There and back again ^^;! The Gathering 2006 report part 1 of 3!
I just got back home from The Gathering of the Gargoyles Monday night! I was pretty surprised my flight and luggage arrived on time considering I was flying via Northwest. I uncompressed my luggage last night too. It's SO much easier to unpack than it is to pack! I have tons of backlog to read and reply, so I'll probably be jet-lagging that for a few days.
Before I get to The Gathering though, Thursday night's Match Game episode of Game$how Marathon was a bit nightmarish O~O! I had thought watching that one episode of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour with 2 contestants who didn't understand the game was torturous, but I was wrong --;. This was WORSE! I think about half the people on stage, contestants and panelists included, actually knew how the game was played! I went, "AUGH!" at most of the answers I heard! Poor Betty White --;. As for the set itself, it really did look a LOT smaller than the old set. For the other episodes, I never noticed much of a difference in set size until this episode. Everyone looked like giants! After all these torturous episodes, I hope that means the final game, Family Feud, will have people who actually know how to play the game. We'll see though ;b.
Packing for my trip to LA Thursday night and early Friday morning was EXTREMELY stressful. I only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. I spent the rest of the time, about 8 hours total, prepping all the junk stuff I wanted to bring to get signed: DVD covers, CD covers, LP covers, comics, trading cards, etc.. I knew I had a lot of junk stuff, but the enormity of it all never hits me until I try to find something specific. Digging through my box of old extra trading cards, I re-discovered several signed cards I had stashed away in said boxes including the very first Wildstorm card I got signed by Gene Ha when I met him for the first time. I also found a bunch of Chaos! Lady Death cards I had gotten signed by various artists when I lent them my safe, containing the prototype figure I had won from them, for their show in NYC. I need to scan them in to my puny gallery when I get the chance. I also found cards which I had totally forgotten I had had o~O! I'm really getting old --;. During the final hours before I had to leave, I also discovered a few things that I had wanted to bring were elsewhere including my Disco Mickey Mouse CD which I realized I had lent to my sound engineering friend in NY and my Goof Troop press kit photos of the voice cast which I had left in the office >X(! D'OH! To make up for the missing Goof Troop photos though, I forgot I had a Darkwing Duck cel, so I packed that instead.
Packing and organizing everything was nerve wracking! I kept staring at the clock while I slowly sorted things to be signed into their own special envelope for each person on the guest list. I could hear my heartbeat all night long. In the meanwhile almost everything else I REALLY needed to pack (i.e. underwear, clothes, toiletries, etc.) was still NOT packed as of 3.5 hours before the flight O~O! What made things worse though was that Dad had gotten up early and wanted to drive me to the airport by 2 hours before flight time, as is usual for him. All the while he was up and ready to go, he yelled at me for not being ready as well as telling me it would be all MY fault if I were to miss my own plane ;_;! He did this every 3 minutes or so while I almost broke out in tears with stress telling him to stop yelling at me. I think I nearly had a heart attack! Fortunately, Mom got up later and helped me pack everything else. Why didn't I just pack everything earlier? Actually, I had been prepping junk stuff to pack ever since I finally got permission to go which was just last week. I've already been working on this for days, but I was still no where near from being done. Moreover, I didn't get access to the luggage until my parents returned Wednesday evening. Sigh, I should have left the office early Thursday to pack, but I wasn't sure if I had permission to do so. I later found out I DID have permission, but no one told me X(! I also think procrastination runs in the family ;b.
I finally calmed down when everything was zipped and ready to go, and we were off to the airport. I had only one large luggage and one carry-on bag in all. The one large luggage contained about half essentials and half junk stuff for signing. The production art, which consisted of an Atlantis: The Lost Empire drawing, a Goof Troop layout drawing, and the Darkwing Duck cel, was sandwiched in between 2 pieces of foam board which I had saved from one of Darc's/codenamehunter's mailings to me. I'm so glad I saved those! My carry-on bag had a small pile of manga inside from my unread stack, my PDA, a memory stick, 2 chargers, and my cellphone. By the time I checked in, I was exhausted from my night-long packing and hungry. I was going to get a McMuffin from The Clown/McDonald's, but I opted for Subway's breakfast sandwich instead since I've never eaten one of those. I think I should have stuck with The Clown since Subway's breakfast sandwich basically tasted like a Subway sandwich instead of anything breakfasty. After I finished eating, I saw a Wolfgang Puck's Express restaurant that wasn't there the last time I visited, and I really regretted not seeing it first X(, D'OH!
