(no subject)
Okay, so... going to Dragon*Con was seriously one of the better decisions I've ever made in my life. If you had told me a year ago I would go to a fan convention Labor Day 2009, I would've punched you in your lying mouth. Today, I must say that it was one of the awesomer experiences of my life, and it was worth every penny of the small fortune I paid to be there.
(Also, this is really... long. Sorry. I HAVE A LOT TO SAY BEST DAY EVER.)
So, I am cursed with a memory like swiss cheese, so I am doing my best to remember every in some version of sequential order, so we'll see how that goes.
Ollie (snapplesons) and I have been talking about going to Dragon*Con since like, April, right after she started watching. We're only five and a half hours from Atlanta, and she has a car, and, at least in my case, she is basically my only friend in real life that I could ever prevail upon to accompany me on this sort of trip. So it seemed perfect. But then we were doing the math with the gas and the hotel and the con tickets and it was way too expensive, so we let it drop. But I always felt like IF ONLY WE COULD JUST DO IT. IT'S MARY. OMG. And I felt this way up until I got a message on my facebook wall from Ollie telling me how single day passes weren't too expensive. And essentially the moment she said that, I was onboard. Then Amanda, soonersurrender offered to let us stay at her house for the night, and it was like fate was letting everything fall into place super nicely and it was DESTINY so off we went!
On Saturday I skipped the football game to drive to just north of Atlanta. While it is fun singing loudly in the car, long drives are tedious and annoying. However, we arrived at Amanda's house and her family was really nice and we hung out and squealed over icons and made fun of FatLee and stuff, and then I took sleep medicine and we decided to watch the extended version of "Unfinished Business" because Amanda had never seen it. Which I promptly fell asleep during because: sleep medication. Also, at least for me, there's a certain point in Unfinished Business where I've had enough cause it's Leemo and Thracer beating one another up because they're losers and I have no sympathy for them because they create their own problems/refuse to solve their own problems/are lame. So then I knocked the frak out.
AND THEN MY ALARM WENT OFF AT 6:50 and I was like, why in the name of God is my alarm going off? and then on my phone I had entitled the alarm "Mary" so that was flashing and it was like OMG TODAY IS MARY DAY so I was up like a shot. We drove to the MARTA station and then took the train in. It took forever, but I think it's only because I was so anxious. Amanda seemed to have a pretty good idea of what she was doing, though. So, we got off, followed people with costumes until we started hitting hotels, and then we got our badges.
OH HAI BADGE.
And, again. This was so super surreal. I am not a spontaneous person at all, so the fact that we decided to do something so immense on a Friday night and we were DOING IT on Sunday morning (at an ungodly hour.) And there were all these people in costume and everyone was really nice and happy and it WE WERE IN THE SAME LOCATION AS MARY WTF and so after we got our tickets we went to the hotel where they had the Walk of Fame. (Hilton? Hyatt?) We were in line before it opened. We had a nice conversation with the people ahead of us, and one girl was dressed as Dr Horrible and some guy had like, a portable music blarer so he played "My Freeze Ray" and it was neat.
So, ten am rolls around, and we go in. We find the Mary line and we are THE THIRD GROUP. Like, there were about five people ahead of us. That was it! And the people in charge told us Mary would be there "momentarily" and I think we all pretty much started freaking out. The girl ahead of us had already met Mary at least once, and said she was super nice and not to be freaked out but IT WAS MARY, HELLO, but she calmed us down a bit and gave us some tips and then SUDDENLY I LOOK OVER AND THERE SHE WAS. MARY WAS STANDING NOT TEN FEET FROM US, LOOKING BEAUTIFUL IN THIS ROYAL BLUE DRESS WITH HER HAIR ALL FANTASTIC AND WE. WERE. ABOUT. TO. MEET. HER.
It was really, really exciting and nauseating at the same time.
I wish my memory was better because, honestly? Meeting her was a blur. Maybe Ollie or Amanda will remember it better, but we went up there got our pictures for the autograph, and we were talking to her about how we drove up there last night from Florida basically for her (cue unreadable Mary expression #1: was she horrified that we were such losers? weirded out that we were such big fans of hers? modestly thinking she wasn't worth the effort?) and while I was having a hard time keeping steady Ollie was chattering away nonstop about the drive and how Eddie wasn't there etc. (Ollie's chatter funny and basically became a theme for the day.) OH AND WE TALKED ABOUT HER HAIR! How it was so pretty here in person and how we loved it on Greys because it was so sad that towards the end she only had the wig on and we missed her fabulous hair! Mary fluffed it a few times. She is adorable. Then! Mary is asking for my name and starting so sign my picture but Ollie continues to talk and Mary messes up, so I have to get another one. Ollie keeps talking! So I'm like, dude, let her write my picture, you can talk to her during yours! And then it was Ollie's turn and I stood there, essentially gazing until it was time to go, and we thanked her and she asked what else we were doing and we were like, er, essentially this and the BSG panel tonight, and she told us to 'go see the others' and to have fun.
