The Story So Far.
We left the show yesterday around 10:45pm and got home about 11:10 pm. The plan was to have a quick shower, wash and dry our clothes in case we needed them for the next day and get to bed at a reasonable hour when we arrived home. All that walking around the convention center had done a number on our feet, hips and backs. It sucks to get old; hobbling about in pain is no fun at all and certainly not a beneficial part of the aging process. I had just enough fuel in the body to carry out one task, my nightly ritual off hooking up my phone and camera batteries to the chargers. The physical stresses of the day had caught up with me by this point and while I was crouching down to plug in my devices into the wall outlets I felt a very familiar knife pain envelop me. A stabbing twinge in the right side of my sacroiliac bone and lower lumber vertebrae which rendered me paralysed in that squatted position and unable to straighten up until I received some help from my ever dutiful wife. With her support I shuffled my body across the floor like Egor and over to the bed. My wife finally drifted off to sleep at around 1:00 pm and I lay there conscious for an hour longer until my sleep medication kicked in. At about 3:30 pm we were both awakened by the ear splitting cracks of Florida's famous thunderstorms, Thor Odinson, God of Thunder was our alarm clock for this morning. The pain from my infection was also back with vengeance and aggravating my jaw, ear and neck with more intensity than the day before. We both decided it was too late to go back to sleep so watched an episode of the CW network show Supernatural on Netflix. We've been packing in a Supernatural binge watching marathon over the past two months, something I will talk further about once we've caught up. With not enough rest, lets just say this was going to be a rough day for both of us.
Commencement.
We had planned on meeting my wife's son, Alex today with his friend Alison. He was mainly interested in getting some autographs from the cartoon voice over celebrities who are in attendance and participating in some role playing board games inside one of the dedicated rooms. I doubted we'd see much of them, but we would certainly try and hook up at some point when a free moment presented itself. These are the times when you appreciate the invention of mobile/cell phones because you don't have to wander around a location looking for people anymore; no more wasting valuable time trying to find your group of friends or family; no more waiting in lines to use a public pay phone to get hold of your missing party. Must suck to be Clark Kent / Superman these days with the lack of public phone boxes to quickly change in.
Our pets were of course sorted for the day. Dishes washed. Quick breakfast before setting out and off we went. Just like groundhog day we repeated the whole getting lost routine when we arrived in the center of Tampa. So starting off earlier didn't really give us much of an advantage. We took the scenic route and saw a lot of the costumed convention goers walking along the sidewalks towards the direction of the event. We made a note of where we left the car took a lift/elevator down to the ground floor with a cosplayer dressed as the Joker. It's not every day you share a lift/elevator ride with Batman's arch nemesis.
Celebrity Panels.
Today we wanted to visit all three concurrent panels featuring Carrie Fisher, (Princess Leia Organa from the Star Wars movies) Freema Ageyman (Martha Jones the tenth Doctor's companion in the longest running science fiction television show Doctor Who) and Matt Ryan (John Constantine from the cancelled NBC television show Constantine based on the DC comics character).
According to the event schedule this seemed like a logistical impossibility so we accepted the fact that we may not see all of them. Up to this point we had planned on picking out which celebrity panels to go to and had alternatives on hand in case we couldn't get in to see a particular one. It didn't seem possible to attend all of them since the organizers had planned all of them to overlap one another. The Q and A's all took place in ballroom B, and the lines for these were situated next door in ballroom D. There was a waiting time of an hour for each one and this meant if you stayed to the end of one of the celebrity talks you'd be late to que up for the next one and run the risk of being turned away if the auditorium had reached maximum seating capacity. Amazingly, this wasn't the case; I stayed until the end of each show and leisurely walked to the adjoining ballroom waited in line for the next celebrity panel. Each time I repeated this process I was presented with seats closer and closer to the stage. Maybe at this point, convention fatigue had set in with some of the visitors and they just weren't in the mood for all that standing and waiting around.
