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Post by Riff on Mar 27, 2005 9:41:55 GMT -5
Academic thoughts, fun stories, frightening stories.
What you did and didn't like. Did you meet any of the guests, and, if so, what was the effect on you?
Complaining about everything at a con is welcome.
Any general thoughts on conventions.
Please post it all here.
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Post by Patti - S'cubie Cutie on Mar 27, 2005 16:51:31 GMT -5
I will be going to VulKon Houston next weekend April 1-3 - if there is anything someone would like me to pick up for them, please let me know! (No Spring, I don't mean James!)
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Post by Riff on Mar 28, 2005 7:55:42 GMT -5
I will be going to VulKon Houston next weekend April 1-3 - if there is anything someone would like me to pick up for them, please let me know! (No Spring, I don't mean James!) That's the sort of thing I was talking about. More posts, please!
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Post by Lola m on Mar 28, 2005 8:14:12 GMT -5
I also will be at the Houston Vulkon con, so you could send requests my way, too. Of course, you know I will post my "report", too and any pictures that turn out particularly well. Lola
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Post by Sue on Mar 28, 2005 9:13:18 GMT -5
Also, go to the website for previous convention experiences/reports filed by Patti, deborah, makd, DaveCrenshaw and beccaelizabeth.
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Post by teacherdarling on Apr 15, 2005 9:01:35 GMT -5
K here is my houston report and pics hope you all enjoy photobucket.com/albums/y144/teacherdarling/We walked into the lobby and met members of the Vulkon forums; retired_teacher, froggy, willk, and spikesdragon. Retired_teacher spent the first night in our room cause the hotel was completely full and her reservation did not start until the next night. So we took our stuff upstairs, and decided to go on an adventure and find a good tex-mex restaurant. The front desk gave us directions and told us that it¡¦s only 10 minutes away. Well about 45 minutes, 2 accidents, and rush hour traffic on a one way street we get to little mexico. I had some great chicken fajita nachos and then we came back to the hotel and Froggy came to our room and he and my son played texas hold¡¦em for a couple of hours and he told us all about his experiences with buffy/angel stars. I had set the alarm for 6 but for some odd reason every morning I was in Houston I woke up at exactly 5:55. It was so weird. I think Houston has some kind of internal alarm that wakes you up at 5:55. It was pretty strange. That first morning, retired_teacher and I went down to work out; she with her yoga and me on the treadmill and weights. It was invigorating. Then after some cranberry juice, it was time to start the endless straightening of the frizzball hair. The humidity was HORRENDOUS! Retired_teacher then went to check in into her own room. ƒ¼ Then retired_teacher, Willk, spikesdragon, Mikey and I took of for Galveston and NASA. It was an interesting drive about 40 mins altogether. I have a tendency to get lost very easily so I was very happy to have retired_teacher as a navigator in the passenger seat. I was surprised at how many ramps there are all over the city of Houston and there are many one way roads so you are always making u-turns and turning across busy streets. I thought it would be a nightmare like it is in Utah if you ever try to turn a left without a streetlight but the drivers are very courteous here. In fact all of the people I have run into in Houston have been very open, friendly and helpful it has been absolutely wonderful. So when we reach NASA it is very big. The whole front lobby is occupied by toys and experiments for the kids to do. There is a larger replica of the cockpit of a shuttle and just plain all sort of space travel stuff. We all head off for the tram ride tour and get to wait for 20 minutes while they tell us useless NASA facts. When the shuttle takes off we are excited to go see all about the shuttles but 45 very long, boring minutes later we are wondering why we took this waste of time tour. I kid you not the most exciting part of that tour was a poor little kid who hadn¡¦t had to go to the bathroom before the tram had left, but as the tour was wrapping up he had an incredible need to go. He told his parents he needed to go, but his mom says ¡§tell your dad.