{"id":146,"date":"2008-09-04T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2008-09-04T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/?p=146"},"modified":"2008-09-04T01:47:48","modified_gmt":"2008-09-04T05:47:48","slug":"dragoncon-day-2-the-days-are-just-packed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/04\/dragoncon-day-2-the-days-are-just-packed\/","title":{"rendered":"DragonCon Day 2 – The Days Are Just Packed"},"content":{"rendered":"

SATURDAY<\/h3>\n

As I write this blog entry, I’m realizing just how seriously crammed-full Saturday was.\u00a0 What a blast of a day!<\/p>\n

We survived the night packed like sardines in our room.\u00a0 There was myself, Serv, Race, Jon, Ravenface, and Shockwave all sharing “Harvey Dent’s Room”.\u00a0 It was a little cramped.<\/p>\n

After showers, Jon, Race, and I headed down for the parade.\u00a0 I was shocked at the number of people present for the parade.\u00a0 I heard later there were roughly 3,500 people there just to watch the parade.\u00a0 Wow! Here is a video I took of the spectators all lined up to watch the parade.\u00a0 For whatever reason, it came through on YouTube somewhat jumpy (sorry about that).\u00a0 If you can’t view the embedded video, click here<\/a> to be taken to the Once Upon a Geek YouTube page.<\/p>\n

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The parade was particularly good this year too.\u00a0 They did the right thing and started it off with bagpipes and a Cobra battalion!\u00a0 Also worth mentioning was the impressive number of superheroes in the parade this year.\u00a0 Finally, I really liked the “Vote Zod” presidential campaign; that was funny.\u00a0 Overall the parade was very entertaining and well worth the time.<\/p>\n

\"Bagpipes<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cobra<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Superheroes<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Zod<\/a><\/p>\n

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After the parade, I dashed over the Torchwood panel.\u00a0 I was shocked to find only a small crowd and that I could walk right in and get a great seat.\u00a0 By the time the panel started, it was a packed house of approximately 1,600 people.\u00a0 The panel featured Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto), James Marsters (Captain John on ‘Torchwood’ and Spike on ‘Buffy’), and Anthony Lewis (guest starred as Tommy in one episode of ‘Torchwood’).\u00a0\u00a0 Not really any spoilers for the next season, but they were a funny group with interesting anecdotes.\u00a0 It was discussed that next season would only be five episodes long.\u00a0 The only real glimmer of leaked information was regarding the new cast members of the show.\u00a0 It was asked if two new people would replace Tosh & Owen.\u00a0 Gareth David Lloyd responded by saying there would actually be more than two people added to the cast, but it was unknown how many of them would continue on after next season.<\/p>\n

James Marsters shared a neat story about how he got injured during filming (cut his leg pretty deeply), but didn’t tell anyone.\u00a0 Finally once he started bleeding through his costume, he quietly let John Barrowman know about his injury.\u00a0 Apparently Barrowman called in a doctor to the set who patched Marsters up in secret without anyone else aware.\u00a0 All the panelists agreed that Barrowman is larger than life.\u00a0 He is apparently a never-ending source of energy and you can’t help but love the guy.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, Lloyd and Marsters addressed the issue of kissing Barrowman (as both have done so on the series).\u00a0 They didn’t think it was a big deal and the point of the scenes was not to be a “gay scene” but a “romance scene”.\u00a0 Marsters was pretty outspoken about how enjoys creating controversy over his performances.\u00a0 Anthony Lewis got to share his “romance” story also.\u00a0 He had a bedroom scene with Tosh.\u00a0 Turns out it was filmed the same time as the bedroom scene with Adam (from a later episode).\u00a0 So basically Lewis and the actor playing Adam took turns in the sack with Tosh; there was some macho high-fiving over this on the set.\u00a0 The actors also addressed questions about other projects, dream projects, and their musical bands.\u00a0 At one point, Gareth David Lloyd was even asked to rap for the audience.\u00a0 I took a brief video of this and will try to upload it soon (the sound quality was terrible on it).<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gareth<\/a><\/p>\n

