Twicon Report!!
Let me just start off saying this: Organization was a complete mess. I was one of the people who didn't really recognize this fact at this time or really think about it. However, a lot of people were upset by the lack of organization and many other problems. Sure, I had some problems and I didn't get to do that much stuff but I just rolled with it.
When I arrived on Friday, it was around 2PM and breakout sessions were ending at 5PM. When we were at register check in, they couldn't find my mom because when my dad registered me, he didn't realize he had to pay for the chaperone, too. Okay, so it wasn't entirely his fault. I didn't realize either and thought the chaperone was free. :P So we went to get her registered. We walked around vendor hall and bought a couple things, including tickets to the concert that night. OH, and I saw Craig from EIP walking with his camera crew in vendor hall when we were starting to get registered but I obviously couldn't just go off and stalk him. lmao. So after that, it didn't give me time to do much or make some friends so I ended up missing out on those except for a panel on Film Adaption and how the books were transferred to screen. Me and my mom also got kinda lost when looking for the room it was in lol. It was pretty interesting and fun. I sat there alone which I really wasn't suppose to since I'm under 18 but my mom had to go do some work in the hotel room. Haha. It went from 3:30 - 5PM I think so after I went to get dinner. We ordered room service and rested from the travel that morning. Then we went down to the concert and saw Mitch Hansen band, The National Rifle, and 100 Monkeys!! It was exciting. They had such strict rules though. This event was when I started realizing there are a lot of rules there. If you were on my dance floor (in front of the stage) you had to stay there. Or you could go sit down but you couldn't go back onto the dance floor. You also couldn't video tape or take flash photography which is a pain when it's dark as hell in there. I didn't really like the Mitch Hansen band. The National Rifle was more fun. The bassist whips his head all around and I'm surprised he hadn't gotten whiplash. He's like the buff dude who takes off his shirt and gets all sweaty the first song hahaha. Now, 100 Monkeys was truly amazing. They had the best music out of all three. Of course, they have Jackson, too, and he was GORGEOUS. My definition of gorgeous is facial hair and big ol' glasses. Hehe. I'm short so it was kinda hard to see over everyone but Jackson is really, truly, and most definitely the most gorgeous person ever. <333 At the end of the concert which was like 4 hours, my feet hurt like shiz. I bought a couple tshirts, one from National Rifle and the other from 100 Monkeys. I also bought the Live 100 Monkeys CD. I thought the 100 Monkeys were going to come out for the signing but apparently they weren't. I later found out today that they didn't come out because they, Twicon or whoever, wanted to charge $20 an autograph but Jackson refused to charge for autographs so he didn't do it. Even though he didn't come out, I thought it was really sweet that he didn't want to charge his fans.
The next day I woke up at like 9AM and went to the movie screening from 10AM-12PM. It was lovely. :) I didn't have breakfast that morning so my mom wanted to go get lunch but I said I wanted to stay around because they started lining up for seating for the Cast Q&A. So she left and I stayed. Again, I wasn't suppose to stay by myself but no one noticed with all the hoopla. Yeah, I just said hoopla. The space in front of the hall was packed with all the people because it wasn't a ticketed event. They seat you according to when you bought the registration. I bought my registration very early so I turned out being #115 (stated on my badge). This is VERY low out of all the 2500 registrants. So I was REALLY excited because I would be closer up than most people. So we all got into disorganized lines starting around 12:15. hahaha. It took a long time to get everyone into their lines. I was in the line where the #100-199 people had to be. We were the second line to go in and that's very good considering there were like more than 10 other lines needed to be seated. I ended up sitting in the like 6 or 7th row but it was all the way on the left end by the aisle. It wasn't that good of a seat because it was all the way to the side. The two girls in front of me even complained. I wasn't going to give the volunteers any BS though. So the seating took forever. During the time of the seating, the speaker was like drilling into our heads a hundred times that there was no flash photography. I was like "WE GET IT. