K-Squared Ramblings

Strange Sights of San Diego

Our first night in San Diego, we picked up our badges for Comic-Con, then went out to see Avenue Q. We took the trolley back, and as we walked up the hill from the Little Italy trolley stop, we saw a pair of giant cartoon eyes looking out over the city from a balcony near the top of a nearby building. I thought they might be satellite dishes with convenient lighting, but then I remembered the number of odd publicity stunts connected to the Simpsons movie. No idea whether it’s related or not.

The shuttle route from our hotel to the con passed by this mural, which plays with the nature of the constructed reality. The wall is a newspaper page. The face is a sculpture, a painting. The hands holding the chisel and paintbrush, of course, are just as artificial as the face being created.

We noticed an interesting coincidence at Horton Plaza. Just a few doors down from the Post Office was an Aeropostale clothing store:

This bench was in front of a hotel, probably the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp. I suppose that makes the pun on dog training more appropriate, since it’s a block away from Petco Park stadium.

I’ve always figured standing out on a street in a mascot costume must be miserable, especially in summer. But how much worse to be dressed as a giant soft drink? I suppose this would go with last year’s walking sandwich.

Now, you have to wonder about AMN Healthcare. It’s clearly a set of initials…but how often do people complain about health, insurance, and the healthcare industry? It’s just one letter off from “Damn Healthcare.”

Back to the shuttle route, next to (or possibly connected to) the Martini Ranch spotted in a previous installment of this series, was this nightclub that made no pretensions about what people are going there for. Also note that it’s a “niteclub” — is that a nightclub with fewer calories?

Then there’s this place, which employed the ultimate euphemism:

That’s got to be the most convolutedly delicate way of saying “sex shop” that I’ve ever seen.

Strange Sights of Comic-Con

I wanted to call this “Oddball Comic-Con,” but decided that might be a little too close.

Stormtrooper Elvis has become such a fixture that I almost didn’t bother taking a picture of him when I saw him this year… but then I noticed his pose, and the Sauron statue in the background.

There were a number of people walking around with “Free Hugs” signs, most of them women, but a few men. I never actually saw someone take one of them up on the offer, though.

On the subject of “Free” signs, I found it amusing that the Bantam Dell booth was trying to attract people with a hand-lettered cardboard sign proclaiming, “FREE!”

At one point I looked upward at the ceiling of Ballroom 20. With The Dark is Rising being made into a movie, I saw this lighting fixture and cross-beams and immediately thought of the Sign of Fire.

This guy had the ultimate cheap costume: A roll of tape. He just took every freebie flyer that was handed to him, and taped it to himself.

There’s apparently a band called CKY. Some of their merchandise manages to work the name into a rather rude saying…

There was a group of women in identical red dresses, with identical hairdos, and identical shoes. I saw a few of them wandering the floor on Saturday, but didn’t realize just how many there were until we left the convention center for dinner, and saw them crossing the street.

Edit: Mystery solved? The Resident Evil panel featured 17 Milla Jovovich doubles wearing her iconic red dress. This looks like more than 17, and the dresses don’t seem to be ripped in the right place, but this could be them.

Continued in Strange Sights of San Diego.

Found ’em!

Yes, we found both Waldo and Carmen Sandiego—twice! We didn’t even need a GPS! (And who would have guessed that she’d be in San Diego?)

Now if we’d only found them together…

Edit: a CBR thread pointed me to this piece of fan art that simply must be seen!

Comic-Con: Filling in the Gaps

Some random thoughts and anecdotes about Comic-Con that didn’t make it into other posts:

It’s amazing that out of (reportedly) 140,000 people, you’re virtually guaranteed to run into people you know. For instance, I knew in person 8 people besides the two of us who were definitely going to the convention. Without planning, I ran into 6 of them, as well as 2 people who I didn’t know were attending. Katie and I even accidentally ran into each other once. I’m sure I ran into people I’ve met online, but just didn’t recognize them on sight.

Overheard near a coffee shop one morning in San Diego:

20ish man #1: I’m so wasted. I can’t work like this.
20ish man #2: Dude, you make coffee!

Nothing as drastic as Aeire’s story of nearly getting trampled, but I sustained a number of minor injuries over the course of the event:

• Left knee, bruised while walking into a traffic barrier concealed by the flow of people (Wednesday).
• Right forearm, bruised twice catching a backpack strap (Thursday).
• Left hand, bruised (unknown).
• Also, Katie: Left thumbnail pulled back and bleeding, catching a backpack strap (Friday).

