Rally!
Oh, man, I have no voice today. What an amazing rally. I was going to try and make up my own rally report, but there's already a fantastic one up, by anige of Saving Angel, and she's given permission to repost, so that's what I'll do. Credit for everything behind the cut goes to her.
The report is long but well worth a read. I'll add any of my own final comments at the bottom.
Saving Angel rally report
Oh, my lord. The rally was AWESOME. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen and everyone who came! We made history tonight, folks!
I got there early, at about 1:30 PM. On the way, I passed the billboard truck at a gas station, where it was filling up. It was the first time I'd seen it in real life, and it was so cool! Wayne and Marsia had parked their cars directly across from Gate 11 to save a space for the truck, so it was perfectly positioned. It's a "T" intersection, so any cars coming out of the Ranch couldn't avoid seeing it.
Lisa was the next to arrive, in her brand spanking new Honda Civic (Galapagos Green). Marsia had to leave to pick up Pepper, so we unloaded her car and I got to look at all the good stuff. The t-shirts looked cooler than I'd expected. They had the circular rally logo on the front and "FIGHT FOR QUALITY TV" on the back. The sign Michael whipped up and we had printed at Kinko's was absolutely gorgeous. Wayne then had to leave for a while to go home, because he'd forgotten to leave his apartment unlocked for his mother.
I chatted with the driver of the truck while we waited for other people to arrive. He lives in Orange County (near where I went to high school) and he'd been on the job for less than a week, I think. He showed me his regular schedule, which consists of a lot of maps and times. It was funny that so many of the places on his route were so close to each other - he'd drive around a location, go somewhere else for a bit, then come back to the exact same location because the next office on the list was next door to a previous one. We were getting reactions to the truck as soon as it parked there, well before the rally. People were honking before most of the rallyers even arrived.
Pepper arrived and we got to have a little reunion. It was so awesome to see her! We all got into our t-shirts. We did the put-on-a-t-shirt-and-removing-the-first-shirt-through-a-sleeve trick that all girls learn to do. Before we started moving stuff across the street, Pepper and I went to say hi to the security folks. They seemed to be expecting us, and one at least seemed to be a huge fan, because she was at least as excited as we were. All of the security folks were okay with us, even if they weren't all actively supportive.
Maryann, who was at the first rally and volunteered to help us out with signs this time, arrived shortly after. She'd brought a whole bunch of signs for us, using the graphics at the rally site and some pictures she'd scavenged from magazines and other sources. There was an immediate claiming of personal favorites ("The one with Spike on it is MINE!" "I've got the one with David!" "I get Wesley! No one else touch that one!").
We set up camp on the grass next to the WB's sign. We set up one table with the 3-piece sign Michael originally designed for the Grand Slam convention. That table had the sign-in sheets, the petition, and the postcards. We didn't push the petition and postcards as much, but we did try to get everyone to sign in. I know for a fact that not everyone did, though. I can think of at least 3 off the top of my head that I *personally* met and spoke with whose names don't appear on the sign-in sheet. Plus none of the media people who came signed in.
People started arriving just before three. By the time it was 3, we already had about a dozen people. TV Guide Channel was there at about 3 as well, before the crowd really had a chance to build. Theresa arrived a little bit late, but in plenty of time to talk with the TV Guide people. They did get some great shots of the truck, and some interviews with us. A guy named Jeff (I think) was there as an official spokesperson for the Television Academy of Science Fiction. He basically told us all that they thought "Angel" was an excellent, award-winning (literally) show and that they were behind the fans' efforts. He also made a statement to the TV Guide Channel crew. He mentioned that "Angel" was up for five awards this year and that Mr. Boreanaz and Ms. Acker had won previously.
