Comic-Con Day Three: Highs and Lows
Today I saw a lot of cool stuff. However, things have gone downhill as the day has progressed. More on that in a bit. Got started a bit late, so I skipped the first panel in favor of getting some autographs from a bunch of actors. I met Well, I guess this is what I get for being stupid. Unless this is some kind of karmic punishment for something I did. Which I think would be too bad, since I don't know what it would be that I would be punished for.
Let's see, what else was there? I saw a preview of Constantine, which looks like it'll probably be a respectable interpretation of the Hellblazer movies, although the director seemed like kind of an ass and they've mucked about with the story a bit. The preview for The Incredibles looks like it has great promise. And a super explanation of why superheroes shouldn't wear capes. :-) The Mirrormask panel was super cool. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean were very entertaining, talking about the process of working together which was stressful, since their work styles are evidently quite disparate. The best part was the preview reel they had. It looks like a really beautiful and weird movie, which, if it lives up to its promise, would make me really happy. They are thinking it will have a limited run in Q1 2005. Oh, it appears that Death: The High Cost of Living has also been optioned for a movie version. Missed most of the Keenspot panel. :-(
Anyway, that was the con. After I had a quick infusion of greek food, I linked up with Noelle and Carl, and we made our way to the Oakenfold/Crystal Method show here in San Diego. I don't know how Noelle lucks into these things, but on the first day of the con she told me that she met some guy on the way down who told her that Oakenfold and TCM were playing a show here in San Diego. Wow! What awesome luck! Well, sort of. The venue itself seemed nice enough (Had a nice laugh over the sign outside asking people not to use GHB or special K so that the place wouldn't get closed down. Not sure who that is supposed to deter.), but the people were something else. It appears that the club kids all showed up, which I thought was a little strange, since the scene in the bay area is a bit different. We got there and there was practically no one on the floor. So we went right up front where there was a rail to lean against because, well, there was a rail to lean against. Slowly the kids started closing in. Well, no worries. My sweating, wildly gyrating body is usually more than enough to keep people at a respectable distance and it mostly worked except for the one chick who muscled her way to the front, started mashing her body up and down on the rail, and seemed nonplussed that I was in her space, for some reason. Noelle also had problems with the girls behind her yammering on about their shoes and how cute they were and where they had bought them, etc, etc. On the bright side, TCM was right in front of us. That was really cool. At one point Scott was screwing around with his keyboard and it fell off the stage in the no-mans-land in front of us. He suddenly got this oh-shit look on his face as if he were realizing that he needed to keep playing that thing, so he jumped offstage and started playing down low, visible to us, but out of sight to most of the audience. One of the keys was jammed though, so that kinda hosed things up. He got back onstage eventually and started playing some more, but the keyboard was pretty screwed. In frustration (I assume), her tore the jammed key off the keyboard and chucked it into the audience. And you thought breaking a string in concert was bad! They only played a couple more songs before closing. I thought it was a respectable set. I danced and jumped around so much (after a long day on my feet at the con) that my feet and legs are really, really sore now.
Anyway, we waited around for about an hour while they disassembled the set and reassembled it for Paul Oakenfold. He was visible backstage for a while, hamming it up and waving to the audience while they waited for him to come out. In the meantime they played the thud-thud-thud dance music they played before TCM. Finally, he comes out and starts his set. He is an actual DJ in that he just has a few turntables, as opposed to TCM, who have a lot of programmed stuff, but play it live in an organic fashion. So anyway, Oakenfold starts his set. I have heard a lot of his stuff, which is very interesting. This shit was not. It was essentially the same thud-thud-thud music they'd been playing for filler for the past hour. The club kids go wild! He spins some beat on the turntable. They go apeshit, as if he had invented fire or something. Did I mention that he seemed enormously pretentious in concert? And I mean Yanni pretentious: hamming it up and pointing at all the kids, like he was their oldest pal. I guess they were very enthusiastic. Anyway, I got tired of the obnoxious people shoving against me and the people around me and the general dreariness of the music, so I headed to the back of the hall. I linked up with Carl and Noelle, who had also moved out of the front. We hung out for a while, decided it was truly boring, and headed back to the hotel. Where I discovered just now that I don't know where my camera and photos are. :-( Ok, that's it for tonight.
Bugger. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger (to quote from Four Weddings and A Funeral).
Tomorrow (today, really): Adult Swim Panel and Farscape Panel.
Listening to: There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere) from the album Hail To The Thief by Radiohead
- Ernie Hudson, a very nice man
- Dean Haglund (aka Langley of the Lone Gunman)
- Erin Grey (aka Wilma from Buck Rodgers) who was businesslike but not unfriendly. She seemed a little cool, but I imagine she's met a lot of dickheads at various cons over the years. Interesting note: I asked her how difficult it was running in high heeled boots, which I noticed a couple of years ago watching a rerun of the show on the SciFi channel. She replied that that wasn't too bad in comparison with wearing the super tight, spandexy outfits they had her wear in the show. She mentioned that it if one pays attention, one might note that Wilma doesn't sit much on the show, because they had to practically pour her into the costumes.
