UPDATED: January 27, 2021.
This is the third of a
series of posts dealing my sixth trip to Seattle as an adult and first of two
trips that year. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added
additional thoughts with the hindsight of two years later or to add further
clarification.
There's a few stories
that I forgot to mention yesterday but the time switch has thrown things off
kilter so will just mention the one that immediately springs to mind. One person (can't recall if it was a pro,
convention staff or other attendee) complimented me on my fancy watch and was
surprised to learn I'd bought it at a dollar store.
[NOW: The watch
eventually quit on me.]
More tickling of the
throat last night so it took a while to fall asleep esp. since I was trying to
hold in the coughs to not disturb other people.
Finally drank lots of water and that seems to have solved it.
Woke up once
afterwards just before someone above me took a cell phone call. He finally asked his wife/gf (it was definitely
a she because I could partly hear her) to text her to don't disturb other
guests (I don't think he considered moving the call into the hallway)
But despite the
partial sleep deprivation I'm rested enough to be functional. Got to run; again the time switch has thrown
things off so I need to have a quick breakfast and then start heading
downtown. Have a great day everyone!
[NOW: The above was
written in the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening. Time switched from Pacific Standard Time to
Pacific Daylight Time that night.]
After my last e-mail I
had a quick breakfast, walked downtown, pop a pop for the convention at
Walgreen's, then started heading to the Convention Center. I saw my friend Troy en route, we chatted,
then I finished going to the Convention Center.
There wasn't that much of a line yet so I visited Freeway Park. For those of you who are new to these trip
reports, Freeway Park is, yes, a park built over a freeway. Lots of homeless people there so I tried to
shoot around them to preserve their remaining dignity. I returned to the Convention Center and found
myself thinking that it must be tricky at time distinguishing between homeless
people dress and some comic fans.
In the waiting area I
marked on my floorplan the locations of people I hadn't yet met and saw a
couple comic dealers from Victoria in the back before Troy rejoined me for a
bit.
Inside my initial
strategy backfired significantly. There
was one major comic pro pretty close to the entrance (Geoff Johns, current
writer of Green Lantern) and two at the back (Marvel editor in chief Joe
Quesada and Captain America writer Ed Brubaker) so I opted to maximize the
beginning part of the day with the latter two, and got in line for Quesada,
Troy joining me sooner after. 40 minutes
later it because clear that neither were in any hurry to arrive, and first
Troy and then myself bailed from the
line. By this point Johns' line was huge
so I opted to return later. Huge
mistake: around 11:30 or so they stopped letting people in line for Johns for
the rest of the *day*! Ah well, truth be
told his work's declined of late.
During this timeframe
I got a number of autographs from people of varying degrees of fame, probably
most notably Jim Valentino (Normalman).
I kept checked the other side as well where the celebrities were for Wil
Wheaton (during the brief period he was around for autographs his line was
always packed so I didn't get his autograph; I guess Trekkies only hate his
Next Generation character Wesley Crusher when the actor is not actually in the
room.). I did manage to snap a shot of
him this time though; I also finally saw Leonard Nimoy, I got one shot from a decent distance away
(careful not to zoom because I was trying to be unobtrusive) that I think was a
bit blurry. Was about to try for a
better shot but then was told that photos weren't allowed.
[NOW: Leonard Nimoy has passed away.]
I got X-Statix artist
Mike Allred's autograph this time; line was short but he was a chatterbox. I finally got Joe Quesada's autograph; his
line was a good clip. I considered going
for Brubaker next but Troy was in line and told me it was a slow line, so I got
a few other autographs instead. The most
notable of these was Ilya Salkind, probably the driving force between the 1970s
and 1980s Superman movies, as well as the Superboy series of the late 80s/early
90s. There was just a short wait to talk
to him as he was finishing an interview.
His autograph cost $20 but he was one of the most fun people to talk
to. When he saw that I had a Superboy
DVD to autograph he said "At last!") and mentioned his frustrations
in trying to get the remaining seasons out. So for a series that's not that
well known, it clearly has a special place in his heart.
I got some more
autographs (including a couple people whom I'd overlooked one item each to
autograph the day before; one might have been a bit earlier than that) and then
attended a seminar on Breaking into Comics.
After that I completely fluked out: I caught Brubaker just as he was
packing up to leave so got autographs from him with no line up and right before
it would have been too late.
