A Night (and Morning) at the Opera
( Voting for Week 2 has begun over at brigits_flame. Read! Vote!)
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Beware. This is gonna be LONG and rambly and will probably deviate into asides a lot. It seems I can only tell a consistent story when I'm writing fiction. Sorry about that. I've divided it into a series of LJ-cuts for ease.
For what it's worth, though, there are a couple pictures... >.>
So...let me start off a recount of last night by saying that as far as Fangirl types go, I'm probably definitely the PMN girl--that is to say, Pre-Meeting Neurotic. (Yes, I just made that up.) When it comes to the actual meeting/signing/pictures, I'm totally cool and composed and at general ease (though we'll see if that changes if I ever meet Amanda Palmer). The time leading up to it, however... I'm a jumbled mess of hyper, nervous energy; I tend to repeat things a lot. Before I met and interviewed Adam Turla from Murder by Death, I actually got nauseous and was afraid to eat anything that would cause my stomach to mutiny and ruin the opportunity. (Sally currently has the evidence for this, as I had our second correspondence journal at the time and totally tried to write it away; didn't help.) The minute I met him, though, it was fine. Easy. Hell, I was even totally chill when I met MCR--let alone, when I shook hands and hugged Gerard Way--and you guys know how much I love those guys.
The point is, last night was no different (minus the nausea) and this is perhaps laughable because I'd already met Terrance Zdunich before, at the Austin screening of Repo! with the lovely fluteplayette (who sadly couldn't make it with us this time, due to the tickets going at the speed of light) and he was really sweet about signing stuff and just hanging out with the fans. It's nice to meet a guy who's really chilled out like that, someone who is clearly about the art and heart of a project as opposed to being Hollywood-jaded.
If you have yet to get around to watching Repo!, Terrance is one-half of the two-man duo who created the original stage play (Darren Smith is the other); he's also played the Graverobber in just about every incarnation of the show ever, up to and including the movie (which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (aka: "That guy who directed the Saw movies."). For a tall guy with a deep voice who plays a(n albeit easily lovable) grave-robbing drug peddler, Terrance is a terribly sweet dude and brilliantly talented (or really just brilliant), to boot. And I mean, the dude gives great hugs. What's not to like, right?
He's got a comic coming out soon called The Molting. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure what it's about yet, but they had limited edition print covers for sale at the event last night and it looks pretty neat. Patricia (lab-rat-tish) has one that she got signed by him, and they're available for purchase on his website, which is still crawling with virtual, silhouetted cockroaches. >.> In the roaches' defense, they do offer interesting factoids if you click on them.
But I digress...
I suppose I should set up with what I decided to wear, because I am willing to have an ego moment and say it was pretty genius on my part. About a week before the show, I'd gotten into my head to make a shirt that read Will F for Z. The Z stands for Zydrate, the film's glowing blue drug. (Aka: "Zydrate comes in a little glass vial...") I'll let you figure out what the F stands for.
So I went to Michael's, bought a black shirt, two yards of ribbon, and some puff paint. I also bought some turquoise extensions, had some blue and dark gray/almost black eye shadow, and a blue eyeliner pencil. This was what resulted (you can click to make them a little bigger if you want):
I'm not sure I like that my heads were behind my head, but if I lean back too far my head tends to follow, and I had to lean back so you could see the whole shirt. You can kind of see the ribbon I threaded through both sides...
These two, I personally liked:
And I'm not sure what I was going for here, but I really like this one a lot:
The camisole underneath was a last-minute edition. There was also some last-minute stitching done on my mom's part. In my eagerness to make this shirt, I cut too low and the initial result was something that, with one wrong pull, would've had me showing off my ta-tas (in the push-uppiest bra I own) to everyone in the theater. And while the atmosphere of any Repo! event can get pretty sexy, I was not ready to pull a Single Mother. That's what the Shadow Cast is for. XD
Patricia's dress last night (which was also homemade) was very cute; there will be pictures of it later on in this post. It won't be that far down, I promise!
We got to the Drafthouse around 9ish or so. Michael (aka, Mag among the Austin/San Antonio fans) was really happy to see me and I, him, because I'd seen him playing Rotti in May but didn't get to say hi. I was also hoping to see Michael (Wulff, aka the guy who played Pavi in May and who was also at the Austin screening) but he was Shadow Casting elsewhere. D: (Still! The guy who played Pavi in his place was pretty damn convincing. And he had shiny pants! *giggles*) After buying raffle and event tickets (for the Q&A/Meet and Greet that happened after the movie), Patricia and I got in line and then went inside. The place was a SOLD OUT event, and it was practically packed full. And on top of that, there were lots of people dressed up. It was splendid.
