Dragon Con 2014 Recap, Part II: The Early Con
This post will cover the first two "real" days of Dragon Con this year: Friday (8/29) and Saturday (8/30).
Friday 8/29
There was an event in the late morning that I had been kind of interested in attending, but since Ramón was due to arrive right around then, I skipped it but then got a text message from him saying he'd be late, like early to mid afternoon late. That pretty much shot my plans to hell, so I alternated between watching DCTV and taking pictures of costumes as the opportunity arose, and seeing if there was anything new at the Brobdingnagian Bards' booth (there was, kind of, so I bought a CD, a DVD/CD combo, and a book by Jessica Brawner about convention ettiquette. When he finally arrived and we'd gotten his gear into the room, I gave him a walking tour of the Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt (including the art show), and Peachtree Center Mall and pointed out the location of the Sheraton to him. Then we went through the Westin and through the skywalk to the AmericasMart and the exhibitors and dealers therein.
It was fairly crowded. I'm not sure why the vendors' areas don't open until 1 PM on Friday when the rest of the convention has shifted to starting at 10 AM on that day. I bought a shirt, but this was mostly a trip to see who had what to sell, where, and for how much. Ramón got to see Geek Chic furniture up close and personal for the first time, and he had the same kind of reaction we all have had when we were first exposed to their magnificence. Hell, I still stare longingly at them.
We went out to eat supper at Max Lager's. Ramón liked it pretty well, especially the dessert. He wanted to take a picture of it but had difficulty doing it with his phone.
Every year since I started coming to Dragon Con (Dragon*Con back then) in 2004 I have attended the wrestling show on Friday night. Our dinner would have made us late to join the line and with the sight lines in the room, if you're not in the first few rows around the ring you won't get any decent pictures and are unlikely to have the fun of being told to "MOVE!" by a wrestler who wants to use your row of chairs as a landing zone for his opponent. By the time we were done with dinner, the line had already been forming for 30 minutes. I decided to just take the opportunity to take pictures of costumes instead. I think this actually made my convention experience better... I broke out of a rut and tried something different.
A little after 10 PM, Ramón and I dressed in PJs and towels (and I stuck a "babel fish" in my left ear) and we went to the Sheraton for the "HHG2G: Arthur Dent's 35th Anniversary Pajama Party" -- which turned out to have pretty generic dance music, played very loudly. There were thematically named drinks and a towel folding race, but I'm not sure what the prize was. There were people dressed as Marvin, Zaphod Beeblebrox, at least one Ford Prefect and numerous Arthur Dents, but there were few Trillians in sight and no sign of anyone cosplaying as Eccentrica Gallumbits (the triple-breasted whore of Exoticon Six), but there were at least two people costumed as towels. Because the music was pretty loud and generic and the drink Ramón had proved to be a little strong for him, we left the party after about an hour and just went and looked at costumes until well into the night, then retired to the room to sleep.
Saturday 8/30
It was quite refreshing to have a convention roommate who doesn't snore so badly that I need to have earplugs to sleep myself.
Ramón and I had breakfast together, then parted ways along the parade route, where he would stay and take pictures until a panel he wanted to see started to let a line form. I had to make my way around the barricades that prevented people from using the crosswalks along the route of the parade. These make it very hard to get from the main trio of hotels (Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt) to the Westin and/or the AmericasMart. As usual, I was one of the first people into the vendors' areas while huge crowds were out on the streets. I bought a few more shirts and some sets of 10d10 for $4 each from the Chessex booth so that people in my group will all be sure to have enough dice to play in my new campaign (7th Sea).
I stopped back at the musician's booths, and bought 7 buttons saying "Not George" and 1 that says "George" for my group from Mikey Mason:
I jokingly told Mikey that at least this time when he says "Hello Dragon Con!" at his concert, he'll get it right -- a reference to when he got his cons confused at his big Gen Con concert a couple of weeks ago. We talked for a bit about that set, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, and he brought up Michael Palin's diaries and what Palin said when mentioning Adams in them. I know Mikey is a fan of Neil Gaiman, so I asked if he'd read Don't Panic!, a biography of Adams written by Gaiman. He'd never heard of it, so obviously hadn't read it, but got an excited look in his eye and said that now he had to read it.
