Dragon*Con, Day 2
Sep. 8th, 2010 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomSaturday, I got up and moving later than I wanted to. Man, this con is exhausting. Thank goodness for the scooter. No, thank Dragon*Con and Scooteround for the scooter.
Because I would be playing at the Awards Banquet at 7:00 and again at my own set at 10:00, and thinking of what the elevators at the Hyatt would be like on Saturday evening, I decided to take both the guitar and a full change of clothes with me. Tricky to lug, but doable. Until a problem from the preceding evening reared its ugly head.
The scooter didn't want to hold a charge. Or the charger wasn't working. Or somethin'.
With no juice in the battery, the darn thing was catching on every single square foot of rug as if it were the souls in the marsh reaching for Frodo and Sam. Immensely frustrating. I got ahold of Robby, and he said he was pretty sure he could get me a new scooter. I said, even a replacement battery would help.
Meantime, I was given a push by the elevator guy, Fast Eddie (I swear I'm not making that up), who was basically there to make sure the elevators didn't break. Many, many good karma points to him: He shoved me all the way across the new Hyatt-Marriott walkway, where I waited for Robby. We determined that indeed the scooter didn't seem to be holding a charge, and he got for me one that did.
Down to the table. Fun hanging out most of the day. Excellent costumes, amazing babeitude, manly men (one of the best costumes was a guy done up as the Marvel Comics Hercules -- he really looked the part, and had the schtick down pat), many nice people, decent sales, all kindsa goodness. A sweet old lady who said she was my good luck charm, because as soon as she sat down people started to buy, and who am I to argue? :) I ran out of a couple of the CD-Rs, and determined to burn some that night or in the morning.
About 5:15, I had to go to the restroom. Even that, fifty feet away, is an adventure in this sea of humanity. And I suddenly realized that, as soon as I was done with that, I really should head off to the Hyatt, as I had the feeling it might take more than an hour to get over there. So I changed clothes there, got the stock stashed (the best place turned out to be checking it at the Marriott bell captain -- a few bucks in tip every day, and it's safe as houses), grabbed the guitar and started off.
The new walkway did make it much easier to get to the Hyatt... once I got up the elevator at the Marriott. Over at the Hyatt, today at least, they had some nice hotel staff monitoring the elevators, so it wasn't that much of a hassle to get to the ballroom level. So I actually got there early. Still took nearer to an hour than I'd like for a trip across the street.
Once I was there, though, golden. Lovely violin music was already being played onstage by members of The Ghosts Project. I spent several minutes chatting with the wonderful Jody Lynn Nye. (Her husband Bill Fawcett was busy, he was the MC for the evening, and Jody warned me that he had remarks prepared for me. Gulp.) I asked her if she'd give a couple of CDs to Stan Lee, as I felt it would be presumptuous of me. Along comes the big guy running the mechanics of the stage from last year, can't remember his name but one of those wonderful and supremely competent Friendly Giant types, introduced me to Maurice, a Friendly Giant In Training. Big Guy Talked me up as if I was entertaining or somethin'. I parked the scooter and set up the guitar backstage, went out to a table, and sat as if I was supposed to be there. Which, of course, I was. :) Saw Lee Martindale, Pat Henry, Regina Kirby, all was well.
Among the nice people who ended up at my table were my good luck charm from the Marriott, and... Literary GOH Sherrilyn Kenyon. I didn't even know who she was, having never heard of her, seen her, or read her works. But she was an attractive, incredibly articulate lady, and we got along well to start with, and I'm gonna get some of her books. And her friends were all nice, and then we got bread and entrees, and all of a sudden Bill was introducing me, talking me up big time, and I excused myself and got backstage, then onstage.
Started out with "Smash the Frickin' Fairies". That got their attention. So did "Tech Support For Dad".
Now, an interesting aspect of all this: Stan Lee, the Real Major Effing Big Name this year, wasn't at the banquet yet. He'd apparently insisted on walking all the way over from wherever they had him ensconced at the Walk of Fame. Remember that that is in the Hilton, and to get to the banquet from there you go through the Marriott, and then to the Hyatt, and then downstairs. And he's got his own security team.