The way the Drafthouse theaters are done, the best seat in the house for me is at the back, and it just so happened that at one point I turned to look...and several seats down was Terrance Zdunich. Just...there. Hanging out. Talking to people. Being his awesome, relaxed self. That kick-started my Pre-Meeting Neurosis. Patricia can attest to how many times I said I was going to go over there and just say hi. I didn't go over, of course, and even if she hadn't been there, I probably would've been too worried over whether or not he would even remember me to have done it. >.>
However! I did get our waiter to photograph us. (Again, click for a slightly bigger size.):
I take some of the most awkward pictures. XD But see? Patricia's dress was plenty cute.
During the raffle, neither one of us won anything. D: One guy won two things (luck of the tickets!) and a girl won a comic print from the movie. Then the Shadow Cast put on a performance of the deleted scene "Come Up and Try My New Parts" as a pre-show, and it was absolutely hilarious. Instead of Shadow Amber sexing it up with Shadow Graverobber, Shadow Nathan/Repo Man killed her and revealed himself (or herself, since the Shadow Nathan/Repo is played by a young woman) to be wearing a corset and to apparently have the hots for Graverobber--but then again, who doesn't? There was much cheering.
As for the actual show itself, I have to say that it was MUCH BETTER than the May showing. Understandably, the show in May was a double feature composed of fans from both Repo! and Rocky Horror, so the energy was more subdued. This showing, however, was packed to the brim and everybody was joining in on the callbacks and cheering. My favorite one of the night comes from when Nathan goes down into his Repo-Cave and takes out the GeneCo cop hiding in wait without breaking a sweat. Immediately, one guy shouted the following: "I'M RUPERT GILES, BITCH!"
I am so making an icon of that.
I didn't get to see who was playing Single Mother this time or if it was the same girl, because the energy was so much that nearly everyone was on their feet dancing. See? So much better than in May.
After the movie there was a little wait for setting up, and then came the Q&A session. Like at the Austin screening, listening to Terrance talk was an awesome experience, and I think I liked it more this time around. Some choice quotes, which I live-tweeted last night for posterity:
"A good artist is always trying to paint a story."
"I don't think you could do an opera in a year, and if you do, you get High School Musical." (On being asked if he would be willing to do a sequel; the rest of his answer consisted of explaining that if the conditions were right, then he would, but that to do a truly decent sequel would take longer than Hollywood is usually willing to throw money at.)
"I am a difficult person, and I think that makes me a good artist. I am a control freak. I am extremely critical of myself."
"The world of Repo! that I envision is darker, uglier, and sluttier." (Came up while answering a question about whether he would ever do it as a stage play again; also talked about an intriguing idea someone brought up about doing a graphic novelization of the original screenplay.)
"And when she [the costume designer] was talking about the red visor, I said 'Oh, this is--this is cool.' Because I'd pictured them as being opaque [. . .] and having these big red Botox lips so that you couldn't tell whether or not it was a woman, so that it would be kind of like, 'Is it a woman, transexual...? Why am I getting hard...?" (I think this was also in the same answer-speech as the one above, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that he was talking about the design of the Genterns, and how he didn't really have a hand in picking the sort of "background" characters. He said something to the effect of that his first choice would not have resulted in the Genterns being, and I quote, "skinny white girls" but that it worked for the movie as opposed to what would've resulted in "things people might not have been comfortable Shadow Casting". The latter quote was answered by an audience member as, "So you think!" while the italicized quote was answered by the asker of the original question with, "I still get hard." Both generated amusement. XD)
And then I managed to snag the last question, because I'd suddenly remembered something that had begun to bother me concerning Shilo's paternity. (I got a collective "ooooh..." from the audience for that, to which I responded, "Yes, I went there!") Because, I mean...towards the end of the film Rotti sings to Shilo that if Marni had never left, Shilo would be his. And the wondering that began to sink in after maybe the fifth or six viewing of this film was beginning to drive me crazy, like an itch in that one place you just can't reach to scratch.
So I asked. And after some silence Terrance assured me that Shilo is definitely Nathan's kid. You have no idea how much easier I was able to sleep now that I've heard it from the creator's moth. (Now if I could only figure out the mystery of who Conradas's father is...)
