First up was a trip to G4techTV to tape a segment for them.
Once I'd gotten back into street clothes, Dave and I went to Babalu, a Cuban restaurant not far away to meet Steven Lisberger. Steven's a very nice guy who spends most of his time these days indulging his passion for woodworking. He's done a lot of thinking about the future of man in the age of the computer and Internet, especially what effect it will have on the development of kids and on society as a whole.
Steven's not that knowledgeable about computing, though. I spent a fair amount of time explaining what makes a mainframe so good at what it does and why it's nothing approaching obsolete in the real world (unless you're a Microsoft salesman), and why I think Bill Gates should be strung up by his toes, and what's the difference between a mainframe and a traditional supercomputer and a supercomputer cluster and why it's important. In turn, he had practical tips on how to make the next costume (in my copious free time) and how they did the ones in the movie. (Yup, stenciled.)
One thing I did point out was that, while TRON had elements that were moderately silly in 1982 (the biggest being that programs weren't fighting each other then), it wasn't so silly any more. He said they thought it would be one possible outcome in the future. He was right, of course.
We hit it off quite well. As we parted, I offered to let Steven pick my brain about real-world computing, and he promised he would.
Dave took me back to the hotel, after I found out I wouldn't be on Kimmel that night. We'd originally planned to stop by his employer for a short meeting, but that turned out to be unnecessary, since I wasn't going to be on. As it happens, the subject of that meeting happened anyway, even though I wasn't on the show! Neat.
I waited a couple of hours, mainly poking at the computer and reading.
The costume was a hit with the staff. Several folks asked if I was giving up the TRON bit (hell no!). I explained why I'd made it, and who the character was and where he'd come from, and that that was why I'd shaved off the mustache and hair on the top of my head. One of the producers grabbed Jimmy's camera (a Leica Digilux 2...must be nice to have money) off of his desk and took a couple of pictures.
After the show, I was at the front of the green room when Jimmy walked by. He swept past as he usually does, then stopped, walked back, and looked me up and down...then asked me into his dressing room so he could get a better look. He took a couple of pictures of the top of my head, too. He thought I was a real nut to have done that. He had to play a bit with the flash's output level, but finally got one he liked. We talked a bit, and I talked a bit more with other folks working on the show. Jimmy's dad, aside from looking a lot like Wolf Blitzer, is a really nice guy. I told him I was beginning to really feel like part of the family. Finally, Jimmy and his girlfriend left, and I headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.
It was a very long day (as my days in LA usually turn out to be), but a thoroughly enjoyable one.