Vacation Post 4: Dragon Con
Dragon*Con post ahoy! I'm sure I've forgotten a lot because it was a month ago, but meh.
THIS GUY WAS AMAZING AND DID A SKIT FOR THE MASQUERADE. <3 He is my favorite person ever.
THURSDAY
We got there in good time, and everything was fine til we got to THE LINE. I think we waited 3 hours, and a lot of people waited more. See, Dragon*Con hasn't figured out how to deal with 40,000 people trying to register yet, and their system now is by last name. Unfortunately, only 1 booth each has one last name section (I.E. our booth only took people with J-L or something), which means that people with last names starting with common letters were kind of screwed. Luckily for us, apparently no one has last names starting with K, so we got boosted to the front of the line, saving probably an hour or two.
Next year they're supposed to have a new system, and I sure hope it's better than this one. One good thing they did this year, though, is have 1 1/2 hour timeslots but only hour-long panels, so each room had a half hour break time between panels. Considering how long it takes to get anywhere in the con center, this is a good thing.
Good news was, right off the bat there were a bunch of costumes!
Gotta do the cookign by the book! (I was apparently the only one who recognized her....what?)
FRIDAY
I think I wore my maid costume, but I barely remember anymore. One girl got really excited, and I wondered why because the costume isn't FROM anything. It turns out she just loves Akiba culture and maid cafes as much as I do, so that was fun.
The panels I went to were good for the most part. I went to"Japanese and Asian dramas", which was more like a rehash of the dramas I've seen XD Right after was "Cosplay Modeling and Photography", but most of the people were interested in the photography part, and I already kind of knew about it, so meh. I left early for the "The Guild's Vork and Zaboo" panel, which had those two actors and the director answering questions and re-showing the "Game On" music video. Those two are quite a pair, and it was a hilariously entertaining panel. While on line, I found a fabulous and VERY accurate Codex costume:
And the actors.
Later I attended "Ecchi: an intro to ero" which was about how perverted the Japanese have always been. Afterwards I tried to get into "World of Hentai" but the line was RIDICULOUS so I just went to sleep, lol.
SATURDAY
I got up early-ish to go to an "I Dream of Jeannie" panel with the original cast! My favorite part was when Bill Daily told the audience members asking questions that if "one more of [them] said they watched his show when they were 1 year old," he'd kill them XD
Barbara Eden (Jeannie)
Bill Daily
Larry Hagman
Afterwards, I was wearing my Jolyne Kujo costume, which I was quite proud of, so I entered the cosplay contest. Considering past years, I wasn't really expecting much in terms of quality, but DAAAAAAMN GIRL. Dragon*Con's level of costuming amazes me every year. I was also worried the costume judges wouldn't recognize my character (from YOU GUESSED IT, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) but she was actually a huge fan, and even the announcer told everyone to read the manga once I got off stage XD! I didn't get pics, but someone got a couple of the good ones:
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125368&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125371 <----wonbest prop XD
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125356&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
The best part was when we were backstage, they walked the Firefly stars through the same area :Q____ I missed their panel later, but that was pretty awesome. Oh hai, SRT: Sychic River Tam XD Because psychic starts with an S.
Later that night was a personal highlight every year for D*C, the "Mr. Star Wars" contest! Yup, it's exactly what you're thinking it is. Guys bet dressed up in Star Wars costumes, answer trivia, do impressions, and think of Star Wars pick-up lines. It's a hit or miss thing depending on the contestants, but they were solidly entertaining this year. I wish I could explain it more, but it's really something you just have to be there and see XO
At 8:30 was a really interesting Sherlock Holmes panel, talking about Holmes and Watson's relationship (not gay), the new series (awesome) and various other spinoffs (cool).
And finally at 10, due to my love of Go Nagai (an artist whose anime and manga I have NEVER SEEN, including Cutie Honey and Kekko Kamen) I went to the "Wild World of Go Nagai" panel. That was mostly a review of his series which was cool, but then the best thing happened. These 2 guys got into a fight as to whether or not Mazinger Z or some other mecha had the biggest influence on the mecha genre. It was ~THE~ perfect stereotypical otaku argument, and I was alone in the back giggling my butt off the entire time.
