This year’s Comic-Con was a tale of two cities when it came assistance. I’ll explain:
On the first day of the show, Ray and I had to run off to ACE Hardware to pick up a three-pronged adaptor for the portable TV/DVD player Rich had at our booth in order to play our various trailers and movies.
When we got to ACE, I have to admit, I had a rather … strange experience. The girl who tried to help us was so … nice, and friendly, and polite … that it actually threw me off! As a New YThis year’s Comic-Con was a tale of two cities when it came assistance. I’ll explain:
On the first day of the show, Ray and I had to run off to ACE Hardware to pick up a three-pronged adaptor for the portable TV/DVD player Rich had at our booth in order to play our various trailers and movies.
When we got to ACE, I have to admit, I had a rather … strange experience. The girl who tried to help us was so … nice, and friendly, and polite … that it actually threw me off! As a New Yorker, fresh off a 3,000 mile flight, I was suspicious. When somebody is that nice to me in New York, I figure they’re up to something, that they’re trying to scam me in some way. (Ever more the reason to make more vacations …).
So I have to admit that I was a little aloof with her, but only because her kindness freaked me out! My bad, I know (Ray scolded me for it), but I did make a big comeback the rest of the week, nice as can be to all the waiters and bartenders we saw throughout the show.
As for the convention itself, well … that’s where we had a bit of a problem. The security team they hired to man the show was so darn aggressive! Whoa! Here’s a few examples:
On the first day Rich, Ray and I are outside, walking from the Hyatt to the Convention Center, when we come to a crosswalk–stepping across the Marriott driveway. The light was green, so I walked across, lugging a hand truck with three huge boxes. About two-thirds of the way across, the cop starts yelling at me. "Don’t you see the red hand telling you to stop?"
I didn’t. There was a red hand, but the light was also green. So, uh …
Then, as another woman walked across, he angrily stopped her in her tracks, and made her go back until the light changed. He was one of those guys who was probably a wannabe detective stuck on traffic duty, and was pretty p.o’d about it.
The next day, Ray and I were walking the floor, taking pictures, checking out the show, when we came to a logjam. About 100 or so people, maybe more, were clustered in one of the aisles, mesmerized but we all saw on screen. There was this absolutely amazing Star Wars … video game! It looked better than all of the Clone Wars cartoons and even some of the movies! We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.
Security comes along, and, in fairness, was just doing their job, trying to keep the aisle clear. However …. there’s a way to do things and a way not to do things. This one security chick was really aggressive. "Move out people! Move it! I said move it!" And her tone was not only loud, but snarky. And finally she said to someone, "Are you deaf? I said move."
That’s when I had enough. Still, I was calm about it. I simply said, "There’s no reason to be rude about it." She of course claimed just how rude she wasn’t being … and then proceeded to literally stalk me for the next hundred feet or so, literally step behind, talking trash to try to get me to respond. I just calmly ignored her and went about my business. Grrrrrrrr.
All in all we had a good time at the show, but there was definitely some weird mojo going on …
More updates to come …
