Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 3

We now move on to part 3 of my adventures during the 2001 Gen Con when it was in Milwaukee.

Enjoy.....

ZANGZ's GEN CON JOURNAL PART 3

Saturday, August 4th, 2001.

It's "Sci-Fi Saturday" at GenCon today and there are a bunch of celebrity Q&A sessions I want to hear so I high tail it down to the Midwest Express center and get the skinny on the where's, when's and how's of the Q&A sessions (at least I think I do). I briefly run into a couple I currently game with. He's dressed as Pan, god of mischief and she's dressed as a Lovcraftian Schoolgirl, complete with Necronomicon schoolbooks. I know many a fan-boy who'd want to carry her books to class for her, although, Pan might have something to say about it. After chatting with them I then head back to the vendor hall and to the autograph stage to make my claim in line. To my dismay the autograph line zigzags through the separators all the way down the convention aisle. Crap! I guess I'll try again tomorrow. It's no wonder the line is so large. For none other Lando Calrisian (Billy Dee Williams) walks out on the autograph stage to huge applause. I'll have to be more assertive tomorrow. I'm not much of an autograph hound, but in the last few years I've tried to get a few people from the Star Wars movies. He's definitely a must! I better get to the hall where they'll be having his Q&A session if the crowd is this big for the autograph singing.

I get to the Hyatt's ballroom 50 minutes before Billy Dee is scheduled. There's no one there! I'll get a great seat!! I sit and read Bram Stoker's Dracula for a while when in comes Coreboy, a con friend, who accompanied by a few friends and is quite surprised that there's hardly anyone here 30 minutes before. That should have been the first sign of foul play. Not 5 minutes later my friend, Spanky calls Coreboy on his cell phone informing us that the Q&A has been moved to another ballroom in another hotel across the way!!! Have you ever seen con geeks panic? It's quite a sight. We start shouting at Spanky over the phone, "WHAT HOTEL!?!?!?!", "WHERE'D YOU GET THAT INFORMATION FROM!?!?!!?", "DEAR GOD!!!!!", "START RUNNING!!!"

So Coreboy, his buddies and I start to make the frantic trek all the way back to the convention center, through the second floor lobby and across the street to the Hilton where we make a mad dash for the concierge. "Where's the Ballroom?" we ask. He looks at us blankly and says, "Which one?" NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO HEAR!!!!! MORE PANIC!!! He tells us that the ballrooms are on the 4th and 5th floors. We bolt to the elevators. Here's one! Going down. Here's another! Going down. Damn! Time's ticking away and whatever room the Billy Dee Q&A is in is probably filling up. Finally one that's going up!! We get in and decide to split up into two groups, kinda like Scooby Doo. One group will go to the 4th floor while the other will go to the 5th. Coreboy and one of his buddies go to the 4th and his other buddy and I go to the 5th. We run around the 5th floor of the Hilton like chickens with our head cut off. We find one ballroom filled with tons of CCG players. Obviously, this isn't it. As we are about to leave Coreboy and his friend show up telling us there are no ballrooms on the 4th floor. He decides to ask one of the WOTC staff who is running the CCG tournament. They have no clue as to what the hell he's babbling about. Suddenly a horrid thought runs through my head. What if Spanky's information was wrong, nothing changed and we spent the last 15 minutes losing our good seats by running around like pinheads for no reason? Coreboy gets Spanky on the cell phone and asks where he got his info. Spanky tells us that they made an announcement over at the autograph stage where he and his girlfriend were and that the Q&A is in this hotel in the Plankington Ballroom. This results in another mad dash trying to find the Plankington Ballroom. When we finally find it, its 12:00pm on the dot and there's one, count 'em, one person who's in this room waiting for something. Again we doubt Spanky's information. You'd think the place would be wall to wall with Star Wars geeks. We go up to this gentleman and ask what event he's here for. He tells us there's supposed to be a seminar on some RPG I never heard of before. Spanky is in for it!! Just as we're about to curse Spanky's name, a small group of people wander in with confusion on their faces asking us if this is where Billy Dee Williams will be. We tell them we're not sure. Then more confused people come in and ask the same question. It seems as though WOTC changed the location at the last minute and we were in the right place after all. Thank god!!! A major tragedy was averted thanks to Spanky's attentiveness. THANKS SPANKY!!! We scored front row seats and reserved seats in the second row for Spanky and his girlfriend who arrive a few minutes later.

After a while the place fills up and in walks a skinny, white guy who addresses the crowd. Boy, Billy Dee has lost some weight and is quite pale since I saw him this morning. He identifies himself as Mr. Williams' assistant (oh) and proceeds to introduce Billy Dee. Loud applause....Loud applause. Billy Dee Williams' Q&A session was very subdued. I don't think he was used to doing Q&A sessions. He was very quiet and laid back and perhaps a bit shy. I felt sorry for the people in the back who couldn't hear him. Due to the last minute changes of venues there was no microphone for him to use. He talked about his film work, his painting and his books. He's a very eclectic individual. After his Q&A session ended he smiled and the crowd applauded again as he left the room.

