Sometimes my life is cool. Sunday was one of these days. I woke up at the Mondrian... one hell of a scary hotel. Let me paint it for you. You pull up in your car and those people in white jumpsuits from the TV sequence of Willy Wonka jump out to grab you and steal your car, then you part through the doors, where what look like the actors from "THE HAT SQUAD" defunct TV show dressed in throwaway clothes from Miami Vice meet you at the door. You notice the crucifix couch, the many babes... I saw Liv Tyler and Demi Moore (Weird) you go to the elevators (which are surrounded by glowing curtains) and enter, to find a frame surrounding a television screen of EYES staring at me... blinking.... staring through me... Then I get off the elevator to my floor where I find a glowing square cut into the wall, my hand disappears into it, I stick my head in to see a weird set of optics... strange... I go down the THX 1138 hallway and get to my room.
My room was dark, encased in shadows with a single beam of light illuminating a single red apple, the only color in the entire room. I turn on the lights to see a stark white room... like the world of SIMON or something. Then I look closely at the walls and notice that subliminal words are written in an off color paint ever so slightly. "THINK"..."DREAM"..."PLAY"..."REMEMBER"...."PUSH" Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!! This is fucking THEY LIVE world. I don't know what sort of weirdo designed this psychotic hell hole, but boy was the bed soft, and that made up for the eyes on the backs of all the chairs...
Anyway.... Joe Hallenbeck picked me up from this place to take me to the L.A.COMIC CON at the SHRINE. Coooool!!! I was going to an LA Comic Con... Hallenbeck and Flunky Side Kick were driving me to the place, but they had no clue how to get there from where we were... so they 'felt' their way there. I was told a BIG LOST IN SPACE display was going to be there.
Joe and Flunky navigated our asses into South Central L.A. These two WUSSES were scared to death by... well the area. I was excited by the thrill of it all, and when the car full of gang members drove up next to us and I had an Assault on Precinct 13 moment... well I smiled... Joe said, "Ok we're gonna die!" Man those studio execs are all the same... oops sorry Joe... Anyway after about 45 minutes of wandering around South Central, we found a highway and looked for Felix the Cat, who would point the way.
We finally arrive at the Shrine and man was there a line. We get in line early due to some cool spies, and I meet one of my Starship Troopers spies, who was a bit shocked when I recited his ISP at him. Hee hee, I'm not too dumb! We got a cool L.I.S. t-shirt and button and as I entered this monstrosity of a convention I began wandering... And I met DR ZAIUS!!!! F*CKING DR ZAIUS maaaaaaaaannnn!!!! I was so psyched. He was at this table and noone was coming up to him. But this was Dr Zaius, and MAAAAANNN, I got to meet him.. I thought Dr Zaius was dead when that bomb went off, but NOOOOOO he was alive and well in L.A.!!!! I got his autograph and began traveling about an inch and a half off the ground (really good for the arches). Finally I found where the Lost IN Space display was. And... well this security guard dude was in my way. He was pretty tough... but using my megabrain I touched the head New Line honcho and 'willed' him over.
I got through security... hahahahaha.... and went over to look at the props... which were pretty detail free. Most of the guns were smooth and geometrical... cool though... They had costume mockups... which I also liked... But without a doubt the coolest thing was THE ROBOT. Jim Henson's crew from London came in to 'run the show' and they were testing the big guy out. WHAT A TOY!!! Maaaaan, I got ta get me one of these. It is so dang cool. Stuff moving all around in it, arms, pincers, cool treads, lights... neato. And then there was the backdrop which looked like an old Chesley Bonestill (misspelled badly) painting from Destination Moon. At 1400 hours California Cool Standard Time the show was going to begin, but my plane would be leaving too shortly thereafter, soooo I haaaad to leave. HOWEVER... never fear, because while I could not attend Gary Oldman arriving or the other cast members... well a Spy could. This one is the Hunky Klingon. This gorgeous specimen has ol Deana sweaating at night, and well he was on the spot soooo heeeerrrrrreeeeeee he is....
Don't know if you've read the script for Lost in Space yet, but I haven't seen this on the site, so I thought I'd send it your way.
A big Lost in Space presentation was held across the street from me at the Shrine Auditorium. Very nice setup. The robot was there. It's pretty damn cool looking--about 7 feet tall, rotating arms with working claws, and the face extends to swivel up and down and left and right. Really a nice piece of work.
The cast members there were Gary Oldman, Matt LeBlanc, Mimi Rogers, Lacey Chabert, and Jack Johnson or Dr. Smith, Don West, Maureen Robinson, Penny Robinson, and Will Robinson, respectively. They were all pretty entertaining to listen to. The best part was when Gary Oldman was asked what his favorite Dr. Smith line is. He took a moment to compose himself and said, in a perfect Dr. Smith voice, "Oh the pain, the pain."
They had several props there too. All their guns were there. Very geometric and smooth is how I'd describe them. The costumes are way freakin' cool! They also had Penny Robinson's hibernation pod.
Now for the SPOILER bit:
When asked about what was hardest to do on the film, Gary Oldman said that when the crew encounters the spider aliens, he gets scratched by them, and infected. He'll mutate into an "11 foot creature." He had special green makeup on his face that they filmed with a strobe light on the camera, apparently doing this to help computerize his face so they can work their "digital magic" on him and make him the first "digital actor" as Oldman put it.
Art Mann from E! was there with a camera crew, so I'd expect that it'll show up on E! News or something.