SUNDAY
I wore my pseudo-steampunk outfit and headed to, I think, "Breaking into the art field"? All the art panels were named similarly, I don't remember which one I went to. It had some artists whose names I don't know, but then it did have Donato Giancola (fantasy artist) and Lou Anders (Art Director for Pyr) which was great, and they're both such nice guys. I talked to Lou after the panel and then afterwards gave him my card and sent him an email, so, yay!
I went and visited the art show, which was great as usual. They have some really good fantasy artists. It's only second, I think, to the Lunacon art show. Then came the dealer's room, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to buy anything, and they didn't have any of the merchandise I was specifically looking for. It's rather abysmal in terms of anime merch, but if you like Steampunk, corsets, bellydancing, or that kind of thing, this is YOUR dealer's room XD
At 4 was another possible hit-or-miss event, "Miss Star Trek Universe", wisely changed from "Miss Klingon Universe" in previous years. Contestants included a green Orion slave girl (who won), a short-skirted ensign, and an empath. My favorite talent of their was the imitation of the host's imitation of George Takei's "OH MYYYYYYY". XDD
At 8:30 was the masquerade. Luckily, I didn't have to go to it to see it. Another thing I love about Dragon*Con is that it has Dragon*Con TV, which takes over a channel in the hotel rooms and broadcasts major panels and events to the host hotels. All I had to do was go back to the hotel room XD And considering how brutal the audience is at Dragon*Con's masquerade, I was glad I didn't have to be there. It was pretty good. One of the best skits was a recreation of the Glee Lady Gaga performance done by one of my mom's friends and her friends, it was awesome! Now, the MCs are always famous people, so this year they had George Perez and some other guy whose name I forgot. This other guy's daughter was dressed as a Viking and he told her to escort any bad skits off the stage. There weren't any, and the poor girl got so bored. However, this made her VERY entertaining to watch, and the camera crew apparently thought so as well, lol.
After that I attempted to go to the "Dub Your Own Hentai" panel, but apparently I didn't learn my lesson, and the line was crazy long. SO, I was boring and went to sleep >.>; So to make up for that, here's a couple of costumes:
THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, AMANDA
And Erica, these are for you:
Quailmaaaaaaan~
River Song
MONDAY
I THINK I went to another art panel today - "The art of self promotion" but honestly I don't remember DX This was a slow day, and I used it to go back over the artist alley/art show and the dealer's room. Finally before we left I checked out the last Trek Track panel, which had a bunch of the Star Trek: The Next Generation stars telling funny stories. Apparently the host of the whole Trek Track is a star from Voyager, who is just a huge Star Trek fan and decided to run the track o_O Like, he's a huge fanboy XD
Best pic I could get, lol.
We attempted to leave at 4. Then we saw some guy gesturing wildly at us and the car.....huh? Turns out our front tire was totally flat O___O Luckily, we had triple A, and my dad had wanted to replace the tires anyway, so we schmoozed while our front tires got replaced. Then we had a nice boring drive back home! :D
I want to reiterate that I am constantly amazing by the level of Dragon*Con costuming. I missed a lot of the more amazing costumes because I was running around, but here's some of the misc ones I found:
MACKS THIS IS FOR YOU
Black Rock Shooter Miku (I don't like Vocaloid but I adore this character design)
The Doctors!
OMG POWER RANGERS WHAT
An Adorable Toph:
Great Asoka
Beauty and the Beast
Back to the Future, group and single Marty! AWESOME!
Chim chimney, chim chimney....
Fry & Leela
Great Harley
Another maid! Yay!
Man!Toph and Sokka
I had nightmares about this character from Mars Attacks. Yes, this is a man XD
OMG, Mucha costume?!
Sailaah Muuuuuun~ I liked her makeup :O
The first I saw of many, MANY Scott Pilgrim costumes:
<33333
Oh God these girls were so adorable <333
Tech Sargeant Chen
Yes, it's real Velour. I asked.
Vince!
Weird Al
Human TARDIS and cute yukata! Strawberries~
I admit it, I have a total straight-girlcrush on this character >_>
And finally, Yo Gabba Gabba XDD
Also, something else about Dragon*Con TV: They also spend all year making funny (albeit very amateur) videos to entertain us while waiting for panels, and they post this and more at http://web.dragoncontv.com/, so if you're bored and have some free time, check it out!
And my favorite quote from myself, which I believe sums it all up: "It's not Dragon*Con until you've seen a Harley Quinn wearing nothing but pasties, a thong, and bodypaint."
