My Personal DragonCon Journal
Okay, no fancy blog this time on politics, religion or anything else considered so "taboo" on Facebook. Just a quick recap of my 2-day visit to the Epic Geek & Nerd Fest known as DragonCon in Atlanta with my friend and co-worker Jeff. As I am a geek and nerd, I fit in well. Not quite to the level of some, but I got most of the humor, understood most of the costumes, and enjoyed seeing so many of us grouped in one spot. Thankfully nothing bad happened there, as many I.T. shops would never recover.
What is DragonCon? Basically a convention of SciFi and Fantasy fans, where celebrity guests come to mingle with the fans, many wannabe characters unveil their costume creations, and you talk about all things SciFi and Fantasy related. This year I went for a simple reason, I wanted to meet, shake hands, and talk to some of my favorite actors and writers; and this year Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell, and most of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast were present.
I will not spend much time bemoaning the 4-hour wait (no, not a typo) for our badges to get in. See, despite 35,000 nerds in one place, this outfit does NOT use computers to handle badges. They use notebooks, paper and stickers. Really. So, before it got started, I had sore knees, sore legs, and had grown tired of waiting. Not a great start. Perhaps one day, somebody involved in the planning and setup of the convention will think to ask some of the attendees to help with getting their technology out of the 1950s SciFi days.
But FRI was great. First, I waited another hour to schedule getting my photo taken with Morena Baccarin, an actress in several great SciFi shows. She is the hottest of the hot, and simply I wanted to get a photo with her. I will not pretend otherwise. Donna would see right through it anyhow. So, I scheduled my time for the picture for later on Friday with Morena, and my only other splurge, a photo with the ST: TNG cast got set for late Saturday morning.
Then onward to the big draw for me: Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. I had grown to really love their work in Quantum Leap, and since they are rarely at the same conventions, if they do any at all in this part of the country, I had to go. I got my few minutes with them, an autograph from each and it was enough. I would love to have done pics with them too, but $100 is kinda steep. I got to shake their hands, get a quick picture of them, and time to say hello, thank you, and ask them each a question. I asked about the rumors of a new Quantum Leap movie, and Scott confirmed he had talked with the show's creator Don Bellasario, but as of yet, the script remained unfinished. He also mentioned they would probably not be brought back as their characters, but in some other role. Screw that I would say, they made the show. The chemistry amongst the characters. Do a movie, let them be themselves and if you want to set up a new series, do it within that framework. Otherwise, don't do it.
From there I drifted through the Walk Of Fame, where the rest of the stars were signing and so forth. As we entered, I met Avery Brooks, Captain Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His "handler" had to run off and get some new Sharpies for signing, and I got to talk with Avery for a few minutes. Apparently Colm Meaney served as the class clown on the DS9 set. Avery proved very polite, although not very chatty, which I would assume from his roles. He may be older now, but he still carries an air of authority and badass with him. He is not a common convention attendee, so I appreciated the opportunity.
Next we got Jeff's photo with Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi on TNG) and her autograph for Jeff as well. She was very personable, kind and took her time. Of course, the look on Jeff's face in that photo is priceless. Like me, he loved watching her character every week on the show. Now he got to meet her. It may be 20 years after the fact, but she still looks great.
From there, I ventured to get Morena's autograph (I can still hear Jeff going "Oh My God, Wow, she's hot..." as I got in line. She starred in quite a few SciFi shows with large followings, so her line stayed busy. Still, she was polite and gave me a nice smile.
Rene Auberjonois, who has been on Benson, Star Trek, and many other shows as a guest (like MASH, Boston Legal, Warehouse 13, various other Trek shows, etc), proved to be my next celebrity. Since the line was short, I got to talk to him about what he does when not acting. He (like me) enjoys photography quite a bit, and has shown his work in galleries.
We roamed around a bit after that, seeing Kevin Sorbo, Richard Hatch, Erica Cerra, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Saul Rubinek, the main 3 from I Dream of Jeannie (Larry Hagman, Bill Daily and Barbara Eden). There were so many others too. We ended our first tour here with Jeff spotting Erin Gray, one of his all-time faves who was not a guest, but there as the PR person for many of the stars. He proved too shy to approach her himself, so Darth Grant to the rescue. :-) I took him over to where she was, and patiently waited for the chance to pounce. Once she had a minute, I asked if she would let Jeff get a photo with her. A nice $10 donation to a Women's shelter later, Jeff had 2 nice pictures with her. She looks amazing for 60. And if you happen to look at the picture closely, you will see my humor lives on, there in the background, is the no photography sign. You are only allowed to shoot in there if the stars give their permission. So, I had to leave the sign in the image.
