y'know, that con thing
I realize it's been a couple of weeks since Dragon*Con, and honest, I was going to write a whole big D*C recap! However, RL intervened and in the meantime dianora2 wrote a very detailed report, with much better pictures (by em_meredith) and far more cute anecdotes than I ever would have remembered. So this is my very idiosyncratic trip down memory lane! (For my own notes, if nothing else.)
(Oh, and I guess other D*C reports are still trickling in. Not too late, then, I guess!)
One of the highlights of the con for me was the parade. Like Halloween, only a thousand times better! And this is probably the only face of the con that most Atlantans ever see, if they notice at all. (I believe it was on the nightly news.) It was fun to see little kids lining the street in anticipation.
Some favorite groups:
These folks were belly-dancing their way down Peachtree:
Hello, Spartans!
A couple of my favorite costumes - they were part of the "Faerie" contingent - doesn't show up too well here, but their outfits were made up of hundreds of tiny squares of cellophane, and it just looked lovely in the sunlight.
For the old-school Trek crowd: Uhura!!
And the Colonial Fleet crowd - this woman actually did look a bit like Starbuck.
And the funniest thing was their marching cadence, the only bit I remember was:
"...then there's Gaius Baltar/He lives on a basestar/
He betrayed the human race/ But he slept with Kara Thrace!"
Hee!
An unexpected delight at Dragon*Con was the overwhelming acceptance and friendliness, all weekend long. It was like... it didn't matter what your weird was, everyone had their own flavor of weird and it was all good. Elly and I were comparing notes on the hilarious elevator conversations we kept having. A favorite:
Elly and I stepped onto the elevator and found that there was only one other person on it (the lifts had been jampacked all weekend). We all expressed our surprise, and the guy said, well, you've only got me, but I'll entertain ya!
Oh yes? Entertain us, Elly challenged him.
He said, A stormtrooper, a wizard and a robot get onto the elevator.
And? we said.
That was it! It really happened, here at the con!
We all cracked up and imagined all the would-be opening lines that must have taken place at the con. ("A goblin, a Cylon and the Weasley twins walk up to the bar...")
On to the main attraction!!
Thursday night my dear wisteria_ picked me up at the airport, with the lovely elly427 in tow. We hung out in the lobby for a bit, where we spotted both Mark Sheppard and - thanks to her distinctive Jayne hat - trinnifer and my new roommie beautifultyrant. Effusive greetings all around (um, not including Mark). End of sightings for the day.
Friday if I still have my days right was the first BSG panel, fortunately scheduled in the afternoon. I did the hotel buffet because I was starving - yeek! expensive! I ate enough to last me thru lunch, though. Just as well because we had to line up way early for the panel. As others have written, the Star Trek: TNG vs. BSG panel was the worst of the BSG lot - no moderation to speak of and poorly conceived. Jamie looked bored out of his skull most of the time, though we were delighted to see that he was wearing his dragon pants. And he threw in some vocabulary words for good measure (I think "panoply" was one of them).
At one point he threw in a long response to what I thought was a pretty plain-Jane question (something about whether BSG is intended to be political commentary) - basically he said that yeah, BSG is commentary, and we all need to wake up and take responsibility for our society, for our planet. I realized later that he pretty much said the same thing word for word in several interviews that he did while at the con.
I think Jamie amuses himself at these cons by using them to air his thoughts on society in general. Guess he has a lot of flying time to come up with his deep thoughts. (Fwiw, I do generally agree with him, btw, and not just because of the sapphire bullets or Bamceps - though sometimes I feel like he's just a tad frustrated with work right now, and so that bleeds over into general aggravation with the state of the world. :0)) Also, I thought it was notable that he framed his statements as "we" or "our society" several times. Not sure if he now includes himself in US society, or is speaking more broadly as part of Western civ. (Now there's a question for the next con - "do you think of yourself as an 'American' now, or at heart always British?")
