Gathering Report
(First few entries posted that day)
Wednesday:
Alright, I'm in Vegas. Let's just say it's been a less then pleasant time so far. As luck would have it we I arrived a day early, and also as luck would have it, there was nary an extra room in all of Vegas. I ended up going down to Boulder City to find a room. The cause of this large degree of activity? A Furniture convention. Yes, a FURNATURE convention. 60,000 dealers, not open to the public. Please excuse me while I break out the Lewis Black finger of general discontent.
Today I was able to check into our convention hotel, then take the car to the shop, seeing as the brakes now make a very noticeable chug after that long trip. Right now I'm working on the art show database so I can print the sucker out. Hurrah Hurrah.
There were a few entertaining things on the way however, including most recently watching the new dashed lines on highway 15, obviously painted by someone extraordinarily tired, and the "We needed to get rid of the surplus somehow..." Zzyzx Street Sign.
Ahem... yeah. More on that later. Back to work I go.
Thusday:
The con staff and many others went to Tournament of Kings, and luckily were placed in the Dragon section, yon section of evil. Our knight was very pretty and beefy, completely adorned in leather and studs. Mmm..yes...anyway...It was a good show, if not a little corny at times for the kiddies. This was made up for with much pony-tailed beefcake gooey goodness. I stayed up until around 4 working on prelim art show crap, then went for 3 hours of "sleep", until I was needed to predominate over art show set up.
Friday:
Much scrambling was had, especially seeing that the vast majority of artists hadn't provided preemptive art lists as was requested. Typing, typing, printing, keyboard slouch, more typing, art board construction, hanging images, corralling artists, printing, cutting, etcetera etcetera.
A long haul all con day, attempting to nap on a large yellow smilie face beach ball, zombie Dreamie got a little food and a little caffeine, and then...THEN, she took her aching self to the hot tub with jets she named Kim Chi, in honor of tiny asian back walking masseuses everywhere.
It's 2 am. We await Mr. pizza man. Then Zombie Dreamie will SLEEP.
(Below is written after I got home and had some sleep)
Saturday:
Again I didn't get much sleep, but at least most of the art show setup was done. There were loads of menial tasks as well as a panel hosted by Kythera and myself on making backgrounds in artwork. Afterwards I went over to artist alley, which turned out to be popular after all, and sat in for the session I had signed up for...at that very moment, someone decided everyone should be at the new gargoyles comic book Q&A session, and thereby the art/ dealers room should close completely. You'd think, as art director, my husband as the dealer coordinator...I would be the FIRST PERSON INFORMED when my room is closing. I did get some drawing in though... as my deep discontentment rose, I started to draw porn. Who'd have thought. It turns out it's pretty fun to draw when you're stressed out and can relieve it by exclaiming "LOOK! I drawed PORN. Yeah. Porn is GEWD. PORN."
Later that night was the celebrity poker game, which I admit I wasn't watching because I don't find poker that interesting when you're not in a tent playing with candy. After that, in the room next door, I was supposed to be hosting a free for all drawing session. Poker went long, and everyone walked right by our room. So what did the three of us there do? WE DRAWED PORN. It was very disturbing, and poster sized. I was laughing so hard my head hurt. The drawing conversation went something like this "Hum.. what kind of porn should we draw? Puck porn! You wont draw puck porn? I'LL DRAW PUCK PORN. Ooooo.. hello puck! Oh you look so happy and bright in your bondage collar.. ooooo yeah he looks like there's someone behind him... who can we put behind him? Wait a minute....wait....IT'S OWEN. Oh helloooo Owen! Oooo, you like that don't you, bitch....Oooo helloooo." I had written "Rant topic numero UNO!" next to said porn. Then we laughed long and hard, and ran from the room red in the face and out of breath, leaving the porn behind, to await the attendees of the Hudson rant that would be in the room next. We did attend the Hudson rant, which was gold as usual. Our porn turned into a philosophical discussion of whether puck doing owen counts as magical fey masturbation.
Then, again, we had pizza in the con suite, and watched "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle". And, again, I went to sleep at about 4.
Sunday:
I don't seem to recall much about this day, probably because I was completely wiped out by this point. I had a panel with Lynati and Hudson on costuming, And worked on my gift for Thom Adcox. Later that night (I was already in my leathers, which made me much more content) we checked out some art for people that wouldn't be at the regularly scheduled pickup the next day, and wrote down all the art show winners on ribbons for later. Thus my hand was aching and cramped. It's a LOT of awards. But the database is a whole frickin' lot quicker than counting paper ballots. The database is god. Next was the banquet, where I happened to win the centerpiece gargoyle statue. The food was good. Really good. It's probably the best con banquet there's ever been. We got everything together and went back to the con suite where we had most of our pirate stuff stashed to put on for the masquerade. Hotel security had to escort us through the underbelly of the hotel because we weren't allowed to walk through the casino, especially with masks or weapons.