Up next was "Star Trek: the Next Generation's" Marina Sirtis who plays Counselor Troi. What fan-boy could resist that Q&A? Certainly not us!! After about five minutes of waiting I look to my right and not six feet away from me is Marina Sirtis. It's like she appeared out of thin air or perhaps was transported into the room. It's probably more likely I was zoning out and didn't notice her come in. Apparently many others in the room didn't either because everyone let out a bit of a surprised, "Ohhhh!!!" She done sneaked up on us!! Loud applause....loud applause. Marina was delightful!! She was funny, vivacious and very animated. She's certainly not very hard on the 'ol peepers either!! Having front row seats didn't hurt this seminar AT ALL! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. KnowhatImean, KnowhatImean. After Marina was done we decided to split up. I wanted to go back to the convention center and wander around a bit before I went to the last seminar of the day, "Star Wars: Connections"!!

After about an hour and a half of more "people watching", I decided to head to the Hyatt Ballroom where the Star Wars seminar was to be held. When I arrived there was already a line waiting to get in. You see this seminar is being given by Steven J. Sansweet who, in the beginning, was a fan and collector of the Star Wars saga. He now works as a sort of liaison for Lucasfilms. Lucky bastard. He knows his stuff and he's brought with him some promotional footage of Star Wars, Episode II. Drool Drool Drool!!!! Just before they let us in, a bunch of fans dressed in Imperial Stormtrooper garb walk up to the line. Very impressive!!! My hats off to them. I wont go into much detail about what all was shown at Mr. Sansweet's little show. But, suffice it to say, Episode II looks like it's going to be far better and a bit darker than its Disney-esque predecessor!!! LESS THAN A YEAR!!!!!! What I will tell you is that he gave a little preview of what to expect on the upcoming Episode I DVD release this October 16th. There will be lots of fun filled extras that fans will really appreciate including some fully completed deleted scenes and an excellent documentary on the making of the film and of course George Lucas' commentary!!

I head home afterward, take a shower, change clothes and meet up with Pan and his Lovecraftian schoolgirl (now cleverly disguised as normal people) at a Middle Eastern restaurant right around the corner from my apartment, just in time. Great meal! Great conversation! Great company! Time for bed.

Sunday August 5th, 2001.

It's the last day of Gen Con and my last chance to get Billy Dee Williams' autograph. I get to the front of the sealed vendor hall doors an hour before they open up. I'm poised and ready for action!! After a while it starts to get crowded and security moves us back five feet so as we don't smash into the vendor hall doors. We're reminded not to run. DON'T RUN?!?!?! Gamers have places to go, autographs to get, games to start! Finally the doors slowly open and we're greeted with about five worried WOTC workers in front of us holding up their hands in the "halt" position (why am I suddenly reminded of that scene at the end of Animal House where Kevin Bacon is trying to tame an unruly, panicked crowd? "ALL IS WELL!"). We herd on through them ignoring their pathetic pleas. Most of us head straight for the autograph both to avoid yesterday's fiasco when WOTC had to turn away a ton of people from getting Billy Dee's autograph. Not today, buck-o!! For I am about 20th in line and have a secure spot. So I may have maimed a small child and knocked over an old lady or two to get here. No biggie. For a free autographed picture of one of the big players in the Star Wars saga, I would have sold my mom to the Arabs. He helped blow up the second Death Star for crissakes!!

After Mr. Williams graciously signs my b&w 8X10, I happily spend the rest of the day wandering around lapping up the last day of geekdom. I do end up buying one more item, a kacky, dark blue AKIRA t-shirt. I also pick up more swag at the White Wolf Publishing booth. I also check out the art show which has some fabulous work! As I'm about to leave I hear over the loud speaker that fantasy author Neal Barrett, Jr. is signing free copies of his latest book. "Neal Barrett who?....wait a minute...FREE?" I head back to the autographing stage where I see Coreboy already way ahead of me. The line is small and after I get my signed book I decide it's time to bid a fair adieu to the Gen Con game fair for another year.

Next year will be a toughie since it will be leaving its home of Milwaukee thereafter. But at least we still have one more and who knows what celebrities and craziness they have planed for next year. Who knows, I may even meet that cute gaming honey!!!! I won't hold my breath.

Until next year, Gen Con.

P.S. Actually, I wouldn't sell my Mom to the Arabs. Love you Ma!


Hold on there folks! Much to what is probably your chagrin, this is not the end of my Gen Con journals. We still have a few more to go that chronicle the last year Gen Con was in Milwaukee, 2002.

So stay tuned for that.

Zangz.