¡¨ And his dad glares at him and says ¡§that¡¦s too bad. I told you to go before we left so you are just gonna have to hold it.¡¨ And this is a little 7 year old boy, he is not going to be able to hold it for long. So every time he says he has to go it gets more and more desperate and his mom and dad just glare at him and ignore him, and everyone else is looking at them and backing up so this kid will not pee on them. He kept saying ¡§I got to go! I really have to go!¡¨ and he was holding himself, dancing around and then he would start crying and said. ¡§I can¡¦t hold it anymore.¡¨ And finally at the last second his mom picked him up and carried him out back to pee on the bushes. I felt so incredibly sad for that little kid. About 15 minutes later we were finally back at the main NASA center. We went and got some of their disgusting expensive food but we got to eat with a big Lego Astronaut. Then we went to the play area. There was a huge play area for grades K-5 and Mikey (12) snuck in. One of the attendants kept asking him what his age was and he would avoid her and run and hide. Then each time he would slide down or try to get back into the toys he was lucky because some other big kid was being caught ¡§How old are you?¡¨ So Mikey was able to play in it for several hours. I went to watch what is happening in space right now and what has happened over the past 60 years. It was pretty exciting. We all met back up at 4:00 to head back to the hotel. After we got back from NASA, we were in the lobby with retired_teacher when Camden Toy came out of the workout room, so we talked to him for a bit. He is one of the nicest stars at the Con. He is very friendly and approachable. He gives everyone hugs and attends everything no matter how tired he is. We had supper and then headed down for buffy episodes and for Eternal¡¦s cartoons. The best was Motesagain¡¦s Island. It was really very funny. Early the next morning I woke up at the usual time, 5:55 and went down to workout in the fitness room, and then went up to our room to wake everyone up and get ready for the Vulkon forum brunch. My sister had helped me make 45 ceramic necklaces for the brunch people and they were so excited to get one. I was sad I hadn¡¦t been able to make more. Brunch was spectacular, we met lots of people and got tons of pictures. Froggy came over and took our picture and visited for a minute. I went to the cocktail party. While I was there I got a hug from Amber and I told her I was Mikey¡¦s mom. Before the cocktail party, was a ¡§chance¡¨ presentation by Amber and Mikey sat in the front row and Amber talked to him and even signed his wooden stake he had purchased. During the course of the weekend she actually signed three items for him; The stake, his PJ shirt, and a card with her picture on it. She was the one who just acted like your normal everyday person. She smiled at all of us and really catered to the kids, remembering their names and talking to them whenever they passed in the halls. Andy Hallet and Jonathon Woodward put on an act for us. Jonathon was very humorous he made many jokes and sang a bunch of little songs he had made up. And then Andy came out and everyone cheered. He sang some songs with Jonathon like ¡§Sweet Home Alabama.¡¨ And another one I can¡¦t recall right now, but then someone asked him if he could sing ¡§Lady Marmalade¡¨ from Mulan Rouge and he did. There were two ladies who got up to dance to it on the dance floor. It was great. Then they let everybody back in for the Karaoke contest. Over 20 people signed up to sing and it went well past midnight. One of the singers named Adam was very good. I thought he should have won but Broadway Bob won overall for his freaky version of Grease SummerLovin. He sang both parts. After that James Leary had his show that I heard was very funny and quite a bit raunchy, but I was just too exhausted so I went up to bed. After James¡¦ show Natalie and Becky, who I was rooming with, went to Froggy¡¦s room for a party and Amber Benson was there, and they were so excited they got to see her and talk to her and party with her. (A star of Buffy!) Early the next morning I got ready for my photo ops. First one was with Amber, she was such a cutie even though she was so tired, and first thing she asks is ¡§Where is the little guy? Tell him good morning.