Joes Saturday

So we woke up late this morning which was well needed. Feeling shock and disbelief about the news of the Oslo bombing and mass slaughter of teens on the island near by.

Now on bus to convention centre, the news does not appear to have affected San Diego.


I have just unsuccessfully been to see the line up for Indigo ballroom 2300 people waiting for 1700 capacity room and it's full already with lots of good shows ahead.


Decided to go to Hall H and watching 3D Twixt panel with Francis Ford Copolla. Tony wants lunch. Not sure if I will go. Panel is interesting about how films could be made. Val Kilmer stars in it. Funny moments for a horror film. Francis uses shuffle on digital editing software. Very LSD like!!!


Now watching the Immortals panel. Trailer in 3D. Arent they all! Tony has joined me. Loud clips of the film. Tarsem Singh (director) sounds very competent. Henry Cavill the next Superman very popular.


We wait for the Knights of BadAssdom panel. should be good stars Summer Glau, Peter Dinklage,Ryan Kwanten and Dani Pudi. The trailer is funny!! Just saw a fantastic Victorian style Wonder Woman. This panel awesome!! The film will be about LARPing (Live Action Roleplay). Very much the geek film.


Lunchtime now. Back to the Floor. Saw Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars) amongst others.



Found Jeff Smith author of Bone and RASL. He signed books for me. He gave me an audio bite for our podcast.


Todd and his girlfriend Shannon were in Hall H listening to panel for Dorothy of Oz, so I Joined them. Stars Sir Patrick Stewart, Dan Ackroyd and Megan Hilty,amongst others.
It was Sir Patricks birthday a few days ago so everyone in Hall H (6000 capacity) sang happy birthday.


Roger Baum great grandson of Frank Baum was on panel supportive of the project. He is himself an author and continues the story.



So we left Hall H to get some food and passed amongst others, Stan Lee and a religious zealot on his soapbox condemning con attendees to hell and that they need to mend there ways.



There were many foodtrucks in a carpark serving really great gourmet food. We sat out in the park next door.

We then made our way to the next panel for Star Trek with Larry Nemecek in small room compared to the others in the centre.



Asked us to poll our favorite Star Trek series, I voted for the original series. Lots of star trek trivia and photos. Premiering the trailer for Con of Wrath. Afterwhich I met up with Larry and asked him if he would be ok to interview him for our podcast. He was very cool about it.


We then went off to the Marriott hotel next-door to have a few beers with the Browncoats fanclub. Tony and Graham joined soon after. It was good evening and after few beers we were well into the discussion of the days events. We met another Australian called Beth there. She comes over regularly to Comic Con. She apparently runs the website for fansites of certain shows like Firefly and Castle. She has met with cast and crew and is very well appreciated for her efforts as it is all volunteered work.


Managed to skype with Trine and Freya briefly at bar on Tonys iPad. The connection was poor though so skyped at hotel afterwards

Saw people sleeping on pavement for lineup to Nathan Fillions Tv Show Castle panel.



We then caught the shuttlebus home.

Graham's Thursday

My (our) plans for Thursday morning got thrown out window after Todd (Joe's friend who lives in San Diego) managed to secure us passes to the world premiere of captain America. It was just a pass to be in the line with no guarantee to get in, but we did. The movie is really good, and I will see it again when it gets released in Australia in august. We also got a bit a free stuff.

Chris Evans who play's captain America in the movie made an appearance and gave a brief introduction to it. Chris was proceeded by a group if USO dancing girls dressed in red, white and blue uniforms.

After the movie I headed to the convention center to register and pickup my badge and package. This process took about 5 mins due the time of day, my original plan was to go there first thing where the line would have been much longer.

My afternoon plans weren't messed up the captain America movie, so I grabbed some lunch and joined the line for room 6BCF, about 3 hrs before the start of the Gears of War 3 panel. The two proceeding panels, where both star wars related and would have been a bonus if my plan come though for me, which was to get into all 3.

Well my plan worked and I was able to get into the both Star Wars panels. The first panel was for the Star Wars : The Old Republic which is going to be a role playing game set in the Star Wars universe and while this game doesn't appeal to me, the game does look very good. The second panel on Star Wars : The Clone Wars Season 4 was also very good showing some scenes from the upcoming season. It all looks very good with some epic battles highlighted.