As soon as I boarded the plane, I fell asleep, so all the manga I had brought for the flight went unread again. I slept, but it wasn't a restful one. When I arrived at LAX, after I picked up my luggage, which took half an hour to arrive, I found my shuttle bus to the hotel and boarded. It took another 2 hours to reach the hotel though because of an accident on highway 405. I almost fell asleep again on the bus. I had no idea where Valencia was since on most of my trips to LA, I usually stick around the Pasadena area. Actually, I'm still not quite sure where Valencia is even after staying there for 3 days O~O! Valencia looked like a lot like Maple Grove and the Edina area in terms of structure. It was a cute little town with shops and restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, and quite a HUGE improvement over last year's crappy hotel. I thought I saw Jen/CrzyD/crzydemona walking in the distance as I was checking in, but I wasn't sure she recognized me =/. I think her mind might have been elsewhere though, especially since she was the head organizer for this year's convention. Also, being the social dork chicken that I am, I wasn't sure whether to say anything or not O~O! Jen/CrzyD is also considered THE GODDESS of the Gargoyles fandom, and even though I've known her online for years, I've only met her once via last year's Gathering. I think I'm still in awe, and scared, to see the goddess in person and probably everyone else I know from the fandom! Yes, I'm scared of LIVE people that I actually know more than I am of complete strangers 8(! Overall though, I think things went a little better this year than last. At least I spoke with more people longer than I did last year =}.
Anyway, after checking in, I went to my room first to unpack and refresh a bit. I haven't been in a 'real' good hotel since forever, and I'm not counting Las Vegas' Crappy Station or the Crapicana as hotels ;b! The room wasn't falling apart at the seams, and everything was nice and new! The bed and pillows were all downy plush 8}, and the air conditioner actually WORKED 8D! I immediately turned the thermostat to 60° F, my ideal temperature, to cool down. After I settled in, I went back downstairs to register. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and walked to the opposite end of the hotel. I only realized I was going the wrong way after seeing conference rooms full of painters doing some modernistic house decorating XP! I started back to the other end and bumped into some other conventioners going the way I had come, including Greg Weisman, Gargoyles creator himself. I asked the person with Weisman where registration was, and this time, I was headed in the right direction. At the registration desk, I met Patrick/patrickat for the first time even though we had seen each other at last year's Gathering. I didn't know who he was until this year, and even then, I thought he was someone else! He recognized me before I knew who he was XP! Yes, I am pathetic too --;.
After registering with Patrick, I peeked into the art room and saw Liz/syrusb! The timing couldn't have been more perfect too since I also brought along the last of the sketches I had begged asked Don Figueroa to draw for me on Free Comic Book Day! I was going to wait until later this year to mail it to her, but since I was going to see Liz in person, I thought it would be a nice surprise ;)! I got a hug from her, and we chatted for awhile. I bought a complete set of Liz's headshot prints which will soon join the other mini Liz prints I bought last year X)! I was going to use them for some signings, but I never got the chance. Maybe next time. I also found Cindy/cinsangel in the room setting up the art show stuff. I got a hug from her as well ^^;! I didn't get to chat long with Cindy because she needed to head off to do her costuming panel. I was anxious to see the art this year, but I wanted to go to Cindy's panel as well. Liz reminded me that the art show would be running all weekend long, and I would have plenty of time to drool look through everything later, so I rushed off to the panel!
Last year, I missed Cindy's costuming panel to attend Weisman's W.I.T.C.H. panel. I chose the W.I.T.C.H. panel figuring I would be able to see Cindy in the webcomics panel later, plus I wasn't sure if I would ever see behind-the-scenes W.I.T.C.H. stuff ever again. I was wrong, of course ;b! I admit I haven't worn costuming of any sort, even Halloween ones, since I was in 3rd grade because I'm a party pooper square, but I wanted to see and hear Cindy in action! All I can say is that Man-Faye was mentioned several times XD! It was a very informative and interesting panel nonetheless even without Man-Faye references ^^;!
