Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Tampa Bay Comic Convention. Day 3 Diary
Prologue.
What a horrible night's sleep we both had. I woke up in the early hours of the morning with one of my usual night terrors and to the depressing realisation that the shooting pains spreading out from my jaw in all directions on the left side of my face were still present. Sadly, this abrupt outburst broke my wife's peaceful slumber and while in this semi conscience state of mind I also managed to lean heavily on the wrist she hurt in the fall yesterday; two tons of Jabba the Hutt man whale flesh isn't a recommended treatment for sprained wrists. Ugh, wakey, wakey rise and shine; another new day is about to dawn. I took a quick shower because I didn't think a cat lick and a wash of my bits would cut it today; some geeks would forgo this daily cleaning ritual in order to get to a convention earlier, but I am no mere mortal geek. We were too exhausted to pop in the shower last night, conventions will do that to you. My wife could easily get away without having one because she always manages to look and smell so good in the mornings; why is that? Me on the other hand, well that's a different matter altogether, I always look like I've been fighting an army of Orcs in the night. Once our bathroom ablutions were attended to the pets were fed and off we trotted. We better prepared ourselves for the day ahead by picking up food and drinks along the way just in case we had to deal with the nightmare food vending situation we encountered yesterday.
The Drive And Destination.
The weather was atrocious today We drove on roads and freeway's with nearly zero visibility. There was a constant wall of rain in front of us and large erupting sprays of road water being churned up and thrown our way by passing vehicles; it was a treacherous drive. On the positive side...we didn't get lost today, but we did miss our turn off into the parking garage and had to take another trip around the block to get back to it. We parked at the top of the building as usual so we could get another nice view of the city. We reached the ground level in a glass elevator which was a nice change from the dark, foreboding industrial metal constructions we had been using on the two previous days. It's the first one I've ever been in, what a sheltered life I lead. Our Wonkavator brought us out near the Tampa Bay Times Forum court area and we had a short walk along a path decked out with ornate mini fountains and tastefully laid out plant pots.
Observations And Goals.
What a difference a day makes. There was a much lower attendance today so it was back to Friday's numbers. Very short or non existent lines for food, drinks and rest rooms. We had three goals in mind... See the Great and Powerful Tim, catch Linda Hamilton's panel/Q&A session, see the cosplayers and their parade. Ideally, it would have been better if we had started out earlier on all these days or stay at a hotel one night so that we could get there at a time in the morning to see all the cosplayers arrive one after the other thus allowing us a better chance to take some nice photos set against the interesting modern architecture of the building. As it was, we got there with about half an hour to spare before Tim's show. My wife kept our seats in room 13 and I decided this might be a good opportunity to try and grab a few cosplayers to photograph.
Overcoming Fear.
I have to mention what I've been dealing with over the past few years because it became very problematic during the three days of this event which was always cram packed full of people. I've been suffering from severe anxiety issues; being around people brings on these bouts of insecurity and paranoia. I went to this convention knowing this and decided this was a unique opportunity to tackle it head on. For me the feeling comes and goes in waves. Plucking up the courage to approach people and ask to photograph them isn't an easy proposition when I feel so awkward and abhorrent inside.
When I finally pushed myself through these mental barriers and overcame the fear, the job of taking photos of cosplayers was a pleasant one. They are all very patient and kind people; very gracious and accommodating to complete strangers who want them to pose in a variety of uncomfortable positions. In some cases the amateur photographers in the room mess up their shots quite frequently so they ask if they can do it again and again. It must get a little tiring having to stay in such a good mood all day under all those layers of cloth, armour and make-up.
After I've gotten over the act of taking the photos the anxiety comes straight back at me twice as bad and the sensations certainly impede my ability to think straight, but I am cognizant of my autonomic nervous system and thermo regulation going haywire. (Copious sweating and feeling feverish) My surroundings become completely overwhelming to my senses. Sounds become disorientating, smells become nauseating, light body contact becomes painful.
Unlike professional photographers who can click away until the batteries on their cameras die or they fill their SD cards full of RAW digital data, I usually need some form of medication, therapy or time to calm the mind and sooth those jangling nerves before moving onto the next person. It's much easier if you have someone else with you taking photos because they can grab the people you missed and they can bolster your confidence, strength in numbers and all that.
The main point I wanted to make here is that I managed to take some photos despite the turmoil going on in my head. I hope my experience will inspire others reading this who may be suffering with a similar condition to soldier on and not let it stop them in their pursuits.
Age Factor.
It sometimes feels very awkward and strange to me when asking young girls in amazing costumes if I can take a photograph of them. Most middle aged men don't seem to have such qualms. In fact I saw quite a lot of men perving on the young girls at the convention, sneaking cell phone photos of the female cosplayers backsides while their own wives or girlfriends were out of range. As an artist I genuinely love the work that goes into these costumes and how some people pick characters that suit their body and face types. My auto immune illness keeps me indoors and at home a lot so it's nice to mingle with people who have the same kind of interests and put 100% devotion into their craft. I guess I shouldn't feel like an old letch at these events, but as I get older I find everyone around me is so much younger. It's quite sad thinking you're too old to participate and celebrate in these kinds of gatherings especially when your whole life has been devoted to the worlds of science fiction, horror, fantasy and comic books. I wonder if other people my age feel the same way at these conventions? Maybe that's a possible project I could think about putting together for one of these shows in the future? They have tackled such issues as inappropriate conduct from males towards female cosplayers, cyber bullying of cosplayers who gender swap, or portray characters that aren't their own skin colour or body shape; plus, prejudice, stereotyping and generalisations towards women and girls into geek culture and fandom. Maybe it's time to tackle age'ism too?
The Good.
The Great And Powerful Tim.
Close up magic isn't the best type of show to perform to a large room of people from a stage that is set up several yards away from the last row of seats. If a magician provides live cameras and screens to show what he is executing it becomes much more immersive. With this in mind Tim's act fell short of what it could have been due to it's presentation. I'm sure he would have had the entire crowd eating out of the palm of his magical hand if he had set up this scenario with a large room in mind.
Having said that, The Great and Powerful Tim's comedy magical act was funny and worth spending an hour of your time to see. Some of his routines didn't quite go to plan, but he was professional enough to carry on without it disrupting his flow while he effortlessly moved onto the next part of the act; he even made jokes about the things that went wrong.
The opening piece involved a card trick that went awry. I'm not sure if it was down to the magician or the person he picked from the crowd who participated in the trick, but it was a shame for him that the opener didn't go to plan. He proceeded to pick a person from the crowd to guard a locked box that would be opened at the end of the show. Once this was brought to my attention I falsely came to the conclusion that Tim was utilizing a well known magicians stratagem, using subterfuge to misdirect the audience; purposely botching the tricks so that he could reveal the correct predictions and outcomes from his repertoire of mind reading gags at the end of the show. I was wrong, magical deeds that appeared to go off track were indeed lost causes.
Tim, is basically what you would call a magician who does mind reading tricks. He didn't do any close up magic involving any props and he certainly didn't do any grandiose illusions either. His shtick is finding different ways to guess the playing card an audience member has picked out from a deck of cards. He also asks them to draw something on a piece of paper so that he can guess what it is correctly and duplicate it. He managed to add some comic book references into the show. He asked the audience if they watched the CW shows, The Flash and Arrow. He told everyone in the room he was a superhero too and went by the names Timother Queen the Pink Arrow (obviously a play on Oliver Queen The Green Arrow). He went behind the stage curtain for a few minutes while his assistant made sure an audience member had chosen their card and put it back into the deck. Tim came out wearing a pink hoodie and holding a kids bow and arrow in his hands. The principle of the scene was that he would shoot an arrow from his bow while his assistant threw all the cards up in the air; his arrow would pierce the card the audience member had picked. This trick worked perfectly.
One feat of mentalism involved several members of the audience who were sitting in the front row. They were each tasked to think of a famous celebrity, but not reveal who it was. Tim would narrow all the options down until he rightly guessed all the names they had stored in their heads. It didn't work, again I'm not sure if this was a problem with how Tim accomplished this mental endeavour of if the crowd had failed to follow the process properly.
Another comic book related trick revolved around the super powers of Daredevil. He said he was like the Marvel comics superhero and could heighten his senses if he blind folded himself. He tells everyone he has the ability to hear, feel and smell things better than normal people: his assistant threw an object at him which he fails to deflect and he says maybe he didn't increase his powers of touch and hearing, but his sense of taste was infallible. He picked a child and a woman from the audience to participate on this one. They had to pick out any number of coloured M&M's candy/sweets for him to guess simply by tasting them. This was another trick that worked according to the plan with the exception that the child they picked was a little confused as to what to do. What was that old adage? Never work with kids or animals. I hope Tim learned from this experience.
At the end of the show the box was opened and in it was a long pieces of paper that he rolled out slowly to reveal the predictions from the think of a celebrity magical task. The fact that he wasn't paid for this gig surprised me. I was under the impression everyone involved in all these events that were going on throughout the day and night were hired by the convention organizers.
Linda Hamilton Panel.
Well worth the wait in line and that is a pretty impressive statement to make considering we had braved three days of standing on our feet lining up for hours on end, shuffling at a snail pace through a sea of people with all that body heat generated in one place. Surprisingly enough Linda looked pretty damn good. My wife and I have recently watched her on the shows Lost Girl and Defiance and lets just say she plays women who have had a very hard life. We made the mistake of thinking this is how today's Linda looks without thinking she could be wearing some subtle age make up just for the characters she's playing in those two shows. She gave very concise answers to questions given to her by the moderator and the fans who lined up down the center isle to speak to their idol.
The Tampa Police.
The Tampa police and traffic cops were stationed on the main streets leading to the convention center for the full three days and they all had very cordial demeanors despite all the chaotic masses of people and vehicles they had to direct in some pretty horrible weather. On the first day we asked a female police officer for directions to a parking area and she was quite happy to tell us where to go. On the second day we couldn't find an empty garage available and a male police officer gave us great directions to one we could access.
The Bad.
Poor Organisation Of Events And Limited Dealer Room Hours.
More events should have been put on since so many acts cancelled on the previous days. I think a company like this should always have a contingency plan if some people are a no show. The exhibition hall should stay open later. Why close the doors at 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm when the convention has functions going on until 12:00 pm on two nights? Surely people would like the opportunity to revisit this room when it is less packed full of attendees?
The Ugly.
The e-Cigarette Nazi's.
My wife uses an e-cigarette and during the past three days of the convention she's been furtively vaping in the foyers, corridors, seminar rooms and ballrooms when she has felt the need to do so. It's not like she had the thing stuck permanently in her mouth for all to see.
It was late on in Sunday afternoon in the exhibition hall when one staff member approached us and said vaping is forbidden at the convention hall. I must admit I didn't notice anyone else sucking on their nicotine juiced up sonic screwdrivers, but if they're anything like my wife they do it surreptitiously. How did this play out?
It was on the last day of the convention and towards the end of the day that my wife and I decided to have a look around the exhibition hall for one last time. My wife had to find an electrical wall outlet to charge her iPhone. She had been using it for texting, making and receiving calls, taking photographs and shooting videos which is pretty hard on the battery. She settled near a far wall away from the busiest areas of the room and I went off to try and conquer my inner anxiety demons and social phobia once more. While I was away trying to chase down some great shots my wife was approached by this one particular staff member and was abruptly told she couldn't use an electronic cigarette in this building, she backed this up by going on to say that it was state ordinance law with a fine of $250. My wife questioned this request by asking for more clarification on the subject since she hadn't heard anything about this. Sadly, the woman felt her authority being challenged instead of being affable and open to further questions. She proceeded to tell my wife to put it away in an angry tone when my wife didn't jump immediately to her attention. I will be writing a letter to the organizers of this event to complain about this persons behaviour.
