DRAGONCON

[MARCBLEE]

Hello,

This Frietag (Hey! That's German!!!) until Monday, I will be attending DRAGONCON.  This is the largest sci-fi fantasy writers gaming convention I've ever attended.  Last year they had 20,200 attendees and they expect the same if not more this year.

Check out www.dragoncon.org and spend an hour touring their web page.  You will find past photos and the schedule for this year.

Any questions anyone may have will be responded to.

Marc B. Lee

[Daniel Räbiger]

i'm looking forward to your report and hopefully lots of cool pics from you

have fun!!

[MARCBLEE]

I borrowed a really cool digital camera and if my laptop works, I can download pics right from the con or email them to Daniel.

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Looks like there may have to be 20 clones of me to go to all of the events and programs there.

                             

[Tolayon]

This might give the expression "Attack of the Clones" a quite new meaning

[MARCBLEE]

This is from a local newspaper in Atlanta.  It correctly describes what we as fans call "spending time with fans".  Read it, understand it, enjoy it.

DragonCon pop culture invades

By PHIL KLOER

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

DRAGONCON 2002

Friday through Monday at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis (265 Peachtree Center Ave.) and Hyatt Regency Atlanta (265 Peachtree St. N.E.). Four-day membership: $75. Available through Ticketmaster. One-day membership: $30. Available at the door.

DragonCon 2002 Parade: 10 a.m. Saturday. From Centennial Olympic Park to the Hyatt Regency.

Here they come, more than 20,000 strong, a good-sized town's worth of earnest Xenas in leather bustiers, pirates in plumed hats, anime wannabes in Crayola wigs, Hobbits with hairy toes, Klingons speaking in tongues, hyperventilating autograph-seekers and trivia Brainiacs and folks who stay up all night singing weird songs, and . . . holy mother of Harry Potter, is there no end to them?

No, they keep advancing, an army stretching to the horizon, or at least from the Marriott Marquis to the Hyatt Regency, as DragonCon 2002 rolls into, and over, downtown Atlanta Friday through Monday.

They come to let their geek flag fly, or to stare down anyone who dares to characterize them as in need of a life; to delve into some brain-bending graduate-level physics or to cruise the late-night parties looking for the ladies wearing little more than strategically placed duct tape.

While DragonCon may have started as a science-fiction and fantasy convention back in 1987, and retains that core today, it now embraces a huge spectrum of popular culture, from heavy metal music to improvisational comedy to professional wrestling. A few other national "cons" (short for convention) draw more fans, but none combines the size of DragonCon and the range of interests.

(DragonCon made news of another sort when one of its co-founders, Ed Kramer, was arrested in 2000 and charged with molesting two teenage boys. His trial is pending, and he has no connection with DragonCon this year, says co-founder Pat Henry. Kramer says he is innocent.)

Says Anne Brunsgaard, president of the Atlanta Science Fiction Society, "I've always felt there was a current of good will floating around DragonCon. It's better than Christmas."

It is perhaps more like Halloween -- the "world's biggest Halloween party in the middle of summer," Tom Morfoote Jr., 40, of Locust Grove calls it. The rest of the year, he's a forklift driver. For the four days of DragonCon, he's bringing six different handmade costumes to wear, including Dracula and a swashbuckling pirate.

Outsiders may find it hard to fathom the passion of DragonCon attendees, who practically vibrate with anticipation as the Con gets closer.

"Imagine a football fan being told that he could sit around with everyone from every NFL team, and just get drunk and play football with them for an entire weekend," says Terri Blakley, 24, a Unix technician in Madison, Wis. "It would be enough to make some people lose bladder control. The people that you meet, the ideas you get to share, the stars you get to speak with -- it's almost perfect sensory overload.

"For people who aren't exactly socialites, being in a city full of fellow geeks is divine."

Ah, yes, the g-word: Geek. Some resent it, some embrace it, some ignore it.

"We believe it's not something to be ashamed of," says Randy Lilly, president of a small club called Geeks on the Streets, 10 of whom will be driving down from Huntington, W. Va., in two cars to attend the Con. "Some people might consider it childish to collect comic books, but we look at it as something fun to do. We call [DragonCon] a GeekCon."

"I really didn't think I was gonna enjoy myself," says Megan Birchfield, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom from Newnan. Her husband, Roger, dragged her to her first Con six years ago. "I was thinking about the stereotype, 30- to 40-year-old men who still lived with their parents, hero-worshipping some 'Star Trek' actor.

"But I was so overwhelmed by all the costumes and people. OK, some of them are a little too into it for me, but there's a whole lot of nice people."