The next panel was Crispin Freeman's and Thom Adcox's voice acting workshop. As you know, I have been a voice over fan for over 25 years now o-O, so this was a must-see/hear panel! I also wanted to see and hear Freeman speak LIVE after hearing him so much via Cartoon Network's Toonami and Adult Swim anime block. I already saw Adcox at last year's Gathering, but it's still always fun to see and hear him live! They both have awesome voices 8}! Freeman showed us the ins-and-outs of dubbing pre-animated shows like anime, and he even had a couple aspiring voice actors from the audience try dubbing a small sequences. The first aspiring actor, Joshua, was great once he got his timing down correctly! Everyone in the audience thought he did a better job of acting and voicing the character than the actual English voice over actor they hired to do the show. I was also amazed by the dubbing software Freeman had on his Mac o-O! It could drop out certain voices, record voices in specific areas, and re-compose everything in to one continuous track! Yeah, yeah, I guess someone like me who has a 15 year old computer is easily impressed by shiny new technology ;b! It was fascinating to see and hear! I think I'm even more amazed by voice actors now. For those doing dubs of previous tracks, getting the timing and acting inflections in at the right times is very difficult which is why it's usually done the other way around (i.e. voice tracks first then animating sequences to match them).
After the panel, I headed back to the opposite end of the hotel and the dealer's room where I re-introduced myself to Mike of Van Eaton Galleries. I met Mike last year and introduced myself, but he didn't recognize me until I e-mailed him after I got back home XD! He only recognized me by my e-mail address and not just my name. He brought the Disney Afternoon drawings which I was mulling over on his website for quite sometime. I finally bought one of them since I figured I could use it for signing later. I picked the one with Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin characters since the creators and voice for those shows would be showing up later ^-^! I also bought a Charlie the Tuna Starkist cel because Charlie was cute. I next hit Slave Labor Graphics booth and bought up 23 Gargoyles comics for signing 8P! My comic book store, Source, had asked if I could get 20 comics signed, and I said, "I'll see what I can do." The other 3 are for friends, and I had brought my own from Source who was sold out of the first issue after I bought my copy. The head honcho of Slave Labor Graphics, Dan Vado, was more than happy to oblige and provide me a box to lug around the comics later. I spied over the next table and saw Steph's/bonegoddess' new book, Beba and the Curious Creature Catchers, for sale already pre-autographed 8}! I've been dying to buy the book since it came out, but I couldn't figure out how to buy a copy and ask for autographs as well Xb! I bought 2 copies: 1 for me and 1 for a friend! I'm so glad I bought both copies at that time since the table was all SOLD OUT of that book later in the day. By this time, I barely had enough hands to hold anything, so I made a quick trip back up to my room to dump stuff.
When I got back downstairs, I bumped into Kyt/kythera with horns growing out of her head o~O?! Upon closer inspection and asking Kyt herself, I found out the horns were actually just on a thin stretchy band she put on her head. They looked like they were pasted on though from my vantage point. We just got to say a quick, "Hi," and hug though since Kyt needed to dash off to help prepare for the opening ceremonies. The break gave me the chance though to finally take a gander at the art show! I must say, I can't tell if this year's show is better than last year's though because last year's was pretty amazing as well! This year though, there were pieces by Steph and Jen/CrzyD in the mix, so that's 2 big pluses for this year's show! There were just so many sensational pieces this year, so I had to hold off on bidding for anything until the last day. I wasn't sure if I brought enough moola to bid on everything I wanted at a reasonable-worthy price, plus, the auction items weren't on display yet for me to figure out if I wanted to bid on anything there as well.
Around 5:00 p.m., I headed back to the main ballroom area to see the opening ceremonies only to find a huge crowd of people in the hallway. I asked another conventioner, and he said that the opening ceremonies hadn't started yet because they were still cleaning up from the modernistic home painters that had occupied the ballroom before ;b. The only thing I could do was sit and wait by myself since most of the people I knew were preparing for opening ceremonies XP! Fortunately though, I did recognize someone, Michelle/asatira, via her recent photo post! I didn't find out she was coming to the Gathering until just a couple weeks ago too. Michelle introduced me to her friend, Becca?, an old college classmate of hers who was now living in CA. They graciously hung out with me during our half hour wait for opening ceremonies to begin 8}!
