Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Star Wars in Concert 2009
I had the opportunity to help the GA 501st last night doing meet and greets with some of the costume characters before the Star Wars in Concert event at Gwinnett Arena.
We arrived before 5p and were directed to a large, secure area on the backside of the area with a large window running the entire length of the area. This was our changing area.
Once everyone was dressed, we headed out to meet the crowd, little did we know. The characters were split into several smaller groups and each group was assigned a handler. I was handling Emperor Palpatine and his two Royal Guards. I knew they were popular characters but it was a constant mob scene. Here is a picture I tried to take of the crowd...
Everyone loves the Emperor....
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Many showed the proper respect...
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But, as always, the children were the cutest in their Star Wars costumes...
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All the characters left the meet and greets around 7:10pm to much disappoint to the crowds but they had to get changed for the concert. It was twenty minutes of mass chaos but we managed to make it to our FREE seats before it all got started.
All I can say was it was an amazing experience. The music was perfect. While you were watching the crystal clear movie clips overhead, you would forget that the music was being played live.
Here is a video clip I was able to get (in black & white)...
Once the concert was over, several of the characters suited up and went out to mingle with the crowds one last time. At the end of the night, everyone was exhausted but all agreed it was something none of them would have wanted to miss.
I hoping to post a slideshow of the displays that I hurriedly photographed tommorrow. Wish me luck.
In the mean time, here is a link to the photo's Jimmy Burns (XO and photographer extrordinaire) took last night.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Dragon*Con 2009 - Day 3
I didn’t have a choice but to get up at a decent hour on Saturday morning. No matter how much my body protested. The highly anticipated D*C parade is always on Saturday morning. The crew was supposed to meet at the Marriott fountain at 9-9:15’ish. The parade lineup was at 9:30am about 4.5 blocks away at Woodruff Park. With lots of help from me dependable bo’sun, we dressed Kyle, Bob and Deneen and prepped all the Bunny Bead bags. Jesse even had time to help Darrell into his RC costume. We finally arrived downstairs around 9:30am and headed to lineup.
The Black Bunny Crew this year consisted of Kindra, Bob, Deneen, Jesse, Josh, Kristin, Kyle, Will, Cricket and Steve (not pictured).
The parade was amazing as always despite a grumpy parade director. Although we had tons of beads it seems like we gave out early this year. I was holding my last bundle of Bunny Beads before we ever reached the Hyatt. I had promised Gracie beads and I wasn’t going to be caught empty handed.
After the parade, Darrell and I headed back to the room for a nice long, cool rest and a much needed shower. After a refreshing break, Jesse and I decided to head to the food court for some lunch/dinner while Darrell took a short nap. The food court was beyond crowded so we walked down to the Metro Diner. The wait wasn’t too long. After 10 minutes, we were given a table in the bar area. The Metro has a large variety of good food but the service was slow. Between D*C and the football game in the Dome, the Metro was having a hard time keeping up with the demand. As a matter of fact, the service was so slow that after we received our drinks, we had our server deliver our order in to go boxes. Our next goal was to maneuver through Peachtree Center and back to the Marriott. This was more difficult than normal. Saturday is the single, highest attended day of D*C. Combine that with all the ‘sightseers’ from the parade wondering through the hotels just to see what they can see and it becomes a zoo very quickly. We finally made it back to the room and had our meal. Now it was time to get Deneen ready for the photo shoot. It would be the first unveiling of her Imperial Officer costume. I was nervous. It was such a fitted garment and she had not tried on the final piece until this afternoon. I held my breath…. and it fit like a glove! Relief! During the middle of all this chaos, the beautiful Julie and her husband Steph came by to visit. Julie actually took one of the first photos of Deneen.
Once Deneen was ready we headed down to the 501st Mixer bar about ½ block down from the Marriott. Frank, the owner, was kind enough to let us take photos of Deneen with some willing Stormtroopers (thanks to Mike, Hal and Jesse) while they were setting up for the Mixer. There were pictures snapped and not just by Darrell. Here are some of the raw photos…
After the photo shoot, Deneen, Bob, Jesse and I walked back up to the Marriott. Jesse wanted to get out of his armor and Bob wanted to get back into the Emperor costume. When everyone was ready, we walked back down to the bar. When we arrived the Mixer was in full swing and we had a great opportunity to show off both costumes for a few minutes.
