Dragon*Con 2010: Con Report of Champions
So. Way after the fact: Here is my Dragon*Con report. I was hoping to keep it short this year - one or two posts instead of my usual 4 - so I didn't take as many notes as I usually do, and I only wrote them down afterward, not during. The idea was that my sieve-like memory would weed out some of the less important details if I didn't have them all written down. DIDN'T WORK. Report is still three posts long and chock full of all the stuff you didn't want to know. Because who even cares about what everyone said at every panel, right? THE IMPORTANT THING IS PICTURES. ...right?
My reports from previous cons can be found here:
[ FX Show 2006] (This one is flocked.)
[ Dragon*Con 2006]
[ FX Show 2007]
[ Dragon*Con 2007]
[ FX Show 2008]
[ Dragon*Con 2008]
My Dragon*Con 2009 report never ended up posted publically! But the most important thing that happened from that is [ here].
Now, without further ado, I hereby present:
Dragon*Con 2010
in which Jen falls hopelessly in love with Paul McGillion, receives sage advice from Luke Perry, paints herself blue, and tries to understand her sister's crush on Scott Bakula. And also other stuff happened.
(Fandoms discussed in this report include: Stargate Atlantis, True Blood, Heroes, Star Trek [Enterprise and Voyager], Battlestar Galactica, Avatar, I Dream of Jeannie [seriously], Quantum Leap, Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog, among others. Be advised that there are spoilers for some of these - SGA in particular - and I haven't warned separately.)
First, Some Relevant Information:
My mom and I marathoned all ten seasons of Stargate SG1 and five seasons of Stargate Atlantis over the summer (okay, I did, and she got through like 8 seasons of SG1 and 1 season of SGA), so when I found out so many of the Stargate actors were going to be at D*C this year, I nearly wet myself with joy. (Which is a thing I do sometimes.) It turns out, there are usually a few SG actors every year - and how could we not have known this? - but this year, there were more than usual. So it was a very exciting time for us. I was especially thrilled about the chance to meet Michael Shanks and David Hewlett, who played my favorite characters on each show. BUT. About a week before the con, David Hewlett cancelled. Which only fueled my trust issues with men, and I made sure to let him know this via Twitter. (He didn't tweet me back.)
Other disappointing cancellations this year included James Marsters, Elizabeth Rohm, Kai Owen, and Paul Wesley. I'd already met James Marsters a couple times, and I embarrassed myself so badly in front of Elizabeth Rohm once that I can't even imagine trying to face her again, but it was sad to me that half of the Whedonverse track guests decided not to come. And I was super disappointed about Kai Owen, who plays Rhys from Torchwood. He's my favorite character, and I've seen him interracting with fans on Youtube, and he seems like a really nice person. Whom I will also never trust again. I honestly can't say why I was at all interested in Paul Wesley, since I pretty much hate The Vampire Diaries and the only other thing I've ever seen him in was a terrible miniseries about half-angels called Fallen, but for some reason the fact that he cancelled also disappointed me. It must be because [he kind of reminds me] of [Angel].
So Anyway. Thursday.
(No panels or anything. You can skip this part.)
D*C technically lasts every year from Friday to Monday of Labor Day Weekend, but if you go on Thursday, you can go ahead and get your con badge and not have to stand in line forever on Friday and potentially miss things. Last year was the first year we actually went on Thursday, and that was because there was a William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy panel early on Friday morning that I REFUSED to miss due to standing in line. But last year, we didn't get to the badge pickup place until pretty late Thursday night, and they weren't letting anyone else get in line, so we had to... well, I don't want to use the words "cheat" or "break in line twice" or even "sneak by when the D*C volunteers weren't looking" but we managed to get our badges anyway. This year, we didn't want an ordeal, so we drove up to Atlanta pretty early (for us) to avoid the hassle of having to do the things I didn't want to mention above.
We actually stopped at McDonald's on our way out of town and ran into an old couple from our church that we had to talk to so as not to seem rude. They asked me if I was married yet. And then they asked me what I was waiting for. I said, "The right one." And then I punched them both in the face.
When my mom and I got to Atlanta, we did what we normally do and parked in the long-term parking lot at Kensington station and took the MARTA to downtown. We do this so we don't have to pay to park at one of the hotels, which can get expensive. MARTA parking is only like $4 a day, as opposed to like $20 if you park at the hotel. The drawback is having to lug your... luggage... around with you onto the trains and then the couple blocks from Peachtree Center station to whichever hotel you're staying in. But we do these things because we are frugal.
After we got our stuff out of the car, Mama slammed the trunk closed on her drink from McDonald's. I saw that this was going to happen, but for some reason I didn't say anything. I watched the paper cup crumple like it was happening in slow motion. This image keeps popping back into my mind.
We got to the Westin and checked in at exactly 5:54PM on Thursday.
It was much nicer than the Baymont would have been.
Let me just say, I will from now on make it a point to NEVER stay at a Baymont again. If I have ever stayed at one. I don't remember if I have. But we made reservations at the Baymont near the convention hotels back in January, so we had these reservations for about 8 months, but when my mom called about a week before the con to check on the reservation, it turns out THE FREAKIN HOTEL HAD BEEN SOLD. That's right, they sold the hotel right out from under us to be turned into a dormitory for Georgia State, and they didn't even bother to let the people with upcoming reservations know about it! Apparently, the Baymont rep that my mom talked to thought it was the responsibility of the people who bought the hotel to let everyone know, but that is ridiculous. If you make a reservation with Baymont, Baymont should be the one to let you know it's been cancelled! Right? Anyway, we were very lucky to find that there was a room available at the Westin - I think someone had recently cancelled their reservation - and so we DID have a place to stay for the con, but it cost exactly twice as much as we were expecting to pay.
When we checked in, we were in line beside a woman wearing a steampunk hat who'd reserved her room at the Westin using a service called Hotwire, and apparently Hotwire had randomly cancelled her reservation without letting her know. She was getting hysterical and started to cry at her Westin employee while we were just standing there politely conversing with ours, who went on and on about how it was so sweet that we did cons as a family, and how she missed her own family. I felt really sorry for the Hotwire woman, because I know I would have reacted the same way if we'd shown up still expecting to stay at the Baymont and were confronted with a GSU dorm instead.
Um. It just occurred to me that we may have gotten the Hotwire woman's reservation. In which case, I don't feel bad for her. EVERY GEEK FOR HERSELF!
When we made our reservation, the clerk said we'd have a king size bed and a roll away, but if we showed up early enough, we could request two double beds instead. So we did that, and we got them. Yay!
Mama celebrating our double beds.
Nothing says "This bed is mine" like setting your disembodied Na'vi head on it.
In the elevator on the way up to our room (which was on the 31st floor), we saw a guy holding a plastic yard-decoration penguin under his arm. I said to him, "Nice penguin." Then he turned to his wife and said, "That's one."
We left our stuff in the room and then walked the two blocks to the Sheraton, where they were doing registration. I was wearing a pink shirt with the Batman symbol on it, which wasn't in any way representative of my fandom - I just liked the shirt, and I got it cheap - but people kept complimenting it. When we got to the Sheraton, we saw the tail end of a line next to the building, but we weren't sure if it was the line we were supposed to be in or not, so we found the beginning of the line and followed it to the end.
All. The way. Around. The block.
It turns out the line we'd seen had been the one we should've gotten in immediately, and lots of people had walked up in the time it took us to circle the entire block on foot, so it was even longer when we finally did get in it. It was about 6:15PM when we got in the line. I saw a few different people already in costume on Thursday, which I thought was a little odd since the con didn't actually start until Friday. And because it was so hot outside. But I guess if you're looking forward to something all year, then you want to go ahead and start doing it as soon as possible.
The line was stupid long. I can't emphasize that enough. We waited over three hours outside and then waited another hour or so inside the building. I texted everyone I knew. I talked to my sister on the phone. I speculated about the childhood experiences of some of the nerds reading novels in the line. Amy had arrived at the hotel while we were waiting and decided to stay in the room while we picked up the badges. Lucky. Apparently the Westin clerk who'd checked us in recognized her as part of our family, which is funny to me.
It was really hot outside, and even though the inside was air conditioned, it was still hot in there because of so many bodies. And everyone was bumping into each other with their sweatiness. Just about all the conversations I heard (and even one I participated in) were about different/better ways to handle the registration process. Lots of people were talking about writing letters to D*C to make suggestions. I bet they're flooded with suggestions every year, but as far as I know, they always do it this way. I was super relieved around 10:30 when we finally escaped the Sheraton with our badges. And super hungry.
My mom and I walked back to the Westin tired and irritable. Or maybe that was just me. But I hate standing in lines. I'm very instant-gratification-oriented. We called Amy to meet us downstairs, and the three of us met up with Sara, who had been in Atlanta working in her GSU office, and we four went to IHOP for supper.
Don't worry, this is normal. Sara nearly always looks shocked to have her picture made.
We all ordered the same thing at IHOP. We are dorks. But we each got a different drink.
After we ate, Sara dropped us back off at the Westin, and me, Amy, and Mama stayed up looking at the con schedule for Friday. There are always so many things to do! It's really hard to decide which panels to go to on which days, especially if you don't know the picture schedules and Walk of Fame schedules and stuff. And if you're trying to make sure you go to a particular (*cough*I Dream of Jeannie*cough*) panel on a day when Brad and Nat certain people can be there to go to it. We went to bed around 1:30AM, but I was so excited that I feel like I didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Friday: Today is the day that is The Day!
omg paul mcgillion.
We got up around 6:45AM on Friday. The first thing we had planned to do was a True Blood panel at 10, but we didn't know if the line was going to be stupid or not, so we wanted to get there early. Mama and Amy had decided to wear their Battlestar Galactica outfits that day, and I wore my Starfleet Academy uniform from the Star Trek 2009 movie.
Amy wanted to be Starbuck from BSG, so she asked me to draw on her Starbuck tattoo. She'd made a stencil, which I used for part of the outline (mainly to make sure the tattoo was the right size), but I freehanded most of it while looking at a picture. It's just too hard to use a stencil on something round, like an arm. Especially with such tiny details.
This was paying her back for her help with my tattoo when I was Fray the Vampire Slayer at D*C two years ago:
I think she had it easier.
The tattoo looked awesome, though. A couple people even wanted pictures of it. BSG represent!
I told Mama I was going to photoshop a cape onto her in this picture. But I didn't.
The True Blood panel was in the Hyatt. We got there at 8:50AM, and since it was the first event they were having in that room, we were able to just walk right in and sit down. Nice. I had forgotten to eat anything for breakfast, but Amy came prepared with breakfast bars. I thought the names were funny.
This Strawbery Walks Into a Bar...
Before the True Blood panel started, two guys and a girl came out and did a... thing. I think it was a recording for a podcast? I took a picture of the screen they were on.
You know, for posterity.
They mostly just read off the announcements from the Daily Dragon, which is a newsletter that comes out every morning of the convention. It lists guest cancellations, additions, and whatever else anyone wants to advertise, like room parties. Pretty convenient. They also did a trivia question thing: they put a picture of some hotel carpet on the screen and asked which hotel it came from. For the people who got it right, they threw a couple of vibrating stuffed Tribbles into the audience.
True Blood Panel
Blah, blah, vampire emergency, blah.