But my favorite SciFi author, Robert J. Sawyer had a big talk and Q&A session at 4, so I ventured into it next. He spoke to us at length about his book Flash Forward (which they made into a TV show, and Hollywood promptly ruined) and his other favorite works over the years. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Aurora and Campbell Awards. There are only a handful of authors who have won all those, and he took lots of questions from the crowd. Of course, there might have only been 40-50 of us, but my assertive side got to ask a couple and get a picture with him at the end.
Being tired, I chose to bail on the evening's parties.
Saturday featured the parade to start the day, those in costume march 6 or so blocks in their outfits to the hoots and hollers of like-minded SciFi fans. My pics show you the range, Star Wars to Lord of the Rings; Super Mario to Halo; and Horror and Trek to name a few. After the parade, a stop in the photo studio got me the lucky draw of first with the TNG cast and I enjoyed meeting them all. My few minutes netted me handshakes with Levar and Jonathan, a fist bump from Spiner, a hug from Troi and a nice picture to boot. Jonathan and Brent are certainly the class clowns of this group, as they would prove to everyone who attended.
I ventured back around to see all the other stars in the walk: the twins from the Harry Potter movies, Lou Ferrigno (the Hulk), Kelly LeBrock, Edward James Olmos (he is shorter than me), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and many others.
I ended Saturday sitting in a panel discussion with 6 Stargate actors and a writer/producer talking about past episodes, upcoming ones, and life on the set. Again, all were very easy going, friendly and willing to spend time with the fans.
Jeff and I each had a classic reminder of how actors are just people too though. Each of us found ourselves in the restroom with a celebrity. I joked of "peeing with Q" (actor John de Lancie) and Jeff found himself standing next to Chewy. If you know our old history together, Jeff could not have had a more appropriate encounter. "RRRRRRRrrrrr!"
Anyhow, I realize a diary of our days is not all that exciting, this is mainly so I can remember the weekend better. Here is the list of people we met, saw, got photos with, or posed with for pictures. Jeff did also spend a good bit of time with author Kevin J. Anderson and picked up a few good reads.
If you love SciFi, want to enjoy getting to meet some of your favorite actors and don't mind the waiting, you should think of checking out DragonCon some day. We had a blast and may return again some day in the future, but my list of famous folks has mushroomed. All in all, it was a great weekend.
Met:
Rene Auberjonois
Morena Baccarin
Scott Bakula
Avery Brooks
Levar Burton
Jonathan Frakes
Erin Gray
Robert J Sawyer (author)
Marina Sirtis
Brent Spiner
Dean Stockwell
Saw:
Lee Arenberg (Trek, Pirates)
Kristin Bauer
Robert Beltran (ST:Voyager)
Ben Browder (Stagate, Firefly)
Chris Bruno (Dead Zone)
Tia Carrere (Warehouse 13, movies)
Erica CerraDenise Crosby (ST:TNG Tasha Yar, Sela)
Bill Daily (I Dream of Jeannie - Roger)
William B Davis (XFiles, Stargate Atlantis)
John de Lancie (ST:TNG Q)
Lexa Doig (Stargate, other roles)
Aaron Douglas (BSG Chief Tyrol)
Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie)
Colin Ferguson
Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk)
Michelle Forbes (ST:TNG, BSG)
Edward Furlong (Terminator 2)
Martin Gelo (writer/producer Stargate series)
Gil Gerard
Larry Hagman (I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas JR)
Richard Hatch (BSG)
J.G. Hertzler (TNG, DS9)
Virginia Hey
Alaina Huffman
Martin Klebba
Marta Kristen (Orig Lost in Space)
Phil LaMarr (MadTV, lots of roles)
Kelly LeBrock (Weird Science)
Peter Mayhew (Star Wars Chewbacca)
Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13)
Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis)
Jason Momoa (Stargate Atlantis)
Robert O'Reilly (TNG, DS9)
Edward James Olmos (BSG, Miami Vice)
Sandeep Parikh
Luke Perry (90210)
James Phelps & Oliver Phelps (Harry Potter Fred & George)
Sendhil RamamurthySaul Rubinek (Warehouse 13, Trek guest roles)
Michael Shanks (Stargate)
Rekha Sharma (BSG)
Mark A. Sheppard (BSG, Warehouse 13)
Armin Shimerman (ST:DS9, guest roles)
Marc Singer
Shawnee Smith (Armageddon, Becker, others)
Kevin Sorbo
Garrett Wang (ST:Voyager)
What is DragonCon? Basically a convention of SciFi and Fantasy fans, where celebrity guests come to mingle with the fans, many wannabe characters unveil their costume creations, and you talk about all things SciFi and Fantasy related. This year I went for a simple reason, I wanted to meet, shake hands, and talk to some of my favorite actors and writers; and this year Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell, and most of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast were present.
