Toaster posted this over on Facebook. (I think she got it from Stephanie?) Like everyone else, I love the expressions on the VA Tech fans as the parade of crazy goes by. I will not miss the parade next year! It gets better and better!

I could write and write and write about the MST people. *sigh* So much love. :)
I got to do two of the MST3K events at the con.

We made it to the Cinematic Titanic showing of Blood of the Vampire. OH MY GOSH. It was beyond funny. The movie was horrible (Philippine production set in 19th century Mexico and then dubbed into English and using what would now be very politically incorrect casting), but that made for excellent and cutting riff-lines. They were at their absolute best with this one, I think. I can't do it justice, so I'm giving a link to a better review. Several friends came with us, which always makes me nervous because if they don't have fun then I feel awful, but they were gasping and laughing as loudly as I was - so woot!!! After the movie, Trace, Frank, and MaryJo did a short panel and took questions then signed autographs. They were super nice with the questions. Someone messed up "Best Brains" when asking about old props and the audience booed. Frank yelled out, "Yes! Let's curse him for making a slight mistake!" That stopped the booing in it's tracks. Go Frank! :) Since I got my picture with them last year, it was Monkey's turn to pose this year. We had a bunch of stuff to sign - a film canister, a chunk of Deep 13 (since all three were down in Deep 13 on the show), my MST3K official fan book, and the two DVDs we bought there. I almost made it out of there w/o embarrassing myself. Somehow Trace managed to cut himself opening one of the DVDs to sign and apologized for bleeding on my stuff. I said "that's okay, I can clone you now" as a joke, but I'm not sure it came across that way. (Like I have the technology and knowledge to clone anyway! ... Does anyone, by the way?) Yeah. I'm a creepy stalker. But he's still so cute!!!!

They don't LOOK evil.... Last year I got my picture with Trace Beaulieu, so this year it was Monkey's turn to get pictures with the MST3K/Cinematic Titanic crew. I was very pleased that this year I only made one crazy stalker comment to Mr. Beaulieu. (Who I will marry some day, darn it.) Also in the picture are Mary Jo Pehl and TV's Frank Conniff (head writer for the Invader Zimm cartoon). Oh - and this isn't the best picture of Trace. He's actually still really, really cute despite the fact he looks a bit dazed in this shot. He was probably still reeling from my comment about cloning him. Frank Approves! *sigh* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trace_Beaulieu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jo_Pehl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Conniff

Deeeeep Hurting! In 2007 or so when he heard that Keven Murphy and Michael J. Nelson were coming to Dragoncon, Monkeys used his mad graphic skills to make a sticker for a film canister for autographs. Over the years as MST3K alumni have attended the con we have collected additional signatures. Last year we got Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Frank Conniff, there promoting their current venture Cinematic Titanic, to sign. This year Trace and Frank returned with Mary Jo Pehl, so she signed as well. Also attending this year was Bill Corbett, who took over for Trace Beaulieu when he left the show. Corbett is now a part of Mike and Kevin's RiffTracks. When he saw Trace's doodle of Crow T Robot agreeing to marry me, Bill giggled. The coolest thing is that every one of them praised the canister - both the idea of it and the implementation. So big props to Monkeys! At this point I think we only need to get J. Elvis Weinstein, Jim Mallon, and Paul Chaplin to have all the major players. Or at least the ones I remember by name. :)

The other MST3K event we made it to was the Crow verses Crow panel. SO MUCH FUN! Even waiting in the line was fun because we got to chat with Mysties, run lines and share favorite episodes. :) :) :) When we got in there, we found out the entire panel was being taped so that it could be included as a bonus feature for some future MST3K video. Woot! I will get to hear the entire panel again some day! It started with a series of clips of "Best Crow Moments" where the audience laughed and occasionally recited along with the screen. Trace and Bill were both really nice - both to each other and to the fans' questions. I was really pleased to see how well they got along since Trace is with Joel & Cinematic Titanic and Bill is with Mike & Riff Tracks. Both seemed to have no problems with each other, but possibly problems with Jim Mallon. Consequently, I'm optimistic about cross-group events or reunions! The panel was actually really well focused. It was dedicated solely to Crow - how he was created, where the robot design came from and how it changed/improved over time, how Trace developed the personality, how Bill was hired for the role, how Bill reformed the personality, etc. It was really funny listening to both of them talk about how difficult Crow was to puppet & how lucky Kevin Murphy was. There was also a hysterical story about taking Crow home for the weekend. At one point Frank Conniff answered a question on their behalf, but before answering Frank pretended to be a fan and asked a crazy question himself. Both Trace & Bill were giggling throughout Frank's question - I'm assuming it was a mishmosh of the bizarre dedicated questions they do get. Trace's answer was "It was a secret message just for you, sir." Probably an answer he would love to give to rabid fans in real life. I tried to find some information on the panel; this is the official announcement of it's plans to appear on an upcoming video release: Satellite News talk of the Crow versus Crow Panel and this is another fan's synopsis of the panel with a picture. After the panel Both stayed for a wee bit to pose with pictures of anyone who brought a bot, so we trapped Bill Corbett to ask when he was signing autographs next. He said he was done with that, but he offered to sign our can right there!! How nice of him!! He would have posed for a picture, too, but we knew he was busy, so we didn't press.