And Mary is so, so beautiful. Like, breathtakingly so. Her eyes are so green and she's so nice and pretty and it didn't feel rushed or fake to me. She said she was still waking up, which Ollie said she felt affected her vivacity with us, but I feel it was really nice and MARY!
Madeline, thank you for making the trip
Best wishes always, Mary McDonnell "Roslin"
As we turn to walk away, at least Ollie and I started tearing up and gripping at one another all OMG OMG OMG OMG. We actually found a place to sit down and like, recover because holy frak, we had just met Mary. It was not even yet eleven in the morning and we had MET MARY. I actually left a pretty hilarious voice post at that time that was accidentally put on private but here is a link to the shaky voice post. And I called my mom and she was very proud that I hadn't cried in front of Mary and I think mostly I said things like "she's so nice!" and "she's so pretty" for like five minutes.
Then we went to purchase the actual photo with Mary at a different hotel. That didn't take too long. We decided to all split the picture, and then pay an additional ten bucks to get the file sent to one of our emails. It was decided that since Ollie had received precisely what she wanted from the day (she wagered that Mary would wear blue, and she was wearing the lovely blue dress, and also Ollie said "I'm Olivia" and Mary replied that it was her daughter's name, and Ollie had said earlier that if Mary didn't say that she would cry because it would mean that she wasn't really listening to us and it would be awful, but she did so Ollie's day was made,) Amanda and I would stand next to Mary and Ollie would get the glossy official picture.
So then we went back to the Walk of Fame, cause we wanted to meet Michael Trucco, AKA Samders. We decided while in line to try to get a pic with him. Ollie was saying in the line how she didn't want to be the one to speak first. Here is the problem, though: while amazingly handsome on TV, in person? Trucco is like a god, NO LIE. So we basically got up there and we were all like, giggling and saying 'hi' and I, at least, played with my hair, because we are clearly smitten teenagers. So Ollie blurts out "You're really attractive!" which got this nice banter going on between us all and Trucco would look you right in the eye with his amazing eyes and honestly? Knees: weakened. So beautiful omg. We asked for the picture then, and Trucco walked around (his hand on my back the whole time, siiiiiigh) and then we took the picture! He was incredibly nice to us and thanked us for coming and basically if he had said "let's go have sex in the bathroom right now" I would've been like "yes, yes a thousand times yes." He is that beautiful.
Maybe he should do that for living: be professionally good-looking.
And then we got in line to see Michael Hogan, who is COLONEL TIGH!!! We paid for the pic and his... wrangler dude was like, "these lovely young ladies would like to take a picture with you!" and Hogan was like "Yessss!" and jumped up and seemed genuinely thrilled to be there and stuff. We took the first picture, where he was standing between me and Amanda, and then he was like, let's do another one with me here! and moved between Amanda and Ollie. We all found that delightful and so considerate, so that picture is much better. So then we tried to remember that he was kind of there to talk about BSG so I think Amanda was like BTW we love Colonel Tigh and Ollie said how it was a spontanous trip for us (Hogan replied something about how it was 'super.' HE WAS SO CANADIAN AIEEE) and how it was for him too, and Hogan said how when the Admiral can't make it, the XO has to fill in, but he said it in the CLASSIC TIGH VOICE and it was like AIEEEEEE! So we thanked him and got into line with! ELLEN TIGH.
Take one!
Take two!
Ellen Tigh, who is, you know, played by Kate Vernon, was so pretty! And I was actually able to talk to her, because either Ollie or Amanda mentioned how awesome it was that Ellen got to come back from the dead as the final Cylon and Kate said how she was so pleased to be the mother of all cylons and something about how she and Tigh had this epic love story WHICH IS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS EVER so I basically spouted my love for THE TIGHS in a respectful, nonscary manner and Kate was talking to me about it and it was awesome! And then we took the picture and Kate was very sweet.
ELLEN TIGH!
