Comic Con 2011 -Day 3 & 4

Saturday morning was my panel. I think this was the 4-5th year I've been doing it. It's run by my friend Sean Rourke. A very bright guy, director and writer, who has done some cool things for little or no budget. If you notice the listing above, our names are alphabetical. So I'm at the end; "and Brad Upton." It's like when Robert DeNiro does something in a movie, you get all the credits then, "and Robert DeNiro."

Doing the panel is fun. It is a kick to get onstage as me (Something that doesn't normally happen.) and talk to people. The panel is not all me. There were 7 of us and Sean moderating. He would ask questions to us and we would give answers as they related to our experiences. The panel was shortened to an hour. The convention sets teh limits. But this also helped us be more concise and clear with our answers.

After the panel we talked with people one on one out in the lobby. They had questions and we answered them. And as I walked around the convention, a few people who were at the panel said hello. I chatted with one guy for about 15 minutes because he had questions and I answered as best I could. It was fun being a teacher.

Later in the day I caught up with my friend Zack and a guy named Fon Davis. Fon had a project called MORAV and Zack wrote the graphic novel. I'm a character in the book. When he starts shooting it as a web series, I'll play the character. It's funny how all media crosses lines and genres that it didn't before. A movie might be a comic, a comic might be a tv show. A web series might show up somewhere else. The lines are blurred.

We all went to dinner and then got drinks. I got back to my room late and went to bed.

DAY 4

I didn't really hang out at the convention very long. I was in a bad mood because of the loss of costumes (I didn't know they were next to the mailbox in NoHo.) and I didn't feel like crowds. I wanted to go home. Beat the traffic, and just go home. I said Good-bye to Zack and got on the road by 1:30.

I knew traffic would be bad and where so I avoided it completely by taking a different freeway back to LA. It added 30-40 miles, but saved me time sitting in traffic.

When I got home I found the bag with the costumes and then put up a "LOST" sign on the mailbox. I hoped someone would come by with his head, but it's been almost a week, and no one has stepped forward. I'll put up a sign saying "$50 reward!" I can't afford more than that.

So that was Comic Con. Fun, but losses. I hope I'm back again next year.

Comic Con 2011 -Day 2

On Friday I made arrangements to hang out with my friend Bill. I got him into the convention as my guest. Since I am on a panel I get in and so does a guest. The picture above is us I found on a website. It's amazing who takes pictures of us and posts them. We walked around the Torchwood line with the misguided thought of getting into the panel, but since people lined up the night before, there was no chance. But the people in line stopped us to take our pictures constantly. Which is kinda fun.

Bill and I hung out until 4 pm when he left. The coat he wears as Jack is wool. In San Diego, wool is a bad thing. So he had a starbucks cup that he kept filling with ice and water all day. There is a finite amount of time he can wear the costume, and then he has to call it a day.

Later Friday I looked around for my other costumes in the hotel room. Oddly they weren't there. So I went to the car. Also not there. Where did I have Carnage and Scarlet Spider? I recalled carrying it out of the apartment. I think I recalled carrying it thru the hotel. Did I leave it in the elevator after pushing the button? I had 2 full loads of stuff to carry into the hotel. I don't recall what happened. Did I leave them at home?

Yes. Yes I did.

Not in my apartment. I left them on the driveway behind my car and drove off distractedly. DOH! This I learned when I pulled into the drive for my apartment when I returned from Comic Con on Sunday. The mask for Carnage was gone. Stolen. Nothing else was taken. All rifled thru, but not stolen. My neighbor moved it from the driveway to the mailbox, but didn't think that someone in the building loading a car might have accidentally left it. She's a timid mouse and afraid of her own shadow. Doesn't think things thru.

But it is my fault for leaving them. If I had realized earlier I was missing the costumes I could have called someone to go to my place. But stupidly I didn't. I'll have to remake the mask. Make it better...

So I went to bed kind of sad and distracted. I really wanted to walk around in costume the rest of the weekend.

Comic Con 2011 -Day 1

This year for Comic Con I woke up ridiculously early so I thought I'd leave for San Diego well before the time I usually do. Normally I leave after 9 am, when the morning traffic has eased up to just crazy instead of slowly unbearable.

In a whirlwind of action I packed the car. This later proved to be a mistake as things were left behind. I left the apartment driveway and was on the road, my route already planned in my head. With the AM radio giving me traffic updates I sped toward San Diego. I made good time and I knew the traffic would bog down when I got to Del Mar. It was the races and the fair, so traffic on both sides of the I-5 were slowing down at that point.

