DragonCon 2009 – Day Two: Warcraft, Parades, Tor & Godzilla Bingo

The Internet Is For Porn.

That addictive and generally inappropriate song is still competing in my head with ROFLMAO, a charming chant I heard for the first time last night/early this morning at my final stop of my second day here in Atlanta, the Warcraft gathering, which was several hundred strong.  We celebrated the talents of a random fan who made loud chirping cricket sounds, garnering much attention and several prizes – yes, merely for making himself known by chirping during rare moments of quiet – and encouraged a panel of emote contestants as they twisted, jumped, and wriggled for prizes.  The Cataclysm trailer drew thunderous applause, and for good reasons; new race/class combinations, new monsters, new races for both the Alliance (Worgen) and the Horde (Goblins), and flying mounts in a re-forged Azeroth.  Although there were no actual gnomes for punting, several footballs carefully painted with gnome features were used for very aggressive dodgeball battles as well as kicking and throwing at a target manned at times by the event’s coordinator.  He made it clear throughout the evening that he was a Horde man, and cast great aspersion on the Alliance; he also had trouble making eye contact with any moderately endowed female.  ”Her eyes are up higher!” my son yelled at him, along with other fans who became hostile over his continued abuse of the Alliance.  Placing himself in the way of gnome footballs was nearly suicidal when a beautiful and sparkly costumed participant whacked him right in the head.  He couldn’t bring himself to get angry, and awarded her several prizes, which were donated by ComCast.  Classic videos, including those mentioned above along with Code Monkey, I Am Murloc, and Do You Wanna Date My Avatar kept our attention in between the more physical activities.  Unfortunately, DragonCon shut us down shortly before one this morning, for undisclosed reasons, so we walked back to the hotel in the midst of the college football crowd and some inebriated sorceresses.  The streets were as busy in the early morning as they had been in the light of day.

Twelve hours before the Warcraft mania began, the DragonCon parade took over Peachtree Street for over 45 minutes, marching by Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe as crowds pressed in for a closer look.  Cookie Monster shuffled along with clusters of Stormtroopers, and pirates waved to fans as they shared the street with Ghostbusters.  A lone sax player absorbed in his music danced between the large groups of Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Warcraft, Middle-Earth, Firefly, Serenity, Doctor Who, and Wheel of Time characters; zombies – including one bearing the sign “homeless zombie: will kill for food” – vampires, superheroes, fairies, wizards, steampunks, anime icons, and, to great cheers, local military and law enforcement.  This list is by no means all inclusive.  The talent, creativity, and effort behind these costumes and props, including a stunning pirate ship, was breathtaking. At the risk of sounding like a DragonCon promo, the pictures do not do this parade justice.

Between the parade and Warcraft, my Sailor Scout and I played Godzilla bingo, which involved watching our favorite Japanese film star and his counterparts, Rodan and Mothra, battle it out in Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster.  Our dedicated attention was rewarded with the grand prize, a DVD of Godzilla vs. Mothra.  We adore Mothra; I have a plastic Mothra figure at my desk at work.  The DragonCon technical crew hadn’t prepared the room as Tom Blanks, the coordinator, had requested, so the delay in viewing the film and playing the game cleared some of the room.  That was fine with the rest of us; real Godzilla fans stayed to play and enjoy the film, which features an angry Godzilla swearing at Mothra and Rodan, in a dialect understood only by the Mothra fairies, of course.

We were very surprised and excited to make it into the Stargate panel, which included Jason Momoa, Joe Flanigan, Rachel Luttrell, Paul McGillion, Gary Jones, and Colin Cunningham. One of the guys had forgotten to pick up Rachel on the way; she called Joe as he settled in at the table and he shared their conversation, during which she yelled at him for leaving her behind.  She arrived not long after, amidst cheers.  Jason stood on a chair and posed for his many female fans to appreciate him – I admit to screaming along – and confirmed soon after that he indeed entered the acting profession for the women.  Joe revealed that his acting prompt came from being fired from every other job, and Jason assured him that they both were guaranteed a job after Atlantis; Jason would be a manager at Denny’s, and Joe was already hired.  ”Finally,” Jason laughed. “I’ll get to be the boss.”   One audience member asked if any of the panel read Stargate fanfiction, making particular reference to slash. Joe chuckled uncomfortably and shook his head: “No, and I don’t think I will.”  When Rachel joined them, Joe repeated the question, without mentioning slash.  She beamed at the fans before purring into her mike:  ”Every ten minutes.”  Colin spoke of his upcoming work in the television series Living in Your Car, and Gary countered with his probable gig operating a security camera at Paul’s house.  Paul spent a few minutes denying an accusation from Rachel that he has a hand in the administration of his MySpace page. “If it has pictures of him modeling, he does,” she insisted with a smile.

