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Tom
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Homepage: http://www.TomCroom.com
Posts by Tom
My #DragonCon 2010 Report, Part 1 of 3: The Good
Sep 8th
Believe it or not, I normally don’t plan to go to Dragon*Con each year. When I do go, I’m usually only there for a day or two at the most. This year, though, I did the “full” Dragon*Con weekend experience by showing up on on the first day of the event and leaving on the last.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ANY LURKING BOT-TARDS: A few years back, Wasabi Anime talked to Dragon*Con about having DARE! The Transformers Panel Ultimate make an appearance and we were turned down. Strangely enough, I still think Dragon*Con is a great convention… which must mean only one thing: That’s right, BotCon was a weak convention on it’s own.
Moving on… I’ve broken my Dragon*Con report into three parts: the good, the bad and the ugly. Here’s a breakdown of the good stuff that happened last weekend.
- While in Atlanta, Georgia I took the time to eat at Gladys and Ron’s Chicken & Waffles. (Post regarding this coming next week.)
- I ran into LeVar Burton in the elevator our first night at the Hilton and we talked Twitter while a somewhat intoxicated Joey Snackpants proclaimed in a less than subtle fashion “OH MY GOD IT’S LEVAR BURTON!”
- That same night, I bought Edward James Olmos dinner at Trader Vic’s and Mr. Olmos then convinced Joey Snackpants to watch the new Battlestar Galactica. Read that story here.
- My Favorite DC Tweet: @TomCroom thinks nothing says #fail more than a Power Girl cosplay with less than a B cup. #DragonCon
- We went to a great Stargate panel… and (it seemed) that I pissed of John de Lancie with my question. Read this and then watch this. That aside, Christopher Judge is a RIOT and needs his own panel next year.
- I spent an evening walking around with a bunch of Stargate cosplayers (including Shannon, Katie McAwesome and Joey Snackpants) and wound up at the Stargate Charity Party. While going from hotel to hotel that night, I had someone recognize me from events I host at Florida SuperCon.
- We ate chicken nachos not once, but TWICE! at the Metro Café Diner.
- I had my photo taken with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. QUANTUM LEAP AWESOMENESS.
- I tracked down Paul Dini via his Twitter posts so Shannon could have him sign her Harley Quinn books. Social Networking WIN.
- We went to a second Stargate panel. Going to more than one panel at Dragon*Con is extremely rare with my group… crazy!
- I met Drew Curtis from FARK. I bought a book from him, he signed it, and we made fun of Florida together. Good times.
- I got to see a couple of friends around the convention including “Uncle” George Lowe and Erin Gray… both great people.
- After being friends with my wife and a number of the Wasabi Anime staff AND being on my Facebook, I met Brian from Making Mischief for the first time (in person) in five years.
- After about two years of talking online, I met Kelly from Convention Fans in person for the first time.
- I also met fellow Twitter users @SarahNFisk and @EricaDodd at the convention in person. It’s fun using the Interwebz to meet get to know new people. Even more interesting: Sarah had a a friend she was meeting in one of the hotels that night… and her friend’s roommates in the hotel were my friends Angie and Tentacle Chris. (insert It’s a Small World theme here.)
- My other favorite Dragon*Con tweet: @thatDJSpider: ‘steampunk: when goths discovered brown’ #dragoncon
- A record THREE panels! We went to the Battlestar Galactica one, too.
- We went to the Stargate Charity Auction and Joey Snackpants scored an actual prop from Stargate SG-1.
- I met and got autographs from Michael Shanks and Ben Browder. Michael and I discussed our successful marriages while Ben and I discussed the fact that John de Lancie is a “serious” man who doesn’t answer questions about fast food restaurants.
- Before leaving town… we had dinner at a Zaxby’s. (I love that place.)
As you can see, it was a busy weekend at Dragon*Con 2010. Tomorrow’s post… The Masquerade.
Remember the Stargate #DragonCon panel I posted about yesterday…?
Sep 4th
It seems Kaleb took video of my hard hitting question.
My Question at the #DragonCon 2011 Stargate SG-1 Panel
Sep 3rd
My question was regarding the fact that I had recently seen Richard Dean Anderson do a Zaxby’s commercial… and I inquired what their favorite fast food restaurants were.
The question worked to spark a conversation that went MUCH longer than it should have. The audience loved it, though.