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP." We were suppose to start the event at 12:30pm but it ended up starting around 1PM. It was suppose to be an hour long thing but ended up being a half hour. AND I SAW CRAIG AND ALLEN AGAIN! I was too much of a wimp to speak up and talk to them though. :[ They were standing like two feet away from me in the aisle, talking to a volunteer because Craig received a phone call from an unknown person. He couldn't hear what her name was on the phone but they were trying to figure out who it was. (No it wasn't a prank call. It was a legit phone call because they apparently needed him for something.) I even made a shirt that said "cause craig is badass." It was under the National Rifle shirt I was wearing just in case I saw him but I'M A WIMP. I can't do anything by myself. *sigh*Anyway, the cast definitely made the Q&A worth it. And volunteers started yelling at people who were videotaping but they never said we couldn't so WTF. There was Peter, Jackson, Alex, Kellan, Billy, and Christian. They were so funny and sweet. They made a bunch of jokes about the pads and pens they got on the table and started making paper airplanes with their autograph on them. They shot a few of them into the crowd. Peter even took one airplane and started flying it around the whole room. I can't even IMAGINE how terrifying that must have been for him because almost everyone who registered was there. When the time was up, they were shocked it was so short.
But they had to start the photo ops and the Meet and Greet right after that. I didn't go to those because I hadn't bought a photo ticket with one of the cast and I didn't have a ticket for the M&G either. (You had to buy like everything.) I read on the Twicon forums that many people were upset by how these events went. Apparently the lines were way long and the actors handlers were WAY RUDE and tried to rush everything. Of course, the actors were way too kind and tried to play by their own rules. They genuinely cared about the fans and interacting with them. It was so sweet to hear all the fans' stories on the forums. I really wish I could've met some of them. So it sounded like the photogs were out of control too. Oh, I just remembered that the photogs were in the morning. haha. But the same things still happened. What i meant was that after the Q&A there was the autograph sessions. Now they said EVERYONE should've gotten a free autograph ticket at registration but I never got mine and I didn't know I was suppose to get one until after it was done. But still they ran out of them that morning so I was pretty fricken pissed. But I heard Kellan and Peter stayed after to finish the line when they were suppose to go to the M&G. Both events I heard had horrible handlers and volunteers but the cast was still as sweet as ever. They even started apologizing for how badly they were being treated. They didn't even do anything wrong but it was so nice. They tried to make it up for them even when their handlers were yelling at them.
So during the time of all these events, I bought tickets to the 100 Monkey concert that night so I could get Jackson's autograph. I refused to leave Twicon without a single autograph and seeing Jackson up close. And don't worry, I also ate some food during this time. :) So at 6PM, we took a taxi to the Palladium where they were playing and waited an hour for the autograph signing to start. We got in but had to wait another 20-30 minutes for them to start. The signing was free and they also gave us a free CD! :D It was a 100 Monkeys signing but I brought a headshot of Jackson to sign only. My mom got the CD signed by the whole band for me. :) He was SO BEAUTIFUL when I saw him. We really couldn't speak to them because it was a looooong line and it was so loud with the music playing. We couldn't take photos either so I just settled for the autograph and the chance to see him up close. <3 GORGEOUS I TELL YOU!!! The concert started soon. The 100 Monkeys were still signing but a band started it off. They were called Dovetail and pretty good. Their keyboardist were hottt. But not as hot as Jackson. ;) Then National Rifle came on and sometime between Dovetail and The National Rifle, I think the signing was over. Yes, there was the sweaty buff guy again hahaha. I was much closer to the stage than the night before and I was very thankful for that. My camera battery was also running low so I saved it until 100 Monkeys came on. Again, 100 Monkeys rocked the night. They were so fun and interacted with the fans a lot. They even made up a song on the spot called Peeping Tom. (They chose the best idea from the crowd, which was Peeping Tom haha.) Jackson said he just had to sing it and boy, was he AMAZING. He was so into it, it was crazy. One song, there was this line he repeated a couple times "You are my darling" and I swear, he was looking right in my direction. I almost MELTED. Even if it wasn't directly at me, it was in my general area. But I still like to think he was looking at me. ;) Damn, he is fine. As the night went on, there was this REALLY TALL girl like in front of me but I edged over so I can