Blame Dorothy

in which I'm still talking

Typepad on the itouch has some weird scrolling effects.

Anyways. I did make it to a panel or two. I went in early for Doctor Who and Torchwood and saw the panel before with Stan Lee and Grant Morrison. They were both very interesting speakers.

For some reason I always read Morrison's stuff and pictured this really really intense my art is my life and I'm so damn much cooler than you guy. But he looked perfectly normal. And bald - which blew my too much hair gel unfortunate facial hair theory out of the water. And he's Scottish which kind of makes him automatically cool.

Maybe he was in costume.

The Who / Torchwood panels were entertaining. John Barrowman is a very interesting person in small doses. I do have to wonder if he comes with a mute button. Beautiful voice though. I kind of wish I'd pulled out my video camera when they started singing.

After a quick lunch break and nap, I got in line for a panel with Naomi Novik who writes the Temeraire series. It is all dragons in the Napleonic wars stuff. Very fun. The panel was interesting in spurts. Peter David was also there and he's someone I keep running into in all the mediums I follow. I may pick up some of his new XFactor stuff. I've heard good things about it.

I'm actaully staying pretty well within my budget. I went a little over today but that's because the battery on my watch died and I needed something to fill in. So I got a cute little watch on a keychain with a floppy bit that protects the face. It matches my new purse.

Of course.

in which I wear the wrong shoes

You always wear the wrong shoes to comicon. It is just that sort of place. And really I don't think they've made a shoe yet for standing in a line for two hours then slowly shuffling forward.

I also brought the wrong bag but that was easily remedied by stopping by the Browncoats booth. They had a small backpack which was thankfully not festooned with every Firefly logo known to man. Just one little patch. And lots and lots of pockets.

I also bought a little purse so that I could keep my wallet and camera within easy reach at all times. It black leather with a smug pink cat on it and I don't match as I shuffle along but I doubt anyone cares.

I have not gorged on freebies. I wasn't able to get a Warner Brothers bag - for one - because I haven't been able to stand the crowds in that part of the floor. This may be the first year I don't go home with an oversized souvenir bag.

I kind of would like one of the Sci Fi Channel bags that say Big Frakkin Bag on the side. They look like those bags you get at IKEA - where I imagine the word "frak" has a completely different meaning.

in which I blog on my itouch

which explains the odd capitalization. And any spelling mistakes.

I'm in San diego for comicon. I got here way too early in relation to my check in time and wound up wandering a nearby mall. Malls in California are more likely to be outdoor malls than in virginia. This one had no roof, despite being three stories. Or four. Or maybe six

It was hard to tell, really, as the place appeared to have used that Escher painting of the stairways as its inspiration. If there was any logic to where the stairs, escalators and elevators were, I couldn't figure it out

This mall would have given my mother a panic attack

Anyways, I'll have to scedule things better next year as I wound up spending money before I even got to the convention

On the other hand, did you know Clarks makes flip flops with arch support?

In Which We Escape

I loved the movie Escape from Witch Mountain. The heroine was telekinetic, and named "Tia," and had a cute purse with a secret map that she and her brother could follow to safety. It was perfect for role-playing in the school-yard. Unfortunately, the sequel was crap, but we just pretend it doesn't exist. Kind of like the third Anne of Green Gables miniseries where they abandoned the books entirely, sent Gilbert to Europe during the war, then had Anne following to play guerrilla when he was declared missing in action.

As I get ready to go to Comicon, however, I have learned by looking at their program guide that there is an update of Witch Mountain in the making called "Race to Witch Mountain." Well, it certainly isn't a unique observation that having heard somewhere that there are no new stories, Disney has abandoned even the pretense of trying and are just strip mining their existing intellectual property.

Race to Witch Mountain stars Dwayne Johnson aka "the Rock." Now, I have nothing against the Rock. (For one thing, when he's not calling himself "the Rock," he's perilously close to making the name "Dwayne" cool again.) I liked The Rundown, and Get Smart was reportedly not as stupid as it could have been. His other movies, however, seem to inhabit a certain level of predictable, not trying too hard, predictable, cute kids acting cutely, predictable-ness.

I am also still a little miffed that when I went to see Wall-E, Disney made me sit through an ad for something called Hollywood Chihuahua. Shudder.

In Which There are Sequined Happy Faces

And also Colin Firth.