Where's the Chicken Soup When You Need It?

I think I may be coming down with the flu. I woke up with a punk stomach and I was chilled and then I got warm. I've got aching in my skull and joints, itchy eyes, and a funny taste in my mouth. I have broken down and taken the Tamiflu we've been hording. I needed to be at work today to check out something that has turned into a bit of a mess. The correction has been made, but there was a timed release of an e-mail which I cannot reverse myself. I'm hoping the boss can recall it and send out the corrected e-mail with the proper link without too much trouble when he finally comes back later today. I've left him voice mail and I may go home if I don't feel better real soon. Fortunately, I am not coughing or sneezing--yet. I worry about spreading anything.

Len's off to Columbus, New York, and Baltimore. Two conventions book-ending meetings at DC Comics, and, most importantly, a night at the theatre with my sister as the guest of the lovely Hugh Jackman. I wish I could jump in a plane to be in New York on Thursday night, but I've got tickets to see August: Osage County here on Friday night and the city-wide King Trivia tournament finals on Saturday afternoon. Much as I would like to see Hugh and meet Daniel Craig (yes, they are invited back stage), I'm delighted my sister gets to meet them in my place. I've got my fingers crossed that she's going to earn her waivers today to finally get her SAG card, and it would be a great way for her to celebrate.

Assuming I'm not coming down with the cooties, I'm planning to treat the Sunday Super Supper Club to an recipe from Marcella Hazen that I love, but Len wouldn't like (he's very limited in the kinds of fish he will try.) Fortunately, it really doesn't take all that long to prepare, because I'm planning on going to the Pasadena City College Swap Meet with Susan and Kathryn on Sunday morning. I figure if I do my shopping and prep of Saturday, I'll be fine.

The Arabian Prince hasn't seen much of me lately. Between the heat and my week, I finally got a chance to stop by yesterday. He's having a great time jumping. As long as he doesn't do it with me, that's fine. I've got the premium for the big Arab show at the Equestrian Center over Thanksgiving weekend, and we're trying to figure out which classes he'll enjoy doing. I'm willing to let Ashley jump him if she wants to. I'd like to get my Schlesse adjusted for him ahead of time, because it's a beautiful and under-used saddle. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a Schlesse clinic near by for quite a while, and I haven't been able to ferry him to one.

General Musings

I don't like working on my birthday. I'd rather spend the time with Ace. But we're leaving for San Diego tomorrow and I need to conserve my vacation days this year. I'm not even taking off next Monday, which I originally scheduled, because I'm still debating a last-minute trip to my high school reunion back east. The idea of a whirlwind weekend to New York State is not nearly as appealing as a 10 day visit, but I can't be back east for that long right now.

The heat makes riding unappealing. Not so much the riding as the tacking up. I was sick to my stomach after tacking Ace up for an 8:30 lesson on Saturday morning and just didn't have much energy for anything except suppling him for his lesson with Ashley after mine. It worked out alright, but I hate that feeling. When it was 110 at 4:00 yesterday, I canceled my 5:15 lesson. We're supposed to do a lesson at 8:15 tomorrow morning, so I hope it is at least tolerable then.

San Diego is always a great city to visit, but especially so when the temperatures are supposed to be 25 or more degrees cooler than Los Angeles in the summer. A couple of years ago while we were at Comicon, it was 119 degrees at Pierce and there was a horse show going on. They were really lucky that they could use the covered arena, because they had to pretty much cancel the rest of the events that couldn't take place in that shade. I was happy not to be around for it.

I'm looking forward to meeting Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley at the Human Target panel on Saturday. The Human Target is another one of Len's off-spring and it will be a mid-season entry on Fox. We enjoyed the pilot, and the changes from the original material seem to work. Rick Springfield starred in an 8-episode version of it that ran not quite 20 years ago. Can a revived Swamp Thing be far behind?

We're also planning to go to The Big Bang Theory panel on Friday, but not if I have to stand in line. Which is why it is nice to know the show runners. I'm waiting for e-mail from one of them telling us how to by-pass the crowds. Sometimes it is a really good thing to be married to a comic book god. I was sorry that TBBT didn't get nominated for an Emmy, but Jim Parsons richly deserves his nomination for playing the wonderfully quirky Sheldon and I hope he wins.

