Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Random fun things
Some of the photos I took at DragonCon.
Spartans from 300. These guys were pretty buff.
A group of bounty hunters posing for photos
Phil Plait (BadAstronomy) in one of the Science track sessions
Lou Ferrigno riding in the DragonCon parade
BSG Colonials
Ghostbusters
The Babylon 5 panels and Q&A sessions had me squeeing like a little girl.
For the longest time, cons were those places where the weirdo hard-core geeks that dressed up gathered. Not the kind of thing I ever imagined myself wanting to go. Anybody who took their favourite show/character that seriously was just too bizarre to my brain.
DragonCon is really something that needs to be experienced. It’s just too hard to describe, and any telling of the things that go on at DragonCon make it sound like it’s just a collection of weirdos, freaks and geeks.
I went, and I saw. At the first panel I went to (Babylon 5), I squeed like a little girl. And then I got to meet and talk to Bruce Boxleitner, and I squeed some more. I saw celebrities like Lou Ferrigno, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, most of the Stargate: Atlantis cast, and many more. More squee’ing when I got Tracy Scoggin‘s autograph and photo taken with her (also a self admitted sci-fi geek). Photo with Felicia Day (OMGSQUEEE!!).
Yes, I became a total fan boy and one of them. Admittedly, I didn’t really have that far to go.
There were lots of people dressed up in costumes and many that weren’t. There were costumes from just about every genre, show and character you could think of. When my friends and I thought about a show or character that would be cool to see or dress up as, sooner or later we’d end up seeing someone else dressed as it.
But that’s not all there is to Dragon*Con. There were the fan tracks that covered everything from your favourite sci-fi/fantasy, literature, arts, costuming to podcasting, science and space. Writers workshops, art shows, costume contests and of course the celebrity panels. There are way way way more things going on than you could ever possibly see at once.
Don’t just take my word for it though. You should think about going to see it for yourself next year.
Pictures soon. Have close to 600 that I need to go through and weed out.
Made it out to catch Charleston’s very own roller derby team, the Lowcountry Highrollers in a match against the Greenville Derby Dames this afternoon.
It was my first roller derby experience, and it didn’t disappoint. The action wasn’t quite as continuous as I expected, but was still fun to watch and pretty fast paced. Plenty of shoving and take-downs. Before the match started they did a slow speed demonstration to show the rules to the audience (very helpful for newbies like me). It still took me a little bit before I really figured out what was going on and what to watch for.
The crowd that showed up to watch was larger than I expected, which I suppose is a good thing. What’s up with all the little kids sporting mohawks though?
I picked a spot up front in what’s known as the “suicide seats”, named because apparently there’s a good chance you might end up with a roller derby girl wiping out or sliding into those seats and who ever is in them. No such luck this evening though.
The derby track
Getting ready to start off a roundjam
Zooming around the bend
Score card girls
In the penalty box
Not quite sure why these guys were dressed like this.
The final score
Post match congratulations
It is Shark Week after all.
So apparently I owe Heather a morning for the time she spent watching this little animation short and others from the National Film Board of Canada. Naturally this caused me no end of amusement and pleasure. It’s been posted in my blog before, but I just thought I’d share it again.
Log Driver’s Waltz, John Weldon, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
I’ve always enjoyed the tune. It’s one of those melodies that just sticks in your head. Here are a few more that I grew up with that you can waste time with.
The Egg, Jean-François Pouliot & Robert Bélisle, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
The Big Snit, Richard Condie, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
The Cat Came Back, Cordell Barker, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
