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One week ago...
Sep. 6th, 2001 04:14 pmI'm standing on a balcony overlooking downtown Atlanta, the air is steamy but moving. In front of me a woman in a blue dress and blue hair is dreading having to go work at a Lynard Skynard show. An overweight man next to her is telling her how much he enjoys Lynard Skynard. I lean back against the balcony, looking down into my cup of rum punch and decide I need to get a refill. Then Lucy rolls her head back against my shoulder and I decide it's better to wait a bit. In the room in front of me, people are dancing, and one man is getting flogged through his leather pants (wuss).
Welcome to DragonCon 2001.
Thousands of gamers, geeks, goths, fanboys, artists, fetishists, musicians, and plain curious parties poured in from all across the country to the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. Their destination: the largest sci-fi/pop culture convention in the South, possible the country. Now that I'm back, I'm sleep deprived and slowing building myself back to health.
Friday was spent reacquainting myself with the layout of the building, and looking at the miniature displays in the gaming room. Not too much was going on yet, so I caught the Buffy Jeopardy panel ( I wasn't a contestant. If it were... it would have been close, two of the other panels were very sharp. One was not!) I wrapped up the evening by taking 2nd place in a card tournament, hitting a few room parties, and being targeted for flirtation by Lucy, (from the opening) for most of the night. We would run into each other every day for the rest of the Con, which was downright surreal amidst the thousands of people there. The remainder of the eve was spent dancing to old school industrial til about 5 am.
Saturday was an entire day dedicated to card tournaments. Some of the best players were there from all over the East Coast and the South. I was 8th out of 35 in one event, but my luck ran out in the last one. The players were all very good, and I learned quite a bit while I was there. I also picked up some new tricks to try on the group at home.
Too mentally drained for anything else (and not wanting to jump around to 80's music) I crashed. Hard.
Sunday was spent relaxing, schlepping my tired ass through the exhibit and dealers room (getting some sweet T-shirts, you'll see them soon enough) and watching more Buffy panels. The interview with Andy Hallet (The Host) and a few others was very entertaining, despite some stupid questions from the audience. I then took part in The Weakest Slayer, and made it til the final cut. Obviously, they feared my trivia skills! I did walk out of it with a hat, so victory was still mine. The quest for dinner took three hours, and finally I ate in the hotel. Southern hospitality seems to have changed from when I first read about it...
The end of the evening made up for the doldrums of the day. The Changelings put on a tremendous show, playing lots of songs from their upcoming album. I congratulated Regeana after the show, and was rewarded with a kiss... My elation carried me back into the ballroom, for EBM and synth pop till 5 in the morning again. I scored bonus points from the DJ for requesting Velvet Acid Christ as well.
Monday morning, waking up after two hours of sleep to get to the dealers room before the crowds.... buying some last minute books and learning one of my video choices was available on DVD... seeing Clay off then heading down to the gaming room for a few last pick up games... then off to my aunt's house again.... more sleep... then traveling homewards by way of Raleigh, finally sinking down onto the futon at 6 or so Tuesday....
That's the quick and dirty version of the events. I'm sure more will bubble to the surface over the next few days... and there's still the current day to catch up on...
Welcome to DragonCon 2001.
Thousands of gamers, geeks, goths, fanboys, artists, fetishists, musicians, and plain curious parties poured in from all across the country to the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. Their destination: the largest sci-fi/pop culture convention in the South, possible the country. Now that I'm back, I'm sleep deprived and slowing building myself back to health.
Friday was spent reacquainting myself with the layout of the building, and looking at the miniature displays in the gaming room. Not too much was going on yet, so I caught the Buffy Jeopardy panel ( I wasn't a contestant. If it were... it would have been close, two of the other panels were very sharp. One was not!) I wrapped up the evening by taking 2nd place in a card tournament, hitting a few room parties, and being targeted for flirtation by Lucy, (from the opening) for most of the night. We would run into each other every day for the rest of the Con, which was downright surreal amidst the thousands of people there. The remainder of the eve was spent dancing to old school industrial til about 5 am.
Saturday was an entire day dedicated to card tournaments. Some of the best players were there from all over the East Coast and the South. I was 8th out of 35 in one event, but my luck ran out in the last one. The players were all very good, and I learned quite a bit while I was there. I also picked up some new tricks to try on the group at home.
Too mentally drained for anything else (and not wanting to jump around to 80's music) I crashed. Hard.
Sunday was spent relaxing, schlepping my tired ass through the exhibit and dealers room (getting some sweet T-shirts, you'll see them soon enough) and watching more Buffy panels. The interview with Andy Hallet (The Host) and a few others was very entertaining, despite some stupid questions from the audience. I then took part in The Weakest Slayer, and made it til the final cut. Obviously, they feared my trivia skills! I did walk out of it with a hat, so victory was still mine. The quest for dinner took three hours, and finally I ate in the hotel. Southern hospitality seems to have changed from when I first read about it...
The end of the evening made up for the doldrums of the day. The Changelings put on a tremendous show, playing lots of songs from their upcoming album. I congratulated Regeana after the show, and was rewarded with a kiss... My elation carried me back into the ballroom, for EBM and synth pop till 5 in the morning again. I scored bonus points from the DJ for requesting Velvet Acid Christ as well.
Monday morning, waking up after two hours of sleep to get to the dealers room before the crowds.... buying some last minute books and learning one of my video choices was available on DVD... seeing Clay off then heading down to the gaming room for a few last pick up games... then off to my aunt's house again.... more sleep... then traveling homewards by way of Raleigh, finally sinking down onto the futon at 6 or so Tuesday....
That's the quick and dirty version of the events. I'm sure more will bubble to the surface over the next few days... and there's still the current day to catch up on...
