Nikki's Comicon 2017 Top Ten

Every year, I tell you that I'm going to write you a Comicon post and then some how it's magically December and it's closer to next year's Comicon and it's just not going to happen. The problem is I think too big. You know I'm wordy and with an event like Comicon there's just too much to write about.

Well, I'll show you Comicon!!!!

This time I'm just doing a Top 10 list. Disclaimer - some of these will kind of blend and repeat. While there are 10 distinct experiences, the pictures overlap occasionally.

Nikki's Ultimate Comicon 2017 Top 10 Best Things Ever

10. Star Wars Booth

I'd be amiss to not mention the whole reason we go to Comicon. Dan and I are lucky to be friends with the guy who coordinated the Star Wars presence at conferences and we get to work the Star Wars booth which gets us our passes. Being Star Wars and all, their booth is generally a large attraction in the convention and this year was no different. Our booth featured a large scene from The Last Jedi as well as some X-Wing Pilot costumes that were used in the film. It was really cool.

The highlight of working the booth though, is interacting with the fans. For the most part, people were friendly and gratious. My job most of my shifts was to take pictures for the fans who came to the booth. I got a great angle and became really efficient with my role. I also really liked it. My favorite were the people with fancy DSLR cameras. I hadn't really used one before but by the end of the weekend, I wanted one.

I also got to see so many cool costumes come through and a few times I asked if I could take their photo for myself as well. I loved seeing the cosplayers have fun mixing their characters with our scene.

9. Cosplay

I didn't really get a lot of pictures of Cosplayers this year but that didn't make their outfits any less amazing. Dan and I normally put together some amateur cosplay as well, but weren't able to this year. Knowing how much work it is to make our mediocre outfits, I always applaud the people who have really good ones. While I don't have any stand alone pictures of them, you can look above for some of my favorites from our booth.

Oh wait, here's an awesome K2S0!

8. SyFy's Everything

SyFy had a huge presences at Comicon this year. They often marched through the streets with a band giving out prizes. They had a pedal cart where you could do trivia. If your team won, you would each get $20. They had a puzzle room for the Expanse (which we did not try out). Lastly, they had a huge party where they rented out the Children's museum, gave out free beers and shirts, had a 90s cover band, and was hosted by Zachary Levi. The last one was what I had the most experience with and it was amazing. I'm not a big party person but every now and then I'm into it and I had a great time at this one. It was a perfect mix of things I love - friends, costumes, beer, bands, and Zachary Levi. Very fun time.

7. Recoil

Sometimes at Comicon, you get to test out a new product. For us, this was Recoil. We thought we were just waiting in line for a silly laser tag game, but we actually really loved the product. Basically, you have some laser tag type of guns and your cell phone is your screen for your game. It plays more like a real life first person shooter where you have to reload, collect ammo, regenerate, and can command air strikes. You play on teams and you have headsets so you can coordinate. We played on a small parking lot course but you can create your own boundaries and play up to a football field sized area. Could you imagine playing in a big park or through a quiet neighborhood? With so much distance and many natural obstacles, you could really have an awesome game. Anyways, needless to say, we destroyed the other team like 40-6 or something.

Dan and I are definitely interested in buying a set. The starter pack with 2 guns and the home base is $130 with additional guns ranging from $50-70 (depending on size/quality). Our feeling was that we'd totally buy the starter set if our friends get their own add on guns. Our group plays in so many leagues that cost $50-70 every few weeks and I like the idea of starting our own Recoil league and playing weekly with our own things instead. Friends - if you're reading this, buy a Recoil gun. Thanks!!!!

6. The Kingsman Happy Hour

Comicon has a lot of opportunities for free food and drinks. This year, it seemed like there was more than ever. One of those opportunities, was a daily happy hour put on by Kingsman 2. My friends and I went two of the days and we loved it. For a short wait, you got 2 whiskey drinks, a burger, a chance to win prizes, and lots of challenge coins. What's a challenge coin? Well, it stems from a military tradition where everyone would have a special coin. While they were out drinking, soldiers would slam their coins on the table. The last one to slam their coin has to buy the next round. We had a fun time playing the whole weekend, and even more fun knowing that many of our drinks were free so no one had to pay up. 

All in all, the happy hour was a fun and silly event. The movie is kind of a spoof on spy movies and it seems like the sequel is going to be even more silly so it was cool that they took the idea and just had a lot of fun throwing some great parties.