NPR was also there and spoke with a bunch of members of the team as well. I didn't hear most of these interviews, since I spent nearly the entire time at the rally manning the table: getting people to sign in when possible, getting postcards filled out when things weren't too busy (not often), occasionally getting another signature on the petition, and directing people to posterboard, markers, and printouts so that they could make their own signs. I know they asked Pepper about what was going on, whether she thought this would accomplish anything, about the fact that five years was already a respectable run, etc. She told me about a question she'd answered later which was something like, "If you peeled away all the layers of 'Angel', like an onion, what is at the core?" She gave an answer about unity and family, but the reaction of the NPR people made me think that they'd been asking the same question to other people and been getting a variety of answers. And the beauty of it is that it manages to be all those different things.
More people kept arriving in a steady stream. People had to leave (for work, mostly) but there was a steady increase in our numbers for most of the day. There were fans who were still in high school and fans who taught at high schools. There were couples and families and groups of friends that showed up together. We had one older couple who were at least 60 years old (each, I mean) and one two-year-old adorable girl who apparently has a thing for Spike. At least, she would attach herself to Pepper's leg and say "Ike. Ike." I saw people I'd met at the first rally and people I'd met at the convention and people I'd only ever "met" online, which was totally awesome. It's sort of odd when you have to introduce yourselves using your real names and your online aliases, though.
Marsia had to leave for a while because her mother had been hit by a car. But apparently, her mother was doing fine, and hadn't even wanted Marsia called, and said that the rally was more important. Marsia's mother sent her back to finish off the rally with us.
Here are some excerpts from a few postcards:
"This show helped my autistic son learn how to speak!"
"Angel lets us know there is hope for redemption for all of us bad boys. We can recover our dignity. Let us keep this symbol of hope going..."
"... maybe even get some more Pyleans on his staff to kick some demon ass!"
"Joss Whedon's universe is the most poignant beautiful and amazing thing we could ever hope for... we are blessed by his genius..."
"So... instead of the WB being known for the quality of Joss Whedon-written shows, they'd rather be known for the 'quality' of One Tree Hill."
"My daughter and I watch Angel! Please don't take away our Family Time."
"And that's 4 million, stubborn, devoted genre fans that *won't* be watching the WB's Dark Shadows..."
"Give me five more seasons and I'll stop whining."
I really loved it when I got a chance to speak with fans. I really think "Angel" fans are some of my favorite people, y'all are so cool! I got to talk when people signed in, or when I made a round with water for the thirsty, or when things were slow, I could chat with those making signs. Of those I spoke with, people had found out about us from doing searches on the internet, or from affiliates (one girl told me she'd found us from cityofangel), or from friends who were also "Angel" fans, or from listening to Kevin and Bean in the morning. One guy I talked to had just been driving by when he'd heard and seen us (and the truck!) and had to pull over and join us for a while.
Kristine Lee, the associate producer (Ryan Seacrest Show) who emailed us, showed up with a cameraman named Eugene. They were there for at least an hour and interviewed many people, both those on the team and especially the regular fans. I think they had fun talking to people, and they seemed pretty impressed by how organized we were. I know the camera guy liked me because I gave him a bottle of water when he looked like he could use it, and he stopped by to chat a few times while they were there. I'd pulled the sign I'd made for Barb out of my car before they arrived, so I had it on hand to show them. It says, "ANGEL fans love RYAN too! Love, Barb from Michigan" I used the ANGEL logo and printed the word RYAN in pink (if you're familiar with his show, you know why). They got a good, long shot of it and promised me they'd put it on the air. I just hope they didn't also catch *me* holding the sign. They'll probably also mention Pepper's son and get in a good shot of Juliana Faith holding a sign (the two-year-old girl I mentioned earlier. She fell asleep partway through the rally, incidentally, but her family stayed the entire time). So everyone watch "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" on April 1st!
Thanks to the signs we'd had printed or made and the supply of posterboard and markers, we were able to have every person holding a sign. We faced the street so that cars passing by (or entering or exiting the Ranch) could see them. A few honked for us. I did manage to see the face of one exec, and he had this sort of hunted expression on his face. Some people that were driving by slowed down to read them better. A few looked confused, but the majority honked for us. Some waved and cheered us on as well, or yelled "Save Angel!" or similar things out their windows. I was very happy with the response from passing cars (99% positive). Theresa and I joked about coming up with our alternatives to the Nielsons (According to our research, the occupants of over half the cars driving down Hollywood Way watch "Angel"...)
