Dragon con 09
Everything is in here, and I mean everything. Well, except the official Thriller video, that's not up yet. Also, my autograph pics and such came out bigger because photo bucket is weird - if you see one you want bigger just click it. :)
Where to START. *shakes self*
Drove up to Atlanta Thursday, all by myself. It takes about 7 hours but it really wasn't bad at all. When I got there I went ahead and checked us all in to our hotel. We had 8 in our group - lotr_lemmy, nariana_staris, and other super cool peeps which are not on lj.
Dragon con is located at a ton of really awesome hotels. My favorite was the Marriott - every time I walked into it and looked up I felt like it was ribs and a spine and it ate us. I called it the hotel that ate dragon con, but it was hardly big enough for THAT.
We, on the other hand, stayed at one of the overflows - the Day's Inn. And we brought snacks.
Even in the parking lot of the overflow hotel the night BEFORE the con, you can still see silly things, like people with aliens on their heads.
The first thing we did was go to a Supernatural room party at one of the hotels, and watch the reruns of When the Levee Breaks and Lucifer Rising with a bunch of other fan people, which in my opinion is the VERY best way to kick off a con of any kind. ♥
Friday dawned bright and early and we all got dressed in our Harry Potter cosplay.
Laura's dad, Jim, was 'Random Fandom Guy.' See if you can count them all!
Megan found a Dr and a Tardis, thus completing her life.
Wandering around, you see Things. Some of the Things cannot be unseen. Ever.
We took some nicer costume shots later on.
First thing on the agenda was the Shatner/Nimoy panel. They were hysterical and they reminded me of Jared and Jensen in about 40 years. Jared is Shatner. We all agreed that it felt kind of special in a historic sort of way to be in that room with those guys. Really, really cool.
On why he hasn't seen the new Trek movie.
On what he would say if he wins the Emmy he is up for for Boston Legal.
After that awesomeness, we hung out at the food court a while. Sometimes the funniest things you see all con are at the food court.
These two did not know each other at all. They ran into each other at the intersection of the food court and just like magic, about 20 con-goers apppeared out of nowhere to take their picture, like papparazzi. They posed and then laughed and went on their separate ways. LOL.
Next up was the Buffy Panel. Kristy Swanson, Felicia Day, Julie Benz and Charisma Carpenter were there. Charisma was SO FUNNY and just like you'd expect Cordelia to be in person. I got to ask Julie about the Boondock Saints, and when I brought up Faith, the crowd clapped for Supernatural, which was REALLY cool to see.
I was able to ge an autograph from Julie, and she is just the coolest. She went on and on about how much she loves the guys and she still sees them out and around a lot - Jensen is friends with one of her friends - and she said every time Jared sees her he comes running up 'like a giant floppy puppy dog' and gives her a huge hug. :)
Jim met Barry Bostwick and went all fanboy on us and it was adorable. We talked to him a little bit about the Incredible Jay, and he comisserated with us that he was a great character and he was still sad about the fact that he had to kill his best friend. He too loved working on Show. I never get tired of hearing people say that. :)
Also talked to Ron Glass and he says the new book about ... Book ... is still coming out, just not sure when.
We went back to the hotel to change and relax a little before the Buffy Horror picture show and the Dr. Horrible Sing Along. On our way back, we ran into none other than another Mary Winchester! She said she also had a Dean and Castiel but they weren't there right then. I also heard there was a Hellhound Dean running around somewhere with a ripped shirt and blood all over but I never saw him. It was neat that more than one group was cosplaying Supernatural. Our SamnDean took a picture with their Mary. Dean obviously felt overwhelmed and needed a drink. *headdesk*
Buffy Horror was fun, I can finally say I have, in fact, seen 'Once more with feeling.' Felicia Day introduced Dr Horrible which was awesome, and she kept up the twitter updates all weekend on how much squee she was having over the fan love. The Dr. Horrible cast was EXCELLENT.
Saturday we represented for Show.
On the way to the con, Dean and Castiel were ignoring the rest of us. Typical.
First thing in the morning we signed up for Thriller, and then went to the parade! \o/
After the parade, I ran to get an autograph from Kevin Anderson, and I got to ask him a question I've wanted to ask him since high school - if he wrote Darksaber just to get rid of Callista or not. AND HE SAID YES. *dies*
He had a whole story about how Zhan didn't want Mara and Luke to be together and kept saying they were just friends, so they brought in Hambly b/c she was a romance writer, but then after she put Luke with Callista Zhan changed his mind because of fan response, and so he had to get with Hambly on how to get rid of Callista but he refused to kill her off like the publishing company wanted him to. Then he leaned in close and told me, 'Just between you and me, though - Callista was the girl for Luke.' So there you have it.
