Posted By Kathleen David on September 8, 2015
Wow, that was a good Dragon Con. Easily in my top five Dragon Cons.
It was also an endurance test that I think I barely passed. And No, I was not out all night partying like I use to. A lot of things I participated in when late included the puppet slam, which went to 2 AM ish.
My puppet slam piece entitled the Cad in the Hat went over well thanks to Peter’s writing, Maurice’s dulcet tones in reading Peter’s words, Angelo’s music creation to accompany the words, John’s sound effects that took the whole piece to the next level, and Peter Hart’s help in getting me to sort out the show in my head, My puppeteers John, Jamie, Peter, Cheralyn and Spencer. Thanks to Beau, Elizabeth, Charles, and Whitney for getting the show to work and everyone else who participated from the crew on. And lest I forget, a special thank you to Bob & Carl the SciFi Janitors since they were the catalyst that started this snowball.
Caroline got to talk to some interesting people this weekend including Nichelle Nichols, Congressman John Lewis, and Councilman Michael Bond. They all talked about politics, the civil rights movement, and the upcoming election, which Caroline has very strong feelings that she is more than willing to tell you about.
I had the good fortune, thank you PTB at DragonCon, to be the moderator of the hour with Caroll Spinney panel on Saturday. We discussed the documentary about him and his lovely wife Deborah entitled “I am Big Bird” which I highly recommend. We discussed how he got into puppetry and how he found himself on Sesame Street. He sang a few of the classic Sesame Street songs which I could see the audience either mouthing along, singing along, or bobbing their heads slightly in time.
I judged the Friday Night Workmanship contest, which was a bear since everyone brought their A+ game and people lost by fractions of points. This year we had the documentation before the contest so we had a good idea going in what we were going to be looking at. Even then people surprised us by bring in pieces that they had done since they submitted their documentation that we were wondering how it was going to be done in time and they looked great. I had my great group of judges that I have worked with before and Lee’s staff members that have been doing this with us for a while now so we quickly get into a working rhythm. The few new faces slotting in beautifully and we were a well oiled machine that had a good time working our way through the entries.
I had two puppetry panels and both went well. The first one was entitled “So you want to build a….” and the audience asked a panel of experts across the board about how they might create or improve something they were creating puppetry wise. I know the audience left happy because for the rest of the convention the people who were there kept saying how much they liked that panel.
The second one was how to cloth your puppet and it was just that Cheralyn Lambeth and I talked about making clothing for puppets and tricks that we had learned over the years. Cheralyn is the author of a book entitled which I can highly recommend and would even if we didn’t know each other. We answered questions and solved a few mysteries for people on how we make our puppet costumes. I know we got people thinking differently when it was pointed out that with puppets the clothing can be put on differently than a human. The head can be removed and the puppet dressed and the like.
I did go to Sean’s party, which was an Elvis/NASCAR themed piece. I had a great time talking to old friends and making new ones. The fine print on the back of the invite was a work of verbal art.
I also got to show some of my friends who either hadn’t been to Dragon Con or hadn’t been in a while around the convention and taught them some of my tricks for getting around the crowds (Going through the food court to get between the Hyatt and the Marriott is easier than the sky bridge between the two just know there are steps involved) and some of my favorite events.
I made some new friends too. I had a lot of fun talking to the Spinneys and their managed Tim. I had fun talking to and listening to Caroline talk to Nichelle who informed me that I had a lovely, sweet and bright daughter. Paddy introduced me to his girlfriend Erika who was the Amazon on American Horror Story Freak Show. Got to give her credit, she wore heels very well.
I had fun catching up with Don Maitz and Janny Wurtz. They always have a couple of interesting stories of what they had been up to this year and Don always, without fail, has my bad joke for the year. I didn’t see Larry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey this convention but I know they were there because they did stop by rib night while I was down for rehearsal for Puppet Slam. I did get to talk briefly to a lot of people I know but that was about all I could do since I was running pillar to post all three days and travelling on Monday.
The puppets in the Art Show were well received. I sold both Phluzzies and the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Holmes and Watson set. I guess someone really enjoyed the joke that I did them in black, white, and grey since they were in black and white film. So that is a really good year for me at the Art Show. Peter is surprised that Cumberbatch and Freeman didn’t sell but there will be other conventions and the like.
There was not much down time at DragonCon so parts are a blur but it all worked out. I did all my panels which seemed to be well received. I participated in Puppet Slam which is a highlight for my weekend being part of the puppet tribe.
I am grateful for DragonCon 2015
And behind the cut, my photos from the event.
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