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Conventions
Remember the Stargate #DragonCon panel I posted about yesterday…?
Sep 4th
It seems Kaleb took video of my hard hitting question.
My Question at the #DragonCon 2011 Stargate SG-1 Panel
Sep 3rd
My question was regarding the fact that I had recently seen Richard Dean Anderson do a Zaxby’s commercial… and I inquired what their favorite fast food restaurants were.
The question worked to spark a conversation that went MUCH longer than it should have. The audience loved it, though.
Answers:
C. Nemic – Popeye’s Chicken
M. Gero – McDonalds
J. de Lancie – (refused to answer… LOL)
C. Judge – Taco Bell (because, according to him, he loves a good fart joke)
B. Browder – Ben said it is based on region; West Coast = In and Out Burger; East Coast = Chic-Fil-A (smart answer!)
The Edward James Olmos Battlestar Galactica Trader Vic’s @JoeySnackpants at #DragonCon 2011 story…
Sep 3rd
In order get the full impact of this story you need a little history. First off, Edward James Olmos made this comment about seven years ago…
“I’m going to be the first one to say it really clearly, ‘Please tell your readers, do not watch this program.’ … If you are a real, real staunch ‘Battlestar Galactica’ person, please don’t watch it.” - Edward James Olmos, who plays Commander Adama in “Battlestar Galactica,” to the Television Critics Association in July 2003
That statement made for a way for my pal Joey Snackpants to avoid watching the new series when it aired. He LOVES old school classic science fiction and the original BSG ranks up there with some the greatest fun filled TV of the late seventies and early eighties. When the new series was wrapping up a couple of years ago and its popularity was at a peak, Joey enjoyed jumping into BSG conversations at conventions and pointing out that the ONLY reason he never watched the show was because Edward James Olmos told him not to.
Now, I watched the show at the urging of Jason Dorough and LOVED IT. As a fan, I have regularly encouraged Mr. Snackpants to dedicate some time to give it a chance. His response was the same canned answer about the Edward James Olmos quote… but it eventually became “I’ll only watch it if Edward James Olmos tells me to!”
Flash forward to last night. Each year at Dragon*Con there is a tradition of getting dinner and drinks at Trader Vic’s in the Hilton with my friends. This year, when we were seated, I noticed someone sitting at the table near us:
Yup. That’s Mr. Olmos and Julie Caitlin Brown at the table behind us.
Seeing an opportunity to force Joey to spend about $150 against his will, I began plotting a way to make a moment happen. A few Mai Tais later, I flagged down their server and paid their bill. (It wasn’t until later that we discovered that the server didn’t know who either person at the table was… until we mentioned Selena.)
It worked.
Showing true class, Mr. Olmos and Ms. Brown came to table and shook hands and thanked everyone at our table. I explained to Edward that I was a fan of his work and appreciated him coming over. I then told him the story of Joey’s refusal to watch the show (thus putting Joey, sitting to my right, completely on the spot.)
Edward James Olmos spent about ten minutes pitching Joey Snackpants to watch the new Battlestar Galactica.
Thus, per his own request, Edward James Olmos has now personally TOLD Joey Snackpants to WATCH the new Battlestar Galactica. He has committed to do so.
Yup, It’s Dragon*Con people. 
Thought for the night regarding the #BotCon staff & fans returning to my blog…
Aug 25th
You know, if BotCon truly is such a GREAT convention AND you think that the review from Joey Snackpants and I penned was wrong because we “didn’t spend enough time” there – wouldn’t it make sense to want us to come back and experience it again to see if we were wrong and write a follow up? Or does the show really just fail that badly that you’re afraid of what we’d notice the second time around?
It makes for some fun reading. For now, though, I’m going to bed… and yes: Beast Wars stills sucks.
The Silence Before The Storm (@Dragon_Con, @AWAcon & @FLSuperCon)
Aug 20th
The beginning of August was pretty damn busy. Wasabi Anime made an amazing appearance at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana. The rest of the month, though, has been (happily) convention free.
Sometimes staying at home CAN be a vacation.
Next month seems to be stacking up fairly fast. My weekends in September are starting look like this:
- Atlanta
- home
- Atlanta
- Miami
October may be limited to a weekend in Miami… November might be Las Vegas… and after that? Who knows.
