Came back from Dragon*Con, and have taken a day or so to settle back in. Trips are always disruptive to my schedule and it takes me a little time to get back into the groove.
It was, in many respects, a typical Dragon*Con. I saw some folks, such as George Takei, hardly at all, and others I was running into no matter where I turned (I encountered Walter Koenig practically everywhere, including the men’s restroom.) The Walk of Fame where the stars autographed was the place to go if you wanted to sweat off pounds. I was in Artists Alley, next to Greg Horn, and did a very brisk business, moving pretty much all the books I’d brought to sell. So that was nice.
Interestingly, it took me two hours to get from New York to Atlanta, and another two hours to get from Atlanta Airport to my hotel room. To make matters more exciting, I was scheduled for a Trek panel at 2:30 PM Friday when my plane didn’t even land until 2:35.
For reasons surpassing any claim to sanity, I agreed to co-host “Iron Artist” again. I was teamed with James Leary (“Clem” from “Buffy”) who proved to be a talented improv guy, which is what you need when you’re trying to keep an audience entertained for close to an hour while you’re literally watching paint dry.
I only got to see one panel the entire weekend: A Buffy cast panel. Danny Strong (“Jonathan”) is an extremely funny guy. At one point James Marsters was asked if he was anything like “Spike,” and Marsters replied, “Yeah. Spike is the part of me that you get if you f*ck with me.” And then Strong piped up, “Same with me! When you f*ck with me, you get Jonathan!” This of course got a huge laugh, and Strong continued, “That’s right! You get a short, cranky Jew…oh. Wait. That’s actually me. Never mind.”
Greeted fans, greeted friends, spent time working on possible future projects with Bill Mumy. Kath hung out with old friends from Atlanta, Ariel sold her artwork, and everyone adored Caroline, newly into waving bye-bye and prompting one retailer to comment, “My God, that’s the cutest baby in the world.”
PAD
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Thanks for coming to D*C, PAD! You rock and are part of what make Dragon Con so Cool! Thanks for Autographs and the great humor!
Sincerely,
The Elevator Fan Girl,
Jen
Welcome back. We were about to send out a search party for you.
Yes, things were perfectly calm in your absence, why do you ask?
(whistling idly while replacing Peter’s bottle of good Scotch)
Wow…not often anyone can write a story involving both an adorable baby AND Koenig watering the daisies. THIS is why you’re my favorite novelist! =)
T’was good to see you again, Mr. David! (Oh, and for some reason, you next to Greg Horn was just right – I’ve never been a huge fan of the colored verion of Mr. Horn’s art, but I was so impressed with his sketch work that I forked over the cash for his sketchbook).
Peter,
I had a great time meeting you (again) at Dragon*con.
I’ve already listened to just about half of the “Sir Apropos” audio book I bought from you (thanks for pointing out that YOU did the reading on it — oh sure, I may have noticed it eventually, but that closed the deal form me)
Have you bought Carloline a “My Pet Monster” yet? hehe. . she really seemed to get a kick out of mine.
I expect to get pics back tomorrow. . if the one I took of you and her comes out, would you like me to email it to you here? (or do you already have enough pictures of the cutie?)
thanks,
bert
Sheesh, you were gone almost a week. I almost figured you might have decided to write something REALLY big, like the Encyclopedia of Brocoli or Scooby Doo meets Gilligan’s Island.
I attended the 61st WorldCon in Toronto at the same time.
Someone said D*C was in a feud with it, so they scheduled at the same time and took many of the guests… but D*C sounds more like a media convention than a literary one in theme. I suspect that SARS and the power blackout had more to do with guest changes.
Not that it matters to me. I still had a blast, getting autographs from legendary authors – and got to sign a copy of my 1995 RPG module as well!
:::riding the elevator down:::
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(from the crowded elevator – “What Floor are we on?”)
Green Lantern!
LOL! At least you were in good spirits when you did finally arrive at the hotel 🙂
…riding the elevator down…
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(From the crowded elevator – “What floor are we on?”)