Opening ceremonies started out with the usual greetings and introductions by the con chair, Jen/CrzyD, and the asking of how many Gatherings everyone has been to so far. Only 4? hands stayed up when Jen/CrzyD asked if anyone has been to all 10 Gatherings, and that included Karine/karine. The 10-year members were given special recognition on their accomplishment with a plaque and ribbon ^^;! Next, we were treated to music video montages, I think, with clips from Gargoyles paired with various 'appropriate,' or not, songs. My favorites were the ironic funny song pairings and clips like Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight paired with clips of Demona and MacBeth trying to kill each other XD! Everyone was in hysterics to the point of crying watching that! After the music videos, Weisman showed us his usual 2 short films of his pitch to Disney for Gargoyles, back when he was beardless and had 80s hairdo XD, and The Last, a fan made animatic reel composed of storyboard art done by fans for an episode of the axed Disney Team Atlantis TV series which Weisman wrote featuring a crossover with the Gargoyles universe with COMPLETE voice track for the episode by the actors hired for the axed show. I think the Gargoyles pitch film is on one of the DVD sets, but Team Atlantis: "The Last" will NEVER be seen elsewhere outside the Gathering, thanks to Disney ;P!
By the time those film reels were finished, it was already 8:30 p.m., 2 hours LATER than what was scheduled. Everyone was tired and hungry, so the room quickly dissapated for food! Before taking my leave, I stayed behind to ask Patrick if I had paid for the banquet or not and to give Steph some corn jewelry (Don't ask. I don't know!). I wasn't sure if I should have hung out to find a party to join or not =/, but I was famished! The only thing I had eaten all day was that Subway breakfast sandwich. I still didn't like the idea of 'intruding' in on anybody or group as a stowaway, so I decided it would be best for me to forage for food on my own --;. I didn't have to forage far since just outside the hotel was Valencia's weekly jazz festival! There were a couple of food tents, so I feasted on one Italian food tent's offerings which were a sweet cannoli, a 3 cheese ravoli thing, and an eggplant and sausage dumpling thing. I devoured everything pretty quickly on an outside group table with complete strangers who graciously allowed me to sit there to eat. I tried wandering around a bit, but everything was closed by this time, so I just headed back to my room to go to bed. It had been a LONG day!
More to come as time permits me to write and remember ;)!
P.S. EDIT: I just re-posted this entire report to my Gaia journal, the now featured journal, so hopefully, at least 10,000+ more people will read it and remember Gargoyles X)!
Before I get to The Gathering though, Thursday night's Match Game episode of Game$how Marathon was a bit nightmarish O~O! I had thought watching that one episode of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour with 2 contestants who didn't understand the game was torturous, but I was wrong --;. This was WORSE! I think about half the people on stage, contestants and panelists included, actually knew how the game was played! I went, "AUGH!" at most of the answers I heard! Poor Betty White --;. As for the set itself, it really did look a LOT smaller than the old set. For the other episodes, I never noticed much of a difference in set size until this episode. Everyone looked like giants! After all these torturous episodes, I hope that means the final game, Family Feud, will have people who actually know how to play the game. We'll see though ;b.
Packing for my trip to LA Thursday night and early Friday morning was EXTREMELY stressful. I only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. I spent the rest of the time, about 8 hours total, prepping all the junk stuff I wanted to bring to get signed: DVD covers, CD covers, LP covers, comics, trading cards, etc.. I knew I had a lot of junk stuff, but the enormity of it all never hits me until I try to find something specific. Digging through my box of old extra trading cards, I re-discovered several signed cards I had stashed away in said boxes including the very first Wildstorm card I got signed by Gene Ha when I met him for the first time. I also found a bunch of Chaos! Lady Death cards I had gotten signed by various artists when I lent them my safe, containing the prototype figure I had won from them, for their show in NYC. I need to scan them in to my puny gallery when I get the chance. I also found cards which I had totally forgotten I had had o~O! I'm really getting old --;. During the final hours before I had to leave, I also discovered a few things that I had wanted to bring were elsewhere including my Disco Mickey Mouse CD which I realized I had lent to my sound engineering friend in NY and my Goof Troop press kit photos of the voice cast which I had left in the office >X(! D'OH! To make up for the missing Goof Troop photos though, I forgot I had a Darkwing Duck cel, so I packed that instead.
