Next morning, got off to a late start. rolled down the hill, took a left at Albuquerque when we should have turned down at Timbucktoo. (If you dont know that joke, grow older by five years or more, watch some loony toons, or GTFO mah bliggity blawg!) but still rolled right into downtwon San Diago(yes, Anchorman jokes were in full swing from celeb tweets and beyond)
By this time T1nk was in full "im-late-and-i-will-kill-if-i'm-not-on-time" freak out mode, so I dropped Pievuhg and the better half at the first good looking stop, and moved my way up to $15 parking lot that was a good mile away. hopped a bicycle taxi, tipped the poor guy with a roll of quarters (do not underestimate my brokeness) and schlepped up to get mah badge.
As I was herded like an animal of the field among a multitude of other geeks attempting to get into the convention center, I began to feel that familiar sensation of elation. These were my people, and I immediately began to judge them. But elitism aside, I never feel more at ease than at a con. this is where my kind, the geek, the nerd, the outcast, the goth, the Trekkie(wow, spellchecker corrected that for me, yikes), the weird guy, the gamer, the hacker, the candlestick maker, this is where we congregate and only our own judge us, not the entire locale. And if they're our own judging us, we at least feel the comfort that, they have an understanding, and don't come of their opinion blindly but from a mutual understanding that most of us know, we're still not considered "normal." And I don't know if I'm getting soft or just have gained more wisdom, but now I often think before I pass judgment, assessing the previous thought as well as playing devils advocate for a second. A good example of this is actually from a panel I missed entirely.
(for the extended version seek out Kevin Smith Q&A from Hall H Comic Con 09, there should be a link here somewhere . . . there's a good one, for shorter, try this, But I suggest starting at the top and writing off your next 2 hours.)
Kevin Smith effectively said GTF-OFF Twihards, they are the geeks of the future, they are girls w/Vamp hard on's, WTF is wrong with you dude?"
Oh look, a tangent, never had one of those, or sarcasm for that matter *false belly chuckle* Oh ho ho ho . . moving on . . . .
Grabbed my badge for Fri, was told I could grab my badge for sat after 4 pm, was tossed a swag bag (very literature heavy, less on the swag) and really started taking in the sights (
see pic, the 2 Astromech droids in the general Lobby. Fear the SW fans!) , the sounds (general cacophony with strange snippets, and of course, the smells [if you are, know, or have interacted with any sort of social deviate for longer than two days, we don't smell the prettiest, no, not even some of the girls. It's unfortunate, but we are making strides towards change[its here that I wanted to link to a flyer/handout/thing by Something Positive about using a shower at conventions specifically targeted at geeks. i.e. undress, we know it's embarrassing, get under the water, we know, its cold, turn it towards hot. use the soap, no those aren't demon creatures eating your flesh, they are bubbles, and normal, then rinse, dry, and dress again.] Unfortunately I cant find said pamphlet, if anyone else can, please notify me). I then hustled to get to some hall where T1nk was already in line even though the panel was about to get out in less than 10 minutes. To be fair, it was a Coraline panel with Niel Gaiman. while waiting for Pievuhg to recover me, (I was a bit lost, but she had explored the con the day before) I am very confident, I saw Stan Lee. I heard the voice, looked back, there was a white suit upon an older gentleman wearing glasses, all attached to a mustache, and surrounded by an entourage. Liz found me, and took me to T1nk. ( ComicCon Nazi's/Elite's are, well, doing there jobs, to them; "please stop being dicks," if you encounter one; "they are doing their job's, don't bug them more than twice, don't be dicks to them, they're trying to keep the Con form being lame. If you have a problem, join staff and fix it." gee? sounds like cops.)T1nk was still in line and concerned we wouldn't make it into the "9" panel at hall H because, well, it's Hall H. So, I told her, as her Man-Pack for the weekend I was gonna head over there and get in line. ( I had attempted to establish a couple times, that since I would be attending Aftercon, and dragging her along, AND since she paid for my tickets for ComicCon, I was there at her whim to carry swag [ill-gotten or otherwise], supplies, and hold spots in lines)
Pievuhg led me down to the bottom level and we popped into the dealer hall. What a ridiculousness. To say this hall is large, crowded, or noisy, is to call an ocean wet. Picture a pulga(that's flea market for you non-ethnic's) and put it under a large concrete ceiling and sink it about 5 feet under street level, and you've got an idea of how this place looked.
