Joisey Adventures Presents Dragon*Con 2011 -- Day One

Humid day....no sleep...330am in a car on my way to LaGuardia Airport on Thursday September 1st...where am I going?

DRAGON*CON!

What exactly is Dragon*Con you ask? It is only the second largest sci fi/comic convention in the United States. Over 45,000 people converge onto Atlanta, Georgia during Labor Day weekend to stalk celebrities, dress up in costume, go shopping, and all in all have fun!

My convention started on Friday at 10am where I went to a panel entitled "Coming Soon: Young Adult Books to Get." It was an hour long panel that discussed 60 books in which everyone needs to get. From vampires to zombies to ghosts to fantasy to paranormal to dystopian novels..it was on there. I have the list and put an asterisk next to the ones I want to get.

After this panel, I made my way downstairs to the Photo Op area to buy my tickets for the following people: Christopher Lloyd, Eliza Dushku, Michael Rosenbaum, and Wil Wheaton. That was a cluster in of itself. I must have waited on the line for close to two hours to get the tickets. The first person I got was Michael Rosenbaum. If you have never met him before or listen to him speak at a panel, you MUST. He is a riot. So versatile of an actor. He remembered me from Cleveland, Ohio and told me to "get over here" complete with the Scorpion from Mortal Kombat motion. I could not talk to him for a long time due to the photographer being a dick but that is okay.


Next up in the photo op opportunity was Christopher Lloyd who was eating every time I saw him. Eating during the photo op, eating at his autograph table, eating walking to his table...the guy does not stop eating! He was still super nice though. I asked him what his next project was and he told me he did not know. That is cool though.


After those two photo ops, I made my way back upstairs to attend the V: Bonds Broken panel. This panel starred Joel Gresch (Father Jack) and Laura Vandervoort (Lisa) who is even more beautiful in person. They had a great chemistry together; always laughing and giggling. Both of them are generally upset that ABC did not give them a series finale or a mini-series to bring closure to the show but are fighting with the network to allow it or to find another network that would produce it. Below you will find my video of clips from this panel.


After this panel was over I booked it right back upstairs to the Walk of Fame. Now the Walk of Fame is where all of the celebrities are. You can get autographs here as well as pictures with as long as the star allows it. Now the first person I wanted to get was Wil Wheaton but his line was too long so I went to the other people I wanted first.

First person I met was Beau Bridges. Such a great guy. He stuck his hand out and went "Hi, I'm Beau." with such enthusiasm; it was a pleasant sight. I told him the story of when my mom worked with his father Lloyd at Reeves Broadcasting Company and he was so shocked to hear that and told me to tell my mom he said hello. I took a photo with him as you can see below and was on my way.



I went on to see Robert Englund. Yes Freddy Krueger but for myself it was all about WILLIE THE GOOD ALIEN from the original V. He only had one photo of from V available and I asked him if he saw the remake and what he thought of it. He told me that he did see it and was waiting for the phone call to make an appearance but that it did not happen. He also said that the downfall of the show was too much dialogue and for a show to stick for an American audience there has to be some sort of action to it. Furthermore he mentioned his next projects which involve a stripper horror movie. Another nice guy.

Now the time has come....to wait for....WIL WHEATON. In terms of the convention he was the person I wanted to meet the most. I mean, first schoolgirl crush here! After waiting on the line for close to 30 minutes I finally got up to him. I told him how he was my first crush and that made him turn beet red and as always I asked what is on his agenda since the unforunate cancelling of Eureka. He sighed and said he was still upset by the cancellation but said he will be writing for the majority of the year and whichever gets published first is his goal. I also asked him if he would ever be on Big Bang Theory again and he said in a heartbeat. This is where the disappointment comes in...I go to shake his hand and he goes "No I do not shake hands..I elbow bump." Okay..what is up with Star Trek people, with the exception of George Takei, being germaphobes? Brent Spiner did the same thing to me last year. Well they always say your first crush is a disappointment in itself..I mean look how far away he stood in the picture below. I am lucky to find out that it was not just me though. I work with kids; I know about germs. As long as you take care of yourself, you are golden.


After that, I went to see Eliza Dushku who is not a bitch like some people said she was. We had a very interesting tit for tat war about standing on the left hand side for our picture together. She is so tiny! At least she was not a germaphobe. Hehe.


At this point, I was getting tired but I wanted to check out the NeedCoffee.com Fun Fest which was a night of games and prizes. I, along with David, played Dysfunctional Family Feud. We were on the losing team though BUT there are no losers in Dysfunctional Family Feud so we all won a USS Enterprise shaped pizza cutter from ThinkGeek.com. It is so cute and I know I will not use it for anything. After this it was time to go back to the hotel for some needed sleep.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my surprise to my friend Fran from Misha Collins and my video from the Smallville panel as well as my conquering of William Shatner!