Con report - DragonCon 2007, part two
Sep. 6th, 2007 06:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
castaliaSunday: Another late start after the exhaustion of the previous day, then we trooped down to a Fullmetal Alchemist panel with Vic Mignogna who voiced Edward in the English dub. It was a packed panel, so Mir's husband and I had to stand at the door for most of it, but we could hear okay and it was a good panel. That is, except for one teenaged boy who was so annoying I was afraid ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shanola22 was going to bash him over the head with her big wrench (part of her Winry cosplay).
This was the first time all weekend I had the opportunity to hit the dealers room, so we spent a while in there. Didn't find anything I wanted, sadly, but that's probably a good thing as I was short on funds anyway.
Went to the third SG guest mega panel at 2:30, this time trading Lou Gossett Jr for Claudia Black. Much the same as the previous panel, there were good and bad questions from the fans and the moderator and lots of entertainment from the actors. They showed one of the trailers for A Dog's Breakfast that Hewlett sent in lieu of coming himself, and the moderator was dumb enough to announce that he'd sent around 100 movie posters to be handed out in the track panel room. This led to a HUGE line for the next panel I wanted to attend, where they were showing clips of other roles SG actors had done. I did manage to get a poster, which was nice, but the panel was a bit disappointing as despite their claim of "digging deep into the past to get old, embarrassing roles", most of the clips were of recent guest appearances or older roles most everyone in the fandom has seen by now. A few things were entertaining, though, like laughing at Shank's horrible Sci-Fi Channel movie Swarmed and seeing some of RDA's Simpsons episode again.
Sunday night was the Masquerade, which everyone watched fromgritkitty's suite up on the 40th floor. We had pizza and snacks, chatted a lot about the con, and watched the costumes go by on DragonCon TV. Was very amused when the Stormtroopers showed up to get the horrible Backstreet Boys skit thing off the stage. A very fine tradition indeed.
After the show, I went off to see the Crüxshadows concert, something I'd been looking forward to all weekend. They're a very popular Darkwave band and gave an incredibly entertaining concert. With only the front part of the ballroom cleared of chairs, the whole thing was in a nicely casual atmosphere and I was able to sit back in the middle section and just enjoy the show. I'm so not into the whole goth type lifestyle so many of their fans obviously are, but I still like their music and it was a real treat to see them. They played several of my favorite songs and only once were there any painful strobe lights. Next time I'll have to drag more people with me, b/c it was damn fun.
A bit more costume walking and everyone was quite ready to crash for the night. I think we all made it to bed around 3:30.
Monday: Getting up for a 10am panel after so little sleep suuuuuucked. But there was one last SG panel and I had to go to it. This one was much less crowded, as all of the one and two-day pass people had gone home. I got decent seats, but still didn't get any good pictures. Same crowd once again minus Claudia Black, and pretty much the same routine as before. Most of the guys looked very hungover or possibly still drunk from the night before. Jason Momoa commandeered an entire pitcher of ice water to press to his forehead and drink from, while Shanks and Judge were sipping Coronas. They were still just as witty and entertaining, though, so I was glad I went, despite the horrible fan questions and the inevitable facepalming when Shanks brought up the fact that he'd discovered the existence of furries the previous night. Then of course, Chris Judge had to be told what that was. Hilarity ensued, but I thought it was going to be a train wreck there for a moment.
Went straight from there to a small panel with Paul McGillion that was packed out minutes after I sat down. I got to be in the second row, with a great view, but my pictures once again suck. He was very charming and funny despite some crappy questions, but I had to leave a few minutes early b/c I couldn't take the auction they had towards the end. It was for the official con charity, so that was fine, but with only the first item the crazy had begun. Some girl bid $500 for a signed poster (with McGillion, both David and Kate Hewlett, Judge, and Momoa's signatures) b/c she could get a kiss out of it. Once another person had raised the issue and PM had agreed, it started a bidding war and it was all just too embarrassing for me to stay. I just find that sort of behaviour incredibly, I dunno, sad.
