Dragon*Con Day 1: Lost more than my heart.

[momebie]

I've decided to do these in a weekend review type of way, so I'm going to be breaking them up into bite size chunks. The first day was relatively uneventful. After what I think is an ungodly early start (I got up 6, was at barbed_whispers place by 6:45) we got to honkie_mcgee's, got some breakfast, and got on the road. I pretty much sucked it up at the game of Cows! for the entire trip up. Ah well.

We got to the hotel about three in the afternoon, and within fifteen minutes of checking in I'd seen eight people I know. The odds on that are not supposed to work out in my favor, but it was setting precedent, so I was happy. Then it was off to wait in line for badges (an hour forty-five if you were pre-reg, three hours if you were picking them up from ticket master, and about forty-five seconds if you were buying it at the door). There's something to be said about long lines of nerds, you hardly ever see them agitated. Maybe because they know that good things are coming to those who wait.

I managed to make it out of the badge line in time to herd about 10 people over to the restaurant where we were having dinner. Now, theemdash had left dinner in my hands, so I'd called Wednesday afternoon and made a reservation for twenty. When we got there, they couldn't find the reservation. They were very accommodating, however, and in the end sat about 22 people with our group. I was floored that so many people showed up, especially since I had taken the tack that I wasn't going to mother hen anyone, and just let them show if they showed.


From L to R clockwise: mckays_lab, theemdash, myras_girls, her husband Corey, skroberts, barbed_whispers, scifigirl, and melayneseahawk.


From L to R clockwise: honkie_mcgee's girl Deb and honkie himself, four people whose names I don't know because I fail at remembering things, and Joe.


L to R: stoopbeck and her friends H and browncoat_gator.

After dinner we all disbanded and barbed_whispers and I wandered over to take pictures of this statue at the Suntrust Building and then promptly got turned around and couldn't get out of the courtyard. (We really thought there would be stairs or something to the street below.)









After we escaped the time and space vortex that is the Suntrust Building, we headed back to the hotel to meet up briefly with pinkfinity and see some of the first costumes of the con. We also saw an unlikely friendship strike up!


And barbed_whispers says: That effing roomba just whistled at me!

After this we skipped over to the Hyatt to catch Voltaire's show with sweetnovicane. And when I say skipped I mean I probably did. It was at this point where I started to just feel effing giddy about being there.

But first, Spider Lilies had to finish their set.




We actually saw this kid as we were checking in to the hotel. I had decided kind of early on that I was just going to spend the weekend LARPing as a douche (since I don't really do costumes) and upon noticing his hair I came to the conclusion that I was not the only one with that idea! :p (No offense to him, of course, I'm sure he's a very lovely person who jut happens to have subversive hair.)


This kid really reminded me of my brothers.









And then it was Voltaire! He came onto stage to the strains of Thriller and did a small bit of shenanigating before dropping his guitar off and heading back off stage.




All I knew about Voltaire previous to Dragon*Con could be summed up in two songs and a handful of facts Boy looked up on Wikipedia. I can quite happily tell you now though, that I have drunk of the kool-aid of Voltaire and find myself deeply satisfied. The man's hilarious.


"I have been called a flaming homosexual many times in my life, but a fire hazard only once!" --Voltaire, on how he's been banned from playing the Concourse at the Hyatt.










I really like how this picture came out, but Voltaire gets some of the credit because I'm pretty sure he saw that I was filming and decided to come and make it easier for a short while. You can see it on one of the videos as well.

The following videos were all taken by me. The person you can hear singing most clearly who is not Voltaire, is sweetnovicane. ♥

Voltaire performing 'Brains'. I managed to do something I've never done before and will never do again, and record the best song of the set. At the beginning Voltaire tells us to say 'brains' after he says it, but it doesn't go as well for him as he had planned. He later lamented that this is what happens when we don't show up to rehearsal.

Voltaire performing 'Goodnight Demon Slayer'. As I mentioned before, I'm new to Voltaire's music. This song, however, is one of the ones that really won my heart.

Voltaire performing what I believe is called 'Cantina'. It's a song about Star Wars and losing your anal virginity to um...everyone. What's not to like!? Also, if you sneak up behind barbed_whispers and go 'I LOST MORE THAN MY HEEEEART IN THAT CANTINAAAA', she'll want to hit you. ♥



And that's it for day one. It felt long by the time I dropped into bed, but the weekend was just getting started. I think that evening I got about thirty minutes of sleep collectively. It's always good to start a trip in a deficit, yes? More exciting.

And now on to day two! Including the likes of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Gareth David-Lloyd, James Marsters, Tom Felton, and Abney Park.

Comments

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Heee. Awesome. I'm glad you had fun! And sorry we missed each other. :(

It was not meant to be this year. Next year, yes/yes?

[maryangel200.livejournal.com]

♥ You suck at remembering names but I still love you, GH. Hmmm KJ? KB? dude. ;)

[sweetnovicane.livejournal.com]

Yay douchebag hair kid!

How was the Kool-Aid going down, sweetie? I just remember it tasting so good that I didn't realize what had happened by the end of D*C 2008.

[myras-girls.livejournal.com]

Sitting at the table with stoopbeck and H is Nicole, aka browncoat_gater and she's pretty neat!

Nick looks so unamused in that photo. Maybe he needs a poke.

[xterm.livejournal.com]

It looks like you had a great time!! I wish I could have been there!!

[roadrunner1896.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't recognize skroberts. What is wrong with my brain?

But YAY! for food and fun and everything.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

I figured it up--ten years since I've been to Dragon*Con. Can't wait for more fun reports!

[meletor-et-al.livejournal.com]

1. Spider Lilies: hot violinist is hot.

2. Voltaire: Voltaire!!! VOLTAIRE!!!!

3. if the game of Cows! is anything like the games of cow-counting we played in the car on family road trips, my grandma has a secret hint -- just count the legs and divide by four. my grandmother was a funny lady.

4. OMFG JEALOUS.

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

so much fun!

[tranquilmayhem.livejournal.com]

(I came here via sweetnovicane's post~)

I really appreciate these pictures. I didn't take many of my own on Thursday because I wasn't in con mode yet, but I love these.

The guy with douche hair is named Connor. I don't know him, but a friend of mine does and he seems to like him~ (What did you really think of Spider Lilies, though? I thought it was kinda missing something... Except for the last song with Rachel, the violinist. So spooky and awesome.)

I'm glad you love Voltaire as well now. ♥ I thought his best moment was on Saturday when they were setting up the table, though, rofl.

[barbed-whispers.livejournal.com]

those statue photos came out awesome! and also i am going to burn that cantina down :p

[marilla82.livejournal.com]

Out of order, but:

VOLTAAAAAAAIRE!

BLOOD COVER!?!?!?

OMG, GET MY SEWING MACHINE I WANNA MAKE HALF OF THOSE CLOTHES!!

I want to look up Spider Lilies now. I think I shall.

[canellaphile.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Now I HAVE to check if I can dl Voltaire on rhapsody. :)