By -
Comic-Con 2012

Highlights:

  • Seeing the Game of Thrones, Total Recall, Walking Dead panel
  • Getting fun things for friends: Princess Mononoke poster & Penny Arcade stuff
  • Watching someone win a trip to outer space at the Big Bang Theory panel
  • Seeing all the fantastic costumes
  • Photo Album
Day 1 - Wednesday
  • Met up with Comic-Con roomies, Alison & Melinda (Paul & Karen's friends), at the airport
  • Sauntered over to the convention hall to pick-up my badges
  • Ate BBQ at the "sleazy" bar in the movie Top Gun (during the great balls of fire scene)
  • Walked around & bumped into the San Diego Symphony practicing for their Legend of Zelda concert the following night
Day 2 - Thursday
  • Spent the day treasure hunting for friends
  • Got a signature, sketch and orange juicer figurine for Henry from the Penny Arcade folks
  • Purchased a limited edition Princess Mononoke poster for Sam (waiting 2.5 hours in line & met lots of interesting people)
  • Looked at all the displays: Gandalf in legos, total recall car, Jabba the Hutt on barge
  • Marveled at costumes: mini-voltron, blinged out storm strooper, lots of xmen

Day 3 - Friday
  • Got up at 3:30am to wait in the Hall H line at 4am. There were about 150 people camping overnight. 
  • Met nice people from Vegas who held my place in line when I shuffled off to the bathroom.
  • When we entered the room at 9:30, I went to the front and asked if there was a single spot available. The first 2 rows were reserved for physically-challenged folks and 2 people kindly offered a spot between them. Got to know them really well since I was with them from 9:30 to 6pm.
  • Panel #1 - ParaNorman: Kid zombie movie. McLovin & a girl from Twilight are voices in the stop-motion film. It was ok.
  • Panel #2 - Big Bang Theory: Whole cast was there (except for Leonard). They were really funny &  I was impressed with their answers. Sheldon was asked why his favorite super hero was Flash. He asked a writer to answer for him. When asked about Higgs boson, Penny blurted out a funny comment. What impressed me was that they sent an audience member to space (spacex or something like that). Pretty neat.
  • Panel #3 - Walking Dead: Pretty much the whole cast was there. I really enjoyed watching the trailer about the prison & learning about the new characters. It's inspired me to read the comic books. 
  • Panel #4 - Game of Thrones: Going to be honest. I'm a little disappointed (maybe this wasn't worth missing the Firefly panel for....but oh well, I committed). Every other panel in the day had a radio or TV host be the moderator....and boy...that makes a difference. George (the author) moderated this session and it was a wee bit awkward. I LOVE hearing him speak...not so much this time around. That said, I did enjoying seeing George, Daenerys, Robb, Catelyn, Theon & one of the writers.
  • Panel #5 - Resident Evil: Another movie & they're bringing back their all-stars. The trailer looks good and I enjoyed the rapport on stage. Milla Jovovich mentioned that playing a character (in the beginning of this movie) without any fighting skills -- just panic -- was really hard to play. She's so accustomed to butt kicking. 
  • Panel #6 - Total Recall: Looking forward to this movie. This new world isn't set in Mars (like the 80s movies) -- it's somewhere beautiful & gritty looking. I really enjoyed the homage to the previous movie...they show a scene at the "airport" and as the large women goes through the xray, I thought....I know what's going to happen, that's the same woman from the first movie --- but NO. It was a just a tip of the hat :)
  • Panel #7 - Looper: The guy from inception and 3rd rock from the sun is in this time travel movie. Looks...kinda ok.
  • Panel #7 - Elysium: Matt Damon in a fast action flick. Looks pretty good. By this time, I was so anxious to leave the hall because I was uncomfortable sitting for so long. (Other people had the same idea). Towards the end, there was 4 empty seats in the front. 6 empty seats in my row (2nd row center) -- I spread out.
  • Later that night I saw the replay of the Firefly panel and it looked awesome. Oh well.

Day 4 - Saturday
  • I really wanted to see the Hobbit panel but couldn't bear to get up at 6am and wait all day long in the same hall for the panel.
  • Noticed that a few cool authors were signing books so I purchased 2 books (that I've been meaning to read) from a book store. 
  • Got my "Redshirts" signed by John Scalzi (really enjoying the book right now)
  • Got my "The Hero of Ages" signed by Brandon Sanderson. Told him that I loved to listen to his audiobooks while running.
  • Attended a "John Scalzi" panel that was moderated by Patrick Rothfuss, I just finished the books in Rothfuss' Kingkiller series and LOVED them. So, I was super jazzed to see him in person. 
  • Retrieved by Game of Throne free goodies from the fulfillment room
  • Zipped over to the "quick draw" panel where these amazing artists sketch things off the cuff (like a game). Very very impressive and funny. The Cartoon Voices panel afterwards was funny too.
  • I planned to watch the costume contest on a video screen but I was just too tired. I returned to my room to pack for my flight the next day.
Sketch from quick draw: how you know when batman is your neighbor

THE END

Popular posts from this blog

It's hot

By -
Flying to Mombasa from chilly NYC and London, Suzzy and I were a little unprepared for the 90+ degree heat with 60% humidity. The electricity was off for 1.5 days so we baked for a bit in downtown Mombasa. Jacob, the program director, took us on a tour of his school in the poorer area of Mombasa. We also toured through the surrounding village and met many of the locals. It was great to play with the kids a bit. Suzzy taught them an 8 count dance. I drew in the sand with them. More details to follow...once we get some photo uploaded of the school and kids...
Read more

West Side Story, St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, Alvin Ailey "Uptown"

By -
Image
West Side Story I saw the full West Side Story at yesterday's matinee (I'd only seen the second half before). The first half has much more dancing. I got a rush seeing the song "America" and the dancing. Excellent singers all round. Josefina Scaglione, a 22-year-old opera-trained singer from Argentina, played an excellent Maria. She was really into the emotions of the part. I loved it. I'll see it again with my sister if she wants to see it. Picture of John Overgaard, me, Kate, Uncle Vince in front of West Side Story St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center Uncle Vince and my cousin Kate and I visited St Patrick's Cathedral and walked through Rockefeller Center before West Side Story. I'm surprised to find such a large cathedral so near the bustling theater district. Picture of Kate and Uncle Vince in front of Rockefeller Center Alvin Ailey "Uptown" Harlem Renaissance celebration In the evening, my mom and I saw Alvin Ailey perform a ...
Read more

Met Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, Wicked

By -
Image
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ancient Egypt, smuggling food We visited the museum for the third time, this time taking a tour of Ancient Egypt. The tour guide knew a lot. She studied hieroglyphs for 15 years and could read them. I was amused that she was so proud of Egyptian culture. "People think that Romans invented marble columns and free-standing statues," she said. "The Egyptians built both of these long before the Romans." We went to Zabar's before entering the museum and bought lunch food: a pint of fresh-squeezed orange juice, a loaf of bread, fresh-sliced ham, and waffle cookies. The museum guards inspected our bags and wouldn't let any of this in, so we stuffed our coat pockets, entered, and then transferred the food back to the bags. My dad looked funny with a pint of orange juice inside his coat, under his arm. Rockefeller Center We passed through Rockefeller Center on the way to stand in line for Wicked tickets. We saw the big Christmas tr...
Read more