The Rest of Con (Part One)
I stopped having time to do entries on Friday morning, so I have a few days to cover. I was going to do the rest of Con in this post, but for your sake I'm doing half today and hopefully the rest tomorrow (it's taken me ALL DAY to do this half!).
First a pic from Thursday, taken at the Flight booth. Jeff and Scott were visiting.
From left to right is Kean Soo, Kazu Kibuishi, Johane Matte (in front), Jeff Smith (back), Amy Kim Ganter (in front) and Scott (McCloud)(back). There are other Flight type people in the background, but I can't see them well enough to know who. Cameras were flying so lots of shots were taken of this group.
Sky and Kendra will gladly tell you that they had a much better Friday than I did. They went off to Hall H early in the morning and then just stayed there for hours. They saw the WB panel, which was 2.5 hours of big name stars and blockbuster movies with lots of clips. They also got to see the Disney panel that had Hayao Miyazaki and some amazing Disney people, along with clips from many movies that I am dying to see.
I got to the convention center late after having a lovely breakfast and writing my blog post. I hung out with Winter and her friend Amanda for a bit, and then realized that if we went now, maybe we could make it into the Disney panel. HA! I am such a fool. We did not. We waited in the hot sun for a long time, though. After a bit, Winter couldn't take it and went back to the hotel and Amanda and I waited the couple of hours it took to get in. We missed all of Disney but got in in time to see the panel for 9 which looks just as awesome as I thought it would.
After that fairly short panel, we decided that despite having waited two hours to get into the room, we really didn't need to stay past the one panel, so we took off. Amanda went to meet her mom to hang out with her for the rest of the day, and I went to wander the halls.
The reason I should do these reports on the day, is that I no longer have any memory of Friday afternoon, other than hanging around in the Sails Pavilion (where autographing, registering, cool air and a bunch of tables are) with Kathy Li, and Lori and Eric. Almost every day of Con I had a Mrs Fields cookie and a diet Dr. Pepper for lunch (for, I think, $6.25!) and hung out for a few hours there, so they all kinda blur. I know Sky (and Kathy Li) spent a chunk of time making me feel bad for having missed the panels that I missed and they didn't. I wanted to go to at least one panel that afternoon, but I was a bit drained. I'm sorry I didn't go, as I would have gotten to see a bunch of people I like, and never managed to see all Con.
Dinner was our Larry Marder night. Usually our Larry dinners are big things, where Scott is trying to introduce him to lots of people, but this was a nice small dinner, just our gang (sans Amanda who was still with her mom), Larry and Kathy Li at an Indian restaurant. The food was very good, but the evening devolved a bit at the end with us dealing with something last minute that included lots of phone calls, and a trip to an all night pharmacy. Everyone's fine, just one of those things. Mostly what it meant was that none of us got the CBLDF Amanda Palmer show, which I felt a bit guilty about, as Neil had made sure the girls were on the guest list, and was even willing to find a way to get them over there if we couldn't. Nonetheless, I think we all had a fairly good night, and were in bed at a reasonable time, which is odd for Con on Friday night, but probably for the best. And we did get to stay up hanging with Larry for two nights in a row, which is a very good thing.
I got up very early on Saturday morning to get into the center early. There was lots of confusion with where lines were to go, but eventually I figured it all out, and got in line for the panel I was most interested in. Well, not the panel, so much as the guest.
It took forever for the room to fill, there were still seats a few minutes before the panel was to start, but I was in the center of the second row, so I'm very glad I got there early. The panel was for the new show Eastwick, which is a tv show based on the book and movie (borrowing from both) of The Witches of Eastwick. The panel itself was pretty silly. First they showed a slightly cut down version of the pilot (they told us that it was not all there, and there was one or two places where it felt like we missed something, but it was most of the episode, including credits). The panel was in a one hour time slot, and since they make them end ten minutes before the next panel, that means they really only had 50 minutes. I mention this because the episode they showed us was about 35/40 minutes long. After the show was over, they introduced the creator, the director, the three actresses and Paul Gross, who is playing the Devil, and who, frankly, is the reason I was at the panel. After they introduced everyone, someone from the con came up to the moderator to inform him that there was 5 minutes left in the panel. Then they started questions.
