Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I Started This Five Hours Ago, At Work

I went to The Bay on Saturday to visit WonderCon. WonderCon was my first "real" comic book convention. (I've been to APE the last two years.) I was struck by how commercial the thing is. I wasn't surprised by the vendor floor, I knew what it was going to be like, (I've been to a couple of Star Trek conventions, so I know what the vendor floor is like, I was expecting that.) but the presentations surprised me. I sat through the DC Universe one and it really sucked. It was all a bunch of marketing bullshit. The "moderator" read the press releases for comics that are coming out then asked the creators to comment on them and nearly every answer was "Wait and see." That sucked. I did sort of upset Mark Waid, which was cool. Near the end of the panel he asked the audience who we'd like to see in DC's 52 and I said, "Beefeater." There was a pause and then he told me that it wasn't time to stump the panel and I told him I wasn't trying to stump the panel, that I'd really like to see Beefeater in the comic. I don't think it's going to happen, but if it does it was all because of me. Next, I accidentally stumbled into the MI 3 panel; it was running late. Instead of Kevin Smith, I heard J.J. Abrams talk about working with a man I don't care about on a movie I don't plan on seeing. The clips were kinda cool, though. Then came Kevin Smith. He was disgusting, crude, and funny, exactly what I was hoping for. I missed the Clerk 2 clip because I wanted to go hear Terry Moore talk about his comic more than... well, almost anything. Terry Moore's panel was the best. He got up in front of about twenty people and said that he'll start talking about stuff and if we have questions just to raise our hands and he'd answer them. He was direct and answered all the questions to the best of his ability, without giving the end of Strangers in Paradise away, which is the way everyone in the room seemed to want it. One thing that I really hated about all the panels was how nearly every question asked started with the questioner kissing ass. As an audience member, I don't care if you thought Felicity was the greatest ever until you saw Alias, which was the greatest until you saw Lost, which you thought would be the best thing to come from J.J. Abrams until you saw the clip from MI 3 and then ask him why Keri Russell's hair was cut short in Felicity. Just ask the question! He's gonna answer it even if you don't plug your lips to his asshole. The worst one was this guy who had a question for Kevin Smith and he started it with, "I'm going to keep this short..." and proceeded to talk about Smith's six movies and what he liked and didn't like for what seemed like five minutes. You know what question askers, they know you like their work, otherwise you wouldn't be there asking a question. They know.

After I left WonderCon, when I finally couldn't take it anymore (which was right after seeing the Pixar short One Man Band, but before the Superman Returns panel) I walked down to Pete's to see my brother. I had to wait a while for him to finish working. We walked back up Market, where he got some news that could be really good or somewhat disappointing, depending on what the situation is, and I freaked out on him a little. I think I made him freak out a little, too.

Saturday was a decent day. Unless I have a table at WonderCon or I'm going with friends, I don't think I'm going back.

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So, Heels, Johnny Logic, and their child, whom I shall call Vorchok the Destroyer, are on their way back to California with Vorchok's grandparents driving the moving truck. I bet Heels's mother's idea of making it from there to here in three has really died, considering the snow the middle of the US has been getting in the past couple of days. (If any of the travelers happen to read this, its currently sunny and 62 (at 4:50ish) in the place you're wanting to end up. By the weekend, when you get here, the weather will be much colder and much wetter.) If the three day thing is still possible, they're probably in or about Colorado, which looks to be covered in storms.

Tonight, wingb is off to Hong Kong to visit her family. How many hours of flying is that? 15? I know it's a huge number.

And what are my travel plans for the week? I plan to walk to and from work. I plan on heading over to the mall to get a couple of new shirts for work so I don't have to do the sneaky recycling thing that I have been doing. (The secret to shirt recycling is to know which shirt(s) you're going to recycle and wear it(them) the first day of work after doing laundry then hang it(them) up to air out and wear it(them) as close to laundry day as possible. By then, no one remembers the last time you wore it(them).) Over the weekend, since it's a long one, I'm going to visit my parents and then we'll all be going to visit my dad's parents, where I hope we can play a gave of Spite and Malice or Balderdash or Euchre. And on the last day I'll be driving back to North Bay.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peet's.

ticknart said...

Sorry.