Phoenix Comic Con
Well, this past weekend was a con weekend. I suppose I should write up a report of some sort. :)
I've uploaded some photos. You can find those here.
Adventures behind the cut.
So, Phoenix. ghostgirl13 , mad_brilliant_ , and myself decided to split the cost of gas by driving out to Phoenix from Los Angeles. Definitely cheaper than flying. So we left at the awful hour of 4am to arrive in Phoenix no later than 11am hopefully. The trip was pretty uneventful. Way too early for traffic so it was a smooth ride. We stopped for gas and a pit stop in Indio at some mom and pop station in which the bathroom door would not close, they had no soap and there was no light as far as I could tell. We each took turns leaning against the door so it stayed closed. And thankfully my travel mates came prepared with hand sanitizer. Yay! After Indio was the long drive through the desert with nothing entertaining, unless you count seeing future tumbleweeds as entertaining. After passing through Blythe we crossed into Arizona and discovered hey there's cactus. Strange thing, apparently the cactus doesn't appear on the 10 until you cross the border into Arizona. Then more driving through desert. I was starting to not be able to keep my eyes open. A problem I get on long stretches of straight road. So we stopped at a truck stop so I could jump around and wake my mind up again. Not much longer after that we arrived in Phoenix, found the hotel and then drove around the hotel several times trying to find the parking structure. Finally we stopped in front of the hotel and asked. We were told we had to check in first to get a parking pass in order to enter the lot that had a sign saying it was full. So we did that, unloaded the bags from the car and I parked it before bringing my bags up per the request of the hotel staff. But then discovered that ghostgirl13 and mad_brilliant_ had managed to bring up all the bags while I parked the car.
We freshened up a bit and went to register for the con and then eat lunch. After lunch hellziggy joined us in the room and told us what was happening at the con since she had been there Thursday night. After that I took photos of mad_brilliant_ getting her James auto per her request. Then went to the photo booth to find out prices for Wil Wheaton's, Aaron Douglas', and Emma Caulfield's photos. I then learned that Emma had canceled her appearance. I was told she was auditioning for something. I hope she got the job because I was greatly bummed to miss the chance to meet her. I've only ever seen her at the Paley event and that wasn't really a chance to meet her. After that ghostgirl13 and myself checked out the exhibit hall. That didn't take us too long, small hall, and we soon had nothing to do while waiting for Wil's panel. So we decided to head over to the ballroom early and sit in on other panels while waiting. Listened in on Genie Francis' panel. Sweet and funny lady. And then my travel mates decided to go back to the hotel to nap. I stayed on to hear Wil's Awesome Hour which was freakin awesome!
Then I bought my photo op with Wil because he was so awesome, Aaron and James before heading back to the hotel for food and Rock Band!
hellziggy and I went to the Wil Wheaton Rock Band concert. That was very fun. Pretty much groups signed up to play and they'd go on stage, tell Wil what part he was playing and they'd perform the song. Wil rocked out on all parts pretty well. And he did Lady Gaga well considering he never heard it. I finally needed to crash around midnight and left after the Phoenix Ghostbusters got on stage to sing "Ghostbusters".
Thankfully nothing was happening until noon on Saturday so I could sleep in and recover from the early morning the previous day. I got up with plenty of time to spare so I got a bagel at the shop in the hotel and ate that while sketching people eating, before going up to the room to gather my stuff for the day. I got my James autograph on Saturday so I got in line for that first. ghostgirl13 came along to mooch some free James time. :P When we got there we learned they had changed the breakfast auction from three 20 min sessions to one 1 hour session. That got us tempted. So I checked out the auction prices when I got up to the table. I think it was at $125 high bid only 5 people in at that point. Bought my auto and waited my turn. James said hello to and shook ghostgirl13 's hand before she said hi, it's not me it's her, pointing to me. So he switched over to me. Hi, shaking hand and looks at the photo.
He compliments me on making him look good or something like that. I thanked him. He then looks at my shirt. He tries to read it but my badge is in the way, he puts his hand out to move my badge but hesitates. Doesn't want to get to personal in case. So I saved him the trouble and told him what it said. He started laughing, and I told him I figured he would get the joke. Physics and Star Wars, where can you go wrong. He signed my photo, we did the end of the auto hand shake and that was that. Then it was almost time to get in line for my photo. While waiting, we pondered the breakfast auction. If I bid it would be $155. Either it was slight insanity or I figured I would be outbid because I bid. While Steve was watching I told ghostgirl13 whatever you decided and walked away. I then noticed she started to sign the sheet and came up going so you went for it. Steve seemed to be amused by us. ghostgirl13 then left me for my photo op while she went to Felicia Day's panel. The photo op was the standard, hi bye affair and I went on to the ballroom to sit in the rest of Felicia's panel before getting a good seat for John Schneider's. Once I got that seat I kept it through his panel, James' and the Star Trek panel. It's so lovely to be able to stay in a room for panel after panel. SD Comic Con does it that way and I wish Dragon Con would follow suit. People can be fans of multiple genres.
