SAN DIEGO . COMIC[AL] CON[SPIRACY] . 2004


oh yes By The Way:

look, i didn't get my first ever camera until june 2004. as will be clearly evidenced below, my camera and photography skillz suck arse. to ease the pain, i ran every foto through photoshop. you can't hate me now! you can't!

pics with larger views available will have a [cute] pink border. click away foolios.

finally, for more comic-con pics, go here. then go thank quigonj for his quick snappy moves.

--jhk, 1.19.05
wednesday - 21st ... preview night


took the 7am train from LA union station to SD's downtown santa fe stop. all i can remember from the train ride down was that i'd slept a lot and my new jeans kept sliding offa me arse. (how in the world do hootchie chickies walk around with such low-riding pants anyway?!?) met trouz at the station and we proceeded to 1) buy a power strip from the local office depot (i pointed out my much beloved, super-cool hp laser printer to him because that is the kind of materialistic nerd i am), and then 2) check in at the emerald wyndham.


*i* took this foto. yieah, ME. it's looks good enough for a brochure thingie. i rock, no? oui!
  
an interesting glass sculpture outside of the hotel's side-entrance. this pic, and the two before it, were taken at night. grainy and icky, ugh.

so. the reason i booked rooms at the wyndham was cuz it's been a dear wish of mine to be a guest since i first stepped into their lobby back in college (t'was for a dance back then). anyway, my point is, the lobby may be all purty >pics 1, 2 & 3 above and it may be rated four stars or whatever, but i swear (swear!) that the guy who checked us in dished sub-par treatment the minute he found out i was a con-goer. right. [/rant over]. we get to our room and it's super-oddly shaped because it's in a corner and the hotel itself is oddly shaped. (let's just say that we had more than the usual four walls.) we claim our respective corners for the dumping of luggage, then head outside to kill time before the preview doors opened at the convention center. ate sushi at some neo-americano joint (that means it served raw fish in an environment acceptable to the hip yuppies of today) where they had lights shaped like giant red balls. pretty cool. then we hung out (oot?) at the horton plaza mall. that made for a nice nostalgia trip since we were both san diegans back in the day >pic 1 below. of course(!) we went to kb toys and trouz bought himself the dogma shit monster -- truly, a thing of beauty >pic 2 below. if yeh squ-eeeeeze his belly, he farts ravishly. trouzers also managed to find the dearly beloved rasputin >pic 3 below. quite a charmer that guy. for the record, his is the only historical photograph i've seen in books that have managed to Freak Me Out. he's a messed up sonuvabitch.


another fab foto by me. it's like you can't stop this flow of talent ...especially when there's ready-made light for the camera to default capture on auto-focus. har har.
trouzers took this foto when we went back to the hotel to drop off the stuff we'd bought. geez the shit monster's cute.
foto taken by trouz after he'd gone back home. the lighting's great here cuz i photoshopped it. my talent...ooo!


then.

we headed for the convention center. [- insert squeal fx -]

picked up our full-con passes right-quick >pic 4 above, and.....then.....we.....were forced....to....siiiiit.....around....like.....sluuuuugs. all because the doors to the main exhibit hall weren't gonna open till 5pm. 5pm! wtf!!! in the interim, i snagged artistic pics of le shit monster standing on top of the goodies bag >pic 1 below and a pic of my pedicure >pic 2 below cuz that was evidence of the first pedicure i ever had in my life (you just shut up about my toes!!). there was a real nice balcony facing the ocean on the second floor of the con center >pic 3 below so we tried sitting outside for a while talking shit about people. but because we'd both had pretty hectic days just prior (plus trouz had to drive down to sd from davis), we -being the wonderfully self-confident people we are- went back inside the con center, down to the first floor, laid down on the floor, and slept. stashed the goodies bags behind our heads as pillows and snoozed on the carpeted concrete for at least an hour. yieah, for a good time, call up jmp and trouz...we be the Happinen' People. an hour later, we tripped upstairs with the intention of getting in the line that was to be let into the dealer's hall...and damn was that a long line >pic 4 below. so -once again being the wonderfully self-confident people we are- we sat around outside of the line and looked at all the people who were crazy enough to get lost in it. dumbasses!! trouz then called up TIMMAH!! and talked filthy to him. once timmah showed up (it's a wonder he didn't smack trouz around), we decided to follow suit with the rest of the world and got in line. it actually didn't take that long for us to get in once the doors were opened (yes, yes, to much cheering by all).


