Forging an Art

Daily reports on DragonCon 2010 over at BSC: Day One, Day Two, and Day Three.   Over 400 pictures of the Con over at Flickr.

And what was left out of the reports . . .

The best time to arrive and get in line to pick up badges is NOT three o’clock on Friday afternoon.  That being said, there’s plenty to do during that three hour wait, like take pictures of costumed attendees and laugh back at the businessmen pointing and staring from the parking deck above. 

DragonCon is very educational.  I’m not kidding.  Where else can you learn about crossed letters and medieval poisoning techniques?  You can also discover very quickly what sort of fans are on each track and specifics within each track.  For example – fans of certain anime series.  Why were the only ones excited about my ten year old daughter’s Hikaru (Angelic Layer) costume middle-aged men?  In real life it would be creepy to have strange men grabbing my arm and asking to take my child’s picture . . . and at DragonCon it was, yes, a little creepy to have these men asking just that.  Wearing a costume is asking for attention, though, so we played along and enjoyed it, but I secretly hoped a young girl would approach and recognize my battle doll, just once.

Where else can you find a blue Power Ranger, Gandalf, Afro’thulu, and Obi Wan on stage together, never mind throwing footballs painted as gnomes?  At an actual person.  Standing in front of a sign advertising gnome punting.  This was, obviously, the World of Warcraft party.  Later on the same stage, Finn from Adventure Time approached to choose a raffle prize to shouts of “What time is it? Adventure time!”  He looked back out into the crowd to ask, as he pointed to the prizes, “Which one, honey?” which brought on more laughter . . . later, Finn asked ‘honey’ to marry him during the ‘after hours’ Warcraft gig.  Of course she said yes, because what could be more romantic than a man in a white-eared hat costumed as a child from a cartoon series proposing at a World of Warcraft party? 

The logisitics of ordering pizza for delivery during a DragonCon weekend – an hour on hold, and a three hour wait for delivery.  Upon arrival, the stunned teenager holding pizzas stares at the lobbyfull of costumes.  “What is wrong with these people?” he asks me.  That must be the ten thousand dollar question, and not one we actually ask out loud because after all, if we’re there, he’s asking about us, too.

While waiting for my son to take a turn on Mech Corps, a military simulation game that was very reasonably priced and engaging, the man in front of us – who had a gigantic bag that had a list of why Mythbusters is so awesome written on the side – turned around to complain about a woman who had pushed him around on the escalator.  “I’m fat,” he said. “But she was fatter.  Her fault.  A weapon of ass destruction.”

One of the Tolkien-Lewis panelists, M.B. Weston, caught my interest when talking about her Elysian Chronicles titles.  These sound like must haves for fantasy fans – guardian angel warfare and treason.  Speaking of the T-L panel, I have to mention that someone said The Silmarillion was an academic exercise.  I must must must beg to differ – if The Silmarillion isn’t great storytelling – a long, difficult read, yes, but read it out loud and you’ll see what I mean – I’ll give up coffee for a week.  Okay, a day – but it’s a safe bet and my favorite Tolkien title.

Holly Black, an incredibly popular and successful young adult author, has graphic novels illustrated by the very talented and approachable Ted Naifeh, who allowed me to snap a photo as he demonstrated his talents in the comic artists alley.  Shopping opportunities: we returned diligently to the Dragon Pets booth, where we bought a sweet pink and purple dragon last year, twice; once to buy an armored dragon and again for a multicolored one.  We also found an adorable, soft squid from Cyphre Voudou that has been well-loved and spends his nights sharing a bed with two American Girl dolls.  That doesn’t sound quite right but it’s true.  My quest for earrings – usual travel purchase – brought me back to Ravenwing, where I purchased jewelry last year for myself, my daughter, and my mother, so it was easy for me to pick up where I left off and stock up on some beautiful handcrafted items, including these beautiful beautiful fish earrings in my very favorite color.

Noticed in the parade but too quick for me to catch a photo – in the Star Wars group, a woman with a “Hutters” t-shirt that looked very like a “Hooters” t-shirt.  It took a moment before several men behind me started yelling “Hutters!  Hutters!” and caught her attention.  She turned and waved like Miss America, perfectly comfortable as any Hooters girl would be, but obviously, much cooler.  At least with the DragonCon crowd.

We can’t wait for the next episode of the two part Falling for the Falls!  And why does Camp Rock 2 premiere when we’ll be out of town for DragonCon?  Oh, well, something to look forward to when we get home.

New reviews up at BSCKids include Beezus and Ramona, the Beverly Cleary classic that inspired the upcoming Selena Gomez flick, and Neil Gaiman’s Instructions.

It’s been two months since DragonCon, and the countdown to next year’s event is already underway.  Formal reports aside, a few things come to mind when considering our recent trip to Atlanta.

Business cards picked up along the way:
Sugar Ninjas, “an anthology featuring over 100 female artists and storytellers,” which has some cute artwork but not much detail on their website.  The book is available through lulu.com and seems reasonably priced for a 350+ page collection, but again, I can’t find enough information to decide – as a librarian – if this is appropriate for my teen area or if I should recommend it to the adult librarian.  It does intrigue me, and considering how popular manga is with my teen patrons – male and female – I’d love to be able to justify a purchase. 
Strawberry Comics are all about romance.  Six writers/artists have teamed up to make SC home to a variety of manga, webcomics, and eBooks.  They also have a discussion forum and a zine, along with photos from conventions and events, which hasn’t been updated since this summer but has some cute pictures nontheless.  I’d love to see some from DragonCon.
I spent a considerable amount of time and money at the Holy Cow Anime booth.  They visit a lot of conventions, so if you are a con fan, you may want to check to see if they are/will be there.  Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Cardcaptors (we picked up a Challenge of the Clow Spirits board game, which kept us busy in the hotel room at DragonCon) seem to be their specialty, as they consider themselves ‘old school,’ but they do carry items of more current interest/themes, including Kingdom Hearts and Bleach.  They are also an official retailer for Gaia Online. 

Panels/events I missed and am sorry that I did: Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert’s Works in Prose and Film; The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company’s presentation of Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulu,’ which was cancelled; The Music of the Ainur – A Celebration of Middle-Earth Song; Chuck – A Glimpse Within the Intersect; The Future of Star Wars; Adult Themes in Star Wars; Dinosaurs Gone Wild! (dinosaurs in film); Classic Battlestar (adventures with Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch); 70 Years of Batman in the Media; Neography and Scripts; Star Wars in Art; Dreamtime, the Worlds of Neil Gaiman; The Future of Storytelling in MMOs; The Lore of Warcraft; Podcasting with Puppets (the lure? the cast of Battlestar Galactica in foam); and Vending Machine Culture and We Speak Engrish Here (Engrish is a particular fascination for me).  Some of the short film festival entries looked worth the effort of catching, but like the activities listed above, the times conflicted with others I ended up attending.  The dilemma of such a busy con . . .  then again, I was not sorry to miss the ‘how to make your own booze’ panel, as I am aware of how moonshine comes to life – so to speak.

Reports on our four day excursion into fantasyland at BSCreview.com.  There are four; so be sure to follow the links after the first to the next three.