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http://adgy.livejournal.com/689391.html Yes, friends I am back from San Diego Comic Con and, for the most part, alive and well. Still tired as fuck. I just spent the last couple of hours doing my best to skim through my friends list, but skip=950 only got me back to Monday (NOTE: I started this entry two days ago, on July 30th), even with a filter on, so if I missed anything of note, please do not hesitate to inform me in a comment or email.
Now.
Rather than attempt some kind of glorious and amazing actual write-up of SDCC '08, I will instead give you random thoughts related to it. This will save time. I may or may not even come back to this entry and add things as I remember them in the next couple of days or so. That might be kind of lame, but probably not as lame as doing a whole 'nother entry to mention one small thing I remembered late. These are in no particular order.
• First off, my traveling companions were Nick (</a></b></a>![[info]](http://www.lostjournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) captainioga) and Kyle (</a></b></a>erschlagener). I'm going to refer to them by their actual names in order to save on keystrokes.
• This year was the 10th year for Ric Meyer's Kung Fu Extravaganza, which is a Thursday night deal where Ric Meyers gets up and shows clips from kung fu films from the past year and usually has a guest or two. For the 10th Anniversary, Meyers was able to get permission from many different distribution companies to show clips and so did what was advertised as the "best kung fu scenes ever".
This was nice because the last couple of years, he's been somewhat beholden to Tai Seng Films. They paid for him to be out there and he was pretty much stuck showcasing their releases. And it sucked. Also, I know that last year Dragon Dynasty actually turned him down when he asked to show clips from some of their movies. Not so this year.
I don't think the clips he showed were actually what he would choose to be the best kung fu fight scenes of all time, necessarily. He started the bit off by saying he wasn't going to show any Bruce Lee because everyone knew and loved Bruce Lee and had seen all of his movies, so why bother? He showed some old Master Lau stuff, an Angela Mao clip from a movie whose name I can't recall, but hasn't been released on DVD (like WAY TOO MANY OF HER MOVIES), and a scene from Magnificent Butcher by Yuen Woo Ping. This was all awesome and I'd only ever seen Magnificent Butcher. It's made me want to start getting my hands on all these Shaw Brothers films that have been getting DVD releases the last couple of years.
Then he moved onto the newer material. I'm very pleased that he showed both the big fight sequence in the mall at the end of Police Story AND the big fight scene at the end of Drunken Master 2 for the Jackie Chan bits. And for Jet Li he showed the fight at the end of Fist Of Legend. Unfortunately, the clips for both Drunken Master 2 and Fist Of Legend were from the horrible, Miramax/Weinstein dubbed DVDs, but since there is very little dialogue, it was bearable. He also showed a scene from Yuen Woo Ping's TV series Tai-Chi Master (not to be confused with the film starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, also directed by Woo Ping), starring Jackie Wu and the big fight scene at the end of Flash Point, starring Donnie Yen and Colin Chou. All very good choices (though I was expecting something from SPL/Kill Zone and some mention of Tony Jaa).
Before starting with the "best fight scenes of all time", he had a few guests, including the director and star of Kiltro, a kung fu film from Chile, currently out on DVD from Magnolia.
Looked like it might be pretty good, if low budget. During his discussion with them, he also mentioned that their newest film, Mirage Man was probably going to be getting some theatrical dates in the US, which is great news.
I'm doing this backwards, but before talking to the Kiltro guys and showing clips, he brought up some of the people behind "the best American kung fu movie ever made" -- Kung Fu Panda. At first, I was like "whut?", but after thinking about it... you know, he's probably right. And after his talk with some of the people behind it (the people involved with the kung fu aspects), I decided I liked the film even more than after I saw it.
He also spent a lot of time talking shit about The Forbidden Kingdom, which was funny, right and sorely needed. The epic fail of that movie... man, don't get me started.
Meyers ended the Extravaganza by saying that this may be the last one he does, as there aren't many kung fu films being made anymore. Conditions in Hong Kong are not what they once were and making good movies (not just kung fu ones) is very difficult. So we'll see.
• Half off trade paperback tables are EVIL. The majority of the money I spent went there. Picked up all but one of the Lucifer trades (and can now sell off the individual issues), all of Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman trades (his run actually made me a fan of the character, whereas I didn't care about her at all before), and plenty of other assorted hunks of colored paper.
• Kyle and I shared an elevator with Benicio Del Toro in the hotel at one point. Dude is tall.
