I kept up with the news while sickaway, and felt like those TV "journalist" personalities must feel when they take a vacation and all hell breaks loose and they're not on to cover it. While I was out and out:
The University of Texas ruins yet another conference with their habitual greedy overreach
I don't hate to say I told you so last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. This day was coming, and we Nebraskans knew it like we know the fullback trap. Schadenfreude? Hell yeah. Lots of it. Good for Texas aTm to get out; better late than never, but there are a few schools that will be stranded and scrambling for inclusion in some conference, any conference. Buddy, can ya spare a dime for a poor Cyclone? We gots no conference because we gots nothin' nobody wants.
Too bad the other schools didn't believe Nebraska when we saw this coming and stood alone as the dissenting vote all these years. They thought it was safer to keep Texas and puppet Dan Beebe at the tiller and keep the short-term stability, as if banding together in Texas's best interests was going to offer some shelter come the day when the Bevo boys had their pieces in place to imbalance the conference beyond sanity. There is no safety in numbers when the majority votes to fall in line with the schoolyard bully. Hey Sooners--that's not a teat you're suckling. Bevo's a bull.
It was funny to catch ESPN writer David Ubben's weekend tweet: "When does Nebraska put up a 'Through these doors walks the Smartest Athletic Department in College Football' sign atop the Osborne Complex?" How about that, the world's first meaningful tweet. This after his mockery of Nebraska leaving for the Big Ten last year, which earned him a few pages of criticism from Huskers and non-Huskers alike and prompted him to follow up with a capitulation post after many accusations of Texas pandering.
Meanwhile, ESPN's $300m deal with Texas to prop up the Longhorn Network keeps their lips sealed on the aTm secession. On Michigan Avenue I could hear the sigh of relief all the way from Bristol when the Miami story broke this weekend and gave them something else to talk about instead of pretending to not notice what was happening to their new business buddy's conference. Maybe they could get Craig James to weigh in with his opinion. That would be a fun little piece to fit in this latest episode of ESPN's twisted world of interest conflicts.
Chicago ComiCon was mega-ultra-super
My first, and it was pretty cool. Not as much cosplayers as I thought there would be and it was a pretty heavy vendor-fest. Artist Alley was great and I met a few artists of whose work I've been a fan for years, such as Arthur Suydam, Mark Texeira, Dave Dorman and Ben Templesmith, as well as met a few talented newcomers who I expect to see in A-list titles before long. The artists were universally very friendly, approachable and talkative. Ben Templesmith is particularly engaging and fun to talk to but I would have liked to see more writers there and talk to them. I dropped a little more coin on prints for my room than I planned but it was a great time and my daughter and wife got some personal drawings for them by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani.
I didn't make it to any featured guest Q&A sessions, mainly because the timing was wrong for Bruce Campbell and Felicia Day's, and Patrick Stewart's would have been overfull and his lines were stupid long. Unfortunately I was planning on catching Morena Baccarin but she had to cancel due to a schedule conflict. Ah well. LeVar Burton was extremely friendly and my daughter was thrilled to meet and get a pic with him.
I'm just not a celebrity person though...just not interested in someone's fame for fame's sake, and I have no need to be in proximity of it. I watched Patrick Stewart sign autographs and chat with fans, yet after all the years of watching him command the Enterprise and wheel around in that Magneto-proof chair, I kept wondering if King Claudius would enjoy discussing Shakespeare sometime over some Earl Grey tea, hot. But otherwise they seem like just people. I'd rather chat with them than have them write their name on a piece of paper or a photo or a model starship. I'd rather ask Stewart what his intent was with the shrug as he drank the poison in the BBC Hamlet from last year and see if it lined up with my interpretation. I'd rather ask Ben Templesmith what movies he enjoyed this summer than pay $900 for an original print (though his Fell prints are fantastic). Maybe it's just the types of celebrity that I tend to fall into circles with, geeks and people who appreciate geekdom. Suits me fine.
Also, pretty sure I met a real Dalek. Almost exterminated for real. Close call, but I was able to escape into a mini TARDIS tent. Somehow this one wasn't bigger on the inside.
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