Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

It’s finally Sundance time, and I’m volunteering again this year. The 2009 Sundance Film Festival is now in session in several locations around Northern Utah. Most of the events are occurring in Park City, where I volunteered last year (at the Egyptian Theater). But I live closer to the Sundance Resort where it all started, and managed to snag a box office volunteer spot there. Yay!

Last week I went up there for training and orientation. I’d never visited the Screening Room before, but despite a major lack of signage, it wasn’t too hard to find. It’s a decently sized (but still cozy) theater with under 200 seats. I took the brief tour that was offered, and learned where Robert Redford sits if he chooses to visit. There’s actually a small section of seats that are reserved for “Mr. Redford or any of the Redfords,” so I guess the whole fam gets benefits. Makes sense.

A few minutes later, the group of volunteers was standing in the lobby listening to the theater manager’s spiel. Suddenly, there was a huge noise like what I imagine a pipe bomb sounds like when it goes off, immediately followed by the whole side of the building shaking and threatening to collapse and crush us all. I jumped with the crowd and moved away quickly from the shit-I’m-going-to-die area. Then an avalanche of snow tumbled over the side of the roof (which was visible because that side of the building is all glass or plexiglass) and landed with a muffled *slam* on the ground.

It was just snow. But if anyone had been standing in the particular area at that time, they would probably have needed some medical care. Yikes.

Back to the tour! I also learned that Glenn Close is on the board of directors and attends the festival every year, so the fact that I took her ticket last year at the Egyptian was not really that big of a deal since the odds were pretty good. I never finished the blog entry about that, but I pledge to be a better festival blogger this year.

You can get more juicy, up-to-the-minute Sundance blather on my Twitter feed that I’ll be updating from my phone.

The theater tour also included a brief visit to the projection room, where John the Projectionist told us that it was a very rare projection room because it actually contained equipment to show every type of film from 8mm to high-end digital (including 3D). I was impressed. Granted, I’ve had little exposure to projection rooms since high school. I asked John if I could snap a couple of photos, and he was even nice enough to pose for one!

Here’s one of the older projectors (there were three), with some artfully placed filmstrips. The tour had already moved on, so I didn’t have time to worry about photo composition.

And here’s the new Sony digital projector that sits front and center. The heavenly halo and singing angels surrounding it didn’t come out very well in the photo, so you’ll just have to imagine them.

And then after the tour I went home. I will take more photos and maybe I’ll even find a way to share some of them. I’ll be heading back to Sundance tomorrow morning immediately after my two morning classes, so watch that Twitter feed to find out if I’m caught in any Roof Avalanches. Though I’m guessing that I have a better chance of seeing Glenn Close again.

My recent daily blogging is caused in part by National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). It’s an alternative to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in that instead of attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, it encourages participants to post at least one blog entry each day of the month in November—or in any other month of the year.

I halfheartedly added my name to their blogroll for November, but I started late and didn’t follow through. Well, I started off December with a bang and I intend to keep up the daily blogging routine. It’s good for me, it’s good for you (assuming that you enjoy what I write), and now that I’m telling you about it, it’s good for NaBloPoMo.

Today’s happy surprise for me was to realize that my blog, this very one that you are reading, has been named NaBloPoMo’s Blog of the Week on their home page. I don’t know exactly what the requirements were for this honor to be bestowed on me, but I’m flattered and all giggly about it.

And because the monthly theme is THANKS, I feel that it’s appropriate to thank the person/people responsible for this honor. Thank you, NaBloPoMo!

Here’s my profile if you’re signed up and want to be my NaBloPoMo friend. Now that I’m all popular, etc.

I have a profile on NaNoWriMo, too, but after four years of participation that resulted in failure, I’m not sure that I’ll attempt it again. But who knows what will happen for me in 2009. Maybe I’ll get some other stuff published and fell up to the challenge again.

If you are not already a fan of Neil Gaiman, here is another reason why you should be: his recent blog post Why defend freedom of icky speech?

He gives an intelligent, easy to read, and in-depth response to a reader’s very valid question about why he supports the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund‘s (CBLDF) fight for Iowan comic collector Christopher Handley’s right to collect (what I personally find creepy and icky) lolicon manga.

