The Convention Thread


dc20willsave

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Good news: I'm hosting a Podcasting Panel at this year's World Horror Convention at a prime time during the afternoon in a couple weeks!

Bad news: it's up against an Advice to New Writer's panel featuring Lois Gresch, Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, Lisa Morton and Weston Ochse. Though, we should be able to half fill the room on run-off from the people who can't get into that one.

Edit: so this happened.

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Currently sitting next to my gate in O'Hare waiting for my flight (which doesn't board for another 2 hours). Everything was amazing the weekend. Before I look at my credit card bill I just want to say I'd love to do it again sometime. But first sleep in my own bed.

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Not exactly a con, but I am going to Boston in two weeks. Basically driving to watch the Reds play in Fenway.

At the moment, outside of the baseball game, we have no idea what to do with ourselves. We have a little time to explore, but not much. Maybe 2ish hours before the game, after game and early the next morning before we leave. Very tight schedule due to being on a Tues-Wed. So what should we do? Also, any classic 'must go' food places would be nice to know.

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This was probably the most fun I have had at C2E2 since 2011 when we had our British Invasion. Here's the thing as well: this was probably the first year I have went to the con where it was secondary to hanging out. I usually found myself heading back around 4 to the hotel everyday mainly since I wanted to hang out with everyone. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy going to the con. This was probably the year where I think they finally nailed down the formula on what makes this con work. All of the panel rooms were roomy, the show floor was mostly well organized, and I loved the entire concept on the Fan Village. Previous years, the fan booths were kinda in a corner. This year, they put them in a separate room with a lounge area with board games to try out. My only complaint is that they took away the open gaming area they've had the last couple of years but otherwise, totally awesome.

I do believe it is ideal to get in on Wednesday if you're doing the con. Getting in on Wednesday gives you Thursday to relax/do anything non-con related. While the ball game itself was pretty average, it was still a fun experience and is encouraged for anyone next year. This was also the first year where I was pretty happy with everyplace we ate. Usually we get someplace overpriced with crappy/disgusting meals. Everyplace was delicious with reasonable prices. It's actually going to be hard deciding where to eat next year.

The one thing: After Dan and Wendee's less than ideal experience with their room and some hiccups with badly marked policies, I might seriously consider other hotels next year. I mean, its the best hotel we really get for the price up to this point but still. Something for consideration.

Hannah, it was great as always hanging out with you and congrats on your first experience with cosplay going swimmingly. Kellen, glad we got everything worked out and sorry we never got to watch any of the DVDs you brought. Chris, thanks for coming out to hang when you could and sorry you had so many projects to work on prior. Dan, great to meet you and I'm glad that I didn't get beat up in the process. Wendee, great to meet you as well and you definitely get the best dressed award for every day, hands down. James, your facial reactions to some of the movies we watched makes me wish the Tirades were a visual medium and also great to meet you. Mike, as always, thank you for putting together this site that we all enjoy so much and hanging with you is always awesome. I hope you all can make it next year.

Swag this year includes:

  • A bunch of free novels from Penguin and Del Ray
  • X-Factor Visionaries Peter David, Vol. 2
  • Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
  • Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
  • Marvel Essentials: Marvel Two in One presents The Thing Vol. 1
  • The Sensational She-Hulk by John Bryne vol. 1
  • Impossible Man TPB
  • The Spectacular Spider-girl Vol. 1: Who Killed Gwen Riley
  • Dave Backpack (Which, funny story, I bought because I needed an extra bag to take crap back in and then got assaulted with free bags and totes)
  • Mayor of Can Town shirt

Overall, a fun year. Note kids, next years date has already been set (April 24-26th, 2015) so start planning now. Remember that we have the 10th year of Earth-2.net The Show to celebrate!

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I can attest to the beauty of James' faces he makes while watching awful movies. Behold:

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And agreed with Will; the con was fun and everything, but man, hanging out with you guys was the best part of this weekend. I think bad movie night needs to continue; us watching Warriors of the Wasteland was honestly one of the best times I've had with you all. It was great to meet James and Dan and Wendee in the flesh for the first time, and great as always to see Chris, Will, Kellen, and Matt. You all continue to be excellent human beings.

We do have it down to a formula now, for arrivals and departures; I may be using more of my vacation time to make it a full week in Chicago next year, because of the amount of people I have down there. And agreed that the con felt like it got it perfect this year; let's hope they keep it like this for the next year.

I'd be cool with looking at another hotel for next year. The Essex is still out for me, based on past experience, but depending on the price, I'm willing to put down more for somewhere new. What was the range of the other hotels that were offered in the block?

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We flew in on Friday afternoon, too late to do anything at the con other than say hello to everyone and then collapse after eight-plus hours of travel. Friday was the night I promised Wendee we'd have a night out, and we went to Alhambra Palace on South Randolph. I'm not normally a huge fan of Middle Eastern food, but this was phenomenal. Simple food, lightly seasoned, cooked well.

We had what the Best Western refers to as "The Executive Suite", meaning there was a couch in an alcove. It was bigger than the standard room, so we invited everyone to bring their Cards Against Humanity game down, where hopefully everyone was a little more comfortable.

Saturday was spent at con. I was surprised at how little of what I intended to do actually got done; I walked in with four or five panels on my agenda, but I only attended one all day, the Geek Geek Revolution trivia game hosted by John Scalzi, which was a lot of fun. Otherwise, it was really just a lot of wandering the show floor and people watching. The bad movie night afterwards was fucking amazing, and any movie where the bad guy gets raped to death by a Pop-O-Matic car is going to enter my regular rotation.

