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girlpireThis is the third part of my massive Dragon*Con 2011 report, continued from [here].
True Blood Panel
Joe Mangina-low, take me now.
When I left the Supernatural panel to go get my pictures and give Misha his doll, my mom went to join my sister, who had been waiting in line for the True Blood panel. My mom told me that she takes the majority of her pictures specifically because every year I complain that she didn't take enough pictures. So she does this thing at con where, if other people are taking pictures of someone's costume, she'll run up and grab a piece of the action with her camera too. As a strategy, it's not bad, although I know some people get home after doing the same thing and go through their pictures thinking "What on earth IS this stuff?" (The lady who took a picture of me and Amy at Zombie Prom comes to mind.) So between leaving the SPN panel and getting in the TB line, my mom took a picture of... I think it's called a darkling elf? But I'm only guessing, and I have no idea what it's from. The costume's pretty cool, though.
I can't decide whether this is politically correct or not.
Another picture she took while I was on my date with Misha Collins:
This is part of the line for the True Blood Panel.
Apparently Amy and Mama got some pretty decent seats for the panel, but since I was like twenty minutes late, I just had to sneak in the back. I could still see everything on the big screens, though. Mostly I was looking at Joe Manganiello, and I think Amy was too, because all of the True Blood pictures I pulled off the camera later featured him.
He's hot, but he always looks confused. I think maybe he has a lazy eye...?
This panel was Denis O'Hare (Russell Edgington), Kristin Bauer (Pam), Jim Parrack (Hoyt), Joe Manganiello (Alcide), and Charlaine Harris, who wrote the Sookie books. Denis and Kristin didn't make it into any of our pictures, though they both answered a lot of questions. Joe talked the most, and Jim barely said anything.
He just sat there behind his mustache.
When I first saw Charlaine, all I could think was What is she wearing? Because the last time we saw her, she was wearing like a floral pantsuit or something. I figured she had significantly changed her image, but then Amy told me what I had missed at the beginning of the panel - Charlaine was in costume as a Victorian widow. I love that she did that. Go Charlaine! If I were speaking at a convention, I would totally costume it up, too.
Joe is embarrassed to look at her.
I didn't retain much from this panel, partly because I missed a lot of it and partly because I didn't write a single thing down, but I do remember that Jim brought up the fact that he's a Christian. I always love when actors at these things do that. I think a lot of fans are startled by it. And I remember that Denis brought up Sam Trammell's spot-on impersonation of the guy who plays his brother Tommy in the show, and everyone applauded at that. (I personally thought Sam's performance as Tommy was amazing as well.)
They also talked about how the show is marketed as a supernatural show, but that it's really more about people and humanity than anything else. I can't really say that I agree with that, because I think most if not all of the drama between the characters on the show comes about because of the supernatural nature of... everyone. And that it would be a completely different show with different characters and different stories if everyone were human. It doesn't seem to me that the supernatural stuff is very metaphorical at all in terms of representing drama that real people would have. (The only exception I can think of is the issue of tolerance and civil rights for the vampires, which you could compare to other civil rights movements, but even that is a big stretch because vampires eat people and can control your mind so it is natural to be afraid of them, whereas other civil rights movements involved groups of humans with no special powers.) I think that if True Blood wanted to be a show about humanity, it could be much more metaphorical in the way that Buffy and Angel were. But that said, I still enjoy the heck out of it. I don't need for it to inform my worldview in order for it to entertain me.
Here is some footage from Saturday's [True Blood Panel] on youtube. There's more than one part, and you can see Kristin Bauer cry a little bit, which I guess she always does in panels. What an emotional person. But I still like her. :)
This panel ended around 5:00, and I met up with Amy and Mama outside of it. I think they were a little surprised to see that I hadn't gone to the Next Generation panel, but I told them that I'd met Misha and picked up my pictures. The next thing we planned to do together was the Doctor Who viewing party at 7:00, so we had a couple hours to kill. Since we were in the Marriott anyway, I think the first thing we did was pop down to Froggy Photos so Amy and Mama could buy a photo op for the True Blood guys for Sunday morning (I'd already bought mine). The line was super short again. I am always going to buy my photos way in advance from now on! When we got up to the table at the front of the line, Amy told the girl sitting there that she wanted to buy a ticket for a photo with Jim and Joe from True Blood and then mentioned that we didn't know how to pronounce Joe's last name. The girl said she'd been calling him Joe Mango-Jello. Amy told her we'd been saying Joe Mangina-low. The girl paused for a second and then said, "I like mine better."
Wow. Okay.
After that, I wanted to go give Brent Spiner his doll since I'd been carrying it around all day, so we headed over to the Walk of Fame at the Hilton to do that.
Brent Spiner
(He's fully functional.)
When we got to the big Walk of Fame room, Brent wasn't there, but a short line had already formed at his table. (There was a SUPER long line at the time for Wil Wheaton, who was sitting at a table opposite from the other Star Trek actors.) The Next Generation panel had just ended, so I figured it wouldn't be long until Brent showed up. Wil and Gates were already there. We walked over to Brent's line and asked someone in it how long it would be until Brent showed up, and he said that the volunteer had told him that Brent would be there by 5:30, which was in just a few minutes, so I went to the back of the line and got in it. The girl standing in front of me in line turned out to be the sister of a guy my sisters knew from college, whom we ran into last year dressed as Doctor Horrible. The guy showed up a minute later and Amy spoke to him for a bit. I think it's funny that out of 46,000 people at a convention, you can just happen to run into people you know. Like we had seen Julie earlier and at one point we also ran into Amy's husband's cousin Drake.
After 5:30, when Brent still hadn't shown up, Amy pointed out that she still needed to see the previous week's episode of Doctor Who if we were going to go to the viewing party at 7. Since I had put a copy of the episode on my mom's netbook, which was in our room at the Hyatt, she decided to go back to the room to watch it while Mama and I met Brent. So Amy left, and one of us asked the volunteer at the desk when to expect Brent, and this time we were told 6:00. So we kept standing in line.
While we waited, I saw a dude dressed as a strip of bacon. An inspired costume, because everyone recognizes bacon and nobody doesn't like it. We also saw a very short woman dressed as Tinkerbell. She was adorable. Everyone kept taking pictures of her near our line, including [Robert Duncan McNeill], who was sitting at the table right next to Brent's. :)
It was after 6 when Brent did finally show up and sit at his table. Some more people had come in and gotten behind me, so he had quite a line to deal with, but I think I was only 5th or 6th, so it went pretty fast. His autograph was $30, so I paid the volunteer sitting at the table and picked a picture of Brent for him to sign. I of course picked the one of him as Data, although there were some current pictures of him as well.
When it was my turn to meet Brent, I shook his hand and introduced myself. My mom was standing behind me and I don't think I introduced her - I usually forget because she likes to stand behind me and be completely silent - and Brent gave me a big smile and said, "Hi, what can I do for you?" So I said, "Well, I'd love an autograph," and he goes, "Sure!" and signed my picture. I usually have something specific that I want celebrities to write on my autograph when I meet them, but I didn't ask Brent to write anything in particular, so he just personalized it and signed his name. In fact, I think this is the only autograph I've ever gotten on an 8x10 that doesn't say anything besides my name and the celebrity's name, but that's okay because the picture my mom got afterwards totally makes up for it. :D
I should have asked him to write, "Take my Worf. Please."
While he was signing, I said, "And I made something for you," and he seemed surprised and said, "Oh really? What's that?" So I told him that I had taught myself crochet in grad school and that I'd recently become a fan of The Next Generation and that Data was my favorite character - he was like, "Oh, that's so sweet!" - and that I had crocheted him a Data doll while I watched the show. I pulled the doll out of my tote and handed it to him. His face practically lit up! It was so cute. He said, "Oh, wow, thank you so much!" and then he said, "Look at this! Look at the craftsmanship," and showed it to his assistant who was sitting next to him. I remember thinking it was kind of funny that Brent and Misha had both used the word "craftsmanship" to talk about their dolls, since it's a word I know but would probably never use in conversation.
So then Brent turned back to me and said very sincerely, "Thanks so much. This is so nice," and went to lay the doll down on the table, so I said, "He stands up." And so Brent stood the doll up on the table beside him and grinned (he didn't have a problem balancing the doll like Misha had). Then he looked up and I guess he saw my mom standing there with a camera and so he said, "Can we get a picture of this?" Ha. I love that he asked us to take a picture instead of us having to ask him. And it's such a cute picture, too!
This is my favorite photo from D*C this year. And that includes the one of me and Shatner right before we did it.
After my mom snapped the photo, Brent smiled at the doll again and said, "This is so wonderful, thank you." And I was like, "Thank you," and grabbed my autograph off the table. I shook hands with Brent again and my mom and I started to walk away, but then Brent said, "Wait!" so we turned back. He was like, "Have you been watching my new webseries on youtube?" and I said something like, "No, but I remember you talking about it in yesterday's panel. I want to see it." And he goes, "You should. You'll love it! Take this," and he handed me a little card that had printed on it, "I promised Brent Spiner I would watch Fresh Hell," followed by [this link]. I sort of laughed at the card and said, "I'll be sure to check that out," and he grinned and said, "Thank you again. This was so sweet of you."
So. Brent Spiner loves me. ♥
As soon as we turned to leave, I overheard Brent say to the next person in line, "Look at this! She made it." ♥ ♥
I know my little meeting with Brent was very short, but I actually think I enjoyed it more than meeting Misha Collins. Is that weird? I think it's because I had been so nervous about meeting Misha, but I wasn't very nervous at all about meeting Brent, so our conversation felt more natural. And Brent seemed so happy and energetic and... I don't know, lighthearted? While Misha's aura was a little bit darker, if that makes sense. I mean, Misha was perfectly pleasant to me, but he just seems a little more intense, whereas Brent is so open and easygoing. I think part of the reason there was also more pressure about meeting Misha is because he is very easily provoked to sarcasm, and I was terrified that he would make fun of me or something. And also Misha spoke to three other people while I was talking to him (the drinks lady, one of the Illumina volunteers, and the girl in line behind me), so I kept feeling rushed and was actually somewhat relieved afterward that I had gotten it over with. But Brent had a very positive energy around him and managed to smile a lot while staying totally sincere.
That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy meeting Misha Collins. I did. I thought he was great and I'm tremendously pleased that he liked the doll I made for him. But maybe next time they should put him in a more open space. That little Illumina room was too small for other people to fit their auras in beside his.
So anyway, we left the Hilton after meeting Brent and went back to our room in the Hyatt to meet up with Amy. She was still watching that episode of Doctor Who, and it was obviously not going to get over before the viewing party at 7. I wanted to go ahead and get in the line at the Sheraton because I was afraid it would be crowded, so she turned off the episode, and as we walked out of our room, I started explaining everything about the rest of the episode to her in case the episode we were about to see made reference to it. The reason I was worried the viewing party would be crowded is because, well, it's a sci-fi convention, and they were not only showing a new episode of Doctor Who, but showing it two hours before it was scheduled to air anywhere else in the United States. Which is pretty cool, I think.
I was still explaining the previous episode to Amy when we got into the elevator. There were some other people in the elevator too, and I could tell they were listening to me, which made it a little weird. One guy was wearing a kilt and holding a beer. He spoke to us and seemed pretty nice. I still don't understand the whole wearing-a-kilt-to-a-sci-fi-con phenomenon, but I'm not complaining about it. Maybe it's a Highlander thing. (Did they wear kilts in that?)
When we got over to the Sheraton, we walked inside and asked where the Doctor Who line was. We were told to go back outside and around the building. There were a couple of people hanging out at the corner of the building, so we stopped next to them and gazed mournfully at the line that started at a nearby door and wrapped around the far corner. Rather than try to find the end of the line in the one minute before the viewing was supposed to begin, we decided to wait at the corner and join the end of the line when it came by (if it came by). And then people started lining up behind us.