Gaiman unequivocally supports our first ammendment right to Freedom of Speech, even when the content in question would probably disgust and mortify a large majority of the world’s population.

I grew up with a cursory appreciation of freedom of speech — censorship was something already in the history books for me, with an occasional current news story about another attempt at censorship by the Ridiculous Conservatives. I mean, I remember the 1999 uproar over Chris Ofili‘s artistic rendition of the Virgin Mary on a canvas embellished with elephant dung, but I wasn’t involved enough in politics of any sort to take sides when good ol’ Mayor Guiliani declared “There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects!”

Nearly ten years later, after realizing that some of the graphic novels I actually own have been affected by that gray mess of censorship in the past, I am ready to take a stance. I may not personally approve of the very ideas of fetishizing children, oppressing women, abusing drugs, senseless murder, or conservative religion, but I’m not going to prevent someone else from writing or talking about them or creating comics and art and movies about them.

Ideas themselves don’t actively cause harm, and drawing a line or making exceptions to the concept of Freedom of Speech defies its very purpose.

Gaiman sums up this reasoning quite nicely:

Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost.

Oh, Neil. Today I hate myself even more for not driving to Las Vegas to meet you.

How many times a week does your inbox flood with mail, and yet you’re disappointed and feel like none of it is worthwhile?

I’ve noticed this happening more and more with the dozens of emails I receive every day. I eagerly scan the incoming subject lines and who they’re from, and more often than not, I sigh and lean back in my chair because it’s all junk. Maybe junk I opted in for, or junk that I am sort of interested in but just not in the mood for at the time. In any case, I find that they mostly fall into one of these 5 categories:

1. Spam, spam, spam. It’s not even creative anymore. And those phishing attempts? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. But the fact that people are still bothering means that there are a few suckers out there keeping the needle in a haystack method attractive for unscrupulous folk.
2. Newsletters. Most of the time there’s a sale announcement or a coupon from stores/companies/organizations for which I am a patron, which is fine. But after a few newsletters, I usually realize that the content is the same and the email’s only worth opening if I have a specific need to purchase something. I probably subscribe to too many newsletters, but I have just enough interest in their content or products to put up with frequent emails.
3. Boring. Bills, statements, order information, automated notifications or confirmations. All that business-y types of stuff that is relevant, but not usually exciting.
4. Semi-interesting. These are usually emails that seem interesting upon first glance, but turn out to be forwards, rickrolls, or misleading subject lines. Or from an email group that sometimes has useful or interesting content.
5. Good stuff. Personal email from acquaintances, friends, fans, and family. These are always the first ones I open (even if I’m a horrible slacker and don’t respond as quickly as I intend to).

I think my inbox apathy really mirrors the allure of personal snail mail; The best kind of mail to receive has a familiar return address and your name hand-written on the front.

When’s the last time you sent a handwritten letter to someone? I sealed up a letter to my teenage cousin a couple hours ago and will send it out tomorrow. It definitely takes more time, thought, and effort to write a letter the old-fashioned way… but as a recipient, that’s what I value the most.

Ahoy, ye scallywags! It be the International Day of Talkin’ Like a Pirate.

In addition to the Pirate Keyboard I passed along ta ye last year, I want ta make it known that ye can start yer readin’ all manner of Pirate books fer free! It be a highly legal opportunity from me good friend, Google Books.

I say ye start wit’ Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island if ye haven’t read that one yet. Y’arrrr likely to find there be a pirate, or hundreds o’ pirates, in all he writes.

Aye, there be also a pirate, goes by the name o’ Hook, in the tale o’ Peter and Wendy by a landlubber named James Matthew Barrie. That’s a picture from the book ta yer left.

And there be Sir Walter Scott’s The Pirate: A Romance, tho’ that’s on me own list of books to read while at sea with a good, strong brew in my hand. Surely there be booty involved in that one.

And don’t ye be fergettin’ ’bout the tale of Blackbeard, the fearsome Pirate of Roanoke! A real life figure he was, not just a tale. Now thar was a pirate to behold. Why, he woulda takin’ the free Google Books and found a way to pirate them, of that ye can be sure!

