VegasCon 2016 Recap
So, my friend and I went to Las Vegas to the 4-day Supernatural convention.
For me this was my 3rd SPN (or any) con and the 2nd for Laurie. The other two cons were in Dallas and we went Preferred seating, which is where you buy each day of the con separately and get an assigned seat for that day. This time we went Gold, which got us seats a little off-center in the 7th row. That was excellent. What else you get with Gold is an extra half-hour panel with J2, autographs with J2 and a few others, admission to the Louden Swain concert, and a crappy buy-your-own overpriced drink and no food cocktail party with some of the celebrity guests. In this case that meant Matt Frewer, Brock Kelly, and Alaina Huffman. We were all seated around those big tables like at a banquet or wedding, and as Laurie pointed out, that means that it's not really a cocktail party. That, and the fact that almost no one was drinking.
The only other disappointment in the 4 days were the fans who asked questions. Not those at the Gold-only J2 panel; those were good. But in the regular panels there were many hypotheticals ("if you could be ...", "if you could change [an episode that's already aired]"), etc. There were seriously annoying questions such as what the actors' favorite episode is and what advice would the actors give to an aspiring thespian. But worst of all were the questions designed to elicit sympathy and hugs, because what are you supposed to do with that?! All of the question-types I list waste the precious, precious time we get with the actors and perhaps preempt some good questions that would actually produce interesting responses. (The actors do manage to be entertaining or interesting regardless.) But the sympathy questions not only waste time, they're fucking selfish and have quite the opposite effect on people like me. And then I have to wonder what kind of a bad person am I to feel nothing but disdain for this poor fan who just shared some painful story with an actor and 1,000 other people.
The photo op we had with Jared, which is the only one we bought, was great. In the pic below I'm Heddy in the multi-colored dress and Laurie is Beverly. (By the way, I do have her permission to post the picture.) I am extraordinarily camera shy and knowing that my picture is being taken somehow also causes me to be really unphotogenic, so it's all a vicious circle. So I don't like having my picture taken in the first place, and add to that that the picture involved me actually touching Jared, and I was quite anxious. But Jared is somehow really awesome at being unintimidating. You get like literally 20 seconds with him but he makes you feel comfortable. And in addition to the hug you see in the picture, when we were walking away Jared kind of rubbed both of our backs. He is so fucking sweet it's unreal. Chris, the photographer, is as wonderful as everyone says he is.
I was back in my own hair, jeans, and AKF hoodie when I got the picture autographed. I told Jared, "I'm glad you were able to take the time you needed last spring," and he seemed to be genuinely touched. He acknowledged the hoodie and said he loved the picture. SWOON!
Also a guy in the auto line ahead of me saw the picture and said, "you rock as a blonde and a brunette" which totally made my day.
For me this was my 3rd SPN (or any) con and the 2nd for Laurie. The other two cons were in Dallas and we went Preferred seating, which is where you buy each day of the con separately and get an assigned seat for that day. This time we went Gold, which got us seats a little off-center in the 7th row. That was excellent. What else you get with Gold is an extra half-hour panel with J2, autographs with J2 and a few others, admission to the Louden Swain concert, and a crappy buy-your-own overpriced drink and no food cocktail party with some of the celebrity guests. In this case that meant Matt Frewer, Brock Kelly, and Alaina Huffman. We were all seated around those big tables like at a banquet or wedding, and as Laurie pointed out, that means that it's not really a cocktail party. That, and the fact that almost no one was drinking.
The only other disappointment in the 4 days were the fans who asked questions. Not those at the Gold-only J2 panel; those were good. But in the regular panels there were many hypotheticals ("if you could be ...", "if you could change [an episode that's already aired]"), etc. There were seriously annoying questions such as what the actors' favorite episode is and what advice would the actors give to an aspiring thespian. But worst of all were the questions designed to elicit sympathy and hugs, because what are you supposed to do with that?! All of the question-types I list waste the precious, precious time we get with the actors and perhaps preempt some good questions that would actually produce interesting responses. (The actors do manage to be entertaining or interesting regardless.) But the sympathy questions not only waste time, they're fucking selfish and have quite the opposite effect on people like me. And then I have to wonder what kind of a bad person am I to feel nothing but disdain for this poor fan who just shared some painful story with an actor and 1,000 other people.
The photo op we had with Jared, which is the only one we bought, was great. In the pic below I'm Heddy in the multi-colored dress and Laurie is Beverly. (By the way, I do have her permission to post the picture.) I am extraordinarily camera shy and knowing that my picture is being taken somehow also causes me to be really unphotogenic, so it's all a vicious circle. So I don't like having my picture taken in the first place, and add to that that the picture involved me actually touching Jared, and I was quite anxious. But Jared is somehow really awesome at being unintimidating. You get like literally 20 seconds with him but he makes you feel comfortable. And in addition to the hug you see in the picture, when we were walking away Jared kind of rubbed both of our backs. He is so fucking sweet it's unreal. Chris, the photographer, is as wonderful as everyone says he is.
I was back in my own hair, jeans, and AKF hoodie when I got the picture autographed. I told Jared, "I'm glad you were able to take the time you needed last spring," and he seemed to be genuinely touched. He acknowledged the hoodie and said he loved the picture. SWOON!
Also a guy in the auto line ahead of me saw the picture and said, "you rock as a blonde and a brunette" which totally made my day.