The people who were already standing at the corner were a father and daughter. The girl looked maybe twelve or thirteen, and she was wearing a TARDIS dress and a rainbow scarf. We talked to them while we watched the extremely long line file into the building. They were keeping a positive outlook about the fact that we were obviously not going to get in, saying things like, "Well, we can still watch it tonight on the hotel TV when it comes on in two hours," and stuff like that. It made me sad that they were going to miss the viewing since the girl had dressed for it and all. There were actually a LOT of Doctor Who costumes in the line, so it was kind of neat to watch them all going in. I saw of lot of Amy Ponds in the police kiss-a-gram uniform, which my sister said that she might try to costume next year. I've been considering going as K-9.
Oh, I just remembered that on Friday we saw an Amy Pond in the kiss-a-gram outfit walking around with a Roman soldier, and my sister saw them and said, "Why's she with a gladiator?" *facepalm* I do think it's kind of sad that Rory doesn't really have any other iconic outfits, though, because I don't ever really picture him as the centurian. I wonder if anyone has considered going as Amy, Rory, and the Doctor in their Peruvian folk band ponchos.
So, we didn't even come close to getting into this thing. They stopped the line at about halfway. The man and his daughter and all the people lined up behind us shuffled away sadly. I was disappointed, but it wasn't devastating because I knew I'd be able to easily download the episode when I had time. But I did feel bad for ruining the second half of the previous episode for my sister. She said she didn't mind, though.
It was around 7:10 or so at this point. There were three different things on my uptight paranoid schedule that were supposed to start at 8:30 - GONZOROO, which is what the pocket program was calling the Jonathan Coulton concert, a Diana Gabaldon panel about her Outlander book series and how Scottish people invented everything, and a Stargate and Trek Track crossover party with a carnival theme. Nothing was going to keep me from going to the JoCo concert, but Amy and Mama weren't interested, so they decided to go to the Diana Gabaldon thing and drop by the carnival thing after. So we split up again.
Hey, Mr. Fancy Pants!
I would like to marry Jonathan Coulton. Or possibly just his hair.
The JoCo concert was in the Atrium Ballroom at the Marriott, so I walked back to the Marriott to stand in line. I knew that Jonathan Coulton was a big name in terms of geek culture, but I honestly didn't expect the line to be as long as it was considering that the concert was still over an hour away. I followed it out the building, around all the potted plants, down the stairs, around the corner, down the side of the hotel, around the next corner, and about halfway down the back before I could get in line. I remember stopping two different times to ask people in line if it was the right line, and both times I happened to ask people who were rude to me, which is always disappointing because I like to think of nerds as being generally nice people. The first conversation, I swear, went exactly like this:
Me: Excuse me, is this the line for--
Guy in line: Down the stairs.
Me: But it's for Jonathan Coulton, right?
Guy in line: Down. The. Stairs.
Me: Thank you.
And the second one went exactly this way:
Me: Hi, is this still the line for Jonathan Coulton?
Girl in line: Obviously.
I mean, why can't people just say yes? That's what I would have said. "Yes." Or maybe, "Yes, it is." Possibly accompanied by a sympathetic expression conveying the message, "It's a pretty long line, huh?" Even just a nod would have been better. I swear I will never understand why some people would rather be rude than polite to a perfect stranger.
As I was following the line to its end, I found myself walking beside another girl who was also trying to find the end of the line. She seemed friendly, and we made a couple of remarks to each other about how unbelievable the line was. When we finally got in line, she stood behind me and was joined by a few other people. Even more people came and got behind them, so in the span of just a couple of minutes, the line extended all the way across the back side of the hotel as well. We were actually standing in some kind of drive-through that passed by the back doors of the Marriott, and for some reason, even though the sun was going down, it was incredibly hot back there.
We had to stand in line for a long time. I ended up talking to the girl and her friends for most of it. Her name was Tiina and her boyfriend's name was Jon, and they turned out to be really nice people. Tiina is an artist, so they had a booth set up in the dealer room to sell her art. I asked what other things they had been attending at the convention besides the concert, but Jon said the concert was pretty much all they'd had time for, so I'm not really sure what fandoms (if any) they were into, although Jon did talk a little bit with another guy about World of Warcraft, and later he quoted Lord of the Rings in an email. :) It was really great to meet some nice people, especially after getting frustrated with all the rudeness going on elsewhere.
Oh, and some really loud girls who were standing behind us kept complaining about having not gotten their Pottermore emails yet, which I thought was kind of funny.
While we waited in line, we could hear music coming from inside the hotel. It didn't sound like JoCo, but it seemed that people were getting concerned that the concert had already started and that we just hadn't gotten in line early enough to get in. One of Tiina's friends actually suggested that they all get out of line and go inside to listen to the music from another part of the hotel, but she didn't want to do that, and I'm glad they didn't leave. Because we did end up getting into the ballroom eventually, yay, and I felt a little less like I had gone by myself since they were there.
(Later I found out that Jonathan had tweeted: "Those waiting in line for Gonzoroo, tech is running WAY behind. Get comfortable!")
When we got inside, the ballroom had been divided into two sections. There weren't any chairs in the front section, so everyone was sitting on the floor in front of the stage. The back section had chairs in it - I guess that was for people who physically couldn't sit on the floor or stand up for the concert or who didn't care about being able to see the stage. I followed Jon and Tiina to a spot on the floor, and we all sat down until the performance started.
I don't remember what time it actually was when the concert began, but I got the impression it was a lot later than anticipated. [Paul and Storm] performed first. They seem like fun people, but I remember more goofing off than actual music playing. (I wasn't very familiar with their music before seeing them.) The coolest thing they did was bring out [Sylvester McCoy to play the spoons] during one of the their songs. That's right! The seventh Doctor! Ha. So I did get to see Doctor Who at D*C after all.
Something else I found memorable about Paul and Storm was that they quite often make a particular music joke. (A Particular Music Joke is the name of my Paul and Storm cover band...?) They pick phrases out of what someone else is saying and then say "[That Phrase] is the name of my [Name a Musical Artist] cover band." Sometimes it's pretty funny, and it can get addictive, but after a while you just want it to stop. (You Just Want It to Stop is the name of my Rebecca Black cover band.)
After Paul and Storm, it seems like... there was a girl with a ukulele? I don't really remember, which is kind of sad since it's only been like three weeks since this happened. For some reason, I feel like there were actually two performers between Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton, but I can only remember the girl with the uke. Oh well? Maybe I'm hallucinating the other one.
And then after that Jonathan came out and made me fall in love with him. Again. He played all the songs I wanted to hear! (Except "I'm Your Moon," which is my favorite of his songs, but I forgive him for the oversight because he played a fantastic remix of Mr. Fancy Pants, which is my second favorite.) Of course everyone was singing along to every song he played, and he actually had Paul and Storm back him up on most of them. The audience/zombie participation on Re: Your Brains was pretty hilarious:
"Alllll weeee wanna do is eaaaat yer brainzzzz..."
Let's see... they also did the Portal song, Code Monkey, Tom Cruise Crazy, Creepy Doll, and some stuff from his new album called Artificial Heart. And some other stuff. And! For the encore, they did Istanbul (Not Constantinople), which was awesome, followed by I Feel Fantastic, which is probably my third favorite JoCo song. You can listen to all of his songs for free (and download some of them for free) at his website [here]. So do it!
During Code Monkey, people started throwing a stuffed monkey around. It was really funny, because it took a while for people to realize that's what was going on. Like, basically someone would get hit in the head with the monkey and it would fall on the floor, and then someone else would pick it up and throw it, and it would hit another person in the head and fall on the floor, and then someone else would pick it up and throw it... until everyone got the hang of it, like, Oh, we're doing this now? Okay. *throws monkey*
I really enjoyed the JoCo concert, and I hope he comes back again! After the performance, Jonathan said he'd be selling and signing CDs outside the ballroom, and I wanted to go buy one and have it signed, but I had a huge attack of nerves, so I didn't do it. I kind of regret it now, but I have no idea what I would have said to him. (OMG I LUH YOU AND YOUR BEARD.) Plus it was after midnight and my picture with the True Blood guys was early in the morning, so it probably would have been a bad idea to stand in another long line. Which is what I'm telling myself so I won't feel bad about not doing it.
I didn't have a camera with me during the concert, although it probably wouldn't have mattered if I had since my hands shake so badly that I usually end up taking terrible pictures. I complained to Jon that I didn't have a camera, so he told me he'd send me some of the photos he took from the concert. Isn't that nice? As we were leaving after the concert was over, he gave me his email address so we could keep in touch and he could send me the pictures. :)
Yeah so, it turns out he's a photographer? Nice.
Jon sent me seven different photos of Jonathan, and they are all wonderful. But I'm only posting one. He also has a Deviant Art account [here] which you should go look at if you want to see some other pretty cool photos. :)
I said goodbye to Jon and Tiina, and I told Tiina that I would stop by her art booth when I got a chance, and then I went back to the Hyatt. My mom and sister were just getting back from something else, so we met up at the elevators and went back to the room together. This is what they had been doing while I was at the concert:
Worst Panel Ever.
Followed by creepiest party ever and saddest zombie movie (ever).
Since I didn't do any of this stuff, I just have to rely on what Amy and Mama told me and what I found on Mama's camera later. The first thing I found after we split up was this awesome Ferris Bueller cosplayer, which I have to assume they ran into on the way to the Diana Gabaldon/Scottish panel.
Danke Schoen! (I had to look up how to spell that.)
The "Whiskey, Haggis, and Madmen" panel was at the Westin. We all thought it was just going to be Diana talking, but there were some other guys on the panel, too (although the program didn't mention them). According to Amy and Mama, the guys basically took over the panel and Diana didn't get to say much, which I think is very sad. They kept on interrupting and correcting each other, and even though the room started out full, about two thirds of the audience ended up leaving early. My mom said Diana looked uncomfortable the whole time, which she thinks was because the so-called moderator had not prepared any questions or an order for the panelists to talk, so it was more of a free-for-all.
I'm sorry they ruined it for you, Diana.
The things that Diana did manage to say were interesting. Like when she told everyone how to make whiskey. And there was one part where a guy showed everyone how to wear a traditional kilt. (My mom took a picture of every step of this process, but I'm not going to post them.) But it was mostly a disorganized, awkward, and unenjoyable panel. Amy wanted to leave early, but they ended up staying for the whole thing anyway.
The third thing I had included on my OCD color-coded schedule that started at 8:30 on Saturday night (besides the JoCo concert and the Diana panel) was the Stargate/Trek Track crossover party. I had wanted to go to that because they had green screen photographs that you could take where they would insert Stargate and Star Trek backgrounds, and I thought it would be really funny to take a Stargate picture with Amy and Mama. And I'd had no idea that the concert would run so late, so I thought I'd have time to go to this afterward. Well, since the party was also in the Westin, Amy and Mama decided to go to it after the Scottish panel got over. The idea was that if it were cool, then they would find me later and we'd all go back together.
My understanding is that it wasn't cool. I hear that the [few] people who were there were nice, though! This is what I read in the [D*C livejournal] about it:
Fan1: The Carnival was one of the events I wanted to see but didn't get to check out. Can someone give me an overview of what all was there to do, how crowded, fun factor, etc? Thanks!
Fan2: They had green screens set up with different Star Trek and Stargate backdrops and a separate green screen with an actual original Trek captain's chair prop. The only carnival elements were a $30 portrait artist and an unsupervised bean-bag toss. It was not crowded at all (though it was in a huge room) but the costumes were awesome and the people engaging, friendly, and beautifully-costumed.
