Dragon*Con Thursday/Friday
Sep. 22nd, 2009 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jainaSooooo late with writing this, as always. But here's Thursday and Friday of Dragon*Con!
The short short version:
- MARY MCDONNELL. I got to ask a question and she said she liked my Roslin '08 shirt! (OMG.)
- Dragon*Con loves Disney characters: "Yo, Jafar is the shit!"
- Being a Sgt Pepper groupie was SO MUCH FUN EEEEE.
- Mad costume changes-- groupie, cheerleader, groupie, cheerleader
- Inducting Steve Sansweet as an honorary Rebel cheerleader
Flights out on Thursday went smoothly, thank God. I was a bit worried because we had a super tight connection in Denver and if we missed it there were no more flights till the next day, but everything was right on schedule. Checked three bags, each between 48 and 50 pounds—is it scary that we’re getting pretty good at judging how close a bag is to 50 lbs just by picking it up? Rogue carried on his Jafar hat; that got a lot of funny looks and comments (and a cheer from some D*C-bound folks on our DEN-ATL flight). Best reaction was at ATL baggage claim, where a group of young gentlemen (Liz Lemon: “Youths!”) spotted the hat sitting on our suitcase and started saying things like, “Yo, that’s Jafar’s hat, man! That is sick!” MARTA to downtown, checked in without incident, unpacked, called down to the front desk for more hangers, asleep by 2 am.
Up again at 8 am! Rob and Jenni arrived just as we were finishing getting ready, so the four of us went over to the Sheraton to pick up our badges. Lines were still very long, though not as long as Thursday night, apparently. It took us about an hour and a half to get through, Rob and Jenni a bit longer since they were Ticketmaster. Rogue and I took turns going over and registering for Thriller (numbers 186 and 187, woo!) and watching the Thriller teaching videos on my iPod. About an hour into waiting, someone blew up a beach ball and it got batted all around the room. The first time it hit the chandelier (making a lovely wind-chime noise), a huge roar went up from the masses in line. The second time, a voice came over the loudspeaker: “If you hit the chandelier again, I will take your ball away and pop it.” Look guys, you cram a bunch of fairly intelligent people in a room with nothing to do for hours on end, they *will* find ways to entertain themselves. How come they don’t screen D*C TV in the registration rooms? At least then people stuck in line could’ve watched Nimoy and Shatner.
We got lucky and there was no one in the line for our section of the alphabet, so we had a much shorter wait than the poor people with A-C last names. And this year our registration volunteer didn’t have a broken arm (although he had a very hard time finding our names in the book: hint, “i” comes after “a” and “e” in the vowels of the alphabet). But we got out with enough time to make it upstairs for the Mary McDonnell panel, which was the one thing I wanted to see most of everything. The room wasn’t even half-full—not even a third full! She was RIGHT THERE. The panel was supposed to be MM and EJO, but EJO had to cancel (SADFACE) so they sent Michael Hogan instead. On the one hand, OMG SAD SO SAD that there was no OTP actor reunion. On the other hand, I might’ve melted into a gibbering puddle of fangirl if they really had both been there, with no other castmembers, that close to me. It would’ve been worth it though…*sniff*
ANYWAY. MM did try calling EJO on her cell, but he didn’t pick up. We left him a message! It was a great panel, more intimate-feeling than most, since we were all sitting so close to her. About halfway through I got up to ask a question, and I got to ask it after about a 10 minute wait! Yay small panels! (Apparently![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
suenix was waving at me while I was in line but I totally didn’t see her cause I was focusing so hard on remembering my question and *not* sounding like a crazed fangirl the way I did last time I asked a panel question.)
When I got to the mike, MM said she liked the Roslin ’08 t-shirt I was wearing. EEEEE!!! I asked if she could talk a bit about how they physically showed Roslin’s decline in S4, with the wig and the bald caps and scarves and all, if that affected her performance, etc. I believe she said she didn’t consciously think about it influencing how she acted, but that it *automatically* did. She also said she’d gotten a lot of very touching responses from women with breast cancer who’d lost their hair due to their treatments. There was more to her answer but I totally can’t remember now!
After the panel, we went with Rob and Jenni to lunch (mmm Chick-Fil-A) then back to the room to get into Maleficent and Jafar for the 2 pm Disney photoshoot. Rrrrrgh, I really need more practice with applying makeup; it took me much longer than I intended. I did successfully wax down my eyebrows though. Go me. We were late leaving, but it turned out to be a good thing—as we were about to start walking to the agreed-upon location, we ran into a few other folks who told us the location had changed to the 10th floor of the Marriott. If we hadn’t run into them, I don’t think we ever would have found the shoot. They had a whole fancy setup with those umbrella lights and everything! We did different group shots, then I took some pictures of Rogue with the Aladdin, and Kell and I got some pictures as Maleficent and Aurora. My super-cool staff that Rogue made me fell over and the crystal ball popped off, though. Boo.
