Bill Ward's Brickpile » brickfest

Look ma, I’m on the radio

Bill — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:18:54 +0000

Listen to me being interviewed on the radio! Well, podcast really. And my mom doesn’t listen to podcasts. But anyway, I did an interview for LAMLradio shortly after BrickFest was over, and it was posted a while ago but for some reason it didn’t show up in my iTunes. But you can check it out on the LAMLradio site at least.

Steve Barile on TV

Bill — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:50:52 +0000

Portland’s KATU Channel 2 recently featured Steve Barile (organizer of BrickFest) on a TV interview. Aside from the fact that they kept using the term “Legos” they did a really good job of showing the AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) hobby in a respectful, positive way. It’s nice and long, too, with plenty of great shots of Steve’s LEGO collection and models. Steve seemed very relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera, which is a great feat in itself. Go Steve!

You can watch the video on KATU’s Web site.

BrickFest Photo Roundup

Bill — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:03:35 +0000

Man, did I take a lot of photos at BrickFest last weekend! I uploaded them all to Flickr from the hotel, but I’m still going through to add titles and descriptions. I also shot almost 3 hours of video which I haven’t even looked at yet.

The hotel net connection was spotty. I use the Flickr Uploadr program to upload files, and it apparently has some sort of bug that when the net connection drops during an upload, it uploads files again. I ended up with five copies of some of the photos! I had to manually delete the extras, and luckily I did it quickly before anyone had posted comments in all but one case – and that one case was a comment that was redundant anyway (the same observation had already been made on another photo).

The photos are organized into four sets: one for each day, and one for all the photos. Here are the links:

BrickFest 2009 Day 1: 40 photos (slideshow)
BrickFest 2009 Day 2: 106 photos (slideshow)
BrickFest 2009 Day 3: 197 photos (slideshow)
BrickFest 2009 (All): 343 photos (slideshow)

Enjoy!

First Day’s Pics from BrickFest

Bill — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:48:26 +0000

I’d better hurry or I’ll miss out on the special Pick-A-Brick they’re doing at the convention right now! Jim Olson just called me to tell me to get over there.. so without further ado here’s my pics from yesterday. View the Flickr photoset or slideshow.

I’m off to BrickFest!

Bill — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:13:48 +0000

I’m heading up to Portland today for BrickFest. Hope to see you there. My BrickLink store will be closed until I get back on Tuesday, March 31. Related posts:BrickFest PDX 2007 Bricklink Store now Open BrickFest Photo Roundup Related posts:

My Video of BrickCon 2008 (Part 2) on LAMLtv

Bill — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:09:26 +0000

As promised, I made a second episode for LAMLtv about BrickCon. The main feature is an interview with Joe Meno, editor of BrickJournal.

This video stuff is a lot of fun. I’ve got a lot more ideas for video projects. For example:

BayLUG meeting and event footage
Interviews with BayLUG members
My MOCs and those of other local folks who will consent to being taped
Other LEGO conventions (I’m already planning on BrickFest PDX in 2009)

If you have any thoughts about LEGO video projects, you can share them with me here or over on the LAMLradio blog.

LEGO fan convention in northern California?

Bill — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:23:11 +0000

UPDATE – The convention, Bricks by the Bay, took place on April 9-11, 2010, and we’re in the planning process for the 2011 event. You can read more about it at the Bricks by the Bay site.

Some of us in BayLUG have been talking about having a LEGO convention here in northern California. This would be similar to some of the existing ones that have been taking place around the country for years:

Brickfest (Washington DC and Portland OR)
Brickswest (San Diego CA)
Brickcon (Seattle WA)
Brickworld (Chicago IL)
Brickfair (Washington DC)

There’s a thread on LUGNET about it started by Russell Clark, the BayLUG president.

If you haven’t heard of these before, here’s the basic idea. We take over a hotel or convention center for a weekend (hopefully a 3-day weekend), and 100+ LEGO fans descend upon it from all over the country (and maybe a few from overseas). The LEGO company usually sends some high level executives and other representatives. The local LEGO store usually has some special discounts and an after-hours sale just for con-goers.

We’re currently looking at hotels in and around Santa Clara and San Mateo, since that’s where our two local LEGO stores are. If you have any ideas for venues or would like to offer support, please let Russell or me know.

No NWBrickCon for Me

Bill — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:03:46 +0000

It’s official, I’m not going to Northwest BrickCon. Having just gone to BrickFest a month ago I really can’t justify another trip right now, and besides BayLUG is having a meeting that weekend.

I was really hoping to go to NWBC to meet some of the folks who weren’t able to come to BF. I met a lot of west coast LEGO folks at BricksWest 2003, but haven’t seen any of them since, except for a few who made it to BF this year. Hopefully next year, NWBC and BF won’t be so close together!

I am still hoping to make it to BrickSouth next spring in Atlanta. I met a few of the Georgia classic space guys at BF and am looking forward to that event. Hopefully I can build some kind of impressive spacecraft to show there.