girlpire | Massive Dragon*Con Report, pt. 2

We walked back to the convention at around 10:00PM.

This is the Mariott at night. Obviously.

There was a big line outside of the Hyatt, and we couldn't figure out what it was for, so I decided to ask someone - and right in front of me, there was Line Guy! Waiting in line again! I asked him about the line, and it turned out it was for something we weren't interested in seeing, so we just went inside.

The Sunnydale Prom had already started, if "started" can mean that there was music playing while a bunch of people sat in a row of chairs against the wall while a few couples danced like middle schoolers in the center of the room. I recognized several people that I had seen before, both in the Buffy Horror Picture Show and at the "I Love the Winchester Brothers" panel. There was a particularly engaging Spike-alike there, whom I had been seeing around all day and the day before. He kept posing for pictures the way Spike did in "Restless," which was pretty funny. Here's what he did in my picture:

There were at least five different Spike-alikes at Dragon*Con. One of them was female. I thought this one was the most masculine, which is why I liked him the best, even though he didn't necessarily look the most like Spike.

Angel was there too, which means that Riley was also there because they were always with each other. You can see Riley in the background.

I love that he was carrying a sword. :)

I think that next year if I go back to Dragon*Con, I'm going to go as evil!pregnant!Cordelia, with the fringey black shirt thing and a butcher's knife. Just a thought.

We left the Prom early to go to the Shindig, which was at the same time. There was a long line to get into the Shindig, so we waited. While we were waiting, the contestants from a Firefly costume contest came out, and one person was dressed as - get this - Serenity! Yes, someone actually went as the ship, bless them. I was laughing too hard to even think of getting a picture, and I regret it now because the costume really was wonderful. We also saw an impaled!Wash, which was so wrong it was right. We stood in line behind a friendly Zoe cosplayer I recognized from the show in Orlando, and we spoke briefly. She was wearing the white and brown dress from the movie.

It took forever to get into the Shindig because it was so crowded that they were only letting people in when other people came out. There was live music and a bar, and... a bunch of people sitting in chairs looking at one another. There were a few people dancing, but not very many. I sure hope it livened up after we left.

At about 11:30, the Drum Circle started. My mom wasn't too sure about going to it because she thought it sounded weird - a bunch of people playing drums in a circle while other people belly-danced. But we went and it was pretty cool. It started off kind of tame, with all the lights on and just a few dancers. Eventually, though, they turned out the lights and some guys started dancing with glowsticks and twirling balls of light, and it was a lot of fun.

This was before they turned out the lights.

A pregnant belly-dancer. Or else she was just fat... is it better to assume someone is fat or to assume someone is pregnant?

I left my mom at the Drum Circle so I could attend a Buffy/Angelverse panel called "The Shape of Your Ship," which began at 1AM. It was supposed to be about adult fanfiction, which, as most of you know, I occasionally write. I arrived early and met a girl named MC, who I sort-of-but-not-really recognized from livejournal. She was nice. We sat in the hallway until the modperson showed up. [ETA! MC's livejournal name is

its_art, and she is very cool. :)]

Second Negative Experience at Dragon*Con: The Shape of Your Ship Panel

You know, I'm not going to bash it. I'll just say that I did not enjoy it and move on. I did not enjoy it. Moving on...

We walked back to the Sheraton after 2AM, but I kept my mom up for another hour or so by going on and on about the panel. I finally stopped lecturing her when I realized she had fallen asleep. So then I fell asleep as well.

Sunday

The first thing we did on Sunday was the 11:30 Buffy and Angel Cast Extravaganza Celeb Panel. When we arrived at the Hyatt, there was a long line wrapped around the building. (We took a "short cut" through the Mariott rather than walking around it like we had been doing. And by "short cut" I mean obviously that we got lost for 15 minutes and ended up in a Staff Only area that contained some large machinery which seemed to be run by an object that suspiciously resembled a flux capacitor...) I asked a guy in the line, "Is this a line?" and he said, "Not that I'm aware of," so we walked towards the front of the line - which was definitely a line - and asked someone else what it was for. It was the Buffy cast panel. We went back to the end and got in the line, and then when the line started moving, the guy I originally asked looked really confused. I guess he thought we'd all decided to hang out in single file against the building?

