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The Pros and Comic-Cons

Jason and I attended Comic-Con International in San Diego for our fourth, and probably last, time recently. Allow me to cover why we keep going back and why we, most likely, will not be attending again.

Definitely a blast from the past.
Definitely a blast from the past.

San Diego Comic-Con is unlike anything you have ever witnessed. The crowds are suffocating. The lines are boggling and beyond reason. The stars are ubiquitous. The scene is entirely saturated with marketing hype. Does that sound like something only a loon or a martyr would voluntarily put themselves through even once? Yup, I’m practically a saint but you already knew that so let’s move on to analyzing the pros and cons of this affair.

Yes, we met Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor. He was sweet but a little awkward around so many groupies.
Yes, we met Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor. He was sweet but a little awkward around so many groupies.

First, let me explain what gives the most notable of comic conventions that distinction, starting with the exhibit floor. If you are into graphic novels, superheroes, sci-fi, anime, videogames, Legos, cosplay, cartoons, action figures, fantasy, or board games, basically anything pop culture, you will be awed and amazed at the caliber of booths and merchandise at this event. Products more mystical than a lion turtle and less likely to exist are available for purchase on an exhibit floor that seems to stretch all the way into the Delta Quadrant. Exclusives are everywhere, if you are willing to wait, sometimes for hours, to get them. Authors, artists, and actors are present to sign your finds. We bought some fantastic original art, autographed comic books, t-shirts, dresses, and even a d’k tahg letter opener this year.

Benedict Cumberbatch, a fan favorite, was among the DreamWorks guests.
Benedict Cumberbatch, a fan favorite, was among the DreamWorks guests.
From Lord Dark Helmet to Lone Starr, these Spaceballs were certainly in need of some air.
From Lord Dark Helmet to Lone Starr, these Spaceballs were certainly in need of some air.

Celebrities come in throngs to San Diego Comic-Con, making many of its panels more star studded than those blingy pants that we all, regretfully, wore not too long ago. We attended a DreamWorks presentation featuring both Benedict Cumberbatch (His first appearance at Comic-Con.) and Jim Parsons. Yes, the fangirl shrieking did hurt my ears and my mouth. We heard Lois Lowry and Jeff Bridges talk about The Giver, a movie I’m going to see as soon as I get a chance. During WB’s movie night, we watched premiers of the new Flash show and Gotham, an upcoming Batman origins series. Heck, WB even gave us popcorn and drinks to nibble during those maiden viewings. The cast of The Legend of Korra impressed us with their passion for the cartooning craft. We learned about zombie myths, geek fashion trends, and marketing to nerds. On that note, did you know that superfan, i.e. nerd, merchandise outsells sports fan merchandise? And that 37 of the 50 highest-grossing movies of all time stemmed from comics or other sources in the geek universe? These are the type of exciting facts that you might learn at Comic-Con. And, incidentally, my fellow nerds, I am proud of and humbled by those statistics.

Batman is celebrating its 75th anniversary. DC had an impressive spread of props and tribute items in their booth to commemorate.
Batman is celebrating its 75th anniversary. DC had an impressive spread of props and tribute items in their booth to commemorate.

Beyond just seeing icons up on stage, Jason and I met and got photos with Matt Smith, sans TARDIS. Yes, I had my arms around that raggedy man. We also encountered another doctor, Robert Picardo, from Star Trek: Voyager, my favorite hologram.

Robert Picardo, as The Doctor, was my favorite Voyager character.
Robert Picardo, as The Doctor, was my favorite Voyager character.

As sublime as the upside of this star-laden pop mania may sound, Comic-Con, like Vader, has a dark side. If you’ve any hesitations about crowds or compactness, Comic-Con can literally be nightmarish. At the exhibit hall’s busiest moments, the layers of humanity are so densely packed that no one can really move. It’s as if one more body added to the heap would send everyone flying into the air like popping corn.

Jeff Bridges and Lois Lowry made for an interesting duo at The Giver panel.
Jeff Bridges and Lois Lowry made for an interesting duo at The Giver panel.
I don't usually dwarf the King of the Monsters.
I don’t usually dwarf the King of the Monsters.

