First, some loosely-organized reactions by topic; Peter David; a report on the Rainbow Flag Party; my top five pro's and con's of Dragon*Con 2010; some lessons learned about the convention experience; and finally, my overall impressions.

Animation

I got to see a shorts collection that featured a couple of really great films: A Complex Villainelle about a young Penguin before his days as a Gotham City supervillain; The Lighthouse Girl, which surprised me with its complexity and cuteness; the absolutely hilarious and delightfully silly Window Pains, which had its smoking hot maker in attendance; the wonderfully surreal Steeples; and a live-action short about Tony Stark trying to explain to the Avengers how their health benefits will change in light of healthcare reform. The money quote for the whole bloc was, without a doubt, Tony Stark turning to Ms. Marvel and saying, "Carol, would you just shut up? We don't have time for your Tea Party death panel bullshit." Unfortunately, I can't find that film in the Film Festival listings to link to it. Augh. One major con of the con? The Dragon*Con websites universally suck a bag of crap through a thin straw. A really beautiful animated film created to incorporate a really lousy audio work called something like "Little Teeth" was also shown, which I likewise cannot find on the website. Also distinctly in the "meh" camp were Help! Tangent Man! which went on a little too long despite being so short to begin with and Painter of the Skies, a film as beautiful as it was deathly dull. I hate to hate like that, but damn, I fell asleep. Three times. In a short film.

Guest Panels

Farscape: I know I'm showing my age by my love of this show, but seriously, I loved this show - and did not love the comic book. Hey and Hill were a really energetic and interesting pair of speakers, though, and they told some great stories about their time on the show and what it's like being an actor in the remarkably closed system that is Australia's entertainment industry. Hey's explanation of why she left the show - the body paint was causing kidney damage, yeesh - made me feel a lot better about the one big disappointment of the show for me. Seeing actors so openly embrace their characters and their legacy in fandom was really refreshing, too.

MST3K: A fantastic panel and my favorites from the show - Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy and Mary Jo Pehl - turned out to be my favorites on the panel. Surprising no one, Joel Hodgson turned out to be kind of a dick. Hearing what it was like when they were producing the show in its earliest days, in a studio stuffed with production equipment by a station owner who was essentially a rich hobbyist, was really fascinating. It made me want to come home and watch MST3K immediately. I was also really amused by the original concept for the show: Joel Hodgson playing the last human being alive after some global catastrophe, watching old movies with his robot pals to pass the time. Dark, yes, and from the sound of things borne of a really depressing period in his life, so maybe I should cut him some slack on coming off as kind of a tool.

Adam Savage: Passionate about science education and the importance of getting one's hands dirty trying to learn. Gods, what a great speaker. I wish more people in the crowd had resisted the urge to ask what he initially labeled as "favorite/best/worst/most" questions, but hearing some of the secrets of Mythbusters - and having him confirm that the ink is drying on new contracts that guarantee anywhere between 75 and 100 more episodes, at least, with no shortage of ideas to test - was well worth waiting in line for an hour to get in and putting up with occasional silliness from the rest of the crowd. One bit of new information that I realized I should have been able to guess: he studied sculpture and does huge sculpted works made of found objects. Nice.

Pen & Paper RPGs: This was a great panel, with the head of Paizo Publishing and... the other guy? Whose name isn't in the program and I don't remember? Suffice to say, they talked about the trend D&D 3.0 produced of other publishers ditching whole game lines in favor of producing d20-compatible source books; now, with the D&D4E license being much more restrictive, many publishers are turning back to old products, rebooting them, reworking them and sometimes trying to invent something completely new. Did you know there's an RPG called Dread where instead of dice all outcomes are decided using a concurrent game of Jenga? Crazy, and I ache to play it.

