The one where I met Greedo
Miss 17 and I took the twentieth bus out of town this morning – it would have been the first bus, but I couldn’t find any dynamite to explode her out of bed. You’re probably wondering why we were up so early (actually, probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway).
I was given tickets last Christmas to a local Comic-Con. When people think of Comic-Con, they naturally thing of San Diego, and thousands of people descending in various cosplay outfits. This was not San Diego. This was nothing like San Diego. This was more like a local town hall with a few stalls, a few props, and a few actors that live locally.
Although I had never visited the venue before, we knew we were on the right track when we bumped into a very good facsimile of David Tennant (the tenth Doctor Who) marching down the high-street, trench coat billowing in the wind. I stopped and did a double-take – he really was very impressive.
A little further on we could see a crowd parting through the street market as two imperial storm troopers and a forest scout trooper made their way through, brandishing very impressive looking weaponry. They stopped to talk to a car that had pulled over, giving directions (or looking for droids – not sure which), and we got to see and hear them up-close – they even had voice changers. I think Miss 17 kind of freaked out at that point – taking a rather wide birth round them.
Within the hall there were a number of stalls selling the things you would expect – memorabilia, figurines, comic-books, jewellery, and so on – and unexpectedly a row of tables with various actors sitting quietly, waiting for anybody to take an interest in them. And that’s how I got to meet Greedo.
It turns out the chap that played Greedo in A New Hope is a nice guy – immediately joking with me about who shot first, and the number of edits to the scene George Lucas has made (so far). I respectfully declined the opportunity to buy a signed print, or pay for a selfie – I did wonder about offering to go get some of them a coffee though. I bet nobody ever does that.
Also sitting along the line was a goblin from Harry Potter, a Storm Trooper from the newer Star Wars films, and an extra that appeared to have been in just about every major movie of the last ten years – everything from James Bond, to the Star Wars movies, and Ready Player One.
Oh – nearly forgot – the master at arms in Game of Thrones that taught Arya Stark to fence – he was there too. I overheard him laughing with another visitor – apparently he had never held a sword in his life before he was cast.
After talking to the various actors, perusing the stalls, and becoming slightly besotted with a very good professional actress dressed as Black Widow from the Avengers (the attraction may have had more to do with Scarlett Johansson than the lady dressed as Black Widow), Miss 17 decided her pocket-money was burning a hole in her pocket – and that’s why she now owns a Hunger Games inspired pocket-watch.
After lunch at Wagamama – a faux Japanese noodle-bar in the middle of town – we had a look around the local bookstore. I wasn’t going to buy anything – just killing time before the bus might arrive – but then a book caught my eye – “Sleeping Giants”, by Sylvain Neuvel. It’s amazing how books do that. I contemplated making a note of it’s title, and ordering it from Amazon, but then realised the only reason I discovered the book is because we have a wonderful bookshop that I could wander around – so even if it’s a bit more expensive, it’s kind of worth it – otherwise bookshops go away, and we only ever find books that Amazon want’s us to find. I think that makes sense. Sort of.
Finally, the eagle eyed among those that read this post (both of you! lol), will notice that the name of the blog has changed. I did a thing. I signed up with Wordpress for the next year, and they gave me the domain name in return. I guess that settles the blog migration madness for the next year at least. We’ll keep very quiet about Wordpress losing the first version of this post, which I foolishly tried to write in the browser.