Dragon*Con 2007

[Glitch Girl]

My yearly pilgramage to major geekdom in Atlanta Georgia commences in a few weeks.  Any chance I can meet a few of you guys there?  Last year I ment Hamrick and Pyroclasm and that was fun. 

I may have to skimp on the costumes this year sadly - With heat indexes of 112, I stand a good chance of killing myself if I wear most of the stuff I've got.  But we'll see.  :)

More info here:
DragonCon Website: http://www.dragoncon.org

[Mr. Hamrick]

My yearly pilgramage to major geekdom in Atlanta Georgia commences in a few weeks.  Any chance I can meet a few of you guys there?  Last year I met Mr. Hamrick and Pyroclasm and that was fun. 

I may have to skimp on the costumes this year sadly - With heat indexes of 112, I stand a good chance of killing myself if I wear most of the stuff I've got.  But we'll see.  :)

More info here:
DragonCon Website: http://www.dragoncon.org

I plan to be there to this year, I plan on bringing some production associates too.  As I understand it, Pyro will not be able to make it this year. 

Hope some more people can make it!

[Glitch Girl]

Well, I got back yesterday, and I gotta say I have an AWESOME time!  :D

Unfortunately,  I now have a cold, so I'm not feeling awesome, but I won't let that spoil everything.

I shot about 350 pictures in all which I'm going to dump online ASAP.  Most are costume and parade shots, but some are panels I went to.

Assorted hilights:

• Usually, we arrive the day before the con (Thursday) and stay at a freiend's apartment, then drive into Atlanta on the official day 1 - this year was different because said friend moved to Birmingham (but was still joining us for the conn).  We arrived at our hotel Thursday, and decided to get our badges that night, I mean, who's gonna be there that early?  Yeah you guessed it - practically everyone.  On the down side, it took several hours.  On the up side: those few hours were when nothing was happening, which meant more real conn time the next day.  Oh yeah, and Mordru was ahead of us in line - complete with magic ball with mini Legionairres inside it (actually it was a yellow hamster ball, but it didn't look too bad)
  
  
  
• I ran into Mr Hamrick on day 1 of the con and introduced him to my friends.  I was going light on the costume that day - street clothes and a pair of subtle cat ears.   Costumes would proceed to get more elaborate the next two days (and then back to street clothes the last day)  This is unsually for me, but the new costume wasn't finished, and I was worried about the oppresive heat we've been having in this area.  Luckily, this did not stop most of the other con go-ers.  As I mentioned, I took LOTS of costume shots.
  
  
  
• The day of the parade, we got to watch a pirate ona motorcycle get pulled over by the cops.  I kid you not. She was dresed in full pirate gear, down to the tricorner hat and riding a harley with a huge Skull and Crossbones flag tacked to the back.  The cop pulled her over and started talking to her.  She pulled out some paperwork, then a cell phone, much talking ensued as people on the sidelines took tons of pictures, and evcentually, some guy ran over from teh hotel carrying a motorcycle helmet (which incidentally, had a skull and crossbones on it as well).  The cop checked it over, handed it to her, and she was allowed to go.  I don't think he wrote up a ticket (at least I didn't see him hand her any paper) but I can just imagine the report he had to write up.  PS: Later, we saw teh same motorcycle being ridden by Eric Estrada in the parade.  :D
  
  
  
• Nichelle Nichols  (aka: Uhura) is a very classy lady.  And, we all got to hear the news that she will be joining the cast of Heroes this season straight from her mouth.  :D
  
  
  
• I am convinced that Chris Judge (Stargate) goes to every one of his panels completely drunk. Actually, come to think of it, I think most of the Stargate panel I went to was a tad tipsy.
  
  
  
• The best part about the Grandmaster panel I went to was hearing about how he beat up a mugger while he was in a wheelchair. 
  
