We are less than one week away from Silicon Valley Comic Con 2019, taking place at the San Jose Convention Center from Friday, August 16, through Sunday, August 18. The programming schedule came out several weeks ago to provide a general outline of what to expect for autographs, panels and photo-ops. This is not a complete schedule and it won’t be finalized until the first day of the con. By then you should be able to download the app to get all the latest updates. I will be going through the programming schedule in reverse chronological order by going from the most interesting to the least interesting. I’ll highlight the Terminator Reunion panel with Arnold Schwarzenegger for Sunday, the pop culture and science panels on Saturday, and a rant about the main event for Friday.
SUNDAY, 08/18/2019
Several weeks ago, I did a video about Arnold Schwarzenegger coming to SVCC. I pointed out that the organizers should have him and/or the Terminator Reunion panel close out the con. That’s what the organizers did last year for the Jessica Jones panel with Krysten Ritter and David Tennant. I called it. The 90-minute Terminator Reunion panel on Sunday at 3:30 PM will be in the large panel room and on the big screen in the overflow room.
The guest list for the Terminator Reunion panel includes:
- Michael Biehn from “Terminator”
- Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick and Jeanette Goldstein from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
- And, Kristanna Loken from “Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines”
Although Linda Hamilton is on everyone’s wish list to show up, I would love to see Emilia Clarke show up. I loved her shorter by four inches, self-conscious and already kick-ass version of Sarah Conner in “Genisys.”
SATURDAY, 08/17/2019
The panel selection for Saturday is a bit more solid than it is for Sunday. Probably because Saturday is the busiest day for the con. Among the various panels being offered, pop culture and space are the main themes that might conflict with each other. For example, Morena Baccarin’s panel shares the same time slot as “The Woman of NASA” panel at 12:30 PM. I commented to the organizers on Facebook about this “scheduling conflict” that I hope they will change.
For pop culture, we got the following panels.
“The Law of Universal Monsters” panel is not about copyright. If you’re not familiar with the copyright situation, Universal Studios created the classic monster movies based on public domain books but held the copyright on the physical appearances of the monsters on film. Anyone can make a monster movie based on the books. The monsters, however, cannot look like the Universal Monsters everyone recognizes from last 80 years. Unfortunately, Universal continues to make new movies with their monsters to prevent the copyright from falling into the public domain.
- This panel is about the legal issues of the monsters themselves.
- Can Frankenstein’s monster face charges for murder of the little girl?
- Is the Wolf Man a peeping tom?Is the creature from the Black Lagoon an endangered species?
- Are you desecrating a corpse by bringing the mummy back to life?
Where is Perry Mason when you need him?
“Galaxy Quest, 20 Years of Magic” is another panel that makes me feel old. “Galaxy Quest” was the movie that had Tim Allen getting his shirt ripped off like William Shatner in almost every episode of Star Trek. Sigourney Weaver played a bosom blonde who had only one line in the fictional TV series. An indirect commentary on how cast members of popular TV shows are sometimes dependent on the con scene to make ends meet. And normalized inter-species sex. I think the panelists are fans and not anyone who worked on the movie.
Jason Momoa looks like he will be doing photo ops all day Saturday.
Since this year is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 manned moon landing, I’m leaning towards the space panels more than pop culture panels.
The keynote conversation is Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield being interviewed by Adam Savage. Hadfield’s claim to fame, besides being the commander of the International Space Station, playing “Space Oddity” on his guitar in space. If you see someone walking around in a head-to-toe costume, say, a Star Wars storm trooper, and a camera guy is following him around, that’s Adam Savage.
As I previously mentioned, there is the “Women of NASA” panel. None of the names of the women being discussed are mentioned in the panel details. I’ve done a video in March about the two moms in space 40 years ago. Sigourney Weaver playing single mom Ellen Ripley in “Alien” and Anna Lee Fisher as the first woman astronaut for the space shuttle program. Anna Lee Fisher is a name I expect to hear at that panel, as she was NASA’s first mom in space.
Closing out Saturday is “UFO’s: They’re Here and Disclosure is Tool”. UFOs has become a hot topic in recent years because the government is declassifying documents and being more open about UFO incidents. Keep in mind that UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Objects and not E.T. eating Reese’s Pieces. After all these years, I’m still bitter that it wasn’t M&M’s.
Maybe they will discuss the Area 51 Naruto Run that is happening on Friday, September 20, 2019. As someone who works in government IT for a three-letter agency, I’m obligated to tell you to stay the hell away from Area 51. It’s a dangerous place and idiots are bound to get themselves killed while trespassing for no good reason.
FRIDAY, 08/16/2019
The Friday programming was not available. I’m going to rant about what happened at the Star Wars panel for last year’s Friday event. All my panel videos from last year were made from audio recordings because the organizers banned video recording of the panels at the last minute.
I was told that I could not record video from my seat and sent to the back of the room where others have set up their cameras. I was told I couldn’t record video standing up from the back of the room because the fire marshal was running around the facility. Never mind that all the volunteers were standing against the walls to watch the panel.
On Saturday morning, I was told I couldn’t record any video because I didn’t have a media badge and being a YouTuber didn’t qualify. A notice on the big screens periodically stated that no video recording of the panels allowed.
I recorded the audio of the panels that I attended with my Zoom H1 digital recorder since audio recordings weren’t prohibited. I posted those audio recordings with static images as video files to YouTube.
The video recording ban didn’t stop anyone with a cellphone from recording and posting videos on YouTube. I’m still waiting for confirmation from the organizers if there will be a video recording ban for this year.
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been recording my videos with the Panasonic HC-V180K camcorder. Unlike the iPhone 6S that I recorded videos with last year, the camcorder takes memory cards and batteries. I should be able to record up to ten hours of videos each day.