Fan1: Aside from photo opportunities, was there anything else to do? I thought there were games and such.
Fan2: No, just a single bean bag toss (for fun, not for prizes).
And there you have it. When Amy and Mama went in, there was one guy throwing bean bags at the lonely bean bag toss, and everyone else was sitting in a circle of chairs talking to each other. There were three green screens for photos (one had the Star Trek captain's chair in front of it), and they had some costumes set out for people to put on for the pictures. An older guy tried to get Amy to sit in the captain's chair even though she didn't want a photo, but she politely declined and then escaped with our mom when the guy wasn't looking. But first! There were some SG-1 cosplayers that she took a picture of.
Jack and Daniel (far left and far right) look perfect!
To be fair, it was only 9:30 or so when they went by the "carnival" and it was supposed to last until after midnight, so there's a chance it picked up after they left. And anyway, there don't have to be a lot of people in a place for a good time to be had... more people just make it a little less creepy.
After they snuck out, my mom and sister came to the Marriott and stopped by the concert. Paul and Storm were onstage at the time, and Amy and Mama sat in some chairs at the back while Amy texted me to see where I was. I told her, and she came and found me in the crowd. It was just a sort of checking-in-with-each-other moment, and they left again a couple of minutes later for some costume watching.
Here are some costumes they watched.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
I'm just a hunk-a hunk-a burning midichlorians.
Yeah... I still need to see Tron.
I googled "mecha licka high" to find out the correct spelling of what this character says, and it returned "Did you mean mecka lecka hi?" So I clicked that, and it returned "Did you mean mecca lecca high?" I DON'T KNOW THAT'S WHY I GOOGLED IT DAMN.
There was an independent film festival thing going on at D*C, and our friend Mark co-wrote a short film that was in it. His movie was playing during the "Zombies, Zombies, Zombies!" segment of the film festival on Saturday night around 11, and he had invited us to come see it, so Amy and Mama went to support him. The room was pretty crowded when they got there. In fact, they were told there wasn't room for them, but then they dropped Mark's name and were let inside. :) But they had to stand up.
Mark's the one in the red t-shirt.
The first two zombie movies were very short (about 7 minutes each) comedies, and Mark's was third. (It was about 20 minutes long.) It's called [Followed], and according to IMDB, it's "A socially conscious monster movie in which zombies symbolize society's disadvantaged and oppressed." (Go watch the trailer.) Amy and Mama spoke to Mark for a minute, watched the movies, became thoroughly depressed, and slipped out after Mark's movie was over.
This was about the same time that the JoCo concert was letting out, so we met up at the Hyatt elevators to go back to the room. On the way to the elevators, Amy got accosted by a couple of drunk guys who apparently just wanted to grin really close to her face. Awkward.
We went to bed soon after getting up to the room, but not before I chowed down on some of the snackage we had brought. As far as I can remember, the only food I ate on Saturday was what we had in the room and whatever Mama had been carrying around in her backpack for munching during panels. Ah, con diets.
Sunday
This is where my memory really starts to... wait, what was I saying?
Our True Blood photo op was at 9:00 on Sunday morning, so we got up pretty early for it. The first thing I did was take one of my chill pills, but after I took a shower and got ready for the day, I couldn't remember if I had taken one or not because I still felt nervous, so I took another one. And then judging by the way I felt later, it was pretty obvious that I'd doubled up. Oh well! At least I was happy. But the effects last from 6 to 8 hours, so during that time, there's some stuff that I can barely recall (besides the general pleasant feeling I had all day).
We went straight to the Marriott for the pictures and got in line. The True Blood op was the first picture of the day. They were doing both group shots and single photos of the True Blood guests. Jim Parrack was late, so they went ahead and did all the single shots of the other actors and all the combinations of group shots they could do without him, but our tickets were for Jim and Joe together, so we had to wait for quite a while.
In line for the photo. Amy wore her Merlott's waitress outfit and Mama wore a Fangtasia t-shirt. Appropriate fans are appropriate!
While we were waiting, we started talking to a group of three other girls who were there to have Jim Parrack pictures made. Two of them were sort of freaking out because they were also supposed to have Illumina pictures made with Jim Beaver over in the Hilton at the same time, but they had come to the True Blood op first with their friend, not realizing Jim Parrack was going to be so late. So the two of them decided to leave their friend there and run to the Hilton to see if they could still make the Jim Beaver pic and get back in time to get their True Blood picture too. Of course as soon as they left, I started freaking out that they weren't going to make it back in time. I hate it when stuff like that happens! And you could tell the friend they'd left in the line was freaking out too. But I am happy to report that the girls made it back just in time. :) I hope they don't look too out-of-breath in their pictures.
Oh, and also while we were in line, someone couldn't stop staring at my purse. It's covered in little anime characters. She finally asked me if I had a particular character on it, but I had no idea what she was talking about. Because I am a poser. I guess I need to stop carrying this purse to Dragon*Con because people always comment on it and I lack any useful knowledge about it.
When Jim finally showed up, they did all the big group shots with him first and then the pair shots. So we were some of the last people to have our photos taken. I went ahead of Amy and Mama. I had not really been paying close attention to the people ahead of me in line when they got their photos made, so when I walked up and saw how enormous Jim and Joe are in real life, I was shocked. I actually walked up to them and said, "Holy crap, you guys are huge!"
*facepalm*
Jim started laughing, and Joe just kind of lamely said, "Yeah..." and that made me laugh, so I look like a total dorkface in the picture.
Dork. Face. But at least Jim is smiling.
I thanked them after the picture and went to the table to get my purse while Amy and Mama had their photo made. They like to do photo ops together at D*C because they can just order an extra print and split the cost.
Seriously, does Joe have a lazy eye?
True Blood Panel
I promise Kristin Bauer was there.
There was a True Blood panel immediately following the photo op. We were already in the Marriott, so we just ran upstairs and went into the Atrium Ballroom for the panel. It was all the same people from the Saturday one - Kristin, Jim, Joe, Denis, and Charlaine.
Again, we managed to get no pictures of Kristin. :(
I just want to take a moment to express some love for the moderator of this panel. He moderated a few other ones we went to this year too - I'm thinking specifically of Friday's Being Human panel - and he did an excellent job. He made flattering but short guest introductions, asked relevant questions, spoke clearly, and always kept the discussion moving right along. Loved him. Good job dude, whoever you are.
Like I said, my memory of Sunday is pretty fuzzy, but I remember thinking it was funny that Denis O'Hare and the actor who played Talbot had come up with an entire backstory on how Russell and Talbot met and what kept them together for 700 years. I also thought it was funny the way Joe talked about how much he loved Alcide, like the way you would love a big dog. :)
<--Kristin is over there. Promise. She and Jim passed notes.
Jim didn't say much in this panel either, like in the other one, but what he did say was interesting to me. And I only know this because I just went back and watched [Sunday's entire True Blood panel] on youtube. Someone asked what it was like being an artist and taking time off of acting in order to pursue other creative endeavors in their free time, and Kristin talked about how when you're an artist, creativity is coming out of you all the time - you can't just turn it off - so there's no peace. But when Jim talked about it, he said, "There's no peace, but I can rest in the insanity of being an expressive person." That (and the other stuff he said) really resonated with me. And I would also add that when you have lots of different creative outlets, at least you will never get bored. :)
Oh, and someone asked about doing convincing Southern accents. Denis said he does his Southern accent in real life whenever he wants to get his way, and it usually works. Ha. Must be nice. Mine just makes other people think I'm uneducated.
Being Human Panel
Sam Huntington continues to work the old-timey hat.
So we split up after the True Blood panel because my mom wanted to go to the Being Human one and Amy and I wanted to go to the Eureka one. No one was going to keep me from hearing Wil Wheaton at least once at this convention! But my mom has no particular special feelings for Wil Wheaton, and she really wanted to see Sam Witwer, who plays the funny-looking vampire roommate on Being Human, and who'd had to miss the other Being Human panel we went to. So she went to that instead. Pictures!
Sam Huntington is so cute! And hey, it's that moderator I liked.
Yeah... my mom thinks Witwer is attractive. Um, what?
Eureka Panel
Wheeeeeeeaton!!!! [/Big Bang Theory reference]
I somehow manage to remember parts of this panel! But I don't know if it's because I was there or because I've rewatched it on youtube since then. Most of what I seem to recall from actually being there is looking around for the microphone because I was going to ask a question. But I couldn't find it, so I pretty much sat there grinning while my sister made fun of me for being high. Good times!
I've already talked about how much I like Colin Ferguson, right? And how I've actually daydreamed about us as chimpanzees? He's great! BUT. Wil Wheaton completely stole this panel, no lie. They even wrote an article about it in The Daily Dragon, called [Wil Wheaton Steals the Show at the Eureka Panel]. But he did it in a way that was so likeable! He didn't just seem like an attention hog or something; he was just really entertaining. We didn't have a camera with us (my mom was using it on Sam Witwer), so I'm embedding a couple of youtube clips from the panel instead.
Man. Youtube is so handy.
The first clip is the most memorable moment of the panel for me, because it's the one in which Colin shows off his body. (Hummina.) Someone asked something like, what's the weirdest thing a fan has asked you to sign, or something like that, and Wil complained that he'd been at D*C for three days and still no one had asked him to sign their boob. So Colin volunteered his own boob for some Wheaton signage.
Any excuse is a good excuse to touch shirtless Colin, amiright or amiright?
Also at one point in the panel, a fan asked for one of them to mime something from the upcoming season (to spoil us, basically), so Wil went into this long pantomime that was hilarious. Actually, the whole clip of this is hilarious. I love the interactions between Wil and Colin! They both just seem like such nice people, and they are so funny. But my favorite thing about this is that Colin didn't understand the question at first, so he was just going to mime some random thing simply because a fan asked him to!
"People were gonna be wearing hats and big coats..." ♥
Also someone asked Wil which he liked doing better, Star Trek or Eureka. I loved his answer. He was so diplomatic about it! The way he answered sounded so natural, but it was carefully worded in such a way that he didn't alienate or offend anyone, while showing lots of love for both series, AND still being able to clearly choose a side. That's talent. And he got all sad about Eureka being canceled! I haven't kept up with the last couple of seasons, but hearing him talk about it made me sad, too.
Colin told us that someone had asked him what they should send to Comcast as a fan-campaign to try to get Eureka renewed, like beakers or test tubes, for instance, and he said that receiving a bunch of broken glass in the mail probably wouldn’t change their minds, but maybe letters would, so... start by sending letters. :)
You can watch more of this [Eureka Panel] on youtube, if you want to see Wil Wheaton talking about how great Colin is and how it's impossible not to like him. :D
Sanctuary Panel
Amanda Tapping is adorable. I want to keep her.
We ran back over to the Marriott again to meet up with my mom before the Sanctuary panel started at 1:00. I'm the only one of the three of us who had ever seen any episodes of Sanctuary, but we all liked Amanda on Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and we all knew Christopher Heyerdahl from Atlantis (Mama and I had also seen him on Supernatural), and the Sanctuary panel was our only opportunity to see Amanda and Christopher this year, so we took advantage. Although I didn't really get most of what was going on since I've only seen the first 5 or 6 episodes of season one. And also I was on drugs.
Put your hat back on, Robin.
Thank you.
Amanda was great. In addition to being smart and articulate, she was so cute! And she took notes for most of the panel, writing down questions and ideas and stuff. She was really nice to the fans and seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself. Chris too. He was interesting and funny, not nearly as creepy as I worried he might be. I always feel guilty for expecting actors who play creeps on TV to be creepy in real life - and thank goodness I'm usually wrong about it - but I'm just going to say it's a sign that they're really good at what they do. It's convincing! But Chris seemed like a pretty cool dude in real life. And... I don't know about Robin Dunne. I sort of wondered if he was hungover.
