Some notes as I continue. One, I feel it is important to re-emphasize that this was only Tammy’s second DragonCon, and she had already set herself up in the Art Show and gotten herself into the parade. I feel it’s impressive that she knew she’d found her home and found ways to be more of a part of it. Two, I am not exactly typing out “everything” that happened at my very first DragonCon. Please understand that, at the time, Tammy and I were two madly in love young twenty-somethings. That’s all I’ll say about that. Finally, I may be remembering things out of order. Get over it.
Saturday morning, Tammy got us up earlier than a hardcore DragonCon-er should because, as I said, she’d entered herself into the parade as an artist. There were three artists. The other two wore basically “normal” clothes (forgive me if either of said artists are reading this, I do not mean to denigrate your participation in that parade). Tammy, however, wore tall black boots, a black skirt, black corset, black Mansour mask, “star” contact lenses, and the big black wings I had bought her from Hot Topic a few months prior. The mask was a black, crown like design with a crystal hanging over the forehead. She stalked along throughout the parade acting like a succubus or something. She totally committed to the role. You can spot her in the video of the parade that year, stepping across the screen with hands acting like claws. It was cute and hilarious and I was so proud.
After breakfast in the Hyatt, we hit up the Dealers/Exhibitors hall for the first time. I discovered the weapons vendors and wanted to buy all of them. I discovered Steve Jackson games and wanted to get a copy of the brand new game Munchkin (I wouldn’t for a couple years). I discovered T-shirts displaying every form of fandom I never even knew existed. She took me by Mansour Masks, who were a staple of the hall once upon a time. Games Workshop had a setup that year, it’s the only year I can remember them being there. After my hellacious trouncing by the Space Marines, I bought a few more tanks.
Finally, we found Brute Force Leather.
Tammy found herself captivated by a display in the corner. It was a bikini, made of red and black leather, with three demon hands molded from leather to cover “those” parts. Her eyes got big and she informed me “that’s awesome”. I could not help but agree. We wandered on, but the seed had been planted.
We took a break, got some Chik Fil-A, then went back to the room so she could swap outfits- she’d brought five, so she had to make sure to keep rotating through them. She changed into a blue corset and velvet skirt to better go with the fairy wings she switched into. Fashion was a key piece of DragonCon for Tammy, something I had not quite understood until right about then. It was not quite “costuming” or “cosplay”. I think her primary goal was “Nerd Queen Sexy”. It was an intersectional fashion concept that combined goth, punk, fantasy, and exotic dancer.
Another aspect of our trips back to the room was foot care. There was much foot rubbing and a little foot soaking in our tiny little shower that we could barely both fit in. We added band-aids, mole skin, etc. to her feet. I suggested she could wear flats. She told me to bite my tongue.
We found our way to the vendor’s hall and the Walk of Fame, which were buried in the lowest level of the Marriott. She showed me “Elf”’s booth, an artist that she claimed had used her and Kacey as subjects the previous year. Whether he did so or just wanted to take a picture of them, I can’t blame him. She showed me the stacks and stacks of comic books the vendors sold, and astounded me with her knowledge of just about every comic book we came across. Then, she used the throw away line that “It’s just impossible to keep up with all of them, but I tried…”
Another note on travel in DragonCon in 2002- the only sky bridges were the hamster tubes going from the corner of the Marriott through the Peachtree Center Mall and then back over to the Hyatt. They were generally pretty crammed. The primary means of traveling between the two (yes, the “only” two hotels) was through the narrow little staircase at the back of the Hyatt. Helping Tammy tromp up and down those stairs in heels or boots was a key part of the experience.
We tromped our way up those stairs, Tammy introduced me to Celtic Rose, the folky, filky Irishesque band and I had the fortune of hearing their rendition of “Pagan Girl”, which she was dead certain they wrote for her. As with all other things that weekend, I could not argue.
In my prologue I mentioned the first Lord of the Rings movie was less than a year old, and it was The Biggest Thing to happen to the fantasy world in Forever. I was (surprise!) the nerdy kid in elementary school who had memorized the animated version of “Hobbit”, “Return of the King” (“Where there’s a whip <kew-tissh>, therrre’s a way!>, and Ralph Bakshi’s strange attempt to combine cartoon and real film in “The Lord of the Rings”. I’d lamented there was no consistent version of the series. Tammy and I had both read them when we were arguably too young to do so. And now Peter Jackson (with, oddly, almost no real credits to qualify him to do so) had created the perfect, immaculate, quintessential version of “The Fellowship of the Ring”. We wanted more. More was due in a couple months. There to feed this desire was TheOneRing.net.
It was my first incredibly large panel at DragonCon. My first experience waiting in line to get into the Centennial ballrooms. I peripherally knew that Star Trek’s Nichelle Nicols, the original and at the time only “Uhura” had had a panel in there, as well as other super famous people, but we had not attended any of those. We could not miss the conjecture on “The Two Towers” and, considering the crowd, many felt the same way. We were wow’d and excited by the undercover, super sneaky stalker work the OneRing folks had done. We came away more eager than ever for the movie to come out so we could meet Gollum, see the Rohirrim, the Ents, and experience the defense of Helm’s Deep.
Next was the Dawn Look-a-like Contest. This was my first experience with Dawn, Joseph Michael Linsner’s gorgeous goddess of birth and rebirth. Considering Tammy essentially was Dawn, she was a natural fan. She mused about needing to do a Dawn costume the next year. The mere thought made me head explode. I remember one particular contestant had her bio state “Mother, Artist, Black Belt in Karate, she can do it all”. In standard Tammy style, she glanced at me and said “Yeah, but is she a helicopter pilot?”
Afterward, we pushed it up at the all night rave, had more drinks, at the Hyatt Bar, had some cigars, and then headed to the room some time in the wee hours. I could not imagine how the weekend could possibly get any better. Silly me.
