DragonCon 2010 First (Official) Day
The first official day at DragonCon this year was fairly light for us, as far as Con events goes. I’m really glad that we decided to come up on Thursday this year instead of Friday, because we were able to start the Con out fresh and rested and without the hassle of waiting in line for registration, since that was all taken care of yesterday. It was a bit annoying, yesterday, though, to find that pre-registering no longer affords you a quick registration. It was the folks who were not pre-registered that got the short lines. Still, with attendance doubling since we’ve started coming, a few growing pains are to be expected.
As far as yesterday went, we got up here safely, despite almost being run over by a Marta bus, and got our badges after waiting in line for 3.5 hours at the Sheraton (with the Sheraton employees behaving in the same manner we have come to expect – rudely – but with the DragonCon staff themselves being phenomenal). Since last year we had such a wonderful experience at Nikolai’s Roof, we decided to go eat there again this year, but it turned out to be the sort of disappointment that only a meal you look forward to for a whole year can be, when it turns out to not be as good. The service was poor, particularly in comparison with the animated and fun server we had last year, and while the lighter courses were still extremely good, the main course was over-cooked for both of us.
Today, we started the day off by eating breakfast at the table next to Larry Hagman (!), then we headed off to the Wikileaks panel, which didn’t turn out to be the objective discussion we were expecting. The host of the panel didn’t seem to have researched the matter beyond the bounds of what was necessary for his presentation. The Q&A after the presentation allowed for a more open discussion, however, where a lot of good points were put forth, including discussion of Wikileaks’ own editing of documents to support their cause and the fact that Wikileaks’ publishing their findings on the Great Firewall of China has allowed people in China to better be able to get around the firewall and access information outside, as well as provide uncensored information and news to those outside the borders.
Salvador Dali - image from Wikipedia
Since the High Museum was offering a discount to DragonCon attendees, we decided to go see the Salvador Dali exhibit there, which was absolutely wonderful. It was focused on Dali’s later work, which I knew very little about, being most familiar with his early surrealist art. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the paintings was the sense of dimension he was able to put into them, the way some of the images seemed to jump out of the canvas toward you and how some of the paintings were entirely different pictures depending on how far away you were standing from them. B was particularly struck by the sheer size of some of the paintings. The exhibit really established Dali as one of the first true pop artists, who embraced his commercial popularity and didn’t understand the critics who would discount his work simply because it was popular to mass audiences.
We ate dinner tonight at Ray’s in the City, which turned out to be a much better experience than last night. Now, we’re going to relax and watch some DragonCon*TV and get ready for tomorrow, which promises to be our busiest day at the Con. We’ll be attending the parade, so you can expect many, many more pictures (Saturday is always the biggest Picture Taking Day), and we’re heading to the James Randi panel, which is the main panel we’re both excited for.
Is that the skeptics and sexuality panel? Let me know how that goes. Thanks!!!
Oooo! Museums!