Another Comic Con has come and gone and it all seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Jeff and I went down there to show some new pages from 60 Minute Broadway and just get some feedback and put faces to names before we send out official submissions to get the book published.
You can click here and here to read about our exploits at last years event.
This year we got on the road late Friday evening. Jeff had some artwork to finish up last minute so I hung at his place playing XBOX 360 Table Tennis (Leu Ping rules!) while he finished. One pit stop at Barney's Beanery and we were on the road by 8:30.
Last year we ran into huge issues with trying to get a hotel room last minute, so we were smart and booked early. Twice during the day Jeff made sure to call the hotel and say we might be a little late getting down there and to please make sure not to give our room away. We would be there before midnight.
And we were. We pulled into the Town & Country around 10:30 and the lobby was packed. Jeff went up to check in only to find out that, to quote "a reservation doesn't guarantee a room."
Huh? What the hell does it guarantee then? That you'll at least consider us for a room?
Visions of the old Seinfeld bit flashed through my head: "Yes you took the reservation, you were very good at that...you just didn't hold the reservation...that's the most important part of the reservation".
They had to give us what was basically a single room with a pullout couch and they brought a cot up. It was actually a really nice room and add to the fact that we finangled the two nights at half price and got free parking and breakfast due to our inconvenience, it actually worked out well. We just weren't thrilled with the hotel employees constantly referring to us as "partners". I don't think they even knew we worked together on the comic book. We spent a good portion of time there trying to get the housekeeping woman to confirm that we were in fact sleeping in seperate beds and to "Please! Tell your co workers!! PLEASE!!!"
The hotel was kind of like a little mini resort. It had two pools and all the rooms had huge balconies (perfect for card games!), there was a restaurant and such. Pretty nice digs. My favorite game was "Guess who's attending Comic Con" from the gaggle of guests staying there. They were pretty easy to point out, although some were surprises.
I was wired after the drive so I watched World Series of Poker on ESPN until about 3 in the morning and then went to bed. The next day, it was about the temperature of the sun outside as we braved through traffic and searched for parking to go to the convention....
A few weeks ago I wrote about an audition I had for the lead in a feature film. I found out on Wednesday that I did not get the part and it went to another actor with a name and resume as long as my arm. I did find out, however, that they absolutely LOVED me though. I knew they wanted a name for the part going into the audition but I just wanted to get in front of them and show my stuff. Seems to have worked as I got rave reviews and may even snag some really cool representation from the whole thing.
As a result of a meeting I had on Wednesday, I now have the favorite comment ever made to me in my career.
When speaking of my chances of success as an actor and how I'm the type that people root for: "Totally, you're adorable. You're like Winnie the Pooh!"
I'll have my report from Comic Con coming in up later this week/early next week. It's actually been a pretty eventful week and a half and I've got a backlog of stuff to write about. When it rains it pours.
Last weekend, we went to Zuma beach with my friends Nick and Kathy and their two daughters. Oddly enough, this was my first foray to the beach since I moved to Los Angeles. Having grown up down Cape Cod and always around the water, it never was that big a deal to me. It was a blast despite the 104 degree heat. Since when did California get humid? This is insanity. If I wanted mugginess, I'd have stayed in Boston where it can be 90 degrees and 80% humidity at noon and 80 degrees with 90% humidity at midnite. I like my heat dry dammit!
The undertow was really strong that day and I had a good time riding the waves on a boogie board. The waves in California are actually, you know, waves. East Coast beaches have waves more akin to a little kid sticking his hand in a puddle and pushing the water. For some unknown reason, one of the lifeguard boats came in just a touch to far and got beached like a whale. There were about 10 people out there pushing it to no avail. It had to just sit there until the tide went back out. A touch emabarassing, I would think.
I found it funny that they had to tape off the beach so no one would go over and mock the lifeguard boat, I guess. I had visions of them running the yellow caution tape all the way up the coast so some dude in Oregon is quite confused as to what's going on.
One of my favorite games to play after a day at the beach is "guess where John applied sunscreen" as I had the oddest burn. Apparently the suncreen made it to my chest, but not the middle in between what pass as my pectorals. My stomach had no screen on it. So I had a burn on my stomch and going between my chest as well as tiny spots around my shoulder and temples. Thank God for Aloe.
