Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Oh, the Epicness of TrekCon!

Yes, it was epic, beyond what I could ever have expected. I arrived midday on Wednesday and met up with some friends that had already been there for a few days. We spent some time solving dastardly crimes in CSI: The Experience, which was great fun, and then we (all 20+ of us) invaded Firefly for dinner. After heading back to the hotel, I spent a good hour or so schlepping my mannequins and display costumes down to the dealer's room, because I hadn't yet acquired a minion to do these sorts of things for me. And, in my fatigue, I totally spaced and forgot to take a picture of the finished table. :p That's what happens when I don't have minions!

Thursday was the official start of the con. I pranced around with friends for the majority of the morning, doing nothing in particular besides the panels I wanted to attend. Then, 3pm came around, and that was MAGIC TIME. I met with Lisa Hansell and her husband Tim Vittetoe, who are professional SFX makeup artists, and who I'd booked to transform me into my scalier, sexier self. Four hours later, I was fully converted to my Cardassian self, and I was ECSTATIC with how it turned out! I changed into my civilian outfit, clipped on my wig, and pranced around the convention some more.

Sleeping in the prosthetics was not fun. I managed an entire three hours of uninterrupted sleep! But, that was alright, because I had my photo op with Casey Biggs (who played Damar, a Cardassian) the next morning, and I wanted to be up and ready for the 9AM shoot. Unfortunately, when I got down there, they told us that it was a typo in the program, and the shoot wasn't until 12:45. :-/ So, I hit the dealer's room, checked up on things at the table (someone else was running things, so I got to be a complete tourist while other people worked), getting swamped for pictures in the process, which is always a nice ego boost! Photos increased when I found The Bajoran, who kept following me all weekend. He refused to carry my luggage, though, despite the fact that it's the natural order of things for a Bajoran to serve a Cardassian, so the search for a minion continued.
I did end up finally getting my photo op with Mr. Biggs, and I just stuck around the photo op area because my shoot with Terry Farrell (Dax) was in all of 20 minutes.

I think I went to McFadden's after that, which is one of the bars in the Rio hotel, and which was hosting all sorts of Trek shenanigans in celebration of the convention. In all honesty, all the days sort of blend together into one long geeky blur. I do remember that while I was in McFadden's, Rod Roddenberry called me beautiful, and Bill Shatner grabbed me and told me to go back into the bar because he was about to start filming in there for a new documentary. I also ran across a bunch of my friends, who were also in costume and looking amazing. So, it was full of awesome.

Saturday was spent running around here and there. I spent the morning in my civies, then changed into my military uniform for the rest of the day. I ran into my Bajoran again, and after running into him a dozen times during the convention, and getting a bit cheeky, I felt the need to put him in his place.

Sometime last year, the Germans took the record for "most people in Star Trek Costumes" in one place, with 691 (I think) people. So, we in Vegas had to take it back. I headed to the record attempt in my uniform and with a huge group of costumed friends, and I'm happy to say, WE TOOK IT BACK! 1,040 people showed up in costume. It was fantastic! (Photo by the Las Vegas Sun - I'm in there, on the right side!)

I ran across every Bajoran known on this planet while walking around the convention, and had my picture taken with all of them, which was a big crowd pleaser. I need more Cardassians to back me up next year, I was definitely outnumbered!

I saw Kate Mulgrew on stage, and fell in love with her all over again. I'd been on the fence about buying a photo op with her, but seeing her on stage sold it for me. (I'll scan all my photo ops later, I'm still waiting on a couple in the mail.) I also saw Jeffery Combs one man show "Nevermore", where he plays Edgar Allen Poe, and it was FABULOUS. Unfortunately, I had to leave it early because it conflicted with the pre-judging for the costume contest.

Also unfortunately, the pre-judging ended up being a complete waste of time, because instead of actually asking questions about the costumes, they just had each person walk on stage, they gave a 'yay' or 'nay', and then moved on. :-/ I got passed over, and when I asked for tips next year, he said that my costume was great, but he had been told to pick a certain number of Klingons because one of the prizes was sponsored by Klingon Monopoly. :-/ I think my friends were more upset about me getting passed over than I actually was, because mass texts were sent out on my behalf, and one friend even marched me up to the creator of Creation Entertainment and tried to get me in! (After which I curled up in the fetal position and tried to disappear. lol) It was all fruitless, of course, but she managed to get us front row seats to watch the actual contest, so it was all good. (I ran into The Bajoran there, again, and he stayed with me, even though I'd attempted to strangle him earlier in the day. Such a good sport!)

One good thing to come from the costume contest, I ran across a couple of other Cardassians, who had used my blog to make their armour! They were lovely people, and I was so glad that I ran across them. :D

After the costume contest, I changed into my formal gown for the 'gala', which ended up being nothing like I expected. It was really just a James Darren concert, and half of what I watched was a clip show of his work on TV and film, which, while enjoyable, is not what I paid extra money to see, so I slipped out early. I was headed back to my room, when I heard from down the corridor, "I am Lwaxana Troi, daughter of the 5th house, holder of the sacred chalice of Rix, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed! WHO ARE YOU?!" This was my friend, Goldie, who was all dressed up as Lwaxana, with my friend Pin as Deanna. They scooped me up and took me with them, and we hit the ice cream social thing that was going on, but which also turned out to be lame. So, we made our exit and headed back to McFadden's and the Masquerade Bar, where allot of drunkenness happened. I stumbled back to my room afterward and ripped off all my prosthetics, and let me tell you, it was WEIRD not having scales after being in them for three days!
Sunday I dressed in my Maroon and absolutely no one recognized me without my scales. I watched the Captain's Summit, where I swooned over Patrick Stewart and fell back, back in love with Mulgrew (again). Shatner was there as well. ;-) I had photo ops with Robin Curtis (Lt. Saavik in the original movies), and someone was amazing enough to share their Shatner photo op with me, so that was kinda awesome. :D
I spent the evening with friends at the "Beer me up, Scotty" party, and then we went late night sightseeing, clicking pictures along The Strip and taking pictures with an Elvis under the "Welcome to Vegas" sign. :)

So, yes, I had an AMAZING time, and if you are a Star Trek geek, you definitely HAVE to make it out next year.
To see more pictures, check out my flickr, where I've uploaded almost 200 pictures of all the great costumes and fun shenanigans during the con! I'll also have individual posts for each of my costumes with more photos, but not immediately, so enjoy the Flickr set!

Vegas TrekCon 2011

4 comments:

  1. Wow. I just nerded out hardcore. And (hopefully, not sounding creepy) may have developed a bit of a crafter's crush on you. You are one very talented lady, and know how to have a good, geektastic time!

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  2. Aww, thanks, doll! :D It was an amazingly good time, and I'm already planning next year's costume shenanigans. lol

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  3. Yay~ good thing I got that bloody costume thing done in time. There are a number of things I would do differently, if I were to ever do something like that again. fist, charge more. second, make sure I'm on medication so I don't have the constant nagging feeling that all my hard work will be for nothing. There are a few alterations to the method I would use to make it a significantly faster build. And I'll definitely need a few things like forms and the like if I want to make more fitted costumes.

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  4. Hi, I just randomly stumbled upon your blog through a google search and I just wanted to say that your Cardassian makeup is just absolutely amazing work. I am SO impressed!

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