KOJIMA GET! - or - STEVE'S INFILTRATION ADVENTURE ACTION ESPIONAGE ASSIGNMENT
What a strange day. In a good way. You'll come to understand why.
Today was the day of this; Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa making two appearances at video game stores in the Southland to do autograph signings. Hideo Kojima is the brain behind the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid games (amongst others), and Yoji Shinkawa is the lead artist on the Metal Gear Solid games, as well as the Zone of the Enders games. So after only getting about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night (I couldn't sleep until 4:30, and the alarm went off at 9am), I set out this morning to OSP* both of their signatures, within my Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 artbooks.
This was to be more difficult that I anticipated.
Though I left the apt. at 10am, I didn't get to the Glendale mall until over an hour later. I also happened to park on the completely opposite end of the mall of my intended target. So, by the time I got there, they had already started signing, and a sizable line had formed. However, I jumped right in anyways, and figured it'd move quick enough.
Now, the interesting thing about standing in lines like this, I've come to realize, is not actually the end goal. I mean, chances are you're not going to have a chat with the person signing, and you're going to get shooshed through the line as quickly as possible. So, you have to make your own fun. Meaning, talk to the people around you, and hope they aren't horribly bad fanboys. At least, more fanboyish than you are, standing there with a CAPCOM backpack.
So, I end up talking with two guys around me, who were both very cool. One guy (who for the moment, i'll refer to as PoliceNaut), had not yet played MGS3, but had brought his copies of PoliceNauts and Snatcher to be signed. PoliceNauts and Snatcher are two games Kojima did before Metal Gear Solid, and are highly regarded yet not easily acquired in the states. Because they're in Japanese. PoliceNaut is the kind of guy that struck you as Indie guy who hadn't touched video games since the NES, and here he was praising Guardian Heroes and Ikaruga, and dissing Konami for not releasing Snatcher and PoliceNauts out here. Unbelieveable. The second guy was cool, however he does not play such a big part in our story.
The 3 of us "bonded" as men who spend time together in line do, not as intimately as those in the "joint" do, but as much as you can in a 45 minute period talking about videogames. Sadly, we were too far back in line, and never got autographs. We all kind of grumbled about possibly going to the signing at Universal Citywalk, and I headed home to get my ass to Illustration class. FISSION MAILED.
During Illustration I didn't really do much, I saw that fellow Insert Creditor Persona-Sama was planning to make another go of Kojima-GET'ing. I hadn't seen him at the earlier showing, and he hadn't seen me, so that encouraged me to make another go of it myself. So I walked home after class as quickly as possible, grabbed a granola bar and a Dr. Shasta, and headed out the door, again, ditching Perspective Drawing class in the process. The teacher is the head of the illustration department, I'm sure he'll understand.
I should probably mention at this point that all day I've not really felt well. The most I had had to eat was a half a bottle of Orange Juice from a gas station before I left for Glendale. I didn't feel that I could really eat anything, and my throat has almost been feeling swollen, enough so that if it dries out, I start to feel myself choking or gagging, and violently cough. So on hardly anything to eat, and a miserable night's rest, I jump back in the car and prepare to face Southern CA rush hour traffic going into LA.
The drive was uneventful. However, I made very good time and got to CityWalk in about an hour. Parked, found the line, relieved myself, and jumped in.
I looked around the line, didn't see anyone from earlier, nor anyone matching Persona's description (this is always a problem "meeting" internet people. You have a vague description, and, have you ever actually gone up to someone and said, "Uh, you're not so-and-so from blah blah.com, are you?"), and ended up talking to two guys in front of me, again. They had driven up from San Diego to Kojima GET, and were fairly knowledgable and not too fanboyish. A couple EB guys come 'round, explain that we all should get autographs, can only get one thing signed, the protocol for pictures, etc. The line starts moving. At one point I see this girl looking at me.
At first I think she's just looking around and we happen across each other's faces. No, she's looking at me. This doesn't usually happen. Panic Protocols begin firing off in my head. I can't think of what to do, so we just end up smiling at each other. She waves at me. I turned around, to see who she was waving at.
(Yes, I actually did this. This is not highly uncharacteristic of me, I mean, girls don't look at me.)
I look back, and she kind of laughs to herself, and points at me. Not really knowing what to do, I just kind of stupidly smile for a bit. But we'll get back to her.
