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shanmuirbroden[COMMENT: I am SO sorry for the delay in these posts! I went to my doctor this past Monday about getting antibiotics but it turned out she left them off the prescription (it had numbers for two items but only contained one) and it wasn't until TODAY that I got her on the phone she finally called in something. So I have been in much misery since Sunday night. But let's lead back into the great times before we got to that point...]
I actually attended only the afternoon of WonderCon on Saturday. My morning plans consisted of getting up relatively early, actually eating breakfast at the Argent, and leaving the Argent at 9am, riding the Powell and Hyde cable car from downtown all the way to the other end of the line at Fisherman's Wharf, have lunch at a place where I'd made reservations right when they opened, then take the historic F-line streetcar which started across the street from the restaurant back to basically out front the block of the Argent while still making sure I had plenty of time not to be late for the panel I was moderating. You'll notice between this paragraph and my mentions of BART last time that I have this thing for public transit. Then again I've lived in LA for a decade and don't drive which quite frankly confounds everyone I meet.
Eating breakfast at the Argent (which by the way has been bought by Westin and is transitioning to the Westin San Francisco this summer) was a bit of a mistake. Due to all their renovations, they were only offering an overpriced breakfast buffet, no lunch, and cocktails at dinnertime. I knew I'd have to figure out an alternative for Sunday after seeing that bill.
The cable car ride was an incredible experience from beginning to end. I was actually in the back half but fortunately seated as my balance isn't always the best. Given the hills, I think I felt a little safer being enclosed. It was interesting watching how the driver worked with the wooden breaks and how he coordinated with the conductor. We got up to the Wharf before 9:30 which left me to do a little walking and exploring, which was fine as that had been the intent. My lunch reservations at Castignola's (which apparently is the oldest restaurant on the Wharf) were at 11. One thing I hadn't planned on was that the main office for Tower Tours (with whom I would be taking a trip Sunday) was right at the Wharf below Ghiradelli Square; had I known that I might have planned a little differently but I'm not sure. What I also hadn't planned on was it being so windy, which on top of the temperature was a bit much. At one point I even ducked into a Starbucks for a Green Tea Latte just to get out of the wind. I continued to walk all the way past the cruise and ferry pier to Pier 39, where there are a bunch of shops. Here I was not only able to get new batteries for my digital camera but they were kind enough to recycle my old ones; I also picked up a postcard of Moscone Center for my parents. Overall I found Pier 39 very boring though, maybe this is because I'm not a heavy shopper or maybe it reminds me of something I've seen before -- Pike's Place Market in Seattle if it were an outdoor mall. Same type of shops and everything, just California merchandise not Washington State.
I make it back to Castignola's with a half hour to wait until they even open, so I buy a book of letter stamps (need them when I get home anyway) and decide to put a little extra postage on the postcard for my parents. I fill that out and then find there doesn't seem to be a post office box nearby. But then who should appear at Castignola's but the local letter carrier! I politely ask him if he can take it, and he does. Cool.
Castignola's was a nice place, with a friendly staff and good food. Did a shrimp, scallion, and crab leg combo plate. This was the one meal I had budgeted to be my largest because I knew that seafood would cost more. Even with that taken into consideration, the cost was reasonable. The waitress, who was Chinese, told me about everyone getting ready downtown for the Chinese New Year parade (turned out she was jumping the gun about that just a little as I had no trouble getting back). Due to her comments, and the fact I'd lounged in the Wharf area long enough, I just hopped the streetcar back to the Argent. For those who don't know, the streetcar is the same type of vehicle that the old Red Car systems down here used to run on, so now I have an idea of what transit here would have evolved from if everything hadn't been ripped out for cars...
Made it back to the Argent earlier than expected, so I relaxed a little but not too long, and also made sure that I had my mock-up of the final cover of the book (for which the publisher had sent me the art file earlier in the week, and then I mounted in pieces at home and completed at the hotel). Decided to arrive at Moscone in time to go down to the SLG Publishing booth one more time and pick up Issues 3, 4, and 5 of REX LIBRIS to finish the arc and then attend the 2PM panel that preceded ours at 3PM. The panel featured artists currently being shown at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum -- Gene Yang, Gene Colan, Linda Medley, and Pia Guerra. A wide diversity of styles and opinions indeed. Also made sure to identify the Con staff member in the room so we could build a rapport for the following hour. Smart move as it made it a lot easier to pick him out later.
And then, after that panel was over, it was our turn.
The Con staffer handed me all the names to put out as I wished (I followed the program and put them alphabetically, which put Adam Beechen closest to me and the podium on the far left of the stage, then Stan Berkowitz, then Dwayne McDuffie, and then Greg Weisman at the end. The alphabet is the great equalizer... heh.) I also put the display board of the book cover between the DVD player on the table -- which we weren't using -- and Adam, as it wouldn't fit with me on the podium. We then proceeded to practically pack the room with probably about 100 people or so (the largest crowd I've ever talked to) and talk shop for an hour, walking the animation process from development to the animation coming back from overseas, which sort of follows the flow of certain chapters in the book but shared the personality and interaction of multiple pros at once versus the spotlight interviews at various portions of my book, GARDNER'S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, which is slated for late April release. So we got the flavor of the book in the panel, while letting it be its own thing. The four guys did great, as for me I can tell places I still need to work on public speaking but as someone highly accustomed to rigid outlines I didn't do half bad.