There were a few other MST panels and events I missed. Next year I'm going to stay for the entire Gonzo Flim Festival, as they are usually a part of that.

EDIT - one more picture

A Murder of Crows! That's Bill Corbett holding the globe, Trace Beaulieu giving someone an autograph, and an actual realeo-trueleo Crow from the show. Trace brought it for the panel. There are also an assortment of fanbots and fans up there waiting for photos and autographs.

No way I can do this justice. It was ridiculously fun. I made it over to participate in the Guinness World Record attempt for most people dancing Thriller. I am so glad I learned the steps ahead of time. I don't know how the people who only got two practice sessions made it through! Dragoncon Thriller

Anyway, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! It was a madhouse. I showed up around 4:30 with plans for registering and attending the 5PM training session only to discover they had impromptu training sessions all over the bottom floor of the Sheridan. I guess they had too many people for training in one room, so they busted people up into groups of about 20 or 30 and scattered all over wherever there was space. I hopped from group to group hoping to catch people towards the end of the song as I felt that was my weakest area. I never quite found what I was looking for, but it did mean I got to experience five different "trainers" which was fun seeing their individual styles. The group led by the professional dancer guy tried to do it with counts instead of the words and realized that was a mistake. It was a funny mistake because people started walking into each other. :) There was a group of girls led by what seemed like a paramilitary commander who upon learning there wasn't an open training group ready to go at their arrival promptly barked out a set of orders and started her own training group. They were *precise* so loads of people started jumping into their group, and suddenly things weren't so precise. I also got to attend two training sessions with the music, so I got most of my flubs out there. Again, it was fun watching the complete newbies, they were soooooo cute walking the wrong way or not walking at all. It brought back how much fun it was when I started learning the steps. Not that I was a master of them, of course. The attempt didn't start until 7PM, so I hung out there going from group to group until we were allowed to line up for attempt. I had an awesome time chatting with people next to me in the line - it was sweet because afterwards we looked each other up again to hug and say goodbye when it was over. They lined people up by number, our door was the 1000's (I was number 1030) and as the room had a max capacity of 1000 we figured we wouldn't get in unless there were no-shows and that we'd have awful spots in the back. Turns out our door was RIGHT UP BY THE FRONT! So I was actually on the front row until I connived a way to move back one row. Yes, I'm a chicken.

	Forget Waldo - Where's MadLadyRed? Swiped this picture from the DC Thrill the World site, or some similar site.
	It's Me!!! Did you spot me?!?!?!??!

http://blogs.ajc.com/inside-access/2009/09/08/dragoncon-thriller-dancers-might-break-world-record/



The video there shows our attempt at breaking the record. You can see me much better than in the official video! Turns out I was positioned fairly close to one of this person's cameras. You also get some great shots of Gypsy Ariana/TQA dancing. :) And there is kind of a flame war little thing going where someone doesn't like our attempt. (We weren't all in sync, there were some who didn't know the steps very well - but out of 900 where most learned the same day that's not surprising.) The best part may be watching the various costumes doing the dance. We had a FSM, stormtroopers, a giant hand in a sequined glove (she was one of the Firefly Blue Hands in the parade), the Burger King, etc.

In the video below I am about three rows back and slightly to stage right of the alien! I'm in the Jayne hat and green Blue Sun t-shirt. Watching the alien is HYSTERICAL. :) He does an outstanding job!