A fan asked, what is like on set? Rachel yelled, “Hell!” before Joe admitted, “David and I get chastised for joking around too much on set.  Rachel is usually the punching bag.  She’s a good sport about it.”  Jason snorted.  ”That’s because she getting old.”  Rachel demonstrated her physical prowess immediately by jumping out of her chair and chasing him out of his.  Joe returned to harping on about David: “He has to outdo everyone.”  After a particularly stressful day on set, David had insisted on pouting more than usual, and when Joe and Jason were driving off, David pulled up next to them, unaware they were beside him and completely involved in himself until he saw Jason’s bare butt saluting him.  Jason nearly caused a riot when he stood up and turned around to demonstrate, but disappointed the howling crowd when he maintained his professionalism and kept his pants up.  The hour-long panel discussion, however, was anything but disappointing.  It is clear that this group does more than breathe life into great science fiction; they have a visible chemistry and shared joy in their calling that seems effortless and satisfying.

Not satisfying . . . navigating the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, one of DragonCon’s host hotels.  I expected to run into the Minotaur at any given moment.

Found at the dealer hall . . . P.J. Haarsma, author of The Softwire series, a collection of popular science fiction young adult titles.  He kindly signed his latest, Wormhole Pirates on Orbis 3, for my son, and posed for a picture with my Sailor Scout.  Found outside of the art and comics hall . . . a Sith monkey by the name of Todd Lacey, who wore some rockin’ cloven boots.

Paul Stevens, Heather Osborn, and Stacy Hague-Hill, editors at Tor, held a preview panel of up and coming titles from their busy house, complete with advance reading copies for some lucky attendees.  Books of note:  F. Paul Wilson’s Ground Zero; Mercedes Lackey’s The Phoenix Transformed; City of Fire by popular young adult author Laurence Yep, who steps into the multicultural adult fiction genre with this title, which is first in a series; Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary, featuring works by Timothy Zahn, Peter S. Beagle, Earl Hammer, and Harlan Ellison; The Ghost Quartet, four novellas by Orson Scott Card, Marvin Kaye, Tanith Lee, and Brian Lumley; The Prince of Frogs, the second in a series on a variation of the Sleeping Beauty myth that keeps close to the original and not pleasant tale, making for a sexy urban fantasy/paranormal romance much feted by the panel; L.E. Modesitt’s Imager’s Challenge, set in a 17th century Netherlands-type world, focusing on politics; Ken Scholes’ Canticle, the sequel to Lamentation; John Brown’s Servant of a Dark God, a fantasy that “side steps the usual cliches”; Neuropath, a near-future thriller from R. Scott Bakker; Jumper Cable, the 33rd in the series by Piers Anthony; Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, a steampunk novel that has received a lot of pre-pub attention, not the least from Tiffany Trent, author of the incredibly popular young adult series, Hallowmere, who mentioned it during an earlier panel on Victorian lit and steampunk; Claire Delacroix takes a step out of the historical romance genre with Guardian, a post-nuclear, pre-apocalypic tale; Halo Evolutions, ten short stories set in the Halo-verse; Gene Wolfe’s An Evil Guest, a pulp noir thriller with an actress heroine who is married to Cthulhu; Arthur C. Clarke examines a world without privacy in The Light of Other Days; Pleasure Model, the first of a series of Heavy Metal works that are, according to Paul, “really, really cool.  It has the sensibility of, you know, sex, violence, and kick ass babes”; March brings religious suspense from William Peter Blatty, Dimiter; Gail Dayton’s Heart’s Blood, a paranormal steampunk romance, should arrive in January; and Morgan Llwelyn returns to ancient Ireland with the life of St. Brendan in The Remarkable Life and Voyage of Brendan of Clonfert.

Warcraft closed the second and began the third day, which is another report altogether.

[View with PicLens]

About Medora

I am a librarian and a doctoral student in American Literature. I like cats, chinchillas, and moogles. When I go to a big city, I have to go to Chinatown. I eat lemons. I love love love NASCAR. This may be all you need to know. Medora's Blog