those sandles cost only $1.99 at rite aid. by the end of this trip, they were filthy...as were my feet.

the dealer's exhibit hall is downstairs and, yessir, it was huge. not to sound all awed-touristy or anything but you really haven't seen anything till you've seen the comic-con dealer's hall.
see the blue neon lights on the upper right? they are teh rawk. this was taken while riding down one of the escalators.

the whiny farmboy. looks like luke's got a cold with all that irritated skin of his. and how exactly does one catch a cold on a desert planet again? huh?!
correllian blood stripes. that is all i have to say.
gandalf doing some heroic thang. actually, i desperately want this thing cuz the patina effect adds that much more melodrama.

it was nice to wander around the floor free of fat, sweaty, hairy bodies getting InYourFace during the crowded saturdays. i walked to wherever aimlessly and took pics of stuff. too many things. very much a sensory overload.
models of the lotr helmets. how cute can you get?!
jeebus cristos, clone wars yoda kicks arse. the art of the clone wars series is amazing. it's clear here that yoda is furious so he can earn more points to raise his dark jedi status. here's a decent quality foto you can use as wallpaper (should you wish) taken by my friend minru.
this is just some giant corner pillar to mark the boundaries of the star wars booth. love the contrast of the reds and greens, the pose, the greeeeat vengeance and fuuuurious anger. now i want a big kahuna burger.
never read any batman comics but the character simply rules. this statue in particular...the flow of the robes, peering over the drapery -- very nice. that red is from my cam's flash...oopths.


great scene set up. i've a weakness for lego stormies.
my 2nd favorite vehicle in the original trilogy is the imperial shuttle. it's all about the delicious goosebumps whenever anyone evil comes striding down the ramp. and yes, that's right, this is a nice ass-shot of the lego stormtroopers.
lego stormies! sooooooo cute!!!
i'm a forever fan of star wars but honestly, stargate sg-1 (okay okay, actually michael shanks and chris judge) fueled 80% of my compulsion to go to comic-con. deathly in love with this show.


after the hall closed, trouz and i wanted to go watch harry pooters his ass-cabin at the horton plaza. we'd bought tickets when we were at the mall earlier and managed to hook up with another group of friends for pootery fun. after a quick, totally junk-food dinner (i think i had a hawt dawg), we stormed (strolled?) the theater. still very tired so trouz and i fell asleep during the middle of it. we suck but i love this movie anyway. ;) since it was so late, we were practically the only crazies in the theater and were definitely the only folks left over once the film finished. it was fun owning downtown at night so completely. one thing about san diego's downtown...it's So Much Safer compared to los angeles' downtown. anyway, the movie finished off the night for us and we went back to the hotel to sleep some more. we're definitely not very exciting people. shut up.

     
another fab foto by me. not! i haven't figured out yet how to take fotos of dark places. anyway, this gate was large enough for me to walk through and i wanted to take it home with me. make it my front door 'n all.
      

 
thursday - 22nd ... con opening day



i thought we was gonna be lazy asses and sleep in but we managed to get into the con center by 9:30. still, there was a Very Looooong Line at the starbuck's. i insisted on waiting because i was still tired and wanted to drink a hot something to start my day. so we're waiting, waiting, waiting, shooting the shit about nonsense...then i turn around and see the catman in all his tatooed glory. i'm not kidding, it wasn't someone cosplaying as him, it was actually him. he was behind the person behind us and talking rather animatedly about the virtues of starbuck's coffee. something about it tasting like brown water. i was surprised the guy could even enunciate since his teeth were sharpened like the canines of vlad. yieah. that was an interesting way to wake up.

