Remembrances of Comic Cons Past

Those weren't the droids I was
looking for.

Back in those woebegone days when I was a teenager, before the invention of sand when everything was in black and white, my family used to make an annual trip to San Diego for Comic Con. This was before it turned into a haven for Hollywood movies to whet the appetite of the viewing public and instead focused on the thing that was in the name: comics.

That's not a knock on what the San Diego Comic Con has become, mind you. Over the last five years, especially, the number of movie studios appearing in San Diego has grown by leaps and bounds, all hoping to get some buzz going for their movies that are often a year away from premiering. Accordingly, the number of attendees and vendors has also grown, but, in doing so, it's squeezed out many of the longtime comic book aficionados in favor of Twilight or other flavor of the month fans hoping to get a glimpse of Robert Pattinson sitting at a table on a stage a football field away from them. That growth, while seemingly good for the properties I have an affinity for (*), has made it difficult to take part in what was once a hallmark of my youth. 

(*) There's a Thor movie coming out this week. This is madness considering that the highest profile superhero movie from my teenage years, Batman & Robin, effectively killed and salted the earth of the genre for over half a decade. I can't understate enough how amazing it is that we're staring down the  barrel of a Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America summer.

From the ages of 11 to 17, I attended Comic Con in San Diego every year with my folks and brother for vacation. Then from 19 to 25, I made a point to travel down there for at least one of the four days, if not more. Since then, hotels have been harder to come by and days for the event have actually sold out. That never used to happen. Heck, my wife and I were going to make a point of actually planning our full-fledged vacation for a Comic Con trip this summer when every single ticket, one day passes and four day passes both, sold out inside of 15 minutes of the on-sale.

Comic Con in San Diego got away from the comics, which is one of those "get off my lawn" statements I never saw myself prone to making before. However, over the weekend, I decided to try out a smaller scale convention over in Orange County called the Anaheim Comic Con. This was the kind of event I remembered from that first time I attended San Diego and contained everything I like about it: people dressed in weird costumes, artists plying their trade at rows of picnic tables, and lots of great deals. The rising cost of life has prevented me from regularly buying single issues of comics, so I tend to catch up on things by purchasing larger collections, or trade paperbacks. At shows like this, they're usually priced more reasonably than one can find at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, so I wound up getting about nine of them, all for half-price. 

It was impossible, though, to escape the convention's need for some mainstream attention as there were some D-list celebrities in attendance, charging way too much for autographs, 8x10 head shots and "photo opportunities." This is the kind of thing my wife, who is not a comics fan, would normally enjoy. When I started walking down the tumbleweed lane that was the celebrity row, I sent her a text message that Steve Sanders from Beverly Hills 90210 was in attendance. "GET ME HIS AUTOGRAPH!," she replied. I responded, "It's $20 bucks for just his autograph."Her reply was succinct, "Ew...don't get me his autograph." While Ian Ziering wasn't the most obvious sore thumb in the pack of what usually amounted to a large grouping of genre related character actors, he was pretty close.

Ultimately, it was nice just to soak in the ambience a place like a comic convention provides. I wasn't made to feel weird spending an hour looking through 15 long boxes to find the right collection of Ultimate Spider-Man or stopping to snap a photo of a procession of Star Wars droids. And that's the way I like things to be.

Here's the part where I discuss what went on in class, but since I'm behind, I'm going to split the catch up portion into a few different posts.

Monopoly!

Zuffa purchases Strikeforce

Look, I know that I post about the world of MMA more than a teacher on his teaching blog probably should, but this is pretty substantial news that broke today, so it feels timely and poses so many questions that there was no way I could ignore it. Sure, I COULD have ignored it, but I don't feel like ignoring it. I promise to write something non-MMA related prior to my UFC 128 rundown.

In fact, click on the link for all of the available details because rehashing them here isn't my goal. My concerns center around the two big questions this purchase raises. 

Question #1: Does this purchase make Strikeforce the UFC's farm league?

