A few other things about AX 2010

No pics for this one but a couple of other things I almost forgot...

• I was surprised to come across Peter S. Beagle in a booth in the (absolutely huge, so big we only it made it down two aisles) Vendor's room, selling books; I guess a new edition of The Last Unicorn is coming out soon and they were taking pre-orders for it. He looked dead tired and kind of out of it. I did tell his assistant (who was doing most of the talking) that I'd loved his writing since my high-school English teacher gave me a copy of the aforementioned book. A Fine and Private Place was a joy too, although I haven't read either in a long time. Both men seemed a little surprised when I chose The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Neitchze, a book of short stories, instead of TLU, which everyone else was signing up for. He signed it for me, and I thanked him for all the happy reads. I hope he's doing better now; I remember reading awhile ago he had a lot of financial difficulties because he got ripped off as far as any movie profits (bad contract). Looks like he sells most of his books through his website now.



• I didn't discover that the Artist's Alley was at the opposite end of the Vendor's room until 15 minutes before it closed. Damn - because the art is another favorite part.



• We missed seeing the new Trigun movie, because I thought they were just showing episodes. Duh, why would so many people have been lined up to get in? There's a trailer here, if anyone's interested.



• Not long after we got there, we thought maybe lunch was in order - I'd brought lots of snacks in my backpack, but something more substantial was in order. The food court at the convention Center wanted $9 for a burger; oh, no way. So we walked out and west on on Olympic Blvd, looking for something less pricy. After about a half a mile, we finally happened upon Pollo Camparo, which seems to be a Latin American KFC. I wasn't familiar with them (there are a bunch in L.A. but not so much Orange County), but we were getting hot and tired of walking. The place was jammed with families, and suddenly I wished I'd taken Spanish in high school instead of German. One does pick up a smidgen just living here in CA, and I was hoping I'd recognize when they called my number- one lady was calling a single digit at time, which I could have handled, but the other lady must have called "trescientos cuarenta y cinco" and I didn't recognize it. Then she looked at me and said, "Is this yours?" John would've grabbed it, but he'd stayed home. Anyhow, it was really good. And while we were sitting there, I saw a couple of people walk down the other side of the street in costumes, so I didn't feel quite so out of place. ;p
  
  When we got back to the convention center, we were walking down one of hallways, and I looked out the window in the opposite direction we'd gone. And there was an entire vacant lot full of mobile eateries - I'd call them taco trucks, but LA has gotten a reputation lately for all kinds of really good ethnic food vendors. Have to keep those in mind for next time we're up there - although Angus was probably happiest with chicken fingers anyway.



• We did watch a few episodes of Casshern Sins (looks very dark and futuristic, animation a bit retro-looking, but pretty) and an entire sub-titled live action movie, Happily Ever After, which I'm shocked and proud all three kids sat through in its entirety. Not only that they sat still and weren't bored for that long, but were able to follow the subtitles enough to know what was going on.
  
  The movie itself, based on a manga and apparently a big hit in Japan, was a bit strange; it seemed to start out as a comedy of a long-suffering woman whose guy overturns the dinner table every time she does the slightest thing that upsets or offends him. He doesn't work, takes all of her money and spends the day in bars and panchinko parlors, where he swipes his friend's winnings too. She goes off to her job in a noodle restaurant where the owner is in love with her and keeps giving her extra money and offers her a place to stay should she ever get kicked out (he's so desperate it's a bit creepy, too), and her father is just recently got out of jail for bank robbery and wants to leech off her as well. Then it turns into almost soap opera drama, when an accident triggers a flashback of her school days where she was one of the the poorest girls in her class, and her best friend nearly kills her for wanting to hang out with the more popular kids (although they finally make up). She leaves school and spends a stint as prostitute,where she meets the boyfriend, who after some rather stalkerish following her around, rescues her from a suicide attempt and quits the yakuza in order to be with her. He treats her quite nicely in the beginning, making me wonder what happened. The whole thing really made me shake my head, not only about why the main character put up with so much crap from the men in her life, but also about how women are viewed in Japanese society.