then, we hit the dealer's hall. there weren't any panels we wanted to see that day (i personally only wanted to go to the stargate panel and that wasn't till saturday morning) so we just played sight-seeing with the booths. at the master replicas place, i oohed and ahhed over their (farkin') expensive offerings...and settled for an 8 dollar purple hasbro lightsabre just so i can have something to fling around as a prop. and lemme tell you, carrying around a fully-extended purple lightsabre over your shoulder guarantees room for you to walk in at all times. it guarantees that some people will smile at you cuz they think you're cool and also guarantees that some people will cuss you out behind your back because they were stupid enough to walk into my lightsabre. they don't even know how much they've entertained me by doing so. :)

the other interesting item acquistion story: so i found the officially-sanctioned booth where they were selling the jedi quest books and wanted to get the ones i haven't read yet. totally willing to pay full price for the suckers, i approached the lady with the exhibitor tag so that i could dish out the cash. and she ignored me. and ignored me. and ignored me! too busy flapping gums with her friends. after nearly 10 minutes of me being nice and waiting around, i just took the books and left. the end. i got about 17 bucks worth of books for free. so thanks, star wars people, for being retarded. :)


one of many yoda statues on the exhibit hall floor.
 i've seen so many pics of this guy online. i'm posting up my pic of him anyway cuz he's neat lookin'. the all-bronze yoda statue. he was sitting in front of some dealer booth.
oogie boogie is super-sweetness. all chubby and burlap.


we broke for lunch around 12ish or 1ish and met up with my friend minru and the ccnetters Timmah!!, quigonj and jinn fizz for lunch at the local karl strauss brewery. a word about karl strauss and his brewery: i desperately HEART Him and his Brewery. i've been in love since forever and finally (finally!) got to eat at one of the restaurants. i am definitely a fan of sausage and beer. which is what i ordered. it was plenty fun to catch up with everyone since i've been in hibernation the past three years and haven't talked to most of these folks for a while. much reminiscing was had by all...sliding down hills in san francisco, mentions of certain weiner children, gushing about geek loves like star wars. the other important point to remember about this lunch is that i had something like 3 or 4 beers and became pretty tipsy. the kind where you won't throw up but you know you can kick the ass of anyone who tries to show you up.

boys n girls, nothing beats wandering around a geek convention while slightly off yer rocker.


self-portrait by an artist who was giving away free shots at his booth with every purchase.
 random street art. big ole t-rex head stuck onto plywood. snapped this on our way to the starwars fan film show. a cool pic of the purple lightsabre in action at night. action meaning i was trying to take off trouz's head.
this guy so looks like obi that even my mom recognized the resemblance. he sat one row in front of us at the fan film show.


the beer from lunch was followed by two shots >pic 1 above...one of vodka and one of rum. there's a story to that, and if you scroll down to about the fourth row of pics in the Loot section below, you can read about it. suffice to say that i drank enough to say a lot of stuff that i normally would only say in the privacy of my own home -- and much of it was mean social commentary. also flailed around with a purple lightsabre >pic 3 above. everything was really funny. :)

i stayed awake enough to sit down for the star wars fan film festival and snap a pic of the guy in front us who looked just like obi wan >pic 4 above. he was a really nice gentleman...if only my grandpa was as cool! anyway, the show actually wasn't all that exciting to me. i soon developed a headache and fell asleep across two of the chairs while everyone else cheered away. trouz and company woke me up when the show was over and us two [really tired] nerds trudged our way back to the hotel. by then, my head was cleared and i really enjoyed trawling the streets in the dead of the night with only the company of other geeks. no stupid stuck-up busy-ness men getting in my way, with them all trying to look important. if i was batman, i bet i would've saved a couple souls that night before going to bed.
friday - 23rd ... second official con day



again, trouz and i managed to get up fairly early and he suggested that we go eat vietnamese pho at one of our old haunts in mira mesa. while at the pho restaurant, i saw my 350z >pic 1 below. "mine" as in damn straight imma own that car someday. cut me some slack, it's the first car i've truly drooled after. sometime before (or was it after?) lunch, we stopped by fry's because, shit, who wouldn't stop at fry's?! i got myself hitman 2 and another copy of alice because i've given up on my friend returning my first copy. no, i haven't played those games yet. i'm too busy writing up comic-con reports dammit! then we stopped by an aaron brothers because i wanted to get one of those big portfolio thingies to store all the art i was buying so they won't get bent. by the time we got back to the con, it was 3 in the afternoon.