Saturday: ah, finally a panel just for BSG fans. While we were waiting in line for the panel to start the con decided to switch rooms with the Mythbusters panel, resulting in a horrendous scrum in the lobby. The fire marshal threatened to evict everybody, in fact. As I am not very tall I got a little freaked out by the crowd, and decided to take my chances by breaking with the line and just heading straight for the new location. Just as well - it was close to a free-for-all. But we ended up with front- and second-row seats, so it all worked out. This was the panel where elly427 noted just how incredibly blue JB's eyes were (not so evident in this photo, but they were, believe me) - don't know if it was the dark background or the way the lights were angled, but they were intense.
Jamie strut! Or, two Apollos doing the Macarena??
Saturday was also the night of the BSG Colonial Day party. I don't know why we thought that the party wouldn't have a huge line for it - I guess I just thought it was a regular party, wander in, whatever. Anyhoo, we showed up right on time and found oh, thirty people ahead of us, and the room closed to new guests unless someone exited. So there we were, chatting away, when I look over and see Mark Sheppard going by. "Oh, there's Mark," I said to Elly. And I keep turning, and walking by me in a beautiful dark-blue linen shirt that shows off his eyes is Jamie himself.
I don't know where I found the presence of mind to say something. "No, go that way!" I said teasingly, and pointed back at the party that he was leaving.
"I'm going to bed," he said, looking straight at me. And this is the point at which I wish Elly would have smacked me upside the head, or at least on the rear, and told me to scoot on after him. Clearzly I should have understood the coded message, right? right. (Kidding! Am kidding!!!) Anyway, I hit myself on the head several times after he left, bemoaning the fact that I did not think to take pictures or grab him or say something pithy that he would have remembered for the rest of his life. Ah, the pressure. You don't understand - it is so hard to think when impaled on that very, very blue gaze.
/drippy fangirling (Wait, I lied, there's more to come)
We did make it into the party not long afterwards, but it was very crowded in that small, low-ceilinged room, so we walked around for a few minutes and left. I hear Aaron showed up afterwards. Oh well.
Sunday. In the morning I decided to wander a bit by myself, and thought to check out the Hall of Fame and see if Jamie was there (he'd been there the previous days as well, but the line to meet him was horrendous). When I walked up there were some people a few feet away from his table and I wasn't clear about whether they were waiting to get his autograph. I approached his handler and asked what the procedure was, and she said, oh, there's no line right now! You can just talk to him! [he was chatting with someone just then]
I said, but I'm too shy. I don't know what to say!
She said, he's so nice. Just say hello! And then to my horror she turned to Jamie and said, "She wants to talk to you, but she's shy."
He turned those eyes on me. "Why are you shy?" He waved me over to his side - paused, as someone stopped to talk with him - and patted the table. "Wait right here," he said, while he wrapped up with the other person.
I tried to wipe my palms on my slacks surreptitiously while waiting. Then he returned his attention to me and my mouth went dry again. He held out his hand to shake mine. "Why are you shy?" he repeated.
I babbled something incoherent.
"I get that way too," he said, "I get intimidated when I meet people who I... with new people," he amended, and I thought it was very polite of him not to assume that I 'admired' him. *g* His hands were very soft.
"Where are you from?"
Again the nervous babble. That's a tough question for me in general, as "where were you born?", "where did you grow up?", and "where do you live?" all have different answers.
He mercifully cut through the chaff and figured out "so, you're here from [city]."
"Have you been...?"
"No, I hear it's lovely."
"Oh, you should! We have a great Shakespeare theater. Come in the fall or spring, it's lovely."
"I'd love to." By now there were a few people queueing up to see him. He held his hand out again to end the conversation. I shook his hand (*sigh*) and ambled away in a daze. I suppose it was a good thing that elly427 and wisteria_ were not with me - I don't think I could have managed words just then.
