Goes Somer * Goesomer * Gossamer

I showed up early while Chrissy slept in. Wore my “Neville would have done it in four books” t-shirt for Sarah. I’d given up on getting myself a WB Draco bag *tear* but knew the BBC had a fun Doctor Who bag. I tried for it, but the Paramount people mistook me for actually being one of the cronies trying to get their shit and yelled at me to go line up at the back of the room. Like an idiot, I went, realized the mistake and lost my place. Totally missed out on the Doctor bag. Went to the WB line and snagged a Watchman bag, one for me, one for the sister.

Since I lost the Neil Gaiman autograph raffle, I had all morning free until noon. Ended up at the Goal Setting for Creative Types panel. Was skeptical at first, as I was not interested in attending a motivational seminar. The first part was shit I used to do automatically in high school, but have fallen out of the habit of since. After about ten minutes, the speaker asked us to define our goal, and said he would turn on some music while we did this. I thought to myself, “if he turns on some new-agey crap, I’m walking out”.

He played the theme to the A-Team.

I stayed.

It had some good advice, and advocated not trying to complete your goal in a vacuum. Goal completion requires a buddy system, like drinking. The speaker also won points for calling Kirk the Energizer Bunny and saying, “Do what makes you come alive, and you don’t mind the work”. Which is so freaking true. For some damn reason, I keep forgetting how much fun it is to write a story.

I wandered the floor a little, because Sarah Rees Brennan’s signing was bumped down to about 1:30. Stupid schedules. Could have gone to her panel, but was retarded and didn’t realize. Was first in line instead, next to a chica dressed as the Love Bot from Serenity. She was lots of fun to chat with, and was there to get her book signed by Sarah too, even though she hadn’t had time to read it yet.


I was the first person up to Sarah (i r first, bitchez). For some reason I made a comment on zombies and American Idol, in some reference to effex (who I was also getting a signature for), and she signed my book, “To another lover of zombies”. For effex, she wrote “you have an awesome friend” (yays!). I couldn’t help but ask her why she’d decided to take down her fanfic (even though I know she posted on this, I sorta wanted to hear from her). The response was twofold. She didn’t want two sites; one where she could be known as herself, the other she could never acknowledge as her own, kept secret. The other reason was that she was already far, far too easily distracted by pretty shinnies (my words, not hers) when writing, and could barely focus enough to put out her own novel as it was. For an example, she told me that very nearly put the gay sex scene with CENSORED and CENSORED (sorry!) from book two into book one, barely realizing she was on the wrong storyline (YAY FOR INADVERTENT SPOILER! Squee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).



I love Comic Con.

After I took up about 10 minutes of Sarah’s time and caused disgruntledness in the line behind me, I skipped down to Hall H to get in line for Peter Jackson (aka, Pete; aka, PJ). I’d been waiting for about 5 min before Chrissy called to say she’d arrived. I told her to get her ass down to Hall H, because this shit was clogging up fast. She brought me a frappuccino from Starbucks (it was hot outside, but not as bad as it’s been in the past). Natalie’s stroller gave us some pre-made shade, and we got into the hall just in time, although I was not impressed by the fact that there had been at least a thousand people waiting to get in outside, and there were forty empty seats, just in my immediate vicinity.

This was, of course, a few days before Christopher Tolkien was a douche and declared war on The Hobbit, so Pete’s comments on that film were made with brevity, citing that they didn’t have an official cast, probably wouldn’t until they had a script. He did not make any inference to trouble in regards to the legal rights.

There were comments regarding the Halo movie, which seems like it will not be made. Pete said he was a firm believer in Fate, that what is meant to be will be, what isn’t, isn’t. That he’d been stonewalled in trying to do that film hurt, and like a jilted lover, wasn’t ready to “date that chick again,” as one audience member put it.

The main event was for showing a preview of District 9. It looks awesome. As Chrissy said, the previews on TV don’t show how it’s filmed as if it were a documentary, don’t make any reference to the fact that it was filmed and is set in South Africa (with a South African director! And with actors who have South African accents!), and most egregious of all, fail to show that there is a main character and a whole entire storyline. I dunno if I’ve said it before, but the best Sci-Fi punches you in the face, holds up a mirror and says, “LOOK AT IT”. That’s this film, if the 7 min preview says anything.

I marveled at the panel, and fell in love with the genious of PJ all over again: their little film was shot with nothing more than $30 million. When I watched that preview, I saw tons a beautifully rendered CGI aliens, and spaceships and stuff you have to have computer graphics for. And they did it with $30 million. The director, Neill Blomkamp, knew exactly who to cast as the main character: this guy he knew in high school. No, seriously. And what big studio would ever, ever let a director do that? I tell you, Neill was right; that kid from his high school, Sharlto Copley, was exactly the man for the role.

I was so, so happy after that panel. Not so happy PJ, the Man Who did the Impossible (ie, made Lord of the Rings into one of the greatest cinematic events, ever), still gets doors slammed in his face and is creatively distrusted in Hollywood. That sucks. But I am happy he still has the guerilla spirit that gets the job done against insurmountable odds. I love that man.

Went home, looking forward to sleeping in that evening.