So we walked around a bit more- the girls who played Dee and Kat were there, and also Gaeta and Tom Zarek, but we didn't want to pay for more pics- and we could see Karen Allen and Alan Rudd and Barry Bostwick and Kristy Swanson and all manner of other famous people, INCLUDING SPIKE WHICH WAS COOL except he didn't look like Spike. It was around noon at this point, so we were hm, what to do? I think at this point we went over to the Marriott and sat down and ate some snacks and stuff before realizing that in an hour or so, Karen Allen was giving a discussion. There was really nothing else we wanted to do until it was picture time with Mary, so we went over to do that.
At twelve something we went to sit in the room for Karen Allen, and it was so nice to be in real chairs. Also, Ollie and Amanda were twittering up a storm. However, the actual panel with Karen Allen was kind of boring, because... we liked her in the Indy movies, and I had seen her in Starman, and she remembered a lot of details and seemed genuinely happy to be talking about it, she talked a lot and had a lot of details that... we didn't so much care about. So we left which is so rude but god was it dull.
I think then Ollie and Amanda called their friend Dizzy? And I people watched. We saw Viper Pilots, Kara Annes, Drs Who and Horrible, a Kaylee dressed up like she was in Shindig, a very good Mal, a Han, Leia and Chewie that were all very nicely costumed, a bunch of girls in skimpy outfits they shouldn't have been wearing at all omg, a flash gordon that made a kid go "HI FLASH!" really excitedly, and like, two million small children.
Then we went down to wait for our picture with Mary? I can't think of anything else we might've done. We had to wait outside for a bit, then the Froggy people were trying to organize according to getting pictures with just Mary, or with Mary and Hogan, or with a group, or whatever. We were pretty close to the front here, and we were so excited to see Mary standing, with her fantastic shoes and hair and looking so pretty, but the Froggy people kept like, yelling at us. Now, I understand that they have like, twenty million people to get through, and they have to move quickly. I can appreciate that, even. But they were unnecessary harsh, I feel. I didn't like, step in and start chatting, I moved in and went over to Mary and they're like NO POSING LET'S GO and just yelling yelling yelling which made me feel anxious, and I can't imagine that actors standing there for hours hearing all those harsh instructions aren't made to feel more stressed out than necessary.
Ollie had asked Amanda to shake Mary's hand, so that I could and then she would, cause she was sad that Mary hadn't shaken our hands when we met her that morning (in my case, at least, I was okay with it- I hate shaking hands, I think it is incredibly weird, but then again, I am a hugger.) so Amanda did it and then I was considering it but Mary didn't look to into it, so I didn't. I was next to her, though, and I honestly couldn't even remember them taking the picture cause I was like OMG MARY MARY and she smelled so good. As we were leaving I said something like, "thank you for coming, Mary!" and Ollie said something too, that I can't remember, and then Mary called one of us "honey" which AIEEE and it was all over in two seconds after waiting for like, an hour, and it was really obnoxious. I didn't expect a photo shoot, but we paid good money for that picture. Anyway.
MARY! MARY MARY MARY!
Then we hung out for an eternity before the BSG Panel. We were pretty much happy that we hadn't come all four days, only because... really there wasn't too much else we wanted to do. We realize now that going to all the other panels would've been BALLER.
We got pretty good seats in the panel, on the aisle on the left side but in the group of seats closest to the stage, because Ollie is a ninja. From here on out, my memory has no sequentiality, really, so I'm just going to list all the awesome things I remember. (Because in the car on the way home, I wrote everything I could remember on my hand, and then on my arm. My memory sucks.
The writings on the hand.
For some reason I decided last night that 'openness' needed two Ps.
Bitch crazy.
Yubs: I must admit I'm curious what DID make your hand :-P
Me: i'll tell you:
Me: hatch- villian
Me: flask
Me: books
Me: xo replaces the admiral
Me: nc incarceration
Me: ellen and tigh love
Me: lee and sam's "tiff"
Me: colonial one = m
Me: 's
Me: when they had sex
Me: marriage
Me: openness
Me: taking laura shopping
Yubs: LOL!
Me: removing cylon #s
Me: "honey"
Me: very attractive
Me: and mary smelled good
- Kate Vernon talked more about the epic love between THE TIGHS. It was awesome. She had a really nice, thought-out answer about it and how they were just meant for each other, even after two thousand years, no matter what romantic entanglements Saul might've had. (Hogan was adorable during this, he was like 'yeah yeah.')
- Richard Hatch got asked if he thought Zarek was a hero or a villian. He also had a very long, intelligent response to this that really did make me think about the character more. Then Mary says flatly "I think you're a villian" and it was hilarious.
