Star Trek, Gandhi, and Sonic Dental tools
So I went to the Chicago Comic-Con on Saturday the 21st, and it was for once well worth it. I got to see the 5 Star Trek actors that were there and ended up having a good time. First my dad and I got there at 12 noon, and we saw the line going out the door and we thought “crap we’re going to be in line for 90 minutes”, but luckily we came by car so we just parked and went in though the Skybridge. Once inside I had to get the tickets I bought on-line activated/checked in both for the entrance fee tickets and the special guest tickets. After that I checked out the vendors real quick then I went to go get my picture taken. They had a special deal where you pay anywhere from $30-90 (depending on the actor) to get your picture taken with some of the actors that were there. I went and got my picture taken with John de Lancie since Q was always my favorite character. After that we went and saw the actors on stage/preform form 2:00pm to 7:00pm.
When Avery Brooks was on stage he answered some questions as well as tell us all what he’s up to. My favorite quote from him was: Brooks: “Why did you kill off Sisco?” Producers: “I thought you’d be happy we made him a god!” After that they did Adam West & Burt Ward which I didn’t really want to see so I went back to the floor for more exploring of the vendors. Then Brent Spiner got on the stage and did a comedy act. If you’ve never seen Mr. Spiner preform you must since he’s fricken hilarious. Spiner: “so first there’s going to be this music video then we’re going have Brent Spiner come out.” “I love to say it’s great being in Chicago if I ever get there.” “So where is everyone? I love how they do this, while I’m on stage they have the Shatner photo opt going on at the same time. Did everyone get their pictures? Here I’ll do some shots for you.” He then went and posed on stage like he was doing something. He also answer questions from the audience including one from a girl who asked him if the food he ate at the Mexican restaurant was soggy like her enchiladas were. “I’m not going to tell you guys which one so you can experience it for yourselves.” He also explained how while working on Star Trek: TNG they once had a director quit on them because the cast and crew were acting too silly.
After that we had William Shatner come on stage. And let’s just say Shatner put me to sleep, he spent the entire time promoting his new shows and answered only 2 questions from the audience. He spent forever talking about Canada and zero minutes on Star Trek. It was so frustrating that when he left the stage and John de Lancie came on afterwards people who were standing in line for Shatner ended up asking their questions to de Lancie instead. When de Lancie got on the stage he went straight to taking questions since he knew he didn’t have much time and that most of us were either asleep or pissed off at Shatner. Hence the line: “If I ever talk too much about a particular subject for too long just yell “Canada!” and I’ll move on.” He talked about how he almost didn’t get the role of Q and that he played the character funny since Patrick Stewart played his character straight. He also talked how most people knew him from Days of our Lives and how when he was on the show he sat there and made fun of soap operas and everyone/everything on them. He retold the one story he remembers where he said the producers normally don’t show up on the set until 11:00 am if they even show up at all. Then one day they showed up at 7:00 am and told him that one of the characters was dying and that they were doing a funeral scene. They told him to behave and play it seriously. So he was like okay, and went and did the scene where he acted real serious and did it all professionally. Then the director over the “God mic” told him that it sucked and he should do it again. He was so ticked that he started swearing saying that they knew nothing of acting and talent, but then one of his co-workers (Arleen Sorkin who did the voice of Harley Quinn) told him it was okay and to redo the scene the way they wanted it done. Since both he and Sorkin had Mexican food for lunch he told Sorkin to pull his finger. Then after farting enough to make everyone in the room laugh, though since the cameras were rolling they had to try and keep a straight face, he went and did the scene. After they filmed it the director over the “God mic” told him that that was better and that he did a good job.
After that they did a Battlestar Galactica panel but I decided to go look at the artists and buy a plush fox/cat creature (Kirara from InuYasha). I got back in time to see Walter Koenig talk about his time on the original series and on the movie sets. He explained how on Star Trek V he only did 8 days worth of filming and that he was at first afraid of Shatner since he was afraid of being fired. Then after filming his first scene Shatner loved it so much that he went up to give him a hug. Koenig explained from that time onward he was afraid of Shatner because he thought he was going to get randomly hugged. He also explained how he once tricked George Takei about how they were going to be doing Star Trek VI but in Claymation. And he remembers how Takei took him seriously by asking “Well are they going to be using our voices at least?” At 7:00pm we left and got a snack since we couldn’t eat while we were there.
On Friday we went up to Racine to visit my Grand Uncle who was in town from India. He was leaving the day we went to see him since we were busy the entire time he was here. It was also a pain since we had to get up in the morning and get up to Wisconsin and then be back in Illinois by 3:00pm so my mom could go to her doctor’s appointment and that I could get to work by 4:00pm. While we were up there we got lost as my mom drove off the road at the wrong time only to find out that the road looped back and we could have gotten there another way. Once there my Grand Uncle Gul told us about his son who is dating a supermodel from India and that he also owns his own business too. He then showed us pictures of his sister who got married by Mohandas Gandhi in the 1940’s. Gul said that the movie about Gandhi was 70-90% correct since he somewhat knew him and said his father talked to Gandhi on many occasions. He and my mom talked about family and about my relatives in both India and Washington state. Gul explained that he went out to both Washington and Arizona to visit everyone before going to Wisconsin to visit the last group of relatives. We talked for 2 hours ate lunch then headed back to Illinois only to get lost heading into the state. We had to call my dad and get directions just so we could get home, only to get there at 3:10pm making my mom late and me running to work.