From Mr. David — “Green Lantern!“
LOL – at least you were in a good mood when you finally did arrive at the hotel. 🙂
Thanks for being so generous to your fans and signing all the stuff you did. Did you ever get a total $$ amount that you raised for CBLDF from your table?
Merde! I didn’t think the first one posted! Sorry for the double post.
Speaking as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the behind-the-scenes scheming within fandom, my understanding was that D*C shifted to Labor Day weekend in 2001 for space reasons, that this was the only weekend (the slowest weekend for hotels) it could reserve as much space as it was taking up.
I had been under the impression that they planned on moving back to their previous date when construction on a particular Atlanta hotel was completed (which I had thought would be by 2004), but since the dates announced for 2004 are still Labor Day weekend, I must have been mistaken.
Personally, I preferred when Worldcon and D*C were on separate dates, as the former naturally draws away a lot of authors and publishers from the latter. At the least, the two cons won’t conflict in 2005, when Worldcon is a month earlier and in Scotland.
Re: Sir Apropos audio book
Did you read it with an accent?
Thanks for coming down, and for signing my Apropos novels.
And that one retailer is right: Caroline italicsisitalics the cutest baby in the world.
Michael, aka WriterBoy
Well, I’m bummed. I tried to see PAD and failed.
I don’t know how I kept missing you. I checked artist alley, no PAD. John Hudgens mentioned running into you, but I never saw you. I only really saw you signed up for the TrekTrak presents An Hour with Peter David which was late on Monday. Since we typically leave early on Monday and stuck around later then usual for the Buffy panel… we left immediately after that.
I’m bummed. My 5th DragonCon and the first time I haven’t gotten to see you speak. At least I got to see Mumy perform this year. That man has some great talent as a musician. I can’t wait to get his new album!
You must have been on the run most of the weekend (like everyone else there!). Everytime I looked for you, you were someplace else! My one brush with fame this year was standing in line behind Walter Koenig buying a soda Sunday morning. He had a look on his face that seemed to say “no one talk to me”. Either that or “why isn’t anyone talking to me?”. I didn’t take any chances, and just bought my soda.
My friend did get to see you…rushing thru the hotel carrying Caroline. And even he said that she is a cute baby! LOL
I would have to say that the presence of James Marsters made this an atypical Dragon Con for me and my wife. Peter has mentioned before about the rock star kind of reception James gets at cons. Dragon Con was no exception. The Monday Buffy panel was the first time we got to see him speak. In fact, it was the only Buffy panel we were able to attend. Even the panel with Iyari Limon and Danny Strong had a line wrapping all the way around the hotel floor where the Buffy track was located. The Dragon Con folks do a great job keeping potential chaos from breaking out, but they must realize just how much Buffy fandom is growing and give that track more space in years to come.
Thanks to a typical Dragon Con glitch, we did get a moment with James. According to the daily newsletter, the Daily Dragon, James would not be signing on Monday. However, we were delightfully surprised to find him signing away Monday morning and Monday afternoon following the panel. His line was only about 10-15 people deep, as opposed to the lines that wrapped outside of the building on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He seems like a really nice guy who is rather overwhelmed and a little uncomfortable with all the attention.
As always, thanks very much to Peter for being there and chatting with us. I’ll be trying to figure out who the rest of the Fallen Angel cast represents now that I’ve confirmed the Peter Lorre/Slate inspiration.
Oh, and Caroline is the cutest baby I’ve ever seen. And she’s a great panel speaker.
Matt Williams
I thought the Marriott’s remodeled look was very nice, although this meant that most of artist alley was cut off from the main room and many people missed it.
Due to a glitch, DC had no table for me in artist alley. They were quick to fix this and positioned me and two artist friends of mine at a table beside the up escalator and across from the restrooms, which is a prime location, let me tell you. We had a captive audience.
And, I agree, Caroline is a beautiful baby.
Bobby
Bobby Nash
Writer @ Large
Another Dragoncon over.
And yes Caroline is very very cute. It was fun to see Peter with her at the writing about comics panel (“ok, no one shout or laugh loud” said Peter once she fell asleep).
