My Comic Con 2009 write up
Underneath the cut, since it's pretty long:
The adventure commenced on Saturday when I left my house at 7:00 a.m. to drive and first pick up cookie2697. I drove towards the freeway and was immediately halted by the onramp being closed. It took me 10 minutes to get to the next onramp and then I promptly got stuck in a huge traffic jam because the freeway was undergoing construction and they closed four out of seven lanes. Fifteen minutes later and I was on my way. I picked up Anne and then we drove to pick up sugarsicons and we began our long drive south.
In the end it took us about 11 hours from when I left Sacramento to get to San Diego. Up until hitting Los Angeles it was a pretty pleasant drive dodging the semis and auto drivers who somehow think that driving 80mph on I5 is fast. Silly people. And even people watching from the confines of our car to the other cars around us was pretty entertaining. The one that took the case was a woman driving an SUV with a full set of bright pink luggage strapped to the top of her car. And nothing in the SUV. She was the only person or thing in the car. It was very odd.
We arrived at our hotel outside of downtown San Diego and then took public transportation into the city. And I thought Sacramento’s public transportation was sketchy but I’m reassessing that after riding San Diego’s. The ride back to our hotel that night at about 11:30 p.m. really made me wish I had some pepper spray. Or a gun. But back to more pleasant things! We got into downtown and were immediately overwhelmed by the scope of Comic Con. The activities for the day were pretty much done but we scoped out the area and then walked through downtown a bit. Amazingly crowded. I was expecting there to be a ton of people but I could barely wrap my mind around how many there were just in the downtown area looking for dinner and going to the parties.
We wandered and looked for dinner for awhile before settling on the Spaghetti Factory. And as we stood outside waiting for our table Russell T Davies walked right in front of us and across the street. cookie2697 spotted him and the man is huge! Like giant tall and he practically loped across the street. I was in too much shock to do more then just stare. Dinner was good and then we started to wander back to the public transportation to get home. Outside one club/restaurant there was a red carpet/press event going on and that’s where we saw various stars of several SyFy channel shows as well as Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin from Chuck. And then while cookie2697 proceeded to try and get pictures sugarsicons and I literally jumped up and down with happiness and glee that we got to see Chuck. Seriously, I don’t know that I’ve ever been that excited to see a celebrity. Even if it was from across the street.
After getting back to the hotel and asleep around 12:30 we had a very short night's sleep, getting up at 4:30. Oh, the things we do for David Tennant. Since we'd scoped out the convention the day before we found out that parking at the convention center itself was only $10 and since we were arriving before 6:00 a.m. we figured we'd be able to get in and it would be closer to the airport to drop sugarsicons that evening. Since we only had single day passes we had to first stand in line for registration. I think we were in line right around 6:00 a.m. and thankfully weren't too far from the front, probably 50 or so people back. cookie2697 was the savior of the day and found the Starbucks and brought us coffee and pastries. And we really, really needed it!
The morning was a bit of a blur, but I think we got into the registration area around 8:00 a.m. and then we immediately went to the line for Ballroom 20, which was where the line for the Doctor Who panel had already begun to form. We were only a couple hundred people back and the room held over 4,000, so we felt pretty confident we'd get in. Thus began another long wait in line. And this time it was a little more maddening because there was a charming group of Doctor Who geeks behind us and all they did for the next hour and a half was talk about various aspects of the show. Loudly. And one of them kept referring to Stephen Moffat as "Stephen Muffette." Like you pronounce "Smurfette." The three of us decided we will now refer to Moffat as "The Muff." In honor of the mispronunciation and because it was pretty hilarious.
We got into Ballroom 20 around 9:30 a.m. or so with the panel starting at 10:00 a.m. And we were lucky in the our friend Tiffany was further up in line and saved us seats! Four rows from the front and on the left side! Also right in front of one of the gigantic screens which was incredibly clear. The time until the panel flew by and pretty soon Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Euros Lyn and David Tennant were strolling on stage. It was pretty surreal. The crowd cheered and screamed, took millions of pictures and the whole group seemed to be very humbled and appreciative of the attention. And David wore a black t-shirt with a Stormtrooper emblazoned on it with rhinestones. So like him.
I could give a play-by-play of the panel but that can be found on You Tube and other places. Suffice to say the highlights were seeing the preview for the Christmas Special (including confirmation that John Simm as the Master will be in it!), David going off about Billie beating him on Top Gear, David petting Russell, Julie and Euros after someone asked if they all like each other, and even the discussion about the regeneration of the Tenth Doctor and how the scene reduced composer Murray Gold to tears. Because if Murray was crying then I can only imagine how hard it will be once he scores it!
