Better late than never, right? Life’s been a little bit hectic since the conclusion of the convention, and between balancing life, family and work, on top of trying to edit and process down 500+ photographs, finding the time to write, much less catch up on all of the thoughts and words I had in mind in regards to Dragon*Con seemed like somewhat of a daunting task. But I’m in a good place with photos currently, and with what feels like a window of opportunity to do some writing, away we go.
“Clarity” is the one word I repeatedly answered with, whenever anyone asked me how the convention was.
I’ve made no secret that I wasn’t really looking forward to the convention as Labor Day approached. A combination of some life moves, a little bit of financial struggling, some ambivalence, and just the general feeling that it just might be the same song and dance as it’s been for the 13 straight previous Dragon*Cons that I’ve been to made me feel a little, un-excited about this year’s.
I tried to keep an open mind; tell myself that once the con got underway, and I was there instead of at work, taking pictures and catching up with old friends, that things would settle down into the general good natured feelings that they typically have in the past. Admittedly, as the week of the con came, and early arrivers started showing up into Atlanta, and flooding Facebook with their status updates of how that they were here, and that they were so excited to be here and couldn’t wait for Dragon*Con to start, it did begin to affect me positively, and I will say that I did develop a little bit of anticipation, and want for the weekend to arrive, so I could be amongst my fellow nerds, doing nerdy things and drinking all the booze.
In actuality, the anticipation and the excitement was for particular people, and not the convention itself. This was no more prevalent than when I actually caught up with particular people, felt a great sense of happiness and relief at actually being able to see them in the attendance measured to have exceeded 70,000 attendees, because not seeing people is quite the common occurrence at the more recent Dragon*Cons, as attendance has gradually climbed with each passing year. But once I parted ways with the people I looked forward to seeing, it was a feeling of emptiness, and near boredom, at walking around in laps around the same three hotels, packed to the gills with the aforementioned 70,000+ attendees.
Yet in spite of the massive alleged attendance numbers, I actually feel like the convention wasn’t nearly as busy as it been, at least compared to the two years prior to this year’s. Often times, I would stop and lean on the railing to whatever floor of the Marriott my room was located, and simply look in awe at atrium level, packed to numbers that would make any fire warden weep at the thought of what might happen if a fire broke out. But save for the Thursday night in which I actually left early, because I had to work on Friday, the crowds simply didn’t seem like they were nearly as dense, and choking as they have been in the past. The only time I watched armageddon almost break out on account of people being completely incapable of moving, was during a lining up for a Stephen Amell panel or appearance or whatever. Other than that, Saturday night, Sunday night, I stood from my vantage point on the second floor and watched as sure, it was crowded, but it wasn’t nearly the savage shoulder-to-shoulder moshpit of an atrium as I’d seen in prior years.
One thing I heard was that throughout the weekend, there was a number of events happening outside of convention property that were managing to successfully draw and pull people away from the host hotels, and actually get people to venture off into other parts of the city of Atlanta. Save for the Georgia Aquarium’s easily-walkable Dragon*Con night, I wasn’t aware of any, but it is something that I heard quite a few times as justification to why it seemed like the crowds at the host hotels weren’t nearly as slam packed as they had been in prior years.
However, that being said, external events is a page right out of the Comic-Con book, and if this trend continues, who knows how much of larger presence Dragon*Con will command, even in competition with the usual menage a trois shared with NCAA Football kickoff and Black Gay Pride.
The thought I had in my mind is that I feel like the bubble has burst. Even in spite of the record-setting attendance claims, Dragon*Con simply didn’t seem nearly as big as it’s been, because I have to think that the proverbial bubble has burst, and that there are people who didn’t come based on decisions from a year ago.
Which brings me to many conversations and words shared with friends and acquaintances both during and after the convention, there’s a lot of people I know who have come to the popular idea that Dragon*Con simply isn’t worth coming back to; whether for just one year, or never again, I know quite a few people who are most certainly not coming back next year, whether or not such is the case beyond that is up in the air, but skipping 2016 is pretty much in the book for a lot of people I know. Interestingly, all the conversations were separate, but the general consensus remained the same among many; with lots of resentment in the tones of many of the remarks I’ve heard.
As for the convention itself, I don’t think I can really say that much, as I’ve never been the type to partake in panels, peruse the dealers rooms, or seek out celebrities. All I know is that I learned that Stephen Amell is a rare specimen who seemingly has the ability to attract fans from so many varying walks of fandom, and is yet grounded enough to stay in this bubble of potential of being one of the biggest crossover celebrities out there. It definitely seemed like Stephen Amell steered most of the convention’s programming, and probably was the single largest draw among everything advertised.