The official video is on Dragoncon Thriller and on YouTube, too. No word as yet whether we broke the record. :)

This panel was not what I expected it to be. I was hoping it would be stuff we could do from our backyard without telescopes or much brain power. Our gang sometimes meets for meteor showers; we just hang out at the beach chatting, drinking cocoa, and flying kites while watching for shooting stars. There is a great beach about 30 or 40 minutes away that's perfect for star watching because there are no trees blocking one's view and unlike most of our beaches there's hardly any light pollution there. Basically from this panel I just wanted more cool stuff I could goof around with at Toaster's giant yard next bonfire. (Preferably something involving green laser pointers.)

Turns out the panel was cohosted by Pamela Gay formerly of Slacker Astronomy, so most of the backyard activities involved variable stars (two other Slacker Astronomy podcasters worked with variable stars) and low level telescopes. It was still pretty interesting, but a bit above my level of commitment as I don't have a telescope. On the bright side - one of my favorite Slacker Astronomy episodes was all about getting involved in the science of astronomy, so it is a topic I am interested in. One thing I've always loved about astronomy is that some of the *major* discoveries are made by normal people who like to look up. There are all sorts of ways you can participate, for example if you are good with photoshop, you can work with NASA photographs to colorize raw images. I tried to be more involved by doing SETI@Home. So as sleepy as I was, I did *try* to pay attention to ways the panel said I could contribute. I should have taken better notes. :( I did manage to remember two websites, and one of my other friends who took notes sent me the links.

I'm learning to do Galaxy Zoo right now. It's easy and actually really fun. I don't know that I will do Citizen Sky or adopt a variable star as I appear to have commitment issues and am lazy, but who knows!

Galaxy Zoo 2
"The Galaxy Zoo files contain almost a quarter of a million galaxies which have been imaged with a camera attached to a robotic telescope the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, no less). In order to understand how these galaxies — and our own — formed, we need your help to classify them according to their shapes — a task at which your brain is better than even the fastest computer."

Citizen Sky
"Help us solve the mystery of epsilon Aurigae, a star that has baffled scientists since 1821. You don’t need any prior scientific training— we will give you all of the tools you need to become a citizen scientist. Citizen Sky is a citizen science project providing you with a chance to do real scientific research. We are seeking to understand a star that has been a mystery to scientists for many years. This star is epsilon Aurigae, a very interesting, very bright star located in the constellation Auriga, the charioteer. This star is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye even in the most light-polluted cities, and it is visible every fall, winter, and spring. Epsilon Aurigae is a variable star—this means it changes in brightness over time. Collecting data on these changes can help us understand the star. "


Pamela said something particularly interesting - that she didn't think alien life would be discovered via radio/SETI. Instead she thinks it will be from spectral analysis of exoplanets revealing pollution in their skies. (She said it much better.)

We went to a Terry Gilliam panel where he showed clips from and discussed his upcoming movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The movie looks like it will be truly fantastic - visually stunning with a glorious story. (See video clip at the very bottom.) Anyway, at the panel he talked a lot about what went into making the movie - I taped most of that part, pausing during the airing of the clips. Then he took questions. One of the questions was asked by zarathud, who won something. I am working on getting videos up and out. Anyway Gilliam was incredibly friendly and enthusiastic, and we enjoyed the panel very much. I do remember a lot of his stories and can share...

The next day we went to a Monty Python panel by Gilliam and Innes, which I found fascinating. It was a a not-so-Tragical History Tour of Innes and Gilliam's induction into Python and what they did there. I kind of knew some of the history from books/shows I'd seen on Python, but it was interesting hearing them describe their friends' personalities, some of their exploits, how they got together, how they got popular, how the got to America, and especially how laid back the BBC was about what they put on the air. Apparently they worked for a kids show at one point, and one of the show's "bits" was "And here's a naked man in a chair!" Unfortunately, what I remember most is an Orson Wells clip. Thankfully I taped as much of the panel as I could. OH-the panel was late starting so audience members got pulled up on stage to entertain us. One had a squeaking breast and the second did yo-yo tricks to rival Tommy Smothers. And at the end of the panel Terry gave the complete Python to the first person who could tell how many syllables were in the title of his new movie. Inspired by syllables, Innes recited a funny haiku then gave another Complete MP to the first person who could name the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's first album.

