Boston Comic Con
3Headed to Boston in August with my daughter. Mostly because we’re both Buffy the Vampire Slayer nerds and Spike and Faith will be there. But lots of others from modern shows:
http://bostoncomiccon.com/celebrity-guests/
I have never been to ‘Con’ before, and this is almost an entirely unknown sub-culture for the both of us. We’re looking at it as a unique father/daughter bonding experience.
Anything I should be aware of or avoid before I go?
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I was thinking about watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the Summer…
Looking over the voice actors, I was happy to recognize 4 of the names.
@PlacidPenguin So good. The first season (12 episodes) was done on a shoestring budget and is a little rough. Really picks up in season 2 and 3. Worth hanging in for the first one…
@ACraigL
How about the 1992 movie? Watch or skip?
@PlacidPenguin Very campy and silly. No relationship to the series. Watch or don’t but it won’t affect your enjoyment of the series. Backing up what @ACraigL said, I got turned off by season 1 when it aired and didn’t watch for several years, then sampled it again when the buzz was too much to ignore and found out what I’d been missing. Now it’s one of my favorite series and I have it (and pretty much all of Whedon’s work) on DVD.
@moondrake
They were rough when they started. Monster Of The Week type stuff.
Then they got going.
“Innocence” is episode 14 of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Joss Whedon and first broadcast on January 20, 1998. It is part two of a two-part story. Part one, “Surprise”. was broadcast the day before.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer)
@moondrake @ACraigL
Have to get through Animaniacs first. Once I do that though, I’ll look at my tv show schedule for the Summer and will figure out the best time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I don’t know if James Marsters still has his band Ghost of the Robot, if he does it might be playing so look where to sign up to go. I got to see them play once at Dragoncon. Check the vicinity of the hotel for restaurants within walking distance. Bring healthy snacks like nuts and jerky as it’s sometimes hard to fit meals with your schedule at a big con. Bring drinks as they are usually expensive at the event. Bring a sturdy, comfortable, large bag for putting freebies, purchases and carrying drinks and snacks. If one of you chills easily bring a sweatshirt as sometimes function spaces are overly air conditioned. Bring a camera, there will be costumes. Make sure you are bringing comfortable shoes, there’s usually a lot of walking and standing in line at these events. Pay attention to message boards as a lot of cons have great business or fan-sponsored parties, supplementary and related events. Check if there’s an online schedule or other related wvent components so you can stay on top of changes and special events. Autographs usually cost money at this type of event. You may have to pay cash for them. If there’s a masquerade and a sign up list to go you should go, the masquerade is usually a good event. If you enjoy the con, look for flyers or posters about other upcoming cons in your area. Have fun!
Not sure how they do panels at Boston Comic Con, some cons clear the rooms between panels and some don’t. If they don’t and the panel you want to see is popular you may need to get there 1 or 2 panels early to make sure you get in.
@Ignorant Ah, good ol’ San Diego – where the best chance to get into a 2pm panel in Hall H is to wait in line at 5am for the 8am panel and camp through all the ones in between.
@narfcake there are a lot of things San Diego needs to improve on, and Hall H is one of those (although ballroom 20, indigo ballroom, etc aren’t any better) San Diego should do like DragonCon and setup a SDCC TV channel at all the near by hotels were they can broadcast some of the more popular panels…or live stream to their app if they want to make sure only registered badge holders can see it.
@Ignorant Good points.
(Gone are the days in which I could day trip down there on a whim. Back in the 90’s, I was able to take the Amtrak from Fullerton on down, buy a $20 day pass onsite, and come back that evening.)
@narfcake those days are long gone, as are the days of walking up and registering for the next year.
@Ignorant Yeah. When folks were camping out at 8pm the night before so they could register the following morning at 9am, that was when I said “I’m getting too old for this.”
Where do you plan to stay? I wholeheartedly recommend you stay outside of the city somewhere and take the MBTA Commuter Rail / Subway in. Despite all of the bad press they’ve gotten in recent years the MBTA is really quite reliable and it beats the hell out of trying to get into and park in the city itself. The BCEC has plentiful lots available but many of them are quite a distance away from the actual convention center and require taking a shuttle, if you end up wanting to stick around late one day or something you’ll end up SOL and have to walk back. By contrast, directly across the street from the BCEC is an MBTA Silver Line stop. Last time I went to PAX East I drove to Wonderland MBTA station, parked there for cheap ($5 for first 14 hours, $12 for up to 24 hours, $12 per day thereafter) then rode the MBTA Blue Line to the Airport station, hopped a free airport shuttle to the terminals where I caught the free Silver Line Bus (Route SL1) which has its own dedicated tunnels and such so it doesn’t get stuck in normal traffic much over to the World Trade Center station, then it was a quick walk over a foot bridge to the BCEC. You’ll have to pay the bus fare on the way back but it is cheap. Best way in/out of the BCEC IMHO. There are other access points you can use for the subway system and achieve similar results. If you know where you’re staying already I could try to help you figure out the best option if you’re interested.