I took a side freeway and went to the I-15. This took me thru Balboa Park on the 163. I spent some glorious summers at the Old Globe doing Shakespeare. It was nice to see the place that taught me so much. I didn't stop though. I was on a mission. The trick about Comic Con is parking. There are some free spaces around if you know where to look and get there early enough. After driving around for 30 minutes I discovered I was not early enough. I had a car full of stuff, costumes and whatnot, (More stuff than I take when I travel internationally.) so I went to the hotel I would be staying at and parked in the self park. I decided I would find a spot on the street later that night because $26 to park a day (that's the discounted rate because I was staying at the hotel.)

I went got the badge for the con and found the friend I would be bunking with. With his key I went back to the hotel. It took 2 trips to unload the car. I thought I had everything. In my head I had laid hands on all the gear. This was not the fact.

I called my friend Zack and met up with him. He's a comic book writer among other things. One of his graphic novels will be made into a movie with Hilary Swank. We walked around the floor and looked at people and stuff. Toys, books, comics, the whole multi-media creation that has become Comic Con. We hung out until they kicked us out of the dealers hall. Since it was 7 pm we went for food at the Spaghetti Company. There was a wait so we hung out at the bar and I flirted with an awesome waitress. When we got to the table we ordered food and got into long discussions about the entertainment business, comics, and religion.

After dinner they went back to their hotel and I went to move my car. I parked where I normally do and then walked back to the Hyatt. It was around 11 pm. I turned in and tried to sleep.

Pretty boring blog, hunh? Well how about some observations?

Fandom: Females at Comic-Con in the past have not been very good looking. This seems to have changed in the last few years. There are the hot girls in skin tight spandex, of course. They are always fun to see. There are the heavier fans who should not wear spandex. There should be a weight limit. That may seem mean, but Wonder Woman does not weigh 300 pounds. You might be having fun in the costumes, but think about what they look like and what you look like. Should be somewhat similar. This goes for men or women. See the Spider-man above.

Media: Comic books are a very small part of this event. It has been taken over by the movie, tv, and video game industries. It's smart marketing. Go where your consumers are. This is the consumer base for all their products.

Crowds: The attendance has been capped. It is around 125,000. This isa bout all the fire marshall could allow. If there were an emergency, the stampede would be astounding.

Ok. That's it for day one.I will try to be more entertaining on the other days.

A Party

I was invited to my friend's birthday party this weekend. I have known the hostess/birthday girl for years. Almost a decade. And I've known her husband for maybe 5 years.

But that was it. Out of maybe 30 people there, I knew 2.

For me this was kind of scary. Think about it. When you go hang out with friends there is a history, common experiences, and they know you and your story, so you don't have to tell people who you are. So to be in a room of people I don't know at all is weird and off putting to me. I'm a bit shy with new people. I tend to wait to see who they are before I show them myself. It's a defense thing... So it took me a while to figure out how to have a conversation that told them about me and make it work for people who didn't know me at all.

I got more comfortable and I loosened up. It was just strange to come in as an unknown. Everyone was very nice and the actors were actory. If you haven't hung out with actors, you won't understand what I mean. But while I was standing talking with some people, one of them mentioned Wilson Phillips and their old song Hold On. Then 3 of them proceeded to sing it. The whole song. Then they sang Eternal Flame by the Bangles. It's not unusual for performers to perform at parties.

All in all it was fun. I need more things that take me out of my comfort zone.

Going Missionary

I don't mean the sexual position, but proselytizing. While I was housesitting in Culver City two teenage girls from some bible study school or program came to the door.

The girls asked if I had ever heard of God, the Mother, or the Bible. I said I was good. No thanks. And they went away. But then I thought about it. God, the Mother, and the Bible? It usually would be God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Maybe that's too Catholic.

At my apartment I don't get missionaries. Hell, I don't get trick or treaters on Halloween. They go across Lankershim to Toluca Lake. More expensive homes there and probably better candy. But I digress.

I have read a lot of the Bible. I have read the book of Mormon. (Total made up bullshit if you ask me. Much of it plagiarized by Smith from the Bible.) I have read some of the Koran. I think the creation myth in the Bible was plagiarized from Enuma Elish; the Babylonian/Sumerian creation myth and adapted. (Look it up. What am I thinking? Google it. No one looks things up anymore.) I have a curious mind when it comes to belief.

After they left I realized I could have asked them a bunch of questions that they probably didn't have answers for. I might have done that with some older people, but this might have been shooting drunk fish in a small barrel. These kids were ready to spread their view of the universe, but I don't think they were ready to meet anyone else's view.

