Tag: San Diego

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*ahem* Sorry about the title, but when you read that a truck carrying 60,000 pounds of meat flipped over and burst into flames, it comes to mind.

I hope the driver pulls through.

The accident shut down the 5 freeway for most of the day Thursday. We were fine since we drove down yesterday, but a lot of people coming from the LA/OC area or farther north — including my parents, a lot of panel guests, and the driver with all those copies of Comic Book Tattoo — were stuck in the traffic jam for hours. It took us about 2 hours yesterday, including navigating the downtown streets to find our hotel during rush hour. My parents, coming from roughly the same distance today, made the drive in 6½ hours.

The problem is there just isn’t another way to get from there to here. Between Anaheim and Oceanside, there’s only one route inland, the Ortega Highway, and it’s a twisty little mountain road. And there’s miles and miles of freeway bordered on one side by the ocean and the other by Camp Pendleton. Naturally, it was in the middle of that stretch that the accident happened.

(Link via aeryncrichton)

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First morning at Comic Con, we went to breakfast at Cafe 222. Harvey Dent would love this place — it’s 222 Island Ave., and it’s on the corner of Second Street. They have dishes like the Two Plus Two and the Two Plus Two +2. By the time we left, the line to get in was stretching at least 30 people. Great food, definitely recommended.

Arrived around 9:00 AM, about a half hour before the doors opened. I wanted to go straight for the Image booth for the tickets to the Tori Amos signing; Katie wanted to go straight for the Sci-Fi booth for the Big Frakkin Bags — and the lines to get in started at either end of the convention center. So each of us picked a different line, and waited for the doors to open.

Just after 9:30 a huge cheer went up from the front of the line over by A and B. They opened the doors all the way along, so I went in the first one that opened, and made a beeline for the Image booth… where I stood in line for an hour, talking with the people in front of me and behind me in line.

The missing books turned out to be on a truck that jackknifed on the freeway, if I heard correctly on a truck stuck in a massive traffic jam on the freeway. They’re hoping to get them in tomorrow or Saturday, in time for the signing itself. For now, they’re selling prints and offering the book for the price difference, at least for people who arrived in time for the signing “tickets.” I managed to get the 46th slot this morning, out of 75: I’m in for the signing!

After that I went back to Colleen Doran’s table to get Orbiter and A Distant Soil signed, and kicked myself for not bringing The Book of Lost Souls. JMS was standing there talking with her. I waited until he left and said something to that effect, and she said he’d probably be back at some point. But I got the two books signed, and she sketched a space shuttle on the inside cover flap for Orbiter. (Then I noticed a small stack of the Lost Souls trade, and realized I probably could’ve bought a copy right there and had both of them sign it. Ah, well!)

After that I wandered over to the small press area, and found myself in the webcomics neighborhood. I picked up Girl Genius vol.7, got it signed by both Phil and Kaja Foglio, and got Kaja to sign volumes 1 and 2. (They keep coming out right before Comic-Con, so I’ve ended up getting all of them signed… by Phil Foglio. This was the first time I caught them both at the booth while I actually had the books!) While I was paying for the book, Randy Milholland of Something Positive came over and handed the Foglios a copy of the Super Stupor comic book, then left. I’ll have to locate his booth at some point today.

After that it was up to Sails so I could drop some flyers for Speed Force off at the freebie table, where I caught up with Katie again. We wandered a bit, made reservations for dinner, then I headed back to the hotel (such a novel idea!) to drop stuff off. And decided to blog.

General sense: about the same level of crowd as last night. More costumes. Saw lots of Dark Knight-style Jokers, not all of them in purple suits — including one woman dressed as a Nurse Joker. As I waited to cross the street from the convention center, someone actually asked me if I was selling my ticket. 3 hours into a 4-day show? I don’t think so!

Now to grab some food and head back to the con!

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“Preview Night” is about as accurate as “Comic-Con” these days.  They might as well call it a 4½-day convention. Wednesday night was surprisingly crowded (though it’ll get a lot worse by Saturday), and it started from the moment we arrived at the convention center.

It took an hour and a half on the freeway to come within sight of the buildings of Downtown San Diego, and possibly another half hour to make it to our hotel.  Once we checked in, we set about unpacking for our 4-day stay, then headed over to Dussini for dinner.  Afterward, we went straight to the convention.

This is the first year we’ve stayed somewhere close enough to the convention center to walk, and it was very nice not to have to wait for a shuttle or a trolley — either going to the con or coming back to the hotel.  Of course, since you can only cross the tracks at either end of the convention center, that means you need to walk at least half the length.

Our first hint of con culture came on the walk from the hotel to the restaurant.  Someone dressed as a giant donut in a sombrero was walking the streets as part of a promotion for some movie.  [Edit: apparently the movie was Sex Drive.] A little boy of around 5 or so turned to his mother and said, “I don’t like him.”  Kid, you’ve got the right idea.

We arrived at the convention center around 7:45 and discovered two disturbing things:

  • The line to get in and pick up badges went all the way down to the end of the center, then looped around in the sculpture garden.  (At least it moved fast.)
  • People were camping out for Hall H.  Which doesn’t open until tomorrow.

