I still have to organize what I brought home from Dragoncon, before posting about the final day. I also still have to upload more videos before linking to them. I've been lazy and holding off on this post for too long, so here it goes. Some of the descriptions will be ahead of the pictures and some of them will be in caption format. Also, the pictures are not in any particular order, so where they came from will be all scrambled.
On our second day in Vietnam, we picked up a few pieces of art, on our biking tour of a nearby island. 25 year old shells were flattened and cut into designs and sketched on over wood.
On the right is another shell piece, this one for my mother. On the left is half of a coconut shell, with art on it, from Hoi An.
The wooden knife is from the biking island artist as well. The snake is a glass piece that Stephanie bought for Miles in Jiufen. The little hot air balloon was something I bought for Miles in Pingxi.
A handcrafted wooden comb, an oroku, picked up in Narai.
Moldable tin, picked up on Naoshima Island.
A detective Conan decorative piece, from Nakano broadway. Three bears from the bear museum gift shop, one of which is a bear version of the sarubobo.
A glass that I bought from the art museum on the outskirts of Takayama. Bottom left is a washi paper painted gassho house. Dice with "I am sorry" on three sides and "You are sorry" on the other three, to be rolled in a relationship when at a crossroads. A recycled seatbelt, now to be used to carry a hot cup of coffee. A decorative hand painted cat item, the use of which I have forgotten.
Another washi paper painted piece. A small traditional child's doll handmade from Takayama. A pair of chopsticks resting on a glass chopstick holder, bought in the same art museum on the outskirts of Takayama.
All from Kanazawa. Gold leaf pieces.
The two stuffed animals are from Vietnam. Water buffalos because we saw them all of Vietnam and a cat because we like cats. The little colorful lemur looking creature on the bottom right was from Hoi An, for Miles. The two bottom cats were from the cat trail in Onimichi, for Stephanie.
A Japanese book from the 1930s, that I picked up in Tokyo, in the used bookstore part of town.
These were made out of old kimonos.
Picked up in the art museum.
Wooden deer made in Naru.
Bizen pottery, made in Kirashiki. This type of pottery absorbs alcohol, which makes it shine. It is a popular type of pottery for sake glasses.
From kyoto, this is art made from the material used for roof tiles.
A cute piece made of bamboo, from the Iya Valley area, of people dancing.
A roofing tile, picked up in the Himeji Castle gift shop, with the symbol of the ruling house.
The remaining pieces were bought from three different shops in Takayama. Ichii Ittobori, wood carvings, whose style dates back 150 years to the Edo period of Japan.
Sunday morning started early with a 10:00 am panel with Matt Smith, who played one of the best Doctors on Dr. Who. Unfortunately, while he was well spoken and fairly enjoyable to listen to, the questions asked were absolutely horrendous. It seems like there is a direct correlation between crowd size and how bad the questions are. People all gushed over him, followed by a lame "what was your favorite X?" question.
Battlestar Galactica was up next. I asked a question to Mr. James Callis. I wanted to know if his hilarious scenes were due to direction given to him or his own interpretation of the material. He explained that he was actually told in his audition, when he tried to play a scene in a funny manner that the show was intended to be serious. In the end, he continued as he did earlier, and provided some comedy relief to break up the seriousness. It also added depth to his character, as it made him less of a bad guy and more of a complex character.
This was my first time seeing Starbuck, Katee Sackhoff, at a convention.
Star Trek: The Next Generation followed, this time with Jonathan Frakes joining Brent Spiner, gates Mcfadden, Michael Dorn, and Marina Sirtis. We sat down and Stephanie left for the bathroom. This proved to be an inopportune time to leave, as Jonathan Frakes decided to wander out into the audience to joke around, and took a seat just a few feet away from us.
As they all walked on stage, they decided to start singing. I pulled out my camera and caught the end.
The panel talked about some interesting topics, such as how Mrs. Mcfadden didn't feel like she was being paid proportionally to her male costars, which led to her being fired for season two, and then eventually rehired in season three. She also mentioned that Denise Crosby, Tasha Yar, left for similar reasons.
The next panel was Billie Piper, one of the Doctor's companions on Doctor Who along with a main character in Penny Dreadful. The audience again gushed, and the questions were awful.