Ah, frak. I'm too tired. I think I'm just going to post this, and continue with Sunday in a separate post. Maybe I'll think better of this and f-lock (or delete!) my ridiculous squee in the morning. *g*
Coming soon:
(Oh, and I guess other D*C reports are still trickling in. Not too late, then, I guess!)
One of the highlights of the con for me was the parade. Like Halloween, only a thousand times better! And this is probably the only face of the con that most Atlantans ever see, if they notice at all. (I believe it was on the nightly news.) It was fun to see little kids lining the street in anticipation.
Some favorite groups:
These folks were belly-dancing their way down Peachtree:
Hello, Spartans!
A couple of my favorite costumes - they were part of the "Faerie" contingent - doesn't show up too well here, but their outfits were made up of hundreds of tiny squares of cellophane, and it just looked lovely in the sunlight.
For the old-school Trek crowd: Uhura!!
And the Colonial Fleet crowd - this woman actually did look a bit like Starbuck.
And the funniest thing was their marching cadence, the only bit I remember was:
"...then there's Gaius Baltar/He lives on a basestar/
He betrayed the human race/ But he slept with Kara Thrace!"
Hee!
An unexpected delight at Dragon*Con was the overwhelming acceptance and friendliness, all weekend long. It was like... it didn't matter what your weird was, everyone had their own flavor of weird and it was all good. Elly and I were comparing notes on the hilarious elevator conversations we kept having. A favorite:
Elly and I stepped onto the elevator and found that there was only one other person on it (the lifts had been jampacked all weekend). We all expressed our surprise, and the guy said, well, you've only got me, but I'll entertain ya!
Oh yes? Entertain us, Elly challenged him.
He said, A stormtrooper, a wizard and a robot get onto the elevator.
And? we said.
That was it! It really happened, here at the con!
We all cracked up and imagined all the would-be opening lines that must have taken place at the con. ("A goblin, a Cylon and the Weasley twins walk up to the bar...")
On to the main attraction!!
Thursday night my dear wisteria_ picked me up at the airport, with the lovely elly427 in tow. We hung out in the lobby for a bit, where we spotted both Mark Sheppard and - thanks to her distinctive Jayne hat - trinnifer and my new roommie beautifultyrant. Effusive greetings all around (um, not including Mark). End of sightings for the day.
Friday if I still have my days right was the first BSG panel, fortunately scheduled in the afternoon. I did the hotel buffet because I was starving - yeek! expensive! I ate enough to last me thru lunch, though. Just as well because we had to line up way early for the panel. As others have written, the Star Trek: TNG vs. BSG panel was the worst of the BSG lot - no moderation to speak of and poorly conceived. Jamie looked bored out of his skull most of the time, though we were delighted to see that he was wearing his dragon pants. And he threw in some vocabulary words for good measure (I think "panoply" was one of them).
At one point he threw in a long response to what I thought was a pretty plain-Jane question (something about whether BSG is intended to be political commentary) - basically he said that yeah, BSG is commentary, and we all need to wake up and take responsibility for our society, for our planet. I realized later that he pretty much said the same thing word for word in several interviews that he did while at the con.
I think Jamie amuses himself at these cons by using them to air his thoughts on society in general. Guess he has a lot of flying time to come up with his deep thoughts. (Fwiw, I do generally agree with him, btw, and not just because of the sapphire bullets or Bamceps - though sometimes I feel like he's just a tad frustrated with work right now, and so that bleeds over into general aggravation with the state of the world. :0)) Also, I thought it was notable that he framed his statements as "we" or "our society" several times. Not sure if he now includes himself in US society, or is speaking more broadly as part of Western civ. (Now there's a question for the next con - "do you think of yourself as an 'American' now, or at heart always British?")
