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In the photos of the lines you’ll see an amazing Trish (Blade Runner) and Medic (TF2). As a whole, and as disappointing as it sounds, I didn’t click – too much has changed and so much of comic con is geared at horny geeky men. Next time I’ll spend more time on panels and the Indy comics
The line was huge. It snaked all around outside making me realize for next year, shades and sunscreen are a must. We had lined up 45 minutes early for the previous panel, The Guild and were part of the unfortunate few standing just outside the doors for most of the Guild panel. Though as luck would have it, both Joel McHale and Allison Brie walked right by us. We did get seats at the end for the QA. Since you can stay after each session it meant we were guaranteed spots for Community and managed to move up a smidge.
The cast of Community matched their characters so damn well. Chevy couldn’t hear and Yvette next to him kept kindly leaning over to repeat questions. Abed and Troy totally were in synch, they could finish each others sentences. I was so into it I neglected to record that bit (but linked it below). One close I did post was when the camera was on someone else, i noticed Abed and Brita were locked in a staring battle.
We saw a few good movies this week. At the theater we saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. Quite good; an excellent finish to the series albeit dark in moments. Off Netflix we saw “Being There”, a comedy from the 70s starring Peter Sellers. It’s quite a fun premise. Finally, from torrent we downloaded The Man from Earth. it’s a low budget (200k) movie about a caveman whose lived 14k years. It’s set basically in one room and is intellectually fun; written by a former Twilight Zone writer, it feels much like an episode. The producer has publically thanked peer to peer networks for giving it publicity so go ahead a download. I like movies like that. The last one I saw like that “Ink” I ended up buying the blu ray. Side note, drove thru twin peaks today
Today it started off pretty nasty. There were dark clouds out as we headed out towards the patisserie in the morning. The rain started as we reached the bakery and by the time we had our croissants and kiesh it was pouring, thundering and lightening.
Despite our tiny umbrellas we came back wet and hung out reading in the lobby to give time to the cleaning staff to finish our room. When the clouds broke and it slowed to a slight sprinkle we took back off for a walk. I had a blister on my heel from all the walking yesterday and I kinda limped a bit. we walked all over, detoured up into the hills a bit, down to the shopping drag (a street that isn’t; like fremont in Vegas), saw an amazing pianists, angered a waitress, had a fantastic lunch (see strawberry dessert pic), and did some shopping. Oh, and stepped in a huge pile of dog crap left in the middle of the promenade. late in the afternoon the clouds broke and the sun came out. We went to the shore and waded in with our pants rolled up. A group of 6 or so tourists in their 50s were there and 4 stripped to their undies and went in (one bra-less, but that’s not uncommon here: and a reason why I took so few beach pics). We dried off a bit and on our way back started to comb the shore for beach glass. We found a bunch and got wet all over again. On our way back we realized dinner would be tricky as most restaurants closed by 6 as well as the grocery store. In the end, we had my birthday dinner at the hotel and enjoyed a bit of chocolate cake for dessert. we finished our packing, checked our flights and set our devices to charge and were in bed by 10:00. Tommorrow we have to get up at 4:15 to get to the airport in time for our morning flight home.
We took a long walk in the morning to downtown Nuce from the hotel. There were two older (but not ancient) churchs to check out. Unfortunately by the time we returned to switch into swimsuits the sky had clouded over. We had picked up a towel/beach mat but that didn’t soften the rock beach enough and I cut my knee and bruised my heal trying to swim/lie down. We made it work though and got a few minutes of sun in. For dinner we had pizza again and watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad back at the hotel.
Today was tough. We had to pack up and say goodbye to the house and hills in Brannoux and drive 4 hours or so southeast to Nice. On the highway we passed a smart car coupe, yes that sounds ridiculous (merits adding the photo below). We ran into some trouble at the tollbooths; seems their new system has kinks (like identifying which lanes don’t take cash/credit).
