My Denver Con 2015 experience
I can hardly see straight after the con, but I'm going to try to put together some vaguely coherent talk about it.
I was a bit dismayed Friday, because the vibe among the fans didn't seem very friendly. Also, oddly, there was literally no one you could see at a panel on Friday you couldn't also see on Saturday. To save money, we bought tickets for each day separately; next time, I think I'll just skip Friday.
Dick and Rob were hilarious, especially on Friday. They did this hysterical '60's psychedelic "Rules and Regulations" "song," from which I took only a) that the rules against filming panels are, in their words, "bullshit," and you can film anything you want, except b) in the photo op room. The "song" was indescribable but hilarious, sort of a spoken-word mod number; I really hope someone uploads it so you can see it for yourself--it had me in stitches. There were all the requisite jokes about how because pot is legal in Colorado we all must be high ... sigh. Seriously, Dick, we're not all a bunch of stoners, thank god. I confess I was a little concerned Colorado would turn into stonerville when that law passed, but after a few months of seeing people more obviously stoned than before, it went back to normal. (Except for that guy I saw pull up to the grocery store the other day, take three huge, fast tokes, filling his car with smoke, then promptly get out--seriously dude, smoke was pouring from every vent that car had) no one is any higher than they ever were; they're just not afraid of going to jail anymore. But we heard about it alllll weekend. ;-)
People have said before that Louden Swain are actually a good band--they really are! The guitarist was ripping it up out there today, and they can go with any craziness Dick and Rob may cook up.
I've been a big fan of Tahmoh since BSG, and also on Dollhouse, so I was very excited to see him, and he was quite interesting to listen to, although I found I enjoyed listening to people like Gil and Osric rather more because they don't self-censor quite as much; Tahmoh was very politic and diplomatic. Still, a very interesting guy with some great stories--and the very first question was a guy dressed as a priest who said because "my girlfriend loves you a little more than me, will you help me propose to her?" !! So we got to watch a proposal! The shy teenage girls next to me went nuts. It was so cute.
Gil McKinney was quite charming on his solo panel Friday, but the next day with Osric, he didn't come off as well. Osric, however, was as sweet and relatable and friendly as you imagine. He told this mind-blowing story about CPS being called to his house when he was a kid because I guess their parents beat them??!? He was so ... not angry or bitter about it; it was amazing. (He did say his parents are much more progressive now ... but maybe Linda "Tiger Mommy" Tran, wasn't far off his own experience.) He was also involved in I think he said 20 (?!) clubs in high school, knew everyone in his school, gave speeches at other schools in the city (I think he said as part of an anti-bullying program) ... quite a guy. He said he loved high school and didn't want to leave, whereas Gil hated it, because it was the kind of experience for him that so many of us have in high school and/or middle school, getting picked on and beat up. He did a lot of activities in high school, too, though--swimming, as well as choir and theater. They're fascinating people.
I was really looking forward to seeing Mark Sheppard ... and his panel was awful. (They did warn us ahead of time that he's a sadist--yes, the con guy said he "hoped we liked sadism"--but I didn't think it could be this bad.) He told a woman her knitting was crap, just wandering around and insulting everyone in the room. People were scared and offended, although as people will, they were also giggling and trying hard to enjoy it. That's the last time I ever watch a panel with him, bleh. Nothing but a common bully.
Fortunately, my dear precious Misha warmed everything up after that. I've seen him be hot-and-cold in con videos, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but he seemed to be in a good space last night, warm and friendly and chatty, focused, funny, and kind. He really focuses on the person whose question he's answering, and seems to want to make sure they feel satisfied with the answer. It was great, and dayum, he looked fine.
The vibe on Saturday was much warmer and more friendly among the fans than Friday, and it was even way better today; everywhere you went, you could strike up a conversation and find a kindred spirit. I think it's because by Sunday, it's not mainly casual fans, it's chock full of hardcore fans and no one else. I'd have thought it would be the other way around, but Friday, people just seemed to be there because there was some kind of entertainment going on, and they were texting and acting bored during the panels, whereas by Sunday, you got very detailed questions that only come from hardcore fans.
Mark Pellegrino is just the sweetest guy. It makes me so sad that people say they're afraid of him (multiple question-askers at his panel said this) and that he has this devilish reputation when he was literally probably the sweetest person who took the stage all weekend--I love that guy!
J2 are just amazing. It was really interesting to me to see all the different personalities of all the panelists, to see who handled a crowd really well and who didn't, who was more polished and who was more just like a regular person. J2 somehow managed to be both perfectly polished and totally relatable normal guys. The crowd was huge (in my opinion, although it sounded like they'd had bigger audiences at cons), and very excited, and they handled it perfectly; they're just amazing.