We kept finding Waldo. He wasn't doing a very good job of hiding.
Several people in our group gave blood at the blood drive, and Dean and Castiel worked on Thriller while they waited. I joined them later after I was done meeting Anderson and we had a good little group going in the lobby of the blood drive center. Practice was vital. As a side note, I found out today that in addition to Thriller, we may have also broken the guiness record for the most blood ever collected at a single blood drive. Over 2000 useable units! Good job, guys.
We went to the Religious themes in Buffy and Supernatural panel, and there was a lot of really good discusion, it was cool. Also there were tons MORE Supernatural fans there that we hadn't seen yet, again, very cool.
Then it was Timothy Zhan time! I had him sign a Polish copy of Heir to the Empire for tangeloglow. She gave it to me in high school and we've shared custody of it ever since. He thought it was pretty neat to see that, he said they pop up every now and then. He was a really nice guy, and me and Megan told him we want to marry Thrawn and have his little blue babies like we said we were going to do, and he laughed and said, 'Well, good. Thank you.' LOL. We are awful.
Stopped on the way back to get some promo pictures of the guys and to play around a bit. At a later date, I am going to upload these in higher res with comparison screencaps/promos/gag reel shots, because ... how could I NOT? *dies*
Lol children, stop messing around. We're trying to work here.
Back to the hotel room to catch a snack and practice Thriller! We were worn out by the time it was time to head out, but the practice was much needed. Thriller is REALLY HARD.
Saturday night we went to the Shindig, to hang out with other Firefly people.
You can't take the sky from me ...
The only people I didn't get pictures of were Wash and Book - I couldn't find them anywhere! Maybe 'cos they're dead? *wibble*
After the shindig most of us went to bed, but Laura, Jim and Megan went to the late - LATE night showing of Rocky Horror, and barry Bostwick was there and he introduced it! So that was kind of epic for them. I for one was glad I went to bed - they didn't get back until about 5 in the morning!
Sunday we were all kind of floating around. The first thing we saw were heroes and villians gathering for pictures in the courtyard of the SunTrust bank.
We hit the dealer rooms, and spent a ton of money on yet MORE Supernatural stuff that I don't need.
I found Those Guys I Always Buy Stuff From, and they had JUST added a John Winchester portrait, so I picked it up to complete the collection, now I have them all!
They are cheaper if you get them in sets so I grabbed their gorgeous new Thomas Dekker one since I knew he was in the building somewhere. Turned out there was NO line for him, so we walked right up. He was really nice and holy cow does he ever have gorgeous eyes. My fangirl-ism of him just jumped like a trillion points. I walked up and he asked me my name and I told him and he goes, 'That's a hot name,' and was all smiley and adorable.
He wanted to come dance Thriller with us but it was when his photo ops were. He told us an interesting piece of Rocky Horror trivia - his mother was the original Magenta in the stage production in England. He is mad at quiznos because they discontinued his favorite sandwich. He took 'Save T:SCC' stickers from the dealer table and plastered them all over downtown Atlanta when he first got there. He saw a guy in the elevator his first night dressed like a soldier from a video game and he recognized him a different day and said 'hey I remember you,' and said how he was dressed, and it freaked the guy out. I could go on, we talked a long time, LOL.
After Thomas I met Tom Felton. He is super sweet and he has a fantastic accent! He was sunburned and he told us that he'd just been in Orlando last week to preview the Harry Potter theme park! He raved about it and said it was brilliant and the rides were great, and the theming was very well done, he can't wait to go back! I can't wait until it opens! I can't stop typing with exclamation points!!!
Then we went to Thomas Dekker's panel, and while we were in line we ran into antekaand the plastic!boys! They were so awesome to see in person. Plastic!Dean kept looking away from the camera, lol. Plastic!Sam's hair has a mind of its own.
During the panel they weren't allowing flash but I got some decent video. My question was what was his favorite memory from the T:SCC set.
Someone asked him what he liked about T:SCC enough to make him leave Heroes for it, and he said 'First? It's TERMINATOR. And second, I never have to work with Hayden Pantierre ever again.' And it was really funny but mainly because he was NOT KIDDING lol.