The Parade: OK, so I randomly wound up separated from my friends by a cluster of photographers who shoved between us. Into whom did they shove me? A gaggle of queens who were having a blast. Catty comments and enthusiastic cheers were their main modes of communication. Best line? When a particularly ratty Princess Leia walked by, one asked aloud whether that was Zombie Leia or if she'd just had lipstick problems; one of his friends turned and said, "Her planet blew up! Give that poor girl a break!" The parade was an absolute blast and there was even a herd of Lady Gaga cosplayers. I still maintain that Lady Gaga cosplay is intensely meta, because Lady Gaga herself is an expression of cosplay. Also noted: countless hot dudes dressed like pilots from Battlestar Galactica. Please, hot dudes of the world, put on tank tops and walk around looking mussed more often. We thank you for your service. I also fell in love with an old Plymouth (I think) that had been converted into a Klingon warbird and a steampunk Boba Fett. On the downside, some people's genre mash-ups really didn't work. Ghostbusters are apparently really in right now and whereas the steampunk Ghostbusters were great the t-shirts that attempted to merge zombiedom with Ghostbusters didn't work because they featured a ghost that had been turned into a zombie. I'm sorry, but that mythology lacks internal consistency.

The Mind/Machine Interface: This was going to be hosted by a PK reader, but alas, it was canceled. I hope everything was OK! I am a believer in transhumanism and an admirer of the adventurous spirit that drives so much of it, so please, if you're out there Would-Be Presenter, feel free to email and discuss what the talk would have covered!

Brian Brushwood: I hope it doesn't turn out that he's some crazy-ass arch-conservative or something because his show was really, really fun and funny. I love stage magic already and he is fantastic at it. He had the audience screaming in shock, gasping in fear and laughing aloud and he could turn the mood on a dime.

Peter David

So, I went and tracked Peter David down in the comics alley and had a chat with him. I had just read the latest issue of X-Factor, which I'll review later this week. Suffice to say, I found myself saying to him, "I just really hope you're not about to straight up the place," which I guess contradicts at least one of my reactions to the linguistics of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but hey. We talked a little about the nature of gay relationships and fans' desire to see those relationships protected somehow. David assured me that he was not about to ruin Shatterstar and Rictor, no, but that Rahne is a character who has strongly-held convictions regarding same-sex relationships. To have one crop up in her present-past, in that a former lover is now in one, will force her to deal with her conflicted feelings and inner fears. The emotional struggle Peter David described to me while we stood there chatting is one I've seen plenty of real-life people go through, particularly the opposite-sex ex-lovers of people who later enter into same-sex relationships or transition or otherwise break the bounds of that ex-lover's understanding of the gender boundaries at work in their relationship. It's another way in which X-Factor promises to show us that relationships between people are messy sometimes and that people with whom it's worth having those relationships are willing to work through the issues they present. He told me that this is going to play out over the next five months, which means Shatterstar and Rictor and their relationship are going to be front and center for a nice, long time.

The other great thing he had to say? Just as Dan Parent told me of the reaction to Kevin Keller, Peter David told me that 99% of the reaction he and Marvel have received to Shatterstar & Rictor has been positive. I told him that we love him - I believe my exact words were "we love the hell out of some X-Factor" - and when I told him that this blog takes its name from one of his concepts, he ate it up.

So, wow, Peter David! He was completely awesome!

Rainbow Flag Party

I had so much fun. For three hours a hotel ballroom was the best gay club in Atlanta and everyone there was just looking to have fun and make friends. I didn't encounter any of the usual attitude queens who populate my local gay bars. Everyone I talked to - and I went completely stag, without even the friends who rode down with me, a situation that would normally have me sitting in the corner nursing a cocktail and checking my watch - was simply friendly and everyone I talked to was having a good time. It struck me after a little while that a significant percentage - perhaps a super-majority or more - of the people there were folks who normally feel out of place or intimidated at the typical, cynicism-drenched gay bar these days and everyone had suddenly realized that they were in a place where it was OK to let go.

There was, of course, some amazing cosplay on display. I am not a cosplayer - though, like some kinks, I get it even if I don't get it - but I've got mad respect for the folks who were showing off. Among the fantastic folks I got to see strut their stuff:

• This one incredible Brawny man who danced like a star and got the party vibe going all by himself. A lot of the success of the night was owed to him making people think dancing looked like a good idea.
• A drag Storm who so thoroughly passed that I had to get within a couple of feet to notice that she was a "she." Let me tell you, she rocked me down to the marrow: costume, makeup, wig, every part of her look was perfect.
• A drag Lt. Uhura who was equally convincing and who caught a complete double-take check-out from a couple of clueless drunk Scots outside the hotel.
• A steampunk Green Lantern straight out of some weird mash-up of DC and Alice in Wonderland whose outfit was just perfect.
• Green Lantern and Spiderman crossing corporate boundaries to booty-dance each other.
• Three (3) pairs of Mario & Luigi who were clearly couples. They were smoking hot, too, even if - as a friend said later - it's "a little dirty" to go as brothers.
• Superman & Batman dancing together in only briefs and capes.
• Beetlejuice dancing to "Thriller".
• Boy Wonder Woman. He really looked amazing, and he wasn't in drag: he was a boy in a Wonder Woman outfit. Flawless. Hot as could be, too.
• A wickedly cute guy who showed me - without prompting, I assure you and my boyfriend - his remarkably detailed tattoo of Satan.
• A just absurdly hot guy in a devil costume: red body paint and extremely well-done ears and accoutrement that really knocked my socks off.
• Ridiculously good-looking and very sweet butch dude in a cowboy hat and a WoW-style [EPIC MOUNT] t-shirt that I felt he had absolutely earned the right to wear.
• A really sweet guy dressed as Harry Dresden who was even taller than that character. He seemed to be there with this really nice guy who was in a wheelchair due to a sprained knee. When Lady Gaga's "Telephone" came on, though, everybody started dancing including the kid in the wheelchair. She has healing powers, people. Maybe we were all just suckers for the stereotype, sure, but the kid in a knee brace and a wheelchair stood up and danced and I saw it with my own eyes.
• Lots and lots and lots of people in Star Trek uniforms.
• Wonder Woman (maybe?) booty-dancing with Zombie Beyonce (maybe?).
• A dude in a t-shirt that read "I (Dalek) London".
• A guy who looked just like Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 2, including uniform and weaponry. When I asked if that had been his intention he said, "Honestly, I just threw this stuff on at random... but now I'm Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 2!"
• A bellydancer!
• An unbelievably cute bartender in a Smurfs t-shirt.
• A couple of plus-sized queens who could dance the spots off a leopard-print divan. One of them had this folding fan he just about worked down to a nub. Incredible dance floor skills. I was unspeakably jealous.

In three all-too short hours I had one of the best social experiences amongst strangers that I've had in years. I met people, I made party friends... and I realized almost immediately that there was no way I was going to be able to find any Pink Kryptonite readers in that packed ballroom. Sorry, Jason! I would have looked for you but needles, haystacks and anyway I was too busy dancing.

The Best & The Not-So-Best

So, top five good and bad?

Good:

• Tremendous diversity of topics and attendees! There was something for everyone. I went with one of my closest friends and his fiancee and we were all first-timers; by the end of the weekend, we were all talking about going back next year just to try to catch up the stuff we missed this year. The rare time when I wasn't going to something there were something like six or seven convention halls worth of vendors and dealers. I got to buy my partner a set of dice from Chessex's new 2010 colors, dice he cannot yet get around here. Nice.
• Huge names and unique experiences! How many times will I get to see Adam Savage walking up to cosplayers and asking permission to take their picture? Sometimes the stars are nerds, too, and it warmed the cockles. Where else will I walk past one of the stars of a recent, much-loved sci-fi show only to realize in the same moment that I recognize them and that the gaydar just went off like a four-alarm fire?
• Walkable spaces! Yes, sometimes it felt like a slog to get from the Sheraton to the Hyatt Regency but just as often as not it was a welcome break from sitting for an hour and a half to listen to someone talk. Also, the skyways between the three central hotels meant not having to run across four lanes of one-way traffic speeding through downtown Atlanta.
• Friendly folks! At all times, the other attendees with whom I interacted were friendly, enthusiastic and fun. Seriously, only once did someone annoy me and he stopped doing what he was doing when my friend's fiancee told him to put a sock in it. One person out of, what, thirty five thousand? That's pretty incredible.
• Many practical signs of excellent forethought by the convention staff! Those tables of ice water and cups placed throughout the convention were lifesavers, perhaps literally. Multiple bars in every public space? Brilliant, and they afforded wonderful impromptu social hours. Many, many food vendors? Incredibly smart. The convention staff clearly sat down and said, OK, what do 35,000 people need to survive in relative comfort for three or four days? Then, they made those things available.