Saturday: ah, finally a panel just for BSG fans. While we were waiting in line for the panel to start the con decided to switch rooms with the Mythbusters panel, resulting in a horrendous scrum in the lobby. The fire marshal threatened to evict everybody, in fact. As I am not very tall I got a little freaked out by the crowd, and decided to take my chances by breaking with the line and just heading straight for the new location. Just as well - it was close to a free-for-all. But we ended up with front- and second-row seats, so it all worked out. This was the panel where elly427 noted just how incredibly blue JB's eyes were (not so evident in this photo, but they were, believe me) - don't know if it was the dark background or the way the lights were angled, but they were intense.
Jamie strut! Or, two Apollos doing the Macarena??
Saturday was also the night of the BSG Colonial Day party. I don't know why we thought that the party wouldn't have a huge line for it - I guess I just thought it was a regular party, wander in, whatever. Anyhoo, we showed up right on time and found oh, thirty people ahead of us, and the room closed to new guests unless someone exited. So there we were, chatting away, when I look over and see Mark Sheppard going by. "Oh, there's Mark," I said to Elly. And I keep turning, and walking by me in a beautiful dark-blue linen shirt that shows off his eyes is Jamie himself.
I don't know where I found the presence of mind to say something. "No, go that way!" I said teasingly, and pointed back at the party that he was leaving.
"I'm going to bed," he said, looking straight at me. And this is the point at which I wish Elly would have smacked me upside the head, or at least on the rear, and told me to scoot on after him. Clearzly I should have understood the coded message, right? right. (Kidding! Am kidding!!!) Anyway, I hit myself on the head several times after he left, bemoaning the fact that I did not think to take pictures or grab him or say something pithy that he would have remembered for the rest of his life. Ah, the pressure. You don't understand - it is so hard to think when impaled on that very, very blue gaze.
/drippy fangirling (Wait, I lied, there's more to come)
We did make it into the party not long afterwards, but it was very crowded in that small, low-ceilinged room, so we walked around for a few minutes and left. I hear Aaron showed up afterwards. Oh well.
Sunday. In the morning I decided to wander a bit by myself, and thought to check out the Hall of Fame and see if Jamie was there (he'd been there the previous days as well, but the line to meet him was horrendous). When I walked up there were some people a few feet away from his table and I wasn't clear about whether they were waiting to get his autograph. I approached his handler and asked what the procedure was, and she said, oh, there's no line right now! You can just talk to him! [he was chatting with someone just then]
I said, but I'm too shy. I don't know what to say!
She said, he's so nice. Just say hello! And then to my horror she turned to Jamie and said, "She wants to talk to you, but she's shy."
He turned those eyes on me. "Why are you shy?" He waved me over to his side - paused, as someone stopped to talk with him - and patted the table. "Wait right here," he said, while he wrapped up with the other person.
I tried to wipe my palms on my slacks surreptitiously while waiting. Then he returned his attention to me and my mouth went dry again. He held out his hand to shake mine. "Why are you shy?" he repeated.
I babbled something incoherent.
"I get that way too," he said, "I get intimidated when I meet people who I... with new people," he amended, and I thought it was very polite of him not to assume that I 'admired' him. *g* His hands were very soft.
"Where are you from?"
Again the nervous babble. That's a tough question for me in general, as "where were you born?", "where did you grow up?", and "where do you live?" all have different answers.
He mercifully cut through the chaff and figured out "so, you're here from [city]."
"Have you been...?"
"No, I hear it's lovely."
"Oh, you should! We have a great Shakespeare theater. Come in the fall or spring, it's lovely."
"I'd love to." By now there were a few people queueing up to see him. He held his hand out again to end the conversation. I shook his hand (*sigh*) and ambled away in a daze. I suppose it was a good thing that elly427 and wisteria_ were not with me - I don't think I could have managed words just then.
Ah, frak. I'm too tired. I think I'm just going to post this, and continue with Sunday in a separate post. Maybe I'll think better of this and f-lock (or delete!) my ridiculous squee in the morning. *g*
Coming soon: