The summer months and the fall arrival.

For the first time in a little while, the summer was kind of slow. June wasn't as terribly busy as we were told to expect, but I did get put onto night shift which made most social interactions outside of work rare. We wrapped Guardians of the Galaxy and it was an incredible film, breaking all sorts of box office records. One would hope that Hollywood would see the risks taken with this property (Previously indie director, B-rated cast list, weird characters,talking raccoon and a walking, blinking tree) and try out some fresh stuff. However, I have a feeling what it means is there will be more space movies with classic 80s music as their soundtrack and zero passion. But, whatever, its their piggy bank.
 We also wrapped Ninja Turtles. While it was not as successful as Guardians, I still loved it. (In my opinion) the characters were spot on and all of the rumors (and based on early scripts justified) that had kept me leery of the film were not there. It was actually pretty accurate to the original comic story. I worked on a couple of other projects over the summer months as well, but those werent as noteworthy in my mind.

 

























We did go to the Rockwell to watch Jeff Goldblum sing jazz, which ranks pretty high up in my awesomest things ever list.

 That leads us to San Diego Comic Con 2014....which was just weird.


   Its the best way I can think of describing it. It just seemed slightly off. We walked into Hall H twice without having to wait in line. This in itself is huge as sometimes the line to get into Hall H will take you (and has taken us) more than 10 hours to get through. There were fewer panels I was excited about seeing, fewer celebrities/artists/actors there that I wanted to meet and I went in with a light backpack that never really got any heavier. Wootstock was once again good, but last years show was an impossible act to follow. There were many random celebrity sightings.

I met some cool folks and hang out with one of the coolest folks out there, Mr Tyler Rhoads. I got more signatures from one of the creators of Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and finally remembered to get a photo with him.

I got to get some books and coin of the realm signed by Patrick Rothfuss (read his books and his blog if you are even remotely into fantasy). I did get to meet one of the Godfathers of modern day visual effects, Phil Tippet. He was incredibly cool and I was amazed by all of the films from my childhood that he was responsible for the iconic imagery (pretty much anything with a dinosaur in the 80s-mid 90s).
 

 But it all was just meh. I dont think I am jaded, but rather its so expensive that a lot of artists are choosing to stay home and get work done and earn money rather than breaking even by attending. Also, several studios are blaming lackluster box office profits on the negative reviews of clips shown at the convention (as opposed to the more likely scenario of the films just not being great to begin with). Ill still try to get tickets to next years, but if I dont I wont be upset.

 Home for a day after SDCC and Rachel and I went on our first vacation as a couple by ourselves. We had gone on trips where we were visiting people we knew and with other folks, but never just the two of us without seeing anyone we knew. We wanted to do a west coast tour. We took the train rather than driving because Rachel was 7.5 months pregnant and we wanted to both be able to enjoy the scenery.


We took the Coastal Starlight, which is an Amtrak train that has all the fun old school amenities such as observation car, dining car and sleeping bunks. It was a good time and a nice relaxing way to spend a day and a half after having just spent a week surrounded by people at all times at comic con.



We got off the train in Portland then spent a day there, Seattle, Vancouver and Astoria, Oregon. For those film nerds out there you know Astoria is where they shot scenes from the Goonies (and Short Circuit, 1941, Ninja Turtles 3, Kindergarten Cop, etc, etc, etc). It was a beautiful, sleepy little cannery town who were incredibly pleasant considering how many random nerds probably end up trooping through their yards.




Then, the big news.....

WE ARE PARENTS!

Exciting, terrifying, sleep depriving. Persephone Rose Claunch arrived a couple weeks early, but other than a bout of jaundice is doing well. Her sleep schedule is still off, so she sleeps days and parties at night, but otherwise seems to be enjoying life outside the human submarine known a mom and we are loving our little girl!