The panel guests were: Nicky Brendan (Xander), James Leary (Clem), Clare Kramer (Glory), Ken Somethingorother (the Chaos demon [slime and antlers]), and the guy who played Trask in the Angel episode "Hero" and also played the Ethros Demon in the Angel episode "I've Got You Under My Skin." Andy Hallett (Lorne) was also supposed to be there, but he didn't show up until about 15 minutes from the end and only fielded one question. I don't know why he was late, but he was looking a little partied out... of course, James Leary looked like he had the hangover from Hell[mouth], but he was still there on time. Also, Summer Glau was going to be in that panel but ended up cancelling. Not sure why.

Here is a picture of the whole panel, taken by Patcave, who did not give me permission to link his/her pictures. Nicky is making use of the venue to show off his tattoo.

Highlights from the Buffyverse Cast Panel:
1. Everyone kept asking Nicholas Brendan questions, but then someone got up and said, "This question is for Clare," which made her very happy. She was all, "I'll take this one, Nicky!" and made a big deal about having her own question to answer... and the guy asked, "So, how did it feel the first day walking on the set, knowing that you were going to get to work with Nicholas Brendan?" Very funny. :) But he had a serious question too, so it was all good.
2. Someone asked about Clare's hair, and she said that her hair had an arc of its own in season five.
3. A little kid got up and asked why Xander was always attracted to demons. Clare joked that that was also true in real life, and Nick said, "Yes, it transcends Buffy as well, trust me."
4. Nicky said that he had always thought Xander and Buffy should have been together... well, either Buffy or Spike.
5. He said that he got his hat at Paul Smith in London. "London, Europe." He also said we didn't want to know how much he paid for it.
6. Someone asked which characters never hooked up on the show that the actors wished they had. James said, "Clem and Faith."
7. Someone asked which track each of the actors would have followed if they had come to Dragon*Con as fans instead of guests. Nicky said "I don't know... fans for Christ?" Which is an actual group of Christian fans, not a track. Everyone laughed. Then later on he said something like, "God has put certain things in my life..." I found it interesting that he was the only panelist I saw the whole weekend who made a reference to God. He also suggested that everyone should get into a bath, play a certain band on the stereo, and "talk to your god," adding, "That's what I do."
8. He tried to do the "Once More with Feeling" line again a couple times and messed it up pretty bad, which was funny. The entire audience did it back to him, although you couldn't understand what anyone was saying. :)

After the panel, Mama and I went up to the consuite for refreshments, because we had not eaten since the day before. They had little ham sandwiches and chex mix and cheesepuff balls, and some pirates started throwing the cheesepuffs at each other, and one hit me in the face. Speaking of which!

Things that hit me in the face at Dragon*Con 2006:
1. Fairie wings
2. Angel wings
3. Bat wings
4. An inflatable sword (didn't hurt)
5. A wooden walking stick (did hurt)
6. Someone's cape when they threw it behind them
7. The consuite cheeseball

After that, we went to a ballroom with lots of dealers, and I started hunting for Angel action figures again. I am officially a collector! (I have an official collection!) At Dragon*Con, I bought a total of seven Angel action figures and one Lego!Angel. I even haggled at one booth and got a bust of Buffy thrown in for free, which I gave to my brother. I spent over $200 on dolls. But the money's there for spending; that's what they say. Or maybe that's just what I say...

These are the figures that I bought. One of my Angels came with a Spike, and they're both wearing Hawaiian shirts. Too cute!

This is my favorite vendor. He recognized me from the thing in Orlando, too.

One of many, many leather booths. Some of the booths also had fetish gear. The guy selling corsets at one of the corset booths was actually wearing a corset, which was... not that uncommon at Dragon*Con.