¡¨ I met some new people Queen Illyria and Jewel. It was great because we would get one picture taken and then go get back in the same line-up for the next, so we had a lot of time to visit and get to know eachother. Queen Illyria had some great shots with her Boa she was great! So after Amber¡¦s photo (she said my shirt was cute ƒº ), it was Andy¡¦s turn. So I walk in and the first thing you notice is Andy is much taller than he seems and really pretty cute so I am third in line, and I walk up to him. They tell him my name (I forgot another cool person I met while visiting in line is named Monique also) so anyway they tell Andy my name and he laughs and says another? Commenting on that we both had the same name. The thing with Andy I noticed all weekend was that he has just an awesome recollection of people¡¦s names. He was the only one during Q&A¡¦s or really any time who called out a lot of their names instead of saying ¡§Girl in the pink shirt¡¨, or ¡§little dude in black.¡¨ He is also a marvelous storyteller, he is very animated. The other thing I noticed about Andy is he is more aloof than James and Amber. He had more personal space he keeps around himself, but he has a great smile, voice and laugh. So I walk in and shake his hand and he goes to put his arm around me for his usual shot, but I lean up and ask if it would be ok to kiss him on the cheek for our picture and he says ¡§sure¡¨ which, I am very pleased with how it turned out. It was great then it was time to wait for James. I saw him. He looked as cute as always. Black jacket and t-shirt and since we were in the front of the line he kind of had the deer caught in the headlights look. But I kept my composure and since I had such success with Andy, I got up my nerve and said ¡§James I have a huge favor to ask.¡¨ And he smiled at me with his soooo expressive face. Then looked at me with his expectant look and I asked if it would be ok if I kissed him on the cheek for our picture and he said ¡§sure¡¨ and now everyone who saw how that picture turned out wished they had asked the same thing. It is absolutely perfect in every way.
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Post by teacherdarling on Apr 15, 2005 9:02:29 GMT -5
Then after the picture I told James “thank you so much for coming, and he said “My pleasure dear.” It was great. After photo ops I headed down for Q & A’s. It was a lot of fun. Andy spent his whole half hour telling a bus story that had happened to him when he was 13. It was great. We were all rolling in our seats laughing. During Ambers Q & A she talked about some upcoming movies she is working on. She talked about how Joss had always planned on bringing Tara back, but then Buffy ended too soon so she never got the chance. She talked about how Joss called her in and told her Tara was going to be killed, and she was sad. Amber does not like to watch herself on screen. She says it is too easy to pick apart her acting and so she would rather not watch it. She snorts sometimes when she laughs. It is so cute. She is excited because she just made “Chance” on a dare from her friend that she could really write and direct and act in her own film, and now it was just picked up for main screen. It is going to be shown at many large cities around the United States for screening. After Amber was done James came out and talked about his singing and how excited he was to be there. He just displayed such a confidence in himself. He once again re-iterated how he was more than happy to reprise his role as Spike but only for the next 5 years as after that he would not look the same and he thinks the continuity of Spike not changing as he is a vampire stay correct. After James finished it was autograph/gift giving time. I met a really cool guy on my left named Rod who agreed to take the picture of James & Andy signing my stuff. On the other side of me was Queen Illyria, the person I had sat by during all of the photo ops that morning. We were smack dab in the middle of the auditorium. So we got up to deliver the gifts, I had brought; three ceramic things that my sister had helped me make. A Spike Pez container for James. A little green monster for Andy that turned out so cool it looked just like Lorne with the horns and pointy fingers and everything. Amber got a little jewelry box. They were all original awesome things.