The True Blood panel started at 10, and included Sam ("Sam") Trammell, Nelsan ("Lafayette") Ellis, and Kristen ("Pam") Bauer. Nelsan's name is pronounced like "nell-SAHN," which surprised me a little. I'd been saying it like it was just spelled "Nelson." Michelle Forbes, who played Maryann in season two, wasn't at this panel but was at the other True Blood panel we went to.
Pam, Lafayette, and Sam! Sam really dresses like his character. Which is hot.
This was the first panel I've ever gone to at a con where I didn't take explicit notes. It was nice to just enjoy listening to the conversation, but I was also worried the whole time that I would forget everything they said. And then I figured that it didn't really matter if I remembered, because it's not going to affect my enjoyment of the show, right? But after that, I thought that if I ended up not remembering, then what was the point of going to the panel in the first place? CONUNDRUM.
So, a few things that I do remember from the panel:
Sam is hot and friendly. Kristin is pretty and funny. Nelsan is shy! I was surprised about that, considering the kind of character he plays. He said he comes from a family that is pretty homophobic, too, which I find interesting. And he models Lafayette on his mother and his sisters. Nelsan's brother likes hanging out with him in public, because Nelsan shifts the fans onto him and he ends up getting laid a lot. Also, Nelsan was a... marine, I think. Hot.
One fan went up to the mic and asked specifically for Nelsan to call her "hooka." So he did. Too sweet.
Sam told us a little about doing nude scenes. He said during the scene where he had to run through the woods naked, they'd given him a little sock thing to wear (typical wardrobe of male actors doing nude scenes) and some... flesh-colored jazz shoes. He said it was probably his worst look ever. Nude scenes are always supposed to be sort of private with minimal crew around, but for that scene, even though they'd cleared out most of the crew from the place where he started running, the path he was supposed to run led right by where everyone was standing around near the craft services table. So he had to run by them all in his little sock and jazz shoes while they stood there eating sandwiches and staring at him.
Someone asked Kristin how they acheived the special effect of vampires moving so much faster than humans, and she laughed and said that whenever they had to do those effects, she always felt like she was in a no-budget homemade college film or something because they are so low-tech. She said that when it's time for a vampire to move really fast, everyone else just freezes in place and the vampire walks normally, and then later the fx team speeds up the scene -- but to make it more authentic-looking, when the vampire is walking by, someone with a big piece of cardboard is fanning Sookie's hair to make it look like the speed of the vampire is creating wind in its wake.
After she explained this, Kristin looked over at Sam and asked him how they do the shifting effects. He said, "We really shift!"
I enjoyed this panel a lot, and Kristin was especially funny and interesting. She does an amazingly accurate impression of Alexander ("Eric") Skaarsgard. Someone actually asked everyone which scenes they had the most fun filming, and she immediately said, "Eric naked." After everyone laughed, she said, "I guess I said that out loud..."
Kristin and Sam were both very outgoing, but Nelsan really only joined in the conversation when someone asked him a direct question. I think it's just because he's shy, and not because he was trying to be unfriendly or anything. Sam went on a bit about how talented Nelsan is and how Lafayette's dialogue is often based on the way he improvs at read-throughs, but Nelsan was very modest about it. I thought they all seemed really nice.
Battlestar Galactica Panel
in which Mama and Amy look the part, but aren't really feeling it.
As soon as the True Blood panel was over, we hurried over to the Marriott for the only BSG panel that we attended all weekend. The actors in this panel included Edward James Olmos, Richard Hatch, Aaron Douglas, and Mark Sheppard. We didn't sit very close to the front, so the only clear pictures we got were of the screen.
Mark Sheppard and Eddie Olmos.
I'll tell you why we didn't try to go to any more BSG panels after this one: Eddie Olmos and Richard Hatch, although they seem like perfectly pleasant people, both get incredibly long-winded and, frankly, boring during panels. It's probably not boring to everyone (I assume some people like to hear them go on about politics because they ask political questions), but I don't come to D*C to geek out over what's going on at the UN -- I come to geek out over pranks the actors are playing on each other behind the scenes and stuff.
Mark Sheppard and Aaron Douglas were alright, when they got the chance to talk. They both made several references to Jamie Bamber and picked on him quite a lot, which was funny. And Richard and Eddie were alright too, as long as they weren't going on about politics and religion and the metaphor of sci-fi as it relates to American society. Eddie actually got a standing ovation when he walked onto the stage. Something I thought was kind of weird and sad, though, was that Mark Sheppard wasn't introduced with his real name; the moderator introduced him as his BSG character name and never corrected himself.
I think I've probably said this before in past con reports, but Aaron Douglas makes me a little uncomfortable. I've only interacted with him on a personal level very briefly, but watching him on stage and the way he answers fan questions and everything gives me this feeling like he has some pretty large personal issues that he's having a hard time dealing with. It makes me wonder if the reason he became an actor in the first place was so he could be someone other than himself most of the time in order to avoid facing his own problems. I know it's unfair of me to judge him like that based on so little actual face time with him, but it's a hard vibe for me to ignore, especially since I often feel the same way: playing a particular role in everyday life and pretending the reality of that role is more important than actual reality. But I digress. And anyway, he's still entertaining. Usually.
Something else that makes me uncomfortable is the old man perving on Mary McDonnell. I mean, it's funny, but. Eww.
The BSG panel ended at about 12:30. Mama and Amy immediately agreed that it was the worst panel they'd ever been to. I think I said it was my worst one too, but I've since remembered a few that were even more boring. (Particularly anything with George Takei.) It wasn't really a bad panel, though; it just wasn't a laugh a minute, which is what we're used to. But they did a pretty good job for what they were talking about. And at least nobody got mad and stormed out, like I heard happened at one of the Star Trek TNG panels. (What's with TNG? They get all kinds of dramatic every year.)
Photo Ops!
Paul McGillion I LUH YOU, but I am having difficulties with these photo people.
Because we were in the Marriott already, and that's where they normally do celebrity photos, we decided to go downstairs to the photo op place to see what the photo schedule was like and to go ahead and buy our photo tickets. The next panel we wanted to go to was the Quantum Leap panel at 4, so we had some time to kill anyway. It's a good thing, too, because the lines to buy photo op tickets were craaaazy. They had a line for people who wanted to use cash and a line for people to use credit cards. Amy and I stood in the credit card line because it was shorter, and Mama stood in the cash line. The idea was that we'd see which line was moving faster, and either we'd join Mama or she'd join us depending on what would get us all to the front quicker. While we were standing in two different lines, Mama took a picture of me and Amy talking to the woman behind us about the differences between True Blood the show and the Southern Vampire book series that it's based on.
Thus begins the trend of Amy making BFFs in every line we stood in for the entire weekend.
Amy and Mama only wanted to buy photos with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell (whom I accidentally called Dean Cain just about every time I referred to him), but I wanted to buy photo ops with Sam and Nelsan from True Blood, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Adrian Pasdar from Heroes, and Paul McGillion from Stargate Atlantis. (I would also have bought a photo with Michael Shanks and Ben Browder from Stargate SG1, and probably also Jason Momoa from SGA, but for some reason, most of the Stargate folks had decided to do their photos with a different photographer who was located somewhere else [and was charging more] so I never got the opportunity to buy those photos.) ANYway, I was freaking out a little bit in the line because it was moving so slowly and the first photo I wanted to buy - the True Blood one - was supposed to start at 1:30, and at 1:25, I was still just standing there waiting.
It turns out the cash line, the line Mama was standing in, was actually moving slightly faster than our line, so Amy and I popped over to that line to wait with her. When I got to the front, the volunteer standing there regulating the line asked me if I was a big Star Trek fan because of my outfit. So we talked Trek for a few minutes until it was my turn to buy my photos. I ran up to the table and asked if it was too late to buy a True Blood photo, but the guy helping me said they were only just starting to take those photos and if I hurried then I could still probably get one. So I told him I wanted to buy that photo as well as two others, but he told me I should just buy that one, take the photo, and then come back and buy the other two because it would take too long to process all three transactions if I tried to buy them at the same time, and I might miss the True Blood op. I told him I didn't want to come back and have to wait in line again (we had waited an hour), but he said as soon as I took my photo, then I should come back and just walk up to the table and he would stop what he was doing and help me, and I wouldn't have to wait in line again. Okay, SKETCHY. I didn't want to do it that way, but he was really adamant that I just come back and see him after this one photo, and I was scared I'd miss the True Blood op if I didn't just do what he said, so I went ahead and just paid for the one photo, and then I ran and got in line for the actual picture-takingness that was going on in a room nearby. I ended up being the last person in line for that photo, and by the time I got in the line, there were only a few people ahead of me, so it was a pretty close call.
And now it's time for too much information: I really, really had to pee while I was waiting to take my picture with Sam and Nelsan. It's all I could think about! But I'd been too scared to get out of the buying line to go pee because I thought I might lose my place, and then I was too scared to go pee before I got in line for the photo because I thought they might finish up the photos without me, and then I was too scared to get out of the photo line to go pee because I thought I wouldn't be back in time to have my picture made... so when I finally did go up and shake hands with Sam and Nelsan, I was squeezing my legs together so tightly I could barely walk.
But hey, at least the picture looks good:
You can't even tell I'm struggling not to wet myself.
Sam was really super friendly when I walked up. He grinned at me and shook my hand and said, "Hey, how ya doing?" and Nelsan was a little quieter and just sort of said "Hey" in this way that sounded like he was kind of tired and felt a little awkward, but he was still nice. To be honest, though, I don't even remember what I said back to them because I was focusing so hard on trying not to have an accident. Seriously, it was that bad. I just remember walking away after the picture with this idea that Sam Trammell was one of the friendliest celebrities ever. Oh, and also, I got a text while I was standing in between them. My texting alert sounds like a dinner bell, and they both looked at me with slightly confused expressions. So I was like, "Oh, that's just... my phone, sorry."
I, of course, ran to the bathroom immediately after I left the photo area. I checked my phone while I was there. The text was from my friend Ashley, who said, "I can't believe I'm in Kentucky right now." Which I thought was funny, considering where I had just been when she texted me. I also texted Amy and Mama, who were already waiting in line for the Quantum Leap panel.
When I left the bathroom, I went back up to the photo-buying table to talk to the guy who had told me to come back to him for my other two photos. He was helping this other dude, so he told me he'd be right with me as soon as he was done with the dude, and then he started... eating food from Chick-fil-a, and then he called over this other dude because he was having trouble with his computer... and the whole time, I was getting antsy because one of the other photos I wanted to buy was with Paul McGillion, and the photo start time for that was already coming up, AND I could hear people who were still waiting in the line starting to talk bad about me for skipping ahead of them. Finally, the volunteer guy I'd spoken to about Trek earlier came up to me and said, "Excuse me, did you wait in line?" because the people in the line were complaining to him about me. And I didn't know what to say to him! And then the photo guy was like, "Yeah, I'm helping her, it's cool," and the whole thing just sort of irritated me because if he'd sold me all the photos I wanted in the first place then I wouldn't have had to stand there awkwardly and make everyone else mad. I could actually hear them saying stuff like, "Just because she's in Star Fleet doesn't mean she doesn't have to wait in line..."
Anyway, this guy couldn't get his computer working right, so we couldn't do my transaction, so then he asked the girl sitting next to him to sell me my other photos. I told her I wanted the Paul McGillion photo that was just about to start and the Heroes photo (with Sendhil and Adrian) on Sunday morning. Then she told me that I should just go ahead and buy the Paul one because it was about to start and come back later to buy the Heroes one. Seriously! I was like, "Can I please just buy them both now? Please? They haven't started with Paul yet." So she very reluctantly sold me both photos. In plenty of time. However, my ticket print-out for the Heroes photo said Saturday on it instead of Sunday. When I pointed this out to her, she took the ticket back and crossed off Saturday with a marker and wrote Sunday on it and then told me to just come on Sunday. Very professional.