A few other things about AX 2010

No pics for this one but a couple of other things I almost forgot...

• I was surprised to come across Peter S. Beagle in a booth in the (absolutely huge, so big we only it made it down two aisles) Vendor's room, selling books; I guess a new edition of The Last Unicorn is coming out soon and they were taking pre-orders for it. He looked dead tired and kind of out of it. I did tell his assistant (who was doing most of the talking) that I'd loved his writing since my high-school English teacher gave me a copy of the aforementioned book. A Fine and Private Place was a joy too, although I haven't read either in a long time. Both men seemed a little surprised when I chose The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Neitchze, a book of short stories, instead of TLU, which everyone else was signing up for. He signed it for me, and I thanked him for all the happy reads. I hope he's doing better now; I remember reading awhile ago he had a lot of financial difficulties because he got ripped off as far as any movie profits (bad contract). Looks like he sells most of his books through his website now.



• I didn't discover that the Artist's Alley was at the opposite end of the Vendor's room until 15 minutes before it closed. Damn - because the art is another favorite part.



• We missed seeing the new Trigun movie, because I thought they were just showing episodes. Duh, why would so many people have been lined up to get in? There's a trailer here, if anyone's interested.



• Not long after we got there, we thought maybe lunch was in order - I'd brought lots of snacks in my backpack, but something more substantial was in order. The food court at the convention Center wanted $9 for a burger; oh, no way. So we walked out and west on on Olympic Blvd, looking for something less pricy. After about a half a mile, we finally happened upon Pollo Camparo, which seems to be a Latin American KFC. I wasn't familiar with them (there are a bunch in L.A. but not so much Orange County), but we were getting hot and tired of walking. The place was jammed with families, and suddenly I wished I'd taken Spanish in high school instead of German. One does pick up a smidgen just living here in CA, and I was hoping I'd recognize when they called my number- one lady was calling a single digit at time, which I could have handled, but the other lady must have called "trescientos cuarenta y cinco" and I didn't recognize it. Then she looked at me and said, "Is this yours?" John would've grabbed it, but he'd stayed home. Anyhow, it was really good. And while we were sitting there, I saw a couple of people walk down the other side of the street in costumes, so I didn't feel quite so out of place. ;p
  
  When we got back to the convention center, we were walking down one of hallways, and I looked out the window in the opposite direction we'd gone. And there was an entire vacant lot full of mobile eateries - I'd call them taco trucks, but LA has gotten a reputation lately for all kinds of really good ethnic food vendors. Have to keep those in mind for next time we're up there - although Angus was probably happiest with chicken fingers anyway.



• We did watch a few episodes of Casshern Sins (looks very dark and futuristic, animation a bit retro-looking, but pretty) and an entire sub-titled live action movie, Happily Ever After, which I'm shocked and proud all three kids sat through in its entirety. Not only that they sat still and weren't bored for that long, but were able to follow the subtitles enough to know what was going on.
  
  The movie itself, based on a manga and apparently a big hit in Japan, was a bit strange; it seemed to start out as a comedy of a long-suffering woman whose guy overturns the dinner table every time she does the slightest thing that upsets or offends him. He doesn't work, takes all of her money and spends the day in bars and panchinko parlors, where he swipes his friend's winnings too. She goes off to her job in a noodle restaurant where the owner is in love with her and keeps giving her extra money and offers her a place to stay should she ever get kicked out (he's so desperate it's a bit creepy, too), and her father is just recently got out of jail for bank robbery and wants to leech off her as well. Then it turns into almost soap opera drama, when an accident triggers a flashback of her school days where she was one of the the poorest girls in her class, and her best friend nearly kills her for wanting to hang out with the more popular kids (although they finally make up). She leaves school and spends a stint as prostitute,where she meets the boyfriend, who after some rather stalkerish following her around, rescues her from a suicide attempt and quits the yakuza in order to be with her. He treats her quite nicely in the beginning, making me wonder what happened. The whole thing really made me shake my head, not only about why the main character put up with so much crap from the men in her life, but also about how women are viewed in Japanese society.