Con highlights from the Creation Farscape/Stargate/Whedon con
First of all, everyone probably knows how I feel about the whole combined cons thing--esp since you have to pay to get into each con. I personally paid to get into the Stargate con and I bought a photo op for Ron Glass who was a guest of the Whedon con. It went pretty smoothly until the autographs at the end of the day. Then it was a bit of chaos as people were trying to juggle signings for 3 fandoms that were going on simultaneously (along with photo ops peppered in).
Anyways, Joe Flanigan was the first celeb I saw on stage at the con (I came in on the tail end of Dan Shea's talk). I was really surprised. He's changed so much since I last saw him on stage at a con. I tend to associate Joe on stage with extreme shyness and discomfort (on his end), but that's really all gone now. He was very open and chatty and funny! Not to mention very candid and engaging. The things that really stuck out for me, in terms of what he talked about, was the situation with MGM, the future of the franchise and the frosty relationship with TPTB. One of the best fan questions was "Why does Joe M hate you?" And Joe F's response of "*blink* He *hates* me??" And then him admitting that, like Sheppard, he has some issues with authority and isn't afraid to speak up when the situation calls for it. He candidly spoke about the promises broken to him and the rest of the cast, how he thinks they've mishandled the franchise, and the writing fail that was much of the last season, including the finale.
Learned some cool tidbits too! Like how he seriously raises bees now. And has aspirations to be a honey tycoon! He hated Disneyworld and is never going back. Apparently he and Torri Higginson had many political debates on the set (Torri is a strong hippi-ish liberal and Joe is Republican) and he's fascinated by her "conspiracy theories". David is moving down to Santa Monica with his family soon (already knew that =) and there will probably be crazy hijinks to follow. JOE HATES THE PUDDLEJUMPERS! HAHAHA, TAKE THAT FANDOM! Joe called them "minivans in space" and said he and Rachel, David and Jason did their worst acting in those scenes. He also didn't think it was a coincidence that they land the city in SF Bay in the finale and everyone else has "girlfriends" but him. This was not the first slash reference that was made either. The guy that plays many wraiths on the show, including Todd, is Chris H. He told fans that John was the gentlest lover he ever had and he signed the big banner on Joe's picture. He wrote on his chest that "Chris H was here" with an arrow pointing to Joe's chest/face. For those of you that don't know, the relationship with John/Todd is a pretty strong pairing in fandom and apparently the actors know how it was perceived.
Joe mentioned how sad he is about how homogenized the world is becoming and that he's waiting until his kids are a little older so that he can take them around the world with him. He thinks that the 3rd chapter of his life will be traveling. He also talked a bit about being bullied as a kid in Nevada because he dressed differently. He says he was once beat up and called a "Faggot ass faggot" for wearing high tops (everyone else wore cowboy boots).
He invited a lady up to the stage to touch his hair when she asked him how long it took to do! "No time, I swear! Here, come and feel it for yourself!" He also auctioned off a calendar of himself for his friend Sarah, that's dying of ALS. Oh, he's waiting to see if a show he did for Fox gets picked up. Yay. He's also looking amazing these days! The man was always super hot, but you could really see the toll the show was taking in the last season. He looked tired, had bags under his eyes, he grimaced in promo pics...now he looks really, really good again. =)
Next guy on stage (that I saw) was Michael Shanks. Michael looked exhausted. He said they were filming Smallville until 4 am and then he got on a plane to come to the con. As he tiredly said "I sort of slept on the plane." He spoke a lot about the really cool things he's doing on the show and how he has nothing lined up after it at the moment. There was a running joke all panel about his horrible made-for-Syfy movies. Especially Mega Snake. A hilarious question from the audience was "Do you have any movies you've made that you're actually proud of?" The guy didn't mean it sarcastically but everyone instantly cracked up! Michael said "See?? He asks that seriously and you all LAUGH!!" He told a hilarious story about his battle against raccoons at his house and how he's given up and decided to be friends with them.