Even Halle Berry took part in the Kingsman festivities! .... just not with us

5. New Trailers

Here's something everyone benefited from - even if they didn't make it to the convention. So many movies dropped new trailers from Thor Ragnarok to Ready Player One. I could list them all but I'm sure you've probably already watched them all. I love that people know to look to Comicon for info on new movies and it helps make the event such a major part of the film industry.

4. Photo Ops

The last 5 could probably be inter-changable. They are ALL my favorite things about Comicon but I was able to barely place them into an order.

The Photo Ops are something Dan and I have loved every year. It's probably the reason I had so much fun at our booth - it was a giant photo op. We've always loved finding places to take fun pictures around Comicon and this year was no different. With how many things have long lines, being able to just take a quick photo is such a nice instant gratification and leaves you with a lasting memory.

3. Bladerunner

Like the Kingsman happy hour, this was an outside event (meaning no pass was needed to go) and it also featured free whiskey and food (literally the theme of Comicon this year). That's where the similarities end. While Kingsman truly was a happy hour, Bladerunner was an experience. For a scant 5 hour wait in line (we must have gone at a peak time), you got to watch a VR video that landed you in Los Angeles 2049. You arrive at the scene of a crash with futuristic police officers grilling you about what you saw.

If you survive that room, you move onto the downtown scene. There's an Asian restaurant, transvestites, fog, and a lot of lights. Frankly, it felt a lot like the Castro in SF to me. I loved it. In the downtown area you could get scanned to test if you were a replicant, get a free shirt from a vending machine, eat some free noodles, and try Johnnie Walker scotch (not really related to the movie, but they were the event sponsor). It was a long wait but it was such a fun experience that it was worth it. I heard the line for the experience without VR was shorter and in the future, I would have done that. The best part was the interactive portion and everyone got to do that.

2. Sharing it with My Friends

You're probably thinking, "Damn Nikki, your friends are #2? That's cold!" NUMBER 1 IS REALLY GOOD, OK? Ok great!

Every year a few of my friends come into town for Comicon and it makes the whole thing so much more fun. There are also a lot of San Diego friends who reach out and try to meet up. Imagine how fun all of the past numbers were... now imagine it with either friends you don't see often but love or with friends you see all the time but have never seen the wonders of Comicon. It all adds up to a super amazing fun time.

While I didn't get to meet up with everyone I tried to connect with, I appreciated the time I spent with the people who met up with us. Every year I put together a really organized calendar so I can maximize my time at the con. I was happy to share it with anyone who asked and I'm glad it helped them find cool events and also find me.

Having so many friends meet up at some point took it from a very fun event to a super duper amazing fun time with some of my favorite people.

1. Panels

In my opinion, getting inside the Con has two major perks. You get to buy exclusive merchandise and you can go to panels. Dan and I try not to buy a lot of stuff so we try to maximize our panels. The holy grail of panels are in Hall H. That's about a 24 hour line though and we've never been up for the sacrifice. Luckily, many of our favorite shows are in Ballroom 20 and the line is just a few hours.

Those same shows all ended in crazy cliffhangers so getting a first look at the show's new footage was amazing. Hearing the actors' thoughts on the crazy things that happened over their seasons was also really cool. I mostly just love seeing all the banter and friendships amongst the cast.

Sometimes - you get a really amazing moment at the panels you attend. Last year, the amazing moment was the cast of Flash singing and tap dancing. That moment led to a musical episode. This year, the moment hit much closer to home. A young girl asked Stephen Amell (the star of Arrow) if he will sell anymore shirts to raise money for cancer... as she was a cancer survivor. The room went still. He proceeded to ask her some questions and the end result was him giving her a personal necklace, a hug, and a kiss. I cried then and I cry now thinking about it. Recently losing a parent to cancer as well as both god parents, I know it's a tough experience. I can't even imagine a kid going through it. That's just absolutely terrible. I'm happy she's a survivor and I hope she doesn't come across it again in her future.

That clip is here if you want to see it for yourself:

So that's it! It was hard to limit myself to 10 and I had to move things around a bit, but I did it! I wrote about Comicon! I had an absolutely fantastic time. It's impossible to do it all and I know I missed some experiences - from the friends I didn't meet up with to the Westworld experience (seriously, Google it) to my endless pursuit to meet Nikki Bella. Lucky for me, there's next year and you better believe I will keep coming back for more as long as San Diego has this fantastic event.

