Dragon*Con Sunday
Sep. 26th, 2009 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jainaOops, got a little behind in posting these-- but here is D*C 2009 Sunday!
The short short version:
- I actually went to panels! Costuming, skeptics, Stargate...
- THRILLER!!!!
- Robin Sparkles!
- Snark the Masquerade
I fully intended to sleep in on Sunday, but instead I woke up at 8:30. WTF, UNCOOL, BODY. But that meant I got to go to the costuming panel on boots and shoes, which was pretty fun and gave me some good tips and ideas. After that was Stealth Science and Skeptical Thought, which I had mostly marked because it’d be my one time to see Adam Savage, but it turned out to be a really fascinating panel. How have I lived this long, been on the internet this many years, and still completely missed the whole skeptical/critical thinking movement? I won’t digress too much here, but basically it was awesome, and it gave me a lot to think about and some directions to pursue.
Let’s see…after that it was back to the costuming track for their “working with leather” panel (again, good tips and ideas), and then I met up with Rogue at the Stargate mega-panel. This particular incarnation of the panel had Ben Browder and Claudia Black of SG1 (my main reasons for attending), and Joe Flanigan, Rachel Luttrell, Paul McGillion, and Jason Momoa of SGA. Joe arrived late, and the rest of them had some fun hiding the chairs so he wouldn't have a place to sit when he got there. As with any SG panel, lots of laughs, lots of silly stories, and this time I actually took notes on some of the things I wanted to remember.
Newly attired as Robin Sparkles and a GI Joe soldier (yay, 1980s), we met up with Maggie and Michelle (Dharma motor pool workers, from Lost) to go back to the Sheraton for the record attempt. Getting into the room was even more of a clusterfuck than rehearsal had been, and that was saying something. They were trying to get people to line up roughly by the numbers on their ribbons (in groups of a hundred or so) in order to check in and enter the room, but there were no signs and no real lines, just a giant mob. When they finally opened the doors, only one person could enter at a time; they told the door person their number, the door person found them on the checklist, the dancer signed next to their name, and they went in. They had to be really scrupulous about it because Guinness is very very strict about the requirements for setting records. (Or so Guinness claims. The latest news is that they are accepting the Mexico City record, despite overwhelming video evidence showing that they didn’t follow the same guidelines that we were given and were told in no uncertain terms that “you must follow these guidelines or your attempt doesn’t count.”)
Unfortunately for us, while all the other doors had about a hundred people trying to enter, our door was for people with numbers from 1-200. So basically, being super gung-ho about getting registered as soon as we could ended up backfiring on us. Yay. Long after the other doors had let everyone in, we were still waiting, and we could hear announcements being made and cheering going on inside the room. We tried asking if we could check in at the other doors that had no people waiting, but those volunteers only had their own section of numbers, so we had to go through our door. The upshot of this was that we ended up dancing near the very back of the room, and if you watch the official video you can't even tell we were there. I know the organizers put a ton of work into it, and I know they did the very best they could, but still-- bit of a bummer.
But despite all that, it was still AWESOME! Ron, Janine, Amber, Maggie, Michelle, Rogue, and I all danced together (we had the Alien on one side of us and the stormtroopers on the other) and we had a GREAT great time and we were elated to get to participate. My favorite part of all of it was at the very end of the dance, when we hit our final pose and then had to keep holding until the Vincent Price laughter finished, everyone ROARED really loudly as they posed. It reminded me of a haka, except with zombies. There was crazy cheering when we finished, chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" (there were a couple other countries attempting the record around the same time), and a big group hug for the 7 of us, especially for our dance captain Amber, who hadn't planned to spend her afternoon teaching Thriller to a bunch of newbies, but she stepped up anyway! Because she's awesome.
Janine got some footage for her Star Wars Thriller video as people filtered out of the room-- the Alien, the stormtroopers, the zombie TIE pilot-- and then a group of us (I believe we'd added![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elvishtard and m_cubicle, plus a few more people) went down to the Sheraton garage to film the dance one last time. We got stopped about halfway through by a Sheraton employee who was very impressed with our dancing and sorry to have to stop us, but we couldn't block the driveway into the garage. He turned out to be a Marine (I think?) and Janine and Ron and Amber spent a bit of time talking to him. Then some folks went back to change, and the rest of us got refreshments and went upstairs to sit in line for the Yule Ball, figuring we were going to be sitting anyway, so it might as well be sitting with purpose.