FInally, we went to see Neil Innes play songs from his new album. At the end of that he came back for an encore and played Brave Brave Sir Robin and another song from Holy Grail that never made it into the movie. Then he made my night by doing a medley of songs from The Rutles!!!! Squeeeeeeeeee!! Afterwards he was selling CDs. We bought one, which he autographed along with my Rutles DVD. He even posed with me for a picture. I believe I told him I loved him and babbled a bit, which he graciously accepted. Then, when I wished him a safe flight home he thanked me and KISSED ME ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD!!!!!!!!!!! (On our way out we also passed Adam Savage from Mythbusters, the cast of MST3K's Cinematic Titanic, and Jackson Publick - who called Monkeys over to talk to him since he remembered Monkeys from previous cons. They were just hanging out for the show cuz they are cool like that.)

Neil Innes plays ukulele, too. Waiting in line for the Neil Innes/Terry Gilliam Monty Python panel. John played ukulele while Lori played Gravulous. Monkeys was working on "I'm a Lumberjack" :)

Am I In Love? I must be in love! Ever seen the Rutles?!?! Dirk Nasty was played by Neil Innes. He also did the music for it. Oh - and he was the guy singing Brave Brave Sir Robin in MP & the Holy Grail. Sooooooooooo cute in the Rutles movie. Seriously - check out some pictures of him from the 60's. *sigh* Anyway, not only was he super sweet to sign my Rutles DVD, he kissed me on the top of my head. Squeeeeeeeeee!

There is an awesome band called ArcAttack that plays music using two giant tesla coils. They let me lick one of the coils while I was in my red shirt for one of my many deaths. When I asked, I promised not to really lick it, but he said go ahead if I wanted to - it was coated with something protective so I wouldn't damage it and as Monkeys pointed out it had to be pretty clean.

Anyway, they played at the Mad Scientist Ball again this year and IT WAS A BLAST. This year they set up some cage thing between the coils and in-between songs the would pull people out of the audience (usually attractive and scantily clad females, but not always) and lock them up to dance in the box. I wish someone had posted a picture of them getting Dr. Satan (from some horror movie) in the box. I haven't House of a 1000 Corpses to know who he was dressing as, but he had big metal shoulder things AND HE WANTED IN THE CAGE BETWEEN THE TESLA COILS. Wha??!?!? But the audience chanted "Dr. Satan!" and ArcAttack relented and let him in the cage so long as he promised not to stick anything out of the cage and not to move. The host was sooooo funny. He said things like "Dr. Satan looks very conductive!" and "This is a good test of the Darwin Awards." and "Only at Dragoncon can something like this happen." He also got the audience to chant "Do not move! Do not move!" But after they shut Dr. Satan up in the cage people started chanting "Move! Move! Move!" so the host laughed and pointed out that the friends who chanted FOR him to get into the change were same people now chanting "move!" Anyway, here's the best video I found so far to give an idea of what they look/sound like, but they are a million times better.




Here's another very short video. Look very carefully and you can see there is a person in that box! I like how people are swaying along with the song in this video; you can kind of get an idea of how fun the host can be. He actually speaks for some time between songs sometimes and can rile the audience into a bit of a frenzy... FOR SCIENCE!




This was their set up for last year. I like the new set up better and would LOVE to be inside that box. But you have to hear their version of the Doctor Who theme or, as Peter David (?) said, "you haven't lived."

Every year I vow to write up about Dragoncon, but the convention is just sooooooo big and soooooo much happens that I never know where to begin. So I thought I'd start with something easy like posting a few dead red shirt pictures. :)

We are home safe and sound, and I am already missing the convention!

We LOVED getting to see everyone and wish we could have spent more time together. (Especially zarathud, because I don't think I got to say more than "hello" to you at the pirate party.) ann_mcn so sorry I missed seeing you this trip - can't wait to hear your thoughts on the convention.


So without further ado... [Unknown LJ tag]

	What's that on that paintbrush? Okay, I was overreacting - turns out Alice wasn't really much of a threat. She had a rose and a paint brush dipped in red paint - not blood. But with my red shirt luck, you can't take chances! I probably would have survived this one if I'd had the phaser pointing the right way!
	I will probably be needed some of this later on in the day! PLEASE may I have some?!??!? Seriously! I need to keep some spare!
	There's no dying in baseball! Red shirt sporting events never end well... These ladies were so excited about getting to kill me. One of them actually blurted out "I have a bat!"
	Three against one! I can't even succeed when it's ONE against one! Ummmm - I don't remember which anime they are from, but they were really excited about getting to kill me, which is always fun. They even asked for their own picture and other people stopped to take pictures. (That part I don't like cuz my acting/posing is terrible, but I did get laughs with the wrong way phaser...)
	But what if there's splinters? When asked if he would kill me, Marc Gunn asked if he could shove the autoharp down my throat. :)
	Wait, I thought it was supposed to be The Red Queen *is* dangerous, I was right to fear her. But isn't it supposed to be off with my HEAD?!?!
	What if he's got a pointed stick? The smiley face was deceiving! He jumped at the chance to spear me! (And asked for his own picture, too.) No body every taught me what to do if they had a pointed stick!!! If only he'd come at me with a banana or a piece of fresh fruit.

