(no subject)
Well, no updates for AGES... kinda sorry about that. Yet, I feel I'm going to have both more energy and more time for this journal in the near future. I strangely look forward to that.
Presently, I'm in St Kilda, Melbourne. Why? Well, for a deranged Buffy convention, which guest starred none other than James Masters (a.k.a Spike). The whole thing was pretty funny, and I knew I had to write it down.
There is really no way that I can acurately describe just how geeky this convention was.
It started at nine sharp - we were told - and thus decided to get there about five minutes to nine. At that point, we were delighted to find a quite hefty queue there, consisting largely of people with dyed hair wearing black clothing. Needless to say, I was certainly not the only person wearing a leather coat; indeed, one might get the impression that they were standard issue in this part of the world. The people had a strange air to them, and you got the auspicious feeling that they didn't go out all that much. I would classify them as Wannabe Goths, not to be confused with Goth Wannabe (the distinction ofcourse being that the former long to be Goths, while the later long to be ANYTHING).
As the line started moving, it was very evident what the convention was about. Pitside the hall, there were tables upon tables of all sorts of concivable Buffy merchandise. These seemed to be the focal point, and they seemed to sell constantly from start to beggining of the convention.
Getting back to the crowd, much to my disapointment there were very few number of real hardcore freaks. Instead they seemed to be more misfits than anythign else. Notable exeptions was a girl wearing a Sunnydale cheerleading costume, perhaps one of the most tenious links to the television show. Though perhaps it wasn't as improbable as I might believe at first, since I saw another one wearing the same thing later on in the proceedings.
It was also evident that I was one of only a handful of men in a group of 600. Though those of us that did posses organs capable of producing sperm were not altogether normal. Take "weirdo boy" for example. He was wearing ill fitting black pants that did not cover much of his patent snake skin boots. He wore a khaki brown leather jacket and wore an amazing braid down to his waist that was adorned by a lavish black bow. The coup-de-grace was his white ruffled-cuff shirt, that was rather uncomplementary to his bigger size. Some of you might imagine that this brutal attempt at Victorian clothing might be comendable, but trust me that is was just... well... weird.
To my surprise, the convention was probably more exciting than I would have thought. It started with a key-note speaker, Sue Turnbull, who is head of Media Studies at LaTrobe Uni and who gave a very entertaining talk on "The aethetics of Television". The talk was wonderful. Yet, even though it was obviously quite dumbed down, the audience got visably fidgety half was through. I thus realised that these fans didn't give two cents about making Buffy academically viable, ro seeing it become part of a High School curiculum. They wanted one thing from this convention and one thing only... to see James Masters and to spend loads of money. As I shall explain, the two are not that disimilar.
After Dr Turnbull's talk, we saw an hour long Q&A session with the man of the hour. I give credit to James Masters... he is a very likable person. He is obviously passionate about his views on the entertainment industy and he provides cojent and challenging points of views. But again, even when we has talking, after about 20 minutes, people started to again become fidgety. When he entered the room, the crowd went completely insane. Yet upon opening his mouth, people seemed less enthused. I ponder upon this.
The character Spike and the person James are so far removed from each other as to be near opposites. James is a well spoken American actor, whose sensitivity showed as he became teary on stage. He talks of being an artists, of being passionate, and about music. It seems that girls do not really want to see this in a guy. They want Spike, the bad ass killer, with a British accent, bad attitude and evil (but redeemable) nature.
So people became fidgety till they could do what they came for: get a signed autograph from the actor and get their picture taken with him. So, finaly, I want to illustrate the economic breakdown of the evening :
- The tickets were $120.00. For this money, you get to see a one hour talk from the actor.
- Autographs. You are entitled to get something autographed, but be warned. Official photos on sale are the only items that are autographed, and they cost $25. You can get something personal autographed, but these must be pre-approved by the convention conveenors, and a fee of $15 applies. Then again, the signitures (because of time constraints, they tell you) CANNOT be personalised. For your $25, you get to see James actually sign the picture, just like he has for a bizillion others.
- Photos. You cannot at any time take your own photos of the actor. You can, however, purchase the official photo session with him, where an A4 photo will cost you the total of $50. You can only recieve one, and you can have up to 3 people in the shot. If all three want a copy, they must each pay $50. The photo cannot be signed, and you get only one choice. Sorry, money is not refundable if the shot came out shite.
Here is the deal. As I've outlined, it seems that people only really care about having their photos taken and having stuff autographed. The two people I was with in the conference certainly thought this was the most valid reason for coming (sidenote : needless to say, I have neither the means nor the wanton for either of these things). So, you can expect that the large majority of people are going to get both. So, between photos, autographs, convention entry and perhaps a toy or two you might want to buy at the shops set up, you can expect that most people are spending roughly about 200 dollars. Between 600 people, that is a lot of dosh. Considering there is two sessions (and coincidently, a great number of people have tickets to BOTH sessions), this whole excersize seems quite a lucrative operation.
On a curiuos note, out of all this, I feel most for the actor himself. He is obviously quite mentally savvy; he is interested in theatre production and what not. It must be a strange position to find oneself. The fans that pay good money to see you want literally just that: to see you. The don't care what you have to say, or that you do anything. They just want to be able to get your scribble and have some photographic evidence to show that they did in fact see you.