Comic Con is coming up fast this weekend and I will have some firsthand reports from the convention as well as the big poker tournament to regale you with. Also upcoming is my adventure at Zuma beach and why Coast Guard boats really need to respect the tide.
In honor of the upcoming Comic Con in San Diego this weekend (which I will be attending with 60 Minute Broadway and for any newer readers that haven't seen it...I present to you... Evolution of the Geek!!
I finally got a chance to see Superman Returns last night. I can't say I was hyped up to see the movie as I've always enjoyed Superman as a character but leaned more towards Batman as a favorite. It wasn't that I didn't want to see it, but I just wasn't very excited to do so.
And then the music hit.
And the credits that were exact replicas of the Dick Donner original.
And then I got chills.
And all at once, I felt like I was a little kid again.
I really enjoyed the movie. Sure, it wasn't perfect (I found "girl next door" Kate Bosworth to be an odd choice for the more jaded, edgy Lois Lane) but it was fun, had just the right number of homages to the original and the comics and I thought Brandon Routh did a great job.
I was skeptical of him at first as he looks like a kid himself. Certainly not a man, let alone of the "super" variety. I have to admit, though, that I was wrong. He had a definite presence when playing the Man of Steel and had a geeky innocence as Clark Kent. For someone coming right out of soap operas and walking into a huge blockbuster franchise as the most recognizable super hero ever, he carried himself with confidence and aplomb.
I can't imagine what it must have felt like for him to be sitting in the audience at the premiere...hearing the music hit and then seeing his name flash across the screen. If I had chills as a spectator, he must have nearly exploded.
Overall, it's a fun superhero movie with a surprising amount of heart and meat to it in addition to the innate coolness of Supes flying around Metropolis.
I've been working on a redesign of my website and this is the first stages of it. Not really much noticeable difference (the syndication info is on the left now and a created a little block highlighting 60 Minute Broadway), but the Blogger template was too limited. I have been working on the Terriyaki Milkshake webcomic some and I wanted to be able to shift the blogging and menus around some to include strips at the top of the site, as well as be able to edit content more efficiently. You can still leave comments just by clicking the comments link.
Hope everyone had a safe and exciting (can you do both at the same time?) Fourth of July weekend. Mine was spent in the usual flurry of Sam Adams, BBQ and poker...not necessarily in that order.
Friday afternoon I was getting the itch to play some poker so my friends Lance, Calvin and I headed on down to the Commerce Casino. They have an upstairs ballroom with lower buy-in/blind No Limit Hold Em games so we made our stake there. For the longest time I've had a weird vibe with playing in a casino. I seem to get tense and very timid in my betting and stop having fun. This weekend I was determined to break through that.
And I did.
Eight hours later.
It was a roller coaster of a night as on my first hand, I was put all in with a set (three of a kind) of tens and the guy who pushed me ended up catching a flush on the river and beating me, taking my $40 buy-in on the VERY first hand I played. Not too promising for my fear of casinos. I hopped back on the horse (for another $40) and got back into the game. Once I started loosening up and having fun I started playing much better. I was up, I was down and I had a good time. I ended up losing a little money overall, but I learned that I can play in a casino and do well and also that I have some serious poker playing stamina! WSOP here I come!
Played in two more poker tournaments on Monday at Lance's and won both of those, so that actually put me up for the weekend...and no, I don't have a problem. I love the ritual of poker. I love sitting at the table, the felt, the chips, having a drink and just bullshitting. Good times.
The 4th itself was spent with Amber, my good friends Nick and Kathy and their two gorgeous young ladies. We BBQ'ed, watched the Red Sox, drank beer, ate ice cream and even got in a 6 inning game of wiffleball on my front lawn (inside the Fortress of Shrubbery that encases my yard).
I didn't take in any fireworks, though. I was planning on watching Pop Goes the Fourth on CBS to get all homesick, but I ended up getting hooked on an ep of Veronica Mars. Damn, those kids from Neptune suck me in everytime!
