Two Cents & Five Questions With...

... Tucker Hottes,
"The Office"
Convention





Tucker Hottes works for the Electric City online magazine in Scranton and serves on the committee for the upcoming convention in Scranton for "The Office". The convention's offical site lists him as "Web Editor/Sticky Note Quality Assurance Manager."

I was able to pull Tucker away from his Convention duties long enough to share his Two Cents & Five Questions about himself and the convention with us.

Two Cents: Tell the readers a little about yourself.
Tucker Hottes: I'm the Web editor for Electric City and Diamond City, two weekly entertainment papers from the Times. I'm pretty new to the area here, but I've been enjoying everything about Scranton. Before coming up here, I worked in the Lehigh Valley near Allentown and Bethlehem, PA. I'm originally from NJ, and got introduced to The Office while studying in London and have been a huge fan ever since. The US version took a few episodes to grow on me in the beginning, but it's awesome now that it found its own groove.

TC: How did you get involved with "The Office" convention that is coming to Scranton?
TH: When I started, I knew we'd be doing some stuff related to The Office, and potentially a convention. It quickly ballooned into something much more serious, and so right on the heels of launching a new electric city/diamond city Web site (www.ecweekend.com), we got the same design and editorial crew together to build a site for the convention.

TC: What details about the convention are most important to our readers?
TH: I think the most important thing people need to know is that everyone involved is a huge fan of the show, and we're all as excited to be doing this as other fans are to attend. We really want to put on an event people will enjoy and remember. We're also committed to keeping up some excitement for the show in the off-season, with events and activities around the city all summer long and in the fall leading to the convention itself. Keep your eyes on the site for updates on what's going on!
As far as the convention itself, it'll be important to figure out travel and accommodations early - it may become difficult to find somewhere to stay in downtown that weekend.

TC: What is the ideal situation for the convention according to the committee?
TH: Obviously if all the planets aligned, the universe was smiling on us and people of the world laid down their arms in peaceful harmony, we'd have everyone in the show from the briefest cameos to the folks dumping the trash bins in the writers' rooms. We want people to have a great time in Scranton, enjoy meeting and mingling with other fans of the show and have as much time with the cast and/or crew members who come for the convention.

TC: What's the next big step for the committee to finalize on the convention?
TH:First of all, we're blown away by the response we've gotten so early - the feedback has been overwhelming from people all over already booking hotels and looking for more information. Now it's time for a lot of phone calls and long meetings - it's rapidly turning into a second full-time job for many committee members. We're hoping to make a lot of really exciting announcements throughout the summer, but we also want to make sure everything we announce is confirmed and definitely scheduled - lots of events are spoiled by empty promises, and we don't want to let anyone down.

*TWO CENT BONUS QUESTION*
TC: If someone were to climb off a desert island and only have time to watch five movies to learn what American cinema is all about, what five movies would you show them?
TH: Well, the real question is where are they going after 10 or so hours of movie-watching? Back to the island? Not to mention, why do they want to spend their 10 hours back in the real world watching movies? I guess if they're that serious about it, I'd have to give them some good flicks, so I'd go with:

- Casablanca - epitomizes grand classic cinema and acting for me. Nobody captured the late-night solo drinks over a woman like Bogart
- The Godfather - because you just have to include it on lists like this.
- Star Wars - proved that a good story can transcend genres and unite audiences. Also proved that 20 years and over-commercialization can create things like Jar-Jar Binks.
- Pulp Fiction - a near-perfect showcase of how great writing, directing, musical direction and casting can make a film a masterpiece.
- Jurassic Park - Spielberg proved that while CG effects can really enhance a film, nothing looks better than a 20-foot animitronic T-Rex. JP's 10+ year-old effects still look better than some films produced today - including parts of the CG-happy new Star Wars flicks.

Big thanks to Tucker for sharing some time and his TwoCents!

We here at TheTwoCents.com have our hotel room booked, do you? Check out our site often for updates as they become available!