Another cool moment is when Michael was talking about the one thing he really wanted from the set (Daniel's journal), TPTB told him he could have, then lied and auctioned it off. Then it turned out that a woman in the audience was the one who bought it! And had it with her! Michael borrowed it from her and read pages from it on stage and explained that they only ever made one for the entire run of the show. It's the only one in existence! He did admit that it's probably a good idea that he *doesn't* have it, seeing as how his kids play with the red phone from Hammond's office!
One thing I love about Creation is their photographer, Chris. A seriously cool guy. The photo ops were supposed to be done at 6:40, but they got pushed to 7:20 when, for some insane reason, Ron Glass did his autographs *before* the photo ops--even though they only take a few mins and autos take FOREVER to do. Since I wasn't coming back today, Sunday, I asked if there was a chance of them being done tonight. They told me to come back at 9. So I did. Then Chris was looking sheepish and asking me if I was going to be there Sunday. I again said I wasn't and he said he'd print mine on the spot and just give him 10 mins! And he did! Even though he didn't print anyone else's =) Unfortunately, my pic looks horrible! Ron looks great, of course, but at the last min I did a squee and kinda scrunched down into Ron. Well, it looks like I'm super fat and have 3 thousand chins. Ugh. I really wish Chris would take a pic and give you final approval. I'm also starting to think that I don't see myself as I truly am. I walked around all day thinking I looked so cute and thin! Apparently not!
Nicholas Brendan's pics looked awesome! He's looking very good these days. Eliza Dushku's were cute too. Now that I have Ron's pic, I only need three more to complete my Firefly group: Alan (I know, fat chance), Morena and Summer. Morena and Summer's will be fairly easy, I'm thinking. No worries there.
Oh, I didn't have to pay for parking! The card machine was broken so the parking lot attendant was like "Oh well" lol It was an easy drive too. A way I've never come. The 60 to the 605 to the 105.
Oh, one more funny thing. After I got my Ron pic the bartender asked to see it. She was totally shocked to learn that people pay for photo ops and autographs! Esp how *much* people pay for them. The look on her face was hilarious! Yeah, tis a crazy fandom life we lead, for sure, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Fangirl 4 lyfe! LOL
Anyways, Joe Flanigan was the first celeb I saw on stage at the con (I came in on the tail end of Dan Shea's talk). I was really surprised. He's changed so much since I last saw him on stage at a con. I tend to associate Joe on stage with extreme shyness and discomfort (on his end), but that's really all gone now. He was very open and chatty and funny! Not to mention very candid and engaging. The things that really stuck out for me, in terms of what he talked about, was the situation with MGM, the future of the franchise and the frosty relationship with TPTB. One of the best fan questions was "Why does Joe M hate you?" And Joe F's response of "*blink* He *hates* me??" And then him admitting that, like Sheppard, he has some issues with authority and isn't afraid to speak up when the situation calls for it. He candidly spoke about the promises broken to him and the rest of the cast, how he thinks they've mishandled the franchise, and the writing fail that was much of the last season, including the finale.
Learned some cool tidbits too! Like how he seriously raises bees now. And has aspirations to be a honey tycoon! He hated Disneyworld and is never going back. Apparently he and Torri Higginson had many political debates on the set (Torri is a strong hippi-ish liberal and Joe is Republican) and he's fascinated by her "conspiracy theories". David is moving down to Santa Monica with his family soon (already knew that =) and there will probably be crazy hijinks to follow. JOE HATES THE PUDDLEJUMPERS! HAHAHA, TAKE THAT FANDOM! Joe called them "minivans in space" and said he and Rachel, David and Jason did their worst acting in those scenes. He also didn't think it was a coincidence that they land the city in SF Bay in the finale and everyone else has "girlfriends" but him. This was not the first slash reference that was made either. The guy that plays many wraiths on the show, including Todd, is Chris H. He told fans that John was the gentlest lover he ever had and he signed the big banner on Joe's picture. He wrote on his chest that "Chris H was here" with an arrow pointing to Joe's chest/face. For those of you that don't know, the relationship with John/Todd is a pretty strong pairing in fandom and apparently the actors know how it was perceived.
