The Thunder Brothers Prologue: The Storm Gathers! (and so my Con begins) Last year was amazing, but I knew in my gut that this year promised to be better. You see, we were SDCC veterans this time around, and we had more resources at our disposal, namely the Unofficial SDCC blog, coupled with our experience. I can’t really underscore enough what a fantastic resource that blog is. It’s an absolute goldmine of information. Anyone who is intent on making the most out of their pilgrimage to San Diego owes it to themselves to do a bit of homework at the blog. Our big goal for this year was to enjoy more of the con that’s outside the convention center. There’s so much we missed out on that wasn’t in the convention center and wasn’t listed in the official guide that we vowed to be more aware. It’s been over a year now, and I still can’t believe I missed out on the free chicken strips across the street. Chip drove in Tuesday night, and we spent a good amount of time pouring over the schedule Tuesday night. We probably weren’t in bed until Midnight or so. Then, we got up about 6 to catch the plane Wednesday morning. Normally I’d skimp out on such mundane pre-con details, but it’s all relevant. A note on air travel. I like Southwest, and I hate the Wright Amendment. For anyone who doesn’t know what it does, it hamstrings most flights coming out of Love Field such that there can only be direct flights from there to anywhere in Texas or a neighboring state with few exceptions. It’s the reason we had to get a stop in Albuquerque on the way out, or at the very least the most obvious reason. As it turns out though, these things work out ok. We managed to run into someone else making the trek to the Con. As we were sitting down, we noticed more and more people coming up to this older gentleman behind us. He never turned around, and I wasn’t in the mood to get up and go see. I just started thinking on it before I finally asked Chip. “Hey, is that somebody behind us?” “With the cap and stuff it looks like it could be George R. R. Martin.” “You think so? I doubt he’d fly Southwest. They don’t have first class or anything. You might be right though. Between the cap, the hair, and the suspenders. . .” It was about that time we overheard him talking about Game of Thrones. “Holy shit! I think it is him!” “Well, you’d better go over and get a picture so people believe this story.” I then proceeded to hem and haw for the next several minutes before working up the nerve to go bug the man and ask him for a picture. He was really nice, and seemed more than happy to accommodate all those who wanted to get a picture as we were waiting on the plane. I fanboyed at him for a minute and thanked him profusely for the picture and for getting my Con off to a fantastic start. Everyone in the terminal seemed to be fairly respectful of the man and his time. That wasn’t so at LAX. When we got to baggage claim in LAX he was more or less mobbed. People had him signing any scrap of paper they could, and one needs to keep in mind that baggage claim at an airport like LAX has much more traffic than the area in front of a gate in Albuquerque. Chip decided to ask him for a picture then, and he got one, but you can tell that he was more or less checked out of the whole experience. I don’t blame him in the slightest. As we left we thanked him again for his time, and we made our way to check in to the hotel. We took a cab out there only to find out that our room wasn’t ready, but they guaranteed it would be ready by 3. It was about 2, and badge pickup officially started at 3, but the shuttles wouldn’t start until then as well. It was at that point we figured we would try and beat the rush, so we dropped off our bags (nearly forgetting the ticket printouts were in my bag) before taking a cab to the pickup location. It was a good thing we made it out there when we did. Traffic was already pretty bad, and we came to find out that it was more or less gridlocked inside of the hour. The badge pickup process was even smoother than last year. When we entered the building we didn’t actually stop moving until we were probably 20 people from the front of a short line. I forget if I touched on the whole WB bag thing last year or not, but when you get your badge you also get one of several different designs of bag. A bag hierarchy is established very quickly, and bag trades are commonplace. A benefit of visiting the SDCC Blog was that we knew what the bag designs were ahead of time, so we knew which ones we wanted. I knew I wanted Gotham or Batman 75, and Chip wanted The Flash. However, they’re trying to push people through quickly, and they tell you to not stop moving. People are just waving bags with the design facing away. It was hectic, and I panicked. I just grabbed the first bag I got to. The Originals. Bag fail. Chip was eagle eyed and kept his composure though. He managed to secure a Batman 75 bag and traded with me. By the time we got out of there the