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Well, it's all over but the shouting. Dragon*Con 2004 has come and gone, and all that's left is exhaustion and dirty laundry. Here's a brief (okay, maybe not so brief) wrapup for those interested:
Thursday, I registered and just ran around seeing people and doing stuff, waiting for Jan to arrive. I helped poster the American SFTV track room - we had three B5 posters in there, including the old fan club ship recognition poster. Jan arrived pretty late on Thursday, so we decided to poster and flyer for our guerilla B5 track events the next morning.
Friday, we ran around the convention areas postering and flyering until panels started around 1. The first panel I went to was the needcoffee.com guys doing "Make the Bad Men Stop: Hollywood vs. Sci Fi" - this is a recurring panel, and every year they discuss what movies are being made of sci fi properties, and how much they're probably going to suck. I heard some interesting tales of preview showings of footage at other cons that drew a lot of ire from the crowds (Star Wars ep. 3, Constantine). It's just a great, hour-long snarkfest, and it was a fun way to kick off the con. And, I won a couple of DVDs (Predator, and the anniversary edition of Destroy All Monsters!).
Later that day Jan and I went down to the Walk of Fame and Artists' Alley to pester the cast members and Peter David about our social that night (and Jan filled them in about her fundraising efforts for the Biggs family). I gave flyers for the social to Peter Jurasik, Peter Woodward, Jason Carter, and Peter David. Then we found dinner somewhere, and went to Peter Woodward's Q&A.
Then it was time for the social. Jan and I had scheduled a Babylon 5 Diplomatic Mixer as the Friday night kickoff event for our guerilla track, "Doctor Zathras's Traveling Babylon 5 Medicine Show." We went to the hotel bar we'd chosen and advertised as the place for the social, and things started to go a little badly. They didn't seem to want to give us any tables, they didn't have a karaoke machine anymore (I was promised karaoke!), and they just seemed, in general, very unfriendly and unaccomodating. So there we were, in perhaps my least favorite kind of nightspot - a sports bar, smoky and loud and with sports on tvs all around us! I was sure the evening was going to be a disaster. Still, I put up the "Doctor Zathras" poster near the front of the bar, watched as Jan secured a table and sat down with the few others who'd already arrived, and went to get myself a drink...
And was pleasantly surprised to see Peter Jurasik come in! And then Jason... And then Peter Woodward. All three of them showed up to the social - you can't imagine how surprised and delighted we were! So, we bought them drinks, made sure they were comfortable, and starting socializing!
It was a long, bleary night, and I'm sure my recollection of events will be somewhat muddled, so I'll just say that a lovely time was had by all, and when I get some pictures from it (one of the people there was taking pictures and promised to e-mail them to me), I'll post them somewhere.
Peter W. only stayed for a little while, but Peter J. gave us a good chunk of time, and Jason was there the entire evening. A couple of choice recollections from the later, more lubricated part of the evening include talking about Jason's theory that Marcus is "Space Jesus," and Jason calling me a "wannabe pole-dancer." :-p
It was a _lot_ of fun, and a very nice feather in the cap of our guerilla track. As I said to Jan later that night, while we were basking in the glow of our success, "Does Doctor Zathras deliver, or _what_??!!" <g>
So that was Friday. Saturday, we went to an event that was supposed to be a panel with Harlan Ellison and Peter David called "In the Beginning was the Word" (about writing for television and film), but Harlan and Peter decided they wanted to sing instead. Seriously. So they did.
Then came the first of our two "official" (i.e. on the American SFTV track) panels: Babylon 5: Moments of Transition. We had a full room, and an hour of spirited discussion. Jan and I shared the panel with one of the track members, and John Snider, an editor at SciFi Dimensions (an online sf magazine).
Immediately after that, we had our first guerilla track panel, so I dashed over to the Marriott to secure a space in the tenth floor lounge. I think we had about a dozen people there, and we had an open discussion.