Even more people started arriving after 5, including Hercules, of "Ain't It Cool News" fame. He's pretty cool and waved a sign with the rest of us (and signed up for our newsletter). Once people were leaving work and could join us, the numbers grew pretty fast. At that point, we spread out so that we were on both sides of the street (both sides of Gate 11) so the WB folks were getting us in stereo. We screamed and cheered when people in passing cars honked or cheered us. We chanted/yelled things like "AN-GEL! AN-GEL!" and "SAVE! OUR! SHOW! SAVE! OUR! SHOW!" and "SAVE AN-GEL! SAVE AN-GEL!" I'm going to have no voice tomorrow, but it was so worth it. We also managed some coordinated shouting between the two sides of the street. "WE WANT!" "AN-GEL!" back and forth across the street. At one point we also had "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" going on, but it was all in good fun.
One of the things I loved was that people were really talking and discussing the show while we stood out there. There were 'shippers there, of course, but there really wasn't any arguing going on, just good old-fashioned discussion ranging from favorite episodes to how people got into the show to speculation on what's going to happen next. One little group of high-school-age friends consisted of one rabid Buffy/Angel 'shipper and two Spuffy 'shippers, and their good-natured bickering while they made signs was pretty funny. The signs people made ranged from B/A and B/S shipper signs to plain old "Save Angel" signs to "Honk to Save Angel" to "Don't Let the Senior Partners Win!" There were a couple that made reference to "Dark Shadows", but as it had been decided that that wasn't really appropriate, they weren't used for very long. There were lots of references to not staking Angel or keeping Angel undead. One gifted gentleman drew a great picture of a demon's head with the WB logo on its forehead and a speech bubble that said "I CANCEL GREAT SHOWS."
Keith, the WB guy who came out last time, came out again and spent some time talking to us. He brought his dog this time (I believe her name was Bella) but the disturbance he made in our group was pretty minimal. Since we were onto their strategy this time, we kept people rallying with their signs and chanting while Keith was visiting us. I didn't hear anything he had to say, because I was rallying and helping keep people from clumping up, but I'm sure I didn't miss anything at all. They didn't try to bring out goodies this time. (I doubt they would have had enough!)
Deanna, one of the fans who came to the first rally, brought what must have been her entire collection of Angel and Spike action figures/dolls and two stuffed animals: Mr. Gordo and a Blondie Bear. Each one had its own sign. The blond teddy bear (Blondie Bear) had one that said "BITEY!" for some reason, and Mr. Gordo's read "Grr. Oink." The signs that the figures held said: "Grr." and "Aargh.", "Bite Me," "This Bites More Than I Do," "Will Brood for Food" (obviously held by Angel), "Save Angel," "Bugger Angel, Save Spike!" "Save the Stupid Git" (with arrow to Angel), "Save the Limey Bastard" (with arrow to Spike), and some with the banner from the rally site. I got to keep the one that had a picture of Puppet-Angel and said "Save Angel" except that the "Angel" was crossed out and replaced with "the wee puppet-man." She also gave me a button that said "I LIKE SPIKE" ala "I Like Ike", which was pretty cute. Deanna's husband, Dave, had made up 100 badges with the rally logo and slogans on them. We ran out of them when the sign-in sheet had 70 or 80 signatures on it, which alone proves that not everyone was signing in.
A girl from Fox who works with the cast of "Angel" came down to join us. Again, I didn't get to speak with her much, but I had the impression that she was pretty blown away by what we were doing. She told us that they think we're awesome, and that they've appreciative of everything we were doing. More details will have to come from one of the others. She was tickled by how many people were there, and she especially liked the "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" chanting. She also signed up for the newsletter and signed the petition.
A fire truck drove by with its siren on. That was majorly cool. I don't *think* there was an actual house on fire someplace, because it didn't turn on its siren until just before the WB Ranch.