shuttles were up and running, so we knew we could just take it back to the convention center and walk back to our hotel. Ah, The Omni. Pricey? Sure, a little. Worth it? Absolutely! The proximity alone is worth the premium. If it’s anything one has difficulty putting a price on, it’s time. The proximity meant we weren’t at the mercy of shuttle schedules, full shuttles, or unexpected traffic. It’s most obvious benefit amounted to about an extra hour of sleep each morning compared to last year. After we got to our room we really knew we’d arrived when we looked out the window. It was a great view of the convention center. Chip has a picture.. With our badges around our necks and our luggage in our room our next agenda item was to get our Con shirts we pre-ordered. On our way there, we went ahead and decided to get the whole disability sticker/attendant badge thing hammered out. Last year was actually pretty funny because Chip got a sticker like I did by mistake, and when he went to get an attendant badge they just told him not to worry about it. As a result, he said that more than one person treated him differently than he was used to (In that “Hey, buddy!” kinda way). Anyway, we made sure to get him the right credentials this time. With our credentials we had no problem getting our shirts in a timely manner. On the way back, we split up. I wanted to make sure I got all my ducks in a row for a wheelchair, and Chip took the time to secure provisions for the next several days. By the time we met up after our assigned tasks it was about 6, and we were getting pretty hungry. The SDCC Blog was hosting a party from 8-10 at a place called Henry’s Pub a few blocks over. We figured we’d go ahead and get out that way for food with fun to follow later. When we got there, it turns out plenty of people were already seated in there with the intent of staying for the party. We managed to secure one of the last non-stool tables which just so happened to be this gigantic booth. I felt a little bad that the two of us were taking up this giant table, so I ordered some cider to go with the food. That was a mistake, but I’ll get to that later. We hung out there for quite some time, and used all the real estate at the table to pull out our convention guide and set up a plan of attack for the exhibition hall. Before long, it was standing room only, and there were a couple guys leaning on our booth. I offered them a seat; because we were gonna be there awhile, and it didn’t seem right to have all that empty space at our giant booth. Now that we’re to this point I can tell you how the night was supposed to go. They had 200 goodie bags to give out, and they were also gonna do raffle drawings starting around 9:30. You got a ticket for every food or drink item you ordered after 8. We got tickets to a 10:00 screening of Into The Storm that we had to be there no later than 9:45.We figured we would eat drink, and be merry for a few raffle tickets, then I would head over to the screening while Chip stayed behind for the raffle with the intent to dash over afterward. Got the plan? Ok, good. Now, see how it all played out. By them time 8 rolled around I had 2 ciders (yeah, I’m a lightweight) and a plate full of chicken and fries, so we had more or less checked out on the drawing. Not to mention that by this point we were both exhausted. Remember how I said the drinking was a bad idea. Well, compound that with that we’d been since what was essentially 4am, and there was no way we were gonna make the raffle or the screening. We called it quits around 8:30, paid our tab, and began to leave. On the way out, we ran into one of the main SDCC blog guys, Jeremey Rutz. I stopped him and thanked him for the blog and the event, and in general for providing such a great service to the con community. He was very humble about the whole thing, and then he hooked us up with 2 of the 200 goodie bags. Score! They had a variety of sponsors one of which was The Warner Archive Collection, so each of our bags came with a different DVD of an old movie. Mine sounded pretty interesting for the era it was made. It’s called The Fox. There was also a signed Street Fighter comic from Udon, and a reusable little spoon/knife/fork thing from GrubHub. The utensil was really useful in sandwich prep. Even though we petered out before the screening or the raffle, the goodie bag made the night a success, and not to mention getting to meet George R. R. Martin earlier. When we got back to the hotel I was exhausted, but, as tired as I was, I was still ready to write this chronicle. There was one small hiccup though. The power cord didn’t go with the laptop I borrowed from Matt. As a result. I immediately ordered one from Amazon with a promised delivery date of Friday.All in all, it was a pretty busy day for not being a part of Preview Night at the Con.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 03:18:41 +0000
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