This blog is late because we moved a couple days after returning from RICC and it took them three weeks to get our internet hooked up!
Greetings!
This
past weekend I spent a spectacular time with some great friends in the
Ocean State for the 2014 Rhode Island Comic Con. John, Jere, Ju, Jonny,
& I piled into Vanna and about 4 hours later
we arrived at the Omni Providence Hotel, we made great time. We were
able to check in early and had adjoining rooms which was very
convenient. The hotel is attached to the Convention Center where the
Con was being held, and the Providence Place Mall via
a skywalk. Once we parked the car it didn’t move until we left
Sunday. After getting settled in we attempted to find where we could
get out passes as our weekend party pack was at will call. Turns out we
had to go to the ticket master box office at the
Dukin Donuts Center, which is attached to the Convention Center, to
pick up a single ticket master ticket and then Saturday turn in our
ticket for a wrist band that showed we could the weekend pass and were
issued another bracelet showing we bout the early
bird pass as well. Those early bird passes paid off more than we
thought they would.
Friday
night featured the Halloween Party, and as none of us are party people
we weren’t that interested in going. However, Ju wanted to at least
check it out so Jonny and I joined her while
John & Jere checked out Dave & Busters. D&B turned out to
be quite disappointing while the Halloween Party was not!! The three
of us met up with Leah, a very awesome young lady who had traveled from
the Boston area alone to the con, and eventually John
and Jere came down. Leah is fan of Supernatural and I dare say she
likes that more than I like wrestling, yes that much! The Halloween
party featured a mechanical bull, karaoke contest, costume, standard
high school dance songs like Cotton Eyed joe, Macarena,
and ect and a few celebrity guests; Brian O’Halloran, Scott Schiaffo
(the chewlie’s gum representative from Clerks), Seth Gilliam (Father
Gabriel of the Walking Dead), Linda Blair, Anthony Michael Hall, and
Cosplayer Belle Chere. I got my picture taken with
O’Halloran, Schiaffo, Gilliam, & Belle Chere. The Halloween party
was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We all had a great
time. I even got to tell Anthony Michael Hall my piss-kaw-talk-us
story!
The
costumes through-out the weekend ranged from very intricate detailed
work that was just fantastic to store bought to meh. The majority of
attendees wore costumes, lots of Dead Pools,
Black Widows, Harley Quinns, and lots and lots of cat suits. There was
a few random ‘s that surprised me like a Firestar, Darkwing Duck, and
very large heavy set male dressed as Elsa from Frozen. Everyone was
very happy to pose for photos if asked and I
got a few. Once of my favorites was a girl with a very nice Captain
American contest with the upper portion was actual scales woven
together. The pictures do it absolutely no justice.
The
convention floor was set up left to right with comic artists, vendors,
celebrity photos & autographs, and finally celebrity headliners.
The headliners filled a large area as it was anticipated
their lines would be long, and they were correct. William Shatner was
there both days and I never saw him once. Outside the convention center
on the main floor were several vehicles and minor booths set up.
Vehicles included; the DeLorean, Kitt from Knight
Rider, Mystery Machine, and other. If you went up to the next floor
they had the panel rooms as well as the pro photo op rooms, and a few
other attractions. We all pretty much did our own thing on the
convention floor, sticking together and separating at
times. I had Brian O’Halloran sign my Vulgar DVD, a couple trading
cards by Curt Hawkins and my photo with him, also a photo with cosplayer
Jennifer Rose.
I
was at a comic book convention so of course I picked up plenty comics,
some of them for pretty darn cheap too spending about $20 on close to 40
books. Also Jonny got me a Bates Motel room
keychain, pretty darn cool! They had a lot of really neat stuff there,
and if I had the money I could have spent quite a lot of it.
On Saturday Jay joined us as he was there to see and meet Colin Baker the 6th
Doctor. We did hang out on the floor together for a bit, but mostly he
did his own thing as well.
He got a couple signed photos, did the professional photo op, got that
photo signed as well, and attended his Q&A Panel. Jay had worn a
Dr. Who shirt that his the outfits of all the doctors on it in the order
with which they played the iconic character.
In the photo Colin pointed to himself on Jay’s shirt, it’s pretty
awesome!
Jonny
and I attended the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark panel as we
planned on meeting everyone for the Supernatural Panel that was to
follow after. They couldn’t get in because the crowd
was so large, so it was just Jonny and I. Then everyone on the panel
except for Jim Beaver, had played bit characters that were only in a few
episodes. The main reason I had wanted to go was to see Mark Sheppard
in action as Leah had sold how funny he was
at the panels, and he wasn’t even there. So we left. We were pretty
tired from being on the floor all day and decided to head up to the room
for a spell, knowing we probably wouldn’t get back on the floor.
Basically they oversold the show and the Fire
Marshall shut it down as far as for a few hours they wouldn’t let
anyone back in the center, no matter what kind of ticket they had.
People were lined up down the hall ways, around the building outside in
the rain, thousands of people. People were furious
and rightfully so, especially the people outside in elaborate costumes
that were there for that evening’s costume contest and they couldn’t
even get in to have them seen. Luckily we had the early bird and was
able to get in straight away before the chaos
broke out.
Saturday
night we all, including our new pal Leah, went to dinner at Joe’s
American Bar & Grill. I had a fantastic burger, cooked to
perfection as did Ju. John and Jere went with the Mac
& Cheese and were very please, Leah the half roasted chicken, and
Jonny…I just can’t recall but I’m leaning towards chicken sandwich. It
was fun dinner.
After
we separated as Jonny, John, & Jere headed to the IMAX for a
screening of John Wick, Ju eventually made her was back to the room
after some window shopping, she almost shared and elevator
ride with Brian O’Halloran. Lean and I ended up heading back to the
convention floor for the last half hour of the show. We grabbed some
pictures, browsed a bit, and saw some cool costumes. The coolest part
of all thought was that near the elevators of
the hotel we saw Scott Wilson, Hershel from the Walking Dead. I had a
wonderful, but albeit, brief conversation with him and I have to admit I
marked out like crazy. He was such a super nice guy and thanked me
after I thanked him and he was so sincere about
it too. Then he ended up on the elevator with us, Leah asked him if he
was having a good time and he replied, “more importantly, are you
having a good time?” It was so cool!
Jonny,
John, Jere, & I finished off the nice laughing heartily while
watching 22 Jump Street. The movie is completely stupid, but it is
hilarious and was the perfect way to close the night.
Because
of the time change we got and extra hours sleep before checking out of
the hotel and heading into the convention center. I took in two panels
this day, one about cosplay costume making
that was really enjoyable and the other was phenomenal! Warehouse 13
with Saul Rubinek and Eddie McClintock. First off they ruled the panel,
they cut moderator off immediately and ran it themselves. When it came
time for audience questions Eddie was the
one holding the microphone for them even. In the next room to us was
the Walking Dead Panel and the kept erupting in applause, Saul lead us
on a loud ovation to out due them, and then when it happened again, he
just said “oh fuck them” and continued with
his story. It appears that they characters that they played on the
show were just extensions of their natural personalities. It was a
great way to close the weekend before the long drive home.
I
had been reading the weather updates and it was talking about nothing
but snow as we were to head north and back home it was piling up. Fact
is we didn’t really hit any snow until Maine,
and nothing that affected the roads until Topsham. So on the van ride
home, we made great time!
Planning
for this trip started back in February and culminated 9 months later
with a fantastic weekend full of interesting stories and wonderful
experiences with some great friends!
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