There’s lots of really good restaurants in the vicinity of the BCEC, one you should really check out if you like seafood is the Legal Seafood Test Kitchen (@Sohmageek just ate there recently IIRC) which LSF uses to test out new ideas for dishes before rolling them out to their other restaurants. You get to be a guinea pig but the prices are pretty reasonable for what you’re getting. It is Boston dining so it’s not going to be cheap anywhere you go inside the city but it’s also not a friendly environment for inferior food either.
@jbartus I’m booked at the DoubleTree downtown. We’re taking Amtrak to Boston so I was planning on Taxi/Uber for the duration of my stay. I can’t imagine we’ll stay very late, but I could see how it might be an issue to get a taxi or deal with surge pricing.
We have the 3-day pass for the event, but she did a summer writing program at Emerson and I think at least one day we’ll just be walking around, checking out Boston and eating at her favorite haunts like The Back Deck. But definitely open to eating suggestions. Unfortunately, she’s not that into seafood (I am).
@ACraigL If you’re staying at the one I’m thinking of you’ll be about a block south of Tufts Medical Center which has an MBTA station serving the Orange Line and the Silver Line (Routes SL4 and SL5). For the BCEC you could take the SL4 to South Station and either hop a 7 Bus over to the BCEC or hop SL1 and take the scenic route through the airport. The Orange Line is a great access point for the city as it intersects every other subway line as well as having stations in some great tourism spots like Fanueil Hall (Haymarket Station, 4 stops up from Tufts) as well as convenient crossovers for things like the Aquarium (State, 4 stops up, transfer to Blue Line for 1 stop). For Emerson you could take the SL5 bus to the Boylston stop and be right there.
All up to you of course, if you don’t like mass transit then Taxi/Uber might be better, but for affordability I think the MBTA is the best way to get around the city.
As for food, there’s an Irish place I really like near Government Center (Orange to State, 1 stop away from aquarium) which has a good mix of food. If you give me some idea of the kinds of food you like I could probably make more targeted recommendations because good food isn’t hard to find in Boston at all.
If you want a local contact you can call if you get lost or something let me know. Happy to help!
@jbartus Very cool of you, thanks, and thanks for all the info. I’ll see about hitting you up as we get closer to the event.
@jbartus well… legal test kitchen was awesome. Drinks tasted watered down…
@ACraigL legal test kitchen had non seafood dishes also.
@sohmageek It’s Boston, they’re gonna mix drinks to spec and not a drop over to keep costs down with the rent they’re paying.
@jbartus they were weak!
@ACraigL I’m with @jbartus- the T and on foot are the ways to go. And who doesn’t love subways? I love them anyway. Boston is pretty compact.
just be prepared to wait a long time to see who you want. the lines are really really long and you will get like 30 seconds to meet and get an autograph as you are ushered right past them. there no time to chat, outside of the " hi we love you" yeah yeah, move on, . the crowds wil be huge, but weird and will be a ton of overweight virgin guys who hsve forgotten how to shower. outside of that, have fun!
@Hexxman007 so I won’t get my dream of a 3rd wheel date with John Barrowman and the coat?
@sohmageek John Barrowman is so serious and over-the-top on Arrow, but I really got to like him when he guest-hosted on Attack of the Show. That dude is silly.
@ACraigL I loved his performances in touchwood & dr. Who (the coat running joke). But also there is a funny bit from him and comicon where he fondled a girl then she was asked her age. He is very gay which is why the fondling is funny… I’ll look for the vid when I get off work.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice. Looking forward to put most of the above into action. I’ll post pics when I get back.
@ACraigL
Come back (psychologically) intact.
@PlacidPenguin
@ACraigL
Though I guess it’s too hard to guarantee.
But seriously, because you’ve never been to Cons before, while you might be laughing now, when you come back, you won’t be.