Saturday July 25th, 2009

Comic Con Day 3: The morning was dedicated to getting some specific stuff before it disappeared.  There was a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Towel with “And Another Thing” (the title of a new book to be released October 9th), and of course, “DON’T PANIC” which was way too awesome to pass up.  It took much searching to find out I needed to go to the Hyperion Books booth, answer the question to Life, the Universe, and Everything, and then I got my towel!  I was very happy.

Next quest was for my Resident Evil zombie shirt.  I get in line to sign up for a demo, only to discover about 10 people from the front, that they are booked solid for the day, and I should try again tomorrow.  Disgruntled, but determined to obtain one, I vow to show up bright and early on Sunday; the shirt will be mine!

Now for some panels.  I try to get in to see Chuck, which I enjoyed very much last year, and wasn’t full last year, was completely overrun with people by the time I get there.  More disgruntlement, as I didn’t have any plans until I started my volunteer shift at 1:30 and it wasn’t even 10:00 am yet.  Back to Exhibit Hall for more random stuff gathering.  However, since it was Saturday, the lines were crazy long, not much was gathered.  I did get my sketch from Bill Plympton, but they were out of t-shirts, so I settled for a temporary tattoo and a hug from a booth babe.  I continued to meander until 1, when I decided to go ahead and check in.

Pretty quickly, I was grouped up with other volunteers and headed upstairs to a holding room to get assigned a panel.  However, there were more volunteers than panels available, and I was stuck with waiting… and waiting.  2 hours into my 3 hour shift, I find there’s an opening for the Boondock Saints 2 panel, and I volunteered as quickly as possible, since I was already going to miss 2012, Zombieland and Iron Man 2.  Happily dispatched, I discover my assignment is to make sure there is no unauthorized recording of the trailer they were about to show.  Nice to have an easy assignment, annoying because I wanted to watch the trailer.

Basically the whole cast from the first movie was there, except Willem Dafoe who is not going to be in the sequel.  There are 2 primary new cast members, a new Saint, and a new agent, who was the apprentice of Willem Dafoe’s agent in the first movie.  The weirdest part was seeing Ron Jeremy come out of the audience to join the panel on stage.  Most of the discussions were crude and hilarious and probably not things I should reprint here.  Based off of crowd reaction, and the glimpses of the preview I caught between yelling at people to put their cameras away, it looks awesome and I can’t wait until November 1st when it comes out!

This was the first year I didn’t see Kevin Smith; it made me sad, but the goal was to make sure I got in to the Mythbusters panel, and by the time I got off work, I wasn’t even sure I could get in.  So we were off to watch a screening of 2 new shows, Human Target and Vampire Diaries.  Human Target was a pleasant surprise of a show about a private detective/bodyguard named Chance (played by Mark Valley) who seems to put himself in more trouble than need be to help his clients.  He’s assisted by his old friend/hired hand Guerrero, played by Jackie Earle Haley of Watchmen fame, and Winston, in a oddly similar role to his Pushing Daisies character.  The pilot looks rather promising, and I look forward to catching it this fall.

Now for Vampire Diaries, or as I mentally call it, Twilight the Series.  In reality, it has nothing to do with Twilight; it’s based of a different series of novels that predate Twilight by like a decade or something, but I couldn’t shake the feel of Twilight.  Perhaps it was because I was in a hall surrounded by Twilighters, who no doubtedly will like it, maybe it’s because the young cast took acting cues from Twilight, despite probably being instructed to do the opposite, regardless, this is the only thing the entire convention I saw that I have no intention of seeing in the future (I don’t think 20 something males are the shows demographic, so I doubt any execs are too hurt by this assessment).  I ditched out some of the beginning so I could pick up my badge for tomorrow so I didn’t have to wait in a horrendous line.  When I came back part way in, it wasn’t hard to pick up what was happening.  Girl’s family dies in accident, Good Vampire Boy (he doesn’t feed on humans) likes said girl (I think there’s a ring that allows him to wander around in the day).  GVB has a brother, heretofore known as Bad Vampire Boy or BVB.  He still feeds on humans, is much stronger and seems to have nothing better to do than torment his goodie goodie brother.  Not surprisingly, there’s going to be a lot of relationship angst, battles, broken hearts, confusion, etc.  Like I said, not my cup of tea.

Finally, what I had been waiting for, the Mythbusters panel! Adam, Jamie, Tori and Grant were there, but Kari had just given birth, so she couldn’t make it.  The panel is hilarious, because they really act like they do on the show.  You could ask Jamie what his favorite color is, and he’d end up going on some tangent pondering what each color means to him and you’d never get a straight answer.  They had some teaser clips, and they are going to get to have fun with the rocket sled again and drive some cars off cliffs, which should be awesome.  I’m definitely looking forward to next season.

Lastly, there was a screening of Watchmen Director’s Cut.  It was very tempting to stay for it, but considering it finished after midnight, we decided we’d never make it and opted to head home.

I rate this day 3.5 out of 5

-Zack has one day left… can he make it?!!

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Iron Man (Two-Disc Special Collectors’ Edition)

One of my favorite movies of the year, Robert Downey junior really stretches as an actor to play a rich guy with a drug problem.  He’s also a genius inventor and an arms manufacturer.  He builds himself a super powered suit, and awesomeness ensues.  This movie is not exactly an Oscar contender, but it’s a lot of fun to watch.  If you like the new Batman movies but wish they were less dark and more explosion-ey, this movie is for you.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Three-Disc Unrated Collector’s Edition)

I saw this movie with several female friends.  I thought it was only so-so, but they really loved it.  Jason Segel reprises his role as a sensitive caring guy from How I Met Your Mother in the movie he also wrote, directed by Judd Apatow, as musician who gets dumped and tries to get over his girlfriend by going on a vacation to Hawaii.  Also staring Mila Kunis from That 70s Show, this film is a fun comedy for a girls night in, but I’m going to warn you right now, there is gratuitous male nudity!

U2 – Under a Blood Red Sky

U2 is one of my favorite bands of all time.  I’ve seen them in concert many times, and they are still as fresh and exciting as they were twenty five years ago.  Now, I’ll admit I wasn’t listening to a lot of U2 music 25 years ago (what with the whole not-being-born-yet thing), but now you can judge for yourself.  This CD/DVD collection lets you both listen to and watch a series of live recordings from their War Tour back in 1983.  See U2 when he was my age.

Also released:

Music
T. I. – Paper Trail

Jennifer Hudson – Jennifer Hudson

TV Shows
My Three Sons: The First Season, Volume One

Happy to be here,
Will

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