Dragoness Eclectic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dragoness_e) wrote2010-09-22 12:03 pm
dragoness_e) wrote2010-09-22 12:03 pm
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Dragon*Con: Saturday
Saturday was a very tiring day. Okay, they were all tiring days; just because the hotels and the mall food court were all connected indoors by pedestrian walkways did not mean they weren't sprawled over four city blocks. They were, and my feet felt it! All three days I had to go back to our hotel (which was another 3-4 blocks away) in the early afternoon and collapse for a while.
This was also the day Becky wore her Azula costume, and the big ATLA photo shoot (which will be in another post. Also, lots of costumes (another post).
Becky posing in her Azula costume at the hotel room
Azula the surly
Trying out her 'evil Azula' expression
At the Con, Becky went off to do her thing and I wandered around snapping photos of cool-looking costumes. I had a backpack loaded with my spending money, my camera, and books to be signed by various authors if I could find them. Though the backpack was convenient, it got quite heavy real fast; I ended up sitting down a lot. Or putting the backpack down.
I got Timothy Zahn to autograph the last book of the Admiral Thrawn trilogy for Becky; she's been bringing the series one book at a time each year to get it signed. There were lots of people with interesting costumes standing in line, and I got some pictures of them (See Saturday costume post).
Saturday was much, much busier than Friday.
See hordes filling lobby!
Also the smell from that popcorn machine in the foreground drove me nuts everytime I was on that floor. It smelled so good!
See hordes filling escalators!
Eventually time for the Avatar the Last Airbender (elsewhere referred to as ATLA) costume photoshoot rolled around and I joined Becky for that up on the 10th floor of.. whichever hotel it was. Becky had found one of her friends from Atlanta, Heather, aka Heatherbeast, the microbiology researcher at the CDC. When she's not studying microbiology and bacteriology, she is or was a serious Transformers fan, artist, and roleplayer ;-)
Becky and Heatherbeast
After the ATLA costume photoshoot (another post), I was dead tired and headed back for my midday collapse. The streets of downtown Atlanta thronged with Dragon*Con attendees, and Atlanta seems delighted to have them. I didn't get up to see the Saturday morning Dragon*Con Parade through the streets, but apparently locals drive in from the suburbs just to see it. It's like having Mardi Gras in September.
Intersection two blocks from my hotel
I briefly caught up with Becky and Sharon (her other Atlanta friend) at the food court.
Becky and Sharon blur by at Peachtree Center Mall food court
Becky is not the only one eating in costume
It was so busy, there weren't enough tables and chairs to seat everyone, so people just pulled up the nearest piece of empty floor that wasn't in the way.
Jedi and steampunk friend eating lunch
I've mentioned the pedestrian walkways between the hotels and the hotels and the mall, right?
Pedestrian walkway
I think this next one is in Marriot Two, on the way to the mall food court.
That afternoon I sat in on two of Aaron Allston's writing workshops, which were useful and informative. I got the chance between workshops to go up and say hello to Aaron, and tell him how much we enjoyed his various books and that "Lands of Mystery", his analysis of the Lost World Romance genre for the purpose of designing RPG adventures in that genre, really rocked. He was quite pleased, and said that even 25 years later, he still considers that book one of his best works. Next year, I hope I remember to bring our copy to get it autographed.
There were some nice costumes on some of my fellow would-be (or actual) writers, too. I first arrived in the back with Snape, here:
A very nice Severus Snape (from the Harry Potter books)
This drow priestess was sitting and taking notes next to me all workshops. There's something slightly incongruous about seeing one of Dungeon & Dragon's evil spider-worshipping dark elves sitting down and writing in a spiral-bound notebook for an hour.
Drow priestess costume
Unfortunately her facepaint had gotten a bit washed out from perspiration over the course of the day; when I originally spotted her in the hotel lobby hours ago, it was much darker. (More drow in the costume post next time).
More crowds, Marriot Marquis hotel
I recognize this as being at the upper level lobby, where the main bar is.
Lower level lobby, from the escalator
Ditto
Fortunately the back halls where the various panels and workshops were held weren't nearly so busy. They were an oasis of calm at the periphery of the chaos in the lobby.
I wandered around taking pictures of costumes and tried to get into the Dealer/Exhibitor Halls, but they were insanely crowded and I just couldn't handle it. I had better luck Sunday, when the crowd had thinned out enough to actually let one move. I vaguely remember attending some panels late that afternoon or evening; I'd have to look at my rather dog-eared and tattered schedule to tell you what they were. I know there was another writing panel, which are the main thing I hit, though costuming panels are also interesting me. I tried to catch up with Jim Butcher to get one of his books signed, but the lines waiting to see him were ridiculous, so I never did manage that. I don't have the patience to wait in line for hours just to get an autograph, sorry.