We decided to stay in costume and walk around the Marriott with Rob and Jenni for awhile, since we’d gone through all the effort to actually get into costume. That meant no more panels for the day, but eh, whatever. Attempting to get down to the lobby, the doors opened on a very intimidating elevator! We were like, “Uh, we’ll take the next one.”
We ended up getting a lot of pictures taken of us! Plenty of love for Disney out there at D*C. Rogue overheard comments like, “Dude, Jafar is the shit!” and “Jafar is fuckin’ awesome!” I had a very nice lady come up and thank me for making a Maleficent costume that “didn’t look store-bought,” since that was her favorite Disney villain. Awww, warm villainous fuzzies. People kept asking if Iago talked, so apparently we should do some stuffed-animal surgery for next time. We encountered another Sleeping Beauty group (including a Maleficent) and took pictures with them; we also found another Jafar who’d left the skirt of his robe at home but didn’t let that stop him from dressing up! Also I dropped our camera and the LCD screen broke. Camera still worked, but we couldn't see what we were taking pictures of. Rogue did a pretty great job taking pictures the rest of the weekend even with that handicap, though.
Oh funny story! I ran into Cassandra down on the floor and we went up to her room so I could get our Party Vader Vator badges. I mentioned that I was borrowing a dress frompenwiper337 to be a Sgt. Pepper groupie that night, and she said, “Oh, she’s two doors down from me! You should go knock on her door and get it now!” Keep in mind, I had never met Gen before this point, only corresponded by LJ comments, and I was in full Maleficent rig. But I gamely went two doors over, knocked, and could tell someone was walking up to the peephole. There was a long pause, and then the door opened very cautiously, and I immediately blurted, “Hi I’m Caitlin I’m borrowing a dress from you tonight???” and Gen said, “Oh of course, hi!” and after that it was all fine. But it was pretty funny there for a minute.
I’m trying to think of who else we ran into on the floor…rajsmith and laughingmagpie for sure. I know we met macbeemer and jigglykat as the aunts from Pushing Daisies. Maggie? Anyone else remember seeing us as Maleficent and Jafar?
For dinner, I stripped down (woohoo) to my Maleficent cheerleader outfit. That got some funny reactions at the food court. Now brace yourself, cause this is a little crazy, but we did *not* eat at Chick-Fil-A! LE GASP. We had Moe’s, one of those Chipotle-like places (except with better rice, THAT’S RIGHT I SAID IT), and Jenni and I both had tasty quesadillas. I'm pretty sure that after dinner we met up withdm_lunsford, who was wearing her very first Stargate costume ever, Dr. Janet Frasier! (Michelle, is that right? Was I green when we met you on Friday?) Rogue had made a couple of quick additions to his regular SG uniform so that the two of them could take pictures as Daniel and Janet. Then after a shower to get rid of the green makeup, I went 60s-tacular to be a Sgt. Pepper groupie in my AWESOME borrowed vintage dress from penwiper337. Everyone was getting ready in Maggie and Michelle’s room, which always leads to hilarity and awesomeness, and in this case, to a new band name: Mustache Meltdown. Gen lent me some spectacular matching earrings, and also gave me a pair of fake eyelashes and put them on me, because as previously stated, she is awesome.
At 10 I had to change into my Rebel cheerleader and go to the 10th floor so we could make Steve Sansweet an honorary cheerleader and give him a megaphone, and another one to take back for Mary. Then I ran to the other side of the 10th floor and changed *back* into Pepper groupie (with everyone forming a human shield around me so I could change, although SOME people were getting kinda handsy, not naming names PAUL MCCARTNEY) and we took pictures (ohmygod it's THE BEATLES!!!) and did THRILLER DANCE in costume for Janine's video! YES!
Back down to the atrium, we attempted to make our way to the Hyatt for the Evening in Bree party so that Mel could see the Pepper people (and they could see her) but kept getting stopped for pictures. Solution: Pepper conga line! Groupie up front (me), groupie in the back (Gen, to keep Ringo from wandering off), everyone else sandwiched in between, move assertively, and DO NOT STOP! It worked AMAZINGLY well. We did have to make a stop in the ladies' room, and even there the Peppers were getting asked to pose for pictures. It's tough to be famous. We successfully arrived in Bree, saw Mel and heard some really touching tributes to her, then back to the Marriott to walk around together for awhile.