I will not spend much time bemoaning the 4-hour wait (no, not a typo) for our badges to get in. See, despite 35,000 nerds in one place, this outfit does NOT use computers to handle badges. They use notebooks, paper and stickers. Really. So, before it got started, I had sore knees, sore legs, and had grown tired of waiting. Not a great start. Perhaps one day, somebody involved in the planning and setup of the convention will think to ask some of the attendees to help with getting their technology out of the 1950s SciFi days.
But FRI was great. First, I waited another hour to schedule getting my photo taken with Morena Baccarin, an actress in several great SciFi shows. She is the hottest of the hot, and simply I wanted to get a photo with her. I will not pretend otherwise. Donna would see right through it anyhow. So, I scheduled my time for the picture for later on Friday with Morena, and my only other splurge, a photo with the ST: TNG cast got set for late Saturday morning.
Then onward to the big draw for me: Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. I had grown to really love their work in Quantum Leap, and since they are rarely at the same conventions, if they do any at all in this part of the country, I had to go. I got my few minutes with them, an autograph from each and it was enough. I would love to have done pics with them too, but $100 is kinda steep. I got to shake their hands, get a quick picture of them, and time to say hello, thank you, and ask them each a question. I asked about the rumors of a new Quantum Leap movie, and Scott confirmed he had talked with the show's creator Don Bellasario, but as of yet, the script remained unfinished. He also mentioned they would probably not be brought back as their characters, but in some other role. Screw that I would say, they made the show. The chemistry amongst the characters. Do a movie, let them be themselves and if you want to set up a new series, do it within that framework. Otherwise, don't do it.
From there I drifted through the Walk Of Fame, where the rest of the stars were signing and so forth. As we entered, I met Avery Brooks, Captain Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His "handler" had to run off and get some new Sharpies for signing, and I got to talk with Avery for a few minutes. Apparently Colm Meaney served as the class clown on the DS9 set. Avery proved very polite, although not very chatty, which I would assume from his roles. He may be older now, but he still carries an air of authority and badass with him. He is not a common convention attendee, so I appreciated the opportunity.
Next we got Jeff's photo with Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi on TNG) and her autograph for Jeff as well. She was very personable, kind and took her time. Of course, the look on Jeff's face in that photo is priceless. Like me, he loved watching her character every week on the show. Now he got to meet her. It may be 20 years after the fact, but she still looks great.
From there, I ventured to get Morena's autograph (I can still hear Jeff going "Oh My God, Wow, she's hot..." as I got in line. She starred in quite a few SciFi shows with large followings, so her line stayed busy. Still, she was polite and gave me a nice smile.
Rene Auberjonois, who has been on Benson, Star Trek, and many other shows as a guest (like MASH, Boston Legal, Warehouse 13, various other Trek shows, etc), proved to be my next celebrity. Since the line was short, I got to talk to him about what he does when not acting. He (like me) enjoys photography quite a bit, and has shown his work in galleries.
We roamed around a bit after that, seeing Kevin Sorbo, Richard Hatch, Erica Cerra, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Saul Rubinek, the main 3 from I Dream of Jeannie (Larry Hagman, Bill Daily and Barbara Eden). There were so many others too. We ended our first tour here with Jeff spotting Erin Gray, one of his all-time faves who was not a guest, but there as the PR person for many of the stars. He proved too shy to approach her himself, so Darth Grant to the rescue. :-) I took him over to where she was, and patiently waited for the chance to pounce. Once she had a minute, I asked if she would let Jeff get a photo with her. A nice $10 donation to a Women's shelter later, Jeff had 2 nice pictures with her. She looks amazing for 60. And if you happen to look at the picture closely, you will see my humor lives on, there in the background, is the no photography sign. You are only allowed to shoot in there if the stars give their permission. So, I had to leave the sign in the image.