I think attendance hit its peak at about 6:30. People were still showing up until then, and while some had left, the majority were still there. At that point we had at least 100 people present. We were very loud! We were especially loud from about 6 PM (when estimated total attendance hit 100) to 7. The sun had gone down (sunset's at about 6 these days) and the temperature drops to cold fairly rapidly, but we were still out there, shouting. (By the way, cold is a relative term and means low 60s. It was 59 degrees when I left.) At 6:45 or so we heard that NBC was going to send a news crew by, so we didn't end the rally.
I did take the opportunity to make another round and pass out trading cards - the leftover Season 3 trading cards that were donated to us to give away at the convention. Theresa had to leave early to catch her plane, but she wasn't the only one. People started to leave at about 10 till 7, but we were out in force until 7:30, when we decided that it was too late and too cold to keep people there any longer.
We gathered everyone still around at 7:30 together on one side of the street. There were still a sizable number there (maybe 60 or so? I really suck at estimating numbers of people). We did a series of thank-yous to everyone who had come out to make the rally a success. Then we did a bunch of group yells and cheers, and ended on a high note. There was a scramble to claim signs people liked and wanted to keep, and then we (noisily) dispersed. I got lots of hugs. People honked as they left, and we cheered them until the end.
I didn't hear about this until after the rally had ended, but apparently there was a report that Mr. Levin wasn't leaving the office until the rally was done. Of course, if I'd known that, I would have stayed longer, even if it meant standing on the corner by myself with my sign. :)
Some of us stayed behind to gather up our stuff and the trash. That many people generate an awful lot of trash. It took us a while to sort out what belonged to whom and pack it up so that we could take it all back to our cars. We were cleaning up until about 8 PM. The truck was with us until the end of the rally, but when I looked around at 8 it had already gone.
Before we left, Deanna posed one of her Angels and Spikes so that they were facing the WB sign with their hands low in front of them, and dribbled some water beneath them, between their legs. The effect was great, and of course those of us who were still there had to whip out our cameras. It was even better than the pee-pee slave.
We finally all split up to go home/the airport. There was much hugging, and promises to meet up soon, and promises to meet up online. Pepper convinced me that I should go to the Ghost of the Robot concert and she's got Lisa more than half-convinced, so that by itself will probably be a mini-reunion.
At final count, we have exactly 100 people who signed in. There were also those that didn't or wouldn't sign in, plus all the media folks that showed up, of course. 54 postcards were filled out, and there are a bunch of people I'll be adding to the newsletter list. I'm very happy with the statement we made by being organized, stubborn, and out in large numbers. Each one of us represented a whole lot of you guys who wanted to be here but couldn't make it, and we all knew it. We hope we made you proud.
From what I've heard, the online rally went great as well. The food drive did so well! "Angel" fans surpassed all of my expectations. We rock!
[End reposted report]
It really was a fantastic day. I didn't get to hear any of the interviews either, mainly because I was, as she said, stationed on the other side of the street, trying to keep people loud and enthusiastic over there.
If you're wondering, I was the one who said, "I get the one with David!" when signs were being passed out. *g* Actually, it has Angel on one side and Lindsey on the other (or Christian -- doesn't look very in character, but it's still a nice pic). And yes, I kept it. It's in my trunk. I also have the "Will Brood For Food" mini-picket-sign that one of the action figures was holding and Deanna was nice enough to let me have.
I think we were very successful! There's no way they could ignore 100 screaming people and one very large billboard truck outside their gates. And if I had known Levin was still hiding inside, I would have waited on the corner with my sign as well!
I have some pictures, but I didn't take the digital camera *headdesk* so I'll have to get them developed and scanned before I can share them.
We made the most noise we possibly could from 6 to 7, and I screamed continuously for an hour, so as I said, I'm very hoarse today. Oh, and by the way, even when it was our side of the street's job to yell "SPIKE" while the other side was yelling "ANGEL" I still yelled "ANGEL". *g*
After the con this past weekend and yesterday's rally, I just have to say... I love ANGEL fans. We rock!