Bad:

• Too many topics. Lordamercy, did they have to schedule everything for 7pm on Saturday? Or 4pm on Saturday? Or 10am on Sunday? I realize some blocks of time are prime real estate and some are not, and I realize that there is an inadvertent crowd control aspect to scheduling things so that attendees must choose, but still, I was basically always doing something and I still felt like I missed more than I saw.
• Too many people. They were all nice, yes, but they were everywhere. The closest thing to a refuge I could find was a couch in a little enclave in the lobby of the Hilton. I went into one and laid down at one point on Sunday and had three different groups of people join me at various times over the course of two hours and it was still the most private space I encountered. My friend's fiancee commented that she wants to reserve a room for next year, now, so that there is somewhere within walking distance to which she can retreat when the crush of humanity is too much.
• Con staff are people, too, and those people get cranky. Sitting in a chair and shouting things like, "Keep moving! NOT THERE!" is in fact not helpful. There were a lot of really friendly staff with whom I spoke and the vast majority were being a lot nicer to some folks than they needed to be. By Sunday afternoon, though, the mask of customer service was starting to slip. It's completely human and understandable and I don't want to sound like a handful of gruff volunteers somehow ruined the experience because, trust me, they did not. I do want to point out, however, that one draws more flies with honey than with a bad attitude and a hangover.
• Incompetent hotels and transportation. The people who worked at the hotels and were trying to manage the transportation to and from events - from overflow hotels into the con and vice versa, or from, say, the con to the aquarium for folks who went to that - never seemed to have any clue what was going on with the transportation despite being the people providing it. I actually asked one concierge if the transport was being provided by the con or by the hotels, since were it the latter then I would have zero expectation that the hotels be in the loop. He told me that it was provided by the hotels, using their own shuttles. Of course, given some of the other misinformation I was given regarding transport at various times over the weekend, maybe that was wrong, too.
• Too little focus. This is similar to the too-many-topics complaint above, but not the same. There were tracks for everything from anime to Star Trek to organized skepticism to Joss Whedon, running in parallel, at all times. Throw in a complete days-long film festival with showings at all hours, readings, a Walk of Fame where one could pay extra to get autographs (really? so sad) and endless potential for people-watching and it was just too much. You know the old song about one of these things being not like the others? None of these things are like the others. It was fun, yes, and I went to things in multiple tracks, yes, but it also felt like the hydra had gotten out of control. I felt more than overwhelmed by the grab-bag nature of the con and the competing and sometimes conflicting interests of its attendees. My friend's fiancee asked more than once what the point of this con was and honestly I had no idea what to say. This same cacophony of subjects showed itself most in crowd reactions to the parade. Almost everyone around me expressed, at one point or another, not being exactly sure why some group or another was there and different groups were never having that reaction to the same group as another. Lots of people seemed to feel like it was "their" convention and wondered why $TOPIC was at that con in particular.

Lessons Learned

The biggest favors I did myself were taking the following things in my messenger bag every day:

• an extra shirt
• a stick of deoderant
• some fancy-schmancy organic fruit rollups
• two low-calorie, high-protein packages of vegetarian faux jerky
• two granola bars
• a bottle of Advil
• a pack of mint gum.

There is no time to eat, hygiene is at a premium and everyone else is sneezing on everything; those stereotypes held true and I was very glad when i could improve the atmosphere, my mood or the odds of going home without a cold by downing some vitamin C, touching up my scent or putting a stop to the indecisive whining of Low Blood-Sugar Theater before it could get started. I found myself eating gargantuan breakfasts and then grazing on healthy things over the course of the day and that really worked for me.

The Overall Impression

I had a fantastic time and I am super-glad I went. When I left on Sunday evening I felt like maybe I never wanted to go again because the schizophrenia really sets in after a couple of days. A couple of days after that, though, I feel like it was a really great experience anchored by that incredible dance party. Will I go next year? Possibly-probably. Before I do, though, I'm going to something smaller and more focused; OutlantaCon next May is a strong possibility. If they can throw a party that good then hells yes I want to spend a weekend with them. In the meantime, I think the reason things like Dragon*Con happen once a year is because it may take that long to recharge and forget the weirdo who tried to sit in my lap for the MST3K panel. Ugh. Time to find those cucumber slices again and turn my attention to the good memories from Dragon*Con: fantastic friends with whom I went, Adam Savage's magnificent storytelling and hot Satanists with huge shoulder tattoos. Yum.