It’s SAN DIEGO Comic Con For a Reason…So Please Stay Here!

 

This week the outlook for San Diego Comic Con staying in San Diego past 2016 became a bit murky. The plan was to use a hotel tax to help pay for the Convention Center expansion.  But that measure was struck down in the appeals courts, and the City Council has no plan to appeal it.  That means that the expansion’s future is up in the air, and without the expansion, San Diego Comic Con’s ability to stay in San Diego may be in jeopardy.

Here in San Diego, there are proposals all over the place for new stadiums for the Chargers, tearing down the iconic San Diego Sports Arena (if you saw the movie Almost Famous, then you know about he Sports Arena; not only that, but that’s where my parents saw Elvis and the Rolling Stones back in the day), and reconfiguring Balboa Park ahead of the 2015 centennial celebration.  The thing most people don’t know about San Diego is that after a tumultuous decade or two of pension crises and irresponsible political doings by politicians with strange agendas, getting major plans together is harder than it should be.

That said, the expansion of the Convention Center makes a lot more sense than building a stadium that is used for a few events each year as opposed to a larger convention center that brings millions of dollars to the city on a regular basis.

It’s also important to note SDCC’s origins in San Diego.  If Los Angeles wants a major con, then make one.  (As long as it isn’t called “comic con” you’re ok…right, Salt Lake City??)  Comic Con should stay in San Diego because it was born here.  It wasn’t until the movie studios came down from LA that the lines got longer and panels filled up to the brim.  Frankly, I think that there is enough interest and enough capacity to have a major con in San Diego, LA, and Las Vegas.  

Would that be a bad thing?  I say no, not at all.

Check out the article from Entertainment Weekly about SDCC: 

http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/08/29/comic-con-san-diego/

 

 

Lost’s 10 Year Anniversary and Malaysia Flight 370

It’s ironic and fitting, in a way, that it has been a week and a half since we “lost” Malaysia Air Flight 370 and then the cast of Lost reunites at PaleyFest for the 10th anniversary of the show’s debut. 

http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/12-highlights-from-the–lost–paleyfest-panel-054715551.html

Several members of the Oceanic 815 crew came together along with the show’s creators and producers to dispel some of the myths about the show’s biggest mysteries (spoiler–they explain the church scene during the finale!)

Obviously I do not wish to make light of what’s going on with Malaysia Air Flight 370, but what I do like is that so many people are keeping their hopes up that the plane landed somewhere.  Just like Schrodinger’s Cat, at this point the plane is neither crashed nor landed.  There is still hope that it’s out there somewhere, intact, and the passengers are safe.

Thanks to Lost, we have hope.

On the Nature of Aliens; Inspired by Clyde Lewis’s “Rocket

Once again I’m caught up in tonight’s Clyde Lewis’ Ground Zero show.  Here’s a transcript:

http://www.groundzeromedia.org/rocket-bye-baby/

I had a dream once that Jesus was an alien.  I’ll never forget it because it came to me when I was 18 and I’d taken a class in college called “The Millennium” and it was all about millennial cults (Ironically, this was in 1998 and it was offered at a Catholic university).  At any rate, I had a dream that Jesus returned, only no one realized that he was an alien.  If you stop and think about it, aliens who wish to take over the planet would be smart to come to Earth as religious figures.  People tend to not question these things.

At any rate, tonight’s radio show made me think about the Twilight Zone episode called “To Serve Man.”  Rod Serling was ahead of his time.  This episode revolved around aliens, the Kanamits (I have a Kanamit doll that I bought at Comic Con) who come to earth under the guide of sharing their wisdom with the people of earth.  (Spoiler alert!!)  Their real intention, however, is to take humans to their planet as the main ingredient in their recipes…get it–To serve man….  What calls my attention to this episode is that the Kanamits land and go to the United Nations.  There is no panic, but there’s a media firestorm and a whirlwind of politicians trying to figure out how to use the Kanamits to their advantage. It’s remarkable how calmly the people of Earth are during this first contact experience. 

When the aliens arrive in Independence Day, things are not as calm.  People panic.  Will Smith’s neighbors in Los Angeles do not waste time getting the heck out of town.  When the aliens attack, the panic level increases.

I would love to see what people today would do if a UFO showed up in the sky for all to see.  I’d love to hear the military spin jockeys stammering that they were not caught off guard and the political slant on the massive event.  Social media would be aflutter, of course, and the media would be frothing to get an exclusive interview with anyone who knew what was going on.  Can you imagine it? 

A California Highway Patrolman Arrests an On-Duty Fireman for Doing His Job….

Check this out:  http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Veteran-Firefighter-Cuffing-Fire-Crews-Ridiculous–243940041.html

If you haven’t seen the whole story and the video, the Los Angeles news picked up the story as well: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/cop-arrests-on-duty-firefighter-over-parking-feud-150128011.html?vp=1

A fire truck was responding to a freeway rollover accident and the CHP officer arrests the fire truck driver for blocking traffic.  The fire truck driver parked the  fire truck so that the accident scene is protected from oncoming traffic.  Yes, I understand that the duty of the CHP is to reopen traffic as quickly as possible, but this is beyond the pale.  When these things happen, it undermines public perception of the CHP.  I don’t think the CHP officer was acting maliciously or with ill intent, but this didn’t need to happen, and it certainly didn’t need to happen in front of the media.  This makes it look like the two agencies don’t work together, when in fact they work together every day to help the citizens of San Diego. 

Hopefully this situation never happens again.  I’m a bit concerned that the PR people for the CHP said on the radio this morning that it “should not happen again.”  I would have preferred stronger language, like “it will never happen again.”  But at least, if nothing else, communication will be improved after this incident.  I have so much respect for our First Responders…they don’t need their image to be tarnished by bureaucratic nonsense.