Packing and organizing everything was nerve wracking! I kept staring at the clock while I slowly sorted things to be signed into their own special envelope for each person on the guest list. I could hear my heartbeat all night long. In the meanwhile almost everything else I REALLY needed to pack (i.e. underwear, clothes, toiletries, etc.) was still NOT packed as of 3.5 hours before the flight O~O! What made things worse though was that Dad had gotten up early and wanted to drive me to the airport by 2 hours before flight time, as is usual for him. All the while he was up and ready to go, he yelled at me for not being ready as well as telling me it would be all MY fault if I were to miss my own plane ;_;! He did this every 3 minutes or so while I almost broke out in tears with stress telling him to stop yelling at me. I think I nearly had a heart attack! Fortunately, Mom got up later and helped me pack everything else. Why didn't I just pack everything earlier? Actually, I had been prepping junk stuff to pack ever since I finally got permission to go which was just last week. I've already been working on this for days, but I was still no where near from being done. Moreover, I didn't get access to the luggage until my parents returned Wednesday evening. Sigh, I should have left the office early Thursday to pack, but I wasn't sure if I had permission to do so. I later found out I DID have permission, but no one told me X(! I also think procrastination runs in the family ;b.
I finally calmed down when everything was zipped and ready to go, and we were off to the airport. I had only one large luggage and one carry-on bag in all. The one large luggage contained about half essentials and half junk stuff for signing. The production art, which consisted of an Atlantis: The Lost Empire drawing, a Goof Troop layout drawing, and the Darkwing Duck cel, was sandwiched in between 2 pieces of foam board which I had saved from one of Darc's/codenamehunter's mailings to me. I'm so glad I saved those! My carry-on bag had a small pile of manga inside from my unread stack, my PDA, a memory stick, 2 chargers, and my cellphone. By the time I checked in, I was exhausted from my night-long packing and hungry. I was going to get a McMuffin from The Clown/McDonald's, but I opted for Subway's breakfast sandwich instead since I've never eaten one of those. I think I should have stuck with The Clown since Subway's breakfast sandwich basically tasted like a Subway sandwich instead of anything breakfasty. After I finished eating, I saw a Wolfgang Puck's Express restaurant that wasn't there the last time I visited, and I really regretted not seeing it first X(, D'OH!
As soon as I boarded the plane, I fell asleep, so all the manga I had brought for the flight went unread again. I slept, but it wasn't a restful one. When I arrived at LAX, after I picked up my luggage, which took half an hour to arrive, I found my shuttle bus to the hotel and boarded. It took another 2 hours to reach the hotel though because of an accident on highway 405. I almost fell asleep again on the bus. I had no idea where Valencia was since on most of my trips to LA, I usually stick around the Pasadena area. Actually, I'm still not quite sure where Valencia is even after staying there for 3 days O~O! Valencia looked like a lot like Maple Grove and the Edina area in terms of structure. It was a cute little town with shops and restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, and quite a HUGE improvement over last year's crappy hotel. I thought I saw Jen/CrzyD/crzydemona walking in the distance as I was checking in, but I wasn't sure she recognized me =/. I think her mind might have been elsewhere though, especially since she was the head organizer for this year's convention. Also, being the social dork chicken that I am, I wasn't sure whether to say anything or not O~O! Jen/CrzyD is also considered THE GODDESS of the Gargoyles fandom, and even though I've known her online for years, I've only met her once via last year's Gathering. I think I'm still in awe, and scared, to see the goddess in person and probably everyone else I know from the fandom! Yes, I'm scared of LIVE people that I actually know more than I am of complete strangers 8(! Overall though, I think things went a little better this year than last. At least I spoke with more people longer than I did last year =}.
Anyway, after checking in, I went to my room first to unpack and refresh a bit. I haven't been in a 'real' good hotel since forever, and I'm not counting Las Vegas' Crappy Station or the Crapicana as hotels ;b! The room wasn't falling apart at the seams, and everything was nice and new! The bed and pillows were all downy plush 8}, and the air conditioner actually WORKED 8D! I immediately turned the thermostat to 60° F, my ideal temperature, to cool down. After I settled in, I went back downstairs to register. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and walked to the opposite end of the hotel. I only realized I was going the wrong way after seeing conference rooms full of painters doing some modernistic house decorating XP! I started back to the other end and bumped into some other conventioners going the way I had come, including Greg Weisman, Gargoyles creator himself. I asked the person with Weisman where registration was, and this time, I was headed in the right direction. At the registration desk, I met Patrick/patrickat for the first time even though we had seen each other at last year's Gathering. I didn't know who he was until this year, and even then, I thought he was someone else! He recognized me before I knew who he was XP! Yes, I am pathetic too --;.