On Thursday I went to the dentist where they tested this new device on me. They said they weren’t using the old metal cleaning tools anymore and that they were using some new cleaning tool that uses sonic vibrations and water. At first when they cleaned my top teeth it felt the same as the metal tools, painful but tolerable. Then they cleaned my bottom teeth and it felt like torture. I thought they were scraping away at my gums and filing away at my teeth. I don’t think I’d wish that torment on anyone even my own worst enemy. My teeth hurt for hours afterwards. If you go to the dentist and they say “Hey we got this new tool and we want to test it out.” Run for the nearest exit and don’t look back.
That is all for now…I’m going to write about Bradley hell next so see it up in the next couple of weeks.
When Avery Brooks was on stage he answered some questions as well as tell us all what he’s up to. My favorite quote from him was: Brooks: “Why did you kill off Sisco?” Producers: “I thought you’d be happy we made him a god!” After that they did Adam West & Burt Ward which I didn’t really want to see so I went back to the floor for more exploring of the vendors. Then Brent Spiner got on the stage and did a comedy act. If you’ve never seen Mr. Spiner preform you must since he’s fricken hilarious. Spiner: “so first there’s going to be this music video then we’re going have Brent Spiner come out.” “I love to say it’s great being in Chicago if I ever get there.” “So where is everyone? I love how they do this, while I’m on stage they have the Shatner photo opt going on at the same time. Did everyone get their pictures? Here I’ll do some shots for you.” He then went and posed on stage like he was doing something. He also answer questions from the audience including one from a girl who asked him if the food he ate at the Mexican restaurant was soggy like her enchiladas were. “I’m not going to tell you guys which one so you can experience it for yourselves.” He also explained how while working on Star Trek: TNG they once had a director quit on them because the cast and crew were acting too silly.
After that we had William Shatner come on stage. And let’s just say Shatner put me to sleep, he spent the entire time promoting his new shows and answered only 2 questions from the audience. He spent forever talking about Canada and zero minutes on Star Trek. It was so frustrating that when he left the stage and John de Lancie came on afterwards people who were standing in line for Shatner ended up asking their questions to de Lancie instead. When de Lancie got on the stage he went straight to taking questions since he knew he didn’t have much time and that most of us were either asleep or pissed off at Shatner. Hence the line: “If I ever talk too much about a particular subject for too long just yell “Canada!” and I’ll move on.” He talked about how he almost didn’t get the role of Q and that he played the character funny since Patrick Stewart played his character straight. He also talked how most people knew him from Days of our Lives and how when he was on the show he sat there and made fun of soap operas and everyone/everything on them. He retold the one story he remembers where he said the producers normally don’t show up on the set until 11:00 am if they even show up at all. Then one day they showed up at 7:00 am and told him that one of the characters was dying and that they were doing a funeral scene. They told him to behave and play it seriously. So he was like okay, and went and did the scene where he acted real serious and did it all professionally. Then the director over the “God mic” told him that it sucked and he should do it again. He was so ticked that he started swearing saying that they knew nothing of acting and talent, but then one of his co-workers (Arleen Sorkin who did the voice of Harley Quinn) told him it was okay and to redo the scene the way they wanted it done. Since both he and Sorkin had Mexican food for lunch he told Sorkin to pull his finger. Then after farting enough to make everyone in the room laugh, though since the cameras were rolling they had to try and keep a straight face, he went and did the scene. After they filmed it the director over the “God mic” told him that that was better and that he did a good job.
After that they did a Battlestar Galactica panel but I decided to go look at the artists and buy a plush fox/cat creature (Kirara from InuYasha). I got back in time to see Walter Koenig talk about his time on the original series and on the movie sets. He explained how on Star Trek V he only did 8 days worth of filming and that he was at first afraid of Shatner since he was afraid of being fired. Then after filming his first scene Shatner loved it so much that he went up to give him a hug. Koenig explained from that time onward he was afraid of Shatner because he thought he was going to get randomly hugged. He also explained how he once tricked George Takei about how they were going to be doing Star Trek VI but in Claymation. And he remembers how Takei took him seriously by asking “Well are they going to be using our voices at least?” At 7:00pm we left and got a snack since we couldn’t eat while we were there.
On Friday we went up to Racine to visit my Grand Uncle who was in town from India. He was leaving the day we went to see him since we were busy the entire time he was here. It was also a pain since we had to get up in the morning and get up to Wisconsin and then be back in Illinois by 3:00pm so my mom could go to her doctor’s appointment and that I could get to work by 4:00pm. While we were up there we got lost as my mom drove off the road at the wrong time only to find out that the road looped back and we could have gotten there another way. Once there my Grand Uncle Gul told us about his son who is dating a supermodel from India and that he also owns his own business too. He then showed us pictures of his sister who got married by Mohandas Gandhi in the 1940’s. Gul said that the movie about Gandhi was 70-90% correct since he somewhat knew him and said his father talked to Gandhi on many occasions. He and my mom talked about family and about my relatives in both India and Washington state. Gul explained that he went out to both Washington and Arizona to visit everyone before going to Wisconsin to visit the last group of relatives. We talked for 2 hours ate lunch then headed back to Illinois only to get lost heading into the state. We had to call my dad and get directions just so we could get home, only to get there at 3:10pm making my mom late and me running to work.
On Thursday I went to the dentist where they tested this new device on me. They said they weren’t using the old metal cleaning tools anymore and that they were using some new cleaning tool that uses sonic vibrations and water. At first when they cleaned my top teeth it felt the same as the metal tools, painful but tolerable. Then they cleaned my bottom teeth and it felt like torture. I thought they were scraping away at my gums and filing away at my teeth. I don’t think I’d wish that torment on anyone even my own worst enemy. My teeth hurt for hours afterwards. If you go to the dentist and they say “Hey we got this new tool and we want to test it out.” Run for the nearest exit and don’t look back.
That is all for now…I’m going to write about Bradley hell next so see it up in the next couple of weeks.