Paul's DC2K Pics

Last updated July 9th, 2000

Here's a selection of pics from Dragon*Con 2000. I wish I'd taken more shots of people and costumes in general, but I'm an indifferent photographer and just kept forgetting to haul the camera out...I've never really had a camera before for any length of time, so I'm just not used to carrying one around. :)

"Setting the Stage" (Wednesday pics)

Here are some photos taken before Dragon*Con was really under way:

The quiet (and dark) lobby
The quiet concourse area. Note the Changelings fliers on their table already -- they got there way early to get the best table location in the Concourse. :)
The Info desk and my Concourse Operations desk. All's quiet on the Eastern front...this would change. :)
And here are some shots of friends who crashed in my hotel room, taken before we all got frazzled from sleep deprivation :)
- My good friend Richard/"Laddie" from Tennessee
- My friend Brian, or Kayan, or Jackyll, who crashed in our room until we kicked him out :)
- My friend Chris "Onionhead" Kaftanciyan
- Another pic of Brian

Some Miscellaneous Shots

The Hyatt lobby, busy as usual during D*C
Here's another shot
This band was playing outside in the Peachtree Ctr courtyard -- I have no idea who they were
Five shots of Imperials storming the Hyatt lobby:
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Two pics of Aphelion (or a part thereof), performing on the the acoustic stage that became an acoustic "area" by order of the Fire Marshal:
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Michael "Renegade Piper" LoBue serenading the Hyatt lobby:
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Note the Salvation Army, uh, "detachment" huddling together for protection in this shot :)
Ghostbusters in the lobby!
Again! They're aiming at Voltaire (presumably accidentally) in this shot -- he's wearing pants with a reflective stripe. Looks like someone Channeled saidin and tore a hole in the fabric of reality.
Here's a pic of the Ptree Ctr Food Court. When will these bozos decide to stay open late and on weekends for us?
Alien in the lobby!
Me and Rogue, frontman, lead singer and jumper-onto-podiums of the band The Cruxshadows
Photos of the drum circles. The ones from Sat. night (Sunday morning) were taken by me while I was playing my djembe, between 2 and 3am.
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Jack Stauffer and Richard Hatch, my ImagineCon compadres
Is this Kevin J. Anderson? Only Ken Garrison -- and presumably, Kevin -- know for sure....
Note to bands: hire a tall dude on stilts like this guy to promote your next show
The Concourse area. My demesnes during the con. And don't ewe forget it. :)
...And speaking of ewes..... This one starting hanging off my backpack on Sunday, and stole my director's badge :)

The Cruxshadows

Easily one of the best performances at Dragon*Con this year. Rogue, the band's lead singer and general run-around-the-room frontman, uses a cordless headset microphone so he can have a lot of freedom of movement. --As in moving around amongst the audience, jumping up onto a podium and singing, running over to the video screen, greeting the audience and shaking hands in the front row while singing, etc. There was an astonishing amount of energy during this show, and at least thirty people dancing away in the clear area to stage-left (and of course Rogue joined them during one song :).

Two shots of Rogue:
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Seven general shots of Rogue or the band during the show:
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Rogue just before leaping onto the Hyatt podium next to us
Rogue after he leaped up onto the podium...cool shot of his hair highlighted in red by the lighting "tree" next to him
Another shot of Rogue on the podium, with hair reddened by the lights
Rogue plays the violin
Rogue with arms outstretched
After running over to the video screen past stage-right, here's Rogue backlit by the screen image. It was showing a Cruxshadows video....
Rogue out amongst the audience in front
I apparently caught Rogue in mid-leap on stage here :)

Voltaire

My metalhead roommate Tim Hurd, who ran lights for the Misfits at D*C 2K and went on tour with them after Dragon*Con, declared Voltaire's full-band set this year to be the best performance he saw...including his friends the Misfits. Pretty amazing coming from someone who doesn't care much for the goth scene. :)

I took 21 pics of the show; here they are in order:

Here's my friend Derek talking violin with Voltaire's violinist after the gig.
One thing I noticed about Dragon*Con this year is that it attracted several excellent violinists. :)

Changelings

Did I mention violinists? :) The Changelings are one of Atlanta's most talented bands (IMO perhaps the most talented band) in large part because of the incredible talent of Paul Mercer, their violinist. Their show at Dragon*Con in 2k, as with all their shows, was excellent even despite the statutory technical problems. :) Some of these photos are a bit dark; I wasn't able to get a spot front-and-center, like I did for Cruxshadows and Voltaire, so I either took them from the side or crawled up in front and took them lying on my back. This activity is not recommended whilst wearing PVC jeans.

First, seven "general" shots of the band.....
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Two shots of Regeana, lead singer:
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Here's Regeana (briefly) playing bass. Apparently her patch cord was flakey (center pin bad?) and during the mad scramble to get it working and check the line, the stage tech tripped over the cord, yanking the DI box across the stage and basically unplugging the show.
Here are two shots of Paul Mercer:
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Nick Pagan on keyboards
Chandler Rentz
Damon Young
For one of their newer songs, a big blue genie guy joined them on sitar. No lie, he really -is- painted blue. In one or two of these shots Regeana is singing while lying prostrate on stage.
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- Afterward, they all took a bow.
Here's a pic of the audience during their set. The room was pretty full for the Changelings, just as it was for Voltaire and Cruxshadows.

Afterward

And finally here are a couple of pics of the concourse, now reverted back to its pristine form. You'd never know we'd trampled the place only 10 hours before. :)

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