Dragon*Con 2008

Dragon*Con 2008

Dragon*con 2008 coverage by:

What can you say about 30,000 freaks, geeks, and nerds gathered in one place over a long weekend? Nothing. Words pale. Especially, when, at any one time, nearly half are in costume. Costumes ranging from clever to obscene, intricate to kinky, skilled to tacky. I use the terms freaks, geeks, and nerds with affection as I am, to some degree, a bit of each. This year the Con expanded to a fourth hotel, the Sheraton, to go along with the Hyatt Regency, the Marriott Marquis, and the Hilton. The completion of the remodeling at the Marriott combined with the additional hotel meant that the Con was crowded, but less so than last year. None of the hotels had their access restricted by the Fire Marshall as happened several times in 2007.

Thursday:
I arrived early Thursday afternoon and immediately ran into an old friend from the Buffy fandom who asked if I wanted to work. I found myself assisting guests with checking in. Taking a break to register, I made one last attempt to secure press credentials, was denied, and so had a volunteer ribbon added to my badge. After seeing to it a number of guests got checked in, I headed to the Hyatt bar and took some pictures of those in costume. I had a nice chat with Peter Mayhew (who asked we not take pictures) on the smoking deck. Just small talk… nothing newsworthy. Eventually I met up with friends and called it a night around 1:00am.

Friday:
I attended a morning volunteer meeting and discovered I was working for Guest Operations which, along with Transportation and Security, is responsible for escorting the guests to and from the panels and the Walk Of Fame (where the autographs and pictures are done). I helped straighten out some other last minute volunteer registrations, ran into my friend Nikki who has a radio show called Lost Radio, helped her pick up her press credentials (made even one more attempt to get creds as her assistant, but failed), dragged her along to the Hyatt where we escorted Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk through the back ways of the hotel to their panel. I stayed through that panel then escorted Gigi Edgley and Virginia Hey to a Farscape panel. I made a pass through the Walk Of Fame and said hello to Mickey Dolenz and James Marsters, both of whom I had previously met and chatted with Yancy Butler. Later I met some friends and went to the first of the Buffy Singalongs, then joined another group of friends and members of the Colonial Fleet for an impromptu party.

Saturday:
After picking up the escort schedule I headed for the parade, but didn’t get a very good vantage point for pictures. The D*C parade is a unique institution in fandom conventions in that it closes a busy downtown section of a major city for more than an hour and a half with no breaks. It’s just one costumed fandom after another with some groups having vehicles and floats and the whole route is lined with spectators. There are zombies, the Colonial fleet, Stargate soldiers, Federation officers and Klingons, Middle Earthers, Harry Potter students and wizards, Browncoats and the 76th Brigade, gamers of all kinds, pirates, monsters, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and at least six Star Wars groups (Jedi, characters, X fighters, stormtroopers, bounty hunters and the Empire). And a dozen or so other groups I didn’t know or don’t remember. I spent the next ten hours escorting guests around the Hyatt; among them, James Hong, George Lowe, David Prowse, Kevin Sorbo, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Erin Gray, Yancy Butler, and the Ghosthunters. Had a late dinner with friends and went to the Colonial Fleet party (which a number of the actors attended) and the Firefly shindig. Then to another post-party impromptu party.

Sunday:
Checked in with Guest Ops and then swung by the Gamers Area where I saw a number of people who had gotten less sleep than me. I wanted to stick around to get the scoop on what the hot games were, but was called away to rush some last-minute replacement panelists to their destinations. Went back to the secret passages at the Hyatt where I met Sean Astin, Matthew Lewis, Lance Hendriksen, Yancy Butler (again), Eric Avari, Cliff Simon, Ami Dolenz and others. I had some time before the big Costume Contest, stopped by the Miss Klingon Contest, where I heard the 2007 winner (who did not repeat) tell a reporter “I’ll cut the head off the new winner and then I’ll have two crowns and a trophy”. I escorted the judges to the Costume Contest and then went to a friend’s crowded room where we watched the contest on TV and snarked on the costumes and (sometimes) lame skits.

Monday:
Worked the Walk Of Fame making sure guests got to their panels or transportation to the airport. Met my friends to say goodbye and headed for the airport around 2:00pm.

And, yes, I am signed up to be part of the staff for 2009.