- When asked what everyone would change about their characters, everyone basically said they wished they'd had more sex, except Kate, who was like, "I did sleep with everyone" and it was hilarious. I think she then said she wished she'd slept with (maybe only drank with? But I think slept with) Adama, and someone asked which, and she was like, Either. Both.
- A girl asked Mary about Laura's reaction to Bill taking out the flask to hand to Ellen in season four. It wasn't in the script, it was just Mary being rad. She said that while Laura would've never said anything about it, because she wasn't like that, the whole drinking thing Papadama was doing was very threatening.
- Mary also answered as Laura all the time. She would say "I" instead of Laura, or differentiate- Mary thought this, Laura thought that. It was super cute.
- Mary did an Eddie impression! She got all gruff and was saying how when the writers' strike was starting Eddie kept saying that his agent was saying that BSG was essentially over. They were all filming the first Earth's November in England beach scene and calling agents frantically between takes.
- Someone asked about Laura's incarceration on New Caprica, what she endured and if she ever shared with Bill. Mary said that she felt that compared to most people, Laura got it pretty easy- mostly just isolation and being messed with, but no real torture or anything, mostly because Gaius had that weird thing for Mary. (Ollie correctly pointed out that Gaius essentially had no power, which is true, but I remember when he visited he basically said "get her out of here" and she was released, so IDK.) Mary also said that Laura wasn't one to talk about herself, and she didn't really like opening up, so she probably wouldn't have told Bill. Then she said something adorable about how if her marriage had lasted longer, or, if Laura had gotten to enjoy her marriage at all- maybe the intimacy grown from that would've had her open up to Bill. Which, let me just say: I love so much that Mary always refers to that as their wedding. I LOVE IT. IT IS SICK AND I LOVE IT TO PIECES.
- Someone asked Trucco if he was ever sad that Samders never got to had it out with Lee for frakking his woman. Trucco was like, "One word answer: yes." Then he said how Sam and Lee only ever got to have a "tiff" on the algae planet, which I found delightful.
- Alessandro Juliani was very cute! He came out taking pictures of the audience, and during the panel he was showing them to Trucco. It was very cute. (Sidebar: everyone kept chatting quietly- not rudely, but like, omg, look at this!- during the panel. It was like they were so excited to see one another. So effing cute.) Anyway, someone asked if Gaeta's feelings for Baltar were hero worship or a man crush, and Juliani answered how Baltar was a sexual omnivore and things like that, so he ended with "who knows what happened on that airplane on New Caprica?" and over in her seat, Mary points at herself and says, "your mean my airplane?" and said something about things like that did not happen on her plane. It was adorable.
- I think the first question was someone asking Mary when she thought Papadama and Lauroslin had sex. I know that Mary and Eddie have said before they thought it was that night on New Caprica, which Ollie and I figure that Eddie maintains- Mary said Eddie says it happened in season two, which, since Unfinished Business was a flashback to before the Occupation, which was the end of season two, is technically correct- but Mary now thinks that it was the first time we saw them being intimate in season four.
- Someone asked what the actors would do if they met their characters in real life, and Mary said she would like to take Laura shopping, which I thought was precious. Kate Vernon said she'd be a bit scared of Ellen, but she'd try to take her to like, a spa day with yoga and stuff, away from men and booze.
- how books represent Papadama and Lauroslin's relationship! Mary said it's good because literature is romantic, and also because Bill reads sloooooow and Laura likes it. The reading was clearly a euphemism. IT WAS AWESOME.
- Towards the beginning someone asked Mary what she missed most about being Laura, and Mary said she missed being president, and Richard Hatch deadpans "Me too." IT WAS AWESOME. It set the tone for the whole panel, because they kept jumping and it was great.
- Someone asked if when the final five cylons were revealed to be in the fleet, were their numbers erased off the whiteboard, and Mary was like YES THEY WERE.
- AND WE "SO SAY WE ALL"ED LIKE EIGHT TIMES. IT WAS AMAZING. OH BSG YOU MAKE MY HEART FLUTTER.
I know there is SO MUCH MORE I can't remember. It was really the most fun thing ever. Since we were driving home that night, and we had such a long wait, for a while I was thinking we should just skip the panel and start home, but it was SO WORTH IT. I only wish we'd been to them all. It was seriously the greatest thing ever, the perfect topper to a pretty damn perfect day.
Then Ollie and I drove home forever. It was like, one-thirty when we got home, and we'd been up a million hours but WOW was it worth it.
Telling my mom about it on the phone was hilarious. When I told her I met Samders, she was like, "is he the one who married the pilot who slept with the other guy before she married him?" Which... yes. He was. And she was so excited I got to meet Mary, and it was so nice all together and omg, best day ever.
