Category: Photography

I like going to this convention because it reminds me of the one we used to go to when I was in high school.  It feels more intimate than a San Diego Comic-Con or even WonderCon.

I stopped by the recently opened Dunkin’ Donuts beforehand and grabbed a donut and coffee.  They have really good coffee.

About 10 minutes before 10 I walked over to the line, of which there were two, so I walked to the front of the line to ask if this line was for presale ticket holders or for ticket purchase.  It was the presale line.

Amusingly enough, the purchase line went quicker than the presale line, because they had 4 people at registers for ticket purchases, while the presale line had ONE person checking tickets and crossing names off a list.  Not a big problem, except for the mouth breathers behind me griping about the other line moving quicker.

All told, I was in line for about 5 minutes.

As I waited in line, I peered over the registers and saw  Dirk Benedict at his autograph table.

In 1978, he was THE MAN, at least to me.  Battlestar Galactica was on TV, I would watch every episode, in the days prior to VCRs, and I liked Lt. Starbuck more than Captain Apollo.

So did my sister, Jen.

Flash forward to 1999, when I first met Richard Hatch at some convention in San Francisco.  I later saw Hatch at a couple-few WonderCons, and San Diego Comic Cons, either on a panel or at a table signing stuff.

Flash forward again to today, and I finally got to meet THE MAN.

I stood in line and listened as Dirk Benedict was talking very casually with the guy in the picture.  Dirk’s a very chatty guy.  The next guy, in front of me, also got to talk to Dirk for a minute or two, and the guy asked me if I could  take a picture of the two of them with his iPhone, which I did.

Then came my turn.  I said hello and shook his hand, and then Dirk said that he liked my glasses, because they were like his, and he quickly whipped them out and posed for me with them on.

I then mentioned my meeting Richard Hatch back in 1999, and he remarked that Richard did many more shows than he ever did.  He only does maybe 3 or so a year.  He then said that he missed Hatch, saying that he was a great guy, and he was sad that they wouldn’t be doing panels together anymore.

He signed the picture shown above, and then I asked his assistant if she would take our picture, and she did.

This is actually the second photo taken, because Dirk wasn’t happy with the first one, which actually looked much like this one.

I said thanks, as did he, and I moved on to the dealers room.

I really didn’t see much in terms of cosplayers.

Seriously, this was it, though I did see a guy dressed as the Green Power Ranger as I got ready to leave.  I didn’t get his picture.

I wasn’t really looking to pick up anything, but I couldn’t pass this up:

I made it around the dealers room in less than 20 minutes.  I saw a few cool things, like this:

I was out of there by 11:00 am, about the same amount of time I spent last year.  I had another event to attend, Games Day with friends.

It was a very good Sunday.