I got McGillion's autograph afterwards at the Walk of Fame, on the ADB poster. I managed to not say anything stupid, mostly just please and thank you and how to spell my name. He was very, very pretty up close, and afterwards the only thing I could think of that I might have said was how sorry I was for that auction and how I hoped he wasn't put off by it all. I do not havegritkitty's talent for striking up random conversations with actors ;)
Lots of goodbyes later,shanola22, her mother and I stuck around for the 4pm Farscape panel. Only Lani Tupu was still there by then, but he was incredibly cool about staying and running the panel all on his own. We got great seats and listened to him tell lots of funny stories about the set and the show. He didn't have any news about whether or not he'll be in any of the webisodes coming up, but he said he'd heard they were rebuilding Rygel and Pilot and it was his opinion that they were "testing the waters" with the webisodes, b/c to him it didn't make financial sense to spend all that money if that's all that was coming. So who knows, maybe if the webisodes are well received we'll get another season or a spinoff or some sort of continuation.
General thoughts: I am so going back next year. Despite all the crowding and waiting for elevators and next knowing when they were going to close the Hyatt, I had a terrific time. I enjoyed the celebrity panels, some of the fan panels, seeing all the costumes, seeing all my friends, and all the random things that happen at a con like this.
Seeing all the Stargate people in person was very cool, not to mention all the BSG people.
Some of us were squished together in an elevator with John de Lancie at one point, which was surreal. We gave him directions before noticing who he was. He's very tall.
My friends all had hugely successful costumes and I loved watching them have fun playing with that.
There was a remote controlled Dalek!! So cool.
I was never bored and there was always something to do. Sometimes there several things to do so that I was forced to choose, and if I didn't need to stop and eat I could have attended even more panels than I did. Lots and lots of tracks, so many things to suit all of our interests, truly something for everyone.
It became totally normal after the first night to see Stormtroopers, pirates, fairies, and other assorted characters walking around all the time in downtown Atlanta. Now I'm looking around wondering where all the costumes and corsets are.
Is it next year yet? I seriously can't wait. Am very glad I finally went to this damn thing after so many years of listening to friends say how awesome it is. B/c it is indeed very awesome.
Btw, all my DC pics can be found in this photobucket album. Everyone feel free to snag what you want, and I'm sure I'll want some of yours, too.
shanola22 was going to bash him over the head with her big wrench (part of her Winry cosplay).This was the first time all weekend I had the opportunity to hit the dealers room, so we spent a while in there. Didn't find anything I wanted, sadly, but that's probably a good thing as I was short on funds anyway.
Went to the third SG guest mega panel at 2:30, this time trading Lou Gossett Jr for Claudia Black. Much the same as the previous panel, there were good and bad questions from the fans and the moderator and lots of entertainment from the actors. They showed one of the trailers for A Dog's Breakfast that Hewlett sent in lieu of coming himself, and the moderator was dumb enough to announce that he'd sent around 100 movie posters to be handed out in the track panel room. This led to a HUGE line for the next panel I wanted to attend, where they were showing clips of other roles SG actors had done. I did manage to get a poster, which was nice, but the panel was a bit disappointing as despite their claim of "digging deep into the past to get old, embarrassing roles", most of the clips were of recent guest appearances or older roles most everyone in the fandom has seen by now. A few things were entertaining, though, like laughing at Shank's horrible Sci-Fi Channel movie Swarmed and seeing some of RDA's Simpsons episode again.
Sunday night was the Masquerade, which everyone watched from
gritkitty's suite up on the 40th floor. We had pizza and snacks, chatted a lot about the con, and watched the costumes go by on DragonCon TV. Was very amused when the Stormtroopers showed up to get the horrible Backstreet Boys skit thing off the stage. A very fine tradition indeed. After the show, I went off to see the Crüxshadows concert, something I'd been looking forward to all weekend. They're a very popular Darkwave band and gave an incredibly entertaining concert. With only the front part of the ballroom cleared of chairs, the whole thing was in a nicely casual atmosphere and I was able to sit back in the middle section and just enjoy the show. I'm so not into the whole goth type lifestyle so many of their fans obviously are, but I still like their music and it was a real treat to see them. They played several of my favorite songs and only once were there any painful strobe lights. Next time I'll have to drag more people with me, b/c it was damn fun.