James was in great form for the panel. I could have done without the moderator who thought he was just so awesome and funny. But yeah, a very entertaining Q&A.
I wish I could remember what topic brought on the puppy dog face. But it's cute none the less.
Anyways. After James' panel, I was left by myself again. The other's just didn't understand the awesomeness of Wil Wheaton. :) I got a text from ghostgirl13 that the lowest bid on the auction was at $145 and she was crossing off her bid. I figured that meant I would be getting kicked out soon. After the awesome Star Trek panel in which both Levar Burton and Jonathon Frakes burst out in song, it was off to the hotel to grab food before getting in line for the concert. After Steve had come around to mark the VIP ticket holders, M and H approached me to ask if Steve had talked to me about the breakfast. I said no. She said he left a voicemail. I pulled out my phone and lo and behold, a voicemail was there. I thanked her and told her I'd talk to Steve. It was too loud to listen to the voicemail so when Steve made his way around the line I asked him about it. Ends up I made it to the breakfast and he told me the details. One part of me was neat, and hour with James in the morning, the other part went oh crap. There goes that money. Well I partially justified it because I was going to get a second auto and photo on Sunday, so I just used that money for the breakfast instead.
Not long after that we were let into the room for the concert. I took a seat and noticed that there were several open seats in the VIP section. I guess some people didn't show up. But the con staff were strict with not letting anyone else sit in the seats just in case those VIP ticket holders showed up late. I kind of missed the explanation in the beginning, either the pick up he brought for the guitar didn't work or the guitar had a pick up in it and it didn't work or something else. Either way, the guitar he had could not be plugged in. So they had a mic set up for the guitar. James fussed quite a bit over the guitar not being heard, but except for the first song in which the mic might not have been on, it sounded fine. I've seen many a set up in which the guitar is just miked not plugged in. So really not a problem. It was a good concert over all. I still prefer concerts in actually music venues, but when you're at a con you don't have many choices over a hotel ballroom.
He did his usual fake "encore" thing. He just turned his back to the audience while they clapped then turned around pretending to be all "me?" "you really like me?">
Then he was all smiles laughing at his own antics.
After the concert it was back up to the room to veg a bit before going to the Geek Prom. The prom itself was fun when they started playing all the "bad" prom music as they called it and everyone danced. But it was slightly disappointing. I thought it would have been more of Wil and Felicia hosting it and entertaining rather than just them saying some words and going away for other bands and the DJ to play. They did come back and dance with the crowd though. And even though they advertised him I never saw Aaron there. But it was a fun party still.
Sunday I actually had to get up a little early. Both mad_brilliant_ and myself went to the breakfast. We got down to the room a little early and started to eat some pastries. James came in once everyone was settled in. He has a really gravelly voice in the morning. Kind of sexy. I won't go into details of the thing because I suck at that and I know mad_brilliant_ took notes for her report. I will say I did correct him on something, which is a big first. I tend to stay silent. He talked about his Supergirl idea and went into the legal battle with DC and the family of Superman's creators. He first said Kane and I quickly went no Shuster (looking it up now I forgot Siegel), Kane did Batman. I've proof read enough of our show's end credits to know that. :)
After the breakfast we checked out, loaded the car and went back to the con to get a group photo of all four of us. mad_brilliant_ had one more auto to get. hellziggy had some other stuff to see. So ghostgirl13 and myself went out to get lunch. While walking around I somehow managed to not see a tree nearby and hit my head on a low branch. Thankfully I have a hard head and it didn't hurt for too long. Once fed I had Wil's and Aaron's photos. That was insanity. Ray Park and Daniel Logan were late for their shoot before Wil. Stan Lee was after Aaron and the lines were insane. After much confusion, I got my Wil photo and after even more confusion got Aaron's. One person told us to leave and come back later for Aaron but wouldn't answer what time do we come back. Finally Froggy came out himself and went anymore for Wil and when no one answered he called for Aaron. hellziggy , ghostgirl13 , and myself all went here for that and managed to get his photo. We said farewell to hellziggy after that, and just hung out waiting for our photo ops to be printed. Shortly before 3pm we got those and headed back to the hotel to collect mad_brilliant_ and hit the road. I managed to get home at a decent hour and went straight to bed. It was so nice having Memorial Day to recover.
And that was the weekend in a nutshell.
Edited to fix ghostgirl to ghostgirl13 . While I'm sure ghostgirl is a nice person, I don't know her, or I don't think I know her. My brain malfunctioned and I forgot ghostgirl13 's LJ name. :)
I've uploaded some photos. You can find those here.