Oh - I have a few more red shirt death shots, and one of them is Jack Harkness killing me with a banana, so that last picture is a lie. I don't know how to defend myself against fresh fruit.

EDIT:

I guess I *should* have learned how to defend myself against fresh fruit. A banana? What? I was expecting a pointed stick! I don't know what to do about this... Awww, who am I kidding. When do I *ever* defend myself.

What am I forgetting?!?!
What should I be doing?!?!?
What have I not packed?!?!


Hardees has a commercial for fried bologna biscuits. Eeew?

And the Pizza Hut commercial where the guy is yelling "score!" or whatever whenever he talks about the stuffed cheese crust is annoying beyond belief - but I really really want a pizza now, so I guess it's effective. Score!

Now I want a Skor bar.

I'm hungry.



(Giggle - Talk Soup keeps talking about a guy named Mike Hawk. Giggle. I'm such a child. I immediately thought of another show and the line "Is there a taste to the caulk?")

THREE DAYS!!

Today was a really good day at work! It was perhaps the easiest last day of registration I've ever experienced. Finished my graduation checks, too. So yay! Also, had lunch with my parents since our normal day is Thursday and we'll be out of town! In my attempts to eat all the perishables in our frig, tonight is Tiramisu night! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Otherwise, I'm doing laundry, making lists, and listening to Monkeys recite what he's bringing as he packs.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a major BSE project done before leaving for the trip, but I may end up proofreading diplomas. We'll see. I'm resolved to knowing there will be a big pile of stuff waiting on my return, but I'm at least trying to get everything cleaned out for now. Then, one more load of work clothes to wash tomorrow night.

Wednesday I have off for running pretrip errands and last minute "oh noes! i need spam!" Then early to bed and early to rise!!

So excited! Even more so after watching the Cardboard Troopers. :)

What am I not doing that I ought to be doing?
I feel a shoe drop is looming...

TWO MORE DAYS OF REGISTRATION!!! SIX DAYS TO DRAGONCON!!!! TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!!! SUNDAY IS MONKEY'S BIRTHDAY!!! MONDAY IS CHARLOTTE'S BIRTHDAY. MONDAY WE CLOSE OUT GRADUATION!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkeys baked an amazing chocolate cherry cake for Charlotte's birthday. My coworker was the person who fixed us up AND baked our wedding cake AND catered our wedding as a wedding present to us. (After much arm twisting she finally agreed to accept $500 and a homemade quilt as a thank you for the amazing food she prepared for us because you just can't do that much work on catering a wedding for nothing.) Oh, she also did half the reception decorating. :) Yeah, she rocks. So anyway, tomorrow I'm attempting to bring the cake in w/o destroying it or eating any of it.

I am more disorganized this Dragoncon than any other in the past. I don't know what's up with me. I did just dig out my Rutles DVD on the off chance of having Neil Innes autograph it. I have done nothing else in prep for that. I need to take down the MST3K film reel - sooooo excited about them being there!!! Monkeys asked me today if I knew where my Dukes of Hazard lunchbox from 5th grade is - LOL!

I wore one of the Shalwar Kameez to work today! My mom usually refuses to take things, even things I've bought for her specifically. She won't even let us buy her dinner for her birthday!!! So today when I told her that now that I'd worn the yellow SK out, I was going to give it to her I fully expected her to protest ("Raven gave it to you, not me" "I don't need any more clothes" "You look so pretty in it, you need to keep it" and many other similar comments) and that I would have to arm wrestle her into agreeing to take it, pointing out that I can borrow it back at any time, so it wasn't a hardship. Nope. Her eyes lit up and she said "okay!" almost before I got the entire sentence out of my mouth. I was kind of stunned. I was actually silent for a bit afterwards. Then I giggled. So anyway, I'm giving it to her on Saturday. Ha!

