04-25-2017, 02:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-25-2017, 02:44 PM by Drunk Monk.)
I hustled a press pass again, for me and my daughter, who joined me on Sunday.
Unlike last year, when I had the Darth Maul mission, I had no target interview, no real reason to attend. I reached out to Pam Grier because I was a fan of her early blaxploitation films and she's in a new videogame Shaolin Shuffle, a Call of Duty zombie co-op game. I sent her agent an interview request but never heard back. I was hoping for a face-to-face, not having to drop $30 for a selfie or an autograph (that was her asking price). SVCC is a little odd about reaching talent. Talent is all private contracts so they don't arrange any interview connections. I can imagine that would be quite the Pandora's box.
I got there Friday after work. It's so much bigger now. Not only does it take up the entire SJ convention center, it now encompasses all of Plaza de Cesar Chavez and the SJ National Civic Center. South Hall, where we hold our entire TCEC event, is just for attendee wristband pick up. Press picks up passes elsewhere. Parking was a bitch but after a few Friday-after-work frustrated loops, I lucked out and found street parking. Then I met up with one of my stalwart partners-in-crime and JNK-member, Carlos. We walked all the aisles in search of mischief. There were a lot of sword booths - 4 or 5 - mostly fantasy stuff but some had some top shelf Hanwei stuff and Dragonsong Forge was there from Florida. I was all set to buy a butterfly-knife-bottle opener (had my eye on one since I saw at WonderCon in 2011 after my date with Saoirse Ronan). But the dealer was an asshole. He kept his knives under a thick sheet of clear plastic and wouldn't let you handle them to check the action - you could only buy them. So next time.
The Woz invited press to a pre-party at the Glasshouse up the street. Not sure what that was all about exactly, but I dragged Carlos along with the promise of snacks. Yeah, there were hor d'oeuvres, plenty of them and really tasty ones. There was also an open bar. There was some distillery that was showcasing its whiskey and tequila. Cute waitresses were walking about with pill-cup sized shots. But we went straight to the bar and upon learning of the distillery, Carlos asked for a flight. We charmed the bartender with a fat tip and the next thing you know, we had three cups of whiskey. She said she was required to add an ice cube so it wasn't technically a 'shot' but we're talking well over a finger in a coffee-cup sized cup and a tiny concave cube that melted almost instantly. There were two horrid ones, apple and pear flavored, and one straight bourbon which wasn't bad. Carlos went back for a flight of tequila as he is a connoisseur, but I abstained knowing te-kill-ya is DM kryptonite and the gateway to kareoke. Or worse. So I asked for more whiskey. I got a half cup. There were things to check out, some droids, a video memento machine that never emailed me the vid like promised (maybe I keyed my email in wrong as I was pretty deep in the whiskey), vintage videogames (Carlos humiliated himself at Donkey Kong but still beat a drunker press person), and lots and lots of snacks. After we had consumed our fill, we wandered back to the plaza to check out the PS4 trailer, and then stumbled across free pizza as one of the food trucks was closing shop and getting rid of its overage. Amazing pizza - honey sesame sundried tomato and gourmet cheese...can't remember the name of the distillery or the pizza truck. It was a great start for SVCC 2.0.
Unlike last year, when I had the Darth Maul mission, I had no target interview, no real reason to attend. I reached out to Pam Grier because I was a fan of her early blaxploitation films and she's in a new videogame Shaolin Shuffle, a Call of Duty zombie co-op game. I sent her agent an interview request but never heard back. I was hoping for a face-to-face, not having to drop $30 for a selfie or an autograph (that was her asking price). SVCC is a little odd about reaching talent. Talent is all private contracts so they don't arrange any interview connections. I can imagine that would be quite the Pandora's box.
I got there Friday after work. It's so much bigger now. Not only does it take up the entire SJ convention center, it now encompasses all of Plaza de Cesar Chavez and the SJ National Civic Center. South Hall, where we hold our entire TCEC event, is just for attendee wristband pick up. Press picks up passes elsewhere. Parking was a bitch but after a few Friday-after-work frustrated loops, I lucked out and found street parking. Then I met up with one of my stalwart partners-in-crime and JNK-member, Carlos. We walked all the aisles in search of mischief. There were a lot of sword booths - 4 or 5 - mostly fantasy stuff but some had some top shelf Hanwei stuff and Dragonsong Forge was there from Florida. I was all set to buy a butterfly-knife-bottle opener (had my eye on one since I saw at WonderCon in 2011 after my date with Saoirse Ronan). But the dealer was an asshole. He kept his knives under a thick sheet of clear plastic and wouldn't let you handle them to check the action - you could only buy them. So next time.
The Woz invited press to a pre-party at the Glasshouse up the street. Not sure what that was all about exactly, but I dragged Carlos along with the promise of snacks. Yeah, there were hor d'oeuvres, plenty of them and really tasty ones. There was also an open bar. There was some distillery that was showcasing its whiskey and tequila. Cute waitresses were walking about with pill-cup sized shots. But we went straight to the bar and upon learning of the distillery, Carlos asked for a flight. We charmed the bartender with a fat tip and the next thing you know, we had three cups of whiskey. She said she was required to add an ice cube so it wasn't technically a 'shot' but we're talking well over a finger in a coffee-cup sized cup and a tiny concave cube that melted almost instantly. There were two horrid ones, apple and pear flavored, and one straight bourbon which wasn't bad. Carlos went back for a flight of tequila as he is a connoisseur, but I abstained knowing te-kill-ya is DM kryptonite and the gateway to kareoke. Or worse. So I asked for more whiskey. I got a half cup. There were things to check out, some droids, a video memento machine that never emailed me the vid like promised (maybe I keyed my email in wrong as I was pretty deep in the whiskey), vintage videogames (Carlos humiliated himself at Donkey Kong but still beat a drunker press person), and lots and lots of snacks. After we had consumed our fill, we wandered back to the plaza to check out the PS4 trailer, and then stumbled across free pizza as one of the food trucks was closing shop and getting rid of its overage. Amazing pizza - honey sesame sundried tomato and gourmet cheese...can't remember the name of the distillery or the pizza truck. It was a great start for SVCC 2.0.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse