Missy's Corner

So Youtube allows someone to set a link for a start point, but not and end point. All of the time links here are for the start of the segment and the video will keep playing through!

The Highlights:

Part 1:
00:27-00:47 Actual start of the parade
00:55-01:23 Aliens
01:26-01:45 Predators
01:52-03:47 Superheros
03:48-04:25 Seed & Feed Marching Abomniable
05:12 Six Flags Guy
05:15-05:42 Lord of the Rings
05:56-06:14 Battlestar Galactica
06:15-06:19 Speed Racer in the Mach 5
06:35-06:41 Lady Gagas
06:42-06:52 The STIG
06:53-08:20 Dr. Who
08:21-09:04 Pirates (Arrrrgh!)
09:05-09:08 Double Rainbow Guy
09:19-10:20 Random Video/Computer game characters
11:33-11:43 Flying Spaghetti Monster
11:46-12:40 Endless Ghostbusters
12:41-14:07 Steampunk
14:09-14:40 Mad Max Wolf Pack

Part 2:
00:05-00:45 Browncoats (Firefly, and that isn't a chicken, its Jayne's Hat)
00:45-01:03 The Periodic Table
01:04-01:11 Kevin Sorbo (Hercules)
01:12-01:33 300 DC
01:37-02:50 Television and Movie characters
02:51-04:09 Star Trek
04:10-04:39 Halo
04:40-05:42 Characters from Young Adult Literature/Film/Television
05:42-06:11 Back to the Future
06:11-06:13 Captain Planet
06:14-End Star Wars

Ever wonder what it would be like to walk around the Death Star from "Star Wars" or the Enterprise from "Star Trek"? Maybe it was your childhood dream to become a superhero and join the likes of Batman, Superman, and the rest of the Justice League in their "Halls of Justice"? This past Labor day weekend, Mister and I got to experience all the wonders of Sci-Fi in the heart of Downtown Atlanta! We got our chance to hobnob with Stormtroopers, superheros, and Trekkers from all over the globe at Dragon*Con!

I'm sure you've heard of Comic-Con in San Diego or Mega-Con in Orlando, but every labor day weekend, the city of Atlanta is inundated with science fiction geeks/fans/nerds for Dragon*Con. They invade the Hyatt, the Marriott Marquis, the Hilton, the Sheraton, and the Westin hotels as well as Peachtree Street and Marta. The past four years Mister and I have said to each other "Let's go!" and something deterred us; but, this year we made the commitment and we were glad we did! Usually, one can pre-register for badges through the year for varying prices, depending on how much time there is left before the blessed event. However, with all the craziness that was wedding planning (don't worry, once I get pictures there will be a post!) and making sure the shebang went off with out a hitch, both of us completely forgot life continued after! So, taking a look at the panels scheduled and panelists billed to show up, we decided to go buy our 4-day passes at the hotel (i.e. Missy goes early Friday morning for tickets and panels and Mister will meet her after work). Here's where the wacky weekend story begins!

On Friday, tickets went on sale at 8am at the Atlanta Sheraton, and after an early morning MARTA ride, I pulled a "Missy and got lost," twice. First, I missed my exit station and went one farther north then necessary, then what I thought was a straight shot to the hotel was blocked by courtyards and locked buildings (yay!). After being put on the right path, I still wasn't sure if I was heading in the right direction; there was barely anyone walking around, everyone was business casually dressed, and heading in the opposite direction of where I was told to go. Finally, like a beacon on the horizon, the Sheraton came into view, and slowly the business casual became nerdy tee-shirts with witty sayings! I knew I was heading in the right direction when I saw Inuyasha and Miroku (two anime characters) walking towards the hotel.



I turned the corner and WHAM! I saw a line that was about 5 people wide and went on, literally forever, outside the building. Tickets had only been on sale for 30 minutes when I got there! I asked someone who was a volunteer where the line ended, "Oh, the line starts here outside then goes around the building, into the parking garage, around a level in the parking garage and back out. Good Luck!" (*o*) That's the look I had on my face! As I'm searching for the end of the line another lady informed me that if you didn't pre-register go right on in! PHEW, was I glad we forgot to register! I heard stories from people who waited 5 hours in that line; not that the line inside was any better, I waited almost two hours for these:



Now I had our all access passes to go and do whatever we wanted! We did all types of panels over the four day fiesta. We went to lectures, Q&A's, discussions, and even a beauty pageant! The first lecture I went to and then Mister joined me for a second, was all about Steampunk. For those of you who don't know what Steampunk is, think of it as the modern world stuck in the Victorian/steam age but with the technological advances of today. Didn't help any? How about this, in the early 1800's steam as a source of energy was lending a hand to the industrial revolution. Consumer goods like clothes and other textiles were being massed produced for the first time. The Victorian Age was a time of wonder and advancement and everyone had this Utopian idea of what steam could do. Once the first World War came about and people realized that mass production was capable of creating horrific weaponry of mass destruction, the world kind of took a step back. In the 1960's a group of science fiction writers started looking back on the Victorian Age and said "What if?" The best example of the beginnings of Steampunk can be found in the 1960's television show "The Wild Wild West," and a more modern sense of the concept in the recent movie remake. Another good example is Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" Here are just a couple of pictures of what Steampunk looks like:



While the concept of Steampunk is really cool, Mister and I agreed sitting through lectures wasn't something we wanted to do all weekend; we made our way to the various Q&A sessions, where stars from Sci-Fi shows, movies, and other media answered some great questions and had an overall blast, usually at the audiences' or fellow panelists' expense! On Friday, by myself I saw three Q&A's: Battlestar Galactica with Mark Sheppard, Richard Hatch, Aaron Douglas, and James Edward Olmos; Babylon 5 with Claudia Christian and Jason Carter; and Firefly with Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, and a prank call by Nathan Fillion.

