Mr. Marx Goes To
Well, I’m back from
Plus,
First off a little info about Dragon*Con, for those that
don’t know. Dragon*Con is an uberscifi
convention in
There was around 429 guests & bands and 31 programming tracks that ran throughout the entire convention (American SF/Fantasy, Anime/Animation, British SF/Media, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Comics, Costuming, Electronic Frontiers Forum, Filking, Gothic Shadows, Independent Film, Podcasting, Robotics, Science Fiction Classics, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Literature, Silk Road: Asian Cinima & Culture, Space & Science , Tribal Gathering, Star Trek: TrekTrak, Star Wars: MOTF, Star Gate: Offworld Fandom, Tolkien's Middle Earth, Wheel of Time, Weyrfest, Writer's Track, X-Track , Young Adult Literature, and more) in three different hotels. Anyone who likes anything scifi related will have more than enough to do at this convention.
Dragon*Con even had Dragon*Con TV running in all hotels and
in large rooms with panels. Dragon*Con
TV was a rip-off…cough, cough…homage to Adult TV’s bumpers. They were really, really funny and also had
some funny parody commercials. I was
even able to watch the costume contest and fan films via Dragon*Con TV from my
hotel. I have never seen anything like
this at a convention. It was a really
cool touch and I hope they keep it up.
The convention runs all night with live music, a drum
circle, and late night independent films.
I stayed up until after
I managed to cram in two interviews (Marv Wolfman and Brandon Jerwa) while I was there and very little sleep.
If you want to see costumes, then you need to go to Dragon*Con. I have never seen so many costumes in one place. There were times when there were nearly as many in costumes than not. There were many excellent Jack Sparrow imitators, but sadly my camera suffered the curse of bad lighting so you will have to take my word for it. There were many, many skimpy outfits (some worn by individuals that should have stayed fully clothed) but you won’t see them here. My significant other gave me the evil eye every time I reached for the camera (sniff, sniff).
One of many stormtroopers that invaded Dragon*Con this year.
Jedi vs. (hmm) Halo (I think)
In darkness of Dragon*Con are the vigilantes Nightwing and Daredevil.
Ouch, I hate when that happens.
I see a killer rabbit! Runaway, Runaway!
A classic! Indiana Jones with eating pizza with a cell phone.
I smell a sequel…Escape from
I know it is dark, but your eyes do not deceive. It is an Elvis stormtrooper.
The Shazam family.
Oops…missed one. Hmm…who is that lurking behind him?
The X-Men Unite!
It’s the Jew Man Group.
I ran into Blade in the mall. I think he’s hungry. Oh crap. Runaway, Runaway!
Lastly, we have buddy Jesus and his holy crew preparing to ascend to the heavens…via an elevator of course.
I went to far too many panels. The Browncoats were in force, so anything Firefly/Serenity related was packed with long lines. As a result, I didn’t get to see Summer Glau or Alan Tudyk, except in passing.
Here is a sample of the many excellent panels that I attended.
First up, a Stargate panel with Don S. Davis (General
I attended two other Stargate panels: Star Studded Challenges and Stargate vs. Trek. Star Studded Challenges had Tori Higgins (Dr. Elizabeth Weir), Don S. Davis, Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan), Erick Avari (Kasuf), Brandy Ledford, Kavan Smith (Major Lorne), Claire Rankin (Kate Heightmeyer). Stargate vs. Trek had Rachel Luttrell, Tori Higgins, Don S. Davis, Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), and three others. If there can be a winner, I think the shear number of Stargate actors versus Star Trek guaranteed a win for Stargate.
This was the first year that Stargate got its own programming track for Dragon*Con. That means there were Stargate related events going on all four days. Guest panels and fun fan stuff like this Stargate trivia game.
