Vacation - Day Five - About Day Four

Sunday was enjoyable at Wondercon.  We started the day with breakfast at Norm's in Anaheim, on the recommendation of the parking lot attendant at the Marriott's.  It was good, solid, dinner food - with above par biscuits and gravy. The place was very crowded and very popular, judging from the crowd.  After breakfast we scooted back to Wondercon...

The first panel was in the Arena, which is a great venue for the large scale panels, and it was with Joss Whedon and the cast of "Much Ado About Nothing", Whedon's take on Shakespeare and, from the sounds of it, a bit of a vanity project. However, based on the clips they showed and the delightful cast, it looks like it is going to be a thoroughly enjoyable film.  I am looking forward to it.

We then wandered the floor.  I picked up an autographed copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a charitable organization that does great and necessary work here.  If you believe in freedom of speech, I would recommend them as a vital agent working in the defense of that right.

One thing that was cool at this years Wondercon was the Cosplay was quite impression, both in the quality of many of the costumes and the very numbers of people who were participating.  If you can imagine a genre, there were people engaged in cosplay from that genre.  These three are just three representations.

I think this particular bit of cosplay was brilliant - the person was on stilts, presenting a spider-woman.  It was brilliant.

From the con, we headed back to the airport and had a fairly smooth trip back to San Jose, sharing the plane with what was, apparently, a very large high school cheerleader team that had been in some competition there in southern California.

Sir Ridley Scott

One of the cool things about attending events like Wondercon is a chance to see some artist you admire in a panel setting. Such encounters can happen informally (while wandering the halls, or standing in line at Starbucks) or in the panel settings, which range from the small and intimate to the big and burly. Today, I was fortunate enough to attend a panel with an artist whose work is always inspiring - Sir Ridley Scott.

He was at Wondercon promoting "Prometheus" with the writer and a pair of cast members, and he spoke briefly and took a few questions and showed the trailer - a typical type junket. However, since I consider Blade Runner to be one of the greatest films ever made, it was a thrill for me just to see him in person. Alien scarred my psyche, Blade Runner made me question what it means to be human - and who knows what Prometheus will do to me.  It was a very cool geek moment and, for me at least, the highlight of the trip.

It has been a nice little vacation - alternating between interesting and restful, which is what a vacation should be. It rained most of the day today, but I would characterize it as a rather light rain - nothing of epic proportions, which is what I was hoping for. I spent the day wandering the vendor floor and in the presentation panels, with a few breaks for a late lunch and an early dinner.  There is in insane line at the Starbucks here in the hotel - thirty to fifty people deep, literally all day long.  They are like legalized crack dealers with a monoply on the street corner.

I am sliding into the night following a nice hot bath. I am looking forward to a conversation with TR, who is getting ready to travel as well on her side of the earth.  Then, I think I am going to wind my way into the evening doing some reading.  Oh, I was going to pick up a copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth, but there was a bit of a crowd there when I stopped by, so I figure I will swing by tomorrow.  I hope it is still there, but if it isn't, I am sure I can find something else worth picking up and adding to the collection.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

I thought I would take a few moments to share a funny image and to plug one of my charities - the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund - which is dedicated to protecting our First Amendment rights, specifically comic book professionals who are subject to censorship. While I was at Wondercon I bought one of their t-shirts for my nephew. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to get it for someone and my nephew Tom has the sense of humor that aligns well with the shirt.