I met up with Ramón again and we did a little more people watching and comparing notes and lined up for a series of concerts offered by the Filk Track. We started with the Brobdingnagian Bards, who had a very good set that got the audience excited and ready for more.
They were followed by a set by the Blibbering Humbdingers, who are a wizard rock band. Unfortunately, the best I can say for them is that they are eager and that if you got rid of the vocals, the drumming, guitar and bass playing would be adequate for any high school prom in the Great Plains region of the USA. An hour of all Harry Potter content and having to follow the Bards did them no favors in getting over with this audience. They might have gone over better at the Yule Ball.
After the Humdingers were through blibbering, a group called Pandorica Celtica came on and saved the night. According to their website, they are a five-member vocal group (with some percussion) but only four were on stage when we saw them. This group has been at the convention before but I missed them, and they had been announced to perform at Gen Con this year but had to cancel, I think due to an illness. Pandora Celtica, or at least the three women and one man who were performing that night, have great stage presence and can really mix their harmonies:
After that came a "Dueling Filkers" set, featuring hall of famer filkertom (who had a bit of a cold) and relative newcomer Mikey Mason. If I were to keep score in this one, I'd say that Tom won the early rounds, but Mikey used his rarely played "C'mon Barbara" to break Tom's mind; Tom's last two songs were covers ("When I Was a Boy" and "Wild West Show") which were both entertaining but not his own material, while Mikey played his own stuff and it was very strong, so I'd have to give the last couple of rounds to Mikey, but the whole thing was likely a draw.
There was another band coming up next, but we decided to leave and spent a while seeing some of the nocturnal costumes and activities before retiring for the night. We had plans to stay up very late the next night, so we needed to be sure we got our rest.
I'll get the rest of the convention out of the way tomorrow, and then I'll start posting my pictures.
Friday 8/29
There was an event in the late morning that I had been kind of interested in attending, but since Ramón was due to arrive right around then, I skipped it but then got a text message from him saying he'd be late, like early to mid afternoon late. That pretty much shot my plans to hell, so I alternated between watching DCTV and taking pictures of costumes as the opportunity arose, and seeing if there was anything new at the Brobdingnagian Bards' booth (there was, kind of, so I bought a CD, a DVD/CD combo, and a book by Jessica Brawner about convention ettiquette. When he finally arrived and we'd gotten his gear into the room, I gave him a walking tour of the Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt (including the art show), and Peachtree Center Mall and pointed out the location of the Sheraton to him. Then we went through the Westin and through the skywalk to the AmericasMart and the exhibitors and dealers therein.
It was fairly crowded. I'm not sure why the vendors' areas don't open until 1 PM on Friday when the rest of the convention has shifted to starting at 10 AM on that day. I bought a shirt, but this was mostly a trip to see who had what to sell, where, and for how much. Ramón got to see Geek Chic furniture up close and personal for the first time, and he had the same kind of reaction we all have had when we were first exposed to their magnificence. Hell, I still stare longingly at them.
We went out to eat supper at Max Lager's. Ramón liked it pretty well, especially the dessert. He wanted to take a picture of it but had difficulty doing it with his phone.
Every year since I started coming to Dragon Con (Dragon*Con back then) in 2004 I have attended the wrestling show on Friday night. Our dinner would have made us late to join the line and with the sight lines in the room, if you're not in the first few rows around the ring you won't get any decent pictures and are unlikely to have the fun of being told to "MOVE!" by a wrestler who wants to use your row of chairs as a landing zone for his opponent. By the time we were done with dinner, the line had already been forming for 30 minutes. I decided to just take the opportunity to take pictures of costumes instead. I think this actually made my convention experience better... I broke out of a rut and tried something different.
