clevermanka (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clevermanka) wrote2013-08-23 11:05 am
clevermanka) wrote2013-08-23 11:05 am
Crypticon debrief
I waited too long to post my write-up of Crypticon and I'm afraid I've forgotten things. I'll do my best to cover the highlights. I figure nobody wants to read about the lowlights because the lowlights weren't funny--just sort of dull and tedious.
Our table was adjacent to Bai Ling's autograph booth. The first thing I saw when I came down from dropping my luggage in our hotel room was Bai Ling at our table, getting change for a $20 fromorrin. "Was that..." I asked. "Yep," said Orrin. So that was an interesting start.
Our table was also right across the aisle from Richard Kiel who is, as far as I can tell, an incredibly sweet man. I spent Saturday shuffling around the vendor area as Dead Girl, being creepy and (hurray!) actually making a few people uncomfortable--quite a feat in this crowd, TBH. When I got tired of walking around the ballroom, I would plant myself on the floor in front of the table, hunch over, and stare up at people through my hair. I'd move as little as possible, tracking mostly with my eyes and tiny head movements. Several people thought I was a mannequin until they met my eyes. I never, ever smiled or broke character. At one point, Mr. Kiel called across the aisle "You're a good actor!" DAY. MADE.
Another good experience with Dead Girl was when one of the other Wandering Monsters tried to startle me. He snuck up on me and made a loud hissing screech noise in my ear. I didn't react at all--not even a tiny jump. I just turned around slowly (I did everything slowly as Dead Girl), and by the time I'd fully turned around he was already back against the wall where he'd originally been standing. I shuffled over to him, raised my head just enough to meet his eyes...and handed him one of our table flyers. Then I walked away. Win.
The only time I broke character as Dead Girl was when Predator came over to our table and I got to take those kissy-kiss photos with him. I was bouncy and giddy for probably fifteen minutes afterward. I HAVE A HARD-ON FOR PREDATOR, OK? To make that interaction even better, we had a follow-up photo that night after I was out of costume and makeup.sdemory, orrin and I were hanging out waiting for the room party to start (which it didn't ever, really, did but never mind that) and Predator walked past on his way to leave. I just happened to be wearing my Alien/Predator Yin/Yang tee shirt and I waived him over to show. He was super excited about that and had his photographer assistant take a picture of us. I've been promised a copy, but haven't received it yet. I have faith that my lover won't completely let me down, though. DON'T LET ME DOWN, PREDATOR LOVER OF MINE.
On Saturday, while I was taking a break from Dead Girl and just hanging at the table withorrin, some guy who claimed to be one of the event organizers came up and asked me what movies I'd been in.
I am uncertain if he was serious or if this was some sort of weird pick-up line. In any case, he was pretty drunk.
Overall, people reacted much better to Dead Girl than Pit Girl. It was pointed out to me that perhaps people didn't see Pit Girl as a costume so much as just a funky way of dressing. Point. I hadn't considered that. Also, I was more just...myself...as Pit Girl and I know that my giant personality can be intimidating--this is something I've never understood or necessarily cultivated, but it's what I've been told and so there you go. Or I go. Whatever. In any case, if I do this next year I'm going to keep in mind that I should lean more toward the obvious in costume. Subtlety (intentional or not) doesn't fly at this con.
Finally, the most memorable experience from the weekend that had nothing to do with me or what I was wearing.
Okay, so this hotel was crap. Run down, in general disrepair, and generally just sort of depressing. I mean, it wasn't some shady no-name dive, but it wasn't exactly four-star digs. Let's just say I checked the bed really well for unwanted visitors. It was so bad that there was only one ice machine for all nine floors. Fortunately for me, it was on the floor just one down from me--so lugging the cooler down in the morning to refill it with ice wasn't a massive deal. Since it was only one floor down, obviously I took the stairs down nearest the ice machine. Those were the only stairs I knew about at the time. When I headed down to the ballroom for Saturday's responsibilities, I took the stairs because there was only one working elevator (yes) and fuck if I was going to wait for an elevator to go down. So I headed down the stairs at the end of the hall (there were stairs by the elevator but they were unmarked and the door that I tried was, at the time of my attempt, locked--no I am not kidding). As I progressed down from the seventh floor, the landings got more grim. By the time I reached the first floor I'd passed various construction materials, stained floors, cigarette butts, broken light bulbs, and finally, on the first floor landing, a dark, unidentifiable, textured brown surface covering the entire area. The door to get out of the landing was stiff and creaky and felt like it hadn't been used for a long time. Turned out it probably hadn't. Turned out I had taken the really wrong staircase to the first floor because when I exited the stairwell I found myself in an abandoned wing of the hotel. There were ancient, enormous water stains all over the carpet. The "art" that had hung in the sleeping rooms was stacked up against the walls or lying on the floor. Splintered wood and dirty cloths covered the stained carpet, and many of the doors to the rooms were hanging open--because the cleaners/renovators gave up halfway through the job or because the doors simply couldn't close due to architectural issues I didn't know. I picked my way past all of this--keep in mind this was the entire length of the hallway that housed all the sleeping rooms on first floor--and finally reached another door. Miracle of miracles, it wasn't locked and I let myself out of that horrible hallway into an area just off the main lobby.
My thoughts going through that consisted (in order) of "Now here is where the horror convention really is," "I could die down here and nobody would ever find my body," and "Please please please don't let this door be locked."