Adventures behind the cut.
So, Phoenix. ghostgirl13 , mad_brilliant_ , and myself decided to split the cost of gas by driving out to Phoenix from Los Angeles. Definitely cheaper than flying. So we left at the awful hour of 4am to arrive in Phoenix no later than 11am hopefully. The trip was pretty uneventful. Way too early for traffic so it was a smooth ride. We stopped for gas and a pit stop in Indio at some mom and pop station in which the bathroom door would not close, they had no soap and there was no light as far as I could tell. We each took turns leaning against the door so it stayed closed. And thankfully my travel mates came prepared with hand sanitizer. Yay! After Indio was the long drive through the desert with nothing entertaining, unless you count seeing future tumbleweeds as entertaining. After passing through Blythe we crossed into Arizona and discovered hey there's cactus. Strange thing, apparently the cactus doesn't appear on the 10 until you cross the border into Arizona. Then more driving through desert. I was starting to not be able to keep my eyes open. A problem I get on long stretches of straight road. So we stopped at a truck stop so I could jump around and wake my mind up again. Not much longer after that we arrived in Phoenix, found the hotel and then drove around the hotel several times trying to find the parking structure. Finally we stopped in front of the hotel and asked. We were told we had to check in first to get a parking pass in order to enter the lot that had a sign saying it was full. So we did that, unloaded the bags from the car and I parked it before bringing my bags up per the request of the hotel staff. But then discovered that ghostgirl13 and mad_brilliant_ had managed to bring up all the bags while I parked the car.
We freshened up a bit and went to register for the con and then eat lunch. After lunch hellziggy joined us in the room and told us what was happening at the con since she had been there Thursday night. After that I took photos of mad_brilliant_ getting her James auto per her request. Then went to the photo booth to find out prices for Wil Wheaton's, Aaron Douglas', and Emma Caulfield's photos. I then learned that Emma had canceled her appearance. I was told she was auditioning for something. I hope she got the job because I was greatly bummed to miss the chance to meet her. I've only ever seen her at the Paley event and that wasn't really a chance to meet her. After that ghostgirl13 and myself checked out the exhibit hall. That didn't take us too long, small hall, and we soon had nothing to do while waiting for Wil's panel. So we decided to head over to the ballroom early and sit in on other panels while waiting. Listened in on Genie Francis' panel. Sweet and funny lady. And then my travel mates decided to go back to the hotel to nap. I stayed on to hear Wil's Awesome Hour which was freakin awesome!
Then I bought my photo op with Wil because he was so awesome, Aaron and James before heading back to the hotel for food and Rock Band!
hellziggy and I went to the Wil Wheaton Rock Band concert. That was very fun. Pretty much groups signed up to play and they'd go on stage, tell Wil what part he was playing and they'd perform the song. Wil rocked out on all parts pretty well. And he did Lady Gaga well considering he never heard it. I finally needed to crash around midnight and left after the Phoenix Ghostbusters got on stage to sing "Ghostbusters".
Thankfully nothing was happening until noon on Saturday so I could sleep in and recover from the early morning the previous day. I got up with plenty of time to spare so I got a bagel at the shop in the hotel and ate that while sketching people eating, before going up to the room to gather my stuff for the day. I got my James autograph on Saturday so I got in line for that first. ghostgirl13 came along to mooch some free James time. :P When we got there we learned they had changed the breakfast auction from three 20 min sessions to one 1 hour session. That got us tempted. So I checked out the auction prices when I got up to the table. I think it was at $125 high bid only 5 people in at that point. Bought my auto and waited my turn. James said hello to and shook ghostgirl13 's hand before she said hi, it's not me it's her, pointing to me. So he switched over to me. Hi, shaking hand and looks at the photo.
He compliments me on making him look good or something like that. I thanked him. He then looks at my shirt. He tries to read it but my badge is in the way, he puts his hand out to move my badge but hesitates. Doesn't want to get to personal in case. So I saved him the trouble and told him what it said. He started laughing, and I told him I figured he would get the joke. Physics and Star Wars, where can you go wrong. He signed my photo, we did the end of the auto hand shake and that was that. Then it was almost time to get in line for my photo. While waiting, we pondered the breakfast auction. If I bid it would be $155. Either it was slight insanity or I figured I would be outbid because I bid. While Steve was watching I told ghostgirl13 whatever you decided and walked away. I then noticed she started to sign the sheet and came up going so you went for it. Steve seemed to be amused by us. ghostgirl13 then left me for my photo op while she went to Felicia Day's panel. The photo op was the standard, hi bye affair and I went on to the ballroom to sit in the rest of Felicia's panel before getting a good seat for John Schneider's. Once I got that seat I kept it through his panel, James' and the Star Trek panel. It's so lovely to be able to stay in a room for panel after panel. SD Comic Con does it that way and I wish Dragon Con would follow suit. People can be fans of multiple genres.
