Warning: The following post contains content / links that may be offensive or suggestive in nature. Please continue at your own volition. The linked Flickr photos may not be completely safe for work.
The time of year for Dragon Con had finally rolled around. Last year was the first year that I had attended Dragon Con and I have to admit that I was pretty excited about getting to attend this year. Needless to say, I was almost bouncing off the wall during my drive down to Atlanta and, thanks to some good foresight, I had already booked a con hotel so that I could completely enjoy the entire event without having to worry about walking Atlanta at night.
For those not familiar with Dragon Con, it is basically a science fiction / anime / etc. convention that attracts around 60,000+ people in downtown Atlanta. To say the very least, it is an awesome experience and a chance to meet new people and to become excited about some of your favorite movies, anime, comics, or books. To learn more about Dragon Con, try these links:
Since there are so many things going on at Dragon Con, it would be nearly impossible for me to list them all. Consequently, I am going to hit some of my favorite aspects of it and not even try to cover everything.
Tracks
The fun thing about Dragon Con is that is caters to so many people. It has such a large listing of tracks (and they are still adding) that, I believe, almost anyone can find topics of interest being presented. In fact, it has so many tracks, you almost stay in a constant state of indecision as you try to pick attending 1 session over another. Consequently, you either spend a lot of time w/ your favorite track or, like me, you pick and choose the best 'nuggets' of many tracks and attend them.
This year, I was a little disappointed in that I just kept missing the tracks that I wanted to attend. Between impromptu photo taking, lost badges, or sore feet I was only able to make it to a couple of tracks that were of real interest for me. That is not to say that I did not enjoy myself / get to do things I wanted - I just had a lot that I wanted to do and probably spent more time hanging out / meeting people than anything else.
The first track I attended was the anime meet and greet. Basically, the point of the track was to introduce the anime sessions and learn a bit about what they had to offer. Although, the content of this tract was pretty shallow, it was made quite fun due to the fact that both John and I were in attendance. Remember when your parents told you not to hang around with 'that crowd' because they were a bad influence? John and I are 'that crowd' for each other. In fact, we are bad to pretty much feed off each other as we attempt to one-up each other. Needless to say, the beginning of the event was filled w/ us singing key portions of anime theme songs at the top of our lungs, heckling the presenters, and poking fun at those around us. It was almost like high school all over again. :)
Most of the other tracks that I attended were the Main programming. I made it a point to go to as many of the cosplay / costuming events as possible. More about those later...
Celebrities
During Dragon Con, there is an area that is set aside called 'The Walk of Fame'. Basically, this is an area in which celebrities will set up booths so that you can walk by, talk with them, buy a picture with their sig, and/or take a picture with them. For first time attendees (or 'the straights') this is one of the biggest appeals to Dragon Con.
Although I am not really into the 'celebrity thing', there were a few persons that Crystal and I really wanted to see. Crystal was totally stoked that Robert Englund was there. Like most people, we actually did not know his real name, but he is legendary in his own right. Know who he is? As it turns out, Mr. Englund is exceptionally nice and wonderful to speak with. He spoke about some of his new roles coming up and as well as some of the events at the con. He was really a great person and was very down to earth.
Another person that I was pretty excited about meeting was Adam West. Although I certainly remember him from the Batman series, I have really come to love him for his role in Family Guy. Mayor West is certainly my favorite character in the show. The first impression that I had of Mr. West was that he was just tired. He had just gotten back from the DC parade and he had about 10,000 attendants fluttering about him trying to get him something. Coffee, Mr. West? Tacos, Mr. West? Water, Mr. West? Slave girl for the pleasure, Mr. West? After sending them away, Mr. West turned to sign my photograph, grumbling to himself. I am sure that he is usually a nice person, but I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed at his lack of enthusiasm and cordiality. I left his table, feeling as if I was a burden / chore that Mr. West had to get out of the way. Not cool.
Finally, Crystal and I were able to see quite a few other persons, who we really like. They included: Kevin Sorbo, Claire Bennet (who's best role, IMHO, was as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts), Peter "Chewbacca" Mayhew, and many, many more.
Oh yeah! We also got to meet Mickey Dolenz from the Monkey's. He was a totally kind and down-to-earth person, who was a real pleasure to meet. Sadly, I think I might have offended him a bit. While he was signing a picture for me, he asked me who I would like him to make it out to. I told him that the picture was actually for my mother - not for me. In retrospect, I might done a bit better on the delivery there so that I expressed my love his work and made him feel less dated (not that I am saying he or mom is dated, lol).
Dragon Con Parade
The Dragon Con parade seriously rocked this year. Although I saw many of the same floats / costumes last year, there is really nothing like seeing about 100 storm troopers march past you in unison. It brings quite a bit of the stuff to life. The cool thing about the parade is that it is sectioned off into themes / genres. I could talk forever about the parade, but I think a few of my favorite pictures would suffice:
To see more parade pictures, check out my Flickr Account's Dragon Con 2008 Parade photoset.
Costuming
As said before, one of the big things about Dragon Con is that everyone and their brother attends dressed up in attire that is either based on movies / anime, a certain genre, or just because they can. This results in some pretty interesting costumes:
If you want to see more Dragon Con Costume Photos, check out my flickr photosets.
In conclusion, Dragon Con totally rocked! I enjoyed hanging out w/ old friends and meeting new ones. More than anything else, it is nice to be able to immerse myself into a culture and context of the stories, games, and movies that I enjoyed all my life. It was a wonderful experience.
I can't wait till next year!
Updates:
Oops, I forgot to put in a few things.
This photo was taken on a pretty windy morning. Please note the gleeful expression on John's face in conjunction w/ the current position of Princess Leia.
Thing 1 and Thing 2... ... :)
Clowns! Freakin' me out..
Also, Gabe blogged about Dragon Con 2008 as well and has a pretty sweet photo site.