Post by Van Plexico on Sept 5, 2006 22:10:20 GMT -5
PART I
For those interested, read on for my annual report of the adventures I
enjoyed at this year's edition of Dragon*Con-- or, to borrow a phrase
from my new pal, John Ringo, my "After Action Report."
DragonCon is
my single most favoritest thing ever in the world to do-- my
"religious holiday," as I call it. And this year may have been my
favorite ever. I will have links to photos on my Web site sooner or
later. In the meantime, here's how this, my eleventh DragonCon,
played out.
First, you must understand that I have just moved to the St. Louis
area from Atlanta. So attending this year meant flying back to the
Big Peach. The only affordable plane ticket I could get required a 6
a.m. departure on Saturday morning. Good lord!! And the closer I got
to that date and time, the more I regretted going with that plan.
Never again!!! I did not sleep Friday night, and just headed to the
airport about 2 am.
The consequences of this sleep deprivation would be felt, very
heavily, on Saturday.
Even so, I think Saturday turned out to be one of my favorite days
ever at DragonCon.
SATURDAY:
After going through the purgatory that is Registration, I bopped
around a bit until my first panel, mainly looking for a place to take
a nap. But there's just no way to take a nap at DragonCon-- too loud,
too many half-naked women and Stormtroopers and aliens bumping your
sofa, jostling you, etc. So I arrived at 4 pm for my "Fahrenheit
1984: Politics in SF" panel, and discover that it would be military SF
writer John Ringo, me, and a moderator in the middle. I had been
half-jokingly saying we would have "SF Crossfire," but it turned out
that's precisely what it was!
The room was packed out and overflowing. I immediately announced that
"The cast of Serenity will not be appearing here," and got a laugh--
then it dawned on me that Ringo really draws crowds! Impressive.
I was determined to do my best to prevent Ringo from dominating
proceedings with his very militaristic, right-wing views (as he says
on his own Web site he likes to do). So when I introduced myself, I
said something to the effect of, "I'm here to fight for the Left, and
to serve as raw meat for John Ringo to tear apart, and then write an
'After Action Report' about on his Web site."
He cracked up at this, looked at me, and said, "You've done your research!"
Sure enough, we had an hour of battling political views, sometimes
scarcely touching on SF! (Including an extended back-and-forth where
he demanded to know if I could say how long it takes the president to
get a FISA Court warrant for wiretapping, and I demanded he tell me
why the president simply didn't get Congress to change the law, then,
so our president wouldn't have to break the law in order to protect
us. Neither of us ever really answered the other's question,
obviously.)
The poor moderator did his best to keep us on track, but Ringo would
not be derailed, and I was determined to answer anything he said that
I felt needed an answer. That meant on a couple of occasions we were
actually shouting at each other. I even had two older men in the
front row basically demanding to know why I hated America! Yeah!!
Success!! :-) (I was demanding that they tell me why we had to be
criminals about our anti-terrorism efforts, and thus let the
terrorists win.)
I told folks afterward that I had merely attempted to "lurk in the
bushes and throw rocks" at Ringo, and I did the best I could. I had
several good laugh lines, and the liberals in the audience cheered my
points and retorts a few times. But I know if I'd had some actual
sleep beforehand, I could have done better. Honestly, I could barely
keep awake enough to follow his long analogies.
Ah, well. It was a great experience, and I grinned and winked at
Ringo a couple of times to let him know I did get that this was as
much "performance" as anything. Afterward we shook hands and chatted
a bit and it was all good.
Little did I realize then, we'd be together again on the "Religion in
SF" panel the next day! Aiieee!!
NEXT, IN PART TWO: MARVEL VS DC JEOPARDY, AND VAN VS RINGO, ROUND TWO!!
For those interested, read on for my annual report of the adventures I
enjoyed at this year's edition of Dragon*Con-- or, to borrow a phrase
from my new pal, John Ringo, my "After Action Report."
DragonCon is
my single most favoritest thing ever in the world to do-- my
"religious holiday," as I call it. And this year may have been my
favorite ever. I will have links to photos on my Web site sooner or
later. In the meantime, here's how this, my eleventh DragonCon,
played out.
First, you must understand that I have just moved to the St. Louis
area from Atlanta. So attending this year meant flying back to the
Big Peach. The only affordable plane ticket I could get required a 6
a.m. departure on Saturday morning. Good lord!! And the closer I got
to that date and time, the more I regretted going with that plan.
Never again!!! I did not sleep Friday night, and just headed to the
airport about 2 am.
The consequences of this sleep deprivation would be felt, very
heavily, on Saturday.
Even so, I think Saturday turned out to be one of my favorite days
ever at DragonCon.
SATURDAY:
After going through the purgatory that is Registration, I bopped
around a bit until my first panel, mainly looking for a place to take
a nap. But there's just no way to take a nap at DragonCon-- too loud,
too many half-naked women and Stormtroopers and aliens bumping your
sofa, jostling you, etc. So I arrived at 4 pm for my "Fahrenheit
1984: Politics in SF" panel, and discover that it would be military SF
writer John Ringo, me, and a moderator in the middle. I had been
half-jokingly saying we would have "SF Crossfire," but it turned out
that's precisely what it was!
The room was packed out and overflowing. I immediately announced that
"The cast of Serenity will not be appearing here," and got a laugh--
then it dawned on me that Ringo really draws crowds! Impressive.
I was determined to do my best to prevent Ringo from dominating
proceedings with his very militaristic, right-wing views (as he says
on his own Web site he likes to do). So when I introduced myself, I
said something to the effect of, "I'm here to fight for the Left, and
to serve as raw meat for John Ringo to tear apart, and then write an
'After Action Report' about on his Web site."
He cracked up at this, looked at me, and said, "You've done your research!"
Sure enough, we had an hour of battling political views, sometimes
scarcely touching on SF! (Including an extended back-and-forth where
he demanded to know if I could say how long it takes the president to
get a FISA Court warrant for wiretapping, and I demanded he tell me
why the president simply didn't get Congress to change the law, then,
so our president wouldn't have to break the law in order to protect
us. Neither of us ever really answered the other's question,
obviously.)
The poor moderator did his best to keep us on track, but Ringo would
not be derailed, and I was determined to answer anything he said that
I felt needed an answer. That meant on a couple of occasions we were
actually shouting at each other. I even had two older men in the
front row basically demanding to know why I hated America! Yeah!!
Success!! :-) (I was demanding that they tell me why we had to be
criminals about our anti-terrorism efforts, and thus let the
terrorists win.)
I told folks afterward that I had merely attempted to "lurk in the
bushes and throw rocks" at Ringo, and I did the best I could. I had
several good laugh lines, and the liberals in the audience cheered my
points and retorts a few times. But I know if I'd had some actual
sleep beforehand, I could have done better. Honestly, I could barely
keep awake enough to follow his long analogies.
Ah, well. It was a great experience, and I grinned and winked at
Ringo a couple of times to let him know I did get that this was as
much "performance" as anything. Afterward we shook hands and chatted
a bit and it was all good.
Little did I realize then, we'd be together again on the "Religion in
SF" panel the next day! Aiieee!!
NEXT, IN PART TWO: MARVEL VS DC JEOPARDY, AND VAN VS RINGO, ROUND TWO!!