we decided to lunch in Antibe, an old port on the Mediteranian Sea near Nice. As we approached we could see signs of affluence (like more Mercedes and a Ferrari on the autoroute). We passed by the church on the coast and saw huge boats ranging in size up to cruise liners moored off the shore. In the marina, the one that caught my eye was a mean looking Pershing 72 in gunmetal gray (it’s twin engines have over 1800lbs of thrust and can top out at 45knots/54mph on the open water). Lunch was good, but interesting. The sausage was a bit unique (consisting of pig stomach). The waitress told me “now you are really French!”. I enjoyed a good beer, great view and lemoncello with my folks and wife for a combined birthday/fathers day lunch. My dad even gave me yet another gift, a fountain pen to replace the one nearly empty at work. After we checked in at the Ibis we parted ways and took a slight nap. We walked the promenade way up the beach and stood barefoot in the ocean. For dinner we had pizza from a small delivery place with a window for sidewalk customers. Tonight I enjoyed a couple beers while getting my net on and enjoying the hotels wifi.
Now settled in at the Ibis in Nice, I’m getting all our photos uploaded to my skydrive (here).
We trekked out to St. Jean du Gard today enjoying a nice picnic en route. At some point in Anduze we stopped in time to watch a coal-fed old steam engine depart with tourists. Had I been alone I would have jumped on board not knowing its destination; old trains are just so damn cool to watch. The city was scenic and small with a bubbling brook running through it. We watched trout swim in clear water from the one lane stone bridge and had coffee and desert by the centre. The remains of a 12th century “tower” (not that tall) is there attached to a church my Dad will be guest preaching this Sunday.
Upon returning we had a quick swim then my dad and I smoked our last pipe together this trip looking at the hills and clouds rolling in at dusk (I read the Stephen King short Blockade Billy in that hour, good but awefully brief). We had a marvelous supper, a chicken/squash/potatoe/broth dish from an old family recipe and we uncorked the Chateau Neuf du Pape 2005 to celebrate my 32nd birthday. It was the quietest but most relaxing birthday I can recall; a great meal, desert and wine with family. Tommorrow we depart to Nice for the last 3 days of our trip here and that’s where we’ll part with my parents who have been tremendous hosts and guides. We also greatly appreciate our hosts here where we are staying but will abstain from mentioning names for their sake.
In moving to California almost a year ago, I was unpleasantly suprised at the quality and preperation of coffee in the office. Flavia, senseo-like packet-driven single serve machines are ubiquitous and create silty coffee-like facilimies which are coffee as much as mcdonalds is food. As a result I’ve turned to Starbucks to fulfill my coffee requirements and certainly expected to find them, or an equivelant in France
I can now say, with some certaintity, they don’t serve coffee here. My French teacher lied to me; une cafe means espresso and if you order a grande cafe from McD’s you get a Dixie cup double shot. Everything is espresso here (avec beacoup du sucre et laut). Even the rather ordinary coffee maker at Le Maison is wire filter that requires paper filters as the super market only sells espresso ground. In a way, the shoe is on the other foot and I find myself craving a little watered down American strength coffee. At a gas station I was hopeful. Surely the home base of weary traveller would have a hot pot on; Non! Instead I was shocked to find no less than 4 flavia style vending machines, the same size and shape as cola vending machines. They created a far better brew than our office flavia but still, only small cup brews. Where or where was my mega-gulp 64oz coffee goblet? Perhaps, while I doth protest too much about my native land, there is still an American heart at my core. I truely enjoy the magnificant culinary wonders this country presents me, wines more extraordinary and cheeses more exquisite than I’ve tasted before, a part of me misses my mediocre mass market staples. I will continue to order une cafes here but I’ll be holding my starbucks gold card when we touch tarmack in heathrow on my return.
We started later today and reached Arles in time for lunch. We had an awesome white wine and terrific lunch (though a minor translation issue meant my mom and I got liver instead of beef). We checked out the church there , St. Trophime d’Arles and it’s connected cloister. The church was dark and damp and seemed in disrepair but has been active for a very long time. It had a reliquary with the bones of many saints.
We also saw the colleseum and theater, or what was left of them. The colleseum was in far worse shape than the one we visited the day before. on the way back we stopped put at Chateau Neuf de Pape, which is in the wine region Cote du Rhone. The Chateau itself was destroyed by Nazis after the war and was the only home of the Papacy outside of the Vatican (during that short period of 3 popes; the Polish pope ended up dying, and the French pope resigned returning the papacy to Rone where it’s been ever since)