You know, I hear so many people complaining about Froggy photos every year (including me) that I'm sort of shocked every time I see that they're back. I keep expecting Dragon*Con to hire someone different... Maybe that's why there was a new photographer there this year as well?
There was already a line for Paul after I bought my ticket, so I went ahead and got in it. There were just a handful of us, maybe 8 or 9 in all. I was the last in line again, and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on some of the people standing in front of me. One of them - her name was Mary - had a video camera with her. She was telling someone else that she wanted to record Paul's reaction when he saw her because it had been a while since they'd seen each other and since then she'd had gastric bypass surgery and lost 160 pounds. She said she wondered if he would even recognize her. And I was thinking, of course he won't recognize you. Even if you hadn't lost weight, he wouldn't recognize you. He meets hundreds, possibly thousands, of fans at every convention. What would make you think he'd remember you? I didn't say any of that out loud, though. And she went on to say that she'd been to several of his conventions and had met him lots of times, enough that he would sometimes see her across a room and wave and call out her name. I was surprised to hear that, but it made me like him. I still didn't think he'd recognize her, though.
When the line moved into the actual picture-taking room, I saw Mary ask if she could bring her video camera in to see Paul. They told her no, and she was very gracious about putting it away, though I could tell she was disappointed. I was glad the photo line was so short because I was very interested in seeing what Paul's reaction to seeing Mary would be, and with such a short line, even though I was in the back, I was sure to have a good vantage point. This probably says something about me, but really I was just preparing myself to see this woman's heart break. I was that sure he wouldn't know who she was.
I don't remember now if Mary was actually first in line or not. She may have been second or third. But when she was up, and Paul looked over to see whose turn it was, I was staring at his face, just waiting for a nonreaction. He held out his arm to her and smiled just like she was any old fan waiting for a photo. But then he did a double take, dropped his mouth open in shock, and went, "Mary? Dude! What did you do?"
Mary was, of course, giddy that Paul had recognized her. She had the biggest grin in the world when she went up to him and said something like, "I lost some weight for you, Paul." He met her halfway and threw his arms around her, telling her that she looked great, and asking about what she'd done, and how much weight she'd lost, which all shocked the hell out of me, like they were actually friends. And then he picked her up.
Seriously. He picked her up and walked over to stand in front of the picture backdrop with her draped across his arms, and her arms around his neck, and her squeaking and laughing, and they had their picture made that way while the rest of us stared. She was on the verge of tears when he put her down. You could see her shaking. And I don't remember what else they said, something like she was going to come see him in the Walk of Fame later, and they hugged again, and then he went over to the guy she'd come in with, shook his hand, and joked, "You're looking very nice too."
See, I think this is probably when I fell in love with Paul McGillion. He had played one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite shows, and I already loved that character, but I know that kind of thing really says nothing about the actor who plays the character. For all I knew, Paul McGillion could have been the world's biggest jerk. I just wanted my picture with him because he looked exactly like Dr. Carson Beckett, biggest sweetheart in two galaxies. But this thing with Mary. I think that shows exactly the kind of person Paul really is, and he's a lot more like Carson than I expected. Just without such a pronounced Scottish accent.
So of course, now that I was in love with him, I got super nervous about meeting him.
He recognized some of the other women in the line ahead of me, too, and gave them hugs. Honestly, I think I was the only one there who had never met him before. When it was my turn, he gave me a big smile and pulled me into a hug as well, which sort of startled me but was also nice. And then he stepped back from me and looked me up and down and said something like, "Look at you! What a great Star Trek uniform. It's Star Trek, right?" And I was like, "Yeah, it's - it's from the movie." And he was like, "It looks really cool! Or, what's the word? Hip." And I think I said, "Thanks. I LUH YOU*," and he put his arm around me and gestured down at the X on the floor where we were supposed to stand, so we went to it, and he was still talking while they took the picture. I think at the exact time the picture was taken, he was saying, "It's very mod. You look so mod right now." Which, who even says mod? But I was just like, "OMG I LUH YOU*."
I look so mod right now. Also: Bluest. Eyes. Ever.
I thanked Paul for the picture and started to walk away, but then he took my hand and sort of turned me around and looked at my outfit again. He was smiling really big. It occurred to me later that he may have thought I wore the outfit specifically for our picture, because he had a role in the Star Trek 2009 movie. (That's not why I wore it. I had been planning to wear it anyway.) But he said to me, while holding my hand, "Come see me later. At the - ah -" He couldn't think of "Walk of Fame." Or maybe he just didn't want to say it. But then he said, "Come see me at the place where we do autographs. Okay?" And I was just like, "Okay. I LUHHHHHH YOU*."
*I didn't really tell Paul I loved him. I think.
I walked out on a cloud. I've had some pretty good meetings with celebrities before (Greg Grunberg comes to mind - total sweet potato) but none of them had ever actually asked me to come talk to them again. And maybe Paul says that to everyone, but I immediately decided that he fell in love with me at first sight and that we were destined to be together and that our children would have dimples. Because look at us. How are we not a perfect couple?
I met up with Amy and Mama sitting in the line for the Quantum Leap panel, which was supposed to start at 4:00. It was something like 2:15 when I found them.
In line to put right what once went wrong.
Hoping each time that the next pic will be--
Mod.
There was a Papa John's stand near the line, and Mama and Amy had already eaten, so I went over and bought a slice of pepperoni pizza to eat in the line. The guy at the stand complimented my outfit. Just like last year, I got a lot of compliments on my Star Fleet Academy uniform, but no one actually wanted my picture in it. (But my Avatar costume totally made up for that.)
Mama was trying to sneak and take people's pictures when they weren't looking. She does that.
I see Link every year. The fact that he actually has a replica of the Hyrule shield makes me happy inside.
Quantum Leap Panel
Oh boy.
The Quantum Leap panel was the official start of my sister stalking Scott Bakula all weekend. She claims that she's had a crush on this man for twenty years, although I somehow didn't know about this until after I told her he was going to be at Dragon*Con. It seems like the sort of thing I would have already known. If it were true. On the other hand, I DID know about our mom's crush on him.
Meh, I guess he's kind of cute.
THIS is the guy I had a crush on from Quantum Leap. I'm serious. But I was 7 and he was already in his 50's, so society kept us apart. I'm still bitter when I think of it.
One of the very first questions someone asked in the panel was which leap was the hardest for Scott to act. He thought a second and said, "The chimp wasn't easy." Then he looked at Dean Stockwell and said, "Don't you say anything!" Dean leaned toward the mic and said, "He just made it look easy."
The main thing I remember from this panel was the total bromance vibe Scott and Dean were giving off. They sort of went on at length about how great it was to work together, and that they still keep in touch, and how cool it was for Dean to guest star on Star Trek Enterprise. Scott was really the one praising Dean the whole time. For different questions, he would prompt Dean with stuff like, "Do you remember what you told me about that?" or "Should I tell them about when you called me on the phone a week later?" or "Tell them the story about the green wig."
Friendly advice: don't ever ask Dean Stockwell about the green wig. It was gross, and you probably don't want to know.
At one point while Scott was going on about how everything he knows about acting he learned from Dean, Amy swears she saw him tear up a little. I don't know about that, but the whole thing was kind of sweet. I remember Scott said, "He loves this. He loves it when I talk about my feelings," or something like that, while Dean was glaring at him. And Scott just smiled back and patted him on the shoulder.
When Scott was trying to say he thought Dean had a photographic memory (when it came to memorizing lines), he accidentally called Dean photogenic. Twice. Amy told me not to include that in my report. Heh.
The best part of the whole panel, for me, was also the most awkward. A fan came up to the mic and asked if Scott and Dean would look at each other and say "Oh boy" like they had just appeared on stage in front of everyone and didn't know what was going on. The whole audience laughed at the question, and then waited for them to do it. They turned and looked at each other, with these reluctant expressions like "Are we really going to do this?" and that made everyone laugh again. But it was like they couldn't decide if they were going to do it or not, so they just kept looking at each other - for so long that everyone got quiet and then burst out laughing again. We laughed and got quiet three whole times while they just stared at each other. But then finally they both said, "Ohhhhhh boy." Everyone applauded. I hate it when people ask actors to perform during panels, but in this case it was actually pretty funny.
After the panel ended, as we were getting up to leave, Amy and a woman who had been sitting near her struck up a conversation about how they were both planning to marry Scott Bakula. Oddly, I don't think they felt the same way about Dean Stockwell.
Stargate SG-1 Panel
Wait. Ben Browder was there?
The Stargate SG-1 panel was supposed to start in the same room (I think?) immediately following the Quantum Leap panel, so when we walked out, we followed the line that was already there all the way outside and around the building to get in the back of it. Amy and I spoke briefly with a couple of guys in the line who schedule their work vacations around Stargate conventions. Which I would totally do if I had enough money to go to more than one a year.
This was the only panel that Christopher Judge did at Dragon*Con because he was only there for Friday, so I'm really glad we managed to get in, even though we didn't have especially good seats. The whole panel was Ben Browder, Chris Judge, John de Lancie, Martin Gero, and Corin Nemec.
Chris Judge and Ben Browder.
Corin Nemec, Martin Gero, and John de Lancie. This picture is of the screen because the video camera station in the middle of the room was in the way of taking a real picture of these guys.
I know I watched a whole season of Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn on Stargate SG-1, but I have to admit that I have a hard time looking at him without thinking of Parker Lewis from Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I guess I'm just a product of my generation like that.
My very brief notes on this panel are mostly variations of "Martin Gero is funny" and "Chris Judge is funny." Martin is a writer, and they don't usually have scriptwriters on the same panels with the actors they wrote for because occasionally the writers make the characters do unsavory things, or else kill them off entirely, and the fans usually attack them. But Martin totally held his own - even later in the other panel with Paul McGillion (whom he killed in Stargate Atlantis) - and I ended up really liking him.
I wasn't real sure why John de Lancie was in this panel. He was only in a few SG1 episodes as a minor and flat character, and you'd think he'd be busy doing Trek panels all weekend as Q from The Next Generation. But he answered questions intelligently without being boring, so that was alright. Although someone asked him if he preferred his Stargate or Star Trek character, which I thought was about the dumbest question ever. He, obviously, said Trek. But he said it in a way that I thought was very diplomatic.
Someone asked who each of the actors would like to work with (if age and/or death weren't a factor) and Chris said Sidney Poitier. Corin said Errol Flynn, and then said something to the effect of "Man, I'd like to do some swashbuckling with that guy," and Chris was like, "Dude, do you hear yourself right now?" So of course, for the rest of the panel, Chris kept making references to swashbuckling as a euphemism. And to Corin as being gay. It was pretty funny, but I sort of felt bad for Corin, who didn't actually say much more after that started.
Chris also said that the first time Rick Anderson ever came to his trailor to talk about acting was when they had a scene coming up where they'd switched bodies, and he wanted to make sure Chris would act him the right way. He went on to say that, honestly, there were these sort of implied rules regarding everyone in the show, but that Rick got to make up his own rules. He seemed proud to point out that the scene in the repeating-day episode, "Window of Opportunity," where Jack and Teal'c were playing golf through the stargate, they used Chris' actual shot but had to CGI Rick's to make it go the right way.
