It's no secret that I don't like lines or crowds. Despite that, I love Dragon Con. I'm complex like that. To avoid what I could of both I went down Thursday evening to get my badge. Well, at least I missed the lines. Crowds not so much. Everyone got the memo about Thursday being the new Friday this year, and there were plenty of crowds to go around. I guess I should I have taken off Thursday and gone down earlier. I would take off Wednesday, but media badges can't be picked up til Thursday after 2pm. So taking off Wednesday (which is the new Thursday) wouldn't have helped me much. If we keep going at this rate in ten years time we'll need a whole new calendar, and Dragon Con will last for two months.
Just like last year it took me longer to get to the basement of the Alamo (or the Hyatt, whatever) than it took to get my badge. This year I was smart enough to take the escalators, and stay away from the elevators. Mr Tibbs was in tow so I didn't linger, but headed back upstairs to meet up with the man in the mask. After an overpriced under alocohol-ed drink in the Hyatt bar we hit the sky bridges to meet up with 20 of our closest friends at Trader Vic's. The bridges were empty so when Phantom saw some people with neat puppets he irresponsibly pulled them aside for a picture. That's when we got to see our first guy dressed in an "asshole" costume. This tiny little d-bag threw his hands up as he was walking past us saying "Please. Not in the walkways"! Uh, there are 12 people in the entire sky bridge dude. It's not Saturday, and I'm pretty sure we're not holding anyone up. I'm sure it's not the last "asshole" I'll see this weekend.
Trader Vic's was pretty quiet at 6:30-ish when we got there, but by the time Mr. Tibbs and I left at 9 there was no chance of getting to the bar. Thankfully I got my mai tais early so I was set on overly sweet drinks by then. I'm also glad I got my Deadpool t-shirt out of the way early because I have a feeling that I'm going to be sick of him by the end of the weekend. The Deadpool cosplayer I ran into on my way to the Trader Vic's patio made me fist-bump him, and I was pretty much done with Deadpool at that point. I didn't have any celebrity interviews scheduled for this year, but I had plenty of other stuff going on so I thought calling it a night early would be a good idea. That and Mr. Tibbs had to leave Friday morning for his band to play shows in Nashville and Indianapolis. I was also trying to keep ahead of the writing, and get as much done as I could Thursday and Friday night. Last year I got the con crud, and didn't even start writing until the weekend following the con. At the time of this writing I've got 20 or so panels I can't possibly go to, a game show to help with/cover for the site, a podcast to record, and the Needless Things meet-up to attend. I really hope the fact that I've been mainlining Emergen-C and Airborne since Monday will keep me free of con crud. The fact that a lot of this writing took place in the moment or just after, and I'm typing it up and editing it now may mean that I switch back and forth between past and present tense. Sorry about that.
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| Jonathan and Arabella Strange |
On to Friday! I thought I'd try my hand at a few fan panels this year since I didn't go to any last year. I missed the Hannibal panel thanks to the magic of public transportation so I had time to kill before my next panel at 2:30. I made the slow indoor trek from the Hyatt to the Hilton so I'd be in close walking distance to the Sheraton when my Brit Track afternoon got started. I have to say that the Sheraton really has it's shit together. No crowds, great music, and fresh grilled kabobs filling the air with deliciousness. After a very disappointing David Bowie panel we ate and beer'd up before the panel we really wanted to see: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It wasn't as bad as the David Bowie panel, but it still wasn't great. As a woman I feel bad about saying that the weak link in both panels were the women. The lady on the Bowie panel must have been in her early 50's and hadn't heard of Bowie until Labyrinth. The woman on the Jonathan Strange panel couldn't even remember the character's names. Even if it's been ten years since you've read the book brush up on that shit if you're doing a panel about it. I also don't think that fan panels should consist solely of people stating widely held popular opinions about how awesome something is while the audience just loudly agrees with them.
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| DCW DCW DCW DCW! |
After a slow start to the day I made my way to a cold drink and air conditioned seat at the Hyatt before DCW Wrestling. Even though I'm not as into wrestling as I used to be it was still the most fun I had all day. There was a touching tribute to Tiny, the founder of DCW, who had passed away a few months before the con. And Glacier, of former WCW fame, jumped in to the battle royale. He was still wearing his Mortal Kombat style costume, but it was a good bit tighter than it used to be. Sadly, Stephen Amell is a terrible person and did not deign to grace us with his presence. It was still really fun though. I forget how much fun it is to lose yourself in a crowd. A crowd of nerds, that is.
After wrestling the gang decided to hit "the spot" and I decided to hit the train. Mr. Tibbs was gone, and the cats suck at making their own dinner. Plus my Fireball supply was at home, and I needed a refill. So despite a lot a teasing from drunks I schlepped it on back to the suburbs. The fact that I was spending the night Saturday was sure to provide plenty of entertainment, for you as well as for me. I hope. Since you'll be reading this long after it has happened please don't hold it against me if I spend Saturday night passed out from utter exhaustion. (Obviously I didn't, but I decided to leave in everything I originally wrote rather than go back and make a crap ton of edits to change things. I'll just leave it all in to preserve what I was thinking at the time, or laziness. Whatever).
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| The Hooligans |
-Beth
Beth got her start writing for a site called Movie Criticism for the Retarded (which has been revived as dorkdroppings.com. Check it out sometime), but was pulled out of an early retirement to write for Needless Things. When she isn't writing she plays video games and watches bad horror movies while eagerly awaiting the zombie apocalypse. She may try to save her husband and/or their cats, but luckily hasn't had to make those tough decisions yet.
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