And those marvelous panels I talked about earlier? Often not super simple to get into. In fact, the panel situation seems to get worse every time. For instance, Hall H this year, on its most popular day, required at least a 12-hour wait to secure entrance. Want to be less than 6,000 people away from your favorite actor or director? Acquiring prime seat space necessitated up to 20 hours of camping on the sidewalk. For a few people that may sound like fun but, for most of us, it seems about as appealing as hanging out forever in the Fog of Lost Souls. Jason and I almost fell into Hall-H-line purgatory with a group of our friends but, ultimately, we decided against it. No regrets there.

How does someone walk around a crowded hall dressed like this without proving why dinosaurs went extinct?
How does someone walk around a crowded hall dressed like this without proving why dinosaurs went extinct?

Getting a convenient hotel room in San Diego during Comic-Con is nearly impossible, unless you are willing to pay an arm, a leg, a quart of blood, your firstborn, and a spare kidney. That’s basically what we spent to stay at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, which is right next to the convention center. (I’m okay having a one-armed husband.) The proximity of the Bayfront, in addition to attracting ridiculous prices, does attract many celebrities though. Often, upon entering our hotel lobby, we would discover some icon being bombarded by their stalker fans. It made me feel pretty dang sane by comparison. By the way, you can find cheaper hotels during Comic-Con if you are willing to take shuttle busses back and forth to the far reaches of the city but don’t expect even the homeliest of hostels to go for the normal asking price.

Although Avatar costumes were common at Comi-Con, these were the only Mako and Bolin ones we saw.
Although Avatar costumes were common at Comic-Con, these were the only Mako and Bolin ones we saw.
Mattel had one of the craziest lines at the convention. Perhaps they brought in the violinist to soothe their stampeders.
Mattel had one of the craziest lines at the convention. Perhaps they brought in the violinist to soothe their stampeders.

So, with Comic-Con being its usual mix of awesome and awful, why was this year, of all years, potentially our last visit? Since we’ve attended this convention many times, it’s lost a little of its initial wonder. The nearness of stars and the novelty of being at the gooey core of the pop melting pot doesn’t impress as much as it used to. Even though we always have an exhilarating time, that exhilaration doesn’t quite make up for the associated expense and chaotic hassle anymore. And I don’t ever want our attitudes to match the excessive levels of jadedness that Comic-Con seems to exude. Nothing but the newest hotness appears to excite most of the attendees; it’s a bit sad and a bit too Hollywood. Also, now we have an ample supply of local cons to entertain us, ones that just keep getting bigger and better. Locally grown geek is always fresher.

Our hotel was close enough to the convention center to allow us to return to our room during the day for some brief, and much needed, silence.
Our hotel was close enough to the convention center to allow us to return to our room during the day for some brief, and much needed, silence.

Comic-Con, you’re a delicious and repulsive mass of stinky geeks, glorious swag, exclusive merchandise, smug celebrities, informative panels, elusive collectibles, and costumed fanatics. Even now, after I have avowed to be done with you, your BO-perfumed halls and perpetual propaganda still threaten to fill my heart with irrepressible nerdish delight. Who knows, maybe next year Jason and I will again find ourselves in your strange mix of Shangri-La and sarlacc. Less probable things happen every day in this genre.

Rachel August 28, 2014 No Comments

D#mn Amsterdam!

Disclaimer: This post was written by JASON not RACHEL. The inclusion of complete sentences, correct spellings, proper grammar, and/or punctuations marks within its paragraphs is neither explicitly guaranteed nor implicitly suggested. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

This is the story of my travels (Jason) to Amsterdam for a business presentation and the chaos that ensued. You would except that a simple flight, with one connecting flight, couldn’t have too many problems. But oh, how you would be wrong.

To start with, I got to the airport with plenty of time but Jeremy, my coworker and trip companion, well… They wouldn’t let him check-in because his passport didn’t look like him. He had washed it at least three times and it looked horrible.

Our first flight got delayed a few times until they finally cancel it. Because we had to be in Amsterdam Wednesday morning for the presentation, the Delta reps found some flights that “should” work. These flights were heading out of SLC at 1:00 AM to JFK. We would have thirty-five minutes to connect with a Virgin Atlantic flight, which would go through the London airport. At London we would have a forty-five-minute layover to get to our KLM flight to AMS. The attendant told us that if we could make the JFK then we should be set and not to worry about the KLM flight because there would be another one thirty minutes later. Yes, yes not to worry.