Conclusion: Backpacks are dangerous

I walked out onto this balcony Friday afternoon and took some pictures looking out across the street. At the time, there were some teenage girls sitting on that ledge off to the left. It’s maybe 4 feet deep, and some of them had scooted out past the balcony, one of them standing up. When I came back later to get a picture of the ledge (how creepy would I have looked taking a picture of a group of teenage girls?), the door to the balcony was locked. I’m guessing security wasn’t happy.

When eating out at a restaurant, ask about the portion sizes before you order. The food at Bandar was very good, but we were each served enough food for three people. With no refrigerator or microwave in our hotel room, we couldn’t save the leftovers. The waste was saddening.

Panels I attended:
Thursday: TwoMorrows, Paramount Pictures, Lost.
Friday: Spider-Man cartoon (2nd half) and Neil Gaiman Spotlight. Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.
Saturday: Quick Draw, Buffy 10^th Anniversary Screening. (edit: fixed link)
Sunday: My Dad Makes Comics (2nd half), Fables.

Panels Katie attended:
Thursday: Making Fiends, Paramount Pictures, Lost.
Friday: The Mist/Halloween, Jim Henson, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.
Saturday: Pushing Daisies, tried to get into Heroes but got locked out, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy screening.
Sunday: Cages Talk Comics, Right at Your Door/Dragon Wars, Pathology.

*whew!* Almost done. I just need to post quotes and oddities. Well, and finish labeling the photo gallery.

Artist Encounters

Wednesday morning before we left for San Diego, I made a last-minute addition to my small stack of stuff to get signed: Sergio Aragonés’ issue of Solo. During my first half-hour at Comic-Con on Thursday, I found myself at the Groo booth, face to face with the artist. When I asked him to sign it, he asked me whether I’d had a chance to read it yet. (I guess with the Groo 25^th anniversary and drawing the cover of the con schedule, people were tracking down his stuff?) I told him I’d read it when it first came out. (I posted about the story “Heroes” on St. Patrick’s Day.)

I dropped by the Studio Foglio booth a couple of times, with the intent to get my latest Girl Genius trade signed. (It arrived in the mail earlier that week. How could I pass it up?) After collecting the individual issues to start with, I ended up buying the first two or three books direct from the source at Comic-Con a few years ago, and Phil Foglio was kind enough to sign the whole set as he sold them to me. So as the newer books have come out, I’ve brought them to cons to get them signed.

This year I managed to find Phil Foglio on Friday. He was talking with someone about site issues (which I assumed were about last month’s downtime), and apparently it’s banned in China as being “too racy.” His assistant encouraged me to just interrupt, and I got him to sign volume 6. I made sure I linked to them in that night’s con report, without realizing that the site had gone down that morning due to bandwidth issues. *sigh* Of course I took the book out of my backpack that night… but on Sunday, I wandered by the booth again, and this time Kaja Foglio was there. If I’d still had it, I could have had both of their signatures. Again, *sigh*. We talked for a bit about the switch from pamphlet-to-book to web-to-book, and about some of the T-shirt designs, and about how far ahead they had story material (years).

I also kept looking for Joshua Middleton, since I wanted to get his All-Flash cover signed and show him the wallpaper I made for my cell phone, but I never saw him any of the times I went into Artists’ Alley. His table was there, but he wasn’t, and all I could think of was walking past his table at Wizard World LA back in March. Not that I had anything to get signed at the time, but still…

Of course there are always tons of booths run by small press trying to promote their works. The only one that stands out in my memory is Alcatraz High by Bobby Rubio. I talked with him, he showed me a preview issue which was funny, and I bought the first issue of the comic (figuring I’d get the next two if I liked that one), which he signed with a sketch. Unfortunately, this being several days into the con, my brain had turned to mush and I didn’t think to ask whether the story I had read was actually in #1.

Comic-Con Hotel Review: Doubletree San Diego Downtown

During Comic-Con we stayed at the Radisson Harbor View again, on the cusp between Downtown San Diego and Little Italy. The hotel was in the process of being converted into the Doubletree Hotel San Diego Downtown. This meant that our room had been recently remodeled, with new carpeting and furniture. Unfortunately, it was really new—we had to air out the wardrobe and dresser to get rid of the smell of varnish. And they’d taken out the old towel hooks, and hadn’t put in the new ones yet. So that was a bit of a mixed bag.

They were still working on the lobby when we checked in, so they had moved the reception desks onto little plywood stands over on one side. One of the clerks accidentally knocked the power cord out while we were checking in. By Saturday morning they were done. The painters and plastic tarps were gone, the desks and furniture were in their places, the fountain was running.

