May 23, 2007

After half a day at work, I took Amtrak from downtown San Diego. The trip itself was uneventful, although there was a lot of interesting scenery, like watching deer wander around canyons and great ocean views. My only other experience on Amtrak was taking it on the East Coast, where you go through the crummiest parts of every jerkwater town on the way to your destination. On the Pacific Surfliner, you don't really see a lot of crummy places up until you reach the junkyards and desolate warehouses outside of L.A.. The people on the train were somewhat normal, except for one guy who got on toward the end who had something odd-smelling in his dreadlocks. Naturally he sat right in front of me.

L.A.'s Union Station has an old Spanish look to it but it's nowhere near as nice as Union Station in Washington, D.C.. It turned out to be a very short trip from the train station to the New Otani Hotel, which might explain why the cabbie was so irritable. He nearly drove off without a tip.

The hotel turned out to be really nice, a relief given some of the cranky complaints I'd read about it online. It's a Japanese chain and it's a rock's throw from Little Tokyo, so there were lots of Japanese tourists. ladyaeryn and her friend Lindsay were checking in just as I was checking in, and that's when I learned that a_p had missed her flight out of New Jersey and wouldn't be coming in until Thursday morning!

After I got up to my room, I called my mom to let her know I arrived safely, then I tracked down my friend Debbie. She'd gone with some other friends to pick up their stuff from will call at the convention center, then she was dropped off at the hotel.

I've known Debbie for 14 years and I hadn't seen her since I moved from VA three years ago, but it was as though we'd last seen each other a week ago. I forgot how well we get along, which is a good thing since I'd have to room with her for five days.

After unpacking and chatting for a while, we looked around for a place to eat. I love Japanese food and would've been more than happy to chow down some sushi or shabu shabu but Debbie isn't a fan of that sort of thing, so we wandered for a while until we found Pitfire Pizza. Pitfire is along the same lines as California Pizza Kitchen or Sammy's, with Pat & Oscar's type service (you order at the counter and they bring it to you). Only healthier. We each ordered pizzas and with the darkened crust and red stuff all over the pizza, it looked vaguely like a miniature Mustafar. They had a great watermelon lemonade. I have to learn how to make that.

We walked back to the hotel and I essentially took over the t.v. for the night, watching the American Idol and Lost finales. Right after Lost finished I went to bed, because we were getting up at 5:30 a.m.!

May 24, 2007

We went downstairs to wait for the shuttle bus around 7 a.m. and one pulled up right away to drop off a father and a young son who were coming back for a jacket because the kid was cold. No kidding. It was a chilly morning all right. Good thing I brought my SW jacket. We got to the convention center around 7:15 and got into line at the South Hall. There were lots of people but we were within 10 minutes of getting inside.

Thankfully we could use the potty inside the South Hall, pick up show bags (you got your pass punched), and buy a program before the convention was set to officially open at 12 for Fan Club Member Day. There was a big inflated Death Star inside the foyer and Vader's operating table from ROTS was on display near the entrance. I wanted to take some pictures before all of the crowds came in but one of the security guys told me I couldn't loiter.

When Debbie went inside to pick up her show bag and program, she met up with a few members of the D.C. Metro Area Star Wars Collecting Club (DCSWCC) who were further ahead in line. They let us butt in line with them, placing us really close to the door (they'd arrived in line at 4:30 a.m.). The next few hours were spent talking with fans in line, watching people play hacky sack, taking a few pictures, eating snacks, reading our programs, enduring panhandlers, and wondering how much business the Mexican guys pushing ice cream carts were getting.

There were some costumers of course--Jedi, stormies, Mandalorian armor, Rebel troopers, one guy in a Vader's mask and chef's uniform holding a Jar Jar mask on a platter--but this seemed to be Casual Thursday at the convention, with most people opting for SW t-shirts. I saw many, many t-shirts over the weekend I'd never seen before. They weren't all those Zazzle shirts either. Among the unique shirts were ones done for various fan groups. There was a group called Jedi Masters from Monterrey, Mexico in front of us. I saw a few other guys from a Puerto Rican fan group, sporting special polo shirts. There were hockey jerseys from Quebec, t-shirts from Italy (I guess they couldn't wait for Celebration Europe), kimono-like shirts from Japan. Then there were the folks who made outfits out of vintage SW bed sheets.