Also, Chris said the episode of SG-1 that he wrote where they're all firemen and get to ride in firetrucks was basically inspired by the fact that he'd always wanted to ride in a firetruck and he felt pretty sure that if he wrote it into the script then they'd let him do it. Smart guy.
As we were leaving, Mama told me she thought Ben Browder was a lot more intelligent (or at least, he spoke more intelligently) than she'd expected. I remember thinking it was kind of funny that she didn't expect him to be very smart, but I agreed that he was. But now I can't actually remember anything he said in the entire panel. Just that he was kind of pretty.
Buffy Horror Picture Show
and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Sing-Along
This lasted a really long time.
After the SG-1 panel ended, we walked downstairs to see if my pictures were ready to pick up. They were, yay. I put them in Mama's backpack. By then, it was already time for the Buffy Horror Picture Show, so we started walking to the Sheraton for that. On the way, we ran into Amy's husband's cousin Drake. Which was unexpected.
When we got to the Sheraton, a couple of guys stopped Amy and wanted a picture of her because of the Starbuck tattoo. They said they knew an old couple who actually had the Starbuck and Sam tattoos from BSG, and wow, just now I was going to type "I think it's kind of weird that someone would get a tattoo from a tv show," but then I remembered my Angel tattoo. I don't know - I guess I just feel differently about my Angel tattoo because it's not nearly so big as the BSG ones. And also, Angel is Angel, and BSG... isn't. On the other hand, the old couple probably feels the same way, but in reverse. So, to each his fandom. I guess.
The BHPS was just getting started when we walked into the room. We found some seats about halfway up. It was nice not having to stand in line at all, but I was sort of surprised the room wasn't completely packed like it has been in the past. I didn't really write anything down from the BHPS this year, but I do remember thinking it was fun that Anya's "Bunnies" scene was accompanied by stuffed bunnies being thrown into the audience. Also, in the past, people have booed Dawn almost every time she came onstage (and rightly so!), but this year, everyone cheered whenever she appeared. Um, wha? Maybe I missed something. Maybe they made an announcement at the beginning to cheer for Dawn. Or maybe everyone was simply overwhelmed with pity for her this year. Also, Sweet's makeup was really good from where I was sitting. (But then, I wasn't wearing my glasses.)
The BHPS affected me a little differently this year from the way it normally does. I've considered myself a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for several years, but I'm starting to think that maybe being active in fandom and watching episodes regularly sort of detracts from the emotional impact of the show. Like, you get used to it, and then it doesn't mean as much. The reason I say this is because I had not actually watched any BtVS since... well, probably, since last year at D*C. And so watching "Once More With Feeling" again really struck me: This show is good. It's important. I actually felt horrified all over again when Tara found out about Willow casting a spell on her, and I nearly cried for Giles when he realized the only way to help Buffy was to leave her, and when Spike sang about the way Buffy uses him, I got so mad at her! And then the kiss at the end was just... I mean, I wanted to shout, "No! This is a bad idea, Buffy! You are making a MISTAKE!"
It's so weird to feel these things again after so long not paying attention because I already knew what was going to happen. You know? But like, weird in a good way. I like that it can still make me see things about people, even after so long.
But I digress.
As usual, the cast did an excellent job. Amy said she thought the guy playing Xander was cute, but we were sitting too far away from the stage for me to make a comment on that because I didn't have on my glasses. After it was over, there was an announcement that these same people weren't going to be doing the BHPS anymore - that another cast was going to be taking over next year. It's nice that they're letting other people have a turn, but the new people will certainly have some big [stylish yet affordable] boots to fill.
We didn't manage to take a picture of the BHPS cast this year. But see previous D*C reports (linked at the top of this post) for past pictures.
After the BHPS was over, there was an intermission before the Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Sing-Along started in the same room. For the intermission, they played "Commentary! The Musical," which is basically the three episodes of Doctor Horrible but with a different soundtrack. The writers and actors sing the commentary. Pretty clever, but I think it's the sort of thing you can only really enjoy if you can hear it, and no one could hear it because it got pretty loud in that room as soon as the intermission started.
I am clearly too cool for Commentary! The Musical. Also: tattoo! I drew that.
We used some time during the intermission to plan out our Saturday schedule. And I also took some of the time to pick out all the M&Ms from my mom's bag of Chex Mix. Chex Mix has been a con tradition with us for the past few years - we often subsist solely on the stuff for the entirety of the convention - but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just bring plain M&Ms instead. They're the only part of the Chex Mix I actually like. Also, my mom took a moment to talk to my brother on the phone, because he wanted to drive up to Atlanta and crash on our floor for the night and attend the rest of the con with his wife, beginning Saturday. But he hadn't left town yet.
The only thing I wrote down about Doctor Horrible is that the person actually playing Doctor Horrible was so good. There's a different person playing Billy, which works extremely well, I think, for costume changes and such, and he was good too - everyone was - but I really think Doctor Horrible was outstanding and stole the show. I didn't actually take any pictures of this cast either, but I'm pretty sure Doctor Horrible was the same girl who played him last year, so here's a pic from last year:
We didn't wear our Captain Hammer groupie t-shirts to the performance this year. We wore them on Monday instead.
If I remember correctly, that was actually the same girl who played Buffy in the BHPS. Although I could be wrong. (No glasses. Damn my eyes!)
I also felt a pang when I watched Doctor Horrible - similar to my getting all emotional over the BHPS - but I don't think I can say it's because I haven't seen it in a while. It's just a thing when you watch Doctor Horrible. You can't not feel all emotiony at the end. And even when it's being performed live in front of you, there's still this moment at the very end where the whole audience is completely silent for a few seconds before bursting into applause. It's because we hurt inside!
After that was over, we were feeling kind of hungry, so we walked over to the Hyatt to check out what the consuite had to offer. Of course, I took a picture of Mama in the consuite wearing her backpack. It's a thing we do.
As traditional as Chex Mix and Twizzlers.
2006, 2007, 2009. Somehow I forgot to take her picture in 2008! Now I am sad. :(
So, the consuite had little peanut butter and jelly sandwich triangles, chips and salsa, some vegetables, and little bowls of white rice. An interesting combination, but when we're hungry we take what we're given. I would be perfectly content with eating pb&j every time we visited the consuite all weekend, but I guess they have to allow for people with special diet requirements. Like, if someone required healthy stuff.
There's nothing like eating bargain food while sitting on dirty carpet in a hotel hallway.
After we ate, we people-watched for a while, looking over the Hyatt ledge down into the crowd. I'm just realizing how few pictures we actually took of people's costumes this year. That's weird for us. But there were some good ones there, like usual.
Where's Waldo? Also, where's Superman, Buddy the Elf, a viking, and a guy in a banana suit?
It was getting late by this time, so we decided to head back to the Westin for sleep because Amy and Mama had to get up early Saturday morning for their picture with Scott Bakula, and I had to get up to put on my Avatar craziness. On the way out of the hotel, we saw some guys cosplaying characters from Stargate Atlantis, and I thought they looked good so I asked if we could take a picture of them, and they posed for us. They had P-90's and everything. But right when we were about to take the picture, a couple of drunk assholes ran and got in the picture too. I cut one of them out, but the other was standing in the background.
Thanks for ruining our picture, bitchface. It cheers me up that one day you will be dead.
I don't understand this at all. I mean, I guess they thought they were being funny or something? But I can just imagine these complete jerkwads going around ruining people's pictures all weekend, and that makes me really angry. Anyone who thinks it's funny to ruin a complete stranger's good time just for the sake of ruining it ought to suffer a severely painful, humiliating, and public ordeal.
God. Just writing about this makes me mad all over again. There's no way this is funny to anyone who is a good person. If you are amused, you are a dick. Also, you are probably the guy in the picture. Eff you, tool who ruined our picture and who is currently making me mad all over again. Now do the world a favor and go die in a fire because you fail at life.
I know it's stupid to get that mad over a picture. But it's not about the picture. It's the principle of the thing! These jackasses simply didn't want us to be happy. We didn't know them. We'd never done anything mean to them. But they went out of their way to make us unhappy because they think seeing other people unhappy is funny. What the hell kind of person does that?
My mom actually waited a while before she took the picture, thinking they'd move, but they didn't. They posed with the costumed guys just as though they thought they belonged with them. Finally, I just told her to go ahead and take it because I knew they weren't going anywhere until they were sure our picture was ruined, and I hated making the Stargate guys hold their poses for so long without anyone taking a picture.
Okay, I'm going to stop talking about this now. On the bright side, that was my least favorite part of the whole con, so things can only get better, right?
When we got back to the Westin, we talked a little bit more about our plans for Saturday and then went to sleep. I remember waking up at some point in the middle of the night because Brad and Nat had arrived, but I went back to sleep pretty soon after that.
Saturday: My Na'vi Debut
I'm Blue, Da-Ba-Dee. Or: AHHHHHHH MY EYE!!
When we got up on Saturday morning, the first thing I remember is that Brad and Nat went to stand in line for their badges. They were followed shortly by Mama and Amy, who had an appointment for a photo with a swiss-cheese brained scientist and his hologram friend.
Oh boy. I love that Dean Stockwell is still wearing his badge.
After they got their picture made in the Marriott, they went to the Hyatt consuite and had breakfast. Then they came back to our room in the Westin to get ready for the day by changing into some True Blood-themed outfits. Mama wore a Fangtasia t-shirt, and Amy wore her "Sookie suit."
This picture does things to my vision. I think it's all the stripes.
In the meantime, I was busy spending two hours painting myself blue and getting otherwise ready to be an Avatar character all day.
I see you.
These close-up pictures of my face were taken when I practiced the makeup about a month before Dragon*Con. You can actually see that I'm wearing yellow contacts, too. (The contacts turned out to be a mistake.)
This was my facebook picture for a while. Yeah. I'm a dork.
By the time I was nearly ready to leave the hotel room, Brad and Nat had already gotten their badges, and the two of them and Amy and Mama were outside watching the parade. I called Mama back up to the room to help me with a few costume details (pinning on my tail and attaching the long braid to my hair), and then I was ready to go! This was actually the first time I had the entire costume and the makeup on all at once.
Can't see my tail. But it's there.
The parade was over when we left the room, so I didn't get to see any of it, but that's okay. It's a neat showcase of the costumes people wear at D*C, but I'd seen it a couple of times before. The first thing that I was really interested in doing on Saturday was another True Blood panel, this time including Michelle Forbes, and so Amy and I set off for that. Walking behind us on the way to an I Dream of Jeannie panel, Natalie snapped a picture of my tail.
You can see the nerve endings sticking out of the bottom of my braid. How embarrassing!
I had resolved this year to keep track of how many people wanted a picture of me in my costume, but about 5 or 6 minutes after leaving the Westin, I lost count. I was especially popular with little kids, who wanted to hold my hand in their pictures. And every time someone asked for my photo, several other people would run over and snap pictures, too. It was kind of fun at first, but it got old really fast.
Na'vi behind the scenes: Nat took a picture of one impromptu photo session. I didn't want to touch this girl because my hands were blue. I proceeded to not touch three people she was with, two kids, and an old man before walking five feet and starting the process over again.
One thing I remember quite clearly about this day was all the shouting people did at me. "AVATAR! Hey, Avatar! Na'vi, over here! Look at her, it's an AVATAR! AVATAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" Even people who didn't want my photo wanted to acknowledge my costume. Brad said it was kind of fun to walk a couple feet behind me because he could hear people talking about me after I passed them. I probably heard the word "avatar" a thousand times that day.
