MacGyver, mullets, money and me

I was one of about 600 people at the NEC Hilton Metropole at the weekend staggering around in a geek frenzy because a legend was on the premises. That legend was Richard Dean Anderson, aka RDA, aka MacGyver, aka Jack O'Neill from the Stargate franchise.


Pic: taken by me at Chevron 7.6

 Chevron 7.6 was the biggest Stargate convention in years for Massive Events (no pun intended), and proof that if you book a huge name the geeks will come... and bring their credit cards. From the amount of money changing hands at the convention you wouldn't think that we were in a recession, but maybe there's no such thing in fandom.

The charity angle of this convention was Sea Sheppard, a conservation and direct action organisation which RDA was appearing in conjunction with. Kudos to Rick for using his power for good and generating some income for them. The auction got quite surreal when a keen guest somewhere in the gold section (convention ticket price about £250) paid over £1,000 for the chair RDA was sitting on during the Q+A sessions (to be signed by the man himself of course). When you think that this dedicated geek had also paid out at least £150 for his hotel stay, plus who knows how much for merchandise in the dealer room and drinks at the parties you may start to question how someone can spend so much on a three day geek experience. But the guy was a superb MacGyver at the Saturday night party, with best mullet ever, so I'll forgive him for getting carried away.

I've spent my fair share of money over the last five years feeding my need to geek out, but I've always kept my hands to myself at the auctions. If I counted up all the cash I've splashed in the name of being a geek I'd probably pass out.

Did I mention that I booked for Chevron 7.7 already?... Well, they did announce Ben Browder for frell's sake!