I remember exactly zero else about this panel, except that I wanted to take Amanda home with me.
After we left the Sanctuary panel, which my mom had actually started to fall asleep during, the next thing we wanted to do was the big Buffy the Vampire Slayer panel at the Westin, which started in about 2 hours. My mom wasn't really interested in this, which I thought was CRAZY because there were more Buffy actors at D*C this year than we've ever seen before, but she was really tired and wanted to go back to the hotel room and rest. So Amy and I went to the Buffy panel without her. But first! We ran back downstairs to see if our True Blood photos were ready.
Amy and I picked up our True Blood photos, but my mom's copy had not been printed yet, so she was told to come back for it later. Froggy's photo set-up is right beside some bathrooms, so we stopped there for a second after we got our pictures. After I washed my hands, I went to get a paper towel to dry them, and I had to wait behind this short red-haired girl at the paper towel dispensor. When she turned around, we sort of dodged each other and both said, "Excuse me." About two seconds later, as I was drying my hands, I realized it was Felicia Day.
Someone in the bathroom asked her a question, and Amy and I overheard her telling the girl that she was so tired because she had stayed out all night dancing, so she was going to go take a nap. You know, I always hear stories after D*C about how people stay out late partying with the celebrities every night, but I never know which party to go to. How can you predict where the celebs are going to go dancing? I also heard later that some of the Guild girls and Colin Ferguson, Misha Collins, and Jordan Hinson all went to the karaoke thing. And we didn't. Sigh.
So after observing Felicia Day's public bathroom habits, we headed to Peachtree Center to get lunch. We went to Farmer's Basket again. It's funny, because we always go there thinking we'll have to choose among a wide variety of places to eat, and somehow we always manage to go to the same place. (But they do have good food.) Mama took hers back to our room at the Hyatt to eat there and take a nap, but Amy and I carried our food over to the Westin and ate it in the line for the Buffy panel. Besides the JoCo concert, I'm pretty sure the Buffy panel was the longest wait I had all con, but it went by pretty fast because I had food to eat and my sister to talk to, and also we were sitting down. And I was on drugs.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Panel
I wish I remembered it.
When they let us into the room for this panel, our part of the line was directed up some stairs, so we ended up in the balcony. But we were on the front row of the balcony, so we could see everything perfectly. This was the first time I've ever sat in the balcony for a panel. I think this may have been the only convention ballroom that actually had balconies. Amy took a bunch of pictures for me.
Mercedes McNab (Harmony), Clare Kramer (Glory), Nicholas Brendan (Xander), James Marsters (Spike), Julie Benz (Darla), and Eliza Dushku (Faith) all in one room. That would have made an interesting episode.
Things I remember from this panel:
1. Mercedes just got engaged! Yay.
2. Someone asked about pranks, and they all talked about how both shows were always running behind so they didn't really have time for any -- unless you count how David Boreanaz was always pulling down his pants on the set of Angel. Which I wouldn't call "pranking" so much as "showing affection." (Julie and Eliza were the ones who brought this up.)
Julie is so pretty!
3. Eliza mentioned the movie "That Night," which was her first movie ever. I think she was 11? And Amy and I both woo-hooed really quietly because it's a good movie but like, no one else there saw it.
4. James said the hardest scene he ever had to film was that bathroom scene (you know the one) and that he actually went to the writers and complained about it. And then he told us this story about... like, he was so out of it because of that scene that he literally thought if he banged his head hard enough on the floor then he would be able to fly away. Which I think is a superweird thing to say to a group of people you don't know intimately. Right? I mean, even if you think it, you don't tell people.
5. Julie Benz probably has the most successful career in terms of movies and TV out of all of the panelists. And I loooooooove heeeeeeeeerrrrrr so muuuuuuuuuuch OMG I just realized I don't think I ever posted my photo with her and Charisma Carpenter.
This was from D*C '09, the year I learned not to stand between two beautiful women and be fat. But they liked my Star Trek uniform!
Er, back to this panel.
6. There was a guy who had individual questions for each of the six panelists, but he wanted to be polite and only ask one question at a time and then get in the back of the line again so other people could have a chance. So he only asked like two of them.
7. James said the scaredest he's ever been during filming was when he had to do one of his own stunts in Dragonball Z because they didn't want to put the stunt guy through makeup. So the stunt guy did the stunt first and hurt himself really bad, and then the director turned to James and was like, okay, you ready? Heh.
8. When everyone on the panel listed their upcoming acting projects, Nicky mentioned a cartoon and then reminded everyone that he continues to star in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also told us that he auditioned for Xander in a way that is exactly like himself in real life and the casting director told him to do it another way. So he did it the other way for Joss, and Joss asked him to do it more like himself. :)
Annnnnnd, that is exactly everything that I remember from this panel! Oh, except that James completely spoiled us for the season premiere of Hawaii 5-0. Thanks man.
James must be telling a pretty interesting story. Too bad I was high.
You can watch more from the [Buffy Panel] on youtube, if you so wish. (And really, why wouldn't you?)
Supernatural Panel
My mom and I can't remember if she was there. Seriously.
There was another Supernatural panel right after the Buffy one. It was in the Marriott, so we ran from the Westin to the Marriott, and I contend that we met up with my mother there, but she isn't convinced, and now it's been almost a month and we have no evidence of her presence in this panel except for a vague memory I have of talking in the hotel bathroom about something Misha Collins said during it. This is what I get for not writing down anything and for not doing this report until almost a month later. But I have a full time job! Okay, it's part time. And I wrote some of this there...
Anyway, I'll call Amy later to back me up. But I think my mom was there. And so was Jim Beaver, yay!
Samantha (Ellen), Jim (Bobby), and Misha (Castiel/God/Leviathan?).
There are a total of three things that I remember from this panel:
1. Misha remembers his fans. Like, he remembers them from other conventions. I think that's pretty cool. And I also think it's probably just the ones who make themselves memorable by, like, dressing up as him or being really snarky with him. But it's still cool. As people asked him questions, he would point out if he remembered them.
2. Somebody asked Misha to do a Castiel line, and he refused by saying something like, "I'm not a trained monkey." I think it's perfectly acceptable for actors to refuse to perform lines during Q&A's, and it bothers me a lot when people ask them to do lines because they clearly don't want to do it and it makes everyone uncomfortable, but I don't think it's necessary to be rude about it. I think the best way to handle that situation is for the actor to turn the question around on the fan and have the fan do the line in front of everyone. I've seen a couple of actors do this before (notably, Michelle Forbes in a True Blood panel last year) and it always works out well because the actor doesn't have to do it and the fan still feels special, and nobody's feelings get hurt. But Misha was flat rude. Jim Beaver to the rescue: he performed the Castiel line instead. Heh! That made me really like him.
3. Julie McNiven made a surprise appearance about halfway through this panel. :)
I remember this because we took a photo.
The thing about whether or not actors are trained monkeys is what I remember talking to my mom about later. She also remembers the conversation, but pointed out that it could be that I had only told her what Misha said and that she hadn't actually been there. But I think she just doesn't remember being there. Because she's old and has mad cow.
The Supernatural panel ended around 6:30, and it was also around that time that I got a text from my friend Emily who had come to Dragon*Con for the day to stalk Tom Felton and go to the Harry Potter Yule Ball. The thing we were planning to do next was a Battlestar Galactica Panel, but I had been to panels with all of the BSG folks before and I hadn't seen Emily since I graduated from grad school, so I decided to skip the panel and hang out. Amy and Mama stayed at the Marriott for BSG, and I went off to the Hyatt to meet up with Emily and her friend Sara and another girl named... Anna, I think? And then another girl who met up with us after the BSG panel was over. Emily and Sarah had come dressed as Hermione and Luna.
This is Emily as Hermione with a guy dressed as Ron. (I stole this photo from Facebook.)
When we met up, they had been on the prowl for more Harry Potter costumes. In particular, they were looking for more Rons and Harrys, I think. So we went to all of the different hotels (except the Westin) to look for more costumes for them to take pictures with. We found a Snape and Lily that I thought were pretty good, although at first Emily was like, what is Snape doing with Ginny Weasley? Heh.
While we were in the Hilton, I saw the most fantastic Tenth Doctor with Rose! Rose was good, but I was amazed at Ten. They were costuming from the episode... I think it's called the Satan's Pit? The one where Ten is wearing an orange spacesuit. The guy looked so much like him that I had to go over and tell him how much I adored his costume. He and Rose were really friendly, although I think they were surprised that I went on about their costumes so much but didn't ask for a picture.
We also walked by some Stargate Atlantis cosplayers that I thought were awesome. There were two Wraith and some Atlantis soldiers posing in various fight stances, and it looked so good! I was really kicking myself at this point because I hadn't brought a camera with me. (But that doesn't compare to how much I was kicking myself later when we went to the Sheraton.)
Emily and her friends wanted to get something to eat, so I took them to the consuite for some free food. I don't remember what was there at the time, but it was probably chips and salsa. I also picked up a piece of candy that was shaped like a hot dog. And like, the hot dog comes out of the bun. But it didn't taste like a hot dog.
After the consuite, we went to the Sheraton for the Yule Ball. Like with Zombie Prom, the closer we got to the Sheraton, the more theme-appropriate costumes we saw. The walk over wasn't as crowded as it had been for Zombie Prom though. And of course as soon as we walked into the hotel, Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus walked past us talking to each other. It took me a couple of seconds, but then I was like, y'all that was Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus! And they were kinda like, who? And I was like, the Boondock Saints! They just walked by us! You didn't see them? And then Sara took off running back outside to see if she could catch them.
I would have been about a second behind her except for three sudden thoughts that I had:
1. If I go running after a celebrity, I will like like a total ass.
2. I don't even have a camera with me.
3. Even if I did have a camera, they wouldn't take a free picture with me because they were charging actual cashmoney for photos together with the fans, just like all the other celebrities were. (I know because I almost bought a picture with them. They were posing with guns! Guns aimed at the back of the fans' heads while the fans knelt in front of them! Those pictures were awesome.)
But less than a minute later, Sara came strutting back in with a big smile and this picture on her camera:
Damn her.
I'm jealous, but I don't begrudge her this picture, because it was her first con ever and she didn't have enough money to buy any photos or autographs with anyone else. And I think it's bullshit that Tom Felton was (according to Emily and Sara) only meeting fans who had paid for autographs, so they didn't even get a chance to talk to him. She deserved a free picture with Sean and Norman!
*weeps bitterly*
So then we got in line for the Yule Ball. While we were standing there waiting to get in, it occurred to me that I had no interest in attending the Yule Ball. I like Harry Potter, but it's not very high on my fandom list, especially if the event is just fans dressed as the characters. I wasn't even wearing a costume. So I said goodbye to Emily and her friends and then walked back to the Hyatt to meet back up with Amy and Mama.
BLERG, LJ is telling me the post is too long (again)! I really thought I could make it to the end with this one. I haven't even met David Nykl, David Blue, Howard Hesseman, and Louis Ferreira yet! If you want to see
OMG MOAR
click [this link] for the end of my report, including lots of pictures of the Stargate guys, me embarrassing the crap outta my mom, and David Nykl writing down cuss words for me in Czech. (Also, David Blue is totally my boyfriend. Times like a thousand.)
Joe Mangina-low, take me now.
When I left the Supernatural panel to go get my pictures and give Misha his doll, my mom went to join my sister, who had been waiting in line for the True Blood panel. My mom told me that she takes the majority of her pictures specifically because every year I complain that she didn't take enough pictures. So she does this thing at con where, if other people are taking pictures of someone's costume, she'll run up and grab a piece of the action with her camera too. As a strategy, it's not bad, although I know some people get home after doing the same thing and go through their pictures thinking "What on earth IS this stuff?" (The lady who took a picture of me and Amy at Zombie Prom comes to mind.) So between leaving the SPN panel and getting in the TB line, my mom took a picture of... I think it's called a darkling elf? But I'm only guessing, and I have no idea what it's from. The costume's pretty cool, though.