During the day, except for those times when Len is on a panel, I'm free to wander about greater San Diego. I like to avoid the crush of 150,000 comic book fans all crammed into the convention center. I usually will only do the main floor at the Wednesday evening preview, but I actually prefer it when someone slips us exhibitor passes and we can get in before the preview crowd. That's what we did last year. Because Len was an honored guest last year, I spent a lot more time at the convention than I usually do--he was on a lot more panels. Plus my friends Melinda Snodgrass and Connie Willis were at the convention and on panels and I wanted to support them as well. This year is a lot easier for me to be selfish.

A couple of years ago, when the convention coincided with my birthday, I brought my riding gear along and found a rental stable where I went out with a private tour guide for a couple of hours and we walked and trotted on several thousand acres, including a wildlife preserve, east of San Diego proper. I had a great time, my guide was a very entertaining 15 year old, but the heat was as bad as it was in L.A. I did enjoy riding the dun quarter horse, even when he did a 180 underneath me because a bicycle came zipping up behind us. Luckily, I was relaxed and well stuck to the saddle. Love those well-seasoned trail horses.

We're going to look at a house right after I'm done with work today, before Len takes me out to dinner. We may look at more than one house, because I saw a photograph of a spectacular place in one of the neighborhoods I keep checking out and it's within our feasible range. It wasn't quite where I was looking, but the inside and the patio is definitely worth the consideration. The sink even looks out a window, which is something I really like. What we definitely need is more space, and a chunk of that space needs to be open because we love to give parties.

So, for my birthday, the spousal unit gave me an iPod, which I got to take the place of my Palm Tungsten 5, which gave up its ghost right after I got my netbook last month. I managed to get the Palm information into the netbook before the Palm went to Jesus, but now I'm trying to figure out how to migrate the data to the Mac's address book to sync with the Palm. The netbook is great, and I'm taking that to San Diego rather than a full-sized notebook, but I still don't want to be carrying it around with me all day. I've only had the iPod since Saturday, but I am deeply in love with it. I bought some music, but more importantly, I bought a bunch of reference apps, a couple of trivia games, and even a version of Jeopardy to keep me amused during the trip to San Diego (Len is a lousy passenger, so I am perfectly resigned to letting him do the driving while I nap or do other things.) Tonight, I need to add some pictures of Ace to it, because people always ask about him.

Some of my friends contributed to the restoration of my Hugh Jackman and Viggo Mortensen collections by getting me Blu-ray disks of Hidalgo and Appaloosa and a DVD of Oklahoma. Rounding out the horse theme, I was given a replacement in Blu-ray of Seabiscuit. I can't wait to watch them when we get back.

When Len goes to Toronto in August, I'm going to invite the ladies over so we can watch Viggo in Alatriste, which has not been released in English. I got the Spanish release with subtitles. I've read most of the Perez-Reverte novels about Captain Alatriste (I had them all in hard back, until the fire) so I was disappointed when the film never opened here. I'm always up for a good swashbuckler and Viggo does know how to use a sword.

Again with That Hugh Jackman Guy!

We're back home after a fantastic evening attending the Hollywood premier of X-men Origins: Wolverine at the famous Chinese Theatre. We got to take my son Michael and my niece Stephanie Valada-Viars with us.

The big party premier was actually last night in Tempe, Arizona, which won some sort of a competition to get it there. We weren't sure who'd be at tonight's event, but it was pretty much the entire cast (we didn't see Liev Schreiber) and, most importantly, the wonderful Hugh Jackman.

We had great seats--row 10 on the center aisle, right in front of producer Lauren Shuler Donner and right behind Kelsey Grammer. We saw Mel Gibson, Dominic Mognahan, Ryan Reynolds, Angelica Huston, among others, in the audience. Chris Claremont, who wrote the X-men book for 16 years after taking it over from Len (he had been Len's assistant) flew to L.A. on his own dime to attend the film. Chris has a lot of characters in the film and sees as little money as we do off of it. We talked to Chris before and after the film, but he had a seat way in the back in the unreserved section.

Then Hugh Jackman showed up, stopping along the way to talk to people. As Hugh came down the aisle, Len said hello. Hugh stopped to talk to us, so my niece and son got to meet him. Stephanie's not planning to wash her hand any time soon. He is definitely the sexiest man alive.

