rivercityvibe   “Puerile, smutty, schoolboy nonsense” – My Mom

I am bored of this now, but again, it has proved an unbelievably popular attraction. Let’s see who I can randomly pull out of my pics  folder carefully select on their aesthetic merits, six crucial criteria: face, rack, posterior….. (that’s enough sexism. They are people, not objects. ed.)

I thought Brian Blessed was going through a personal crisis for a minute. Okay, one more post – Repeat Offenders to appear in the next week and that’s the lot.

Jeez, this has got really old for me. Yawn.

Some more borderline lookers with sweet Dungeons and Dragons skills. The previous Dragon*Con post has proved very popular.

You pervs.

I like what you're doing here. Nice one.

This one meets the required standard. No doubt.

Ooooh, cheeky.......

One of the 3 dozen dressed like this. This one was very pleasant....

So that’s it. I am drawing a line under this. We are back to lifestyle optimization, mocking the pompous and celebrity gossip. From now.

Well, after this:

I seem to remember the zombies were slimmer in the original. Did you spot the professional dancers at the front, the Burger King and the one guy with a galvanized bucket on his head? It’s like Where’s Waldo? (SciFi Edition).

As I said in my previous post, the ladies of Dragon*Con made up, in some ways for the men. Many were dressed scantily. Some were passable. Some, as you would imagine, were not. We’re not going to think about this latter group. We are going to concentrate only on the ones who looked good in costume. Or had enormous racks. Here they are in the first of two posts. Don’t judge me:

Well done you!

Very nicely turned out.

Enormous, huge sword......

Conventionally beautiful. The Joe Bones "type"

I’ll post some more over the weekend. I know some of you are getting bored with the Dragon*Con vibe. Me too, to be honest.

Not long now……..

I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in a different place…… A place where every hero and every villain you have ever known, from TV and film, comic books, video games and novels by the likes of Tolkien and Rowling, have come together.

They’re all there, from crowd-pleasers like Spiderman and Wonder Woman, through to obscure characters from the Lord of the Rings. Those crazy aliens from Starship Troopers stand cheek by jowl with Ewoks and terrible baddies.

Like that one guy from X-Men – you know the one.

You’ve done that right? You’re imagining all of those heroes and villains. All of the ones you have ever known, in one place right?

Good.

Now imagine each and every one of them has put on 40 lbs – mainly around the midriff.

That’s Dragon*Con, folks.

Sums it up, really.....

My need to attend this EXTRAORDINARY event had its origins about eight years ago.

At the time, I had some business to attend to in Atlanta’s Peachtree Center. I forget precisely what it was, but I fancy it had something to do with ammunition-carrying mules in Tora Bora.… Anyway, I had turned up for the meeting, as is my habit, very early. I felt a little peckish, so I took the elevator down to the sprawling food court in an attempt to find something edible.

As I stood in line for food, I sensed a certain oddness. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it hit me. In plain sight, ahead of me in line, were two Gandalfs, an Orc, a sub-species of Gronk, and Ron Weasley.

I really was not prepared for that. For a moment, I thought my frappucino had been spiked….. In actual fact I was merely (merely!) experiencing the very first day of Dragon*Con. The web yields this:

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.

As soon as I realized the truth, I knew that one day, whenever it might be, I simply had to attend myself. That year was this year.

And attend I did. Though I stood in line for two hours on Friday buy 100 bucks worth of ticket, I really needn’t have bothered. There were all the mockery opportunities a man could dream of just wandering around the FOUR downtown hotels (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott and Sheraton).

I didn’t attend any of the events (they were completely incomprehensible to me anyhow. What, pray, is a Cthulhu? And no, I fucking do not want a “quick game of Munchkin“….)

I wandered around with a couple of carefully selected sidekicks, maintaining my famous edge with Vodka and Red Bull. The other attendees were harmless. Actually quite nice, some of them. But, boy, they were earnest. I would not have thought it possible to take oneself seriously while dressed up as Super Mario, but evidently it is…..

Then there were the Ladies of Dragon Con. Surprisingly, many met the required standard (some, though, decidedly DID NOT). It might be something about their weaponry (fnar fnar……) but the odd one or two kind of rocked in their weird geek way.

I promise to post pictures of the best within the next couple of days. Stand by…….