I can't decide whether this is politically correct or not.
Another picture she took while I was on my date with Misha Collins:
This is part of the line for the True Blood Panel.
Apparently Amy and Mama got some pretty decent seats for the panel, but since I was like twenty minutes late, I just had to sneak in the back. I could still see everything on the big screens, though. Mostly I was looking at Joe Manganiello, and I think Amy was too, because all of the True Blood pictures I pulled off the camera later featured him.
He's hot, but he always looks confused. I think maybe he has a lazy eye...?
This panel was Denis O'Hare (Russell Edgington), Kristin Bauer (Pam), Jim Parrack (Hoyt), Joe Manganiello (Alcide), and Charlaine Harris, who wrote the Sookie books. Denis and Kristin didn't make it into any of our pictures, though they both answered a lot of questions. Joe talked the most, and Jim barely said anything.
He just sat there behind his mustache.
When I first saw Charlaine, all I could think was What is she wearing? Because the last time we saw her, she was wearing like a floral pantsuit or something. I figured she had significantly changed her image, but then Amy told me what I had missed at the beginning of the panel - Charlaine was in costume as a Victorian widow. I love that she did that. Go Charlaine! If I were speaking at a convention, I would totally costume it up, too.
Joe is embarrassed to look at her.
I didn't retain much from this panel, partly because I missed a lot of it and partly because I didn't write a single thing down, but I do remember that Jim brought up the fact that he's a Christian. I always love when actors at these things do that. I think a lot of fans are startled by it. And I remember that Denis brought up Sam Trammell's spot-on impersonation of the guy who plays his brother Tommy in the show, and everyone applauded at that. (I personally thought Sam's performance as Tommy was amazing as well.)
They also talked about how the show is marketed as a supernatural show, but that it's really more about people and humanity than anything else. I can't really say that I agree with that, because I think most if not all of the drama between the characters on the show comes about because of the supernatural nature of... everyone. And that it would be a completely different show with different characters and different stories if everyone were human. It doesn't seem to me that the supernatural stuff is very metaphorical at all in terms of representing drama that real people would have. (The only exception I can think of is the issue of tolerance and civil rights for the vampires, which you could compare to other civil rights movements, but even that is a big stretch because vampires eat people and can control your mind so it is natural to be afraid of them, whereas other civil rights movements involved groups of humans with no special powers.) I think that if True Blood wanted to be a show about humanity, it could be much more metaphorical in the way that Buffy and Angel were. But that said, I still enjoy the heck out of it. I don't need for it to inform my worldview in order for it to entertain me.
Here is some footage from Saturday's [True Blood Panel] on youtube. There's more than one part, and you can see Kristin Bauer cry a little bit, which I guess she always does in panels. What an emotional person. But I still like her. :)
This panel ended around 5:00, and I met up with Amy and Mama outside of it. I think they were a little surprised to see that I hadn't gone to the Next Generation panel, but I told them that I'd met Misha and picked up my pictures. The next thing we planned to do together was the Doctor Who viewing party at 7:00, so we had a couple hours to kill. Since we were in the Marriott anyway, I think the first thing we did was pop down to Froggy Photos so Amy and Mama could buy a photo op for the True Blood guys for Sunday morning (I'd already bought mine). The line was super short again. I am always going to buy my photos way in advance from now on! When we got up to the table at the front of the line, Amy told the girl sitting there that she wanted to buy a ticket for a photo with Jim and Joe from True Blood and then mentioned that we didn't know how to pronounce Joe's last name. The girl said she'd been calling him Joe Mango-Jello. Amy told her we'd been saying Joe Mangina-low. The girl paused for a second and then said, "I like mine better."
Wow. Okay.
After that, I wanted to go give Brent Spiner his doll since I'd been carrying it around all day, so we headed over to the Walk of Fame at the Hilton to do that.
(He's fully functional.)
When we got to the big Walk of Fame room, Brent wasn't there, but a short line had already formed at his table. (There was a SUPER long line at the time for Wil Wheaton, who was sitting at a table opposite from the other Star Trek actors.) The Next Generation panel had just ended, so I figured it wouldn't be long until Brent showed up. Wil and Gates were already there. We walked over to Brent's line and asked someone in it how long it would be until Brent showed up, and he said that the volunteer had told him that Brent would be there by 5:30, which was in just a few minutes, so I went to the back of the line and got in it. The girl standing in front of me in line turned out to be the sister of a guy my sisters knew from college, whom we ran into last year dressed as Doctor Horrible. The guy showed up a minute later and Amy spoke to him for a bit. I think it's funny that out of 46,000 people at a convention, you can just happen to run into people you know. Like we had seen Julie earlier and at one point we also ran into Amy's husband's cousin Drake.
After 5:30, when Brent still hadn't shown up, Amy pointed out that she still needed to see the previous week's episode of Doctor Who if we were going to go to the viewing party at 7. Since I had put a copy of the episode on my mom's netbook, which was in our room at the Hyatt, she decided to go back to the room to watch it while Mama and I met Brent. So Amy left, and one of us asked the volunteer at the desk when to expect Brent, and this time we were told 6:00. So we kept standing in line.
While we waited, I saw a dude dressed as a strip of bacon. An inspired costume, because everyone recognizes bacon and nobody doesn't like it. We also saw a very short woman dressed as Tinkerbell. She was adorable. Everyone kept taking pictures of her near our line, including [Robert Duncan McNeill], who was sitting at the table right next to Brent's. :)
It was after 6 when Brent did finally show up and sit at his table. Some more people had come in and gotten behind me, so he had quite a line to deal with, but I think I was only 5th or 6th, so it went pretty fast. His autograph was $30, so I paid the volunteer sitting at the table and picked a picture of Brent for him to sign. I of course picked the one of him as Data, although there were some current pictures of him as well.
When it was my turn to meet Brent, I shook his hand and introduced myself. My mom was standing behind me and I don't think I introduced her - I usually forget because she likes to stand behind me and be completely silent - and Brent gave me a big smile and said, "Hi, what can I do for you?" So I said, "Well, I'd love an autograph," and he goes, "Sure!" and signed my picture. I usually have something specific that I want celebrities to write on my autograph when I meet them, but I didn't ask Brent to write anything in particular, so he just personalized it and signed his name. In fact, I think this is the only autograph I've ever gotten on an 8x10 that doesn't say anything besides my name and the celebrity's name, but that's okay because the picture my mom got afterwards totally makes up for it. :D
I should have asked him to write, "Take my Worf. Please."
While he was signing, I said, "And I made something for you," and he seemed surprised and said, "Oh really? What's that?" So I told him that I had taught myself crochet in grad school and that I'd recently become a fan of The Next Generation and that Data was my favorite character - he was like, "Oh, that's so sweet!" - and that I had crocheted him a Data doll while I watched the show. I pulled the doll out of my tote and handed it to him. His face practically lit up! It was so cute. He said, "Oh, wow, thank you so much!" and then he said, "Look at this! Look at the craftsmanship," and showed it to his assistant who was sitting next to him. I remember thinking it was kind of funny that Brent and Misha had both used the word "craftsmanship" to talk about their dolls, since it's a word I know but would probably never use in conversation.
So then Brent turned back to me and said very sincerely, "Thanks so much. This is so nice," and went to lay the doll down on the table, so I said, "He stands up." And so Brent stood the doll up on the table beside him and grinned (he didn't have a problem balancing the doll like Misha had). Then he looked up and I guess he saw my mom standing there with a camera and so he said, "Can we get a picture of this?" Ha. I love that he asked us to take a picture instead of us having to ask him. And it's such a cute picture, too!
This is my favorite photo from D*C this year. And that includes the one of me and Shatner right before we did it.
After my mom snapped the photo, Brent smiled at the doll again and said, "This is so wonderful, thank you." And I was like, "Thank you," and grabbed my autograph off the table. I shook hands with Brent again and my mom and I started to walk away, but then Brent said, "Wait!" so we turned back. He was like, "Have you been watching my new webseries on youtube?" and I said something like, "No, but I remember you talking about it in yesterday's panel. I want to see it." And he goes, "You should. You'll love it! Take this," and he handed me a little card that had printed on it, "I promised Brent Spiner I would watch Fresh Hell," followed by [this link]. I sort of laughed at the card and said, "I'll be sure to check that out," and he grinned and said, "Thank you again. This was so sweet of you."
So. Brent Spiner loves me. ♥
As soon as we turned to leave, I overheard Brent say to the next person in line, "Look at this! She made it." ♥ ♥
I know my little meeting with Brent was very short, but I actually think I enjoyed it more than meeting Misha Collins. Is that weird? I think it's because I had been so nervous about meeting Misha, but I wasn't very nervous at all about meeting Brent, so our conversation felt more natural. And Brent seemed so happy and energetic and... I don't know, lighthearted? While Misha's aura was a little bit darker, if that makes sense. I mean, Misha was perfectly pleasant to me, but he just seems a little more intense, whereas Brent is so open and easygoing. I think part of the reason there was also more pressure about meeting Misha is because he is very easily provoked to sarcasm, and I was terrified that he would make fun of me or something. And also Misha spoke to three other people while I was talking to him (the drinks lady, one of the Illumina volunteers, and the girl in line behind me), so I kept feeling rushed and was actually somewhat relieved afterward that I had gotten it over with. But Brent had a very positive energy around him and managed to smile a lot while staying totally sincere.
That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy meeting Misha Collins. I did. I thought he was great and I'm tremendously pleased that he liked the doll I made for him. But maybe next time they should put him in a more open space. That little Illumina room was too small for other people to fit their auras in beside his.
So anyway, we left the Hilton after meeting Brent and went back to our room in the Hyatt to meet up with Amy. She was still watching that episode of Doctor Who, and it was obviously not going to get over before the viewing party at 7. I wanted to go ahead and get in the line at the Sheraton because I was afraid it would be crowded, so she turned off the episode, and as we walked out of our room, I started explaining everything about the rest of the episode to her in case the episode we were about to see made reference to it. The reason I was worried the viewing party would be crowded is because, well, it's a sci-fi convention, and they were not only showing a new episode of Doctor Who, but showing it two hours before it was scheduled to air anywhere else in the United States. Which is pretty cool, I think.
I was still explaining the previous episode to Amy when we got into the elevator. There were some other people in the elevator too, and I could tell they were listening to me, which made it a little weird. One guy was wearing a kilt and holding a beer. He spoke to us and seemed pretty nice. I still don't understand the whole wearing-a-kilt-to-a-sci-fi-con phenomenon, but I'm not complaining about it. Maybe it's a Highlander thing. (Did they wear kilts in that?)
When we got over to the Sheraton, we walked inside and asked where the Doctor Who line was. We were told to go back outside and around the building. There were a couple of people hanging out at the corner of the building, so we stopped next to them and gazed mournfully at the line that started at a nearby door and wrapped around the far corner. Rather than try to find the end of the line in the one minute before the viewing was supposed to begin, we decided to wait at the corner and join the end of the line when it came by (if it came by). And then people started lining up behind us.
The people who were already standing at the corner were a father and daughter. The girl looked maybe twelve or thirteen, and she was wearing a TARDIS dress and a rainbow scarf. We talked to them while we watched the extremely long line file into the building. They were keeping a positive outlook about the fact that we were obviously not going to get in, saying things like, "Well, we can still watch it tonight on the hotel TV when it comes on in two hours," and stuff like that. It made me sad that they were going to miss the viewing since the girl had dressed for it and all. There were actually a LOT of Doctor Who costumes in the line, so it was kind of neat to watch them all going in. I saw of lot of Amy Ponds in the police kiss-a-gram uniform, which my sister said that she might try to costume next year. I've been considering going as K-9.