The report is long but well worth a read. I'll add any of my own final comments at the bottom.
Saving Angel rally report
Oh, my lord. The rally was AWESOME. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen and everyone who came! We made history tonight, folks!
I got there early, at about 1:30 PM. On the way, I passed the billboard truck at a gas station, where it was filling up. It was the first time I'd seen it in real life, and it was so cool! Wayne and Marsia had parked their cars directly across from Gate 11 to save a space for the truck, so it was perfectly positioned. It's a "T" intersection, so any cars coming out of the Ranch couldn't avoid seeing it.
Lisa was the next to arrive, in her brand spanking new Honda Civic (Galapagos Green). Marsia had to leave to pick up Pepper, so we unloaded her car and I got to look at all the good stuff. The t-shirts looked cooler than I'd expected. They had the circular rally logo on the front and "FIGHT FOR QUALITY TV" on the back. The sign Michael whipped up and we had printed at Kinko's was absolutely gorgeous. Wayne then had to leave for a while to go home, because he'd forgotten to leave his apartment unlocked for his mother.
I chatted with the driver of the truck while we waited for other people to arrive. He lives in Orange County (near where I went to high school) and he'd been on the job for less than a week, I think. He showed me his regular schedule, which consists of a lot of maps and times. It was funny that so many of the places on his route were so close to each other - he'd drive around a location, go somewhere else for a bit, then come back to the exact same location because the next office on the list was next door to a previous one. We were getting reactions to the truck as soon as it parked there, well before the rally. People were honking before most of the rallyers even arrived.
Pepper arrived and we got to have a little reunion. It was so awesome to see her! We all got into our t-shirts. We did the put-on-a-t-shirt-and-removing-the-first-shirt-through-a-sleeve trick that all girls learn to do. Before we started moving stuff across the street, Pepper and I went to say hi to the security folks. They seemed to be expecting us, and one at least seemed to be a huge fan, because she was at least as excited as we were. All of the security folks were okay with us, even if they weren't all actively supportive.
Maryann, who was at the first rally and volunteered to help us out with signs this time, arrived shortly after. She'd brought a whole bunch of signs for us, using the graphics at the rally site and some pictures she'd scavenged from magazines and other sources. There was an immediate claiming of personal favorites ("The one with Spike on it is MINE!" "I've got the one with David!" "I get Wesley! No one else touch that one!").
We set up camp on the grass next to the WB's sign. We set up one table with the 3-piece sign Michael originally designed for the Grand Slam convention. That table had the sign-in sheets, the petition, and the postcards. We didn't push the petition and postcards as much, but we did try to get everyone to sign in. I know for a fact that not everyone did, though. I can think of at least 3 off the top of my head that I *personally* met and spoke with whose names don't appear on the sign-in sheet. Plus none of the media people who came signed in.
People started arriving just before three. By the time it was 3, we already had about a dozen people. TV Guide Channel was there at about 3 as well, before the crowd really had a chance to build. Theresa arrived a little bit late, but in plenty of time to talk with the TV Guide people. They did get some great shots of the truck, and some interviews with us. A guy named Jeff (I think) was there as an official spokesperson for the Television Academy of Science Fiction. He basically told us all that they thought "Angel" was an excellent, award-winning (literally) show and that they were behind the fans' efforts. He also made a statement to the TV Guide Channel crew. He mentioned that "Angel" was up for five awards this year and that Mr. Boreanaz and Ms. Acker had won previously.
NPR was also there and spoke with a bunch of members of the team as well. I didn't hear most of these interviews, since I spent nearly the entire time at the rally manning the table: getting people to sign in when possible, getting postcards filled out when things weren't too busy (not often), occasionally getting another signature on the petition, and directing people to posterboard, markers, and printouts so that they could make their own signs. I know they asked Pepper about what was going on, whether she thought this would accomplish anything, about the fact that five years was already a respectable run, etc. She told me about a question she'd answered later which was something like, "If you peeled away all the layers of 'Angel', like an onion, what is at the core?" She gave an answer about unity and family, but the reaction of the NPR people made me think that they'd been asking the same question to other people and been getting a variety of answers. And the beauty of it is that it manages to be all those different things.