Okay, Dragoncon in 19 days!! Jeepers! I'm so unprepared!

My pirate corset is actually one Libra bought, discovered the pokey bottom bit wouldn't work in her chair, and sold to me (she tried to give it to me, but those things are expensive & I would have felt like I was taking advantage of a friend). Libra's a bit tinier than me, so it's not really my size. Honestly, I need one size up, but I went online and got really long shoelaces. The point here is, I have to stay my weight if I want to be a pirate. So I had planned to go back on strict Weight Watchers for the month of August...

But today I let Dad pick our lunch location instead of our usual Subway, and Dad had a coupon to McDonalds. I get 20 points a day. At lunch I had 22 points. (I also had a 2 point breakfast...) So basically before noon I had exceeded my points for the day. *sigh* LOL! I told my coworker for dinner tonight I could have lettuce and air.

Slight exaggeration, there are actually quite a lot of zero point foods. Unfortunately they are all vegetables, but whatever. That caramel sundae with nuts was totally worth it.

*****
Anyway - Monkeys and I practiced Thriller tonight, he's up to section three, so that's good review for me. I tackled section 7 today and OMG it's hard. I'm hoping that counts as exercise.

I've also pulled out some clothes for the con to see what I have premade because I'm not up to making anything new this year. I need to find a better shirt for my Tenth Doctor AND convince Monkeys to dress as Rose this year. It's a lot more fun when he's dressed up, too. Plus, w/o him as Rose I'm just another suit. :)

I started practicing the Thriller dance steps today. They are kind of hard! My shoulder is sore right now. But it was seriously fun! There is a really good set of instructional videos here at Thrill the World.

I have been wanting to learn the steps since we started trick-or-treating with Toaster's niece. Someone in our neighborhood blasts Thriller and runs a fog machine, and I've longed to surprise them by dancing in their yard one year. Toast and I have done bad 30-second versions of the dance before, but next year I'm going to do it right.

Also, at Dragoncon this year they are going to try to set a World Record for number of people doing the dance. I don't know if they can do that, but it seems like it would be kind of fun to be in the middle of it. Or possibly the outer edges - and not beside the Stormtroopers.

Dragoncon tickets!

Thanks to Toaster, a group of us checked out the PeelanderZ concert. They describe themselves as Japanese Action Punk. When a concert is delayed because one of the performers takes a fall from the stage and has to be wheeled out by EMS, you know you are in for something. The best part, as the blue suited musician rolled by us and got loaded into the elevator … he flicked everyone off. The crowd wooted in appreciation.

Anyway, we had no idea what to expect so at first we sat in the back, but the minute they began the show I had to get a closer look. The first song was called Mad Tiger (see video below). I know this because they held up a sign. You couldn’t understand them, so they used placards. The yellow guitar player would hold up a sign and yell mad tiger then the red bassist would repeat it along with the audience. (mad tiger) Suddenly, they pulled a guy from the audience who either was already in a tiger mask or quickly put on their tiger mask, and Tiger Mask took over holding up the sign. (mad tiger mad tiger) Yellow and Red ditched their instruments and picked up wash bins to play just percussion as we all yelled mad tiger. (mad tiger) A girl in pink walked on stage with another wash bin filled with various small percussion instruments and dispersed them among the audience jumping and yelling in front of the stage. (mad tiger mad tiger) The green drummer pulled out one of her drums and joined Red, Yellow, and Tiger Mask on stage. (mad tiger) Red and Yellow each pulled up an audience member and gave each their wash bins. Now Tiger Mask was leading the chant, audience members and Green were providing the percussion, and Red and Yellow were clapping along yelling mad tiger with the rest of us. (mad tiger mad tiger) Suddenly, every audience member with a percussion instrument and a few without, perhaps twenty people, were up on stage dancing, yelling, and clunking their instruments while Green, Yellow, and Red were in the audience running around. (mad tiger!) This went on for seven minutes, and it was amazing. I recorded it, but I was also jumping around and yelling, so my recording is a bit whacked. (mad tiger mad tiger)

Other songs included Ninja High School, which did have words but I have no idea what they were, S.T.E.A.K. Medium Rare, yelling the days of the week, Let’s Bowl, and 3 2 1 5. Those may not be the actual titles, but that was what was printed on the posterboard signs.