Wow, I'm at the end of this post already. So much for keeping it short.
But It's Not Over Yet!
Click [ here] for more Dragon*Con reportery.
My reports from previous cons can be found here:
[ FX Show 2006] (This one is flocked.)
[ Dragon*Con 2006]
[ FX Show 2007]
[ Dragon*Con 2007]
[ FX Show 2008]
[ Dragon*Con 2008]
My Dragon*Con 2009 report never ended up posted publically! But the most important thing that happened from that is [ here].
Now, without further ado, I hereby present:
Dragon*Con 2010
in which Jen falls hopelessly in love with Paul McGillion, receives sage advice from Luke Perry, paints herself blue, and tries to understand her sister's crush on Scott Bakula. And also other stuff happened.
(Fandoms discussed in this report include: Stargate Atlantis, True Blood, Heroes, Star Trek [Enterprise and Voyager], Battlestar Galactica, Avatar, I Dream of Jeannie [seriously], Quantum Leap, Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog, among others. Be advised that there are spoilers for some of these - SGA in particular - and I haven't warned separately.)
First, Some Relevant Information:
My mom and I marathoned all ten seasons of Stargate SG1 and five seasons of Stargate Atlantis over the summer (okay, I did, and she got through like 8 seasons of SG1 and 1 season of SGA), so when I found out so many of the Stargate actors were going to be at D*C this year, I nearly wet myself with joy. (Which is a thing I do sometimes.) It turns out, there are usually a few SG actors every year - and how could we not have known this? - but this year, there were more than usual. So it was a very exciting time for us. I was especially thrilled about the chance to meet Michael Shanks and David Hewlett, who played my favorite characters on each show. BUT. About a week before the con, David Hewlett cancelled. Which only fueled my trust issues with men, and I made sure to let him know this via Twitter. (He didn't tweet me back.)
Other disappointing cancellations this year included James Marsters, Elizabeth Rohm, Kai Owen, and Paul Wesley. I'd already met James Marsters a couple times, and I embarrassed myself so badly in front of Elizabeth Rohm once that I can't even imagine trying to face her again, but it was sad to me that half of the Whedonverse track guests decided not to come. And I was super disappointed about Kai Owen, who plays Rhys from Torchwood. He's my favorite character, and I've seen him interracting with fans on Youtube, and he seems like a really nice person. Whom I will also never trust again. I honestly can't say why I was at all interested in Paul Wesley, since I pretty much hate The Vampire Diaries and the only other thing I've ever seen him in was a terrible miniseries about half-angels called Fallen, but for some reason the fact that he cancelled also disappointed me. It must be because [he kind of reminds me] of [Angel].
So Anyway. Thursday.
(No panels or anything. You can skip this part.)
D*C technically lasts every year from Friday to Monday of Labor Day Weekend, but if you go on Thursday, you can go ahead and get your con badge and not have to stand in line forever on Friday and potentially miss things. Last year was the first year we actually went on Thursday, and that was because there was a William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy panel early on Friday morning that I REFUSED to miss due to standing in line. But last year, we didn't get to the badge pickup place until pretty late Thursday night, and they weren't letting anyone else get in line, so we had to... well, I don't want to use the words "cheat" or "break in line twice" or even "sneak by when the D*C volunteers weren't looking" but we managed to get our badges anyway. This year, we didn't want an ordeal, so we drove up to Atlanta pretty early (for us) to avoid the hassle of having to do the things I didn't want to mention above.
We actually stopped at McDonald's on our way out of town and ran into an old couple from our church that we had to talk to so as not to seem rude. They asked me if I was married yet. And then they asked me what I was waiting for. I said, "The right one." And then I punched them both in the face.
When my mom and I got to Atlanta, we did what we normally do and parked in the long-term parking lot at Kensington station and took the MARTA to downtown. We do this so we don't have to pay to park at one of the hotels, which can get expensive. MARTA parking is only like $4 a day, as opposed to like $20 if you park at the hotel. The drawback is having to lug your... luggage... around with you onto the trains and then the couple blocks from Peachtree Center station to whichever hotel you're staying in. But we do these things because we are frugal.
After we got our stuff out of the car, Mama slammed the trunk closed on her drink from McDonald's. I saw that this was going to happen, but for some reason I didn't say anything. I watched the paper cup crumple like it was happening in slow motion. This image keeps popping back into my mind.
We got to the Westin and checked in at exactly 5:54PM on Thursday.
It was much nicer than the Baymont would have been.
Let me just say, I will from now on make it a point to NEVER stay at a Baymont again. If I have ever stayed at one. I don't remember if I have. But we made reservations at the Baymont near the convention hotels back in January, so we had these reservations for about 8 months, but when my mom called about a week before the con to check on the reservation, it turns out THE FREAKIN HOTEL HAD BEEN SOLD. That's right, they sold the hotel right out from under us to be turned into a dormitory for Georgia State, and they didn't even bother to let the people with upcoming reservations know about it! Apparently, the Baymont rep that my mom talked to thought it was the responsibility of the people who bought the hotel to let everyone know, but that is ridiculous. If you make a reservation with Baymont, Baymont should be the one to let you know it's been cancelled! Right? Anyway, we were very lucky to find that there was a room available at the Westin - I think someone had recently cancelled their reservation - and so we DID have a place to stay for the con, but it cost exactly twice as much as we were expecting to pay.
When we checked in, we were in line beside a woman wearing a steampunk hat who'd reserved her room at the Westin using a service called Hotwire, and apparently Hotwire had randomly cancelled her reservation without letting her know. She was getting hysterical and started to cry at her Westin employee while we were just standing there politely conversing with ours, who went on and on about how it was so sweet that we did cons as a family, and how she missed her own family. I felt really sorry for the Hotwire woman, because I know I would have reacted the same way if we'd shown up still expecting to stay at the Baymont and were confronted with a GSU dorm instead.
Um. It just occurred to me that we may have gotten the Hotwire woman's reservation. In which case, I don't feel bad for her. EVERY GEEK FOR HERSELF!
When we made our reservation, the clerk said we'd have a king size bed and a roll away, but if we showed up early enough, we could request two double beds instead. So we did that, and we got them. Yay!
Mama celebrating our double beds.
Nothing says "This bed is mine" like setting your disembodied Na'vi head on it.
In the elevator on the way up to our room (which was on the 31st floor), we saw a guy holding a plastic yard-decoration penguin under his arm. I said to him, "Nice penguin." Then he turned to his wife and said, "That's one."
We left our stuff in the room and then walked the two blocks to the Sheraton, where they were doing registration. I was wearing a pink shirt with the Batman symbol on it, which wasn't in any way representative of my fandom - I just liked the shirt, and I got it cheap - but people kept complimenting it. When we got to the Sheraton, we saw the tail end of a line next to the building, but we weren't sure if it was the line we were supposed to be in or not, so we found the beginning of the line and followed it to the end.
All. The way. Around. The block.
It turns out the line we'd seen had been the one we should've gotten in immediately, and lots of people had walked up in the time it took us to circle the entire block on foot, so it was even longer when we finally did get in it. It was about 6:15PM when we got in the line. I saw a few different people already in costume on Thursday, which I thought was a little odd since the con didn't actually start until Friday. And because it was so hot outside. But I guess if you're looking forward to something all year, then you want to go ahead and start doing it as soon as possible.
The line was stupid long. I can't emphasize that enough. We waited over three hours outside and then waited another hour or so inside the building. I texted everyone I knew. I talked to my sister on the phone. I speculated about the childhood experiences of some of the nerds reading novels in the line. Amy had arrived at the hotel while we were waiting and decided to stay in the room while we picked up the badges. Lucky. Apparently the Westin clerk who'd checked us in recognized her as part of our family, which is funny to me.
It was really hot outside, and even though the inside was air conditioned, it was still hot in there because of so many bodies. And everyone was bumping into each other with their sweatiness. Just about all the conversations I heard (and even one I participated in) were about different/better ways to handle the registration process. Lots of people were talking about writing letters to D*C to make suggestions. I bet they're flooded with suggestions every year, but as far as I know, they always do it this way. I was super relieved around 10:30 when we finally escaped the Sheraton with our badges. And super hungry.
My mom and I walked back to the Westin tired and irritable. Or maybe that was just me. But I hate standing in lines. I'm very instant-gratification-oriented. We called Amy to meet us downstairs, and the three of us met up with Sara, who had been in Atlanta working in her GSU office, and we four went to IHOP for supper.
Don't worry, this is normal. Sara nearly always looks shocked to have her picture made.
We all ordered the same thing at IHOP. We are dorks. But we each got a different drink.
After we ate, Sara dropped us back off at the Westin, and me, Amy, and Mama stayed up looking at the con schedule for Friday. There are always so many things to do! It's really hard to decide which panels to go to on which days, especially if you don't know the picture schedules and Walk of Fame schedules and stuff. And if you're trying to make sure you go to a particular (*cough*I Dream of Jeannie*cough*) panel on a day when Brad and Nat certain people can be there to go to it. We went to bed around 1:30AM, but I was so excited that I feel like I didn't fall asleep for a long time.
Friday: Today is the day that is The Day!
omg paul mcgillion.
We got up around 6:45AM on Friday. The first thing we had planned to do was a True Blood panel at 10, but we didn't know if the line was going to be stupid or not, so we wanted to get there early. Mama and Amy had decided to wear their Battlestar Galactica outfits that day, and I wore my Starfleet Academy uniform from the Star Trek 2009 movie.
Amy wanted to be Starbuck from BSG, so she asked me to draw on her Starbuck tattoo. She'd made a stencil, which I used for part of the outline (mainly to make sure the tattoo was the right size), but I freehanded most of it while looking at a picture. It's just too hard to use a stencil on something round, like an arm. Especially with such tiny details.
This was paying her back for her help with my tattoo when I was Fray the Vampire Slayer at D*C two years ago:
I think she had it easier.
The tattoo looked awesome, though. A couple people even wanted pictures of it. BSG represent!
I told Mama I was going to photoshop a cape onto her in this picture. But I didn't.
The True Blood panel was in the Hyatt. We got there at 8:50AM, and since it was the first event they were having in that room, we were able to just walk right in and sit down. Nice. I had forgotten to eat anything for breakfast, but Amy came prepared with breakfast bars. I thought the names were funny.
This Strawbery Walks Into a Bar...
Before the True Blood panel started, two guys and a girl came out and did a... thing. I think it was a recording for a podcast? I took a picture of the screen they were on.
You know, for posterity.
They mostly just read off the announcements from the Daily Dragon, which is a newsletter that comes out every morning of the convention. It lists guest cancellations, additions, and whatever else anyone wants to advertise, like room parties. Pretty convenient. They also did a trivia question thing: they put a picture of some hotel carpet on the screen and asked which hotel it came from. For the people who got it right, they threw a couple of vibrating stuffed Tribbles into the audience.
True Blood Panel
Blah, blah, vampire emergency, blah.
The True Blood panel started at 10, and included Sam ("Sam") Trammell, Nelsan ("Lafayette") Ellis, and Kristen ("Pam") Bauer. Nelsan's name is pronounced like "nell-SAHN," which surprised me a little. I'd been saying it like it was just spelled "Nelson." Michelle Forbes, who played Maryann in season two, wasn't at this panel but was at the other True Blood panel we went to.