The first Flash panel that we had gone to was missing Danielle Panabaker, Caitlin Snow from the Flash. Miles was excited to see her, so we went to another panel. After thinking it over for a while, Miles decided to ask her a question.
There was a charity auction happening nearby, hosted by Christopher Judge, Teal'c, from Stargate SG-1. It was in memorial of Don S. Davis, who ran the Stargate program in the show. We stayed for a short time, as not only were the items all Stargate, which I only think is an ok show at best, but what people were paying for the items were absurd. Four bobble head dolls went for $200. You couldn't pay me to take a bobble head doll!
It was a long day, but we weren't done yet. We went to a writing panel with Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, and Sherrilyn Kenyon. While I had heard some of their names before, I wanted to go to see Jim Butcher. The panel discussed how the Urban Fantasy Genre has evolved over the years.
One particular story was interesting, regarding how one of their college teachers gave their story a C, and indicated that she wasn't any good at writing. The story went on to be included in a book that became a NY Times Bestseller. She now has sold over 70 million books worldwide. They also spoke a lot about the writing process and how to make characters relatable to the reader, even in a world with supernatural elements.
I had picked up a streaming membership for $10 from the Dragoncon store. This allowed me to hook up my laptop to the hotel room television, and stream the yearly Masquerade costume contest. I picked up a pizza pie from a place just down the block. It was a long day, but a good one.
I am home from the convention now. Our hotel room was pretty small, and did not have a desk. I decided to wait until I got home.
Saturday morning, we went to the vending rooms to start the day. Mark Bagley, who illustrated the entire Ultimate Spiderman comic series, was on the third floor, in the artists alley. On Friday, I commissioned him to draw the character Venom for me. We walked by his booth, and he was in the process of making my drawing. Miles was looking at posters in his booth, and picked one out and asked him to sign it. Then, he watched as Bagley drew Venom for a bit, before we left him alone.
As we walked out, Miles posed with a costumed man.
At 11:30 am was our first panel, of Battlestar Galactica. The panel was our largest of the con.
The first ten minutes was the most memorable, as they spoke at length about their experiences and memories with Richard Hatch, who passed away this year.
Next up was an hour with Jim Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files book series. I enjoyed his panels last year and he was just as lively this year. He spoke about how when he first had a cat in the series, he drew on experiences with his friends' cats. Now, he has a few cats of his own, so he understands them a bit better.
As with last year, he told the story about how he had had an internet argument when he was younger. His opponents' perspective was that writing a good book is all about having a unique idea. Butcher, on the contrary, believed that a good writer could repackage an old idea and make a good book out of it. He brazenly challenged the opposing side to come up with not one, but two overdone ideas. They chose the ideas of a missing Roman Legion and Pokemon. He then wrote a book combining the two. It was a success.
Our next panel meant skipping Star Trek, in favor of seeing Guardians of the Galaxy actors in the hope that Miles would enjoy seeing them. He ended up being bored. It featured Karen Gillan, who also played as Amy Pond in Doctor who. Sean Gunn, who played a minor human role in the movie, as well as Rocket, the raccoon's voice. He is also the brother of the director, which just screams of nepotism to me, which was a turn off. Michael Rooker, who played the blue guy with the whistling arrow, was there as well, He was crude and seemed either fake or trying too hard to appear cool. We walked out early.
We walked around the art show room and then the vending rooms a bit before heading back to the room. The art show has a few artists around the outer edge of the room, while the entire middleof the room is filled with different art pieces being auctioned. The auction would end on Sunday at 5. There was no point in bidding on anything before then. We had wanted to see John Barrowman for a panel called the Barrowman Show, scheduled for 7 pm, but we were just too tired. Stephanie and I napped.
When we woke up, she still wasn't feeling well. I decided to take Miles out for the night, to take a look at people wearing costumes. Saturday night at the Marriot is the place to be if you want to see people dressed up. We walked from the Hyatt to the Marriot, and then to the Hilton. Here are my favorite pictures of costumed people from the day and night, as well as the rest of the con.
This is the Marriot from the inside, looking up. The interior of this hotel has been used in a few movies, including the Hunger Games.
The inside of the Hyatt, looking up.
You cannot see it, but under High-5, is a year. The year kept changing. So, it would be High-5 2013, then it would rotate to High-5 2019, etc. He was going around high fiving people. It was pretty weird but pretty funny and different.
