Dragon*Con 2006
 

Every year I wonder where to start the Dragon*Con thread, and every year I figure that the guests list is mainly from TV (current and past), so I start it here. I think it'd get lost in Otter Land pretty quickly too, but if it gets moved there, it gets moved there.

Here's the main Dragon*Con webpage that has the guests list on the front page.

Any other DVDTalkers besides das and I coming down to Hotlanta for Dragon Con this coming weekend, Sept. 1-4?

The Mythbusters contingent (Kari, Grant and Tori) should have a good panel (I can't imagine them not having a panel with all 3 in attendance).

The Firefly/Serenity contingent feature Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau.

Mira Furlan will get a little more love since she's Rousseau on "Lost" now, but she's got some of her B5 pals too, like Stephen Furst, Jason Carter, and Peter Jurasik. Julie Caitlin Brown is on Guest Booth PDF, so maybe she and Dragon*Con made up after all these years.

Other shows:
Buffy/Angel - Nicholas Brendon, James Leary and Andy Hallet
Batman - Yvonne Craig and Lee Meriwether
Dead Like Me - Ellen Muth
Star Trek - George Takei, Tony Todd and Denise Crosby
Happy Days - Donnie Most, Anson Williams, and Erin Moran
Stargate - Christopher Judge, Rachel Luttrell, Steve Bacic, Cliff Simon

Eye Candy - Traci Lords and Brandy Ledford

Anyhow, it's a 24/7 convention, and a lot of fun if you are into any of the 30+ programming tracks.

Don't forget to bring your camera!

Watch it, now! Brandy Ledford is a serious actress ... a seriously smokin' hot actress.

das

I would so love to go for the Firefly group, but Atlanta is so far away. :(

I'll be there! 501st represent! Sadly, I've decided not to bring Ming this year. Kari Byron :drool:

No Ming? How will I identify you?

Been perusing the schedule (now downloadable at the D*C website), and it looks to be a Mythbusting good time, they are getting a lot of love, but they put them in the smaller Centennial I room on Friday, but they get the bigger Centennial II-III for the rest of the convention.

Donnie most and anson williams? how can this be missed?
seriously, if i went, they would be the first autographs i would buy/stand in line for.

Oh c'mon now? No one taking a picture with Joannie and holding up a sign saying MORAN? That would be so classic.

You would have to sing the pump your blood song at Anson just to show how geeky you really are.

I'll be the guy in the Stormtrooper armor. ;)

That helps!

This just in: Adam Baldwin had to cancel his appearance due to a professional commitment. Grr...

Katie Leung cancelled earlier, so I have no idea how many of the Harry Potter contingent will be there now, beside the guy who plays Crum.

Sort of last minute, but just found out that I'll be there from Sat-Mon.

Looking forward to taking in the spectacle of it all and taking lots of photographs. I'll be in the Marriott.

Ah, I forgot about the guy who plays Neville, he'll be at Dragon*Con with Crum (it would have been a nice panel if Katie could have made it), but aren't they still filming the next Harry Potter.

Actually, last minute I decided to NOT bring any costumes at all and just do panels/drink/leer at the vinyl-clad hotties. I'd be up for a DC Otter Mini-Meat. Many of us hang out at the Hyatt bar when not doing something else, so that might be a good place to rendezvous. Here's a pic of me and Kahuna415 (I'm the Shrek-lookin' goober on the left). If you see us, say hi.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6278/buds3be.jpg

Long live the glorious Hyatt bar.

das

I shall say "Hi" should the opportunity present itself!

Awesome, I'll keep an eye for you guys at the bar there.

Here's a photo of my girlfriend and I:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/...0/IMG_0210.jpg

I'll make a point of wearing the same Guinness shirt on Saturday, no promises on the hawaiian shirt though. Besides, that'd make me drown in a sea of fat guys in hawaiian shirts at Dragon*Con.

I managed to take 1200 photos today, and it's just day 1! (I don't think I'll be taking as many for the next couple of days, but it's just such a target-rich environment). I'm tired.

Yeah, tired is the word. closed the Hyatt bar. Mmmmm... alcohol. g'nite.

Why yes we did. What a fabulous, fantastic night. We have a killer time with AGuyNameMike and our posse. And its only Friday.....


btw We have been holding nightly the main table as you walk into the bar on the main entrance. Come join us if you get the chance.

Is the Dragon*Con website ( http://www.dragoncon.org ) down? I haven't been able to get to it at all today.

I did swing by the bar tonight after the Dawn Look-alike contest, but didn't see Mike or Kahuna, but did see this guy doing quick portraits for gals at the Hyatt bar, and they were pretty excited by the artwork.

It seemed less busy tonight in the Hyatt after the contest. There was a semi-long line for Shindig for Firefly/Serenity fans, and the space was far too small for the number of fans that wanted to check it out. Went later near midnight, and the line was gone, but there was plenty of Browncoats in the shindig.

So many overlapping panels of interest was the order for the day. That is going to be big negative on this year's scheduling. I still managed to time-share many of the panels of interest to me by bouncing around the Hyatt, but it was nowhere near ideal.