On intimate moments while shooting with Summer Glau.
He told us a little of what would have happened in season three.
After lunch, we headed to one of the official Thriller rehearsals and then back to the room to zombie up! (Rehearsal video - check out this one, you can see the alien REALLY well, and he ROCKS!)
I shifted from Mary to a zombie vampire. To kill me, you'd have to cut my head off and nail my torso to my grave bed. I bit Sam and sucked his blood, but he just took it back.
Waiting to go into the Grand ballroom.
I didn't get pictures inside while we were waiting to film, but I found some vids from some people.
You tube clip of us waiting to enter the grand ballroom, you can see Jim and Laura in it.
You tube clip of us waiting to start the final run-through Sunday night.
After we were all BEAT from the run-throughs but we were so psyched! We were hyper and we took group shots and then ran around getting pictures of cool costumes.
Picture, article and vid of the real thing! You can see me in it a few times, I was on the left side, so opposite this particular camera person. We are still waiting on the dragon con vid release.
I have finally been touched by His Noodly Appendage. *is very srs bsns*
I'd have to say of all the costumes that danced Thriller, I thought the alien, the MJ glove, and Kaylee in her hoop skirt were the bravest. THAT DANCE IS HARD, YO.
We even rode the elavator at the Mariot. It still looks like ribs from up top, only you just haven't been swallowed yet.
I wanted so bad for someone to cosplay the Jedi battle on one of those sets of stairs, and I wanted to take pictures from below. TELL me that doesn't look like the Death Star power core. I dare you.
Aforementioned cool costumes.
Random Show related chicanery.
As it turns out, Death Eaters do not want to save money by switching to Geico.
Thriller links so far - "We were having a sci-fi convention, and a party broke out!"
Odd news report
National News report
Boston Herald
We heard these guys singing Bon Jovi from across the street, and we were echoing back the 'Waaawnteeed' parts, so finally we just went over there, and we sang a little together.
I requested 'On a Boat', and they obliged.
Sunday morning we said our sad, sad goodbyes. *wibble* I went and had lunch with a local friend of mine and then drove home. I already miss everybody so much!!!!! *tear*
BUT HEY! NEW SHOW IN 2 DAYS!! WOOT!
Where to START. *shakes self*
Drove up to Atlanta Thursday, all by myself. It takes about 7 hours but it really wasn't bad at all. When I got there I went ahead and checked us all in to our hotel. We had 8 in our group - lotr_lemmy, nariana_staris, and other super cool peeps which are not on lj.
Dragon con is located at a ton of really awesome hotels. My favorite was the Marriott - every time I walked into it and looked up I felt like it was ribs and a spine and it ate us. I called it the hotel that ate dragon con, but it was hardly big enough for THAT.
We, on the other hand, stayed at one of the overflows - the Day's Inn. And we brought snacks.
Even in the parking lot of the overflow hotel the night BEFORE the con, you can still see silly things, like people with aliens on their heads.
The first thing we did was go to a Supernatural room party at one of the hotels, and watch the reruns of When the Levee Breaks and Lucifer Rising with a bunch of other fan people, which in my opinion is the VERY best way to kick off a con of any kind. ♥
Friday dawned bright and early and we all got dressed in our Harry Potter cosplay.
Laura's dad, Jim, was 'Random Fandom Guy.' See if you can count them all!
Megan found a Dr and a Tardis, thus completing her life.
Wandering around, you see Things. Some of the Things cannot be unseen. Ever.
We took some nicer costume shots later on.
First thing on the agenda was the Shatner/Nimoy panel. They were hysterical and they reminded me of Jared and Jensen in about 40 years. Jared is Shatner. We all agreed that it felt kind of special in a historic sort of way to be in that room with those guys. Really, really cool.
On why he hasn't seen the new Trek movie.
Click to viewOn what he would say if he wins the Emmy he is up for for Boston Legal.
After that awesomeness, we hung out at the food court a while. Sometimes the funniest things you see all con are at the food court.
These two did not know each other at all. They ran into each other at the intersection of the food court and just like magic, about 20 con-goers apppeared out of nowhere to take their picture, like papparazzi. They posed and then laughed and went on their separate ways. LOL.