So I got up to James and he shakes my hand and says “Oh! What’s this?” and I show him and he says “wow” he loves it. I told him my sister is an artist so he asked what her name is and of course, I fumble and say she’s not famous she just helped me make it. He smiled patiently and asked “what is her name?”, and I told him and he said. “Thank you, and tell Heather thank you so much too.” Rod took some pictures then we moved over to Amber. She loved the box. I told her I loved “Chance”, especially since she got James to be in it, and she laughed and saw our pictures together and asked why I had changed because I just looked so cute in that shirt, and she had “adored” it on me. Then signed the picture out to me and asked me where Mikey was. I told her he didn’t have a platinum ticket but I am sure she will see him later. Then I got on to Andy and I showed him the little green monster and tell him how my sister has been so sick for over a year now and how for the past three months she has been making herself get up and work on this for him as Lorne is her favorite character on Angel, and how Andy himself has been sick for so long and just recently has gotten better so he gives her hope. Now keep in mind you are lucky to get 2 seconds with the actor, I am sure I was talking to Andy for at least 2 minutes and he signed a picture with a personal sentence for Heather and then signed our picture together. Then it was time to get ready for the banquet concert & after party. We had requested Jonathon Woodward’s table as our first choice, so since I was Platinum, I got his table. I let Mikey have my seat, so I sat with Natalie and Becky on the outer circle. Jonathon showed up at the banquet in an orange kilt and it is just hilarious.Mikey gave him our gift (we had bought little notes and pictures to all the bonus gifts.) and Jonathon turns around and touches my arm and says “Monique thank you so much this means a lot, and points his hand to Mikey and says “He is cool, uh-huh he is cool.” And then during the banquet Amber’s table kept laughing, then Jonathon’s table starts laughing, so then James Leary’s table starts laughing. So Jonathon gets us all to clap and laugh. Then all six tables around James Leary stand up clap and say “Whoo-Hoo” So Jonathon sits down and looks at Leary and whispers “#itch!”After that Camden came over to Jonathon’s table and jokingly said something like “will you kids behave?” The rest of the night Jonathon told funny stories at his table, and Mikey was very happy he got to sit there. During the karaoke contest and banquet, Mikey got everyone but James Marsters to sign his stake, and I had James sign it during my autograph session, so Mikey just had the time of his life. Then as everyone is finishing up eating, they call Amber up on stage and she is suppose to perform but she did now know that. So she has nothing prepared, and the karaoke machine had been taken down so someone volunteered to go up and get the music and words to her song as Tara on Once More With Feeling. While she is waiting she chugs a glass of red wine and tried to sing the Beatles song “ooolalay ooolahla life goes on.”, but she couldn’t remember the words. Then she sang the Tara song doing all of the actions. She picked up a chair and danced with it pretending it was Willow right up to the end where she is totally pretending to make out with the chair it is indescribably funny. Then it is time to go out and wait till we can go back in for James concert. When we return I got a place over on the side by the door so I could hurry over to the after-party and be in the front row. James comes out. They say no flash photography but people are still flashing. Some staff goes around to try to stop people. Then James asks “ok who wants flash? Who doesn’t?” The “doesn’t”s win so he says sorry guys, no flash. Then he blows us all away with an amazing concert including a song I am pretty sure is going to get him into trouble called “bad” about a girl who hits on him at a convention, who has issues. He knows what one kiss will bring so he tries to ply her with champagne. He says she makes him want to be bad. It makes all of us wonder if there really are some lucky girls out there whom he has hooked up with at a con. I am sooo jealous.The crowd just went crazy for that song. The thing that made the whole concert so good was James expressions. he plays his guitars so well, I was very happy to be there. After the concert we went over to the ampitheater, and retired_teacher and I got in the front seat front row. James comes out and says he is not sure what to do to make it worth our while. So it starts out just like a normal Q&A session. And then my friend Pearl asks James, “If he were in a pub and just casually talking to his friends, what would he be talking about?” So for the next hour, we got to see the pure, unadalturated James. It was amazing, James talked a little about politics, about religion, and about men & womens roles and how they have changed, and what could make them better. He talked some about his kids, it was just so cool to see James talk about things that are just so passionate to him. By the time I left, I hurried up to my room for a shower and a good cry, and what I realized was that James had a gift. He has a gift of bringing honest truths out in people he brings all the emotions, and everything you have concealed and tried to repress to the surface. It is a little bit scary but I confronted the scary parts and let the rest give me ideas on how to be a better happier person. I think everyone in that crowd went away feeling like they had just had a very intimate conversation with James and it just amazes me that he has that kind of power but never once have I seen him abuse it. I have always basically worshipped him as Spike and just for being a great actor, but for the first time that hero worship transferred into true respect. I respect him as another human being and that is a great feeling.