Convention PLanet BabyLon - Paris - report, part 1
Finally LJ works and I'm able to post my report from the Convention. I have to admit, that it was my very first con. I had a wonderful time there, I've met a lot of amazing people and I was in Paris...did I mention that I just adore Paris :)
Now let's get to the technical stuff:
English is not my first language so I have to warn you about the mistakes, I’m pretty sure I’ve done a lot of them. And I apologize for mixing tenses, and for the typos, which probably will be frequent.
If you notice any major errors, please let me know so I can correct them.
There are a lot of pics! I just couldn’t decide which to chose. All are clickable for larger
You can quote from this report if you like and take pictures. Credits are appreciated.
So…
My journey started on Friday morning when I went to Warsaw to get the plane to Paris. Let’s just say that it wasn’t that easy that I thought it will be. Unfortunately my bus had been delayed about 30 minutes, and I had to wait another half an hour for bus to airport. Is it just my luck or lack of it that the bus to the airport arrived also 10 minutes late? I went to do check in and to my surprise a lot of passangers were also bitching about comunication in our capitol. Flight to Paris took 2.5 hours and was so boring that I almost fell asleep.
When I got off the plane I went to search for the taxi, I wasn’t in the mood for train, metro and long walk to the hotel.
After arrival at the hotel, I went to my room which was on the third floor! Luckily they had an elevator. After some time I went to explore the area, especially the place where the convention will be held. I must admit that I found the place easily and it wasn’t far from my hotel.
Back in the hotel I was walking to my room when I heard voices from the room next to mine, after a little debate with myself I decided to go and see my neighbours, who apparently were here also because of the con. I introduced myself and we talked a little about the con and of course about the „one and only” Randy Harrison.
That’s how I’ve met piksa , evy_9_seconds and Alessandra. Girls decided to go to dinner and they invited me to join them. We met outside with g_m_h_3 and her friend Ana, and Carla friend of evy_9_seconds After dinner at KFC we went straight to our hotel. Of course I couldn’t sleep, I was too excited :).
Saturday 30.10.2010
Me, piksa , g_m_h_3 and Ana went to the convention center in the morning. There wasn’t anything with Randy, but we just wanted to be there.
Me and piksa were standing in the queue and waiting for our turn to get in. After a while we realised that we were standing in the queue for people who had “one day ticket”, so piksa went to other queue and I went to the girl who stood at the table and showed her my ticket. She gave me wrist band and a bag with „gifts”. I had no idea what they could put in it so I was curious what I got. I got a t-shirt, a cap, a cigarette lighter, a ballpen and an umbrella with „Serie club” sign (it was raining so umbrella was useful!) also got a promo poster from QAF season 4.
Finally we went to the hall and took our seats, I was sitting in the first row and the girls were sitting behind.
They showed us interview with Rachel Shelley and also some scenes from The L Word, then Rachel came on stage. I really don’t remember well what she was asked about, sorry. After Q&A with her the photoshoots were announced. I went to get my photo with Laurel Holloman (since I had a VIP Pass I didn’t have to queue) and I had the impression that she would rather be elsewhere.
After that I went to take a picture with Rachel. She greeted me with “bonjour” and I said “Hello, in english please” and she surprised me by asking, where I came from? I told her that I’m from Poland, she smiled and said she knows one word in Polish. I asked her about this word, at the same time fearing that it’ll be a swearword, she answered that this word is “dom”. I told her that it means “home”. After our small talk the photo was taken and I said “thank you” along with “bye” and I went outside. By that time I felt like I could eat and I went to the hotel for lunch. When I came back I met aschicca , masterglory and frodina .
After the lunch break the dancers on stage performed this funny dance, and to our surprise told us that we will do the same dance for the guests at the end of the convention. My thoughts were - NO way!
Finally Laurel Holloman and Randy Harrison came on stage…of course I was focused only on Randy…
The questions and answers are from aschicca ‘s report (taken with her permission).
After QaF, Randy didn't do much TV. Is he planning on doing some TV now?
Randy said that after finishing QaF he wanted to be as far away from TV as possible, but now he'd like to be in a TV show. He's open to the possibility.
- What was the hardest scene to play?
Randy said that the hardest part was that they made them suck on ice cubes when they shot outside during winter so their breath wouldn't show. He said his tongue always got numb and he had troubles speaking.
- He was asked about the break-up between Brian and Justin at the end of season 5 and he said that he doesn't think B and J broke up because yes, Justin went away and all but that doesn't mean he broke up with Brian. He also said that Justin needed to go away to become his own person.