So how did it all go down? We made our way straight to the ballroom to line up for Carrie Fisher Q&A. It was already quite packed full of those creatures we call human beings. I looked out upon a brightly coloured sea of people of all shapes and sizes in a multitude of cosplay costumes all carrying with them over sized merchandise posters and over stuffed bags filled with geeky trinkets. There were rows upon rows of retractable belt barriers which created a long winding maze. Someone in line even asked their friend..."Did they feel like a rat in a maze yet?" As stated on the website information page, the waiting times did indeed last an hour as predicted. It's a pity the organizers didn't provide extra fans or max out the air conditioning in that ballroom because it felt like being trapped in an oven. There was no entertainment laid on in this room to alleviate the boredom or take your mind off the aches you may have accumalated from the endurance test of the previous day.
There was one exciting incident that took place while we waited in line...a staff member came into the room and asked everyone to bunch up and move forward so they could fit more battery chickens....er I mean people in line. We all did the shuffle forwards every few feet until the gaps had closed up barring one...there was a huge space in the next row adjacent to us. Why weren't the people moving forward as they were told to do? Curiosity eventually got the better of us and we altered our repose to obtain a better view. We witnessed a middle aged man bent over, leaning on one knee with his head hanging down towards the ground. Obviously there was something wrong with him, hopefully nothing life threatening. Was it a serious affliction or just the cause and effect over indulging in alcohol and rich food the night before? I'm thinking it was the later. Apparently there was a huge vomit patch on the floor in front of him. The guy was wobbly on his feet and was eventually taken out of the area by a convention employee. Meanwhile the big patch of sick became part of some bizarre geek obstacle course. Follow the winding belt till you get to the pool of fanboy sick; avoid the fanboy sick of over indulgence and pass the curtain of concealment to the ballroom of stars. I guess that guy had a bad feeling about this. ;) Perhaps he came as Count Puke'oo? :) Okay. I'll stop the bad Star Wars geek jokes before they get any worse.
Carrie Fisher Panel.
As usual she was late, we expected nothing less from the diva and first lady of Star Wars. She was 10 minutes late to be exact. When she stepped onto the stage she appeared to be carrying a Tribble with her. Wrong franchise I know and it was made known that it was her pooch who apparently travels with her everywhere she goes. Ms, Fisher was irreverent and funny about her Star Wars colleagues calling Harrison Ford a pretentious twit because he recited the philosophy of Niche at Star Wars press junkets. One time they all went to a theme park together for some kind of Star Wars promotion and he turned up wearing a suit, shirt and tie while the rest of them were dressed causally in t-shirts and jeans. They went on some rides and she remembers seeing him looking like a complete dork hanging in a cage in an upside down position on a ride with his tie hung down and flopped in front of his face. Sounds like she isn't one of his biggest fans and I'm not surprised aboutfte that after hearing how he tried to get two puppeteers fired from the set of Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi because they were making too much noise as the alien characters they were portraying. He doesn't sound like a very nice person to be around from some account I've either heard or read.
She said working on the new Star Wars movie felt like she'd never ever been away from the role with one exception, all the people she had worked alongside in the three previous films looked old, bloated, wrinkled and out of shape, she included herself too.
Surprisingly, she never mentioned her likeness on the Kenner Hasbro action figure which we've heard her mention many times in previous interviews.
She pointed out the fact that most of us in this room grew up with her over the years since Star Wars was released in 1977. She proclaimed... ""You wore my outfits and played with my dolls... you naughty boys".
She found it hilarious that Meryl Streep portrayed her in Postcards From The Edge... because they looked so much alike...not.
The moderator brought up her role in the Burbs alongside Tom Hanks and she still considers him her onscreen husband and he is the only actor she has ever worked with who can be thrown a dialogue curve ball and he can instantly improvise on the spot without getting rattled; he has the talent and imagination to instantaneously find the right words for any scene no matter what changes are made without his knowledge.
Carrie was asked to recall her experiences on The Blues Brothers and she more than hinted that she was in drug hazed blur during the making of that film and couldn't remember anything about it.
She did stray off some points a little, but always managed a way to mock herself to the amusement of the crowds.
I'd say her twenty minutes of stage time was a little short considering this would be her only panel over the course of the three days. Having said that she was a delight to listen too and her stories gave me and everyone in attendance a good laugh.
Freema Ageyman Panel.
