Anomalous Musings: The Anomaly Podcast Blog: dragon con

Showing posts with label dragon con. Show all posts

Monday, August 19, 2013

Sue's Dragon Con 2013 Schedule

Hi, I'm Sue. On Saturday, I got a haircut with bangs for the first time in 18 years, and all for cosplay. And I am an Anomaly. Once again, I'll be attending Dragon Con, and once again, a few unsuspecting track directors have agreed to let me sit on panels. Keeping in mind that everything at Dragon Con is tentative until it's over, here's where I expect to be:

Dragon Con 101 Meet Up!
Friday at 10:00am
American Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media Track (Marriot M302)
If you want to connect and and meet up with other DragonCon newbies, come to this casual meet and greet. This is an informal gathering. (I am one of the veterans who has volunteered to be on hand to answer questions.)

Happiest Space Off Earth: Disney-Fied Sci-Fi

Friday at 11:30am

American Sci-Fi Classics Track (Marriott M303-304)

Many moons before Disney bought Marvel and Star Wars, they were all about geeky movies, from Dragonslayer to Black Hole.

Hidden Monsters: A Being Human Fan Panel
Friday at 1:00pm
Urban Fantasy Track (Westin International BC)

A moderated fan-panel discussion of the hit series (US version).

Does a Contract Negate Non-Consent?
Friday at 5:30pm

WhedonUniverse Track (Westin International DE)

Dollhouse had the actives sign contracts. Where does that put the show where consent is concerned?

Much Ado about Shakespeare

Saturday at 1:00pm

WhedonUniverse Track (Westin International DE)
Discuss this contemporary take on a Shakespearean classic. Starring so many Whedonverse actors, there's plenty of reasons to make much ado!

Sidekicks - Hero Support or More?

Saturday at 7:00pm
American Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media Track (Marriott M302)
Sometimes the best thing about a show is not the hero, but the sidekicks! Who’s your favorite? Kenzi? Chloe? Xander? or maybe its Diggle?

Orphan Black

Saturday at 8:30pm
Brit Track (Sheraton Macon)

A discussion of this groundbreaking show, including the ethics and legal issues of real-life cloning.

Gay Themes in Doctor Who
Saturday at 10:00pm
Brit Track (Marriott A601-602)

An examination of DW's role in breaking traditional walls of SF by acquiring a following in straight and gay communities. (This panel was originally "Gender Roles in Doctor Who". The topic changed, but I'm still on the panel.)

Me and my AI
Sunday at 2:30pm
American Sci-Fi and Fantasy Media Track (Marriott M302)
The Macguffin of SF is Artificial Intelligence, a blessing or a curse. How has it been handled in media and has your perspective been colored by it?

Brit Fans on the Net: A Podcast Round Table

Monday at 10:00am
Brit Track (Sheraton Macon)
Brit Podcasters unite to discuss being an Anglophile on the net.

The Worlds of Terry Pratchett
Monday at 1:00pm
Brit Track (Sheraton Macon)
This panel discusses the many worlds of Terry Pratchett, including his newest works, The Long War and Raising Steam.

So, those are all my panels. Look at them all! How did that even happen?!

In addition to all of those things, there are a few events that I'm 99% sure I'll be attending, including: The American Sci-Fi Classics Party on Thursday Night, Friday Night Syfy Drive-In Theater showing of Super Shark (or at least part of it), the Doctor Who Anniversary Ball on Friday Night, and the Late Night Puppet Slam on Sunday night. Phew! Oh, and I'll be running The ATL 10K in the Atlanta heat on Saturday morning (in a Wonder Woman costume).

So, if you'll be in Atlanta over Labor Day Weekend this year, come say "hello!" Attending any of the above listed events will likely be the best way to find me, but you can shoot me a tweet (@spaltor) during Con, or even email the Anomaly Supplemental account - moregilrygeekz(at)gmail(dot)com - and that should reach me. See you there!

Sue
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
Subscribe to Anomaly via iTunes

Friday, March 8, 2013

Convention Culture Shock - Part 2

Hi, I'm Sue. I was checking out a book description on Goodreads the other day, and I read "Romulan Empire" instead of "Roman Empire", and it took me way too long to realize that didn't make any sense. And I am an Anomaly.

Welcome to Part 2 of my random thoughts about conventions! (Click here for Part 1) The way I see it, there are two major types of conventions: Industry-run, and Fan-run. And each has another layer of division. Industry-run cons can either be broad-topic, or very specific. But I divide Fan-run cons a different way. Even though those too can be broad or specific, I find the culture at the con changes more based on whether the organizers are inclusive or exclusive. Each con, of course, will have it's own rules, so I'm not going to speak to lines or rooms being cleared, or any of the logistics. This is purely about the culture of the con.

