June 16, 2016 – Years ago, I had an office in a building in downtown. They demolished that building, and now it’s the site of the allegedly tallest building in Los Angeles. I say allegedly tallest because the new building is only taller than the white round one they destroy in all the action movies because the new one has a spire. I think spires shouldn’t count, so for me the round white one is still the tallest. The place of the new building, also the corner of the former home of Birdie the sparrow, is down the street from the Staples Center. My former office’s building was part of a complex that included a hotel. That hotel would get convention attendees for various conventions, and flight attendants; the Korean Airlines flight attendants stayed there. I didn’t pay much attention to the conference attendees or the flight attendants, except for one event. Comic Con.

I remember the first one I noticed. There were groups of people, girls mostly, passing by, dressed in crazy things: think Halloween, but … more so, and not on October 31^st. I finally went up to a couple of girls, dressed in almost nothing, but not in that slutty way that Halloween has turned into, but cute; I wasn’t even sure what they were supposed to be. I know they told me, characters of something I didn’t know what. They told me about Comic Con, Los Angeles’ version of it, and how people dress up as these characters from movies, TV shows, stories, comics. A convention for all of these things, with the fans, or some of them, playing the parts, that’s what it appeared to be.

I’ve heard it mentioned many times since then. I never paid any mind to it. I thought it was something done in Los Angeles, but I just learned it is really based in San Diego, with other cities, apparently all over the world, doing their own versions of it. The San Diego one, is the biggie.

I also never thought of myself as a comic fan. While I’ve watched the movies, I’m not a particular fan of comic movies. In fact, I can’t even tell them apart. I don’t know who’s what. Batman is with Superman is with Wonder Woman is with Tony Stark. X Men, Marvel, DC, I think those are the big three, but I don’t know who’s with what franchise, why, or who’s dead, resurrected, what’s ending, what’s teased. Nothing. In fact, I’m not really a fan of people, aliens, or otherwise, with super powers. I can’t relate; I’m not sure why, but I can’t. I try, but I can’t.

I like Game of Thrones. I like Star Trek. Star Trek is about the only show, other than Mr. Ed and Romper Room, I liked as girl. And Mr. Ed had a horse, so that makes sense – an animal. Oh and Flipper, but that’s an animal too. I remember nothing of Romper Room except the fantasy of that woman talking to people in a mirror with no glass. I like time travel. I like period pieces that you can relate to today, Scottish history especially. Love me some Mary Queen of Scots, and now, I’ve discovered a new show, Outlander, about a 1940s nurse who time traveled to 1743 Scotland and is living with the Mackenzie clan. I’m one of those – a Mackenzie, it’s my mother’s maiden name, my grandfather told me story upon story of them, so needless to say, every bit of this history, and the almost fairy-like elements of the Celtic subtext in this show, I love; kind of like a mirror with no glass. I’m told these genres are fantasy, science fiction, perhaps combined with a bit of actual history, indeed my own ancestral history. I guess I like those. And those genres — fantasy, science fiction, historical or not, are big features at Comic Con.

I don’t have any real time on my hands right now, but truth be told I’ve always wanted to write, write something, a book, poems, a script (even though I have no idea how). The other day I met a screenwriter of some movie that starred Ann Hathaway. I talked to that woman about our dogs. Her husband was there and volunteered me to take that woman’s screenwriting class. I have no time right now, but I was very curious.

Writers. I’ve researched the writer of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin. His background was writing comics. It took him a while to become a writer of these hugely successful books. The show Outlander says at the beginning it’s adapted from books. I did a very brief search about those books. I don’t know them, and have never heard of them. There are eight or nine. The writer is a woman. I can’t remember her background, other than it took her a while to get going as a writer too, and that she has an education in botany. The female lead on the show knows a lot about plants. I have no idea where the Scot history in this show (and apparently) the books is coming from, but truth be told, I was a bit upset with that story, that show, because I always wanted to write my own story aspects of this, for sure using time differences. And excuse me on the history of the show; I’m actually a descendant of these people. She’s English and Hispanic. She is no Mackenzie. Mind you, I would think I’m over jealousy at this age I am, or I try to be, but I was truly jealous of her story-creation.

Music. This week’s music choices were orchestral soundtracks to Game of Thrones. I did a bunch of work, and I like to work to orchestra tracks. Up until this week, my choice has been the full instrumental tracks to Lana Del Rey records. They are heavily orchestral tracks, really nice, if you’re interested in passion-filled background music. Game of Thrones music is very moving and emotional too. In fact, most scores to the shows are as much a part of the movie or show as the visual effects. Being curious on this, I did a search for the music at the San Diego Comic Con, and sure enough, it’s symphony things. The San Diego symphony does a big production for Comic Con.

And this brings me back to Comic Con. Both of these writers, Martin and the woman who wrote the Outlander books have been at Comic Con. Same with the entire cast of Game of Thrones. Same with the symphony. So I’ve come to the conclusion that the things I like all, somehow, are at Comic Con. I’m still not sure what the event is, other than costumes on the participants. And I’ve become too much of a wall flower to wear one, although I’m sure not everyone does. I picture it like the costumes some people wear to an EDM festival (they wear … not much), but many people just dress like they are going out. So I thought I would check out Comic Con. I typed a search for tickets. Three days, much more money than I can afford, a one-day pass not too bad, but the really sad thing: this has been sold out for a long time. They are taking reservations for 2020. What? Apparently the whole world goes to this thing. I don’t know what’s there, and I don’t know if I would like it, but these people I want to emulate, the Martin and Outlander writers of the world, they are there. Again, I’m not sure why, perhaps just to make fans happy, but it does seem like something I could learn from. If it’s 2020, it’s 2020, but I think I would like to go to Comic Con. Perhaps by then, I’ll think of an outfit suitable for a wallflower. Or, I could find a Mackenzie tartan and wear that. Yes, that would work nicely.