Holy shit Batman. I've heard about the madness of Dragon Con for years and have wanted to go. Luck would have it I had a place to stay for free for the 5 day event. Luck would also have it that this meant I would be going to and from the downtown Atlanta hotels where it was being held fully dressed in my Storm Trooper costume via the MARTA subway system. Yes...yes I did.
Dragon Con is not for the faint of heart. In the blink of an eye you can be talking a 5 year old dressed in a Halloween Storm Trooper costume and immediately be surrounded by 2 girls dressed in nothing but lingerie, whipping each other against concrete pillars. This event creates a massive divide of moral and immoral with a split second between each. It's exciting, fun, action-packed, exhausting, scary, sexy, drunk, and nerdy all wrapped into one. In other words, it's what every piece of life should be made of.
Highlights of my Dragon Con adventure: I got to meet Jeremy Bullock (who played Boba Fett in the Star Wars original trilogy). I got to meet the founder of the 501st Legion, Albin Johnson. I got to scare the shit out of completely innocent subway passengers while in my costume. I played a musical instrument with The Beatles. I spent significant amounts of time with some people very close and important to my life. I learned a lot about those people close to me, too. I drove around in an SUV wearing a Storm Trooper helmet. I made my video premiere in a White & Nerdy youtube video (Rapping Storm Trooper). Made friends with some of the Con Vixens. Got really shit faced drunk. Stayed in my costume for over 17 hours.
Low points of my Dragon Con adventure: The most regretful was watching Daniel Logan (played the young Boba Fett in Episode II) wave at me frantically to have me hold the elevator but not realizing it was him until the door had shut. Not being able to do the downtown Atlanta march with the other 200+ 501st Legion members there (NEVER stay with 3 young women who are dependent on you for driving). Not planning out minute by minute what I wanted to do in order to fit everything that I wanted to enjoy into my schedule.
All in all, D-Con is the shit. I saw so many unique, funny, vivid, sexy, odd costumes in one sitting. Between my niece, Allison, and myself taking photos there are well over a thousand and I really wish I could post them all here. But I will spare your eyes and dignity and only post those that give you a fair vision of what D-Con 2008 was all about.