Originally, it was possible to do almost everything and see almost everyone at DragonCon; only 1,400 people attended when it launched in 1987. What was once a single subculture, however, is now divided into micro-cultures, some of whom barely acknowledge the existence of the others.

There are the LARPers, for example -- Live Action Role Players, who act out elaborate fantasy games all weekend that play like marathon improvisational theater. "It takes over your life," says Briana Westmoreland, a LARPer and a senior at Harrison High School in Kennesaw.

And there are the Filkers, songwriters and singers who stay up all night singing folks songs in the key of DragonCon and parodies of pop songs with sci-fi or pop-cult themes.

"A lot of the stuff isn't good enough to be heard outside the walls of the room, but some of it's danged good," says Michael Liebman, a Buckhead legal secretary and member of Georgia Filkers Anonymous. ("Filk" is an inside joke, Liebman explains, from a typographical error on an old program. It was supposed to say "folk music" but instead said "filk music.")

But the majority of fans will stick to the more mainstream events, built around sci-fi and fantasy classics ("Star Wars" and "Star Trek," J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," even "Monty Python's Flying Circus").

The biggest addition this year is a parade, scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday from Centennial Olympic Park to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, with Nichelle Nichols -- formerly Lt. Uhura of the original "Star Trek" -- as master of ceremonies.

Other big draws include autograph sessions by Nichols, "Exorcist" star Linda Blair and "Not of This Earth" star Traci Lords; an all-nighter "drum circle and dance" all three nights; a concert by Jefferson Starship Sunday night (leader Paul Kantner is a huge sci-fi buff) and the Masquerade Costume Contest, also Sunday night.

For the Masquerade, Con organizers had to create a rule that specifically states "no nudity," a good indicator of how risque the Con can get, particularly late at night.

"Late Saturday night is not a good time to bring your kids out to DragonCon," says John Snyder of Roswell, who edits a sci-fi Web magazine at www.scifidimensions.com.

" When you see a girl and all she's wearing from the waist up is some duct tape X's, you might want to avoid taking your 10-year-old kid," he adds.

During the day, however, DragonCon strives to be family-friendly, offering day care and special panels aimed at children and teenagers.

"I take my children [aged 7 and 20 months] with me," says Megan Birchfield. "If you're out in the early-morning hours, the costumes get a little more risque, but I have never really had a problem."

"A lot of young guys go to DragonCon and take nothing but pictures of the chickies all weekend," says Brunsgaard.

"There's gonna be the weirdos who come and make everyone uncomfortable," says Sally Smith, assistant manager of Suncoast Video in Snellville, "but there's so much to enjoy. I remember one year, there was a bagpipe player. He was playing this traditional Celtic music. And I looked around and in the crowd there were Goth people, punk people and a couple of Klingons -- everyone together, enjoying the music. It was a universal thing."

[Tolayon]

Damn it, I wished I could be there... sounds like a lot of fun to me!

[Daniel Räbiger]

ahjhhhhh where are the pics marc ))

i hope you had lot of fun!!

[MARCBLEE]

Hi,

My laptop crashed so I'm at an internet cafe (KINKO's) paying 40 cents a minute.

This con is absolutely frerakin' incredible.  The pictures I took are both cool and x-rated.  There are more people in more costumes than I've ever seen in my life.

This is a con to be seen to believe.  Last night they had professional wrestling.  You heard me, WRESTLING!!!  They had women, midgets, old timers and tons of people.

I estimated the current crowd here last night till I left (2am) at 10,000.  More to come today.  They will definetly top out at 20,000+.

If you are a fan of fantasy, LOTR, goth, punk, gypsies, Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything else sci-fi or media related, this is where you need to be.  I've seen more breasts and nudity than I have on the Playboy channel.  People dress freely here and the police are very good about not letting things get out of hand.  Beautiful women, beautiful men (yuck! ) and great fun!  Wow!!!  Wow!!!

FEDCON is a cool con and the best you have but DRAGONCON rules the world.

There are 295 actors here and the bar had about 5000 people in it up until I left.  I saw old friends and met new ones and plan for more today.

There will be a parade down the streets of Atlanta in about 30 mins. with Nichelle Nichols as the Grand Marshal.  It will consist of Klingons and Storm Troopers and StarGate teams and many more.

There were about 5 rock bands playing at different halls last night and if you go online, you'll see who's next.

My report will be late but it will be long and it will have to be done over many issues.

Our try to post fotos later today or tonite.......that's if I'm sober!

Marc B. Lee

DRAGONCON victim!