Dragoncon!
- Thread starter TyeDyeBoy
- Start date
Cool Dragoncon Story #3
On the subject of Atlanta: The Rain, the Bums, and the Worlds Slowest Elevator
Atlanta I don't like much, but it does have a few things going for it. Unfortunately, this is about the bad things. Except for the rain.
It rained all four days, which was actually pretty cool. See, Atlanta has been in a drought for years now, and this was an uncommonly large volume of rain. That'll help things a lot, not to mention I love rain.
Edit, forgot to mention the very odd effect: Hades got out of my car at the airport, and within ten seconds the sun was shining again. Odd.
Atlanta has a lot of bums. Mainly black guys that looked like they could at least afford clothing, though redeye was quite common, as was the statement "Hey man, I'm not a crackhead, but can I get a dolla?"
Of COURSE they're crackheads.
We tried to keep track of them, but lost count. I'd average two to three per day, so roughly ten-twelve of them over the four days. Sucked ass. It was interesting in that their approach varied widely. Anything from "Hey man, do you like hip hop? Can I get a dolla?" to LOAF et al's experience of "Hey, you know there's a threater over there, can I get a dolla?", to the ever popular "My car ran out of gas, can I get a dolla?" No, fuck off. Though credit goes to Hades for his idea that unfortunately came just after the last bum of the weekend: "I should have given him a pound, it'd cost him more than that to exchange it."
And then there was the parking garage. Parking is scarce in Atlanta, but from time to time you'll come across a parking garage that is great, often has room, close to what you need, etc. I found one called the Impark Parking Lot. a 7 story garage with killer goddamn stairs, but it did have an elevator. I'd say it was vintage 60s, but the cheap assed LED number display said early 80s, which was really sad. The elevator was painfully slow... so slow you couldn't tell it was moving until the door scraped open (made a funky noise) and suddenly you're on another level. I've parked at this place before, and it's usually good, but man, that elevator... shittiest in the city, no doubt. And there's this guy right outside that wants a dolla....
On the subject of Atlanta: The Rain, the Bums, and the Worlds Slowest Elevator
Atlanta I don't like much, but it does have a few things going for it. Unfortunately, this is about the bad things. Except for the rain.
It rained all four days, which was actually pretty cool. See, Atlanta has been in a drought for years now, and this was an uncommonly large volume of rain. That'll help things a lot, not to mention I love rain.
Edit, forgot to mention the very odd effect: Hades got out of my car at the airport, and within ten seconds the sun was shining again. Odd.Atlanta has a lot of bums. Mainly black guys that looked like they could at least afford clothing, though redeye was quite common, as was the statement "Hey man, I'm not a crackhead, but can I get a dolla?"
Of COURSE they're crackheads.
We tried to keep track of them, but lost count. I'd average two to three per day, so roughly ten-twelve of them over the four days. Sucked ass. It was interesting in that their approach varied widely. Anything from "Hey man, do you like hip hop? Can I get a dolla?" to LOAF et al's experience of "Hey, you know there's a threater over there, can I get a dolla?", to the ever popular "My car ran out of gas, can I get a dolla?" No, fuck off. Though credit goes to Hades for his idea that unfortunately came just after the last bum of the weekend: "I should have given him a pound, it'd cost him more than that to exchange it."
And then there was the parking garage. Parking is scarce in Atlanta, but from time to time you'll come across a parking garage that is great, often has room, close to what you need, etc. I found one called the Impark Parking Lot. a 7 story garage with killer goddamn stairs, but it did have an elevator. I'd say it was vintage 60s, but the cheap assed LED number display said early 80s, which was really sad. The elevator was painfully slow... so slow you couldn't tell it was moving until the door scraped open (made a funky noise) and suddenly you're on another level. I've parked at this place before, and it's usually good, but man, that elevator... shittiest in the city, no doubt. And there's this guy right outside that wants a dolla....
Dynaco
WildFire-
Hades, LOAF, and I had just finished eating Thursday night at the Hard Rock cafe. Tye wasn't getting off work to pick us up for another couple of hours so we decided to find something to do. We walked across the street to a map of downtown Atlanta to search out a movie theater or something. This friendly black guy came up and told us about the Underground area near downtown that has clubs and shit. Well after he told us about every place of interest in downtown Atlanta he asked for 75 cents. Being that he actually provided a service, useful info, I decided to give him a buck. At which point LOAF and Hades gave him a buck too for some reason. Guy earns good money, a dollar a minute. The next day I took the subway by myself over to the Underground area and it has to be about the most ghetto place I have ever been. My parents grew up on the south side of Chicago in the ghetto and I've visited their old 'hood from time to time. Almost pales in comparrison to the amount of worthless people just standing around on the street corners of Atlanta all day long. I want a refund...
Cool Dragoncon Story #4
Ah, what the hell, I'm in a talkative mood. So here's another for not interrupting. Ya little pricks. This one is about the costumes.
People wore costumes.
We all expected it, in fact, we were ready for it. Some were lame and half assed, some were really well made. There were dozens of Stormtroopers, a Boba Fett or two, I saw two Trinitys, two Lara Crofts, a few TIE fighter pilots, imperial officers, etc.
And the Klingons. You have to love the Klingons.