I don’t really sleep well on planes, so I slept for about five minutes the entire flight to New York. Once we got to JFK, we booked it off the plane and headed right to the Virgin Atlantic flight and made it easily.

Netherlanders prepped for the World Cup
Amsterdam was all sorts of decked out for the World Cup. The entire city was decorated.

We checked in and I got a window seat. I teased Jeremy because he was assigned an aisle chair and couldn’t lean against the window; I shouldn’t have teased him because I got it worse. We got to our seats, buckled in, and the flight took off. As soon as we made it to cruising altitude, well the person in front of me decided it was time to put his seat back. These international flights have no room, my knees were already right against his chair, and he decided to put his seat back. That continued for the entire flight. When it was time to land, he finally decided to put his chair back up. I didn’t get any sleep on that flight or any work done as I could hardly move.

We landed in London and even were a few minutes early! Oh wait there was a problem; we were at the back of the plane. As soon as we got off the plane, we ran until we hit a shuttle bus location. We had made good time until this point but then we had to wait ten minutes for the bus. This shuttle bus takes ten minutes to get to the terminal. Once we got off the shuttle, we ran again because we have less than fifteen minutes before the flight took off. We ran through the terminal and what did we find? Another security checkpoint. Luckily, the person checking the passports freaked out, looked at my passport, and told us to run!

If the shoe fits?
Maybe Jeremy could run faster in some true Netherlanders shoes. BTW, look at that guy in the background. He knows we must be crazy Americans.

Unfortunately, we were still too late by two minutes. The terminal agent informed us that we wouldn’t be able to get on this plane and, since we didn’t technically have tickets but only a ticket receipt, we couldn’t get bumped to the next flight. KLM couldn’t do anything for us so we headed back to the terminal we had started out in. Delta had already headed home for the night so Virgin Atlantic offered to help us out. They got us one of the only rooms left at all the nearby airport hotels. This was a tiny room with the beds right next to each other. Jeremy and I practically slept in the same bed that night.

That night we got a good three hours of sleep before we were back to the airport trying to get onto a KLM flight to Amsterdam. Of course, they couldn’t find our tickets and they didn’t know where our luggage was, which we hadn’t seen since we left Salt Lake City. After some confusion, they at least got us tickets for the flight.

We landed in Amsterdam and ran to see if our baggage was on the plane and it was not. Heading to the baggage claim they actually somehow found Jeremy’s but they had no idea where mine was. However, since I’d only be in Amsterdam a day, they said I didn’t need to make a claim.

Next, we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel. The hotel was supposed to have rooms waiting for us, but they only had one when we get there, which was Jeremy’s. Since Jeremy’s room was ready, he took a shower and changed his clothes. While I just sprayed on some Axe body spray, tried to straighten out my crazy plane hair, and tucked in my shirt. Then we were off for the big preso to the customer!

We easily found the office, presented, knocked it out of the park…or we thought we had given our lack of sleep. Then we were off to relax, see a museum, and have a good dinner.

Woof, woof, barky, bark Jason!
Amsterdam has amusing things like a Parade of Dogs, an entire hallway of giant dog statues… um, ok…

That night, because of my problems, my return flight was upgraded to first class by someone who shall not be named. However, the following morning when I got to the airport, of course, there were problems. My upgrade with Delta hadn’t gone through and Delta wasn’t on shift yet. After a bit, KLM did find the first class upgrade and somehow found my luggage. Could it be because of the upgrade? In fact, they found it in their warehouse and excitedly told me not to worry, it would follow me along and I’d see it in SLC. YEAH!

Once I got on the plane there were no more problems and, let’s just say, first class international is absolutely amazing! I couldn’t believe the difference. Finally, I landed in SLC, headed through a very slow customs line, went to grab my luggage, and, once again, it wasn’t there. I headed over to the baggage claim desk and, after an hour-long lecture on when and where to make a baggage claim, I was told that I would never see my luggage again. Deflated, I headed home. A few days later my luggage did show up in Santiago, Chile. WOW! How in the world did it get there… a few days later my luggage made it home and it appeared that it had made a world tour: SLC, ATL, LHR, AMS, CDG, AMS, CDG, SCL. That’s right, Santiago’s airport code is SCL. Mystery solved. And that is the end of my amazing d#mn Amsterdam trip.