The Buffy The Vampire Slayer panel that I attended had Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Clare Kramer (Glory), Anthony Cistaro (Ethros Demon, Scourge Commander), James Charles Leary (Clem), and Ken Feinberg (Chaos Demon). Brendon was funny as usual. I recognized Cistaro more from Witchblade as the villainous Kenneth Irons than the demons he had appeared as in Buffy. Lots of jokes about Brendon’s hat. Kramer joked at one point about how all the questions were for Brendon. Then someone said they had a question for Kramer. Of course the question was how Kramer felt working with Brendon. Everyone couldn’t help but laugh at that one.
I went to a Q&A panel with Virginia Hey. She is soooo like her character Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan on Farscape. She is a very spiritual and a ‘new agey’ type of person. Except she is far more energetic and fun. I think the main answer that I found most interesting was about her reason for leaving Farscape. It was the makeup, a complaint I heard from other actors in panels at Dragon*Con. Apparently the blue makeup was having an adverse effect on her kidneys. It even caused her kidneys to begin bleeding (ouch). So, she had to pick between Virginia or Zhaan. Guess who won?
The
Jurasik and Furst have a really witty sense of humor. Brown was a very energetic and
charismatic. Furlan was a little quiet
during this panel. Brown said that the
reason she left
I was in the front row in the Paul Dini panel. He spoke about the process of writing on Lost in season one and consulting in season two. Dini felt that Locke’s character was a little ‘lost’ in season two and Ana Lucia crowded out Kate as the bad girl of the island. He also said that the end of Batman Beyond on Justice League Unlimited was based on the original planned ending by both Dini and Bruce Timm.
Mira Furlan panel Q&A.
She spoke about working on Lost
and
It isn’t a scifi convention without some filking. Here is the The Great Luke Ski performing Grease Wars.
I attended one of the Ghost Hunters Q&A panels. Jason and Grant told some really interesting and funny behind the scene stories about their cases.
I also made the rounds at the Walk of Fame. Where you can meet actors and get autographs. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to take pictures (probably not), but darn it, everyone else was doing it so I took a few too.
Zombie master George Romero
Rachel Luttrell (I also got her autograph) and you can see Claire Rankin on the far left.
Tori Higgins
Cliff Simon
Nicholas Brendon with his face hidden by that goofy hat of his.
This was a gigantic parade of costumed silliness. I missed the beginning. But when the half dozen or so costumed girls with roller skates rolled into the hotel, we quickly realized we were missing it and ran outside to witness this event.
The very tail end of the parade.
Hellboy even showed up to watch the parade.
Wonder Woman poses for the camera.
When parade's attack!
Who ya goin’ to call?
Hey it’s the Ghost Hunters guys! I guess we could call them instead.
Stargate Command has arrived!
Many, many Stormtroopers.
Where is Indiana Jones when you need him? (He’s probably still eating that pizza.)
Don’t ask me how, but I always end up watching bellydancers perform wherever I go.
This dancer performed with two swords. Rather impressive I must say. There many more dancers, but all the pics were blurred, not surprising considering how fast they were moving.
The
I didn’t attend as much of the film festival as I had planned. I did catch a few films though. Some that I would like to spotlight are: Gamers (a hilarious movie that follows a group of games preparing to break the record for most hours played), The Injured Stormtrooper (stormtroopers just don’t know what to do when one of their own is injured rather than killed from a blaster), Troll (a humorous animated short about a troll being interviewed), and The Love Craft (it’s Loveboat meets H.P. Lovecraft).
I really wanted to see Call of Cthulu, but alas it wasn’t in the cards. It was made to look like a silent film. I shall see this film! Someday. The trailer for Bon Appetit (“…tonight’s main course… is danger!”) was hilarious and I was sorry that I missed seeing it. I’m going to look for some place to buy it. If you like role-playing games at all, you must give Gamers a try. You can find it for sale at buygamers.com.
Whew, that is all for now. It took a few days to recover from this mega-event. I hope you liked the peek at Dragon*Con 2006. This is my #1 favorite convention so far. I’m hoping to make a return visit in 2007 or 2008.
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