Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

The next panel received a more excited response than was elicited for Dean Koontz (sorry, Dean). The fangirls and fanboys in the audience basically went wild when Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, and Tahmoh Penikett walked onstage to talk about their new TV series, Dollhouse, and to show clips from the upcoming mid-season FOX hour long drama. Tahmoh (aka Helo from Battlestar Galactica) was so excited himself that he took a couple photos of the crowd before sitting down.

Here’s the show description according to FOX:

Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

Sort of Quantum Leap meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m looking forward to it, despite my desire to smack Eliza throughout the panel because of her “everybody look at me, I’m the most beautiful and talented woman ever to walk the face of this earth and I know that all you geeks want me, but you’ll never have me…” attitude. Gagariffic, to say the least. I mean, take a look at this gratuitous hair flip:

Okay, she has dimples that don’t stop, I’ll give you that. But she was waaaay too touchy-feely on stage with Joss and Tahmoh for a Comic Con panel. At one point, she was talking about how she’d like to have Nathan Fillion (from Dr. Horrible) on the show, and then commented “I’d love to have a Nathan-Tahmoh sandwich…” To which Tahmoh responded “Helloooooo, Eliza!” and moved his chair closer to her. Joss looked pathetically at the crowd and said, “I’ll just be here.” (Everyone loves Joss.)

Also of note: during the Q&A, someone asked Tahmoh if Eliza’s spine glowed. The crowd, many of whom were surely prepping for the next-up Battlestar Galactica panel, roared with scandalous laughter. Everyone laughed except Eliza, and Tahmoh said to the crowd, “She won’t get that. But the answer is, I DON’T KNOW.” Then he leaned over and started whispering into Eliza’s ear… and she made a shocked “Oh my!” face when Tahmoh presumably explained the circumstances (read: sex with a cylon) that would allow him to discover whether or not her spine glowed.

Overall, I’m glad I attended that panel. It most certainly helped to know that I was guaranteed a really good seat for the frakkin’ Battlestar Galactica panel!

(To be continued…)

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.

My computer wasn’t cooperating with me last night, and I was more tired than the horde of people dressed as zombies walking up and down Fifth Avenue yesterday afternoon/evening, so I zonked out very quickly without blogging. And now it’s the last day of the con and I need to get going, so…

I spent 5 hours in the main Ballroom yesterday, not including wait time, and saw 5 panels from the 8th row: Futurama, Simpsons, Dean Koontz. Joss Whedon’s new Dollhouse, and Battlestar Galactica.

Liz and Josh didn’t make it there early enough to get in for Futurama or Simpsons, so they saw The Office panel where they scored 4 passes to a 7:30 sneak peak of Rainn Wilson’s new movie, The Rocker. We tagged along and saw the movie, which was introduced by Rainn Wilson who then did a Q&A after the movie and signed my seriously-I-know-it’s-dorky autograph book.

Lots of other people signed my autograph book the last couple days, well several anyway, and I’m heading to the con now to try to get some more. Except not Richard Dreyfuss because why the hell was he charging $20 for an autograph? Does he really need the frakking money?

(Continued from Comic Con Day 2 Recap, the Wil Wheaton Part)

After meeting Wil Wheaton, I relaxed a little but was still high on endorphins. I headed to my last panel of the day, “What’s Up with Penguin,” where publishing editors shared synopses and cover art for upcoming Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. I was reminded how cheesy some of the cover art for fantasy novels can look… there’s just something about a girl or woman in a semi-realistic pose (except for the unrealistic body proportions, of course) can remind me of the covers on YA books I used to read. (I always loved the Z for Zachariah cover, though). From the description, I thought that they were going to be giving away free advance reading copies to everyone in the panel, but only a few people received them from the drawing they held. I’m not a huge fantasy genre reader, but I was still bummed about not getting any free books from the panel after basically listening to an hour of advertising.