More people kept arriving in a steady stream. People had to leave (for work, mostly) but there was a steady increase in our numbers for most of the day. There were fans who were still in high school and fans who taught at high schools. There were couples and families and groups of friends that showed up together. We had one older couple who were at least 60 years old (each, I mean) and one two-year-old adorable girl who apparently has a thing for Spike. At least, she would attach herself to Pepper's leg and say "Ike. Ike." I saw people I'd met at the first rally and people I'd met at the convention and people I'd only ever "met" online, which was totally awesome. It's sort of odd when you have to introduce yourselves using your real names and your online aliases, though.
Marsia had to leave for a while because her mother had been hit by a car. But apparently, her mother was doing fine, and hadn't even wanted Marsia called, and said that the rally was more important. Marsia's mother sent her back to finish off the rally with us.
Here are some excerpts from a few postcards:
"This show helped my autistic son learn how to speak!"
"Angel lets us know there is hope for redemption for all of us bad boys. We can recover our dignity. Let us keep this symbol of hope going..."
"... maybe even get some more Pyleans on his staff to kick some demon ass!"
"Joss Whedon's universe is the most poignant beautiful and amazing thing we could ever hope for... we are blessed by his genius..."
"So... instead of the WB being known for the quality of Joss Whedon-written shows, they'd rather be known for the 'quality' of One Tree Hill."
"My daughter and I watch Angel! Please don't take away our Family Time."
"And that's 4 million, stubborn, devoted genre fans that *won't* be watching the WB's Dark Shadows..."
"Give me five more seasons and I'll stop whining."
I really loved it when I got a chance to speak with fans. I really think "Angel" fans are some of my favorite people, y'all are so cool! I got to talk when people signed in, or when I made a round with water for the thirsty, or when things were slow, I could chat with those making signs. Of those I spoke with, people had found out about us from doing searches on the internet, or from affiliates (one girl told me she'd found us from cityofangel), or from friends who were also "Angel" fans, or from listening to Kevin and Bean in the morning. One guy I talked to had just been driving by when he'd heard and seen us (and the truck!) and had to pull over and join us for a while.
Kristine Lee, the associate producer (Ryan Seacrest Show) who emailed us, showed up with a cameraman named Eugene. They were there for at least an hour and interviewed many people, both those on the team and especially the regular fans. I think they had fun talking to people, and they seemed pretty impressed by how organized we were. I know the camera guy liked me because I gave him a bottle of water when he looked like he could use it, and he stopped by to chat a few times while they were there. I'd pulled the sign I'd made for Barb out of my car before they arrived, so I had it on hand to show them. It says, "ANGEL fans love RYAN too! Love, Barb from Michigan" I used the ANGEL logo and printed the word RYAN in pink (if you're familiar with his show, you know why). They got a good, long shot of it and promised me they'd put it on the air. I just hope they didn't also catch *me* holding the sign. They'll probably also mention Pepper's son and get in a good shot of Juliana Faith holding a sign (the two-year-old girl I mentioned earlier. She fell asleep partway through the rally, incidentally, but her family stayed the entire time). So everyone watch "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" on April 1st!
Thanks to the signs we'd had printed or made and the supply of posterboard and markers, we were able to have every person holding a sign. We faced the street so that cars passing by (or entering or exiting the Ranch) could see them. A few honked for us. I did manage to see the face of one exec, and he had this sort of hunted expression on his face. Some people that were driving by slowed down to read them better. A few looked confused, but the majority honked for us. Some waved and cheered us on as well, or yelled "Save Angel!" or similar things out their windows. I was very happy with the response from passing cars (99% positive). Theresa and I joked about coming up with our alternatives to the Nielsons (According to our research, the occupants of over half the cars driving down Hollywood Way watch "Angel"...)