I can't see any other alternative. Dana White claims that it's "business as usual" over at Strikeforce and that all contracts will be honored. The idea is that it will be run as a separate brand, independent of Dana's influence, especially since he has had some choice words for many of the fighters, commentators and several decision makers over at Showtime. And there has been some precedent set before when Zuffa (UFC's parent company) owned WEC. The latter was run as a separate group with its own matchmakers and separate television deals. But now all of that has changed. If the rating of UFC on Versus 3 tells us anything, it's that more fight nights ultimately means that fewer of the live TV events are special and people can pick and choose what they want. If this is diluted even further with five more championships, all that does is create more market confusion. My prediction is that once the existing television contracts run their course, which could be as far out as three years from now, Strikeforce and any existing contracts will be folded into the UFC. What does this mean for guys like Josh Barnett, Paul Daley and Dan Henderson? By that time, Barnett and Henderson could be retired so it may be a moot point, but guys like Daley, a guy fired and banned "for life" from the UFC by Dana White for throwing a sucker punch at Josh Koscheck after the end of their fight? Or Frank Shamrock, a commentator who has never had a great relationship with UFC management? I guess it's no fun to be them.

Question #2: With the only viable alternative North American league now under the same corporate umbrella as the number one promotion, does this make the case for a fighter's union all the stronger?

There's a lot of talk about unions in the news lately, and that's another discussion for another time. But theses fighters are now under, for all intents and purposes, a monopoly. They are at the whims of Zuffa. For all of the talk about Scott Coker and Strikeforce operating under their own jurisdiction when it comes time to negotiate contracts with free agents, I can't see that working out well for the fighters involved. Is the solution a union? If Dana White doesn't think so, then I can't see how a fighter's union would ever get off the ground. Major League Baseball has a union, as does the NFL, NHL and the NBA. A union could provide security, pensions, health insurance and insure that fighters have security and negotiating leverage. The examples I've cited aren't sports that operate in the same fashion as MMA operates, and I'm far from an expert on labor practices. I definitely don't have the answers here, but I think the question is worth exploring by those who study these things a bit more closely than me.

Frosh

This past Monday, you received the R & J Timeline assignment, which is due on Tuesday, available on School Loop and soon will be here on this site also. 

Wednesday, you received the Character Quote Sheet which you can use as a method of pre-writing for your previously assigned Character Analysis Essay. This will be due when you turn in your final draft.

Thursday, I gave you the Act IV/V Review, which is due on Monday along with your Act IV/V Study Guide. We also reviewed thesis statements on Thursday, something I hope everyone remembers, but if not, well, that's the whole point of review. To reiterate, please remember that thesis statements are ONE sentence, located at the end of the first paragraph and establish the main idea of your entire essay. If you needed to answer the prompt and could only do so with one sentence, the thesis statement would be it. Utilize the ATSO(3/4) formula (author, title, subject, opinion with 3 to 4 sub-topics) to guide you:

In William Shakespeare's play, Romeo & Juliet, ______ and ______ are the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because _____________, _______________, and _________________.

Fill in the first two blanks with who you believe to be the most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The three (or four) final blank spots should be short phrases (between 5 to 10 words long) that serve as reasons why the one or two people you choose are most to blame. Keep in mind that you can pick anyone in the play but be very careful in choosing because the whole point of the essay is to support your choice with evidence from the text.

The essay will be the main focus of the week prior to Spring Break since we also spent the majority of Monday through Thursday to finish reading the play. The tragedy finally unfolds almost exclusively due to a breakdown in communication: Capulet never listens to what his daughter truly wants; Romeo doesn't listen to Friar Laurence's warnings about taking things slow, Tybalt never listens to Capulet about letting Romeo's party crashing go; Juliet doesn't listen to herself about not wanting to get married; the letter never gets to its intended target explaining to Romeo the plan to let the star-crossed lovers live happily ever after. And so on. The lesson here is to never fall in love. Wait, no. The lesson is to listen. Or maybe the lesson is something else entirely for you to determine. Still, that listening part is still a good idea.

