I’ve just found a vlog, and I think it’s going to be my new thing. Or maybe it won’t – maybe I won’t have time for it because all my online video watching is dedicated to staying caught up on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. This could be the start of something new, or it could totally pass me by, and I just won’t know until that happens. (But really, I think this is going to be good. I’m kind of picky about the vlogs I watch, so just hitting the subscribe button is a pretty good indicator it’s going to be something I like. And as the internet knows, it’s hard to be this refreshing in a medium that’s been around since 2005. That’s forever in internet years.)
It’s easy to look back on that time when you were just getting into something and remember how fun it was. Sometimes it seems really momentous, like, “That was the summer I started listening to The Nerdist Podcast,” or just, “Remember when The Avengers came out?”. And then sometimes, later, that thing isn’t quite as “good” as it used to be. It’s changed, or you’ve changed, or it’s immediate purpose in your life has – somehow – changed.
But the thing is, there are always other great things out there to find, and those old things aren’t going away. A couple of summers ago, I was listening to The Nerdist Podcast everyday. Now I’m just listening every so often, and my daily podcast is Ear Biscuits. I still love The Nerdist, but this summer is not that same summer of 2011. And I don’t want the same old summer, I want one I can look back on and remember the start of something new.
San Diego Comic Con is an event that everyone wants to go to, but a relatively tiny amount of people actually do. If anyone really puts their mind to it, it’s probably actually very possible, but sometimes the difficulty seems more than it’s worth. It used to be fairly simple to feel the SDCC experience from home, just by leaving the TV on G4 all weekend and watching coverage, pretending you’re there. In a cruel twist of life, G4 is no longer a television station, and getting that displaced SDCC feeling is a little bit harder. But it’s not impossible.
COVERAGE
There are a few places online to find video coverage of the convention, including what’s trying to fill G4’s empty spot, Nerdist.com. The video clips posted throughout the day are fairly short and sparse, but honestly, G4 didn’t have all that much coverage either. It was mostly reruns of the same thirty minute spot. The Nerdist videos are set up to look like they’re live, and the format looks a little less sincere than fake live coverage did on TV. But it still works, and since it’s coming from people who are loving being there, it’s much better than nothing.
Other websites have some live coverage scheduled, especially IGN.com, which used to only have live text chats but has stepped up its game to video. But it may just be easiest to fill up your twitter and instagram feeds with SDCC attendees, as the photos, videos, and updates will come completely in real time and are come from within the convention halls and on the floor.
OFFSITE
More and more of the San Diego nerd festivities are happening outside of the convention halls. Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ is back thanks to an Indiegogo campaign, and while it’s not technically a part of SDCC, it takes advantage of the number of nerd celebrities already gathered in one place. Full videos of the event go up on YouTube afterwards.
Geek & Sundry has an offsite event lounge full of gaming (both video and tabletop), panels, and those nerd parties that comic conventions are secretly so famous for. Nerdist has an offsite laser tag game and an after-convention hours podcast. Even Thrilling Adventure Hour and Welcome to Night Vale are in San Diego with a crossover live show. It will be a while, but you can relive the convention through podcasts as soon as they finally go up.
The SDCC Nerdist Podcast is where crazy stuff goes down.
THE MERCH
To really emulate that comic con feeling at home, you’re going to have to buy some stuff. That’s the number one thing that happens at conventions, and to really feel authentic, you need to spend more money than you were intending to. You could do this anywhere – your own town’s comic book store, the mall, a fast food drive thru – it’s all the same effect. But it is possible to get your merch from the con itself. I have some SDCC exclusive Funko Pops making their way to me through the mail right now, thanks to the internet. It’s almost like I’m there – I ended up with three new Funko Pops, when the number I actually need is zero.
I almost didn’t, but then I did.
It wouldn’t feel like summer without trying to vicariously attend San Diego Comic Con. Maybe it’s possible to experience it even better from home, since home doesn’t have the 4:00 am wakeup times and 10 minute lines to the bathroom? Yeah, of course that’s not true, but thinking that way makes the weekend way less bitter and way more fun.
After returning from London, Felicia Day has made a video showing her trip through the eyes of a geek. It’s been just about a year since I made that same trip with those same eyes, so I thought I’d share the geekery I got out of London myself.
Inside the Tower of London, I found this dragon.
I did not burst into song when I accidentally found myself on Fleet Street –
– or when I purposefully found myself in Hyde Park.
I saw The Brett Domino Trio at this comedy show, and was fairly sure I was the only person specifically there to see them.
Since I went alone, I got to see Westminster station after midnight, totally empty.
Waiting in line to get a free takeaway poem was a thousand times worth it.
A week later, I saw Bang Said The Gun standup poetry – loud and crowded, possibly my favorite thing I did on the whole trip. Also, two different poets made throwaway Doctor Who references.
On a trip to Stratford Upon Avon, I tried to join Shakespeare’s hometown bowling club.
In Brighton, this door found itself slightly startled –
– and Pierre Bear nicely reminded me where to throw away my trash.
Things got literary again at Sherlock’s house.
Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing came out while I was in London, and there was obviously no better place to see it.
I stared at Harry Potter blueprints for way too long.
(Concept art, too.)
Of course I couldn’t leave without seeing the place for myself.
Adequate female representation in media is hard to find. Major film studios stay clear of women main characters, girls are reduced to sidekicks, even within the hundreds of Funko Pop vinyl figures there aren’t many female toys. But while browsing through a Half-Price Bookstore, I stumbled upon a genre I’d long forgotten, and one full of well-written female characters – early young adult fiction.
I glanced over shelves in the young adult fiction section of the store, situated so close to the children’s section that some early-reading chapter books were spilling over. Since it was summer, a lot of the books on display featured summer camp, summer vacation, and even summer mysteries.
Young adult mysteries? I instantly recalled spending fourth grade with the Sammy Keyes novels. A (sometimes) fearless young girl solved neighborhood crimes with the help of her two female best friends, getting into trouble both at school and with the police, with a (now) surprising lack of supervision. But being unquestionably allowed to adventure was what reading as a kid was all about.
Now searching strictly for nostalgia, I found the Sammy Keyes series in that young-adult section, on the bottom self, basically sitting on the floor. Flipping through the pages reminded me of a completely different series I started reading in fourth grade, and finished two years later – Abby Hayes. While the names were similar, the books were almost total opposites, with thoroughly different characters – not a surprise, since women (even young ones) are each their own unique person. Abby Hayes led a more normal life, her books taking the form of a journal with notes on her fifth-grade class, her friends, and her enemies. She was also allowed out on her own, but her town seemed much less crime-ridden.
It really made me wonder why after growing up, practical female-centered stories are so hard to find. And why are some people so hesitant to create them? Obviously this is slowly changing, with comic books like Lumberjanes and audiences’ undying love for shows like Community. But the extreme support behind these realistic shows is a reaction to previously being denied them. It’s still a problem that female representation stops at the pre-teen level. But I was in the apparent answer to everything – a bookstore. Without anything to go on, I looked for the perfect combination of elements: a summer mystery with a female lead. This is what I found.
Stumbling upon Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage was the luckiest find I could have made. I might say I’m sorry I didn’t read it back when it came out in 2012, but the beginning of Summer 2014 couldn’t have been more perfect. I loved the feeling of being in the South and the dialogue that came along with it. Mostly I loved seeing characters – girls with more than one personality trait and one emotion – and the families, friends, and neighbors who support them. Even better– there’s a sequel.