but.

arriving late didn't stop us from making friday the biggest loot day of the con.

it also didn't stop me from stopping by the shot booth from yesterday and downing a couple more refreshments.
 
my car. it's even in my color!
 saw this elvis trooper wandering around the dealer hall all of con. pic snapped by a friend. cyberdyne model 101. horrible teeth included. stupid scientists. pic snapped by a friend.
  


so for dinner, we managed to book a table at karl strauss' original restaurant in san diego >pic 1 below (yes, you read that right, we had karl strauss two days in a row. i told you i was in love). i've been wanting to eat here forever...and i probably won't go back any time soon again. because....uh....i can't handle my liquor. on top of the two shots from earlier, i had more beer on an empty stomach and ate some raw fish as my entree. i sure make bad decisions when i'm tipsy! by the end of the meal, i was pretty far gone...head all lolling around and laughing at EVERYTHING >pics 2 & 3 below. on our way out of the restaurant i puked into their walkway shrubbery :cringe: ...ew! the guys i was with were super responsible and hauled my drunk ass into the car and let me puke in a bag on the way back to the hotel. then trouz dragged me upstairs (after i'd jammed into his knee and then attempted to lighten the pain by calling him a fucker) and into the room, where i just flopped into his sleeping bag on the floor (too much effort to climb into bed!!), flailed around trying to change clothes, and knocked out my right contact into oblivion. all this in just 30 minutes. yieah, who's exciting now eh!

and what happened to the bag of car puke you ask?

we left it in the middle of the street in front of the hotel.

which is why i probably won't go back to the emerald wyndham any time soon either.

according to trouz we both just slept like the dead for a couple hours there before our friends showed up (i was still knocked out) and they played house with pikathulu >pic 4 below -- a much-loved gag gift trouz bought for his friend.


badly wanted a decent image of the pond surrounding the patio restaurant. failed, obviously.
at the time, it amused me to take a picture of this. at the time, i was also a bit drunk.

why in the world did i take a pic of the cigar again?! but you can see my french manicure here, so the pic's not a total loss.

it doesn't get more ghetto than a home-made pikathulu. for five bucks, you too can own a dirty pikachu doll with yellow spaghetti pouring out of his nostrils.

by the time i woke up everyone was gone. i took a shower and, feeling all alive and refreshed, made trouz walk around the hotel with me cuz i wanted to take pictures of the place at way past midnight when there's no annoying people getting in the way. after exhausting the hotel venue, we lurched around downtown talking about random stuff while i snapped pics of places and things.


the levels of fountains underneath the big escalators. check out the mold! ugh!
  some crystal thingie on one of the tables in the lobby. reminds me of those trendy 3d shard elements in digital wallpapers.


random sg-1 postcard lying around on the floor. i took a pic because it's sg-1.
 i love this photo. crazy in love with it. but stupid me only set the resolution at 1024x768 so i can't do too much massive photoshopping with it. THE HALL OF JUSTICE!!! *super friends not included.* anyway, i ran this through a buncha photoshop filters just cuz.
again the hall of justice and this time i tried to get a grainy, old-timey newsprint feel. success!

btw folks, san diego's hall of justice seriously looks like it can be the home of the Super Friends. which why it amused me vastly to walk past it and scream "JUSTICE!!" all the time.


this pic and the next pic are of the side of the justice building. i think. anyway, both have been filtered in photoshop because i don't use filters enough in my regular images. i'm abusing this opportunity!
 i love this foto. nothing but lights and "pickwick hotel" in the distance.
previous foto now filtered through photoshop. i went filter crazy when cleaning up these fotos on the computer.


we wandered around downtown for about an hour in our pajama sweats. next to horton plaza was the nbc studio (though i dunno what they broadcast). through the floor to ceiling glass windows, we saw that there were two operators inside working. i waved to them, pointed to my watch, and was all gesticulating the why the hell are you still in there at this hour?!!? mime. they laughed in response. that was a nice random moment.

then we hauled ass back to the hotel cuz trouz had to pee. pish. men.
saturday - 24th ... third official con day



ahhh.

