Okay, so I have been a tad busy. But today I was able to add my last 2 trips worth of photos to the gallery. I did this mainly because I know that when I get back from San Diego I will have a TON of photos to put up, so better be at least a little caught up.

June Philadelphia trip to Wizard World and the King Tut exhibit

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We did stumble upon Jons Bar & Grille, the birthplace of Larry Fine. I had to get a picture of course for my pal Dave back in Oklahoma.

Next Josh went through the giant Heart exhibit to learn all about how it works. You can see him waving from on top of the heart. It was a good time but it was time for lunch, so we made a ready exit.

They had the full spectrum from the fully respectable gifts, like videos, books and some high end replica jewelry, to the mildly respectable like magnets, t-shirts, and coloring books. But nothing had set me for what I was about to see next…

Wow…I have seen schlock in my time, but nothing on this level. They had replica Canopic jars (where they stored the internal organs of the mummy), I guess this would be a nice place to put your dry cat food. They had a sarcophagus that opened to be a CD holder. Why they even had Tut’s favorite board game (kinda looked like Parcheesi). And they also had these three gems!

The King Tut Sarcophagus Wine Rack

I have never visited the Franklin Institute but it didn’t take us long to find it. The building was quite large and typical museum style of marble and pillars. The front steps (see pic) were painted on the vertical side so that the Tut mask shows to drivers by.

We had timed tickets for the 10am entry so we got there just in time. The tour was self paced and it took us just under an hour and a half to make it through.

The first part was all Egyptian artifacts from the time period but not from the actual tomb. At one point Josh was feeling cheated on his ticket price, but I assured him that this was just the lead up.

After several twists and turns we arrived at the artifact rooms from Tutankhamen’s tomb. It was quite impressive, lots of gold and gem inlayed items. Everything from things you would use every day (if you were an ancient Egyptian king that is) to items that were part of the mummifying process. The descriptions were very good too, even though having to listen to parents misinterpreting them for their kids was a little annoying.

I felt that it was worth the ticket price to go through and see everything. It was high, but since this is only appearing in a few US cities, it was a good thing to spend the money on.

So the three of us went out for Italian tonight. Allison found a local place and we decided to give it a try. It had a couple of negative reviews, but they sounded more like someone was just having a bad night rather than a serious problem.

So we walk a few blocks and were able to be seated quickly, for a Saturday night that was a bit of a surprise. Our waiter was very friendly and the food was great.

Have you ever just clicked with someone that when you talked to them you let your guard down a bit? Well in this case we clicked with the waiter like that. So much so that he dropped ‘shit’ and ‘son of a bitch’ during two different conversations.

Now when he said ‘shit’ it was perfectly placed in his sentence that my companions didn’t even really notice until I pointed it out to them. Neither they or I felt offended in the least. There was no emphasis to make it nasty or anything.

Really the only reason it stuck was due to the fact I don’t think it has ever happened before. Have you run into many naughty talking waiter out there?

Sweet girl who obviously is not used to this kind of attention yet. Unless she goes down the dark side path, like so many other starlets, she should do well in Hollywood. I hope she does for sure.

Caption for the pic (taken by Allison, thanks):
Why yes, that is a camera dangling there…and I am happy to see you!

Now over the years I have seen the guests go from glad handers (happy to see you, happy to sign what you have for free) to down right ‘Celeb who thinks they are worth more than they are’. And while it is a situation of Supply and demand and seeing what price the public is willing to pay, every now and then you find someone that has the old coolness in them and is willing to go that extra mile. This is not their story.

In the early 70′s I got the treat of my young life, I got to meet Robin the Boy Wonder. Now I am not talking about some yahoo dressed like Robin, I mean the actor Burt Ward from the old Batman TV show. He came to OKC and signed for a day at the TG&Y store. He even wore his costume, which was good for me since I wouldn’t have known who Burt Ward was.

To this day, I still have that autograph. It hung on my wall for much of my young life. But now I have to figure what to do with it.

See, Burt was at the show today signing autographs. I really didn’t have any intention of getting one since I still have my old one, but being a blogger and a shutter bug I was going to get a picture o him sitting at the table.

So I got in range with my little camera phone, lined up and BOOM I was accosted by one of his assistants. ‘Sir, if you would like to have your picture taken with Mr Ward it is $20′, I was ‘umm, no thanks’ and started lining up again, ‘No Photos unless you pay’ and the guy stood right in front of my camera.

What the hell? So I had just gotten to the show and didn’t want to get thrown out quite yet, so I walked away. Never in all my years have I been told I couldn’t even take a picture. I talked to my friend Josh who is a semi-pro photographer and we decided that while I certainly could take a photo, they could ask me to leave.

So I just sat there and fumed for awhile. Later I went back and snapped a quick blurry one for the blog. When I get home I think I am going to compose a nasty letter and send it to Burt. Along with my signed photo of him.

This is my third Wizard World here in Philly. Its a nice drive here from DC and the town is chock full of things to see and do. The convention, and i use that term loosely as this is more of a show, is just about the right size to take it all in in a day. So far i have to leave on Sat afternoon and feel the compulsion to come back the next day. And i think this year will be the same.