see around her. She left so I got to go up more and see better. Yay. They two MORE girls left and I was really happy because I was like two people behind the rail. There was also this short girl next to me and I could tell she was happy too haha. Well, even if she was short, she was over 21. (You can tell by the bracelets because there was a bar inside.) So I'm declaring that 100 Monkeys is now one of my favorite bands live. They are really phenomenal and if you get the chance, GO SEE THEM IN CONCERT! You will NOT be disappointed. They are so amazing. I did not regret ditching the Volturi Ball for it. I didn't really have a fancy gown anyway. lol. So it ended around 11:30PM and we shared a taxi with some other people. (Hey, it's expensive to get around.) There was an hour left in the ball but I was way too tired to go check it out. That was the end of the awesome night. :)
The next day, I slept in until like 11AM haha. So we basically missed the Farewell Breakfast. We just went to the cafe downstairs for lunch. Since the convention was over and most of the people checked out that day, we just stayed in our room and watched movies. It was way too hot to walk around the city. So we just rested the whole day. lol. I think I only ate like twice that whole convention. It's not like I was starving but when you're at one of these things, you just don't get hungry. All your mind is thinking about is the next event haha.
At the time, I thought I had a pretty good time. But now that I think about it, it really wasn't worth the money. All of people think the same. I was probably just oblivious to everything going on around me. I don't know if I'll go next year. There are going to be two this time though that are smaller. One in Vegas and one in Vancouver. I just don't want to spend a bunch of money and be disappointed again. Maybe I'll just go to TwiTour. It's a lot more successful and there's one close in New Jersey next summer. What do you think? Give Twicon another chance or not?
By the way, sorry there weren't a lot of juicy details haha. I didn't do much. I wish I did though. :/
Cyn
When I arrived on Friday, it was around 2PM and breakout sessions were ending at 5PM. When we were at register check in, they couldn't find my mom because when my dad registered me, he didn't realize he had to pay for the chaperone, too. Okay, so it wasn't entirely his fault. I didn't realize either and thought the chaperone was free. :P So we went to get her registered. We walked around vendor hall and bought a couple things, including tickets to the concert that night. OH, and I saw Craig from EIP walking with his camera crew in vendor hall when we were starting to get registered but I obviously couldn't just go off and stalk him. lmao. So after that, it didn't give me time to do much or make some friends so I ended up missing out on those except for a panel on Film Adaption and how the books were transferred to screen. Me and my mom also got kinda lost when looking for the room it was in lol. It was pretty interesting and fun. I sat there alone which I really wasn't suppose to since I'm under 18 but my mom had to go do some work in the hotel room. Haha. It went from 3:30 - 5PM I think so after I went to get dinner. We ordered room service and rested from the travel that morning. Then we went down to the concert and saw Mitch Hansen band, The National Rifle, and 100 Monkeys!! It was exciting. They had such strict rules though. This event was when I started realizing there are a lot of rules there. If you were on my dance floor (in front of the stage) you had to stay there. Or you could go sit down but you couldn't go back onto the dance floor. You also couldn't video tape or take flash photography which is a pain when it's dark as hell in there. I didn't really like the Mitch Hansen band. The National Rifle was more fun. The bassist whips his head all around and I'm surprised he hadn't gotten whiplash. He's like the buff dude who takes off his shirt and gets all sweaty the first song hahaha. Now, 100 Monkeys was truly amazing. They had the best music out of all three. Of course, they have Jackson, too, and he was GORGEOUS. My definition of gorgeous is facial hair and big ol' glasses. Hehe. I'm short so it was kinda hard to see over everyone but Jackson is really, truly, and most definitely the most gorgeous person ever. <333 At the end of the concert which was like 4 hours, my feet hurt like shiz. I bought a couple tshirts, one from National Rifle and the other from 100 Monkeys. I also bought the Live 100 Monkeys CD. I thought the 100 Monkeys were going to come out for the signing but apparently they weren't. I later found out today that they didn't come out because they, Twicon or whoever, wanted to charge $20 an autograph but Jackson refused to charge for autographs so he didn't do it. Even though he didn't come out, I thought it was really sweet that he didn't want to charge his fans.