Even more people started arriving after 5, including Hercules, of "Ain't It Cool News" fame. He's pretty cool and waved a sign with the rest of us (and signed up for our newsletter). Once people were leaving work and could join us, the numbers grew pretty fast. At that point, we spread out so that we were on both sides of the street (both sides of Gate 11) so the WB folks were getting us in stereo. We screamed and cheered when people in passing cars honked or cheered us. We chanted/yelled things like "AN-GEL! AN-GEL!" and "SAVE! OUR! SHOW! SAVE! OUR! SHOW!" and "SAVE AN-GEL! SAVE AN-GEL!" I'm going to have no voice tomorrow, but it was so worth it. We also managed some coordinated shouting between the two sides of the street. "WE WANT!" "AN-GEL!" back and forth across the street. At one point we also had "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" going on, but it was all in good fun.
One of the things I loved was that people were really talking and discussing the show while we stood out there. There were 'shippers there, of course, but there really wasn't any arguing going on, just good old-fashioned discussion ranging from favorite episodes to how people got into the show to speculation on what's going to happen next. One little group of high-school-age friends consisted of one rabid Buffy/Angel 'shipper and two Spuffy 'shippers, and their good-natured bickering while they made signs was pretty funny. The signs people made ranged from B/A and B/S shipper signs to plain old "Save Angel" signs to "Honk to Save Angel" to "Don't Let the Senior Partners Win!" There were a couple that made reference to "Dark Shadows", but as it had been decided that that wasn't really appropriate, they weren't used for very long. There were lots of references to not staking Angel or keeping Angel undead. One gifted gentleman drew a great picture of a demon's head with the WB logo on its forehead and a speech bubble that said "I CANCEL GREAT SHOWS."
Keith, the WB guy who came out last time, came out again and spent some time talking to us. He brought his dog this time (I believe her name was Bella) but the disturbance he made in our group was pretty minimal. Since we were onto their strategy this time, we kept people rallying with their signs and chanting while Keith was visiting us. I didn't hear anything he had to say, because I was rallying and helping keep people from clumping up, but I'm sure I didn't miss anything at all. They didn't try to bring out goodies this time. (I doubt they would have had enough!)
Deanna, one of the fans who came to the first rally, brought what must have been her entire collection of Angel and Spike action figures/dolls and two stuffed animals: Mr. Gordo and a Blondie Bear. Each one had its own sign. The blond teddy bear (Blondie Bear) had one that said "BITEY!" for some reason, and Mr. Gordo's read "Grr. Oink." The signs that the figures held said: "Grr." and "Aargh.", "Bite Me," "This Bites More Than I Do," "Will Brood for Food" (obviously held by Angel), "Save Angel," "Bugger Angel, Save Spike!" "Save the Stupid Git" (with arrow to Angel), "Save the Limey Bastard" (with arrow to Spike), and some with the banner from the rally site. I got to keep the one that had a picture of Puppet-Angel and said "Save Angel" except that the "Angel" was crossed out and replaced with "the wee puppet-man." She also gave me a button that said "I LIKE SPIKE" ala "I Like Ike", which was pretty cute. Deanna's husband, Dave, had made up 100 badges with the rally logo and slogans on them. We ran out of them when the sign-in sheet had 70 or 80 signatures on it, which alone proves that not everyone was signing in.
A girl from Fox who works with the cast of "Angel" came down to join us. Again, I didn't get to speak with her much, but I had the impression that she was pretty blown away by what we were doing. She told us that they think we're awesome, and that they've appreciative of everything we were doing. More details will have to come from one of the others. She was tickled by how many people were there, and she especially liked the "AN-GEL!" "SPIKE!" chanting. She also signed up for the newsletter and signed the petition.
A fire truck drove by with its siren on. That was majorly cool. I don't *think* there was an actual house on fire someplace, because it didn't turn on its siren until just before the WB Ranch.