It was also amusing to hear David debunk the rumors about him playing the Hobbit and the whole panel's general curiosity and awe of how big a phenomenon the show is in the United States. They seemed to enjoy the attention, David especially as he took a photo in front of the crowd: HERE
The panel seemed all too short but it was really fantastic to see it. And to be there for David's first appearance at a convention in America. My camera decided to choose that day of all days to break so I wasn't able to get any pictures. But cookie2697 got lots of good pictures from the panel and of the trip overall: HERE
We stayed in the room for several more hours, enduring some pretty bad panels (what some people find funny really mystifies me) before the Torchwood panel in the afternoon. It had the same group of people, just substituted David for John Barrowman. And he is quite the character, as anyone who has seen him in interviews or pretty much anywhere else outside of on screen on TW could attest. I wasn't a big fan of the recent TW episodes but it was still great to hear how successful it was (and John screaming like a teenage girl in excitement over it) and how they are hoping to continue on in some way. I hope we haven't seen the last of Captain Jack.
After finally leaving the ballroom around 4:00 in the afternoon we headed down to the Dealer Room to see what was there to see. And wow, it was completely overwhelming. The whole room must have been about the size of four football fields and it was crammed full of stuff. And a lot of stuff that I had never even comprehended actually exists. I can see how this is just such a huge event for people. I'm sure most of the stuff if available online but seeing it in person is probably pretty cool. I suppose the good part is that 99% of it didn't interest me at all. And I managed to escape without buying anything. It was just crazy how crowded it was, it made it very hard to navigate at all. And since it was the last day of the convention a lot of stuff seemed to be gone.
After the Dealer Room we left the convention center, getting some Pinkberry to cool off before we took sugarscicons to the airport. After that cookie2697 and I had planned to drive north to Los Angeles to stay with a friend but the incredible traffic and snail's pace when we were still over 100 miles away from our destination made us detour to Escondido for the night. It turned out to be a good idea, we found a little hotel, ordered pizza and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire enjoying David's scenes and getting to bed early.
Monday morning we hit the road and had a mercilessly traffic free drive north. Though we had the bad luck of exiting the freeway to find a Starbucks and I first picked the one exit that didn't have a Starbucks. After passing probably a dozen exits, all with Starbucks. But we endured and got our coffee fix! We made it back to the Sacramento area after a long but uneventful drive and called our very long, very tiring but also very fun weekend to an end.
And who knows? Maybe next year we'll plan better and go for the whole convention. It was pretty interesting to see everything and for someone who is as big of a geek about TV and movies as me, as long as you can handle the crowds, it's a pretty interesting event.
The adventure commenced on Saturday when I left my house at 7:00 a.m. to drive and first pick up cookie2697. I drove towards the freeway and was immediately halted by the onramp being closed. It took me 10 minutes to get to the next onramp and then I promptly got stuck in a huge traffic jam because the freeway was undergoing construction and they closed four out of seven lanes. Fifteen minutes later and I was on my way. I picked up Anne and then we drove to pick up sugarsicons and we began our long drive south.
In the end it took us about 11 hours from when I left Sacramento to get to San Diego. Up until hitting Los Angeles it was a pretty pleasant drive dodging the semis and auto drivers who somehow think that driving 80mph on I5 is fast. Silly people. And even people watching from the confines of our car to the other cars around us was pretty entertaining. The one that took the case was a woman driving an SUV with a full set of bright pink luggage strapped to the top of her car. And nothing in the SUV. She was the only person or thing in the car. It was very odd.
We arrived at our hotel outside of downtown San Diego and then took public transportation into the city. And I thought Sacramento’s public transportation was sketchy but I’m reassessing that after riding San Diego’s. The ride back to our hotel that night at about 11:30 p.m. really made me wish I had some pepper spray. Or a gun. But back to more pleasant things! We got into downtown and were immediately overwhelmed by the scope of Comic Con. The activities for the day were pretty much done but we scoped out the area and then walked through downtown a bit. Amazingly crowded. I was expecting there to be a ton of people but I could barely wrap my mind around how many there were just in the downtown area looking for dinner and going to the parties.
We wandered and looked for dinner for awhile before settling on the Spaghetti Factory. And as we stood outside waiting for our table Russell T Davies walked right in front of us and across the street. cookie2697 spotted him and the man is huge! Like giant tall and he practically loped across the street. I was in too much shock to do more then just stare. Dinner was good and then we started to wander back to the public transportation to get home. Outside one club/restaurant there was a red carpet/press event going on and that’s where we saw various stars of several SyFy channel shows as well as Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin from Chuck. And then while cookie2697 proceeded to try and get pictures sugarsicons and I literally jumped up and down with happiness and glee that we got to see Chuck. Seriously, I don’t know that I’ve ever been that excited to see a celebrity. Even if it was from across the street.