I was at the same Buffy panel as Peter (about four people ahead of Ariel in the asking as question line. I didn’t get to ask one either). My favorite line was also by Danny Strong. After all these questions directed at Marsters, someone said they had one for Strong to which he responded “I’ve known James Marsters for years and…..” Of course given what happened at the previous Marsters panel, it was interesting that there had to be a “no nudity” warning added to the audience rules.
I got to see Peter at several panels including the Trek one (which I originally though I would have to miss due to conflict, but the conflict got cancelled.). Peter read stuff from the New Frontier hardcover (Calhoun’s Kobiashi Maru test)among other things.
BTW, Peter, you’ll be happy to know that most people stayed for Chase’s panel.
So anyway, I got three novels and a ton of comics signed by Peter, as well as purchasing the Sir Apropos audio book and an original Ariel David drawing of James Marster’s cat.
David
Strong was also very funny at San Diego. During the Angel writers panel, he got in line for audience questions. When he got to the mike, he went something like “I have a question for Drew Goddard; how does it feel to be a murderder?” (namely of Jonathan). He ended up accusing Goddard of anti-semitism, someone asked Strong to stand up, etc. All very good natured.
Jeff, I realize I’m no replacement for Peter, but if you went to the Hugos or Masquerade you probably saw me, as I ended up having to make announcements from the podium just before both started, and direct the audience out after the Hugos. For those who haven’t heard, Conversations With Dead People won the Short Form Dramatic Presentation Hugo, and Jane Espenson was there to accept it. Had the chance to chat with her and her boyfriend (who I seriously envy; 5-time Jeopardy! champ who has a cute and funny Buffy writer for a girlfriend. I want his life.) and she was quite nice and delighted to win the award.
As long as Marsters has been mentioned, any chance of Bye-Bye Buffy’s script getting published somewhere, either on or offline?
And just as a total side note, the best line of Worldcon for me was the following by Neil Gaiman, where “you” = room full of people listening to him read and “him” = me;
“You should all get together and burn him as a witch.”
Thanks again for agreeing to attend DragonCon. I enjoyed your and “clem’s” hosting of Iron Artist (Banzai!!), but unfortunately that was the only panel I got to see you in. Because of your delayed flight, you couldn’t attent the “Nemesis: The Verdict” panel. One audience member in particular was upset because the panel seemed to him to be too positive towards the movie, and it was mentioned that the one person who could give negative commentary was unable to attend.
Was your monday afternoon Comix panel cancelled? I went to attend it, but I may have went to the wrong room.
Wish I could have made the panel with “Jonathan”; sounded like fun (and I hated it when they knocked off his character on ‘Buffy’).
Maybe next year you can attend with Harlan Ellison if they invite him (I love it when you two are on a panel together).
Was your monday afternoon Comix panel cancelled? I went to attend it, but I may have went to the wrong room.
Wish I could have made the panel with “Jonathan”; sounded like fun (and I hated it when they knocked off his character on ‘Buffy’).
Maybe next year you can attend with Harlan Ellison if they invite him (I love it when you two are on a panel together).
Wow… someone mentioned me in a reply and I have no idea who they are… 🙂
I must also agree on the cuteness of Caroline… she’s got a great smile and plays the “Hi there!” wave well… I even got to hold her at one point when talking with Peter… he got up to shift some stuff around at his table and the next ting I knew he was saying “here, hold this!” and I was holding a baby! 🙂
I’ve got some great pictures from the con of Peter heckling me from the stage during the Iron Artist panel when he asked for a calculator… so I ran up with my calculator watch! And then there’s pictures of Peter chasing down the woman who tried to tell a joke (Banzai!) and run during the same panel…
My understanding of the DragonCon date changes a few years ago is that it’s due to the size of the con… the only time they could get *all* the facilities they need on a guaranteed basis for years at a time was the Labor Day weekend… I believe it’s locked in for that through 2005… although I’ve heard some rumblings that they may be headed for the Georgia World Congress Center after that, because the fire marshals are freaking out over the number of people showing up… they had to move the Masquerade off-site this year for just that reason, and I know that my own panels on the B5 stuff and “Jedi Hunter” got warnings about the number of people trying to pack into the rooms….
