Fresh Fish Served Daily

Ok, here it is: my incredibly long and relatively detailed account of Dragoncon 2008. Enjoy!

We started off on Thursday after dinner with the folks out in Norcross. James stayed with us this year, as he wasn’t able to get a room himself. He showed up with about four coolers worth of food and drinks. Once we got everything up to the room we started on cocktails. We walked around the newly finished Marriott Atrium level a bit where we got this picture. James had to convince me to ask them to pose with me, as I get stupid around celebrities I like and am constantly afraid that I’m annoying them. Afterwards Dane went back to the room, so James and I wandered around the Hyatt and made some new friends. I discovered that Djarum actually does make a decent clove: the Specials, which I had completely forgotten about. Oddly, Thursday is the only night that I got even remotely tipsy.

Fri 11:30am: We go to get our badges. The wait was about 10 minutes. (Compare that to the line around the block on Thursday. This is why we go on Friday, people.)

Fri 1pm: Torchwood panel with Gareth David-Lloyd and Anthony Lewis in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom. I nearly died of heat stroke, as I was dressed as Spike and it’s August in Atlanta. (Yes, it’s just as hot in Texas, but at least we don’t have the humidity there. Less than two years away and I’m completely unused to the Atlanta weather like I’m some kind of tourist.)

We found Holly before the panel so we could sit together. (Totally random aside: I actually first met Holly at the airport MARTA station on Thurs afternoon, because she was wearing a Ravelry shirt, and had a button with her username on her bag.) She told me that she knitted a hat out of her own handspun to give to Gareth when she went to get his autograph after the panel. I insisted that she go up during the audience question phase and give it to him then instead. She was completely terrified by the idea, but promised to consider it.

The first half hour of the panel is the moderator asking some well thought out questions. Good thing he did, because I probably wouldn’t have learned squat otherwise.

The second half was audience question time. Ohhhh my. Protip: most celebrities do multiple panels throughout the weekend. If the person or people you want to see do a Fri panel, GO. At this point they’re somewhat more rested and probably not hungover yet. Also, the moderators may not have quite figured out the best way to control things yet. This panel was one of the craziest panels I’ve ever been to. I lost count of how many women asked the panelists out for drinks or for kisses. One woman even took a swig out of her flask before asking, to which the moderator said “I hope you brought enough for everyone.” Gareth took that cue and ran with it, running down to snatch her flash away from her and take a drink before offering it to Anthony. And Holly had been worried that giving Gareth a HAT during the panel was tacky. I’m glad she gave it to him then, though, since the look on his face was priceless. It was a pretty big hit with all the fans as well, and apparently he actually wore the hat around quite a bit the rest of the weekend.

We took a lunch break and decided to try out a Star Trek panel at 4. BIG MISTAKE.

Fri 4pm: Star Trek panel with Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom. Wow. How jarring to follow up one of the best panels I’ve been to with one of the worst. In theory it should have been awesome, since both actors are reported to be really cool people. Unfortunately, the moderating was terrible. I probably should have known it wouldn’t go well when the “pre-show” was a slide show of pictures of the moderator with various Star Trek actors. OK, WE GET IT. YOU’RE A BIG STAR TREK FAN. I’m pretty sure the fact that you’ve been running the Trek Track at Dragoncon for fifteen years (!!!) is enough to convince us you’re a big fan. Showing a slideshow before the panel just makes you look extremely vain. Then, instead of letting the audience ask any questions, the panel was set up in a “late-night talk show” format, where the mod just asked prepared questions. Several of the questions were awkward and clearly made the panelists uncomfortable. He even asked a loaded political question, and when a few audience members begged him to leave politics out, he was clearly upset and thrown off by it. A good moderator has a backup for when a line of questioning falls flat. It ended up feeling like the panelists spent their time trying to soothe the moderator’s ego. Very weird and uncomfortable panel.

Fri 5:30pm: “An Hour with Space Ghost” (aka George Lowe) in the Baker meeting room. This tiny-ass room in the basement of the Hyatt is not enough to contain the awesomeness that is George Lowe. I go see at least one of his panels every time I’m at Dragoncon, and he’s always amazing.

We get some dinner and chill a bit before zooming to the next panel.

Fri 8:30pm: Cinematic Titanic presents: The Wasp Woman (Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, and Joel Hodgson) A half-hour of audience questions and then a showing of the Cinematic Titanic treatment of The Wasp Woman. Good stuff if you enjoyed MST3K back in the day.

So Friday was the day we did the most stuff, I think. Nothing but panels all day. It worked out pretty well, since the crowds on Sat and Sun were MUCH bigger, and we spent way more time on those days waiting for panels than we did actually IN panels.