The big usable promo items this year seem to be the giant Wonder Woman bags (following up on the Superman: Doomsday/Smallville bags from last year, which makes me wonder how long it’ll be before we see them converted into aprons, dresses, etc.) and the giant “Big Frakkin Bag” — which is a big purple bag with the words “Big Frakkin Bag” on the side.

Katie noticed that it seems to be all about buying stuff today — being the first to get some item, etc. Partly because everything’s discounted, and partly because there’s essentially nothing else to do until programming starts tomorrow.

I went straight to the Image booth to see what I could find out about the Tori Amos signing — it turns out there was a snafu with getting the books, and the organizer of the event was really annoyed that several boxes had gone missing.  The first however-many people in line, after the one box ran out, got vouchers instead.

I also went over to Colleen Doran’s table, talked with her briefly, and bought a set of Reign of the Zodiac, which she signed for me.  I’d brought Orbiter and A Distant Soil, vol.1, but managed to leave them in the hotel.

I didn’t spot the DC booth until right before closing, but I noticed something interesting: all the staff were wearing Flash symbol T-shirts. (This probably doesn’t mean anything — they’ll probably all be in GL shirts tomorrow, Wonder Woman on Friday, Superman on Saturday, and Batman on Sunday. But I found it interesting.) I also spotted Ethan van Sciver as he drew a sketch for the last person in the line.

Overheard through the window just now: “Don’t get run over, people!” Always good advice!

Edit: In the time it took me to write this, Katie crocheted herself a lanyard for her badge.

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It’s long been a mystery to comic fans why the city of San Diego seems so uncomfortable with Comic-Con International. After all, with upwards of 100,000 people coming in for 4 days, renting hotel rooms, buying meals and drinks, and so on, we must be giving the city an annual boost of extra income, right?

Okay, there’s the usual love-hate relationship between any tourist destination and its clientele. Plus some people get freaked out by anyone in a costume. And sure, some attendees don’t understand basic concepts of hygiene, or bear an uncanny resemblance to the Comic Book Guy. But most of us are normal people (and shower every day). And besides, we’re bringing in all this business, right?

Well, maybe not. The New York Times writes, in an article about Hollywood’s uneasy relationship with the con, that the con is “decidedly low-rent.”

No. 33 on the official tip sheet* lists the grocery chain Ralph’s Market as an alternative to dining out. The Bio International Convention in San Diego, a gathering of the biotechnology industry, with one-sixth as many attendees, produces about double Comic-Con’s $41.5 million in economic impact on the city.

Yes, that’s right. A biotech conference brings the city 12 times as much per attendee as Comic-Con. The city puts up with 6 times the strain on their roads, public transportation, and other infrastructure, for only half the reward?

No wonder they don’t like us.

So here’s a mission for those of you going to San Diego this year: Head down to the reservations pavilion in the convention center lobby at least once, and make a reservation at a nearby restaurant. The Gaslamp District is right across the street from the convention center, so there’s plenty of good food to choose from. Be clean. Be polite. Don’t order the cheapest thing on the menu with a glass of water. Tip appropriately. Overall: make a good impression.

(via Comics Worth Reading)

*Not that I can find this “official” tip sheet anywhere. Plenty of unofficial tip sheets — heck, we wrote our own a few years ago — but no sign of an official one.

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Spent a good chunk of last night looking at travel websites. Accomplished 2 things:

  • Arranged for a hotel to stay in San Francisco next month.
  • Arranged for a back-up hotel for San Diego Comic Con, just in case we can’t get a room through the convention desk.

Hotel rooms during Comic-Con have become a scarce commodity over the last few years, as attendance has shot up by thousands (it actually sold out before the doors opened last year!) but only a few hundred new hotel rooms have been added to Downtown San Diego. Rooms in the convention blocks have been selling out in a matter of hours. The con website has crumbled under the stress, and the phone lines have caved. Last year it took me over an hour just to get through. This year, they haven’t even published a list of which hotels are involved, and it looks like they’ve dropped fax from their options. And booking downtown hotels directly isn’t an option: either they’re sold out, or they want $350/night-plus.

So, just in case I can’t get a room downtown when they go on sale next week, we can at least stay someplace near a trolley station. And if I can get a closer room, even if they charge me $25 to cancel the first reservation, it’s worth the peace of mind.

(Originally posted at LiveJournal. Brought over here to fit with the rest of my convention posts, and as a snapshot of the days when you could get a backup hotel. Not downtown, but in…it might’ve been Old Town? In any case, I cancelled the room once we got our confirmation from the convention block hotel sale.)

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Night EyesOur 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.

Mural on a building

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

Aeropostale and Post Office

Bench: Sit. Stay. Heal.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.

Quiznos DrinkI’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.”

AMN Healthcare

Awning: Sin NiteclubBack 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:

F-Street: San Diego's ultimate sensual well being adult store

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

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

Stormtrooper Elvis poses with SauronStormtrooper 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.

Free Hugs

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.

Man holding up a book and a sign saying "Free!"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!”

Circle of lights with cross-bars.
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.

Flyer Man: FrontThis 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.

Baseball cap: (fu) CKY (ou)

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.

30+ Women in Red Dresses

Edit: Milla Jovovich in Resident EvilMystery 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.