Gettin' my geek on...

I think Chairman summed this weekend up best when he said he had never seen so many overweight, pale, pasty-face, living-in-my-parents’-basement geeks in his life. Of course, at the San Diego Comicon, what does one expect? Tans and buff bods? Okay, so there were quite a few of those but they were mostly on the slave Princess Leias and the Laura Crofts running around. Where, oh, where were the scantily-clad male superheroes? Oh, yeah, there aren’t too many of those. No Conans or Tarzans wandering around. Great if you’re a guy – and Chairman got his fill of eye candy – but Monica and I had to make do with gawking at the women wearing outfits that they shouldn’t have. If your dress size is more than a single digit, pick your superheroines better cuz not everybody is cut out for slave Princess Leia.



I am exhausted after spending four days trapped in a convention center with 100,000 geeks. But it was a great, fun, relaxing weekend nonetheless. Chairman and I drove down and arrived at the Con at about 3:30. We strolled through the exhibit hall, which is just staggering to see. Row after row after row of movie studios, videogame company and comic companies hawking the newest, latest and hottest thing in their arsenal. If you want to know what the hot game, the hot movie, hot comic or the hot toy is going to be this year, this is the place to be. We just wandered through the aisles, taking it all in. We ended up at a screening for “Zombie Prom,” a USC student film that was in the film festival at the Con that Chairman had heard about. What a scream – literally. An old-fashioned, 1950’s zombie boy wants to go the prom kind of film. It was a riot! Great way to start the weekend. Monica eventually got here and found us at Dick’s Last Resort, this raunchy, funny eatery just up from the Convention Center. Then the three of us headed over to a networking event with a group called Friends of Lulu which is all about women who make comic books. Great resource for potentially turning The Wraith into a graphic novel or comic book. We all headed off to bed around 12:30.

Friday, Monica and I got the Con early to hit a couple of seminars – hers on gaming, mine on comics as post-modern narrative. Sounds fun, yes? Wow. I’m so not smart. These were scholars on comic books and the lecture was just barely within my comprehension. Very interesting topic about how comics represent post-modern thinking and expression. I think I learned a lot. I’m not sure. I’ll have to go over my notes and see if any of it makes sense. Chairman caught up with us around 1:00 and the three of us wandered the hall for a bit.

Then came the highlight of the weekend and the reason for our road trip – a screening of Chairman in “A Fairy Tale”, where he plays a tooth fairy on probation who has his last chance to make good.




It was worth it just to see Chairman in a tutu. But I was delighted at how good the piece really was. He is always good, which is why I like to work with him, but the short on the whole was well-made, well-shot and just charming as all get out. I’m really glad we could be there for him to cheer him on and support him with this short. And I think he appreciated our presence as well.

Then, as Monica headed over to another seminar, Chairman and I headed over to the big lecture hall around 3:30 to wait for… you got it… “Snakes On A Plane” at 5:45. I know, we spent two hours sitting in a lecture hall waiting for SOAP but it was truly interesting. We walked in on a preview for a new film called “Children of Men” with Clive Owen and Michael Caine, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. It looks amazing. Very dark, very disturbing. Not exactly sure what it’s about but can’t wait to see it. Then came along presentation from Lucasfilm on all things “Star Wars” and other things in the Lucasfilm realm. Interesting new AI technology called Euphoria that allows characters in a video game to react to their environment. Very cool and kind of creepy, all at the same time.



Then a short presentation on “Final Destination 3” and, then, finally… “Snakes On A Plane” with no less than Samuel L. Jackson his bad self on the panel. Bonnie G. is right to be hyped about this film. They showed 10 minutes of snakes on a plane and it’s cheesy, and it’s B-movie and it’s silly but it’s snakes on a mo-fo plane with Samuel L. Jackson. Can’t wait. He was so incredibly cool and funny during the panel, putting up with all the stupid questions one would expect from this crowd. This is going to be the biggest film of the summer. After that, nothing else could measure up so we headed over to a keg party for a film called “Accepted” about a fake college. We started and ended the evening with ice cream sandwiches and ate nothing else healthier in between. Monica started her own dance party there so we joined in. From there, we headed over to an Irish pub to be entertained by Steve, the one man band, drank some pear cider, laughed our asses off while we sweat our asses off (did I mention it’s freaking hot this weekend!) and then headed to our respective places of rest.

Saturday was just as full, starting off with Monica and I holding seats for an anticipated long day in Hall H of filmmakers. Chairman joined us with fast food breakfast and a sneak peak at Frank Miller’s new film, “300”, about the battle of Thermopayle. Wow. Jaw-dropping. Cannot wait to see it.



Then we were treated to almost two hours of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino talking about “Grindhouse,” their new double feature exploitation film collaboration. Funnier than hell, cheesy as all get-out. Cannot, cannot wait to see it. They were funny, irreverent and just inspiring. I love to listen to these guys talk because they love what they do. And I’m sure Chairman didn’t mind that they were joined by Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan and other lovely ladies in the RR/QT repertory company. The big disappointment was that, following these guys, Kevin Smith was supposed to speak but he got stuck in traffic. They stretched QT/RR as long as they could then finally announced that Kevin would appear around 6 instead of 2:30. So we gathered our stuff and headed out again.

We met with Becky, Monica’s friend who let Monica and I crash at her place, and she walked us over to a great wood-fire pizza place. She left us to our food consumption then we headed back for more wandering. Monica and I eventually abandoned Chairman to go get our sass on and change for the Masquerade parade that night. Monica lent me this sexy leather vest and I lent her my sandals and we figured between the two of us, we had one killer wardrobe. Monica’s friends stopped by and chatted with us in the parking lot while we changed and primped. Then we went through many adventures trying to find Chairman at the ballroom for the Masquerade. Our hard work in primping seemed to pay off as he seemed to appreciate our efforts.



Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the Masquerade. I could do an entire blog on that but let’s sum it by saying who, in their right mind, would think that ending a little skit with Harry Potter costumes with a Chipmunk song was a good idea? We left before the awards as none of us could bear another minute. We grabbed some cheap grub and headed off for sleep once more. The highlight of the evening was talking to a woman at her booth and mentioning Chairman’s film and she said that her friends had seen it and thought it was great, had talked about it at dinner the night before. Yay, Chairman! She couldn’t wait to tell her friends that she met the Tooth Fairy.







This morning, Monica had a meeting and I’m sitting on the floor in the lobby of the convention center writing this. I’m pooped. Too many people, too much walking, too much expensive sugary convention food, although Monica’s friend treated us to a lovely breakfast this morning that was actually healthy and delicious.

Although I’m exhausted, it was such a pleasurable weekend. How I can argue with spending almost four days with my dearest Chairman and with Monica? I miss Chairman this morning as I’ve gotten used to the three of us being attached at the hip this weekend. But he’s probably already back home by now, having plans for this afternoon. But the three of us made a great trio, very easy-going, no fighting about not wanting to do something. Just easy. Just friends. Just a great time. It was fun sharing all the noise and splendor and disasters we saw this weekend. Chairman wondered last night how someone could do this event by themselves because it wouldn’t be anywhere near as much fun. I think he’s right. I’ve done this event once before and under different circumstances. I prefer this weekend much more. Probably because it was so easy, so simple, so unencumbered. And in a few hours, I’ll be back to regular life and deadlines and bills and $16.70 in my bank. Oh, well, I wouldn’t have traded this weekend for anything.

“These are the days that we’ll remember…”

Happy geeking to you all!