So, broad-topic Industry-run cons. That's easy - any of your comic cons are the perfect example here. I've never attended "The" Comic Con out in San Diego, but I have hit up New York Comic Con. To me, this type of con is all about marketing. The goal of the panels is not to celebrate shows or books or games your already love, but to make you want to spend your time/and or money on new releases. Everything is a sales pitch. Being at a comic con, I felt like I was just being hit with a constant barrage of advertisements, and it took a lot of sifting through the ads to get to the information that I was actually interested in. And the attendees were single-minded in pursuit of swag, con-exclusives, or play tests. Even though it was incredibly crowded, I felt no real sense of community.

I have to admit that I have not been to a specific Industry-run con is over 10 years, and that would have been a Star Trek convention (I think my last one was a "Four Captains" con). But these types of cons can cover one book series, one sub-genre, one TV show... pretty much anything. From what I remember, they share some of the consumerist aspects of the broader cons (everyone wants to sell you stuff) but, their very purpose is to celebrate some specific aspect of fandom (and capitalize on it), and that inherently creates a community among attendees. You're clearly all there for the same purpose - because you already love something. You're not going to get hammered with movie previews and panels about new shows. You're going to talk about things you already know and love and see the people who made it. And, sometimes, the marketing and sales pitches even stay confined to the dealers' room. Unfortunately, though, it seems like these types of cons are becoming few and far between.

The epitome of the fan-run convention, for me, is Dragon*Con. And I will not hide that it has become my favoritest con. The wonderful thing about a fan-run convention is that it exists because the fans want it to. Everyone involved is doing this because they love it. And, in my experience, the organizers of Dragon*Con are very inclusive. If you want to help out, you can. Volunteer, run a track, be a panelist, suggest a topic. As long as there's someone who wants to put in the work, they'll continue to add more fan tracks. I've always felt welcome and included at Dragon*Con, as a panelist and as an attendee. The culture there, even though there are 50,000+ scattered over 5 hotels, is such that you can walk up to just about anyone and strike up a conversation as if you were old friends. And fan discussion panels are as much of a draw as the stars in attendance. Over the past year or so, parts of geek culture have sort of forgotten than geekiness and inclusiveness go hand in hand - that has never been forgotten in Atlanta over Labor Day Weekend.

Unfortunately, when it comes to fan-run conventions, you don't really know whether you'll be dealing with inclusive or exclusive organizers until you're there. I've been to a fan-run con where the organizers are incredibly exclusive. They claimed to run a general "science fiction and fantasy" convention, but really only scheduled panels that interest them. I saw long time attendees of this con being openly derisive to people they didn't seem to think were "the right kind" of fan, and there was palpable discontent in the atmosphere. I even attended the wrap-up session, in which a rather heated argument broken out between organizers who claimed they wanted to attract a broader audience and attendees whose proposals for new panels had been shot down by these same organizers. It became uncomfortable. I found myself siding with the dissenters (go figure), and spoke to some afterwards who told me that this same argument had been going on for years, but nothing had changed. I was shocked by that whole experience. I'd attended that con before, but it was several years earlier and in a different city, and I didn't get that vibe at all. But I was so disappointed by my more recent experience, that I'm not likely to give it another chance any time soon.

Of course, the generalizations above are just based on my own experiences over the last 19 years of on-and-off con-going. Your experiences may differ. Every con has a culture, and that culture and how you respond to it will affect your enjoyment of the experience. But I think it's important to know what type of atmosphere to expect. I certainly would never going to NYCC with my laid-back approach to Dragon*Con - I did that my first year at NYCC and felt like I'd been hit by a bus. And while I've pretty much decided that D*C is the con closest to my hear, I'm certainly not going to rule out possible comic cons, gaming cons, or maybe even a Star Trek convention here and there.

But whatever con you attend, there are some good rules of thumb that apply to all:
1. Eat leafy greens and drink lots of water. And it's probably worth it to invest in some vitamin supplements as well.
2. When taking photos of cosplayers, get their permission first. They'd probably love to pose for you. It can be as simple as meeting their gaze from across the room and holding up your camera, and getting a little nod back. Don't take candid shots. It's not cool.
3. Just like in real life, they way someone is dressed is not permission. For anything. No, not even a costume.

See you in Atlanta!

Sue
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
Subscribe to Anomaly via iTunes

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Convention Culture Shock - Part 1

I'm Sue. I once skipped school and snuck into a teachers' convention. And I am an Anomaly.

I've been thinking a lot about the "convention" aspect of geek culture lately. In their early days, conventions brought geeks - outcasts from the "mainstream" - together in celebration of a shared passion. But now that it's more socially acceptable to be a geek and easier to find other people who share your passion via the interwebs, logic would say that the need for conventions isn't what it used to be. Instead, conventions are still growing, both in attendees and actual number of Cons, not to mention length of time and breadth of topic. They've become something more than initially intended, and they are absolutely astounding events. I've decided to take this in two parts, first sharing my background as a con-attendee, and then discussing the different types of Cons I've attended are their distinct atmospheres and cultures, as I see them.

