You’ll notice (numbers) in various points in the diary entries. These coincide with photos located in the gallery at the veeeeery bottom of this post. Thanks for reading! Check out my other Con Diaries too!
Day 1, Friday March 7th:
Driving from San Francisco to Sacramento (by way of Stockton to run errands) can be….challenging. Friday morning was no different, as there seemed to be lanes closed on the Bay Bridge backing up traffic all the way past the core of The City. This was at about 10am. Usually, this type of start to a trip does not bode well for the weekend, but we were NOT going to get taking a different bridge affect us. The last time I attended an event in the Sacramento Convention Center was probably 10-12 years ago, for a Creation Star Trek event, and I had been looking forward to this show since Wizard World announced the dates. We (I keep saying we, and by that I mean Bill and I) had a lovely time at the Chicago Wizard World in 2011, and haven’t been able to make it to another one of their shows.
We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (a change for us because we normally do all our con-sleeping in Mariotts, not necessarily by choice, it just always works out that way). Located directly across the street from the Capitol Building, the Hyatt is beautiful, and smelled like fresh green apples in the lobby. On the third floor in the elevator bay, there was this really neat looking shallow cut out in the wall with lights. I made Bill stand in it so I could take a picture on my phone, and my wheels started turning for what I could do in costume posing in it. (picture1)
The doors to the hall opened at 3pm, and allowed attendees to hit the floor before the madness of the SOLD OUT weekend hit. Using roughly half the main convention center, this first few hours was already crowded, excited Sacramento residents eager to shop and get the lay of the land.
WizardWorld had a ribbon cutting ceremony at 5:30 attended by a large group of the cosplayer guests and hosted by Lou Ferrigno and Urijah Faber. (picture2) The ongoing theme of the weekend was “cosplayers taking ‘selfies’ (which is a term I HATE, but everyone uses it, so whatever), and the ceremony was the kickoff of this trend. (picture3)
Dinner with some of the cosplayer guests on Friday night (picture4) was a lovely way to catch up, and go over the schedules of the weekend. And we kinda sorta took a short elevator trip with Mr. Billie Dee Williams, who was lovely and was joined later during his panel by his partner Emma Slater. (picture5)
Day 2 Saturday March 8th:
The morning for us started with some local news viewing, Goodday Sacramento having weekend shows. One of their reporters who I’d met several years prior was broadcasting live from the con, and caught some interviews with some of the cosplay personalities in attendance. (picture6) Cody (the reporter) was dressed in a Han Solo-inspired outfit.
Programming for the day began with Abby Darkstar and Keith Zen’s “Sexuality In Cosplay” panel. At Big Wow! Comic Fest in 2013 the same couple hosted a similar panel that resulted in the room being COMPLETELY packed, and turning people away due to capacity. The gist of this particular programming was the different levels of comfortability regarding the amount of skin shown in a costume, and why gender swapping characters is ok. (picture7) Panel crashing is usually frowned upon, but sometimes, the person doing it is quick and clever and doesn’t interrupt the entire flow. A gentleman dressed as Captain Zap Brannigan did just that, walking towards the table after being pointed out by the moderator and asked “Is this the ‘Death By Snu-Snu in Cosplay’ panel?” to the delight of the audience.
Bill went off site to do a photoshoot with the Walking Dead costuming group we previously shot at DragonCon 2013. They were somehow able to get permission to invade a local police building! (picture8) And while Bill was fending off walkers, I was a panelist and guest on the Ace of Geeks podcast about defining bullying in the geek scene. I have to say, I was really surprised with the amount of intelligent and poignant audience participation in all the panels I attended or spoke on, it usually isn’t so….productive to the subjects being discussed. We’ll make sure to link to the audio when it goes live.
Saturdays at conventions also usually mean Costume Contests or Masquerades. The Wizard World events historically don’t allow skits during their Saturday night contests, and with over 100 participants, it’s easy to see why. They did move through all the entrants at a steady pace to have the contest over in 90 minutes from it’s start, and as someone who goes to a lot of these, it’s damn impressive. Here’s a link to our gallery from it. (And I just have to say the steakhouse at the Hyatt was AMAZING. Wonderful service, and top notch food.)
Day 3 Sunday March 9th:
What is it like to ‘jump through the looking glass’ and have cosplay be not only a hobby, but a lifestyle? Who can be a geek? Bill’s two panels on Sunday morning tackled these questions. The first included notable cosplay personalities, (picture9). Topics included how they started their presence in the community, what keeps them there, and various timetables and techniques used for creating their costumes and props. The ‘Who Can Be A Geek?’ panel covered some of the more recent con-related bullying and harassment policies, touched on the Cosplay is not Consent movement, and took questions from the audience. I was on the Geek panel, and we’ll have a recording of both up to let you guys hear the entire thing.
Marvel cosplay gathering organized by the West Coast Avengers happened directly after our panels, so we didn’t get as much time to bomb around the con floor and poke our heads in to the spotlight sessions going on upstairs. The turnout was great for a first year event, and we had enough heroes to do an X-Men vs Avengers shot! (picture10) There also happened to be a group of kids playing over some air vent grates, and the thought struck me to start posing some of the caped heroes over the vent! This idea worked out, and I jumped on it too at the last minute. (picture11)
I was hoping for a small break to have lunch (or in my case breakfast) before the wonder of the kid’s costume contest, but in my mind, tiny superheroes always come first. The event was hosted by Ivy Doomkitty and Ryan Frye, and I was enlisted to help wrangle kidlets and judge! The baby Captain America was my personal favorite, only 4 months old!! (picture12) We couldn’t pick just ONE winner, all the young contestants were patient and respectful, they all walked away with special prizes for participating.
The weekend came to a close for us after the contest, and we headed back to the hotel to pack up our camera gear and head back home. I paused though, in the elevator bank on the third floor, and jumped into the lighted alcove to have Bill snap a shot or two. The results are probably my favorite images of me in costume, and the perfect end to the inaugural multi-day Con of the 2014 season. I also ended up starting an Instagram because I kept responding “I don’t have one”.