There is no need to be rude even if your job is to enforce the rules. The fact that this building hosts an annual e-cigarette and vapor convention it pretty ironic. After some research on the net we found out that there is no state wide law to ban e-cigs from public venues. This pretty much put a downer of what was left of our day and took a little of the shine off the things we did enjoy.
Epilogue.
The drive back home was fairly quick and it was nice to take our clothes off, get in a hot shower and snuggle up on the bed. Do I think going to these conventions is worth it? Yes I do, but it depends on what you want from one and what expectations you take with you which will effect the way you perceive the whole adventure. A good or bad time is all down to how you deal with the unexpected, the inevitablility of chaos and a willingness to lower ones unacheivable goals, and inflayed anticipations . Thankfully, the Tampa Comic Book Convention comesa around just once a year so we have plenty of time to rest up, forget about the niggles that bugged us for the three days and remember just the fun parts of it.
What a horrible night's sleep we both had. I woke up in the early hours of the morning with one of my usual night terrors and to the depressing realisation that the shooting pains spreading out from my jaw in all directions on the left side of my face were still present. Sadly, this abrupt outburst broke my wife's peaceful slumber and while in this semi conscience state of mind I also managed to lean heavily on the wrist she hurt in the fall yesterday; two tons of Jabba the Hutt man whale flesh isn't a recommended treatment for sprained wrists. Ugh, wakey, wakey rise and shine; another new day is about to dawn. I took a quick shower because I didn't think a cat lick and a wash of my bits would cut it today; some geeks would forgo this daily cleaning ritual in order to get to a convention earlier, but I am no mere mortal geek. We were too exhausted to pop in the shower last night, conventions will do that to you. My wife could easily get away without having one because she always manages to look and smell so good in the mornings; why is that? Me on the other hand, well that's a different matter altogether, I always look like I've been fighting an army of Orcs in the night. Once our bathroom ablutions were attended to the pets were fed and off we trotted. We better prepared ourselves for the day ahead by picking up food and drinks along the way just in case we had to deal with the nightmare food vending situation we encountered yesterday.
The Drive And Destination.
The weather was atrocious today We drove on roads and freeway's with nearly zero visibility. There was a constant wall of rain in front of us and large erupting sprays of road water being churned up and thrown our way by passing vehicles; it was a treacherous drive. On the positive side...we didn't get lost today, but we did miss our turn off into the parking garage and had to take another trip around the block to get back to it. We parked at the top of the building as usual so we could get another nice view of the city. We reached the ground level in a glass elevator which was a nice change from the dark, foreboding industrial metal constructions we had been using on the two previous days. It's the first one I've ever been in, what a sheltered life I lead. Our Wonkavator brought us out near the Tampa Bay Times Forum court area and we had a short walk along a path decked out with ornate mini fountains and tastefully laid out plant pots.
Observations And Goals.
What a difference a day makes. There was a much lower attendance today so it was back to Friday's numbers. Very short or non existent lines for food, drinks and rest rooms. We had three goals in mind... See the Great and Powerful Tim, catch Linda Hamilton's panel/Q&A session, see the cosplayers and their parade. Ideally, it would have been better if we had started out earlier on all these days or stay at a hotel one night so that we could get there at a time in the morning to see all the cosplayers arrive one after the other thus allowing us a better chance to take some nice photos set against the interesting modern architecture of the building. As it was, we got there with about half an hour to spare before Tim's show. My wife kept our seats in room 13 and I decided this might be a good opportunity to try and grab a few cosplayers to photograph.
Overcoming Fear.
I have to mention what I've been dealing with over the past few years because it became very problematic during the three days of this event which was always cram packed full of people. I've been suffering from severe anxiety issues; being around people brings on these bouts of insecurity and paranoia. I went to this convention knowing this and decided this was a unique opportunity to tackle it head on. For me the feeling comes and goes in waves. Plucking up the courage to approach people and ask to photograph them isn't an easy proposition when I feel so awkward and abhorrent inside.
When I finally pushed myself through these mental barriers and overcame the fear, the job of taking photos of cosplayers was a pleasant one. They are all very patient and kind people; very gracious and accommodating to complete strangers who want them to pose in a variety of uncomfortable positions. In some cases the amateur photographers in the room mess up their shots quite frequently so they ask if they can do it again and again. It must get a little tiring having to stay in such a good mood all day under all those layers of cloth, armour and make-up.
After I've gotten over the act of taking the photos the anxiety comes straight back at me twice as bad and the sensations certainly impede my ability to think straight, but I am cognizant of my autonomic nervous system and thermo regulation going haywire. (Copious sweating and feeling feverish) My surroundings become completely overwhelming to my senses. Sounds become disorientating, smells become nauseating, light body contact becomes painful.
Unlike professional photographers who can click away until the batteries on their cameras die or they fill their SD cards full of RAW digital data, I usually need some form of medication, therapy or time to calm the mind and sooth those jangling nerves before moving onto the next person. It's much easier if you have someone else with you taking photos because they can grab the people you missed and they can bolster your confidence, strength in numbers and all that.
The main point I wanted to make here is that I managed to take some photos despite the turmoil going on in my head. I hope my experience will inspire others reading this who may be suffering with a similar condition to soldier on and not let it stop them in their pursuits.
Age Factor.
It sometimes feels very awkward and strange to me when asking young girls in amazing costumes if I can take a photograph of them. Most middle aged men don't seem to have such qualms. In fact I saw quite a lot of men perving on the young girls at the convention, sneaking cell phone photos of the female cosplayers backsides while their own wives or girlfriends were out of range. As an artist I genuinely love the work that goes into these costumes and how some people pick characters that suit their body and face types. My auto immune illness keeps me indoors and at home a lot so it's nice to mingle with people who have the same kind of interests and put 100% devotion into their craft. I guess I shouldn't feel like an old letch at these events, but as I get older I find everyone around me is so much younger. It's quite sad thinking you're too old to participate and celebrate in these kinds of gatherings especially when your whole life has been devoted to the worlds of science fiction, horror, fantasy and comic books. I wonder if other people my age feel the same way at these conventions? Maybe that's a possible project I could think about putting together for one of these shows in the future? They have tackled such issues as inappropriate conduct from males towards female cosplayers, cyber bullying of cosplayers who gender swap, or portray characters that aren't their own skin colour or body shape; plus, prejudice, stereotyping and generalisations towards women and girls into geek culture and fandom. Maybe it's time to tackle age'ism too?
The Good.
The Great And Powerful Tim.
Close up magic isn't the best type of show to perform to a large room of people from a stage that is set up several yards away from the last row of seats. If a magician provides live cameras and screens to show what he is executing it becomes much more immersive. With this in mind Tim's act fell short of what it could have been due to it's presentation. I'm sure he would have had the entire crowd eating out of the palm of his magical hand if he had set up this scenario with a large room in mind.
Having said that, The Great and Powerful Tim's comedy magical act was funny and worth spending an hour of your time to see. Some of his routines didn't quite go to plan, but he was professional enough to carry on without it disrupting his flow while he effortlessly moved onto the next part of the act; he even made jokes about the things that went wrong.
The opening piece involved a card trick that went awry. I'm not sure if it was down to the magician or the person he picked from the crowd who participated in the trick, but it was a shame for him that the opener didn't go to plan. He proceeded to pick a person from the crowd to guard a locked box that would be opened at the end of the show. Once this was brought to my attention I falsely came to the conclusion that Tim was utilizing a well known magicians stratagem, using subterfuge to misdirect the audience; purposely botching the tricks so that he could reveal the correct predictions and outcomes from his repertoire of mind reading gags at the end of the show. I was wrong, magical deeds that appeared to go off track were indeed lost causes.
Tim, is basically what you would call a magician who does mind reading tricks. He didn't do any close up magic involving any props and he certainly didn't do any grandiose illusions either. His shtick is finding different ways to guess the playing card an audience member has picked out from a deck of cards. He also asks them to draw something on a piece of paper so that he can guess what it is correctly and duplicate it. He managed to add some comic book references into the show. He asked the audience if they watched the CW shows, The Flash and Arrow. He told everyone in the room he was a superhero too and went by the names Timother Queen the Pink Arrow (obviously a play on Oliver Queen The Green Arrow). He went behind the stage curtain for a few minutes while his assistant made sure an audience member had chosen their card and put it back into the deck. Tim came out wearing a pink hoodie and holding a kids bow and arrow in his hands. The principle of the scene was that he would shoot an arrow from his bow while his assistant threw all the cards up in the air; his arrow would pierce the card the audience member had picked. This trick worked perfectly.
One feat of mentalism involved several members of the audience who were sitting in the front row. They were each tasked to think of a famous celebrity, but not reveal who it was. Tim would narrow all the options down until he rightly guessed all the names they had stored in their heads. It didn't work, again I'm not sure if this was a problem with how Tim accomplished this mental endeavour of if the crowd had failed to follow the process properly.
Another comic book related trick revolved around the super powers of Daredevil. He said he was like the Marvel comics superhero and could heighten his senses if he blind folded himself. He tells everyone he has the ability to hear, feel and smell things better than normal people: his assistant threw an object at him which he fails to deflect and he says maybe he didn't increase his powers of touch and hearing, but his sense of taste was infallible. He picked a child and a woman from the audience to participate on this one. They had to pick out any number of coloured M&M's candy/sweets for him to guess simply by tasting them. This was another trick that worked according to the plan with the exception that the child they picked was a little confused as to what to do. What was that old adage? Never work with kids or animals. I hope Tim learned from this experience.
At the end of the show the box was opened and in it was a long pieces of paper that he rolled out slowly to reveal the predictions from the think of a celebrity magical task. The fact that he wasn't paid for this gig surprised me. I was under the impression everyone involved in all these events that were going on throughout the day and night were hired by the convention organizers.
Linda Hamilton Panel.
Well worth the wait in line and that is a pretty impressive statement to make considering we had braved three days of standing on our feet lining up for hours on end, shuffling at a snail pace through a sea of people with all that body heat generated in one place. Surprisingly enough Linda looked pretty damn good. My wife and I have recently watched her on the shows Lost Girl and Defiance and lets just say she plays women who have had a very hard life. We made the mistake of thinking this is how today's Linda looks without thinking she could be wearing some subtle age make up just for the characters she's playing in those two shows. She gave very concise answers to questions given to her by the moderator and the fans who lined up down the center isle to speak to their idol.
The Tampa Police.
The Tampa police and traffic cops were stationed on the main streets leading to the convention center for the full three days and they all had very cordial demeanors despite all the chaotic masses of people and vehicles they had to direct in some pretty horrible weather. On the first day we asked a female police officer for directions to a parking area and she was quite happy to tell us where to go. On the second day we couldn't find an empty garage available and a male police officer gave us great directions to one we could access.
The Bad.
Poor Organisation Of Events And Limited Dealer Room Hours.
More events should have been put on since so many acts cancelled on the previous days. I think a company like this should always have a contingency plan if some people are a no show. The exhibition hall should stay open later. Why close the doors at 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm when the convention has functions going on until 12:00 pm on two nights? Surely people would like the opportunity to revisit this room when it is less packed full of attendees?
The Ugly.
The e-Cigarette Nazi's.
My wife uses an e-cigarette and during the past three days of the convention she's been furtively vaping in the foyers, corridors, seminar rooms and ballrooms when she has felt the need to do so. It's not like she had the thing stuck permanently in her mouth for all to see.