Eventually the Peppers decided to change out, so I went up with them to give Gen back her dress and earrings and help Maggie get her wig off (LOL), then got *back* into my Rebel cheerleader to go back down to the floor. We ran into Eurobeat King, who got a great action shot of my Rebel cheerleader. GO REBELS! Oh, and we sawscruffyrebel as part of the Spice Girls! They were terrific, and Victoria's "Posh look" is waaaaay better than mine. Ooooh, I know I'm forgetting other stuff that happened Friday night. I really wanted to see Kathy and Cassandra and their secret group costume, but missed them completely. I found out later they made the costumes from the Lady Marmalade music video and then I was REALLY sad that I missed them. :( I missed Dawn too! In fact I never saw Dawn the entire weekend, which is just NOT ON. I believe a group of us gathered on the 10th floor to hang out somewhere quiet for awhile, but we were in bed by 2 am, because I was doing the parade in the morning!
The short short version:
- MARY MCDONNELL. I got to ask a question and she said she liked my Roslin '08 shirt! (OMG.)
- Dragon*Con loves Disney characters: "Yo, Jafar is the shit!"
- Being a Sgt Pepper groupie was SO MUCH FUN EEEEE.
- Mad costume changes-- groupie, cheerleader, groupie, cheerleader
- Inducting Steve Sansweet as an honorary Rebel cheerleader
Flights out on Thursday went smoothly, thank God. I was a bit worried because we had a super tight connection in Denver and if we missed it there were no more flights till the next day, but everything was right on schedule. Checked three bags, each between 48 and 50 pounds—is it scary that we’re getting pretty good at judging how close a bag is to 50 lbs just by picking it up? Rogue carried on his Jafar hat; that got a lot of funny looks and comments (and a cheer from some D*C-bound folks on our DEN-ATL flight). Best reaction was at ATL baggage claim, where a group of young gentlemen (Liz Lemon: “Youths!”) spotted the hat sitting on our suitcase and started saying things like, “Yo, that’s Jafar’s hat, man! That is sick!” MARTA to downtown, checked in without incident, unpacked, called down to the front desk for more hangers, asleep by 2 am.
Up again at 8 am! Rob and Jenni arrived just as we were finishing getting ready, so the four of us went over to the Sheraton to pick up our badges. Lines were still very long, though not as long as Thursday night, apparently. It took us about an hour and a half to get through, Rob and Jenni a bit longer since they were Ticketmaster. Rogue and I took turns going over and registering for Thriller (numbers 186 and 187, woo!) and watching the Thriller teaching videos on my iPod. About an hour into waiting, someone blew up a beach ball and it got batted all around the room. The first time it hit the chandelier (making a lovely wind-chime noise), a huge roar went up from the masses in line. The second time, a voice came over the loudspeaker: “If you hit the chandelier again, I will take your ball away and pop it.” Look guys, you cram a bunch of fairly intelligent people in a room with nothing to do for hours on end, they *will* find ways to entertain themselves. How come they don’t screen D*C TV in the registration rooms? At least then people stuck in line could’ve watched Nimoy and Shatner.
We got lucky and there was no one in the line for our section of the alphabet, so we had a much shorter wait than the poor people with A-C last names. And this year our registration volunteer didn’t have a broken arm (although he had a very hard time finding our names in the book: hint, “i” comes after “a” and “e” in the vowels of the alphabet). But we got out with enough time to make it upstairs for the Mary McDonnell panel, which was the one thing I wanted to see most of everything. The room wasn’t even half-full—not even a third full! She was RIGHT THERE. The panel was supposed to be MM and EJO, but EJO had to cancel (SADFACE) so they sent Michael Hogan instead. On the one hand, OMG SAD SO SAD that there was no OTP actor reunion. On the other hand, I might’ve melted into a gibbering puddle of fangirl if they really had both been there, with no other castmembers, that close to me. It would’ve been worth it though…*sniff*
ANYWAY. MM did try calling EJO on her cell, but he didn’t pick up. We left him a message! It was a great panel, more intimate-feeling than most, since we were all sitting so close to her. About halfway through I got up to ask a question, and I got to ask it after about a 10 minute wait! Yay small panels! (Apparently
suenix was waving at me while I was in line but I totally didn’t see her cause I was focusing so hard on remembering my question and *not* sounding like a crazed fangirl the way I did last time I asked a panel question.) When I got to the mike, MM said she liked the Roslin ’08 t-shirt I was wearing. EEEEE!!! I asked if she could talk a bit about how they physically showed Roslin’s decline in S4, with the wig and the bald caps and scarves and all, if that affected her performance, etc. I believe she said she didn’t consciously think about it influencing how she acted, but that it *automatically* did. She also said she’d gotten a lot of very touching responses from women with breast cancer who’d lost their hair due to their treatments. There was more to her answer but I totally can’t remember now!