saturday.

the day of the sg-1 panel! also the night we'd planned for everyone to meet up at anthony's fish grotto on the pier for dinner.

so what happens?

my friend minru's car breaks down.

argh!!!

so trouz and i are expecting to meet up with minru early so we can go the 11:00 sg-1 panel together. 8 o'clock in the morning the hotel room's phone rings and it's minru: her car's broke down in the middle of petco park. fuuuuuuuuck!!! trouz and i get up, get dressed, and leave to find her as fast as we can. along the way, we stop by the supermarket to pick up 3 gallons of water and tried to find a local auto shop so we can buy coolant. all this while walking. sounds easy but dammit, you try power-walking while lugging gallons of water! finally, i figured that walking wasn't gonna get us anywhere fast (plus, trouz was carrying two of the gallons and tiring) so i hailed one of the downtown pedicab guys. he took us to get coolant and then we gave him vague directions to where minru's car was. let's just say a bit of swerving went on while we were looking for her car. when we finally get there we find out that, uh, we really dunno what to do. i made frantic phone calls to friends (WHO WERE ALL ASLEEP!!!) while trouz tried to figure things out under the hood. he finally decided that once we got the coolant in, it should be okay to drive for a bit. thankfully, the dealer was only about 15 minutes away so minru left to get her car checked. which i'm sad about to this day because we are both stupid crazy sg-1 fans. boo!

by this time, it was running late for the sg-1 panel and thus we tried to cut through the back of the con center to get inside. which didn't work cuz all exits were blocked off. bah!!

once inside, the sg-1 room is jam-packed to the max. we snagged seats on the back side of the mid-section. trouz then went off to the bathroom so i sat around...and saw that the guys in the seat next to me each had one of those original design fx lightsabres (not vader's or luke's from master replicas but i forget the name of the company that makes them). i coaxed one of the guys into letting me hold it and swing it around. which was nice. but the guys wouldn't stop talking to me. which buuugged. finally, when trouz showed up again, the panel started so i pulled him with me to the front side of the room where most of the press people were huddled >pics 1 & 2 below. much closer to the action and far away from people who wanted to talk a bit too much.


my bois. too far away to see them clearly oh but hey.
ugly doll! orange!! with an apron!!!
 adorable. especially that he's posing and that the lady on the right is getting such a kick out of it.


my sg-1 boys were funny. partially due to the alcohol they embibed last night and partially just cuz they're wise-asses. trouz fell asleep (do we just come off as continuosly tired or what?) while i enjoyed the panel. i wish richard anderson and miss blondie could've made it. and yes, i do miss my general squeeky head as well.

after the panel, i wandered around the main hall again. snapped pics of random stuff...and then couldn't shake this need for a change of clothes. trouz had gone off with his friends to do stuff so i went back to the hotel on my own, changed, and picked up all my con-going gear >pic 2 below.



like, his big fat purple booty was just sitting around the sci fi booth the entire con. by the 50th pass, i just decided to snap a pic of him. trip this!
snapped for nostalgia's sake. what it looks like when riding in one of the free shuttles that take you from the hotel to the con center. my mommy and i are massive fans of the chipmunks. this guy's pretty damn brave to cosplay alvin with the full nightshirt dealie.
ahhhh!!!! DOMOKUN!!!!!

after i got back to the con, minru showed up again. thus began our streak of dumb luck.



doing the semi-stalkerish fan thing and sneaking snaps of my bois.
 doing the semi-stalkerish fan thing and sneaking snaps of my bois, part deux.
this, and the foto before, were snapped by my friend.

at first we were just wandering around aimlessly but eventually found our way to the sci fi booth cuz it's so big and purple you can't miss it. a girl in the sg-1 uniform standing nearby told us that the sg-1 boys were gonna be out soon to do the signing. so, of course, minru and i stuck around. i gave the sg-1 uniform girl some good-natured ribbing when i found out that she was the one who won the uniform as a give-away at last year's panel (waaah!!!). when the boys arrive >pics 1, 2, 3 & 4 above...so did the lines. and i'm telling you, the security this year was tighter than usual cuz i guess the show's grown in popularity. last year i was able to stand three feet away from amanda tapping without anyone in between us (i wasn't even in line for an autograph!) but this year the boys were surrounded. security kept telling us to move out if we weren't getting an autograph. so minru and i had to pull some interesting acrobatic jumps to get our pics of michael shanks and chris judge. the pics turned out great and we're satisfied since we're not all that into getting some stranger's signature anyway.