• This is the first time in four years of going to SDCC where the hotel Nick and I stayed at was within walking distance of the Con. Having your hotel nearby is, I have to say, simply the most amazing thing on earth. WELL worth the extra money. Not having to drive, find parking and carry everything you buy around with you is HEAVEN. Add to that the fact that you can sleep in later, go back to the hotel and take a nap anytime you want or use it as a meeting place makes it not only HEAVEN, but God's Own Favorite Thing He Created.
• I took very few pictures, but the ones I did take, I will post in a separate entry later on. Both Nick and Kyle took a bajillion pictures of cosplayers, so I'll just link to their shit when I notice that they're up. Someone else has a really large gallery here.
• Before leaving for SDCC on Wednesday, Nick, Kyle and I went out to Los Angeles for this:
Which was totally fucking groovy. Bought a copy of the Region 1 Spaced box set for The Lady and had it signed by the three of them. Got my picture taken with Simon Pegg and then with Kevin Smith (to be posted later). Edgar Wright complimented me on my Heroic Trio t-shirt and I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to see Hard-Boiled on the big screen last year.
• There were/are too many fucking people at Comic Con. Not only was the movie/tv area of the exhibit hall a constant jam of other people's bodies being too close to yours, but there were a good number of panels that we were not able to get into because arriving half an hour beforehand wasn't early enough. It was seriously insane. Even moreso than in previous years.
• I didn't go to the Battlestar Galactica panel because it was scheduled for the exact same time as the Grant Morrison & Gerard Way panel. I didn't realize who Gerard Way was until he came onstage. It's probably a good thing I went to that instead, regardless, because I wanted to go the panel before Grant and Gerard that was in the same room and if I'd have left to try and get to the BSG panel, I bet it would have been full before I could have gotten to it.
Anyway, Grant Morrison is a personal hero of mine and him talking somewhere will trump just about anything else happening at Comic Con at any time. As for Gerard Way... I have to admit that he was actually pretty awesome. I don't care for his band (My Chemical Romance) much at all, from the one or two songs I've heard, but he was a funny, intelligent guy talking with Grant. Supposedly, his comic book, The Umbrella Academy is very good. It even won an Eisner.
The discussion itself was very enjoyable, and there was one moment when Grant was talking about how "you are the only you that has ever existed" that was one of those life affirming, goddamn I love this man, he's so fucking awesome moments. Reminded me of the panel he did with Deepak Chopra last year (it was last year, right?) which was like that except I got that feeling frequently, rather than just once. Grant and Chopra did a panel again this year, but I had to miss it because Kyle and I were on our way out of San Diego. I'm sure it'll show up on YouTube if it hasn't already. EDIT: Boo-yah.
• In addition to being incredibly cool, awesome and smart, Grant Morrison is the snappiest dresser I've ever physically laid eyes on and he's also very good looking. In that "I almost wish i was gay or bisexual because I feel like I'm missing out on the lust portion of my infatuation" kinda way. Did I ever post the picture of me and Grant that I got last year? Maybe I'll post it when I get around to the picture posting.
• Apparently, Michelle Yeoh showed up to promote The Mummy 3! I had originally planned to go to the thing they were doing for the movie, but decided against it when I saw that they were actually doing it in the damn exhibit hall, where the ocean of people were, rather than in a room. Plus, I really didn't think they'd get anyone cool to show up.
Shit.
• I missed all the Watchmen movie stuff, too. Actually, you know what, let's just say I missed everything movie related this year. If I think of something movie-related that I did make it to, I'll let you know.
• I hear Disney and Pixar are going to be working on an animated sequel to Tron!?!? You should have seen the look on my dad's face. I bet that's what my face looks like when I experience something that feels like Total Win. Apparently, they showed some light cycle race stuff. My dad, a big time Tron fan, is very excited.
• Found out that Ogre from Skinny Puppy is in Repo: The Genetic Opera. This could possibly be cool news except that Paris Hilton is in it, too, and so I'm not sure what to think. I hope he doesn't have any scenes with her...
• No Drunken Master booth selling Asian DVDs to me at a discount this year. Not entirely sure why. There were a couple other Asian DVD sellers there, though, and I did manage to snag a few, including a Chocolate bootleg with english subs that the seller assured me were "great" (and I trust this particular seller not to lie to me), Memories Of Matsuko (FINALLY!), Bohachi Bushido: Code Of The Forgotten Eight (pink film, Kyle and I watched it one night on my laptop and it was pretty goodamn awesome) and Survive Style 5+, which I've been meaning to get a copy of for quite some time now.
Think that's alls what I got right now.
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for $21.99. Or you can order it from somewhere else. Or you can buy it somewhere when it comes out.