One observation I had was just how not-busy all the businesses inside of the Marriott were. In prior years, inquiring how long a table would be at High Velocity would elicit laughter among the host/hostesses, but on two different instances I was able to get seated within minutes of asking. The bars didn’t seem nearly as busy, and in fact, on Sunday night, the night where everyone supposedly leaves it all on the floor and tries to get as wild and crazy as possible, the Pulse lounge actually closed early; beginning the exodus 15 minutes prior to the Atlanta-mandated 2 a.m. last call. In fact, the Pulse Loft closed even earlier, kicking everyone out maybe 15 minutes prior to the early lounge closing. It’s like the Marriott itself is becoming over Dragon*Con too, despite the fact that every single room was sold, a year ago, with each room pulling in at least $800.
Speaking of bars and drinking, I actually had something of an epiphany during the convention: why do I drink so hard at Dragon*Con? I know, fuck me lol, right?
But really, I had a crappy work day on Friday, and when I finally arrived at the convention, I drank quite a copious number of beers, partially on account of work frustration, and partially because I had finally arrived, and drinking is what we do at Dragon*Con. At no point did I become trashed, as beer alone doesn’t really have the ability to do that unless I drank way harder and faster than I did, but I did switch and mix differing varieties throughout my evening. Needless to say, it affected me that particular evening, and after one visit to the porcelain throne, I lay back down and asked myself why I did what I did. I mean, I don’t like throwing up; the fact that it happened was a little odd, because it was just that one fast episode, and as I said, I was never drunk, nor was I hungover the next day, but the point is that ultimately, I don’t like throwing up.
Needless to say, I didn’t stop drinking outright during the weekend, but I definitely slowed myself down, and was pretty much sober throughout the whole rest of the weekend. My drink fridge in my garage is pretty stuffed right now with leftover alcohol from the weekend, and it was vastly a bigger pain in the ass packing it and taking it back home much to my chagrin.
The one thing I’ve always enjoyed about Dragon*Con is that it’s always been a convention known for its mind-blowing costuming culture. And as someone who really likes taking pictures of costumes as a hobby, it’s been one of the primary reasons why I’ve continued to come back year after year.
However, this year felt like a year where creativity was left at the door at the start of the calendar year or something, and was the year for trends and/or butchering of properties to cater to low-hanging fruit.
I found Mad Max: Fury Road to be entertaining sure, but absolutely nothing about it triggered the response in me that it did to just about everyone else, to where it became christened as the greatest movie of all time or something. Needless to say, I made a challenge to myself that I would confidently take zero pictures of any Mad Max costuming all weekend, that unfortunately was broken because a good friend of mine just had to dress up as Max, and it was more important to take selfies with my friends than deny the trends.
The same applied to the legions of Jurassic Park/World costumes; the army of margarita guys was creative and funny – on Thursday night. But by the time Sunday rolled around, I had sadistic fantasies of how many times I could flip a motherfucker with a Clothesline From Hell, and where the margarita glasses would end up afterward.
It just felt like people now dress according to trends, as opposed to what they as individuals might actually like this year.
I miss seeing actual costumes; I like seeing sexy female figures as much as the next guy does, but it gets really old really quickly when all you see is “Bunny Girl Sansa/Cercei/Chun Li/Freddy Fazbear/Margarita Guy/Anything That Can Be Objectified and Reduced to the Lowest Common Denominator.” Ultimately, I don’t want to take pictures of version-zed costumes, I want to take pictures of the actual fucking costumes. Throughout the whole weekend, it was harder to find actual costumes than it’s ever been.
Speaking of pictures, ultimately when the day is over, I want to take pictures that elicit something of an emotional response from me in some way shape or form. Often times those end up being League of Legends costumers, because I’m such a big geek over League of Legends, but I typically tend to lose my shit over things that trigger nostalgia or my various fandoms, like 80s-90s professional wrestling or people dressed up as characters from movies from a similar span of time.
However, if you were to ask me which pictures I enjoyed looking at the most, aside from some of the obvious choices, like my girlfriend or being goofballs with friends, as far as costumes go, it’s the ones where families dressed up together. It’s like the families that geek out together stick together, and sure, I’m no different than many other people with cameras of being picky and subjective, but several times throughout the weekend, I saw a father and son dressed up as stuff like Calvin and Hobbes, or a Ghostbuster and Stay-Puft, and thought “god damn, those kids have no idea just how cool their parents are,” and then felt really old, but still with a warmed heart.