I met up again with Ben after the panel and we walked over to one of the Marriott hotel’s ballrooms where they have movie screenings until the wee hours of the morning. We caught the last half of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising which was good and funny in a cheesy way, especially if you’ve ever roleplayed. We finished the evening off by walking to the Horton Plaza with our friends Liz and Josh and having a delicious Mandarin Chinese late-night dinner at Panda Inn. The Plaza is like a big mall, but it’s open-air. Weird and cool. Outdoor escalators would never work in the seasonal climates that I prefer.

And now I’ve stayed up WAY too late writing to get anywhere close to a good night’s sleep. Will I make it to the 10:00am Futurama panel tomorrow? Who knows! Will I make it the Battlestar Galactica panel tomorrow afternoon, or will I choose the Fables panel instead, knowing that Bill Willingham has related swag to hand out?

Oh, I forgot to mention that while Ben and I were walking around, we passed through the autograph area and got Richard Hatch’s autograph in my Moleskine notebook. I’ve never had an autograph book before and I’m really not sure what to do with it. It seems really dorky to have an autograph book as an adult. Or maybe cosplay as an adult is dorkier? I’m sure that’s a matter of opinion.

With the discovery of some ice on Mars and all the potentially earth-like planets being discovered, somebody better start building a Battlestar with FTL capabilities.

(I’m hoping to score at least a sighting of the Battlestar Galactica cast this weekend at Comic Con.)

Have you seen these pictures of eleven of the coolest geeked-out cars ever made? They include:

1. Classic Battlestar Galactica Viper
2. VW Microbus Ball (does is actually work? Even if not, I think it’s hella awesome in terms of art)
3. Circuitboard-covered Sedan (Ben has an aging Saturn and enough crappy old circuit boards laying around to actually make this one)
4. Pyramid Car (doesn’t look particularly aerodynamic)
5. Pac-Man Race Car (the driver sits inside Pac-Man’s head! Don’t get me started on the woman in a bathing suit and heels standing next to the car in this photo)
6. Subaru Outback Ecto-1 (ZOMG! All-wheel drive Ghostbusters awesomeness! This would be the only reason for me to ever get a white car.)
7. Multi-colored 5 1/4-inch Floppy Disk-covered Honda Civic
8. USS Enterprise NCC-1701.7 Shuttlecar
9. Star Wars Landspeeder (can’t go back and erase the wheel shadow on this one, George)
   
10. Jawa Sandcrawler (Um, I don’t think this one’s even close to scale…)
11. X-Wing car (with R2-D2 in the back)

What I really want to see now is a track race with the Pac-Man car and four Ghost race cars chasing him… until the Pac-Man car catches the power pellet that’s speeding around in front of him (like the bunny in a greyhound coursing).

Then Pac-Man would spin around to chase Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde for a set period of time and when he overtakes one, the Ghost car would have to do a Drive of Shame back to its pit.

Fans would be outfitted with paint guns and instructed to colorize the overtaken Ghost car, which would then be washed off in the pit and resurrected into the race.

There would not be a “first to cross the finish line” goal. Scoring would consist of points for overtakes, drafting, driving style, and zealotry of paint gun-wielding fans. At the racetrack entrance, fans would have to declare whether they want to be Pac-Heads or Ghost-Heads for the day and sit in the appropriate stands.

To round out the racing teams, Pac-Heads would also be entitled to support race cars in the likeness of Ms. Pac-Man and characters from the early 1980s Hanna-Barbera cartoon series: Chomp-Chomp the dog and Sour Puss the cat. Don’t forget about Baby-Pac! He would be the adorable team mascot. On the Ghost side, the mascot would be the evil Mezmeron, leader of the ghosts from the cartoon series.

The only thing that would make this racing scenario cooler is if it were possible to screw with physics in some science-y way so that the race cars could drive off the East end of the track and instantly reappear on the West end (and vice-versa). And then maybe have a grand finale demolition derby. Yeah, I think that would score some serious green and some hardcore fandom.

Any other ideas to make this live-action Geek Race a valid sales pitch?