The Yule Ball was not *quite* as awesome as last year, but still fun. Last year they played fanvids instead of just music, so you could dance or watch the vids or do both at once. Or neither. This year it was just music, and not as good music (more club-y, less geek prom-y-- I mean, at least give us Love Shack!), and it was much louder than I remember last year being. They did show some vids-- the winners of the Twilight fan video contest. Urgh. Only one of them was even remotely danceable; the rest were all sad and emo. People sat down on the dance floor in protest.
BUT! They also played THRILLER and we all got to dance to it again, to the delight of all! I was on the edge of the group, and as we were walking back on the last stomp section I sawprincess_lesa crouched down taking pictures next to me. As we did our turn-around stomps, I looked at her and went "RAAAAAAA!!!!" and she shrieked and it was awesome. I'm always the one who gets scared or startled so it was funny to be on the other end, just this once. ;-) (Lesa I love you!) The other exciting thing about Yule Ball was I finally met r_becca! She arrived just as we were starting the Thriller dance but we got to talk for a nice long time afterward and take a picture.
After they announced the costume contest results (YAY JESS for her win!) we headed back to the Marriott to people-watch for a bit. We sawashleyrains and hattermercury as Six and Baltar, taking pictures with the girl dressed as the Baltar Altar, and Ashley and I sang “Let’s Go To The Mall” together. :D We found Janine and Ron in yet another set of costumes (Audrey Hepburn and Imperial Quidditch) and ran into Cassandra and Kathy too (Satine Hindi rehearsal and Ceremonial Leia). I got totally sidetracked on the bottom level when I ran into a bunch of friends and ended up talking with them for awhile-- benaequee in Hooping Leia again, Ashlee in her can-can, plus Beret and Beth from Rebel Legion-- agh, I KNOW there were more people, why can’t I remember who it was? OH! macbeemer and jigglykat as Scarlett and Giselle from Pirates, yes! We also ran into Brian (in civvies) whom I hadn’t seen all con.
We went upstairs to Maggie and Michelle’s room for the annual snark-the-Masquerade-rebroadcast party. It was amazing how many people we fit into that room! The Masquerade was not nearly as bad as prior years (I’m happy and sad for us?); some very good stuff, some not so good stuff, and plenty of hilarity all around, amped by the fact that we could barely hear what was going on. This was a total highlight of the con for me, just sitting around with friends having a great time. Quotes from the room that I jotted down:
The short short version:
- I actually went to panels! Costuming, skeptics, Stargate...
- THRILLER!!!!
- Robin Sparkles!
- Snark the Masquerade
I fully intended to sleep in on Sunday, but instead I woke up at 8:30. WTF, UNCOOL, BODY. But that meant I got to go to the costuming panel on boots and shoes, which was pretty fun and gave me some good tips and ideas. After that was Stealth Science and Skeptical Thought, which I had mostly marked because it’d be my one time to see Adam Savage, but it turned out to be a really fascinating panel. How have I lived this long, been on the internet this many years, and still completely missed the whole skeptical/critical thinking movement? I won’t digress too much here, but basically it was awesome, and it gave me a lot to think about and some directions to pursue.
Let’s see…after that it was back to the costuming track for their “working with leather” panel (again, good tips and ideas), and then I met up with Rogue at the Stargate mega-panel. This particular incarnation of the panel had Ben Browder and Claudia Black of SG1 (my main reasons for attending), and Joe Flanigan, Rachel Luttrell, Paul McGillion, and Jason Momoa of SGA. Joe arrived late, and the rest of them had some fun hiding the chairs so he wouldn't have a place to sit when he got there. As with any SG panel, lots of laughs, lots of silly stories, and this time I actually took notes on some of the things I wanted to remember.
- They were asked what they kept from the show.
