There were a lot of famous people I didn't see at NYCC 2008.
NYCC 2008 was quite a bit more fun than NYCC 2007. And not just because I knew more people that attended, either.
Friday -- I was only able to get there at 7pm, an hour before closing. But I picked up my badge and headed over to the dealer's room. Which was around 3 times bigger than last year's, I think. And also had a lot more of interest to me. Though at this point I barely walked through it because I was more interested in attending the Neil Gaiman panel.
Which was awesome!
I've (so far) read only two of his books: Coraline and American Gods. Both of which I enjoyed immensely, but did not die over. I have not read Sandman, for which I'm sure several of my friends shake their heads at me in shame. I have also read an occasional blog post of his and I certainly enjoyed what he had to say. However, hearing him speak live was a great thing -- his sense of humor and his personality were right up my alley; I decided, not too long into the panel, that I would have to add his blog to my syndications and keep up with it. So I've done so, and now look forward to it.
He also read an excerpt from his forthcoming The Graveyard Book. It was very enjoyable to listen to. I really love his way with words, but there's just something about how he writes that keeps it from being a page-turner for me. I am never quite on the edge of my seat with his stories. I'm always interested -- I always push on through to the end, and am happy to do so. But at certain points it can be a real struggle to keep going. I'd like to read more of his works and hopefully have an experience that turns it around for me.
Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Dallas BBQs and -- since I hadn't eaten anything for a good 8 or so hours, proceeded to get drunk off of one large $8 margarita. Ah, BBQs. I was able to SHOCK Maryann by ordering the catfish, which was practically the highlight of my evening. And it was excellent to see Joe & Morgan and hear their adorable library book story. ^^
Saturday -- got there around 2pm. Wandered the dealer's room a bit and found an awesome portal/cake & wcc tee ($20). Of course, that particular booth did not take credit so I stood on line for an ATM for 10-15 minutes to get cash which I had to pay $3 for! Argh! The worst of it all, though, was that some guy came up and asked, "Is this the line for the ATM machine?" I stuttered for a second before confirming that it was. He thanked me and walked away, leaving me with a vague feeling of mild distaste.
Helped Anna organize and herd the cosplayers for the walk-on costume contest. I haven't done something like that in a while, it was quite refreshing, in fact. Last time I did something like that I was volunteering at BAAF, the year of AXNY. It was actually all over and done with in about 45 minutes. I meant to ask Anna what those grand prizes were.
After that I wandered around the dealer's room some more and bought a moogle cell phone strap/charm (only $7!) from the Squenix booth. Which I won't be able to use until I get a new phone since my current phone doesn't have a charm loop. But! I may be able to upgrade my phone sometime soon. Jamie showed us her new palm, which is pretty sweet, and which I may have to get at some point. It was very difficult to resist purchasing other items from said Squenix booth, but I was able to resist due to the large amount of money I will be spending next weekend on tattoos!
After that I tried to get to the Quick Stop Entertainment Panel (which had Jonathan Coulton on it), but there was an INSANE FUCKING LINE for I don't even know which panel. They had all these really high profile guests all at once, so the panel room area was packed and they were not letting people in. Finally, I batted my eyes and played the harmless young girl, all by herself, and was FINALLY! let in to the Quick Stop panel. 30 minutes late. Which could have sucked except that they told all the panelists to delay their panels because of the problem and they'd run late. BUT THEN THEY DIDN'T!!!! And I have no personal grudge with the next panelists (which happened to be Anna, Chris and Co.'s Cosplay panel), but I WAS REALLY PISSED TO HAVE THIS PANEL CUT SHORT! Seriously, Jonathan Coulton was the only person I cared about seeing this whole fucking weekend, and THEY CUT THE PANEL SHORT!!1!!1! al;sdjflashdfaos;egfbawe;orj!
a;lsdfjaslj!
aslfjasljdfkowaejroh
So. When JoCo, Paul and Storm left the panel room I followed them out, borrowing Carrie's camera along the way, and had someone take a quick pic of me & JoCo. Which is nice, don't get me wrong. But I would rather have had a full length panel to experience and remember than a picture. I know what both of us look like. It's small consolation. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I also said something brainless-fan-idiotic to him, which is another reason I'd rather have just heard the fucking panel.