(Don’t get me wrong I still have and always will have the biggest crush on the man. One touch o smile or wink sends shivers all over my body) but I am not intimidated by him anymore. Now for others, some were very offended by what James said and they complained bitterly about it. I felt bad for them and him because it was such a neat experience for me. That night before I went to bed I wrote a little three sentence speech so I could express some of what I was feeling to James. BIG MISTAKE
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Post by teacherdarling on Apr 15, 2005 9:05:05 GMT -5
I and my friend waited for 3 hours so we could go last in our photo ops with James. I started talking and trying to spill out what I had written. I got as far as “Thank you, James, you made each and every one of us feel we had an intimate conversation with you last night, when I lost it and just started to cry. I hurriedly sucked it in and turned away, but James reached out and said “are you ok?”, and I almost lost it completely, but I took a deep breath and turned around and nodded and said “Ok I have the kissing picture and the holding really close picture, so how about a really big hug and he smiled and said with his eyes “I can do that,” out loud he said “Ok” and squeezed me really tight and when I got that picture back he looks really happy, and even though there were tears in my eyes, I do to, so as mortifying as it was I think it turned out ok. And I hope James has a small inkling of how much he touched me this weekend. (Okay get your mind out of the gutter.) On Saturday Mikey was able to get his photo op a day early, so he got in line with me. In Oakland he got a picture of him (dressed like Angel) staking James. So this time he was dressed up as a little Spike, and James is staking him. It turned out really great. James really liked it and he even remembered Mikey staking him at Oakland. After James photo ops I ran back to my room to change and made it downstairs in time for Jonathon Woodward’s Q&A. He was telling us how Fred deserved to die so we shouldn’t be mad at him for killing her and he told us how they were filming a movie about a serial killer who was still on the loose and while they were making the movie all of the power went out for a week, not to mention the movie was about a serial killer who comes after them and kills them all as they are editing and fixing it. But then 2 weeks into post production the serial killer was caught in real life so it wasn’t too scary. Jonathon is just fun to watch because he is so full of energy and such a jokester. After Jonathon the trio came out next. Amber sat between James and Andy. They were all so funny they played off of each other telling raunchy jokes and you could just tell they genuinely liked and appreciated each other as people and actors. Amber told us how she loved all of James expressions & how she knew he was a serious actor but after “Chance” she realized how much of a comedian he was. Andy gave Amber his cell phone and told her it was on vibrate and she pretended to put it down her pants and Andy and James were joking and saying how everyone in the audience should call. It was just fun to watch the three of them. James said he would never encourage his kids to go into acting because he would not have become an actor if he had a clue of what he was getting himself into. After the question and answer he got our other autographs, James said our kissing picture was “very hot”. And I said “I know, thank you very much. I am going to hang it on my wall.” He says “I would too.” Then I finished what I had wanted to say that morning and luckily I kept my composure and got it all. I told James how he was blessed with a gift and we all loved him because he never abused it and he smiled and held my hand with his and said, “thank you.” That means a lot. I would have loved to stare in his eyes forever. Then it was the second “Chance” presentation. Amber was as funny as ever. She is just so sweet and down to earth. At the earlier presentation of “Chance” they had borrowed my copy of it because they had forgotten theirs so that made me feel good I could help out. Then Camden came on for a second Q&A because a lot of us had missed his first one cause of lines for James photos. Camden played his gentlemen and gnarl face and voice. That guy is just freaking amazing. He told us how he channels into another place to bring the creatures to life. How he is always prepared for his parts and just how dedicated an actor