Celebration VI Mega-Cap - Part 1 - Thursday, August 23
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the champions' selection!
Wait, wrong fandom.
Anyway, now to continue on what's become a Celebration tradition for me: the Mega-Cap series! Not just a way of sharing my experiences, but preserving my own memories as well while they're still reasonably fresh. I'll be tackling recaps of my convention series one day at a time... with a link to photos as well, if you'd rather just skip to that.
On to the recaps! Or, if you'd rather just view the photos: Day 1
Day 0 - Wednesday
Uneventful flights through Houston to Orlando. Arrived and met up with chickadilly at the airport. Her friend Nicki's flight is apparently delayed two hours, so we decide to meander around the airport for a while. We spend most of our time in a Harry Potter store (naturally), drooling over replica character wands (I almost got Luna's), Deathly Hallows symbol keychains, House robes, and Bertie Botts beans. Chickadilly debated on getting the Beans for a while, due to some inside joke with her and Nicki - apparently it involves SW fruit snacks and an elaborate SW Twitter crack RP - which I'll let her explain if she so chooses. There was an adorable British boy looking at the wands - at one point I think he was trying to reenact the scene where Ron's wand snaps in two; his dad hastily ended that. Chickadilly ended up buying some stuff and we made our way to meet Nicki, since it was about time for her flight to arrive; en route Chickadilly related to me the time she'd met Mark Hamill and why Nicki didn't like him (apparently he was grouchy when she met him).
We find Nicki and end up in a hotel shuttle full of Celebration attendees, and a driver none of us are sure is completely... there, and not just because he'd apparently been awake since 3:30 that morning (it was now after 9 pm) and cracking lame SW jokes. We survived the shuttle ride to the hotel; the poor girl who'd already had to endure the driver's weirdness the longest wound up being the last one on the shuttle. Nicki had hit it off with her chatting about Dr. Who and gotten her cell number, so as to check in on her later and make sure she got to her hotel okay. (She did.)
When we got to the hotel it was around 10 or so, so we went to the hotel sports bar for a bite to eat since it was the only place open. My paycheck hadn't gone through yet and I had literally about $10 left in my bank account, so I got the cheapest thing on the menu - chips and salsa for about $4 something. We chatted, listened to a pretty mediocre guitar player try to pick his way through "Classical Gas," then went upstairs. Up there, I learned that Nicki is a PHENOMENAL baker - she'd brought a giant tupperware full of homemade goodies, including butterbeer bars and "chipperdoodles" (chocolate chip snickerdoodles). OMG SOOOOOOOO GOOOOD. We chatted until about two in the morning, too excited to sleep, though of course we eventually did.
Day 1 - Thursday
Here's where the fun begins! (I say that every time, but whatever.)
None of the three of us had any particular must-sees today until Ian in the evening, so our first stop was the exhibit hall to browse and maybe shop. I resisted temptation pretty well... until the art show. Brent Woodside had his Vader/Padmé "Torment" piece on display, and I just had to have it. I saw he was also doing little pencil sketches in a corner of some of the posters, so I wound up opting to shell out another $25 for a small sketch of ROTS Anakin on my print. I was briefly torn between Anakin and the japor snippet - Woodside initially pointed the snippet out to me, seeing that I was wearing mine, but also noted that Anakin had been a popular choice so far.
Woodside was very nice, and Nicki chatted with him about doing a commissioned piece featuring her and Agent Coulson from The Avengers. (Nicki was on an ongoing quest all weekend to spread the message "Coulson Lives," slapping stickers at random places in the convention center and posting the pictures to Twitter.) At Erik Maell's table I saw a full size print of the amazing "Mourning Padmé" piece that was featured as a SW Galaxy trading card, so I had to grab that too. I was very pleased to see so much V/P art at the con (Jerry Vanderstelt had a breathtaking one it was everything I could do not to grab too) - the tragedy of A/P is part of what makes it so compelling to me, and I'm pleased to see it inspiring the official artists. There were a lot of other amazing prints at the show too - including a spectacular "Where's Waldo"-esque piece featuring a plethora of characters from all of Lucas's major works, and George himself sitting at a desk in his office in the center of it all - the piece was signed by Lucas himself, and was going for I forget how many hundred dollars. Le sigh. Too rich for my blood.