Oh, I just remembered that on Friday we saw an Amy Pond in the kiss-a-gram outfit walking around with a Roman soldier, and my sister saw them and said, "Why's she with a gladiator?" *facepalm* I do think it's kind of sad that Rory doesn't really have any other iconic outfits, though, because I don't ever really picture him as the centurian. I wonder if anyone has considered going as Amy, Rory, and the Doctor in their Peruvian folk band ponchos.
So, we didn't even come close to getting into this thing. They stopped the line at about halfway. The man and his daughter and all the people lined up behind us shuffled away sadly. I was disappointed, but it wasn't devastating because I knew I'd be able to easily download the episode when I had time. But I did feel bad for ruining the second half of the previous episode for my sister. She said she didn't mind, though.
It was around 7:10 or so at this point. There were three different things on my uptight paranoid schedule that were supposed to start at 8:30 - GONZOROO, which is what the pocket program was calling the Jonathan Coulton concert, a Diana Gabaldon panel about her Outlander book series and how Scottish people invented everything, and a Stargate and Trek Track crossover party with a carnival theme. Nothing was going to keep me from going to the JoCo concert, but Amy and Mama weren't interested, so they decided to go to the Diana Gabaldon thing and drop by the carnival thing after. So we split up again.
I would like to marry Jonathan Coulton. Or possibly just his hair.
The JoCo concert was in the Atrium Ballroom at the Marriott, so I walked back to the Marriott to stand in line. I knew that Jonathan Coulton was a big name in terms of geek culture, but I honestly didn't expect the line to be as long as it was considering that the concert was still over an hour away. I followed it out the building, around all the potted plants, down the stairs, around the corner, down the side of the hotel, around the next corner, and about halfway down the back before I could get in line. I remember stopping two different times to ask people in line if it was the right line, and both times I happened to ask people who were rude to me, which is always disappointing because I like to think of nerds as being generally nice people. The first conversation, I swear, went exactly like this:
Me: Excuse me, is this the line for--
Guy in line: Down the stairs.
Me: But it's for Jonathan Coulton, right?
Guy in line: Down. The. Stairs.
Me: Thank you.
And the second one went exactly this way:
Me: Hi, is this still the line for Jonathan Coulton?
Girl in line: Obviously.
I mean, why can't people just say yes? That's what I would have said. "Yes." Or maybe, "Yes, it is." Possibly accompanied by a sympathetic expression conveying the message, "It's a pretty long line, huh?" Even just a nod would have been better. I swear I will never understand why some people would rather be rude than polite to a perfect stranger.
As I was following the line to its end, I found myself walking beside another girl who was also trying to find the end of the line. She seemed friendly, and we made a couple of remarks to each other about how unbelievable the line was. When we finally got in line, she stood behind me and was joined by a few other people. Even more people came and got behind them, so in the span of just a couple of minutes, the line extended all the way across the back side of the hotel as well. We were actually standing in some kind of drive-through that passed by the back doors of the Marriott, and for some reason, even though the sun was going down, it was incredibly hot back there.
We had to stand in line for a long time. I ended up talking to the girl and her friends for most of it. Her name was Tiina and her boyfriend's name was Jon, and they turned out to be really nice people. Tiina is an artist, so they had a booth set up in the dealer room to sell her art. I asked what other things they had been attending at the convention besides the concert, but Jon said the concert was pretty much all they'd had time for, so I'm not really sure what fandoms (if any) they were into, although Jon did talk a little bit with another guy about World of Warcraft, and later he quoted Lord of the Rings in an email. :) It was really great to meet some nice people, especially after getting frustrated with all the rudeness going on elsewhere.
Oh, and some really loud girls who were standing behind us kept complaining about having not gotten their Pottermore emails yet, which I thought was kind of funny.
While we waited in line, we could hear music coming from inside the hotel. It didn't sound like JoCo, but it seemed that people were getting concerned that the concert had already started and that we just hadn't gotten in line early enough to get in. One of Tiina's friends actually suggested that they all get out of line and go inside to listen to the music from another part of the hotel, but she didn't want to do that, and I'm glad they didn't leave. Because we did end up getting into the ballroom eventually, yay, and I felt a little less like I had gone by myself since they were there.
(Later I found out that Jonathan had tweeted: "Those waiting in line for Gonzoroo, tech is running WAY behind. Get comfortable!")
When we got inside, the ballroom had been divided into two sections. There weren't any chairs in the front section, so everyone was sitting on the floor in front of the stage. The back section had chairs in it - I guess that was for people who physically couldn't sit on the floor or stand up for the concert or who didn't care about being able to see the stage. I followed Jon and Tiina to a spot on the floor, and we all sat down until the performance started.
I don't remember what time it actually was when the concert began, but I got the impression it was a lot later than anticipated. [Paul and Storm] performed first. They seem like fun people, but I remember more goofing off than actual music playing. (I wasn't very familiar with their music before seeing them.) The coolest thing they did was bring out [Sylvester McCoy to play the spoons] during one of the their songs. That's right! The seventh Doctor! Ha. So I did get to see Doctor Who at D*C after all.
Something else I found memorable about Paul and Storm was that they quite often make a particular music joke. (A Particular Music Joke is the name of my Paul and Storm cover band...?) They pick phrases out of what someone else is saying and then say "[That Phrase] is the name of my [Name a Musical Artist] cover band." Sometimes it's pretty funny, and it can get addictive, but after a while you just want it to stop. (You Just Want It to Stop is the name of my Rebecca Black cover band.)
After Paul and Storm, it seems like... there was a girl with a ukulele? I don't really remember, which is kind of sad since it's only been like three weeks since this happened. For some reason, I feel like there were actually two performers between Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton, but I can only remember the girl with the uke. Oh well? Maybe I'm hallucinating the other one.
And then after that Jonathan came out and made me fall in love with him. Again. He played all the songs I wanted to hear! (Except "I'm Your Moon," which is my favorite of his songs, but I forgive him for the oversight because he played a fantastic remix of Mr. Fancy Pants, which is my second favorite.) Of course everyone was singing along to every song he played, and he actually had Paul and Storm back him up on most of them. The audience/zombie participation on Re: Your Brains was pretty hilarious:
"Alllll weeee wanna do is eaaaat yer brainzzzz..."
Let's see... they also did the Portal song, Code Monkey, Tom Cruise Crazy, Creepy Doll, and some stuff from his new album called Artificial Heart. And some other stuff. And! For the encore, they did Istanbul (Not Constantinople), which was awesome, followed by I Feel Fantastic, which is probably my third favorite JoCo song. You can listen to all of his songs for free (and download some of them for free) at his website [here]. So do it!
During Code Monkey, people started throwing a stuffed monkey around. It was really funny, because it took a while for people to realize that's what was going on. Like, basically someone would get hit in the head with the monkey and it would fall on the floor, and then someone else would pick it up and throw it, and it would hit another person in the head and fall on the floor, and then someone else would pick it up and throw it... until everyone got the hang of it, like, Oh, we're doing this now? Okay. *throws monkey*
I really enjoyed the JoCo concert, and I hope he comes back again! After the performance, Jonathan said he'd be selling and signing CDs outside the ballroom, and I wanted to go buy one and have it signed, but I had a huge attack of nerves, so I didn't do it. I kind of regret it now, but I have no idea what I would have said to him. (OMG I LUH YOU AND YOUR BEARD.) Plus it was after midnight and my picture with the True Blood guys was early in the morning, so it probably would have been a bad idea to stand in another long line. Which is what I'm telling myself so I won't feel bad about not doing it.
I didn't have a camera with me during the concert, although it probably wouldn't have mattered if I had since my hands shake so badly that I usually end up taking terrible pictures. I complained to Jon that I didn't have a camera, so he told me he'd send me some of the photos he took from the concert. Isn't that nice? As we were leaving after the concert was over, he gave me his email address so we could keep in touch and he could send me the pictures. :)
Yeah so, it turns out he's a photographer? Nice.
Jon sent me seven different photos of Jonathan, and they are all wonderful. But I'm only posting one. He also has a Deviant Art account [here] which you should go look at if you want to see some other pretty cool photos. :)
I said goodbye to Jon and Tiina, and I told Tiina that I would stop by her art booth when I got a chance, and then I went back to the Hyatt. My mom and sister were just getting back from something else, so we met up at the elevators and went back to the room together. This is what they had been doing while I was at the concert:
Followed by creepiest party ever and saddest zombie movie (ever).
Since I didn't do any of this stuff, I just have to rely on what Amy and Mama told me and what I found on Mama's camera later. The first thing I found after we split up was this awesome Ferris Bueller cosplayer, which I have to assume they ran into on the way to the Diana Gabaldon/Scottish panel.
Danke Schoen! (I had to look up how to spell that.)
The "Whiskey, Haggis, and Madmen" panel was at the Westin. We all thought it was just going to be Diana talking, but there were some other guys on the panel, too (although the program didn't mention them). According to Amy and Mama, the guys basically took over the panel and Diana didn't get to say much, which I think is very sad. They kept on interrupting and correcting each other, and even though the room started out full, about two thirds of the audience ended up leaving early. My mom said Diana looked uncomfortable the whole time, which she thinks was because the so-called moderator had not prepared any questions or an order for the panelists to talk, so it was more of a free-for-all.
I'm sorry they ruined it for you, Diana.
The things that Diana did manage to say were interesting. Like when she told everyone how to make whiskey. And there was one part where a guy showed everyone how to wear a traditional kilt. (My mom took a picture of every step of this process, but I'm not going to post them.) But it was mostly a disorganized, awkward, and unenjoyable panel. Amy wanted to leave early, but they ended up staying for the whole thing anyway.
The third thing I had included on my OCD color-coded schedule that started at 8:30 on Saturday night (besides the JoCo concert and the Diana panel) was the Stargate/Trek Track crossover party. I had wanted to go to that because they had green screen photographs that you could take where they would insert Stargate and Star Trek backgrounds, and I thought it would be really funny to take a Stargate picture with Amy and Mama. And I'd had no idea that the concert would run so late, so I thought I'd have time to go to this afterward. Well, since the party was also in the Westin, Amy and Mama decided to go to it after the Scottish panel got over. The idea was that if it were cool, then they would find me later and we'd all go back together.
My understanding is that it wasn't cool. I hear that the [few] people who were there were nice, though! This is what I read in the [D*C livejournal] about it:
Fan1: The Carnival was one of the events I wanted to see but didn't get to check out. Can someone give me an overview of what all was there to do, how crowded, fun factor, etc? Thanks!
Fan2: They had green screens set up with different Star Trek and Stargate backdrops and a separate green screen with an actual original Trek captain's chair prop. The only carnival elements were a $30 portrait artist and an unsupervised bean-bag toss. It was not crowded at all (though it was in a huge room) but the costumes were awesome and the people engaging, friendly, and beautifully-costumed.
Fan1: Aside from photo opportunities, was there anything else to do? I thought there were games and such.
Fan2: No, just a single bean bag toss (for fun, not for prizes).
And there you have it. When Amy and Mama went in, there was one guy throwing bean bags at the lonely bean bag toss, and everyone else was sitting in a circle of chairs talking to each other. There were three green screens for photos (one had the Star Trek captain's chair in front of it), and they had some costumes set out for people to put on for the pictures. An older guy tried to get Amy to sit in the captain's chair even though she didn't want a photo, but she politely declined and then escaped with our mom when the guy wasn't looking. But first! There were some SG-1 cosplayers that she took a picture of.
