DragonCon 2009 - Friday
Friday -
Woke up rather disoriented. In my clothes, diagonal across the bed, in a different room than home. Yeah, the jet lag was still in effect. Took me a litte while to figure it out. Room service breakfast again, then dressed in nice clothes - our first scheduled event was our photo with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. But first, off to get our first real taste of DragonCon. We headed down to the atrium/lobby levels etc. Wow, lots of people out already - but nothing compared to later on! We thought we'd head down to the Froggy's photo area, to see what the line would be like. Sure enough, it had started already. But it wasn't that long, so we thought we'd better join in. After a while it started moving inside - we got our confirmation/booking card, and were told we could leave and come back at 11.45am. But they had a room set up for people to line up, so we thought we may as well, seeing as we were quite close to the front. We had an hour to wait, but the time seemed to pass quickly. Matt had his ipod touch, so we took turns playing games for a little while, talking.
When the time came, it was over pretty quickly. But I guess I kinda suspected that. We were ushered in behind them (they were sitting on stools). Took our photo, then ushered off just as quick. But hey, the photo turned out great, and we got closer to them than if we'd braved the lines for their panel (which I still have to sit down and watch online).
After that, we kinda stumbled upon the official DragonCon store. The line wasn't too bad, so we jumped in. While in line, I saw Kelldar walk past in her gorgeous new Anne Boleyn costume. I had my camera set to video, but her dress looks amazing when she walks anyway :) When we got to the front of the line, we bought a men's shirt, x2 womens shirts, the medallion and black lanyard. I love that they used Dawn for this years merchandise :)
Now, this is where is all gets a bit hazy.... I know I spotted ( benaequee ) Kristin and her husband, grabbed a quick photo as we passed. We bought lunch at the M Store (I think that's where we bought all our lunches that weekend...), and back to room to eat, change into my new shirt, and download photos from our cameras. We enjoyed some ice cream sandwiches - strangely we don't have them in NZ...
Next up we explored the Exhibitor/Dealer halls on the lower level - heaps of stuff I would have liked to buy, but I knew we couldn't be able to afford to buy too many collectibles - or fit them in our already-full luggage. But I did find the Harley Quinn Christmas ornament. I've been wanting it for a while, and it's small enough to take home :)
Back to our room again - was worried about the infamous 'waiting ages for an elevator', but it was never as bad as I feared. Matt got changed into his Riddick costume. He hadn't tried on all the bits together - because, well, I had only finished the bits days/hours before we had to leave NZ. But he looked awesome in it. Got the fit of the shirt just right to show off his hard work in the gym. The bracers fit well too - those were a headache to work out, but I'm kinda proud of them :) I wore my screen used necromonger convert costume - called myself Kyra, as she wears the same outfit at the end of the film (though mine is just an extras costume, not the actual Kyra costume).
His black contacts look really good - they're not exactly accurate, but the mirror lenses are around $400 dollars! We took a few photos with his knives just outside our room. The rest of the time he wore them in his harness as Riddick does. We didn't want to risk any 'weapon problems' by having them out in public, they look pretty close to Matt's metal ones, and there's no way to tag/sheath them or otherwise note they're plastic.
I am still surprised by how hot Atlanta was - though I guess 'Hotlanta' would be hot ;) But yeah, I guess NZ doesn't get that warm really. I found my convert costume really hot after a while, but I still enjoyed costuming with my Riddick :) Still have to figure out facial expressions for this costume, smiling doesn't look right, and any attempt at serious, I just look tired or spaced out. My eyes never look 'clear' in photos, for some reason, they always look blurry. Think I need to take a course in makeup for photography or something...
Anyway, we wandered around the Marriott in our costumes for a while, taking photos of other costumers, and being photographed. Found this one via the LJ DragonCon community, it's my favourite :)
It was soon getting around dinner time - and at 9pm we were scheduled to meet up with the 300DC guys to troop as Spartans. We must have grabbed something to eat at the store, or room service? I can't remember... Anyway, we went back to our room, relaxed out of costume for a bit while uploading photos, checking e-mails etc.
*now I know I met benaequee while she was hooping, but I can't remember if I was wearing my necromonger or Gorgo costume, I'm sorry! But I love your Slave Leia hoop outfit, and your hooping is amazing! So skilled :)
Matt got into his Spartan costume, while I put on my Queen Gorgo costume. I haven't worn it since Armageddon Wellington in April last year! I was so nervous it wouldn't fit me properly, or that something would go wrong... But it fit fine, even the arm bands :) Double sided tape and safety pins - I was ready to go.
We met up with the other Spartans outside the Marriott hotel gym. We had a great turn out - about 25 in total :) We all headed to the Marriott Atrium level for group photos. Some great photos in the 300 Spartan costume group on Flickr - Costumes and Props of Sparta
There are some neat shots when we all lined up at the railing at the back of the Marriott - traffic stopped to take photos! I'm pretty sure we visited at least one of the other hotels, if not both the Hilton and Hyatt... I honestly don't remember much else from that night. I know we ended up back at our room at some point that night, possibly ordered room sevice for a late dinner. My last twitter was at 3.10am! Better get some sleep before the parade the next morning...
(ps - I may have mixed up days/times/photos/people... it's hard trying to remember everything that happened - sorry if I mix it up!)
