No Dragon*Con for Me

I’ve been to most Dragon*Con’s of the last decade. I missed one or two while I was living in Portland, but I went to all of them when I was doing Reality Break. That was my thing. I did live remotes at 6 in a row, as well as recording interviews for later episodes. This year – even leaving the Chicago stuff aside – I just wasn’t that into it. I had the guest paperwork which I never bothered to fill out and send back. For many years, I dutifully filled it out only to not be on any panels. The last panels I were on was in 1996, I believe. I was on one with Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, who was a really nice guy in fact. Since then, nada. I filled out the surveys, sent them in, would get the badge but nothing else. After a while, it became kind of like a joke. I’d show up, get the free badge, hang out with my friends and drink for free in the VIP suite and that was it. I know it seems odd to not want to go to this event for free that costs $75 or $100 for everyone else, but I don’t. It’s weird. I always liked it better when Ed Kramer was in charge. For me, things were better and more fun in those days. For whatever reason, Ed always championed me and my silly radio show. He offered me the position of head of media relations in 1996, which I declined because I thought it would be tough to do from Louisiana. Silly me, you can get and send emails, faxes and phone calls from anywhere.

From a congoing perspective, I’ve been on panels at most of the OryCon’s I’ve been to, and they are uniformly better, more fun and better audiences than at D*Con. I wrote about my experiences last year in this weblog. I’m not sure if I’m going this year. I’ve stalled out on my ebook project, so I haven’t had anything to push in years. It’s more out of inertia than anything else that I keep doing this stuff. Perhaps, with the change of scenery I’ll spring back to life, have my ebook prepared by November and go to Orycon to promote it. Wouldn’t that be nice? Anyway, some of the business of decomissioning our life here had me downtown last night. Until I saw chunky people in black t-shirts walking around the streets of downtown, I had forgotten that the convention starts today. I always got my badge Thursday nights, when the VIP line was never more than 2 or three people deep. If I was going, I’d have been in the same spot, but just doing different business. Last year may have been the last I’ll attend in a while, perhaps ever. Things change, and some things just stop seeming like a good idea. I wish everyone there well and hope 20,000 people of the tribe have a great time. I’ll be having my great time in a different place, not among them.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.