OK, I’m writing this bloggie-style, so no one break out your AP Style Books on me, as this will be a little more free-form than that.

If you haven’t read the previous blog entry (and I kept my head very low after that one and the BMF fiasco) I won the Wow Or Never holiday competition at Target Stores. (OK, well, I won the Star Wars part — my father is still ticked that I didn’t buy whatever would get the Maserati.) A week prior to the on-sale date (and the beginning of the promotion) I made a joking pact with my friend Jim that if I won, I’d take him. If he won, he’d take me. Read the rest here.

I won.

So Jim flies into Atlanta (GalacticBlogger HQ) and we take him out for the best BBQ in the south (per Food Network and a zillion reviews; despite us being vegetarian — we ate vegetarian soul food). Things here were pretty laid back because I think we were both in awe of what was to come.

Once we got on DELTA Flight 666, we realized that something might be wrong. As we pulled out of the gate, the plane stalled. Naturally, I said, "Would it help if I got out and pushed?!? (in classic Princess Leia fashion). They asked us to lower our windscreens so that we couldn’t see the tow-truck pulling us back to the gate. Then the FAA people may or may not have come aboard to clear us, and we were off again.

Jim said to me, "Ad, if this things stalls again, I’m going down the rubber raft." I turned and I asked the flight attendant if it might be a good time to serve drinks?

I’ll jump ahead past being put up at the wrong hotel, and my crying fit in the lobby. Finally, we found an inn that would take us. (Keep in mind that I had been up since 4am EST, and I was EXHAUSTED!) The concierge at the hotel didn’t even bring up (or send up) my goodie bag from Target. (And I’m still waiting/hoping it will arrive.) [Note to IRS -- I will be deducting the cost of a luxury hotel versus a business class hotel from the overall value of the hotel when taxes are due . Don't try any sneaky business!]

Jim still dragged me out for food and drinks with Stephen (former LFLer/JAKer) who dragged us up mountainous hills to some sort of weird Disney-esque pirate ship themed tiki bar. [Note to out-of-towners: DO NOT GO TO TONGA!]

We left, snagged a cab (people in California don’t know how we roll on the East Coast – we will swipe your ride) and returned to the hotel for a night’s sleep.

Sunday we woke up, strolled down the street, saw the San Francisco Pride parade, and ate awesome Chinese food. [House of Nan King -- great food!] (I’d write more, but some it’s XXX+ rated since it’s about Pride.) I think we were both still jet-lagged and tucked in early.

Knowing that the alarm was going off at 6am, I took my Ambien at like 9pm. My make-up artist, Helena Handbasquiat, showed up really early (she probably hadn’t been to bed yet) to put on my slap and attempt to do something with the mangle of hair and weave I have on my head. Jim, lucky guy, just had to shower and shave.

I think that this was the first time she ever had to do masculine make-up on a man. Hey, even I was befuddled. I’m just happy she didn’t come at me with the weird eyelash squishing things women use. They give me nightmares.

The car service picked us up, and away we went.

While we waited on our host, Paula, to show up, we meandered around looking at all the goodies. (MTV film awards are there, but the Oscars are conspicuously absent!) Quick side note — while we were there, a Hasbro team with a STEAMER TRUNK rolled in with packaging samples. I almost had a geek-attack. right then and there. I was counting my bribing cash, but I know it wasn’t enough.

 

Paula showed up (and I asked her what the Hasbro group was?) because I’m nosy. She outfitted us with our visitors’ badges, and off we went. Oh… and visitors must sign a special digital non-disclosure agreement. Mine said Oscar Wilde.

So beyond the general tour, our first destination was MoCap, which stands for Motion Capture studio. (The big green screen room.)

Some quick impressions — you won’t believe the quality of the 3D stuff they’re doing. (They can take two photos of a person or two angles, and the computers can now create a complete image of the digital actor — which might be handy if they want to extend the Vader vs. Obi-Wan scene from A New Hope, I guess.)  I was under the impression from the Target liaison that we’d get harnessed up to try a few stunts, but that didn’t happen. Everyone seemed very busy at the time. One can also use a special rig to "walk around" in the virtual environment that is being created on-the-fly. Amazing stuff. (And I hope I’m not writing anything I shouldn’t be writing here.)

Next up was lunch…

You can get everything from a macrobiotic vegan meal (which I had) to grilled ANYTHING to pizza to BBQ; plus soup, salad, fresh baked goods, and very lush pastries in the commissary. (LFL employees eat better than I do — that’s for sure.) The Grand Poobah of Toys, Derek, joined us for a nosh, and he made a point of saying (with a twinkle in his eye) that a big Death Star Playset would be really neat, wouldn’t it?

There’s a daycare that looks like the playground of your dreams. (I want to go to daycare at LFL!) As a Javva The Hutt funny sidenote; there’s a [ahem very popular and omnipresent coffee chain] right outside of the building that it’s in, but Javva is by far more popular (and has some cool toys on their shelf).

For some strange reason they took us to the Data Center, which is their computer farm. Even the guys who work there were confused. I had the impression that they’d run away if they wouldn’t get zapped or something. (It was actually cool to see how it’s all made, actually. The guys at Gizmodo would die in there.) We were wondering when they were going to show us toys and props? Oh yeah, and there are no Oompa Loompas either.

The Force Unleashed is amazing, and I could even play it without getting motion sickness. (A breakthrough! Seriously, I get motion sickness from video games.) It didn’t hurt that it was being played on a massive digital screen in the private theatre, I’m sure. There’s a funny surprise about the Evolutions set that we didn’t know, and I probably can’t post about. (And I’m suspecting that there will be another Evo set around gametime. That’s just a guess, though, based on what’s in the game.) I was amazed, and the digital actors seriously look just like the real actors (whose scan shots were on the wall in MoCap).

The Clone Wars! What can I say? A massive digital print on a massive digital screen with THX Certified/Skywalker Sound. Yowza! The kiddies are going to go nuts, and, at least according to rumor, the first dozen episodes are pretty thrilling.

Finally, we got our special, private screening in the special private screening room where all the special private people park their backsides to watch movies. (Just think! I could have been sitting where Shia LaBeouf was jonesing for a smoke or Harrison Ford was being, well, Harrison Ford.) The whole movie experience was magical, and the digital surroundings made it just that much more thrilling!

Before leaving, Derek (Grand Poobah of Toys) handed me a case of the all new, never touched by human hands First Day of Issue figures for The Clone Wars, which I have been dutifully opening and photographing all week. Yes, I’m a geek. Our fantastic LFL host Paula gave us some rockin’ goodie bags, and then our car service was waiting to take us back.

Oh wait! One last thing, before I left, I slipped Derek (Grand Poobah of Toys) a VOTC George Lucas action figure, and asked him to see if he could get "the boss" to sign it. Fear not, it would never go on eBay or anything in my lifetime, folks. If anything, it would go for a nice charity. Preferably after I dead. I’m a nice guy like that!

So have a look around in the photo archives, and feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Super, super extra big thanks to Julie (from Target) who pulled all of this together; thanks to Paula from LFL for being the most gracious host; thanks to Mary Franklin from LFL for just being herself; thanks to Adam from LucasArts [wow!]; and thank you very, very much to Derek (Grand Poobah of Toys). Oh and special thanks to Dave Vennemeyer (whose work I’ve loved since Celebration 2) who will be sculpting me. Also thank you to Derryl DePriest for putting up with so much lunacy!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Daily Blog, Personality Crisis, Winners!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.