James was in great form for the panel. I could have done without the moderator who thought he was just so awesome and funny. But yeah, a very entertaining Q&A.
I wish I could remember what topic brought on the puppy dog face. But it's cute none the less.
Anyways. After James' panel, I was left by myself again. The other's just didn't understand the awesomeness of Wil Wheaton. :) I got a text from ghostgirl13 that the lowest bid on the auction was at $145 and she was crossing off her bid. I figured that meant I would be getting kicked out soon. After the awesome Star Trek panel in which both Levar Burton and Jonathon Frakes burst out in song, it was off to the hotel to grab food before getting in line for the concert. After Steve had come around to mark the VIP ticket holders, M and H approached me to ask if Steve had talked to me about the breakfast. I said no. She said he left a voicemail. I pulled out my phone and lo and behold, a voicemail was there. I thanked her and told her I'd talk to Steve. It was too loud to listen to the voicemail so when Steve made his way around the line I asked him about it. Ends up I made it to the breakfast and he told me the details. One part of me was neat, and hour with James in the morning, the other part went oh crap. There goes that money. Well I partially justified it because I was going to get a second auto and photo on Sunday, so I just used that money for the breakfast instead.
Not long after that we were let into the room for the concert. I took a seat and noticed that there were several open seats in the VIP section. I guess some people didn't show up. But the con staff were strict with not letting anyone else sit in the seats just in case those VIP ticket holders showed up late. I kind of missed the explanation in the beginning, either the pick up he brought for the guitar didn't work or the guitar had a pick up in it and it didn't work or something else. Either way, the guitar he had could not be plugged in. So they had a mic set up for the guitar. James fussed quite a bit over the guitar not being heard, but except for the first song in which the mic might not have been on, it sounded fine. I've seen many a set up in which the guitar is just miked not plugged in. So really not a problem. It was a good concert over all. I still prefer concerts in actually music venues, but when you're at a con you don't have many choices over a hotel ballroom.
He did his usual fake "encore" thing. He just turned his back to the audience while they clapped then turned around pretending to be all "me?" "you really like me?">
Then he was all smiles laughing at his own antics.
After the concert it was back up to the room to veg a bit before going to the Geek Prom. The prom itself was fun when they started playing all the "bad" prom music as they called it and everyone danced. But it was slightly disappointing. I thought it would have been more of Wil and Felicia hosting it and entertaining rather than just them saying some words and going away for other bands and the DJ to play. They did come back and dance with the crowd though. And even though they advertised him I never saw Aaron there. But it was a fun party still.
Sunday I actually had to get up a little early. Both mad_brilliant_ and myself went to the breakfast. We got down to the room a little early and started to eat some pastries. James came in once everyone was settled in. He has a really gravelly voice in the morning. Kind of sexy. I won't go into details of the thing because I suck at that and I know mad_brilliant_ took notes for her report. I will say I did correct him on something, which is a big first. I tend to stay silent. He talked about his Supergirl idea and went into the legal battle with DC and the family of Superman's creators. He first said Kane and I quickly went no Shuster (looking it up now I forgot Siegel), Kane did Batman. I've proof read enough of our show's end credits to know that. :)
After the breakfast we checked out, loaded the car and went back to the con to get a group photo of all four of us. mad_brilliant_ had one more auto to get. hellziggy had some other stuff to see. So ghostgirl13 and myself went out to get lunch. While walking around I somehow managed to not see a tree nearby and hit my head on a low branch. Thankfully I have a hard head and it didn't hurt for too long. Once fed I had Wil's and Aaron's photos. That was insanity. Ray Park and Daniel Logan were late for their shoot before Wil. Stan Lee was after Aaron and the lines were insane. After much confusion, I got my Wil photo and after even more confusion got Aaron's. One person told us to leave and come back later for Aaron but wouldn't answer what time do we come back. Finally Froggy came out himself and went anymore for Wil and when no one answered he called for Aaron. hellziggy , ghostgirl13 , and myself all went here for that and managed to get his photo. We said farewell to hellziggy after that, and just hung out waiting for our photo ops to be printed. Shortly before 3pm we got those and headed back to the hotel to collect mad_brilliant_ and hit the road. I managed to get home at a decent hour and went straight to bed. It was so nice having Memorial Day to recover.
And that was the weekend in a nutshell.
Edited to fix ghostgirl to ghostgirl13 . While I'm sure ghostgirl is a nice person, I don't know her, or I don't think I know her. My brain malfunctioned and I forgot ghostgirl13 's LJ name. :)