John – Taln Hess = Rafe. I’m the geek with the gorgeous girlfriend who’s always coming up after your videos are shown and asking you about Lightwave and starting a production company and what’s your newest project, huh, huh? 🙂 (they stopped putting my online name on my DC badge years ago when I started pre-registering).
I’ve been shunned by my girlfriend for not mentioning how talented James Leary is, and how much we enjoyed meeting him. In the absence of PAD he was probably the comedic highlight to the weekend. He has great comedic timing and a sharp wit. Anyone who can handle a more… adult… sense of humor should check out his short film stuntc*cks. Anyone who can, should let TPTB know we wanna see Clem on Angel!!!
PAD, are we ever going to see you at the Mid-Ohio con. It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, so maybe it’s not the most convient time for travel, but it would be great to have you there some day.
The problem with me missing seeing PAD is definately more me than him (although it must be getting old rushing from one hotel to the other and back again). I had an arguement with a brown recluse spider a few months ago and my mobility isn’t that great. PAD just wasn’t where I was at any given time.
And if anyone really cares, I won the arguement with the spider, but he got a good bite in (on the side of my left foot, at the arch). You would think that something that’s caused so much pain would allow me to cling to walls or something…
Jeff, I realize I’m no replacement for Peter, but if you went to the Hugos or Masquerade you probably saw me, as I ended up having to make announcements from the podium just before both started, and direct the audience out after the Hugos.
I remember you on stage, even by name!
You would think that something that’s caused so much pain would allow me to cling to walls or something…
Jeff, it was only a plain ol’ brown recluse spider. You obviously need to hang out around science labs more. Either that, or start practicing genetic spider mutation in your spare time.
I met Walter Koenig at the Chicago WizardWorld show and I was surprized to learn that only one other person had mentioned to him that his son starred as the Joker in the “Batman: Dead End” fan film that was screened in San Diego and is circulating on the ‘Net.
Of course, I talked to him Friday morning, as the show was only beginning. Still, I thought he would have already been made aware by others before the show, including his son, himself.
I hope that Mr. Koenig had a chance to see the film by now. He asked me where he could view it, and I gave him a couple of websites, like “digitalwebbing.com” to go check it out.
He seemed like a very nice man.
I also would like to meet PAD’s pal, Bill Mumy someday. I’m a fan of his acting work, but, more importantly, I am a big “Barnes & Barnes” fan! 🙂
Matt Hawes
Comics Unlimited
654-B E. Diamond Ave.
Evansville, IN.
I hope that Mr. Koenig had a chance to see the film by now. He asked me where he could view it, and I gave him a couple of websites, like “digitalwebbing.com” to go check it out.
David,
Thanks for the info! I’m glad he finally got to see the film!
Matt Hawes
Comics Unlimited
Evansville, IN.
I saw Mr. D only once, at a comic book writers’ panel. He was witty, sharp and interesting as always, but I missed seeing any of his solo panels, where he really shines.
As a matter of record, I did see Bill Mumy in his late-night concert. He has a fine command of guitar, and his own music is much more sentimental and 80’s-soft-rock than I would have expected.
The number I walked in on was a kind of dirge sung by Will Robinson – as much about how playing the character affected him and his life, as what Will Robinson went through. It was very thoughtful and sad. And, some “con kids” who were there only for the party atmosphere yelled out, “Whooo, Willy!” at the end of the song. They scurried out of sight before I could beat them into hamburger.
(Hint: ever since I saw his work on “Babylon 5” I punch anyone who calls him by the diminuitive name “Billy.” Calling him his TV character makes me even more angry.)
And he only sung one Barnes & Barnes song, as his encore: “Fish Heads.” Most of the people who sang the chorus, off-key, didn’t know the lyrics of the rest of the song, and therefore weren’t dedicated fans. Sigh…
It was lovely seeing you and your family at various points over the weekend. (I was the one taking care of Max for the weekend for JCB.) Caroline is quite the cutie, and I was tickled by your older daughter, as I also have a daughter named Ariel who loves dragons.