Pievuhg stopped at the ComicCon booth (not as awesome or impressive as you might think, very simple, one booth) to buy a sexy ComicCon shirt. I took the opportunity to find, as Scott Kurtz put it, The "Penny Arcade Elbow" which he was in, and it seemed, so was most of the rest of the WebComic Industry. MC Frontalot was holdin down a Corner of the PA booth as their official . . um, something fancy sounding, as Tycho likes to do, that effectively means Front is their official Rapper. I stopped, saw MC Frontalot in the flesh. Got my copy of Nerdcore Rising signed, Front regaled me with the fact that my copy was early run copy and superior to the merchandise in front of him. I was pleased. I then rolled around to the other side of the booth and had Gabe of Tycho and Gabe sign my "I roll twenty's" Shirt with the phrase "I thought you were supposed to get better at this" If I could get Wil Wheaton to sign that same shirt, I may end my life as a geek in peace.With geek/fanboy Nirvana almost attained I unerringly head to find THE LINE TO H! Found it, stood in it, T1nk showed up, stood in it. Met two groups of people, one groovy, one annoying, none worth more note than that.
Then, finally made it into the SUB-FUCKING-LINES INSIDE HALL H!!! which are there to further torment those who have endured the outside for 3+ hours. Apparently other situations have been explored and I pray and keep myself ignorant of the truth in the hopes that Comic Con higher ups have assessed other options and find that this is the most effective.
Once inside Hall H we find that the end of the Disney Panel is underway and find seats.
Disney panel: Tons of Fun. Beauty and the Beast in 3D this coming Valentines day ( I know what T1nk and I are going too).
But the one I am really excited for is The Princess and the Frog. Oh yeah, all hand drawn, full blown musical numbers performed by the characters. Good jokes, a nod to more mature audiences than just kiddy fare, a gator named Louis who solves problems with sharp sticks and plays jazz trumpet(after my own heart, I assure you) and a Cajun firefly named Ray who thinks as disjointed and quickly as he talks. I laughed my ass off at the 3 min clip they showed. I'm seein that one. Only down sides I can think of, the first black Disney princess isn't actually a real princess from the start, and as if New Orleans square in Disneyland wasn't crowded enough already, with Fantasmic, Haunted Mansion, three or so restaurants, one of the easiest to find bathrooms, the train station, and of course The Cpt. Jack sparrow ride, sorry, Pirates.
Also, Miyazaki, or, J-colonel Sanders, was there to promote Ponyo's release in the U.S with full Dub, and was awarded the g">Comic Con Inkpot award, those things are metal, I want one. Paton Oswald came out, made the Disney panel a little PG13 with the Q&A, awkward geeks were awkward cause it was friggin Miyazaki-san, and the panel ended.
There was than a lull in between panels and t1nk and I moved up for a better seat and settled in for an awesome panel. Some dude I didn't recognized was moderating but introduced the director, Shane Acker, as well as Acker's two "mentors" on the project, Tim Burton, and Timur Bekmambetov (the director from Wanted). Hrmm . . Tim Squared helped shane, lol. And two huge names working on the movie, Elijah Wood, and Jennifer Connelly. In Short, "9" looks awesome, and even if it's not the deepest movie, it will have a crazy nifty hook and be very pretty to watch. After this panel, T1nk and I left to locate Pievuhg and wander the Con Some more.
We wandered the dealer room, apparently Amanda Palmer(lead singer of Dresden Dolls) was doing a book signing that afternoon/evening and T1nk had to stalk her, we ate Con food, and were charged too much for it.
Around 5 PM was a lil in booth concert by MC Frontalot and the Categorical Imperative (his drummer) at the PA Elbow! (see Pic above, I know, its a shitty pic from my cell phone. I will get a better phone and try to take better pictures, never guarantees.)
Finally, due to the fact my parking pass was only good till 8:30 pm, we all decided to call it a day and headed back up the hill.
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