\"James<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gareth<\/a><\/p>\n

After the Torchwood panel, several of us met up at Hooters for lunch.\u00a0 It’s become something of a tradition for us to go to Hooters for lunch at least once during DragonCon.\u00a0 Good food, good company, good… well, y’know.<\/p>\n

Then I went over to the Brit Track in the Sheraton (new hotel for DragonCon this year) for a session on Doctor Who.\u00a0 This time it was our friends over at NeedCoffe.com<\/a> versus the Whoniverse.\u00a0 Lots of good banter and discussion on the various Doctor Who franchise series.\u00a0 I even won a DVD copy of “Timelash” for answering a trivia question correctly.<\/p>\n

I’m really not sure what day this was, but I ended up in an elevator at one point with Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko on ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’).\u00a0 He seemed nervous around the crowds and appeared to have some difficulty walking.\u00a0 I’m not sure what the deal was, but I heard rumors ranging from old age to drunkenness.\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 Regardless, I felt a little sorry for him.<\/p>\n

I also ended up in a different elevator with Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh on the new ‘Battlestar Galactica’). He was a really nice guy, talkative, and very up-beat. I’m glad I got a chance to meet him, regardless of how brief it was.<\/p>\n

Of course throughout the day I was snapping pictures of various costumes.\u00a0 I think I’ll wait and do a separate post just on the costumes of DragonCon 2008.<\/p>\n

Around 5:00pm, Michael Bailey, myself, Ravenface, and a few others made our way over to the infamous “Marvel vs DC Jeopardy” session.\u00a0 Comic book trivia has become quite a passion of ours at DragonCon.\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to land a spot in the top three last year.\u00a0 This year marked the 10th anniversary of comic-related Jeopardy at DragonCon.\u00a0 Van Plexico of AvengersAssemble.net<\/a> and his right-hand man George were once again the hosts.\u00a0 They were plagued with technical problems, but still managed to put on a good show.\u00a0 Sadly none of the Unique Geek folks managed to make it to the final three.\u00a0 However, that may in part be because of the elimination process this year.\u00a0 Let’s just say that those in the back of the room had a distinct advantage when answering elimination questions.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we all sat in the front.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

After another round of Chick-Fil-A, it was time to head to NeedCoffee.com<\/a> & Quick Stop Entertainment’s “Nuts on the Road: Gonzo Sound & Vision” film festival!\u00a0 This was the big moment most of us had been waiting for!\u00a0 After no film fest in 2007, we were anxious to partake in the wacky hijinks once again.\u00a0 This year did not disappoint.\u00a0 The first 300 people in the door were greeted with exclusive “Stark Industries” poster tubes.\u00a0 When expanded, the poster tubes looked quite a bit like a rocket launcher.\u00a0 They were really cool!<\/p>\n

This party started at 10:00pm and went until around 4:00am.\u00a0 The whole gang from NeedCoffee.com was there (several of who also two-time as members of THE UNIQUE GEEK<\/a>).\u00a0 Something new for the film festival was an opening band, “Paul and Storm<\/a>“.\u00a0 These two guys are hilarious!\u00a0 I enjoyed them so much I bought there CD on-site that evening.\u00a0 Here is a YouTube video I found of these guys from a show they did in Pittsburgh.\u00a0 They did the same opening number.\u00a0 If you can’t watch it via the embedded player, check out the video by clicking here<\/a>.\u00a0 Funny stuff!\u00a0 Then go to their website, www.paulandstorm.com<\/a> and give them your money.\u00a0 They deserve it!<\/p>\n

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Also on hand was Dana Snyder (voice of Master Shake on ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ and other cartoons), along with Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank from Mystery Science Theater 3000.\u00a0 After the opening music number, the film festival got cranking with bizarre and hilarious videos.\u00a0 During the breaks tons of swag was given out and a great time was had by all.\u00a0 I personally passed out from exhaustion\u00a0during the show and eventually left for my room around 3:00am.<\/p>\n

Another day, another great adventure.\u00a0 More tomorrow…<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tell the world about ONCE UPON A GEEK:<\/h3>