It was late on in Sunday afternoon in the exhibition hall when one staff member approached us and said vaping is forbidden at the convention hall. I must admit I didn't notice anyone else sucking on their nicotine juiced up sonic screwdrivers, but if they're anything like my wife they do it surreptitiously. How did this play out?
It was on the last day of the convention and towards the end of the day that my wife and I decided to have a look around the exhibition hall for one last time. My wife had to find an electrical wall outlet to charge her iPhone. She had been using it for texting, making and receiving calls, taking photographs and shooting videos which is pretty hard on the battery. She settled near a far wall away from the busiest areas of the room and I went off to try and conquer my inner anxiety demons and social phobia once more. While I was away trying to chase down some great shots my wife was approached by this one particular staff member and was abruptly told she couldn't use an electronic cigarette in this building, she backed this up by going on to say that it was state ordinance law with a fine of $250. My wife questioned this request by asking for more clarification on the subject since she hadn't heard anything about this. Sadly, the woman felt her authority being challenged instead of being affable and open to further questions. She proceeded to tell my wife to put it away in an angry tone when my wife didn't jump immediately to her attention. I will be writing a letter to the organizers of this event to complain about this persons behaviour.
There is no need to be rude even if your job is to enforce the rules. The fact that this building hosts an annual e-cigarette and vapor convention it pretty ironic. After some research on the net we found out that there is no state wide law to ban e-cigs from public venues. This pretty much put a downer of what was left of our day and took a little of the shine off the things we did enjoy.
Epilogue.
The drive back home was fairly quick and it was nice to take our clothes off, get in a hot shower and snuggle up on the bed. Do I think going to these conventions is worth it? Yes I do, but it depends on what you want from one and what expectations you take with you which will effect the way you perceive the whole adventure. A good or bad time is all down to how you deal with the unexpected, the inevitablility of chaos and a willingness to lower ones unacheivable goals, and inflayed anticipations . Thankfully, the Tampa Comic Book Convention comesa around just once a year so we have plenty of time to rest up, forget about the niggles that bugged us for the three days and remember just the fun parts of it.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Tampa Bay Comic Convention. Day 2 Diary
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.
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.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Tampa Bay Comic Convention. Day 1 Diary
Prelude.
We were awake and up at 9:00 am, running around on automatic pilot to get ready to go. Our furry and feathered children were given all that they would need for the day while we were away, I made sure they had plenty of food and water and all the creature comforts they would need.
Depressingly, an infection in my jaw and face that had persisted all week was now worse than ever and complicated matters for the weekend. The current antibiotics I was prescribed didn't seem to be working at all and I felt like I'd been smacked hard in the left side of my face, neck and back with Mjonir. A convention isn't really an ideal place to go if you feel feverish, light headed and or are dealing with acute pain in multiple places on your body. Travelling to and from the locale, negotiating crowds off people with no sense of direction or an awareness of body space when you are saddled with a headache, ear ache, lethargy, nausea, dizziness, muscle and bone pain and weakness becomes a bit of an ordeal and trial of stamina, core strength and will power.
I made one quick phone call to our local walk in clinic before we set out. I told them the current antibiotics weren't improving my condition and asked if they could call in another one to our chemist/pharmacy. Luckily this clinic doesn't operate like a doctors office. The receptionists don't insist on you coming in for an appointment in order to fill a prescription. They complied with my wishes and called a different antibiotic in so that we could pick it up within half an hour. The antibiotics were available in record time so making a detour to pick them up didn't eat up into much of our time. The good thing about having Publix as your pharmacy is that all antibiotics are free. I find that amazing in a capitalist driven country that is all about commerce and making as much money out of people as possible. We made one stop at the bank to withdraw cash from the hole in the wall (be ever mindful, some vendors at these places only take cash) then dropped by a gas station to fill the tank up for the journey ahead. We needed fuel too so a Dunken Donuts drive through provided us with a much needed coffee and breakfast to go.
The Journey.
Why do satellite navigation units take you on the most roundabout and overly complicated route to your destination? Is it part of a Sontaran plan to take over the world? Tampa is a maze of criss crossing roads, one way streets and tram lines. Even for the seasoned driver it can be a bit of a nightmare. After travelling past the same landmarks several times we finally found the hotel parking garage and stored our car there until the end of the day. I couldn't tell you if it was hot and humid outside because my infection made every environment feel overly hot. One trip down a lift/elevator, a short walk across a road and through another underground garage and we were at the Tampa Convention Center.
Expectations and Reality.
I'd read horror stories of previous Comic Con's held in this area online, describing how people had to stand outside the Tampa Convention Center in long lines that snaked around the block with the full power of the sub tropical Florida sun burning down upon them while they waited for the doors to open to the event. I was not looking forward to that with the way I was feeling in fact it's not the most pleasant of things to endure even when you feel great and healthy.
We arrived there a little after and hour of it opening so we just walked right in and headed towards will call and collected our lanyards. It was a very quick process and much faster than the way Mega Con or Star Wars Celebration events deal with tickets. The dealer room/exhibition hall surprised me by it's size. It turned out to be much larger than I expected it to be. It was comparable in size to one of the rooms they would use at Mega Con at the Orange Center. The dealer room also housed the celebrity autograph and photo opp section on the left hand side of the hall along with a cafeteria. Artists alley and the merchandise dealers were situated in the middle and dead center of this space with cosplay alley set up at the right end wall along with a zone allowing graffiti artists to produce huge finished pieces of art work over the course of three days. The hall was well lit and also provided bathroom facilities.
The People.
Walking in front of us to will call was a beautifully crafted Groot alien tree creature from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. This cosplayer really created a visual feast for the eyes. I think it was made out of foam and I believe he was wearing some kind of stilts on his legs to give him some height.
I saw plenty of Harley Quinn's, (the Joker's main squeeze) some wearing the various comic book costumes she's worn over the years. Others were wearing the outfit she sports in the video console games. Even more impressive were the ones who had put together an accurate movie version of Harley Quinn that appears in next years Suicide Squad movie. The teaser trailer for this film only came out a few weeks ago so anyone putting together this costume had to work around the clock in order to unveil it at this con.
There seemed to be an over abundance of Joker's; I'm not sure why this was the case, but they did out number the other costumes on display. I'd say the next prevalent cosplay was Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Deadpool both male and female (no surprise there since the Ryan Reynolds Dead Pool movie trailer was a big hit with fans when it was released online just recently, Jedi ( there are always Jedi and a Sta Wars presence of some kind at these conventions, probably more once Star Wars Episode VII the Force Awakens hits cinemas at Christmas time. Poison Ivy, and surprisingly enough, Castiel the angel from the Supernatural television show.
There were a few iterations and interpretations of Catwoman and Black Widow. We saw Black Cat's, Rogues, Wolverine's, Hawkeye's, Captain America's, Silk's, Spider Gwen's, Batmen, Wonder Women, Flashes, Batgirls, Bane's, Deadshot's, Princess Leia's, Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter Pilot's, Mara Jade's, Silk Spectres and Rorschach's.
Some cosplayers were dressed as characters from video games or anime so I had no idea who they were or how close they resembled the characters, but one could tell they were impecable creations; detailed outfits that must have taken those fans many man hours to stitch and sew to put together for this show The novel and rare cosplays I caught on my travels were a Lelu Dallas from The Fifth Element, a version of Jason Voorhees from Freddy Versus Jason in which the cosplayer went the extra mile and rigged up a speaker in his costume to play music from the horror franchise to accompany him were ever he went. There was even a female version of David Bowie's goblin king from Labyrinth.
Some mash ups were on hand too, like an Iron-Man/Venom costume which had electronically controlled moving parts, it was very impressive. I spotted a Star Wars characters such as a Wookie, a Darth Vader, a Wampa Ice Creature, a Tusken Raider, some Doctors from Dcotor Who most notably the fourth and the tenth, a Black Canary, a cartoon version of Mr. Freeze, a Zatanna, a Baroness from G.I. Joe, a Na'vi...Neytiri from Avatar, an Iron-Man, a Star Lord and Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, a Peter Griffin from Family Guy, a Ned Flanders from The Simpson's, and a Bender robot from Futurama.
There were lots of cosplayers here today and there wasn't even a contest. Most conventions have their main cosplay events on Saturday's so considering all things...the dreadful weather outside, the fact that Friday was a noon start, it was a good turn out and fortunately for everyone attending it never felt too crowded.
As expected we had to get a feeling for the layout of the place before we could move ahead with the list of things we wanted to see and do. At this point I felt like I was going to collapse. I was overheating, wobbly on my feet, experiencing sharp knife pains in several places in my my head. Time for more medication to get me through the day.
Gripes.
Barriers.
The set up of the barriers and cordoned off areas leading to the upper and lowers levels was strangely thought out and impractical. Nobody really wanted to walk half the length of the building to get from one side of the dealer room/exhibition hall to the other side via a convoluted pathway from a landing foyer outside this room, down two flights of steps and along a 100 meter floor space at the bottom of those steps. They made it far too difficult and confusing for visitors to go to and from the second floor that housed the exhibition hall to the area on the ground level floor that lead to all the conference rooms and ballrooms. People were squeezing past gaps in blockades as staff watched on. That should have been their cue to open up these areas to ease the flow of traffic lessening the congestion around the dealer room parallel entrances and escalators. I completely understand the necessity to have perimeters that stop people from sneaking into the building without passing the will call ticket booths, but some of the choices they made were inane and potentially dangerous.
Official Convention Merchandise.
There was only one small store near the foyer outside the dealer room/exhibition hall selling the official convention t-shirts. They are made from 100% white cotton material with the Tampa Bay Comic Con logo emblazoned on the front of them. I think it's safe to say without conducting an in depth study that most geeks prefer black t-shirts because they are flattering to those of us who are carrying some extra poundage on our bodies. The very young convention goers who don't have such body mass concerns in mind still opt for the darker colours because...well, black is more hip and cool. They would definitely sell a truck load of con t-shirts if they had printed the logo on a black fabric.
At Star Wars Celebration VI every one of the darker coloured Star Wars themed t-shirts had been sold by the end of the second day. At the first Mega Con we went to the vendors sold official t-shirts with two variations on a black cotton tee and all sold out towards the end of the second day too. Jump ahead a few years to our next trip to Mega Con and the only official shirts being sold there were printed on a bright orange material. We asked if the shirt came in black and the woman behind the store said, "No, they only come in this one colour." Those orange shirts were still piled up high at the end of the third and final day of that particular convention.
I find this kind of thinking very strange and counter productive to the market you are aiming to sell your goods to. One only has to look around a convention hall to see that most people who aren't cosplayers are wearing geeky themed black tops which out number the lighter ones. Maybe some day, someone will catch onto this discrepancy. It probably boils down to printing costs and I believe it's more expensive to screen print on black. My wife kindly treated me to one of these items despite the fact that they were white; she knows I'm quite the t-shirt collecting fiend. It's still a nice memento and it will make a great lounge around the house kind of clothing item.
Last minute cancellations threw a hydro spanner in our planned schedule.
Geekapella Group.
We managed our time so that the first thing we could see and do on our list was Geekapella at 1:30pm – 2:30pm in room 13. The website write up says says this about them..."Geekapella are Orlando’s only geeky acappella group! Do you like Star Wars, Harry Potter, anime, or just enjoy nerd culture? You’ll find all this and more in their repertoire!" Unfortunately, the Geekapella Concert was a no show, guess there's a reason why they are Orlando's only geeky cappella group and not Tampa's.
Geekapella Facebook Page
The Great And Powerful Tim.
