sarah_p says this post will be epic.
Okay, so, I love my bed but it is absolutely nothing in comparison to the amazing beds at the LAX Marriott. Seriously, when I crawled into bed last night I was severely unimpressed by my level of mediocre comfort. UGH. Can we just go back to L.A. already?
That being said, I'm already in Jared & Jensen withdrawal and I miss having everything being all about Supernatural, all day. Damn that convention for getting under my skin and whatnot. Since notyourstarx0 and I are already basically trying to plot a way to go to another. Maybe Chicago? L.A. next year?
Um, before I go off on that tangent, I'm just going to dive into recapping day two of the convention. Last night I uploaded all my pictures and did some resizing and cropping and it took forever so I thought I'd get a fresh start today and pick up where I left off while still in L.A. I already wrote about our adventures on Friday night, so on to Saturday! I'm just going to put it under a cut so that I can add pictures where I see fit and I don't completely flood my friends list.
So, right. On Friday night we were so freakin' dead tired but obviously while Rachel crashed directly after Jason's concert was over, I updated my journal and then joined her in the...crashing. I think I eventually turned off the lights around 1:30 and I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow. Luckily we'd already registered that night so we got to kind of sleep in on Saturday morning! I think we got up around 9:30 and I took the bathroom first so that Rachel could lie in bed for a little while longer (at which point she discovered that we didn't have many very good television channels) and then we switched off. We were both finally showered and dressed a little before 11:30 (we were aiming to be downstairs by noon) so we left a little early so we could partake in the full-service Starbucks in the lobby.
We briefly enjoyed our drinks and respective pastries and then decided to waste a few more minutes before the start of the program of events by going into the room where all the vendors were. BAD IDEA. I don't think either of us were really planning to buy anything but, um, that didn't happen. The first thing we both went for, of course, were the semi-large banners for $25 that neither of us really have a place or use for. I think we were originally going to have those signed by the boys at the autograph sessions but then we ended up buying several of the glossy photographs to have them sign instead. Rachel got one of Jensen, one of Jared and one of Sandy and I got one of each of the three of them, too, plus pictures of Chad and Fred. I also purchased the individual photo sleeves for each picture, a big sleeve for the "poster" of the Impala that the Gold Weekend patrons received as their gift that I was planning on having Kripke sign, a shot glass for myself and a mug for my mom since, you know, she collects mugs and I really knew of nothing else worth bringing her as a souvenir. Unless I found a way to put Jensen in my checked luggage :D
By the time we were done at the vendors tables, we didn't have time to take our purchases up to our room so we decided we'd do it later and went and found our seats in the ballroom in time to watch the awesome fan videos that were being played for us, particularly the one about how everyone wants to kick Dean's ass, which was hilariously perfect and the awesome Tenacious D knock-off that I understand was originally made for Chicago last year.
Before we knew it, Fredric Lane was on the stage as the first official Q&A panelist, regaling us with his version of "Sympathy for the Devil" with a few key changes, as I understand he did back in November in Chicago. He apologized for making repeat con-goers sit through his song but I don't think any of them actually minded ;D He also said that he'd have to have a new "equally ridiculous" way to kick off his panel for upcoming conventions but the response to his chosen way of starting off with a bang was pretty great.
But...Fred, Fred, Fred. What can I say? He was really a constant source of entertainment the entire day. He really turned out to be a very charming, very charismatic man, which I wasn't entirely expecting. I also told Rachel that I think he could be Hugh Laurie's bastard twin. I don't think he's quite as attractive (or as British!) as Hugh but he really was good looking and we couldn't help but notice that.
I think what I was most impressed with was the fact that even when the questions weren't coming for him one after another, he didn't let the dead silence infiltrate and become awkward for everyone in the audience, which is what happened several times later, particularly in Chad and Jason's panels. God love them. But Fred was full of anecdotes and silly comments and stories, even though I think he talked more about his work on previous shows and movies than he did about his work on Supernatural. Which was okay, though, because he kept things enlightening and entertaining all at once, no matter what the topic was.
