Okay, I attended D*C '09 this past Labor Day weekend. It's perhaps inaccurate to say that I am 'reviewing' the con; I imagine that conventions can be good or bad, but it's a very subjective thing, wo individual mileage may vary. Owing to its geographical closeness, the relatively low cost of attending, and the fact that we can save even more on the fact that we can and will cram 6-8 people in one hotel room, this is really the only convention I've ever attended (six years running). Hope to attend others in the future, but that's another post.
Okay, first off, the bad things about DC09. One, the major star attraction panels
(Adam Savage, William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, etc.) were virtually impossible to actually attend, due to the number of people who showed up to those panels. In fairness, especially for the Kirk/Spock panel, there might not have been enough room if the panel had been held inside the Georgia Dome, but that's another story. And two, I now have a light flu. Not much can be done about that, but the super-panels were aired on the convention's special TV network broadcasts, so that works.
Okay, now that's out of the way, on to the good stuff. Some of this is difficult to properly explain, because some of them are in-jokes or 'you had to be there' moments. An example of inexplicable awesome that I can offer is that, last year, George Takei (Hikaru Sulu from the original Star Trek series/movies, for those who don't know) was heading for a panel he was the guest of, and was coming off the elevator in the... Sheraton, I think it was. And, because the con has the effect of making its attendees a little worn out, I didn't quite notice him until we were about to collide. Now, I'm a big guy, nearly six feet, ~300 pounds, reasonably fit despite the weight, and I can throw my weight around when I need to. And Takei, who is more than a head shorter than I am and at best a little over half my size,
would have run me over, if I hadn't suddenly come to my senses and gotten the heck out of the way. That was actually pretty damn cool.
I myself didn't have as many milestone memories this year as previous ones, at least not directly con-related ones. We did attend the Georgia Aquarium the day before con, and that was serious geek-level awesome. The relationship between Shatner and Nimoy from the DCTV broadcast put me in mind of an old married couple, or possibly two aging brothers who still engage in friendly one-up-manship contests. My friend and roommate put together an excellent costume for the con of a Sigmarite Witch Hunter from the Warhammer Fantasy games, and got compliments on it from Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, Babylon 5), Ben Browder (Farscape, Stargate SG1), and Alan Ruck (Twister, Spin City). Another friend, who did a Seventh Doctor costume (Sylvester McCoy, Doctor Who), was actually mistaken for the actor by a few people, testament to the detail he put into it and the skill with which he is able to imitate his mannerisms and speech. At the Tolkien track's major concert and costume contest, most of my group were recognized by the concert's band (Emerald Rose), since the Evening at Bree concert is now something of tradition for us, and because we are friendly and outgoing towards the band members. The convention held a Guinness World Record attempt for the Largest Number of People to Perform 'Thriller' In One Place; final submitted tally was 903 dancers, a number which I understand was limited down from the more than two thousand con-goers who showed up to the event, because the room it was held in could only hold one thousand and the fire marshal was understandably concerned about safety. So far as I know, Guinness has not revealed an official tally, but I will update this as soon as I know.
This is only a small inkling of the things that can happen at a con, and specifically at DC. I encourage readers to attend this coming year. Details for Dragon*Con (including past guest lists) can be found at
www.dragoncon.org. The con is held on Labor Day weekend each year in Atlanta, GA. I expect to see you all there.