Friday at the Con

Thursday night at Comic-Con consisted of parties! Two of the most popular ones being G4 and STRANGEco at the hip Jade Theater, which featured performances by MC Frontalot,  the vinyl toy store MunkyKing had a packed party with live painting, and THQ featured their game Darksiders, while Midway pimped Mortal Kombat vs. DC at a pretty swank party down the street. I partied a little too much, so I unfortunately missed the exciting events of friday morning, recovering in the hotel.

It's only friday, the second day of the Con and I feel like I've been here for much longer then that. The show has been packed, people have been stinking, attitudes have been rude, but amid all this, getting the chance to see all the cool art, toys, and panels, is totally worth it.

The much anticipated Ghostbusters panel was cancelled though, so that was pretty disappointing. There was also a Joss Whedon panel I wanted to attend as an alternative, but the lineup was waaaaay too long, so I decided to checkout the exhibit floor to kill time before heading over to The Spirit presentation. But let me just say that, once you get on the floor, it gets really hard to get out. It reminded me of the old E3, lots of exciting setups, booths, and overall craziness.  I'll have to post pictures of the exhibits later, but this area of the Con is HUGE. It goes on and on, it can get pretty exhausting.

Recorded in 10 parts, you can view the rest of the panel for "The Spirit" on my youtube page youtube.com/rez2cool

Frank Miller, Sam Jackson, and other actors from the film, gave an awsome panel which featured clips from the upcoming film. The movie looks AWESOME.

After this I attended a panel with Kevin Smith, Zack Snyder, and Frank Miller, which I will have to post some time soon.

Comic-Con 08 - Making of Street fighter IV

 

3:00 - After a long trip from LA, I'm finally at Comic-Con, after missing the mornings events, I rushed to what was next on the agenda. Street Fighter IV, and no doubt the lineup was ridiculous, wrapping around the hall, I thought I wouldn't be able to get in.

 

 

3:28 - Finally inside, we were treated to a powerpoint featuring animation for Street Fighter IV, as well as new ingame video.The animation was created by Studio 4C, known for the Animatrix. "Collaborating with Capcom is a dream come true" says Jiro Kania of Studio 4 who was not in attendence, but was quoted in various slides.

 

After a brief Q&A we were treated to a never before seen video, animated segment featuring Chun Li.,

Albert Art finally decides to join Twitter

Sharing a little more Online with Status Updates

...because pulling a 'Justin.tv' is out of the question.

Ah, the joys of the internet. With so many options available for people to share their lives online, one must consider exercising a certain amount caution. To be able to pick, choose, and control the amount of information that a person wants to broadcast is definitely important, especially for people who prefer to keep the details of their life to a minimum (or not). As one of my uncles put it when referring to dealing with the loss of my brother, "A Public face, and a Private face." With all these outlets available, the issue is no longer about the method in which we share our lives, but rather the amount of information we choose to put out there.

When considering the exciting events at San Diego Comic-Con fast approaching, I thought I'd offer readers a way to keep track of what I've been up to, which didn't require the labor of posting a lengthy blog summarizing the days events, or the strapping of a camera to my head 24/7, like a justin.tv 'lifecaster'. Without adding more people to my facebook,(which mind you I'm trying to keep down to a healthy number -- under 100), or myspace, Twitter seems like the ideal standalone Status Update tool for those interested in living vicariously through other people,. I had been thinking about getting Twitter for a while now, so I'm pretty late with joining the Twitter trend, but being that it doesn't require the time, attention, or energy of maintaining a whole new blog, I'm cool with just doing short, brief updates to "stay connected".

If there wasn't anything exciting going on, I probably would still update. There's something about updating ones status (updating since early MSN) that's not only a good way to communicate with others, but after a while it becomes required. People expect it. Your family, and friends want to know what you're up to, so with status updates, you're telling them. Telling them to watch a certain movie, or to avoid a certain restaurant, product or service, or simply to tell them that you have a stomachache and you're sitting on the toilet. Some updates can even be serious, like for example I updated my status on facebook to "Albert is dealing with the sudden loss of a family member," because I felt it was important at the time to let people know what was going on in my life, without being too specific. How could you not tell people what you're going through after such a tragic event? And yet, some people on my friends list NEGLECTED to read the status change, and continued to send me party invites, and stupid links. I replied to one 'friend' angrily, saying something like "READ MY DAMN STATUS!"

Other times I've updated my status to, "Albert managed to put custom ringtones on his unlocked iPhone. Super Mario theme FTW!," and "Albert thinks changing a reservation with travelocity Canada (based in India) over the phone is a painfully ridiculous experience. The "on hold" music sucks too...," Though really, how much can you learn about a person from these updates if they are taken out of context, and written like headlines in a newspaper, typed with a limited amount of characters? Which for total strangers who don't really know the individual behind the update, could create a false impression of that person.

For Comic-Con, I plan on keeping the Twitters brief, and on topic! In addition to utilizing Twitter with my Comic-Con coverage, I will be posting updates on my blogs, throughout the day, as stuff happens... (though not minute to minute). Stay tuned!

I give you permission to follow me @ twitter.com/albertart