I'm going to pause here to say: I'm not really going to even attempt to cover what each of the guests actually talked about in their panels. I was too busy just enjoying them to take notes and I know there are plenty of reviews from guests at the convention out there where you can get that information if you're so inclined. Along with videos! YouTube has been predictably invaded. So, yeah, I'm just going to skim the surface. ONWARD!
So, a few pictures of Fredric during his panel. I'll say ahead of time that though I was in the fifth row and my view of the stage was really good, my pictures are not all that fantastic from the Q&A sessions. The lighting was bad (pretty much in the whole hotel) and therefore they came out a bit dark and grainy and because I'm short there are always heads in the way.
Right after Fred's panel was over Rachel and I took a leave of absence during a rousing Supernatural fan trivia session to go to our photo op with him. The line was a decent size but we got through it quickly and were having our picture taken before we knew it. Fredric decided it'd be awesome as we flanked him for the photo to grab our sides and squeeze our love handles, which prompted the both of us screeching and jumping so Chris (the photographer) had to re-take it. Funnily enough, that first picture ended up being better than the re-take because in the re-take Rachel's eyes are half-closed. Plus, in the original, Fred is making a delightfully crazy face with his eyes all bugged out and his tongue sticking out. Also, he mentioned something after asking us our names about how he had two ladies from "the Old Testament" and Rachel and I didn't have the heart to tell him that while he was right about her name, there was definitely no Erin in the Bible.
And here is our phenomenal picture with Fredric:
So then it was back to the ballroom because next up was the incomparable Jason Manns. Honestly, I really love the guy and there's not a hint of sarcasm in that but one can't help but be amused that he's getting all these con gigs because he has the good fortune of being friends with Jensen. And for that reason I wasn't all surprised (who was?) that the very first question he got during his Q&A panel was about how he knows Jensen. Poor Jason probably should have expanded upon his answer, but at least he did give us a response to that burning question about how he was invited to a party at Jensen's place not long after moving to L.A. and they sort of ~bonded~ over their mutual love of music when he picked up Jensen's guitar and began tinkering around on it. It was a short explanation (he's not really a very long-winded man, as opposed to, say, Kripke, who I think likes the sound of his own voice) but it seemed to satisfy the masses.
I think the most enjoyable thing about listening to him talk is that he seems so focused on his music and he really appeared to like being able to discuss it with the fans. He talked at length about the fact that he's started hundreds of songs and finished so very few because he has no real tried and true song writing process and that lyrics in particular come to him at odd times (like while driving in his car or sitting in an airport terminal, etc.). He also mentioned that it's the fan response to his music that inspires him to keep working at his art so that we aren't all someday listening to music by some "accountant in West Virginia."
He just seemed like a very genuine person - like everyone else who appeared at the convention as a guest. Very laid-back and down-to-earth and I just loved how willing he was at the end of his panel to just unpack his guitar from its case and sing us a song upon request of the audience. I want to say that he sang "Dance, Dance, Dance" by the Steve Miller band, but I could be imagining that. Either way, I thought it was a particularly nice way for him to close his session and it appeared as though he was pleased by the opportunity to perform for a few minutes, too, since he mentioned how "naked" he felt at the mic without his guitar while he was answering questions.
And then there was Chad Lindberg. His panel was so incredibly awkward for the vast majority of the time. He was just so uncomfortable, bless his cotton socks. But I think we all sort of saw it coming. Ash's character wasn't really on the show for all that long and, hello, he's dead now. Rachel and I mused over whether every question would end up being about his mullet ahead of time and while it didn't come to that, it seemed as though the crowd wasn't having an easy go of coming up with questions for him. Thank God he took the painful silences in stride. Even though he asked us all about "what's up" more times than I could count on both hands. He pretty much did it every time there wasn't someone in line to ask him a question and it just made me cringe.