Anyway. Went back in for the cosplay panel. Afterwards we went to go eat. Judy and I took a detour to go pick up her jacket at the Marvel booth, so when we got to the Skylight or Bluelight or Whatever-the-Hell-Light Diner, there were no seats for us. =( But we went to go eat at an awesome Japanese place at 35th & 8th (Azuki), which had an AMAZING TO DIE FOR spicy crunchy tuna/asparagus/eel/avocado roll (called the "dinosaur" roll), and a very delicisouly-cooked salmon teriyaki. So it turned out alright. OMG, seriously. That roll was SO GOOD. And there was so much of it that I only ate half my salmon teriyaki, and took the rest to go. If anyone's interested in trying it, let me know -- I so want to go back there. And it wasn't insanely expensive. Maybe $2-5 more than what you might have spent at the Skylight Diner. And that was with taking half my food home, too!
After that we went to the Tower Bar and had a nice little gathering, which turned into a larger gathering at some point. It was nice to see Julian The Bartender again, though, since it's really gotten too crowded again since the weather has turned warm.
Sunday -- got to the Javits at what, like 11? Picked up food for Judy and roamed around the dealers room. There were one or two things I could have spent money on (mostly at the Squenix booth), but didn't. I was only able to resist because I know just how little money I'm going to have after this weekend in Philly.
I looked at the program guide (NOT the schedule) at some point and discovered that JIM BUTCHER HAD BEEN DOING SIGNINGS IN THE DEALER'S ROOM ON SATURDAY! ;_; HOW WRONG IS THAT?! I was really sad to have missed the chance to say hello and have my copy of his newest Dresden Files novel, Small Favor signed. I began to feel like this weekend was "Con of Missed Opportunity". Ah well.
I also saw that Sherrilyn Kenyon was there, in the dealer's room, also signing. She had a whole booth of her stuff. She was giving away copies of Seize the Night, which happens to be my favorite of her series (tied with Night Play). So I picked up two copies and had her sign one for me, and one for Angelica, since she's been into this series lately. The Dark Hunter series kind of lost my interest when I started having to wait for her books to come out rather than just continue reading through them. However, Acheron's book will be coming out later this summer and it may just renew my interest enough to rush through some of the other books in order to get up to Acheron's. But only if Angelica lends me her books because there's no way I'm buying any more of them. I really think the quality of her writing in the last two years has gone downhill, so I'm not willing to spend any more on her books.
Judy and I took a few turns around the artist alley, and then were done for the weekend. Went to eat and shop and then left the city at 7pm (amazingly early for me!) to hang out with Liz at home. I watched the last 3 episodes of Supernatural, so I'm now completely up-to-date (and I've heard that the next one airs this Thursday?).
Next post I'll have to do updates on JoCo, Supernatural and Dresden Files, I think.
Friday -- I was only able to get there at 7pm, an hour before closing. But I picked up my badge and headed over to the dealer's room. Which was around 3 times bigger than last year's, I think. And also had a lot more of interest to me. Though at this point I barely walked through it because I was more interested in attending the Neil Gaiman panel.
Which was awesome!
I've (so far) read only two of his books: Coraline and American Gods. Both of which I enjoyed immensely, but did not die over. I have not read Sandman, for which I'm sure several of my friends shake their heads at me in shame. I have also read an occasional blog post of his and I certainly enjoyed what he had to say. However, hearing him speak live was a great thing -- his sense of humor and his personality were right up my alley; I decided, not too long into the panel, that I would have to add his blog to my syndications and keep up with it. So I've done so, and now look forward to it.
He also read an excerpt from his forthcoming The Graveyard Book. It was very enjoyable to listen to. I really love his way with words, but there's just something about how he writes that keeps it from being a page-turner for me. I am never quite on the edge of my seat with his stories. I'm always interested -- I always push on through to the end, and am happy to do so. But at certain points it can be a real struggle to keep going. I'd like to read more of his works and hopefully have an experience that turns it around for me.
Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Dallas BBQs and -- since I hadn't eaten anything for a good 8 or so hours, proceeded to get drunk off of one large $8 margarita. Ah, BBQs. I was able to SHOCK Maryann by ordering the catfish, which was practically the highlight of my evening. And it was excellent to see Joe & Morgan and hear their adorable library book story. ^^
Saturday -- got there around 2pm. Wandered the dealer's room a bit and found an awesome portal/cake & wcc tee ($20). Of course, that particular booth did not take credit so I stood on line for an ATM for 10-15 minutes to get cash which I had to pay $3 for! Argh! The worst of it all, though, was that some guy came up and asked, "Is this the line for the ATM machine?" I stuttered for a second before confirming that it was. He thanked me and walked away, leaving me with a vague feeling of mild distaste.
Helped Anna organize and herd the cosplayers for the walk-on costume contest. I haven't done something like that in a while, it was quite refreshing, in fact. Last time I did something like that I was volunteering at BAAF, the year of AXNY. It was actually all over and done with in about 45 minutes. I meant to ask Anna what those grand prizes were.