So, Bill keeps coming over to me. His intention is to make sure that we can stop to give Stan a big round of applause when he enters, and he's being kept abreast of Stan's progress. And he says, "stretch!" So I get ready to do more. Then he says, "short songs!" I begin to suspect his info source.
In any case, my fifteen minutes became about nine, maybe ten. I did a few short shticks, and finished up with "Spoiler Alert", as Bill said, "Something funny!" It seemed to work. More later. For now, I got back to my table, and Sherrilyn and her friends were boggling with how great I was. So, hey. :)
While waiting for Stan, there was an award presented to artist Neil Adams, who was fun and engaging and told the story of how so very many comic creators, including Stan Lee himself, were Neil's sons. During all this, Stan and his people entered from the back and made their way forward.
Sherrilyn Kenyon then went up to receive an award, and I'm really starting to like her style. Definitely have to get a book or two.
Peter David then got up to present the Julie Award (named for Julius Schwartz), and did a long semi-insult comedy riff, which seemed to be the order of the night. It was obvious that none of them meant a word, but were just having fun with their peers. Peter finished by saying, "I've been waiting my whole life to do this: Peter David presents -- Stan 'The Man' Lee! Excelsior!"
Stan's speech was zinging back at Neil and Peter and whomever else was in earshot, but the thing I remember is that he commented on Dragon*Con's costumes -- "Never have I seen a convention where there are more people in costumes than civilians! So much so that the civilians seem to be the ones in costume!" And I thought that was a pretty apt summary of D*C at first glance.
The Hank Reinhardt Award for Georgia Fandom was introduced with a video from Australia by Hank's widow, Baen editor Toni Weisskopf -- who mentioned me as a Big Part of Dragon*Con ("... from Tom Smith to the Cruxshadows..."). Boggled my ass good, and I owe her a big hug on top of the big hugs I owe her. I think she's gonna be at FenCon....
Anyway, the Reinhardt was presented to D*C Vendor guru Mark Fingerman. The City of Atlanta declared Saturday both Stan Lee Day and Neil Adams Day, and the city councilman who presented these honors was a comics fan himself.
Aaaaaand that's a wrap, and I hung out for a few minutes and received some very nice compliments and then I excused myself 'cause I had to get downstairs for my 10:00.
Got down there in the last third of Pandora Celtica's set. Outside the filk room was a major suprise --trumanburbank, the incredible Grant Baccioco of Throwing Toasters! He decided, spur-of-the-moment, to come to D*C, and he was hanging out with some of his podcast buddies. Most excellent.
Inside, as mentioned, Pandora Celtica. They really are fun. A small glitch: One of the volunteers saw that I was parked at the back, and he started to make room for my scooter to get to the front. Problem was, he did this by shoving chairs out of the way and moving people over in their seats... during one of Pandora Celtica's songs. I waved him over and hissed, "You do not do that. Do not interrupt a performance. I'll go outside." And I did.
He followed me outside, trying to understand, and (as we were now not interrupting the performance) I patiently explained to him that you do not do what he was doing while a performance is going on. He said he got it; all good.
When PC were finally done, I got in there and set up. The room was full, and my concert faded into the Open Filk, so I could go long. I did a substantially different set from Friday -- can't even remember what, I've gotta check out the audio. But everything went very well, and by the end of it I was bone tired. Sold a bit, hung out a bit, and proceeded upstairs.
The elevators went somewhat more smoothly this time -- it only took about fifteen minutes, and a bit of miscommunication by some nice people who were only trying to help (basically, three people got off for another scooter, and then they got stuck in the Motor Lobby because of all the go-down-to-go-up folks, and one finally decided to walk, but one of the hotel staffers brought down an elevator, and a couple of people without all the information were trying to explain, and I had to interject and say why those two nice people got dibs, and the staffer got all of us on the 'vator). And I got over the the International tower and got right the hell upstairs and collapsed into a heap.
Because I would be playing at the Awards Banquet at 7:00 and again at my own set at 10:00, and thinking of what the elevators at the Hyatt would be like on Saturday evening, I decided to take both the guitar and a full change of clothes with me. Tricky to lug, but doable. Until a problem from the preceding evening reared its ugly head.
The scooter didn't want to hold a charge. Or the charger wasn't working. Or somethin'.