After registering with Patrick, I peeked into the art room and saw Liz/syrusb! The timing couldn't have been more perfect too since I also brought along the last of the sketches I had begged asked Don Figueroa to draw for me on Free Comic Book Day! I was going to wait until later this year to mail it to her, but since I was going to see Liz in person, I thought it would be a nice surprise ;)! I got a hug from her, and we chatted for awhile. I bought a complete set of Liz's headshot prints which will soon join the other mini Liz prints I bought last year X)! I was going to use them for some signings, but I never got the chance. Maybe next time. I also found Cindy/cinsangel in the room setting up the art show stuff. I got a hug from her as well ^^;! I didn't get to chat long with Cindy because she needed to head off to do her costuming panel. I was anxious to see the art this year, but I wanted to go to Cindy's panel as well. Liz reminded me that the art show would be running all weekend long, and I would have plenty of time to drool look through everything later, so I rushed off to the panel!
Last year, I missed Cindy's costuming panel to attend Weisman's W.I.T.C.H. panel. I chose the W.I.T.C.H. panel figuring I would be able to see Cindy in the webcomics panel later, plus I wasn't sure if I would ever see behind-the-scenes W.I.T.C.H. stuff ever again. I was wrong, of course ;b! I admit I haven't worn costuming of any sort, even Halloween ones, since I was in 3rd grade because I'm a party pooper square, but I wanted to see and hear Cindy in action! All I can say is that Man-Faye was mentioned several times XD! It was a very informative and interesting panel nonetheless even without Man-Faye references ^^;!
The next panel was Crispin Freeman's and Thom Adcox's voice acting workshop. As you know, I have been a voice over fan for over 25 years now o-O, so this was a must-see/hear panel! I also wanted to see and hear Freeman speak LIVE after hearing him so much via Cartoon Network's Toonami and Adult Swim anime block. I already saw Adcox at last year's Gathering, but it's still always fun to see and hear him live! They both have awesome voices 8}! Freeman showed us the ins-and-outs of dubbing pre-animated shows like anime, and he even had a couple aspiring voice actors from the audience try dubbing a small sequences. The first aspiring actor, Joshua, was great once he got his timing down correctly! Everyone in the audience thought he did a better job of acting and voicing the character than the actual English voice over actor they hired to do the show. I was also amazed by the dubbing software Freeman had on his Mac o-O! It could drop out certain voices, record voices in specific areas, and re-compose everything in to one continuous track! Yeah, yeah, I guess someone like me who has a 15 year old computer is easily impressed by shiny new technology ;b! It was fascinating to see and hear! I think I'm even more amazed by voice actors now. For those doing dubs of previous tracks, getting the timing and acting inflections in at the right times is very difficult which is why it's usually done the other way around (i.e. voice tracks first then animating sequences to match them).
After the panel, I headed back to the opposite end of the hotel and the dealer's room where I re-introduced myself to Mike of Van Eaton Galleries. I met Mike last year and introduced myself, but he didn't recognize me until I e-mailed him after I got back home XD! He only recognized me by my e-mail address and not just my name. He brought the Disney Afternoon drawings which I was mulling over on his website for quite sometime. I finally bought one of them since I figured I could use it for signing later. I picked the one with Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin characters since the creators and voice for those shows would be showing up later ^-^! I also bought a Charlie the Tuna Starkist cel because Charlie was cute. I next hit Slave Labor Graphics booth and bought up 23 Gargoyles comics for signing 8P! My comic book store, Source, had asked if I could get 20 comics signed, and I said, "I'll see what I can do." The other 3 are for friends, and I had brought my own from Source who was sold out of the first issue after I bought my copy. The head honcho of Slave Labor Graphics, Dan Vado, was more than happy to oblige and provide me a box to lug around the comics later. I spied over the next table and saw Steph's/bonegoddess' new book, Beba and the Curious Creature Catchers, for sale already pre-autographed 8}! I've been dying to buy the book since it came out, but I couldn't figure out how to buy a copy and ask for autographs as well Xb! I bought 2 copies: 1 for me and 1 for a friend! I'm so glad I bought both copies at that time since the table was all SOLD OUT of that book later in the day. By this time, I barely had enough hands to hold anything, so I made a quick trip back up to my room to dump stuff.