After that I wandered around the dealer's room some more and bought a moogle cell phone strap/charm (only $7!) from the Squenix booth. Which I won't be able to use until I get a new phone since my current phone doesn't have a charm loop. But! I may be able to upgrade my phone sometime soon. Jamie showed us her new palm, which is pretty sweet, and which I may have to get at some point. It was very difficult to resist purchasing other items from said Squenix booth, but I was able to resist due to the large amount of money I will be spending next weekend on tattoos!
After that I tried to get to the Quick Stop Entertainment Panel (which had Jonathan Coulton on it), but there was an INSANE FUCKING LINE for I don't even know which panel. They had all these really high profile guests all at once, so the panel room area was packed and they were not letting people in. Finally, I batted my eyes and played the harmless young girl, all by herself, and was FINALLY! let in to the Quick Stop panel. 30 minutes late. Which could have sucked except that they told all the panelists to delay their panels because of the problem and they'd run late. BUT THEN THEY DIDN'T!!!! And I have no personal grudge with the next panelists (which happened to be Anna, Chris and Co.'s Cosplay panel), but I WAS REALLY PISSED TO HAVE THIS PANEL CUT SHORT! Seriously, Jonathan Coulton was the only person I cared about seeing this whole fucking weekend, and THEY CUT THE PANEL SHORT!!1!!1! al;sdjflashdfaos;egfbawe;orj!
a;lsdfjaslj!
aslfjasljdfkowaejroh
So. When JoCo, Paul and Storm left the panel room I followed them out, borrowing Carrie's camera along the way, and had someone take a quick pic of me & JoCo. Which is nice, don't get me wrong. But I would rather have had a full length panel to experience and remember than a picture. I know what both of us look like. It's small consolation. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I also said something brainless-fan-idiotic to him, which is another reason I'd rather have just heard the fucking panel.
Anyway. Went back in for the cosplay panel. Afterwards we went to go eat. Judy and I took a detour to go pick up her jacket at the Marvel booth, so when we got to the Skylight or Bluelight or Whatever-the-Hell-Light Diner, there were no seats for us. =( But we went to go eat at an awesome Japanese place at 35th & 8th (Azuki), which had an AMAZING TO DIE FOR spicy crunchy tuna/asparagus/eel/avocado roll (called the "dinosaur" roll), and a very delicisouly-cooked salmon teriyaki. So it turned out alright. OMG, seriously. That roll was SO GOOD. And there was so much of it that I only ate half my salmon teriyaki, and took the rest to go. If anyone's interested in trying it, let me know -- I so want to go back there. And it wasn't insanely expensive. Maybe $2-5 more than what you might have spent at the Skylight Diner. And that was with taking half my food home, too!
After that we went to the Tower Bar and had a nice little gathering, which turned into a larger gathering at some point. It was nice to see Julian The Bartender again, though, since it's really gotten too crowded again since the weather has turned warm.
Sunday -- got to the Javits at what, like 11? Picked up food for Judy and roamed around the dealers room. There were one or two things I could have spent money on (mostly at the Squenix booth), but didn't. I was only able to resist because I know just how little money I'm going to have after this weekend in Philly.
I looked at the program guide (NOT the schedule) at some point and discovered that JIM BUTCHER HAD BEEN DOING SIGNINGS IN THE DEALER'S ROOM ON SATURDAY! ;_; HOW WRONG IS THAT?! I was really sad to have missed the chance to say hello and have my copy of his newest Dresden Files novel, Small Favor signed. I began to feel like this weekend was "Con of Missed Opportunity". Ah well.
I also saw that Sherrilyn Kenyon was there, in the dealer's room, also signing. She had a whole booth of her stuff. She was giving away copies of Seize the Night, which happens to be my favorite of her series (tied with Night Play). So I picked up two copies and had her sign one for me, and one for Angelica, since she's been into this series lately. The Dark Hunter series kind of lost my interest when I started having to wait for her books to come out rather than just continue reading through them. However, Acheron's book will be coming out later this summer and it may just renew my interest enough to rush through some of the other books in order to get up to Acheron's. But only if Angelica lends me her books because there's no way I'm buying any more of them. I really think the quality of her writing in the last two years has gone downhill, so I'm not willing to spend any more on her books.
Judy and I took a few turns around the artist alley, and then were done for the weekend. Went to eat and shop and then left the city at 7pm (amazingly early for me!) to hang out with Liz at home. I watched the last 3 episodes of Supernatural, so I'm now completely up-to-date (and I've heard that the next one airs this Thursday?).
Next post I'll have to do updates on JoCo, Supernatural and Dresden Files, I think.