Late evening the crowds started getting a bit rowdy and stupid, as the bars have been open all afternoon and evening, so I headed back, being dead tired, not having any more panels I wanted to attend that much, and not wanting to deal with stupid drunks in costume. Pretty much that happened each day of the Con; I didn't stay out late, which surprised me. Too tired by that point.
Still to come: Saturday costumes, ATLA photoshoot
This was also the day Becky wore her Azula costume, and the big ATLA photo shoot (which will be in another post. Also, lots of costumes (another post).
Becky posing in her Azula costume at the hotel room
Azula the surly
Trying out her 'evil Azula' expression
At the Con, Becky went off to do her thing and I wandered around snapping photos of cool-looking costumes. I had a backpack loaded with my spending money, my camera, and books to be signed by various authors if I could find them. Though the backpack was convenient, it got quite heavy real fast; I ended up sitting down a lot. Or putting the backpack down.
I got Timothy Zahn to autograph the last book of the Admiral Thrawn trilogy for Becky; she's been bringing the series one book at a time each year to get it signed. There were lots of people with interesting costumes standing in line, and I got some pictures of them (See Saturday costume post).
Saturday was much, much busier than Friday.
See hordes filling lobby!
Also the smell from that popcorn machine in the foreground drove me nuts everytime I was on that floor. It smelled so good!
See hordes filling escalators!
Eventually time for the Avatar the Last Airbender (elsewhere referred to as ATLA) costume photoshoot rolled around and I joined Becky for that up on the 10th floor of.. whichever hotel it was. Becky had found one of her friends from Atlanta, Heather, aka Heatherbeast, the microbiology researcher at the CDC. When she's not studying microbiology and bacteriology, she is or was a serious Transformers fan, artist, and roleplayer ;-)
Becky and Heatherbeast
After the ATLA costume photoshoot (another post), I was dead tired and headed back for my midday collapse. The streets of downtown Atlanta thronged with Dragon*Con attendees, and Atlanta seems delighted to have them. I didn't get up to see the Saturday morning Dragon*Con Parade through the streets, but apparently locals drive in from the suburbs just to see it. It's like having Mardi Gras in September.
Intersection two blocks from my hotel
I briefly caught up with Becky and Sharon (her other Atlanta friend) at the food court.
Becky and Sharon blur by at Peachtree Center Mall food court
Becky is not the only one eating in costume
It was so busy, there weren't enough tables and chairs to seat everyone, so people just pulled up the nearest piece of empty floor that wasn't in the way.
Jedi and steampunk friend eating lunch
I've mentioned the pedestrian walkways between the hotels and the hotels and the mall, right?
Pedestrian walkway
I think this next one is in Marriot Two, on the way to the mall food court.
That afternoon I sat in on two of Aaron Allston's writing workshops, which were useful and informative. I got the chance between workshops to go up and say hello to Aaron, and tell him how much we enjoyed his various books and that "Lands of Mystery", his analysis of the Lost World Romance genre for the purpose of designing RPG adventures in that genre, really rocked. He was quite pleased, and said that even 25 years later, he still considers that book one of his best works. Next year, I hope I remember to bring our copy to get it autographed.
There were some nice costumes on some of my fellow would-be (or actual) writers, too. I first arrived in the back with Snape, here:
A very nice Severus Snape (from the Harry Potter books)
This drow priestess was sitting and taking notes next to me all workshops. There's something slightly incongruous about seeing one of Dungeon & Dragon's evil spider-worshipping dark elves sitting down and writing in a spiral-bound notebook for an hour.
Drow priestess costume
Unfortunately her facepaint had gotten a bit washed out from perspiration over the course of the day; when I originally spotted her in the hotel lobby hours ago, it was much darker. (More drow in the costume post next time).
More crowds, Marriot Marquis hotel
I recognize this as being at the upper level lobby, where the main bar is.
Lower level lobby, from the escalator
Ditto
Fortunately the back halls where the various panels and workshops were held weren't nearly so busy. They were an oasis of calm at the periphery of the chaos in the lobby.
I wandered around taking pictures of costumes and tried to get into the Dealer/Exhibitor Halls, but they were insanely crowded and I just couldn't handle it. I had better luck Sunday, when the crowd had thinned out enough to actually let one move. I vaguely remember attending some panels late that afternoon or evening; I'd have to look at my rather dog-eared and tattered schedule to tell you what they were. I know there was another writing panel, which are the main thing I hit, though costuming panels are also interesting me. I tried to catch up with Jim Butcher to get one of his books signed, but the lines waiting to see him were ridiculous, so I never did manage that. I don't have the patience to wait in line for hours just to get an autograph, sorry.
Late evening the crowds started getting a bit rowdy and stupid, as the bars have been open all afternoon and evening, so I headed back, being dead tired, not having any more panels I wanted to attend that much, and not wanting to deal with stupid drunks in costume. Pretty much that happened each day of the Con; I didn't stay out late, which surprised me. Too tired by that point.
Still to come: Saturday costumes, ATLA photoshoot