Sat 10am: I was originally going to sleep in a bit, but my sleep schedule is so regular that I still woke up at 8:30. So I decided to head on down and catch the parade before the 11:30 Torchwood panel. Once again, I almost died of heat stroke (this time I’m in my Draco costume: long pants, long sleeved shirt, wool sweater and robe) but I still enjoyed the parade. Luckily the Torchwood panel is in the Marriott, so I don’t have far to go afterwards. Unluckily, the line has already been let in, so I couldn’t sit with Holly and Kirstie.

Sat 11:30am: Torchwood panel with Gareth David-Lloyd, Anthony Lewis, and James Marsters in the Marriot Atrium Ballroom. This is the first time I was in the new Marriott ballroom. WOW. It is MASSIVE. I think it’s bigger than the Centennial Ballroom in the Hyatt. It’s also a LOT easier to set up a line for this ballroom, since the Atrium level is very open and has plenty of space. The panel itself was much tamer than the one on Friday, but was still pretty fun.

Met up with Sarah for lunch, then hightailed it over to the Hyatt for the rescheduled Venture Bros. panel.

Sat 2:30pm: Venture Bros. panel with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick in the Hyatt Regency VI-VII Ballroom. These guys are always entertaining. They came running out through a paper barricade like some kind of high school football team, and were wearing matching speedsuits.

Sat 5:30pm: Battlestar GIGA PANEL with James Callis, Aaron Douglas, Michael Hogan, Edward James Olmos, and Tamoh Penikett in the Marriott Atrium Ballroom. I waited in line with James for over an hour and a half for this one, and Dane joined us after he got back from lunch with his dad. Edward James Olmos and Michael Hogan were very impressed with how much fun the con was, and how nice everyone was. Aaron Douglas wins the award for best entrance all weekend: he wasn’t at the start of the panel, and the moderator made some joke about how he had hit the bar the night before, so we could expect him a bit later. About halfway through the panel Michael Hogan is answering a question and suddenly I hear a cheer start in the back of the room. I turn around to look and there’s Aaron Douglas striding down the center aisle DRESSED IN THE CHIEF’S ORANGE JUMPSUIT. I was sitting on the aisle and he walked right by me but couldn’t get my camera out in time. Damn it was brilliant. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a GUEST bring a costume.

I did end up bailing a few minutes early on the panel; apparently the heat coupled with my extra-warm costume caught up with me, and I had a massive headache that was making me queasy. I went back to the room to change and take some headache meds, which unfortunately meant that I didn’t get any pics of my Draco costume. Once I was feeling better we spent the rest of the evening hanging out and taking pictures.

Sunday 11am: Slept in a bit, with the intention of grabbing lunch and getting in line early for the 2:30 Firefly panel. Just before we headed down for lunch I got a text from Holly saying that the line was already full and security wasn’t letting any more people in line. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? It was over THREE HOURS before the panel. At that point I gave up and decided it was finally time to peruse the dealer rooms. Around 2:00 I talked to Kevin, who was in line for the Firefly panel. Uhm, wha? Either they had reopened the line after Holly went by or the security person(s) she had talked to were confused. So Dane and I were able to get in line with Kevin to see the panel.

Sunday 2:30pm: Firefly panel with Morena Baccarin, Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, and Alan Tudyk in the Marriott Atrium Ballroom. Nathan owned this panel. He had a ridiculous amount of energy considering that it was nearing the end of the con, and was constantly cracking jokes. Luckily it looked like the other three guests were enjoying themselves, too. (Side note: Morena has a great pixie cut now, she looks so good! I have a soft spot for women who can rock a short cut.) Best moment of the entire con: Nathan and Morena realized that their characters never kissed in the series, so they decided to fix that for us.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was buying shirts in the dealer rooms, eating, drinking, and hanging out.

Monday 1am: Mindless Self Indulgence in the Hyatt Centennial Ballrooms. From what I’ve heard these guys asked to come and preform at Dragoncon, and they really seemed to be having a good time. Jimmy Urine is totally nuts. By the end of the concert he was wearing a bra, cheap fairy wings, and a tiara, all of which people had thrown onto the stage at some point. He played us off by doing a lip-sync to “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, complete with baton twirling and dancing. Ridiculous. I was hoping for a crazier audience, but I think that the insane amount of extremely serious security people around assured that wouldn’t happen. In any case it was a great way to end the weekend.

Monday 10am: GAH. I’m seriously considering staying an extra night next year just so I don’t have to deal with the elevators when everyone else is trying to leave. We snuck in and grabbed some staff elevators because it was taking so long.

Seriously, I wish that they had a similar con in Feb, so I wouldn’t have to wait a whole year between them.