so close and yet so far
this tweet happened. I spent the day flailing in advance, because that place was within 20 minutes of my office and I could get there right after work.
and. well. I went there. "should i wear my bttf t-shirt or would it be weird?" I asked my family through whatsapp. "wear it," my mother said, so I did. I arrived later than I thought I would, because I got lost again. grabbed Subway for dinner on the way and hung outside the venue trying hurriedly to eat. the event had started, and there was a small crowd, but MJF wasn't there yet. through the window I saw a guy inside opposite where I was standing; I thought it was MJF at first because it looked a lot like him at least from that distance, but he looked too young. then I realised that it might be his son Sam, and I freaked out.
the guy in question was staring at me, presumably because I was standing there in a BTTF t-shirt messily eating a Subway sandwich with bits falling off. so I moved away because that would be a terrible first impression to make, and then I moved back because I wanted to be able to see when MJF came on stage, and the guy stared at me again, and I moved off... this happened a few times. >_>
and then the previous speaker got up, and it was 6:45, so I went in. Small crowd, but I couldn't see over the heads. I stood on a thing and got some photos before a staff member chased me off saying "you're not supposed to stand on that".
in the past I used to see all those blurry phone photos from various fans at events and determined that if I ever got the chance, I was going to take beautifully composed shots. aaand that didn't happen. everything was tiny and pixellated and dark. I cleaned them up pretty good in photoshop though (it took ages. the originals really really sucked):
He talked mostly about hockey stuff, since that was the point of the event. I barely registered what he said because I was too busy thinking 'OMG MJF' and trying to take as many terrible-quality repetitive photos as I could, and ironically someone asked him who his favourite hockey player was, and he said Bobby Orr, and gave that anecdote about meeting him and playing a hockey game with him (the same story that was in one of his books, can't remember which), and how at their initial meeting he was so stoked to meet the guy that he couldn't remember a word he said, and I thought it was so relevant to me right then;
They allowed questions from the audience at the end. People mostly asked hockey stuff; one little boy asked him what his number was when he played hockey as a kid, and he said it was usually 7. Someone asked what Alex P. Keaton's favourite hockey team would be. MJF said that he didn't think Alex would want to get messed up with that stuff.
Then it was over, and the guards stepped in and said "straight to the car", and they shuttled MJF right out the door. Most of the crowd didn't move, but me and a handful of others - including this guy carrying one of those BTTF model DeLorean toys - followed after them, out the door and to where MJF was getting into the car with the guards. I held back, because I didn't want to seem overly desperate or anything, and the guards had intimidating srs faces, but this one super-enthusiastic teenage guy was hovering by the car door, trying to speak to MJF; until the guard moved him away and closed the door, and he bent in through the open window instead.
I was too far away to see or hear the details, but apparently MJF sportingly grabbed the guy's arm and looked at his non-existent watch in the BTTF pose, as his friend snapped a photo, before the guard pulled the boy away (not that firmly, actually, which was nice of him) and said you can't do that. When the car pulled away the three of them crowded around the photo on the phone, exclaiming over how it was "so awesome!" and "he grabbed my arm right here!" and being really excited as they left.
Meanwhile there were another three guys, one of them dressed up as Marty McFly in the red lifesaver jacket, and another with the toy DeLorean. He had the info booklet out and showed me Robert Zemeckis' signature on it, which he'd got at the New York Film Festival, and how he'd hoped to have had MJF sign it as well. I'd brought along 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future' - which mount_seleya nicely bought and mailed to me <3 - in hopes of getting it signed, too, but yeah... didn't happen. It was disappointing, especially given that there were only 7 of us out there - two trios and me on my own - and it wouldn't have taken that long. I guess he might have been tired, or have somewhere else to rush to, plus celebrities don't owe fans anything and I respect that. Though from what the toy-DeLorean guy said, having been there before me, it was the guards that "wouldn't let him sign it"; suggesting that maybe he would have been willing to hang out a while, if the guards had let him, and that makes me sad. :/
I was actually kind of crushed for a while after the car drove off, waiting on closure that never came; so many expectations of what this event would be that never got fulfilled; how I hadn't even so much as made eye contact with MJF, and for all I know that guy in the window might not even have been Sam. he wasn't in the car, at least, though he could have left on his own earlier.
but it's still good to have seen MJF in the flesh. The closest I got was probably 2 or 3 metres, yet it felt oddly normal. I wasn't as hyper as I feared I might have been; I was really calm. But throughout it I also felt like I was waiting for something magical to happen that... never did, and it left me with this weird aching void that might never be filled.
I was hoping for more: even just from the mere experience of being in the same room as Michael J. Fox, first crush, first celebrity obsession, favourite actor, giver of life to Marty McFly and Frank Bannister and all the others...
and I didn't get that. I've heard similar experiences from other fans meeting other actors, so I expected it somewhat.