At one point, we were trying to go from one dealer room to the other, which was located on the very bottom floor, but we couldn't figure out how to get to the bottom floor. We got into an elevator (the only time we were in an elevator by ourselves for the whole weekend) and tried pushing the button for the bottom floor, but it didn't work. So I tried pushing the other buttons, and they didn't work either. I accidentally pushed the button for the floor we were on, and the doors opened up, and then someone got on and pushed 47. It somehow worked for them, so we rode all the way up to the 47th floor feeling really stupid the whole time and trying to look like we meant to go up to floor 47 anyway. My ears popped on the way up. We ended up back on the floor we started on (which was like, level 2 or something) and got out of the elevator and found an escalator. Thank goodness for the hotel maps in the back of the program!

(My mom told me not to include the elevator thing in my con report because she was embarrassed, but I think it's funny.)

After shopping, we sat on the floor on the second level to rest our feet. We were near an escalator, and I noticed that there wasn't a line for it, but that there was a steady stream of people going down without any breaks, and I thought it was neat, so I filmed it. In case you're interested:

There aren't many people in costume in this little film, which is interesting to me because there were SO many costumes there. A guy walks by in a Mal outfit though.

Peter S. Beagle, one of my favorite authors, was a guest at the con. Actually, he's not one of my favorite authors, but he wrote one of my favorite books, which is slightly different... anyway, I admire his work, and he was doing a Q&A nearby, so we went to it.

Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn.

Highlights from the Q&A with Peter Beagle:
1. He was talking about the voice actors who played the Lord of the Rings characters for the radio script he wrote of Lord of the Rings, and he told a story about how he made friends with the guy who played Boromir. He said they were in London, and they were about to cross the street, and he started to walk out right in front of a car and Boromir snatched him back and saved his life. He was standing there in shock and Boromir was like, "We lose more Americans that way..."
2. I finally learned the answer to "How is a raven like a writing desk?" I didn't think there was an answer to it! I mean, Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite books, but they never do give the answer in it, so I was pleased to finally hear what it is.
3. Someone asked Peter what other projects he was working on, and he turned to his manager guy and asked, "What am I doing? And in what order?" The dude then whispered each thing to Peter and let Peter talk about it. Heh, it was cute.

He didn't talk very much about The Last Unicorn, but it was a panel in the Tolkien track, so I expected most of the talk to be about The Lord of the Rings, and it was, but it was still interesting. I'm not a rabid hobbit fan, but I've read the books and seen the movies, so I knew what was going on the whole time. Peter seemed like a very nice man, and the stories he told were interesting and funny. There was a girl in there who kept on talking about little continuity errors she noticed in the Peter Jackson movies, with which Peter Beagle was not affiliated in any way, so nothing she said was relevant, but he was polite and didn't interrupt her and stuff, which I thought was very nice of him.

After the panel, someone asked why there was a My Little Pony on the cover of the The Last Unicorn dvd, which I had been wondering myself, but Peter's manager guy said that there was going to be a new cover when the movie was rereleased in the next couple of years, so that made me happy. It's a great movie. Also, they had a raffle, and my mom won a Lord of the Rings card game. She could be a gamer! Heh.

While we were sitting in the room before the panel started, Gandalf and Frodo walked in. I was impressed with the costumes, but the effect was completely ruined (in a very humorous way) when Gandalf asked if his seat was wet, and then switched chairs. Gandalf! Worried about sitting on a wet seat! :D

Other startlingly funny things at Dragon*Con:
1. Batman standing in the corner on a cell phone going, "Can you hear me now?"
3. A black Superman
4. An Elvis Storm Trooper
6. Darth Vader jaywalking between hotels
7. One of the Spike-alikes stepping on his bootlace and tripping for a few steps

Elvis!Trooper with Buddy Christ from Dogma.