But luckily everyone had the same impression about Chad being a little uneasy and went out of their way to come up with things for him to talk about so that he wouldn't have to talk about a "typical day on the set" for more than five minutes after being prompted by one of the people from Creation. I mean, I think crafts services came up at one point and that was really when I just wanted his panel to be over. For his sake and ours. Even though he was really endearing in the way that he continuously cracked himself up. He would just start giggling at his own comments and, in turn, everyone in the audience would start laughing, too. The most notable thing about his Q&A is about how obvious it was that he really wishes Ash would come back to the show because he really never got a chance to go "on the road." He's kind of hoping that Ash will show up and save Sam and Dean's asses by popping out of the abyss unexpectedly with a bow and arrow--which he demonstrated. He was really entertaining when he actually got the chance to talk about something that didn't require a one-word answer and he seemed like a really good-natured, happy guy...if not for obviously being a bit shy.
And then...and then, Eric Kripke! He is SO THE MAN and I'm not even entirely sure that he realizes it. He seemed to be legitimately surprised that everyone was so excited to see him and have him there at the convention as a guest and even made a comment upon taking the stage that he made a bet with his wife about how many people would actually be there to sit through his panel and how flattered he was by our support of him and the show.
Guys, he was seriously ridiculously entertaining. Even more so than I could have garnered from written or recorded interviews. Especially after the collective audience gave him the go-ahead to curse and then he couldn't seem to stop. "Fucking shit," "clusterfuck," "motherfucker," and any other combination that includes the word "fuck" seem to be among his favorite expletives and he really enjoyed expressing his enthusiasm in that fashion. He was really adamant about how much the fandom drives him crazy but also that he loves us for being a real pain in his ass and giving him the constant incentive to strive to continuously improve upon the show.
He was really generous about answering a lot of questions for us - the lines were outstandingly long - and went about it in a really candid way instead of one that was over-rehearsed and boring, which would have really made him lose his luster for me. Oh! And Rachel even got to ask him a question! She made note of how great Colin Ford and Ridge Canipe were as young Sam and Dean in "A Very Supernatural Christmas" and how nuanced and spot-on their performances were and wanted to know about the casting process and what they were looking for in actors for those roles and you can see the answer that Eric gave courtesy of some wonderful soul that uploaded it to YouTube. I took a video on my point-and-shoot camera but for some reason none of my computers want to recognize the videos that are on the memory card. BAH. I'll have to post all my videos later when I find a way to rectify the problem.
There was so much greatness in Eric's panel that I wouldn't even be able to begin recapping it all so...right, pictures of The Krip!
Aaaand Rachel while in line to ask Eric her question.
So then it was time for autographs! Yay! I really thought that it would take forever and a day but the lines moved surprisingly fast (which ended up being the trend with lines for the weekend) and it helped that Rachel and I were in the fifth row so were in and out pretty fast. We started in Eric's line and though I loved the cheesetastic headshots he was signing, I had him sign the Impala picture that we got at registration since I plan to hang it and...I don't know, it's more...aesthetically pleasing? And I got to ask him my burning question about whether or not they'd ever though about setting an episode in my hometown (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - America's most haunted, bitches!) and he told me that they had thought about doing a Civil War ghost episode more than once with a battlefield being a "dark spot" of supernatural activity. He ended up reassuring me that they definitely haven't ruled the possibility out, so that's cool. Not that it would be shot on location but, still.
I should mention for posterity that this whole time that we were in line for Eric's autograph, Fred Lane was mysteriously missing so we automatically moved over to get in line for Jason and Chad for the time being and when Fred did turn up it was pretty much deduced that he'd been off getting sloshed since for the rest of the evening he continued to become increasingly punch happy and uncoordinated.
As I was saying, though, we got in line to get autographs from Chad and Jason while waiting for Fred to show up. I bought my own copy of the Jason/Jensen single to have signed by Jason and while he was mostly noncommittal during the actual signing, he was very smiley and gracious when he thanked me for my support and told me to enjoy the CD...as if I hadn't already done that! And I didn't get to talk to Chad for long, either, but I did tell him that I loved the picture of him that I had him sign because it's so "intense" and he thought that was particularly hilarious and was giggling his way through the autographing process, right up until the time that I thanked him and even as I was walking away.
