C2E2 Day 2 In Review: Dance Party and a Marriage Proposal (Not Mine)

Cosplay: Hamilton

Here is my Hamilton giving Batman a piece of his mind

(Yes it is blurry, hard to take a photo of a photo

And I never got the digital version, my email must have eaten it)

Panels:

The Future is Now

• Ideas that the future is connected to the past and the future changes based on what we do
• Random History fact before 1985 women could vote in England and then they were written out
• "As someone who makes things make things about the thing you love" 
• For parts of her current series of books Mary Robinette Kowal talked about writing place holders such as "They jargoned the jargon by jargon" and then sent it to some of her astronaut friends to basically play mad libs (This seems like a great way to write a draft you can fill in the jargon, character, place later)
• "Any act of creation is an inherently political act"
• "Be the weird you want to see in the world"
• All writing is therapy/processing/responding
• There is a cycle of focusing on Nature then Tech then Nature in stories

Beyond Wakanda: The Rise of Afrofuturism in Pop Culture and Comics

• There was no one definition of Afrofuturism but some ideas included it is a mode of healing, it is a statement that black people will continue to exist, using what you have to create something new.
• Quote by Einstein "Imagination more important than knowledge"
• Darryl DMC McDaniels (yes that DMC that even I have heard of) spoke about the early period of Hip Hop being about moving beyond dystopia
• Chicago is a black cultural center with Jazz and blues and the experimental arts movement. It is a collaborative city. And a product of the great migration which was individuals coming to create a new future
• Art creates a template for creating a future which includes you, and you should not look for permission to tell your own story.
• The importance of being careful of the fact that anointing individuals is a way to keep others out. (The false idea we already have one black x so we don't need more)

John Barrowman Spotlight

• I ended up not getting into this panel but I watched it on some big screens outside the room. 
• John was in a sparkling TARDIS Suit and High Heels (a few others were roped into coming on stage and put on heels, I have to say I never got heels as a concept but boy do boys look good in them, I really think only guys should wear them)  
• John told the Hot Tub story (basically his husbands "naughty bit" (Thanks Monty Python) got accidentally flashed during a live stream. (You can find the clip online because of fans) We got a second part and basically in the end: Even if you walk around the house naked having your 93-year-old inlaw do it is awkward. And according to John Coffee tastes better naked oh John lol.
• Never apologize for being you!!! Have the right to tell others they are being a Dick.
• Growing up he loved comic books and superheroes because they were different and shunned but stayed themselves 
• He then sung 1000 years to us

C2E2 Live Stage

• Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen Talk Agents of shield
• Was a fun little talk, now I have not watched Agents of shield since the 1st half of the first season but I love Coulson 
• (At least the fan fiction versions of Coulson, one of my favorites has him in a relationship with JARVIS, that is definitely ace, even I am not sure if aro because I don't understand what is romance, personally I like romantic things but I like chocolate because it is sweet, stuff animals because they are fuzzy, and flowers because they are pretty but I don't know if I like romantic things because they are romantic or for other reasons)
• Glad I caught him since he is not at C2E2 tomorrow
• Seems like Clark Gregg is just as cool. 
• Also Gregg pointed out that Coulson was saved by fans, he was dead dead in the movie, but fans created #savecoulson and agents of shield happened

Dance Party:

C2E2 has a fun DJ in the lobby playing fun bouncy music. I think the dance parties which spontaneously happen summerize fandom and fans and creativity. Here you have someone from the umbrella academy, multiple spiderpeople (So many incarnations of spiderman now), Superman, Hamilton, Deadpool, and many I did not recognize all dancing together.  Every time I go up into C2E2 I always feel yes these are my people. (These are my people but I hope you find your people where ever they hang out, and know you have people, even if you have to work to find them)

And as the DJ was just about done for the day someone looked over and saw a marriage proposal going on between an Aquaman and his Mera, so he played some appropriate music and ended on Under the Sea from the little mermaid.