Thankfully, Freema was on time and she came across as a very sweet, amenable and open person. She covered a wide range of subjects sharing personal experiences to advice on how to break into acting. She talked about the auditioning process for Doctor Who. The script she was given to read was from the Rose episode and there was no inkling in her mind she was on the radar for the next companion for the good time travelling Doctor. She thought she was trying out for a role in the spin off show Torchwood because the production team were so secretive and guarded.
Freema answered a lot of questions from fans in the audience, I think she may have covered at least 20 of them during her 40 minute appearance. She told the audience how much she loves Christmas holidays, shopping for presents in September and putting decorations up in November. One year she and her family decided to avoid buying all those expensive gadgets and gifts for one another which they had all agreed had gotten out of hand and decided to have a ten pound minimum Christmas present rule. Freema was confused by the guideline's and spent ten pounds on each person when she was supposed split the ten pound limit between a couple. This of course, annoyed some family members who were clear on the ruling and had stuck firmly to the plan. In a way it was nice to hear such a "normal" intimate story rather than Freema spin it into a happy hallmark moment. Most of us work so hard in the lead up to Christmas and preparing for it that by the time it comes around nerves are often frayed.
She opened up about her feelings about the acting profession and recounted her disposition on portraying nurse and doctor characters on television. She was of the opinion that actors get paid too much money for what they do and especially if they are depicting people in the medical and service industry. She felt guilty that she earned a bigger salary characterizing and pretending to be nurses or doctors when the real ones who save actual lives for a living get paid so little in the UK. She had brought this issue up in a conversation with a close friend and that friend told her to think of those hard working nurses coming coming home from a really hard day at work; a long stressful 10 hour shift of treating all kinds of illnesses, dealing with a multitude of patient health and emotional issues, problem solving and putting up with rude doctors and patients. These nurses were in much need of some peace and tranquility in their lives once they finished work for the day and returned to the calm and healing retreat of their humble abodes. Watching a television program that Freema may be in could be one of the things that would help them to unwind and kick back for the night. Freema saw the value in her work after her little con flab, but still thinks nurses should be paid a lot more money than they are getting. It sounds like she is staunch supporter of the NHS (National Health Service) and told the crowd not to get her started on that subject because it made her so angry. She jokingly cautioned them that she could go on about that topic for the whole entire panel session.
Her favourite actors portraying the Doctor were Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. Talking of Tennant she told us about the size discepancy between the two of them. Quite often she would stand on boxes for many of the close up and mid range shots whenever they were in the same scene. Without the aid of the boxes the top of her head came up to the bottom of David's chin.
It was decided by the costume department that Martha should wear high heels from the get go. Freema explained how wearing these boots on 12 hours location shoots and having to run on all kinds of uneven ground took it's toll on her feet and legs and she developed very bad shin splints that took forever to go away.
The moderator for this panel did a very poor job of making sure the people at the back of the ballroom could hear the questions being asked at the front of the stage. Everyone sitting in our row of seats and ones behind us kept muttering ro one another that the didn't know what was being asked. There was a microphone set up for the Q&A, but the volume was turned way down, something he should have tested before this panel took place. My wife quietly walked up to the stage, finally caught his eye and informed him of the problem. He glanced at my wife and immediately looked back at the crowd with a mocking gesture on his face as if some mad woman had spoken gibberish to him. Quite a disrespectful act on his behalf which revealed to me his lack of professionalism and the way he dealt with embarrassment. The kid needs to learn some serious social skills if this is what he is going to continue doing for a living.
Freema was fun to listen too, but the moderator debacle tainted my experience of this panel to some degree.
Matt Ryan Panel.
Matt was also on time. It was surprising to see him walk out onto the stage sporting his own natural dark brown hair rather than the bleached blonde do we've grown accustomed to in his role of John Constantine. In real life he looks much slighter in build and has a Colin Farrell look about him. He talked about his time in drama school and how everyone around him aspired to be Shakespearean actors and that he differed from all of his peers because he wanted to do television and films. He ironically pointed out that his first job out of college was a part in a Shakespeare play. He has since learned to appreciate the bards work and suggested that it wasn't until he had to act the scenes from the written pages of those books that he got a whole new appreciation for it. He ended this part of the discussion by saying Shakespeare is not meant to read, it's meant to be performed.