Amanda's write-up.
Ollie's write-up.
Youtube channel with panel clips.
(Also, this is really... long. Sorry. I HAVE A LOT TO SAY BEST DAY EVER.)
So, I am cursed with a memory like swiss cheese, so I am doing my best to remember every in some version of sequential order, so we'll see how that goes.
Ollie (snapplesons) and I have been talking about going to Dragon*Con since like, April, right after she started watching. We're only five and a half hours from Atlanta, and she has a car, and, at least in my case, she is basically my only friend in real life that I could ever prevail upon to accompany me on this sort of trip. So it seemed perfect. But then we were doing the math with the gas and the hotel and the con tickets and it was way too expensive, so we let it drop. But I always felt like IF ONLY WE COULD JUST DO IT. IT'S MARY. OMG. And I felt this way up until I got a message on my facebook wall from Ollie telling me how single day passes weren't too expensive. And essentially the moment she said that, I was onboard. Then Amanda, soonersurrender offered to let us stay at her house for the night, and it was like fate was letting everything fall into place super nicely and it was DESTINY so off we went!
On Saturday I skipped the football game to drive to just north of Atlanta. While it is fun singing loudly in the car, long drives are tedious and annoying. However, we arrived at Amanda's house and her family was really nice and we hung out and squealed over icons and made fun of FatLee and stuff, and then I took sleep medicine and we decided to watch the extended version of "Unfinished Business" because Amanda had never seen it. Which I promptly fell asleep during because: sleep medication. Also, at least for me, there's a certain point in Unfinished Business where I've had enough cause it's Leemo and Thracer beating one another up because they're losers and I have no sympathy for them because they create their own problems/refuse to solve their own problems/are lame. So then I knocked the frak out.
AND THEN MY ALARM WENT OFF AT 6:50 and I was like, why in the name of God is my alarm going off? and then on my phone I had entitled the alarm "Mary" so that was flashing and it was like OMG TODAY IS MARY DAY so I was up like a shot. We drove to the MARTA station and then took the train in. It took forever, but I think it's only because I was so anxious. Amanda seemed to have a pretty good idea of what she was doing, though. So, we got off, followed people with costumes until we started hitting hotels, and then we got our badges.
OH HAI BADGE.
And, again. This was so super surreal. I am not a spontaneous person at all, so the fact that we decided to do something so immense on a Friday night and we were DOING IT on Sunday morning (at an ungodly hour.) And there were all these people in costume and everyone was really nice and happy and it WE WERE IN THE SAME LOCATION AS MARY WTF and so after we got our tickets we went to the hotel where they had the Walk of Fame. (Hilton? Hyatt?) We were in line before it opened. We had a nice conversation with the people ahead of us, and one girl was dressed as Dr Horrible and some guy had like, a portable music blarer so he played "My Freeze Ray" and it was neat.
So, ten am rolls around, and we go in. We find the Mary line and we are THE THIRD GROUP. Like, there were about five people ahead of us. That was it! And the people in charge told us Mary would be there "momentarily" and I think we all pretty much started freaking out. The girl ahead of us had already met Mary at least once, and said she was super nice and not to be freaked out but IT WAS MARY, HELLO, but she calmed us down a bit and gave us some tips and then SUDDENLY I LOOK OVER AND THERE SHE WAS. MARY WAS STANDING NOT TEN FEET FROM US, LOOKING BEAUTIFUL IN THIS ROYAL BLUE DRESS WITH HER HAIR ALL FANTASTIC AND WE. WERE. ABOUT. TO. MEET. HER.
It was really, really exciting and nauseating at the same time.
I wish my memory was better because, honestly? Meeting her was a blur. Maybe Ollie or Amanda will remember it better, but we went up there got our pictures for the autograph, and we were talking to her about how we drove up there last night from Florida basically for her (cue unreadable Mary expression #1: was she horrified that we were such losers? weirded out that we were such big fans of hers? modestly thinking she wasn't worth the effort?) and while I was having a hard time keeping steady Ollie was chattering away nonstop about the drive and how Eddie wasn't there etc. (Ollie's chatter funny and basically became a theme for the day.) OH AND WE TALKED ABOUT HER HAIR! How it was so pretty here in person and how we loved it on Greys because it was so sad that towards the end she only had the wig on and we missed her fabulous hair! Mary fluffed it a few times. She is adorable. Then! Mary is asking for my name and starting so sign my picture but Ollie continues to talk and Mary messes up, so I have to get another one. Ollie keeps talking! So I'm like, dude, let her write my picture, you can talk to her during yours! And then it was Ollie's turn and I stood there, essentially gazing until it was time to go, and we thanked her and she asked what else we were doing and we were like, er, essentially this and the BSG panel tonight, and she told us to 'go see the others' and to have fun.
