And the results are in...
SPACED Day was officially a success!
An exhausting success (who knew standing in line could be so tiring), but a success nonetheless. I even got away without a parking ticket.
The signing was a lot of fun, I wanted to get there around 10:00 am, but because of traffic I arrived almost 35 later. In the end it probably didn't make much of a difference, but I did miss the chance to get my picture taken with Simon Pegg. I was the next person in line when the line nazi announced that there would be no more personal pictures. I mean, it was for a good reason, they wanted to get in as many people as possible, but still...I really wanted a picture with them.
Anyway, the line itself was actually a blast, I was surrounded by a bunch of geeky boys and spent my time listening to them get into fights about geeky things, it was amusing and endearing. At one point in time, one of the guys (who's name was Max Kronic--no, I'm not kidding--he was a hit with Kevin Smith to say the least) saw at a van with extremely tinted windows, and said, "Hey, that's them". The van was at a stoplight so we just stared for a sec, until we realized it really was them and I we started to wave and mouth "hi" like idiots. Simon eventually realized that we realized it was him and started to wave back and laugh. Although I stood in one place for nearly 2 hours it really didn't feel like, which is a comfort.
The signing was the usual conveyor belt method. You could get three items signed so this guy gave me his Shaun of the Dead sleeve, as well as a photo of Simon for Simon to sign. Well, you can always count on me to cause chaos because the sleeve I was getting signed for the guy got lost in the shuffle, so we had to spend 5 minutes rearranging and finding which one was the right one. This led to me being reprimanded by Simon for causing problems and "yelling" at him for no particular reason. In an unfair trick of fate it also allowed the two people behind me to get pictures with Simon (to reiterate: I did not get a picture.) Humph. Jessica Hynes, nee Stevenson, was very cool, although she seemed somewhat frazzled by all the people and the signing, but she was very nice...just kind spazzy, which is more than fine by me. Edgar Wright was also great. I had heard rumors that he was somewhat shy, so I was prepared to meet, well, someone shy. To be clear, he is not shy at all. He is the opposite of shy. I got up to him and he was all hellos, what's ups, and are you coming tonight's? Although, when I thanked him for being awesome he just grinned and signed my DVD. All in all though they were awesome people. Oh, and I got a picture with Kevin Smith, who smelled of cigarette smoke and chlorine (why??).
After that I went home for a few hours, and then drove to the Arclight for the screening/panel. I, once again, found myself in a line...waiting...except this time I did get a picture with Jessica, Yay! and a high-five from Edgar (yay!). We were brought in for the screening where we were treated to three episodes of SPACED on a really fucking huge screen. As I've learned in the past, it's always great to watch something you love with other people who love it just as much, and this was no exception. To see people breakout into mock gun fights when we watched the episode Gone, and to hear everyone scream "just kiss!" (even though we knew they wouldn't) in Epiphanies, always gives me this wonderful feeling of inclusion. The Panel was fabulous too, and to my surprise, Kevin Smith proved to be a pretty awesome moderator. The questions stayed on the topic of SPACED, mainly because Edgar would scold you if it started to stray. The rest of the cast rallied with him and refused to answer non-spaced related questions with anything more than 4 words, which was nice. All in all it was an awesome time, and worth all the waiting (here endith the waiting theme). The majority of questions were about the genesis of SPACED (e.g. how everyone go together) although there were some random ones about pop culture references. Edgar told a nice little anecdote about how he had a nervous breakdown in a phone booth during series 2 and that after it was over everyone was really nice to him: because of this he is considering have more of them on set haha.
The last question was probably the one that made everyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside...it was also kinda awkward. The final question was about what would have happened with Tim and Daisy, well it turns out that the ending of Skip to the End is canon, which made everyone really happy. It was just...strange though. The whole and panel and audience, which had been really rambunctious and talkative the whole time, got really quiet and...melancholy. Simon began to describe the relationship between Tim and Daisy as "love at first sight", and that they knew they loved each other, they just needed to realize it, and that their future together was inevitable, and that it would have been amazingly beautiful and happy. This is where the awkward came in. Simon had this look of quiet nostalgia in his eyes while saying this and would glance at Jessica every so often; Jessica was turning bright red, and just to make it a smidgen more uncomfortable it was Simon's wedding anniversary, and his wife was in the room. Eventually, both the panelists and the audience seemed to snap out of it, and we were introduced to a music video haha.