My one regret was not going back down that hallway, dressed as Dead Girl, for one of the best photo shoots ever.
And that was Crypticon KC 2013.
Our table was adjacent to Bai Ling's autograph booth. The first thing I saw when I came down from dropping my luggage in our hotel room was Bai Ling at our table, getting change for a $20 from
orrin. "Was that..." I asked. "Yep," said Orrin. So that was an interesting start. Our table was also right across the aisle from Richard Kiel who is, as far as I can tell, an incredibly sweet man. I spent Saturday shuffling around the vendor area as Dead Girl, being creepy and (hurray!) actually making a few people uncomfortable--quite a feat in this crowd, TBH. When I got tired of walking around the ballroom, I would plant myself on the floor in front of the table, hunch over, and stare up at people through my hair. I'd move as little as possible, tracking mostly with my eyes and tiny head movements. Several people thought I was a mannequin until they met my eyes. I never, ever smiled or broke character. At one point, Mr. Kiel called across the aisle "You're a good actor!" DAY. MADE.
Another good experience with Dead Girl was when one of the other Wandering Monsters tried to startle me. He snuck up on me and made a loud hissing screech noise in my ear. I didn't react at all--not even a tiny jump. I just turned around slowly (I did everything slowly as Dead Girl), and by the time I'd fully turned around he was already back against the wall where he'd originally been standing. I shuffled over to him, raised my head just enough to meet his eyes...and handed him one of our table flyers. Then I walked away. Win.
The only time I broke character as Dead Girl was when Predator came over to our table and I got to take those kissy-kiss photos with him. I was bouncy and giddy for probably fifteen minutes afterward. I HAVE A HARD-ON FOR PREDATOR, OK? To make that interaction even better, we had a follow-up photo that night after I was out of costume and makeup.
sdemory, orrin and I were hanging out waiting for the room party to start (which it didn't ever, really, did but never mind that) and Predator walked past on his way to leave. I just happened to be wearing my Alien/Predator Yin/Yang tee shirt and I waived him over to show. He was super excited about that and had his photographer assistant take a picture of us. I've been promised a copy, but haven't received it yet. I have faith that my lover won't completely let me down, though. DON'T LET ME DOWN, PREDATOR LOVER OF MINE.On Saturday, while I was taking a break from Dead Girl and just hanging at the table with
orrin, some guy who claimed to be one of the event organizers came up and asked me what movies I'd been in. I am uncertain if he was serious or if this was some sort of weird pick-up line. In any case, he was pretty drunk.
Overall, people reacted much better to Dead Girl than Pit Girl. It was pointed out to me that perhaps people didn't see Pit Girl as a costume so much as just a funky way of dressing. Point. I hadn't considered that. Also, I was more just...myself...as Pit Girl and I know that my giant personality can be intimidating--this is something I've never understood or necessarily cultivated, but it's what I've been told and so there you go. Or I go. Whatever. In any case, if I do this next year I'm going to keep in mind that I should lean more toward the obvious in costume. Subtlety (intentional or not) doesn't fly at this con.
Finally, the most memorable experience from the weekend that had nothing to do with me or what I was wearing.
Okay, so this hotel was crap. Run down, in general disrepair, and generally just sort of depressing. I mean, it wasn't some shady no-name dive, but it wasn't exactly four-star digs. Let's just say I checked the bed really well for unwanted visitors. It was so bad that there was only one ice machine for all nine floors. Fortunately for me, it was on the floor just one down from me--so lugging the cooler down in the morning to refill it with ice wasn't a massive deal. Since it was only one floor down, obviously I took the stairs down nearest the ice machine. Those were the only stairs I knew about at the time. When I headed down to the ballroom for Saturday's responsibilities, I took the stairs because there was only one working elevator (yes) and fuck if I was going to wait for an elevator to go down. So I headed down the stairs at the end of the hall (there were stairs by the elevator but they were unmarked and the door that I tried was, at the time of my attempt, locked--no I am not kidding). As I progressed down from the seventh floor, the landings got more grim. By the time I reached the first floor I'd passed various construction materials, stained floors, cigarette butts, broken light bulbs, and finally, on the first floor landing, a dark, unidentifiable, textured brown surface covering the entire area. The door to get out of the landing was stiff and creaky and felt like it hadn't been used for a long time. Turned out it probably hadn't. Turned out I had taken the really wrong staircase to the first floor because when I exited the stairwell I found myself in an abandoned wing of the hotel. There were ancient, enormous water stains all over the carpet. The "art" that had hung in the sleeping rooms was stacked up against the walls or lying on the floor. Splintered wood and dirty cloths covered the stained carpet, and many of the doors to the rooms were hanging open--because the cleaners/renovators gave up halfway through the job or because the doors simply couldn't close due to architectural issues I didn't know. I picked my way past all of this--keep in mind this was the entire length of the hallway that housed all the sleeping rooms on first floor--and finally reached another door. Miracle of miracles, it wasn't locked and I let myself out of that horrible hallway into an area just off the main lobby.
My thoughts going through that consisted (in order) of "Now here is where the horror convention really is," "I could die down here and nobody would ever find my body," and "Please please please don't let this door be locked."
My one regret was not going back down that hallway, dressed as Dead Girl, for one of the best photo shoots ever.
And that was Crypticon KC 2013.