Pam, Lafayette, and Sam! Sam really dresses like his character. Which is hot.
This was the first panel I've ever gone to at a con where I didn't take explicit notes. It was nice to just enjoy listening to the conversation, but I was also worried the whole time that I would forget everything they said. And then I figured that it didn't really matter if I remembered, because it's not going to affect my enjoyment of the show, right? But after that, I thought that if I ended up not remembering, then what was the point of going to the panel in the first place? CONUNDRUM.
So, a few things that I do remember from the panel:
Sam is hot and friendly. Kristin is pretty and funny. Nelsan is shy! I was surprised about that, considering the kind of character he plays. He said he comes from a family that is pretty homophobic, too, which I find interesting. And he models Lafayette on his mother and his sisters. Nelsan's brother likes hanging out with him in public, because Nelsan shifts the fans onto him and he ends up getting laid a lot. Also, Nelsan was a... marine, I think. Hot.
One fan went up to the mic and asked specifically for Nelsan to call her "hooka." So he did. Too sweet.
Sam told us a little about doing nude scenes. He said during the scene where he had to run through the woods naked, they'd given him a little sock thing to wear (typical wardrobe of male actors doing nude scenes) and some... flesh-colored jazz shoes. He said it was probably his worst look ever. Nude scenes are always supposed to be sort of private with minimal crew around, but for that scene, even though they'd cleared out most of the crew from the place where he started running, the path he was supposed to run led right by where everyone was standing around near the craft services table. So he had to run by them all in his little sock and jazz shoes while they stood there eating sandwiches and staring at him.
Someone asked Kristin how they acheived the special effect of vampires moving so much faster than humans, and she laughed and said that whenever they had to do those effects, she always felt like she was in a no-budget homemade college film or something because they are so low-tech. She said that when it's time for a vampire to move really fast, everyone else just freezes in place and the vampire walks normally, and then later the fx team speeds up the scene -- but to make it more authentic-looking, when the vampire is walking by, someone with a big piece of cardboard is fanning Sookie's hair to make it look like the speed of the vampire is creating wind in its wake.
After she explained this, Kristin looked over at Sam and asked him how they do the shifting effects. He said, "We really shift!"
I enjoyed this panel a lot, and Kristin was especially funny and interesting. She does an amazingly accurate impression of Alexander ("Eric") Skaarsgard. Someone actually asked everyone which scenes they had the most fun filming, and she immediately said, "Eric naked." After everyone laughed, she said, "I guess I said that out loud..."
Kristin and Sam were both very outgoing, but Nelsan really only joined in the conversation when someone asked him a direct question. I think it's just because he's shy, and not because he was trying to be unfriendly or anything. Sam went on a bit about how talented Nelsan is and how Lafayette's dialogue is often based on the way he improvs at read-throughs, but Nelsan was very modest about it. I thought they all seemed really nice.
Battlestar Galactica Panel
in which Mama and Amy look the part, but aren't really feeling it.
As soon as the True Blood panel was over, we hurried over to the Marriott for the only BSG panel that we attended all weekend. The actors in this panel included Edward James Olmos, Richard Hatch, Aaron Douglas, and Mark Sheppard. We didn't sit very close to the front, so the only clear pictures we got were of the screen.
Mark Sheppard and Eddie Olmos.
I'll tell you why we didn't try to go to any more BSG panels after this one: Eddie Olmos and Richard Hatch, although they seem like perfectly pleasant people, both get incredibly long-winded and, frankly, boring during panels. It's probably not boring to everyone (I assume some people like to hear them go on about politics because they ask political questions), but I don't come to D*C to geek out over what's going on at the UN -- I come to geek out over pranks the actors are playing on each other behind the scenes and stuff.
Mark Sheppard and Aaron Douglas were alright, when they got the chance to talk. They both made several references to Jamie Bamber and picked on him quite a lot, which was funny. And Richard and Eddie were alright too, as long as they weren't going on about politics and religion and the metaphor of sci-fi as it relates to American society. Eddie actually got a standing ovation when he walked onto the stage. Something I thought was kind of weird and sad, though, was that Mark Sheppard wasn't introduced with his real name; the moderator introduced him as his BSG character name and never corrected himself.
I think I've probably said this before in past con reports, but Aaron Douglas makes me a little uncomfortable. I've only interacted with him on a personal level very briefly, but watching him on stage and the way he answers fan questions and everything gives me this feeling like he has some pretty large personal issues that he's having a hard time dealing with. It makes me wonder if the reason he became an actor in the first place was so he could be someone other than himself most of the time in order to avoid facing his own problems. I know it's unfair of me to judge him like that based on so little actual face time with him, but it's a hard vibe for me to ignore, especially since I often feel the same way: playing a particular role in everyday life and pretending the reality of that role is more important than actual reality. But I digress. And anyway, he's still entertaining. Usually.
Something else that makes me uncomfortable is the old man perving on Mary McDonnell. I mean, it's funny, but. Eww.
The BSG panel ended at about 12:30. Mama and Amy immediately agreed that it was the worst panel they'd ever been to. I think I said it was my worst one too, but I've since remembered a few that were even more boring. (Particularly anything with George Takei.) It wasn't really a bad panel, though; it just wasn't a laugh a minute, which is what we're used to. But they did a pretty good job for what they were talking about. And at least nobody got mad and stormed out, like I heard happened at one of the Star Trek TNG panels. (What's with TNG? They get all kinds of dramatic every year.)
Photo Ops!
Paul McGillion I LUH YOU, but I am having difficulties with these photo people.
Because we were in the Marriott already, and that's where they normally do celebrity photos, we decided to go downstairs to the photo op place to see what the photo schedule was like and to go ahead and buy our photo tickets. The next panel we wanted to go to was the Quantum Leap panel at 4, so we had some time to kill anyway. It's a good thing, too, because the lines to buy photo op tickets were craaaazy. They had a line for people who wanted to use cash and a line for people to use credit cards. Amy and I stood in the credit card line because it was shorter, and Mama stood in the cash line. The idea was that we'd see which line was moving faster, and either we'd join Mama or she'd join us depending on what would get us all to the front quicker. While we were standing in two different lines, Mama took a picture of me and Amy talking to the woman behind us about the differences between True Blood the show and the Southern Vampire book series that it's based on.
Thus begins the trend of Amy making BFFs in every line we stood in for the entire weekend.
Amy and Mama only wanted to buy photos with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell (whom I accidentally called Dean Cain just about every time I referred to him), but I wanted to buy photo ops with Sam and Nelsan from True Blood, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Adrian Pasdar from Heroes, and Paul McGillion from Stargate Atlantis. (I would also have bought a photo with Michael Shanks and Ben Browder from Stargate SG1, and probably also Jason Momoa from SGA, but for some reason, most of the Stargate folks had decided to do their photos with a different photographer who was located somewhere else [and was charging more] so I never got the opportunity to buy those photos.) ANYway, I was freaking out a little bit in the line because it was moving so slowly and the first photo I wanted to buy - the True Blood one - was supposed to start at 1:30, and at 1:25, I was still just standing there waiting.
It turns out the cash line, the line Mama was standing in, was actually moving slightly faster than our line, so Amy and I popped over to that line to wait with her. When I got to the front, the volunteer standing there regulating the line asked me if I was a big Star Trek fan because of my outfit. So we talked Trek for a few minutes until it was my turn to buy my photos. I ran up to the table and asked if it was too late to buy a True Blood photo, but the guy helping me said they were only just starting to take those photos and if I hurried then I could still probably get one. So I told him I wanted to buy that photo as well as two others, but he told me I should just buy that one, take the photo, and then come back and buy the other two because it would take too long to process all three transactions if I tried to buy them at the same time, and I might miss the True Blood op. I told him I didn't want to come back and have to wait in line again (we had waited an hour), but he said as soon as I took my photo, then I should come back and just walk up to the table and he would stop what he was doing and help me, and I wouldn't have to wait in line again. Okay, SKETCHY. I didn't want to do it that way, but he was really adamant that I just come back and see him after this one photo, and I was scared I'd miss the True Blood op if I didn't just do what he said, so I went ahead and just paid for the one photo, and then I ran and got in line for the actual picture-takingness that was going on in a room nearby. I ended up being the last person in line for that photo, and by the time I got in the line, there were only a few people ahead of me, so it was a pretty close call.
And now it's time for too much information: I really, really had to pee while I was waiting to take my picture with Sam and Nelsan. It's all I could think about! But I'd been too scared to get out of the buying line to go pee because I thought I might lose my place, and then I was too scared to go pee before I got in line for the photo because I thought they might finish up the photos without me, and then I was too scared to get out of the photo line to go pee because I thought I wouldn't be back in time to have my picture made... so when I finally did go up and shake hands with Sam and Nelsan, I was squeezing my legs together so tightly I could barely walk.
But hey, at least the picture looks good:
You can't even tell I'm struggling not to wet myself.
Sam was really super friendly when I walked up. He grinned at me and shook my hand and said, "Hey, how ya doing?" and Nelsan was a little quieter and just sort of said "Hey" in this way that sounded like he was kind of tired and felt a little awkward, but he was still nice. To be honest, though, I don't even remember what I said back to them because I was focusing so hard on trying not to have an accident. Seriously, it was that bad. I just remember walking away after the picture with this idea that Sam Trammell was one of the friendliest celebrities ever. Oh, and also, I got a text while I was standing in between them. My texting alert sounds like a dinner bell, and they both looked at me with slightly confused expressions. So I was like, "Oh, that's just... my phone, sorry."
I, of course, ran to the bathroom immediately after I left the photo area. I checked my phone while I was there. The text was from my friend Ashley, who said, "I can't believe I'm in Kentucky right now." Which I thought was funny, considering where I had just been when she texted me. I also texted Amy and Mama, who were already waiting in line for the Quantum Leap panel.
When I left the bathroom, I went back up to the photo-buying table to talk to the guy who had told me to come back to him for my other two photos. He was helping this other dude, so he told me he'd be right with me as soon as he was done with the dude, and then he started... eating food from Chick-fil-a, and then he called over this other dude because he was having trouble with his computer... and the whole time, I was getting antsy because one of the other photos I wanted to buy was with Paul McGillion, and the photo start time for that was already coming up, AND I could hear people who were still waiting in the line starting to talk bad about me for skipping ahead of them. Finally, the volunteer guy I'd spoken to about Trek earlier came up to me and said, "Excuse me, did you wait in line?" because the people in the line were complaining to him about me. And I didn't know what to say to him! And then the photo guy was like, "Yeah, I'm helping her, it's cool," and the whole thing just sort of irritated me because if he'd sold me all the photos I wanted in the first place then I wouldn't have had to stand there awkwardly and make everyone else mad. I could actually hear them saying stuff like, "Just because she's in Star Fleet doesn't mean she doesn't have to wait in line..."
Anyway, this guy couldn't get his computer working right, so we couldn't do my transaction, so then he asked the girl sitting next to him to sell me my other photos. I told her I wanted the Paul McGillion photo that was just about to start and the Heroes photo (with Sendhil and Adrian) on Sunday morning. Then she told me that I should just go ahead and buy the Paul one because it was about to start and come back later to buy the Heroes one. Seriously! I was like, "Can I please just buy them both now? Please? They haven't started with Paul yet." So she very reluctantly sold me both photos. In plenty of time. However, my ticket print-out for the Heroes photo said Saturday on it instead of Sunday. When I pointed this out to her, she took the ticket back and crossed off Saturday with a marker and wrote Sunday on it and then told me to just come on Sunday. Very professional.