And Mary is so, so beautiful. Like, breathtakingly so. Her eyes are so green and she's so nice and pretty and it didn't feel rushed or fake to me. She said she was still waking up, which Ollie said she felt affected her vivacity with us, but I feel it was really nice and MARY!
Madeline, thank you for making the trip
Best wishes always, Mary McDonnell "Roslin"
As we turn to walk away, at least Ollie and I started tearing up and gripping at one another all OMG OMG OMG OMG. We actually found a place to sit down and like, recover because holy frak, we had just met Mary. It was not even yet eleven in the morning and we had MET MARY. I actually left a pretty hilarious voice post at that time that was accidentally put on private but here is a link to the shaky voice post. And I called my mom and she was very proud that I hadn't cried in front of Mary and I think mostly I said things like "she's so nice!" and "she's so pretty" for like five minutes.
Then we went to purchase the actual photo with Mary at a different hotel. That didn't take too long. We decided to all split the picture, and then pay an additional ten bucks to get the file sent to one of our emails. It was decided that since Ollie had received precisely what she wanted from the day (she wagered that Mary would wear blue, and she was wearing the lovely blue dress, and also Ollie said "I'm Olivia" and Mary replied that it was her daughter's name, and Ollie had said earlier that if Mary didn't say that she would cry because it would mean that she wasn't really listening to us and it would be awful, but she did so Ollie's day was made,) Amanda and I would stand next to Mary and Ollie would get the glossy official picture.
So then we went back to the Walk of Fame, cause we wanted to meet Michael Trucco, AKA Samders. We decided while in line to try to get a pic with him. Ollie was saying in the line how she didn't want to be the one to speak first. Here is the problem, though: while amazingly handsome on TV, in person? Trucco is like a god, NO LIE. So we basically got up there and we were all like, giggling and saying 'hi' and I, at least, played with my hair, because we are clearly smitten teenagers. So Ollie blurts out "You're really attractive!" which got this nice banter going on between us all and Trucco would look you right in the eye with his amazing eyes and honestly? Knees: weakened. So beautiful omg. We asked for the picture then, and Trucco walked around (his hand on my back the whole time, siiiiiigh) and then we took the picture! He was incredibly nice to us and thanked us for coming and basically if he had said "let's go have sex in the bathroom right now" I would've been like "yes, yes a thousand times yes." He is that beautiful.
Maybe he should do that for living: be professionally good-looking.
And then we got in line to see Michael Hogan, who is COLONEL TIGH!!! We paid for the pic and his... wrangler dude was like, "these lovely young ladies would like to take a picture with you!" and Hogan was like "Yessss!" and jumped up and seemed genuinely thrilled to be there and stuff. We took the first picture, where he was standing between me and Amanda, and then he was like, let's do another one with me here! and moved between Amanda and Ollie. We all found that delightful and so considerate, so that picture is much better. So then we tried to remember that he was kind of there to talk about BSG so I think Amanda was like BTW we love Colonel Tigh and Ollie said how it was a spontanous trip for us (Hogan replied something about how it was 'super.' HE WAS SO CANADIAN AIEEE) and how it was for him too, and Hogan said how when the Admiral can't make it, the XO has to fill in, but he said it in the CLASSIC TIGH VOICE and it was like AIEEEEEE! So we thanked him and got into line with! ELLEN TIGH.
Take one!
Take two!
Ellen Tigh, who is, you know, played by Kate Vernon, was so pretty! And I was actually able to talk to her, because either Ollie or Amanda mentioned how awesome it was that Ellen got to come back from the dead as the final Cylon and Kate said how she was so pleased to be the mother of all cylons and something about how she and Tigh had this epic love story WHICH IS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS EVER so I basically spouted my love for THE TIGHS in a respectful, nonscary manner and Kate was talking to me about it and it was awesome! And then we took the picture and Kate was very sweet.
ELLEN TIGH!
So we walked around a bit more- the girls who played Dee and Kat were there, and also Gaeta and Tom Zarek, but we didn't want to pay for more pics- and we could see Karen Allen and Alan Rudd and Barry Bostwick and Kristy Swanson and all manner of other famous people, INCLUDING SPIKE WHICH WAS COOL except he didn't look like Spike. It was around noon at this point, so we were hm, what to do? I think at this point we went over to the Marriott and sat down and ate some snacks and stuff before realizing that in an hour or so, Karen Allen was giving a discussion. There was really nothing else we wanted to do until it was picture time with Mary, so we went over to do that.