THIS GUY WAS AMAZING AND DID A SKIT FOR THE MASQUERADE. <3 He is my favorite person ever.
THURSDAY
We got there in good time, and everything was fine til we got to THE LINE. I think we waited 3 hours, and a lot of people waited more. See, Dragon*Con hasn't figured out how to deal with 40,000 people trying to register yet, and their system now is by last name. Unfortunately, only 1 booth each has one last name section (I.E. our booth only took people with J-L or something), which means that people with last names starting with common letters were kind of screwed. Luckily for us, apparently no one has last names starting with K, so we got boosted to the front of the line, saving probably an hour or two.
Next year they're supposed to have a new system, and I sure hope it's better than this one. One good thing they did this year, though, is have 1 1/2 hour timeslots but only hour-long panels, so each room had a half hour break time between panels. Considering how long it takes to get anywhere in the con center, this is a good thing.
Good news was, right off the bat there were a bunch of costumes!
Gotta do the cookign by the book! (I was apparently the only one who recognized her....what?)
FRIDAY
I think I wore my maid costume, but I barely remember anymore. One girl got really excited, and I wondered why because the costume isn't FROM anything. It turns out she just loves Akiba culture and maid cafes as much as I do, so that was fun.
The panels I went to were good for the most part. I went to"Japanese and Asian dramas", which was more like a rehash of the dramas I've seen XD Right after was "Cosplay Modeling and Photography", but most of the people were interested in the photography part, and I already kind of knew about it, so meh. I left early for the "The Guild's Vork and Zaboo" panel, which had those two actors and the director answering questions and re-showing the "Game On" music video. Those two are quite a pair, and it was a hilariously entertaining panel. While on line, I found a fabulous and VERY accurate Codex costume:
And the actors.
Later I attended "Ecchi: an intro to ero" which was about how perverted the Japanese have always been. Afterwards I tried to get into "World of Hentai" but the line was RIDICULOUS so I just went to sleep, lol.
SATURDAY
I got up early-ish to go to an "I Dream of Jeannie" panel with the original cast! My favorite part was when Bill Daily told the audience members asking questions that if "one more of [them] said they watched his show when they were 1 year old," he'd kill them XD
Barbara Eden (Jeannie)
Bill Daily
Larry Hagman
Afterwards, I was wearing my Jolyne Kujo costume, which I was quite proud of, so I entered the cosplay contest. Considering past years, I wasn't really expecting much in terms of quality, but DAAAAAAMN GIRL. Dragon*Con's level of costuming amazes me every year. I was also worried the costume judges wouldn't recognize my character (from YOU GUESSED IT, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) but she was actually a huge fan, and even the announcer told everyone to read the manga once I got off stage XD! I didn't get pics, but someone got a couple of the good ones:
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125368&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125371 <----wonbest prop XD
http://photos.dragoncon.org/main.php?g2_itemId=125356&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
The best part was when we were backstage, they walked the Firefly stars through the same area :Q____ I missed their panel later, but that was pretty awesome. Oh hai, SRT: Sychic River Tam XD Because psychic starts with an S.
Later that night was a personal highlight every year for D*C, the "Mr. Star Wars" contest! Yup, it's exactly what you're thinking it is. Guys bet dressed up in Star Wars costumes, answer trivia, do impressions, and think of Star Wars pick-up lines. It's a hit or miss thing depending on the contestants, but they were solidly entertaining this year. I wish I could explain it more, but it's really something you just have to be there and see XO
At 8:30 was a really interesting Sherlock Holmes panel, talking about Holmes and Watson's relationship (not gay), the new series (awesome) and various other spinoffs (cool).
And finally at 10, due to my love of Go Nagai (an artist whose anime and manga I have NEVER SEEN, including Cutie Honey and Kekko Kamen) I went to the "Wild World of Go Nagai" panel. That was mostly a review of his series which was cool, but then the best thing happened. These 2 guys got into a fight as to whether or not Mazinger Z or some other mecha had the biggest influence on the mecha genre. It was ~THE~ perfect stereotypical otaku argument, and I was alone in the back giggling my butt off the entire time.