You know, I hear so many people complaining about Froggy photos every year (including me) that I'm sort of shocked every time I see that they're back. I keep expecting Dragon*Con to hire someone different... Maybe that's why there was a new photographer there this year as well?
There was already a line for Paul after I bought my ticket, so I went ahead and got in it. There were just a handful of us, maybe 8 or 9 in all. I was the last in line again, and I couldn't help but eavesdrop on some of the people standing in front of me. One of them - her name was Mary - had a video camera with her. She was telling someone else that she wanted to record Paul's reaction when he saw her because it had been a while since they'd seen each other and since then she'd had gastric bypass surgery and lost 160 pounds. She said she wondered if he would even recognize her. And I was thinking, of course he won't recognize you. Even if you hadn't lost weight, he wouldn't recognize you. He meets hundreds, possibly thousands, of fans at every convention. What would make you think he'd remember you? I didn't say any of that out loud, though. And she went on to say that she'd been to several of his conventions and had met him lots of times, enough that he would sometimes see her across a room and wave and call out her name. I was surprised to hear that, but it made me like him. I still didn't think he'd recognize her, though.
When the line moved into the actual picture-taking room, I saw Mary ask if she could bring her video camera in to see Paul. They told her no, and she was very gracious about putting it away, though I could tell she was disappointed. I was glad the photo line was so short because I was very interested in seeing what Paul's reaction to seeing Mary would be, and with such a short line, even though I was in the back, I was sure to have a good vantage point. This probably says something about me, but really I was just preparing myself to see this woman's heart break. I was that sure he wouldn't know who she was.
I don't remember now if Mary was actually first in line or not. She may have been second or third. But when she was up, and Paul looked over to see whose turn it was, I was staring at his face, just waiting for a nonreaction. He held out his arm to her and smiled just like she was any old fan waiting for a photo. But then he did a double take, dropped his mouth open in shock, and went, "Mary? Dude! What did you do?"
Mary was, of course, giddy that Paul had recognized her. She had the biggest grin in the world when she went up to him and said something like, "I lost some weight for you, Paul." He met her halfway and threw his arms around her, telling her that she looked great, and asking about what she'd done, and how much weight she'd lost, which all shocked the hell out of me, like they were actually friends. And then he picked her up.
Seriously. He picked her up and walked over to stand in front of the picture backdrop with her draped across his arms, and her arms around his neck, and her squeaking and laughing, and they had their picture made that way while the rest of us stared. She was on the verge of tears when he put her down. You could see her shaking. And I don't remember what else they said, something like she was going to come see him in the Walk of Fame later, and they hugged again, and then he went over to the guy she'd come in with, shook his hand, and joked, "You're looking very nice too."
See, I think this is probably when I fell in love with Paul McGillion. He had played one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite shows, and I already loved that character, but I know that kind of thing really says nothing about the actor who plays the character. For all I knew, Paul McGillion could have been the world's biggest jerk. I just wanted my picture with him because he looked exactly like Dr. Carson Beckett, biggest sweetheart in two galaxies. But this thing with Mary. I think that shows exactly the kind of person Paul really is, and he's a lot more like Carson than I expected. Just without such a pronounced Scottish accent.
So of course, now that I was in love with him, I got super nervous about meeting him.
He recognized some of the other women in the line ahead of me, too, and gave them hugs. Honestly, I think I was the only one there who had never met him before. When it was my turn, he gave me a big smile and pulled me into a hug as well, which sort of startled me but was also nice. And then he stepped back from me and looked me up and down and said something like, "Look at you! What a great Star Trek uniform. It's Star Trek, right?" And I was like, "Yeah, it's - it's from the movie." And he was like, "It looks really cool! Or, what's the word? Hip." And I think I said, "Thanks. I LUH YOU*," and he put his arm around me and gestured down at the X on the floor where we were supposed to stand, so we went to it, and he was still talking while they took the picture. I think at the exact time the picture was taken, he was saying, "It's very mod. You look so mod right now." Which, who even says mod? But I was just like, "OMG I LUH YOU*."
I look so mod right now. Also: Bluest. Eyes. Ever.
I thanked Paul for the picture and started to walk away, but then he took my hand and sort of turned me around and looked at my outfit again. He was smiling really big. It occurred to me later that he may have thought I wore the outfit specifically for our picture, because he had a role in the Star Trek 2009 movie. (That's not why I wore it. I had been planning to wear it anyway.) But he said to me, while holding my hand, "Come see me later. At the - ah -" He couldn't think of "Walk of Fame." Or maybe he just didn't want to say it. But then he said, "Come see me at the place where we do autographs. Okay?" And I was just like, "Okay. I LUHHHHHH YOU*."
*I didn't really tell Paul I loved him. I think.
I walked out on a cloud. I've had some pretty good meetings with celebrities before (Greg Grunberg comes to mind - total sweet potato) but none of them had ever actually asked me to come talk to them again. And maybe Paul says that to everyone, but I immediately decided that he fell in love with me at first sight and that we were destined to be together and that our children would have dimples. Because look at us. How are we not a perfect couple?
I met up with Amy and Mama sitting in the line for the Quantum Leap panel, which was supposed to start at 4:00. It was something like 2:15 when I found them.
In line to put right what once went wrong.
Hoping each time that the next pic will be--
Mod.
There was a Papa John's stand near the line, and Mama and Amy had already eaten, so I went over and bought a slice of pepperoni pizza to eat in the line. The guy at the stand complimented my outfit. Just like last year, I got a lot of compliments on my Star Fleet Academy uniform, but no one actually wanted my picture in it. (But my Avatar costume totally made up for that.)
Mama was trying to sneak and take people's pictures when they weren't looking. She does that.
I see Link every year. The fact that he actually has a replica of the Hyrule shield makes me happy inside.
Quantum Leap Panel
Oh boy.
The Quantum Leap panel was the official start of my sister stalking Scott Bakula all weekend. She claims that she's had a crush on this man for twenty years, although I somehow didn't know about this until after I told her he was going to be at Dragon*Con. It seems like the sort of thing I would have already known. If it were true. On the other hand, I DID know about our mom's crush on him.
Meh, I guess he's kind of cute.
THIS is the guy I had a crush on from Quantum Leap. I'm serious. But I was 7 and he was already in his 50's, so society kept us apart. I'm still bitter when I think of it.
One of the very first questions someone asked in the panel was which leap was the hardest for Scott to act. He thought a second and said, "The chimp wasn't easy." Then he looked at Dean Stockwell and said, "Don't you say anything!" Dean leaned toward the mic and said, "He just made it look easy."
The main thing I remember from this panel was the total bromance vibe Scott and Dean were giving off. They sort of went on at length about how great it was to work together, and that they still keep in touch, and how cool it was for Dean to guest star on Star Trek Enterprise. Scott was really the one praising Dean the whole time. For different questions, he would prompt Dean with stuff like, "Do you remember what you told me about that?" or "Should I tell them about when you called me on the phone a week later?" or "Tell them the story about the green wig."
Friendly advice: don't ever ask Dean Stockwell about the green wig. It was gross, and you probably don't want to know.
At one point while Scott was going on about how everything he knows about acting he learned from Dean, Amy swears she saw him tear up a little. I don't know about that, but the whole thing was kind of sweet. I remember Scott said, "He loves this. He loves it when I talk about my feelings," or something like that, while Dean was glaring at him. And Scott just smiled back and patted him on the shoulder.
When Scott was trying to say he thought Dean had a photographic memory (when it came to memorizing lines), he accidentally called Dean photogenic. Twice. Amy told me not to include that in my report. Heh.
The best part of the whole panel, for me, was also the most awkward. A fan came up to the mic and asked if Scott and Dean would look at each other and say "Oh boy" like they had just appeared on stage in front of everyone and didn't know what was going on. The whole audience laughed at the question, and then waited for them to do it. They turned and looked at each other, with these reluctant expressions like "Are we really going to do this?" and that made everyone laugh again. But it was like they couldn't decide if they were going to do it or not, so they just kept looking at each other - for so long that everyone got quiet and then burst out laughing again. We laughed and got quiet three whole times while they just stared at each other. But then finally they both said, "Ohhhhhh boy." Everyone applauded. I hate it when people ask actors to perform during panels, but in this case it was actually pretty funny.
After the panel ended, as we were getting up to leave, Amy and a woman who had been sitting near her struck up a conversation about how they were both planning to marry Scott Bakula. Oddly, I don't think they felt the same way about Dean Stockwell.
Stargate SG-1 Panel
Wait. Ben Browder was there?
The Stargate SG-1 panel was supposed to start in the same room (I think?) immediately following the Quantum Leap panel, so when we walked out, we followed the line that was already there all the way outside and around the building to get in the back of it. Amy and I spoke briefly with a couple of guys in the line who schedule their work vacations around Stargate conventions. Which I would totally do if I had enough money to go to more than one a year.
This was the only panel that Christopher Judge did at Dragon*Con because he was only there for Friday, so I'm really glad we managed to get in, even though we didn't have especially good seats. The whole panel was Ben Browder, Chris Judge, John de Lancie, Martin Gero, and Corin Nemec.
Chris Judge and Ben Browder.
Corin Nemec, Martin Gero, and John de Lancie. This picture is of the screen because the video camera station in the middle of the room was in the way of taking a real picture of these guys.
I know I watched a whole season of Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn on Stargate SG-1, but I have to admit that I have a hard time looking at him without thinking of Parker Lewis from Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I guess I'm just a product of my generation like that.
My very brief notes on this panel are mostly variations of "Martin Gero is funny" and "Chris Judge is funny." Martin is a writer, and they don't usually have scriptwriters on the same panels with the actors they wrote for because occasionally the writers make the characters do unsavory things, or else kill them off entirely, and the fans usually attack them. But Martin totally held his own - even later in the other panel with Paul McGillion (whom he killed in Stargate Atlantis) - and I ended up really liking him.
I wasn't real sure why John de Lancie was in this panel. He was only in a few SG1 episodes as a minor and flat character, and you'd think he'd be busy doing Trek panels all weekend as Q from The Next Generation. But he answered questions intelligently without being boring, so that was alright. Although someone asked him if he preferred his Stargate or Star Trek character, which I thought was about the dumbest question ever. He, obviously, said Trek. But he said it in a way that I thought was very diplomatic.
Someone asked who each of the actors would like to work with (if age and/or death weren't a factor) and Chris said Sidney Poitier. Corin said Errol Flynn, and then said something to the effect of "Man, I'd like to do some swashbuckling with that guy," and Chris was like, "Dude, do you hear yourself right now?" So of course, for the rest of the panel, Chris kept making references to swashbuckling as a euphemism. And to Corin as being gay. It was pretty funny, but I sort of felt bad for Corin, who didn't actually say much more after that started.
Chris also said that the first time Rick Anderson ever came to his trailor to talk about acting was when they had a scene coming up where they'd switched bodies, and he wanted to make sure Chris would act him the right way. He went on to say that, honestly, there were these sort of implied rules regarding everyone in the show, but that Rick got to make up his own rules. He seemed proud to point out that the scene in the repeating-day episode, "Window of Opportunity," where Jack and Teal'c were playing golf through the stargate, they used Chris' actual shot but had to CGI Rick's to make it go the right way.
Also, Chris said the episode of SG-1 that he wrote where they're all firemen and get to ride in firetrucks was basically inspired by the fact that he'd always wanted to ride in a firetruck and he felt pretty sure that if he wrote it into the script then they'd let him do it. Smart guy.