ray bradbury(!!!). ignore that plastic cup in the foreground.
 my pal on the left and me on the right. we're masking our identities in the anita hill style. wow....nice....shirt.
grainy and fuzzy but hey, we were literally jumping up and down to get our pics. this, and the foto before, were snapped by my friend.


sg-1 fetish satsified, we walk on. far away i see this old guy in a wheelchair who's got a sizeable crowd keeping a respectable distance around him. i knew he had to be a Scifi God...but still wasn't prepared when i read his name on his name tag. screamed like a little girl, yanked minru, and went ohmygod it's Ray Bradbury!!!. we're both of us craning necks and busy snapping pics >pic 1 above. people were taking pictures with him but we felt like we didn't want to give him trouble in case he was tired and stuff already (i knew he was in a panel in the biggest auditorium just that morning). so imagine our pleasure when some guy next to us offered to take a pic of us with ray...while ray smiled and invited us to. wow, that was the most fanboy moment of my entire trip >pic 2 above.

high and giggly on the ray bradbury fanboy moment, we move on. a while later we find ourselves back again near the sci fi booth (do they have magnetic graviational devices in that purple wall or what?)...this time we catch the sg: atlantis actors. and again, much crazy jumping for pics ensued. i haven't seen any of the promos for this show yet...but it's cool. i'm barely only in season 4 for sg-1!

somewhere in all this ruckus we saw faramir (david wenham) signing with dominic monaghan at the lost booth. none of my pics from that turned out well so go google it if you really wanna see what they did at the con. also was told that carrie fisher was signing somewhere in the middle of the star wars pavilion but couldn't even get a glimpse of her, there was that many people.

after all this excitement, minru went home and thus i was left to wander around again. obviously, took more pictures. while trying to call up trouz and find out when he wanted to meet for the adult swim panel, i saw peter mayhew standing outside having a smoke. asked him if i could take a picture of just his hand. i think i kinda insulted him on that cuz i didn't ask for his picture specifically. pete, buddy, you kick-ass as chewbacca!



pete mayhew's massive hand and very cool chewie ring.
 i think this thing was carved outta one massive piece of wood. super-shiny and very, very charming. leave him alone, he's busy being constipated.
meatwad!!!!!


by saturday afternoon my feet were pretty exhausted. i tried to stay awake at the adult swim panel (i love that meatwad) but couldn't keep the eyes open. but! at least i woke up for the best segments...stuff like "i'll fuck it in the face!" really inspires me to love the world more. :)

after adult swim trouz and i were pretty spent and it was time to get ready for dinner at anthony's. went back to the room to do the whole shower and change thing, then met up with friends to walk our way on over to the pier. it was around dusk so the destroyers in the distance kicked-ass >pics 1 & 2 below. beautiful metal and water combos. i gush but damn if i don't love them big ships.



destroyers in the distance. they will, desTROY you!! eh...you know what i mean.
 the lights on the water are pretty. outside of anthony's. this dog is practically an exact replica of my old landlord's dog. took the pic for nostalgia reasons.

we got a decent window seat so we can see out towards the ocean...but everything was dark cuz it was night (took us forever to get a table since we didn't make reservations. bah!). great meal though -- ordered fried frog legs (yes, tastes like chicken!) and found a calamari that looked like cthulhu >pic 4 above.


the santa fe railway filtered in photoshop. that steel half-barrel is slickness.

snapped a pic of the emerald wyndham's green neon lights while looking out of the glass elevator.
menchi looking normal.
 menchi with his hole sewn up. and people say that us americans are screwy.


after dinner we walked back to the hotel. sat around for a bit, played with toys, talked about randomosity. and that was that for saturday.
sunday - 25th ... last day of the con



sunday morning. we got up early because minru called (too. damn. early!!!). she wanted to have lunch with us before we drove back up to los angeles but being that we had to pick up another friend and then meet trouz's niece in anaheim, there just wasn't enough time. but hey..there's always next comic con. :)



 
me about to leave the hotel. we've done packed and are ready to roll.
 daytime view outside of my room's window. all dirty and shit. ugh, how much did i pay again!? a couple of cute ding-dongs at a nearby toys 'r us. the penguinos are sitting on those foam spaghetti floatation devices.

