Dragoncon, Day 1

A short day today. We slept late, spent some time with the fids, then had lunch at Boston Market before braving downtown Atlanta traffic (the streets aren't bad, it's the freeway). When we got to registration, we were asked for "the green card that you were sent in the mail." Well, maybe in your mail, not in ours! Apparently a lot of people didn't get their green cards in the mail, if the comments we heard in line were correct.

Spent the next few hours strolling the Dealer's Room, the Exhibit Hall, and the Art Show. Saw a friend we hadn't seen in a couple of years, and said hello to Daniel Taylor, whose heart attack and subsequent problems with his blood thinners are chronicled in his blog. I was overjoyed in the Dealer's Room to see that Jim Butcher's new Harry Dresden book is out, and also that one of the dealers has fanzines! I'll be making a stop in two places tomorrow. Oh,yeah, and Bill Holbrook is there, so I can buy the latest Kevin and Kell comic collection.

The Art Show is good and bad. The pro stuff is excellent, but the amateur material is only so-so.

James was a bit flaked out, so I attended one panel without him: Armin Shimmerman in a panel for the Buffy programming track. He was pleasant and funny: talked about his first audition for the show, a time when Sarah Michelle Gellar helped him out with a scene, and other small tidbits. He also talked about being a union steward, did a scene from Richard III and talked about being a Shakespearean scholar and teaching Shakespeare courses.

Afterwards found James in the main performance room and we had the supper (roast "beast" sandwiches we'd carried with us) while sitting, reading the schedule, and watching the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company people straggle in to set up for their performance. Talked with everyone as they came in, then sat through the short opening ceremony before their production began.

Dancer in the Dark is, in short, stunning. I sat there with my eyes fixed on the stage listening to the story, hardly able to wait to hear what happened next. The plot: in 1928, Indian mounds are being excavated in a small Georgia town. Professor Cletius Tremaine arrives from Arkham, Massachusetts, to see the excavation, being handled by his nephew. But there are townspeople telling him it's dangerous to open the mounds, that something under the earth is waiting to be freed...

As young Jerry says in the production, "Wow!" And let that suffice.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:36:00 PM

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