We went back to the Sheraton to drop off our purchases and rest briefly before the next thing we wanted to do, which was the Masquerade at 8:00PM. The program booklet called the Masquerade a "Must-See Event," but... really it was just a costume contest. Not that it wasn't cool, but I had seen so many really awesome costumes just walking around, which were way better than the ones in the contest. The contest itself was less like an actual costume contest and more like an anime-themed episode of "So You Think You Can Dance?"

Highlights from the Masquerade:
1. Misty Lee did a fun magic trick that resulted in a cheese sandwich.
2. A Freddy Mercury look-alike came out and lip-synched "We Will Rock You," which was kind of fun. A few people held up light sabers instead of lighters.
3. A group of people came out dressed as Stargate characters, and the MC who introduced them read out the description of the costumes and then went on to read a marriage proposal while one of the contestants knelt in front of another one, who covered her face in shock. It was kind of sweet, but very very dorky. She seemed happy enough, but I think if someone proposed to me via George Perez while dressed as a Stargate character at Dragon*Con, I'd be a little disappointed. But that's just me.

These guys won the Best Humor category. They're Storm Trooper janitors.

This guy won the Best... Amateur? I can't remember which category he won, but when he walked out on stage, he started shaking like he was being electrocuted, and it was really funny, and I was completely horrified at how funny it was to watch someone parody the death of another human being. Not that I didn't laugh, because I did. I mean, it was funny.

We returned to the consuite for hotdogs and then killed time by walking around the Hyatt looking at costumes. I saw a great many costumes that I would have loved to have pictures of but didn't manage to get them. I also saw lots of people claiming that a painted naked body is a costume, and I wouldn't have minded all that much really, but my mom was there so it was kind of awkward. There were a lot of girls wearing mesh skirts and no underwear, for instance. Or clear plastic outfits with dog collars and leashes. Or simply green paint. Here are a few costumes my mom took pictures of:

Your basic Disney princesses.

Hello Pirate.

A pretty convincing Illyria.

Mayor ~~Wilkins~~ McCheese.

You wouldn't believe how many Captain Jacks there were. This one was my favorite, though. He was even doing the weird mannerisms.

The actual Chewbacca was there signing autographs. (This isn't him... I think.)

Mama and I also had a photo op with Jabba:

Mama the Hut.
Her: We look too much alike!

It's two-headed Jabba! Some guys laughed at me when I got behind him instead of in front like everyone else. (The same guys called out to Mama that she should lie down on the pillows in front of him. Heh!)

It was at this point that I noticed that every time a man in a kilt walked by, my mom's eyes followed him. Not the same man, but just... any guy wearing a kilt. If he was wearing a kilt, she was looking twice - especially those utilikilt things, which I'm thinking are like the Scottish version of cargo pants.

Me: You were checking him out!
My mom: No I wasn't... You think I could get your daddy to wear one of those?
Me: Doubtful. What's the deal with you and kilts anyway?
My mom: [looking completely bewildered] No idea. [A man walks by in a kilt; she double-takes.]
Me: Stop doing that! It's weird.
My mom: Maybe it's like... if a man can look masculine while he's wearing a skirt, you know he's really a man, you know? [A man walks by in a kilt and sneakers.] I like it better when they're wearing boots.
Me: [completely freaked out] Let's not talk about this anymore. [A man walks by wearing a kilt - and a wrist cuff with a leash attached, led by a girl about my age. We both look.]
My mom: I'm not really into that, though.
Me: Hmm. I am.
[awkward silence]

Part of the fun of Dragon*Con is that it goes on all night, every night. This is how crowded the Hyatt still was after midnight:

Balconies = TEMPTATION.

The drum circle that night started around midnight, I think. They had already turned out the lights and had a lot of dancers by the time we got there.

This girl? Totally knew she was turning me on.

There was a Princess Leia in a gold bikini who was sex dancing. I self-identify as heterosexual, but this weekend, I finally understood the whole gold bikini fantasy thing. Mama suggested that I learn belly dancing so I could dance in next year's drum circle, and I told her I would do it if she would learn bongos. We left the drum circle when it degenerated into a drunken conga line, which took far less time than one would imagine.