As we were leaving, Mama told me she thought Ben Browder was a lot more intelligent (or at least, he spoke more intelligently) than she'd expected. I remember thinking it was kind of funny that she didn't expect him to be very smart, but I agreed that he was. But now I can't actually remember anything he said in the entire panel. Just that he was kind of pretty.
Buffy Horror Picture Show
and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Sing-Along
This lasted a really long time.
After the SG-1 panel ended, we walked downstairs to see if my pictures were ready to pick up. They were, yay. I put them in Mama's backpack. By then, it was already time for the Buffy Horror Picture Show, so we started walking to the Sheraton for that. On the way, we ran into Amy's husband's cousin Drake. Which was unexpected.
When we got to the Sheraton, a couple of guys stopped Amy and wanted a picture of her because of the Starbuck tattoo. They said they knew an old couple who actually had the Starbuck and Sam tattoos from BSG, and wow, just now I was going to type "I think it's kind of weird that someone would get a tattoo from a tv show," but then I remembered my Angel tattoo. I don't know - I guess I just feel differently about my Angel tattoo because it's not nearly so big as the BSG ones. And also, Angel is Angel, and BSG... isn't. On the other hand, the old couple probably feels the same way, but in reverse. So, to each his fandom. I guess.
The BHPS was just getting started when we walked into the room. We found some seats about halfway up. It was nice not having to stand in line at all, but I was sort of surprised the room wasn't completely packed like it has been in the past. I didn't really write anything down from the BHPS this year, but I do remember thinking it was fun that Anya's "Bunnies" scene was accompanied by stuffed bunnies being thrown into the audience. Also, in the past, people have booed Dawn almost every time she came onstage (and rightly so!), but this year, everyone cheered whenever she appeared. Um, wha? Maybe I missed something. Maybe they made an announcement at the beginning to cheer for Dawn. Or maybe everyone was simply overwhelmed with pity for her this year. Also, Sweet's makeup was really good from where I was sitting. (But then, I wasn't wearing my glasses.)
The BHPS affected me a little differently this year from the way it normally does. I've considered myself a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for several years, but I'm starting to think that maybe being active in fandom and watching episodes regularly sort of detracts from the emotional impact of the show. Like, you get used to it, and then it doesn't mean as much. The reason I say this is because I had not actually watched any BtVS since... well, probably, since last year at D*C. And so watching "Once More With Feeling" again really struck me: This show is good. It's important. I actually felt horrified all over again when Tara found out about Willow casting a spell on her, and I nearly cried for Giles when he realized the only way to help Buffy was to leave her, and when Spike sang about the way Buffy uses him, I got so mad at her! And then the kiss at the end was just... I mean, I wanted to shout, "No! This is a bad idea, Buffy! You are making a MISTAKE!"
It's so weird to feel these things again after so long not paying attention because I already knew what was going to happen. You know? But like, weird in a good way. I like that it can still make me see things about people, even after so long.
But I digress.
As usual, the cast did an excellent job. Amy said she thought the guy playing Xander was cute, but we were sitting too far away from the stage for me to make a comment on that because I didn't have on my glasses. After it was over, there was an announcement that these same people weren't going to be doing the BHPS anymore - that another cast was going to be taking over next year. It's nice that they're letting other people have a turn, but the new people will certainly have some big [stylish yet affordable] boots to fill.
We didn't manage to take a picture of the BHPS cast this year. But see previous D*C reports (linked at the top of this post) for past pictures.
After the BHPS was over, there was an intermission before the Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Sing-Along started in the same room. For the intermission, they played "Commentary! The Musical," which is basically the three episodes of Doctor Horrible but with a different soundtrack. The writers and actors sing the commentary. Pretty clever, but I think it's the sort of thing you can only really enjoy if you can hear it, and no one could hear it because it got pretty loud in that room as soon as the intermission started.
I am clearly too cool for Commentary! The Musical. Also: tattoo! I drew that.
We used some time during the intermission to plan out our Saturday schedule. And I also took some of the time to pick out all the M&Ms from my mom's bag of Chex Mix. Chex Mix has been a con tradition with us for the past few years - we often subsist solely on the stuff for the entirety of the convention - but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just bring plain M&Ms instead. They're the only part of the Chex Mix I actually like. Also, my mom took a moment to talk to my brother on the phone, because he wanted to drive up to Atlanta and crash on our floor for the night and attend the rest of the con with his wife, beginning Saturday. But he hadn't left town yet.
The only thing I wrote down about Doctor Horrible is that the person actually playing Doctor Horrible was so good. There's a different person playing Billy, which works extremely well, I think, for costume changes and such, and he was good too - everyone was - but I really think Doctor Horrible was outstanding and stole the show. I didn't actually take any pictures of this cast either, but I'm pretty sure Doctor Horrible was the same girl who played him last year, so here's a pic from last year:
We didn't wear our Captain Hammer groupie t-shirts to the performance this year. We wore them on Monday instead.
If I remember correctly, that was actually the same girl who played Buffy in the BHPS. Although I could be wrong. (No glasses. Damn my eyes!)
I also felt a pang when I watched Doctor Horrible - similar to my getting all emotional over the BHPS - but I don't think I can say it's because I haven't seen it in a while. It's just a thing when you watch Doctor Horrible. You can't not feel all emotiony at the end. And even when it's being performed live in front of you, there's still this moment at the very end where the whole audience is completely silent for a few seconds before bursting into applause. It's because we hurt inside!
After that was over, we were feeling kind of hungry, so we walked over to the Hyatt to check out what the consuite had to offer. Of course, I took a picture of Mama in the consuite wearing her backpack. It's a thing we do.
As traditional as Chex Mix and Twizzlers.
2006, 2007, 2009. Somehow I forgot to take her picture in 2008! Now I am sad. :(
So, the consuite had little peanut butter and jelly sandwich triangles, chips and salsa, some vegetables, and little bowls of white rice. An interesting combination, but when we're hungry we take what we're given. I would be perfectly content with eating pb&j every time we visited the consuite all weekend, but I guess they have to allow for people with special diet requirements. Like, if someone required healthy stuff.
There's nothing like eating bargain food while sitting on dirty carpet in a hotel hallway.
After we ate, we people-watched for a while, looking over the Hyatt ledge down into the crowd. I'm just realizing how few pictures we actually took of people's costumes this year. That's weird for us. But there were some good ones there, like usual.
Where's Waldo? Also, where's Superman, Buddy the Elf, a viking, and a guy in a banana suit?
It was getting late by this time, so we decided to head back to the Westin for sleep because Amy and Mama had to get up early Saturday morning for their picture with Scott Bakula, and I had to get up to put on my Avatar craziness. On the way out of the hotel, we saw some guys cosplaying characters from Stargate Atlantis, and I thought they looked good so I asked if we could take a picture of them, and they posed for us. They had P-90's and everything. But right when we were about to take the picture, a couple of drunk assholes ran and got in the picture too. I cut one of them out, but the other was standing in the background.
Thanks for ruining our picture, bitchface. It cheers me up that one day you will be dead.
I don't understand this at all. I mean, I guess they thought they were being funny or something? But I can just imagine these complete jerkwads going around ruining people's pictures all weekend, and that makes me really angry. Anyone who thinks it's funny to ruin a complete stranger's good time just for the sake of ruining it ought to suffer a severely painful, humiliating, and public ordeal.
God. Just writing about this makes me mad all over again. There's no way this is funny to anyone who is a good person. If you are amused, you are a dick. Also, you are probably the guy in the picture. Eff you, tool who ruined our picture and who is currently making me mad all over again. Now do the world a favor and go die in a fire because you fail at life.
I know it's stupid to get that mad over a picture. But it's not about the picture. It's the principle of the thing! These jackasses simply didn't want us to be happy. We didn't know them. We'd never done anything mean to them. But they went out of their way to make us unhappy because they think seeing other people unhappy is funny. What the hell kind of person does that?
My mom actually waited a while before she took the picture, thinking they'd move, but they didn't. They posed with the costumed guys just as though they thought they belonged with them. Finally, I just told her to go ahead and take it because I knew they weren't going anywhere until they were sure our picture was ruined, and I hated making the Stargate guys hold their poses for so long without anyone taking a picture.
Okay, I'm going to stop talking about this now. On the bright side, that was my least favorite part of the whole con, so things can only get better, right?
When we got back to the Westin, we talked a little bit more about our plans for Saturday and then went to sleep. I remember waking up at some point in the middle of the night because Brad and Nat had arrived, but I went back to sleep pretty soon after that.
Saturday: My Na'vi Debut
I'm Blue, Da-Ba-Dee. Or: AHHHHHHH MY EYE!!
When we got up on Saturday morning, the first thing I remember is that Brad and Nat went to stand in line for their badges. They were followed shortly by Mama and Amy, who had an appointment for a photo with a swiss-cheese brained scientist and his hologram friend.
Oh boy. I love that Dean Stockwell is still wearing his badge.
After they got their picture made in the Marriott, they went to the Hyatt consuite and had breakfast. Then they came back to our room in the Westin to get ready for the day by changing into some True Blood-themed outfits. Mama wore a Fangtasia t-shirt, and Amy wore her "Sookie suit."
This picture does things to my vision. I think it's all the stripes.
In the meantime, I was busy spending two hours painting myself blue and getting otherwise ready to be an Avatar character all day.
I see you.
These close-up pictures of my face were taken when I practiced the makeup about a month before Dragon*Con. You can actually see that I'm wearing yellow contacts, too. (The contacts turned out to be a mistake.)
This was my facebook picture for a while. Yeah. I'm a dork.
By the time I was nearly ready to leave the hotel room, Brad and Nat had already gotten their badges, and the two of them and Amy and Mama were outside watching the parade. I called Mama back up to the room to help me with a few costume details (pinning on my tail and attaching the long braid to my hair), and then I was ready to go! This was actually the first time I had the entire costume and the makeup on all at once.
Can't see my tail. But it's there.
The parade was over when we left the room, so I didn't get to see any of it, but that's okay. It's a neat showcase of the costumes people wear at D*C, but I'd seen it a couple of times before. The first thing that I was really interested in doing on Saturday was another True Blood panel, this time including Michelle Forbes, and so Amy and I set off for that. Walking behind us on the way to an I Dream of Jeannie panel, Natalie snapped a picture of my tail.
You can see the nerve endings sticking out of the bottom of my braid. How embarrassing!
I had resolved this year to keep track of how many people wanted a picture of me in my costume, but about 5 or 6 minutes after leaving the Westin, I lost count. I was especially popular with little kids, who wanted to hold my hand in their pictures. And every time someone asked for my photo, several other people would run over and snap pictures, too. It was kind of fun at first, but it got old really fast.
Na'vi behind the scenes: Nat took a picture of one impromptu photo session. I didn't want to touch this girl because my hands were blue. I proceeded to not touch three people she was with, two kids, and an old man before walking five feet and starting the process over again.
One thing I remember quite clearly about this day was all the shouting people did at me. "AVATAR! Hey, Avatar! Na'vi, over here! Look at her, it's an AVATAR! AVATAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" Even people who didn't want my photo wanted to acknowledge my costume. Brad said it was kind of fun to walk a couple feet behind me because he could hear people talking about me after I passed them. I probably heard the word "avatar" a thousand times that day.
Wow, I'm at the end of this post already. So much for keeping it short.
But It's Not Over Yet!
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