P.S. The d#mn story continued with Jeremy getting pick pocketed in a flea market in Amsterdam the day I left, losing his passport and credit card.

Jeremy feeding his beautiful pigeons so he won't be a coward.
The homeless guys thought it was great that we liked the pigeons. In fact, they gave us some bird seed and told Jeremy to not just throw the seed but to feed them out of his hand. Once they told him that pigeons can’t hurt you and that he was a coward, well, Jeremy fed the pigeons seed out of his hand. The look of disgust on his face with a big fat pigeon in his hand was priceless! I only wish I had taken a picture of it.
jason July 15, 2014 2 Comments

Lucky 13 Part II: Up in Downtown

The following weekend, the second part of Jason’s anniversary scheme took us up to Salt Lake City again but this time to the twenty-fourth floor of The Grand America Hotel. We used that lofty vantage point as our base of operation for a couple days of downtown adventuring.

Our balcony, twenty-four floors up, provided a great view of downtown Salt Lake City.
Our balcony, twenty-four floors up, provided a great view of downtown Salt Lake City.

We ate a delicious dinner at Ruth’s Chris our first night in Salt Lake. In my unsolicited opinion, if you are celebrating an anniversary or another out-of-the-ordinary occasion, Ruth’s Chris is a great place to do it. Although we didn’t make a reservation, when the hostess learned that we were commemorating our anniversary she quickly set about creating an atmosphere of specialness for us. Our table was strewn with rose petals and we received congratulations galore from the staff. We felt pretty elite simply for successfully completing another year of marriage.

After thirteen years, Jason and I are still hopelessly thrilled about each other.
After thirteen years, Jason and I are still hopelessly thrilled about each other.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Gourmandise, one of the best spots to grab pastries or cakes in Salt Lake; it’s very popular with the soon-to-be-fat crowd. On a side note, although this little joint never disappoints with its decadent treats, it can be short on seats so plan on patience if you’re going to gobble there.

The Golden Poison Dart Frog is one of the most toxic animals on the planet. One of these little guys contains enough poison to kill 10 grown men.
The Golden Poison Dart Frog is one of the most toxic animals on the planet. One of these little guys contains enough poison to kill 10 grown men.

Following our leisurely breakfast, we headed to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. This aquarium only opened at its nifty new location in Draper a couple of months ago so, as you might guess, it was basically wall-to-wall people, with a few creatures strewn in. We had to wait in an enormous line to even be admitted because the building was at max capacity and patrons had to leave before more were allowed in. However, in spite of the overabundance of humanity that made the place more of a petting zoo than an aquarium, Jason and I had a nice time. The Living Planet is impressive but I would recommend waiting about six months for the crowds to dissipate a bit before you check it out. We plan on going back when we don’t have to hurdle strollers in order to access exhibits.

Arapaimas can get over 10 feet long, weigh more than 400 pounds, and breath air. Their Piranha-proof armor makes them perfect inhabitants of South America's rivers.
Arapaimas can get over 10 feet long, weigh more than 400 pounds, and breath air. Their Piranha-proof armor makes them perfect inhabitants of South America’s rivers.

After our aquatic adventures, we ate dinner at Pallet, a restaurant in downtown that opened last year. The food was fabulous and the modern industrial setting was sophisticated and romantic. I’d definitely recommend this bistro to all y’all.

We are certainly not above taking ridiculous pictures.
We are certainly not above taking ridiculous pictures.

The rest of our weekend was monopolized by relaxation, reading, and writing. We spent our final morning in Salt Lake lounging in our hotel room and stuffing ourselves with tasty room service. You can’t beat lazily eating fluffy pancakes and hearty corned beef hash, which just showed up at your doorstep, with the city and mountains spread out beneath you like the workings of a model train hobby turned mania.

What a lovely getaway to celebrate a lovely life! As per tradition, the last of our anniversary festivities will be discussed next week in more detail than necessary. But I shan’t give any of those superfluous details away just yet.

Rachel June 4, 2014 No Comments
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