On Saturday Mister and I started our day bright and early to try and get downtown in time for the Dragon*Con Parade at 10am. We crammed ourselves like sardines into the MARTA train and came up at the Peachtree center station around 9:30 to see throngs of people lining both sides of the street. Up and down, through crosswalks, sitting on building stoops, watching from hotel balconies were an estimated 30,000 people! I managed to get the parade footage down from 35 minutes to 25 in two parts; for specific highlights click here for the list.

Part 1:



Part 2:




Mister and I also saw the best group of panels all weekend, in my opinion, on Saturday. After quietly sneaking out of the morning Steampunk lecture, we grabbed lunch at a very swamped Quizno's, where we ate next to Mr. Green, from CLUE with the lead pipe! Then it was time to head off to the first panel of the day, TNG: Adventures in the 24th Century, featuring Armin Shimerman, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Johnathan Frakes, and Denise Crosby, with about an hour to spare. Now, for this story, its important to know how the panels work for Dragon*Con. There are one hour panels from 10am to 2:30am with 30 minutes in between to get from one hotel to another; attendees were not allowed to start a line for a panel until 90 minutes before the start time. Well, when Mister and I got to the Sheraton Hotel for this panel, the line was all ready wrapped all the way around the level, down a set of stairs that lead out a service door and around the corner! By the time they started letting us in, the line went almost all the way around the building! The panel was in one of the largest rooms at the Sheraton and they still had to turn away people who waited in that line.



Oh man was that an amazing panel, despite the fact that Denise walked off when she couldn't take the jokes anymore. I grew up watching these people on television "boldly [going] where no one has gone before!" The most wonderful part of the panel were the kids that had really good questions; it made my heart warm knowing, despite all the new, cool, CGI, sci-fi shows, the classics still live on through the younger generations. When asked "Did you know that this show was going to affect the lives of so many people?" the panelists had the most honest answer, "No, I was just an actor who took a job. We are only sitting here today because of you, the audience!"

From one amazing panel to the next two, first up the father of comics himself, Stan Lee. Another wonderful person I attribute my love for anything sci-fi. As a kid, my dad and I used to sit and read all the old Fantastic Four comics which introduced me to the world of graphic art. Now, I'll admit, I am not really a Marvel fan, but this man was the reason comic books and action heroes became popular! For a man who is almost 90, he sure is keeping busy! Mr. Lee's got a whole bunch of cameo roles in upcoming television shows and movies (be on the look out in The Avengers, Thor, and possibly Ant Man!).


Luckily for Mister and I, the next panel Battlestar Galactica, was in the same hotel and ballroom. I got to see all the guys from Friday's panel again with two added bonuses: 1. I was much closer to the front of the room, and 2. Rekha Sharma was there. The best Q&A of the night was asked by some guy dressed as the silver age Namor but I only remember Rekha's answer, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear a word of your question because this guy is in his underwear!"



On Sunday, Mister and I were smarter! On the agenda was the First Annual Miss Star Trek Universe Pageant in the same room as the TNG panel. We didn't want to wait around the corner again, so we blew off whatever we had planned for the hour before and got in line a whole 90 minutes early. It paid off, we sat about four rows back and to the right of the stage. The MC for the hour was the very hilarious Garrett Wang from Voyager and the judges were Rene Auberjonois, James Cawley, Robert Beltran, Robert O'Reilly, and J. G. Hertzler. There were Klingon contestants and crew members, from the classic Trek, TNG, and Voyager, as well as a sexy slave girl!



While we did go into the city on Monday, the weekend was obviously wrapping up. Gone were the costumed crusaders gallivanting around; gone were the lines for panels, and in some cases even panelists! Mister and I took this opportunity to walk around the exhibit halls a little bit. There were booths for everything, tee-shirts with witty statements, utiliti-kilts, corsets, toys that have never been played with; you name it, they had it! Mister got a tee-shirt and some DVDs while I got some cute buttons, a tee-shirt, and a Kon!

So, 10 things I have learned from my first Dragon*Con:

1. Spandex can only be pulled off by a special man
2. That awesome, witty shirt you bought will be all over the place
3. Utility Kilts are "in" with the nerd crowd
4. As the day goes on, the amount of fabric that constitutes a "costume" shrinks
5. Despite there being 30,000 people in a small area you will see:
a. The same group of people following you around to every panel
b. The one-of-a-kind, handmade costumed person every day (i.e. a woman dressed as R2-D2)
c. Your gym neighbor that you never talk to
6. I could make a fortune selling Jayne's freaking hat!
7. Sometimes it is worth waiting in a line that goes around the hotel floor, down the stairs, out the doors, around two corners, for an hour.
8. If the panel has something to do with Star Trek, get there almost 2 hours early and hang tight.
9. The Green Slave girls will always win pageants
10. Sometimes, men make great heroine costumes and women make great hero costumes (examples: Male Chun-Li and Female Iron Men)

I hope you were able to live Dragon*Con vicariously through this post and will join Mister, Me, and the 30,000 people for next year's Con. I'm all ready working on costumes! Enjoy the rest of the costumes in the last slide show!