Meanwhile, we kept coming back to our room to find that yet another item had had its Radisson logo removed or replaced with a Doubletree logo. And then there was this bulletin:

Hotel Plusses:

• Near trolley stop (Little Italy/County Center)
• Shuttle stop
• Near coffee (It’s a Grind)
• Near restaurants
• Nice rooms
• Free wireless internet (though the wired port didn’t work)
• Just remodeled, so everything’s new

Hotel Minuses:

• Shuttle has to go through traffic
• Trolley requires transfer unless you get the red line (special event service)
• Won’t be an issue next year, but we were there during the transition

Factor in waiting for a shuttle or trolley, and you can figure on 40 minutes to get to or from the convention center.

I’d stay there again, though I think next year I’ll try to get something a bit closer. Of course, I tried that this year, and by the time I got through, everything closer was either full or way too expensive.

Comic-Con Photos are up for 2007!

Whew! I’ve been sorting and labeling all evening, and I finally posted this year’s San Diego Comic-Con photos!

• Comic-Con International 2007 Photos

I’m still adjusting the descriptions and titles and such, so the text will change a bit over the next day or two, but all the photos are up! 293 pictures of costumes, convention sights, San Diego and more!

Pirates vs. Sylar

I’m still attending Comic-Con in civvies, but Katie wore two costumes this year: another update of her pirate outfit on Friday, and a Sylar victim with a telekinetic slice across her forehead. Saturday, of course, for the big Heroes panel.

She did the makeup from scratch, using latex and fake blood, and got a lot of attention. In fact, while waiting in line two hours to get into the panel, series director Allan Arkush walked past, stopped… and took her picture!

Sadly, even after waiting two hours she wasn’t able to get into the room, which was about half as big as it needed to be for the audience. Lots of people left at that point, but she was among the group that stayed hoping to get into the Battlestar Galactica panel afterward (which she did). While bored in line, she and the fan next to her posed as Sylar and victim. Edit: we have a copy of the photo, and permission to post it!

So you can see the result of the traumatic experience of the day:

She got her revenge, though. After we went to see the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 10th anniversary screening of “Once More With Feeling” (described in my Saturday guest post at Comics Should be Good), we went out to the Ghirardelli shop in the Gaslamp District. She got a dark chocolate raspberry sundae, and the raspberry sauce was dripping around the edge of the glass, just so…

Flash Sightings at Comic-Con

I saw quite a few Flash T-shirts in San Diego this year (more than I’m used to seeing at Comic-Con, actually), but only two people dressed as the Flash. Interestingly, both were women.

While all four of the major Flashes have been men, DC has published a number of female speedsters, including several alternate-reality Flashes and two who have worn the Flash symbol in-continuity: Lady Flash and Jesse Quick.

I also found it interesting that both costume designs incorporated sunglasses, reminiscent of one of Jesse’s later costumes and of the Kingdom Come version of Iris West II.

Update August 3: Wallyoeste and West both pointed out CBR’s 3rd Photo Parade, which includes two pictures of a couple in Flash costumes. Part 4 has a picture of a DC group with a fifth. This brings it up to at least 5 Flashes at the convention: 3 women and 2 men.

Comic Cons Should Be Good

My San Diego Comic-Con reports are up at Comics Should Be Good for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. (edited as posts went up)

We’ve got tons of photos between the two of us, and we’ll post them (including the weird stuff) when we get back. (Edit: photos are up!) And I still hope to post more here, like the two perspectives on Wednesday, if I can get a chance when I’m not totally exhausted.

Wednesday in San Diego

We made it to San Diego after a longer than expected midday drive. (Traffic between Carlsbad and the San Diego city limits was a nightmare.) After checking into the hotel, we stopped for a snack and then headed out to the convention center to pick up our badges for Comic-Con. It went a lot more smoothly than last year, probably due to actually having confirmation notices. (Though I did end up having to run around looking for the press desk for the CBR gig.)

One note: For the first time in four years, we were actually asked to show our trolley tickets. You have been warned.

We had tickets to see Avenue Q tonight, so instead of staying for Preview Night with everyone else (and there were lots of people waiting to get in at the time we left, about half an hour before the doors opened at 6), we went to dinner at Dussini, the Mediterranean restaurant that replaced the Spaghetti Factory a couple of years ago.

Then we walked over to the Spreckels Theater, which was interesting. It’s inside an office building, and you get from the lobby to the balcony by taking the regular office elevators to the third floor. Then they check your tickets.

Anyway, good show, highly recommended if the idea of raunchy puppets doesn’t disturb you.

Tomorrow we go to the con proper, and my con report should appear at Comics Should Be Good.

Side Blogging: Comic-Con and Opera

I’ll be doing something a bit different with San Diego Comic-Con posts this year: I’ll be guest blogging the “fan experience” at Comics Should Be Good. I’ll still be posting here, but probably not as much as last year. After it’s all done (and I have time), I’ll make the usual photo posts and post-con write-ups here.