- From Farscape, Ben has "Claudia's underwear"-- the pair of Crichton's underwear that Aeryn wore in S1. ("What do these say?" "Calvin." "Then they're not yours.")
- Jason has Rachel's chair-- he took it as a joke, apparently, and then forgot he had it. And possibly Paul's chair too, which was news to Paul.
- Joe has the SGA People's Choice award. The physical trophy.
- Claudia kept the special smaller-sized patches that were made for Vala's SG uniform
- Ben and Claudia both had adorable stories about being young actors-- Ben in the Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman, and Claudia waitressing in a club and unexpectedly encountering Princess Diana
- An audience question if they played organized sports against other Vancouver TV shows, and someone replied, "Yeah, it was just like that baseball day they had in Twilight." Apparently there were Atlantis hockey and soccer teams. And Chris Judge likes golf.
- Ben, re: Chris: "I found my soul brother."
- Apparently, when they didn't know what was going on with the renewal of SG1 somewhere around S8 or S9, they were considering spinning Daniel and Vala off onto their own show. WE ALMOST GOT DANIEL AND VALA'S CRAZY SPACE ADVENTURES YOU GUYS.
- Amanda was jealous of all the outfits Claudia got to wear, because AT had been in fatigues for nine years at that point.
- Someone asked Jason what the best prank he ever pulled was, and now no one in the audience can unhear his explanation of "drydocking," even though I'm sure we all wish we could. (It involves the toilets in people's trailers and let's leave it at that.)
- Someone asked Jason what he bought on the dealer's floor at D*C: "I bought flasks...for...water."
- Most memorable moments from the show:
- Paul: "Being kissed by David Hewlett."
- Joe: "Watching Paul get kissed by David Hewlett." And filming the first episode, with John & Jack in the helicopter, and thinking, "Sweet! I'm in a helicopter with MacGyver!" Turning to RDA with a paperclip and a rubber band: "If this chopper goes down..." RDA: "Yeah, cause I've never heard *that* before."
- Rachel: Robert Patrick encountering her in costume for the first time and greeting her with "Namaste."
Newly attired as Robin Sparkles and a GI Joe soldier (yay, 1980s), we met up with Maggie and Michelle (Dharma motor pool workers, from Lost) to go back to the Sheraton for the record attempt. Getting into the room was even more of a clusterfuck than rehearsal had been, and that was saying something. They were trying to get people to line up roughly by the numbers on their ribbons (in groups of a hundred or so) in order to check in and enter the room, but there were no signs and no real lines, just a giant mob. When they finally opened the doors, only one person could enter at a time; they told the door person their number, the door person found them on the checklist, the dancer signed next to their name, and they went in. They had to be really scrupulous about it because Guinness is very very strict about the requirements for setting records. (Or so Guinness claims. The latest news is that they are accepting the Mexico City record, despite overwhelming video evidence showing that they didn’t follow the same guidelines that we were given and were told in no uncertain terms that “you must follow these guidelines or your attempt doesn’t count.”)
Unfortunately for us, while all the other doors had about a hundred people trying to enter, our door was for people with numbers from 1-200. So basically, being super gung-ho about getting registered as soon as we could ended up backfiring on us. Yay. Long after the other doors had let everyone in, we were still waiting, and we could hear announcements being made and cheering going on inside the room. We tried asking if we could check in at the other doors that had no people waiting, but those volunteers only had their own section of numbers, so we had to go through our door. The upshot of this was that we ended up dancing near the very back of the room, and if you watch the official video you can't even tell we were there. I know the organizers put a ton of work into it, and I know they did the very best they could, but still-- bit of a bummer.
But despite all that, it was still AWESOME! Ron, Janine, Amber, Maggie, Michelle, Rogue, and I all danced together (we had the Alien on one side of us and the stormtroopers on the other) and we had a GREAT great time and we were elated to get to participate. My favorite part of all of it was at the very end of the dance, when we hit our final pose and then had to keep holding until the Vincent Price laughter finished, everyone ROARED really loudly as they posed. It reminded me of a haka, except with zombies. There was crazy cheering when we finished, chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" (there were a couple other countries attempting the record around the same time), and a big group hug for the 7 of us, especially for our dance captain Amber, who hadn't planned to spend her afternoon teaching Thriller to a bunch of newbies, but she stepped up anyway! Because she's awesome.