The Browncoats continues to show up in large numbers, prompting Dragon Con to clear the rooms before each Firefly/Serenity panel so that those who waited in the long lines get good seats near the front.

The Marriott was pretty crowded during the afternoon. We didn't check out the Marriott after the Dawn contest, just headed home after the Shindig.

The Walk of Fame being in the Hilton is a colossal chore to get to, and the flow pattern was also a nightmare of funnelling the traffic through the middle aisles twice to get to both of the outer aisles of guests. There was too little room in the middle between the booths, so it was very congested and just a pain to slog through this year.

Took a large number of photos once again tonight.

Aw poop, Patman, we were there from 8pm to closing. This time our table was centered directly in front of the bar. Tomorrow night I will wear one of my photon lights on my lanyard set to rapid flash, maybe green or blue. Yeah, there did seem to be several planning faux pas this year. A bright note was the Mythbusters panel. Kari and Grant were still en route due to plane problems, so Tori had to panel solo. He did a great job and kept the room entertained and interested with his anecdotes. Time to catch some Zs.

Say Patman, it was nice to finally meet you. Sorry I wasn't very "up", but I reckon we were both pretty tired by then. It's been a pleasant con, with the typical ups and downs (man, was that Masquerade weak or what?), and I'll be counting the days to next year. BTW, the New Voyages guys gave a great panel, and the sincere love for what they're doing really came through.

Hey Mike! Finally did catch up with him at the bar towards the end of the evening. Lots more walking around this year.

Checked out a handful of panels on Sunday:

Buffy/Angel - can't believe it's been 3-4 years since Buffy went off the air. Still a good panel, with Nicholas Brendon heading it up, and flanked by Clare Kramer, James Leary, Anthony Cistaro, and Ken Feinberg, and then finally Andy Hallet.

Mythbusters - finally the gang is all there (Grant, Tory, Kari) after the plane for Grant and Kari suffered some mechanical troubles and a few people onboard raised an eyebrow in their direction. They showed a funny reel of Kari being wired up to capture flatuence from a female. Then they showed Adam lighting up farts and examining the slow-motion flames that emanated from his arse when he lit them. Very funny stuff, have a good time at their panel.

Serenity/Firefly - Alan Tudyk and Summer Glau continued their lovefest with the Browncoats. The lady who wrote the winning Eulogy for the Wake (for Wash and Book) got Alan to read the eulogy to the audience (especially since the Wake was in a very small room on Saturday night and not a lot of people were able to hear it, and Alan did embellish with some timely "sexy, sexy, sexy" adjectives thrown in for Wash. They had the longest autographs lines at Dragon Con this year.

Mira Furlan - stayed for about half the panel, which focused on her new role as Rousseau on "Lost". She's got a groovy accent (which helped her get cast for the role, as well).

Mickey Rooney - bopped for about 2 minutes.

Stargate - Also checked out this panel just for the sheer size of the 9 cast members from the show in the panel, a few of whom I probably won't get their names right (Erick Avari, Rachel Luttrell, Don S. Davis, Bill Dow, Cliff Simon, Claire Rankin, Torri Higginson, and 2 others whose name escapes me).

Also checked out the Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant, but didn't stay long, and some robot wars in one room.

I was meandering in the Hyatt atrium area before the Masquerade and by the time I made it down to the Masquerade, the main room was filled, so I checked out the overflow room with the video feed, and was astounded by the so-so entries at the Masquerade this year, so much so that I'm sure I dozed off because one of my friends showed me some of his photos from the photo session afterwards, and I did not remember some of the contestants from the photos. But sounds like I wasn't missing much after seeing a bunch of folks staging mock fights. The stormtroopers were good about moving the show along when the acts went on too long.

The rest of the day was spent doing a bit of window-shopping in the dealer's room, walking through the mess called the Walk of Fame, and taking an obscene amounts of photos in their costumes in the Hyatt (3 levels), and the Marriott (2 levels). Left there after 2 a.m., which was late for us, but it was the last night. Whew!

Sleeeepy, so sleeeeeeeeepy ...

das

Thought about going downtown on Monday for the early 10 a.m. Mythbusters panel and the "River flying solo" Serenity panel, but my feet were aching, I was tired, and my friend was packing up to leave noonish, and I didn't want to be a bad host and just take off for Dragon Con in the morning and leave him to fend for himself against my feline security detail at home. By the time noon came, I had no illusions about going just to do some shopping in the dealers room, so I just stayed home and did a bunch of categorization of the photos, and figuring out which were going to make the final cut on the Dragon*Con 2006 photo album, which other ones would make it on my Flickr account (higher standards apply to the ones on Flickr because I'll be uploading the higher resolution photos there).

I pretty much zonked out in the afternoon yesterday, really needed the rest.

I'm dragging ass today at work as well...

You didn't miss much. I didn't go to sleep until about 7:30am and had to check out that morning, so I missed some of the 10:00am <i>Mythbusters</i> panel. The <i>Serenity</i> lines were still crazy in the Walk of Fame, so Summer's panel got canceled (stupid idea for a panel anyway). Then predictably, since it was scheduled for 4pm on Monday :whofart:, the final <i>B5</i> panel got canceled as well, which was a real pain in the ass because it was in International North, and there was no announcement until we got there.

