Dragon Con 2009 #2

Saturday

Parade

I went out after breakfast and made my way to Woodruff Park. This year I decided to be Silk Spectre II from 'Watchmen', mostly based on the film version of the character. In my allocated section there were quite a few Supermen and Batmen [Batmans?] plus associated characters. I think there were two more ladies dressed like me plus one Rorshach. I said hello to the assembled Browncoats and Sid. The General Lee car raised a lot of enthusiastic interest! There was a huge BSG group who were loudly chanting, 'So say we all!'. They even had three people dressed as metal Cylons [i.e. giant chrome toasters, LOL]. The Parade went very well and I got back to my hotel room just in time to see the significant Star Wars party taking up the rear. They even had a couple of pod racers [on wheels!]

Lavapalooza

This was a Polynesian-themed charity function in the Hilton hotel run by Trader Vics. My $25 bought me vouchers for four items. I traded one in pretty quickly for a Mai Tai [hic!]. There was a band on stage playing up-beat Hawaiian guitar numbers, but then they did a creditable cover of the Shadows 'Wonderful Land'. Delicious culture clash! I came back to the Lavapalooza later after doing some other things and had some food and a beer. Very good value for money!

Watchmen meetup

Quite a good number of us turned up in costume; three or four Comedians, one each of Mothman and Ozymandias, several Silk Spectre I and II [including me in the latter group], one Rorschach, a couple of Silhouettes and one Smiley badge [complete with 'blood' stain].

8:30 PM Whedon Universe Costume Contest
I decided to bring out 'Vera' for public consumption! However the excellent one woman Jayne hat was back along with a couple of very good Kaylees in 'wedding cake dresses', plus large numbers of Mals, Jaynes and Rivers!
SHINDIG!

Just like last year, this was incredibly popular. All the seats were taken and the entire central area of the room was packed with people; rather like a huge mosh pit! More chairs or a bigger room next year, please! Yet again the bar was tiny. I'd anticipated this and smuggled in a couple of beers bought in the nearby liquor store. Both Emerald Rose and the Bedlam Bards played well, but then the music stopped. This was a shame. It wouldn't have taken much to wire a CD player and/or an iPod into the speakers for more [recorded] dancing music to have been played. I could have brought my Walkman; it was full of music for the long journey and has a significant selection of assorted dance tunes. Heck, I had my Firefly filks in my bag; I could have sung them a capella. So, at about 1 a.m., the party seemed to grind to a halt and people drifted away, which was disappointing.

Sunday

Browncoats:Redemption

The trailer we'd all been waiting for! It's now out on the web; so please check it out. We also had a good six minutes of video of Sonny Rhodes playing slide guitar exclusively for the film. A number of the cast and creative team were there, so I had my promotional postcard signed by all of them. It'll be going in a frame soon!

2:30 pm Chuck - A glimpse within Intersect (GP) Sheraton - Capital

Aren't you glad I'm in charge of national security?
This was a delicious and hysterical hour of Bonita on stage 'assisted' [and heckled!] by her hubby John Billingsly! She commented that before this, she's been the one doing the heckling! According to both of them, playing 'the alien doctor and the general' is their favourite game! [TMI?!!?]
The entire cast wished to convey their thanks at helping save the show. [Some of us are Adam fans from 'Firefly' days. We know the countryside!]. John is 'now working for Subway' [humour!]. Bonita promised to pack several of the cast [including Zach] into her suitcase next year! Her acting inspiration for the General is Dame Judi Dench. She can't get all her bobby pins out on set, so she takes a shower when she gets home.

Yvonne has to wear 5” heels and does her own stunts!
Yes, Bonita is wearing the bottom half of her uniform under the desk!
Adam is crazy about guns [I think we'd noticed....!!] ; playing with them and flipping them on set!
Bonita would like Beckman to get a promotion to 2 or 3 star general, please!
Ann Dunworthy was apparent ly the first female 4 star general. One of the other female generals had a hairdo just like Beckman's>!!
Bonita 'loves being able to play a woman in power'. John is happy with this arrangement as well :-). It was about here that John recalled his deathless line from 'True Blood'. It's NSFW and distinctly adults only!!!
Chuck isn't entirely in control of his new powers [thought not...]
Some reference to [www.thetwocents.com] which is a podcast.
There is a returning guest from Season 1 [I think we knew that], plus Brandon Routh.
Audience interaction with representatives of the 'Buy More 435 from Tallahassee'!
'Do you have a retail expert on the show?' [Because it's so well done!]
'Then I try to do them all at once and it ends up hurting' [Probably best not to ask...!!!]
Origins of Fulcrum? Well, the Ring is a much bigger enemy. [Oooh, tease!]
'Beyond the Government, beyond the United Nations...' It's Burbank Torchwood!!
Bonita had problems fitting on a screen with Tony Todd. He's 6ft 5ins and she's 5ft 3! She sat on a pile of telephone directories through a lot of season 1!
Beckman can pop up everywhere!
Ben and Casey [not Adam!] developed the Castle so that the cast can see each other.
Bonita used to be a teacher of middle and high school.
[Young lad] Why is Chuck on Monday? [Gets standing ovation!]
Bonita is roughly the same age as Adam.
It's gift time. John, “It's ticking!!” [Turns out to be a non-ticking NSA mug]. Bonita and John indulge in a lot of comic business 'discovering' that the mug will hold water.
John, “Where are the instructions?” Gift giver, “On the bottom!” John = Big grin!!
Beckman will come out from behind her desk again, be somewhere foreign and have a bullhorn!
She'd like to learn to use a bull-whip [John approved of this!].
Bonita described how her first experience on Chuck without the desk was somewhat physically hampered by her having long slacks and shoes that were too large. The slacks kept getting caught up inside the shoes and made her judder to a halt.
Beckman's task now is to make sure Chuck has the discipline to learn new skills he needs.
Zach still has the beard he grew in the hiatus.
John says Bonita has mad kung fu skills! She's just played a sword fighting vampire on Bob Chapin's webisode series.
'Someone has to keep Casey under control'. [ME! ME! WHERE DO I APPLY?!!?]
We are going to see a lot more of the Buy More.
Bonita suggested that it would be funny if Bekman was found at her desk with her legs up and drinking gin! Or the desk is unoccupied and a toilet flush is heard.
**
Throughout the talk, the microphone proved somewhat squeaky and even squealed a few times, but both Bonita and John turned the occurrences into comedy gold moments!