My next hour was spent at an Adult Swim event - some of the voice people were there, artists, musicians...and we even got Billy West! It was a great hour - if any of you are Adult Swim fans, we had Zorak there (C. Martin Croker), and Sealab 2021's Hesh (MC Chris)! George Lowe (Space Ghost, among other things) was at Dragon Con too, but he didn't come to the panel.
After that, I went down to the Trek Trak for "Enterprise: The Verdict," but I left after a half an hour. There was just nothing interesting being said. It wasn't that people were overly positive in that Star-Trek-fannish way; it's just that no one was saying anything of substance. That was pretty disappointing.
I spent a little time relaxing after that, because I'd planned to spend all night at needcoffee.com's Gonzo Film Fest. It was madness and fun, with giveaways, laughter, shouting, creepy 1970s ads (including one of OJ Simpson stumping for Big Brother), and even celebrity guests - Billy West and MC Chris were there to hang out and sign copies of stuff. I stayed at the Gonzo Film Fest until it was time for the Babylon 5 videos (and I won a bust of Marge Simpson for doing the best Marge impersonation). The B5 videos were supposed to show at 1 AM, but due to techincal difficulties it was more like 1:30 before they started. John Hudgens introduced each of them, and explained how he had come to make them. He started with the Richard Biggs tribute video, then ran all eight of his B5 ones, then ran the Biggs one again. There were a lot of tears in the audience.
By now, it was 2:30 AM, so I bailed on going back to the Gonzo Film Fest. Next year, I'm determined to stay all night! I think they ran until 6 AM this year...
On Sunday, I skipped the yearly Breakfast in the Village (the Brit Media track's Prisoner panel), and opted instead to get down to the Centennial ballroom early, to get a good seat for the B5 Reunion event. That was Jason, Peter J. and Stephen Austin (the Pak'ma'ra), but Peter Woodward did run in and shout a little bit for a few minutes (he was scheduled to be somewhere else at that time and so couldn't do the Reunion). We got some funny stories - some we've all heard at cons dozens of times before, some new ones. I got Peter to tell the joke script story (he did a short version) - because I wanted to hear how/if it differed from JMS's telling, and Andreas's telling. Jason recited some poetry. Stephen talked about the time he had to throw up on Dr. Franklin (well, not exactly _on_ him, but I didn't want to nitpick). And, they all reminisced about Rick Biggs for a bit at the beginning of the panel. It was a very nice hour.
After that, I spent an hour arguing at a panel called "God vs. the Floppy Bunny," which was a Wonderfalls vs. Joan of Arcadia event.
Next up was the last Doctor Zathras panel, which we halfheartedly tried to limit to "Babylon 5 and Religion." People were dying to talk about "The Memory of Shadows," so I reminded them to come to our later, on-track panel: "Babylon 5: Where It's Been, Where It's Going, & Where You'd Like it to Go."
I spent some time in the dealers room and exhibition hall with friends, shopping. Then it was time for that last panel. The room was packed, again. People were clamoring for info about the film, and we were really happy to be able to announce the news about the Crusade DVD box set to them.
After that panel, I was done - I grabbed my stuff and took the MARTA train to the airport (and I'll never leave the con early again! I missed a Blake's 7 panel this morning! Grrr!)
Besides the B5 cast and Harlan and Peter, I had a fair number of fun celebrity encounters. Off the top of my head, I can recall riding the elevator (and when you're going to the 47th floor, riding the elevator is a significant chunk of time!) with June Lockhart, Jewel Staite (from Firefly), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, etc.). I had drinks with Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin (and got to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance in "Next of Kin," the film he did with Andreas). I walked past Dr. Demento on Saturday night, and yes, he was in his characteristic top hat! Those are the ones I can recall now. Oh, I also walked past Nathan Fillion of Firefly - once again, when I see people I know from film or tv, I'm struck by how much more attractive they are in person. It's like the camera doesn't just add ten pounds - it also seems to strip away some degree of their glamour. It's almost as if you have to be ethereally, incredibly beautiful to show up as attractive on screen. And Nathan, and Jewel and Adam as well, were really striking in person.