I’ve also posted my list of 5 things I want to see in the Opera Browser over at “Confessions of a Web Developer.” I’ve kind of been out of the loop with all the stuff going on in Flash, so I’ve skipped the tagging aspect and just posted my thoughts.

Coffee Shops in San Diego

So, you’re going to Comic-Con, you want coffee, but you don’t want Starbucks. Maybe you don’t like their coffee, maybe you don’t like their size, or maybe you don’t like the fact that they sued a comic book artist over a parody several years ago.

I’ve been to a couple of It’s a Grind locations over the past few years, and decided to do some Internet searching for other coffee places in Downtown San Diego.

First, the chains:

It’s a Grind – highly recommended.

• 1603 India St. (India & Cedar in Little Italy, near trolley stop)*
• 690 First Ave. (1st & G, across from Ralphs, near Horton Plaza)
• 10th & J St. (marked as Coming Soon on website)

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

• 160 W. Broadway (Broadway & Front, near Horton Plaza)
• Also inside the Ralphs at 1st and Market

No sign of Kelly’s or Peet’s, and of course Diedrich is gone. Though Starbucks has 15 locations plus the Seattle’s Best in the Gaslamp Borders.

I found a couple of lists at San Diego Coffee Houses and String Beans. I’m not sure how many of them are actually downtown, but these appear to be:

Seaport Coffee and Fudge Factory

• 849 West Harbor Drive

Twiggs Coffeehouse*

• 702 Ash Street (Ash & 7th)

Brickyard Coffee & Tea

• 675 W G St (between 6th Ave & 7th Ave at the Seaport Village trolley stop)

If you get out to Old Town San Diego, I highly recommend stopping by the San Diego Coffee and Tea House. Seriously consider picking up a bag of Highlander Grog to take home.

* Not near convention center, but still downtown & near hotels.

So, are there any San Diego natives reading? Any suggestions–especially for places within walking distance of the convention center?

Tips for San Diego Comic Con

Update July 2009: I’ve got a new list of Comic-Con Tips over at Speed Force, and I’m posting new ones each day to @SpeedForceOrg on Twitter.

So, you’re thinking about going to Comic Con International this year, or you’ve already got your tickets, but you’re a bit apprehensive about some of the stories you’ve heard, and you’re not sure where to start with a convention this size.

If so, this post’s for you.

We’ve previously posted 11 Suggestions for Comic-Con. Some highlights: Go more than one day if you can, and do the main floor on some day other than Saturday. Don’t forget your camera, with lots of film/memory and a spare battery. Get a trolley pass so you won’t have to drive around downtown. Plan ahead for dinner: make reservations early.

Comic Coverage is about halfway through A Newbie’s Guide to Surviving San Diego, which is shaping up well.

Also, if you’re there for 3 or 4 days, get out a bit. You’re in a major city. Take an afternoon (or even a whole day—Saturday is usually packed) off to explore Old Town San Diego or the Gaslamp District. Tour the historical ships at the Maritime Muesum. Go to the beach. Visit Sea World or the zoo. See a play, like Avenue Q or the Too Much Coffee Man opera. If you’re wearing a costume, wear it to dinner at a nice restaurant.

One more thing: if you haven’t already ordered your tickets for the 2007 con, buy them now. For the first time in the con’s history, they’ve sold out of 4-day memberships. So head over there to the con website and sign up! Update (July 23): The Beat is reporting that Saturday has sold out as well. Thursday, Friday and Sunday are still available, but who knows for how long?

Comic-Con Hotel Booked! (2007)

It took an hour and four minutes, but I managed to book a hotel for Comic-Con International this morning. (Yes, it’s not until July. And I still want to call it San Diego Comic Con.) Last year I was unable to get through online or by phone, but had no problems faxing the reservation request.

Reservations went on sale at 9:00 AM. I hit the website, started calling, and started faxing.

Phone: I couldn’t get through for the entire ~50 minutes of redialing. Just “no answer” over and over again.

Fax: Busy signal, over and over again. Occasionally the circuit would connect, and it would start making fax tones, but it never actually completed the handshake.

Web: The convention website loaded, very slowly, just enough to get me the link to the Travel Planners site. I could get that first page to load—again, very slowly—and occasionally I could get into the second page, where I selected the check-in and check-out dates and preferred hotel. From that point on, it was timeouts, and a bogus error page about how either I had been inactive for 12 minutes or my browser was not accepting cookies (neither of which was true), and I should hit refresh to start over.

Around 9:50 I finally managed to get to the hotel availability page.* My first choice wasn’t available, so I went back and selected All Hotels (which I should have done in the first place). My second choice wasn’t available either. In fact, there were only about three hotels in the downtown area that had rooms left for the full length of the convention.** Read the rest of this entry »