Friday: Dragon*Con Day 1
I meant to post this yesterday, but I got distracted. Meanwhile, Kevin is already on Day Two. Gotta start catching up...
We had decided to participate in the Westin's "green" program, which meant we would forego housekeeping in return for a $5 voucher each day that could be used at any establishment within the hotel. Armed with our first voucher, we purchased breakfast at the on-site Starbucks before heading over to the Hilton for the first panel of Skeptrack. We ran into our friend Jackie from Boston Atheists there; unbeknownst to us we had all been on the same flight the day before.
After the introductory panel, Christine and I stuck around for Popular Psychology Myths while Kevin went elsewhere. He and I reunited briefly for the following panel, but both of us decided not to stay and I took this opportunity to grab lunch at the food court in the attached mall. After that, I headed back to the Westin, where the Whedonverse track was located, for a panel on Dollhouse.
Kevin and I had recently watched the first few episodes of Quantum Leap in preparation for the two lead actors reuniting at Dragon*Con; Kevin was a regular viewer of the series but I had never seen it. By the time I got back to the Marriott from the Westin, the line for the Bakula/Stockwell panel was winding outside and around the building, and I failed to locate Kevin (he was on the terrace in an area I couldn’t easily get to). I opted instead to sit in on a live recording of the American Freethought podcast, one I regularly listen to, and to meet the co-hosts after the show. I also took the opportunity to introduce myself to Robin (aka Swoopy) from another one of my favorite podcasts, Skepticality; she runs the Podcasting track while her co-host Derek runs Skeptrack.
With nothing in particular catching our attention for the 5:30 timeslot, we decided to have a sit-down dinner, since we'd probably be grabbing food on the run for the rest of the weekend. We chose Hsu's, a Chinese restaurant recommended by George Takei, and found it delicious. By coincidence, we ran into our musician friend Grant on the way to the restaurant. We had just seen him perform the previous weekend and learned then that he would be at Dragon*Con for the aforementioned Podcasting track. Even though we were sitting in adjacent rooms for much of the con, this was the only time we would run into him.
After dinner, I braved a panel entitled Lost: What Did It All Mean? and planned to meet Kevin afterward for the MST3K/Cinematic Titanic presentation. Fortunately, he secured a prime spot in line next to a guy with fantastic recreations of Crow and Tom Servo, accompanied by a woman dressed as Mr. B Natural (see Kevin’s journal for a photo). Since the guy was sporting "Tennant hair" and bore some resemblance to the actor, I asked if he also cosplayed as the Tenth Doctor, which he confirmed had been his costume earlier that day.
I had suffered delays in my text messages all day, hampering my plans to meet up with my friends Mike and Chris. In another coincidence, Chris wound up being seated diagonally across the aisle from us at MST3K/Cinematic Titanic, so we had a nice chat before the presentation started. Kevin and I stayed through the Q&A and most of the way through the showing of East Meets Watts, Joel Hodgson's personal favorite CT offering. When we could stand it no longer, we ducked out and found Mike conveniently waiting for us outside the ballroom to accompany us to the Skepchick panel/party. Special guests Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy from Rifftrax, horror author Scott Sigler, and Drew Curtis from Fark.com joined many of the fabulous Skepchicks, including our friends Rebecca and Maria. Booze flowed among the panelists thanks to the Skepchicks' personal bartenders, and among the front row thanks to Kevin's hip flask full of rum. I sat next to the always adorable Liz, who took over the running of Boston Skeptics after Rebecca moved to London; you can see us (and Squatchy, on Liz's lap) in a photo tweeted by Kevin Murphy!
That closed out the evening, and once again we got back to the Westin around 2 am.
Christine and me in the Skeptrack room
L-R: Maria Walters, Scott Sigler, Rebecca Watson, Kevin Murphy, Drew Curtis, Bill Corbett
Kevin drinks, Bill says something funny, and Carrie (now with Squatchy) laughs
We had decided to participate in the Westin's "green" program, which meant we would forego housekeeping in return for a $5 voucher each day that could be used at any establishment within the hotel. Armed with our first voucher, we purchased breakfast at the on-site Starbucks before heading over to the Hilton for the first panel of Skeptrack. We ran into our friend Jackie from Boston Atheists there; unbeknownst to us we had all been on the same flight the day before.
After the introductory panel, Christine and I stuck around for Popular Psychology Myths while Kevin went elsewhere. He and I reunited briefly for the following panel, but both of us decided not to stay and I took this opportunity to grab lunch at the food court in the attached mall. After that, I headed back to the Westin, where the Whedonverse track was located, for a panel on Dollhouse.
Kevin and I had recently watched the first few episodes of Quantum Leap in preparation for the two lead actors reuniting at Dragon*Con; Kevin was a regular viewer of the series but I had never seen it. By the time I got back to the Marriott from the Westin, the line for the Bakula/Stockwell panel was winding outside and around the building, and I failed to locate Kevin (he was on the terrace in an area I couldn’t easily get to). I opted instead to sit in on a live recording of the American Freethought podcast, one I regularly listen to, and to meet the co-hosts after the show. I also took the opportunity to introduce myself to Robin (aka Swoopy) from another one of my favorite podcasts, Skepticality; she runs the Podcasting track while her co-host Derek runs Skeptrack.
With nothing in particular catching our attention for the 5:30 timeslot, we decided to have a sit-down dinner, since we'd probably be grabbing food on the run for the rest of the weekend. We chose Hsu's, a Chinese restaurant recommended by George Takei, and found it delicious. By coincidence, we ran into our musician friend Grant on the way to the restaurant. We had just seen him perform the previous weekend and learned then that he would be at Dragon*Con for the aforementioned Podcasting track. Even though we were sitting in adjacent rooms for much of the con, this was the only time we would run into him.
After dinner, I braved a panel entitled Lost: What Did It All Mean? and planned to meet Kevin afterward for the MST3K/Cinematic Titanic presentation. Fortunately, he secured a prime spot in line next to a guy with fantastic recreations of Crow and Tom Servo, accompanied by a woman dressed as Mr. B Natural (see Kevin’s journal for a photo). Since the guy was sporting "Tennant hair" and bore some resemblance to the actor, I asked if he also cosplayed as the Tenth Doctor, which he confirmed had been his costume earlier that day.
I had suffered delays in my text messages all day, hampering my plans to meet up with my friends Mike and Chris. In another coincidence, Chris wound up being seated diagonally across the aisle from us at MST3K/Cinematic Titanic, so we had a nice chat before the presentation started. Kevin and I stayed through the Q&A and most of the way through the showing of East Meets Watts, Joel Hodgson's personal favorite CT offering. When we could stand it no longer, we ducked out and found Mike conveniently waiting for us outside the ballroom to accompany us to the Skepchick panel/party. Special guests Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy from Rifftrax, horror author Scott Sigler, and Drew Curtis from Fark.com joined many of the fabulous Skepchicks, including our friends Rebecca and Maria. Booze flowed among the panelists thanks to the Skepchicks' personal bartenders, and among the front row thanks to Kevin's hip flask full of rum. I sat next to the always adorable Liz, who took over the running of Boston Skeptics after Rebecca moved to London; you can see us (and Squatchy, on Liz's lap) in a photo tweeted by Kevin Murphy!
That closed out the evening, and once again we got back to the Westin around 2 am.
Christine and me in the Skeptrack room
L-R: Maria Walters, Scott Sigler, Rebecca Watson, Kevin Murphy, Drew Curtis, Bill Corbett
Kevin drinks, Bill says something funny, and Carrie (now with Squatchy) laughs