It was the art show where I faced my first financial frustration of the day. When I got to the register at the art show, my card was declined. Twice. (Incidentally, the pay setup at the art show was really headache inducing - the artist gives you a handwritten receipt, which you take to the LOOOOOOOONG, SLOOOOOOW line to the register to pay, then take the proof of payment back to the artist table and pick up your purchase.) Chickadilly graciously offered to front the money for my prints until I figured out my card problem, though, bless her heart; I promised to pay her back ASAP. After that we split up for a little bit and I headed to the Her Universe booth. Ashley was not there, alas, probably off signing somewhere. I'd half hoped to be able to express my concerns in person about the quality of the Her Universe tote bag; recently I've noticed the logos on it wear off very easily. :( I hadn't really planned on spending any money at HU (Mara Jade shirt? Pretty, but no thanks), but once I saw the gold Naboo/Amidala symbol earrings, I knew I just had to have them. And since I figured why the hell not at this point, I picked up two japor snippet charms to make into earrings. My earrings were given to me in a lovely satiny purple drawstring bag with the SW and HU logos on it in silver; the snippets were each in their own shiny little yellow bags. So pretty! :) No problem with my card here, so I crossed my fingers the declination at the art show had been a fluke.
After that I went to the Celebration Store. I hadn't planned to spend any money here either (Slave Leia beach towel? MEHHHHHH), until I saw a beautiful gray shirt with ANH Leia silhouetted against a spirally/flowy white design. I went up to pay for it, and the woman at the register informed me, with an air of condescension I didn't much care for (the guy at the art show register was much more polite about this), that it had been declined. I told her I'd just bought something at Her Universe with no issues, and with an expression that matched her voice, she held up the receipt showing the declination. Feeling peeved, I plucked my card from her hand more forcefully than I would have normally, and stormed off to another corner of the store to text Chickadilly to find out where she and Nicki were, and to call my credit union to find out why the fuck my card was getting rejected. They met up with me, and I expressed my frustration. Chickadilly again offered to front the cost of the t-shirt. We went through the store, and oohed and awed and laughed over things like a Pan Am-esque Death Star/Star Destroyer tote bag, Gamorrean guard piggy banks, Jar Jar whoopie cushions, and "Minti-Chlorians."
Incidentally, if you're THAT curious about my purchases, the pics are here. (I didn't buy the Maul poster; that was a handout after the CW Season 5 premiere, which I'll cap in my Saturday portion.)
Sometime after, I finally spoke with my credit union and got the card situation resolved - they'd put a hold on my card because they'd had concerns about an out of state transaction showing up on my card. I explained I was in Florida at a convention, and they took the hold off my card, but not before Chickadilly and Nicki took pity on me and insisted on buying my lunch. I'd originally waved it off, but they expressed concerns about me passing out if I didn't eat SOMETHING, as I hadn't had breakfast.
After that, it was about 3:00, so we decided we probably should go get in line for Ian, since his panel was at 5:00. We got in and had to sit through the same irritating DJ and warm-up guy we had to endure at C5, though it was marginally more tolerable this time. About the only memorable bit was the warm-up guy asking one toddler if he liked SW, and the little boy answered "No." Hee! The DJ cracked the same annoying joke he did about C5, about the girls in the room being grumpy because they'd been "dragged" to a SW convention. :P I told Nicki and Chickadilly what my friend ami-padme had said to the same joke at C5: "Hey, some of us dragged BOYS here!" We watched a mildly amusing video showing the warmup guy's "dream" that he was Chewbacca's best friend - which we would see again and again later in the con. :P
About half an hour late, James Arnold Taylor - voice of Clone Wars Obi-Wan and our master of ceremonies - finally came out and introduced Ian.
Ian is the embodiment of the classy, charming British thespian. Very disarming, in a completely different way from Carrie Fisher's often bawdy/raunchy humor. He offered some wonderful anecdotes, which I'll do in bullet form:
-- When he first met George, George told him "Nice nose."
-- Another actor was originally cast as Palpatine, but ultimately was unable to handle the contact lenses.
-- In terms of the makeup prosthetic, Ian thought the original ROTJ makeup better conveyed the evil of Palpatine, though the ROTS was much quicker/easier to put on.
-- He said the best advice his makeup artist would give him would be to "go to sleep" in the chair, and it was always a start for him to fall asleep in one face and wake up to see a Sith Lord staring back at him. :)
-- His first visual impression of Palpatine: "Why, he's a slimy toad!" And it was this that led to the inspiration for the voice... which he still does flawlessly. (Incidentally, Ian did a number of other hilarious impressions too, including George.)
