Gallifry One Review

As promised last week, here is my review of Gallifrey One’s Miracle on 34^th Street.

We arrived on Friday, 02/16/24 and Kris set up in the Art Show.  She had nine pieces in the show; two pen wraps, six beaded bracelets and a beaded & framed Cassandra, a Doctor Who villain from the New Era of Doctor Who.

We didn’t see any panels that day.   Instead, we hung out with friends – some of which we now only see at conventions.  Two of those friends we split a room with – Jessica, whom I’ve known since my Toyville days back in the early 70s, and Jerry whom we’ve know from Baycon back in the late 80s when we had a dealer’s table.

That’s me in the middle with my arm around Jessica. (photo curtesy of Dave Mason / https://ussangeles.org/ )

We did hit the dealer’s room and went looking for our favorite table, the Girl Scouts.  They have been a fixture of Gallifrey since it moved to the LAX Marriott.  They used to sell in the main hallway until the hotel decided they didn’t want any vendors on their premises – so now for several years they have had a dealer’s table.  I would venture to guess that they outsell all the other vendors.  This year, at the front of their table, they had triangular banners, each decorated as a different Doctor’s costume.  These scouts really know their Who.

Here I am with the scout leader.  She’s been assimilated since the last con.

And the food trucks were back, including my favorite, Baby’s Bad Ass Burgers.  https://www.babysbadassburgers.com/

They sometimes limit their menu at big events, so I still haven’t had The Other Woman, their blue cheese burger.  But I did have She’s Smokin’, their bacon BBQ burger, one of my favorites.

While sitting in the lobby, eating my burger, a fellow Brony (My Little Pony fan) came up to me.  He was excited to see that I had the same Dr. Hooves he did.

He also showed us the shirt he had just bought in the dealer’s room.

Unfortunately, when I went back to the dealer’s room they only had XL left.

Saturday we did hit the panels starting with The State of Star Trek.  I didn’t know it, but Paramount is in financial trouble and is up for sale.  What happens to Star Trek will depend on who buys Paramount.  No one would be dumb enough to cancel Star Trek, but they might cut back on some of the shows like, “Picard”, “Brave New Worlds” or” Lower Decks”.

We were also able to meet up with our niece, Annie, and her boyfriend, Brent.  Both are also Dr. Who fans.

Then, in the afternoon, there was an interview with Sir Derek Jacobi who played the Master during the David Tennent years.   This was his first Dr. Who con.  He is a well-known actor in England, best know for playing the lead roll in “I Claudius”.  He was a humble man, preferring not to go by the title “Sir” and he was visibly touched by the applause he got when the played a clip of him as the Master.

Next was the Alex Kingston interview.  She plays the reoccurring role of River Song.

And finally that day, The Tyler Family Reunion.  Billy Piper (Rose), Camille Coduri (Rose’s mother, Jackie Tyler) and Shawn Dingwell (Rose’s dad, Peter Tyler).

Sunday was checkout day, so getting out of our hotel room took precedence.  Then it was time for the art auction.  Kris’ beaded Casandra went to voice auction and ended up selling for $180.00!  That’s the second most expensive piece she has ever sold.  She also got a commission for a Weeping Angel bracelet from a bidder who had lost it to another bidder.  It was a great Art Show for her.

The con ended with The Year in Review – a collection of TV clips of interviews, Red Nose Day, and other events relating to Who throughout the year since the last Gallifrey One convention.

Then they had the Closing Ceremonies where we all got to say one more goodbye to most of the guests.  Some of them had to leave early.  It was a great con, great guests and a chance to meet up with many of our friends.

Liz (Mad Woman with a Box) was there, too, but she was so busy with the charity auction that I only saw her at the end of the con to give her a ride home.

Dennis

204th blog completed.

First Steampunk novel:  76,313 words.  <– Past 76,000.  Goal:  80,000.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words. 

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Need to update with notes from the novelization.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

“As I was saying before I was interrupted…two weeks ago, Dennis experimented with an unusual recipe, Doritos Chicken Tenders  https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-dorito-chicken-tenders/

Doritos Late Night Loaded Taco Flavored is a new flavor that we have only recently seen.  They are very spicy.  Not hot spicy, but flavorfully spicy.   Lots of flavor.  They have become our new favorite Doritos variation.  When made into a coating for chicken, it does mellow out, but it still is flavorful and makes an excellent coating.  You can bake these as Dennis did, or deep fry them.  Another winner in the Cherry kitchen.” – Vincent Reinhart.