After the panel, we went with Rob and Jenni to lunch (mmm Chick-Fil-A) then back to the room to get into Maleficent and Jafar for the 2 pm Disney photoshoot. Rrrrrgh, I really need more practice with applying makeup; it took me much longer than I intended. I did successfully wax down my eyebrows though. Go me. We were late leaving, but it turned out to be a good thing—as we were about to start walking to the agreed-upon location, we ran into a few other folks who told us the location had changed to the 10th floor of the Marriott. If we hadn’t run into them, I don’t think we ever would have found the shoot. They had a whole fancy setup with those umbrella lights and everything! We did different group shots, then I took some pictures of Rogue with the Aladdin, and Kell and I got some pictures as Maleficent and Aurora. My super-cool staff that Rogue made me fell over and the crystal ball popped off, though. Boo.
We decided to stay in costume and walk around the Marriott with Rob and Jenni for awhile, since we’d gone through all the effort to actually get into costume. That meant no more panels for the day, but eh, whatever. Attempting to get down to the lobby, the doors opened on a very intimidating elevator! We were like, “Uh, we’ll take the next one.”
We ended up getting a lot of pictures taken of us! Plenty of love for Disney out there at D*C. Rogue overheard comments like, “Dude, Jafar is the shit!” and “Jafar is fuckin’ awesome!” I had a very nice lady come up and thank me for making a Maleficent costume that “didn’t look store-bought,” since that was her favorite Disney villain. Awww, warm villainous fuzzies. People kept asking if Iago talked, so apparently we should do some stuffed-animal surgery for next time. We encountered another Sleeping Beauty group (including a Maleficent) and took pictures with them; we also found another Jafar who’d left the skirt of his robe at home but didn’t let that stop him from dressing up! Also I dropped our camera and the LCD screen broke. Camera still worked, but we couldn't see what we were taking pictures of. Rogue did a pretty great job taking pictures the rest of the weekend even with that handicap, though.
Oh funny story! I ran into Cassandra down on the floor and we went up to her room so I could get our Party Vader Vator badges. I mentioned that I was borrowing a dress from
penwiper337 to be a Sgt. Pepper groupie that night, and she said, “Oh, she’s two doors down from me! You should go knock on her door and get it now!” Keep in mind, I had never met Gen before this point, only corresponded by LJ comments, and I was in full Maleficent rig. But I gamely went two doors over, knocked, and could tell someone was walking up to the peephole. There was a long pause, and then the door opened very cautiously, and I immediately blurted, “Hi I’m Caitlin I’m borrowing a dress from you tonight???” and Gen said, “Oh of course, hi!” and after that it was all fine. But it was pretty funny there for a minute.I’m trying to think of who else we ran into on the floor…
rajsmith and laughingmagpie for sure. I know we met macbeemer and jigglykat as the aunts from Pushing Daisies. Maggie? Anyone else remember seeing us as Maleficent and Jafar?For dinner, I stripped down (woohoo) to my Maleficent cheerleader outfit. That got some funny reactions at the food court. Now brace yourself, cause this is a little crazy, but we did *not* eat at Chick-Fil-A! LE GASP. We had Moe’s, one of those Chipotle-like places (except with better rice, THAT’S RIGHT I SAID IT), and Jenni and I both had tasty quesadillas. I'm pretty sure that after dinner we met up with
dm_lunsford, who was wearing her very first Stargate costume ever, Dr. Janet Frasier! (Michelle, is that right? Was I green when we met you on Friday?) Rogue had made a couple of quick additions to his regular SG uniform so that the two of them could take pictures as Daniel and Janet. Then after a shower to get rid of the green makeup, I went 60s-tacular to be a Sgt. Pepper groupie in my AWESOME borrowed vintage dress from penwiper337. Everyone was getting ready in Maggie and Michelle’s room, which always leads to hilarity and awesomeness, and in this case, to a new band name: Mustache Meltdown. Gen lent me some spectacular matching earrings, and also gave me a pair of fake eyelashes and put them on me, because as previously stated, she is awesome. At 10 I had to change into my Rebel cheerleader and go to the 10th floor so we could make Steve Sansweet an honorary cheerleader and give him a megaphone, and another one to take back for Mary. Then I ran to the other side of the 10th floor and changed *back* into Pepper groupie (with everyone forming a human shield around me so I could change, although SOME people were getting kinda handsy, not naming names PAUL MCCARTNEY) and we took pictures (ohmygod it's THE BEATLES!!!) and did THRILLER DANCE in costume for Janine's video! YES!