SUNDAY
I wore my pseudo-steampunk outfit and headed to, I think, "Breaking into the art field"? All the art panels were named similarly, I don't remember which one I went to. It had some artists whose names I don't know, but then it did have Donato Giancola (fantasy artist) and Lou Anders (Art Director for Pyr) which was great, and they're both such nice guys. I talked to Lou after the panel and then afterwards gave him my card and sent him an email, so, yay!
I went and visited the art show, which was great as usual. They have some really good fantasy artists. It's only second, I think, to the Lunacon art show. Then came the dealer's room, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to buy anything, and they didn't have any of the merchandise I was specifically looking for. It's rather abysmal in terms of anime merch, but if you like Steampunk, corsets, bellydancing, or that kind of thing, this is YOUR dealer's room XD
At 4 was another possible hit-or-miss event, "Miss Star Trek Universe", wisely changed from "Miss Klingon Universe" in previous years. Contestants included a green Orion slave girl (who won), a short-skirted ensign, and an empath. My favorite talent of their was the imitation of the host's imitation of George Takei's "OH MYYYYYYY". XDD
At 8:30 was the masquerade. Luckily, I didn't have to go to it to see it. Another thing I love about Dragon*Con is that it has Dragon*Con TV, which takes over a channel in the hotel rooms and broadcasts major panels and events to the host hotels. All I had to do was go back to the hotel room XD And considering how brutal the audience is at Dragon*Con's masquerade, I was glad I didn't have to be there. It was pretty good. One of the best skits was a recreation of the Glee Lady Gaga performance done by one of my mom's friends and her friends, it was awesome! Now, the MCs are always famous people, so this year they had George Perez and some other guy whose name I forgot. This other guy's daughter was dressed as a Viking and he told her to escort any bad skits off the stage. There weren't any, and the poor girl got so bored. However, this made her VERY entertaining to watch, and the camera crew apparently thought so as well, lol.
After that I attempted to go to the "Dub Your Own Hentai" panel, but apparently I didn't learn my lesson, and the line was crazy long. SO, I was boring and went to sleep >.>; So to make up for that, here's a couple of costumes:
THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, AMANDA
And Erica, these are for you:
Quailmaaaaaaan~
River Song
MONDAY
I THINK I went to another art panel today - "The art of self promotion" but honestly I don't remember DX This was a slow day, and I used it to go back over the artist alley/art show and the dealer's room. Finally before we left I checked out the last Trek Track panel, which had a bunch of the Star Trek: The Next Generation stars telling funny stories. Apparently the host of the whole Trek Track is a star from Voyager, who is just a huge Star Trek fan and decided to run the track o_O Like, he's a huge fanboy XD
Best pic I could get, lol.
We attempted to leave at 4. Then we saw some guy gesturing wildly at us and the car.....huh? Turns out our front tire was totally flat O___O Luckily, we had triple A, and my dad had wanted to replace the tires anyway, so we schmoozed while our front tires got replaced. Then we had a nice boring drive back home! :D
I want to reiterate that I am constantly amazing by the level of Dragon*Con costuming. I missed a lot of the more amazing costumes because I was running around, but here's some of the misc ones I found:
MACKS THIS IS FOR YOU
Black Rock Shooter Miku (I don't like Vocaloid but I adore this character design)
The Doctors!
OMG POWER RANGERS WHAT
An Adorable Toph:
Great Asoka
Beauty and the Beast
Back to the Future, group and single Marty! AWESOME!
Chim chimney, chim chimney....
Fry & Leela
Great Harley
Another maid! Yay!
Man!Toph and Sokka
I had nightmares about this character from Mars Attacks. Yes, this is a man XD
OMG, Mucha costume?!
Sailaah Muuuuuun~ I liked her makeup :O
The first I saw of many, MANY Scott Pilgrim costumes:
<33333
Oh God these girls were so adorable <333
Tech Sargeant Chen
Yes, it's real Velour. I asked.
Vince!
Weird Al
Human TARDIS and cute yukata! Strawberries~
I admit it, I have a total straight-girlcrush on this character >_>
And finally, Yo Gabba Gabba XDD
Also, something else about Dragon*Con TV: They also spend all year making funny (albeit very amateur) videos to entertain us while waiting for panels, and they post this and more at http://web.dragoncontv.com/, so if you're bored and have some free time, check it out!
And my favorite quote from myself, which I believe sums it all up: "It's not Dragon*Con until you've seen a Harley Quinn wearing nothing but pasties, a thong, and bodypaint."