A quick post before bed...

[lance_sibley]

... as I can barely keep my eyes open.

The trip to Dragon*Con, and the trip back, were largely uneventful, though we were all a little stressed when we arrived in Atlanta, partially because the hotel had put four of us into a room with one bed (we're friendly, but not that friendly!) and we had to deal with that as well as fighting the crowds in the lobby. The length of the trip (about 24 hours from when I was picked up at my apartment until we arrived, so even longer for aprilsnark and longer yet for Joe, who did all the driving) was probably a contributing factor as well.

We did make a few stops on the way down, including one in a little town called Berea in Kentucky, which seemed to be an artists' commune. I took a few pictures of some large fibreglass hands, which I will post after I get them off my cellphone, and which led to much hilarity. We didn't stop in Big Bone Lick State Park, though the name also provided much hilarity (I'm not making that up).

It was nice to see a lot of friends again, including evil_admiral, terri_osborne, kradical, ashoemaker, cplpunishment, andyhat, Kirk, Mark, Carlos, and several others I'm forgetting in my sleep-deprived state, as well as other Toronto people such as redeem147, whitesangria, Stephen and Megan, though I didn't talk much to the latter three as they were busy.

Some interesting highlights (interesting on a personal level, that is):

• On the Thursday afternoon, I popped into the Walk of Fame area and saw that Ellen Muth (from Dead Like Me, who was our Actor Guest of Honour at Gaylaxicon last year) had nobody at her table. I walked over to say hello, and she recognized me, which I hadn't expected, since that was over a year ago and I hadn't really interacted much with her, leaving everything guest-related to whitesangria at the time. I got an autograph for Ambrose, since he's a huge fan of hers and had been upset that he couldn't meet her here last year, and then asked, "Feel free to say no, but if I called him right now, would you say hello?" And she agreed. Alas, the call went to his voicemail... but she left him a message. He called back while I was in a panel around 5:30 - he was absolutely giddy. (I had told him that I was planning a surprise, but I didn't tell him any details at all, or even that Ellen was going to be there, in case I couldn't swing it.)


• I finally got to meet evil_admiral's boyfriend Ken. He seems very nice, and we talked a bit about music, since that's more his area of interest. We went for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe one day and hung out for a bit a little later in the con as well.


• I walked into one of kradical's panels about ten minutes late, and he interrupted himself to wave and call out a hello. He then apologized to everyone else, saying, "I haven't seen him in weeks." No wonder everyone thinks I know everyone. *grin*


• Following the panel, kradical introduced me to Larry Nemecek, the author of The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion and The Making Of Star Trek: First Contact and the editor of the recently demised Star Trek Communicator magazine. While Larry and I were talking, another one of the panelists, Sandy Stone, came over, pointed at me, and said, "I know you from somewhere. Where?" After a few minutes, we figured out that he had written the review of last year's Worldcon for Startrek.com, which included several paragraphs about the panel I was on with D.C. Fontana and Richard Arnold.


• At one point, I was hanging out with Kirk and Mark and we were checking out cute guys, as we are wont to do. There was one guy in particular we were checking out who looked over and smiled at me. I smiled back (naturally), and suddenly he pointed at me and yelled, "Polaris!" Apparently he had recognized me from the skits we posted on Youtube to promote the con this year... which isn't as weird as one might think, since he's from Kitchener and actually attended the con.


• On the Monday evening, those of us who had gone to the con together (except for aprilsnark, who wasn't feeling well) went to dinner (again at Hard Rock) with a couple of other folks, and we wandered over to the Marriott to meet someone prior to going back to our room to hang out. kairi_kiss spotted Julie Caitlin Brown (Na'Toth from Babylon 5, and now an agent for many of the actors who appear at conventions) at the front desk, and since she had been working for Julie during part of the con, she walked over to chat. While she was there, the guy we'd been waiting for showed up, so I wandered over to let kairi_kiss know and got drawn into the conversation... which took so long that everyone else wandered off without telling us that they were going. (Oops.) It gave me a chance to apologize to Julie for not having been able to commit to helping out when more people were needed (I hadn't felt comfortable saying that I would absolutely be able to help when I didn't know what time we'd be arriving). She understood, fortunately, and gave me a hug, which I hadn't expected. (In the interest of full disclosure, she didn't remember me until I mentioned that I had co-chaired TT20, then she remembered meeting me there. But she probably meets more people than the average con guest, since she has so many clients at so many different conventions and shows, so I was actually a little surprised that she was so friendly to me and included me in the conversation she was having with kairi_kiss.)

I managed to add a few more autographs to my collection, though not too many - I met Gates McFadden, John de Lancie (all the times he's been to Toronto, and I had yet to actually meet him or get his autograph), and James Marsters. John de Lancie mentioned that he was directing an opera in Atlanta in October... I wonder if it will have premiered by the time of Gaylaxicon.