Then Hugh continued down to the front of the theatre where he acknowledged his cast and crew and then told everyone that he had someone that he needed to give special thanks to and asked Len to stand up and then explained that without Len there would be no Wolverine and he, Hugh, would have no career. Len got a loud round of applause from the audience, and then Gavin Hood, director of the film, came across the aisle to talk to him.

The film is fantastic. It is well acted and incredibly well directed. I wish we were going to see some money from it, because I think it is going to kill at the box office. As soon as it was over, Hugh ran across the aisle and scooted down to talk to Len and ask him what he thought--Hugh had been watching Len's reactions throughout the film. He was very happy that we loved it. As was Lauren Shuler Donner, who couldn't wait for our reaction.

This is the Wolverine that Len created: a mutant who fights the overwhelming urge to kill. We are absolutely thrilled with the great job the filmmakers did. It is no wonder that Rotten Tomatoes is giving the film a 100% approval rating so far.

Do stick around for the credits. There are two tags to catch.

I'll be going to see it again this weekend. See you at the movies.

Not Quite Good-bye to Awards Season

The Oscars(R) are over for another year, the folks in my house had a great time watching (even if Hugh Jackman didn't take off his shirt), and I have my own awards ceremony to put on in April.

Things have generally been going well, but yesterday was one of those nightmare days where I got an e-mail saying one of our special awardees could no longer attend. We're working on a technological solution, but it doesn't replace having someone in the room that a lot of people wanted to meet.

This year, our Grand Master honoree is Harry Harrison. Janis Ian is our toastmistress and Chuck Lorre of the Big Bang Theory is our keynote speaker. It will be a fine evening.

For anyone who might have an interest in science fiction and fantasy, the Nebula Awards(R) Ceremony is open to the public. The banquet will be held on the campus of U.C.L.A. on the night of April 25, 2009, which is the Saturday of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books weekend, also at U.C.L.A. Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America will be signing books at the Mysterious Galaxy booth both days of the weekend. For more information about the event, go to the Nebula Awards Weekend page located here.

I'm in the market for a hot red gown to wear to the Nebulas. I saw one on the red carpet Sunday, but I'm not tall enough or skinny enough to borrow it. I guess I have to keep looking.

Oscars!

We've got a group sitting in the living room cheering on the Oscars(R). We're having a great time and we think the show is absolutely brilliant (except for the piece introducing the Cinematography category) and Hugh Jackman is doing a fine job. I wondered how it was doing elsewhere.

My sister called from New York a few minutes ago and said "I know you love this man, but I think this is the worst Oscars I've ever seen!" She and I will have a long talk some other night. We are thrilled, absolutely thrilled that the last line of Hugh's opening number was "I'm Wolverine!" Yes, he is.

The supporting Oscar is about to be awarded. "The Dark Knight" just passed $1 billion dollars in world wide gross. And Heath Ledger just won best supporting actor. As well he should have. It was a breath-taking performance and so far superior to Jack Nicholson's Joker that they weren't even in the same galaxy.

Australia--The Movie

If you have a chance to go to a Variety screening event, skip it unless you are on a VIP list. We got to the theatre about an hour and 45 minutes before the film was scheduled to run. There were already 200 or so people in line in front of us. Our friends joined us about 10 minutes later when the line started disappearing around the corner out onto Sunset Boulevard. One of our group found out that the theatre seated 400 people, so we should have no trouble getting in, right? Wrong!

When they started moving people inside, things were going along. Then they started slowing way down. When it got to the point where there were about 10 people in front of us, it simply stopped. Eventually, Len went in to check to see what was happening. That's how we got in. People had been jumping the line, so Len was told that there were scattered seats and VIP reserves left. We had been told that all such reserves would be released at 20 minutes ahead of the screening, and it was almost show time. Then Len got asked if he was a VIP. "Well, I created Wolverine, so I suppose I'm a VIP." "Are you on the list?" "Well, I did R.S.V.P."

The next thing he hears is "I've got one of Mr. Jackman's guests here." So Len and I got in, but our friends, unfortunately didn't. They were quite cool about it, because Len is The Famous Len Wein and they think he's entitled to the perks which sometimes accompany that.