At 5:00pm – 6:00pm in room 10 we planned to see The Great and Powerful Tim. The website blurb claims that..."Tim is a comedy mentalist and magician. He’s performed at festivals and events all around the country, and is now bringing his hilarious mind-bending routine to the Tampa Bay Comic Con! Enjoy his hilarious video game and comic book themed show with plenty of audience participation!" Today the Great And Powerful Tim...was not so great or powerful after all. It's not like he needed a conjuring spell or teleportation cabinet to get to this venue, a vehicle would have sufficed in this instance.
Sadly, Tim does not appear to have any web presence what so ever, unless he goes under a another name when performing at other shows.
Remy Connor Thief.
Surely good ole Remy would be all set to entertain us at 8:30pm – 9:30pm in room 13, right? The website description declares..."Come witness the amazing talents of Remy Connor, as he astounds you with his mind-blowing magic and daring stunts. Leaving you both astounded and amazing, he is a one-of-a-kind entertainer that will make this a show to remember! My wife and I are still waiting to be astounded and amazed. Remy Connor Thief must have used a very powerful vanishing trick on himself while setting up for the show. It was certainly a daring stunt to say he would appear there and then not turn up at all. Maybe he got caught stealing a rabbit out of a top hat? Time to regroup and rethink our strategy. All that careful pre planning might well have been be jettisoned into space along with that unwanted Xenomorph in Alien. Maybe room 13 is cursed?
Remy Connor Official Website.
Poorly Conceived Talks.
The Doctor Through The Ages.
Our next event after the Geekapella let down was at 2:30pm – 3:20pm in room 18. The website hype indicated the following..."Join the Palm Harbor Doctor Who Club as we travel through time to relive some of the greatest moments of Doctor Who! From the First to the Twelfth every regeneration has made this wonderful show what it is today. Come share your favorite moments with us!"
This talk was run by two giggly sisters with a clear love for Doctor Who both classic and new. However, there was no structure to their seminar and it basically became an exercise in them asking the crowd questions about the show rather than them giving a lecture. There were screens set up in the room and I expected some kind of presentation, montage or selected scenes from Doctor Who that would enable them to delve deeper into the themes of the show and formulate a great discussion. No such luck. The long gaps between speeches was a very awkward affair.
During the session one of the sister's answered her mobile/cell phone to give directions to the convention center to one of her friends who was lost, she stayed on the phone for about ten minutes and the other sister just sat there in silence. It was at this point nearly half of the audience in the room left to find something better to do. These girls seriously need to work on their public speaking skills and create a program that is fun for the crowd. Showmanship was sorely lacking here. It could have been fixed quite easily by...putting on a quick quiz at the beginning of the talk with some Who related prizes to give away. This would have hooked the majority of the people who came to see them. A promise of one more quiz at the end of the talk would have secured the audience into staying until the conclusion. A Doctor Who Bingo Game would have been a fun activity to offer guests too.
I am of the impression that it is illegal to screen any kind of television or movie material at a public venue without getting official permission from the companies who make the TV shows and paying them a broadcast fee. This is probably the reason why none of the talks used any clips to enhance their presentations or music soundtracks to complement the shows.
I was a member of the Palm Harbor Doctor Who club on Meet Up and it consisted of just four members that included the two sisters. I never met up with any of them whenever they had planned a group get together. I couldn't justify a taxi ride fair to and from these meetings since it seemed like the group just sat around watching old episodes of Doctor Who every time they got together.
With very little interest in this area for Doctor Who they were forced to close their group down on the Meet Up website because it costs money to promote your clubs on there. I feel bad for them. They obviously had good intentions, but even though Doctor Who has become a familiar name in America, it still doesn't have the pulling power of the likes of Star Trek, The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.
Environment Issues.
I suspect the air conditioning was turned off in some of the conference rooms to save money. Not good when you have several hundred sweaty geeks in costumes sitting in one space. Especially bad if you were like me and sick with a temperature.
The Comedy Of Geeks group had to perform in a room that had pillars in front of the stage so only one half of the audience could see the performer at any given time depending on which side of the stage they moved to. Was it really so hard for the organisers of this event to give these guys a room without these obstacles?
Pleasures.
Film Festival.
We managed to catch the short horror movie section at the film festival that was running all day on Friday. There were three stand out entries, out of the seven; two took a humorous approach and one seemed inspired by the silent movie genre. Regrettably, other events prevented us from viewing the additional categories and the awards ceremony. My mini film festival review will be posted in an individual post.
The Mythology Of Supernatural.
This was held in room 7 which was probably the actual smallest of all the conference rooms we'd seen and the only one I observed having windows. It started 4:30pm and ran to 5:50pm.
The websites brief piece on this event went like this..."Nathan Robert Brown, pop culture mythologist and author of The Mythology of Supernatural, will discuss various mythological themes and figures found in the CW show Supernatural. Book signing and Q&A session will follow the presentation."
The Mythology Of Supernatural by Nathan Robert Brown was a very interesting and informative seminar. He did touch on aspects of the CW network television series, but concentrated much more on the real world mythological history behind some of the supernatural beings that appear in the show. We learned that all the creatures and their back stories were researched quite thoroughly by the script writers and very little was made up or reinterpreted by them. Nathan told us how amazed he was when he realized that some of the more obscure references in the episodes were based on things that were extremely hard to track down. Knowing this gave me a whole new respect for the work that goes into the stories for the show. His scholarly presentation informed the patrons that many cultures throughout time have shared variations on the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and serpent fables. Interesting to note that all white eyed demons in Supernatural were all characters based in Judea Christian teachings. I wonder if the same rules were applied to the black eyed demons, the ones with red eyes and the few we've seen with the yellow peepers? I never got the chance to ask him about that, wish I did now.
Natahan Robert Brown Blog.
Nathan Robert Brown Twitter Account.
Nathan Robert Brown Books On Amazon.
Geeks Of Comedy.
We headed towards room 10 for the 7:00pm performance of The Geeks Of Comedy show which lasted one and a half hours to finish at 8:30pm. The website description was as follows... "The Geeks of Comedy return to TBCC to assault fandom & fanDUMB with Geek themed stand up that can crit-hit even an adamantium laced funny bone. Some of us curse worse than 4chan on new-comic Wednesday, so leave the kids at home for this one.
Geeks Of Comedy, is not a perfect show by any means; it feels very rough around the edges as if the comedians are honing their craft and experimenting with new material, but I think it was still worth an hour of our time.
The first comedian was a short and stout Italian guy by the name of Kevin White and he ended up being the best of the trio of comedians in this show. He was the most relaxed on stage and the only one able to throw together spontaneous ad libs during his routine. This was advertised as an 18+ show, but some teenage brothers had dragged their youngest sibling along who must have only been ten years of age. Kevin used this to his advantage and made some very funny cracks about the kid becoming a man after watching this performance. He did six great impersonations relating to a joke about the worst five voices you could use for role playing in the bedroom, done in the style of a Casey Casem music count down. Hearing blue rated sex talk from the likes of Fred Flintstone, Shaggy, Pumba and two others I can't recall while writing this, was hysterical especially since he had the voices perfected. It was hilarious stuff.
The second comedian Allan Forbes a tall gangly fellow was also a very good impressionist too. He impersonated William Shatner, John McCain, Adam West, President Barack O Bama and Arnold Schwarzenegger in his act, but his comedy material was poor; his jokes sadly fell flat more times than not; he also had to keep checking notes and cues he had written on his arm for the entirety of his act. I felt like the audiences attention was waning once his rythum had become choppy. Kevin was a tough act to follow since they started the show with their strongest talent.
The third comedian on the bill was short in stature with a baby face visage, this was Patrick Hawkins the main headliner apparently so I was expecting the level of humour to bounce back up, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I think he was trying to go for that Stewart Lee edgy comic vibe thing, but came across as a bit of an angry, aggressive and unfunny twonk. I'm no prude, but a couple of his jokes were a little crude and a bit pointless. One of his closing visual gags involved a skeletal hand glove and a pair of those X-Ray specs you used to see advertised in the pages of old comic books. He puts the glove on his hand and the glasses on his head and says..."Look everybody I'm a comic book advertisement." Most of us got the reference to the little picture from those comic book ad's which depicted a black and white drawing of a kid holding up his hand in front of his eyes while wearing the X-Ray specs and seeing the bones in his hand. The convention served alcohol throughout the day and night and regrettably some of the audience members for the Geeks of Comedy had become belligerent drunken hecklers which wasn't very nice for the gusy on the stage. If I wasn't feeling so under the weather I probably would have ended up having "strong" words with the wise cracjkng idiots we had to listen to.
Links to the comedians websites are here...
Kevin White Official Web Page.
Allan Forbes Facebook Page.
Patrick H Hawkins Facebook Page.
The Official Mobile Convention App.
I thought the official convention app for mobile devices came in very useful since it kept us up to date on all the changes being made by the minute.
The Asian Cuisine Vendors.
The food wasn't the usual calorie adding, artery clogging junk they normally serve at these events. The Asian cuisine was pretty good quality. The coffee was fairly cheap too at $3.00 for a small cup. You'd normally pay twice that amount at a theme park, concert, or a similar themed convention in a bigger city.
Doctor Who Past Present And Future
Around about 9:00 pm we decided to opt for the Doctor Who Past Present And Future talk which started at 9:30 pm and went on until 10:20 pm in room 18. The website wrote the following..."Doctor Who has swept the nation, and now where does it have to go? Join us as we discuss all the timey wimey facets of Doctor Who, from Hartnell to Capaldi. Nothing will be held off the table!
It was compared by just one guy who seemed to have gotten onto the Doctor Who band wagon since it returned to our screens in 2005 and gradually became popular with Americans and grew a fan base. Consequently he managed to play catch up with it's fifty years worth of classic series episodes which then qualified him as a specialist speaker on this subject and gave him the opportunities to moderate panels with Doctor Who companions/actresses such as Clara Oswald/Jenna Coleman and tomorrows Martha Jones/Freema Agyeman. If only I could get over my stage fright and social phobia I probably could have done a much better job than he did and I have many more years of knowledge on this subject matter. Oh well, no use in having sour grapes about my situation, it is what it is.
Unlike the Safety Harbor Doctor Who girls who allowed their show to fall apart this guy kept the momentum going and took plenty of questions from the people sitting in the auditorium. He raised some interesting points to discuss, but he also fell into the trap of being a supporter of the online fan base hate campaign towards Stephen Moffat the series show runner and head writer. All the negative press and attention he receives is unwarranted and displays an almost fundamentlist extremist and insidious side to geek culture.
I never speak up at these types of conferences because I get too nervous and the words I want to say just become a jumbled mess in my head. However, I felt I had to speak up in Moffat's defence when several audience members launched into nasty criticisims of actor Peter Capaldi's first episode as the newly regenerated Time Lord, Doctor in Deep Breath and Moffat's script.
I made it clear to everyone sitting in the room that Mr. Moffat had a tremendously hard job introducing a new Doctor who was now being portrayed by a much older gentleman. Winning over the current audience who were only weened on a diet of much younger actors playing the same role...David Tennant and Matt Smith was always going to be an uphill battle convincing the strong tween fan base that this was still the same character. The character is 900+ years of age despite his outward appearance so you'd think it would have sunk into their heads at some point especially when the shows goes to great lengths in telling the viewer that whenever he gets mortally wounded his regeneration process could change him into anything, gender, skin colour, age, an alien with four ears, twelve eyes and a snout even...anything.
I went on to say that it wasn't a bad episode at all. In fact it was very self exploratory and a relevant story for all fans of the show. Having his companion see the change take place right before her very eyes, but have her display prejudices towards the 12th incarnation, because he looked so much different from his youthful 11th body and face in which she had fallen in love with was the perfect time to have this debate. It was mirroring the new fans outrage when dream boat young Matt Smith stepped down from the role and was replaced with this "OLD MAN" Peter Capladi! I thought it made for a very compelling and satisfying episode that focused it's attention on ageism and a post regenerated amnesiac Time Lord who wasn't sure who or what he was yet.
