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Someday I might actually get convention reports done within a, I don't know, month of the con happening, but for now, they'll continue to be stupidly delayed. Anyways, here is not too much of me babbling, but lots of pictures from Philadelphia Comic Con (of whatever its actually called) from mid-last month.
Saturday
I'd gotten the weekend membership, despite knowing that I wouldn't be able to attend on Friday, and being unsure of my work schedule on Saturday. I got lucky, and my boss let me switch my work days, which meant I could head into the city on both Saturday and Sunday. I must say, it is an incredibly odd feeling, being able to stay at home while going to a convention. I'm not sure it had ever happened before. But since I only live a twenty-five minute train ride away, it almost felt too simple.
Anyways, Mandy had gotten to my house the night before, after some lovely train excitement (don't ask, long story), and we headed down to the Convention Center relatively early. Although we picked up our tickets pretty quickly, the line to get into the convention itself was already incredibly long. And the staff was pretty incompetent when it came to organising the line. After waiting for a bit, they shifted part of the line forward to create more space, and then decided to just keep adding to the first line, which got to enter first. Which meant that those of us who had been waiting patiently, had to keep waiting for the people who'd gotten there later, got to go in first. Yeah, that's what I thought too.
But we did eventually get in, and it was absolutely crazy! Despite having gone to New York Comic Con last year, I still wasn't prepared for the sheer size of everything. The crowd was enormous, since Saturday is always the busiest day of a convention, and the dealer's room was just massive. We did a lot of wandering around looking at all the goodies that people had for sale, before realising there was a distinct lack of Doctor Who stuff. Which I thought meant I would spend less money. Yeah, nope. I made the mistake of wandering through artist's alley while waiting for the Doctor Who Philadelphia group to show up at our meeting point, and picked up a whole bunch of gorgeous pieces of art.
One of the really cool things in the dealer's room was a Delorean that lights up and makes noise, and does all sorts of very realistic looking and sounding things. There will be more on the Delorean later, but for now, here's a picture.
Delorean
The only panel I really wanted to go to on Saturday was James Marsters. So we got in line, yep another really long line, and waited. While there, I managed to find one of the guys from the group I had been waiting for (he'd gotten stuck in the picking up the ticket line), so we said we'd catch up after the panel was over. And the panel was a lot of fun! I've never gotten to see him in person before, so all the stories that people might have already heard were new to me. Which is a nice change, since I tend to see the same people multiple times. And rather than repeat what he said, I'll just give you a lot of pictures.
James Marsters
Following the panel, we caught back up with the Doctor Who group, and did some more wandering through the dealer's room. I had sort of decided that I wanted a photo op with James at that point, but I wasn't sure I was ready to spend the money on it. Plus there was the fact that I also wanted one with Patrick Stewart, but it was so damn expensive, I didn't think I could justify the cost of both. So Mandy and I went to find out if the price was the same if two people were in the picture, and figured if it was, we could split the cost. And success! The only problem, they only took cash, and neither of us had enough on us. So we figured, we'd wait until the next day, and hope that the scheduling worked out, since James' picture was very shortly before Patrick Stewart's panel, the only other panel I wanted to go to.
After a bit more wandering, we decided to go to the masquerade for a bit. But since we were all the way in the back, the costumes were hard to see, and after a short while, we gave up and went to get dinner instead.
Since we were only a few blocks from Chinatown, we stopped into a little Japanese restaurant for food. Because of the size of our group (I think there were seven or eight of us), we got a little room all to ourselves, where we wouldn't bother anyone else in the restaurant. The food was good, the company was fun, I got to have a good time with a group of people that I don't get to see very often. (Hint to the Philadelphia Doctor Who group: have meet ups on a day other than Saturday please!) After dinner the rest of the group decided to head to the convention's evening party, but Mandy and I headed back to my house to watch the new Doctor Who episode.
Very cool costumes I saw over the weekend
Sunday
We left my house a little later on Sunday, since we didn't need to wait in line to pick up our registration this time. The night before we had decided that splitting the price of the photo ops would work for both of us, so once we got into the convention, we went over to the table to pick up the tickets. There we were told that the printer had broken, and the pictures wouldn't be ready and would be mailed to us instead. I know there were some people who were annoyed by that, but I figured, it happens, no big deal. It would be something to look forward to in the mail.