he is. One day of shooting he went 14 hours without having to go to the bathroom so he wouldn’t have to ruin his Gnarl bodysuit. Then it was time to change for the PJ party. Natalie & Becky and I looked so cute in our blue and green PJs we headed down and I realized this was our final night so I had so much energy. We saw Camden and got some great photos, then we went into the ballroom and visited with everyone got pictures with all of our great Vulkon staff. I was so impressed with Larry, Bruce, Fernando, Dizzy all the staff just make Vulkon such a great experience. We danced crazy we got some great pictures with all of our forum friends. And Amber even showed up for the last 3 songs. then it was up to Froggy’s for our last party (Let's not forget Katz eye you areone happy party goer your awesome!) It was the most remarkable weekend of my life! (Also I hope you read this Diane, I am so sorry i have not bben in touch my email is broken. I just wanted to say a special thanks to you for making my last two days there so fantastic, you are a great person and a terrific dancer if I might add PS Thanks for making me feel Beautiful YOU ROCK)
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Apr 15, 2005 15:09:01 GMT -5
Welcome to the Soulful Spike Society, teacherdarling (can I call you td?) You're certainly going to make friends here. We're a very friendly group. Come over to the main chat part of the board and introduce yourself. I know everyone will make you welcome. You'll need to know a few of our particular "rules." Why Wednesdays are special, for example or where you can find "Erinland" and why you would want to. We will also have to take you to the "Thrallroom" and get you a comfy chair. Meantime, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Post by Riff on Apr 17, 2005 14:41:21 GMT -5
Hello and welcome, teacherdarling! It sounds like that convention was quite an experience (or series of experiences). Those are what I call posts. You've put the rest of us to shame.
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Post by teacherdarling on Apr 18, 2005 1:43:22 GMT -5
Well you know I do my best ;D
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Post by Lola m on Apr 19, 2005 20:12:13 GMT -5
Part One Some random and disjointed memories from the Houston Con. ThursdayGot in to Houston in the early afternoon. Checked in and settled in and then met up with Diane and Dragon late Thursday afternoon – hung around in their room being very entertained as they told stories and dished and generally were fun. When Patti got there we all went down to dinner and tried to coax embarrassing stories about Matthew out of his mom (Dragon) but all she would tell us were ones in which he was just too cute for words. Leaving their home in Panama at age six – going to each wall and patting it and saying good-bye. (Gee, how many times can we repeat this story? Hmmmmmm. Until Matthew snaps and smacks us a good one?) Or playing elephant at age 2 – naked on all fours, tossing a towel he held in his teeth to be his “trunk” and making elephant noises. Awwwwwwww! Headed off on Thursday night to the room that was supposed to be playing Buffy eps, only to find the room mostly empty and showing Queen of the Dammed – the Vulkon folks apparently having forgotten to pack their BtVS stuff to bring to a Buffy con. (A seemingly recurring theme with them.) Being a clever girl who had brought her season 4 DVDs to autograph (later changed my mind), I brought it down from upstairs and put on Something Blue and Hush. While they were playing, more and more folks came back and I felt rather proud of myself. Had lots of fun watching with Patti and Diane and Dragon and other folks who were laughing in the right bits and quoting lines along with the characters. FridaySpent a very lovely, lazy Friday morning and early afternoon reading and watching a bit o’ TV and generally getting the “vacation” part of my mini-vacation. Then headed down to register and start the actual con! Watching Chance with Patti was very fun! A slightly amateurish, but enjoyable flic. Lovely performances by James and Amber and Andy. And much more funny than I had realized! I will certainly buy the DVD with “extras” when it is released. I didn’t want to pull Patti away from any events that she really would like to attend, but when she was positive that she didn’t want to go to the cocktail party, I was delighted we got to have a quiet dinner of room service and talk! Talked about Sci-Fi books, and the board, and episodes and bits about each other’s lives. Much good times! Karaoke was hysterical and painful and wonderful. In other words, it was Karaoke. Some of the singers were amazing and some . . . well, I truly felt for poor Andy Hallett trying to judge. I told Patti he was lucky he wasn’t really an empath demon, or he’d have been pulling his horns off by the end of the night!! Midnight Madness – viewing James Leary’s short film Stunt C*cks. Well. What can I say. Not Patti’s favorite event, but I’ll admit I was practically curled up like a caterpillar I was laughing so hard. Also very funny is that they have a trailer for the flic. A trailer, people. For a short that is maybe 7 or 8 minutes long!! Lola More to come . . . .