I imagine that this is a terrible position to be in.
Presently, I'm in St Kilda, Melbourne. Why? Well, for a deranged Buffy convention, which guest starred none other than James Masters (a.k.a Spike). The whole thing was pretty funny, and I knew I had to write it down.
There is really no way that I can acurately describe just how geeky this convention was.
It started at nine sharp - we were told - and thus decided to get there about five minutes to nine. At that point, we were delighted to find a quite hefty queue there, consisting largely of people with dyed hair wearing black clothing. Needless to say, I was certainly not the only person wearing a leather coat; indeed, one might get the impression that they were standard issue in this part of the world. The people had a strange air to them, and you got the auspicious feeling that they didn't go out all that much. I would classify them as Wannabe Goths, not to be confused with Goth Wannabe (the distinction ofcourse being that the former long to be Goths, while the later long to be ANYTHING).
As the line started moving, it was very evident what the convention was about. Pitside the hall, there were tables upon tables of all sorts of concivable Buffy merchandise. These seemed to be the focal point, and they seemed to sell constantly from start to beggining of the convention.
Getting back to the crowd, much to my disapointment there were very few number of real hardcore freaks. Instead they seemed to be more misfits than anythign else. Notable exeptions was a girl wearing a Sunnydale cheerleading costume, perhaps one of the most tenious links to the television show. Though perhaps it wasn't as improbable as I might believe at first, since I saw another one wearing the same thing later on in the proceedings.
It was also evident that I was one of only a handful of men in a group of 600. Though those of us that did posses organs capable of producing sperm were not altogether normal. Take "weirdo boy" for example. He was wearing ill fitting black pants that did not cover much of his patent snake skin boots. He wore a khaki brown leather jacket and wore an amazing braid down to his waist that was adorned by a lavish black bow. The coup-de-grace was his white ruffled-cuff shirt, that was rather uncomplementary to his bigger size. Some of you might imagine that this brutal attempt at Victorian clothing might be comendable, but trust me that is was just... well... weird.
To my surprise, the convention was probably more exciting than I would have thought. It started with a key-note speaker, Sue Turnbull, who is head of Media Studies at LaTrobe Uni and who gave a very entertaining talk on "The aethetics of Television". The talk was wonderful. Yet, even though it was obviously quite dumbed down, the audience got visably fidgety half was through. I thus realised that these fans didn't give two cents about making Buffy academically viable, ro seeing it become part of a High School curiculum. They wanted one thing from this convention and one thing only... to see James Masters and to spend loads of money. As I shall explain, the two are not that disimilar.
After Dr Turnbull's talk, we saw an hour long Q&A session with the man of the hour. I give credit to James Masters... he is a very likable person. He is obviously passionate about his views on the entertainment industy and he provides cojent and challenging points of views. But again, even when we has talking, after about 20 minutes, people started to again become fidgety. When he entered the room, the crowd went completely insane. Yet upon opening his mouth, people seemed less enthused. I ponder upon this.
The character Spike and the person James are so far removed from each other as to be near opposites. James is a well spoken American actor, whose sensitivity showed as he became teary on stage. He talks of being an artists, of being passionate, and about music. It seems that girls do not really want to see this in a guy. They want Spike, the bad ass killer, with a British accent, bad attitude and evil (but redeemable) nature.
So people became fidgety till they could do what they came for: get a signed autograph from the actor and get their picture taken with him. So, finaly, I want to illustrate the economic breakdown of the evening :
- The tickets were $120.00. For this money, you get to see a one hour talk from the actor.
- Autographs. You are entitled to get something autographed, but be warned. Official photos on sale are the only items that are autographed, and they cost $25. You can get something personal autographed, but these must be pre-approved by the convention conveenors, and a fee of $15 applies. Then again, the signitures (because of time constraints, they tell you) CANNOT be personalised. For your $25, you get to see James actually sign the picture, just like he has for a bizillion others.
- Photos. You cannot at any time take your own photos of the actor. You can, however, purchase the official photo session with him, where an A4 photo will cost you the total of $50. You can only recieve one, and you can have up to 3 people in the shot. If all three want a copy, they must each pay $50. The photo cannot be signed, and you get only one choice. Sorry, money is not refundable if the shot came out shite.
Here is the deal. As I've outlined, it seems that people only really care about having their photos taken and having stuff autographed. The two people I was with in the conference certainly thought this was the most valid reason for coming (sidenote : needless to say, I have neither the means nor the wanton for either of these things). So, you can expect that the large majority of people are going to get both. So, between photos, autographs, convention entry and perhaps a toy or two you might want to buy at the shops set up, you can expect that most people are spending roughly about 200 dollars. Between 600 people, that is a lot of dosh. Considering there is two sessions (and coincidently, a great number of people have tickets to BOTH sessions), this whole excersize seems quite a lucrative operation.
On a curiuos note, out of all this, I feel most for the actor himself. He is obviously quite mentally savvy; he is interested in theatre production and what not. It must be a strange position to find oneself. The fans that pay good money to see you want literally just that: to see you. The don't care what you have to say, or that you do anything. They just want to be able to get your scribble and have some photographic evidence to show that they did in fact see you.
I imagine that this is a terrible position to be in.