After doing some more wandering, and buying more stuff in artist's alley (including a truly gorgeous Iron Man picture), we headed for the photo op line. I wanted to be early in the line for James Marsters so that we could get into the line for Patrick Stewart's panel as early as possible. So we waited for a bit, got through the picture and headed down to the line for the panel. By the way, my first reaction to James, other than "Holy shit, he's hot," was "he's so soft!" Yep. Anyway. The line for the panel was already pretty long, and we kinda new we were going to end up way in the back. But, while we were trying to figure out where the back of the line actually was, I ran into a friend of someone in the Doctor Who group, who'd I'd met at Gally in February, and we stopped to talk, and ended up just staying in line with him. As a joke, we decided if anyone asked, I was his wife, and he'd been saving the space for us. No one bothered us and we ended up with pretty decent seats. Not great, but still good.
Once again, rather than recapping everything that was said during the panel, I'm just going to post lots of pictures, although not nearly as many as I took during the hour. In explanation, because of the England vs United States World Cup game, Patrick Stewart had been wearing an England shirt the day before. He took it off part way through (okay everyone, minds out of the gutters, he had a white t-shirt on underneath), and told us he'd be donating it to the auction after the panel. I don't know what it ultimately went for, so if anyone knows, please tell me! Explanation number two, once the floor had been opened for questions, Brent Spiner showed up in the line. I do have video, which I will upload eventually, but for the meantime, there's a picture in the middle of him starting to ask his question.
Patrick Stewart
(Brent Spiner showing up during the panel)
After the panel, we went back to wandering through the dealer's room, where there was a very cool Batmobile. There were lots of people around it, so only one picture. I also managed to get a handful of pictures of Patrick Stewart signing autographs.
Batmobile
Patrick Stewart at autograph table
Back to the Delorean for Saturday. One of the really cool things was that you could sit in the Delorean for a donation, and get a picture of yourself in it for a slightly larger one. All the money went to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, so it was for a good cause anyway. And I really wanted a chance to sit in a Delorean! So I donated my $20, and played with all the buttons and knobs and switches for quite a while. Mandy was awesome, and took pictures for me, so that I'd have ones other than the very cool professional one that was taken. I also got a blinking flux capacitor, that five days to stop blinking! No on/off switch, so I just had to wait it out.
In the Delorean
And so we come to the end of the convention. About a week afterwards, I got the photo op pictures in the mail, so I'll leave this report to finish with those.
Photo Op Pictures
Saturday
I'd gotten the weekend membership, despite knowing that I wouldn't be able to attend on Friday, and being unsure of my work schedule on Saturday. I got lucky, and my boss let me switch my work days, which meant I could head into the city on both Saturday and Sunday. I must say, it is an incredibly odd feeling, being able to stay at home while going to a convention. I'm not sure it had ever happened before. But since I only live a twenty-five minute train ride away, it almost felt too simple.
Anyways, Mandy had gotten to my house the night before, after some lovely train excitement (don't ask, long story), and we headed down to the Convention Center relatively early. Although we picked up our tickets pretty quickly, the line to get into the convention itself was already incredibly long. And the staff was pretty incompetent when it came to organising the line. After waiting for a bit, they shifted part of the line forward to create more space, and then decided to just keep adding to the first line, which got to enter first. Which meant that those of us who had been waiting patiently, had to keep waiting for the people who'd gotten there later, got to go in first. Yeah, that's what I thought too.
But we did eventually get in, and it was absolutely crazy! Despite having gone to New York Comic Con last year, I still wasn't prepared for the sheer size of everything. The crowd was enormous, since Saturday is always the busiest day of a convention, and the dealer's room was just massive. We did a lot of wandering around looking at all the goodies that people had for sale, before realising there was a distinct lack of Doctor Who stuff. Which I thought meant I would spend less money. Yeah, nope. I made the mistake of wandering through artist's alley while waiting for the Doctor Who Philadelphia group to show up at our meeting point, and picked up a whole bunch of gorgeous pieces of art.
One of the really cool things in the dealer's room was a Delorean that lights up and makes noise, and does all sorts of very realistic looking and sounding things. There will be more on the Delorean later, but for now, here's a picture.
Delorean
The only panel I really wanted to go to on Saturday was James Marsters. So we got in line, yep another really long line, and waited. While there, I managed to find one of the guys from the group I had been waiting for (he'd gotten stuck in the picking up the ticket line), so we said we'd catch up after the panel was over. And the panel was a lot of fun! I've never gotten to see him in person before, so all the stories that people might have already heard were new to me. Which is a nice change, since I tend to see the same people multiple times. And rather than repeat what he said, I'll just give you a lot of pictures.