After an hour, Bob, Deneen and I headed back to the Marriot to meet up with Mystique (Sarah), the Baroness (Nikki), a Pirate Wench (Amanda), Selene (Jamie), an Elf Warrior (Cricket), Cobra Kai (William) and several handlers. Many pictures were made as everyone walked around the Marriott.
Soon we were joined by Kristin and two Royal Guards (Josh & Kyle). Since I was starting to feel a sore throat coming on, I asked if Kristin would mind handling the Emperor and Royal Guards and headed back to the room.
I took my, now traditional, over the balcony shot, chugged some Airborne, climbed in bed and waited for Darrell to get back from the Mixer.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Dragon*Con 2009 - Day 2
I actually awoke at a decent hour Friday morning. After getting ready, I walked down to Jesse’s room. He and Bob were watching DCTV and combing over the Dragon schedule. I asked if anyone wanted to walk to the Sheraton with me but had no takers. I headed out by myself. As I walked through the Marriott Lobby I noticed a line outside the Atrium Ballroom. I wondered what event had people lined up at 9am? I asked and soon discovered it was the OVERFLOW from the Shatner/Nimoy Panel that was scheduled at 10am in the Hyatt. The actual Panel room was filled to capacity by 8:30am.
I continued on to the Sheraton. I needed to pick up the Black Bunny Crew parade ribbons. We had gotten our memberships so late the night before that the parade table had already closed. On the way over, I walked by the Metro Diner. Even they know about D*C's reputation.
With Parade ribbons in hand, I walked back to Peachtree Center to pick up some breakfast for me and my still sleeping husband. I had to do a double take as I walked by one of the displays in a trendy boutique. At least they were trying to get into the spirit of things….
Back at the room, Darrell and I watched the Shatner/Nimoy Panel on DCTV. It was much funnier than I expected. I learned that Leonard Nimoy lived in Atlanta for 1 ½ years, when he was stationed at Ft. McPherson. His daughter was actually born at Ft. McPherson. Who knew?
I spent the afternoon catching up on some last minute costuming chores. Luckily the beautiful Kindra came and kept me company for awhile. In the mean time, Darrell was walking around the con taking some pictures.
It didn’t take long for Bob to get the itch to play Emperor again, so Jesse and Darrell got him ready and took him down to the Marriott Lobby.
By this time, it was late in the afternoon and I needed to prepare for Pirate Tea. Pirate Tea is when we all gather and figure out the plans for the parade on Saturday morning, like who needs costuming, meeting time, meeting place, pictures, parade ribbons, beads, flag, etc. It is short and sweet – sort of like Happy Hour. During Pirate Tea, we had a visit from Harris and the ever lovely Erin the Esurance girl (aka Donna). She and some friends were walking around as Erin Esurance, the Geico Caveman and Flo from Progressive Insurance. I wish I could have seen them all together.
This year was a bit different. This year Pirate Tea not only served as the parade planning meeting but it kicked off the 1st Annual Poor Man’s Pub Crawl. It is a simple concept, really the same as a traditional pub crawl only you go room to room instead of pub to pub. Each room has to provide one drink to each person participating in the pub crawl. There was a great response when I sent out the concept email and we ended up with seven rooms participating and about 25 people. That averages to just over 3 1/2 people per room – actually a low number for a D*C. Along the way, we lost some people and gained others. Here we are at the beginning of the crawl and no the child did not accompany us on the pub crawl. He was safely tucked away in bed in his own room with daddy.
From my room, it was off to Josh, Kristin and Kyle’s room. There we were met with plastic fedoras, plastic martini glasses full of a sweet concoction and Frank Sinatra playing. You have to love props; especially ones that you get to keep. I wore my hat all night long.
Our next stop was at Jesse’s room. He was serving Melon Balls to drink. The theme was a mix of ‘Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay’ and ‘Tropic Thunder’. Think “Rock with your cock out and Jam with your clam out” with Ludacris playing in the background. You just thought Jesse was so innocent. We tried to get him to do the Les Grossman dance but to no avail. Maybe next year.
The next room brought us all back to the 70’s. Deneen, K, Nikki and David dressed the room and themselves. You had to love this room. Strands of peace-signs hanging over the door, giant window clings, disco music and David in a flammable, white, Saturday Night Fever, disco suit – PRICELESS!
Bob was supposed to host the next stop at his room in the Hyatt. Instead, we were redirected back down to Jesse’s for Hurricanes. There will be more on this turn of events later. Much, much more….