May I also mention that I love the fact you use GreyMatter. Noah is very possibly the nicest person on earth, in addition to being mindbogglingly talented. 🙂
(Hint: ever since I saw his work on “Babylon 5” I punch anyone who calls him by the diminuitive name “Billy.” Calling him his TV character makes me even more angry.
And he only sung one Barnes & Barnes song, as his encore: “Fish Heads.” Most of the people who sang the chorus, off-key, didn’t know the lyrics of the rest of the song, and therefore weren’t dedicated fans. Sigh.
My my my, Thomas. . aren’t WE the judgemental one.
Funny about how quickly you are to defend Billy Mumy’s good name. . when I have heard him refer to himself that way several times during this and prior Dragon*cons.
He also didn’t seem too upset that the Chyron to the left of the stage had him listed as “Bill Mummy” for most of his performance.
(I do believe that he might be a bit less concerend by the pronounciation/spelling of his name than you might be).
As far as that Barnes and Barnes song. . well. . he only ASKED that folks sing along with the encore (as it’s a song he doesn’t usually do). . and by your statement :
his own music is much more sentimental and 80’s-soft-rock than I would have expected
I guess I’ll have to assume that you are not a “dedicated fan”. . since you seem to have been surprised that the songe he played (off of his FOUR solo CDs were of the soft-rock genre).
Bottom line: The performance was excellent. .and everyone there enjoyed it, regardless of whether or not they had ever heard him perform, or were just there because he’s that little kid who always got in trouble w/ Dr. Smith.
Don’t be a hata. . . so what if they didn’t know the songs. . they still were there to see him.
A bit off the Dragon*Con topic, but since I didn’t get to either that one OR Worldcon, I figure I can at least go afield here. 🙂
Tom, gotta ask: exactly why was Neil Gaiman suggesting everyone get together and burn you as a witch?
Apart from all the obvious reasons, that is…
TWL
A message to Bert, who said…
“Funny about how quickly you are to defend Billy Mumy’s good name. . when I have heard him refer to himself that way several times during this and prior Dragon*cons.”
A guy can call himself anything he wants. But given the impressive work he has done as an adult actor, I can’t call him “Billy.” To me, it sounds like he’s still that ten year old kid appearing with the adults on those 60’s TV shows. Nobody called Sinatra “Frankie” in his mature years, did they? (People who still retained posession of their thumbs, that is.)
And as for your statement that…
“I guess I’ll have to assume that you are not a “dedicated fan”. . since you seem to have been surprised that the songe he played (off of his FOUR solo CDs were of the soft-rock genre).”
I have never bought his solo CD’s. I don’t buy “serious” rock music, since its emotions always ring hollow and false to me. But I have bought several Barnes & Barnes songs, co-written by Mumy, and they were a lot more hard-rocking or experimental in their arrangements than the stuff I saw Mumy do on stage. (I would have preferred him to do an instrumental version of his B&B song “Half” from the “Loozanteen” album – probably spelled wrong. It’s a rockin’ little ditty about the resolution of a California divorce.)
As far as being a “hata,” I think it funny that the people that enthusiastically cheered him into doing the song (arguably his biggest hit) didn’t know half the lyrics. I mean, I won’t sing along to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” without a lyric sheet, ’cause I don’t want to look stupid. It’s like people who mouth half of the National Anthem – “Oh, say can you see…duhh-duuh firelight’s last duuuhh…”
I have not been able to attend the last two Dragoncons and missing you was my biggest regret. I always hit all your readings. You are a delightful reader. And the one you did with John de Lancie a few years back remains one of my favorite Dragoncon memories. (And the time you serenaded us with songs from your musical comedy roles – priceless!) I am actually hoping to go to Worldcon in Boston for the first time next year (first time for both Worldcon and Boston) and so will not make DC then either. So if you would please do a few more con appearances in the southeast (Florida would be good) I would appreciate it. Plus, I haven’t seen the new baby!
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