James Marsters
Following the panel, we caught back up with the Doctor Who group, and did some more wandering through the dealer's room. I had sort of decided that I wanted a photo op with James at that point, but I wasn't sure I was ready to spend the money on it. Plus there was the fact that I also wanted one with Patrick Stewart, but it was so damn expensive, I didn't think I could justify the cost of both. So Mandy and I went to find out if the price was the same if two people were in the picture, and figured if it was, we could split the cost. And success! The only problem, they only took cash, and neither of us had enough on us. So we figured, we'd wait until the next day, and hope that the scheduling worked out, since James' picture was very shortly before Patrick Stewart's panel, the only other panel I wanted to go to.
After a bit more wandering, we decided to go to the masquerade for a bit. But since we were all the way in the back, the costumes were hard to see, and after a short while, we gave up and went to get dinner instead.
Since we were only a few blocks from Chinatown, we stopped into a little Japanese restaurant for food. Because of the size of our group (I think there were seven or eight of us), we got a little room all to ourselves, where we wouldn't bother anyone else in the restaurant. The food was good, the company was fun, I got to have a good time with a group of people that I don't get to see very often. (Hint to the Philadelphia Doctor Who group: have meet ups on a day other than Saturday please!) After dinner the rest of the group decided to head to the convention's evening party, but Mandy and I headed back to my house to watch the new Doctor Who episode.
Very cool costumes I saw over the weekend
Sunday
We left my house a little later on Sunday, since we didn't need to wait in line to pick up our registration this time. The night before we had decided that splitting the price of the photo ops would work for both of us, so once we got into the convention, we went over to the table to pick up the tickets. There we were told that the printer had broken, and the pictures wouldn't be ready and would be mailed to us instead. I know there were some people who were annoyed by that, but I figured, it happens, no big deal. It would be something to look forward to in the mail.
After doing some more wandering, and buying more stuff in artist's alley (including a truly gorgeous Iron Man picture), we headed for the photo op line. I wanted to be early in the line for James Marsters so that we could get into the line for Patrick Stewart's panel as early as possible. So we waited for a bit, got through the picture and headed down to the line for the panel. By the way, my first reaction to James, other than "Holy shit, he's hot," was "he's so soft!" Yep. Anyway. The line for the panel was already pretty long, and we kinda new we were going to end up way in the back. But, while we were trying to figure out where the back of the line actually was, I ran into a friend of someone in the Doctor Who group, who'd I'd met at Gally in February, and we stopped to talk, and ended up just staying in line with him. As a joke, we decided if anyone asked, I was his wife, and he'd been saving the space for us. No one bothered us and we ended up with pretty decent seats. Not great, but still good.
Once again, rather than recapping everything that was said during the panel, I'm just going to post lots of pictures, although not nearly as many as I took during the hour. In explanation, because of the England vs United States World Cup game, Patrick Stewart had been wearing an England shirt the day before. He took it off part way through (okay everyone, minds out of the gutters, he had a white t-shirt on underneath), and told us he'd be donating it to the auction after the panel. I don't know what it ultimately went for, so if anyone knows, please tell me! Explanation number two, once the floor had been opened for questions, Brent Spiner showed up in the line. I do have video, which I will upload eventually, but for the meantime, there's a picture in the middle of him starting to ask his question.
Patrick Stewart
(Brent Spiner showing up during the panel)
After the panel, we went back to wandering through the dealer's room, where there was a very cool Batmobile. There were lots of people around it, so only one picture. I also managed to get a handful of pictures of Patrick Stewart signing autographs.
Batmobile
Patrick Stewart at autograph table
Back to the Delorean for Saturday. One of the really cool things was that you could sit in the Delorean for a donation, and get a picture of yourself in it for a slightly larger one. All the money went to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, so it was for a good cause anyway. And I really wanted a chance to sit in a Delorean! So I donated my $20, and played with all the buttons and knobs and switches for quite a while. Mandy was awesome, and took pictures for me, so that I'd have ones other than the very cool professional one that was taken. I also got a blinking flux capacitor, that five days to stop blinking! No on/off switch, so I just had to wait it out.
In the Delorean
And so we come to the end of the convention. About a week afterwards, I got the photo op pictures in the mail, so I'll leave this report to finish with those.
Photo Op Pictures
no subject
I met James for the first time too this year! And heard him sing live. ^^ I think that t-shirt must be a designated 'con' shirt or its one of his favourites. ;)
I am SO jealous that you got to meet Patrick Stewart!!! He came out to Australia for the first and only time this January...but he enjoyed it so much that there might be a possibility of him considering coming back.
no subject
Those last two pictures: FANTASTIC!!!!
no subject