Eventually the line goes through, and we all get our autographs. I have Kojima and Shinkawa sign the Table of Contents page of the first MGS Artbook, right across from a very nice picture of the bosses from MGS1. I snap a couple pictures with the camera on my phone, but they're not really visible. I didn't grab a poster, realized I forgot it and asked the EB District Manager guy to grab me one, which he was nice enough to do. I end up stumbling outside, and the girl is standing around with someone I immediately determine to be her younger brother. This is good, she's not here with someone and she's brought her brother, which means she's not necessarily a fangirl. She tells me, "I wanted to tell you, you're handsome." Assertive, this is a good sign. We start talking, she took her brother here to get an autograph, etc. Small talk about the whole process of standing in line, etc. My two friends from San Diego make their goodbyes, and hopefully are arriving home safely. I end up walking her (her name is Sarah) and her brother (Max), out to their car. She mentions the last time she was out at CityWalk, was to see EVIL DEAD 2 at an Imax theater. Wow. At one point she begins arranging stuff in the backseat of her car, and I spy a long, instrument case. I think to myself, "oh shit." Some of you (I'm looking at you, Jeannette and Brian), may understand why. She pulls it out to put it in the trunk, and I ask, "is that a keyboard, or a -"
"It's a bass guitar." Holy shit.
A few days ago, it might have been yesterday, I mentioned to a couple friends some things that I was going to start looking for in a girl. One of which was, a girl who played bass. So, I'm talking to a fairly attractive girl who has just told me I'm handsome, mentioned that she likes Evil Dead 2 , plays the bass, and has SOME sort of interest in video games.
TURN OFF THE GAME CONSOLE NOW.
We exchange email addresses, and they're off, back to Riverside. Hopefully they arrived safely as well. I head back to the CityWalk groundfloor to make another scan of the area for any of my comrades in arms. Who do I see coming out of EB but POLICENAUT himself (actually his name is Ryan). Holy crap, he made it. He's there with his wife (who looked not so happy to be there, but not bummed. More like, happy that he was happy. That was nice to see.), so he got both Snatcher AND PoliceNauts signed. Good teamwork. We congratulate each other, make some small talk. He takes some pictures with the Snake mannequin outside of the store, and we talk a little bit more. He promised to go to a movie with her since they were already there, I try my damndest to talk them out of seeing NATIONAL TREASURE. It's directed by the man who directed The 3 Ninjas, for crying out loud.
If this isn't enough for you, he also directed Disney's The Kid.
I think they ended up seeing it anyways. I would have liked to have asked for his email address or something, seeing as he was really cool, but that probably would have been weird. Congratulations to PoliceNaut, though. I was really glad to see that he got his stuff signed. I hope you enjoy MGS3 when you play it, it IS really good.
I head out of there, my legs are tired and my back is sore from wearing my damn backpack all night. Phil Hendrie is doing requests, I find gas, and get home by about 9pm.
All in all, mission successful. Met some really cool people, including a GIRL. A winnar is me!
I'm expecting a car to fall out of the sky and land on top of me tomorrow.
*OSP = On Site Procurement
Today was the day of this; Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa making two appearances at video game stores in the Southland to do autograph signings. Hideo Kojima is the brain behind the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid games (amongst others), and Yoji Shinkawa is the lead artist on the Metal Gear Solid games, as well as the Zone of the Enders games. So after only getting about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night (I couldn't sleep until 4:30, and the alarm went off at 9am), I set out this morning to OSP* both of their signatures, within my Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 artbooks.
This was to be more difficult that I anticipated.
Though I left the apt. at 10am, I didn't get to the Glendale mall until over an hour later. I also happened to park on the completely opposite end of the mall of my intended target. So, by the time I got there, they had already started signing, and a sizable line had formed. However, I jumped right in anyways, and figured it'd move quick enough.
Now, the interesting thing about standing in lines like this, I've come to realize, is not actually the end goal. I mean, chances are you're not going to have a chat with the person signing, and you're going to get shooshed through the line as quickly as possible. So, you have to make your own fun. Meaning, talk to the people around you, and hope they aren't horribly bad fanboys. At least, more fanboyish than you are, standing there with a CAPCOM backpack.
So, I end up talking with two guys around me, who were both very cool. One guy (who for the moment, i'll refer to as PoliceNaut), had not yet played MGS3, but had brought his copies of PoliceNauts and Snatcher to be signed. PoliceNauts and Snatcher are two games Kojima did before Metal Gear Solid, and are highly regarded yet not easily acquired in the states. Because they're in Japanese. PoliceNaut is the kind of guy that struck you as Indie guy who hadn't touched video games since the NES, and here he was praising Guardian Heroes and Ikaruga, and dissing Konami for not releasing Snatcher and PoliceNauts out here. Unbelieveable. The second guy was cool, however he does not play such a big part in our story.
The 3 of us "bonded" as men who spend time together in line do, not as intimately as those in the "joint" do, but as much as you can in a 45 minute period talking about videogames. Sadly, we were too far back in line, and never got autographs. We all kind of grumbled about possibly going to the signing at Universal Citywalk, and I headed home to get my ass to Illustration class. FISSION MAILED.
During Illustration I didn't really do much, I saw that fellow Insert Creditor Persona-Sama was planning to make another go of Kojima-GET'ing. I hadn't seen him at the earlier showing, and he hadn't seen me, so that encouraged me to make another go of it myself. So I walked home after class as quickly as possible, grabbed a granola bar and a Dr. Shasta, and headed out the door, again, ditching Perspective Drawing class in the process. The teacher is the head of the illustration department, I'm sure he'll understand.