The meet and greet was really chill, even though I was totally nervous again over when we got in line. Even MAG was assuring me that he would remember me with, "Honey..." and one of those Are you serious? kind of looks. To quote Patricia earlier in the night: "You're kind of hard to forget."
And they were right, of course. When it was our turn to get up to the signing/photographs table where Terrance was with Shadow Nathan/Repo Man (who was in her corset and the jacket she wears during "Who Ordered Pizza?", which I have to admit is a lot better looking than the one Nathan actually wears XD), Terrance looked at me and his face lit up as he said, "Hey, I remember you!"
I'll admit it; I let out the equivalent of a squee. ^^;
And once again, it was really chilled out. (Also? One of the other girls from the Austin showing--who actually plays the Shadow of the victim at the beginning of the movie, Dead Marni and Hologram Marni--remembered me, too.) We talked for a little bit and I didn't have anything specific for him to sign, so I asked him to sign my shirt. Which led to...
Terrance: "What does it say?"
Me: *leans back to show*
Terrance: *reads* "...HA! Oh...oh..." *gets up from table, gestures to Shadow Graverobber* "Can you get a picture of us so I can put it on my blog?"
I didn't squee out loud, but I probably would have. The blog isn't up at last check (which was several hours ago) but I made sure to get my own picture with him:
And I love how it looks like he's totally poking me, possibly in the boob area, but he was just pointing at the shirt. See? It pays to be suggestive sometimes. And I pretty much almost died when he kissed me on the cheek after the picture taking. Truly, the highlight of my evening. ^^;
You can see Patricia (and her awesome dress) in the background of that picture but, of course, she got her own picture with him:
Don't they look adorable together? I think so. ^^; lab-rat-tish, I'm gonna e-mail you the original-sized picture for your personal collection. ^_^ There was a girl in the background I managed to crop out of the shot, too.
I got home around two-am, fell asleep around quarter to three--largely because the eye shadow practically bonded to my face and refused to come off until I used a non-scented moisturizing lotion in absence of an actual eye cream--and then woke up at 6:45 this morning. o.o;; The reason? Church Flea Market at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. I almost got left behind, too, but didn't. It was...interesting. And hot. Really, really hot. X_x
--
Beware. This is gonna be LONG and rambly and will probably deviate into asides a lot. It seems I can only tell a consistent story when I'm writing fiction. Sorry about that. I've divided it into a series of LJ-cuts for ease.
For what it's worth, though, there are a couple pictures... >.>
So...let me start off a recount of last night by saying that as far as Fangirl types go, I'm probably definitely the PMN girl--that is to say, Pre-Meeting Neurotic. (Yes, I just made that up.) When it comes to the actual meeting/signing/pictures, I'm totally cool and composed and at general ease (though we'll see if that changes if I ever meet Amanda Palmer). The time leading up to it, however... I'm a jumbled mess of hyper, nervous energy; I tend to repeat things a lot. Before I met and interviewed Adam Turla from Murder by Death, I actually got nauseous and was afraid to eat anything that would cause my stomach to mutiny and ruin the opportunity. (Sally currently has the evidence for this, as I had our second correspondence journal at the time and totally tried to write it away; didn't help.) The minute I met him, though, it was fine. Easy. Hell, I was even totally chill when I met MCR--let alone, when I shook hands and hugged Gerard Way--and you guys know how much I love those guys.
The point is, last night was no different (minus the nausea) and this is perhaps laughable because I'd already met Terrance Zdunich before, at the Austin screening of Repo! with the lovely fluteplayette (who sadly couldn't make it with us this time, due to the tickets going at the speed of light) and he was really sweet about signing stuff and just hanging out with the fans. It's nice to meet a guy who's really chilled out like that, someone who is clearly about the art and heart of a project as opposed to being Hollywood-jaded.
If you have yet to get around to watching Repo!, Terrance is one-half of the two-man duo who created the original stage play (Darren Smith is the other); he's also played the Graverobber in just about every incarnation of the show ever, up to and including the movie (which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (aka: "That guy who directed the Saw movies."). For a tall guy with a deep voice who plays a(n albeit easily lovable) grave-robbing drug peddler, Terrance is a terribly sweet dude and brilliantly talented (or really just brilliant), to boot. And I mean, the dude gives great hugs. What's not to like, right?