And by then Mr. Lane had been located and was set up at a table for his own autograph session and so Rachel and I hopped in that line and got through it pretty quickly. As I put my picture of him down for him to sign (you'll see what it looks like) I started to say that I hoped he could find some free space to sign and he pretty much cut me off by saying that he really had no choice but to sign over his own face but that I wouldn't be "missing anything." And then he wiggled his eyebrows at me and called me "sweetie" and that was pretty much reaffirmation of him being an awesomely dirty old man (since he did pinch our sides). Who was drunk. It's just a fact!
Have some autograph photos!
Eric Kripke.
Jason Manns.
Chad Lindberg.
Fredric Lane (with the reflection of my arms and camera...)
So with the bulk of the day's events out of the way, Rachel and I decided it was time to take our stuff back to our room and assuage our hunger. We went to Champion's (the sports bar in the hotel) and had dinner (I had some bangin' barbecue chicken quesadillas, for the record) and then headed up to our room to relax for, oh, all of an hour or so. We were both so tired again that we were briefly contemplating not even going back downstairs on time for Steve Carlson's concert but we eventually did and the band wasn't even on stage yet so it ended up not being a problem.
The concert turned out to be really good and while it started out almost disturbingly low-key (which was weird because it was about as quiet as Jason's concert the previous night...where it was just Jason and his acoustic guitar as opposed to Steve and his entire band) things eventually got a lot more upbeat. I guess. I'm used to my concert experiences being deafeningly loud with a lot of drunks and crazy dancing so this wasn't quite of that magnitude but eventually there was dancing and bobbing along at Steve's prompting. Who knows whether it was because the fangirls started getting a little bit tipsy from trips to the bar or whether they just didn't want Steve and the band to be playing to a bunch of corpses sitting dead still in their chairs, but I was glad that things loosened up. Even if some of the grooving I saw was really questionable and reason for concern.
The highlight of the concert, though, was probably finally finding sarah_p. We met on the spn_con_squee community prior to L.A. and planned to meet up for dinner on Sunday with a few other people but up until the concert that night we hadn't managed to cross paths. At least not when we were aware of it. Who knows whether or not we saw each other before without realizing. But Rachel and I were just being our normal geektastic selves in party-boying one another and slow-dancing like sixth grades when afrocurl came up behind us and questioned us about whether we were Rachel and Erin. Color me confused! But it turned out that Roz had managed to track us down for Sarah and she got pretty lucky in identifying us. I'm glad she did, though! Because then the three of us waved to Sarah from across the room and she and Roz came to join us from row M for the rest of the concert. Where we did more varied horrible dance moves and talked more than we actually listened to the music. I should be shamefaced about that but Sarah was cracking us up by regaling us with her encounters with some of the awesome crazies at the convention and we actually ended up talking long after the concert was over.
By that time Rachel and I were supposed to be headed to a different room for the dessert party but, um, yeah. We were late. Because we were really in no hurry for that particular event and unanimously agreed that talking to Sarah was better. Plus, when we finally did leave her, we were at the dessert for approximately five minutes. Just long enough to see that it wasn't quite a raging party and that Fred was so plastered that he was sloshing coffee everywhere while he walked and probably wasn't really going to be all that coherent for the rest of the night. Chad wasn't even there and it wasn't until we left the party that we saw him coming out of the bathroom. MEH. We weren't too concerned.
So we went back to our room and I texted Sarah and told her that if she wanted to come down to our room and hang out for a while, that'd be cool. And she did! We spent probably the next hour or so flailing about the upcoming events for the next day and making pillow porn (I'd post a few pictures but Rachel would filet me!) with the suspiciously shaped decorative pillows from our beds before we finally parted ways for the night. Sarah went back up to the sixth floor to sneak into her room in an attempt not to wake Roz and Rachel and I hit the sack, knowing we were planning on being up at 4:30 in the morning (it was already after midnight) so that we would be able to shower and get dressed for the day and make it downstairs by 6:30 or 7-ish to get in line for the breakfast with the boys.