The next day I woke up at like 9AM and went to the movie screening from 10AM-12PM. It was lovely. :) I didn't have breakfast that morning so my mom wanted to go get lunch but I said I wanted to stay around because they started lining up for seating for the Cast Q&A. So she left and I stayed. Again, I wasn't suppose to stay by myself but no one noticed with all the hoopla. Yeah, I just said hoopla. The space in front of the hall was packed with all the people because it wasn't a ticketed event. They seat you according to when you bought the registration. I bought my registration very early so I turned out being #115 (stated on my badge). This is VERY low out of all the 2500 registrants. So I was REALLY excited because I would be closer up than most people. So we all got into disorganized lines starting around 12:15. hahaha. It took a long time to get everyone into their lines. I was in the line where the #100-199 people had to be. We were the second line to go in and that's very good considering there were like more than 10 other lines needed to be seated. I ended up sitting in the like 6 or 7th row but it was all the way on the left end by the aisle. It wasn't that good of a seat because it was all the way to the side. The two girls in front of me even complained. I wasn't going to give the volunteers any BS though. So the seating took forever. During the time of the seating, the speaker was like drilling into our heads a hundred times that there was no flash photography. I was like "WE GET IT. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP." We were suppose to start the event at 12:30pm but it ended up starting around 1PM. It was suppose to be an hour long thing but ended up being a half hour. AND I SAW CRAIG AND ALLEN AGAIN! I was too much of a wimp to speak up and talk to them though. :[ They were standing like two feet away from me in the aisle, talking to a volunteer because Craig received a phone call from an unknown person. He couldn't hear what her name was on the phone but they were trying to figure out who it was. (No it wasn't a prank call. It was a legit phone call because they apparently needed him for something.) I even made a shirt that said "cause craig is badass." It was under the National Rifle shirt I was wearing just in case I saw him but I'M A WIMP. I can't do anything by myself. *sigh*Anyway, the cast definitely made the Q&A worth it. And volunteers started yelling at people who were videotaping but they never said we couldn't so WTF. There was Peter, Jackson, Alex, Kellan, Billy, and Christian. They were so funny and sweet. They made a bunch of jokes about the pads and pens they got on the table and started making paper airplanes with their autograph on them. They shot a few of them into the crowd. Peter even took one airplane and started flying it around the whole room. I can't even IMAGINE how terrifying that must have been for him because almost everyone who registered was there. When the time was up, they were shocked it was so short.
But they had to start the photo ops and the Meet and Greet right after that. I didn't go to those because I hadn't bought a photo ticket with one of the cast and I didn't have a ticket for the M&G either. (You had to buy like everything.) I read on the Twicon forums that many people were upset by how these events went. Apparently the lines were way long and the actors handlers were WAY RUDE and tried to rush everything. Of course, the actors were way too kind and tried to play by their own rules. They genuinely cared about the fans and interacting with them. It was so sweet to hear all the fans' stories on the forums. I really wish I could've met some of them. So it sounded like the photogs were out of control too. Oh, I just remembered that the photogs were in the morning. haha. But the same things still happened. What i meant was that after the Q&A there was the autograph sessions. Now they said EVERYONE should've gotten a free autograph ticket at registration but I never got mine and I didn't know I was suppose to get one until after it was done. But still they ran out of them that morning so I was pretty fricken pissed. But I heard Kellan and Peter stayed after to finish the line when they were suppose to go to the M&G. Both events I heard had horrible handlers and volunteers but the cast was still as sweet as ever. They even started apologizing for how badly they were being treated. They didn't even do anything wrong but it was so nice. They tried to make it up for them even when their handlers were yelling at them.