I spent a lot of their panel trying to imagine getting hugged by one of them (Jared) soon after, trying to remind myself he's just a human being and not as godlike as he can seem. I finally had to give up and accept I was just going to be as overwhelmed as I was going to be ....
... which I was. I had a massive crisis of self-esteem I didn't expect Saturday night and this morning. I'd been feeling totally casual about the photo op all these weeks leading up to the con, and then after crying for hours last night and this morning, I felt like I couldn't do it. I also didn't think I'd be nervous to meet them, but wow, I really was. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one; the beautiful girl right in front of us was telling us how she hates fangirls and wasn't going to fangirl and now she was so nervous she could hardly function--we all seemed to feel that way, and everyone in the photo op line (we only got one photo op, with Jared and Misha) was SO nice and friendly; it really made the experience.
septembers_coda is really good at talkin', where I ain't so much, and she said she would be able to tell them what we wanted. She was very nervous, too. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to smile for the picture. (I didn't expect all the other fans to be watching, which also made me quite nervous, although watching everyone's ideas play out and seeing everything they came up with was another delight of the experience.) Misha looked so damn good, too; he doesn't always look that good to me, but today, holy crap. Jared has such presence onstage, but somehow, Misha's presence was more overwhelming when standing right next to them. He put his hand on my arm while we were just standing there .... *pauses to drool a while* s_c managed to explain what we wanted (group hug, like they were trapping wild animals), Misha understood instantly, got behind me, and hugged me soooo tight. Sadly, I don't remember much about the experience, I was so out of it and just trying not to geek out too embarrassingly, but I do remember that. *drools a while longer* Jared was behind s_c, so on the way out, I asked him for a hug and got one. :-) People say it goes really fast, and it does, wow. Very businesslike, which is kind of bleh but also makes it easier not to geek out too much.
And now we are home because we learned it would be HOURS before our photo op photo was finally ready, so we decided to come home, kick back, and go back for it later, since we live so nearby. I dread looking at the picture when we finally get it (that crisis of self-esteem), but it will mark the completion of our con experience. I was afraid I would regret having purchased the photo op, but actually, the experience of getting the picture taken was a nice cap to the whole con experience. It happened to the sounds of "Jukebox Hero"!! (How could you do better than that?! :-D) They had the fans out like at modeling shoots, and modeling music, and the boys are really good at modeling for fan pictures, and everyone was so nice, and it was awesome standing next to one of my few heroes and ... yeah, I'm so glad I went for it; it was worth it.
tl;dr I WENT TO THE CON AND IT WAS AWESOME!
I was a bit dismayed Friday, because the vibe among the fans didn't seem very friendly. Also, oddly, there was literally no one you could see at a panel on Friday you couldn't also see on Saturday. To save money, we bought tickets for each day separately; next time, I think I'll just skip Friday.
Dick and Rob were hilarious, especially on Friday. They did this hysterical '60's psychedelic "Rules and Regulations" "song," from which I took only a) that the rules against filming panels are, in their words, "bullshit," and you can film anything you want, except b) in the photo op room. The "song" was indescribable but hilarious, sort of a spoken-word mod number; I really hope someone uploads it so you can see it for yourself--it had me in stitches. There were all the requisite jokes about how because pot is legal in Colorado we all must be high ... sigh. Seriously, Dick, we're not all a bunch of stoners, thank god. I confess I was a little concerned Colorado would turn into stonerville when that law passed, but after a few months of seeing people more obviously stoned than before, it went back to normal. (Except for that guy I saw pull up to the grocery store the other day, take three huge, fast tokes, filling his car with smoke, then promptly get out--seriously dude, smoke was pouring from every vent that car had) no one is any higher than they ever were; they're just not afraid of going to jail anymore. But we heard about it alllll weekend. ;-)
People have said before that Louden Swain are actually a good band--they really are! The guitarist was ripping it up out there today, and they can go with any craziness Dick and Rob may cook up.
I've been a big fan of Tahmoh since BSG, and also on Dollhouse, so I was very excited to see him, and he was quite interesting to listen to, although I found I enjoyed listening to people like Gil and Osric rather more because they don't self-censor quite as much; Tahmoh was very politic and diplomatic. Still, a very interesting guy with some great stories--and the very first question was a guy dressed as a priest who said because "my girlfriend loves you a little more than me, will you help me propose to her?" !! So we got to watch a proposal! The shy teenage girls next to me went nuts. It was so cute.
Gil McKinney was quite charming on his solo panel Friday, but the next day with Osric, he didn't come off as well. Osric, however, was as sweet and relatable and friendly as you imagine. He told this mind-blowing story about CPS being called to his house when he was a kid because I guess their parents beat them??!? He was so ... not angry or bitter about it; it was amazing. (He did say his parents are much more progressive now ... but maybe Linda "Tiger Mommy" Tran, wasn't far off his own experience.) He was also involved in I think he said 20 (?!) clubs in high school, knew everyone in his school, gave speeches at other schools in the city (I think he said as part of an anti-bullying program) ... quite a guy. He said he loved high school and didn't want to leave, whereas Gil hated it, because it was the kind of experience for him that so many of us have in high school and/or middle school, getting picked on and beat up. He did a lot of activities in high school, too, though--swimming, as well as choir and theater. They're fascinating people.