After Hurricanes, Darrell joined the walk. He had been getting into his ‘Fleam’ costume. We journeyed to the 16th floor of the Hyatt Atrium. The Hyatt has been remodeled and the rooms look great but I absolutely hate that atrium elevator. While waiting (and waiting), Fleam posed with a couple of friends…
At this point, the group began to dissolve away. Jesse, Josh, Kristin and Kyle headed over to the ‘Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long Blog’ and for some reason Bob exited the elevator on the 9th floor and was never seen again that evening.
There was a large variety of drinks in the 16th floor room in the Hyatt Atrium. I would use the actual room number but I can’t remember those details. One of my favorite pictures from the night was taken on this stop. I don’t know why, I just love this picture of Cricket. I think it's the fairy wings.
The last room was in the International Tower of the Hyatt. That is where Beau made me ‘Chocolate Cake Batter’ shots. Now, I had never experienced these delights. He handed me a shot that was a pale yellow color and a lemon wedge covered in sugar. I was instructed to suck all the juice out of the lemon, discard the wedge and drink the shot with the lemon juice. I did and it tasted just like chocolate cake batter!!! It was incredible. I still don’t know how all those liquors and flavors produced that taste but they did and it was good. Not many people made it to the last room. It really was a shame because they had some of the best drinks.
I am proud to say that I was one of only three that made it through the entire crawl. The other two were Kindra and Paul. I think we deserve an award. Speaking of awards, we (that would be the ‘Royal We’) have decided to give an award out for Best Drink, Best Theme and Honorable Mention. It was a tough decision.
The Honorable Mention room is actually Honorable Mention because their theme AND drink was EXCELLENT (ask Bob), that would be Josh, Kyle and Krisitin’s room. I mean who could resist plastic fedora’s that you can write on AND plastic martini glasses! If I had been a good organizer, I would have gotten all the theme names and drinks but I didn’t. If ya’ll will email them to me, I’ll post it.
The Best Theme goes to Deneen, K, Nikki and David’s room. Giant window clings, wigs, costumes, props and David in the flammable ‘John Travolta’ suit from Saturday Night Fever.
The Best Drink goes to Sarah & Beau’s room. All I have to say is “Chocolate Cake Batter’ shots.
Now I will digress to pub crawl stop #5. This was the one Bob was responsible for hosting. Here is a quick story on how that all went down…
See, we didn’t have time to plan the drinking route before the pub crawl. Some people were not checking into their rooms until Friday evening. Therefore, at each stop, I would ask someone if they were ready to be next. If so, I would announce the next room number and the approximate arrival time – so they had time to prepare. Well, Deneen, Nikki, K and David’s room was the last room in the Marriott. The remaining three rooms were in the Hyatt. I asked Bob, “Do you want to be the first room in the Hyatt?” – no response. I asked again - no response. At this point I told him I would announce his room next, “What time?” – no response. “Bob tell me a time or I’ll make one up” – he said, “OK”. So, I announced the hotel, room number and arrival time. It was then that, Jesse informed me Bob’s pub crawl drink was back down in his room at the Marriott. So I ask Bob “Are you going to take the cooler to your room at the Hyatt?” – no response. I ask Bob, “Can you function alone?” He shakes his head ‘No’. I told him to get a buddy. He points to Jesse and says “He’s my buddy.” At that point, Jesse and I took over. I announced that the next room would be back at Jesse’s in the Marriott and then we would head over to the two rooms in the Hyatt. I went to my room to scavenge cups while Jesse headed to his room to straighten from the previous stop and prep Bob’s drink for the evening. Slowly everyone began to show up and I must note that the host himself was last to arrive.
And it is because of this that Mr. Ollis doesn’t receive an award but will be the namesake of the award given out each year to the most disorganized, confused, drunk, silliest, etc. whatever trait or behavior truly captures that feeling from the 1st Pub Crawl. They will receive the “Ollis” Award. Bob, you should be so proud.
The Crawl was over and I still had one more chore to do. I had about 100 Black Bunny beads that needed to be stickered. Darrell headed out to the Marriott Lobby and I headed back to the room. Again, the lovely Kindra came to my rescue. With her help, we were done in about an hour. We talked awhile and she decided to leave before I completely konked out on her. I was tired. I don’t know how she does it. She is awake when I go to bed and awake when I get up in the morning and to top it all off – she’s 13 weeks pregnant. Go figure. I think she is part Super Woman. Just before I headed off to bed, I stepped outside the room and took my over the balcony shot.
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