This episode was a study in how people pre judge others simply by their outward appearances. A message obviously lost on the American Doctor Who fans in that crowd who wanted more of the young and sexy.
This was supposed to be a talk about the shows past, present and future, but way too much time was spent on modern Who. The future of the program was never covered despite me bringing up the rumour that BBC Worldwide are planning to make a Doctor Who movie once Moffat leaves and the series and it is rested from the small screen.
Charging Stations.
There was plenty of seating and electrical points in the corridors outside all the rooms.
The Convention Hours.
I liked the fact that the event stayed open until 12.00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Other conventions like Mega Con close much earlier than that so don't give as good a value for money.
Postlude.
We did two rough sweeps of the exhibition hall floor; one when we first got there and one before it closed for the day. It was interesting to see the vast difference between a room full of people and vendors busy at work to an empty one where all goods and wares were covered up for the night. It was odd to see Roxy the Rancor without his head. Poor Roxy. Maybe we'll actually get to see some of the merchandise tomorrow and buy something. After seeing the seemingly endless meandering lines you are forced to wait in to get a celebrity autograph and photo op; I think I'll pass on that one.
All in all a nice day out and even better since I started to feel more human towards the later part of the afternoon and evening thanks to my wife's diligence in providing me with the right medications throughout the day. We even missed all the rain today; there were tell tale signs of it in the form of moisture on the steps and pathways outside the convention hall.
We did have one misadventure after leaving the con. We tried to use the elevator to get to our car on top of the parking garage and it was locked. We found the night valet and he unlocked it for us to get to the top of the building, but to our surprise this was not the building we had parked at. I glanced over to the next building and there was our car looking back at us. A quick detour down the emergency staircase, a walk across the road and up that buildings elevator and we were all set to get out of there. The charge for parking from 12:00 pm to 12:00 am was $9.50.
The ride home was much easier and faster. Why is that? We came home a different way without all that bullshit the SatNav took us through in the morning.
We were awake and up at 9:00 am, running around on automatic pilot to get ready to go. Our furry and feathered children were given all that they would need for the day while we were away, I made sure they had plenty of food and water and all the creature comforts they would need.
Depressingly, an infection in my jaw and face that had persisted all week was now worse than ever and complicated matters for the weekend. The current antibiotics I was prescribed didn't seem to be working at all and I felt like I'd been smacked hard in the left side of my face, neck and back with Mjonir. A convention isn't really an ideal place to go if you feel feverish, light headed and or are dealing with acute pain in multiple places on your body. Travelling to and from the locale, negotiating crowds off people with no sense of direction or an awareness of body space when you are saddled with a headache, ear ache, lethargy, nausea, dizziness, muscle and bone pain and weakness becomes a bit of an ordeal and trial of stamina, core strength and will power.
I made one quick phone call to our local walk in clinic before we set out. I told them the current antibiotics weren't improving my condition and asked if they could call in another one to our chemist/pharmacy. Luckily this clinic doesn't operate like a doctors office. The receptionists don't insist on you coming in for an appointment in order to fill a prescription. They complied with my wishes and called a different antibiotic in so that we could pick it up within half an hour. The antibiotics were available in record time so making a detour to pick them up didn't eat up into much of our time. The good thing about having Publix as your pharmacy is that all antibiotics are free. I find that amazing in a capitalist driven country that is all about commerce and making as much money out of people as possible. We made one stop at the bank to withdraw cash from the hole in the wall (be ever mindful, some vendors at these places only take cash) then dropped by a gas station to fill the tank up for the journey ahead. We needed fuel too so a Dunken Donuts drive through provided us with a much needed coffee and breakfast to go.
The Journey.
Why do satellite navigation units take you on the most roundabout and overly complicated route to your destination? Is it part of a Sontaran plan to take over the world? Tampa is a maze of criss crossing roads, one way streets and tram lines. Even for the seasoned driver it can be a bit of a nightmare. After travelling past the same landmarks several times we finally found the hotel parking garage and stored our car there until the end of the day. I couldn't tell you if it was hot and humid outside because my infection made every environment feel overly hot. One trip down a lift/elevator, a short walk across a road and through another underground garage and we were at the Tampa Convention Center.
Expectations and Reality.
I'd read horror stories of previous Comic Con's held in this area online, describing how people had to stand outside the Tampa Convention Center in long lines that snaked around the block with the full power of the sub tropical Florida sun burning down upon them while they waited for the doors to open to the event. I was not looking forward to that with the way I was feeling in fact it's not the most pleasant of things to endure even when you feel great and healthy.
We arrived there a little after and hour of it opening so we just walked right in and headed towards will call and collected our lanyards. It was a very quick process and much faster than the way Mega Con or Star Wars Celebration events deal with tickets. The dealer room/exhibition hall surprised me by it's size. It turned out to be much larger than I expected it to be. It was comparable in size to one of the rooms they would use at Mega Con at the Orange Center. The dealer room also housed the celebrity autograph and photo opp section on the left hand side of the hall along with a cafeteria. Artists alley and the merchandise dealers were situated in the middle and dead center of this space with cosplay alley set up at the right end wall along with a zone allowing graffiti artists to produce huge finished pieces of art work over the course of three days. The hall was well lit and also provided bathroom facilities.
The People.
Walking in front of us to will call was a beautifully crafted Groot alien tree creature from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. This cosplayer really created a visual feast for the eyes. I think it was made out of foam and I believe he was wearing some kind of stilts on his legs to give him some height.
I saw plenty of Harley Quinn's, (the Joker's main squeeze) some wearing the various comic book costumes she's worn over the years. Others were wearing the outfit she sports in the video console games. Even more impressive were the ones who had put together an accurate movie version of Harley Quinn that appears in next years Suicide Squad movie. The teaser trailer for this film only came out a few weeks ago so anyone putting together this costume had to work around the clock in order to unveil it at this con.
There seemed to be an over abundance of Joker's; I'm not sure why this was the case, but they did out number the other costumes on display. I'd say the next prevalent cosplay was Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Deadpool both male and female (no surprise there since the Ryan Reynolds Dead Pool movie trailer was a big hit with fans when it was released online just recently, Jedi ( there are always Jedi and a Sta Wars presence of some kind at these conventions, probably more once Star Wars Episode VII the Force Awakens hits cinemas at Christmas time. Poison Ivy, and surprisingly enough, Castiel the angel from the Supernatural television show.
There were a few iterations and interpretations of Catwoman and Black Widow. We saw Black Cat's, Rogues, Wolverine's, Hawkeye's, Captain America's, Silk's, Spider Gwen's, Batmen, Wonder Women, Flashes, Batgirls, Bane's, Deadshot's, Princess Leia's, Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter Pilot's, Mara Jade's, Silk Spectres and Rorschach's.
Some cosplayers were dressed as characters from video games or anime so I had no idea who they were or how close they resembled the characters, but one could tell they were impecable creations; detailed outfits that must have taken those fans many man hours to stitch and sew to put together for this show The novel and rare cosplays I caught on my travels were a Lelu Dallas from The Fifth Element, a version of Jason Voorhees from Freddy Versus Jason in which the cosplayer went the extra mile and rigged up a speaker in his costume to play music from the horror franchise to accompany him were ever he went. There was even a female version of David Bowie's goblin king from Labyrinth.
Some mash ups were on hand too, like an Iron-Man/Venom costume which had electronically controlled moving parts, it was very impressive. I spotted a Star Wars characters such as a Wookie, a Darth Vader, a Wampa Ice Creature, a Tusken Raider, some Doctors from Dcotor Who most notably the fourth and the tenth, a Black Canary, a cartoon version of Mr. Freeze, a Zatanna, a Baroness from G.I. Joe, a Na'vi...Neytiri from Avatar, an Iron-Man, a Star Lord and Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, a Peter Griffin from Family Guy, a Ned Flanders from The Simpson's, and a Bender robot from Futurama.
There were lots of cosplayers here today and there wasn't even a contest. Most conventions have their main cosplay events on Saturday's so considering all things...the dreadful weather outside, the fact that Friday was a noon start, it was a good turn out and fortunately for everyone attending it never felt too crowded.
As expected we had to get a feeling for the layout of the place before we could move ahead with the list of things we wanted to see and do. At this point I felt like I was going to collapse. I was overheating, wobbly on my feet, experiencing sharp knife pains in several places in my my head. Time for more medication to get me through the day.
Gripes.
Barriers.
The set up of the barriers and cordoned off areas leading to the upper and lowers levels was strangely thought out and impractical. Nobody really wanted to walk half the length of the building to get from one side of the dealer room/exhibition hall to the other side via a convoluted pathway from a landing foyer outside this room, down two flights of steps and along a 100 meter floor space at the bottom of those steps. They made it far too difficult and confusing for visitors to go to and from the second floor that housed the exhibition hall to the area on the ground level floor that lead to all the conference rooms and ballrooms. People were squeezing past gaps in blockades as staff watched on. That should have been their cue to open up these areas to ease the flow of traffic lessening the congestion around the dealer room parallel entrances and escalators. I completely understand the necessity to have perimeters that stop people from sneaking into the building without passing the will call ticket booths, but some of the choices they made were inane and potentially dangerous.
Official Convention Merchandise.
There was only one small store near the foyer outside the dealer room/exhibition hall selling the official convention t-shirts. They are made from 100% white cotton material with the Tampa Bay Comic Con logo emblazoned on the front of them. I think it's safe to say without conducting an in depth study that most geeks prefer black t-shirts because they are flattering to those of us who are carrying some extra poundage on our bodies. The very young convention goers who don't have such body mass concerns in mind still opt for the darker colours because...well, black is more hip and cool. They would definitely sell a truck load of con t-shirts if they had printed the logo on a black fabric.
At Star Wars Celebration VI every one of the darker coloured Star Wars themed t-shirts had been sold by the end of the second day. At the first Mega Con we went to the vendors sold official t-shirts with two variations on a black cotton tee and all sold out towards the end of the second day too. Jump ahead a few years to our next trip to Mega Con and the only official shirts being sold there were printed on a bright orange material. We asked if the shirt came in black and the woman behind the store said, "No, they only come in this one colour." Those orange shirts were still piled up high at the end of the third and final day of that particular convention.
I find this kind of thinking very strange and counter productive to the market you are aiming to sell your goods to. One only has to look around a convention hall to see that most people who aren't cosplayers are wearing geeky themed black tops which out number the lighter ones. Maybe some day, someone will catch onto this discrepancy. It probably boils down to printing costs and I believe it's more expensive to screen print on black. My wife kindly treated me to one of these items despite the fact that they were white; she knows I'm quite the t-shirt collecting fiend. It's still a nice memento and it will make a great lounge around the house kind of clothing item.
Last minute cancellations threw a hydro spanner in our planned schedule.
Geekapella Group.
We managed our time so that the first thing we could see and do on our list was Geekapella at 1:30pm – 2:30pm in room 13. The website write up says says this about them..."Geekapella are Orlando’s only geeky acappella group! Do you like Star Wars, Harry Potter, anime, or just enjoy nerd culture? You’ll find all this and more in their repertoire!" Unfortunately, the Geekapella Concert was a no show, guess there's a reason why they are Orlando's only geeky cappella group and not Tampa's.
Geekapella Facebook Page
The Great And Powerful Tim.
