my geekend
I have barely been able to catch up on my flist, after skimming it for nearly a week. Why skimming? Read on...
After work on Wednesday, I left Chicago for lovely San Diego to attend the 2006 Comic-Con. Things got off to a rocky start. Keith and our luggage arrived several hours earlier, as he was traveling for work and didn't have to deal with such pesky things as vacation days. I booked an 8:30 flight out of O'Hare, so I went to the Red Line after work to discover that it was backed up severely, headed back out into the super-hot weather to walk 10 blocks down to the Blue Line stop at Washington. I barely made it on a train and had to stand, sweat literally dripping from my legs, until about four stops from the airport. Ugh!
Because I had no luggage, I'd checked in online and breezed through security. I made a new friend at the Prairie Tap when a nice VP of sales from Texas offered me the empty seat at her table. I enjoyed a nice Cabernet Sauv and a Caesar salad before finding out my flight was delayed 20 minutes. I went to another airport bar and made another new friend who happened to be on my flight, this one a nanny who likes to read sci-fi, fantasy, and political books. We chatted as we boarded. After taking our seats, the pilot announced we'd be sitting for a half-hour, which turned into an hour and a half delay. Once we were up in the air, he announced that we'd mostly likely be flying to LAX instead of San Diego because of an airport curfew, in which case we'd be bussed to San Diego upon arrival. Well, you can guess what happened. I arrived at my hotel at 3:15 PDT-or 5:15 to my poor, confused body clock. (I was very happy I brought two books and two magazines with me!)
The nice thing about staying up for nearly 24 hours is that it allowed me to have no jet lag whatsoever. I got up around 8:30 the next morning and Keith and I enjoyed a delightful breakfast at a Mexican place near our hotel in Old Town. Then we headed to the Con.
Day one, I attended a panel featuring Andy Runton of Owly fame, who might just be as sweet as his most famous creation. It was a great way to start off my trip. He was so kind, gentle, and so great and patient with all the kids who came to his panel. There was a little girl dressed up as Owly with a barrette shaped like Wormy. When I went to the Top Shelf stand later to buy a book and a limited-edition Owly plush, he remembered me from the panel and even drew a little Owly/Wormy/flying squirrel combo in my book. What a guy!
I know I did some other cool stuff that day (the panel with Deepak Chopra and Grant Morrison wasn't nearly as kookoo banananuts as I'd hoped), but the other highlight was meeting Chip Kidd. The lowlight was acting like a fangirl tool in front of him, but he seemed somewhat charmed by my utter geekitude. I also briefly met Brian Bolland and Carmine Infantino, so I felt like I got a little bit of history. Also, I saw a baby wearing a snake costume and carrying a toy plane. Because I am lame, I did not get a picture of this. The baby was out of picture distance by the time I found the camera. Such disappointment!
Friday, I got Shag to sign my copy of his book, and he was really cool. Then, after spending some time in the exhibits (my scores: an awesome Tara McPherson Kraftwerk miniposter, a t-shirt showing Lynda Carter morphing from Diana Prince to Wonder Woman, and a Supergirl t-shirt), I headed upstairs to see the long version of the Heroes pilot, the new TV show produced in part by my beloved Jeph Loeb and featuring artwork by my beloved Tim Sale. It was really good! I think it kinda got a little boring in the middle, but I am very excited for its arrival in the fall. The second it was over, I rushed out to run over to the ballroom for a panel on Battlestar Galactica, and ran into a friend from college who I haven't seen in, gosh, eight years or so? She and I caught up as we got in line for BSG. I later met up with Keith, saw the end of a David Boreanaz panel, and then we thoroughly enjoyed the Bruce Timm discussion/retrospective featuring the man himself.
Also, I saw this baby:
After all that geekery, it was time for dinner and drinks, so we went to a place called Mr. Tiki. He treated us well.
Saturday was pretty insane. There were probably about 120,000 people there. I went to a panel featuring all my favorite DC Comics writers, another panel called 50 Years of The Flash (it was really fun!), and did some other stuff before going to the Veronica Mars panel, which I enjoyed although I was a little let-down, especially after the intelligence and awesomeness of the BSG panel. Some of the fan Q&A was lame. Someone actually asked, "Hey Enrico, would you rather be covered in poo or eat a little bit of poo?" Um, yeah. But it was really cool to see the cast in person, and Rob Thomas is terrific. Also, the guy who plays Dick did a backflip. That was pretty sweet.
Eventually, we headed out of the con to go to Balboa Park for a dinner with our friend David from DC and a number of other media types. Thank you, Time Warner! I made some great new friends, had some delicious beef tenderloin, and had a nice discussion about books, music, comics, and more. It was a nice way to end the weekend. Oh, and then we went to the Hyatt for drinks and saw Bruce Timm smoking. It kinda freaked me out.
Sunday, we slept in, hung around the hotel, and then headed to the airport to come home. Sophie had a nice weekend with her new best friend Scott Gordon, our housesitter extraordinaire. This didn't stop her from doing a 30-minute, multipart interpretive dance when we got home. (You can watch a video of some her weekend antics here.)