I guess that's about it. At some point, I'll get the energy to post some pictures. I woke up with a horrible cold, and no voice to speak of, and I feel really crappy - which obviously means I had a GREAT time at the con! :-D
Aisling
Thursday, I registered and just ran around seeing people and doing stuff, waiting for Jan to arrive. I helped poster the American SFTV track room - we had three B5 posters in there, including the old fan club ship recognition poster. Jan arrived pretty late on Thursday, so we decided to poster and flyer for our guerilla B5 track events the next morning.
Friday, we ran around the convention areas postering and flyering until panels started around 1. The first panel I went to was the needcoffee.com guys doing "Make the Bad Men Stop: Hollywood vs. Sci Fi" - this is a recurring panel, and every year they discuss what movies are being made of sci fi properties, and how much they're probably going to suck. I heard some interesting tales of preview showings of footage at other cons that drew a lot of ire from the crowds (Star Wars ep. 3, Constantine). It's just a great, hour-long snarkfest, and it was a fun way to kick off the con. And, I won a couple of DVDs (Predator, and the anniversary edition of Destroy All Monsters!).
Later that day Jan and I went down to the Walk of Fame and Artists' Alley to pester the cast members and Peter David about our social that night (and Jan filled them in about her fundraising efforts for the Biggs family). I gave flyers for the social to Peter Jurasik, Peter Woodward, Jason Carter, and Peter David. Then we found dinner somewhere, and went to Peter Woodward's Q&A.
Then it was time for the social. Jan and I had scheduled a Babylon 5 Diplomatic Mixer as the Friday night kickoff event for our guerilla track, "Doctor Zathras's Traveling Babylon 5 Medicine Show." We went to the hotel bar we'd chosen and advertised as the place for the social, and things started to go a little badly. They didn't seem to want to give us any tables, they didn't have a karaoke machine anymore (I was promised karaoke!), and they just seemed, in general, very unfriendly and unaccomodating. So there we were, in perhaps my least favorite kind of nightspot - a sports bar, smoky and loud and with sports on tvs all around us! I was sure the evening was going to be a disaster. Still, I put up the "Doctor Zathras" poster near the front of the bar, watched as Jan secured a table and sat down with the few others who'd already arrived, and went to get myself a drink...
And was pleasantly surprised to see Peter Jurasik come in! And then Jason... And then Peter Woodward. All three of them showed up to the social - you can't imagine how surprised and delighted we were! So, we bought them drinks, made sure they were comfortable, and starting socializing!
It was a long, bleary night, and I'm sure my recollection of events will be somewhat muddled, so I'll just say that a lovely time was had by all, and when I get some pictures from it (one of the people there was taking pictures and promised to e-mail them to me), I'll post them somewhere.
Peter W. only stayed for a little while, but Peter J. gave us a good chunk of time, and Jason was there the entire evening. A couple of choice recollections from the later, more lubricated part of the evening include talking about Jason's theory that Marcus is "Space Jesus," and Jason calling me a "wannabe pole-dancer." :-p
It was a _lot_ of fun, and a very nice feather in the cap of our guerilla track. As I said to Jan later that night, while we were basking in the glow of our success, "Does Doctor Zathras deliver, or _what_??!!" <g>
So that was Friday. Saturday, we went to an event that was supposed to be a panel with Harlan Ellison and Peter David called "In the Beginning was the Word" (about writing for television and film), but Harlan and Peter decided they wanted to sing instead. Seriously. So they did.
Then came the first of our two "official" (i.e. on the American SFTV track) panels: Babylon 5: Moments of Transition. We had a full room, and an hour of spirited discussion. Jan and I shared the panel with one of the track members, and John Snider, an editor at SciFi Dimensions (an online sf magazine).
Immediately after that, we had our first guerilla track panel, so I dashed over to the Marriott to secure a space in the tenth floor lounge. I think we had about a dozen people there, and we had an open discussion.
My next hour was spent at an Adult Swim event - some of the voice people were there, artists, musicians...and we even got Billy West! It was a great hour - if any of you are Adult Swim fans, we had Zorak there (C. Martin Croker), and Sealab 2021's Hesh (MC Chris)! George Lowe (Space Ghost, among other things) was at Dragon Con too, but he didn't come to the panel.