Next up was the Buffy Panel. Kristy Swanson, Felicia Day, Julie Benz and Charisma Carpenter were there. Charisma was SO FUNNY and just like you'd expect Cordelia to be in person. I got to ask Julie about the Boondock Saints, and when I brought up Faith, the crowd clapped for Supernatural, which was REALLY cool to see.
I was able to ge an autograph from Julie, and she is just the coolest. She went on and on about how much she loves the guys and she still sees them out and around a lot - Jensen is friends with one of her friends - and she said every time Jared sees her he comes running up 'like a giant floppy puppy dog' and gives her a huge hug. :)
Jim met Barry Bostwick and went all fanboy on us and it was adorable. We talked to him a little bit about the Incredible Jay, and he comisserated with us that he was a great character and he was still sad about the fact that he had to kill his best friend. He too loved working on Show. I never get tired of hearing people say that. :)
Also talked to Ron Glass and he says the new book about ... Book ... is still coming out, just not sure when.
We went back to the hotel to change and relax a little before the Buffy Horror picture show and the Dr. Horrible Sing Along. On our way back, we ran into none other than another Mary Winchester! She said she also had a Dean and Castiel but they weren't there right then. I also heard there was a Hellhound Dean running around somewhere with a ripped shirt and blood all over but I never saw him. It was neat that more than one group was cosplaying Supernatural. Our SamnDean took a picture with their Mary. Dean obviously felt overwhelmed and needed a drink. *headdesk*
Buffy Horror was fun, I can finally say I have, in fact, seen 'Once more with feeling.' Felicia Day introduced Dr Horrible which was awesome, and she kept up the twitter updates all weekend on how much squee she was having over the fan love. The Dr. Horrible cast was EXCELLENT.
Saturday we represented for Show.
On the way to the con, Dean and Castiel were ignoring the rest of us. Typical.
First thing in the morning we signed up for Thriller, and then went to the parade! \o/
After the parade, I ran to get an autograph from Kevin Anderson, and I got to ask him a question I've wanted to ask him since high school - if he wrote Darksaber just to get rid of Callista or not. AND HE SAID YES. *dies*
He had a whole story about how Zhan didn't want Mara and Luke to be together and kept saying they were just friends, so they brought in Hambly b/c she was a romance writer, but then after she put Luke with Callista Zhan changed his mind because of fan response, and so he had to get with Hambly on how to get rid of Callista but he refused to kill her off like the publishing company wanted him to. Then he leaned in close and told me, 'Just between you and me, though - Callista was the girl for Luke.' So there you have it.
We kept finding Waldo. He wasn't doing a very good job of hiding.
Several people in our group gave blood at the blood drive, and Dean and Castiel worked on Thriller while they waited. I joined them later after I was done meeting Anderson and we had a good little group going in the lobby of the blood drive center. Practice was vital. As a side note, I found out today that in addition to Thriller, we may have also broken the guiness record for the most blood ever collected at a single blood drive. Over 2000 useable units! Good job, guys.
We went to the Religious themes in Buffy and Supernatural panel, and there was a lot of really good discusion, it was cool. Also there were tons MORE Supernatural fans there that we hadn't seen yet, again, very cool.
Then it was Timothy Zhan time! I had him sign a Polish copy of Heir to the Empire for tangeloglow. She gave it to me in high school and we've shared custody of it ever since. He thought it was pretty neat to see that, he said they pop up every now and then. He was a really nice guy, and me and Megan told him we want to marry Thrawn and have his little blue babies like we said we were going to do, and he laughed and said, 'Well, good. Thank you.' LOL. We are awful.
Stopped on the way back to get some promo pictures of the guys and to play around a bit. At a later date, I am going to upload these in higher res with comparison screencaps/promos/gag reel shots, because ... how could I NOT? *dies*
Lol children, stop messing around. We're trying to work here.
Back to the hotel room to catch a snack and practice Thriller! We were worn out by the time it was time to head out, but the practice was much needed. Thriller is REALLY HARD.
Saturday night we went to the Shindig, to hang out with other Firefly people.
You can't take the sky from me ...
The only people I didn't get pictures of were Wash and Book - I couldn't find them anywhere! Maybe 'cos they're dead? *wibble*
After the shindig most of us went to bed, but Laura, Jim and Megan went to the late - LATE night showing of Rocky Horror, and barry Bostwick was there and he introduced it! So that was kind of epic for them. I for one was glad I went to bed - they didn't get back until about 5 in the morning!