The masquerade was great, as usual. The idea I loved was the banquet dessert at the masque instead of earlier. That was a great idea. (mmmm... dark chocolate truffle thingies will be the death of me) As for costumes, there was a very nice future tense Brooklyn and a giant gargoyles head named Onyx with an articulated mouth piece. I stood next to the judges table to make sure everyone was presented to them proper, while I make loud piratical comments as per usual. After the judging was all said and done, we had the art show awards read by Greg W and handed out by myself, after which I announced one more for Thom being a real piece of work, and gave him the gift I'd been working on... a pair of boxer shorts that said "LEX MACHINE" with a cutout of the screenshot from Future Tense of cybernetic Lex in his big chair. Mua ha. Evilness. If you don't know, I have a running gag going with Thom (The voice of Lexington) where every year since 2001, I get him to drop his pants in public. This year, he kept saying "there's too many kids around!" Damn! The Belt with padlock I gave him last time must be working.
At this point much smoozing was had, and a dance never happened, seeing as everyone wanted to go out and hit the town. I don't even think a dance was planned. Again I was found in the con suite, watching crappy anime and showing people things on my laptop. (Mainly freaking people out by playing Captain Bogg and Salty CDs. Yhar.) Again, a late night was had.
Monday:
Even more wiped out, I drug myself around all day looking like I was just spit up by a dragon. Most of the day people came and went with art they had purchased from the show, and artists taking down their remnants. I wrote tons of reciepts, made sure everything in the database was all accounted for, drew a bit more, and waited for the time when everything could be knocked down and we could pack everything up. Finally it happened, people left the con altogether, and the staff set out to clean out the art room and truck everything back out. We splayed out in the con suite a while, before going to the Pasta Palace for a good (and large! yikes!) meal, and then went to Penn and Teller as a treat from Chris (the con chair). They were really pretty funny. I never went and looked at what they actually do, so I found myself surprised it was a comedy/ magic/ juggling/ fire show. Quite nifty. From there, we said our goodbyes, and started our drive home. We ended up driving all the way home, with only a small power nap in a rest area. We got home at about 11:30, and slept a loooooong time.
Wednesday:
Alright, I'm in Vegas. Let's just say it's been a less then pleasant time so far. As luck would have it we I arrived a day early, and also as luck would have it, there was nary an extra room in all of Vegas. I ended up going down to Boulder City to find a room. The cause of this large degree of activity? A Furniture convention. Yes, a FURNATURE convention. 60,000 dealers, not open to the public. Please excuse me while I break out the Lewis Black finger of general discontent.
Today I was able to check into our convention hotel, then take the car to the shop, seeing as the brakes now make a very noticeable chug after that long trip. Right now I'm working on the art show database so I can print the sucker out. Hurrah Hurrah.
There were a few entertaining things on the way however, including most recently watching the new dashed lines on highway 15, obviously painted by someone extraordinarily tired, and the "We needed to get rid of the surplus somehow..." Zzyzx Street Sign.
Ahem... yeah. More on that later. Back to work I go.
Thusday:
The con staff and many others went to Tournament of Kings, and luckily were placed in the Dragon section, yon section of evil. Our knight was very pretty and beefy, completely adorned in leather and studs. Mmm..yes...anyway...It was a good show, if not a little corny at times for the kiddies. This was made up for with much pony-tailed beefcake gooey goodness. I stayed up until around 4 working on prelim art show crap, then went for 3 hours of "sleep", until I was needed to predominate over art show set up.
Friday:
Much scrambling was had, especially seeing that the vast majority of artists hadn't provided preemptive art lists as was requested. Typing, typing, printing, keyboard slouch, more typing, art board construction, hanging images, corralling artists, printing, cutting, etcetera etcetera.
A long haul all con day, attempting to nap on a large yellow smilie face beach ball, zombie Dreamie got a little food and a little caffeine, and then...THEN, she took her aching self to the hot tub with jets she named Kim Chi, in honor of tiny asian back walking masseuses everywhere.
It's 2 am. We await Mr. pizza man. Then Zombie Dreamie will SLEEP.