But my favorite SciFi author, Robert J. Sawyer had a big talk and Q&A session at 4, so I ventured into it next. He spoke to us at length about his book Flash Forward (which they made into a TV show, and Hollywood promptly ruined) and his other favorite works over the years. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Aurora and Campbell Awards. There are only a handful of authors who have won all those, and he took lots of questions from the crowd. Of course, there might have only been 40-50 of us, but my assertive side got to ask a couple and get a picture with him at the end.
Being tired, I chose to bail on the evening's parties.
Saturday featured the parade to start the day, those in costume march 6 or so blocks in their outfits to the hoots and hollers of like-minded SciFi fans. My pics show you the range, Star Wars to Lord of the Rings; Super Mario to Halo; and Horror and Trek to name a few. After the parade, a stop in the photo studio got me the lucky draw of first with the TNG cast and I enjoyed meeting them all. My few minutes netted me handshakes with Levar and Jonathan, a fist bump from Spiner, a hug from Troi and a nice picture to boot. Jonathan and Brent are certainly the class clowns of this group, as they would prove to everyone who attended.
I ventured back around to see all the other stars in the walk: the twins from the Harry Potter movies, Lou Ferrigno (the Hulk), Kelly LeBrock, Edward James Olmos (he is shorter than me), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and many others.
I ended Saturday sitting in a panel discussion with 6 Stargate actors and a writer/producer talking about past episodes, upcoming ones, and life on the set. Again, all were very easy going, friendly and willing to spend time with the fans.
Jeff and I each had a classic reminder of how actors are just people too though. Each of us found ourselves in the restroom with a celebrity. I joked of "peeing with Q" (actor John de Lancie) and Jeff found himself standing next to Chewy. If you know our old history together, Jeff could not have had a more appropriate encounter. "RRRRRRRrrrrr!"
Anyhow, I realize a diary of our days is not all that exciting, this is mainly so I can remember the weekend better. Here is the list of people we met, saw, got photos with, or posed with for pictures. Jeff did also spend a good bit of time with author Kevin J. Anderson and picked up a few good reads.
If you love SciFi, want to enjoy getting to meet some of your favorite actors and don't mind the waiting, you should think of checking out DragonCon some day. We had a blast and may return again some day in the future, but my list of famous folks has mushroomed. All in all, it was a great weekend.
Met:
Rene Auberjonois
Morena Baccarin
Scott Bakula
Avery Brooks
Levar Burton
Jonathan Frakes
Erin Gray
Robert J Sawyer (author)
Marina Sirtis
Brent Spiner
Dean Stockwell
Saw:
Lee Arenberg (Trek, Pirates)
Kristin Bauer
Robert Beltran (ST:Voyager)
Ben Browder (Stagate, Firefly)
Chris Bruno (Dead Zone)
Tia Carrere (Warehouse 13, movies)
Erica CerraDenise Crosby (ST:TNG Tasha Yar, Sela)
Bill Daily (I Dream of Jeannie - Roger)
William B Davis (XFiles, Stargate Atlantis)
John de Lancie (ST:TNG Q)
Lexa Doig (Stargate, other roles)
Aaron Douglas (BSG Chief Tyrol)
Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie)
Colin Ferguson
Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk)
Michelle Forbes (ST:TNG, BSG)
Edward Furlong (Terminator 2)
Martin Gelo (writer/producer Stargate series)
Gil Gerard
Larry Hagman (I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas JR)
Richard Hatch (BSG)
J.G. Hertzler (TNG, DS9)
Virginia Hey
Alaina Huffman
Martin Klebba
Marta Kristen (Orig Lost in Space)
Phil LaMarr (MadTV, lots of roles)
Kelly LeBrock (Weird Science)
Peter Mayhew (Star Wars Chewbacca)
Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13)
Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis)
Jason Momoa (Stargate Atlantis)
Robert O'Reilly (TNG, DS9)
Edward James Olmos (BSG, Miami Vice)
Sandeep Parikh
Luke Perry (90210)
James Phelps & Oliver Phelps (Harry Potter Fred & George)
Sendhil RamamurthySaul Rubinek (Warehouse 13, Trek guest roles)
Michael Shanks (Stargate)
Rekha Sharma (BSG)
Mark A. Sheppard (BSG, Warehouse 13)
Armin Shimerman (ST:DS9, guest roles)
Marc Singer
Shawnee Smith (Armageddon, Becker, others)
Kevin Sorbo
Garrett Wang (ST:Voyager)
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