The last thing we did on Sunday was "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which was performed by a group called "Lips Down on Dixie." It was supposed to start at 1:00AM, but there were technical difficulties with the sound, so it ended up not starting until well after 2. They had a girl dressed in purple keep us entertained in the interim with some crude games which I enjoyed but made my mom uncomfortable. For instance, the girl called up some male volunteers from the audience, paired them off, had one bend over while the other stood behind him, and they put a balloon between them and humped each other until the balloon popped. I think it was a race between the couples? I don't really remember, but it was funny. They also had a girl with fairy wings come up to the stage and then make out with several other girls in a row, and then some guys got in line too. And then some guys got in line to make out with this other guy... anyway, it didn't really bother me but I could tell my mom wanted to leave, which made the whole situation kind of weird.

I was sitting next to this cute guy who had never seen Rocky Horror before at all, but he was given the standard bag of props and asked me what he was supposed to do with each item. I knew what to do with the rubber glove and the party hat and the newspaper... but the rest? I'm afraid I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to cult classic audience partici.... pation. So I told him to watch everyone else and try to do what they did.

I enjoyed the show when it did finally start.

He's just a sweet transvestite.

The show got over around 4:30AM, and we walked back to our hotel and collapsed. Walking around Atlanta at night is usually kind of scary, but while the convention was going on, there were always people out and about, and the atmosphere was really friendly. No one mugged us, yay! (What if someone had? What if I was like, "And then we were accosted by a big guy with pointy ears, who stole all my action figures!" Heh.)

We checked out of the hotel on Monday morning. The only two things that I had any interest in doing on Monday were a panel called "Liam vs. William, the Ultimate Showdown" and the Closing Ceremonies, but when I thought about the other Buffy fan panel, I realized that I actually wanted nothing to do with going to another one, so we didn't go back. (We would have had to pay to park anyway, and we are cheap bastards.) My mom didn't have anything else she wanted to do either, so we hit the road back home.

Things we left at the Sheraton:
1. My mom's curling iron
2. A bottle of conditioner
3. A pair of earrings

I had lots and lots of fun at Dragon*Con, and I do plan to go back if there are any cool guests next year. Alan Tudyk said he thought that Adam Baldwin usually pitches a tent there and they just go out and wake him up when it's time for Dragon*Con again, so maybe he'll be there next year, which will be reason enough to go back. (Alan said Adam didn't come this year because he pulled his hymen.) Also, maybe some people I know from livejournal will show up next year *cough*TISA*cough* which will make the whole thing tons more fun. :)

Here endeth my report.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thatotherperv.livejournal.com

Me: You were checking him out!
My mom: No I wasn't... You think I could get your daddy to wear one of those?
Me: Doubtful. What's the deal with you and kilts anyway?
My mom: [looking completely bewildered] No idea. [A man walks by in a kilt; she double-takes.]
Me: Stop doing that! It's weird.
My mom: Maybe it's like... if a man can look masculine while he's wearing a skirt, you know he's really a man, you know? [A man walks by in a kilt and sneakers.] I like it better when they're wearing boots.
Me: [completely freaked out] Let's not talk about this anymore. [A man walks by wearing a kilt - and a wrist cuff with a leash attached, led by a girl about my age. We both look.]
My mom: I'm not really into that, though.
Me: Hmm. I am.
[awkward silence]

LMFAO. the funny thing is, when I saw this: wearing a kilt - and a wrist cuff with a leash attached, led by a girl about my age, I, along with you, thought...YUM. there should definitely be more of that.

come to think of it....I was actually once led around a bowling alley on a leash by a man in a kilt. lol. it sounds like I'm making that up.

glad you had a good time!

From:

girlpire.livejournal.com

yes, more slave!men, definitely. i do think that i have to write a spangel fic with kilts now, though. just saying. :)

open your thighs to fate.

Massive Dragon*Con Report, pt. 2

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