Wine Wednesdays - Meaty Zins, Close Encounters, The Best Theater in San Francisco, and Birthday Drinks

I'm sure it's been a long week but luckily Wine Wednesday has rolled around once again which means more wine posts for you (and hopefully you're own glass... or bottle when you get home!).

Meaty Zins

This was a really fun week for me. I'm a member of several wine clubs and two of them only do shipments twice a year. Both of these were wines I'd tried once and decided to join their clubs since they were delicious and inexpensive. At the end of July, I received my first wine shipments from both of these clubs and was really excited to dive into their wines... so I had them both this week.

The first winery is a local East Bay wine maker - Urbano Cellars. Their tasting room is on 4th Street in Berkeley so it's definitely worth checking out if you don't want to drive all the way out to wine country.

I was craving a big steak dinner so I decided to try Urbano's 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel. It was also one of the wine's I hadn't tried yet so I was excited to give it a shot. The flavor on it was very intense and you could really tell it was getting a lot of complexity from the old vines. It's crazy that an 8 year old wine was still so robust and this one could stand up in a cellar for many more years. The flavor was a meaty, leathery, deep berry taste and it was a very well done Zin. It went great with my steak and veggie dinner. If it's not obvious from the picture, I was really excited to cook again after our trip to San Diego!

Urbano Cellars 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel $25.00

Close Encounters

The other wine club I tried a bottle from was Area 5.1. I'm not going to lie, we walked into their tasting room because of the name. We ended up finding a winery with a really fun premise and really unique

blends. You'll be seeing their wines here again, but let's talk about last week's wine - Close Encounter (even their names are fun!), a blend of  Grenache Blanc, Roussane, and Loureiro. 

The wine was very acidic with notes of lemon and grass. It was really crisp and refreshing and went really well with my roast chicken over roast veggies (seriously, was so happy to cook again!!!). 

I also want to say how happy I was that this wine had a low alcohol of 13.5%. I tend to have two glasses of wine a night and I can definitely feel the difference between a 13.5% and an 18%. I like wine because I like the taste, not because I want to get wasted every night. I really appreciate wine makers that focus on high quality, delicious wines instead of pumping up the alcohol content. It's nice to have two glasses of a good wine and not feel tipsy. 

Area 5.1 2012 Close Encounter $24.00

The Best Theater in San Francisco

When I watch movies at home, I like to curl up on my cozy couch with a glass or two of wine. So why can't a theater give that same experience? Well, the Kabuki Theater in Japan Town has solved this problem. The theater has bar areas built into the common areas. Some can only be accessed before shows but there is a whole floor of only 21+ theaters so you can take your beer, wine, or cocktail into the movie with you. In addition to that, the seats are large plush lounge chairs (which you reserve ahead of time so no worries if you want to hang out at the bar until the minute your flick starts) and there is a little table between every two seats so you can easily rest your drink and any food you got. Oh yes, the food - Kabuki goes well beyond your normal theater fare and offers options like pizzas, salads, sandwiches, and other small bites. They even point out which items are ready faster if you don't have a lot of time between shows.

So Friday when we wanted to see the most anticipated movie of the summer (at least for me), Guardians of the Galaxy, of course we were going to pick the theater where we could guarantee our seats and enjoy a glass of wine. I was really happy to be able to sip on some Petite Sirah and enjoy a Margarita pizza (yes, sometimes I go crazy and have pizza) while watching an awesome flick!

Birthday Drinks

Sunday was the birthday of my lovely boyfriend so of course we celebrated... with drinks! Dan loves cider so there was only one place to go... upcider, the only cider bar in SF. We have a lot of fun trying new things there and we have very different tastes so it's nice to get to try a bit of something that I wouldn't have ordered myself. For example, I got this dry apple Sonoma Cider aged in Bourbon barrels called The Anvil. Dan got Pineapple cider. We are just two very different peas in a pod sometimes. All in all, it was a nice quiet way to spend his birthday enjoying a drink that we love and that happily is becoming more and more popular!

On a side note, one of our favorite things about upcider is the people watching. It has huge glass windows that overlook a busy intersection on Polk St. If you love casually judging strangers over cider (they have beer and wine also, not to mention a decent food selection) then definitely check out this little gem. 

Week of July 3rd 2011: Griffith Park

Griffith Park is a staple of the Los Angeles area. Since L.A. isn't a condensed city like San Francisco, New York, etc. it doesn't really need that large, centralized park like the other large metropolitan areas do, but if it did - Griffith Park would be it. Like LA, the park is large and sprawling and you need a car to really get around it. However, it relates to the other parks by frankly, being much more than just a park. Griffith park is home to the LA Zoo, the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, tons of trails, and many of L.A.'s dearly departed.

