Monday, June 25, 2012

Emerald City Adventures

In my never-ending quest to attend every major comic convention in the continental US, my journey took my wife and me to the Pacific Northwest, home of the, well… Rain, and a lot of it. During our little escapade, it rained every day, but that didn’t deter us from having a good time in the city. Right when our plane landed, it was raining cats and dogs on the Tarmac. This was expected since we arrived knowing it rains practically every day in Seattle.
This was my second time visiting the Emerald city and this time around, I wanted to take full advantage of everything the city has to offer. We booked a tour with one of the local guides who was friendly and extremely knowledgeable when it came to the city and its rich history.
One of the final stops of our city tour found us at Kerry Park which offered breathtaking, futuristic-looking views of the city.


No Seattle trip is complete without visiting the world famous Space Needle.





In addition to that, we decided to eat at the restaurant, Sky City, which was quite an experience… and expensive, but hey. You only live once, and I am all about new experiences. The restaurant subtly rotated so you can capture several different views of the city and fortunately for us, the weather cooperated just long enough to give us some spectacular photo-ops.



Too bad I didn’t bring my DSLR camera.


After taking some photos from the observation deck, we were famished. Being the carnivore I am, I ordered the steak.

I know this steak didn’t really exist, but the Matrix is told my brain that it was juicy and delicious.


…and after touring the city all day, I learned that ignorance is indeed bliss. :D
The next day was ECCC day! I was all psyched up and ready to see what this convention had to offer. I had my Morpheus outfit ready and raring to go.

The Convention center was fairly large, spacious and a good size to accommodate such an event.



People packed the center like sardines in anticipation of the doors opening.




Once the doors opened, it was a mad dash to the celebrity area for meet and greets and photo ops. I rushed to the line to meet the lovely and exotic Summer Glau, but a few thousand other attendees had the same idea. It was just our luck that practically everyone wanted to meet Summer Glau. I would have also waited in line for Tia Carrere (Oh, gawd!), but she no-showed. >=0(

The camera narcs were out and in full force so nobody could take candid shots of the celebs, but I still snuck one of Adam Baldwin just to be a rebel. “Breakin’ the law, Breakin’ the lawwww!!”


We had a fairly good position in line for Summer so we were golden. While waiting, I noticed there were a few people in costume so this was a good opportunity for cosplay pics.



I didn’t have my glasses or jacket on so nobody knew who I was supposed to be until one person figured it out and shouted, “OH SHIT! IT’S MORPHEUS!!” From there, I had to put the rest of the outfit on and pose with the peeps, which I didn’t mind. When you dress up, it’s your responsibility to be cordial and take pics with the people to enhance their convention experience. It’s a joy to make someone else’s day just by saying “Sure” when they ask for photos with you. A lot of people get a kick out of merely shaking my hand and saying, ”Good job.” The adulation and responses from dressing up are things I will never get tired of.  What was funny was one of the camera narcs asked to get a pic with me knowing she could get into trouble and I happily obliged.

When I could see the front of the line, I was stoked, but the anxiety of the moment made my stomach start to bubble up a bit. Mud butt was calling my name and I couldn’t sacrifice my place in line. I could feel that steak from the previous night working on me like a baby ready to be born, but I gritted my teeth, tightened my sphincter, pushed through and got to meet my Mrs. Thursday.


She was really sweet and surprisingly chatty for having to take photos with a few thousand people. Her waist was so tiny, I could almost wrap my hand around it and her skin was so soft, it was like touching a pillow. She also smelled really sweet and used that shampoo that smells like fruit. I would have sucked up her hair like a spaghetti noodle a la Lady in the Tramp if she let me.

Aw yeah!.. and for those wondering, Kristin Kreuk is my Monday, Minka Kelly my Tuesday, Adriana Lima my Wednesday and Genesis Rodriguez is my Friday. I belong to my wife on Saturday and on Sunday, I shall rest.

Since we had waited in line so long to meet Summer, the time overlapped with the ‘Must see movies of 2012’ panel we wanted to attend so we hit the convention floor, which was packed like a Volkswagen full of circus clowns.


Graphitti Designs was in the house, but didn't have any exclusives for this show.



This show was more art and comic-oriented compared to the WonderCon or the San Diego ComicCon. Less Media meant less of a hostile crowd. There were over 100 artists on hand sharing their talents. It was kind of refreshing; getting back to the roots of comic conventions.

One of my favorite things about attending comic conventions are the cosplayers… and they were out in full force at this convention.





Every now and then I like to get into the act cause, well, I like hotties and there’s no greater feeling than a beautiful lady asking to be in a picture with you. Even better when they hug and grope you. Objectify me more, baby! I can handle it. :p
OMG!!!



Here, I caught up with artist extraordinaire Greg Horn.
His booth was CRAZY busy with people buying his prints. I bought a few and had them signed which was cool.



E-Bas was on hand, but was swarmed all day long so it was hard to see if he had anything new. He had a fan that loved his work so much that she got a tattoo of one of his covers.


That's dedication!

My Little Pony was in the house.
Here are some more cosplayers:


That's kind of morbid, but oh well.

There's Waldo!

A few guys had some funny outfits:



And this guy was SEVERAL years too late.
Spaceballs was in the house!
She's adorable!

Mr. and Mrs. Emerald City?


This blue babe looks great!


He's got the whole world in his hands.





Here, I caught up with Bruce Timm. He always looks pissed, like he doesn’t care for these shows. Ah well…

Ah, twas a good show. I got to meet Summer and got some cool Greg Horn prints out of the deal! On the way back to the Hotel, we were starving and my feet were killing me so we decided to let my barking dogs rest and check out the Rock Bottom café.



Word to the wise: Don’t go there. Not only was the service slow and sorely lacking on attentiveness, they continually got our order wrong throughout the visit. I asked for a well done burger, they gave me the damn thing medium freaking rare and bloody in the middle. Yuck!

I ordered fruit as an appetizer and they forgot to bring it to the table! They had the gall to bring it afterwards and this was what they delivered.



Schoolyard lunch cups have more fruit! This is why Blacks don’t tip! Poor service and lack of attention to detail! If it was busy, I would be lenient on this type of service, but it was really slow so we were extremely disappointed.

At any rate, we didn’t allow this little incident to sour our night, we still had a good time and I got to mark off another convention from my Bucket list. It’s a good thing I wear the pants in my relationship, otherwise this would be a blog about Disneyland and that lousy “It’s a Small World after all” song being lodged in my head. :p

Next stop: London? We shall see. ;)

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