- Reggie Bannister, who you might remember as Reggie, the guy driving the Hemi in the Phantasm movies. He also recently had a part in Bubba Ho Tep, which I confess I haven't seen. Reggie was very friendly and happy to talk about working on the Phantasm movies and new projects he has going.
- Marc Singer, whom I remember fondly from the TV show V, but also starred in the beastmaster movies. Marc was very friendly and nice.
- And finally: Virginia Hey (aka Zhaan on Farscape and the badass crossbow chick from The Road Warrior). Virginia was also a pleasure to meet. She seemed really pleased to meet the fans. I told her I was upset when they killed her character off in Farscape. She related that the blue makeup she wore in that show caused her kidneys to bleed, which she kind of ignored for a while, but eventually (as you might suspect) made her quite ill, necessitating her departure from the show.
Let's see, what else was there? I saw a preview of Constantine, which looks like it'll probably be a respectable interpretation of the Hellblazer movies, although the director seemed like kind of an ass and they've mucked about with the story a bit. The preview for The Incredibles looks like it has great promise. And a super explanation of why superheroes shouldn't wear capes. :-) The Mirrormask panel was super cool. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean were very entertaining, talking about the process of working together which was stressful, since their work styles are evidently quite disparate. The best part was the preview reel they had. It looks like a really beautiful and weird movie, which, if it lives up to its promise, would make me really happy. They are thinking it will have a limited run in Q1 2005. Oh, it appears that Death: The High Cost of Living has also been optioned for a movie version. Missed most of the Keenspot panel. :-(
Anyway, that was the con. After I had a quick infusion of greek food, I linked up with Noelle and Carl, and we made our way to the Oakenfold/Crystal Method show here in San Diego. I don't know how Noelle lucks into these things, but on the first day of the con she told me that she met some guy on the way down who told her that Oakenfold and TCM were playing a show here in San Diego. Wow! What awesome luck! Well, sort of. The venue itself seemed nice enough (Had a nice laugh over the sign outside asking people not to use GHB or special K so that the place wouldn't get closed down. Not sure who that is supposed to deter.), but the people were something else. It appears that the club kids all showed up, which I thought was a little strange, since the scene in the bay area is a bit different. We got there and there was practically no one on the floor. So we went right up front where there was a rail to lean against because, well, there was a rail to lean against. Slowly the kids started closing in. Well, no worries. My sweating, wildly gyrating body is usually more than enough to keep people at a respectable distance and it mostly worked except for the one chick who muscled her way to the front, started mashing her body up and down on the rail, and seemed nonplussed that I was in her space, for some reason. Noelle also had problems with the girls behind her yammering on about their shoes and how cute they were and where they had bought them, etc, etc. On the bright side, TCM was right in front of us. That was really cool. At one point Scott was screwing around with his keyboard and it fell off the stage in the no-mans-land in front of us. He suddenly got this oh-shit look on his face as if he were realizing that he needed to keep playing that thing, so he jumped offstage and started playing down low, visible to us, but out of sight to most of the audience. One of the keys was jammed though, so that kinda hosed things up. He got back onstage eventually and started playing some more, but the keyboard was pretty screwed. In frustration (I assume), her tore the jammed key off the keyboard and chucked it into the audience. And you thought breaking a string in concert was bad! They only played a couple more songs before closing. I thought it was a respectable set. I danced and jumped around so much (after a long day on my feet at the con) that my feet and legs are really, really sore now.
Anyway, we waited around for about an hour while they disassembled the set and reassembled it for Paul Oakenfold. He was visible backstage for a while, hamming it up and waving to the audience while they waited for him to come out. In the meantime they played the thud-thud-thud dance music they played before TCM. Finally, he comes out and starts his set. He is an actual DJ in that he just has a few turntables, as opposed to TCM, who have a lot of programmed stuff, but play it live in an organic fashion. So anyway, Oakenfold starts his set. I have heard a lot of his stuff, which is very interesting. This shit was not. It was essentially the same thud-thud-thud music they'd been playing for filler for the past hour. The club kids go wild! He spins some beat on the turntable. They go apeshit, as if he had invented fire or something. Did I mention that he seemed enormously pretentious in concert? And I mean Yanni pretentious: hamming it up and pointing at all the kids, like he was their oldest pal. I guess they were very enthusiastic. Anyway, I got tired of the obnoxious people shoving against me and the people around me and the general dreariness of the music, so I headed to the back of the hall. I linked up with Carl and Noelle, who had also moved out of the front. We hung out for a while, decided it was truly boring, and headed back to the hotel. Where I discovered just now that I don't know where my camera and photos are. :-( Ok, that's it for tonight.
Bugger. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger (to quote from Four Weddings and A Funeral).
Tomorrow (today, really): Adult Swim Panel and Farscape Panel.
Listening to: There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere) from the album Hail To The Thief by Radiohead
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