Jack and Daniel (far left and far right) look perfect!
To be fair, it was only 9:30 or so when they went by the "carnival" and it was supposed to last until after midnight, so there's a chance it picked up after they left. And anyway, there don't have to be a lot of people in a place for a good time to be had... more people just make it a little less creepy.
After they snuck out, my mom and sister came to the Marriott and stopped by the concert. Paul and Storm were onstage at the time, and Amy and Mama sat in some chairs at the back while Amy texted me to see where I was. I told her, and she came and found me in the crowd. It was just a sort of checking-in-with-each-other moment, and they left again a couple of minutes later for some costume watching.
Here are some costumes they watched.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
I'm just a hunk-a hunk-a burning midichlorians.
Yeah... I still need to see Tron.
I googled "mecha licka high" to find out the correct spelling of what this character says, and it returned "Did you mean mecka lecka hi?" So I clicked that, and it returned "Did you mean mecca lecca high?" I DON'T KNOW THAT'S WHY I GOOGLED IT DAMN.
There was an independent film festival thing going on at D*C, and our friend Mark co-wrote a short film that was in it. His movie was playing during the "Zombies, Zombies, Zombies!" segment of the film festival on Saturday night around 11, and he had invited us to come see it, so Amy and Mama went to support him. The room was pretty crowded when they got there. In fact, they were told there wasn't room for them, but then they dropped Mark's name and were let inside. :) But they had to stand up.
Mark's the one in the red t-shirt.
The first two zombie movies were very short (about 7 minutes each) comedies, and Mark's was third. (It was about 20 minutes long.) It's called [Followed], and according to IMDB, it's "A socially conscious monster movie in which zombies symbolize society's disadvantaged and oppressed." (Go watch the trailer.) Amy and Mama spoke to Mark for a minute, watched the movies, became thoroughly depressed, and slipped out after Mark's movie was over.
This was about the same time that the JoCo concert was letting out, so we met up at the Hyatt elevators to go back to the room. On the way to the elevators, Amy got accosted by a couple of drunk guys who apparently just wanted to grin really close to her face. Awkward.
We went to bed soon after getting up to the room, but not before I chowed down on some of the snackage we had brought. As far as I can remember, the only food I ate on Saturday was what we had in the room and whatever Mama had been carrying around in her backpack for munching during panels. Ah, con diets.
This is where my memory really starts to... wait, what was I saying?
Our True Blood photo op was at 9:00 on Sunday morning, so we got up pretty early for it. The first thing I did was take one of my chill pills, but after I took a shower and got ready for the day, I couldn't remember if I had taken one or not because I still felt nervous, so I took another one. And then judging by the way I felt later, it was pretty obvious that I'd doubled up. Oh well! At least I was happy. But the effects last from 6 to 8 hours, so during that time, there's some stuff that I can barely recall (besides the general pleasant feeling I had all day).
We went straight to the Marriott for the pictures and got in line. The True Blood op was the first picture of the day. They were doing both group shots and single photos of the True Blood guests. Jim Parrack was late, so they went ahead and did all the single shots of the other actors and all the combinations of group shots they could do without him, but our tickets were for Jim and Joe together, so we had to wait for quite a while.
In line for the photo. Amy wore her Merlott's waitress outfit and Mama wore a Fangtasia t-shirt. Appropriate fans are appropriate!
While we were waiting, we started talking to a group of three other girls who were there to have Jim Parrack pictures made. Two of them were sort of freaking out because they were also supposed to have Illumina pictures made with Jim Beaver over in the Hilton at the same time, but they had come to the True Blood op first with their friend, not realizing Jim Parrack was going to be so late. So the two of them decided to leave their friend there and run to the Hilton to see if they could still make the Jim Beaver pic and get back in time to get their True Blood picture too. Of course as soon as they left, I started freaking out that they weren't going to make it back in time. I hate it when stuff like that happens! And you could tell the friend they'd left in the line was freaking out too. But I am happy to report that the girls made it back just in time. :) I hope they don't look too out-of-breath in their pictures.
Oh, and also while we were in line, someone couldn't stop staring at my purse. It's covered in little anime characters. She finally asked me if I had a particular character on it, but I had no idea what she was talking about. Because I am a poser. I guess I need to stop carrying this purse to Dragon*Con because people always comment on it and I lack any useful knowledge about it.
When Jim finally showed up, they did all the big group shots with him first and then the pair shots. So we were some of the last people to have our photos taken. I went ahead of Amy and Mama. I had not really been paying close attention to the people ahead of me in line when they got their photos made, so when I walked up and saw how enormous Jim and Joe are in real life, I was shocked. I actually walked up to them and said, "Holy crap, you guys are huge!"
*facepalm*
Jim started laughing, and Joe just kind of lamely said, "Yeah..." and that made me laugh, so I look like a total dorkface in the picture.
Dork. Face. But at least Jim is smiling.
I thanked them after the picture and went to the table to get my purse while Amy and Mama had their photo made. They like to do photo ops together at D*C because they can just order an extra print and split the cost.
Seriously, does Joe have a lazy eye?
I promise Kristin Bauer was there.
There was a True Blood panel immediately following the photo op. We were already in the Marriott, so we just ran upstairs and went into the Atrium Ballroom for the panel. It was all the same people from the Saturday one - Kristin, Jim, Joe, Denis, and Charlaine.
Again, we managed to get no pictures of Kristin. :(
I just want to take a moment to express some love for the moderator of this panel. He moderated a few other ones we went to this year too - I'm thinking specifically of Friday's Being Human panel - and he did an excellent job. He made flattering but short guest introductions, asked relevant questions, spoke clearly, and always kept the discussion moving right along. Loved him. Good job dude, whoever you are.
Like I said, my memory of Sunday is pretty fuzzy, but I remember thinking it was funny that Denis O'Hare and the actor who played Talbot had come up with an entire backstory on how Russell and Talbot met and what kept them together for 700 years. I also thought it was funny the way Joe talked about how much he loved Alcide, like the way you would love a big dog. :)
<--Kristin is over there. Promise. She and Jim passed notes.
Jim didn't say much in this panel either, like in the other one, but what he did say was interesting to me. And I only know this because I just went back and watched [Sunday's entire True Blood panel] on youtube. Someone asked what it was like being an artist and taking time off of acting in order to pursue other creative endeavors in their free time, and Kristin talked about how when you're an artist, creativity is coming out of you all the time - you can't just turn it off - so there's no peace. But when Jim talked about it, he said, "There's no peace, but I can rest in the insanity of being an expressive person." That (and the other stuff he said) really resonated with me. And I would also add that when you have lots of different creative outlets, at least you will never get bored. :)
Oh, and someone asked about doing convincing Southern accents. Denis said he does his Southern accent in real life whenever he wants to get his way, and it usually works. Ha. Must be nice. Mine just makes other people think I'm uneducated.
Sam Huntington continues to work the old-timey hat.
So we split up after the True Blood panel because my mom wanted to go to the Being Human one and Amy and I wanted to go to the Eureka one. No one was going to keep me from hearing Wil Wheaton at least once at this convention! But my mom has no particular special feelings for Wil Wheaton, and she really wanted to see Sam Witwer, who plays the funny-looking vampire roommate on Being Human, and who'd had to miss the other Being Human panel we went to. So she went to that instead. Pictures!
Sam Huntington is so cute! And hey, it's that moderator I liked.
Yeah... my mom thinks Witwer is attractive. Um, what?
Wheeeeeeeaton!!!! [/Big Bang Theory reference]
I somehow manage to remember parts of this panel! But I don't know if it's because I was there or because I've rewatched it on youtube since then. Most of what I seem to recall from actually being there is looking around for the microphone because I was going to ask a question. But I couldn't find it, so I pretty much sat there grinning while my sister made fun of me for being high. Good times!
I've already talked about how much I like Colin Ferguson, right? And how I've actually daydreamed about us as chimpanzees? He's great! BUT. Wil Wheaton completely stole this panel, no lie. They even wrote an article about it in The Daily Dragon, called [Wil Wheaton Steals the Show at the Eureka Panel]. But he did it in a way that was so likeable! He didn't just seem like an attention hog or something; he was just really entertaining. We didn't have a camera with us (my mom was using it on Sam Witwer), so I'm embedding a couple of youtube clips from the panel instead.
Man. Youtube is so handy.
The first clip is the most memorable moment of the panel for me, because it's the one in which Colin shows off his body. (Hummina.) Someone asked something like, what's the weirdest thing a fan has asked you to sign, or something like that, and Wil complained that he'd been at D*C for three days and still no one had asked him to sign their boob. So Colin volunteered his own boob for some Wheaton signage.
Any excuse is a good excuse to touch shirtless Colin, amiright or amiright?
Also at one point in the panel, a fan asked for one of them to mime something from the upcoming season (to spoil us, basically), so Wil went into this long pantomime that was hilarious. Actually, the whole clip of this is hilarious. I love the interactions between Wil and Colin! They both just seem like such nice people, and they are so funny. But my favorite thing about this is that Colin didn't understand the question at first, so he was just going to mime some random thing simply because a fan asked him to!
"People were gonna be wearing hats and big coats..." ♥
Also someone asked Wil which he liked doing better, Star Trek or Eureka. I loved his answer. He was so diplomatic about it! The way he answered sounded so natural, but it was carefully worded in such a way that he didn't alienate or offend anyone, while showing lots of love for both series, AND still being able to clearly choose a side. That's talent. And he got all sad about Eureka being canceled! I haven't kept up with the last couple of seasons, but hearing him talk about it made me sad, too.
Colin told us that someone had asked him what they should send to Comcast as a fan-campaign to try to get Eureka renewed, like beakers or test tubes, for instance, and he said that receiving a bunch of broken glass in the mail probably wouldn’t change their minds, but maybe letters would, so... start by sending letters. :)
You can watch more of this [Eureka Panel] on youtube, if you want to see Wil Wheaton talking about how great Colin is and how it's impossible not to like him. :D
Amanda Tapping is adorable. I want to keep her.
We ran back over to the Marriott again to meet up with my mom before the Sanctuary panel started at 1:00. I'm the only one of the three of us who had ever seen any episodes of Sanctuary, but we all liked Amanda on Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and we all knew Christopher Heyerdahl from Atlantis (Mama and I had also seen him on Supernatural), and the Sanctuary panel was our only opportunity to see Amanda and Christopher this year, so we took advantage. Although I didn't really get most of what was going on since I've only seen the first 5 or 6 episodes of season one. And also I was on drugs.
Put your hat back on, Robin.
Thank you.
Amanda was great. In addition to being smart and articulate, she was so cute! And she took notes for most of the panel, writing down questions and ideas and stuff. She was really nice to the fans and seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself. Chris too. He was interesting and funny, not nearly as creepy as I worried he might be. I always feel guilty for expecting actors who play creeps on TV to be creepy in real life - and thank goodness I'm usually wrong about it - but I'm just going to say it's a sign that they're really good at what they do. It's convincing! But Chris seemed like a pretty cool dude in real life. And... I don't know about Robin Dunne. I sort of wondered if he was hungover.
I remember exactly zero else about this panel, except that I wanted to take Amanda home with me.
After we left the Sanctuary panel, which my mom had actually started to fall asleep during, the next thing we wanted to do was the big Buffy the Vampire Slayer panel at the Westin, which started in about 2 hours. My mom wasn't really interested in this, which I thought was CRAZY because there were more Buffy actors at D*C this year than we've ever seen before, but she was really tired and wanted to go back to the hotel room and rest. So Amy and I went to the Buffy panel without her. But first! We ran back downstairs to see if our True Blood photos were ready.
