Dragon*Con XXII Report, Days 2-4

[thatcrazycajun]

As I sit in the Hyatt lobby bar area (a much better "con suite" than the actual one two floors up, chiefly because it's way bigger, has WiFi and serves alcohol) watching the last few minutes of Dragon*Con '09 tick away into history, I find it difficult to attempt an hour-by-hour recount of my activities (should have posted sooner, but was too tired and sore after getting home last night and sleeping in this morning). Therefore, I am settling for a more-or-less chronological account of the highlights.

• Fun fact: it actually is possible to walk 25 blocks north on Peachtree Street in a single hour. I did this to minimize the cost of a cab ride to my door after MARTA stopped running on Saturday night.
• Rule #1 for having a low-stress Dragon*Con: Avoid any events with lines outside longer than about 20 people. This means you miss out on big-star speeches (sorry, Bill and Len), but you can get to see the stars much more quickly and at closer range in the Walk of Fame when they are signing autographs. There are a handful of actors and other personalities I would enjoy hearing and seeing (some of whom I've seen before anyhow), but I don't want to see any of them badly enough to endure an hourlong wait in a round-the-block line...especially one out-of-doors in the late-summer Georgia sun.
• You can also see big names at other events; Saturday evening I caught Claudia Christian (Babylon 5's Ivanova) in an improv-comedy hour with Dean Haglund (The X-Files, Lone Gunmen) at only the cost of a few minutes waiting outside with a couple others for someone to leave and make room (fire-code room occupancy limits were being strictly enforced this con). Claudia was a real hoot, as well as a game trouper pulling off everything Dean made her do, from being his arms in a lab coat to improvising an opera in a foreign language.
• Dragon*Con is known for always having a Worldcon-caliber Masquerade roster, and last night's was no exception. Hosts George Pérez and Peter David (accompanied by Muppet versions of themselves on their arms, fashioned by Peter's wife) conducted the festivities with their usual zany aplomb, even going out of their way to make the children's-division entrants feel at home. Noteworthy entries included "Robot Battle Chicken" (an improbable construction around a costumer's legs which moved and looked like a steampunk velociraptor), a 15-foot-tall figure of Aku from Cartoon Network's Samurai Jack, and the Best in Show, a Victorian-era team of ghostbusters called "Apparition Abolishers" ("Whom can one telegraph?"). More info (and, one hopes, some photos) are here.
• filkertom's final concert was just as well attended and hugely enjoyed by all as his previous ones on Friday and Saturday evenings. And it ended just in time for me to dash over to the Masquerade ballroom across the hall and grab a seat. Thanks for coming, Tom...and for being the one genuinely good friend I have among filk's big names.
• Saturday and Sunday evening open filk was a lot of fun, though one could have wished for a better turnout (filk at other large cons has spoiled me). I was called on to sing a surprising number of songs—some of them even being my own—and provide information to newbies about the people and traditions of filk.
• Speaking of which: Kudos to Robbie Hilliard, D*C filk czar, for putting together the best filk track this con has yet seen (with the possible exception of when Tom ran it two years ago). Last year he was reportedly thrown into the Filk Director slot at the very last minute with no prep time to speak of; this year he had lots of lead time and the previous year's experience to help him. Rob says he has had more volunteers this year for 2010 than he has actual positions to fill; all convention filk runners should have his problem. He also plans to build a year-round online community for D*C filk, which means he will probably want to speak to someone with GAFia (you listening, autographedcat and sffilk?).
• This year's Dealer's Room and the two Exhibit Halls (effectively a pair of auxiliary dealers' rooms) were chock-full as usual of enough merch to satisfy even a Ferengi's acquisitive desires. Unfortunately, I had pretty much shot my wad financially just getting into this clambake, so even if there had been something screaming "Buy me already!", I would not have been able to.
• The Art Show was fabulous, again as per usual for D*C, and made me wish I could afford to bid on anything. I had to content myself with perusing the paintings, sculptures, dolls and other bric-a-brac while the professional graphic artist in me lay quietly seething with envy at others' talent. Mrs. David had a number of other Muppets on display, including adorable ones of some of the Doctors and their companions.
• Cost of one multi-ride MARTA Breeze card for buses and trains: $17.50. Price of cab fare for partway-home trips late in the wee hours after MARTA shuts down for the night: between $7 and $10.50 per night. Not having to shell out $20 or more a day for parking, or to worry about hitting someone else driving a car not my own: priceless.
• Celebrity encounters: Finally ran into Bob Greenberger at Tom's concourse concert yesterday and spent a few minutes getting caught up with him. Sadly, he was booked solid for meals and did not pass me again the rest of the weekend...but it was good to see him and his wife and see that they are doing okay after losing their eldest child to leukemia last year. Also rode an elevator with a gentleman I am pretty sure was Mike Resnick. Also saw Claudia, Virginia Hey of Farscape, Erin Gray (Buck Rogers) and all the stars of Stargate: Atlantis in the Walk of Fame sigining autographs and looking grand.
• Hall costume count: at least seven Dr. Horribles, in both red and white costumes (one female); two Wonder Women and three Wolverines (all movie versions, one accompanied by Sabretooth); two Supergirls; one Spider-Man (black costume, second film); one young lady wearing a sign reading "Free Shrugs" (parodying the two or three with "Free Hugs" signs wandering around); one amazingly convincing Elvira in the Hyatt bar (as in Mistress of the Dark) which I'm pretty sure was a man wearing fake latex boobs; three Batgirls, two classic, one modern; one Superwoman (Lucy Lane version) and one Power Girl; two Huntresses; one Batwoman (Kate Kane 52 version) and female Question complete with "faceless" face mask; at least three Indiana Joneses and two Captain Hammers, one female; four Tenth Doctors, one of whom won a hall costume award and another with a stunning Rose Tyler in leathers; and more characters from anime and manga than you could shake a katana at.
• And last but by no means least, thank you and congratulations to the over 1,500 staff members who pulled off yet another memorable, blessedly incident-free Dragon*Con. (Well, almost incident-free; the official costume photog reported his camera and hard drive stolen on Sunday. But nobody got hauled off either to the hoosegow or the hospital that I heard about.) And Your Humble Correspondent has heard that all or at least a good deal of the video taped at the con will be available online or as podcasts RSN.