- Does he have new theatre projects? And did he see any of his former cast mates' performances in theatre? (question asked by piksa :D) Randy said he doesn't have projects lined up for now, and that he saw Gale in one play (we all thought he meant he'd seen Orpheus but it turns out he was talking about Suddenly Last Summer) and Peter in two plays. He never saw Scott.
- Why did he come back to the Paris Con this year, too?
Randy's answer was: "Why wouldn't I?"
- How did he feel when he first read the script for QaF?
Randy said he'd heard about the UK one and when he was given the script for the Showtime one he thought that, if they managed to portray it as they'd written it, it would be a big deal and would have lots of attention. He said he thought they wouldn't have the balls to go with it, though.
- B/J are the center of the show. How does he remember the first scene he had with Gale?
Randy said that he remembers strongly the scene where Gale's pouring water all over himself and the kiss after that because the camera was moving around a lot and he kept thinking, "Where is that camera now??". He also said that he and Gale had met before and had talked about how they were going to shoot the sex scene. Then he added that at the beginning the writers didn't want B/J to be the center of the show. They wanted to put Brian and Michael in the spotlight. B/J came later.
- He was asked to do an impression of one of the characters in QaF
and he made Ted's impression! So funny with the snorting up crystal and having a seizure!!! He actually mimicked the seizure *g*
Then he was asked to mimic a movie
and he got up and hid behind his seat and did an impression of JAWS with his hands.
I recorded it
Click to viewMore photos :)
Before the panel ended one guy decided that he had to walk across the stage with huge garbage bag in his hand! We were laughing so hard and he was walking very slowly like nothing happend.
After Q&A ended the presenters told us that they had one more VIP Pass to auction. piksa had participated in the auction and I was almost sure that she will win. Unfortunately another girl won :(. But piksa won coffee with Randy :).
After a while photoshoots with Randy started. I walked to him and he said „bonjour”, I replied in english and he said „hello” in english too. After the photo was taken I said „thank you” and „bye” and I left on wobbly knees LOL! I walked down the stairs to my friends. Then I thought about buying another picture with him, so I went and bought it. I was waiting at the end of the queue. When it was my turn Randy smiled and said „hello again” and that was the moment when all my thoughts flew out the window. LOL! When the photo was taken I again said „thank you” and „bye”.
Later it was autographs session with Randy so piksa and I joined the queue. It was a pleasant surprise to see that people came to the table and could easily exchange a few words with him. When it was my turn I walked to the table and put a card with my name on it so he could see it. He said „hello” and I did the same. I got him to sign the photo from 05x10 (scanned below) with famous ILU - scene :) I asked him whether he will be at the party and he said that probably not since he still feels tired (jetlag thing). Then he asked me where I came from and I said „Poland” he looked at me and smiled (I didn’t knew why he was smiling…but now I think I know) I thanked him and went to my friends.
First day of convention ended, but we had plans to go to the party at evening. I went with piksa to the hotel and later to McDonald’s. After quick dinner we went straight to the hotel to dress up. I helped her a little with her make up, which was amazing! Then we went down stairs to met with g_m_h_3 and Ana. They were surprised along with the hotel employees. We got some surprised looks during our walk to the convention centre. One guy even wanted to join us.
When we reached our destination place I saw that many people were dressed up. Few moments later they announced that Randy was going to join the party. I was a little surprised but also happy and most of all terrified! I started asking myself why I was wearing that huge black and white wig? Oh,… right! I was Cruella De Vil…
Randy came along with Marci Adilman and almost imediately they were surrounded by people.
Meanwhile they announced beginning of the competition for the Queen/King and piksa was taking part in it. She needed two people to help her so she asked me and Ana.
We danced a few dance routines which were really funny. We made some mistakes but we were still in the game. Finally only three teams left and they announced „put the sock” competition. When it was piksa ’s turn I was counting out loud how many socks she had already put on. When it was certain that she won this competition I kept yelling „one more”…
For the final competition they told us we needed to come up with dance routine. They played us one song and gave us 15 minutes to figure out what to dance. Inside was so hot so we went outside to practice. g_m_h_3 was our choreographer…Thank you Donna Lewis! When we went back we danced our dance and surprise, surprise we won!
piksa got a golden crown and huge lollipop.
After a while we decided to go back to the hotel. On our way there , we received a few surprised glances. I just hope it had nothing to do with me walking barefoot in the middle of the night through Paris with shoes in my hand LOL!
When we reached the hotel we went straight to our rooms. I fell asleep almost imediately.