We really enjoyed the movie, but we like big, sweeping, romantic adventures with comic moments a lot. The critics have not been kind, but I intend to see it again in a theatre. It's a BIG picture. Like the other Baz Luhrmann films I've seen, there's an interesting framing device and point of view. This story is mostly told from the POV of a young half-breed Aboriginal child and he's wonderful. I had not read that the "lost generations" was part of the story, since most of the press concentrated on the director and two main stars and the bombing of Darwin (the event of which I was not previously aware, either.) As I've said before, any film where Hugh Jackman takes off his shirt (more than once) and rides horses (for a good part of the show) is a must-see in my book. It is Nicole Kidmann's film, though.

Russell Crowe was originally cast in the part played by Hugh Jackman and Hugh was supposed to play the part that David Wenham has. I will note that I can't recall seeing David Wenham on horseback at all during the film (I might have missed it), but I got the definite feeling from the Lord of the Rings extras documentary on the horses and riders that David Wenham was not much of a rider when he played Faramir. (For all of my horse-friends: if you haven't seen it, the documentary is part of the extended release of The Return of the King, and it brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. Even if you have no interest in the film, you'll enjoy the documentary.) Hugh told a funny story on Jay Leno's show last Thursday night about training to ride in this film. He had a memorable turn on horseback in Central Park in Kate & Leopold, and, while he's not Viggo Mortensen in a saddle, he rides fearlessly.

After the three hour film, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin (Luhrmann's wife and the production designer), and Hugh Jackman came out for a Q&A with a Variety editor. At the time they would have opened the questions up to the audience, they had to shut things down because a midnight showing of Twilight was scheduled for the theatre. Boo, hiss. We managed to get ourselves down to the door where Hugh was being hussled out so Len could say hello in the crush. Hugh looked very tired, but he'd been through a non-stop day.

We tried to find our friends in the restaurant, but it turned out they had eaten early and not used the comp tickets they were given for their troubles. We got home in time to back up the TiVo and watch Hugh's appearance with Leno. Charming, as always.

People Magazine Finally Gets It Right

It has taken 7 years, but People Magazine has finally named Hugh Jackman the Sexiest Man Alive. As far as I'm concerned, all it took was a shot of Wolverine's bare back in the fight cage of the first X-men film and I understood the "drool buckets" the women who camped out in line had brought along. He is, I can say from giddy experience, even better looking in person. That he is incredibly gracious and kind makes him even more attractive.

While Hugh has been an also-ran for the title for a number of years (starting just after X-men), losing out to boys like Brad Pitt, it's nice to see a real man get the award. Why is it there are so few American actors under the age of 40 who come across as men, rather than boys?

We'll be at a screening of Australia tomorrow night. Could Hugh be looking at an Oscar(R) to add to his Tony(R) and Emmy(R) Awards? I will let you know what I think later this week.

Wolverine Family Portrait

As promised, here's a photograph of three people having a really good laugh at Comicon International: my husband, Wolverine's creator Len Wein, me, and the talented Hugh Jackman who brings Wolverine to glorious life on the screen. Many thanks to my good friend and colleague Kim Gottlieb-Walker for sending the photograph.

Before anyone asks, Len's cane is an affectation--until about day 3 of the convention. It has the head of the Geiger -designed creature from Alien as a handle.

Comicon 2008 Finale

As promised, here are some of the hundreds of photographs I made during the five days we were in San Diego for Comicon International this year. I've just redone the entire post, so I hope the images are centered and the captions are in the right place.

We managed to get green "Exhibitor" badges on Wednesday, which got us onto the floor an hour or so before it opened for the preview. In years past, the preview was limited to the professionals in attendance. Now, unfortunately (she says in an elitist manner) it is open to anyone who has a four-day membership. It is just as crowded on Wednesday evening as it is on Saturday--at least it feels that way. Because we got in early, I had plenty of room to back up and photograph Len against this mural of the X-men. Len co-created Wolverine (behind Len's left shoulder), Nightcrawler (lower right), Storm (upper right) and Colossus (the metal man at the top of the mural.) I call them my step-children, since they all predate our marriage.