It's nice to be missed.
After work on Wednesday, I left Chicago for lovely San Diego to attend the 2006 Comic-Con. Things got off to a rocky start. Keith and our luggage arrived several hours earlier, as he was traveling for work and didn't have to deal with such pesky things as vacation days. I booked an 8:30 flight out of O'Hare, so I went to the Red Line after work to discover that it was backed up severely, headed back out into the super-hot weather to walk 10 blocks down to the Blue Line stop at Washington. I barely made it on a train and had to stand, sweat literally dripping from my legs, until about four stops from the airport. Ugh!
Because I had no luggage, I'd checked in online and breezed through security. I made a new friend at the Prairie Tap when a nice VP of sales from Texas offered me the empty seat at her table. I enjoyed a nice Cabernet Sauv and a Caesar salad before finding out my flight was delayed 20 minutes. I went to another airport bar and made another new friend who happened to be on my flight, this one a nanny who likes to read sci-fi, fantasy, and political books. We chatted as we boarded. After taking our seats, the pilot announced we'd be sitting for a half-hour, which turned into an hour and a half delay. Once we were up in the air, he announced that we'd mostly likely be flying to LAX instead of San Diego because of an airport curfew, in which case we'd be bussed to San Diego upon arrival. Well, you can guess what happened. I arrived at my hotel at 3:15 PDT-or 5:15 to my poor, confused body clock. (I was very happy I brought two books and two magazines with me!)
The nice thing about staying up for nearly 24 hours is that it allowed me to have no jet lag whatsoever. I got up around 8:30 the next morning and Keith and I enjoyed a delightful breakfast at a Mexican place near our hotel in Old Town. Then we headed to the Con.
Day one, I attended a panel featuring Andy Runton of Owly fame, who might just be as sweet as his most famous creation. It was a great way to start off my trip. He was so kind, gentle, and so great and patient with all the kids who came to his panel. There was a little girl dressed up as Owly with a barrette shaped like Wormy. When I went to the Top Shelf stand later to buy a book and a limited-edition Owly plush, he remembered me from the panel and even drew a little Owly/Wormy/flying squirrel combo in my book. What a guy!
I know I did some other cool stuff that day (the panel with Deepak Chopra and Grant Morrison wasn't nearly as kookoo banananuts as I'd hoped), but the other highlight was meeting Chip Kidd. The lowlight was acting like a fangirl tool in front of him, but he seemed somewhat charmed by my utter geekitude. I also briefly met Brian Bolland and Carmine Infantino, so I felt like I got a little bit of history. Also, I saw a baby wearing a snake costume and carrying a toy plane. Because I am lame, I did not get a picture of this. The baby was out of picture distance by the time I found the camera. Such disappointment!
Friday, I got Shag to sign my copy of his book, and he was really cool. Then, after spending some time in the exhibits (my scores: an awesome Tara McPherson Kraftwerk miniposter, a t-shirt showing Lynda Carter morphing from Diana Prince to Wonder Woman, and a Supergirl t-shirt), I headed upstairs to see the long version of the Heroes pilot, the new TV show produced in part by my beloved Jeph Loeb and featuring artwork by my beloved Tim Sale. It was really good! I think it kinda got a little boring in the middle, but I am very excited for its arrival in the fall. The second it was over, I rushed out to run over to the ballroom for a panel on Battlestar Galactica, and ran into a friend from college who I haven't seen in, gosh, eight years or so? She and I caught up as we got in line for BSG. I later met up with Keith, saw the end of a David Boreanaz panel, and then we thoroughly enjoyed the Bruce Timm discussion/retrospective featuring the man himself.
Also, I saw this baby:
After all that geekery, it was time for dinner and drinks, so we went to a place called Mr. Tiki. He treated us well.
Saturday was pretty insane. There were probably about 120,000 people there. I went to a panel featuring all my favorite DC Comics writers, another panel called 50 Years of The Flash (it was really fun!), and did some other stuff before going to the Veronica Mars panel, which I enjoyed although I was a little let-down, especially after the intelligence and awesomeness of the BSG panel. Some of the fan Q&A was lame. Someone actually asked, "Hey Enrico, would you rather be covered in poo or eat a little bit of poo?" Um, yeah. But it was really cool to see the cast in person, and Rob Thomas is terrific. Also, the guy who plays Dick did a backflip. That was pretty sweet.
Eventually, we headed out of the con to go to Balboa Park for a dinner with our friend David from DC and a number of other media types. Thank you, Time Warner! I made some great new friends, had some delicious beef tenderloin, and had a nice discussion about books, music, comics, and more. It was a nice way to end the weekend. Oh, and then we went to the Hyatt for drinks and saw Bruce Timm smoking. It kinda freaked me out.
Sunday, we slept in, hung around the hotel, and then headed to the airport to come home. Sophie had a nice weekend with her new best friend Scott Gordon, our housesitter extraordinaire. This didn't stop her from doing a 30-minute, multipart interpretive dance when we got home. (You can watch a video of some her weekend antics here.)
It's nice to be missed.