This only took me like, you know, four hours. So I'll continue on with Sunday's events later!
That being said, I'm already in Jared & Jensen withdrawal and I miss having everything being all about Supernatural, all day. Damn that convention for getting under my skin and whatnot. Since notyourstarx0 and I are already basically trying to plot a way to go to another. Maybe Chicago? L.A. next year?
Um, before I go off on that tangent, I'm just going to dive into recapping day two of the convention. Last night I uploaded all my pictures and did some resizing and cropping and it took forever so I thought I'd get a fresh start today and pick up where I left off while still in L.A. I already wrote about our adventures on Friday night, so on to Saturday! I'm just going to put it under a cut so that I can add pictures where I see fit and I don't completely flood my friends list.
So, right. On Friday night we were so freakin' dead tired but obviously while Rachel crashed directly after Jason's concert was over, I updated my journal and then joined her in the...crashing. I think I eventually turned off the lights around 1:30 and I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow. Luckily we'd already registered that night so we got to kind of sleep in on Saturday morning! I think we got up around 9:30 and I took the bathroom first so that Rachel could lie in bed for a little while longer (at which point she discovered that we didn't have many very good television channels) and then we switched off. We were both finally showered and dressed a little before 11:30 (we were aiming to be downstairs by noon) so we left a little early so we could partake in the full-service Starbucks in the lobby.
We briefly enjoyed our drinks and respective pastries and then decided to waste a few more minutes before the start of the program of events by going into the room where all the vendors were. BAD IDEA. I don't think either of us were really planning to buy anything but, um, that didn't happen. The first thing we both went for, of course, were the semi-large banners for $25 that neither of us really have a place or use for. I think we were originally going to have those signed by the boys at the autograph sessions but then we ended up buying several of the glossy photographs to have them sign instead. Rachel got one of Jensen, one of Jared and one of Sandy and I got one of each of the three of them, too, plus pictures of Chad and Fred. I also purchased the individual photo sleeves for each picture, a big sleeve for the "poster" of the Impala that the Gold Weekend patrons received as their gift that I was planning on having Kripke sign, a shot glass for myself and a mug for my mom since, you know, she collects mugs and I really knew of nothing else worth bringing her as a souvenir. Unless I found a way to put Jensen in my checked luggage :D
By the time we were done at the vendors tables, we didn't have time to take our purchases up to our room so we decided we'd do it later and went and found our seats in the ballroom in time to watch the awesome fan videos that were being played for us, particularly the one about how everyone wants to kick Dean's ass, which was hilariously perfect and the awesome Tenacious D knock-off that I understand was originally made for Chicago last year.
Before we knew it, Fredric Lane was on the stage as the first official Q&A panelist, regaling us with his version of "Sympathy for the Devil" with a few key changes, as I understand he did back in November in Chicago. He apologized for making repeat con-goers sit through his song but I don't think any of them actually minded ;D He also said that he'd have to have a new "equally ridiculous" way to kick off his panel for upcoming conventions but the response to his chosen way of starting off with a bang was pretty great.
But...Fred, Fred, Fred. What can I say? He was really a constant source of entertainment the entire day. He really turned out to be a very charming, very charismatic man, which I wasn't entirely expecting. I also told Rachel that I think he could be Hugh Laurie's bastard twin. I don't think he's quite as attractive (or as British!) as Hugh but he really was good looking and we couldn't help but notice that.
I think what I was most impressed with was the fact that even when the questions weren't coming for him one after another, he didn't let the dead silence infiltrate and become awkward for everyone in the audience, which is what happened several times later, particularly in Chad and Jason's panels. God love them. But Fred was full of anecdotes and silly comments and stories, even though I think he talked more about his work on previous shows and movies than he did about his work on Supernatural. Which was okay, though, because he kept things enlightening and entertaining all at once, no matter what the topic was.