After our time was done I stayed around for Greg Weisman's spotlight panel moderated by Dan Vado, owner of SLG Publishing (for whom I must again thank for his generosity of letting Greg be with our group as well). Greg mainly wound up talking about GARGOYLES, though in theory the panel was open to anything. Even though I've had chances to interact with Greg, and admittedly knew a fair amount of what was said, there's always that twist that something you could use a good reminder on or something completely new could come out -- like the announcement of the limited issue GARGOYLES: BAD GUYS comic.
I saw Greg briefly after that panel (not that I was looking for him, he found me) and we basically said what I thought would be our goodbyes as I had at that time no plans to be back at the Con Sunday. I was very pleased with the whole day, and even now I'm still happy I went.
Upon returning to the Argent, I discovered that the Chinese New Year parade was happening within the block of the hotel and hung out watching it most of the time, though briefly I had to duck into the Subway down the block for dinner at one point. Interesting mix of the traditional and the commercial, and not everything was Asian or even Asian-themed.
Originally I had planned to try to go out after the parade was over, but watching all those people disperse and realizing I'm a woman alone in San Francisco who got lost in the daytime -- I quickly change my mind and decide this is not a good idea. Had I had someone to go with, I probably would have kept going. But instead I retreated to my room again, knowing I was going to get up early again to check out and go on my 9AM tour.
Several hours later, I wake up. Coughing. I think my throat's just dry and get a drink of water and go back to sleep. Better make that try to go back to sleep. My coughing keeps waking me up, and waking me up. I begin to realize it's going to keep me from going back to sleep. At first it's not as big a deal as I can hear others still returning from the Masquerade, but as it gets later in the night it begins to drive me crazy. I burn through all three of the REX LIBRIS comics and several short stories in the TURN THE OTHER CHICK anthology edited by Esther Friesner that I brought on the plane (one of my finds from last year's WonderCon), making several attempts to sleep between that are short lived. At one point I literally but quietly start pounding on the bed in frustration. I feel for my hotel neighbors, quiet getaway they did not get.
Next rock will pick up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning, with where I went on my tour despite my struggles, how I nearly got seriously lost in San Fran, why I wound up back at Moscone, and late night flight adventures with Mark Evanier...
I actually attended only the afternoon of WonderCon on Saturday. My morning plans consisted of getting up relatively early, actually eating breakfast at the Argent, and leaving the Argent at 9am, riding the Powell and Hyde cable car from downtown all the way to the other end of the line at Fisherman's Wharf, have lunch at a place where I'd made reservations right when they opened, then take the historic F-line streetcar which started across the street from the restaurant back to basically out front the block of the Argent while still making sure I had plenty of time not to be late for the panel I was moderating. You'll notice between this paragraph and my mentions of BART last time that I have this thing for public transit. Then again I've lived in LA for a decade and don't drive which quite frankly confounds everyone I meet.
Eating breakfast at the Argent (which by the way has been bought by Westin and is transitioning to the Westin San Francisco this summer) was a bit of a mistake. Due to all their renovations, they were only offering an overpriced breakfast buffet, no lunch, and cocktails at dinnertime. I knew I'd have to figure out an alternative for Sunday after seeing that bill.
The cable car ride was an incredible experience from beginning to end. I was actually in the back half but fortunately seated as my balance isn't always the best. Given the hills, I think I felt a little safer being enclosed. It was interesting watching how the driver worked with the wooden breaks and how he coordinated with the conductor. We got up to the Wharf before 9:30 which left me to do a little walking and exploring, which was fine as that had been the intent. My lunch reservations at Castignola's (which apparently is the oldest restaurant on the Wharf) were at 11. One thing I hadn't planned on was that the main office for Tower Tours (with whom I would be taking a trip Sunday) was right at the Wharf below Ghiradelli Square; had I known that I might have planned a little differently but I'm not sure. What I also hadn't planned on was it being so windy, which on top of the temperature was a bit much. At one point I even ducked into a Starbucks for a Green Tea Latte just to get out of the wind. I continued to walk all the way past the cruise and ferry pier to Pier 39, where there are a bunch of shops. Here I was not only able to get new batteries for my digital camera but they were kind enough to recycle my old ones; I also picked up a postcard of Moscone Center for my parents. Overall I found Pier 39 very boring though, maybe this is because I'm not a heavy shopper or maybe it reminds me of something I've seen before -- Pike's Place Market in Seattle if it were an outdoor mall. Same type of shops and everything, just California merchandise not Washington State.