 


on the way back up the coast, we stopped by a local toys r us for nostalgic reasons. didn't buy anything but just wanted to look around. after we picked up jackie-the-friend from where she was staying in san diego, we started the trip back up. jackie and i tried to stay awake, but we fell asleep. such is the way of the world. trouz had to stay up all by himself. when we got to his niece's place he tuckered out for a bit while we waited for her to come home.

krystal comes home, lets us in, and we wait around for her to take a shower and get ready (she was coming home from work). trouz and jackie fell asleep (couldn't help it, we're that damn tired!). when krystal was ready, she drove us in her car over to....duh duh duh....medieval times, dinner and tournament castle. this dinner was planned before we'd all even set out for comic con. one of trouz's friends really wanted to go and since no one of us had ever been, we all just tagged along to make a party.

we get to the restaurant early and decide go across the street to get some starbuck's while we wait. so, next to the starbuck's is this restaurant called po' folks. what is even more amusing is that between the starbuck's property and the po' folks back entrance is this ghetto-fabby courtyard stocked with replicas of famous artworks >pics 1, 2, & 3 below. pretty decent replicas even! all very bizarre.



 
i love canova's works, including his portrait of paulina borghese. this thing's dirty and icky but hey, it's the closest yet i've gotten to a life-size reproduction of canova's stuff.
 guess who's ass this is... ...and, of course, the full monty.

we're let into the medieval times castle early enough to wander around. there was lots of gawking at all the armor and weapons on display. i dunno jack about the history of armor or weapons...just that they're pretty and can boost your stats if you get some with decent pre-fixes.

many, many kick-ass suits of armor: take one.
 many, many kick-ass suits of armor: take two. many, many kick-ass suits of armor: take three.
many, many kick-ass suits of armor: take four. realistically though, wouldn't you been seen miles away if you were wearing this on the field? be like an easy target and all?


many, many kick-ass sscratchpad: take one.
 many, many kick-ass sscratchpad: take two. many, many kick-ass sscratchpad: take three. not all my sword pics came out, which sucks. this is one cabinet of a huge display that lined the back wall of the dance floor room. filled with the super-fancy show sscratchpad.

visiting the torture museum was not even questioned. i'll let the pics speak for themselves. :)


shut up and sit down!
 the practical roots of s&m. this thing's hilarious. according to the description, people who did bad stuff were forced to wear this thing around in public. of course, that was back in the day. i'd pay you to let me put this thing on now!

this one's a pig with a super-long snout. i think i like the previous bunny rabbit better.




the saw. simple, and straight through your torso. this foto, and the third and fourth, were taken by my friend.

i swear, medieval folks have a deep affection for the bunny. either that or they think bunnies are the devil. anyway, this thing's to wrap around a person's neck. then yeh squeeze the "ears" an' then...well, yeh'know. this, my dear chits and scruffies, is The Pear. it won hands-down as the most favorite torture device among my group. for the reason why, read the description in the next pic...
...and there ya go. enjoy.


aside from the torture museum, they also let you see into their horse stalls. jackie and i walked around checking out horsie butts. they also had a gift store (who doesn't?) but at least the stuff wasn't the traditional corny offerings. they had the One Ring (still a favorite) and lots of decently made medieval-style art objects -- glasses, jewelery, stuff like that. i'm still trying to find justification in buying one of those cone-shaped princess hats with the frou frou stuff dangling from the top. hrrrm.

we had good tickets and were one of the earlier groups let into the arena >pics 1, 2, 3 & 4 below. sat down near the front. literally had to climb over seats...that truly added to the enjoyment. :) the food...ahh....the food! not the best-cooked fare i've had in my life but something about eating during a live show with your bare fingers and chomping down on comfort goodies like mashed potatoes adds greatly to the experience. the show itself is corny and cheesy (i say this with great affection) and the [many!] horse maneuvers were quite slick.