In other news, the Bot-tards are still stalking my blog. Check it out here. Joey Snackpants and I are discussing the possibility of going back to BotFAIL next year in California to write a follow up for You Bent My Wookie. We’re even talking about spending the money on the insane top tier level tickets JUST to do a complete comparison and between how people are treated at the show when they are considered the “1337″ and how people are treated as general attendees (which we learned the hard way in Orlando.)
Thoughts?
As #GenCon Draws to a close…
Aug 8th
This weekend was an epic undertaking. Kudos to the team from Wasabi Anime and the Mint Chocolate Chippies for some outstanding work these past four days. Also, a big congrats to the folks at Cosplay Deviants for hosting a couple of tremendously successful events over the last two evenings.
There was a lot of good that happened at Gen Con. It was marred by (unfortunately) a lot of bad at the event that was, for the most part, kept “behind the curtain.” I’m thrilled to see so many of my friend and the team had a great time, but due to the circumstances that took place over the weekend I feel a little gypped out of what could have been some fun a renewed interest in a old hobby. It would have been nice to have fun at the convention beyond my one stint in a Battletech game.
</emo>
There’s still an afternoon of work to get done here and then back to the land of humidity.
So How Did My First Day of #GenCon Go? Read on…
Aug 6th
This weekend I am in Indianapolis, Indiana in an attempt to take Shannon to one more city we have never been to so she can buy another Hard Rock Cafe teddy bear, thus bringing the collection to 24 bears.
Oh yeah, and there’s some sort of gaming convention going on here, too.
Wasabi Anime is at Gen Con, the LARGEST GAMING CONVENTION EVER, hosting anime events. (click here.)
I’m not going to lie; I was a little nervous about doing this. Anime at a table top gaming show? Would we get pelted with dice by pissed off fanboys angered by my team and I infecting their weekend with Japanese cartoon stuff? I kept a green D20 in my pocket… just in case.
All my fears were laid to rest, though, after yesterday.
Twitter has been a great tool for us this weekend. As a matter of fact, Joey Snackpants went to a local pub named Scotty’s Brewhouse wearing his Wasabi Anime shirt, and one of the restaurant staff recognized him from being part of Wasabi Anime via Twitter. Ah – this Interwebz.
On a side note: Joey said the Brewhouse did a KICK ASS job catering to the local Gen Con folks. If you read this and are at Gen Con this weekend – you should most definitely check them out.
Speaking of Twitter, we did DARE! The Transformers Panel Ultimate to a room full of Transformers fans. I explained, in detail, why Beast Wars sucks and the audience agreed. (We have since had folks chanting “Beast Wars Sucks!” when they see us in the hallways.) Then Joey and I saw this post on Twitter…
Enjoyed @WasabiAnime ‘s #Transformers seminar at #gencon. If not for my bum foot, would have loved a 3 hour by them.
It’s good to read that the local gamers are digging our material.
We hosted Grand Theft Anime later in the evening. I can’t remember the last time we performed that particular game show at a convention, but MAN that game is fun. The audience loved it. The odd part (for us at least) was the fact that the contestants were able to answer more of the anime trivia questions than folks at anime conventions usually do. It was crazy, strange and awesome at the same time.
The highlight of yesterday, though, was Mystery Anime Theater 3000. Joey Snackpants and I left our hotel to go to the panel (which would involve us lovingly ripping into the Sailor Moon R movie). Our expectation was to share some jokes with a couple of dozen Moonies who would stop by for a couple of chuckles.
We were both VERY shocked to see the line out front of the panel room when we got there and the realized that they are there for Wasabi Anime. Many of the faces seemed familiar from earlier in the day and, it seemed, we had already started building a local fan base at the show. By the time we started the movie, the room was STANDING ROOM ONLY. The audience was involved, laughing and all had a great time with us.
As a lot of my staff know, I haven’t been into table top gaming since my late teens – so when the Gen Con opportunity presented itself, I was on the fence about accepting it and coming. The amazing feedback and warm welcomes we received from the Gen Con attendees, though, have quickly turned this Florida geek into a Gen Con fanboy.
Now on to day two…