  
  
• I am now the proud owner of an original William Stout painting. Mr Stout recently won the Chesley Award for Best Product Illustration from the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists for hos work on Pan's Labyrinth.  I won the painting after this year's Iron Artist competition when they have the chairity auction.  The even was hosted this year by Michael Winslow, aka: the sound effects guy from Police Academy and Spaceballs.  The theme was 50's Sci-Fi posters, and the secret ingredient (something the artist has to work in) as "Pirates vs. Ninjas"  My painting took 30 minutes and is called "Attack of the 50 foot Pirate"  I'll see if I can link a picture later.  :D
  
  
  
• Peter David made a very funny point: RAiders of the Lost Ark, while a great movie, is a lousy story to convert to a nivel.  The hero always gets everything taken away from him, and in the end, God saves his hiney.  Seriously, think about it, if you remove Indy from the equasion, let's say the nazi's get the headpiece, they know exactly how long to make the staff for the map room, they find the ark, they take it to the island, they open it, and they still all die!  But we all agree it's still a kickass movie.
  
  
  
• Atlanta Radio Theater was mildly disappointing this year due to sound problems.  At one point, the wrestling match next door started pumping their audio feed into our speakers.  It got fixed eventually, but for a while, it kinda killed the mood.
  
  
  
• Sadly, I do not have pictures of three of the coolest costumes in the masquerade because they didn't come out for a photo op.  One was a home made cosutme of Marvel's Man-thing (make our own jokes folks) and another was a Robotech costume that weighed about 50 lbs and was custom vacuformed by the wearer.  The third was a homemade moderin interp of the catepilliar from Alice in Wonderland with lots of lights on the mushroom and fiberoptics throughout.  I got most of the other entries during the photo op though.
  
  
  
• Also sadly, I didn't make it to Robot Wars this year - opting for a Sluggy Freelance RP playtest. Pete  (the creator of Sluggy Freelance) dropped by at one point and may use an idea or two from the session in the comic.  In the end I came in second for RPing, which gave me a cutout of Bunbun from the display table as a souvenier.  It was quite fun though. 

I may add to this later, I know I'm forgetting a ton of stuff (I'm still kicking myself for missing the John Wesley Shipp panel because I had to stop for dinner or pass out, grumblegrumblegrumble)  But suffice it to say, a good time was had by all.  :D

EDIT: Ooo.. online new report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_en_ot/dragon_con

[Uncle Yuan]

Sounds like a blast, indeed.  I've only ever been to one con (Minnecon) and that was an age ago.  I should really make a point to go to one soon.  One of my best buds (and favorite GM) is a fixture at Ambercon NW, perhaps I shall tag along with him next year.

[stumpy]

Yeah, sounds like a hoot and a half. :thumbup:

Oh yeah, and Mordru was ahead of us in line - complete with magic ball with mini Legionairres inside it (actually it was a yellow hamster ball, but it didn't look too bad)

I would love to see that. Did you get pictures?

BTW, are you posting the pics to your blog? Sorry, it's been a while, but I am not spotting the link in your sig anywhere...

[Edit] Okay I found the link to the Mea Culpa blog, but I don't think that's what you meant. And I didn't immediately spot any Dragon*Con pics on GGFF...

[MJB]

I shot about 350 pictures in all which I'm going to dump online ASAP.  Most are costume and parade shots, but some are panels I went to.

Stumpy I would take the above quote as she hasn't had the chance to upload the pix yet.

-MJB

[stumpy]

Yeah, I caught that. I just tried to check ahead to the sites where I thought she might put them (I haven't seen any updates since the move a year or so ago and I didn't get to see anyone at Wizard World Chicago this year) and I was having a tough time tracking the links down. Sorry I came across as so anxious. :blush:

[Mr. Hamrick]

I guess I will go ahead and chime in.   I also went down Thursday and got my pass but unlike GG did not hit too long of a line.  I got lucky.