At 5:00pm – 6:00pm in room 10 we planned to see The Great and Powerful Tim. The website blurb claims that..."Tim is a comedy mentalist and magician. He’s performed at festivals and events all around the country, and is now bringing his hilarious mind-bending routine to the Tampa Bay Comic Con! Enjoy his hilarious video game and comic book themed show with plenty of audience participation!" Today the Great And Powerful Tim...was not so great or powerful after all. It's not like he needed a conjuring spell or teleportation cabinet to get to this venue, a vehicle would have sufficed in this instance.
Sadly, Tim does not appear to have any web presence what so ever, unless he goes under a another name when performing at other shows.
Remy Connor Thief.
Surely good ole Remy would be all set to entertain us at 8:30pm – 9:30pm in room 13, right? The website description declares..."Come witness the amazing talents of Remy Connor, as he astounds you with his mind-blowing magic and daring stunts. Leaving you both astounded and amazing, he is a one-of-a-kind entertainer that will make this a show to remember! My wife and I are still waiting to be astounded and amazed. Remy Connor Thief must have used a very powerful vanishing trick on himself while setting up for the show. It was certainly a daring stunt to say he would appear there and then not turn up at all. Maybe he got caught stealing a rabbit out of a top hat? Time to regroup and rethink our strategy. All that careful pre planning might well have been be jettisoned into space along with that unwanted Xenomorph in Alien. Maybe room 13 is cursed?
Remy Connor Official Website.
Poorly Conceived Talks.
The Doctor Through The Ages.
Our next event after the Geekapella let down was at 2:30pm – 3:20pm in room 18. The website hype indicated the following..."Join the Palm Harbor Doctor Who Club as we travel through time to relive some of the greatest moments of Doctor Who! From the First to the Twelfth every regeneration has made this wonderful show what it is today. Come share your favorite moments with us!"
This talk was run by two giggly sisters with a clear love for Doctor Who both classic and new. However, there was no structure to their seminar and it basically became an exercise in them asking the crowd questions about the show rather than them giving a lecture. There were screens set up in the room and I expected some kind of presentation, montage or selected scenes from Doctor Who that would enable them to delve deeper into the themes of the show and formulate a great discussion. No such luck. The long gaps between speeches was a very awkward affair.
During the session one of the sister's answered her mobile/cell phone to give directions to the convention center to one of her friends who was lost, she stayed on the phone for about ten minutes and the other sister just sat there in silence. It was at this point nearly half of the audience in the room left to find something better to do. These girls seriously need to work on their public speaking skills and create a program that is fun for the crowd. Showmanship was sorely lacking here. It could have been fixed quite easily by...putting on a quick quiz at the beginning of the talk with some Who related prizes to give away. This would have hooked the majority of the people who came to see them. A promise of one more quiz at the end of the talk would have secured the audience into staying until the conclusion. A Doctor Who Bingo Game would have been a fun activity to offer guests too.
I am of the impression that it is illegal to screen any kind of television or movie material at a public venue without getting official permission from the companies who make the TV shows and paying them a broadcast fee. This is probably the reason why none of the talks used any clips to enhance their presentations or music soundtracks to complement the shows.
I was a member of the Palm Harbor Doctor Who club on Meet Up and it consisted of just four members that included the two sisters. I never met up with any of them whenever they had planned a group get together. I couldn't justify a taxi ride fair to and from these meetings since it seemed like the group just sat around watching old episodes of Doctor Who every time they got together.
With very little interest in this area for Doctor Who they were forced to close their group down on the Meet Up website because it costs money to promote your clubs on there. I feel bad for them. They obviously had good intentions, but even though Doctor Who has become a familiar name in America, it still doesn't have the pulling power of the likes of Star Trek, The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.
Environment Issues.
I suspect the air conditioning was turned off in some of the conference rooms to save money. Not good when you have several hundred sweaty geeks in costumes sitting in one space. Especially bad if you were like me and sick with a temperature.
The Comedy Of Geeks group had to perform in a room that had pillars in front of the stage so only one half of the audience could see the performer at any given time depending on which side of the stage they moved to. Was it really so hard for the organisers of this event to give these guys a room without these obstacles?
Pleasures.
Film Festival.
We managed to catch the short horror movie section at the film festival that was running all day on Friday. There were three stand out entries, out of the seven; two took a humorous approach and one seemed inspired by the silent movie genre. Regrettably, other events prevented us from viewing the additional categories and the awards ceremony. My mini film festival review will be posted in an individual post.
The Mythology Of Supernatural.
This was held in room 7 which was probably the actual smallest of all the conference rooms we'd seen and the only one I observed having windows. It started 4:30pm and ran to 5:50pm.
The websites brief piece on this event went like this..."Nathan Robert Brown, pop culture mythologist and author of The Mythology of Supernatural, will discuss various mythological themes and figures found in the CW show Supernatural. Book signing and Q&A session will follow the presentation."
The Mythology Of Supernatural by Nathan Robert Brown was a very interesting and informative seminar. He did touch on aspects of the CW network television series, but concentrated much more on the real world mythological history behind some of the supernatural beings that appear in the show. We learned that all the creatures and their back stories were researched quite thoroughly by the script writers and very little was made up or reinterpreted by them. Nathan told us how amazed he was when he realized that some of the more obscure references in the episodes were based on things that were extremely hard to track down. Knowing this gave me a whole new respect for the work that goes into the stories for the show. His scholarly presentation informed the patrons that many cultures throughout time have shared variations on the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and serpent fables. Interesting to note that all white eyed demons in Supernatural were all characters based in Judea Christian teachings. I wonder if the same rules were applied to the black eyed demons, the ones with red eyes and the few we've seen with the yellow peepers? I never got the chance to ask him about that, wish I did now.
Natahan Robert Brown Blog.
Nathan Robert Brown Twitter Account.
Nathan Robert Brown Books On Amazon.
Geeks Of Comedy.
We headed towards room 10 for the 7:00pm performance of The Geeks Of Comedy show which lasted one and a half hours to finish at 8:30pm. The website description was as follows... "The Geeks of Comedy return to TBCC to assault fandom & fanDUMB with Geek themed stand up that can crit-hit even an adamantium laced funny bone. Some of us curse worse than 4chan on new-comic Wednesday, so leave the kids at home for this one.
Geeks Of Comedy, is not a perfect show by any means; it feels very rough around the edges as if the comedians are honing their craft and experimenting with new material, but I think it was still worth an hour of our time.
The first comedian was a short and stout Italian guy by the name of Kevin White and he ended up being the best of the trio of comedians in this show. He was the most relaxed on stage and the only one able to throw together spontaneous ad libs during his routine. This was advertised as an 18+ show, but some teenage brothers had dragged their youngest sibling along who must have only been ten years of age. Kevin used this to his advantage and made some very funny cracks about the kid becoming a man after watching this performance. He did six great impersonations relating to a joke about the worst five voices you could use for role playing in the bedroom, done in the style of a Casey Casem music count down. Hearing blue rated sex talk from the likes of Fred Flintstone, Shaggy, Pumba and two others I can't recall while writing this, was hysterical especially since he had the voices perfected. It was hilarious stuff.
The second comedian Allan Forbes a tall gangly fellow was also a very good impressionist too. He impersonated William Shatner, John McCain, Adam West, President Barack O Bama and Arnold Schwarzenegger in his act, but his comedy material was poor; his jokes sadly fell flat more times than not; he also had to keep checking notes and cues he had written on his arm for the entirety of his act. I felt like the audiences attention was waning once his rythum had become choppy. Kevin was a tough act to follow since they started the show with their strongest talent.
The third comedian on the bill was short in stature with a baby face visage, this was Patrick Hawkins the main headliner apparently so I was expecting the level of humour to bounce back up, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I think he was trying to go for that Stewart Lee edgy comic vibe thing, but came across as a bit of an angry, aggressive and unfunny twonk. I'm no prude, but a couple of his jokes were a little crude and a bit pointless. One of his closing visual gags involved a skeletal hand glove and a pair of those X-Ray specs you used to see advertised in the pages of old comic books. He puts the glove on his hand and the glasses on his head and says..."Look everybody I'm a comic book advertisement." Most of us got the reference to the little picture from those comic book ad's which depicted a black and white drawing of a kid holding up his hand in front of his eyes while wearing the X-Ray specs and seeing the bones in his hand. The convention served alcohol throughout the day and night and regrettably some of the audience members for the Geeks of Comedy had become belligerent drunken hecklers which wasn't very nice for the gusy on the stage. If I wasn't feeling so under the weather I probably would have ended up having "strong" words with the wise cracjkng idiots we had to listen to.
Links to the comedians websites are here...
Kevin White Official Web Page.
Allan Forbes Facebook Page.
Patrick H Hawkins Facebook Page.
The Official Mobile Convention App.
I thought the official convention app for mobile devices came in very useful since it kept us up to date on all the changes being made by the minute.
The Asian Cuisine Vendors.
The food wasn't the usual calorie adding, artery clogging junk they normally serve at these events. The Asian cuisine was pretty good quality. The coffee was fairly cheap too at $3.00 for a small cup. You'd normally pay twice that amount at a theme park, concert, or a similar themed convention in a bigger city.
Doctor Who Past Present And Future
Around about 9:00 pm we decided to opt for the Doctor Who Past Present And Future talk which started at 9:30 pm and went on until 10:20 pm in room 18. The website wrote the following..."Doctor Who has swept the nation, and now where does it have to go? Join us as we discuss all the timey wimey facets of Doctor Who, from Hartnell to Capaldi. Nothing will be held off the table!
It was compared by just one guy who seemed to have gotten onto the Doctor Who band wagon since it returned to our screens in 2005 and gradually became popular with Americans and grew a fan base. Consequently he managed to play catch up with it's fifty years worth of classic series episodes which then qualified him as a specialist speaker on this subject and gave him the opportunities to moderate panels with Doctor Who companions/actresses such as Clara Oswald/Jenna Coleman and tomorrows Martha Jones/Freema Agyeman. If only I could get over my stage fright and social phobia I probably could have done a much better job than he did and I have many more years of knowledge on this subject matter. Oh well, no use in having sour grapes about my situation, it is what it is.
Unlike the Safety Harbor Doctor Who girls who allowed their show to fall apart this guy kept the momentum going and took plenty of questions from the people sitting in the auditorium. He raised some interesting points to discuss, but he also fell into the trap of being a supporter of the online fan base hate campaign towards Stephen Moffat the series show runner and head writer. All the negative press and attention he receives is unwarranted and displays an almost fundamentlist extremist and insidious side to geek culture.
I never speak up at these types of conferences because I get too nervous and the words I want to say just become a jumbled mess in my head. However, I felt I had to speak up in Moffat's defence when several audience members launched into nasty criticisims of actor Peter Capaldi's first episode as the newly regenerated Time Lord, Doctor in Deep Breath and Moffat's script.
I made it clear to everyone sitting in the room that Mr. Moffat had a tremendously hard job introducing a new Doctor who was now being portrayed by a much older gentleman. Winning over the current audience who were only weened on a diet of much younger actors playing the same role...David Tennant and Matt Smith was always going to be an uphill battle convincing the strong tween fan base that this was still the same character. The character is 900+ years of age despite his outward appearance so you'd think it would have sunk into their heads at some point especially when the shows goes to great lengths in telling the viewer that whenever he gets mortally wounded his regeneration process could change him into anything, gender, skin colour, age, an alien with four ears, twelve eyes and a snout even...anything.
I went on to say that it wasn't a bad episode at all. In fact it was very self exploratory and a relevant story for all fans of the show. Having his companion see the change take place right before her very eyes, but have her display prejudices towards the 12th incarnation, because he looked so much different from his youthful 11th body and face in which she had fallen in love with was the perfect time to have this debate. It was mirroring the new fans outrage when dream boat young Matt Smith stepped down from the role and was replaced with this "OLD MAN" Peter Capladi! I thought it made for a very compelling and satisfying episode that focused it's attention on ageism and a post regenerated amnesiac Time Lord who wasn't sure who or what he was yet.