I'm going to pause here to say: I'm not really going to even attempt to cover what each of the guests actually talked about in their panels. I was too busy just enjoying them to take notes and I know there are plenty of reviews from guests at the convention out there where you can get that information if you're so inclined. Along with videos! YouTube has been predictably invaded. So, yeah, I'm just going to skim the surface. ONWARD!
So, a few pictures of Fredric during his panel. I'll say ahead of time that though I was in the fifth row and my view of the stage was really good, my pictures are not all that fantastic from the Q&A sessions. The lighting was bad (pretty much in the whole hotel) and therefore they came out a bit dark and grainy and because I'm short there are always heads in the way.
Right after Fred's panel was over Rachel and I took a leave of absence during a rousing Supernatural fan trivia session to go to our photo op with him. The line was a decent size but we got through it quickly and were having our picture taken before we knew it. Fredric decided it'd be awesome as we flanked him for the photo to grab our sides and squeeze our love handles, which prompted the both of us screeching and jumping so Chris (the photographer) had to re-take it. Funnily enough, that first picture ended up being better than the re-take because in the re-take Rachel's eyes are half-closed. Plus, in the original, Fred is making a delightfully crazy face with his eyes all bugged out and his tongue sticking out. Also, he mentioned something after asking us our names about how he had two ladies from "the Old Testament" and Rachel and I didn't have the heart to tell him that while he was right about her name, there was definitely no Erin in the Bible.
And here is our phenomenal picture with Fredric:
So then it was back to the ballroom because next up was the incomparable Jason Manns. Honestly, I really love the guy and there's not a hint of sarcasm in that but one can't help but be amused that he's getting all these con gigs because he has the good fortune of being friends with Jensen. And for that reason I wasn't all surprised (who was?) that the very first question he got during his Q&A panel was about how he knows Jensen. Poor Jason probably should have expanded upon his answer, but at least he did give us a response to that burning question about how he was invited to a party at Jensen's place not long after moving to L.A. and they sort of ~bonded~ over their mutual love of music when he picked up Jensen's guitar and began tinkering around on it. It was a short explanation (he's not really a very long-winded man, as opposed to, say, Kripke, who I think likes the sound of his own voice) but it seemed to satisfy the masses.
I think the most enjoyable thing about listening to him talk is that he seems so focused on his music and he really appeared to like being able to discuss it with the fans. He talked at length about the fact that he's started hundreds of songs and finished so very few because he has no real tried and true song writing process and that lyrics in particular come to him at odd times (like while driving in his car or sitting in an airport terminal, etc.). He also mentioned that it's the fan response to his music that inspires him to keep working at his art so that we aren't all someday listening to music by some "accountant in West Virginia."
He just seemed like a very genuine person - like everyone else who appeared at the convention as a guest. Very laid-back and down-to-earth and I just loved how willing he was at the end of his panel to just unpack his guitar from its case and sing us a song upon request of the audience. I want to say that he sang "Dance, Dance, Dance" by the Steve Miller band, but I could be imagining that. Either way, I thought it was a particularly nice way for him to close his session and it appeared as though he was pleased by the opportunity to perform for a few minutes, too, since he mentioned how "naked" he felt at the mic without his guitar while he was answering questions.
And then there was Chad Lindberg. His panel was so incredibly awkward for the vast majority of the time. He was just so uncomfortable, bless his cotton socks. But I think we all sort of saw it coming. Ash's character wasn't really on the show for all that long and, hello, he's dead now. Rachel and I mused over whether every question would end up being about his mullet ahead of time and while it didn't come to that, it seemed as though the crowd wasn't having an easy go of coming up with questions for him. Thank God he took the painful silences in stride. Even though he asked us all about "what's up" more times than I could count on both hands. He pretty much did it every time there wasn't someone in line to ask him a question and it just made me cringe.