At twelve something we went to sit in the room for Karen Allen, and it was so nice to be in real chairs. Also, Ollie and Amanda were twittering up a storm. However, the actual panel with Karen Allen was kind of boring, because... we liked her in the Indy movies, and I had seen her in Starman, and she remembered a lot of details and seemed genuinely happy to be talking about it, she talked a lot and had a lot of details that... we didn't so much care about. So we left which is so rude but god was it dull.
I think then Ollie and Amanda called their friend Dizzy? And I people watched. We saw Viper Pilots, Kara Annes, Drs Who and Horrible, a Kaylee dressed up like she was in Shindig, a very good Mal, a Han, Leia and Chewie that were all very nicely costumed, a bunch of girls in skimpy outfits they shouldn't have been wearing at all omg, a flash gordon that made a kid go "HI FLASH!" really excitedly, and like, two million small children.
Then we went down to wait for our picture with Mary? I can't think of anything else we might've done. We had to wait outside for a bit, then the Froggy people were trying to organize according to getting pictures with just Mary, or with Mary and Hogan, or with a group, or whatever. We were pretty close to the front here, and we were so excited to see Mary standing, with her fantastic shoes and hair and looking so pretty, but the Froggy people kept like, yelling at us. Now, I understand that they have like, twenty million people to get through, and they have to move quickly. I can appreciate that, even. But they were unnecessary harsh, I feel. I didn't like, step in and start chatting, I moved in and went over to Mary and they're like NO POSING LET'S GO and just yelling yelling yelling which made me feel anxious, and I can't imagine that actors standing there for hours hearing all those harsh instructions aren't made to feel more stressed out than necessary.
Ollie had asked Amanda to shake Mary's hand, so that I could and then she would, cause she was sad that Mary hadn't shaken our hands when we met her that morning (in my case, at least, I was okay with it- I hate shaking hands, I think it is incredibly weird, but then again, I am a hugger.) so Amanda did it and then I was considering it but Mary didn't look to into it, so I didn't. I was next to her, though, and I honestly couldn't even remember them taking the picture cause I was like OMG MARY MARY and she smelled so good. As we were leaving I said something like, "thank you for coming, Mary!" and Ollie said something too, that I can't remember, and then Mary called one of us "honey" which AIEEE and it was all over in two seconds after waiting for like, an hour, and it was really obnoxious. I didn't expect a photo shoot, but we paid good money for that picture. Anyway.
MARY! MARY MARY MARY!
Then we hung out for an eternity before the BSG Panel. We were pretty much happy that we hadn't come all four days, only because... really there wasn't too much else we wanted to do. We realize now that going to all the other panels would've been BALLER.
We got pretty good seats in the panel, on the aisle on the left side but in the group of seats closest to the stage, because Ollie is a ninja. From here on out, my memory has no sequentiality, really, so I'm just going to list all the awesome things I remember. (Because in the car on the way home, I wrote everything I could remember on my hand, and then on my arm. My memory sucks.
The writings on the hand.
For some reason I decided last night that 'openness' needed two Ps.
Bitch crazy.
Yubs: I must admit I'm curious what DID make your hand :-P
Me: i'll tell you:
Me: hatch- villian
Me: flask
Me: books
Me: xo replaces the admiral
Me: nc incarceration
Me: ellen and tigh love
Me: lee and sam's "tiff"
Me: colonial one = m
Me: 's
Me: when they had sex
Me: marriage
Me: openness
Me: taking laura shopping
Yubs: LOL!
Me: removing cylon #s
Me: "honey"
Me: very attractive
Me: and mary smelled good
- Kate Vernon talked more about the epic love between THE TIGHS. It was awesome. She had a really nice, thought-out answer about it and how they were just meant for each other, even after two thousand years, no matter what romantic entanglements Saul might've had. (Hogan was adorable during this, he was like 'yeah yeah.')
- Richard Hatch got asked if he thought Zarek was a hero or a villian. He also had a very long, intelligent response to this that really did make me think about the character more. Then Mary says flatly "I think you're a villian" and it was hilarious.
- When asked what everyone would change about their characters, everyone basically said they wished they'd had more sex, except Kate, who was like, "I did sleep with everyone" and it was hilarious. I think she then said she wished she'd slept with (maybe only drank with? But I think slept with) Adama, and someone asked which, and she was like, Either. Both.
