Thursday, June 26 at 6:30 PM:
GDI Ice Cream Tattoo Quest!
Dear Guerilla Drive-In Members: This month, I couldn't decide between showing "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "The Golden Child", "The Warriors", or "The Great Race."
What to do? Should we show them all back-to-back? NO. I think it's simplest if we just COMBINE ALL OF THOSE ELEMENTS INTO ONE AWESOME EXPERIENCE. A madcap quest! Group competition! A mystical symbol on your bicep, granting you special powers! A scheming, dastardly villain!
Ladies and gentlemen, in June the Guerilla Drive-In is teaming up with local food blog West Chester Dish to present to you the third annual WC Dish Ice Cream Crawl, smashed up with the first annual GDI Great Tattoo Quest.
First, I'll explain the tattoo part:
Pictured at right is Gage, the first satisifed customer of my new sidecar-mounted airbrush temporary tattoo rig. Gage got a Mystical Unicorn tattoo on his arm, and since he is Chief Boy on his block, so did the other kids.
The tattoo rig involves custom-cut vinyl stencils, a tank of compressed nitrogen, and an airbrush loaded with tattoo paint. The tattoos look real; I'm writing an article about the setup for an upcoming issue of Make, and I need more practice.
WC Dish's Ice Cream Crawl
Remember the golden age of the Internet, when scrappy young bloggers hustled every channel to find their audience — posting daily, and also writing a column for the newspaper, hosting a radio show, and doing remotes at every local event? Yeah, me neither. But West Chester has such a scrappy young blogger in the form of Mary Bigham and her food blog WC Dish.
For the past two years, WC Dish has hosted an ice cream crawl for local foodies: everyone meets at a central place, then visits ALLLL the ice cream shops in West Chester, buying cones, sampling and sharing them, then carefully... judiciously... scientifically writing down and tabulating impressions. Probably with Vivaldi playing in the background.
Mary asked if the Guerilla Drive-In wanted to get involved in the ice cream crawl this year. "Yes!" I said. "Absolutely! But instead of a movie, let's do, I dunno, TATTOOS! And instead of a refined atmosphere of judicious selection, let's have, you know, A MADCAP ADVENTURE!
So what we've ended up with is the WC Dish/Guerilla Drive-In Ice Cream Tattoo Quest. Here's how it works:
How The Ice Cream Tattoo Quest Will Work
Start with the Basic Tattoo
When you arrive at Ice Cream Tattoo Quest HQ at 6:30 PM, you'll get a basic ice cream cone tattoo. It's simple, understated, classic. IT NEEDS TO BE AUGMENTED.
You'll also get combination list, map, and scorecard for five local ice cream shops within walking distance. Four are local favorites, but the fifth... well, the fifth is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. A shop that moves from place to place, taunting you with ghostly, haunting music. A shop that has driven strong men to tears with its elusiveness. But enough about the perils of your adventure — once you've gotten your tattoo and your scorecard, you're ready to embark on your adventure!
Collect A Star at Each Shop
You (and your group) walk to each shop in any order you like. At each stop, you buy ice cream and record your impressions on your scorecard. Who's got the best selection? The best service? The brawniest forearms from a lifetime of scooping?
Each shop will give you a little sticky teacher star in a unique color. It goes right next to your ice cream cone tattoo. Visit three shops, and you get three different-colored stars. Visit all five shops, and you get ALL FIVE stars. Now, you're ready to head back to HQ.
Collected All Five Stars? LEVEL UP!
Back at HQ, if you've collected five stars, you get to LEVEL YOUR TATTOO UP. An awe-inspiring RED FLAME buff will be added to your ice cream cone tattoo. This will increase your stats, giving you +2 yumminess and an additional saving throw against brain freeze. It's a living symbol of your commitment... to AWESOMENESS.
At HQ, serious foodies will turn in their scorecards and Mary Bigham will calculate the favorite shop, to be announced in the local paper (and undoubtedly, via skywriting, etc.)
Map, Directions, and Instructions
Meet at the
Chester County Courthouse steps outdoor patio of the Lincoln Room at 28 West Market street at 6:30 PM on Thursday the 26th. Wear good shoes for walking (or put the racing slicks on your wheelchair), and make sure you have a good patch of skin for your tattoo.
Bring some money for ice cream, and bring friends, because you'll be wanting to share. Seriously: five ice cream cones? BLARRRG!
Here's a link to directions:
Please let me know what I left off this page by shooting your questions to !