He announced to the crowd that the Constantine show had been officially axed by NBC executives and a second season would not go into production. He said how sad it was to see the standing sets being dismanlted and destroyed.
Matt was asked if the rumours were true that he would appear as his Constantine character in the CW shows The Flash and Arrow and he replied by saying he had heard nothing official. However, I suspect he was told not to talk about it since it has now come to light that DC Warner Brothers have negotiated a deal in which this NBC character will cross pollinate over to shows that appear on another network.
The Positives.
The Access To Panels.
Even though the media celebrity panels and waiting times overlapped it was possible to see all of them back to back by joining the line in ballroom D to go into ballroom B. Reading the events plan made it seem an impossibility, but I guess we're proof that it could be done with some perseverance. If you haven't brought food or drink in with you then forget leaving the line to go and buy some from the vendors unless you have another person with you to keep your place in line and vice verse. Same goes for bathroom breaks. If you're alone, be prepared to hold onto your bladder, bowels, and feel hungry and thirsty until you've been to all the panels you want to see.
The Cosplayers.
The cosplayers are always very nice to the rest of the attendees. They are more than happy to pose for photos whenever and wherever they are. You have to pity them sweating to death in those costumes all day. There are plenty of good vibes to go around from the people visiting the event. I had a couple of strangers smile at me and say hello which was lovely. In fact I'm not used to that kind of friendliness and thought I was experiencing one of those loser Peter Parker moments; we've all had one...it's when you wave and smile back at someone who you think is waving and smiling at you only to realise they are gesturing to a friend directly behind you. In this instance this person was showing me some attention and not to someone to some person at the back of me. I was quite taken back by this.
The Negatives.
Two Hour Waiting Lines For Bathrooms And To Buy Food And Water.
I'm sure there will be hundreds of complaints from convention goers who attended on Saturday. Friday was a breeze. Plenty of room to move about and no long lines to stand and wait in etc. Today was a nightmare. I don't think the organizers realised or expected such huge attendance numbers this year and the facilities were far from ready to deal with it. There were long winding lines that took you one hour and a half to two hours to finally get to the food stalls to order and buy food and drinks. There were hour long lines at all the bathrooms scattered around the building. It was wall to wall, jam packed with people who were constantly bumping into one another in the foyers and corridors. We decided to forget about sustenance and biological functions and concentrated on doing the three panels by Carrie Fisher, Freema Ageyman and Matt Ryan, yet these lines for food drink and toilets remained the same. We eventually ordered food and drink at the Bistro on the Bay side of the building and after a very long we had a further hour long hold up for the cooked food to arrive. Everyone waiting for their order was in a bad mood. Obviously, the cafe hadn't hired extra staff to cope with the huge demand. I believe 30,000 people attended today.
Sluggish clean up crew to dispose of the sick from the carpet in ballroom D.
Not only were the staff slow to get to the room to clean up the vomit from off the carpet, but when one of them eventually arrived she acted like a little mouse unable to maneuver around the mass of people. They really should employ individuals who are capable of taking control of a situation. She could have cleared a path through the crowd straight away if she had spoken up with a commanding voice and let her presence known.
Bay Bistro's Poor Quality Food And Slow Service.
We ordered the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, which was a huge hunk of chicken meat, garnished with bacon pieces and coleslaw on a disintegrating bun. It was virtually impossible to eat without dropping the entire contents everywhere and all over yourself. It was served with chips (packet of crisps) and a gherkin and was a bit pricey at $10. I wouldn't have minded paying that kind of money for the food if the wait in line wasn't so torturous. It took us one hour and a half to get to the counter. We made sure we stocked up for the rest of the day and I bought us two hot coffee's, two bottles of water, two bottles of cranberry juice and a cookie along with the two hot Buffalo Chicken meals. Seating in this area was hard to come by, but we managed to pull two empty chairs from different areas of this section and set up near pillar close to the Bay Bistro. The sandwiches weren't ready to go and when I asked how long the wait would be the server behind the counter said it would be half an hour. Half an hour my left foot. More like one hour and forty minutes. People waiting for their food for this amount of time were rightfully pissed off. Strangely enough I kept my calm and had practised much patience. Maybe it's because Brit's like myself are used to bad service and just get on with it without complaining. I tried to make light of the situation and show some camaraderie towards those who were getting very vocal and loud, but they were well past any interjected light hearted discussion on my behalf. They had reached the end of their tethers. Patience was at breaking point, they were going to Hulk out.