Some assorted highlights from me:
Friday

• As Glitch Girl mentioned, she and I met up day one of the con.  After hitting the one of the exhibition areas, we hit the Venture Brothers panel.  I was not familiar with The Venture Brothers going in but I will have to try and catch a few episodes if I get time.
• Once the panel over, my friend Dave caught up with me and GG parted ways.  Dave and I finished going through the exhibition and vendor areas and then went by the Walk of Fame.  I made a few notes about some things that I was interested in buying but I'd come back later for.
• I broke down and got an autograph photo from Gail Kim after speaking with her and seeing one particular photo that she had on her table.  I'd later get an autograph photo from Elizabeth Rohm (from Angel and Law & Order) but for the most part I stayed away from the Walk of Fame.  It was way too messed up this year and they apparently were cracking down on people taking pictures with their own cameras and charging almost as much for that.
•   I did stop by VERY briefly and wave hi to Ken Feinberg.  I was working for Ken as an intern for a few weeks this summer.  As I was heading out of the Walk of Fame
• I bumped into two pro-wrestling buds of mine who were going to be wrestling that evening.  Both men were rather drunk.  I went for one match of the wrestling show that evening.  As the second match started, I left and headed down to one of the other panels.
• The burlesque panel on the Goth track was interesting.  One of the panels and the moderator told me about it prior to Dragon Con so I thought I would check it out.  It was a very packed panel too and as I understand it, people had to be turned away.
• I don't think any of my pics turned out very well.  My camera was doing odd stuff the whole time and turning out blurry pictures.  It being a fairly new digital camera, I wasn't sure how to fix the matter.  Turns out it was the shutter speed and it seems that I had it on the wrong preset.  If any of the pics turned out then I will post.  I've not looked at them since Friday.  I didn't take my camera Sat and Sun.

Saturday

• Glitch Girl woke me up Saturday morning with a phone call telling me I was missing the parade.  OOPS!
• I actually didn't make it down there till later in the day due to some school stuff.  I met up with a local actor friend of mine who wandered around with me for a while.  I really started to dread this as he spent most of the time griping about how disappointed he was with it and gawking at women half his age (This guy was in his mid to late 40s).
• I did find a really cool walking stick with a sword in it.
• Met back up with Dave and called it a day relatively early.  On the way back to base, we met a young woman on the train who was a Production Assistant on both Stargate SG-1 and Ugly Betty.

Sunday

• I agreed to buy a one day pass down for another friend named Nick on Sunday.
  
• I spent most of the day on the Goth/Dark Fantasy track when I was not at the vendor/exhibition area.
• I bought a broadsword and a set of samurai swords at one of the booths.
• Went to one of the film panels later that evening and was both interested and amused by the discussion on what both Dragon Con and The Atlanta Film Festival said they were looking for as far as festival entries.  I was even more interested by what they didn't say.

Side Notes:

• Apparently Kevin Sorbo went missing for a while.  As I understand it, Kevin ditched his agent and his guide for the con and went out on to the convention floor.  From what I understand, he was ticked about the way the Walk of Fame was sat up and the fact that people were being charged for taking pics with their cameras as much as some of the fans were.  So, he went out and started posing on the floor.
• Jonathan Frakes stepped out of the Walk of Fame area for a bit and wandered over to where they were signing people up for photo ops and was heard asking the guy how much it would be to get his picture taken with Kevin Sorbo.
• The cast of Stargate seemed to be REALLY enjoying their time there.  One acquaintance of mine noted that Christopher Judge seemed to show up for a few panels rather drunk.  He wasn't the only one.
• Two years in row, former WWE pro-wrestler Virgil has been at Dragon Con.  He is one of the biggest jerks I have met in the business.  It is completely classless the way he spoke about how "today's stars" and lied about things that he apparently had no knowledge of to try to seem cool.  He generally came off as bitter at the fact that his glory days are over and really were never that glorious to begin with.
• For all the griping about John Wesley Shipp as The Flash, I was really impressed with the guy.  He seemed to be a genuine fan of the character and the character's history.  He even talked about how he'd love to come back and play Jay Garrick if they made a Flash movie.  He was really cool and it was nice to see him there.

I think that is everything.  I skipped out on Monday because of school stuff.  Yes, I was getting school stuff done on Labor Day.

[thalaw2]

I've met Nichelle Nichols.  I love her!  She was so genuine and down to earth when I spoke to her.   Also, i watched the original Star Trek because of her....but I didn't mention that during our brief talk.  If she's on Heroes then they have made a awesome casting move.