Normally when you think of a convention like this, you'll get this mental image of a huge crowd of them all talking in Klingon and acting like freaks. But in this case, we only saw 20 or so (out of 20,000 people, not many). Some of them were really well done, with the make up and all, the uniforms, etc. Some were crappy, just a "hat" that had the forehead, some lame uniform, that sort of thing. We did meet some of them, Hades dressed as Seether, me dressed as Spyder, and Joe of the Museum dressed as Blair from the movie. We were in the elevator, it stopped as it was taking us up and a group of Klingons entered. These were the good outfits, the best I saw. And the leader of them recognized us, made a comment about knowing their enemies (hence knowing WC and all), and we congradulated one another on the costumes. A very cool couple of minutes.
But there were freaky people, too. Tons of goths. Fat women very scantily clad (hence one of my new catch phrases, "The dancer told Jabba to do his own damn belly dancing, and he did..."). There was a Xena that was practically kicked off the stage of the costume contest because she took too long, then she threatened the Master of Ceremonies, Anthony Daniels (yes, C3PO), and they forced her to get out. Then there was the catwoman that got proposed to on the stage, but you know.
There were also some really good non-sci-fi ones. Joe over at OM loved a couple that were going as the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine. Their outfits were superb, they were, IMO, the best at the convention. There was an asshole in a kilt that said he was making fun of the people that dressed up. There were the Mystery Men, the X-Men (two groups of the latter), and again, loads of Stormtroopers.
And there was a Captain Archer from the new Star Trek series (yes, already), a lady with a freaky dragon outfit, Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, many many Jedi, a few dominatrixes, zombies, lots of Starship Troopers, Aliens colonial marines, a Doctor Who (very cool, that, simple but fun), of course you've seen my pics of Optimus. Lots of vampires, knights, sorcerers (and for those that have played Diablo 2, there was a sorceress in the costume contest that did a really good job), swashbucklers, faeries, and a whole lot of general crap.
Then there were five lonely guys with Wing Commander helmets, working a booth or two, occassionally going out in a flightsuit or three....
Ah, what the hell, I'm in a talkative mood. So here's another for not interrupting. Ya little pricks. This one is about the costumes.
People wore costumes.
We all expected it, in fact, we were ready for it. Some were lame and half assed, some were really well made. There were dozens of Stormtroopers, a Boba Fett or two, I saw two Trinitys, two Lara Crofts, a few TIE fighter pilots, imperial officers, etc.
And the Klingons. You have to love the Klingons.
Normally when you think of a convention like this, you'll get this mental image of a huge crowd of them all talking in Klingon and acting like freaks. But in this case, we only saw 20 or so (out of 20,000 people, not many). Some of them were really well done, with the make up and all, the uniforms, etc. Some were crappy, just a "hat" that had the forehead, some lame uniform, that sort of thing. We did meet some of them, Hades dressed as Seether, me dressed as Spyder, and Joe of the Museum dressed as Blair from the movie. We were in the elevator, it stopped as it was taking us up and a group of Klingons entered. These were the good outfits, the best I saw. And the leader of them recognized us, made a comment about knowing their enemies (hence knowing WC and all), and we congradulated one another on the costumes. A very cool couple of minutes.
But there were freaky people, too. Tons of goths. Fat women very scantily clad (hence one of my new catch phrases, "The dancer told Jabba to do his own damn belly dancing, and he did..."). There was a Xena that was practically kicked off the stage of the costume contest because she took too long, then she threatened the Master of Ceremonies, Anthony Daniels (yes, C3PO), and they forced her to get out. Then there was the catwoman that got proposed to on the stage, but you know.
There were also some really good non-sci-fi ones. Joe over at OM loved a couple that were going as the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine. Their outfits were superb, they were, IMO, the best at the convention. There was an asshole in a kilt that said he was making fun of the people that dressed up. There were the Mystery Men, the X-Men (two groups of the latter), and again, loads of Stormtroopers.
And there was a Captain Archer from the new Star Trek series (yes, already), a lady with a freaky dragon outfit, Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, many many Jedi, a few dominatrixes, zombies, lots of Starship Troopers, Aliens colonial marines, a Doctor Who (very cool, that, simple but fun), of course you've seen my pics of Optimus. Lots of vampires, knights, sorcerers (and for those that have played Diablo 2, there was a sorceress in the costume contest that did a really good job), swashbucklers, faeries, and a whole lot of general crap.
Then there were five lonely guys with Wing Commander helmets, working a booth or two, occassionally going out in a flightsuit or three....
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
The Archer guy was pretty cool -- we talked to him the next day when he was in line just ahead of us to see John Rhys Davies... he had a really obscure Voyager uniform on.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
We should start a mailing list of who's going so we can get uniforms and meetings and other cool stuff made up.
Dynaco
WildFire-
Now that I'm back and painstakingly putting together my WC Fan Film of DragonCon I noticed something. I hardly took any pictures or video of freaky people nor did I actually buy anything but lots and lots of Venti Mochas and Chai Tea Lattes from the Starbucks across the street from the Hyatt. I suppose next year I should buy a T-shirt or something. Also next year I should remember to film people in their flight suits against a solid background and not artsy wallpaper so I don't have to sit here and erase the background in every single friggin frame of the movie.
Cpl Hades
Mr. Kat
I bought like nothing. I went to buy an Official DragonCon Shirt, but they only had huge sizes left at that point. As for pictures, I only took four that were any good and only 2 of them were from the Con (https://www.wcnews.com/hades/dcon/). Joe took the best pictures.
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