Me and an unknown Klingon, 1994.

I went to my first Star Trek convention in August 1994 in New York City. I was 11 years old. After that, I don't think a year went by until I was out of High School that I didn't attend at least one Star Trek convention. Mostly, I was able to do so because of my location, my friends, and public transportation. I tended to see the same people in lines, and we said hello and caught up while waiting for admission or autographs or whatever. Those were the days when the only conventions I was aware of were those run by Creation Entertainment (which is still around, by the way), and there was just one stage and a dealers' room - maybe an autograph line in a separate location, if it was a "big" con. The concept of a convention that covered multiple fandoms or that was fan-run never even crossed my mind. My brother, would occasionally go to gaming (board/puzzle) conventions, but I didn't really pay much attention to those at the time.

When I went to college up in Boston, I would check the Creation homepage every now and then, but nothing ever seemed to come nearby. I never thought too look for anyone kind of convention, so I didn't come across Arisia or any other Boston-area cons (PAX East didn't start until I'd moved away), and I started to get busy with other things and didn't care so much about conventions. Plus, from what I'd heard online, Creation conventions were going downhill fast, and no longer worth the time.

Then, my brother told me that World Con would be held in Boston in the fall of my senior year! I didn't know what World Con was, but Terry Pratchett was the guest of honor! I checked out the website and did a bunch of reading and got super psyched. But it was a completely new experience. I was used to a show room and a dealers' room - you either saw what was happening on stage or went shopping. This con schedule had so many things happening at once in different rooms that I didn't have a clue how to begin making decisions! It was an incredibly busy weekend, and it was a blast. (Somehow, I was still unaware of Arisia that winter...)

And then, after a few months of enthusiasm, conventions fell off my radar again. I was looking for a "real job" and a place to live, and paying bills, and so on. But I kept hearing about this thing called "Dragon*Con" on podcasts and in internet forums, and it seemed like the place to be if you were into... well, anything. And in early spring of 2010, I was once again speaking to my brother (clearly, he's the instigator in our relationship) and we discovered that we were both interested in checking out this Dragon Con hullabaloo, so we each booked flights and got a room in an overflow hotel, and dove right in to the deep end.

After my first year at D*C, I knew I'd be back, and I booked my 2011 room less than a month after returning. And, I started paying attention to other convention announcements. Anne's New York Comic Con report later that month piqued my interest in that event, and I submitted a press application for 2011 as soon as I could. That winter, WorldCon was officially announced for Reno, NV (where that pesky brother lives), so there was no way I could pass that up. Suddenly, I was scheduled to hit 3 conventions in 6 weeks, and they turned out to have three very different atmospheres.

To be continued....

Sue
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
Subscribe to Anomaly via iTunes

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Sue's Dragon*Con 2012 Schedule

Hi, I'm Sue. I have plenty of cosplay to pack for Dragon*Con, but I can't find anything to wear to a friend's wedding. And I am an Anomaly.

That's right! Dragon*Con, my favoritest con on the planet, is just a few more days away. And this year, I will actually be sitting on some panels! Since, I know that several people in the Anomaly community regularly attend D*C, I wanted to share my schedule. (As always, anything on a schedule at Con is subject to change until it's already happened.)

Have We Met Before?
Friday, at 10:00 AM
American Sci-Fi Media Track (Marriott A704)
Did your favorite show die too soon? Or maybe there's a show that everyone gave up on but it's great now. Share with us your hidden treasures.

Geek TV!
Friday at 5:30 PM
American Sci-Fi Media Track (Marriott A704)
We're infiltrating the mainstream! Discussions about Big Bang Theory, Community and all the rest of the place we're popping up.

Manimal and Friends: Quickly Canceled Sci-Fi TV
Sunday at 5:30 PM
American Sci-Fi Classics Track (Marriott A703)
Show the love for one-season sci-fi wonders that came on a few times, then pfft! They were gone. (Manimal. Sweet Manimal.)

Captain Hammer Will Save Us
Monday at 1:00 PM
Whedon Universe Track (Westin International D)
A look at false heroes in the Whendon Universe.

So, if you'll be in Atlanta over Labor Day Weekend this year, come say "hello!" Of course, the above listed panels are just where I'm scheduled to appear. If you can't make any of those, I'd still like to say "hello"! I will be attending plenty of other events, but it's not worth it to even attempt to list that schedule, as it will change on a whim. Plus, I plan to don my latest steampunky cosplay on either Saturday or Sunday. You can shoot me a tweet (@spaltor) during con, or even email the Anomaly Supplemental account - moregilrygeekz(at)gmail(dot)com - and that should reach me.

See you there!

Sue
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
Subscribe to Anomaly on iTunes