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From 39,000 feet on a JetBlue plane, I am writing yet another long overdue blog. We (Manchild Jack, son in law Ryan, and I) snuck out of California to got to the East Coast version of Comicon, the huge crazy comic book convention.
If you recall Jack and I enjoyed the San Diego edition of the show in 2011. I promised him we would go in 2012. The timing of the sale of our company conflicted a bit, so I offered to take Ryan and Jack to New York for Comicon East.
We arrived at JFK Thursday night about 9.00 pm. Weather was cool and clear. Once we hit 3rd avenue in Manhattan, we could feel the rhythm of the city. We stayed at The Muse just a block from Times Square. We visited TS and it was cool to see Jack react to seeing the New Years ball he knew so well.
 
Ryan was impressed with the thousands of square feet of Jumbotrons in the square. After a quick meal at the hotel, we hit the sack to get ready for our long day at Javits Center.
We enjoyed breakfast at the Red Flame Diner off 6th avenue and 45th. Nothing special but very stereotypical New Yorkly.
We got a cab to the convention center and it was a zoo. Thousands of people ready to get in the center and hundreds were in full costume of their favorite comic, movie, or TV characters.
Now I have a confession to make. Crowds and I'd do not get a long well. Many years ago, at Disney World, at the end of the night, in the Epcot Center, the crowd was leaving and out of nowhere I had this feeling of imminent doom. I really thought we were going to be trampled and die. I eventually went over one of those black wrought iron fences into a grass area I was not supposed to be, as my family watched and tried to figure out what had happened.
After a few minutes, I was fine and realized I had had an anxiety attack, brought on by being stuck in the crowd. I had another s few years later, ironically at Disneyland at the end of the evening when the crowd was going down Main Street.
When we got to Javitz and I saw the huge crowd, I was wondering if Jack and Ryan would be embarrassed if I ran screaming through the crowd, hugged cement pillar and cried my eyes out. I then realized that if I did that I would look like one of the many characters in the convention. Hell, I might even win a prize.
Needless to say, I made it through the day without a breakdown. Here is a shot I managed to take from the show.
While we were bumping around the floor, and I had seen my 900th superhero, it made me wonder, with so many Wonder Woman, Super Men, and Spider Men, in this convention, why didn't they just fly around to lighten the traffic on the floor.
The costumes were really bizarre. You could see everything from Atom Ant, to Zoro. There were many who were within millimeters of wardrobe malfunctions, quite risqué. There was one I could not resist grabbing onto for a big hug.
I don't have the photo Jack does. Sorry, get it to you later.
If you don't know who that is, let me introduce you to Gumby. One of my all time kid favorites. In order to refresh your memory, by heart, here are the lyrics to his show theme.
Gumby, he once was a little green slab of clay, Gumby!
But you should see what Gumby can do today, Gumby!
He can walk into any book with his pony pal Pokey too.
If you gotta heart than Gumby's a part of you.
After seven hours of walking the floor, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. We were going to Little Italy for dinner. I had picked out a place called De Gennaro's. Years ago it was called Umbertos and was one of the several homes to organized crime on Mulberry Street. The last gangland hit took place therein 1972. Jack enjoyed hearing the story and me showing the place where a mobster had stumbled out of the restaurant and had fallen and died right in the gutter.
We went in and enjoyed a great meal. As we left and made our way down Mulberry, I spotted one of my Dad's favorite places, Angelo's. The three of us stopped in for a night cap. (Don't worry Jack was having diet Coke). After meeting some of the staff and buying them a night cap, we decided that Mulberry Street deserved a repeat performance. We booked a table at Angelo's for the next night.
Saturday, we had breakfast at Juniors just off Times Square. Then we made our way to Javits Center. If it were possible, the crowd was even larger. We got in the hall and Jack wanted to play the yet to be released Halo III by XBOX. He and Ryan waited in line for almost two hours in order to play the game. Jack said it was worth every moment in order to send photos of himself to his gaming buddies.
I eventually found a quiet, (relatives term in a building with 23,000 people milling about) corner to hang out and read my Kindle and people watch. While enjoying The Monster of Florence, a huge guy sat next to me. When I looked up, it was a human sized dog, or should I say a huge guy in a dog outfit. I was probably in a hundred photos over the next 15 minutes as people we coming over to take a shot of this huge Dog.
Then I saw Abbey, from NCIS walk in and I could not figure out what she was doing there in full costume. As I stared, I realized it was not her but someone who came in her outfit and really did look just like her.
The funniest moment was when one of NYPD's finest, and African American female officer, walked in the convention center. Several of the guests came up to her and tried to have their picture taken with her and she responded with, "I ain't no characters, you fool."
Then we took an early leave of the center, about 2:00 and headed to the 911 memorial. We had lunch, but discovered that you needed to purchase ticket for the memorial the day before. We saw what we could, and then headed back to Javits as the guys had forgotten to get a couple of souvenirs from the show.
After yet another attempt to have an anxiety attack, we went back to the hotel so Jack and Ryan could do a bit of homework before dinner. Dinner at Angelo's was magnificent. They remembered us from the precious night and our meal was spectacular. In rememberance of my old man, I had a bottle of his favorite Chianti, a 2007 Ruffino, Reserva Du Cal Gold Label. After about ten minutes in the glass it opened up real nice. It brought back many great memories of drinking with the old man.
Then it was back to the crib for an early night.
We made it to the airport with an hour and half to spare.
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Since 10/10/2012
