Musings from Dragon*Con 2006

Wow, I don't even know how to begin to describe Dragon*Con.

It's a convention that's all about the people you meet, so I guess I'll start there.

Every person you will meet at Dragon*Con is interesting. Normal, boring, run-of-the-mill people will not wait the entire year for the one weekend where they can pack into sweaty hotels in Atlanta to dress like their movie hero of choice. Let's say, Jack Sparrow. Or Boba Fett. Or a Stormtropper with a hawaiian shirt on. There isn't time enough in the world to see all the costumes that pass through the halls of Dragon*Con, and I never stopped marvelling at the creativity of it all.

But I wasn't in Atlanta to gape around looking at costumes (as exciting as that is), I was on the job man! All business, no time for fun whatsoever. Not one smile was to be seen on anyone from the AbbyShot team the WHOLE weekend. Of course, I'm only joking, if there's one thing Newfoundlanders know how to do, it's how to do a good job while having the best possible time doing it! We worked hard in our lovely (if a bit small) booth each day, meeting lots of interesting people who stopped in from places all over the United States. Many were very pleased to see the astounding movie-inspired AbbyShot coats in person instead of just on the net. And those who hadn't heard of AbbyShot before left with a brochure and a smile on their face. And if my super-human sales skills were sharp enough for certain stretches of the day, some people even bought coats off me! Yes, yes, team effort and all that, but this is my blog so: I sold some coats! *ahem* I mean, team effort, team effort. Seriously though, everyone did really well for the FIRST time AbbyShot ever sold coats at a con.

Although the booth did dominate our time at Dragon*Con, when we were out of the Exhbitor's Hall these ridiculous stores of energy came out of lord-knows-where to let us all take in lots of fun/hilarious/exciting stuff in the evenings. On our first night there, for example, we went to a lovely Japanese restaurant not far from the Con where the chefs would come out and fry up your food right in front of your eyes while spinning and throwing their utensils in complicated-looking ways.

One of the coolest things happened Saturday morning: the parade! Yes, Dragon*Con has a full-scale fan parade every year where different groups dress up according to the theme of their choice and march through the streets of Atlanta. The streets of Atlanta obviously fill with onlookers who can't believe what it is they're seeing. Myself and my coworker Justin went out bravely on Saturday morning, decked out in our AbbyShot Mad Max jackets, to join a Mad Max fan group for the parade. We went to the park where the parade was supposed to start and we were blown away. The amount of people in costume, along with the detail of the costumes and the variety of inspirations, was just astounding. The amount of people in full Stormtrooper gear on a hot Atlanta morning still boggles my mind. And those guys who recreated the Ghostbusters car! And the group who covered pretty much the entire cast of Monty Python and the Holy Grail complete with monk holding the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. And the list goes on. But we were in for a treat when we finally found the Mad Max group hanging out like badasses WAY in the back of the procession. A huge Road Warrior fan named David had done up an old truck he apparently got for 200 bucks into a rolling symbol of anarchy. There were skulls painted on it, a gun mounted on the back, and two bodies attached to sticks on the front bumper. And then he provided a bunch of people with armour made partially out of old car scraps. This was FINE work, and I was proud to be marching with this crazy bunch! Once the truck's engine finally started (after a few good old college tries) and we were rolling down the street, with David in full bad-guy mode making fun of puny hybrid cars, we already knew we'd never forget this Dragon*Con.

Saturday night was the Browncoat Shindig (a "Browncoat" being a fan of Firefly/Serenity) and it was so fun it pretty much graduated past shindig-level to become a hootenanny. Definitely better than a hoedown. Anyway, AbbyShot had helped a group of entreprising Browncoats to promote their documentary about Firefly fandom (called Done the Impossible) so we were already a pretty popular crew in this particular circle. That and we make a kickass leather replica of the browncoat. So one of the girls, inspired by the Celtic music that was playing, decided to teach Brian, one of the makers of the documentary, how to play the spoons like a Newfoundlander. Much to the general mirth of the rest of the team, I was hit on by a girl who thought she was Firefly's resident tough guy, Jayne Cobb; she was drinking vodka like it was water, she demanded to try on the leather Mad Max jacket I was wearing, and then stuck her wool cap on top of my head. I just didn't want to get hurt really. I'm sure she's a nice girl though! Many laughs were had in the room later about how this girl could have eaten me for breakfast. It's funny because it's true.

Sunday night was even more fun for one obvious reason: Karaoke! It's not just for Asian businessmen anymore folks! And this was karaoke at a sci-fi/fantasy convention at that, so the weirdest mixture of songs I had ever heard in one night were soon running through the room. Everything was represented, from AC/DC to Johnny Cash to Nine Inch Nails to 90's white guy rap (House of Pain and Vanilla Ice Ice baby!). Somehow, the joy (huh?) of hearing Vanilla Ice at a Dragon*Con karaoke night even got me up in front of the whole crowd of people to do my own white-guy version of the running-man. Don't ask me why, it just kind of... happened. The AbbyShot ladies tried to one-up me by singing an awesome rendition of the Dixie Chicks' Goodbye Earl that brought the house down, but I wasn't finished my night of embarassing dance moves yet. No, eventually the last song came along, and some genius (I mean that) decided to sing the David Lee Roth version of Just a Gigolo. Myself and two of the friendliest Browncoats you'll ever meet (John and Joe!) ended up in the front of the room doing some strange "Jazz Hands" type move to the classy beat. Oh, and I can't forget the finger-snapping and leg-kicking (and I do mean those in terms of dancing and not violent fighting, although the casual observer would probably have been unsure of what exactly we were doing). If there weren't any pictures to prove it, it's the kind of night I would have thought was too fun to actually have happened.

There was so much crammed into this one long weekend that it would take another long weekend to tell it all (sneaking into the pool anyone? Glass elevator races?) and I'm only just getting my sleep schedule back to normal after being home a week. It was madness, but in the best possible way: everyone at Dragon*Con drops their pretensions and their everyday defenses to celebrate those obsessions that, for the rest of the year, they probably hesitate to admit. I guess it just feels good to wear your heart on your sleeve sometimes.

Hopefully I'll be back again someday.