A bit more costume walking and everyone was quite ready to crash for the night. I think we all made it to bed around 3:30.
Monday: Getting up for a 10am panel after so little sleep suuuuuucked. But there was one last SG panel and I had to go to it. This one was much less crowded, as all of the one and two-day pass people had gone home. I got decent seats, but still didn't get any good pictures. Same crowd once again minus Claudia Black, and pretty much the same routine as before. Most of the guys looked very hungover or possibly still drunk from the night before. Jason Momoa commandeered an entire pitcher of ice water to press to his forehead and drink from, while Shanks and Judge were sipping Coronas. They were still just as witty and entertaining, though, so I was glad I went, despite the horrible fan questions and the inevitable facepalming when Shanks brought up the fact that he'd discovered the existence of furries the previous night. Then of course, Chris Judge had to be told what that was. Hilarity ensued, but I thought it was going to be a train wreck there for a moment.
Went straight from there to a small panel with Paul McGillion that was packed out minutes after I sat down. I got to be in the second row, with a great view, but my pictures once again suck. He was very charming and funny despite some crappy questions, but I had to leave a few minutes early b/c I couldn't take the auction they had towards the end. It was for the official con charity, so that was fine, but with only the first item the crazy had begun. Some girl bid $500 for a signed poster (with McGillion, both David and Kate Hewlett, Judge, and Momoa's signatures) b/c she could get a kiss out of it. Once another person had raised the issue and PM had agreed, it started a bidding war and it was all just too embarrassing for me to stay. I just find that sort of behaviour incredibly, I dunno, sad.
I got McGillion's autograph afterwards at the Walk of Fame, on the ADB poster. I managed to not say anything stupid, mostly just please and thank you and how to spell my name. He was very, very pretty up close, and afterwards the only thing I could think of that I might have said was how sorry I was for that auction and how I hoped he wasn't put off by it all. I do not have
gritkitty's talent for striking up random conversations with actors ;)Lots of goodbyes later,
shanola22, her mother and I stuck around for the 4pm Farscape panel. Only Lani Tupu was still there by then, but he was incredibly cool about staying and running the panel all on his own. We got great seats and listened to him tell lots of funny stories about the set and the show. He didn't have any news about whether or not he'll be in any of the webisodes coming up, but he said he'd heard they were rebuilding Rygel and Pilot and it was his opinion that they were "testing the waters" with the webisodes, b/c to him it didn't make financial sense to spend all that money if that's all that was coming. So who knows, maybe if the webisodes are well received we'll get another season or a spinoff or some sort of continuation.General thoughts: I am so going back next year. Despite all the crowding and waiting for elevators and next knowing when they were going to close the Hyatt, I had a terrific time. I enjoyed the celebrity panels, some of the fan panels, seeing all the costumes, seeing all my friends, and all the random things that happen at a con like this.
Seeing all the Stargate people in person was very cool, not to mention all the BSG people.
Some of us were squished together in an elevator with John de Lancie at one point, which was surreal. We gave him directions before noticing who he was. He's very tall.
My friends all had hugely successful costumes and I loved watching them have fun playing with that.
There was a remote controlled Dalek!! So cool.
I was never bored and there was always something to do. Sometimes there several things to do so that I was forced to choose, and if I didn't need to stop and eat I could have attended even more panels than I did. Lots and lots of tracks, so many things to suit all of our interests, truly something for everyone.
It became totally normal after the first night to see Stormtroopers, pirates, fairies, and other assorted characters walking around all the time in downtown Atlanta. Now I'm looking around wondering where all the costumes and corsets are.
Is it next year yet? I seriously can't wait. Am very glad I finally went to this damn thing after so many years of listening to friends say how awesome it is. B/c it is indeed very awesome.
Btw, all my DC pics can be found in this photobucket album. Everyone feel free to snag what you want, and I'm sure I'll want some of yours, too.