With no juice in the battery, the darn thing was catching on every single square foot of rug as if it were the souls in the marsh reaching for Frodo and Sam. Immensely frustrating. I got ahold of Robby, and he said he was pretty sure he could get me a new scooter. I said, even a replacement battery would help.
Meantime, I was given a push by the elevator guy, Fast Eddie (I swear I'm not making that up), who was basically there to make sure the elevators didn't break. Many, many good karma points to him: He shoved me all the way across the new Hyatt-Marriott walkway, where I waited for Robby. We determined that indeed the scooter didn't seem to be holding a charge, and he got for me one that did.
Down to the table. Fun hanging out most of the day. Excellent costumes, amazing babeitude, manly men (one of the best costumes was a guy done up as the Marvel Comics Hercules -- he really looked the part, and had the schtick down pat), many nice people, decent sales, all kindsa goodness. A sweet old lady who said she was my good luck charm, because as soon as she sat down people started to buy, and who am I to argue? :) I ran out of a couple of the CD-Rs, and determined to burn some that night or in the morning.
About 5:15, I had to go to the restroom. Even that, fifty feet away, is an adventure in this sea of humanity. And I suddenly realized that, as soon as I was done with that, I really should head off to the Hyatt, as I had the feeling it might take more than an hour to get over there. So I changed clothes there, got the stock stashed (the best place turned out to be checking it at the Marriott bell captain -- a few bucks in tip every day, and it's safe as houses), grabbed the guitar and started off.
The new walkway did make it much easier to get to the Hyatt... once I got up the elevator at the Marriott. Over at the Hyatt, today at least, they had some nice hotel staff monitoring the elevators, so it wasn't that much of a hassle to get to the ballroom level. So I actually got there early. Still took nearer to an hour than I'd like for a trip across the street.
Once I was there, though, golden. Lovely violin music was already being played onstage by members of The Ghosts Project. I spent several minutes chatting with the wonderful Jody Lynn Nye. (Her husband Bill Fawcett was busy, he was the MC for the evening, and Jody warned me that he had remarks prepared for me. Gulp.) I asked her if she'd give a couple of CDs to Stan Lee, as I felt it would be presumptuous of me. Along comes the big guy running the mechanics of the stage from last year, can't remember his name but one of those wonderful and supremely competent Friendly Giant types, introduced me to Maurice, a Friendly Giant In Training. Big Guy Talked me up as if I was entertaining or somethin'. I parked the scooter and set up the guitar backstage, went out to a table, and sat as if I was supposed to be there. Which, of course, I was. :) Saw Lee Martindale, Pat Henry, Regina Kirby, all was well.
Among the nice people who ended up at my table were my good luck charm from the Marriott, and... Literary GOH Sherrilyn Kenyon. I didn't even know who she was, having never heard of her, seen her, or read her works. But she was an attractive, incredibly articulate lady, and we got along well to start with, and I'm gonna get some of her books. And her friends were all nice, and then we got bread and entrees, and all of a sudden Bill was introducing me, talking me up big time, and I excused myself and got backstage, then onstage.
Started out with "Smash the Frickin' Fairies". That got their attention. So did "Tech Support For Dad".
Now, an interesting aspect of all this: Stan Lee, the Real Major Effing Big Name this year, wasn't at the banquet yet. He'd apparently insisted on walking all the way over from wherever they had him ensconced at the Walk of Fame. Remember that that is in the Hilton, and to get to the banquet from there you go through the Marriott, and then to the Hyatt, and then downstairs. And he's got his own security team.
So, Bill keeps coming over to me. His intention is to make sure that we can stop to give Stan a big round of applause when he enters, and he's being kept abreast of Stan's progress. And he says, "stretch!" So I get ready to do more. Then he says, "short songs!" I begin to suspect his info source.
In any case, my fifteen minutes became about nine, maybe ten. I did a few short shticks, and finished up with "Spoiler Alert", as Bill said, "Something funny!" It seemed to work. More later. For now, I got back to my table, and Sherrilyn and her friends were boggling with how great I was. So, hey. :)
While waiting for Stan, there was an award presented to artist Neil Adams, who was fun and engaging and told the story of how so very many comic creators, including Stan Lee himself, were Neil's sons. During all this, Stan and his people entered from the back and made their way forward.