I ran upstairs to the mezzanine where I knew I could get a photograph of part of the showroom while it was still pretty empty. The San Diego Convention Center floor is about 20 acres, so this is a very small section of the floor.

The one thing I am very sorry I missed getting when we were on the floor without the crowds is good photographs of the Owl Ship from the Watchmen movie, about which a little more below. Len desperately wanted to get inside it.

The next image shows the Sideshow Collectibles booth. They are no longer doing any Lord of the Rings pieces, so my credit cards were safe this year. I own several of the pieces Sideshow did, including the fairly large Aragorn on Brego at the Black Gates. Len was given the 1/5 life-size Logan (Wolverine's non-code-name) figure they did as a gift after he raved about it on camera a couple of years ago. Sideshow ran the video on its website to advertise the figure, which was a pretty fair trade. It's more than we've ever gotten from Marvel.
The picture below is a view of the DC booth. In the lower left is DC Publisher Paul Levitz, who was given the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award at the Eisners, well deserved for his work at getting recognition and recompense for creators who preceded the days of creative profit sharing in their comic book creations.
Here we have Len with a Wolverine soft toy. If it was a DC character, we'd see royalties. In fact, if it was a DC character, we'd have half a dozen of them sent to us on production. But Wolverine is a Marvel property. Oh, well.
We had gotten word that we should be at the Fox presentation on Thursday morning. There were special tags for us to get to the Studio Seating section and our friend Jeff Walker got Len a backstage pass and made it quite clear that Len needed to be there. We also got the word that there would be a special appearance that we didn't want to miss. Len cut his autograph signing at the DC booth to get there on time. Fortunately for him, a mishap with the curtains in the auditorium delayed the start of the presentations.

Before the special appearance, we needed to sit through the presentations of promotion for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. In this picture they are on the panel together, followed by a solo shot of Keanu.

The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie is one of my very favorite science fiction films. I remember the first time I saw it, on Saturday Night at the Movies, the day before my 11th birthday. I do not believe that it needed to be remade. There is so much good science fiction which has not been made into film, let alone made into a classic film, that there's plenty of opportunity to do something new. Unfortunately, Hollywood fears new.

Following the presentation for The Day the Earth Stood Still, we got to see the very loud presentation of Max Payne, based on a video game and starring Mark Wahlberg and Ludicris, who appeared on the panel and are in the eighth picture. We were invited to a party that night where Ludicris was supposed to perform, but we passed on it in favor of staying at a dinner with friends and good conversation where we could hear each other.

Just as most people thought the Fox presentation was finished, on came the surprise appearance of Hugh Jackman who flew in from Australia with footage from X-men Origins: Wolverine. The crowd went wild over both him and the film.

The photograph of Hugh is from right after he went back to the stage after coming into the audience to shake Len's hand. He was still addressing Len from the stage, which is how I was able to get such good eye-contact in the photograph (believe me, I would have waited all day for the moment!)
Following the presentation, Jeff Walker pulled Len backstage to talk to Hugh. Jeff's wife, my fellow photographer Kim Gottleib-Walker, got me past the security guards, so I was able to get a series of shots of Hugh and Len together, one of which is the tenth picture of this set. When Kim gets back from New York, I may have a shot of Len, Hugh, and me to post. This was just such a great moment and I cannot say enough about what a kind and gracious man Hugh Jackman is.

Later in the convention, Len appeared on a panel about working in comics in the 1970s. Here he is with Bernie Wrightson, the artist who co-created Swamp Thing. Bernie did the covers for Len's Batman-Edgar Allen Poe Else-worlds miniseries a few years ago and it looks like they will be doing some work together again in the not too distant future. Bernie's a terrific horror artist. He also does design work for Hollywood, including the villains in Galaxy Quest.

On Friday night, we went to the Eisner Awards. There were a number of surprise presenters, including Samuel L. Jackson, soon to be seen as Nick Fury in a full-fledged movie. For those of you who have seen Iron Man, you've already seen him show up as the character. One of the Go-gos made an appearance, accompanied by a platoon of Stormtroopers, but I don't seem to have exported one of those images.