(Below is written after I got home and had some sleep)
Saturday:
Again I didn't get much sleep, but at least most of the art show setup was done. There were loads of menial tasks as well as a panel hosted by Kythera and myself on making backgrounds in artwork. Afterwards I went over to artist alley, which turned out to be popular after all, and sat in for the session I had signed up for...at that very moment, someone decided everyone should be at the new gargoyles comic book Q&A session, and thereby the art/ dealers room should close completely. You'd think, as art director, my husband as the dealer coordinator...I would be the FIRST PERSON INFORMED when my room is closing. I did get some drawing in though... as my deep discontentment rose, I started to draw porn. Who'd have thought. It turns out it's pretty fun to draw when you're stressed out and can relieve it by exclaiming "LOOK! I drawed PORN. Yeah. Porn is GEWD. PORN."
Later that night was the celebrity poker game, which I admit I wasn't watching because I don't find poker that interesting when you're not in a tent playing with candy. After that, in the room next door, I was supposed to be hosting a free for all drawing session. Poker went long, and everyone walked right by our room. So what did the three of us there do? WE DRAWED PORN. It was very disturbing, and poster sized. I was laughing so hard my head hurt. The drawing conversation went something like this "Hum.. what kind of porn should we draw? Puck porn! You wont draw puck porn? I'LL DRAW PUCK PORN. Ooooo.. hello puck! Oh you look so happy and bright in your bondage collar.. ooooo yeah he looks like there's someone behind him... who can we put behind him? Wait a minute....wait....IT'S OWEN. Oh helloooo Owen! Oooo, you like that don't you, bitch....Oooo helloooo." I had written "Rant topic numero UNO!" next to said porn. Then we laughed long and hard, and ran from the room red in the face and out of breath, leaving the porn behind, to await the attendees of the Hudson rant that would be in the room next. We did attend the Hudson rant, which was gold as usual. Our porn turned into a philosophical discussion of whether puck doing owen counts as magical fey masturbation.
Then, again, we had pizza in the con suite, and watched "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle". And, again, I went to sleep at about 4.
Sunday:
I don't seem to recall much about this day, probably because I was completely wiped out by this point. I had a panel with Lynati and Hudson on costuming, And worked on my gift for Thom Adcox. Later that night (I was already in my leathers, which made me much more content) we checked out some art for people that wouldn't be at the regularly scheduled pickup the next day, and wrote down all the art show winners on ribbons for later. Thus my hand was aching and cramped. It's a LOT of awards. But the database is a whole frickin' lot quicker than counting paper ballots. The database is god. Next was the banquet, where I happened to win the centerpiece gargoyle statue. The food was good. Really good. It's probably the best con banquet there's ever been. We got everything together and went back to the con suite where we had most of our pirate stuff stashed to put on for the masquerade. Hotel security had to escort us through the underbelly of the hotel because we weren't allowed to walk through the casino, especially with masks or weapons.
The masquerade was great, as usual. The idea I loved was the banquet dessert at the masque instead of earlier. That was a great idea. (mmmm... dark chocolate truffle thingies will be the death of me) As for costumes, there was a very nice future tense Brooklyn and a giant gargoyles head named Onyx with an articulated mouth piece. I stood next to the judges table to make sure everyone was presented to them proper, while I make loud piratical comments as per usual. After the judging was all said and done, we had the art show awards read by Greg W and handed out by myself, after which I announced one more for Thom being a real piece of work, and gave him the gift I'd been working on... a pair of boxer shorts that said "LEX MACHINE" with a cutout of the screenshot from Future Tense of cybernetic Lex in his big chair. Mua ha. Evilness. If you don't know, I have a running gag going with Thom (The voice of Lexington) where every year since 2001, I get him to drop his pants in public. This year, he kept saying "there's too many kids around!" Damn! The Belt with padlock I gave him last time must be working.
At this point much smoozing was had, and a dance never happened, seeing as everyone wanted to go out and hit the town. I don't even think a dance was planned. Again I was found in the con suite, watching crappy anime and showing people things on my laptop. (Mainly freaking people out by playing Captain Bogg and Salty CDs. Yhar.) Again, a late night was had.
Monday:
Even more wiped out, I drug myself around all day looking like I was just spit up by a dragon. Most of the day people came and went with art they had purchased from the show, and artists taking down their remnants. I wrote tons of reciepts, made sure everything in the database was all accounted for, drew a bit more, and waited for the time when everything could be knocked down and we could pack everything up. Finally it happened, people left the con altogether, and the staff set out to clean out the art room and truck everything back out. We splayed out in the con suite a while, before going to the Pasta Palace for a good (and large! yikes!) meal, and then went to Penn and Teller as a treat from Chris (the con chair). They were really pretty funny. I never went and looked at what they actually do, so I found myself surprised it was a comedy/ magic/ juggling/ fire show. Quite nifty. From there, we said our goodbyes, and started our drive home. We ended up driving all the way home, with only a small power nap in a rest area. We got home at about 11:30, and slept a loooooong time.