I look back at those pictures and linger more than I would than I would for any of the numerous pretty girls I took pictures of, because I wonder what I’d have been like if my family would have ever done something like such, or if I would aspire to be the kind of dad that would do similarly if I ever had kids; but the point is that an emotional response was triggered, and those are what I ultimately look for in taking pictures at conventions.
I know I’ve written a lot; I know I do that sometimes, but in spite of the critical things I’ve brought up, I don’t mean to imply that I had a miserable time, and that I hate Dragon*Con, and never want to come back, because that’s not true at all. When I look at back at the weekend as a whole, it was pretty decent time, I spent time with lots of good people and took a ton of pictures. It wasn’t a mind-blowing experience and I’m not left with a sense of warmth, post-con partem or anything of the sort. I wouldn’t say it was the most fun Dragon*Con or the best one by any stretch of the imagination, but I also would not say it was the worst, either.
Getting back to the word “clarity” I mentioned earlier, the reason I use it, is because attending Dragon*Con this year was good in the sense that it’s given me a very strong sense of clarity that I simply need to take a break from Dragon*Con. I was on the fence and wasn’t really sure how I was feeling about Dragon*Cons in general prior to attending, but after I left Downtown Atlanta, and thought back to the weekend, and thought ahead to the future, the more clear it was that a break is certainly the best idea. In a way I felt relieved that Dragon*Con was over, and that the future looks freer and more promising with it in the rearview mirror instead of rapidly approaching.
I love you still, Dragon*Con – I just don’t like you right now.
So with all that being said, it should be no surprise to anyone still reading to this point, that I’m not going to do Dragon*Con next year in 2016. I want a break. I think I need a break. I want to miss Dragon*Con, by forcing myself to miss it.
The thing is, the future has already been written, because I’ve already made my plans for Labor Day 2016; deliberately planned on the same weekend, so that I won’t have any temptation or any compulsion to find myself back in Downtown Atlanta, doing the same things I’ve done for the better part of the last 13 years. Instead of walking laps in hotels before getting plastered, I’ll be cruising down the Adriatic Sea, visiting countries I never even imagined that I would ever visit; getting plastered on a boat is still debatable, but it would be naive to imagine that it won’t happen at least once.
And I’m already looking forward to it; something I didn’t feel until literally four days before Dragon*Con came, and that was mostly for the anticipation of seeing friends I hadn’t seen in ages, and not the con itself.
I’m looking forward to a lot of things in fact, with the knowledge that Dragon*Con is not on the calendar in 2016. I’m looking forward to a spring and summer with a little bit more freedom, to do things without having to feel the imaginary pressure of an approaching deadline for an elaborate costume or a prop to fabricate, whether it is for myself, or in assistance of someone else.
I’m looking forward to things like barbecues, parties, festivals, nighttime events, trips, intrinsically-themed 5K runs and beerfests. I’m even looking forward to the idea of possibly watching more live baseball, as the Braves say farewell to Turner Field with hopefully another 100-loss season.
I don’t want to clean out my garage so I can basically destroy it again to make a prop. I don’t want to miss an imaginary cutoff date for when I could order something from China and subsequently have to order it for way more to account for expedited shipping. I don’t want hamburger hands from sanding, burns or chemical contact.
And one thing I’m really, really looking forward to, is not having to worry about the apocalyptic rat race that’s going to happen in less than a month that’s known as Dragon*Con hotel booking. I’m not going to lie, I’m going to hear about it, I’m going to know about it, and there’s undoubtedly going to be that niggling thought in my head that “I wonder how my chances would be” and the need to stop myself from going onto the Marriott website or something. But as I said, my Labor Day next year is already booked, and there’s no need for me to concern myself over it, and god as my witness, I’m not going to, even if it’s chaos waiting to be witnessed – again.
I’m looking forward to more spontaneity and essentially the freedom for more spontaneity. I want a summer that’s not dictated by a single event. I want a summer that’s full of several good events, with the send off being sailing into European beaches.
Does this mean the end of Dragon*Con for me? That’s not the plan, the idea is taking a year off, with hopes that it just might invigorate me and make me look forward to going again perhaps in 2017. However, with the allegations that the host hotels are pulling some seriously Draconian policies regarding needing to stay in ’16 to guarantee reservation for ’17, things just might work themselves to where the future becomes quite uncertain.
But we’ll cross those bridges when we get there.
So yes, I know this has been a tremendously long post, even to my typical long-read standards. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate your readership as always, and I thank you for visiting.
Au Revoir, Dragon*Con!
