCon'08 Comedy & Political Critique panelist -- Ted Rall.

Just click here and scroll down to "Philadephia Book Offer" or click on the links below to save 10% on autographed copies of any of the following Rall books.

America Gone Wild!

2006 · paperback · 168 pages
EschaCon’08 Price: $11.65 plus $5 shipping

Rall's most controversial cartoons assembled for the first time in a single collection. Rall, who views his strips as a vehicle for driving social change, applies his outrageous sense of humor to volatile topics from 9/11 and the Iraq war to social issues such as unemployment, the environment, and religion. Order here.

Wake Up! You're Liberal

2004 · 336 pages · paperback
EschaCon’08 price: $14.35 plus $5 shipping

Declaring that the last "real" Democrat in the White House was Lyndon Johnson, Rall decries the hijacking of the government by right-wingers and the seeming powerlessness of the left to stop them. Fearing his trademark no-holds-barred invective, Rall tells liberal Americans how to organize a vibrant, relevant alternative to rightist rule and make life better for vast numbers of people in the process. Order here.

Generalissimo El Busho: Essays & Cartoons on the Bush Years

2004 · 208 pages · paperback

EschaCon’08 price: $12.55 plus $5 shipping

From the New York Times Book Review: “The best part of Generalissimo is its earliest material, centered on the 2000 election. Rall, unlike practically everyone else, allowed the president no honeymoon. He labeled the election stolen early and often. The resolution of the whole mess was far too casual for his taste; there was, he felt, too much at stake. Given all that has happened since, it appears he was right.” Read the whole review here. Order here.

Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists

2006 · paperback · 128 pages
Eschacon’08 price: $12.55 plus $5 shipping
Cartoons by, interviews with and personal ephemera of, among others Rob Balder ("Partially Clips" 2), Matt Bors ("Idiot Box" 4), Steven L. Cloud ("Boy on a Stick and Slither"), M.e. Cohen ("HumorInk"), Brian McFadden ("Big Fat Whale"), August J. Pollak ("XQUZYPHYR" & "Overboard"), and many more. Order here.

Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?

2006 · paperback · 304 pages
Eschacon ’08 price: $14.04 plus $5 shipping
Part travelogue, part political analysis and part graphic novel, Silk Road to Ruin is a comprehensive look at the "New Middle East." Includes 200 pages of essays about everything from oil politics to the wild sport of buzkashi and 100 pages of graphic novel -- format comics about five of Rall’s trips to the region. Order here.

Final Schedule; Final Details

Okay, travel arrangements and various shuffling has ensued, resulting in the following final final schedule.

FRIDAY NIGHT, MARCH 28.





Registration 5-7 (Marriott Courtyard)





Cocktail party 7-9. Lucy's Hat Shop (247 Market Street in Center City). Preregistration required, or get in good with res ipsa loquitur.





SATURDAY DAY, MARCH 29.

Marriott Courtyard
22 N. Juniper Street

8:30-8:45 Coffee

8:45-10:15 Having an Impact

Jane Hamsher (moderator)
Digby
Atrios
NTodd


10:15-10:30 Break

10:30- 12:00 Comedy and Political Critique
Thers (moderator)
watertiger
The Rude Pundit
Ted Rall
TRex


12:00-1:30 Lunchtime Panel: Creating Constitutional Accountability
Scott Horton
Bob Fertik (moderator)
Kagro X
Eric Johnson (Chief of Staff, Rep, Robert Wexler)
Elizabeth Holtzman (Watergate-era Judiciary Committee (invited))

(Box lunch provided; please contact organizers via link in sidebar
for menu choices.)

1:30-3:15 Media Bias

Susie Madrak (moderator)
Eric Boehlert
Will Bunch
Athenae
Douglas K. Smith
Spocko

3:15-3:30 Break

3:30-5:00 DFH Economics

Paul Krugman
Atrios
Echidne of the Snakes


5:00-8:00pm
Dinner on our own.



SATURDAY NIGHT, MARCH 29.

A Night of Rude Liberal Humor

Marriott Courtyard
22 N. Juniper Street
8pm-12am

Ina Iansiti
Tom Smith
The Rude Pundit
Hamell on Trial

emceed by Sinfonian. Also, raffle winners announced at event.

Tickets for nonconferees available.

SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 30.

Brunch 11:00-1:00

Marathon Grill, 16th and Sansom. Preregistration required.

And register. We can't feed you if we don't expect you. Even if you told us on the threads.







And don't forget to preorder your tees! (WF tees also available.)

Friday 'Con Kickoff

Folks, upon arrival at Lucy's on Friday night, please see your hostesses -- either me or the divine watertiger. We'll check you out, check you in, and give you a wristband so you can drink simelsian elitist Chardonnay to your liberal heart's content.