This episode was a study in how people pre judge others simply by their outward appearances. A message obviously lost on the American Doctor Who fans in that crowd who wanted more of the young and sexy.
This was supposed to be a talk about the shows past, present and future, but way too much time was spent on modern Who. The future of the program was never covered despite me bringing up the rumour that BBC Worldwide are planning to make a Doctor Who movie once Moffat leaves and the series and it is rested from the small screen.
Charging Stations.
There was plenty of seating and electrical points in the corridors outside all the rooms.
The Convention Hours.
I liked the fact that the event stayed open until 12.00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Other conventions like Mega Con close much earlier than that so don't give as good a value for money.
Postlude.
We did two rough sweeps of the exhibition hall floor; one when we first got there and one before it closed for the day. It was interesting to see the vast difference between a room full of people and vendors busy at work to an empty one where all goods and wares were covered up for the night. It was odd to see Roxy the Rancor without his head. Poor Roxy. Maybe we'll actually get to see some of the merchandise tomorrow and buy something. After seeing the seemingly endless meandering lines you are forced to wait in to get a celebrity autograph and photo op; I think I'll pass on that one.
All in all a nice day out and even better since I started to feel more human towards the later part of the afternoon and evening thanks to my wife's diligence in providing me with the right medications throughout the day. We even missed all the rain today; there were tell tale signs of it in the form of moisture on the steps and pathways outside the convention hall.
We did have one misadventure after leaving the con. We tried to use the elevator to get to our car on top of the parking garage and it was locked. We found the night valet and he unlocked it for us to get to the top of the building, but to our surprise this was not the building we had parked at. I glanced over to the next building and there was our car looking back at us. A quick detour down the emergency staircase, a walk across the road and up that buildings elevator and we were all set to get out of there. The charge for parking from 12:00 pm to 12:00 am was $9.50.
The ride home was much easier and faster. Why is that? We came home a different way without all that bullshit the SatNav took us through in the morning.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Preping For Tampa Bay Comic Con. How To Prep For A Convention.
It's the day before the three day annual Tampa Bay Comic Convention and like any geek I'm really excited and fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go. This will be the first year my wife and I have been to this particular one. We're not convention virgins. We popped out cherries a long time ago in a country far, far away; actually Great Britain. We attended a couple in the 90's that were held in Bristol and Birmingham. We've also been to several conventions in the USA like Mega Con, Spooky Empire's Screamfest, Hurricane Who and two Star Wars Celebration events (V and VI) that were all held in Orlando.
This particular convention has been in existence since 2000. Like most conventions of this nature it covers comic books, collectibles, science fiction, fantasy, horror movie and television show memorabilia. Cosplay is welcomed and celebrated with competitions. There are appearances from media celebrities who are available throughout the day for fans who may wish to purchase an autograph or have a photo taken with their favourite star. They are also scheduled to do panels where they discuss their iconic roles and recount their experiences. Towards the end of these panels they answer questions from the fans in the audience. There are a multitude of things to do from gaming rooms, film festivals, specialized debates, seminars and demonstrations on all manner of geeky subjects.
According to the Tampa Bay Comic Con website they are a family-friendly and fan owned comic book convention. I would say this looks like a small to medium sized event. I don't think this will be as huge as Mega Con, but I have the feeling it won't be as small as the Doctor Who ones we've been to in the Florida area.
Plan Ahead.
Having never been to this convention before we're bound to make a few mistakes that often plague first timer's who are unfamiliar with the destination and layout, but you can limit some of the problems you may encounter by researching the area thoroughly online. Make sure you are aware of all the parking areas near to the convention center because it's quite possible the parking space at the venue will be full when you get there. Type the sites co-ordinates into your car's GPS or mobile device the night before and it may prevent you from getting lost saving valuable time. If you're travelling to the convention, go early; there may be lots of traffic or road problems ahead. Plan for these issues. Be aware of which entrance to head to. A lot of these venues have multiple entrances, but usually only one that is officially open for ticket holders to enter. My wife and I didn't read the small print once and found ourselves walking around the entire length of the Orlando Orange Convention Center in the searing heat of Florida to find the right entry point. We could have saved ourselves all that discomfort and lost time (about an hour) by checking where to go first.
Remember to charge all the batteries on your cameras and camcorders before you go. Bring a back up camera, spare batteries and SD cards. The last thing you want to have happen to you is miss out on a unique photo opportunity because your camera broke down or you ran out of space on your cards memory or the battery ran out of juice.
We're not cosplayers so we won't be working up to the last minute to complete our costumes for the event, but we do have to decide what clothes to wear for such an occasion. Geek shirts are a must. They can sometimes become a great ice breaker and a useful talking point when you meet other convention goers. Comfort should be your main priority and we always look through our wardrobe with the environment in mind. Florida it's often hot and humid so bundling up with many layers would be bad in this instance. You may be expected to wait outside in a long line in the heat before the convention doors open so light clothes and a hat of some kind are a must.
Bringing a back pack with some bottles of water to keep you hydrated is also very important. An umbrella could also come in useful, but keep in mind whatever you carry in with you may be subject to security checks and you'll either be asked to put them in a storage area or put them back in your vehicle. Consequently you could be stuck with them all day as you walk around the convention halls.
During this time of year, Florida experiences a lot of storms so also bring a rain coat or a cheap fold up poncho. Lastly...shoes. Wear shoes that you can walk around and stand in for a whole day. Your feet will thank you later when you get back to your hotel room or when you get home. A back pack will certainly help you carry some items you buy at the convention, but inevitably you'll end up trying to carry merchandise that won't fit inside the bag or you won't want getting creased or damaged in any way. I suggest buying any exclusive con t-shirts first because they are light and can be easily rolled up into a bag and they are usually the first products that sell out. As for anything bigger, more valuable, heavy and cumbersome , I'd leave off buying those until the end of the day before the con closes.
Study the calender of events and make an itinerary of things to do and see, in the days leading up to the con. Be prepared to make changes as celebrity schedules get moved around and some events taking place at the convention may get cancelled altogether. You will not be able to get to all the events being held at the convention because there is always a large degree of overlap in the times that they start and end. Cherry pick the ones you want to see and accept the fact that some of the things on your list will be impossible to do. If a convention has a mobile/cell phone app download. They are very useful in providing you with news and up to date information on any changes that may occur. The websites and their accompanying Facebook and Twitter accounts don't always update as fast as the apps. If you buy your tickets online and you've opted for a receipt that can be scanned via a bar code or QR codes make sure you've also printed up a paper version of those tickets and the confirmation e-mail just in case there is a glitch with the tech.
Pace yourself throughout the day and make sure you rest your legs, back and feet whenever you can. Even those of you who are physically fit with youth on your side will eventually succumb to fatigue, especially if you're doing all three days and partying every night into the early hours of the morning. I've seen some very exhausted convention goers over the years. Remember to make time to eat and drink. An army marches on it's stomach and Jim Kirk said it was his first rule of survival. :) Most of all have fun. Expect it to be crowded and hard work at times, go with the flow. Everyone else feels the same way you do...tired, hot, uncomfortable and anxious to get to and from their next event. Be polite to the cosplayers too, there are human beings with feelings inside those costumes too. Oh yeah, get plenty of sleep and rest before you go because you probably won't get any once you're there. Too much to do with so very little time to fit it all in.
To Summarise.
1. Work out an itinerary of the events you want to see and do, include their times and the rooms they take place in. Do this a few days before you set off.
2. Familiarise yourselves with the convention hall layout. Print up the websites floor plans and take them with you.
3. Plan your route to and from the convention by typing the destinations address into a navigation device or app. Do this a few days in advance.
4. Charge your mobile/cell phones, tablets, cameras and camcorders the night before.
4. If you have two or more cameras take them in case one breaks down. The Florida humidity can do a number on electronic devices when you go from air conditioned rooms inside a building to the heat of the outdoors.
5. Take back up batteries, SD cards, memory sticks and even chargers. Most places have a wall socket you can re charge your ailing phone or recording device.
6. Bring food and drinks with you. Sometimes these venues don't check bags so you won't have to hand over huge sums of money for over priced food and drinks from the vending stalls.
7. Medication, if you have any kind of illness or condition make sure you bring the appropriate medicine with you for the day or if you're away at a hotel for the full three days bring enough to last you throughout that period.
8. Wear clothes that are loose, light and cool for the Florida heat and shoes that are comfortable enough to stand and walk in for more than 10 hours.
9. Bring pack away ponchos in case you get caught in a torrential down pour. It happens all the time in Florida.
10. Sunglasses, if you have to spend any amount of time out in the sun waiting to get into the event, protect your eyes with a good pair of sunglasses; there are so many cases of cataracts and macular eye degeneration caused by the strong harmful UV light of the sub tropical sun. Your eyes will thank you later in life for implementing this measure.
11. Take a hat and or an umbrella to shade you from the harsh sunlight.
12. Bring a decent sized back pack with you to carry some of the merchandise you will undoubtedly buy at the convention.
Here is the link to the Tampa Bay Comic Con official website.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Pluto
I couldn't let this momentous occasion pass by without saying something on the subject. Today was the day the "Plutonium" powered New Horizon's spacecraft made it's closest approach of the planet/dwarf planet Kuiper Belt object Pluto. The picture above was taken the previous day before the piano sized probe zoomed past the little mysterious sphere that's parked 30 to 49 astronomical units (4.4–7.3 billion km) from our Sun.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
The General Consensus Towards Terminator Genisys
I saw the trailer for Terminator Genisys several times in the cinema, online and during TV commercial breaks in the months leading up to it's release. Every time it ended I looked at my wife and pulled the "Meh", face. She mirrored my expression too. Everything in the promotional and advertising campaigns pointed to yet another Hollywood remake cashing in on a well known film property. Every truncated scene played like hyper active re visitations of the first two Terminator movie's greatest hits, but with interlopers portraying characters already established by other actors and yet here was Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising one of his most popular screen roles as the original T-800 infiltration cyborg. So was it a remake? Doubtful, with Arnie involved; if they intended to do that they would have recast that part too. So one had to assume it was a continuation of the original films, but with new "younger" people slotted in. I think they call it a soft reboot these days. J.J. Abrams Star Trek featured all new fresh faced participants to portray the Enterprise crew, but managed to find a way to write the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy into the tale, thus handing the baton over to the next generation of performers who will take up the mantle of these iconic roles in future films.
Normally, with a genre film of this type I would have tried to have made the first showing on the first day of it's release, but everything I'd seen and read about Terminator Genisys left me cold. July the 1st came and went and I still hadn't seen the fifth film in the franchise.
I scoured the net and noticed it was getting some very poor reviews across the board. (27% on Rotten Tomatoes) I found an interesting article by, Scott Mendelson contributor to Forbes who cited six reasons why this movie bombed; it can be found by clicking the following link here... Box Office: 6 Reasons 'Terminator Genisys' Bombed (In America). I'm inclined to agree with most of what he said yet my eventual review won't be passing a dour Judgement Day verdict on this film despite all the negativity surrounding it.
Before I type up my thoughts on the film I'd like to bring up those six reasons Mr. Mendelson talked about in his piece and discuss them further.