-- He was surprised the Emperor of the universe had such a simple costume, but ultimately realized how brilliant it was, because it allowed the Emperor to show or hide as much or little of himself as he wished.
-- He actually felt more evil playing Senator Palpatine than the Emperor, because Palpatine to him is very much reminiscent of contemporary politicians.
-- He volunteered a surprising amount of information about the live-action series, which seemed to have been all but forgotten. In short, it's money holding up the series from getting off the ground right now. When asked if he would be willing to reprise the role of the Emperor in the series, Ian joked first that George would have to come ask him to do it on bended knee - then smiled and asked "What do YOU think?" to audience cheers.
-- Ian didn't realize until he got the script for TPM that Palpatine and the Emperor were one and the same. Liam Neeson even confronted him about it, shocked/amazed: "You're HIM! Why didn't you say anything?" :)
-- There was a lot of praise between James and Ian for the opera scene in ROTS. When Ian was praised for his part in the scene, Ian also took care to mention Hayden's performance there as well: Anakin is silent through much of the scene, but you are still very much able to read Anakin's thought process in it as he takes in what Palpatine is saying.
-- He praised Ewan and Hayden as brilliant swordsmen, even joked that they ought to take their swordfighting on the road as a show together. ;)
-- Ian hesitated in naming a favorite costar, saying they were all talented. He did ultimately single out Hayden, as they'd had the most scenes together, and Ian declared he thought Hayden's performance in the films is often underrated, which brought applause from the audience.
-- Ian talked about how he'd wanted to do theater since boyhood, when his parents would regularly take him. Around age 4 he remembers staring up at some elaborately masked character and being utterly enchanted, realizing THAT was what he wanted to do.
-- To cap off the panel, there was a "Phony Photo Memory" staged photo op, and it was decided that Ian as Palpatine should electrocute James as Obi-Wan. :)
After that, Nicki and Chickadilly went to get in line for the Kevin Smith panel. I hadn't gotten a ticket for that, both due to money and being semi-afraid Smith would go all fanboy basher on the prequels like so many celebrities at these shows (I'm looking at you, Seth Green). I ultimately found out afterwards that Smith actually vocally defended the prequels, declaring in response to an audience member's question that he didn't think they needed to be changed at all, that we were ultimately given what we were promised: the backstory of Vader. Smith went on to describe how as a boy he'd read the stories about Vader and Obi-Wan dueling over a volcano, and when he finally got to see that scene brought to reality in ROTS, he was moved to tears from being so overwhelmed.
Anyhoo, not being able to go to that panel, I opted for the big screen showing of TPM in 3D instead. I'd had trepidations about that as well, fearing a lot of fanboy basher outbursts. But I guess they all must have gone to the Kevin Smith panel, because I didn't hear any booing - not even for Jar Jar's scenes. When the audience cheered the Lucasfilm logo and the opening crawl, I relaxed, realizing I was among friends. It was a great experience: there were cheers for Obi-Wan, Anakin, R2 meeting 3P0, Obi-Wan and Anakin's intro, pretty much any scene Maul appeared in, Obi-Wan slaying Maul, Yoda declaring Anakin would be Obi-Wan's apprentice (lot of Anakin-Obi-Wan fans in attendance, apparently!), and uproarious laughter when Palpatine tells Amidala "We shall bring peace and prosperity to the Republic." Then of course cheers for the end credits/Lucas's name. Incidentally, I don't think the 3D in TPM adds a whole lot (though it's not bad) - what I saw of AOTC in 3D looked miles better, though I'll get into that in the Saturday portion of my recaps. The 3D glasses they handed out were cool, though - black and green with the C6 logo.
I met up with Chickadilly and Nicki and we went for dinner at the Sizzler, then back to our hotel, where we chatted until a ridiculous hour again. They explained to me their weird Twitter crack RP. Chickadilly showed us an awful piece of Obi-Wan fan art I dubbed "Crobi-Wan" (due to its cavemanesque qualities), which we laughed ourselves to tears over. Nicki's message ringtone, the Mos Eisley cantina music, induced a Pavlovian response in me to dance every time it came on, which was frequently. Eventually I started laying out the pieces for my Snowbunny costume to wear the next day.
Tomorrow: The Adventures of a Snowbunny in Orlando Redux!