Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Wednesday evening "Preview Night" was four times as crowded as last year's sneak peek at the main exhibit hall. It's usually a low-key, lightly-attended time to prowl the venue without elbowing your way through teeming hordes. It could have passed for Thursday afternoon…and Thursday afternoon could have passed for Friday. If today looks like Saturday, then Saturday will be tens of thousands of people all standing around, packed together like a Kellogg's Variety Pak, inching their way up the aisles at the speed of glaciers.
So there you have my first "Boy, is this place crowded" wisecrack. There will be more to come.
A friend used to always ask me, "What's the mood of the convention?" Near as I can figure, the mood of this one is summarized by the phrase, "Well, here we are back at the San Diego Con." The event itself seems to be more important (and certainly more impressive) than anything being exhibited here. But one of the problems with covering this mega-gathering is that it's really about forty conventions in one. The anime fans are excited about guests and announcements that are meaningless to me…and this morning in the hotel elevator, a lady was all aglow at the prospect that today, at a panel, she will meet…
…well, I'm not sure. It's some actor I've never heard of who's on a TV series I've never watched. This may well be the high point of her year but I'm as uninterested in her passions as she probably is in mine. Which is kind of an awkward way to make the point that once you get to the convention center here, you pretty much have to find the parts of the convention that matter to you. If you do, I think you can have a very good time.
Spent yesterday talking to a batch of people and doing three panels that went quite well. The usual stuff.
This morning, I hiked over to the Ralphs market on 1st Street to stock up on provisions and found its aisles full of con-goers. I felt out of place without my badge on. The Ralphs (they spell it without the apostrophe) has actually become part of the con, and I think if you got shut out of the main hall, you could experience a lot of the con — at least, meet some interesting people — by hanging out near the bottled water section of the market. Two years ago, I received a very nice job offer near the deli case. It's also not as crowded as the convention center, plus they have fresh, hot barbecued chickens.