When it comes to religion, I only have questions. And I don't buy into the answers that people give me...

Dick Van Dyke

Since I was a little kid I have been a fan of Dick Van Dyke. I remember watching the Dick Van Dyke Show on KPHO in Phoenix. It was on weekdays at 12 noon. It was funny. I liked the characters and it was really, really well written. All these things I knew nothing about. It was funny and it made me feel good to watch the show. It was a reliable old friend to hang out with in the middle of the hot summer days.

I recently bought all 5 seasons of the DVD show on DVD. So as the summer TV is all repeats I will pop a disc in and watch 4-6 shows. I never really knew what order they were in because the show was not shown in order when I was a kid. The show still makes me laugh out loud. It has a timeless quality to it. Though it was shot in the early 1960's there are no obvious references that set it in the 60's. They never mention the music, or television or movies of the time. It was planned by Carl Reiner to be that way. You could go for a cheap laugh with a Beatles reference, but then it places the show in a specific time in the culture. The situational humor is all stuff that is relatable to a family right now. It involves work, home life, & kids. All the things that humans do and find difficult and get insecure about. It is the human condition. And after a 5 year run they ended the show on top. There was no decline as ideas and performers got stale. It wasn't about wringing every last cent out of a show, it was about producing a great, funny show.

I was watching Seinfeld recently. It seems very dated with some of the humor. It was very 90's specific. I never noticed it but it seems the best shows avoid dating themselves with time sensitive material. A Beiber joke now might be funny and timely, but what happens when Beiber becomes Leif Garrett?

I recently bought and read DVD's autobiography. There were large portions about the DVD show. It was interesting to read about the show I was currently going thru. Certain episodes were mentioned and I had seen them only days before so they were still fresh in my mind. He also talks about his movie career and other television shows he did.

He also talked about being an alcoholic. Even now most people didn't know he was an alcoholic. He wasn't a bad drunk like you get with some hollywood types today. He was an at home drunk. He also smoked like a chimney, which is funny since one of his most famous roles is as a chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.

What I did learn was he was optimistic about things and kind of fell into this great life of performing without too much planning. Some early opportunities he chose because he had a family and needed the money to feed and shelter them. He almost retired from performing half a dozen times, but kept coming back to it because it was fun. Which is the best reason to be a performer.

Just watching his performances you can see he is having a blast.

How to Become a Politician, Maybe Even President

Don't do anything stupid that can be brought up later.

This of course, means that someone would have to decide at the age of 5 that they want to become President of the United States or a senator. The next step is to never do anything on line, on facebook, twitter, or whatever next generation of social media turns out to be. Don't have your picture taken with a beer. Don't take a picture of your private parts and send them to anyone. Don't send a sexy message via text.

I may be going to extremes here, but in light of the latest congressional sex scandal, (one that actually included no sex.) it just goes to show that sometimes intelligent people do really stupid things. All these electronic gadgets and footprints can come back to haunt a person.

I think the voter expectation that a candidate for anything be pure and chaste is unrealistic. This is what we would like. It's not what we get. Politicians are human. And like humans, you can start out with the best intentions, but the road to Hell is paved with Lobbyists. I don't think there isn't a congressman who hasn't dealt with some lobbyist at some time.

As far as sex scandals go, when it happens in an average person's life that sucks. You hurt your spouse, the kids, and may get a divorce. But when you are a politician and you get caught with a wide stance or banging prostitutes, it becomes a big deal. You get dragged thru the mud by the press. The left, the right, and the CNN's of the world love a scandal. But so do we all. "Look at him! He got caught." It makes us feel superior.

I find lobbyists buying our government for big corporations much more offensive than any sex scandal that is something consensual among adults. Sex is funny. It makes humans do stupid things. It's dangerous and sexy and even more so when you think you are getting away with something. This is a digital sex scandal. Bill Clinton got a blow job. Anthony Weiner rubbed one out while talking dirty to a girl or texting/typing with one hand. Should he be kicked out of office? I don't know. Can he do his job for the people of New York or is he going to be dealing with this scandal that his crazy behavior created?

He had to know it was wrong. But it was exciting and that clouded his thoughts... The chances of it coming to light were almost 100% since no secret can be kept in today's world. So now he pays the price for being stupid and human.

The small solace I get from all this, like most sex scandals involving the democratic party, it involved women. Republicans look so bad when all their sex scandals involve men and boys since they run on conservative anti gay platforms.