(no subject)
san diego comic con left much to be desired-- With the "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job" Awesome Con taking place on saturday, I was planning on being in San Diego that weekend to begin with, and Charlie convinced me to shell out $100 for a scalped ticket with him for the Friday event alone. Which sucked.
"Excuse me sir, is this the idiotically long line for one of the 3 whole panels we paid more than triple the ticket price to see?"
"Why, yes, yes it is."
"But sir, according to our programs, this panel doesn't start for an hour and a half! Are our programs mistaken? Could the line to get in already by 150 people long??!!"
"Well, boys-- thing is that you neglected to think about something when justifying the price of your tickets and planning your day-- Fanboys. You forgot to factor in Fanboys. This line isn't to simply get in-- it's to replace, one seat at a time, empty seats from the previous panel that ended an hour ago AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE."
So, yup, Charlie and I didn't really get to see any of the panels we had hoped to see because, once you sit your probably fat and costumed (statistically speaking) ass down in an exhibit hall, no one makes you leave. You can sit in that seat, all goddamn day if you please, until the one little exhibit you want to see takes place. Meanwhile, people line up for the exhibits they actually want to see, sometimes hours in advance, just to find out that it's not enough-- the show will begin, the hall filled with kids passing time with their World of Warcraft card games and Nintendo DS Lites, while they-- actual fans, futilely wait for the doors to open.
So, in a way, Comic Con's fatal flaw is humbling in just how logical it proves to be: The laziest are rewarded for sitting on their asses for an extended period of time, showing minimal interest in the things the people a few feet away behind the closed doors would appreciate...it's a lot like what their daily lives must be like, except in this scenario they're rewarded for their stoic lethargy with the opportunity to ask Joss Whedon a question about some conflicting narrative thread of "Angel" and Buffy"-- or something like that.
At least I got mobbed by a pack of girls who LOST THEIR MINDS upon seeing my homemade "More Shia, Please" t-shirt, and proceeded to take pictures of my crotch and face, among other things. And at least the hot tub of our hotel room (a stone's throw away from Tiajuana) was what felt like a balmy 58 degrees.
Anyways, that was a few weeks ago. Since then, my little brother Ryan visited, and was told that he is getting deployed just before christmas this year. My younger sister found out that her baby, almost a year old now after being born more than 3 months premature, has mild cerebral palsy, and my other sister on my father's side, 17, had her baby.
Life gets vicious sometimes, i guess. Maybe that's why I always feel this pull against my heels when I get complacent; like I have to make things better for myself so that I have the means to make them better for everyone else...
In other news there's been talk of getting an epic Hemingway chest piece (pipe, antique typewriter, and all); Gregg Swiatlowski has brought more fun into my life in the 3 weeks that he's been in town so far than I've felt in a while, and I don't want him to leave; the new Walkmen album is beautiful in the simplicity of it's earnestness in a way that begs repeated listenings; Mad Men is the best show on TV-- hands down-- and should be watched by everyone...
So, my advice for the week of 08/25/08: Download "Postcards from Tiny Islands" or "On the Water", watch AMC, vote for Obama, go to the beach, read "A Farewell to Arms", and try somehow to make yourself stronger for the people you care about.
"Excuse me sir, is this the idiotically long line for one of the 3 whole panels we paid more than triple the ticket price to see?"
"Why, yes, yes it is."
"But sir, according to our programs, this panel doesn't start for an hour and a half! Are our programs mistaken? Could the line to get in already by 150 people long??!!"
"Well, boys-- thing is that you neglected to think about something when justifying the price of your tickets and planning your day-- Fanboys. You forgot to factor in Fanboys. This line isn't to simply get in-- it's to replace, one seat at a time, empty seats from the previous panel that ended an hour ago AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE."
So, yup, Charlie and I didn't really get to see any of the panels we had hoped to see because, once you sit your probably fat and costumed (statistically speaking) ass down in an exhibit hall, no one makes you leave. You can sit in that seat, all goddamn day if you please, until the one little exhibit you want to see takes place. Meanwhile, people line up for the exhibits they actually want to see, sometimes hours in advance, just to find out that it's not enough-- the show will begin, the hall filled with kids passing time with their World of Warcraft card games and Nintendo DS Lites, while they-- actual fans, futilely wait for the doors to open.
So, in a way, Comic Con's fatal flaw is humbling in just how logical it proves to be: The laziest are rewarded for sitting on their asses for an extended period of time, showing minimal interest in the things the people a few feet away behind the closed doors would appreciate...it's a lot like what their daily lives must be like, except in this scenario they're rewarded for their stoic lethargy with the opportunity to ask Joss Whedon a question about some conflicting narrative thread of "Angel" and Buffy"-- or something like that.
At least I got mobbed by a pack of girls who LOST THEIR MINDS upon seeing my homemade "More Shia, Please" t-shirt, and proceeded to take pictures of my crotch and face, among other things. And at least the hot tub of our hotel room (a stone's throw away from Tiajuana) was what felt like a balmy 58 degrees.
Anyways, that was a few weeks ago. Since then, my little brother Ryan visited, and was told that he is getting deployed just before christmas this year. My younger sister found out that her baby, almost a year old now after being born more than 3 months premature, has mild cerebral palsy, and my other sister on my father's side, 17, had her baby.
Life gets vicious sometimes, i guess. Maybe that's why I always feel this pull against my heels when I get complacent; like I have to make things better for myself so that I have the means to make them better for everyone else...
In other news there's been talk of getting an epic Hemingway chest piece (pipe, antique typewriter, and all); Gregg Swiatlowski has brought more fun into my life in the 3 weeks that he's been in town so far than I've felt in a while, and I don't want him to leave; the new Walkmen album is beautiful in the simplicity of it's earnestness in a way that begs repeated listenings; Mad Men is the best show on TV-- hands down-- and should be watched by everyone...
So, my advice for the week of 08/25/08: Download "Postcards from Tiny Islands" or "On the Water", watch AMC, vote for Obama, go to the beach, read "A Farewell to Arms", and try somehow to make yourself stronger for the people you care about.