If you were there and I missed seeing you (entirely possible in the over-40,000 crowd staff estimates was there), tell me what your Dragon*Con was like.

Comments

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Matt, Robbie and I are in contact. If he wants to do something, he knows how to reach me.

As far as over 40000, I'd guess it was closer to 70000, but we'll actually never know the actual number because the D*C office will only "officially" say 32-35000. The facts ring differently.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Then if he hasn't previously, I will prod him henceforth. Thank you.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

The town I lived in when I went to college only had 40,000 people. I grew up in a town of around 7500 people. I can't imagine what it's like being at a con with that many people.

Still thinking about going next year but just gobsmacked by the numbers.

If I were going next year, about what month do hotel reservations open up?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

>>The town I lived in when I went to college only had 40,000 people. I grew up in a town of around 7500 people. I can't imagine what it's like being at a con with that many people.<<

Think of a Worldcon times at least three or four. As for hotel reservations, they are available now, far as I know...but have been known to be sold out by the end of November preceding the con, so I'd move quick if I was you.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Officially, the hotel reservations should open up on October. Realistically, the hotels have probably already started taking reservations already, even though they're not supposed to, and the rooms may be sold out within 2 weeks.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Matt, the largest Worldcon was 9600 (LACon2 in 1984). Most of them are running 3-5,000 (on the North American continent).

[mneme]

GAFia appears to be a MUD. Perhaps you meant GAFilk?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

GaFiA (Georgia Filkers Anonymous, modeled after the west coast group that sffilk was in before moving to Atlanta, is the ad hoc organization behind Atlanta housefilks. It overlaps in membership with, but is not the same as, GaFilk, which operates the annual convention.

Given that GAFIA is a long-standing and quite common fannish term, I'm not surprised it shows up else-net as well. :)

[mneme]

True -- but my real point (that the url is wrong) stands.

It should point to GAFia, but instead points to http://www.gafia.org.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Actually, the URL is correct, sort of. That IS the gafia.org site, which I own. We had someone doing something nasty to the CMS i was using, and I hadn't gotten around to doing anything with it, so I took it down. Since the site is turned off, it's defaulting to the primary page on that server, which is JediMUDs.

For the meantime, Michael's page is still the accurate one. I should probably put up a redirect to it.

[mneme]

Ah! Fair enough.

[filkferengi]

Thanks for sharing the detailed memories; I'm glad you had such a big time!