After getting back to the hotel and asleep around 12:30 we had a very short night's sleep, getting up at 4:30. Oh, the things we do for David Tennant. Since we'd scoped out the convention the day before we found out that parking at the convention center itself was only $10 and since we were arriving before 6:00 a.m. we figured we'd be able to get in and it would be closer to the airport to drop sugarsicons that evening. Since we only had single day passes we had to first stand in line for registration. I think we were in line right around 6:00 a.m. and thankfully weren't too far from the front, probably 50 or so people back. cookie2697 was the savior of the day and found the Starbucks and brought us coffee and pastries. And we really, really needed it!
The morning was a bit of a blur, but I think we got into the registration area around 8:00 a.m. and then we immediately went to the line for Ballroom 20, which was where the line for the Doctor Who panel had already begun to form. We were only a couple hundred people back and the room held over 4,000, so we felt pretty confident we'd get in. Thus began another long wait in line. And this time it was a little more maddening because there was a charming group of Doctor Who geeks behind us and all they did for the next hour and a half was talk about various aspects of the show. Loudly. And one of them kept referring to Stephen Moffat as "Stephen Muffette." Like you pronounce "Smurfette." The three of us decided we will now refer to Moffat as "The Muff." In honor of the mispronunciation and because it was pretty hilarious.
We got into Ballroom 20 around 9:30 a.m. or so with the panel starting at 10:00 a.m. And we were lucky in the our friend Tiffany was further up in line and saved us seats! Four rows from the front and on the left side! Also right in front of one of the gigantic screens which was incredibly clear. The time until the panel flew by and pretty soon Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Euros Lyn and David Tennant were strolling on stage. It was pretty surreal. The crowd cheered and screamed, took millions of pictures and the whole group seemed to be very humbled and appreciative of the attention. And David wore a black t-shirt with a Stormtrooper emblazoned on it with rhinestones. So like him.
I could give a play-by-play of the panel but that can be found on You Tube and other places. Suffice to say the highlights were seeing the preview for the Christmas Special (including confirmation that John Simm as the Master will be in it!), David going off about Billie beating him on Top Gear, David petting Russell, Julie and Euros after someone asked if they all like each other, and even the discussion about the regeneration of the Tenth Doctor and how the scene reduced composer Murray Gold to tears. Because if Murray was crying then I can only imagine how hard it will be once he scores it!
It was also amusing to hear David debunk the rumors about him playing the Hobbit and the whole panel's general curiosity and awe of how big a phenomenon the show is in the United States. They seemed to enjoy the attention, David especially as he took a photo in front of the crowd: HERE
The panel seemed all too short but it was really fantastic to see it. And to be there for David's first appearance at a convention in America. My camera decided to choose that day of all days to break so I wasn't able to get any pictures. But cookie2697 got lots of good pictures from the panel and of the trip overall: HERE
We stayed in the room for several more hours, enduring some pretty bad panels (what some people find funny really mystifies me) before the Torchwood panel in the afternoon. It had the same group of people, just substituted David for John Barrowman. And he is quite the character, as anyone who has seen him in interviews or pretty much anywhere else outside of on screen on TW could attest. I wasn't a big fan of the recent TW episodes but it was still great to hear how successful it was (and John screaming like a teenage girl in excitement over it) and how they are hoping to continue on in some way. I hope we haven't seen the last of Captain Jack.
After finally leaving the ballroom around 4:00 in the afternoon we headed down to the Dealer Room to see what was there to see. And wow, it was completely overwhelming. The whole room must have been about the size of four football fields and it was crammed full of stuff. And a lot of stuff that I had never even comprehended actually exists. I can see how this is just such a huge event for people. I'm sure most of the stuff if available online but seeing it in person is probably pretty cool. I suppose the good part is that 99% of it didn't interest me at all. And I managed to escape without buying anything. It was just crazy how crowded it was, it made it very hard to navigate at all. And since it was the last day of the convention a lot of stuff seemed to be gone.
After the Dealer Room we left the convention center, getting some Pinkberry to cool off before we took sugarscicons to the airport. After that cookie2697 and I had planned to drive north to Los Angeles to stay with a friend but the incredible traffic and snail's pace when we were still over 100 miles away from our destination made us detour to Escondido for the night. It turned out to be a good idea, we found a little hotel, ordered pizza and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire enjoying David's scenes and getting to bed early.
Monday morning we hit the road and had a mercilessly traffic free drive north. Though we had the bad luck of exiting the freeway to find a Starbucks and I first picked the one exit that didn't have a Starbucks. After passing probably a dozen exits, all with Starbucks. But we endured and got our coffee fix! We made it back to the Sacramento area after a long but uneventful drive and called our very long, very tiring but also very fun weekend to an end.
And who knows? Maybe next year we'll plan better and go for the whole convention. It was pretty interesting to see everything and for someone who is as big of a geek about TV and movies as me, as long as you can handle the crowds, it's a pretty interesting event.