My photos taken during these two panels aren't very good due to the lighting and my distance from the stage.

Before the Gears of War 3 panel started I had managed to move forward a fair bit and hoped the photos would turn out a lot better. Gears of War 3 is an exclusive game on the Xbox 360 console, and is the last in the series. The game is being released worldwide in September. The game is a 3rd person shooter and is looking fantastic. They are adding some changes to the multiplayer modes which I hope to play on the show floor on Saturday. The campaign part of the game is being talked about much to avoid spoilers. They did however announced a new voice actor for one of the characters, he is Isaiah Mustafa some may know him from the recent Old Spice ads.

They also gave away one of the gears of wars special edition consoles (which I have on order at jb hifi) they also announced two bikes inspired by GoW one if which can be won.

The panel was hosted by Adam Sessler (left) from the X-Play tv show on the American G4tv cable network, joining him was Executive Producer for the series Rod Fergusson (middle) and Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski (right)

The panel finished at 7pm so it was mad dash through the crowds to get to the Balboa Theatre to see Woodstock 3.0, I got there about 15 mins late due to the crowds at the centre and on the streets.  Wootstock was billed as 3 hours of geek and music. It was brilliant and worth every cent, it also ran for 4 and a 1/4 hours. Some of the artists include; Paul and Storm, Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Riff Trax, and guest appearance by Felicia Day who gets shot in a very amusing skit performed by Amy Berg about how 'powerful' writers can be in which Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day said they weren't powerful, as the photo below shows it got a bit messy.

The last song which is about pirates only has a few lines of lyrics but took the performers Adam Savage  (Left), Paul and Storm (Center and Drums), Wil Wheaton (Right) about 25 minutes to sing due to the joking around the happened.

After wootstock we grabbed a very late dinner. It was a very nice burger from the Burger Lounge after that we caught a taxi home getting home around 12:30.

Joes Thursday

Todd my San Diego friend was able to get us free passes Captain America (first to see cap), so after an early wake(6.30) up call from dear Tony, we head off to the cinema. There is a long line up already and we were running to get there (Horton plaza). 900+people. To fit into 3 cinemas full of hardcore fans. Got free stuff like t-shirt,poster,badges. There were USO showgirls dancing and the geek tyrant crew were there. We got surprise visit from Chris Evans star of the movie. Got 3D glasses. It was awesome! Definitely works well as a period superhero piece. They played the teaser trailer for The Avengers movie. Looked great. My bladder was bursting by the end.












Back to con


Waiting in line to get DVDs of guild to be signed. That was fun they are a great bunch of people. Felicia Day will be so busy this con (can't say no).


Afterwards I bought lots of stuff. I bought a sketchbook from Mike Mignola who signed it for me. Was able to get a sound bite for the podcast.

Other Artists Jason Palmer and Dave Dorman


So many cool T-shirts and other goodies

Took Lots of photos of cosplay folk



Talked to Weta creator Daniel falconer for Lord of the Rings. Had to go home to drop loot off.

Racing back to see Wootstock. We are both late. Came onto it 15 min late and hop onto Paul and Storm and there vagina song.

Many artists
Wil Wheaton ,Earnest Cline, Patrick Rolfston Molly Lewis 5second films= 2credits 5film 1end Axe cop and Dinosaur soldier . Mike Phirman (Hard & Phirm) sang monkey chicken duck...goose. Chris Hardwick had a music montage of Stand by me , funny pictures in background. Will Wheaton and Ryan Wheaton (son) appeared briefly
Will Wheaton and Paul and Storm (William f*@king Shatner story of Wills first meeting with a legend)
Intermission
Herman Holden (Vork from The Guild) Below


Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Riff Trax(What to do with grass)
Hard(chris hardwick) and (la corizone physiology sung in Latino)
Amy Berg(writer for genre tv shows) with Will Wheaton, Felicia Day, Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and Mike Phirman

Jason Finn introduces John Rothman singing funny songs
And then with Paul and Storm and Molly and mike Phirman

5 sec film =Chimpanzee riding on a Segway

Adam savage with others singing as Gollum a song=I did it my way

Adam savage Paul and Storm and Will Wheaton

Burger and home too late to blog
Impression of San Diego during comic con is one big party for 4days & nights