Answers:
C. Nemic – Popeye’s Chicken
M. Gero – McDonalds
J. de Lancie – (refused to answer… LOL)
C. Judge – Taco Bell (because, according to him, he loves a good fart joke)
B. Browder – Ben said it is based on region; West Coast = In and Out Burger; East Coast = Chic-Fil-A (smart answer!)
The Edward James Olmos Battlestar Galactica Trader Vic’s @JoeySnackpants at #DragonCon 2011 story…
Sep 3rd
In order get the full impact of this story you need a little history. First off, Edward James Olmos made this comment about seven years ago…
“I’m going to be the first one to say it really clearly, ‘Please tell your readers, do not watch this program.’ … If you are a real, real staunch ‘Battlestar Galactica’ person, please don’t watch it.” - Edward James Olmos, who plays Commander Adama in “Battlestar Galactica,” to the Television Critics Association in July 2003
That statement made for a way for my pal Joey Snackpants to avoid watching the new series when it aired. He LOVES old school classic science fiction and the original BSG ranks up there with some the greatest fun filled TV of the late seventies and early eighties. When the new series was wrapping up a couple of years ago and its popularity was at a peak, Joey enjoyed jumping into BSG conversations at conventions and pointing out that the ONLY reason he never watched the show was because Edward James Olmos told him not to.
Now, I watched the show at the urging of Jason Dorough and LOVED IT. As a fan, I have regularly encouraged Mr. Snackpants to dedicate some time to give it a chance. His response was the same canned answer about the Edward James Olmos quote… but it eventually became “I’ll only watch it if Edward James Olmos tells me to!”
Flash forward to last night. Each year at Dragon*Con there is a tradition of getting dinner and drinks at Trader Vic’s in the Hilton with my friends. This year, when we were seated, I noticed someone sitting at the table near us:
Yup. That’s Mr. Olmos and Julie Caitlin Brown at the table behind us.
Seeing an opportunity to force Joey to spend about $150 against his will, I began plotting a way to make a moment happen. A few Mai Tais later, I flagged down their server and paid their bill. (It wasn’t until later that we discovered that the server didn’t know who either person at the table was… until we mentioned Selena.)
It worked.
Showing true class, Mr. Olmos and Ms. Brown came to table and shook hands and thanked everyone at our table. I explained to Edward that I was a fan of his work and appreciated him coming over. I then told him the story of Joey’s refusal to watch the show (thus putting Joey, sitting to my right, completely on the spot.)
Edward James Olmos spent about ten minutes pitching Joey Snackpants to watch the new Battlestar Galactica.
Thus, per his own request, Edward James Olmos has now personally TOLD Joey Snackpants to WATCH the new Battlestar Galactica. He has committed to do so.
Yup, It’s Dragon*Con people. 
This post is a test… and a report from The Road to #DragonCon
Sep 1st
I am testing the Android WordPress app from the road. If it works the way it should, you should see my view of the back of Karma’s head while she watches the road ahead to Atlanta.
Working Out with DOCTOR WHO: Planet of the Spiders (3rd Doctor)
Aug 27th
You’d think that iTunes would have somehow put these in something close to chronological order… but where would the fun be in that, right?
Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders (from iTunes): The Doctor’s past has caught up with him, and now he must risk death to save the universe from the evil clutches of the Great One.
The four things of note from this (otherwise cheesy) series of episodes…
THE WHOMOBILE
The Doctor gets a sweet set of wheels! Kevin Smith would be proud of it… since it’s a FLYING car!
UNIT (UNified Intelligence Taskforce, or United Nations Intelligence Taskforce)
I guess the good Doctor worked for the British government? From Wikipedia…
UNIT (UNified Intelligence Taskforce, or United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Operating under the auspices of the United Nations, its purpose is to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth. In the original Doctor Who series, several UNIT personnel (such as The Brigadier) played a major role in the programme.
Following the broadcast of the 2005 series, executive producer Russell T Davies explained that the real life United Nations were no longer happy to be associated with the fictional organisation, and the UN’s full name could no longer be used. However, the “UNIT” and “UN” abbreviations can be used, as long as it is not explained what the letters stand for.[1] In 2008, he announced that the organisation’s name has been changed to the “Unified Intelligence Taskforce”.[2] This new name was first mentioned on-screen in “The Sontaran Stratagem”.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART
The Brigadier is a great addition to the show and this was my second time seeing him. A fun straight man to many of the Doctor’s offbeat actions and comments, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart very much grounds the series (pun intended) on Earth. He helps carry Planet of the Spiders with humor and a sense of purpose.
SPOILER ALERT! (THOUGH YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS AFTER 30 SOME ODD YEARS…)
It seems that my SECOND outing with the THIRD doctor was his FINAL appearance. In the last episode, I was treated to my FIRST regeneration scene… Jon Pertwee fades away to become Tom Baker.
Overall, the most interesting thing about the Planet of the Spiders was the passing of the Doctor. The Spiders as villains seemed somewhat inferior in comparison to previous villains, and I was kind of disappointed that such weakly developed evil characters where the undoing of the Third Doctor.
William Shatner FTW
Aug 26th
Thanks Blackspearvoid for sharing this awesome little nugget from TrekMovie.com. Both photos are real.
