![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
One Con To Rule Them All
Nov. 16th, 2003 11:13 pmKia ora... Back from Ring*Con 2003, and boy, was it fantastic. I'm drop-dead tired, so I'll just stuff everything that I still have in mind in this post and maybe work it out later. Or so. Or not. Packed with insidey jokes and ranting and whatever, so bear with me.
Marc B. Lee, the master of ceremonies - enthusiastic as ever.
Mark and Craig are still the comedians they were last year. Their panels were great fun, and their comedy show was downright hilarious. Although Craig shouldn't tell so many blonde jokes. And Mark shouldn't forget his passport again... ;) The day Raphael painted a nude!
Bruce Hopkins and John Leigh a.k.a. Gamling and Háma were just as funny, having us imitate the sounds of horse hooves and asking all Rohirrim to the stage at their first panel. (Of course, I didn't dare to go. Ngah.) Bruce also did a great job juggling both hackysacks (or whatever way you write that) and questions. It's quite funny how much the guys who hardly say anything in the movie can just ramble on and on in real life... A big hand for the Gambling Dept.!
Nathaniel Lees - Uglúk, and Mifune, I mean, Captain Mifune - another great guy. Quite a presence.
Sala Baker - Sauron himself, and some minor Orc in ROTK, I forgot which one - Shagrat? Snaga? Something like that - and Lawrence Makoare, the Maori team of Mayhem and Mischief, were quite impressive too. Huge and a bit scary ("Too tall for a Hobbit, too fat for an elf"), although they were really, really nice, friendly, kind guys. Today they tried to teach some Maori drinking/ clapping/ coordinational dance to a few curious who messed up spectaculary for the most part...
Jorn Benzon, of whom, unfortunately, I saw very little - nothing actually except during the Opening and Closing Ceremony and the autograph session. But I'm sure he's just as funny and friendly as the others.
And John Rhys-Davies. Oh my. What a presence. What a voice. His Q&A sessions were lectures in philosophy, history, theology, literature, astronomy, politics... his answers to the questions were all rather lengthy, but also really intelligent and thoughtful, full of side information. That man is incredibly brilliant. However, it's his fault that the autograph sessions were lengthened indefinitely: He was so attentive and talked to everyone so the queue just couldn't move on. Eventually, many people didn't get one. But then, if you can only enjoy a Con because you get an autograph, where's the point.
The costume contest, with some really well-thought out, intelligent performances - not the standard stuff, not at all. You don't get Aragorn/ Arwen love scenes in Sindarin and Schwäbisch often, or "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok" orcs, or Uruks in Tights, or "Gil-Galad as a herold to his herold reminding the herold that he's just a herold", very often... The "fashion show" sort of sucked, but oh well. The party didn't. Schelmish rock.
I missed all the lectures, got a Gondorian silver coin, clapped so hard my palms still hurt. I saw some more books I really must have. I found out that after wearing chainmail long enough, it really grows on you - after a while, you don't notice its weight actually until you take it off, which then feels as though you could fly. I also found out that wearing chainmail is definitely much easier than carrying it in a bag. And I found out that the Éowyn dress I finally got turns me into a sort of clone because this time, no costume was there as often as this one. While this is an improvement compared to the many Galadriels last year (...), it still sucks wearing the same thing as everyone else. (There was only one other Dernhelm, though. Heh.)
Meeting Katha, Rib, Michi, Wolvie, Dulin, Bride, Mithi, Yshira, Varda, Nimue, Bilbo, Smea, Aditu, Conny, Baumberta (the Stunt Entwife - glad you didn't get hurt!), Olli, Arcana, Neniel and all those whom I forget right now was great. And, of course,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyelleth - good to have met you! I hope you got home safely. And now you know Olwe, too ;)
Already registered for Ring*Con 2004. Number 92. Rock. On. (Or "Rock Off", because "I'm always saying the opposite of what he says"...)
Drop dead tired. Sort of burned out. But it was absolutely fantastic.