I actually feel a little guilty about how I got James' autograph... I was leaving the Walk of Fame area after getting Ellen Muth's autograph for Ambrose when I spotted redeem147 in a line. I walked over to say hello and asked who she was waiting for (as if I'd had to ask ;) ). I said to the people right behind her, "Don't worry, I'm not butting into the line - I'm just keeping my friend company." I had expected that James would be charging $50 or more. So then when someone came out and said that his autograph was only $20 (plus $5 extra for a photo if you didn't have your own item), I decided, "Screw it, now I'm in line." :) That's not something I would normally do, but nobody seemed to notice or care. I have to say, James is much better looking in person (in my opinion) than he was on Buffy or Angel. Lovely eyes, and a very warm handshake (of which he gave me two, for some reason... not that I'm complaining).

We left yesterday around 1pm or thereabouts, and after stopping for food at a Steak-And-Shake (good burgers... I didn't like the fries very much), and stopping at a Target in Farragut, Kentucky (where I bought three shirts, two pairs of cargo shorts, the special edition of Heroes S1 and The Dresden Files S1), we headed for home. I got in around 12:30 this afternoon, and after an hour-long shower, I ran some errands, then came home, unpacked, had dinner, read 400+ emails, and now am ready for bed. (I guess this wasn't such a "quick post before bed" after all.)

In other news, I'd like to congratulate the folks who worked on the Montreal Worldcon bid for 2009. For those who didn't hear, the site selection vote was this past weekend at the Worldcon in Yokohama, and Montreal defeated Kansas City 507-341. The gossip was that the vote was going to be much closer than had initially been anticipated (no pun intended, despite the Montreal Worldcon being named "Anticipation"), thanks to the KC people messing up at this year's Smofcon, but I was surprised to see that it wasn't really that close at all. Anyhow... well done, and good luck!

Edited to add: I had meant to include this tidbit from today's Globe and Mail for whitesangria:

Solutions R Us

Fixes to common problems:

Flight delays: When one of its Boeing 757s developed technical problems, Nepal's state-run airline sacrificed two goats on the runway to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god. "The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," senior airline official Raju K.C. told Reuters.

It works! :)

Comments

[mountebank.livejournal.com]

You are such an awesome boyfriend!

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

*blush*

I try. :)

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Both KC and Montreal had negative buzz, but KC's wasn't as bad at the outset. Torcon and Due North (Calgary Westercon) both worked against Montreal's credibility. Blowing SMOFcon pumped up KC's negative buzz enough to make people who were still pissed about Torcon give Montreal a second look, and I think that gave René the opportunity to get his message across.

But blowing SMOFcon didn't scuttle their bid on its own.

The KC buzz really tanked over the last three months.

They skipped bidding at Midwestcon and Westercon, alienating even more of the Worldcon volunteer (not just SMOF) voting block. I believe that Montreal had agents at both. I know Kevin Standlee and Lisa Hayes were representing Montreal at Westercon.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Both KC and Montreal had negative buzz, but KC's wasn't as bad at the outset. Torcon and Due North (Calgary Westercon) both worked against Montreal's credibility.

That was my recollection.

Blowing SMOFcon pumped up KC's negative buzz enough to make people who were still pissed about Torcon give Montreal a second look, and I think that gave René the opportunity to get his message across.

Ah. Well, while I hate to see any group implode, I can't say that I'm disappointed that the Montreal committee was successful. I really think that René will learn from Torcon's mistakes - and I think that many of the people who were involved in the bid who were also involved with Torcon are fully aware of where they erred.

But blowing SMOFcon didn't scuttle their bid on its own.

The KC buzz really tanked over the last three months.

They skipped bidding at Midwestcon and Westercon, alienating even more of the Worldcon volunteer (not just SMOF) voting block. I believe that Montreal had agents at both. I know Kevin Standlee and Lisa Hayes were representing Montreal at Westercon.

That would do it. I wonder if they lost their confidence after SMOFcon, though, which is why they appeared to basically stop bidding.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I don't get the impression that they were giving up. I get the impression that they didn't think those two events were important.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

JAMES MARSTERS OMG SQUEE OMG OMG OMG.

So envious right now.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of wishing I'd made the time to go to one of the panels he was on - from what I've heard, they were quite entertaining.

[chase820.livejournal.com]

I thought James Marsters was much more striking in person, too. Those eyes could drop you at fifty paces, but onscreen they're overpowered by the bone structure. Go figure.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that on the shows, he was made up to emphasize his cheekbones as well, and to give him a sunken, undead look. I didn't even notice his cheekbones in person, whereas on Buffy and Angel, they look like they could cut you, they're so sharp.

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

suddenly he pointed at me and yelled, "Polaris!"

Was your reply "No, I'm TT!" :)

Cu,
Andrew

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Hee! No, alas - I didn't realize until we'd spoken for a few minutes that that was where he'd recognized me from. I figured he was just recognizing me from the con in general, especially when I learned that he was from Kitchener.