Sunday I attended the Stan Lee panel, which was exactly what I expected - he took Q&A, and there was roughly a 30% chance that his answer would actually have anything to do with the question asked; otherwise it was just the same stories he's been telling for fifty years. Tremendously entertaining, however, all the same. While I did that, Wendee stood in line so that I could get his autograph, because she is fucking amazing. I got him to sign my copy of Tales of Suspense #67:

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After that we crashed in a few chairs and hung out with the Earth-2 people before everyone else had to go. Then I did my only shopping of the entire con; I spent remarkably little time looking at merch, and only bought two things all show: The Superman Chronicles Vol.1 (reprinting the Superman stories from Action Comics #1-13 with a couple of odds and ends thrown in) and The Best of the Fantastic Four hardcover. I intended to only do real shopping on Sunday, when the prices get slashed, but did not seriously expect to be able to hold myself to that. Yay maturity!

After that, we were DONE. It was all we could do to drag ourselves back to the hotel and relax. I was talked into walking to Harold's to pick up dinner, and it was totally worth it, but I pretty much slept while I ate it. We didn't go home until Monday, which was a good call; it gave us time to decompress from the con before throwing ourselves into travel mode.

We did not love the hotel. It was perfectly adequate and you couldn't beat the price, but when we moved furniture around to make room for everyone we found that someone had gotten sick behind the couch. It had obviously been there for quite some time. The manager on duty made things right by comping our breakfast for two days and then knocking some money off our bill, it was cleaned up by the time we came back from the show, and she was appropriately mortified, but even not counting that, the room was not awesome. As I recall, the hotel next up on the expense curve was significantly pricier, so if we came back, we'd have to think about that.

However, as Will said, the show was secondary; the real pleasure was in spending time with so many people I've gotten to know over the years here. Will, Hannah, Kellen, James, Chris, it was really fantastic to finally get to meet you face to face. And Mike, of course, it was wonderful to see you again. We should just take a weekend sometime and meet up in an offseason.

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Not exactly a con, but I am going to Boston in two weeks. Basically driving to watch the Reds play in Fenway.

At the moment, outside of the baseball game, we have no idea what to do with ourselves. We have a little time to explore, but not much. Maybe 2ish hours before the game, after game and early the next morning before we leave. Very tight schedule due to being on a Tues-Wed. So what should we do? Also, any classic 'must go' food places would be nice to know.

If you plan on sticking near the ballpark, there's not a lot. The neighborhood has gotten very touristy in the past ten years and all the interesting restaurants are gone. There's a sausage vendor (called "The Sausage Guy", because we're pithy like that) who makes amazing ballpark food. If you like Mexican, El Pelon Tacqueria is absolutely incredible. The Sam Adams Brewery has a pretty good burger, but you go there for the beer.

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We should just take a weekend sometime and meet up in an offseason.

Wizard World Chicago it is when there's nothing whatsoever to do other than hang out in a hotel.

In all seriousness, this is a fantastic idea. .. unless you meant just for you and Mike to be the Wonder Twins or something in which case, I thumb my nose at you.

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We should just take a weekend sometime and meet up in an offseason.

Wizard World Chicago it is when there's nothing whatsoever to do other than hang out in a hotel.

In all seriousness, this is a fantastic idea. .. unless you meant just for you and Mike to be the Wonder Twins or something in which case, I thumb my nose at you.

No, that was directed at everyone. Just a weekend at some central easily gotten to location for a couple of days to hang out.

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One more thing I forgot to mention: I was amazed at the diversity on display at this convention. I've gotten used to going onto a show floor and seeing a roomful of people who look a lot like me. But this time, If the gender balance wasn't 50-50, it was near enough as to be unnoticeable, and the percentage of people I saw who weren't white guys was much, much higher than at ANY show I've ever been to. It was really wonderful to see.

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When I get home from work, if no one has started a thread, I'll create one to bounce ideas on location/time. I would suggest someplace with a major airport. Chicago is always a good location though Atlanta or even Boston could work. We'll talk it out. I still have plenty of unused vacation for this year so I can definitely block off a few days.

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If you plan on sticking near the ballpark, there's not a lot. The neighborhood has gotten very touristy in the past ten years and all the interesting restaurants are gone. There's a sausage vendor (called "The Sausage Guy", because we're pithy like that) who makes amazing ballpark food. If you like Mexican, El Pelon Tacqueria is absolutely incredible. The Sam Adams Brewery has a pretty good burger, but you go there for the beer.

Sticking near the ballpark is not really an issue. Go nuts and name anything. Looking for something that is 'Boston'.

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Looking for something that is 'Boston'.

The Union Oyster House is the oldest working restaurant in the USA. Terrific seafood. Legal Sea Food is very popular and probably has the best chowder you'll ever have.

Pizzeria Regina is the local pizza joint, specializing in thin crust Neapolitan. There are locations all over town, but the North End (Boston's Little Italy) is the flagship, after which you can walk in virtually any direction and get unbelievable cannoli or tiramisu.

Kelly's Roast Beef is a local landmark. The food is okay.

Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Square is an incredibly famous burger restaurant; the walls are choked with pictures of famous people eating their food. Johnny Cash always ate at the same seat every time he was in town, and there's a little plaque on it. They are a little weird (you sit wherever they tell you to, almost certainly with strangers, and they only accept cash), and it's always very crowded, but the burgers are absolutely fucking incredible.

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