And here is rocker Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, picking up his award for writing. He loved Len's dress coat.
The next picture is Len again, soon after he got back to our table after receiving his Eisner for his induction into the Hall of Fame. He's already adjusted things on our mantle to make room for it among the statues of the X-men and Swampy. He certainly earned the recognition after 40 years in a business where he has had a huge impact. If you skip down a couple of blog entries, you can see his acceptance speech.

After Friday night, our schedule was a little less hectic. Len did a spotlight panel on Saturday, which only managed to get through half of his career, so the moderator plans to do the second half next year. On Sunday, he appeared as the captain of the professional team in the Pro-Am Trivia Tournament, but the pros got trounced this year. It is supposed to be all in fun, but the questions have gotten absurdly difficult, making it not very much fun for the audience to watch.

As things wound down close to 5 p.m. on Sunday, when the exhibit hall shut down, I sat in the DC booth watching people walk by--like these far-from-home Spartans....
and the Wicked Witch of the West.

I managed to get this photograph of Dave Gibbons as he was signing in the DC booth on Sunday. Dave is the artist who created Watchman with writer Alan Moore. Watchman, which has been made into a film directed by Zak Snyder, who also directed 300, will be released in March. Len was the editor of the graphic novel, which was published as a 12 issue maxi-series about 20 years ago. Len finished writing the video game which is set up as a prequel to the movie just before we went to San Diego. It will be released around the time the film is. Len always pronounces Dave's name as "DIve," in deference to Dave's British accent.
The last photograph is of the banner which hung in the Convention Center foyer during the weekend. I had this strange desire to take it home with me, but this is the best I could do under the circumstances.

Looking over my pictures makes me want to go out and spend the money for the 18-200 VR lens for my digital camera. It won't do me any good on the new D700 I'd like to buy, but it will work just fine on my D70 or a D300. The problem with the 28-200 I was using is that it is just too slow in low-light situations, like the stage shooting, and I really needed to be able to use a faster shutter speed or something which would minimize camera shake for me, as a VR (vibration reduction) lens would. My fixed-focus lenses, which are faster than the zooms, are not auto-focus and have limited auto-exposure features with the digital body. Upgrading is just too darned expensive and I can't really justify the cost right now.

Comicon in Motion

Caitlin sent this link to one of the videos on YouTube showing Hugh Jackman coming off the stage to shake Len's hand. I saw another one which had better sound, but Len is almost impossible to see because of the number of flashes going off and burning the video out. Thanks, Cait.

And here's another view of Hugh and Len, taken by someone from Empire Online who was sitting on Len's left side. I show up in none of these!

Although it is not the best video camera, I used my pocket Nikon S1 to record Len's acceptance speech at the Eisner Awards (this explains why I don't have any still shots.) These are actually the only full-body shots that give a sense of what his coat looked like. It's a little dark, but it preserves the moment.

I bought an actual video camera with low-light and digital still capabilities about four or five years ago. Unfortunately, it insists that there is moisture somewhere in the system and refuses to work. I haven't been able to get it to a repair shop and I've heard this is a common problem with the JVC minicams. I really wished I had it working and with me this time at Comicon.

That is the famous Mad cartoonist Sergio Aragones handing the Eisner Award to Len. They've been friends for about 40 years and Sergio is just a wonderful, funny man. Len likes to tell a story about tackling Sergio to prevent him from drawing on pastoral-scene wallpaper which had just gone up in Len's house in Queens. Sergio thought it needed people peering out from behind the trees. He was probably right.

I stayed up really late last night working on the still photographs, which I will probably be able to upload tonight. Hugh Jackman is a whirling dervish, and with low-light situations, it's hard to stop motion when using slow, long lenses. Nevertheless, there are a few shots I wouldn't dream of throwing out. Len's got a similar problem--he moves just as the camera goes off--and my friend Melinda Snodgrass likes to pick that exact moment to blink.

Home Again

We're back from San Diego, exhausted, but in a good way. There's little that can top what happened on Thursday and Friday, but Len said that Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance came up to him on Saturday and told Len that the coat he wore to the Eisners was the coolest ever. Imagine a rock star saying that to an old guy of 60. (Gerard Way took home a couple of Eisners on Friday, so he is no stranger to the comics world.)