There be another colored-bearded fellow by the name of Blue Beard, whose pirate tale (oft labeled a “fairy tale” fer some reason, tho’ I’m hard-pressed to be finded any fairies in such a tale of delightful pirate horror) was written by a Frenchman, Charles Perrault, but told fer many a year before that. Ye can read the English version of Blue Beard as recorded on paper by Andrew Lang on page 290 of ‘is Blue Fairy Book.  Pirates and fairies… arrrrr, what a strange combination that be!

May yer Talk Like a Pirate Day be well-researched and may yer life be full o’ many Pirate adventures. And treasure.

Don’t ye be fergettin’ the treasure!

Saturday morning continued in Ballroom 20 with Matt Groening and a bunch of producers on The Simpsons panel. They showed a rough cut of this fall’s Treehouse of Horror XIX, part of which is an homage to Peanuts with It’s a Great Pumpkin, Milhouse.

They answered a few audience questions, and a kid asked them where they got their ideas. A good question in the kid’s mind, I’m sure, but how exactly could they answer a generic question like that after 20 years on the air? After a couple “durrrrr…” moments, Matt Groening said with all seriousness, “Family Guy.” The audience definitely liked that answer.

After the Simpsons panel ended (10:45am), I started gathering my things to leave because there was a lot I wanted to do before the Battlestar Galactica panel at 2:15. The guy sitting to my right, who had actually fallen asleep during the Simpsons panel, told me I was crazy to give up my awesome seat. “You probably won’t even be able to get into the ballroom again,” he said.

I glanced at the stage, where people in Simpsons costumes were dancing only 7 rows away from me.

“Damn, he’s right,” I thought. And then I realized that dedicated con attendees not only get in line at 6am (like the woman sitting to my left), but basically camp out in seats all day to make sure that they have close-up view of the couple panels they might actually be interested in. Which would explain why the guy to my right fell asleep during the Simpsons panel… he was really just squatting for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse panel and then the sneak preview of FOX’s new TV show, Fringe.

So I decided to stick it out in the dark, huge ballroom through next two panels. At least the chairs were comfortable! I chatted with the woman sitting to my left, Devony, a San Diego native who tried to go to the con every year, and happily held her seat for her when she left to grab a snack and a bathroom break. She returned the favor during the Q&A half of the Dean Koontz panel.

Well, it wasn’t technically a panel – Dean Koontz took the podium and spoke about comic elements in his life and about the graphic novelization of his Odd Thomas character in “In Odd We Trust.” His nervous delivery was charming, and though I’ve never actually read any of his novels (I know, I know… but I’m just not naturally drawn to suspense novels just because they’re on the bestseller list… does anyone have a recommendation of which book of his I should start with?), his anecdotes and commentary on his life as an author were more universally interesting than I expected. This was his first comic con appearance.

(I showed that photo later in the evening to Ben, Liz and Josh. Their initial reaction was “Whoa! Check out the hair!” and then Josh made us laugh. “Look at him – he looks angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.” Then Josh made a funny face and said “DEAN KOONTZ SMASH!” and waved angry Hulk fists about. Tee hee!)

As I said, I skipped out during the Q&A session for a bathroom break, to eat a protein bar, and to pay the concessions stand far too much for a freakin’ Coke. While in line for my caffeinated beverage, I struck up a conversation with a small group chilling on the floor near me after one of the women told me she liked my “Geeks <3 Me” purse. (I love that it’s totally not weird to talk to strangers at the con… everyone’s there for their own geeked out reason, and chances are that you have at least one thing in common with most people.)

I asked them what time they’d acquired their purple Big Frakkin Bags from the SciFi Channel’s booth, since I’d unsuccessfully tried several times to get one for myself. (The SciFi Channel booth employees were  basically mobbed every time they emerged from their futuristic enclosed sculpture/booth thingy, and I think were a few trampling deaths among the mobbers.) One of the guys sitting on the floor said they just got lucky that morning with their timing, and we chatted about something-or-other for a minute. Then one of the women in the group pulled out an extra Big Frakkin Bag from her bag… and gave it to me!

… !

Thank you again, Linda, for that awesome random act of kindness. It made my day as a fangirl and as a person, gave me hope for the future of society, etc.

Next up: two more (very satisfying) panels in Ballroom 20.

(Continued from Comic Con Day 2 Recap, Part 1.)