After that, I went down to the Trek Trak for "Enterprise: The Verdict," but I left after a half an hour. There was just nothing interesting being said. It wasn't that people were overly positive in that Star-Trek-fannish way; it's just that no one was saying anything of substance. That was pretty disappointing.
I spent a little time relaxing after that, because I'd planned to spend all night at needcoffee.com's Gonzo Film Fest. It was madness and fun, with giveaways, laughter, shouting, creepy 1970s ads (including one of OJ Simpson stumping for Big Brother), and even celebrity guests - Billy West and MC Chris were there to hang out and sign copies of stuff. I stayed at the Gonzo Film Fest until it was time for the Babylon 5 videos (and I won a bust of Marge Simpson for doing the best Marge impersonation). The B5 videos were supposed to show at 1 AM, but due to techincal difficulties it was more like 1:30 before they started. John Hudgens introduced each of them, and explained how he had come to make them. He started with the Richard Biggs tribute video, then ran all eight of his B5 ones, then ran the Biggs one again. There were a lot of tears in the audience.
By now, it was 2:30 AM, so I bailed on going back to the Gonzo Film Fest. Next year, I'm determined to stay all night! I think they ran until 6 AM this year...
On Sunday, I skipped the yearly Breakfast in the Village (the Brit Media track's Prisoner panel), and opted instead to get down to the Centennial ballroom early, to get a good seat for the B5 Reunion event. That was Jason, Peter J. and Stephen Austin (the Pak'ma'ra), but Peter Woodward did run in and shout a little bit for a few minutes (he was scheduled to be somewhere else at that time and so couldn't do the Reunion). We got some funny stories - some we've all heard at cons dozens of times before, some new ones. I got Peter to tell the joke script story (he did a short version) - because I wanted to hear how/if it differed from JMS's telling, and Andreas's telling. Jason recited some poetry. Stephen talked about the time he had to throw up on Dr. Franklin (well, not exactly _on_ him, but I didn't want to nitpick). And, they all reminisced about Rick Biggs for a bit at the beginning of the panel. It was a very nice hour.
After that, I spent an hour arguing at a panel called "God vs. the Floppy Bunny," which was a Wonderfalls vs. Joan of Arcadia event.
Next up was the last Doctor Zathras panel, which we halfheartedly tried to limit to "Babylon 5 and Religion." People were dying to talk about "The Memory of Shadows," so I reminded them to come to our later, on-track panel: "Babylon 5: Where It's Been, Where It's Going, & Where You'd Like it to Go."
I spent some time in the dealers room and exhibition hall with friends, shopping. Then it was time for that last panel. The room was packed, again. People were clamoring for info about the film, and we were really happy to be able to announce the news about the Crusade DVD box set to them.
After that panel, I was done - I grabbed my stuff and took the MARTA train to the airport (and I'll never leave the con early again! I missed a Blake's 7 panel this morning! Grrr!)
Besides the B5 cast and Harlan and Peter, I had a fair number of fun celebrity encounters. Off the top of my head, I can recall riding the elevator (and when you're going to the 47th floor, riding the elevator is a significant chunk of time!) with June Lockhart, Jewel Staite (from Firefly), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, etc.). I had drinks with Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin (and got to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance in "Next of Kin," the film he did with Andreas). I walked past Dr. Demento on Saturday night, and yes, he was in his characteristic top hat! Those are the ones I can recall now. Oh, I also walked past Nathan Fillion of Firefly - once again, when I see people I know from film or tv, I'm struck by how much more attractive they are in person. It's like the camera doesn't just add ten pounds - it also seems to strip away some degree of their glamour. It's almost as if you have to be ethereally, incredibly beautiful to show up as attractive on screen. And Nathan, and Jewel and Adam as well, were really striking in person.
I guess that's about it. At some point, I'll get the energy to post some pictures. I woke up with a horrible cold, and no voice to speak of, and I feel really crappy - which obviously means I had a GREAT time at the con! :-D
Aisling
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