In my effort to get to know more of L.A., I stumbled upon some neat things to do in Griffith Park. While I'd been to the zoo, I hadn't really explored the rest of the area. I had originally been search Google for some tidal caves because that just seemed cool. Instead, I came across the Bronson Caves which, as it turns out, are the caves they used to film the Adam West Batman TV show. In other words, this was something I needed to check out.


After following the intricate directions, I found myself at the parking lot closest to the caves. Since the directions were a little difficult (not to mention I kept losing service), I was really hoping that I had found the right place. However, I got out of my car and noticed I was right next to a sign that said "Camp Hollywoodland." Here's a fun little piece of history - the Hollywood sign used to read "Hollywoodland." However, the original sign started seeing severe deterioration and when it was being restored, "land" was left off. Either way, seeing another sign with the original "Hollywoodland" title made me feel like I had found a bit of history.

I continued up the path to the spot of the Bronson Caves. Honestly, they weren't anything special. Just a little cave in a hill, not very deep at all. It is fun to witness some Hollywood magic though. The right angle and a few effects can make even some little caves into something much more. The directions I had found also mentioned that you could see the Hollywood sign on the way back down the path. True enough, you could. However, the angle was just bad enough that it was really difficult to get a good picture of it. That gave me a new challenge.

I got back in my car and drove to a spot with some service and looked up better places to see the sign. It seemed like the best spot was up by Griffith Observatory so off I went. Apparently, the observatory is a popular spot on a nice summer day because it was rather difficult to park, but eventually I found a spot and got my Hollywood sign picture (the one at the beginning of the post. It still wasn't great, but it seemed like it was the best I was going to do this time.

The trip gave me some new ideas for new things though. I definitely want to take a hike up the real sign (as close as is legal - don't worry, I'm not planning on breaking any laws) and to actually go into the observatory  (even though I got this lovely picture of the outside of it).

On my way back down the hill, I came across some other famous movie landscapes. I didn't get to snap a picture since I was driving, but maybe I'll let you find that one on your own... or you can click the link if the curiosity is too much for you.

I can't wait to go back and conquer my other new ideas, as well as looking into other famous movie locations that I can explore.

Week of February 28th 2011: Bisou and the Castro Theater

I suppose it's fitting that I write about the Castro Theater during Pride in SF. The Castro Theater is one of many incredible landmarks around San Francisco. The Theater plays lots of classic, old movies so when it was suggested that I check it out for my blog, I knew I had to pick the perfect movie to be my first there. So when one of my favorite classic movies - a timeless tale of love, family, and transformation - came along, I knew I had to go. That's right - I went to The Little Mermaid Sing-Along.

But let's back track a couple of hours. As a belated birthday present, I decided to take my friend, Shannon, to an endless mimosa lunch. We decided to go that day so we could see the movie together as well. After some Yelping and Google Searching, we came across Bisou, a cute French inspired brunch spot. It was a great choice. We were lucky that we beat a lot of the Sunday brunch rush (although there was already a table filled with another group of Shannon's friends) so we got great service the whole time. In addition to our endless mimosas, we got incredible food. I got some crab eggs benedict and she got a croque madame and they were both super tasty. To top it off - our waiter topped off our mimosas even after we finished eating.

However, we couldn't stay and hang out too long because we had to make our movie! After getting our tickets, we were handed Little Mermaid goody bags for the show. They were filled with bubbles, crowns, necklaces, glowsticks, and dinglehoppers.

The whole movie experience was so fun. I think the best part about the theater is that ability to see a movie that came out before you were born (or in this case, when you were just a little kid) and have the chance to see it on the big screen again or maybe the first time. I definitely recommend that everyone check out the theater's calendar each month and try to make it to one of your favorite old films. I'm sad that I didn't look at June a little earlier. They played my favorite movie, Vertigo, for 3 days straight. It would have been wonderful to see that on the big screen.\

And now I'm finally through the February posts! It only took me three months to get through February and a lot more went on in March - I'm never going to catch up am I?

Well - I have another vacation coming up. I'm going to spend a week or so in Southern California visiting family and taking it easy. I have a few new things planned but if you're in LA, SB, or SD - I'm headed your way and would love to see you. If not, that's more time for me to write.