Tonight I plan to get the digital images processed (if you shoot RAW, you actually do "process" the images) so I can get some pictures up tomorrow. I hear there is video with Len and Hugh Jackman on YouTube, but I haven't found it yet. My friend Kim has gone to New York for a week, so I don't expect to see the pictures of me with Hugh before then, but I do have Len with Hugh. The handshake shot, which I was not in a position to get, was caught in both directions by others and I've seen that all over the Internet. Here's a link to one on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood.

Here's the version of the photograph from the Los Angeles Times by Spencer Weiner, from the opposite direction. That's my hand on the chair and my blond hair behind Len's back. You can see why I wasn't in a good position to take a photograph of the two of them. I did much better back stage.
It took us more than two hours to pack out of the hotel on Monday morning. Let me correct that. It took me about half an hour. It took my son two hours. He's the one who did all of the shopping and had a small fortune in anime-related statues to bring home. He also did a great job scavaging the floor for swag--free stuff--and had an amazing number of these monster bags advertising different television shows and movies.

Ace greeted me when I got to the barn last night for my lesson. He was also not eating--there was a mass of hay in the stall. Gayle and I figure he doesn't like the taste of the new batch or he missed me. There was nothing wrong with the hay, so I sprinkled some vinegar over it and he was eating it when I left. My concerns about colic were relieved by the way he took carrots from me and that there was fresh poop around. Plus his gut sounds were just fine.

He looked very nice in his new saddle pad from Mary's Tack and Feed and I'll put the braided reins on his western bridle tonight, so I can move the black ones back to his dressage bridle. Yes, I spent most of my money in San Diego at the tack shop, not the convention or even Nordstrom's.

I did get a nice little statue of Wolverine on a business card or post-it holder base on Sunday, but it's not like the years I ordered the Sideshow statue of Aragorn on Brego charging the Black Gates or the replica of Eowyn's Sword that now hangs in the living room. My biggest shopping regret from past years at the convention is that I couldn't afford the statue of Sam Gamgee with Bill the Pony that Sideshow did the first year they had Lord of the Rings pieces. It almost immediately sold out. What would have cost me $125 goes now for thousands of dollars on eBay. Lesson learned: if you really love it, buy it. The grocery money will show up.

Superhero Moment

Well, we've been in San Diego for 24 hours now. The weather, as always, is darned near perfect. Our hotel has a view of the bay and whatever battleship that is in dock across the water on Del Coronado Island. And Len says he may never come back again because how could he possibly top what's happened so far. It is truly lovely to be a special guest and actually treated as...special.

This morning was the Fox presentation of upcoming films. Unlike a number of people in the audience, we knew there was a special guest showing up for a few minutes after the panels on the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and a game-based film called Max Payne. Len had a hot ticket to go back stage, but we both had Studio Guest seats in the front few rows. He had a signing at the DC booth that overlapped with the beginning of the program, which, as it turned out, wasn't a problem. The panel was delayed half an hour.

I got there first to save the seats and got tipped off about what was going to happen when the surprise guest arrived. When Len arrived, I told him to "de-Geek"--take off his cap and take the Bluetooth out of his ear. He grumbled a little and wanted to know what was up. I said "trust me."

To the screams of the audience, the special appearance of Hugh Jackman was announced and he came bounding out onto the stage. He had just flown in from Australia because they had finished principle photography for X-men Origins: Wolverine.

He started out by saying "I know what you are all thinking--he's just too tall to play Wolverine!" This has been a running joke because the 6'3" Jackman is playing a character who is only 5'3" or 5'5" tall, depending on which interview you happen to read. Len told Hugh the first time they met that he feels that Hugh does a great job of "playing short."

The audience went wild as Hugh thanked them for supporting the first 3 X-men movies and how he's grateful to have a career thanks to this character and the fans support of him and then he announced that there was someone in the audience without whom there would be no Wolverine and without whom he, Hugh, would not have a career (how generous is that?): Len Wein. He asked Len to stand up and before we knew it, Hugh was jumping off the stage to shake hands. OMG! Well, I'm proud as can be and can't stop tearing up. It was such a gracious thing to do. Entertainment Weekly Online and several other online news sources have done a good job covering the moment. As soon as I get ready, I'll have some pictures from back stage after the all too brief appearance. I should have brought the Mac with me, not the PC.

And yes, Hugh Jackman is even more beautiful in person than on screen.