He's got a comic coming out soon called The Molting. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure what it's about yet, but they had limited edition print covers for sale at the event last night and it looks pretty neat. Patricia (lab-rat-tish) has one that she got signed by him, and they're available for purchase on his website, which is still crawling with virtual, silhouetted cockroaches. >.> In the roaches' defense, they do offer interesting factoids if you click on them.
But I digress...
I suppose I should set up with what I decided to wear, because I am willing to have an ego moment and say it was pretty genius on my part. About a week before the show, I'd gotten into my head to make a shirt that read Will F for Z. The Z stands for Zydrate, the film's glowing blue drug. (Aka: "Zydrate comes in a little glass vial...") I'll let you figure out what the F stands for.
So I went to Michael's, bought a black shirt, two yards of ribbon, and some puff paint. I also bought some turquoise extensions, had some blue and dark gray/almost black eye shadow, and a blue eyeliner pencil. This was what resulted (you can click to make them a little bigger if you want):
I'm not sure I like that my heads were behind my head, but if I lean back too far my head tends to follow, and I had to lean back so you could see the whole shirt. You can kind of see the ribbon I threaded through both sides...
These two, I personally liked:
And I'm not sure what I was going for here, but I really like this one a lot:
The camisole underneath was a last-minute edition. There was also some last-minute stitching done on my mom's part. In my eagerness to make this shirt, I cut too low and the initial result was something that, with one wrong pull, would've had me showing off my ta-tas (in the push-uppiest bra I own) to everyone in the theater. And while the atmosphere of any Repo! event can get pretty sexy, I was not ready to pull a Single Mother. That's what the Shadow Cast is for. XD
Patricia's dress last night (which was also homemade) was very cute; there will be pictures of it later on in this post. It won't be that far down, I promise!
We got to the Drafthouse around 9ish or so. Michael (aka, Mag among the Austin/San Antonio fans) was really happy to see me and I, him, because I'd seen him playing Rotti in May but didn't get to say hi. I was also hoping to see Michael (Wulff, aka the guy who played Pavi in May and who was also at the Austin screening) but he was Shadow Casting elsewhere. D: (Still! The guy who played Pavi in his place was pretty damn convincing. And he had shiny pants! *giggles*) After buying raffle and event tickets (for the Q&A/Meet and Greet that happened after the movie), Patricia and I got in line and then went inside. The place was a SOLD OUT event, and it was practically packed full. And on top of that, there were lots of people dressed up. It was splendid.
The way the Drafthouse theaters are done, the best seat in the house for me is at the back, and it just so happened that at one point I turned to look...and several seats down was Terrance Zdunich. Just...there. Hanging out. Talking to people. Being his awesome, relaxed self. That kick-started my Pre-Meeting Neurosis. Patricia can attest to how many times I said I was going to go over there and just say hi. I didn't go over, of course, and even if she hadn't been there, I probably would've been too worried over whether or not he would even remember me to have done it. >.>
However! I did get our waiter to photograph us. (Again, click for a slightly bigger size.):
I take some of the most awkward pictures. XD But see? Patricia's dress was plenty cute.
During the raffle, neither one of us won anything. D: One guy won two things (luck of the tickets!) and a girl won a comic print from the movie. Then the Shadow Cast put on a performance of the deleted scene "Come Up and Try My New Parts" as a pre-show, and it was absolutely hilarious. Instead of Shadow Amber sexing it up with Shadow Graverobber, Shadow Nathan/Repo Man killed her and revealed himself (or herself, since the Shadow Nathan/Repo is played by a young woman) to be wearing a corset and to apparently have the hots for Graverobber--but then again, who doesn't? There was much cheering.
As for the actual show itself, I have to say that it was MUCH BETTER than the May showing. Understandably, the show in May was a double feature composed of fans from both Repo! and Rocky Horror, so the energy was more subdued. This showing, however, was packed to the brim and everybody was joining in on the callbacks and cheering. My favorite one of the night comes from when Nathan goes down into his Repo-Cave and takes out the GeneCo cop hiding in wait without breaking a sweat. Immediately, one guy shouted the following: "I'M RUPERT GILES, BITCH!"
I am so making an icon of that.
I didn't get to see who was playing Single Mother this time or if it was the same girl, because the energy was so much that nearly everyone was on their feet dancing. See? So much better than in May.