Janine got some footage for her Star Wars Thriller video as people filtered out of the room-- the Alien, the stormtroopers, the zombie TIE pilot-- and then a group of us (I believe we'd added
elvishtard and m_cubicle, plus a few more people) went down to the Sheraton garage to film the dance one last time. We got stopped about halfway through by a Sheraton employee who was very impressed with our dancing and sorry to have to stop us, but we couldn't block the driveway into the garage. He turned out to be a Marine (I think?) and Janine and Ron and Amber spent a bit of time talking to him. Then some folks went back to change, and the rest of us got refreshments and went upstairs to sit in line for the Yule Ball, figuring we were going to be sitting anyway, so it might as well be sitting with purpose.The Yule Ball was not *quite* as awesome as last year, but still fun. Last year they played fanvids instead of just music, so you could dance or watch the vids or do both at once. Or neither. This year it was just music, and not as good music (more club-y, less geek prom-y-- I mean, at least give us Love Shack!), and it was much louder than I remember last year being. They did show some vids-- the winners of the Twilight fan video contest. Urgh. Only one of them was even remotely danceable; the rest were all sad and emo. People sat down on the dance floor in protest.
BUT! They also played THRILLER and we all got to dance to it again, to the delight of all! I was on the edge of the group, and as we were walking back on the last stomp section I saw
princess_lesa crouched down taking pictures next to me. As we did our turn-around stomps, I looked at her and went "RAAAAAAA!!!!" and she shrieked and it was awesome. I'm always the one who gets scared or startled so it was funny to be on the other end, just this once. ;-) (Lesa I love you!) The other exciting thing about Yule Ball was I finally met r_becca! She arrived just as we were starting the Thriller dance but we got to talk for a nice long time afterward and take a picture. After they announced the costume contest results (YAY JESS for her win!) we headed back to the Marriott to people-watch for a bit. We saw
ashleyrains and hattermercury as Six and Baltar, taking pictures with the girl dressed as the Baltar Altar, and Ashley and I sang “Let’s Go To The Mall” together. :D We found Janine and Ron in yet another set of costumes (Audrey Hepburn and Imperial Quidditch) and ran into Cassandra and Kathy too (Satine Hindi rehearsal and Ceremonial Leia). I got totally sidetracked on the bottom level when I ran into a bunch of friends and ended up talking with them for awhile-- benaequee in Hooping Leia again, Ashlee in her can-can, plus Beret and Beth from Rebel Legion-- agh, I KNOW there were more people, why can’t I remember who it was? OH! macbeemer and jigglykat as Scarlett and Giselle from Pirates, yes! We also ran into Brian (in civvies) whom I hadn’t seen all con.We went upstairs to Maggie and Michelle’s room for the annual snark-the-Masquerade-rebroadcast party. It was amazing how many people we fit into that room! The Masquerade was not nearly as bad as prior years (I’m happy and sad for us?); some very good stuff, some not so good stuff, and plenty of hilarity all around, amped by the fact that we could barely hear what was going on. This was a total highlight of the con for me, just sitting around with friends having a great time. Quotes from the room that I jotted down:
- “Where are your wrist bones!? Your hand bone is not connected to your arm bone!” (Raj is angry about skeletal inaccuracies)
- “Paint your hands, man! PAINT YOUR HANDS!” (re: dude with a green face and flesh-toned hands)
- “Did he just bend that kid over and make him scream?” (re: Terminator 2 skit)
- “The years have not been kind to Daphne.” (re: Scooby-Doo skit)
- “Why did they kill themselves?” “Did you *see* the skit?”
- “THRILLER!!!” (re: everything)
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 03:26 pm (UTC)Also, the Yule Ball Thriller was epic!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-29 12:42 pm (UTC)Saw some Thriller video online - must have been an awesome experience! :)
I missed so many panels, those costuming ones sound quite interesting.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-04 12:08 am (UTC)