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Post by Lola m on Apr 19, 2005 20:13:22 GMT -5
More random and disjointed memories from the Houston Con. SaturdayI bought a few photos, make a few stops in the dealer room and bought a ticket for James’ concert. The Nick Brendon collector plate, with him in the nummy pink sweater and signed by him? Very tempting! Probably explains the 5 separate times I went to look at it. But then all I bought were hard plastic sleeves for my photos. Interestingly enough, considering the conversations we’ve been having on the topic in the last few days, I went to the panel on the Shanshu prophesy. Many of the ideas we’ve tossed around here were brought up. No conclusions reached, of course, but fascinating to have a live ongoing conversation about a Buffyverse topic. I’ve never really done that before. The convener thought there would be a lot of controversy and arguing, since the question before the group to discuss was who deserved the Shanshu – Spike or Angel. We surprised her by simply having a lively, intelligent, respectful discussion. Gee. Made me think of them all as s’cubies. ;D The OMWF sing-a-long. Another new thing for me. Never seen this with a group of people, much less a room full of people singing along. It was soooo much fun! Got me very excited about doing this at s’cubiefest, although I am nervous about singing when people can hear me. A very lively group in front of me kept teasing (nicely, but teasing) one poor girl who had never seen the episode before. She’d seen all the others, several times over, but had somehow missed OMWF! Her friend that she had come with (they both lived in Seattle) has the CD and all the songs memorized and was joking a lot with her. Everyone was calling her a OMWF virgin and so on. I even saw some folks in the audience holding what looked like Librettos and/or musical scores, like you see at the Opera! Amazing! Autographs with Andy, Amber and James after the Q&A sessions. We gold and silver and general Saturday ticket holders got to toss the Platinum folks out and have these three all to ourselves! Bwa ha ha! Mine is an evil laugh! I had bought Houston postcards to be signed (decided that the DVD package would be too hard to sign and for some reason didn’t want my pics covered up – I am insane, what can I say! ) The poor woman in front of me had forgotten to bring something for Andy to sign; I think she forgot they were doing them all at once and had only brought one thing for James to sign. Since the Amber ones were pre-signed (so I got a “free” photo of Amber!!! One that I had wanted anyway, but hadn’t bought – score!), I gave her one of my postcards and she was very happy and thought post cards were a cool idea. Andy was totally flumoxed by the post card, by the way! He signed his name right on the address line like he was filling it out to be mailed to him and then just ground to a halt and said “why is this confusing me?” And I said that he wasn’t used to folks giving post cards and that he was trying to fill it out like “usual”, and his face cleared and he was all like “oh, yeah, that’s it!” I was a good girl and asked him to just sign “to Mindy” instead of asking him to continue and put his address on it. The poor girl behind me was freaking out completely! She was so convinced she was going to faint when she got to James that her girlfriend and a whole bunch of us kept reassuring her and so on. It was a nice distraction for me, and I didn’t worry about fainting or being extra-ordinarily dumb myself. When I got up there (I was wearing my black T-shirt with Soylent Green on it in bright lime green letters) James looked up and shook my hand (he did that with everyone, he’s so nice!) and said “Soylent Green! I saw that when I was a kid and was so scared! And what’s worse, my dad took us out for strawberries afterwards.” And I was a moron and practically cut him off so I could show off the back of the shirt that said “They’re people”. What a dork I am sometimes! While the platinum folks were off preparing for and being all platinum-y, I went to the costume contest. Very very fun!! I have some very craptastic photos of it, but I may still load them on my photobucket and link to some of them. ‘Cuz they were much fun! A whole peck of Drus, a very lovely Darla costume that rocked, Broadway Bob dressed as the homicidal lunch lady from Earshot, some young pre-teen/teen guys dressed as Angel and Spike (the Spike boy had his hair dyed and everything) and