First off he mentions the bad marketing campaign despite the blessing of original creator, James Cameron. It's not the worst though; at least the Genisys advertising department put together and released enough promotional material before it's release date to let the general public know that another Terminator film was on it's way to a multiplex in the summer of 2015. Maybe some of it was poorly executed along the way, but despite it's flaws and clumsy handling people were made aware this movie existed. A truly bad marketing campaign is a nonexistent one and that has to be reserved for the film Dredd. That movie had zero build up in it's lead up to it's release. Dredd, stealthily played out in cinemas in America for several weeks then it was gone. I can't help feeling that a decent campaign with the full backing of the studio would have put it on every one's radar; this would have greatly improved it's box office takings and we would probably have had a sequel in the works already.
I don't buy Entertainment Weekly magazine, but I used to receive old copies of it from my sister in law for several years so I am very aware of it's layout and pictorial style. Mr. Mandelson pointed out how terrible the cast promotional photos were in the magazine so I had to do a search for them online so I could see just how bad there were. He was right, all the actors are in character costume; most of the shots depict them putting on their best angry face, shooting big guns in front of a drab background. I can't say I was surprised; this is pretty much the standard set up for an Entertainment Weekly photo shoot session. I've seen similar glib and uninspiring photos within the pages of this magazine in the past. Maybe if the big wigs at Entertainment Weekly arranged to send their photographers out to the sets and locations while these movies and television shows were in production the results would be more organic and less contrived.
He brings up the fact that director, Alan Taylor concentrated far too much on talking about his bad experiences working for Marvel Studios on Thor: The Dark World during the Terminator: Genisys press junkets rather than try to generate interest for the film he'd just completed. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when a "professional" can't put their sour grapes aside and concentrate on the task in hand. It's as if this project wasn't satisfying enough to take away the pains of the previous job, so how invested could he have been in it really? Shouldn't a director be really elated to have had the opportunity to work on such a legendary film franchise? To be fair to the man, I've only seen one of his interviews for Terminator: Genisys and in that one he only brought up the problem with the "creative issues" he had with Marvel and the trying time he had while directing Thor: The Dark World when he was probed by the journalist. These kinds of interviews are usually conducted in a cookie cutter sort of way. The names promoting the film usually the director and the actors, sit in a room for many hours answering preset questions that have been vetted by the studios public relations people beforehand. It's run like a well oiled conveyor belt providing a slew of entertainment media reporters one after another. They go in, have five minutes to "ask the questions" then leave only to be replaced by one more. Can you imagine how mind numbingly boring that must be? To know what questions you will be asked and have to give the same formulaic answer each and every time and make it appear like it's all natural and off the cuff? Maybe, Alan Taylor was simply exhausted and in a bad frame of mind when he went off script during that particular day of the interviewing tour. Having spoken to so many people in one day there was probably no contingency plan to limit damage control once all those outlets had their interview done and dusted and ready to go to print or air on the small screen. I'll cut him some slack, maybe he behaved perfectly after that minor glitch? Just a thought.
Apparently, there was even a tie in game at selected Imax cinema's around the country that was designed to be played while the movie was in progression. I don't think any movie studio should be creating app's for mobile devices that encourages the younglings to light up their screens in the auditorium while a film is playing. Isn't it bad enough that they text and check their social media pages on their phones every few minutes for the full running time and whole duration of the film without any consideration for anyone else who is...uh...actually there to watch the movie? Let's not give the digital junkies more distractions, please. I'm not opposed to some types of movie tie-in's, but when they undermine concentration and focus to this extent then what's the point of going?
I understand the thinking behind such ideas, it's the notion that interactive methods will "enhance" the theater going experience. For decades Hollywood has experimented with all kinds of screen formats, sound systems and 3D enhancement to draw audiences in to see their motion pictures. William Castle was the master of it. He utilized a variety of gimmicks with the technology of the time to ensure large attendances to all his B-Movies.
I'll highlight four of his most famous stunts. For Macabre he devised a plan where women pretending to be real nurses would to hand out $1,000 life insurance policies from Lloyd's of London to customers in case they should die of fright during the film.
On House On Haunted Hill he came up with the fancy name of, Emergo which involved a skeleton prop on wires housed in the ceiling of the theaters the movie played at and it would seemingly drop down and float around over the heads of the audience near the climax of the film.
Then he created the name, Percepto for, The Tingler. Castle's staff fitted small hidden electrical devices to a select number of seats in the movie house before the film was shown. Towards it's finale, there would be a planned break in the film making it seem to all in attendance as if the projector had broken down. Vincent Price would break the fourth wall and warn the audience members that one of the creatures in the film had escaped and was loose among them. The devices would then be activated to buzz at this point giving some lucky patron's hilarious bum tingles.
In 13 Ghost's he deployed his next amazing concept, Illusion-O, these were cardboard viewers that housed red and blue cellophane filters. These were given out to everyone who purchased ticket to see the film. The viewer gave you the option to see the ghost with the red portion or not see them with the blue part.
One can understand why Mr. Castle felt the need to go to such lengths; these were B-Movie flicks made on the cheap and aimed squarely at the teen demographic. Something with the Terminator name should not have to resort to such cheap devices like a game app. There are still a lot of elitist film critics out there who regard science fiction and horror movies as B-Movies, they just call them by different names these days like summer blockbusters of popcorn movies, but clearly, there have been some excellent sci-fi/horror genre movies made over the years that have risen above their B-Movie trappings and the original Terminator and perhaps it's sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day are so well made with such a great story to tell that they have to be considered worthy equals in every way to films that are widely viewed as the great classics of the silver screen.
Secondly Mr.Mendelson brought up the bad reviews it received and how they said it was a "narrative mess, was a general bore, did little with its time-hopping scenario, and was a mere arbitrary franchise reboot with no major story twists beyond the big one that the trailers revealed." Not sure I accept this generalized consensus.
Are they talking about the same film I saw? I eventually made the decision to go and see it during the back end of it's opening week and went in with very low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised with the effort. Surely these bad reviews Mr. Mendelson highlights for Terminator Genisys could be points that easily describe the fourth entry, Salvation? Maybe they just watched the trailer to Genisys and wrote a review from that because if I was tasked to do such a thing that's probably the conclusion I would have come to if that's all I had to work with. Like I said, the trailers were bad for this movie.
How can a film series involving timey, whimey, wibbly wobbly stuff, paradoxes, a multitude of possible future outcomes have a clear narrative? Isn't it apparent by now that the future in the Terminator universe is always in flux and fixed points in time can be constantly manipulated in a person's time stream possibly creating or destroying alternate universes both fixing and damaging what has already been established in each movie? If we're talking dodgy plot points, gaps in logic, unanswered questions and continuity errors; then yes there are, but they were also evident in the other movies in the series too which I will tackle in my comprehensive review following this.
I did not find it a general bore at all, far from it. If the two hours consisted of a bunch of Skynet AHK'S-Ariel Hunter Killer Drones and Goliath's, HK's-Hunter Killer Tanks fighting the last vestiges of the human resistance, with explosion after explosion, lot's of environmental destruction and a multitude of purple plasma bolts fired by both sides; then one could say that would be boredom personified; maybe McG, Michael Bay and all men with the emotional age of a ten year old boy would probably disagree with me on that one.
Thankfully, the makers of Genisys were not afraid to play around with the time travel concept and it was all the more fun for it; how people can say it did little with it's time hopping scenarios mystifies me; they must have been playing angry birds or some other shit on their mobile/cell phones; most probably multi tasking trying to type up their scathing reviews. This movie used more time jumping than all the other movies combined and yes the trailers and TV spots did spoil the major plot twist, but they had little time to reveal how the protagonists would successfully deal with said plot twist and how it all came to be.
If you love the original Terminator movie and are not a fanboy purist then I think you'll get a kick out of the way they revisited and recreated some of the most memorable and quoted scenes from that first film with the unexpected added twists.
The third and fourth reasons why Genisys failed to terminate the box office competition on Mr.Mendelson's list was down to timing and film classification ratings. He puts forward a compelling case. Indeed, this film had to contend with the release of Jurassic World and Inside Out. Both movies are more family friendly offerings with multi age group appeal whereas the Terminator has a reputation for containing lots of violent adult orientated material. The original Terminator, Terminator 2 Judgement Day and Terminator 3 Rise Of The Machines were rated 'R' when they were theatrically released. Then it was decided that more money could be made off of the next installment, Terminator Salvation if it catered to a wider and younger audience so they set out to create a product that would secure a PG 13 film board rating. Salvation retained the usual action set pieces everyone expects from this series, but the obscenities and scenes of a sexual nature were discarded at the scripting stage of the process. The violence was softened, with less attention to the cause and effect of physical blows and damage on the human body meaning there was very little blood and zero gore in any of the scenarios. Despite the toned down nature of this outing, the general public still regards all these films as inappropriate entertainment for children. The same decision was made to make Genisys a PG 13 too. This may well have alienated the older long term fans who were not up for another kid friendly "killer cyborg" excursion and one has to wonder how big of an audience could be out there for a film that's relies on the spectators knowledge of the 80's and 90's Cameron versions which were made long before the desired PG 13 age groups were even born. It's true, Jurassic World also had the advantage of hiring the very popular and likable Chris Pratt as their lead actor who was enjoying universal fame and critical acclaim off the back of his stand out role as Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.Inside Out released on June 19th, 2015 is a 3D computer-animated comedy-light drama produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. This is the company who has found the secret formula to make massive hits all the time such as Toy Story, Up, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wall-E and so on and so on, this was always a guaranteed hit considering it's historical pedigree and the colourful, attractive characters kids adore.
I think there is another component at play here. The insipid and uninspired Jurassic Park III (50% on Rotten Tomatoes) was launched on July 16th in 2001; the fourth installment Jurassic World was released on June the 12th, 2015 making that a 14 year gap between the two. Movie goers benefited from the longer span of time between chapters thus cleansing the palette and erasing any bad memories one may have had from the past effort. The fourth Terminator movie, the dull, noisy and vacuous Terminator Salvation (33% on Rotten Tomatoes) was released on May 21st 2009. This has only given people a six year respite between that misstep and Terminator Genisys playing in cinemas now. There was also a lackluster television series in the interim gap called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which also served to weaken the brand further. It's very possible that the constant recasting of the characters and bland direction the show and Salvation took weakened the myth of the story and bred Terminator fatigue in most peoples minds.
For his fifth and sixth points, Mr. Mendelson factored into his equation that the public weren't chomping at the bit for another Terminator movie and Schwarzenegger was not the box office draw he once was anymore. I'll somewhat concede to those two points he made. It's highly possible the public and the fans alike have been burned out by the subsequent decline of the Terminator brand, I know I have. Having said that, the strong box office numbers of Jurassic World prove that an old film series can make very good numbers even if the audience weren't salivating at the mouth for another one. Strangely enough the inclusion of Arnie in Genisys actually made this one feel like a proper, genuine Terminator movie. Unlike, Salvation which used a variety of practical and visual special effects to have his image do a non speaking cameo. I can't speak for anyone else, but it's become apparent to me that Arnold is an asset and an essential part of the Terminator movie franchise despite his fading star power pull and what many would say his limited acting abilities; I would go as far as saying he is the connective tissue that holds these stories together whether he's playing a bad or good cyborg in the films. Can other stories be told without him involved? I guess they can, in fact something happens towards the end of the film that gives future installments some wriggle room to pass on the Governator if they so wish. A new direction would have to shake things up significantly so that there was no reliance at all on Sarah Connor, John Connor, Kyle Reese and the T-800 characters; maybe all the time tampering could eventually screw things up so much that they are wiped from existence altogether (seems unlikely if it's true, Genisys is part one of a planned trilogy) or Skynet becomes sentient beyond any preset "Judgement Day's" we know of and comes online in a far flung future, but I think we already had those movies they were called The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.
What did I personally think of the film? My review will follow.