Amy and I picked up our True Blood photos, but my mom's copy had not been printed yet, so she was told to come back for it later. Froggy's photo set-up is right beside some bathrooms, so we stopped there for a second after we got our pictures. After I washed my hands, I went to get a paper towel to dry them, and I had to wait behind this short red-haired girl at the paper towel dispensor. When she turned around, we sort of dodged each other and both said, "Excuse me." About two seconds later, as I was drying my hands, I realized it was Felicia Day.
Someone in the bathroom asked her a question, and Amy and I overheard her telling the girl that she was so tired because she had stayed out all night dancing, so she was going to go take a nap. You know, I always hear stories after D*C about how people stay out late partying with the celebrities every night, but I never know which party to go to. How can you predict where the celebs are going to go dancing? I also heard later that some of the Guild girls and Colin Ferguson, Misha Collins, and Jordan Hinson all went to the karaoke thing. And we didn't. Sigh.
So after observing Felicia Day's public bathroom habits, we headed to Peachtree Center to get lunch. We went to Farmer's Basket again. It's funny, because we always go there thinking we'll have to choose among a wide variety of places to eat, and somehow we always manage to go to the same place. (But they do have good food.) Mama took hers back to our room at the Hyatt to eat there and take a nap, but Amy and I carried our food over to the Westin and ate it in the line for the Buffy panel. Besides the JoCo concert, I'm pretty sure the Buffy panel was the longest wait I had all con, but it went by pretty fast because I had food to eat and my sister to talk to, and also we were sitting down. And I was on drugs.
I wish I remembered it.
When they let us into the room for this panel, our part of the line was directed up some stairs, so we ended up in the balcony. But we were on the front row of the balcony, so we could see everything perfectly. This was the first time I've ever sat in the balcony for a panel. I think this may have been the only convention ballroom that actually had balconies. Amy took a bunch of pictures for me.
Mercedes McNab (Harmony), Clare Kramer (Glory), Nicholas Brendan (Xander), James Marsters (Spike), Julie Benz (Darla), and Eliza Dushku (Faith) all in one room. That would have made an interesting episode.
Things I remember from this panel:
1. Mercedes just got engaged! Yay.
2. Someone asked about pranks, and they all talked about how both shows were always running behind so they didn't really have time for any -- unless you count how David Boreanaz was always pulling down his pants on the set of Angel. Which I wouldn't call "pranking" so much as "showing affection." (Julie and Eliza were the ones who brought this up.)
Julie is so pretty!
3. Eliza mentioned the movie "That Night," which was her first movie ever. I think she was 11? And Amy and I both woo-hooed really quietly because it's a good movie but like, no one else there saw it.
4. James said the hardest scene he ever had to film was that bathroom scene (you know the one) and that he actually went to the writers and complained about it. And then he told us this story about... like, he was so out of it because of that scene that he literally thought if he banged his head hard enough on the floor then he would be able to fly away. Which I think is a superweird thing to say to a group of people you don't know intimately. Right? I mean, even if you think it, you don't tell people.
5. Julie Benz probably has the most successful career in terms of movies and TV out of all of the panelists. And I loooooooove heeeeeeeeerrrrrr so muuuuuuuuuuch OMG I just realized I don't think I ever posted my photo with her and Charisma Carpenter.
This was from D*C '09, the year I learned not to stand between two beautiful women and be fat. But they liked my Star Trek uniform!
Er, back to this panel.
6. There was a guy who had individual questions for each of the six panelists, but he wanted to be polite and only ask one question at a time and then get in the back of the line again so other people could have a chance. So he only asked like two of them.
7. James said the scaredest he's ever been during filming was when he had to do one of his own stunts in Dragonball Z because they didn't want to put the stunt guy through makeup. So the stunt guy did the stunt first and hurt himself really bad, and then the director turned to James and was like, okay, you ready? Heh.
8. When everyone on the panel listed their upcoming acting projects, Nicky mentioned a cartoon and then reminded everyone that he continues to star in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also told us that he auditioned for Xander in a way that is exactly like himself in real life and the casting director told him to do it another way. So he did it the other way for Joss, and Joss asked him to do it more like himself. :)
Annnnnnd, that is exactly everything that I remember from this panel! Oh, except that James completely spoiled us for the season premiere of Hawaii 5-0. Thanks man.
James must be telling a pretty interesting story. Too bad I was high.
You can watch more from the [Buffy Panel] on youtube, if you so wish. (And really, why wouldn't you?)
My mom and I can't remember if she was there. Seriously.
There was another Supernatural panel right after the Buffy one. It was in the Marriott, so we ran from the Westin to the Marriott, and I contend that we met up with my mother there, but she isn't convinced, and now it's been almost a month and we have no evidence of her presence in this panel except for a vague memory I have of talking in the hotel bathroom about something Misha Collins said during it. This is what I get for not writing down anything and for not doing this report until almost a month later. But I have a full time job! Okay, it's part time. And I wrote some of this there...
Anyway, I'll call Amy later to back me up. But I think my mom was there. And so was Jim Beaver, yay!
Samantha (Ellen), Jim (Bobby), and Misha (Castiel/God/Leviathan?).
There are a total of three things that I remember from this panel:
1. Misha remembers his fans. Like, he remembers them from other conventions. I think that's pretty cool. And I also think it's probably just the ones who make themselves memorable by, like, dressing up as him or being really snarky with him. But it's still cool. As people asked him questions, he would point out if he remembered them.
2. Somebody asked Misha to do a Castiel line, and he refused by saying something like, "I'm not a trained monkey." I think it's perfectly acceptable for actors to refuse to perform lines during Q&A's, and it bothers me a lot when people ask them to do lines because they clearly don't want to do it and it makes everyone uncomfortable, but I don't think it's necessary to be rude about it. I think the best way to handle that situation is for the actor to turn the question around on the fan and have the fan do the line in front of everyone. I've seen a couple of actors do this before (notably, Michelle Forbes in a True Blood panel last year) and it always works out well because the actor doesn't have to do it and the fan still feels special, and nobody's feelings get hurt. But Misha was flat rude. Jim Beaver to the rescue: he performed the Castiel line instead. Heh! That made me really like him.
3. Julie McNiven made a surprise appearance about halfway through this panel. :)
I remember this because we took a photo.
The thing about whether or not actors are trained monkeys is what I remember talking to my mom about later. She also remembers the conversation, but pointed out that it could be that I had only told her what Misha said and that she hadn't actually been there. But I think she just doesn't remember being there. Because she's old and has mad cow.
The Supernatural panel ended around 6:30, and it was also around that time that I got a text from my friend Emily who had come to Dragon*Con for the day to stalk Tom Felton and go to the Harry Potter Yule Ball. The thing we were planning to do next was a Battlestar Galactica Panel, but I had been to panels with all of the BSG folks before and I hadn't seen Emily since I graduated from grad school, so I decided to skip the panel and hang out. Amy and Mama stayed at the Marriott for BSG, and I went off to the Hyatt to meet up with Emily and her friend Sara and another girl named... Anna, I think? And then another girl who met up with us after the BSG panel was over. Emily and Sarah had come dressed as Hermione and Luna.
This is Emily as Hermione with a guy dressed as Ron. (I stole this photo from Facebook.)
When we met up, they had been on the prowl for more Harry Potter costumes. In particular, they were looking for more Rons and Harrys, I think. So we went to all of the different hotels (except the Westin) to look for more costumes for them to take pictures with. We found a Snape and Lily that I thought were pretty good, although at first Emily was like, what is Snape doing with Ginny Weasley? Heh.
While we were in the Hilton, I saw the most fantastic Tenth Doctor with Rose! Rose was good, but I was amazed at Ten. They were costuming from the episode... I think it's called the Satan's Pit? The one where Ten is wearing an orange spacesuit. The guy looked so much like him that I had to go over and tell him how much I adored his costume. He and Rose were really friendly, although I think they were surprised that I went on about their costumes so much but didn't ask for a picture.
We also walked by some Stargate Atlantis cosplayers that I thought were awesome. There were two Wraith and some Atlantis soldiers posing in various fight stances, and it looked so good! I was really kicking myself at this point because I hadn't brought a camera with me. (But that doesn't compare to how much I was kicking myself later when we went to the Sheraton.)
Emily and her friends wanted to get something to eat, so I took them to the consuite for some free food. I don't remember what was there at the time, but it was probably chips and salsa. I also picked up a piece of candy that was shaped like a hot dog. And like, the hot dog comes out of the bun. But it didn't taste like a hot dog.
After the consuite, we went to the Sheraton for the Yule Ball. Like with Zombie Prom, the closer we got to the Sheraton, the more theme-appropriate costumes we saw. The walk over wasn't as crowded as it had been for Zombie Prom though. And of course as soon as we walked into the hotel, Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus walked past us talking to each other. It took me a couple of seconds, but then I was like, y'all that was Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus! And they were kinda like, who? And I was like, the Boondock Saints! They just walked by us! You didn't see them? And then Sara took off running back outside to see if she could catch them.
I would have been about a second behind her except for three sudden thoughts that I had:
1. If I go running after a celebrity, I will like like a total ass.
2. I don't even have a camera with me.
3. Even if I did have a camera, they wouldn't take a free picture with me because they were charging actual cashmoney for photos together with the fans, just like all the other celebrities were. (I know because I almost bought a picture with them. They were posing with guns! Guns aimed at the back of the fans' heads while the fans knelt in front of them! Those pictures were awesome.)
But less than a minute later, Sara came strutting back in with a big smile and this picture on her camera:
Damn her.
I'm jealous, but I don't begrudge her this picture, because it was her first con ever and she didn't have enough money to buy any photos or autographs with anyone else. And I think it's bullshit that Tom Felton was (according to Emily and Sara) only meeting fans who had paid for autographs, so they didn't even get a chance to talk to him. She deserved a free picture with Sean and Norman!
*weeps bitterly*
So then we got in line for the Yule Ball. While we were standing there waiting to get in, it occurred to me that I had no interest in attending the Yule Ball. I like Harry Potter, but it's not very high on my fandom list, especially if the event is just fans dressed as the characters. I wasn't even wearing a costume. So I said goodbye to Emily and her friends and then walked back to the Hyatt to meet back up with Amy and Mama.
BLERG, LJ is telling me the post is too long (again)! I really thought I could make it to the end with this one. I haven't even met David Nykl, David Blue, Howard Hesseman, and Louis Ferreira yet! If you want to see
click [this link] for the end of my report, including lots of pictures of the Stargate guys, me embarrassing the crap outta my mom, and David Nykl writing down cuss words for me in Czech. (Also, David Blue is totally my boyfriend. Times like a thousand.)
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-09 11:14 pm (UTC)i think the same thing.
Denis said he does his Southern accent in real life whenever he wants to get his way, and it usually works. Ha. Must be nice. Mine just makes other people think I'm uneducated.
mine too.
Wil complained that he'd been at D*C for three days and still no one had asked him to sign their boob.
that must've been before his solo panel (with garret wang) some woman asked him to sing her boob. then some man asked him to sign his boob. ("it's a moob!" someone yelled from the audience) the clip is on youtube.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-10 01:54 pm (UTC)haha! that's hilarious. did he do it? man, i wanted to go to that panel so bad, but it was up against the last stargate panel and i needed to go to at least one stargate panel... :( but it was a great one! :)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-10 08:45 pm (UTC)it's in this clip; she's at about 2:28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d_1mhtn-cA
and the guy is in this one; at about 1:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDFMDqrT7lU&feature=related
no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 02:21 pm (UTC)Re: Scots panel on Saturday
Date: 2011-10-10 03:16 pm (UTC)--Cindy
Alt History Track Director
(who wasn't running that panel, but maybe should have)
Re: Scots panel on Saturday
Date: 2011-10-11 02:20 pm (UTC)