Joe mentioned how sad he is about how homogenized the world is becoming and that he's waiting until his kids are a little older so that he can take them around the world with him. He thinks that the 3rd chapter of his life will be traveling. He also talked a bit about being bullied as a kid in Nevada because he dressed differently. He says he was once beat up and called a "Faggot ass faggot" for wearing high tops (everyone else wore cowboy boots).
He invited a lady up to the stage to touch his hair when she asked him how long it took to do! "No time, I swear! Here, come and feel it for yourself!" He also auctioned off a calendar of himself for his friend Sarah, that's dying of ALS. Oh, he's waiting to see if a show he did for Fox gets picked up. Yay. He's also looking amazing these days! The man was always super hot, but you could really see the toll the show was taking in the last season. He looked tired, had bags under his eyes, he grimaced in promo pics...now he looks really, really good again. =)
Next guy on stage (that I saw) was Michael Shanks. Michael looked exhausted. He said they were filming Smallville until 4 am and then he got on a plane to come to the con. As he tiredly said "I sort of slept on the plane." He spoke a lot about the really cool things he's doing on the show and how he has nothing lined up after it at the moment. There was a running joke all panel about his horrible made-for-Syfy movies. Especially Mega Snake. A hilarious question from the audience was "Do you have any movies you've made that you're actually proud of?" The guy didn't mean it sarcastically but everyone instantly cracked up! Michael said "See?? He asks that seriously and you all LAUGH!!" He told a hilarious story about his battle against raccoons at his house and how he's given up and decided to be friends with them.
Another cool moment is when Michael was talking about the one thing he really wanted from the set (Daniel's journal), TPTB told him he could have, then lied and auctioned it off. Then it turned out that a woman in the audience was the one who bought it! And had it with her! Michael borrowed it from her and read pages from it on stage and explained that they only ever made one for the entire run of the show. It's the only one in existence! He did admit that it's probably a good idea that he *doesn't* have it, seeing as how his kids play with the red phone from Hammond's office!
One thing I love about Creation is their photographer, Chris. A seriously cool guy. The photo ops were supposed to be done at 6:40, but they got pushed to 7:20 when, for some insane reason, Ron Glass did his autographs *before* the photo ops--even though they only take a few mins and autos take FOREVER to do. Since I wasn't coming back today, Sunday, I asked if there was a chance of them being done tonight. They told me to come back at 9. So I did. Then Chris was looking sheepish and asking me if I was going to be there Sunday. I again said I wasn't and he said he'd print mine on the spot and just give him 10 mins! And he did! Even though he didn't print anyone else's =) Unfortunately, my pic looks horrible! Ron looks great, of course, but at the last min I did a squee and kinda scrunched down into Ron. Well, it looks like I'm super fat and have 3 thousand chins. Ugh. I really wish Chris would take a pic and give you final approval. I'm also starting to think that I don't see myself as I truly am. I walked around all day thinking I looked so cute and thin! Apparently not!
Nicholas Brendan's pics looked awesome! He's looking very good these days. Eliza Dushku's were cute too. Now that I have Ron's pic, I only need three more to complete my Firefly group: Alan (I know, fat chance), Morena and Summer. Morena and Summer's will be fairly easy, I'm thinking. No worries there.
Oh, I didn't have to pay for parking! The card machine was broken so the parking lot attendant was like "Oh well" lol It was an easy drive too. A way I've never come. The 60 to the 605 to the 105.
Oh, one more funny thing. After I got my Ron pic the bartender asked to see it. She was totally shocked to learn that people pay for photo ops and autographs! Esp how *much* people pay for them. The look on her face was hilarious! Yeah, tis a crazy fandom life we lead, for sure, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Fangirl 4 lyfe! LOL