- A girl asked Mary about Laura's reaction to Bill taking out the flask to hand to Ellen in season four. It wasn't in the script, it was just Mary being rad. She said that while Laura would've never said anything about it, because she wasn't like that, the whole drinking thing Papadama was doing was very threatening.
- Mary also answered as Laura all the time. She would say "I" instead of Laura, or differentiate- Mary thought this, Laura thought that. It was super cute.
- Mary did an Eddie impression! She got all gruff and was saying how when the writers' strike was starting Eddie kept saying that his agent was saying that BSG was essentially over. They were all filming the first Earth's November in England beach scene and calling agents frantically between takes.
- Someone asked about Laura's incarceration on New Caprica, what she endured and if she ever shared with Bill. Mary said that she felt that compared to most people, Laura got it pretty easy- mostly just isolation and being messed with, but no real torture or anything, mostly because Gaius had that weird thing for Mary. (Ollie correctly pointed out that Gaius essentially had no power, which is true, but I remember when he visited he basically said "get her out of here" and she was released, so IDK.) Mary also said that Laura wasn't one to talk about herself, and she didn't really like opening up, so she probably wouldn't have told Bill. Then she said something adorable about how if her marriage had lasted longer, or, if Laura had gotten to enjoy her marriage at all- maybe the intimacy grown from that would've had her open up to Bill. Which, let me just say: I love so much that Mary always refers to that as their wedding. I LOVE IT. IT IS SICK AND I LOVE IT TO PIECES.
- Someone asked Trucco if he was ever sad that Samders never got to had it out with Lee for frakking his woman. Trucco was like, "One word answer: yes." Then he said how Sam and Lee only ever got to have a "tiff" on the algae planet, which I found delightful.
- Alessandro Juliani was very cute! He came out taking pictures of the audience, and during the panel he was showing them to Trucco. It was very cute. (Sidebar: everyone kept chatting quietly- not rudely, but like, omg, look at this!- during the panel. It was like they were so excited to see one another. So effing cute.) Anyway, someone asked if Gaeta's feelings for Baltar were hero worship or a man crush, and Juliani answered how Baltar was a sexual omnivore and things like that, so he ended with "who knows what happened on that airplane on New Caprica?" and over in her seat, Mary points at herself and says, "your mean my airplane?" and said something about things like that did not happen on her plane. It was adorable.
- I think the first question was someone asking Mary when she thought Papadama and Lauroslin had sex. I know that Mary and Eddie have said before they thought it was that night on New Caprica, which Ollie and I figure that Eddie maintains- Mary said Eddie says it happened in season two, which, since Unfinished Business was a flashback to before the Occupation, which was the end of season two, is technically correct- but Mary now thinks that it was the first time we saw them being intimate in season four.
- Someone asked what the actors would do if they met their characters in real life, and Mary said she would like to take Laura shopping, which I thought was precious. Kate Vernon said she'd be a bit scared of Ellen, but she'd try to take her to like, a spa day with yoga and stuff, away from men and booze.
- how books represent Papadama and Lauroslin's relationship! Mary said it's good because literature is romantic, and also because Bill reads sloooooow and Laura likes it. The reading was clearly a euphemism. IT WAS AWESOME.
- Towards the beginning someone asked Mary what she missed most about being Laura, and Mary said she missed being president, and Richard Hatch deadpans "Me too." IT WAS AWESOME. It set the tone for the whole panel, because they kept jumping and it was great.
- Someone asked if when the final five cylons were revealed to be in the fleet, were their numbers erased off the whiteboard, and Mary was like YES THEY WERE.
- AND WE "SO SAY WE ALL"ED LIKE EIGHT TIMES. IT WAS AMAZING. OH BSG YOU MAKE MY HEART FLUTTER.
I know there is SO MUCH MORE I can't remember. It was really the most fun thing ever. Since we were driving home that night, and we had such a long wait, for a while I was thinking we should just skip the panel and start home, but it was SO WORTH IT. I only wish we'd been to them all. It was seriously the greatest thing ever, the perfect topper to a pretty damn perfect day.
Then Ollie and I drove home forever. It was like, one-thirty when we got home, and we'd been up a million hours but WOW was it worth it.
Telling my mom about it on the phone was hilarious. When I told her I met Samders, she was like, "is he the one who married the pilot who slept with the other guy before she married him?" Which... yes. He was. And she was so excited I got to meet Mary, and it was so nice all together and omg, best day ever.
Amanda's write-up.
Ollie's write-up.
Youtube channel with panel clips.