Woke up rather disoriented. In my clothes, diagonal across the bed, in a different room than home. Yeah, the jet lag was still in effect. Took me a litte while to figure it out. Room service breakfast again, then dressed in nice clothes - our first scheduled event was our photo with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. But first, off to get our first real taste of DragonCon. We headed down to the atrium/lobby levels etc. Wow, lots of people out already - but nothing compared to later on! We thought we'd head down to the Froggy's photo area, to see what the line would be like. Sure enough, it had started already. But it wasn't that long, so we thought we'd better join in. After a while it started moving inside - we got our confirmation/booking card, and were told we could leave and come back at 11.45am. But they had a room set up for people to line up, so we thought we may as well, seeing as we were quite close to the front. We had an hour to wait, but the time seemed to pass quickly. Matt had his ipod touch, so we took turns playing games for a little while, talking.
When the time came, it was over pretty quickly. But I guess I kinda suspected that. We were ushered in behind them (they were sitting on stools). Took our photo, then ushered off just as quick. But hey, the photo turned out great, and we got closer to them than if we'd braved the lines for their panel (which I still have to sit down and watch online).
After that, we kinda stumbled upon the official DragonCon store. The line wasn't too bad, so we jumped in. While in line, I saw Kelldar walk past in her gorgeous new Anne Boleyn costume. I had my camera set to video, but her dress looks amazing when she walks anyway :) When we got to the front of the line, we bought a men's shirt, x2 womens shirts, the medallion and black lanyard. I love that they used Dawn for this years merchandise :)
Now, this is where is all gets a bit hazy.... I know I spotted ( benaequee ) Kristin and her husband, grabbed a quick photo as we passed. We bought lunch at the M Store (I think that's where we bought all our lunches that weekend...), and back to room to eat, change into my new shirt, and download photos from our cameras. We enjoyed some ice cream sandwiches - strangely we don't have them in NZ...
Next up we explored the Exhibitor/Dealer halls on the lower level - heaps of stuff I would have liked to buy, but I knew we couldn't be able to afford to buy too many collectibles - or fit them in our already-full luggage. But I did find the Harley Quinn Christmas ornament. I've been wanting it for a while, and it's small enough to take home :)
Back to our room again - was worried about the infamous 'waiting ages for an elevator', but it was never as bad as I feared. Matt got changed into his Riddick costume. He hadn't tried on all the bits together - because, well, I had only finished the bits days/hours before we had to leave NZ. But he looked awesome in it. Got the fit of the shirt just right to show off his hard work in the gym. The bracers fit well too - those were a headache to work out, but I'm kinda proud of them :) I wore my screen used necromonger convert costume - called myself Kyra, as she wears the same outfit at the end of the film (though mine is just an extras costume, not the actual Kyra costume).
His black contacts look really good - they're not exactly accurate, but the mirror lenses are around $400 dollars! We took a few photos with his knives just outside our room. The rest of the time he wore them in his harness as Riddick does. We didn't want to risk any 'weapon problems' by having them out in public, they look pretty close to Matt's metal ones, and there's no way to tag/sheath them or otherwise note they're plastic.
I am still surprised by how hot Atlanta was - though I guess 'Hotlanta' would be hot ;) But yeah, I guess NZ doesn't get that warm really. I found my convert costume really hot after a while, but I still enjoyed costuming with my Riddick :) Still have to figure out facial expressions for this costume, smiling doesn't look right, and any attempt at serious, I just look tired or spaced out. My eyes never look 'clear' in photos, for some reason, they always look blurry. Think I need to take a course in makeup for photography or something...
Anyway, we wandered around the Marriott in our costumes for a while, taking photos of other costumers, and being photographed. Found this one via the LJ DragonCon community, it's my favourite :)
It was soon getting around dinner time - and at 9pm we were scheduled to meet up with the 300DC guys to troop as Spartans. We must have grabbed something to eat at the store, or room service? I can't remember... Anyway, we went back to our room, relaxed out of costume for a bit while uploading photos, checking e-mails etc.
*now I know I met benaequee while she was hooping, but I can't remember if I was wearing my necromonger or Gorgo costume, I'm sorry! But I love your Slave Leia hoop outfit, and your hooping is amazing! So skilled :)
Matt got into his Spartan costume, while I put on my Queen Gorgo costume. I haven't worn it since Armageddon Wellington in April last year! I was so nervous it wouldn't fit me properly, or that something would go wrong... But it fit fine, even the arm bands :) Double sided tape and safety pins - I was ready to go.
We met up with the other Spartans outside the Marriott hotel gym. We had a great turn out - about 25 in total :) We all headed to the Marriott Atrium level for group photos. Some great photos in the 300 Spartan costume group on Flickr - Costumes and Props of Sparta
There are some neat shots when we all lined up at the railing at the back of the Marriott - traffic stopped to take photos! I'm pretty sure we visited at least one of the other hotels, if not both the Hilton and Hyatt... I honestly don't remember much else from that night. I know we ended up back at our room at some point that night, possibly ordered room sevice for a late dinner. My last twitter was at 3.10am! Better get some sleep before the parade the next morning...
(ps - I may have mixed up days/times/photos/people... it's hard trying to remember everything that happened - sorry if I mix it up!)