It was good seeing you again, <b>Pat</b>. Sorry I couldn't save you better seats this year. And sorry I missed <b>Mike</b> and others. I dropped by the Hyatt bar a few times looking for Shrek, but I never saw him.

Every part of my body hurts: head, neck, shoulders, back, knees, calves, feet, ankles, eyes, fingers, wrists ... If I accomplish anything today at work, it will be a miracle.

das

Hey no problem, I got good seats, more than I could have possibly expected in most of the panels with the huge lines. I'm just wondering how many photos of the back of my head you have of me. :D Sorry about that happening a few times.

I guess I only missed the Mythbusters panel on Monday, then. It was a shame that Grant and Kari couldn't make Saturday's panel.

I really don't know if I could have mustered the energy to walk around for deals in the dealers room yesterday because my feet are still on fire today when I walk about.

Maybe I'll be glad when it's all under the roof of the Hilton for next year.

Heh ... yeah, I have more than a few photos of your right ear, but it's cool. I'm sure a lot of people have photos of the back of my flash. If you can't adapt at Dragon*Con and play nice with others who are all trying to do the same thing, you need to just stay home.

<i>Mythbusters</i> turned out great for me, since I had made the executive decision to skip the Saturday panel (something else was going on -- I think Ellen Muth) in favor of the Sunday one. When I found out I had essentially missed nothing, I was quite happy. Sucks for everyone else, I guess, but it was nice to have a scheduling snafu work in my favor for a change.

das

I caught a bit of Ellen Muth's panel (after it was just Tory at the Mythbusters panel on Saturday), and she's a really cool gal. The frosty blonde look took a little getting used to, though. I never did see Ellen at her booth at the Walk of Fame, though, only saw Billy West in her booth there most of the time I made the pilgramage to the Hilton.

BTW, I was pretty impressed by the turnout for Ellen's panel, it was SRO in that room (I think it was the Hanover, and going by the schedule, it was on Friday). I didn't think she'd garner that sort of crowd, but a pleasant surprise (this coming from the guy who only watched season 1 of Dead Like Me, and still needs to finish up season 2 one of these days).

I thought das would have made it over to the "Monkey Talk" panel at the same time as Ellen's panel on Friday at 4 p.m. :)

:lol: I saw "Monkey Talk" on the schedule and almost did it, but I really wanted to see Ellen and was afraid I'd miss her later panel. She did have a great turnout and was very cool. I had met her in the Walk of Fame before the panel, and she asked for a $1 donation to some charity for cats, and I just gave her a $10, and she was very appreciative and remembered me when I saw her again on Monday. I'd rather give someone $10 for a charity when they ask for $1 than pay someone $10 for a photo. Charging for an autograph is fine -- I understand the business side of this operation -- but then charging for a photo <i>after</i> buying the autograph is just cheap, and I refuse to pay for that. I'm surprised you didn't see more of her, because I kept bumping into her all over the place, just standing around waiting for a handler or walking to and fro. She is pretty tiny, though, so it's easy to miss her if you're not looking closely. Very nice lady, dry and funny, and she said she really wants to come back.

das

Oh damn, were they now charging for autographs AND the photos? Typically I had assumed that you get the photo of your choice with the autograph (going price these days seems to be around $20). Times are a changin'. Damn shame.

Friday is all blurry for me panel-wise because I manage to check out 10 panels that day. No wonder my brain was fried w/r/t the where/when of events this weekend.

Some people were charging, but not that many outside of the JCB crew doing their professional photo thing. I saw a couple of people who wanted Don Davis's autograph turn away when they saw it would be $50 for the pro photo. I think that concept breeds too much ill will and is a bad business move. Craig was telling me he didn't do very well at the con, so it seems to be working out that way. I can see pulling that off when you have a James Marsters and crazy women, but not with mid-tier guests.

das

Oh, I did see that whole setup (felt like Prom photos, or family photo day at Sears), plus read about it, and it did seem like something that would appeal to a very small segment of fans, and it's all about being more accessible to most of the fans to maximize their convention revenue stream.

Here's a Flickr folder of convention guest photos I uploaded last night.

I'm still in the sorting phase of my regular photo album for Dragon Con. I think I'll have to down-rez my photos to around 640x480 this year just for the sheer number of costumed attendees I have shots of, and then just put the ones I like on Flickr in higher resolution.

Just finished up my Mythbusters panel photos on Flickr.

Hopefully I won't have to make too many changes/fixes, but here is my Dragon*Con 2006 Photo Album, finally! Hopefully all the links work, but if not, please let me know.

Thanks!

Some of those costumes are quite good.

edit: GASP! http://www.patcave.com/dc2k6/masq/IMG_2507.jpg

Well, we did try to get you to check out Dragon*Con in your OTTER thread on selecting which grad school... :D

I'll go next year. I had neither the time nor $ to do it this time. :(