Seniors

On Monday, we read "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus and toiled endlessly to understand it. HAH! See what I did there? Camus' take always reads to me as an optimistic view of existentialism. Your results may vary. Tuesday, you spent the period answering questions dealing with Camus' impression of Sisyphus as well as your own impression of the guy destined/doomed to push a rock up a hill.

Wednesday, my wife was sick, so I allowed you the period to read The Stranger.

Hopefully, you took advantage of that opportunity because Thursday, you had a quiz on part one of the novel. Remember to have the whole book finished by next Friday, March 18. There'll be another test on it, this one a bit longer and a bit more difficult.

Been hit with a few shells, but I don't walk with a limp.

Spider-Man is not as
adept as 50 Cent at
surviving wounds
unscathed.

After a nice getaway weekend where Angela and I spent time with my parents, we picked Spider-Man (the dog) up from his pet hotel stay. Like always, he was very annoyed that we left him anywhere else in the first place but ultimately glad to see us.

We played around with him, and he managed to pass out early like he always does when he's spent a few days away from home. Unfortunately, after an uneventful morning, I came home to find that he looked like he was walking diagonally. After a few minutes of trying to assess the situation, I noticed that Spider-Man (the dog) began to favor his left forepaw and had a distinct limp.

My better half was still at work, so I took him to the emergency vet clinic where the doc diagnosed him with soft tissue damage. Basically, he sprained his ankle. Or dog ankle. At least, it was the dog equivalent of an ankle. My guess is that he did it while chasing a bird that he thought was playing with him or by being too nosey around a portion of our chain link fence and getting caught in it. There weren't any "deformities" like a cut or a bruise or noticeable broken bone anywhere, and his neck had the full range of motion, which are all good signs. She prescribed some (expensive) pain medication and we have to keep our boy confined while we're gone for the next week to insure that he doesn't start running and jumping around too soon and do more damage to himself. Seeing my spry, three and a half year old dog limping, though, was not a pleasant sight, so I hope Spider-Man (the dog) is back to normal really soon.

Frosh
Last Wednesday, you completed the second research day for the mythology project. This doesn't mean that your research is done, necessarily, just that we won't spend anymore class time researching in the library.

Monday, you completed the quiz on Poseidon, Hades and Demeter. We then read about the birth of Apollo and Artemis and followed that up with a detailed look at why Artemis is a perfect fit for MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen.

Beowulf via
BetterBookTitles.com

Today, we discussed creating a proper MLA formatted works cited page. The handout gives you the proper punctuation and information needed. The first entry is for a book; the second is for an online resource. Remember that all entries need to be listed in alphabetical order according to the author's last name. If you need further assistance, I always use Citation Machine. We then discussed Apollo, who went on to eventually get his own theatre, and some of his progeny. Expect a quiz on these folks tomorrow.

Seniors
On Wednesday, you finally got the chance to turn in your CD Creation projects. I graded them the following day, and it's hard to put into words how truly impressed I was on a whole with everyone's work, especially compared to last year. My first attempt at doing this project didn't go very well and I'm glad that the tweaks and changes myself and Ms. Windt made to it worked so well. Of course, you folks were also a vital component as well, and for that I thank you. Good job.

That day we also experienced the big showdown between Beowulf and Grendel. We'll resume the story of the Danes' favorite outsourced exterminator when we return from the fall break.

Monday, we discussed thesis statements and my version of the ATSO3. Utilize the ATC3(or 4) (author, title, claim and 3 or 4 sub-topics) correctly, and you will have yourself a thesis statement that is pure analysis. At least, that is, if it's written well and flows as a sentence. Just including the parts and not paying attention to the whole will hurt your thesis. Make sure that anything you write in the paper can tie back to your thesis, as it serves as the road map for the entire paper. I'll be hammering this point home in ways that will ultimately annoy you, but it's my hope that everyone gets the idea that a thesis is the most important sentence in your entire paper.

Today, you completed the final timed writing and turned in your fully annotated books. The optional revision, which will take the place of your lowest scored, previous timed writing, is due Friday. If you opt to not complete the revision, the in-class portion will still be due that day. And Thursday, you will turn in your final article selection. We're in the home stretch now. Keep December 3 on the brain in the meantime.