But I'd also expected to at least be able to say hi and get an autograph, maybe a photo. :( maybe it would have been different, if I did. I think it would have made me a lot more excited, got me keyslamming in this LJ entry, and also given closure, both good and bad. A good number of fans seem to cease their obsession once they've met the celebrities in question, perhaps because it drives home the fact that, no matter how awesome they may seem, these people are only human too, and not the special magical beings from dreams and fantasies on screen and in mind.
this in-betweenness is bittersweet and almost cruel. but also hopeful, I guess. because if this event could happen, and I could be there, I might get my chance again, another time, in the remaining months I have in this city.
and. well. I went there. "should i wear my bttf t-shirt or would it be weird?" I asked my family through whatsapp. "wear it," my mother said, so I did. I arrived later than I thought I would, because I got lost again. grabbed Subway for dinner on the way and hung outside the venue trying hurriedly to eat. the event had started, and there was a small crowd, but MJF wasn't there yet. through the window I saw a guy inside opposite where I was standing; I thought it was MJF at first because it looked a lot like him at least from that distance, but he looked too young. then I realised that it might be his son Sam, and I freaked out.
the guy in question was staring at me, presumably because I was standing there in a BTTF t-shirt messily eating a Subway sandwich with bits falling off. so I moved away because that would be a terrible first impression to make, and then I moved back because I wanted to be able to see when MJF came on stage, and the guy stared at me again, and I moved off... this happened a few times. >_>
and then the previous speaker got up, and it was 6:45, so I went in. Small crowd, but I couldn't see over the heads. I stood on a thing and got some photos before a staff member chased me off saying "you're not supposed to stand on that".
in the past I used to see all those blurry phone photos from various fans at events and determined that if I ever got the chance, I was going to take beautifully composed shots. aaand that didn't happen. everything was tiny and pixellated and dark. I cleaned them up pretty good in photoshop though (it took ages. the originals really really sucked):
He talked mostly about hockey stuff, since that was the point of the event. I barely registered what he said because I was too busy thinking 'OMG MJF' and trying to take as many terrible-quality repetitive photos as I could, and ironically someone asked him who his favourite hockey player was, and he said Bobby Orr, and gave that anecdote about meeting him and playing a hockey game with him (the same story that was in one of his books, can't remember which), and how at their initial meeting he was so stoked to meet the guy that he couldn't remember a word he said, and I thought it was so relevant to me right then;
They allowed questions from the audience at the end. People mostly asked hockey stuff; one little boy asked him what his number was when he played hockey as a kid, and he said it was usually 7. Someone asked what Alex P. Keaton's favourite hockey team would be. MJF said that he didn't think Alex would want to get messed up with that stuff.
Then it was over, and the guards stepped in and said "straight to the car", and they shuttled MJF right out the door. Most of the crowd didn't move, but me and a handful of others - including this guy carrying one of those BTTF model DeLorean toys - followed after them, out the door and to where MJF was getting into the car with the guards. I held back, because I didn't want to seem overly desperate or anything, and the guards had intimidating srs faces, but this one super-enthusiastic teenage guy was hovering by the car door, trying to speak to MJF; until the guard moved him away and closed the door, and he bent in through the open window instead.
I was too far away to see or hear the details, but apparently MJF sportingly grabbed the guy's arm and looked at his non-existent watch in the BTTF pose, as his friend snapped a photo, before the guard pulled the boy away (not that firmly, actually, which was nice of him) and said you can't do that. When the car pulled away the three of them crowded around the photo on the phone, exclaiming over how it was "so awesome!" and "he grabbed my arm right here!" and being really excited as they left.
Meanwhile there were another three guys, one of them dressed up as Marty McFly in the red lifesaver jacket, and another with the toy DeLorean. He had the info booklet out and showed me Robert Zemeckis' signature on it, which he'd got at the New York Film Festival, and how he'd hoped to have had MJF sign it as well. I'd brought along 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future' - which mount_seleya nicely bought and mailed to me <3 - in hopes of getting it signed, too, but yeah... didn't happen. It was disappointing, especially given that there were only 7 of us out there - two trios and me on my own - and it wouldn't have taken that long. I guess he might have been tired, or have somewhere else to rush to, plus celebrities don't owe fans anything and I respect that. Though from what the toy-DeLorean guy said, having been there before me, it was the guards that "wouldn't let him sign it"; suggesting that maybe he would have been willing to hang out a while, if the guards had let him, and that makes me sad. :/
I was actually kind of crushed for a while after the car drove off, waiting on closure that never came; so many expectations of what this event would be that never got fulfilled; how I hadn't even so much as made eye contact with MJF, and for all I know that guy in the window might not even have been Sam. he wasn't in the car, at least, though he could have left on his own earlier.
but it's still good to have seen MJF in the flesh. The closest I got was probably 2 or 3 metres, yet it felt oddly normal. I wasn't as hyper as I feared I might have been; I was really calm. But throughout it I also felt like I was waiting for something magical to happen that... never did, and it left me with this weird aching void that might never be filled.
I was hoping for more: even just from the mere experience of being in the same room as Michael J. Fox, first crush, first celebrity obsession, favourite actor, giver of life to Marty McFly and Frank Bannister and all the others...
and I didn't get that. I've heard similar experiences from other fans meeting other actors, so I expected it somewhat.
But I'd also expected to at least be able to say hi and get an autograph, maybe a photo. :( maybe it would have been different, if I did. I think it would have made me a lot more excited, got me keyslamming in this LJ entry, and also given closure, both good and bad. A good number of fans seem to cease their obsession once they've met the celebrities in question, perhaps because it drives home the fact that, no matter how awesome they may seem, these people are only human too, and not the special magical beings from dreams and fantasies on screen and in mind.
this in-betweenness is bittersweet and almost cruel. but also hopeful, I guess. because if this event could happen, and I could be there, I might get my chance again, another time, in the remaining months I have in this city.