From there, I went to the Dumbrella booth where Wil Wheaton was supposed to be signing autographs. I got there about 5:40, in plenty of time for his 5:30-6:30 signing, except I didn’t remember his Twitter post correctly because it was really 4:30-5:30. Crap! I got lucky, though, because around the back of the booth I spotted him (squee!) being interviewed. Not knowing how quickly he was going to run off afterwards, I stood back and took a photo.

As I waited like a real geek in my bold black and yellow Star Wars tee, I realized that the woman interviewing him was Leah from Mahalo Daily. Cool! The interview kept going, so I meandered around the adjacent booths pretending to be looking at their stuff when really I was just waiting in the wings to pounce on Wil when the taping stopped. I found an inconspicuous spot behind him so at least I wouldn’t look like a stalker. And then suddenly I realized that I may have been in the line of vision of the freakin’ Mahalo Daily camera… I bolted out of that as quickly as possible when I realized it. I was in no condition to have my disheveled and sweaty geek self recorded for all eternity on the internet, staring intently at the celebrity giving an interview I couldn’t even hear. Gah. Hopefully I didn’t actually make it into the footage.

[Edit: I'm in the shot from minute 6:28 until you see a brief look of terror and my quick departure at 6:49. I'm semi-fuzzy in the background, so thankfully I'm not as horrified after the fact.]

Anyway. The interview finally ended and they chatted off camera for a little while longer. Then, when the Mahalo Daily people turned away, two fanboys pounced on Wil before I could from my slightly more inconspicuous (really this time) spot. One guy invited Wil to his film screening, and the other just wanted to say hi after comfirming that he was the kid from Stand By Me.

“I’m a bigger fan,” I thought to myself, imagining scenarios in which I could shove the guys aside cartoon violence-style. “After all, I’ve read his books and I subscribe to his Twitter feed and his blog and I’m a fan of his writing, and he would appreciate that.” I thumbed my Moleskine notebook while talking to myself and then suddenly realized that the second guy was leaving. I started sweating nervous buckets when he glanced at me, possibly wondering if I was just going to follow him around all night being a creepy fangirl in the shadows.

“Hi,” I blurted in his direction. “I know you were signing autographs earlier, and I missed it…”

He interrupted me and caught me completely off guard by saying “Well, I’m still here, so it looks like you didn’t miss me.”

So I stammered out an autograph request that sounded so completely retarded out loud I thought he might just laugh nervously and run away. What exactly I said, I don’t remember, but he responded warmly and put me more at ease because he was just so approachable, which somehow turned right back around and made me nervous as hell.

I told him that I read his blog and he expressed surprising gratitude that made me just want to hug him. I had wanted to say how much I took from his journey to becoming a writer in Just a Geek, but it came out more generic. “You really inspire me as a writer,” or something. *facepalm* I told him that I was tickled that he was also inspired by David Sedaris (as he wrote about on his blog a few weeks ago).

The whole time that I blabbered on about this or that, he maintained a very engaged, steady eye contact. I was a little too nervous to maintain steady eye contact myself (which normally is no problem for me). He was really listening to me, which speaks volumes. I wish I’d dabbed off my sweaty glow before approaching him!

And then came the part that is still making my face flush. I had been holding my geeky business card while walking, and finally held it out to him. “Well, this is me, and I just want you to know that if I ever become a writer you should know that you inspired me.”

Wil graciously took the card from me and I thanked him again. I wanted to just reach out and hug him, but didn’t want to go that far and completely invade his personal space, so I just held out my hand for him to shake. He shook it with both hands, which surprised and delighted me. He expressed thanks with more sincerity than I think I did. I grinned and we parted ways, though I turned back after a couple steps and watched him walk away, not wanting to lose the moment but at the same time wanting to relax and return to my normal non-fangirl self.

Now I not only want to be a writer like Wil Wheaton. If I ever reach a celebrity position of any level, I also want to be gracious fan-friendly celebrity like Wil Wheaton.