When I got back downstairs, I bumped into Kyt/kythera with horns growing out of her head o~O?! Upon closer inspection and asking Kyt herself, I found out the horns were actually just on a thin stretchy band she put on her head. They looked like they were pasted on though from my vantage point. We just got to say a quick, "Hi," and hug though since Kyt needed to dash off to help prepare for the opening ceremonies. The break gave me the chance though to finally take a gander at the art show! I must say, I can't tell if this year's show is better than last year's though because last year's was pretty amazing as well! This year though, there were pieces by Steph and Jen/CrzyD in the mix, so that's 2 big pluses for this year's show! There were just so many sensational pieces this year, so I had to hold off on bidding for anything until the last day. I wasn't sure if I brought enough moola to bid on everything I wanted at a reasonable-worthy price, plus, the auction items weren't on display yet for me to figure out if I wanted to bid on anything there as well.
Around 5:00 p.m., I headed back to the main ballroom area to see the opening ceremonies only to find a huge crowd of people in the hallway. I asked another conventioner, and he said that the opening ceremonies hadn't started yet because they were still cleaning up from the modernistic home painters that had occupied the ballroom before ;b. The only thing I could do was sit and wait by myself since most of the people I knew were preparing for opening ceremonies XP! Fortunately though, I did recognize someone, Michelle/asatira, via her recent photo post! I didn't find out she was coming to the Gathering until just a couple weeks ago too. Michelle introduced me to her friend, Becca?, an old college classmate of hers who was now living in CA. They graciously hung out with me during our half hour wait for opening ceremonies to begin 8}!
Opening ceremonies started out with the usual greetings and introductions by the con chair, Jen/CrzyD, and the asking of how many Gatherings everyone has been to so far. Only 4? hands stayed up when Jen/CrzyD asked if anyone has been to all 10 Gatherings, and that included Karine/karine. The 10-year members were given special recognition on their accomplishment with a plaque and ribbon ^^;! Next, we were treated to music video montages, I think, with clips from Gargoyles paired with various 'appropriate,' or not, songs. My favorites were the ironic funny song pairings and clips like Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight paired with clips of Demona and MacBeth trying to kill each other XD! Everyone was in hysterics to the point of crying watching that! After the music videos, Weisman showed us his usual 2 short films of his pitch to Disney for Gargoyles, back when he was beardless and had 80s hairdo XD, and The Last, a fan made animatic reel composed of storyboard art done by fans for an episode of the axed Disney Team Atlantis TV series which Weisman wrote featuring a crossover with the Gargoyles universe with COMPLETE voice track for the episode by the actors hired for the axed show. I think the Gargoyles pitch film is on one of the DVD sets, but Team Atlantis: "The Last" will NEVER be seen elsewhere outside the Gathering, thanks to Disney ;P!
By the time those film reels were finished, it was already 8:30 p.m., 2 hours LATER than what was scheduled. Everyone was tired and hungry, so the room quickly dissapated for food! Before taking my leave, I stayed behind to ask Patrick if I had paid for the banquet or not and to give Steph some corn jewelry (Don't ask. I don't know!). I wasn't sure if I should have hung out to find a party to join or not =/, but I was famished! The only thing I had eaten all day was that Subway breakfast sandwich. I still didn't like the idea of 'intruding' in on anybody or group as a stowaway, so I decided it would be best for me to forage for food on my own --;. I didn't have to forage far since just outside the hotel was Valencia's weekly jazz festival! There were a couple of food tents, so I feasted on one Italian food tent's offerings which were a sweet cannoli, a 3 cheese ravoli thing, and an eggplant and sausage dumpling thing. I devoured everything pretty quickly on an outside group table with complete strangers who graciously allowed me to sit there to eat. I tried wandering around a bit, but everything was closed by this time, so I just headed back to my room to go to bed. It had been a LONG day!
More to come as time permits me to write and remember ;)!
P.S. EDIT: I just re-posted this entire report to my Gaia journal, the now featured journal, so hopefully, at least 10,000+ more people will read it and remember Gargoyles X)!