On the first day of Comicon we went to see the Scott Pilgrim panel. Before it began bags of buttons were passed around, some red with the poster photo nad some white with a little Scott Pilgrim 1-UP icon. Me and my friends got the 1-UP ones. The giant screens told us not to trade them with anyone, so I figured they’d hand out some stuff at the end to those with the right buttons.

Instead, Edgar Wright concluded the panel¹ by announcing that those with the 1-UP buttons should all follow him to the Balboa theater to see the movie that very moment. A map showing the way was displayed on the giant screens, and Wright jumped off the stage and started walking. But then, as everyone got up and starting fighting their way to the doors, the screens went dark. We had no idea where to go.

My friends and I managed to make our way outside, and just followed the people with the 1-UP buttons. After wandering back and forth for a while, we discovered that people with the 1-UP buttons were walking in pretty much every direction. No one seemed to know where the Balboa theater was. So, we just picked a direction we thought looked right and marched off into the Gaslamp District, along with a few other hopefuls just as lost as we were.

This wasn’t an effective strategy. We were still wandering, just on a larger scale. I tried asking for directions, but none of the locals I asked had heard of the Balboa Theater. One of my friends looked up maps on his smartphone, which turned out to be somewhat unclear.² Finally, a girl in a cupcake costume gave me directions I could use, along with a coupon by which I could attain — after the purchase of a cupcake at the regular price — another cupcake of equal or lesser value.³

A few minutes later we found the Balboa, where we were forced to turn in our cameras for the sake of the lawyers. Up to that point, I had been too busy wandering to think of documenting our adventure, so the only photos I have are a couple blurry shots of the outside of the theater.

So, we got to watch the movie with the director, the cast, and Bryan Lee O’Mally. After the movie was over the screen lifted to reveal Metric, who played a set, though we had to leave early to catch the tram back to our hotel.

Stuff like this is what living is for.

1. During the entire panel Micheal Cera was wearing a Captain America costume with tremendous muscles, which I stupidly did not get a picture of. [↩]
2. Not that it mattered. Our group was constantly threatening to disperse every step of the way, so it was a challenge just keeping everyone moving in the same direction. [↩]
3. No I didn’t get a picture of the cupcake girl. Yes, I would make a terrible photojournalist. [↩]