We arrived at the convention center at the lazy noonish hour and hit the exhibit hall right away. It only took 5 minutes for Ben to tire of my distracted walking pattern and run off on his own. I enjoyed strolling around at my own pace, stopping to look at everything that interested me. Aside from the big booths (Marvel, DC, Hasbro, Lucasfilm, LEGO, Gentle Giant, etc.), here are a few that I liked and had snaggable websites (that are all safe for work):

gwinarmy.com Little vinyl Tux penguin shapes with fun paint jobs. Ben likes “Bunny” the best.

mistertoast.com I love the little original watercolor cards the creator and his wife (?) were selling. I’m going back to see if they found any with Inky the ink well that they could sell me tomorrow. Because, you know, I’m a writer and stuff. So it makes sense.

comicimages.com I snapped a great photo of employee Ken wearing his company’s Yoda backpack. It really felt like I was in Dagobah! (photo to follow)

mimobot.com Designer USB flash drives. Cool as shit and just as expensive. I want C3P0. It would also be cool if an audio clip of Threepio saying “Oh, hello” played upon the computer recognizing the drive.

chessex.com Dice, dice, dice! Lots of lovely dice! All shapes, sides, and sizes. Ben and I picked up a couple 30-sided dice (“Those will be great for playing Magic [the Gathering],” said my husband who didn’t think there’d be anything of much interest to him at Comic Con).

After walking around for a while and seeing some amazing costumes (I kept running into a very tall Ghost Rider (sans motorcycle) on the floor), I caught two interesting panels: “Science Fiction That Will Change Your Life,” sponsored by io9.com and “Spotlight on Bill Willingham” with Mark “Bucky” Buckingham.

The Sci-Fi panel was interesting and I hope that my new voice recorder caught all the titles that I’ve never heard of and need to read now. There were some interesting perspectives on the genre and people’s personal experiences with it. Also, I about died for Graeme McMillan’s Scottish accent. I mostly attended the panel so that I could squat a seat for the Willingham panel in the same room, but I’m very glad I went.

Fables was the first comic to really pull me into the genre of comics, and that’s because I have a thing for folklore and fairy tales. I love new takes on old tales, so Fables was thematically my cup of tea and I was pleasantly surprised to discover the wonderful writing and beautiful artwork in the comics. It turns out that one of my early loves, the Fractured Fairy Tales shorts from Rocky & Bullwinkle was also an inspiration to Bill Willingham and he’s a huge connoisseur of folklore and fairy tales, too. He talked about his start in comics writing/drawing and assured the crowd that Fables will not end at the conclusion of the big war story arc. I asked a question about in what format Bill provides his story to Mark, and Bill commented that it was a good question (squee!). Everyone in the audience received a one-page Fables comic on glossy cardstock with the tiny woodland creatures of Fabletown and it’s quite cute.

After the panel, I jetted to the DC/Vertigo booth to stand in line to have Bill and Mark sign my newly acquired one-page comic, as well as Bill’s old comic reprinted in graphic novel format, Pantheon. Haven’t checked it out yet. Special thanks to Catherine, a Batman-loving senior English major from SF State who was in line behind me and held my place while I ran to the hard-to-find booth that was selling those graphic novels. We had a very nice geek girl chat during our wait time, and she recommended the best Batman graphic novels that she’s read.  (I wonder if I choose the correct spelling of Catherine?)

Then I met up again with Ben and almost didn’t get into the “Comics Experience: How to Write a Pitch!” panel. Ben waited on the beautiful veranda while I got some good tips, and then we met up with Liz and Josh and had dinner at Karl Strauss Microbrewery. I’m not a huge beer drinker, but I highly recommend their signature Amber Ale. Liz and Josh do not recommend their Melon Martini.

That about sums up today. We came back to the hotel to relax and get to bed early… which turned into Ben zonking out quickly and me blogging into the almost-wee hours. Crap. I need to get some sleep because tomorrow will be a long day. Not sure if I’ll be able to blog about it but I’ll try.

I made them myself, can I have a cookie now?

Creating those little cards was a lot more work than I expected. Seriously, I am a writer who sometimes designs on a computer but rarely draws anything worth showing to anyone with decent eyesight. But I finally got them close to what I was envisioning, and that made the effort worthwhile. I can’t wait to hand them to people at Comic Con next week!