But luckily everyone had the same impression about Chad being a little uneasy and went out of their way to come up with things for him to talk about so that he wouldn't have to talk about a "typical day on the set" for more than five minutes after being prompted by one of the people from Creation. I mean, I think crafts services came up at one point and that was really when I just wanted his panel to be over. For his sake and ours. Even though he was really endearing in the way that he continuously cracked himself up. He would just start giggling at his own comments and, in turn, everyone in the audience would start laughing, too. The most notable thing about his Q&A is about how obvious it was that he really wishes Ash would come back to the show because he really never got a chance to go "on the road." He's kind of hoping that Ash will show up and save Sam and Dean's asses by popping out of the abyss unexpectedly with a bow and arrow--which he demonstrated. He was really entertaining when he actually got the chance to talk about something that didn't require a one-word answer and he seemed like a really good-natured, happy guy...if not for obviously being a bit shy.
And then...and then, Eric Kripke! He is SO THE MAN and I'm not even entirely sure that he realizes it. He seemed to be legitimately surprised that everyone was so excited to see him and have him there at the convention as a guest and even made a comment upon taking the stage that he made a bet with his wife about how many people would actually be there to sit through his panel and how flattered he was by our support of him and the show.
Guys, he was seriously ridiculously entertaining. Even more so than I could have garnered from written or recorded interviews. Especially after the collective audience gave him the go-ahead to curse and then he couldn't seem to stop. "Fucking shit," "clusterfuck," "motherfucker," and any other combination that includes the word "fuck" seem to be among his favorite expletives and he really enjoyed expressing his enthusiasm in that fashion. He was really adamant about how much the fandom drives him crazy but also that he loves us for being a real pain in his ass and giving him the constant incentive to strive to continuously improve upon the show.
He was really generous about answering a lot of questions for us - the lines were outstandingly long - and went about it in a really candid way instead of one that was over-rehearsed and boring, which would have really made him lose his luster for me. Oh! And Rachel even got to ask him a question! She made note of how great Colin Ford and Ridge Canipe were as young Sam and Dean in "A Very Supernatural Christmas" and how nuanced and spot-on their performances were and wanted to know about the casting process and what they were looking for in actors for those roles and you can see the answer that Eric gave courtesy of some wonderful soul that uploaded it to YouTube. I took a video on my point-and-shoot camera but for some reason none of my computers want to recognize the videos that are on the memory card. BAH. I'll have to post all my videos later when I find a way to rectify the problem.
There was so much greatness in Eric's panel that I wouldn't even be able to begin recapping it all so...right, pictures of The Krip!
Aaaand Rachel while in line to ask Eric her question.
So then it was time for autographs! Yay! I really thought that it would take forever and a day but the lines moved surprisingly fast (which ended up being the trend with lines for the weekend) and it helped that Rachel and I were in the fifth row so were in and out pretty fast. We started in Eric's line and though I loved the cheesetastic headshots he was signing, I had him sign the Impala picture that we got at registration since I plan to hang it and...I don't know, it's more...aesthetically pleasing? And I got to ask him my burning question about whether or not they'd ever though about setting an episode in my hometown (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - America's most haunted, bitches!) and he told me that they had thought about doing a Civil War ghost episode more than once with a battlefield being a "dark spot" of supernatural activity. He ended up reassuring me that they definitely haven't ruled the possibility out, so that's cool. Not that it would be shot on location but, still.
I should mention for posterity that this whole time that we were in line for Eric's autograph, Fred Lane was mysteriously missing so we automatically moved over to get in line for Jason and Chad for the time being and when Fred did turn up it was pretty much deduced that he'd been off getting sloshed since for the rest of the evening he continued to become increasingly punch happy and uncoordinated.
As I was saying, though, we got in line to get autographs from Chad and Jason while waiting for Fred to show up. I bought my own copy of the Jason/Jensen single to have signed by Jason and while he was mostly noncommittal during the actual signing, he was very smiley and gracious when he thanked me for my support and told me to enjoy the CD...as if I hadn't already done that! And I didn't get to talk to Chad for long, either, but I did tell him that I loved the picture of him that I had him sign because it's so "intense" and he thought that was particularly hilarious and was giggling his way through the autographing process, right up until the time that I thanked him and even as I was walking away.
