Butterfly in the parking lot

Before heading off to the airport and back home, we did a walk around the Atlanta downtown area and I was pleasantly surprised to see this butterfly fluttering about on a flowered bush next to a busy public parking lot.  I will miss both butterflies and flowers soon as the clock is counting down until summer is gone and autumn is here.

I’m not sure what kind of butterfly this is but if you know please leave the name in the comments; thank you.

 

 

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Robo, Robots, Robotics

Dragoncon is a multi genre event with something for just about everyone and not always about cosplay.  Well Robocop here might beg to differ but who has the nerve to argue a point with him?

 

There were also robots there.  I only saw these two fully functioning robots from the Star Wars universe although there surely had to have been a K-9 from Doctor Who there somewhere.   What was humorous about R2D2 here pulling up to have a “seat” with the humans is that he was there to watch Battlebots.  Somehow that felt a bit odd.

 

The battlebots were ranked by weight from 12 pounds on up; not sure what the largest category was as we had to leave for another event.  Unlike battlebots you may have seen on television, these mostly grabbed and shoved each other until they fell off the stage.  No flame throwers or chainsaws were allowed.  One bot that normally had a machete protruding from its front for this event replaced it with a pool noodle.  I don’t recall the name of the first bot here but the second one with his handlers is named Dandelions Revenge.  They said they were there for comic relief 🙂

Here is a video of one battle featuring Dandelions Revenge.

This is Sparta!

A very nice group of men and a few women who had the movie 300 down to near perfection.  Yes they did…. 😉

 

A big announcement for foodies

Alton Brown, surprisingly, was one of the guests at Dragoncon.  After his loyal fans (I being one of them) stood in line for quite some time (see below) we were treated to a panel that featured Alton and those who worked with him on the show Good Eats.  What you can’t see from this photo is that as much as there were a lot of people in front of me, there were at least as many behind me; wrapping around the hotel.  That frequently happened for certain panels.  Hearing “who are you in line for?” was common.

They had some funny and informative stories to tell and then he made the announcement that sometime in 2018 he’s getting the band back together and Good Eats will once again air on Food Network TV.  The crowd rejoiced!

 

Marta

Marta is the bus and rail service in Atlanta, Georgia.  While I did not take a bus (or the streetcars that traveled along some parts of downtown) I did use it to get from the airport to downtown round trip and what a bargain it is!  Taxi service from the airport to downtown is a fixed fee, as in many other cities, of about $32.00.  A ticket on Marta for two was $7.00.  It takes about half an hour from the airport to downtown and once you climb out from the underground you find your way to where you need to be.

The one station we popped in and out of  was underground but many stops are above ground platforms.  It seemed especially daunting – and deep – going down so I whipped out my phone and took this photo.  Mind you, this was after we were about a third of the way down!

Popular Television

And books too.  When Dragoncon says they are multi-genre they mean it.  There was quite the variety of groups marching in the parade but these two were major hits with the crowd.  Many cosplayers make their own cosplays themselves sometimes taking months or even years and they are all proud to show their work and be photographed.  Street photography at this con is pretty easy but one of the rules is yes is yes and no means no!  When photographing an individual or a small group anywhere I would always, with a smile,  wave and call them by their character name.  That would get me a smile and a photo about 99% of the time.

If you watch HBO or have read the books then you know this group was the Game of Thrones cosplayers.  I hope that dragon Daenerys was carrying wasn’t too heavy.  But when this woman (who shows that you are never too old to cosplay) came by as Olenna with her sign (if you follow the show you know what it means) I and the group of ladies I was sitting with went wild screaming her name and bowing down to her.

Conversely, when this large group of handmaids from the Hulu series Handmaid’s Tale marched into view we were thrilled but also a bit uneasy.  When a cosplayer can elicit emotions to the crowds then they have achieved their goal I would say.  Now the T-Rex there, I haven’t a clue about what was going on but there were several of them and from what I could gather it seems to be an annual bit.  Who knows!  But I had one good laugh when I saw two of them trying to fight with their tiny arms.  I wish I had photographed that but we were in a camera restricted area at the time.

Stan Lee, Kane and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat

Mr. Marvel comics himself, Stan Lee, was the Grand Marshal for the Dragoncon parade again but I heard that this was to be his last one; I was thrilled to see him!  Nerds of the world thank you Mr. Lee for all you’ve given us to read and watch and cosplay as.  Now the other two gentlemen in the parade I had no idea who they were but DH geeked out a bit over them.  He explained to me who they were and my response was a flat oh.

We all have our fan favorites and there was something and someone for everybody at Dragoncon.