I was really looking forward to seeing Mark Sheppard ... and his panel was awful. (They did warn us ahead of time that he's a sadist--yes, the con guy said he "hoped we liked sadism"--but I didn't think it could be this bad.) He told a woman her knitting was crap, just wandering around and insulting everyone in the room. People were scared and offended, although as people will, they were also giggling and trying hard to enjoy it. That's the last time I ever watch a panel with him, bleh. Nothing but a common bully.
Fortunately, my dear precious Misha warmed everything up after that. I've seen him be hot-and-cold in con videos, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but he seemed to be in a good space last night, warm and friendly and chatty, focused, funny, and kind. He really focuses on the person whose question he's answering, and seems to want to make sure they feel satisfied with the answer. It was great, and dayum, he looked fine.
The vibe on Saturday was much warmer and more friendly among the fans than Friday, and it was even way better today; everywhere you went, you could strike up a conversation and find a kindred spirit. I think it's because by Sunday, it's not mainly casual fans, it's chock full of hardcore fans and no one else. I'd have thought it would be the other way around, but Friday, people just seemed to be there because there was some kind of entertainment going on, and they were texting and acting bored during the panels, whereas by Sunday, you got very detailed questions that only come from hardcore fans.
Mark Pellegrino is just the sweetest guy. It makes me so sad that people say they're afraid of him (multiple question-askers at his panel said this) and that he has this devilish reputation when he was literally probably the sweetest person who took the stage all weekend--I love that guy!
J2 are just amazing. It was really interesting to me to see all the different personalities of all the panelists, to see who handled a crowd really well and who didn't, who was more polished and who was more just like a regular person. J2 somehow managed to be both perfectly polished and totally relatable normal guys. The crowd was huge (in my opinion, although it sounded like they'd had bigger audiences at cons), and very excited, and they handled it perfectly; they're just amazing.
I spent a lot of their panel trying to imagine getting hugged by one of them (Jared) soon after, trying to remind myself he's just a human being and not as godlike as he can seem. I finally had to give up and accept I was just going to be as overwhelmed as I was going to be ....
... which I was. I had a massive crisis of self-esteem I didn't expect Saturday night and this morning. I'd been feeling totally casual about the photo op all these weeks leading up to the con, and then after crying for hours last night and this morning, I felt like I couldn't do it. I also didn't think I'd be nervous to meet them, but wow, I really was. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one; the beautiful girl right in front of us was telling us how she hates fangirls and wasn't going to fangirl and now she was so nervous she could hardly function--we all seemed to feel that way, and everyone in the photo op line (we only got one photo op, with Jared and Misha) was SO nice and friendly; it really made the experience.
septembers_coda is really good at talkin', where I ain't so much, and she said she would be able to tell them what we wanted. She was very nervous, too. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to smile for the picture. (I didn't expect all the other fans to be watching, which also made me quite nervous, although watching everyone's ideas play out and seeing everything they came up with was another delight of the experience.) Misha looked so damn good, too; he doesn't always look that good to me, but today, holy crap. Jared has such presence onstage, but somehow, Misha's presence was more overwhelming when standing right next to them. He put his hand on my arm while we were just standing there .... *pauses to drool a while* s_c managed to explain what we wanted (group hug, like they were trapping wild animals), Misha understood instantly, got behind me, and hugged me soooo tight. Sadly, I don't remember much about the experience, I was so out of it and just trying not to geek out too embarrassingly, but I do remember that. *drools a while longer* Jared was behind s_c, so on the way out, I asked him for a hug and got one. :-) People say it goes really fast, and it does, wow. Very businesslike, which is kind of bleh but also makes it easier not to geek out too much.
And now we are home because we learned it would be HOURS before our photo op photo was finally ready, so we decided to come home, kick back, and go back for it later, since we live so nearby. I dread looking at the picture when we finally get it (that crisis of self-esteem), but it will mark the completion of our con experience. I was afraid I would regret having purchased the photo op, but actually, the experience of getting the picture taken was a nice cap to the whole con experience. It happened to the sounds of "Jukebox Hero"!! (How could you do better than that?! :-D) They had the fans out like at modeling shoots, and modeling music, and the boys are really good at modeling for fan pictures, and everyone was so nice, and it was awesome standing next to one of my few heroes and ... yeah, I'm so glad I went for it; it was worth it.
tl;dr I WENT TO THE CON AND IT WAS AWESOME!