And by then Mr. Lane had been located and was set up at a table for his own autograph session and so Rachel and I hopped in that line and got through it pretty quickly. As I put my picture of him down for him to sign (you'll see what it looks like) I started to say that I hoped he could find some free space to sign and he pretty much cut me off by saying that he really had no choice but to sign over his own face but that I wouldn't be "missing anything." And then he wiggled his eyebrows at me and called me "sweetie" and that was pretty much reaffirmation of him being an awesomely dirty old man (since he did pinch our sides). Who was drunk. It's just a fact!
Have some autograph photos!
Eric Kripke.
Jason Manns.
Chad Lindberg.
Fredric Lane (with the reflection of my arms and camera...)
So with the bulk of the day's events out of the way, Rachel and I decided it was time to take our stuff back to our room and assuage our hunger. We went to Champion's (the sports bar in the hotel) and had dinner (I had some bangin' barbecue chicken quesadillas, for the record) and then headed up to our room to relax for, oh, all of an hour or so. We were both so tired again that we were briefly contemplating not even going back downstairs on time for Steve Carlson's concert but we eventually did and the band wasn't even on stage yet so it ended up not being a problem.
The concert turned out to be really good and while it started out almost disturbingly low-key (which was weird because it was about as quiet as Jason's concert the previous night...where it was just Jason and his acoustic guitar as opposed to Steve and his entire band) things eventually got a lot more upbeat. I guess. I'm used to my concert experiences being deafeningly loud with a lot of drunks and crazy dancing so this wasn't quite of that magnitude but eventually there was dancing and bobbing along at Steve's prompting. Who knows whether it was because the fangirls started getting a little bit tipsy from trips to the bar or whether they just didn't want Steve and the band to be playing to a bunch of corpses sitting dead still in their chairs, but I was glad that things loosened up. Even if some of the grooving I saw was really questionable and reason for concern.
The highlight of the concert, though, was probably finally finding sarah_p. We met on the spn_con_squee community prior to L.A. and planned to meet up for dinner on Sunday with a few other people but up until the concert that night we hadn't managed to cross paths. At least not when we were aware of it. Who knows whether or not we saw each other before without realizing. But Rachel and I were just being our normal geektastic selves in party-boying one another and slow-dancing like sixth grades when afrocurl came up behind us and questioned us about whether we were Rachel and Erin. Color me confused! But it turned out that Roz had managed to track us down for Sarah and she got pretty lucky in identifying us. I'm glad she did, though! Because then the three of us waved to Sarah from across the room and she and Roz came to join us from row M for the rest of the concert. Where we did more varied horrible dance moves and talked more than we actually listened to the music. I should be shamefaced about that but Sarah was cracking us up by regaling us with her encounters with some of the awesome crazies at the convention and we actually ended up talking long after the concert was over.
By that time Rachel and I were supposed to be headed to a different room for the dessert party but, um, yeah. We were late. Because we were really in no hurry for that particular event and unanimously agreed that talking to Sarah was better. Plus, when we finally did leave her, we were at the dessert for approximately five minutes. Just long enough to see that it wasn't quite a raging party and that Fred was so plastered that he was sloshing coffee everywhere while he walked and probably wasn't really going to be all that coherent for the rest of the night. Chad wasn't even there and it wasn't until we left the party that we saw him coming out of the bathroom. MEH. We weren't too concerned.
So we went back to our room and I texted Sarah and told her that if she wanted to come down to our room and hang out for a while, that'd be cool. And she did! We spent probably the next hour or so flailing about the upcoming events for the next day and making pillow porn (I'd post a few pictures but Rachel would filet me!) with the suspiciously shaped decorative pillows from our beds before we finally parted ways for the night. Sarah went back up to the sixth floor to sneak into her room in an attempt not to wake Roz and Rachel and I hit the sack, knowing we were planning on being up at 4:30 in the morning (it was already after midnight) so that we would be able to shower and get dressed for the day and make it downstairs by 6:30 or 7-ish to get in line for the breakfast with the boys.
This only took me like, you know, four hours. So I'll continue on with Sunday's events later!