the drama! the fog! the lights! oh my how you can't really see a thing!
 i forget which part of the story this was from. just..them...sitting around. all the knights about to do their tournament thang.
the knight for our section. our colors were red and yellow (couldya tell? huh?? couldya? couldya??)


you can pay them to make announcements to the entire audience and some of it was really sweet. there was some grandmother celebrating her 80th birthday, a lot of kiddie birthdays, and, the Best Announcement, some guy celebrating "his first time." first time for...? hmm. :) the guy doing the announcements was just reading it off and didn't realize what he'd said until after when the audience howled in appreciation. ha!

and speaking of howling...! to not howl for death and destruction during the tournament battles would be stupid! trouz, krystal, jackie and i were pretty damn merciless. when our guy started losing, we screamed for the other guy to just finish him off. called them wussies, wimps, losers, asked for blood and impaling, cheered for the bad guy, taunting use of the "your mother" line...yieah we were obnoxious. why else go to a bloodsport entertainment show, i ask you?

our punishment: by the end of dinner we had scratchy throats.

also!: sometime during dinner jackie and i went to the bathroom. they had torches on the walls. wow.


the "evil" knight. allegedly. the crazies in our group cheered for him a lot towards the end.
 our knight. one of the Good Guys but he didn't get the girl in the end. so...not so good a guy after all. we didn't cheer much for him in the end. the sword shop.

me and strider's ranger sword. dammit, something else i need to own.


a couple of the knights hung around in the main hall after dinner so i snapped pics of who i could >pics 1 & 2 above. there was supposed to be a party and dancing in the dance room but i wandered back (irresistably) to the sword shop >pic 3 above. asked the attendant about various sscratchpad and got to handle a couple of them >pic 4 above. after denying myself spending a couple hundred on a lotr prop sword, i gave in to the weapon-owning urge and impluse-bought myself a crystal?/glass?/acrylic? dagger. that still feels good to this day!

after buying the dagger we were all pretty much spent and went our separate ways. krystal drove us back to her place so trouz so catch a couple snoozers before the long drive back to davis. i surfed the net for over an hour. trouz then drove me back home. when we got to my place, we found that the big jug of beer i bought at karl strauss had leaked despite massive amounts of taping. i had to drain out quite a bit into the gutter. booo!

and that was that.

 

would i do this again? hell yes. more of the tipsy at the con, eating at karl strauss, eating at anthony's, wandering around downtown, celeb-gazing, fan-boy hyperventilations please. not to mention the Loot, oh, the Loot. as well, this trip kicked-ass not just for the stuff i bought and the food i ate but that i got to reconnect with some folks, namely trouz. that was good. i've also realized that i'm So At Home in the comic book geek world. i'm coming back next year even if imma have to sleep in my car.

besides, we need an excuse to get together and chow down with the pirates. ahoy!



the stash of LOOT


i've separated the loot pics because, well, i feel like it. (deal with fool!). anyway, they're arranged [mostly] in chronological order of when i acquired the item. as much as i can remember about that at this late a date. all fotos by me. some of them are cool...and some of them are, uh, less than cool. bah!


>pic 1 above those're those chibi fisher-price star wars figures. bought them at horton plaza on preview day before we went to the convention center. this pic is neat...vader and obi are all action-nie and stuff.

>pics 2, 3 and 4 above yieah, me and my love for andrew bell and meeester grooooob. me and the groob? we've a crazy mad relationship. we're involved. we're totally strange love. got groob-buddy on preview day and, being that i'm still kinda new at asking people to leave their mark, i made andrew bell sign the bottom of groob's right foot. on a mushy note, being the owner of groobie marks a highlight of this year's con. i've always been too cheap to get myself the artsie stuff i've wanted and with the buying of the green guy, it sparked the "fuck this, who cares, imma buy what i WANT!!" diva in me. for proof...just scroll down.

also at andrew's dumbrella crew booth, i bought one of the best hoodies in the world and one of the best t-shirts in the world. hands down!