I should probably mention at this point that all day I've not really felt well. The most I had had to eat was a half a bottle of Orange Juice from a gas station before I left for Glendale. I didn't feel that I could really eat anything, and my throat has almost been feeling swollen, enough so that if it dries out, I start to feel myself choking or gagging, and violently cough. So on hardly anything to eat, and a miserable night's rest, I jump back in the car and prepare to face Southern CA rush hour traffic going into LA.
The drive was uneventful. However, I made very good time and got to CityWalk in about an hour. Parked, found the line, relieved myself, and jumped in.
I looked around the line, didn't see anyone from earlier, nor anyone matching Persona's description (this is always a problem "meeting" internet people. You have a vague description, and, have you ever actually gone up to someone and said, "Uh, you're not so-and-so from blah blah.com, are you?"), and ended up talking to two guys in front of me, again. They had driven up from San Diego to Kojima GET, and were fairly knowledgable and not too fanboyish. A couple EB guys come 'round, explain that we all should get autographs, can only get one thing signed, the protocol for pictures, etc. The line starts moving. At one point I see this girl looking at me.
At first I think she's just looking around and we happen across each other's faces. No, she's looking at me. This doesn't usually happen. Panic Protocols begin firing off in my head. I can't think of what to do, so we just end up smiling at each other. She waves at me. I turned around, to see who she was waving at.
(Yes, I actually did this. This is not highly uncharacteristic of me, I mean, girls don't look at me.)
I look back, and she kind of laughs to herself, and points at me. Not really knowing what to do, I just kind of stupidly smile for a bit. But we'll get back to her.
Eventually the line goes through, and we all get our autographs. I have Kojima and Shinkawa sign the Table of Contents page of the first MGS Artbook, right across from a very nice picture of the bosses from MGS1. I snap a couple pictures with the camera on my phone, but they're not really visible. I didn't grab a poster, realized I forgot it and asked the EB District Manager guy to grab me one, which he was nice enough to do. I end up stumbling outside, and the girl is standing around with someone I immediately determine to be her younger brother. This is good, she's not here with someone and she's brought her brother, which means she's not necessarily a fangirl. She tells me, "I wanted to tell you, you're handsome." Assertive, this is a good sign. We start talking, she took her brother here to get an autograph, etc. Small talk about the whole process of standing in line, etc. My two friends from San Diego make their goodbyes, and hopefully are arriving home safely. I end up walking her (her name is Sarah) and her brother (Max), out to their car. She mentions the last time she was out at CityWalk, was to see EVIL DEAD 2 at an Imax theater. Wow. At one point she begins arranging stuff in the backseat of her car, and I spy a long, instrument case. I think to myself, "oh shit." Some of you (I'm looking at you, Jeannette and Brian), may understand why. She pulls it out to put it in the trunk, and I ask, "is that a keyboard, or a -"
"It's a bass guitar." Holy shit.
A few days ago, it might have been yesterday, I mentioned to a couple friends some things that I was going to start looking for in a girl. One of which was, a girl who played bass. So, I'm talking to a fairly attractive girl who has just told me I'm handsome, mentioned that she likes Evil Dead 2 , plays the bass, and has SOME sort of interest in video games.
TURN OFF THE GAME CONSOLE NOW.
We exchange email addresses, and they're off, back to Riverside. Hopefully they arrived safely as well. I head back to the CityWalk groundfloor to make another scan of the area for any of my comrades in arms. Who do I see coming out of EB but POLICENAUT himself (actually his name is Ryan). Holy crap, he made it. He's there with his wife (who looked not so happy to be there, but not bummed. More like, happy that he was happy. That was nice to see.), so he got both Snatcher AND PoliceNauts signed. Good teamwork. We congratulate each other, make some small talk. He takes some pictures with the Snake mannequin outside of the store, and we talk a little bit more. He promised to go to a movie with her since they were already there, I try my damndest to talk them out of seeing NATIONAL TREASURE. It's directed by the man who directed The 3 Ninjas, for crying out loud.
If this isn't enough for you, he also directed Disney's The Kid.
I think they ended up seeing it anyways. I would have liked to have asked for his email address or something, seeing as he was really cool, but that probably would have been weird. Congratulations to PoliceNaut, though. I was really glad to see that he got his stuff signed. I hope you enjoy MGS3 when you play it, it IS really good.
I head out of there, my legs are tired and my back is sore from wearing my damn backpack all night. Phil Hendrie is doing requests, I find gas, and get home by about 9pm.
All in all, mission successful. Met some really cool people, including a GIRL. A winnar is me!
I'm expecting a car to fall out of the sky and land on top of me tomorrow.
*OSP = On Site Procurement