Sunday we were all kind of floating around. The first thing we saw were heroes and villians gathering for pictures in the courtyard of the SunTrust bank.
We hit the dealer rooms, and spent a ton of money on yet MORE Supernatural stuff that I don't need.
I found Those Guys I Always Buy Stuff From, and they had JUST added a John Winchester portrait, so I picked it up to complete the collection, now I have them all!
They are cheaper if you get them in sets so I grabbed their gorgeous new Thomas Dekker one since I knew he was in the building somewhere. Turned out there was NO line for him, so we walked right up. He was really nice and holy cow does he ever have gorgeous eyes. My fangirl-ism of him just jumped like a trillion points. I walked up and he asked me my name and I told him and he goes, 'That's a hot name,' and was all smiley and adorable.
He wanted to come dance Thriller with us but it was when his photo ops were. He told us an interesting piece of Rocky Horror trivia - his mother was the original Magenta in the stage production in England. He is mad at quiznos because they discontinued his favorite sandwich. He took 'Save T:SCC' stickers from the dealer table and plastered them all over downtown Atlanta when he first got there. He saw a guy in the elevator his first night dressed like a soldier from a video game and he recognized him a different day and said 'hey I remember you,' and said how he was dressed, and it freaked the guy out. I could go on, we talked a long time, LOL.
After Thomas I met Tom Felton. He is super sweet and he has a fantastic accent! He was sunburned and he told us that he'd just been in Orlando last week to preview the Harry Potter theme park! He raved about it and said it was brilliant and the rides were great, and the theming was very well done, he can't wait to go back! I can't wait until it opens! I can't stop typing with exclamation points!!!
Then we went to Thomas Dekker's panel, and while we were in line we ran into antekaand the plastic!boys! They were so awesome to see in person. Plastic!Dean kept looking away from the camera, lol. Plastic!Sam's hair has a mind of its own.
During the panel they weren't allowing flash but I got some decent video. My question was what was his favorite memory from the T:SCC set.
Someone asked him what he liked about T:SCC enough to make him leave Heroes for it, and he said 'First? It's TERMINATOR. And second, I never have to work with Hayden Pantierre ever again.' And it was really funny but mainly because he was NOT KIDDING lol.
On intimate moments while shooting with Summer Glau.
He told us a little of what would have happened in season three.
After lunch, we headed to one of the official Thriller rehearsals and then back to the room to zombie up! (Rehearsal video - check out this one, you can see the alien REALLY well, and he ROCKS!)
I shifted from Mary to a zombie vampire. To kill me, you'd have to cut my head off and nail my torso to my grave bed. I bit Sam and sucked his blood, but he just took it back.
Waiting to go into the Grand ballroom.
I didn't get pictures inside while we were waiting to film, but I found some vids from some people.
You tube clip of us waiting to enter the grand ballroom, you can see Jim and Laura in it.
You tube clip of us waiting to start the final run-through Sunday night.
After we were all BEAT from the run-throughs but we were so psyched! We were hyper and we took group shots and then ran around getting pictures of cool costumes.
Picture, article and vid of the real thing! You can see me in it a few times, I was on the left side, so opposite this particular camera person. We are still waiting on the dragon con vid release.
I have finally been touched by His Noodly Appendage. *is very srs bsns*
I'd have to say of all the costumes that danced Thriller, I thought the alien, the MJ glove, and Kaylee in her hoop skirt were the bravest. THAT DANCE IS HARD, YO.
We even rode the elavator at the Mariot. It still looks like ribs from up top, only you just haven't been swallowed yet.
I wanted so bad for someone to cosplay the Jedi battle on one of those sets of stairs, and I wanted to take pictures from below. TELL me that doesn't look like the Death Star power core. I dare you.
Aforementioned cool costumes.
Random Show related chicanery.
As it turns out, Death Eaters do not want to save money by switching to Geico.
Thriller links so far - "We were having a sci-fi convention, and a party broke out!"
Odd news report
National News report
Boston Herald
We heard these guys singing Bon Jovi from across the street, and we were echoing back the 'Waaawnteeed' parts, so finally we just went over there, and we sang a little together.
I requested 'On a Boat', and they obliged.
Sunday morning we said our sad, sad goodbyes. *wibble* I went and had lunch with a local friend of mine and then drove home. I already miss everybody so much!!!!! *tear*
BUT HEY! NEW SHOW IN 2 DAYS!! WOOT!