My other favorite part of the show also involved audience members being on stage. The band was playing along and singing when someone held up a guitarist wanted sign. An audience member volunteered and Yellow gave him his guitar, telling him to strum in a windmill fashion. We saw the kid ask what to do with his left hand, and Yellow just mimed to move it up and down the fret board. Then they held up a bassist wanted sign followed by a drummer wanted sign, and now three audience members were playing. The drummer lost the beat a few times, but they straightened him out, otherwise the guitar and bass sounded no different from the original band, and you could tell they were having the time of their lives rocking out up there. Yellow and Red pulled out people to yell into the microphones (one was in a StarGate Atlantis uniform, that amused me.) All the audience members with percussion instruments hopped back on stage, and we were back to a cram-packed stage of happy people yelling and dancing. Suddenly Yellow was dressed as a bowling pin and Red held up a sign saying Let’s bowl. Yellow ran the entire length of the venue, turned around to face us. Red held up another saying 3, 2, 1 that flipped around to say 5. We counted along appropriately, and Yellow charged back toward the stage. I couldn’t see what he was aiming for from my position, but he missed, so he tried again, and this time the audience went wild. He got back on stage, took off his bowling pin outfit, took back his guitar as the others phased back into their instruments, and the song ended.

I talked to Yellow the next day and told him how much I enjoyed his show. He said he had a friend in Pensacola and had played there a few times, so when they are back next Monkeys and I are going to go see them!! Yay! Meanwhile, I’m trying to find a YouTube clip to share. I’m thinking with this band you have to see them to really understand what they do.




LOVE THIS. Saw it live at Dragoncon.

I meant to post yesterday, but got too distracted. We are safely home, mostly unpacked, and having a blast with S₂AK. It's almost like the convention isn't totally over as last night we still ate junk food and stayed up to 2 a.m. talking. Miss you Kwix! Wish you could be here, too. Some year you will have to come back and stay with us, too. (More people arm wrestling over who you stay with when you visit...poor boy!) Anyway, we promise to take good care of your love.

This year is going to be my favorite D*C. I wish I could take a few hours and write down everything. We saw so many LJ and GARF friends, many of which we actually got to sit and talk to for hours. That was beyond wonderful. We got to hear Renaissance festival/piratey music from Three Quarter Ale and Renaissance festival/celtic music the Bards (and a solo pirate set from Marc) along the concourse and at parties. We also saw Celtic band Emerald Rose, Steampunk band Abney Park, comedy duo Paul and Storm, and Japanese action punk band Peelander Z in concerts. I definitely need to write more about that. We got to dance the Virginia Reel at the pirate party, and I tried homemade moonshine from a stranger's flask. He also happened to work at a bodice shop somewhere in Tampa, so he was able to help me enhance my bodice in an effort to look better for the costume contest Redd talked us into entering. We got to see the tesla balls make music at the Mad Scientist's Ball, but I missed their playing the Doctor Who theme :(

I got about 30 more "kill the red shirt" pictures PLUS Dean Haglund (xfiles) and Geoge Takei (star trek) were both really touched when we gave them a copy of The Many Deaths of Ensign Dunfore. Haglund asked us to autograph it for him.

Saw a panel with Torchwood's Ianto/Gareth David-Loyd, Red Dwarf's Kryton/Robert Llwewllyn, the cast of Cinematic Titanic (aka MST3K's Joel Hodgson, TV's Frank, and Trace Beaulieu!!!!), and the Venture Brother's Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. We didn't make it to the Firefly or BSG panels, but I did watch them on DGTV (thanks!). Plus, we got to see The Mighty Rassilon Art Players!!! They did a Doctor Who spoof, and the girl who played Susan was beyond brilliantly funny. I'm hoping clips of her (or the entire show) appear on YouTube. They said this was their last show at Dragoncon!!! Please write and nicely protest this!!!!

Monkey's Dr. Jonus Venture costume was a GREAT hit, and it was a blast walking around the levels with him as people stopped him to take pictures. He was having the time of his life. I lost count on how many picture requests he had, but it was in the hundreds. The Venture Brothers fan table people gave him a special gift with swag they don't put out on their free stuff table as an acknowledgment for making such cool costumes (Grand Galactic and Jonas Jr).

Argh, there were so many great moments, but they are all receding from my head leaving just a fuzzy memory of happiness. Some of the best moments were just the fact that I was with my friends in a sea of interesting sights and sounds, or just chatting with complete strangers in line about how they made a particular part of their costumes, where they got their shirt, or whatever panel just ended/was about to start.

