My OperaFriday-Saturday-Sunday at San Diego Comic-Con
Monday, July 16, 2012 9:52:55 PM
I just got back from Friday-Saturday-Sunday at San Diego Comic-Con. Everything that you used to like about science fiction conventions was there but buried in bad signal-to-noise ratio of line-monitors telling my fellow professionals that NO, they might have “Pro” badges and need to get to the bathroom, but in this hallways you can only walk in THAT direction, and so please go around the corner to the right three times to go to the bathroom, and lines 8 hours long to get into a panel discussion about a minor actress from a cable TV show utterly unrelated to science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
Comic-Con has turned into an Occupy Speculative demonstration, with a 99% whose elite includes a few dozen professional novelists hanging out in the “Pro Room” sipping free coffee and lemonade, preparing for panels, such as (nice to converse with you guys, Greg Bear, John Scalzi, et al), and 130,000 people, many unable to book hotel rooms, and so actually sleeping on the sidewalk outside the convention center, in a kind of dystopian Calcutta-Con. I waited on line for only 4 events, including: Firefly, followed by Joss Whedon about Avenger, Dollhouse, his recent wrap of “Much Ado About Nothing” with Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog-2, and the Ray Bradbury memorial event, which was wonderful, with major genre stars who were friends of his, for which I sat through the (rather nice) Glee panel with its producer direction, two main writers, and stars of the cast, all being taped by Fox.
I did not wait on line to see my former Governor Ah-Nold, and his buddy Sylvester Stallone, with previews of The Expendables 2. I did not like the Celeb Parties thrown by major studios, and Playboy, although I mixed with many who did, who thought me cool enough to be invited. Sorry, to me a Studio 54 for Film/TV staffers and stars who don’t know the history of Speculative Fiction nor actually write anything worth reading. They have good food and free booze (i.e. Game-of-Thrones-themed drinks) but they were clearly dominated by The 1%, who don’t actually care about Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Lovecraft, Poe, nor Shakespeare.
Comic-Con has turned into an Occupy Speculative demonstration, with a 99% whose elite includes a few dozen professional novelists hanging out in the “Pro Room” sipping free coffee and lemonade, preparing for panels, such as (nice to converse with you guys, Greg Bear, John Scalzi, et al), and 130,000 people, many unable to book hotel rooms, and so actually sleeping on the sidewalk outside the convention center, in a kind of dystopian Calcutta-Con. I waited on line for only 4 events, including: Firefly, followed by Joss Whedon about Avenger, Dollhouse, his recent wrap of “Much Ado About Nothing” with Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog-2, and the Ray Bradbury memorial event, which was wonderful, with major genre stars who were friends of his, for which I sat through the (rather nice) Glee panel with its producer direction, two main writers, and stars of the cast, all being taped by Fox.
I did not wait on line to see my former Governor Ah-Nold, and his buddy Sylvester Stallone, with previews of The Expendables 2. I did not like the Celeb Parties thrown by major studios, and Playboy, although I mixed with many who did, who thought me cool enough to be invited. Sorry, to me a Studio 54 for Film/TV staffers and stars who don’t know the history of Speculative Fiction nor actually write anything worth reading. They have good food and free booze (i.e. Game-of-Thrones-themed drinks) but they were clearly dominated by The 1%, who don’t actually care about Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Lovecraft, Poe, nor Shakespeare.