I make it back to Castignola's with a half hour to wait until they even open, so I buy a book of letter stamps (need them when I get home anyway) and decide to put a little extra postage on the postcard for my parents. I fill that out and then find there doesn't seem to be a post office box nearby. But then who should appear at Castignola's but the local letter carrier! I politely ask him if he can take it, and he does. Cool.
Castignola's was a nice place, with a friendly staff and good food. Did a shrimp, scallion, and crab leg combo plate. This was the one meal I had budgeted to be my largest because I knew that seafood would cost more. Even with that taken into consideration, the cost was reasonable. The waitress, who was Chinese, told me about everyone getting ready downtown for the Chinese New Year parade (turned out she was jumping the gun about that just a little as I had no trouble getting back). Due to her comments, and the fact I'd lounged in the Wharf area long enough, I just hopped the streetcar back to the Argent. For those who don't know, the streetcar is the same type of vehicle that the old Red Car systems down here used to run on, so now I have an idea of what transit here would have evolved from if everything hadn't been ripped out for cars...
Made it back to the Argent earlier than expected, so I relaxed a little but not too long, and also made sure that I had my mock-up of the final cover of the book (for which the publisher had sent me the art file earlier in the week, and then I mounted in pieces at home and completed at the hotel). Decided to arrive at Moscone in time to go down to the SLG Publishing booth one more time and pick up Issues 3, 4, and 5 of REX LIBRIS to finish the arc and then attend the 2PM panel that preceded ours at 3PM. The panel featured artists currently being shown at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum -- Gene Yang, Gene Colan, Linda Medley, and Pia Guerra. A wide diversity of styles and opinions indeed. Also made sure to identify the Con staff member in the room so we could build a rapport for the following hour. Smart move as it made it a lot easier to pick him out later.
And then, after that panel was over, it was our turn.
The Con staffer handed me all the names to put out as I wished (I followed the program and put them alphabetically, which put Adam Beechen closest to me and the podium on the far left of the stage, then Stan Berkowitz, then Dwayne McDuffie, and then Greg Weisman at the end. The alphabet is the great equalizer... heh.) I also put the display board of the book cover between the DVD player on the table -- which we weren't using -- and Adam, as it wouldn't fit with me on the podium. We then proceeded to practically pack the room with probably about 100 people or so (the largest crowd I've ever talked to) and talk shop for an hour, walking the animation process from development to the animation coming back from overseas, which sort of follows the flow of certain chapters in the book but shared the personality and interaction of multiple pros at once versus the spotlight interviews at various portions of my book, GARDNER'S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION, which is slated for late April release. So we got the flavor of the book in the panel, while letting it be its own thing. The four guys did great, as for me I can tell places I still need to work on public speaking but as someone highly accustomed to rigid outlines I didn't do half bad.
After our time was done I stayed around for Greg Weisman's spotlight panel moderated by Dan Vado, owner of SLG Publishing (for whom I must again thank for his generosity of letting Greg be with our group as well). Greg mainly wound up talking about GARGOYLES, though in theory the panel was open to anything. Even though I've had chances to interact with Greg, and admittedly knew a fair amount of what was said, there's always that twist that something you could use a good reminder on or something completely new could come out -- like the announcement of the limited issue GARGOYLES: BAD GUYS comic.
I saw Greg briefly after that panel (not that I was looking for him, he found me) and we basically said what I thought would be our goodbyes as I had at that time no plans to be back at the Con Sunday. I was very pleased with the whole day, and even now I'm still happy I went.
Upon returning to the Argent, I discovered that the Chinese New Year parade was happening within the block of the hotel and hung out watching it most of the time, though briefly I had to duck into the Subway down the block for dinner at one point. Interesting mix of the traditional and the commercial, and not everything was Asian or even Asian-themed.
Originally I had planned to try to go out after the parade was over, but watching all those people disperse and realizing I'm a woman alone in San Francisco who got lost in the daytime -- I quickly change my mind and decide this is not a good idea. Had I had someone to go with, I probably would have kept going. But instead I retreated to my room again, knowing I was going to get up early again to check out and go on my 9AM tour.
Several hours later, I wake up. Coughing. I think my throat's just dry and get a drink of water and go back to sleep. Better make that try to go back to sleep. My coughing keeps waking me up, and waking me up. I begin to realize it's going to keep me from going back to sleep. At first it's not as big a deal as I can hear others still returning from the Masquerade, but as it gets later in the night it begins to drive me crazy. I burn through all three of the REX LIBRIS comics and several short stories in the TURN THE OTHER CHICK anthology edited by Esther Friesner that I brought on the plane (one of my finds from last year's WonderCon), making several attempts to sleep between that are short lived. At one point I literally but quietly start pounding on the bed in frustration. I feel for my hotel neighbors, quiet getaway they did not get.
Next rock will pick up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning, with where I went on my tour despite my struggles, how I nearly got seriously lost in San Fran, why I wound up back at Moscone, and late night flight adventures with Mark Evanier...
