since moving to california, attendance at said celebration has been high on my bucket list. not only have i considered myself a nerd, for, well, as long as i've had a concept of what a nerd is, but i also genuinely wondered what it would feel like to be among so many like-minded people. kind of like the olympics for nerds.
it was a miracle that i even managed to secure tickets. as i've previously mentioned, the tickets sold out almost immediately, and i consider it a testament to my nerdiness that i prevailed, since doing so required having multiple browser windows running with click through and copy/paste address bars simultaneously working hard to get me through to the 'purchase portal.' in fact, that alone earned me my right to be there.
my participation this year was intended to be a one time deal, but, what can i say? i drank the kool-aid, and the kool-aid was goooood.
i won't play-by-play the experience, but i will mention that i had done A LOT of research before making the southward journey. when you by your tickets, you have no idea who will be there or when, and in fact, the schedule is only released a couple of weeks before the event. it's a bit of a crap shoot, but i, being the planner i am, didn't want to leave anything to chance. i can't even begin to count the number of forums and websites i've visited or the people i talked to, and fortunately, the research paid off.
my #1 priority (after meeting nathan fillion and having him propose to me) was attending the firefly 10 year anniversary panel, and i was successful (on the panel, not the other thing)! there has been a lot of wonderful coverage about that panel (i've also got some video on my smugmug) and it was a really unexpectedly moving experience. my favorite encapsulation would be geek god joss' whedon's answer to an mtv reporters question: was there something extra special in the air for you this time around?
whedon: yeah there really was. i would describe it as 5,000 people all tearing up about the same thing at the same time. that's a little weird. one has fantasies of success but that isn't what it is, it's so intimate, that's a one-on-one, we had an entire hall full of people having a one-on-one experience, including us with each other. i looked over at nathan and i didn't know if i could look at nathan because i was getting too emotional
it was a genuine privilege to be in the same room as joss whedon and nathan fillion and to have that experience. it required a 4am wake-up call, waiting in line for 4 hours, sitting through two earlier panels (though one of them included joel mchale - so that was fine), and it was worth all of it.
now to the rest of the highlights!
favorite moments of the weekend, in quotes:
random guy on bus leaving a message on his own voice mail: “hello future self. this is a message to see if there is a cell connection. ps you're having a great time”.
me: words i never thought i'd say: i'll be on the lookout for tall skinny ghostbusters.
random guy in line to other random guy: you know how star wars is like a space samurai movie? that's kind of like how firefly is a space western.
random girl in line (in reference to 'community'): i love how we can refer to that as the first paintball episode.
joss whedon (answer to audience question: many of us in this room camped out last night to get into this panel. i wondered if you've ever camped out for anything?): yeah. camping.
astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson: pluto had it coming.
me: i feel like i'm in line with my high school drama department.
sam huntington (on sam witwer's character in being human): maybe aidan can flash back to pirate days and he can be a vampirate.
my friend jamie (during a discussion in a hot tub with two random guys about stan lee's recent penchant for hiring young pretty girls): so what you're saying is, stan lee is hugh hefner now?
and that is just a tiny sampling of the many overheard quotes and conversations that made me so happy. up next: the comic-con experience in photos!
No comments:
Post a Comment