I think attendance hit its peak at about 6:30. People were still showing up until then, and while some had left, the majority were still there. At that point we had at least 100 people present. We were very loud! We were especially loud from about 6 PM (when estimated total attendance hit 100) to 7. The sun had gone down (sunset's at about 6 these days) and the temperature drops to cold fairly rapidly, but we were still out there, shouting. (By the way, cold is a relative term and means low 60s. It was 59 degrees when I left.) At 6:45 or so we heard that NBC was going to send a news crew by, so we didn't end the rally.
I did take the opportunity to make another round and pass out trading cards - the leftover Season 3 trading cards that were donated to us to give away at the convention. Theresa had to leave early to catch her plane, but she wasn't the only one. People started to leave at about 10 till 7, but we were out in force until 7:30, when we decided that it was too late and too cold to keep people there any longer.
We gathered everyone still around at 7:30 together on one side of the street. There were still a sizable number there (maybe 60 or so? I really suck at estimating numbers of people). We did a series of thank-yous to everyone who had come out to make the rally a success. Then we did a bunch of group yells and cheers, and ended on a high note. There was a scramble to claim signs people liked and wanted to keep, and then we (noisily) dispersed. I got lots of hugs. People honked as they left, and we cheered them until the end.
I didn't hear about this until after the rally had ended, but apparently there was a report that Mr. Levin wasn't leaving the office until the rally was done. Of course, if I'd known that, I would have stayed longer, even if it meant standing on the corner by myself with my sign. :)
Some of us stayed behind to gather up our stuff and the trash. That many people generate an awful lot of trash. It took us a while to sort out what belonged to whom and pack it up so that we could take it all back to our cars. We were cleaning up until about 8 PM. The truck was with us until the end of the rally, but when I looked around at 8 it had already gone.
Before we left, Deanna posed one of her Angels and Spikes so that they were facing the WB sign with their hands low in front of them, and dribbled some water beneath them, between their legs. The effect was great, and of course those of us who were still there had to whip out our cameras. It was even better than the pee-pee slave.
We finally all split up to go home/the airport. There was much hugging, and promises to meet up soon, and promises to meet up online. Pepper convinced me that I should go to the Ghost of the Robot concert and she's got Lisa more than half-convinced, so that by itself will probably be a mini-reunion.
At final count, we have exactly 100 people who signed in. There were also those that didn't or wouldn't sign in, plus all the media folks that showed up, of course. 54 postcards were filled out, and there are a bunch of people I'll be adding to the newsletter list. I'm very happy with the statement we made by being organized, stubborn, and out in large numbers. Each one of us represented a whole lot of you guys who wanted to be here but couldn't make it, and we all knew it. We hope we made you proud.
From what I've heard, the online rally went great as well. The food drive did so well! "Angel" fans surpassed all of my expectations. We rock!
[End reposted report]
It really was a fantastic day. I didn't get to hear any of the interviews either, mainly because I was, as she said, stationed on the other side of the street, trying to keep people loud and enthusiastic over there.
If you're wondering, I was the one who said, "I get the one with David!" when signs were being passed out. *g* Actually, it has Angel on one side and Lindsey on the other (or Christian -- doesn't look very in character, but it's still a nice pic). And yes, I kept it. It's in my trunk. I also have the "Will Brood For Food" mini-picket-sign that one of the action figures was holding and Deanna was nice enough to let me have.
I think we were very successful! There's no way they could ignore 100 screaming people and one very large billboard truck outside their gates. And if I had known Levin was still hiding inside, I would have waited on the corner with my sign as well!
I have some pictures, but I didn't take the digital camera *headdesk* so I'll have to get them developed and scanned before I can share them.
We made the most noise we possibly could from 6 to 7, and I screamed continuously for an hour, so as I said, I'm very hoarse today. Oh, and by the way, even when it was our side of the street's job to yell "SPIKE" while the other side was yelling "ANGEL" I still yelled "ANGEL". *g*
After the con this past weekend and yesterday's rally, I just have to say... I love ANGEL fans. We rock!