Here’s how I made the design:

1. Thought about what kind of business card would work well, and came up with the idea for a comic-style card.
2. Started drawing caricatures of myself. Some were really, really, horrible. I had to look up how to draw a female body because I wasn’t getting it right.
3. Finally figured out that I should draw the caricature elements separately, scan them, and then piece them together in Adobe Illustrator (CS1 that I got in my last year of college but never really learned how to use).
4. Hit the jackpot with Blambot.com, where I found some awesome free comic fonts (for Mac and PC) and pre-made dialogue balloons in .eps format. Perfect!
5. Swore a lot as I learned how to alter the Illustrator files to get the dialogue balloons in the size and shape I wanted.
6. Added the text (Blambot’s Anime Ace 2.0) and obsessed a little over the exact wording.
7. Tweaked and tweaked until Illustrator and Photoshop both worked together with me enough to get the final result you see above.

It’s not perfect, but I won’t be embarrassed to hand out that design. And there is probably a better way to do something like that… so if you have any suggestions for next time, please leave a comment. I’m not under any delusions that I would be able to illustrate my own graphic novel, but it would be nice to learn a little more about art ‘n stuff. I would like to write one someday (soon, maybe, with all this Comic Con inspiration).

Next on the agenda before Comic Con: packing and maybe finally getting around to updating my website?

I won an eBay auction for a 4-day pass to the San Diego Comic Con!

It wasn’t a stellar deal compared to the face value, but reasonable compared to what some people are currently willing to pay the evil scalpers. Oh, I’m sorry, I meant to call them “people who are unfortunately unable to attend the event due to a wedding/flaky friend/business trip.”

Now I’ve paid my money and I am waiting quite anxiously to hear back from the seller, who has to contact Comic Con to transfer the registration. I don’t think that I can handle another post-elation-let-down, so I hope that all goes smoothly and I don’t have to track down a dishonest eBay seller and unleash the Brute Squad upon him/her.  Not that I’m preparing myself for the worst or anything.

It looks like Ben and I will be leaving on Wednesday, but the return date is still a tiny bit up in the air. Do we stay an extra day (with added hotel expense) to go to Sea World? If the Padres were in town over the weekend, we would definitely go to a baseball game… but they won’t play a home game until the Tuesday after the con.  And spending six nights in San Diego is not an option for us this time around.

Sigh. When you have the time to do the things you want to do, you rarely have the money. When you’re making  money, you rarely have time to do the things you want to do.

And sometimes, when you’re making money, you preorder books on Amazon that finally ship out (and are charged to your credit card) when you’re laid off. But what’s thirty bucks when it comes to graphic novel deliciousness?

These are my favorite comics that I have been reading as they come out in graphic novel form. I am a sucker for almost any re-imagining of fairy tales and folklore, even if the story ends up not being as well-written as I’d hoped it would be (not the case for “Fables”). And what’s not to love about the post-apocolyptic scenario of one man left in the world? Whose name is Yorick? I’m also a sucker for characters whose names start with the letter Y. (Except for the reference to prostitutes named Yvette and Yvonne in the musical “Miss Saigon.” My high school theater friends got a good snicker out of that back in the day.)

I LOVE that the titles of Fables and (spin-off series) Jack of Fables are yin-yang: “The Good Prince” and “The Bad Prince,” respectively. I can’t wait to find out if there’s a reason for that in the storyline.

Oh hey, comics talk got my mind off Comic Con for a minute! Oh. But now I’m totally geeking out about it again because I remembered that “Fables” writer Bill Willingham will be one of the Special Guests! Officially on my list of things to do in the remaining 17 days until Comic Con: create three great questions that I would ask Mr. Willingham if I have the opportunity to meet him there. Because the last thing I want to do is to ask for his autograph and just stand there drooling geek-froth on him while he politely avoids eye contact.

One more thing before I end this undeniably pathetic written record of how much I need to get a life. I just found Bill Willingham’s website where he lists pieces of original artwork from his comics collection. Nothing there that I need to have, but it just reminded me of how quickly the San Diego trip could become a spendy adventure in Original Art Acquisition with a spin-off jaunt into Watching Ben Blow a Fuse as I try to convince him not to pass up the opportunity to purchase <one-of-a-kind-thing>.  Also officially on my list of things to do in the remaining 17 days until Comic Con: create a map of all microbreweries in San Diego for husband-bribery purposes.