Sherrilyn Kenyon then went up to receive an award, and I'm really starting to like her style. Definitely have to get a book or two.
Peter David then got up to present the Julie Award (named for Julius Schwartz), and did a long semi-insult comedy riff, which seemed to be the order of the night. It was obvious that none of them meant a word, but were just having fun with their peers. Peter finished by saying, "I've been waiting my whole life to do this: Peter David presents -- Stan 'The Man' Lee! Excelsior!"
Stan's speech was zinging back at Neil and Peter and whomever else was in earshot, but the thing I remember is that he commented on Dragon*Con's costumes -- "Never have I seen a convention where there are more people in costumes than civilians! So much so that the civilians seem to be the ones in costume!" And I thought that was a pretty apt summary of D*C at first glance.
The Hank Reinhardt Award for Georgia Fandom was introduced with a video from Australia by Hank's widow, Baen editor Toni Weisskopf -- who mentioned me as a Big Part of Dragon*Con ("... from Tom Smith to the Cruxshadows..."). Boggled my ass good, and I owe her a big hug on top of the big hugs I owe her. I think she's gonna be at FenCon....
Anyway, the Reinhardt was presented to D*C Vendor guru Mark Fingerman. The City of Atlanta declared Saturday both Stan Lee Day and Neil Adams Day, and the city councilman who presented these honors was a comics fan himself.
Aaaaaand that's a wrap, and I hung out for a few minutes and received some very nice compliments and then I excused myself 'cause I had to get downstairs for my 10:00.
Got down there in the last third of Pandora Celtica's set. Outside the filk room was a major suprise --
trumanburbank, the incredible Grant Baccioco of Throwing Toasters! He decided, spur-of-the-moment, to come to D*C, and he was hanging out with some of his podcast buddies. Most excellent.Inside, as mentioned, Pandora Celtica. They really are fun. A small glitch: One of the volunteers saw that I was parked at the back, and he started to make room for my scooter to get to the front. Problem was, he did this by shoving chairs out of the way and moving people over in their seats... during one of Pandora Celtica's songs. I waved him over and hissed, "You do not do that. Do not interrupt a performance. I'll go outside." And I did.
He followed me outside, trying to understand, and (as we were now not interrupting the performance) I patiently explained to him that you do not do what he was doing while a performance is going on. He said he got it; all good.
When PC were finally done, I got in there and set up. The room was full, and my concert faded into the Open Filk, so I could go long. I did a substantially different set from Friday -- can't even remember what, I've gotta check out the audio. But everything went very well, and by the end of it I was bone tired. Sold a bit, hung out a bit, and proceeded upstairs.
The elevators went somewhat more smoothly this time -- it only took about fifteen minutes, and a bit of miscommunication by some nice people who were only trying to help (basically, three people got off for another scooter, and then they got stuck in the Motor Lobby because of all the go-down-to-go-up folks, and one finally decided to walk, but one of the hotel staffers brought down an elevator, and a couple of people without all the information were trying to explain, and I had to interject and say why those two nice people got dibs, and the staffer got all of us on the 'vator). And I got over the the International tower and got right the hell upstairs and collapsed into a heap.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 11:42 pm (UTC)So.... Not to be a PITA, but I was trying to refresh my memory for the "Smash The Frickin' Fairies" lyrics. And I found this:
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=31201
Who's Karl Brown?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-08 11:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 12:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 03:47 pm (UTC)I have got to get to DragonCon some year. It sounds fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 04:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 08:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-09 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 07:14 am (UTC)When you go to try her books, remember that she writes Romance with a capital R - which means that her main characters are required to fall in true love and fulfill a few other genre contrivances. Other than that - plot, metaplot, characters, dialog (with complete SNARK) - wonderful. My suggestion - stick with the Dark Hunter series to start. Look at the list inside the front cover, then read the back of the first six books to pick which characters sound the most interesting and read that one.
Regarding Mr Baccioco - here's his response to my tweet identifying him at your Sunday concert - http://twitter.com/ToasterBoy/statuses/23113482457 - so he's got to be cool, himself.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-11 10:28 pm (UTC)