So How Was Dragon Con Goes Virtual?

The Lights Have All Been Turned Off for the Year

It’s late Monday evening as I write this. Dragon Con 2020 is (largely) in the books. There’s still a lot of content out there on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo that there was just no way to work in enough time for over the last few days. So, there’s still some Dragon Con 2020 to enjoy during this next week. But as far as the Roku, DCTV Dragon Con Goes Virtual stream, and a few other platforms carrying the live feeds this weekend are concerned, Dragon Con Goes Virtual has gone dark tonight.

Discussing Dragon Con Goes Virtual

So, You’ve Never Been but You Wanna Go to Dragon Con

Okay, some of what I’m going to bring up may come across as a bit “Duh!” to many of you, but… I’ve been going to Dragon Con since 2006. In that time, I have seen and heard so many discussions where people talked about the things they missed or messed up and felt stupid for doing so. First, don’t feel stupid. Anything that’s a large undertaking requires at least a little research and/or a little bit of a learning curve. I’ve been going for 13 years. I still occasionally learn something from someone else that makes my preparation or my Dragon Con weekend easier and I know people who have been going for 20 to 30 years who can say the same thing. Additionally, it’s easy to make mistakes that seem embarrassingly obvious to you after you’ve discovered you made them, but a number of people- very smart and normally on top of everything people -who have gone to Dragon Con have made some of the very same mistakes I’ll be touching on.

Around Dragon Con – The Center for Puppetry Arts

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

 

Tucked away on the corner of 18^th Street and Spring Street in Atlanta, Georgia is the Center for Puppetry Arts. If you’ve been to Atlanta but never visited the Center for Puppetry Arts, this or next year’s trip down for Dragon Con would be very good times to consider rectifying this oversight. Now, unlike the Georgia Aquarium, this isn’t a sight you can see with just a short walk down the street from the Dragon Con host hotels. It’s anywhere from a 45 minute to 1-hour walk depending on who is doing the walking. You can drive to it in about 15 minutes, but what levels of insanity would you have to be suffering under to cause you to consider driving in downtown Atlanta?

Around Dragon Con – Food

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

If there’s one piece of advice that we- as in anyone and everyone giving advice about Dragon Con –beat like a dead horse every year when talking to you- as in anyone going to Dragon Con no matter how many times you been before –every single year, it’s that you need to shower and use deodorant. Sometimes, like, say, Saturday, you might even want to do it more than once depending on what you’re wearing and doing, and, no, Axe body Spray, Febreze, and/or Fresh Linen scented Lysol are not acceptable substitutes. Yes, I have seen people at cons try to shortcut matters by spraying what they’re wearing (even while they’re wearing it) with half a can of Fresh Linen scented Lysol. It doesn’t work. Ever. So, yeah, get a shower in at the start or the end of each convention day.

However, right behind that bit of advice is the other beaten like a dead horse bit of advice pertaining to the human body’s nutritional needs. You must eat, and, preferably, you should do it more than once a day with meals consisting of more than power bars, meal drinks, and/or beef jerky. Fortunately, the hotels have their own restaurants, quick grab places, and bars that serve food and Dragon Con long ago conquered the Peachtree Center Food Court and made it the official convention canteen. Not so fortunately, all of these combined are not quite capable of serving and seating the now 85,000+ attendees with the same speed and efficiency of service that they can when not slammed with Dragon Con attendees, football fans, and the miscellaneous others in town for the various Labor Day weekend events. This is especially true on Saturday. That can occasionally be an issue when you want to have a good sit-down meal while not having the time to wait in line for 45 minutes and then having the (extremely understandable) smaller delays as the staff has to juggle serving you and the small army of other people looking for a meal.

That’s where a little pre-planning can help you out a lot.

Around Dragon Con – Preparation

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

Preparation, you ask? What, you ask, is this another article about getting ready for Dragon Con going over all that well-worn advice about how it’s important to have quality snacks to nibble during the day, vital to hydrate, the importance of getting sleep, begging you to shower and use deodorant, reminding you to eat a few proper meals every day, etc. that gets written about and talked about every single year as Dragon Con draws closer? Well, outside of that sentence, no, not really.

This year I’ll be writing several articles talking about what’s out there around Dragon Con and not actually inside the official Dragon Con footprint. So, no, no talk about how it’s important to have snacks, hydrate, get rest, shower, use deodorant, etc. while at the con or even about getting in some exercise before heading down to Dragon Con so that the (now five day) weekend doesn’t kick your butt. However, we will be covering some of the same concepts as well as a few others that, while perhaps too late to make them useful this year, may make future Dragon Con weekends a bit more fun.

Take one more look at that photo of just one small portion of Atlanta. That’s a photo taken from a high spot over by The Georgia Aquarium (which we’ll be getting into a lot of detail about later in the month) and Centennial Olympic Park. That’s an area that a lot of people who I’ve spoken to who attend Dragon Con never seem to get around to visiting. This is somewhat surprising given the opportunity the layout offers for cosplay photoshoots and, of course, this little thing called the Dragon Con Night at The Aquarium.

This is one of the things I’d like to see more people change about their annual visits to Atlanta. Why? Because there’s a lot of stuff in Downtown Atlanta that are absolutely awesome to see and experience. How awesome? Since my family changed how we set up our Dragon Con vacation and started seeing more of the area, I’ve seriously considered relocating. Of course, I then somewhat more seriously consider the fact that I’ve got seven more years to go before I can retire from my department with a full retirement intact, and, well, Atlanta does seem to frequently get its summer weather on loan from Hell and I absolutely hate heat. So, for now, it’s just staying my favorite vacation spot.

Dragon Con 2019 is Nigh

 

This year has flown by so far, July is dissolving in the mists of time, and August is almost upon us. That’s a somewhat relevant fact for those of us going to Dragon Con as the official kickoff date of the festivities this year is Thursday, August 29. I won’t mention the rather sizable few of you who have adjusted to the new first day by making Wednesday the new Thursday and are claiming the 28^th as the first day of con as, if I did that, several people I know might rip out all of their hair.

Nevertheless, the important (thing no matter the precise start date) is that Dragon Con is now less than 50 days away.

ConCarolinas 2019 is in the Books

For those coming into the story late…

Stuff happened in 2018. It wasn’t particularly good stuff. It was noisy and it was occasionally ugly and nothing particularly good spun out of it. I didn’t discuss it in any great detail back when it was happening and I have no desire to dredge it all up here now. But the fallout from the not particularly good stuff that happened in 2018 is more than just a tad somewhat relevant to what and where the convention found itself this year. So, know that stuff happened, some somewhat not particularly good stuff, and it put into question more than a few matters about the convention’s immediate and long-range future. There was also apparently a lot more on the line going into con this year than I knew going into it, and it created a vastly different experience at this convention this year than I expected to have.

The Dragon Con Khan Report

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The Dragon Con Khan Report is, to me, one of the two best podcasts out there to get you ready for Dragon Con- and it’s the only one of those two that runs throughout the year and not just 50 days before con.

That’s a Lot of Christmas Eve Christmas Evil

We’ve got a lot of Christmas horror talk for you this week. Join the crew as they take a look at 1980’s Christmas Evil. Also added into the mix is last year’s show looking at Black Christmas as well as two shows from our pals over at Gruesome Magazine looking at the same films. Enjoy the shows. You can hear them all at the following link.

 

https://theassignmenthorrorpodcast.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/thats-a-lot-of-christmas-eve-christmas-evil/