Gallifrey One Field Report- a Saturday adventure
I've been going to cons since before I was born, but this was probably the first one-fandom-specific convention I've ever been to. It was at the hotel which is the current site of the annual LA-area convention, LosCon, so I felt right at home.
Right off the bat at registration, I was disappointed that they didn't have LJ badge ribbons for guests to add their usernames. Going to conventions alone can be pretty lonely, and even though there were probably kind people I know online about, I had no way of recognizing them.
The first panel I attended was Notes from the Virtual Trenches. It turned out to mostly be about moderation of online fandom, at the OG, LJ, and the Podshock forum. There were some interesting points brought up about the more public nature of fora and the more personal/private rss feed that is the LJ Flist.
Selection of Old Who DVDs in the dealer's hall was abyssmal! Maybe there were more that were all snatched up on Friday? I'm not into the Target novelizations, or DWM backissues, so the majority of the rest of the merchandise was New Who or other media. (Still waiting for a Three action figure. Hiya!) There was decent selection of Big Finish audios. I didn't spot the UNIT miniseries, so I went with your other suggestion, The Harvest. Colin Baker was signing at the main BF booth while I shopped, and we briefly exchanged eye contact and a smile before the next person in the signing line moved forward. CB was wearing lime green Crocs. O____o
I saw most of the celeb actor guests in some form. Also signing in the dealer's hall was Fraiser Hines, grinning and laughing. I caught the second half of Nicola Bryant's interview, where she bemoaned Peri's era's wardrobe designers and how her initial opinion of the new series's debut was what she would have given for a comfortable, sensible wardrobe like Rose's. Later in the evening, just as I was going to meet my ride home, I walked up the stalled elevator behind Wendy Padbury, John Levene, and Kai Owen. They were all going out to dinner together. I think the only actor I didn't see about was Gareth David Lloyd.
A lot of the fare in the art show was typical stuff, from local pro and fan artists and such. Most of it was work I'd seen before at LosCons. However, I did love getting to see vandonovan's clay Doctors in person. They were SO CUTE. I think his Four and Five were my favorites.
There were a lot of cosplayers, of varying degrees of skill. I know I saw brewsternorth as Eight, and I've fairly sure I saw vandonovan as Two. Some of the companion costumes were very good, including someone in Sarah Jane's Andy Pandy overalls and an excellent recreation of this outfit of Jo's. I got a picture of myself with the TARDIS (forthcoming), so I was satisfied. :)
In the afternoon, I went to the writing for comics panel. I arrived a few minutes early and the previous group was still wrapping up. So I stood outside with Paul Cornell and this other guy. I said hi to Cornell, told him I'd enjoyed his Shakespeare panel at WorldCon. He was very nice and then turned to the other guy and said, "May I introduce you to Javier? He's joining the panel because Pia Guerra couldn't make it." JAVIER GRILLO-MARXUACH. Holy unexpected Middleman, guys! There may have been a lot of restrained fangirling in that handshake. Just maybe. :D
That panel was really entertaining- I don't think I learned anything about the technical side of writing comics that I didn't already know from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics, but for me it's fun watching creators discuss their craft. An interesting note is that Grillo-Marxuach writes all his comics scripts as teleplays, letting the artist create the panel structure.
The final panel I attended was the much pre-discussed "Girl!Fandom" panel. It was a bit of a history of women in DW fandom and a bit of a rehash of some of the material about online fandom. There was much time spent on reclaiming the right to "squee."
In the row in front of me at that panel, I finally spotted an RL name that I recognized, calapine's. I think I startled her a little, and we ended up talking very quickly while we walked. Unfortunately I was heading out to meet my ride home. It was nice to meet you, calapine, I hope you had a good con!
I did! &hearts
Right off the bat at registration, I was disappointed that they didn't have LJ badge ribbons for guests to add their usernames. Going to conventions alone can be pretty lonely, and even though there were probably kind people I know online about, I had no way of recognizing them.
The first panel I attended was Notes from the Virtual Trenches. It turned out to mostly be about moderation of online fandom, at the OG, LJ, and the Podshock forum. There were some interesting points brought up about the more public nature of fora and the more personal/private rss feed that is the LJ Flist.
Selection of Old Who DVDs in the dealer's hall was abyssmal! Maybe there were more that were all snatched up on Friday? I'm not into the Target novelizations, or DWM backissues, so the majority of the rest of the merchandise was New Who or other media. (Still waiting for a Three action figure. Hiya!) There was decent selection of Big Finish audios. I didn't spot the UNIT miniseries, so I went with your other suggestion, The Harvest. Colin Baker was signing at the main BF booth while I shopped, and we briefly exchanged eye contact and a smile before the next person in the signing line moved forward. CB was wearing lime green Crocs. O____o
I saw most of the celeb actor guests in some form. Also signing in the dealer's hall was Fraiser Hines, grinning and laughing. I caught the second half of Nicola Bryant's interview, where she bemoaned Peri's era's wardrobe designers and how her initial opinion of the new series's debut was what she would have given for a comfortable, sensible wardrobe like Rose's. Later in the evening, just as I was going to meet my ride home, I walked up the stalled elevator behind Wendy Padbury, John Levene, and Kai Owen. They were all going out to dinner together. I think the only actor I didn't see about was Gareth David Lloyd.
A lot of the fare in the art show was typical stuff, from local pro and fan artists and such. Most of it was work I'd seen before at LosCons. However, I did love getting to see vandonovan's clay Doctors in person. They were SO CUTE. I think his Four and Five were my favorites.
There were a lot of cosplayers, of varying degrees of skill. I know I saw brewsternorth as Eight, and I've fairly sure I saw vandonovan as Two. Some of the companion costumes were very good, including someone in Sarah Jane's Andy Pandy overalls and an excellent recreation of this outfit of Jo's. I got a picture of myself with the TARDIS (forthcoming), so I was satisfied. :)
In the afternoon, I went to the writing for comics panel. I arrived a few minutes early and the previous group was still wrapping up. So I stood outside with Paul Cornell and this other guy. I said hi to Cornell, told him I'd enjoyed his Shakespeare panel at WorldCon. He was very nice and then turned to the other guy and said, "May I introduce you to Javier? He's joining the panel because Pia Guerra couldn't make it." JAVIER GRILLO-MARXUACH. Holy unexpected Middleman, guys! There may have been a lot of restrained fangirling in that handshake. Just maybe. :D
That panel was really entertaining- I don't think I learned anything about the technical side of writing comics that I didn't already know from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics, but for me it's fun watching creators discuss their craft. An interesting note is that Grillo-Marxuach writes all his comics scripts as teleplays, letting the artist create the panel structure.
The final panel I attended was the much pre-discussed "Girl!Fandom" panel. It was a bit of a history of women in DW fandom and a bit of a rehash of some of the material about online fandom. There was much time spent on reclaiming the right to "squee."
In the row in front of me at that panel, I finally spotted an RL name that I recognized, calapine's. I think I startled her a little, and we ended up talking very quickly while we walked. Unfortunately I was heading out to meet my ride home. It was nice to meet you, calapine, I hope you had a good con!
I did! &hearts