You'll know watertiger by the fierce kicks radiating from her gorgeous gams. And what will I be radiating? Why, a thirst for a Tanqueray and tonic, a certain je ne sais quoi, and my signature girlish insouciance, of course.

If you haven't already registered and plan to pay at the door, see me with $40 cash in hand and I'll set you up. We'll also have a coat check somewhere on the premises. Sorry, but that's gonna cost you $1.

See you Friday at 7 PM!

res

Registration Redux

Well we're two short weeks away, this thing is getting cooler by the second, and we actually have some things that are at capacity.


If you'd like to register now, the cost will be $80, but that does not include the Sunday Brunch, which is at capacity.

You can still register for Friday night (we have room for about 10 more people), Saturday day (plenty of room there, and we're now providing lunch) and Saturday night (also lots of space).

Friday night, Lucy's Hat Shop, is now $40.

Saturday day panels are now $35.

Whiskeyina, Filkertom, The Rude Pundit, and Hamell on Trial are now $15.

See you in Philly!

Keep Yer Shoits On!

As last time, we are accepting pre-orders for t-shirts. Here it is:



We're selling these more or less for cost ($11), and you can order them now to pick up at the Con, or we can mail them to you for $2.50 more. We have sizes ranging from Medium to XXXL, so let me know in the comment box what you'd like and I'll set it aside with your name on it. If you want a child's sized shirt, or an adult small, let me know that too. We ordered 100 of these, but we have a bit of flexibility. Any unordered shirts will be avaliable at the Con, March 28-30, 2008.

Send me a shirt to get at the Con!

Mail me one!

Got all your shirts? Then buy now!

And of course, if you prefer the other design, they are available through our own WalterNeff's CafePress store.


UPDATE: Hmmm, apparently there's no "comment box" when you use the shopping cart option. Feh. Well, tell me in comments (I won't print 'em, I swear), or email me.

Saturday Night Concert

An Event of fabulous fabulousness, and open to the public (with tix, natch)!



That's our excellent WalterNeff, whose fab designs you can buy here.

The evening begins at 8pm with the lovely whiskeyina, whose musical stylings can he heard here. Then we move onto to longtime poster filkertom, a comic folkie we adore.

Then you might want to send the kids to bed, because The Rude Pundit is taking the stage for his patented blend of foul-mouthed humor and political commentary. No word on whether he's bringing the dolls. (Warning, clip NSFW.)



And the headline act is the raucously funny and charming Hamell on Trial, he of "Coulter's Snatch" fame, who will play us off to sleep. (Also, NSFW.)



Sinfonian will be MCing this delightful event, so it is clearly not to be missed. $10 for conference participants, $15 for the general public. Cash bar. Tickets are limited.

Final Schedule

We have an (almost) final schedule!!!!

FRIDAY NIGHT, MARCH 28.

Registration 5-7, cocktail party 7-9.

SATURDAY DAY, MARCH 29.

8:30-8:45 Coffee

8:45-10:15 Comedy and Political Critique

Thers (moderator)
watertiger
The Rude Pundit
Tedd Rall
TRex

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30- 12:00 Having an Impact

Jane Hamsher (moderator)
Digby
John Amato
NTodd

12:00-1:30 Lunch
(Oops--stay tuned: working on special lunchtime panel on Holding the Bush Administration Accountable--but a few details to be worked out yet. You like pizza or Chinese?)

1:30-3:15 Media Bias

Susie Madrak (moderator)
Eric Boehlert
Will Bunch
Athenae
Douglas K. Smith
Spocko

3:15-3:30 Break

3:30-5:00 DFH Economics

Paul Krugman
Atrios
Echidne of the Snakes

SATURDAY NIGHT, MARCH 29.


See here.

SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 30.

Brunch 11:00-1:00

Register.

Souvenir Poster Now Available!

Not really. Well, not yet, anyway.

Artwork by the handsome, talented, and charming Atriot known as Walter Neff.

Kahlo Exhibit

We'll be making our own fun, but that doesn't mean there's not tons of cool stuff going on in Philly while we're there. Here's one.

Organized in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, Frida Kahlo is the first major Kahlo exhibition in the United States in nearly fifteen years. It presents over 40 of the artist's most important self-portraits, still lifes, and portraits from the beginning of her career in 1926 until her death in 1954. Rendered in vivid colors and realistic detail, Kahlo's jewel-like paintings are filled with complex symbolism, often relating to specific incidents in her life. In her iconic self-portraits the artist continually reinvented herself. Paintings like The Two Kahlos (1939) demonstrate her penchant for self-examination, and works like Henry Ford Hospital (1932) and The Broken Column (1944) express her struggles with illness throughout her life.