So during the time of all these events, I bought tickets to the 100 Monkey concert that night so I could get Jackson's autograph. I refused to leave Twicon without a single autograph and seeing Jackson up close. And don't worry, I also ate some food during this time. :) So at 6PM, we took a taxi to the Palladium where they were playing and waited an hour for the autograph signing to start. We got in but had to wait another 20-30 minutes for them to start. The signing was free and they also gave us a free CD! :D It was a 100 Monkeys signing but I brought a headshot of Jackson to sign only. My mom got the CD signed by the whole band for me. :) He was SO BEAUTIFUL when I saw him. We really couldn't speak to them because it was a looooong line and it was so loud with the music playing. We couldn't take photos either so I just settled for the autograph and the chance to see him up close. <3 GORGEOUS I TELL YOU!!! The concert started soon. The 100 Monkeys were still signing but a band started it off. They were called Dovetail and pretty good. Their keyboardist were hottt. But not as hot as Jackson. ;) Then National Rifle came on and sometime between Dovetail and The National Rifle, I think the signing was over. Yes, there was the sweaty buff guy again hahaha. I was much closer to the stage than the night before and I was very thankful for that. My camera battery was also running low so I saved it until 100 Monkeys came on. Again, 100 Monkeys rocked the night. They were so fun and interacted with the fans a lot. They even made up a song on the spot called Peeping Tom. (They chose the best idea from the crowd, which was Peeping Tom haha.) Jackson said he just had to sing it and boy, was he AMAZING. He was so into it, it was crazy. One song, there was this line he repeated a couple times "You are my darling" and I swear, he was looking right in my direction. I almost MELTED. Even if it wasn't directly at me, it was in my general area. But I still like to think he was looking at me. ;) Damn, he is fine. As the night went on, there was this REALLY TALL girl like in front of me but I edged over so I can see around her. She left so I got to go up more and see better. Yay. They two MORE girls left and I was really happy because I was like two people behind the rail. There was also this short girl next to me and I could tell she was happy too haha. Well, even if she was short, she was over 21. (You can tell by the bracelets because there was a bar inside.) So I'm declaring that 100 Monkeys is now one of my favorite bands live. They are really phenomenal and if you get the chance, GO SEE THEM IN CONCERT! You will NOT be disappointed. They are so amazing. I did not regret ditching the Volturi Ball for it. I didn't really have a fancy gown anyway. lol. So it ended around 11:30PM and we shared a taxi with some other people. (Hey, it's expensive to get around.) There was an hour left in the ball but I was way too tired to go check it out. That was the end of the awesome night. :)
The next day, I slept in until like 11AM haha. So we basically missed the Farewell Breakfast. We just went to the cafe downstairs for lunch. Since the convention was over and most of the people checked out that day, we just stayed in our room and watched movies. It was way too hot to walk around the city. So we just rested the whole day. lol. I think I only ate like twice that whole convention. It's not like I was starving but when you're at one of these things, you just don't get hungry. All your mind is thinking about is the next event haha.
At the time, I thought I had a pretty good time. But now that I think about it, it really wasn't worth the money. All of people think the same. I was probably just oblivious to everything going on around me. I don't know if I'll go next year. There are going to be two this time though that are smaller. One in Vegas and one in Vancouver. I just don't want to spend a bunch of money and be disappointed again. Maybe I'll just go to TwiTour. It's a lot more successful and there's one close in New Jersey next summer. What do you think? Give Twicon another chance or not?
By the way, sorry there weren't a lot of juicy details haha. I didn't do much. I wish I did though. :/
Cyn