Went to the Last Dragon Anniversary

Decided to sleep on it rather than just brain fart out my thoughts directly after the predictably chaotic awkward experience that is these kinds of cons. I'm used to it by now, that feeling of wtf am I doing standing around with these people I don't know. Let's go beyond that...

Enlightning as hell day. Yeah, surprised me that Jai was there for hours. He's legit very busy right now, got no time to be hanging with fans who want to exploit his fame, but the man honored his word and was there for the fans for waaaay longer than the spawn anniversary which was a blip. If I had missed him there, I'd have caught his autograph and photo op this time for sure but my real intention was to celebrate spawn with him and I did that, so I wasn't persuing him at all, he just showed up and gave great advice and stories during panels.

Honestly I have to say I don't think they know what power these community gathering events have on black youth. That's a point I want to make. We don't have heros is the theme that's constantly present and is why they started doing this. And it's true. It might be a long day and burdensome, but giving people like me hope that I can see myself as a hero in cinema, and ultimately HOPE that I can have a decent existence in this world, is just severely needed. I don't think they know the magnitute of what it means to go and see powerful strong black heros in a good honest way both in life and on screen. It's no small thing.

About Last Dragon.

I want to make this about that film, and it's what got me into going to these expos so of course I'm going to discuss it majorly. It's just still amazing to me to be wowed by seeing a character like Bruce Leroy. It shouldn't. I mean, think about it. I can go see a lot of movies today and be seeing some typical hollywood hero teen or whatever tackling some adversary. Spidey or Kickass or supey or like all of them, just all mainstream hollywood...

The movie's great on its own regardless of race, but that black soul it has is so strong and exotic that it knocks you out with how different and unconventional it is to see a black lead for a change. Maybe it's an illusion of greatness since it's just not the norm and goes against the grain of what we're typically fed, but yeah we all are attracted to it simply because it is oil in the water of the film world we know.

I'm attracted personally because I am Bruce Leroy. I'm just watching myself when I watch that movie. I've been a weirdo black kid martial arts and fitness nut forever. Finding that film was like finding myself.

It's still important and may forever be important as that one awkward hair going against the flow of the other hairs in the world of films...

And that's it. I did a lot of stuff all in one day. Congrats to Jai the new black dragon. Taimak, thank you for being so open about the film this time, incredible Q and A at the end, learned so many details on the inner workings of the classic and how it came together. Certainly was to me special to sit amongst fellow fans and just talk like people, no pomp and celebity bullshit. That's what was going on all day to be honest, all that hollywood mask shit was gone. Nobody bullshitted. Just spoke like people, no body gave a shit about putting the happy chuck jiving negro mask on and who knows why but part of me was delighted by that 'realness'

Well... Looking forward to the sequel series as it's long overdue and deserved it far more than a lot of other movies that got sequels nobody asked for. That's it, got work today try to bite into all the money I spent, then who knows what the future holds.... I don't have a definitive plan.

Oh and that's kinda goes to my point about going to these cons and such. Yeah gotta have a game plan. Just the whole "show up" idea doesn't fly. I did that like that this time since I wasn't really thinking I needed to be thinking that far ahead, but my advice going forward. Never jump into these things without a clear goal or plan. I didn't know what to do with my self half the day and because of that missed out on doing things asking questions and seeing films and just was spinning around aimless... I look back on that and realize it was a mistake to not have a set clear idea of what I wanted to do.