Cancellations And No Contingency Plans.
There were last minute multiple cancellations from scheduled entertainers, and specialist guest speakers. Maybe the stormy weather had something to do with it, but surely the organisers prepared a back up plan in case things went Jabba shaped? We and many others, had waited a whole hour in a packed toom to see Geekapela to eventually find out by a very apologetic convention employee that said act would not be appearing. I thought this was very poor communication on their part. Don't they they have someone who oversees events and schedules on an minute to minute basis? Someone who calls ahead to see if their act or guest is actually there or not? One hour wasted of every one's time when they could have done something else is not good enough really. This needs to be rectified in the future and the staff need to be of top of this problem right away.
Poor Staff Service Skills.
The staff's lack of attention to good health and safety guidelines pertaining to a public venue was an eye opener for me. The first day of the convention they stood there while areas of the foyers got dangerously packed with people when they could have opened up some of the barriers to make some room for all those bodies. Then there was the second day farce involving puke gate All these pale in comparison to what happened to my wife while the panels were taking place. She snuck out of Freema's talk to try and get us both a drink. She walked her feet off trying to find a vendor that didn't have such an enormous line. She ended up on the second level floor which is tiled and not carpeted like the ground level floor; it was here she had an accident that could have been avoided.
This weekend, Tampa residents experienced one of the worst floods in the area for a many years so as you can imagine everyone coming into this building was soaking wet and leaving puddles of water everywhere they went. You'd think the staff would be fully trained to deal with any issues large or small especially one that involved the simple task of someone mopping up the excess water off of the floor before someone fell and injured themselves. Surely common sense would prevail and all staff would be aware that the shiny floors in this building could and would be unsafe to walk on iif they got wet, but you'd be wrong in thinking that. My wife ended up slipping on one of these puddles of water and tumnled to the ground, hurting her wrist, knee and hip in the process and our day had barely begun. The fact that we couldn't get her water quickly to take some pain killers to stop the inflamation made the situation all the more troublesome. Luckily a kind young man helped my wife up off the floor and she found a solitary water fountain sans crowd to take her medication. My wife would not have fallen if I had been with her so I was upset that I wasn't there for her.
Inappropriate Sized Rooms For Events.
The Cosplay Competition was held at 5:00 pm and went onto 6:30 pm in the dreaded room 13. It had to be one of the smallest of the rooms in the entire place. The website proclaims..."TAMPA BAY COMIC CON’S ANNUAL COSPLAY CONTEST, Come one, come all for the con’s most beloved event – Tampa Bay Comic Con’s Cosplay Contest!"
If it's so beloved how come it didn't take place in one of the bigger conference rooms or even one of the huge ballrooms? There were too many people wanting to get into the room and security had to close the doors on a mass of people all gathering outside in the corridor. Other conventions provide big enough spaces so that everyone in attendance can find a seat to sit in on the proceedings. The organisers need to seriously rethink this part of the convention next year and onwards.
Conclusion.
I was still dealing with the discomfort of my jaw, ear and head affliction, plus a really bad back and a high temperature to boot. This impeded my ability to totally embrace the fun and fantasy of the surroundings and lose myself in the plethora of activities for the whole day. I was also dealing with fluctuating anxiety issues which made it very difficult to take photos of people passing by. It was even harder and asking them if I could shoot some photos of them in varying poses.
We were both battered and worn down by the day so we decided to leave around 9:30 pm. We got home about 10.00 pm. Our cat waiting to greet us as we came through the door. Our bird in her nest peeping over to check us out. It's nice to get out and do things, and have a change of scenery, but sometimes it's so much nicer coming home to relax after doing that.
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