A little after 10 PM, Ramón and I dressed in PJs and towels (and I stuck a "babel fish" in my left ear) and we went to the Sheraton for the "HHG2G: Arthur Dent's 35th Anniversary Pajama Party" -- which turned out to have pretty generic dance music, played very loudly. There were thematically named drinks and a towel folding race, but I'm not sure what the prize was. There were people dressed as Marvin, Zaphod Beeblebrox, at least one Ford Prefect and numerous Arthur Dents, but there were few Trillians in sight and no sign of anyone cosplaying as Eccentrica Gallumbits (the triple-breasted whore of Exoticon Six), but there were at least two people costumed as towels. Because the music was pretty loud and generic and the drink Ramón had proved to be a little strong for him, we left the party after about an hour and just went and looked at costumes until well into the night, then retired to the room to sleep.
Saturday 8/30
It was quite refreshing to have a convention roommate who doesn't snore so badly that I need to have earplugs to sleep myself.
Ramón and I had breakfast together, then parted ways along the parade route, where he would stay and take pictures until a panel he wanted to see started to let a line form. I had to make my way around the barricades that prevented people from using the crosswalks along the route of the parade. These make it very hard to get from the main trio of hotels (Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt) to the Westin and/or the AmericasMart. As usual, I was one of the first people into the vendors' areas while huge crowds were out on the streets. I bought a few more shirts and some sets of 10d10 for $4 each from the Chessex booth so that people in my group will all be sure to have enough dice to play in my new campaign (7th Sea).
I stopped back at the musician's booths, and bought 7 buttons saying "Not George" and 1 that says "George" for my group from Mikey Mason:
Click to viewI jokingly told Mikey that at least this time when he says "Hello Dragon Con!" at his concert, he'll get it right -- a reference to when he got his cons confused at his big Gen Con concert a couple of weeks ago. We talked for a bit about that set, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, and he brought up Michael Palin's diaries and what Palin said when mentioning Adams in them. I know Mikey is a fan of Neil Gaiman, so I asked if he'd read Don't Panic!, a biography of Adams written by Gaiman. He'd never heard of it, so obviously hadn't read it, but got an excited look in his eye and said that now he had to read it.
I met up with Ramón again and we did a little more people watching and comparing notes and lined up for a series of concerts offered by the Filk Track. We started with the Brobdingnagian Bards, who had a very good set that got the audience excited and ready for more.
They were followed by a set by the Blibbering Humbdingers, who are a wizard rock band. Unfortunately, the best I can say for them is that they are eager and that if you got rid of the vocals, the drumming, guitar and bass playing would be adequate for any high school prom in the Great Plains region of the USA. An hour of all Harry Potter content and having to follow the Bards did them no favors in getting over with this audience. They might have gone over better at the Yule Ball.
After the Humdingers were through blibbering, a group called Pandorica Celtica came on and saved the night. According to their website, they are a five-member vocal group (with some percussion) but only four were on stage when we saw them. This group has been at the convention before but I missed them, and they had been announced to perform at Gen Con this year but had to cancel, I think due to an illness. Pandora Celtica, or at least the three women and one man who were performing that night, have great stage presence and can really mix their harmonies:
After that came a "Dueling Filkers" set, featuring hall of famer filkertom (who had a bit of a cold) and relative newcomer Mikey Mason. If I were to keep score in this one, I'd say that Tom won the early rounds, but Mikey used his rarely played "C'mon Barbara" to break Tom's mind; Tom's last two songs were covers ("When I Was a Boy" and "Wild West Show") which were both entertaining but not his own material, while Mikey played his own stuff and it was very strong, so I'd have to give the last couple of rounds to Mikey, but the whole thing was likely a draw.
There was another band coming up next, but we decided to leave and spent a while seeing some of the nocturnal costumes and activities before retiring for the night. We had plans to stay up very late the next night, so we needed to be sure we got our rest.
I'll get the rest of the convention out of the way tomorrow, and then I'll start posting my pictures.