Around 10:45 a.m. a black shuttle van pulls up and out come Jeremy Bulloch, David Prowse, and Jerome Blake with their entourages. Nobody recognized Blake but everyone applauded when they saw Bulloch, then Prowse. Jeremy Bulloch shook some hands and hugged a few fans. Prowse seemed to be in the best shape he's been in a long time, moving rapidly even with his cane. We watched a couple of other black vans pull up and unload more Official Pix guests like Nalini Krishan and Mary Oyaya, then one dropped off Anthony Daniels. He spent a few moments greeting fans, then he briskly walked away toward another group of fans, slipping in line behind them and surprising them.

ladyaeryn and Lindsay join the line (a_p still hadn't arrived) and an hour or so later, we were in. The game plan was to hold a place in the Hasbro line for the exclusive action figure and since I don't have bad knees and Debbie does, I was supposed to make a mad dash for it. I "walked briskly" up the escalator to the Exhibit Hall and made a beeline for the Hasbro booth. I wasn't interested in getting the figure--and I have until Comic Con to change my mind--so I bailed once Debbie got there for the StarWarsShop.com line. I was told the line was capped. Huh??!! It was only a few minutes after 12 and the line was already capped????!!!! The hapless Brit trying to disperse the crowd was faced with an angry mob. There were mutterings about calling security and the fire marshal shutting things down.

"Here we go again," I thought. StarWarsShop.com's booth at Comic Con usually had a line but it wasn't crammed in the middle of a small space like this one was and it was better organized. It also made me steamed that the only reason why the line was already capped was that the exhibitors were there first. Was it all going to head south from here?

Eventually they formed a line elsewhere to get into the booth line once the crowd lets up. Some people cheated their way in anyway, but like a good citizen I got into the second line with everyone else. A couple of guys behind me started talking about the Lost season finale. "Oh, you guys are talking about Lost?" I asked them. Everyone around me started yelling, "No! Don't say anything! I haven't seen it!"

Finally, the StarWarsShop.com people grew a brain and realized most of the line was for the exclusive Boba Fett animated style maquette. So they handed out numbers to people who wanted one and told to come back at any time during the day to pick it up. The line for a line magically dispersed. I said, "Hey, that doesn't help me. All I want is a t-shirt and a hat!" I was then told just to get in the line at the booth. Sheesh. An hour wasted already.

Fortunately, things went well the rest of the day. Debbie and I wandered around the Exhibit Hall, buying stuff and scooping up the freebies. I must've made a zillion trips to the Hasbro and Topps booths over the five day convention for cardbacks, coins, preview cards, and posters. I dinged two free Topps posters in a row thanks to my worthless poster tube. The thing was hard to open and the posters got knocked around as I walked. Grrr.

We met up with our old friends Marie, Jamie, and Todd, ate lunch and then went to the art show after chatting with Matt Busch (on his way to the DK booth for "You Can Draw Star Wars") for a few minutes. I was nearly knocked off my feet by Jason Palmer's GORGEOUS Padmé art. I bought a beautiful portrait of Padmé in her wedding gown from him a couple of years ago and this time he really outdid himself, featuring everyone's favorite fashion plate in all 38 of her costumes with a beautiful rainbow color tone. But it was 75 bucks and I'd already pre-ordered Teresa Nielsen's also gorgeous Padmé artwork. So I settled instead for getting the $12 sketchbook featuring every individual image from the piece in black and white.

Nielsen was on break when I got to her booth and since she had the reserve list, I checked out the other booths with Debbie. We also saw a couple of really good costumes. One guy who really resembled Charlie from Lost was dressed as Cade Skywalker and there was a young woman who had a great Sith Twi'lek costume, both from the Legacy comics. (Actually, it was the second time I saw "Cade" that day.) Eventually, I got my receipt from Nielsen as Debbie held my place in the loooong line to pay. As the line snaked past Matt's booth, he gave me a free DVD. Thanks, Matt! After a half hour, I paid for my print and we migrated into the Fan Fair Hall. It was home of various fan club tables, the Road Squadron collection o' cars, the diorama builders' area, and the Jedi Academy show stage. We dropped by the DCSWCC's booth and saying howdy to people I hadn't seen since I moved away, and found a couple of other fans from 'round here working tables. We were told the Celebration Store was a breeze, so Debbie and I decided to head down there right away.

If there is anything Lucasfilm and Gen Con absolutely did right, it was the Celebration Store. We walked in, got some bags, walked around the tables and scooped up whatever we wanted, and headed for the checkouts. Granted, there wasn't as much stuff as there was at previous Celebrations and they were already out of lapel pins and patches (I found out later on they accidentally ordered only 60 pins instead of 6000). But I ended up with a Leia magnet, a keychain, a Leia tank top ("they run small!" an attendant warned a girl much thinner than I am...uh oh), a pen, and a "Star Wars Is Forever" t-shirt. I also bought an exclusive figure for my friend Jason, who couldn't come to the convention and went in for one of a set of four drinking glasses.

By 6 p.m., we were exhausted. We ate some dinner from one of the cafes in the convention center and staggered back to the bus. On the way out, we saw in the foyer an Emperor with flashing purple lights in his sleeves (like Force lightning, get it?) and a really cute Anakin posing for pictures. Hubba, hubba! We were completely out by 10 p.m.. Roll on May 25!