Home from DragonCon

September 2nd, 2008 1:49am by rusty-halo | 17 Comments »

I’m home.

DragonCon was… interesting. I’m sad it’s over, but I felt like I was barely there this year anyway. I came this close to canceling because I changed my mind about leaving Lucifer with a cat-sitter and delaying his start on insulin (for those not on my FL, he was diagnosed with diabetes the day before I left for DragonCon). I stayed awake all night worrying and waking every hour to check on him (he was sleeping at the foot of my bed, then came up to snuggle next to me). When I woke up for real I just couldn’t possibly leave him, so I called work in tears and told them I couldn’t come in, then called around to vets trying to find a place that would board him for the weekend, start him on insulin, and monitor him. I did end up finding one (and it’s costing me every last penny I had saved up for London, but let’s try not to think about that).

So I almost didn’t go, I didn’t sleep the night before, and I’d spent the previous two days crying at nearly every person who spoke to me. Then my plane got delayed by three hours (I ran and was the very last person on the very last MARTA train of the night) and got to the Marriott around 1:45am. I pretty much immediately crashed, and kind of wandered around like a zombie through the rest of the con.

I had been meaning to make more solid plans to meet up with people, and 10zlaine and I were going to make VOTE SAXON buttons and signs, but I didn’t have time for any of that. (Although I really wanted a VOTE SAXON button, so I made my own at con by drawing it on the back of a postcard and attaching it with rusty old safety pin I found at the bottom of my suitcase. Goofy, but whatever.)

Mostly I’m disappointed because there were a lot of people I wanted to talk to, but I ended up either not seeing them or only managing to chat with them for a few minutes. I got to meet rm (and saw her on a late night slash panel which was fun) and violet_lane (who was on a BritTrack costuming panel in a great Leela outfit). And I got to see a couple of old friends: I ran into psubrat twice, and at the very end of the con, when I was lamenting having missed her, I spotted rockgoddes on an escalator and was able to to run over and hug her and talk for a few minutes before rushing off to the airport. I also talked briefly with Rick/Mindcage from Mindless Faith/Chemlab, who was playing drums with Ego Likeness; we reminisced about the PIG tour for a bit (and what a mess the booking agent made of it). And I even got to meet a couple of new people, minervamoon and tardis_stowaway, who were at the BritTrack party and managed to start conversations despite the horribly awkward set-up (seriously, they couldn’t even turn on some background music, put out some snacks, and move the chairs to the sides of the room or into circles or something???)

I was incredibly disappointed in the Doctor Who programming; there was only one specific New Who panel and then every other Doctor Who panel was an Old Who panel, in which they might begrudgingly talk about New Who, but it obviously was not what they were interested in. The same people were on every panel, so you heard the same stuff over and over, and every perspective was an old fan perspective, so you didn’t get to hear anything from fans who are mainly interested in the new series. It was very clear that to them Doctor Who is Old Who, and New Who is just this little supplementary thing that doesn’t really matter. Whereas the majority of the audience was clearly far more interested in New Who; the New Who panel had a gigantic line and got moved to a big ballroom, whereas every other panel wasn’t even filled. It’s just… man, the fandoms are different. If what you fell in love with was New Who, you’re going to have a completely different perspective than someone who fell in love with Old Who and doesn’t really care about the new series.

And… seriously, they couldn’t have possibly made me feel less welcome. Between snide comments about Rose and her blow-up doll Doctor to the fact that even the New Who panel’s trivia questions were about Old Who, it was clear to me that I didn’t belong and wasn’t wanted. It’s as if all the Battlestar Galactica panels were run by people who love the old series and begrudgingly admit that the new one is popular. The focus is different and I’m not saying they shouldn’t have Old Who panels–obviously some percentage of the audience enjoyed them–but there was a huge audience there mainly interested in New Who and the BritTrack either didn’t realize that they were there or didn’t care. It really struck me in the post-con wrap up panel when one woman mentioned that the word on the street was that they should have more New Who panels and one guy scoffed “What more can we do?” Uh, gee… companions? Themes? Character arcs? Fanworks? Reactions to the season finales? You had one freaking panel to cover all of New Who and you seriously think there’s nothing more to discuss??? And this guy was on the New Who panel (and nearly every other Doctor Who panel); dude, if you dislike it so much, why are you on the panel for it??? I know actual New Who fans who volunteered and were rejected, so many you should try putting people who like New Who on the New Who panels next time!

(The one good panel was on gay themes. The audience was engaged and it was far more participatory than the other panels, plus they did a good job splitting its focus evenly between Old Who, New Who, and Torchwood, with a bit of Sarah Jane Adventures thrown in as well).

Anyway. What else did I do? The highlight was seeing James Hong and Edward James Olmos talk about Blade Runner–Olmos did a lot more than I realized in terms of creating his own character. And it was awesome to hear his first-hand argument about why Deckard is a replicant. It was also cute to see Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville in Harry Potter–he seems fairly thoughtful and smart. I caught about ten minutes of the end of Gareth David-Lloyd’s first panel–lots of giggly girls asking stupid questions, unfortunately. I’m sad that I missed all of Michael Rosenbaum’s panels, but that’s mostly ameliorated by the fact that we rode in the elevator with him and he asked me “Who’s Saxon?” (me: “um, he’s the Master for Doctor Who, he’s all evil and stuff OH MY GOD YOU’RE LEX LUTHOR AND YOU’RE SO HOT“) and then he asked us for gum because he’d just eaten Mexican and sadly we didn’t have any. (jaydk and I recognized him, while 10zlaine and lonners had no clue. So they were all casual and normal while I was frozen like a deer in headlights.)

The Goth track stuff was entertaining, as usual. Rogue from the Cruxshadows is always an interesting speaker. And the concerts were good. I think the Cruxshadows are fairly ridiculous, but they’re well meaning and they put on a good show, so I enjoy watching them (especially in that huge room with that devoted crowd; you can’t help but get swept up). For some reason they scheduled Voltaire for 1:30am, though, so I went to bed instead. Then he was supposed to play in the concourse the next day, but he only managed one song before being declared a fire hazard and being canceled. Luckily they rescheduled him for a ballroom on Sunday and I finally got to see him. He does the same old shtick every time, but again, it’s a DragonCon tradition, the audience loves him, and he’s fun to watch. Oh, and I was glad to see Ego Likeness back; they also put on a great show, which unfortunately I only managed to catch the last half of since I was over in the Sheraton finally having found a couple of people with whom to talk about New Who.

I ended up using all the photos on my memory card for the first time ever. Mostly because I managed (for only the second time in my six years of DragonCon) to wake up in time for the parade. So many Doctor Who costumes! I have lots of photos to post. :)

So… yeah. There were a few good moments, but mostly this con went by too fast and I hardly ever felt like I was really there.

Current Mood: blah