hamming it up wonderfully/dreadfully – Angel kept “brooding” and they’d try to stake each other. There was a young-ish girl in a bunny outfit as Anya on Halloween and an amazing costume of Lorne’s mother and . . . . well, it just goes on and on! After dinner, I went to the concert. While waiting for the doors to open, I started talking with a woman from Columbia. Well, originally from Columbia, she’s living in Kansas City now, but will be moving back to Columbia in a bit. She and I were talking about how we were each here in line alone because the folks we were with all had platinum tickets. Another woman overheard and said “me too!” We decided we were the “platinum widows” club and all had fun chatting while waiting. The woman from Columbia started in X-Files fandom – one of the leaders of a large fan club in Bogata, she told us about the con she helped run down there. They couldn’t get any of the stars of the show, but they got a bunch of the folks that dub the eps into Spanish and showed eps and had panels and stuff. She said they were expecting about 400 people or so and got twice that! (She actually was being fairly sympathetic about the convention promoters – said she understood that it can be hard to organize it all and so on.) We ended up sitting together and so I heard about how she got into Buffy fandom. Her boyfriend was a fan and suggested she watch some eps. He said he “knew what she liked” and started her with season six – “Smashed”. She fell hook, line and sinker for Spike and never looked back – borrowed his tapes and DVDs and watched every ep, first season to end, in about 2 weeks. We got all fan-girly together when James came out and when he was singing. She got all teary when he sang Angel, because her boyfriend had bought her the song. We had a grand time! James was fun and the songs and his voice were, well, dang! Much better than I had been expecting, frankly! Kind of folk-y and some a bit blues-y. In his range and sort of quiet and sweet/sad. After the concert, there was a dance and party, but I only stayed for a bit. Thought I’d try to see if any of our gang was around, etc. Was heading up in the elevator and spotted Patti and gave her a holler. We ended up chatting in her room, keeping her up wayyyyy too late. But it was fun! We talked about the Jossverse and the S3 board and the s’cubies and Spike in season 6 and the bot and sex and all sorts of goodies! SundaySlept in a bit – got to a panel on fan fic late so there were only a few people there, but had a nice quick little bit of chatting. Did the EZ phone check out and met up with Patti to store my bags in her room and head down to the to the monster Q&A sessions. Camden Toy, Jenny Mollen and Jonathan Woodward individual sessions and then a combo one with James Marsters and Amber Benson and Andy Hallett. You’ll find my notes from the Q&A’s in the con report on the website, along with Patti and Dragon’s memories. I don’t remember, though, if I mentioned that the subject of fan fic came up. If I didn’t, basically Andy was joking a bit about someone who had given him a story to read, he hadn’t read it yet, and then someone asked if they had read any fic. Andy said he’d started one with him and Angel and bar of soap and he was all “TMI!” and the audience was laughing and joking. Then James said that some stories were really good – that some fic, some writers were as good as the writers on the show – that they could/should be writing eps! Of course, the audience was all “oh, man, you’ve just spilled in public that you read some of it and like it, you’re in for it now!” So, now you know, fic writers and readers! James may be wandering around fic land at the same time as you! ;D That really does it for the con – Patti was very sweet and gave me a ride to the airport. I’m still a bit bummed that I hadn’t known the schedule, so I already had plane tickets when I learned that Sunday night had a PJ party. But all in all, I had a fun time with my fellow s’cubies, fellow fen, and Buffyverse actors. Lola
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Post by Riff on Apr 20, 2005 14:27:50 GMT -5
And Lola arrives with monster posts of her own!
That all sounds wonderful.
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teacherdarling1
S'cubie
"If cuddlings the best part, he's not doing it right"
Posts: 25
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Post by teacherdarling1 on Apr 24, 2006 16:49:59 GMT -5
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