An exhausting success (who knew standing in line could be so tiring), but a success nonetheless. I even got away without a parking ticket.
The signing was a lot of fun, I wanted to get there around 10:00 am, but because of traffic I arrived almost 35 later. In the end it probably didn't make much of a difference, but I did miss the chance to get my picture taken with Simon Pegg. I was the next person in line when the line nazi announced that there would be no more personal pictures. I mean, it was for a good reason, they wanted to get in as many people as possible, but still...I really wanted a picture with them.
Anyway, the line itself was actually a blast, I was surrounded by a bunch of geeky boys and spent my time listening to them get into fights about geeky things, it was amusing and endearing. At one point in time, one of the guys (who's name was Max Kronic--no, I'm not kidding--he was a hit with Kevin Smith to say the least) saw at a van with extremely tinted windows, and said, "Hey, that's them". The van was at a stoplight so we just stared for a sec, until we realized it really was them and I we started to wave and mouth "hi" like idiots. Simon eventually realized that we realized it was him and started to wave back and laugh. Although I stood in one place for nearly 2 hours it really didn't feel like, which is a comfort.
The signing was the usual conveyor belt method. You could get three items signed so this guy gave me his Shaun of the Dead sleeve, as well as a photo of Simon for Simon to sign. Well, you can always count on me to cause chaos because the sleeve I was getting signed for the guy got lost in the shuffle, so we had to spend 5 minutes rearranging and finding which one was the right one. This led to me being reprimanded by Simon for causing problems and "yelling" at him for no particular reason. In an unfair trick of fate it also allowed the two people behind me to get pictures with Simon (to reiterate: I did not get a picture.) Humph. Jessica Hynes, nee Stevenson, was very cool, although she seemed somewhat frazzled by all the people and the signing, but she was very nice...just kind spazzy, which is more than fine by me. Edgar Wright was also great. I had heard rumors that he was somewhat shy, so I was prepared to meet, well, someone shy. To be clear, he is not shy at all. He is the opposite of shy. I got up to him and he was all hellos, what's ups, and are you coming tonight's? Although, when I thanked him for being awesome he just grinned and signed my DVD. All in all though they were awesome people. Oh, and I got a picture with Kevin Smith, who smelled of cigarette smoke and chlorine (why??).
After that I went home for a few hours, and then drove to the Arclight for the screening/panel. I, once again, found myself in a line...waiting...except this time I did get a picture with Jessica, Yay! and a high-five from Edgar (yay!). We were brought in for the screening where we were treated to three episodes of SPACED on a really fucking huge screen. As I've learned in the past, it's always great to watch something you love with other people who love it just as much, and this was no exception. To see people breakout into mock gun fights when we watched the episode Gone, and to hear everyone scream "just kiss!" (even though we knew they wouldn't) in Epiphanies, always gives me this wonderful feeling of inclusion. The Panel was fabulous too, and to my surprise, Kevin Smith proved to be a pretty awesome moderator. The questions stayed on the topic of SPACED, mainly because Edgar would scold you if it started to stray. The rest of the cast rallied with him and refused to answer non-spaced related questions with anything more than 4 words, which was nice. All in all it was an awesome time, and worth all the waiting (here endith the waiting theme). The majority of questions were about the genesis of SPACED (e.g. how everyone go together) although there were some random ones about pop culture references. Edgar told a nice little anecdote about how he had a nervous breakdown in a phone booth during series 2 and that after it was over everyone was really nice to him: because of this he is considering have more of them on set haha.
The last question was probably the one that made everyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside...it was also kinda awkward. The final question was about what would have happened with Tim and Daisy, well it turns out that the ending of Skip to the End is canon, which made everyone really happy. It was just...strange though. The whole and panel and audience, which had been really rambunctious and talkative the whole time, got really quiet and...melancholy. Simon began to describe the relationship between Tim and Daisy as "love at first sight", and that they knew they loved each other, they just needed to realize it, and that their future together was inevitable, and that it would have been amazingly beautiful and happy. This is where the awkward came in. Simon had this look of quiet nostalgia in his eyes while saying this and would glance at Jessica every so often; Jessica was turning bright red, and just to make it a smidgen more uncomfortable it was Simon's wedding anniversary, and his wife was in the room. Eventually, both the panelists and the audience seemed to snap out of it, and we were introduced to a music video haha.