It was an...interesting night. I had to take some quantites of Pepto Bismol last night before bed and therefore couldn't take my Claritin. Usually when I forget to take it I simply wake up with a stuffy nose. Not this morning; it was like Niagara had let go. Luckily I woke up about 90 minutes before I really had to, took the Claritin and went back to bed. While I wasn't quite sterling when arising, most of it wore off as the day progressed, although I am still massively stuffy, especially outside where it is warm.

We were going in early for another 10 a.m. panel and upon turning on the radio heard the news of Steve Irwin's ("the Crocodile Hunter") death. It's ironic that he approached so many charging alligators, crocodiles, and snakes and was never severely injured, and then died innocently investigating a stingray. So many parodies have been done of Steve—even "DragonCon*TV," the collection of bumpers, skits and other funny business that runs between the panels in each meeting room has a Steve Irwin spoof called "The Alien Hunter"—and it's sad to know he won't be there to laugh at them any longer.

Today I got to partake in the final Mythbusters panel and did have a good time; they had another blooper reel that they had censored yesterday, and did a Q&A about future projects, things they would have liked to have seen had they not been convention guests—Grant is a big Firefly fan—talk about when Grant and Jamie were both participants in the old BattleBots series, etc. James said they seemed a bit bemused about the success of what is basically an instructional science series with lots of crazy stunts and explosions. Everyone stood up and applauded when the moderator asked if they would come back next year.

The build team takes their last bow:



We had our "free period" then and first registered for next year's convention (it's cheaper that way), and then wandered back in the direction of the Dealer's Room looking for the Art Show (it's usually upstairs opposite the Exhibitor's Hall). Surprise! It was downstairs in the Hyatt where we had been. So we went back into the Dealer's Room because James remembered we'd seen something there that we thought would make a perfect Christmas gift for a friend. Alas, we should have bought it Friday; it was already gone. But the lady gave me her e-mail address and asked me to contact her; that perhaps they could get another one.

I also found a stuffed animal dealer who had a stuffed terrier with wings; I couldn't resist it. It's a Welsh terrier, I think, not a Willow-looking dog, but it gets the idea across (although the idea of Willow with wings is terrifying).

When we went past the Benbella booth again—a.k.a. "Smart Pop" books—I noticed a book with essays about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (Pullman's trilogy was the reason I didn't initially get into Harry Potter; I was too busy waiting for the next book in Pullman's epic!), so purchased that, and James got a series of essays by SF writer Spider Robinson.

At this point it was getting time for me to head back for the 1 p.m. panel on Hugh Laurie. James didn't want to go: he was afraid it would be full of the estrogen brigade drooling over Dr. House. So I wandered back toward the Hyatt and, having about fifteen minutes, nipped into the Art Show. Neither of us have been really enthused about Art Shows in the past few years. While we have seen a moving away from the late 80s/early 90s trend of what James calls "intestinal art," monsters and vampires and lots of innards of people and animals being torn apart, most of the art today is fantasy-based, with a slight nip of character profiles from media and cartoons, and not science fiction. And the art we are seeing is, in general (NOTE: there are exceptions), rather inferior to that of ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. We had commented just last night that we rarely saw spacescapes or rocketships and other spacecraft.

Well, I didn't see many. But I did see a couple and bought one for James for his birthday today. It's a small but beautiful piece of Mars rising over one of its moons.

I also managed to find a piece in the print shop that was fall-themed and fantasy-themed and involves small birds as well! It's a picture of a tree branch dotted with autumn leaves, and sitting on the branch are three plump bluebirds with a little purple dragon sitting between them.

James missed a good panel. Two of the moderators were men (one was writer Keith R.A. Candido, below) and the crowd was evenly split between men and women, so it wasn't an estrogen-fest. We mostly talked about Hugh Laurie as Gregory House and all the fascinating characters and situations during the series, but also touched on Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster, and A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and also a movie I have never seen, Peter's Friends. They say there are some Fry and Laurie clips on YouTube, so I'll have to check them out.



Back upstairs, James was waiting for me in Regency 6-7 for the Mighty Rassilon Art Players' (MRAP) performance of "The Brotherhood of Damn Sassy Mutants," a bunch of hapless X-Men types who run afoul of the Splicemeister, a baddie whom they capture and send to prison. Two years later, released from prison, the Splicemeister exacts a strange revenge on one of the Mutants—he's changed into a woman! In the meantime, one of the other members dates a bipolar dish and consults his uncle and his young ward (and faithful retainer), and we meet various oddballs like Multiple Girl, a mutant dog who's now a physician, and the infamous Wormhole Jackson. Too bizarre and very funny, although personally I wish the pacing had been a bit faster.

We had planned to see a final Babylon 5 panel scheduled, but it was cancelled due to only one person being on it and she wanted to stay on the Walk of Fame. So regretfully we turned for home (ah, yes, good old fashioned post convention depression). Stopped at Michael's with 50 percent off coupons, bought milk and other necessities for the week at Food Depot, then went out for dinner at the IHOP. We can't say it was inspiring. Had we wanted an excellent steak, we could have gone to Longhorn, but we simply wanted an affordable steak, and we had coupons at IHOP and we'd had steak there before. Never again; it's not even worth it at half the price. It was the least inspiring T-bone I've ever eaten, and I adore T-bones; it was pretty flavorless—I think they're using the water-injected steaks from WalMart. Not bad, just blah.

So now we're home watching History Detectives...

Labels: conventions, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:52:00 PM

Comments:

I wish I'd written the pacing faster. Thanks for coming. We're doing it again with more swears and a PSA at the end in Decatur this weekend.

# posted by  Anonymous : 7:07:00 PM

 

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