Back down to the atrium, we attempted to make our way to the Hyatt for the Evening in Bree party so that Mel could see the Pepper people (and they could see her) but kept getting stopped for pictures. Solution: Pepper conga line! Groupie up front (me), groupie in the back (Gen, to keep Ringo from wandering off), everyone else sandwiched in between, move assertively, and DO NOT STOP! It worked AMAZINGLY well. We did have to make a stop in the ladies' room, and even there the Peppers were getting asked to pose for pictures. It's tough to be famous. We successfully arrived in Bree, saw Mel and heard some really touching tributes to her, then back to the Marriott to walk around together for awhile.
Eventually the Peppers decided to change out, so I went up with them to give Gen back her dress and earrings and help Maggie get her wig off (LOL), then got *back* into my Rebel cheerleader to go back down to the floor. We ran into Eurobeat King, who got a great action shot of my Rebel cheerleader. GO REBELS! Oh, and we saw
scruffyrebel as part of the Spice Girls! They were terrific, and Victoria's "Posh look" is waaaaay better than mine. Ooooh, I know I'm forgetting other stuff that happened Friday night. I really wanted to see Kathy and Cassandra and their secret group costume, but missed them completely. I found out later they made the costumes from the Lady Marmalade music video and then I was REALLY sad that I missed them. :( I missed Dawn too! In fact I never saw Dawn the entire weekend, which is just NOT ON. I believe a group of us gathered on the 10th floor to hang out somewhere quiet for awhile, but we were in bed by 2 am, because I was doing the parade in the morning!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:55 am (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 07:43 am (UTC)I love the beach ball! And that you got video of it! Yay!
Voicemail message for EJO - Awesome.
OMG pants-less Jafar - LOL!!!!!
This pic, it's like I'm totally throwing horns man! LOL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9998548@N04/3900631221/in/set-72157622300535316/
"Keep in mind, I had never met Gen before this point"
LOL! Too funny! I did it again later that night too -
Man, that action shot by EBK of your cheerleader is so fantastic!!!
Awww, thanks for looking out for the Lady Marmalade group and I'm touched you were sad you missed it. We're planning to reprise them again next year, and we'll have the full group this time!
I was sad I missed Dawn's Batgirl costume on Sunday. So sad that I dreamed about it last week, that I made it to the Bat photoshoot and took tons of pics of her costume.
Thanks for the recap! It helps take me back :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:59 am (UTC)OMG it will be so awesome with Betsy as Li'l Kim!!! I will *definitely* catch you guys in those costumes next year. Hell maybe I will finally have a MR costume by then!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 11:34 am (UTC)It makes me sad, sometimes, that Dragon*Con is so friggin' huge that I miss nearly all of my friends' costumes and have to see pictures online. Boo.
And you should totally go to panels with costumes. You can just stand on the side. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 05:59 am (UTC)It's not so much that attending panels in costume is a problem, as that we wanted to parade the costumes around and show off a bit. Harder to do when you're sitting in a panel for an hour. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:00 am (UTC)I was sort of keeping tabs on the Disney photoshoot via the cosplay.com boards, but it ended up changing at the last second anyway. :-/
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 02:34 pm (UTC)I would have loved to have seen the MM panel *sad* You just can't do everything though.
And yeah - why no show DC*TV for the Pre-reg line?!
LMAO at Paul getting handsy. He tried to dip you and kiss you too, if I recall...
I still love my particularly jaunty hat! ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:01 am (UTC)I wish it were possible to do everything at D*C-- we all need Time-Turners! That's it!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-30 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 11:21 pm (UTC)I tried to find the Disney photoshoot, but was running a few minutes late - no wonder I didn't find it..
Love your Maleficent and Jafar costumes :)
So many fun stories, thanks for sharing :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-24 06:03 am (UTC)I would have been super pissed if we weren't able to find the Disney photoshoot! So I was reeeeally glad I ran into those people. Sorry you couldn't find it! :(
Thanks much, glad you enjoyed!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 02:55 pm (UTC)