By this time it was
now around 2. I got more autographs
including Y the Last Man artist Pia Guerra.
There were two people high on my list who kept eluding me for the better
part of the day: Punisher actor Thomas Jane (artist Tim Bradstreet who did art
for the DVD kept minding his store; I got his autograph during an early trip
over) and Starman writer James Robinson (who's table was always empty when I
visited him the day before as well).
Finally both turned up pretty close chronologically. Jane was a bit distant in a movie star sort
of way but he didn't charge either an autograph or a photo. Soon after I got in line for Robinson, due to
arrive by 3, knowing I was tempting fate given the earlier Quesada fiasco. This time it mostly worked out beyond two
people with about 50 comics each being in line ahead of me. Please any comic fans reading this, ask
yourself how many autographs you really need from one person if there's a large
line behind you.
I visited a guy who
had worked on the cartoon the The Incredibles and found that I'd misfiled it
(it might have gotten left behind in my locker here in error. This kept bothering me so I finally went out
and bought another copy because I really wanted it autographed. I finally had some brief time to shop and
bought 15 comics from one person for $5. Just as thing were closing I got a
final autograph I'd overlooked and bought a few DVDs. I was low on cash on hand so I broke my usual
rule and haggled down $2. Much to my own
surprise as I was leaving the Convention Center a switch went off in my brain
and the thought, "Good, now the real trip can begin" popped into my
head.
[NOW: I bought the
backup copy of Incredibles from the downtown branch of the now defunct Borders
and later found my old copy at home. ]
I visited Pike Place
Market. While there I visited a few
stores including Left Bank Books (Commie haters should stay well clear of
there), Holy Cow Records, and Golden Age Collectibles (with the cheerful sign
telling people to leave their packs at the front and that they're not
responsible if the bags get stolen as a result). At Holy Cow I bought a cult movie I'd been
meaning to see called Galaxina. I have
to get a bit extra serious here for a moment despite the likely cheesiness of
the movie. Sadly the movie's real
significance is due to the fate of its lead actress. Dorothy Stratten convinced by a guy named
Paul Schraeder to become a Playboy Playmate.
When her career took off and he couldn't handle the fame machine as well
as her he killed them both. So Galaxina is part of a cautionary tale now, part
of her tragically short body of work; her life was dramatized in the excellent
Star 80.
I visited Swerve again, returned to the hostel
to drop off some stuff, and then visited the International Fountain in Seattle
Center. This time the fountain was in full
activity. So were there still kids
playing in the fountain in March? Yes there were! Not a lot, but some kids did
leave the fountain wearing wet clothes.
[NOW: Swerve is now closed.]
I then went to the
nearby McDonald's, the only one I actually go to for the décor. Yes I'm entirely serious. It has an interesting sports motif that even not
being a sports fan I can appreciate. My
table's top was a photo of basket balls.
There were four poles in one section, one with baseballs in inside, one
with footballs, one with soccer balls, one with basketballs.
[NOW: During a renovation, the sports balls were removed from that McDonald's.]
After that I meant to
just briefly pass the International Fountain again but I once more got
mesmerized by it and probably spent over an hour taking pics as the sun went
down and the light from the Space Needle lit the water spray for the elaborate
jets. I got some incredible shots of
this amazing place and it's probably been the highlight of the trip for me so
far.
I then visited Easy
Street Records followed by the Metropolitan Market followed by Silver Platters,
where I actually found a Michael Moore movie from 2007 I never heard of before,
Slacker Uprising. I then went to a
nearby QFC, thinking it was probably closed by then since it was after 9. It's actually open 24 hours so no psychic of
the year award for me. I bought a drink
there, passed by the fountain again, which was then mostly off for the day, and
then returned to the hostel.
[NOW: That Easy Street Records is now closed and that Silver Platters has moved to 1st Ave S.]
When I had a bath the
plug was gone (used my soap dish as a makeshift plug) and I noticed the same
with another bathtub. I checked and the
staff have indeed removed the plugs from the bathtubs here.
Tomorrow begins the
first of three full days in Seattle and neighbouring committees, no convention
to be found. Yesterday and today (until
5) were the days I needed to do. After 5
the trip I actually wanted to do began and goes full steam ahead starting
tomorrow.
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