Dragon*Con, 2005, was a blast! I had no idea it would be as totally rocking awesome as it was! I’ve already made reservations in one of the conference hotels for 2006 (the main hotel is already ENTIRELY sold out of rooms for that weekend).
Until now, I’ve been a purveyor of strict game cons; never a full-up sci-fi/fantasy/pop-cult convention. That has officially changed due to the sheer amount of fun I had last weekend. It was non stop, and the only mistake I made was not spending Friday night at one of the convention hotels. There is something quite amusing about walking down Peachtree Street in Atlanta on the way to Breakfast and seeing a Stormtrooper, followed by a Klingon, cross the road.
A brief list of what I did at this Con: A reading by Robert Jordan from Knife of Dreams; A reading by Anne and Todd McCaffrey from the new Pern book; A reading by Peter Beagle from his new book; A talk by Richard Hatch ostensibly about Battlestar Galactica, but really about the Philosophy of Richard Hatch (man does that guy like to hear himself talk); A Q&A session by Tricia Helfer concerning Battlestar and her character and about working with everyone else on the set; The Dawn lookalike contest; concerts by Belle Morte, Cruxshadows, and Combichrist; The art show; lots of gaming; playing Are You a Werewolf? (a lot); staring at people; ogling costumes; watching the parade down Peachtree; admiring the opposite sex; getting photographed with my Noodly Appendage T-shirt on; running into Lou Ferrigno on Sunday morning in the elevator with him looking much the worse for wear; getting robbed by the Hyatt (bring your own booze); watching the Killer Robots play; Blowing up the USS New Jersey!
People Met and Spoken with: Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time), Tricia Helfer (#6 from Battlestar Galactica), Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk), Mike Lewandowski (the Man)
People Met and Watched: Anne McCaffrey (Pern), Todd McCaffrey (Pern), Richard Hatch (Apollo on Old Battlestar, Zarek on New), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek), Peter Beagle (The Last Unicorn)
People Seen: James & Oliver Phelps (Harry Potter), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Margaret Weis (Dragonlance), Dick Gordon (Apollo 12)
The list just keeps going. That is maybe half of the people I recognized. The dude who played Chewbacca was there. Young Boba Fett was there. Darrell Sweet was there. So many people were there!
The 501st Legion, A.K.A. “Vader’s Fist”, put in a showing and did some charity work, collecting money for the Red Cross to aid Katrina victims.
It is now my goal to convince as many of my friends who don’t live here to get their butts down to Atlanta for next year’s Dragon*Con. I’ll be there, and I hope they will be, too.
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