Plus, props to the Hyatt - the smoothest checkin/check out, no problems with the keys suddenly stopping working, awesome food in the concierge lounge, and super friendly staff. Props to the Dragoncon volunteers - smooth check in, friendly staff despite (I'm sure) impatient people, and well controlled lines. With it being spread over so many hotels, the crowding was cut down a lot. I would still like the convention to get smaller, but it didn't seem as crowded and difficult to move around in this trip.

NEVER give Toaster your pen. Qui Que Que? Quo Quo Qui!!!

1) He made an amazing baked Brie and pear desert tonight. OMG. S₂AK - we are so making this while you are visiting!
2) His Jonas mechanical arm is amazing. Srlsy, guys. My husband is brilliant. I don't know how, but he's cut two pieces of some sort of thick plastic and made the top and lower arm segments and a ball joint. He's even used some kind of heated ruler to make the appropriate seams. I can't wait to see it painted!

Hey! Again I'm posting while eating dinner (chili-yum!!). It's really busy at work right now, so I haven't had a chance to send out an email about this weekend. I asked Monkeys, and even though he's been working on his costume every night, he doesn't think he'll be finished enough by this weekend to do anything.

I asked about if there were something not at our house could he/would he, but he said at this point he's still thinking he'll be working all weekend to get it finished. Therefore, I think we will be out of sight this weekend. :(

I'm going to be packing tonight. :)

I actually did something physical with one of my costumes today! Nothing impressive and complicated like what Redd, Toast, Droid, Monkeys, Nyx, or Raven have done - my genius friends. Still, now I can say I actually did something. I glued some thigh-high boots back together and modified them with a Sharpie marker and some red fabric (Toaster's suggestion with the red fabric) to turn them pirate-like. I don't know that I like Monkey's sewing machine, but it was kind of fun in a zero-skill level kind of way. Of course, now this means I'm bringing four pairs of shoes to Con. At least these boots are squishy and won't take up much room. My mom and I also bought some green fleece, and we're turning an Army belt bag into a backpack for my Kim Possible outfit. I'm still not sure about my KP outfit, but it just darn convenient to have pants with pockets and a backpack. How often do you get a costume that will be comfortable (no massive layers) and will provide enough innate storage that it renders a purse unnecessary - woot! Normally I take advantage of cargo pants with my Jayne/Firefly outfit, but I need to get a new Blue Sun shirt before I can do that one again.

Otherwise, I think I'm doing okay. I need to make sure Monkeys digs out his Rose outfit. I know where the hair is, but I haven't seen the Union Jack shirt since Halloween.

Redd/Toast/Droid - I picked up a few small candles today and an 8 pack of Coke Zero. Is there anything I have that any of you need or want? I've got some snacks, too. I should probably just write an email with what I have. :)

I can't wait! I decided to post pictures. Don't look at my face as I look terrible. So look just at the outfits, please. I do have a favorite. I have not seen a lot of Steampunk anime or movies or whatnot therefore I would like opinions.

	Better One? (Or better two) Pink shirt/Brown suit.
	Pink Shirt Okay, I think this is right. The fabric looks old-fashioned to me with the little detail design thing. And it's got frills along the middle and sides and even the sleeves. The collar is high and buttons around the neck. I remember seeing collars like that in Victorian movies, right? Drawbacks - it's tighter than the other one. Advantages - I like how it looks w/o the coat so I could take the jacket off at any time. The color really seems to *pop* in photographs.
	Better Two? (or better one) White shirt/Brown suit.
	White Shirt It is *really* shear. Okay, it's see through. But it has the frills and it has a bow that when tied properly (unlike what I did) looks a bit like a cravet. (However you spell that.) Drawbacks - in the picture you seem to lose the detail in the shirt. I don't feel as comfortable w/o the coat on because it's so see through. Advantages - it would be cooler and white is easier to match other stuff, right?

Droid, Toast, Redd, Libra!!! I think I have my Steampunk costume!! I think I got a good shirt and kind of waistcoat thingy to go with my Doctor Who suit. I just need to get a hat - when you see the shirt you can recommend hat and shoes? Then with Redd's jewelry (walking advertisement) I'll be gorgeous ;)

I think it's good. If it's not good it's still a shirt I can wear to work, so I haven't lost anything.

CANOOT WAIT TO SHOW YOU!!!

(I know I misspelled cannot, but I like how it looks. I may use that from now on...)