After the movie there was a little wait for setting up, and then came the Q&A session. Like at the Austin screening, listening to Terrance talk was an awesome experience, and I think I liked it more this time around. Some choice quotes, which I live-tweeted last night for posterity:
"A good artist is always trying to paint a story."
"I don't think you could do an opera in a year, and if you do, you get High School Musical." (On being asked if he would be willing to do a sequel; the rest of his answer consisted of explaining that if the conditions were right, then he would, but that to do a truly decent sequel would take longer than Hollywood is usually willing to throw money at.)
"I am a difficult person, and I think that makes me a good artist. I am a control freak. I am extremely critical of myself."
"The world of Repo! that I envision is darker, uglier, and sluttier." (Came up while answering a question about whether he would ever do it as a stage play again; also talked about an intriguing idea someone brought up about doing a graphic novelization of the original screenplay.)
"And when she [the costume designer] was talking about the red visor, I said 'Oh, this is--this is cool.' Because I'd pictured them as being opaque [. . .] and having these big red Botox lips so that you couldn't tell whether or not it was a woman, so that it would be kind of like, 'Is it a woman, transexual...? Why am I getting hard...?" (I think this was also in the same answer-speech as the one above, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that he was talking about the design of the Genterns, and how he didn't really have a hand in picking the sort of "background" characters. He said something to the effect of that his first choice would not have resulted in the Genterns being, and I quote, "skinny white girls" but that it worked for the movie as opposed to what would've resulted in "things people might not have been comfortable Shadow Casting". The latter quote was answered by an audience member as, "So you think!" while the italicized quote was answered by the asker of the original question with, "I still get hard." Both generated amusement. XD)
And then I managed to snag the last question, because I'd suddenly remembered something that had begun to bother me concerning Shilo's paternity. (I got a collective "ooooh..." from the audience for that, to which I responded, "Yes, I went there!") Because, I mean...towards the end of the film Rotti sings to Shilo that if Marni had never left, Shilo would be his. And the wondering that began to sink in after maybe the fifth or six viewing of this film was beginning to drive me crazy, like an itch in that one place you just can't reach to scratch.
So I asked. And after some silence Terrance assured me that Shilo is definitely Nathan's kid. You have no idea how much easier I was able to sleep now that I've heard it from the creator's moth. (Now if I could only figure out the mystery of who Conradas's father is...)
The meet and greet was really chill, even though I was totally nervous again over when we got in line. Even MAG was assuring me that he would remember me with, "Honey..." and one of those Are you serious? kind of looks. To quote Patricia earlier in the night: "You're kind of hard to forget."
And they were right, of course. When it was our turn to get up to the signing/photographs table where Terrance was with Shadow Nathan/Repo Man (who was in her corset and the jacket she wears during "Who Ordered Pizza?", which I have to admit is a lot better looking than the one Nathan actually wears XD), Terrance looked at me and his face lit up as he said, "Hey, I remember you!"
I'll admit it; I let out the equivalent of a squee. ^^;
And once again, it was really chilled out. (Also? One of the other girls from the Austin showing--who actually plays the Shadow of the victim at the beginning of the movie, Dead Marni and Hologram Marni--remembered me, too.) We talked for a little bit and I didn't have anything specific for him to sign, so I asked him to sign my shirt. Which led to...
Terrance: "What does it say?"
Me: *leans back to show*
Terrance: *reads* "...HA! Oh...oh..." *gets up from table, gestures to Shadow Graverobber* "Can you get a picture of us so I can put it on my blog?"
I didn't squee out loud, but I probably would have. The blog isn't up at last check (which was several hours ago) but I made sure to get my own picture with him:
And I love how it looks like he's totally poking me, possibly in the boob area, but he was just pointing at the shirt. See? It pays to be suggestive sometimes. And I pretty much almost died when he kissed me on the cheek after the picture taking. Truly, the highlight of my evening. ^^;
You can see Patricia (and her awesome dress) in the background of that picture but, of course, she got her own picture with him:
Don't they look adorable together? I think so. ^^; lab-rat-tish, I'm gonna e-mail you the original-sized picture for your personal collection. ^_^ There was a girl in the background I managed to crop out of the shot, too.
I got home around two-am, fell asleep around quarter to three--largely because the eye shadow practically bonded to my face and refused to come off until I used a non-scented moisturizing lotion in absence of an actual eye cream--and then woke up at 6:45 this morning. o.o;; The reason? Church Flea Market at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. I almost got left behind, too, but didn't. It was...interesting. And hot. Really, really hot. X_x