Hopefully I'll be able to write something more structured and less fragmentary tomorrow. For now, I'm even too tired to translate this stuff. Maybe tomorrow, too.
Marc B. Lee, the master of ceremonies - enthusiastic as ever.
Mark and Craig are still the comedians they were last year. Their panels were great fun, and their comedy show was downright hilarious. Although Craig shouldn't tell so many blonde jokes. And Mark shouldn't forget his passport again... ;) The day Raphael painted a nude!
Bruce Hopkins and John Leigh a.k.a. Gamling and Háma were just as funny, having us imitate the sounds of horse hooves and asking all Rohirrim to the stage at their first panel. (Of course, I didn't dare to go. Ngah.) Bruce also did a great job juggling both hackysacks (or whatever way you write that) and questions. It's quite funny how much the guys who hardly say anything in the movie can just ramble on and on in real life... A big hand for the Gam
Nathaniel Lees - Uglúk, and Mifune, I mean, Captain Mifune - another great guy. Quite a presence.
Sala Baker - Sauron himself, and some minor Orc in ROTK, I forgot which one - Shagrat? Snaga? Something like that - and Lawrence Makoare, the Maori team of Mayhem and Mischief, were quite impressive too. Huge and a bit scary ("Too tall for a Hobbit, too fat for an elf"), although they were really, really nice, friendly, kind guys. Today they tried to teach some Maori drinking/ clapping/ coordinational dance to a few curious who messed up spectaculary for the most part...
Jorn Benzon, of whom, unfortunately, I saw very little - nothing actually except during the Opening and Closing Ceremony and the autograph session. But I'm sure he's just as funny and friendly as the others.
And John Rhys-Davies. Oh my. What a presence. What a voice. His Q&A sessions were lectures in philosophy, history, theology, literature, astronomy, politics... his answers to the questions were all rather lengthy, but also really intelligent and thoughtful, full of side information. That man is incredibly brilliant. However, it's his fault that the autograph sessions were lengthened indefinitely: He was so attentive and talked to everyone so the queue just couldn't move on. Eventually, many people didn't get one. But then, if you can only enjoy a Con because you get an autograph, where's the point.
The costume contest, with some really well-thought out, intelligent performances - not the standard stuff, not at all. You don't get Aragorn/ Arwen love scenes in Sindarin and Schwäbisch often, or "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok" orcs, or Uruks in Tights, or "Gil-Galad as a herold to his herold reminding the herold that he's just a herold", very often... The "fashion show" sort of sucked, but oh well. The party didn't. Schelmish rock.
I missed all the lectures, got a Gondorian silver coin, clapped so hard my palms still hurt. I saw some more books I really must have. I found out that after wearing chainmail long enough, it really grows on you - after a while, you don't notice its weight actually until you take it off, which then feels as though you could fly. I also found out that wearing chainmail is definitely much easier than carrying it in a bag. And I found out that the Éowyn dress I finally got turns me into a sort of clone because this time, no costume was there as often as this one. While this is an improvement compared to the many Galadriels last year (...), it still sucks wearing the same thing as everyone else. (There was only one other Dernhelm, though. Heh.)
Meeting Katha, Rib, Michi, Wolvie, Dulin, Bride, Mithi, Yshira, Varda, Nimue, Bilbo, Smea, Aditu, Conny, Baumberta (the Stunt Entwife - glad you didn't get hurt!), Olli, Arcana, Neniel and all those whom I forget right now was great. And, of course,
ladyelleth - good to have met you! I hope you got home safely. And now you know Olwe, too ;)Already registered for Ring*Con 2004. Number 92. Rock. On. (Or "Rock Off", because "I'm always saying the opposite of what he says"...)
Drop dead tired. Sort of burned out. But it was absolutely fantastic.
Hopefully I'll be able to write something more structured and less fragmentary tomorrow. For now, I'm even too tired to translate this stuff. Maybe tomorrow, too.
