I had a four day weekend and very little of it was spent writing, alas. I did put up a couple of book reviews. CD gave me the green light to post my review of King’s Joyland, which will also appear in issue #70 of the magazine together with my interview with Hard Case Crime publisher Charles Ardai. Yesterday I wrote my review of Dan Brown’s Inferno, a book that disappointed me greatly.
I spent parts of Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Comicpalooza in Houston. Shawn Lealos, who directed the Dollar Baby “I Know What You Need,” invited me to attend the Dollar Baby Film Festival that was part of Comicpalooza. I’ve never been to one of these before, so it was fun seeing a bunch of these amateur adaptations. I’d seen a few of them before, but most of them were new to me. Three of the directors were there, too, for a Q&A on Sunday afternoon. I wrote up a report for FEARnet and will post the link when it’s released.
Among the actors appearing at the event were Michelle Rodriguez (Ana Lucia from Lost), Armin Shimerman, Rene Auberjonois and Avery Brooks from Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Danny Trejo (Sons of Anarchy), and a large segment of the cast of the original Battlestar Galactica. I didn’t queue up to meet any of them or get their autographs. I did have a chat with artist Bernie Wrightson and had him sign a few things, though.
The main event was Patrick Stewart, who gave a 1-hour talk late on Saturday afternoon. He was firing on all cylinders. Engaging (pun intended), funny, serious, intense, introspective, revealing, the whole nine yards. He told some great anecdotes, but one of my favorites was about the time he arrived at a hotel late one evening, tired, and decided to order room service. While he was waiting, he flipped through the TV channels and found an episode of The Next Generation, which he decided to watch. The room service guy delivered his food, took note of what was playing, but left without comment. Afterward, Stewart said he could just imagine the conversation down in the kitchen: “I just saw the saddest thing ever. Patrick Stewart, alone in his room, watching Star Trek reruns. Get a life!” He also thanked the one individual who said “Howdy” to him, thereby giving him the true Texas experience. The equivalent, he said, to having a London cabbie say “Cor blimey” to you.
I haven’t been to one of these conventions in a long time. Shortly after I moved to Texas, there was a Star Trek convention downtown, so I decided to go. I was a fan, I thought. While I was standing in the registration queue, the person in front of me and the one behind me, both wearing Starfleet uniforms, held a heated debate over what Spock did between the first and second films. They had references and I could imagine footnotes. That was when I realized I only thought I was a fan. I’ve never been into cosplay (a fancy word for dressing up at a convention as a fictional character) or gaming. Not even into comics or superheroes all that much. I did enjoy listening to Sir Patrick, though.
We’re into season six of Inspector Lewis, so we’re just about caught up. It was interesting to see Betty reinvented on this week’s Mad Men. For so long, her character has been something of a joke, but she’s back in full force. Her post-coital conversation with Don was eye-opening and perceptive. Peggy’s stabbing scene was just high camp, as was the way she got dumped in the ambulance.