The exhibition includes loans from over 30 private and institutional collections in the United States, Mexico, France, and Japan, several of which have never been on public view in the United States. Frida Kahlo also features a selection of nearly 100 photographs of Kahlo and her husband, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, by preeminent international photographers of the period, such as Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Gisele Freund, Tina Modotti, and Nickolas Muray. Personal snapshots of the artist with family and friends, including such cultural and political luminaries as André Breton and Leon Trotsky, are also on view. These photographs—several of which Kahlo inscribed with dedications, effaced with self-deprecating marks, or kissed, leaving a lipstick trace—pose fascinating questions about an artist who was both the consummate manufacturer of her own image and a captivating and willing photographic subject. On loan from the collection of designer and photographer Vicente Wolf, many of these photographs have never been published or exhibited. Major lenders to the exhibition also include the Museo Dolores Olmedo and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Modern and Contemporary Mexican Art. Presenting an extraordinary combination of paintings and photographs, Frida Kahlo offers a unique perspective of one of the twentieth century's most important and revered artists.

In conjunction with this exhibition, Walker Art Center is publishing a richly illustrated catalogue featuring more than 100 color plates as well as critical essays by Hayden Herrera, Elizabeth Carpenter, and Latin American art curator and critic Victor Zamudio Taylor. A separate plate section is devoted to works from the Vicente Wolf Photography Collection. The catalogue also includes an extensive illustrated timeline of related sociopolitical world events, artistic and cultural developments, and significant personal experiences that took place during Kahlo's lifetime, as well as a selected bibliography, exhibition history, and index.

******************
The exhibit is in the Main Building, located at 26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, PA 19130. The Main Building is open from 10:00 am until 8:45 pm on Fridays. (It is also open from 10:00 until 5:00 on weekends).

The webpage for the Kahlo exhibit is here. Tickets for regular adults are $23.00

Hecate's going Friday evening, but others are coming in earlier of Friday and going then, or after brunch on Sunday. You can make your plans in the comments.

Silent Auction!

(by V for Virginia)

ErinPDX had a wonderful idea to help us raise funds at EschaCon: A silent auction. Atriots are invited to send something (or a package of somethings) from wherever they are to be auctioned off at the Con. We can use the money to defray any expenses that are not met through registration fees, and donate any leftover funds to an appropriate cause.

This is a fun way for those who can't attend to be present in spirit, and an opportunity to showcase your area's specialties (or your own creativity).

If you'd like to contribute to this effort please send an e-mail to eschaconauction@gmail.com and we'll make arrangements for delivery of your donation.

(And if this isn't your cup of tea, don't forget: You can still click the "Donate" button and make a contribution to the Travel Fund!)

Note for Parents

If there is a demand, babysitting will be available. It will cost something, (we're hiring some lovely, dependable young adults, and would like to work in a little trip here, if we think we can swing it transportationally), and might also be an option Friday and Saturday nights.

But we need to plan this, so contact the organizers if you think you might want to take advantage of it.

Fee Structure

We have more or less intentionally cut the fees on this to the bone (as a comparison, I registered for a conference yesterday for which the fee was $567). But I'm worrying a bit, and so I'm making an announcement: prices will go up March 1.

After March 1: Friday night will be $40. Saturday Panels will be $35. Saturday Night will be $15. Sunday brunch will be $35. And there will be no discount for the group package.

So sign up now, ya louts!

REGISTRATION! (At Long Last...)

Sorry for the long silence, folks--you'd be amazed at how much negotiation there is to this sort of thing.

Here is our Registration Form. Copy it into an email and send here. Calculate payment and submit below. You will receive a confirmation email. I'm sorry this is so low-tech, but I really, really don't feel like we can wait any longer.


Name:

Address:

Online nym/nyms:

Email:


Which events are you interested in attending?
* Friday Night Atriot Meet-Up (7-9pm Lucy's Hat Shop, 247 Market Street) ($35) Two-hour open bar (beer, wine, and well drinks) and hors d’oeuvres in a private room. Music, mingling, and sparkling wit provided at no charge. A 1.4-mile walk from hotel, $5 cab ride, and a straight shot on the subway.

* Saturday Panel Events (8:30-5:00, Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown 21 N Juniper Street) ($30) on blogging and its discontents. Featuring Atrios, Jane Hamsher, Digby, John Amato, and many other brilliant, blogalicious babes and smartass sweaty lunks.

* Saturday Night Concert/Party (9pm -12am, Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown 21 N Juniper Street) ($10) We take over a ballroom and host an evening of music and laughs, featuring Ina Iansiti (whiskeygirl), Tom Smith (filkertom), and the Rude Pundit, plus special guests! Cash bar.

* Sunday Brunch ($32) Marathon Grill, 16th and Sansom.

* Whole Package ($87) Sign up for all the love and save twenty bucks!

(And no, I don't know where the extra spaces are coming from. But the buttons seem to work.)