Sadly, the talking about the show was more interesting than the episode. I will likely give it a chance more because Paul is in it than any other reason, and listening to them talk, they seem to have some cool ideas, we just didn't really see it from the first episode (that's my opinion mind you). There were a couple of cool moments, but that was it.
Of the four or five questions that there was time for, there was only one to Paul, and it was a "how's it feel to play someone bad, after playing someone so good like the mountie on due South" type of question, that I think was asked mostly so the girl asking could end with a "thank you kindly" when she was done. I don't remember his answer, it was charming, and I'm sure that people were taping the panel so it's probably YouTubeable.
For me, though, the most important part of the panel happened afterwards. When the panel was over, there was lots of picture taking, so, since I was in the front, I hung out and watched. When it was over, the whole group went behind the curtain to the exit. But this was in one of the smaller rooms, and they were exiting into the same hall we were exiting into. They (the people on the panel) were just sauntering slowly down the hall. Never let it be said that I do not seize opportunities when they arise. So, I followed them. Sped up a bit, and reached Paul just as he was finishing talking to someone. I politely said, "Mr. Gross, excuse me, but I just wanted to thank you; because of you, I am now curling." That took him by surprise, he smiled and with a chuckle, asked, "Really? How are you liking it?", so I told him I was having a blast, then someone asked him for a picture, which he took quickly, so I sheepishly asked if I could get one too. Since I didn't know how to take a picture of myself with my iPhone camera, I had to get one of the Elite guys (convention hall staff all have shirts on that say Elite, I assume it's the name of the company that operates the building, they are different from the Con people) to do it. It took a moment, and someone official tried to pull him away, but he was charming and sweet, and let me get my picture first, then he went off in one direction and I in the other. I didn't bother going to the signing later, as I didn't really care about anyone else, and I had had my moment. It would have been hard to top.
Usually, when I meet someone cool at Con, I have Scott with me, and then I get the added benefit of being the wife of someone whom they (frequently) admire. This time I was just me. Paul Gross has no idea how many of his movies I own, or how much I adore him; he has no idea that I do theatre and how much his performance in Slings and Arrows affected me. He doesn't know that I am married to someone who has likely touched his life in some way (Scott would deny this, but I would argue the point). He only knows that some crazy, overweight, oldish lady with purple hair accosted him. but I got to be a stalker fan and I had a moment. I wish, when the picture was being taken, that I hadn't said that he "made my life," that was a dorky thing to say, and I am embarrassed that I did. He didn't make my life, but he did make my Con. So, thank you Mr. Gross.
Right after that moment, I went off to find Winter and her Amanda who were cosplaying Avatar: The Last Airbender characters. Scott posted pics of them, so I won't do it here. Suffice to say they were adorable, and had a wonderful time meeting people who worked on the show. Amanda's badge got lost sometime right before I got to them, and I had to get her a new one, which took time (and me "pulling rank" which is something that Scott would have not endorsed but got the job done, though I did feel bad about doing it). Because of the time it took, I only got into the end of the "Quick Draw" panel, which Kathy Li has been trying to get me to go to forever. It looked like fun, and next year I will try harder to see it all.
When it was over, I hung out with Maggie Thompson for bit, and then we took in the beginning of the Voices in Animation panel, which was very cool, but when I got my second or third call (that I ignored) I figured it was not meant to be, and went out to make sure that the kids were all ok.
I never made it downstairs Saturday. While I was talking on the phone, Larry came by waiting for his panel, so I waited with him. I had wanted to go to it anyway. The panel was the "One-Panel Panel" and was very awesome. Douglas Wolk moderated, Larry (Marder) Charles Vess, and Michael Allred were the panelists. Hope Larson was supposed to be on the panel, but she wasn't feeling well, and had to skip it so that she was ok for her spotlight later. Scott joined me for the panel, and we sat (as we usually do) in the front row.
Evidently, almost every panel that Scott went to, he got mentioned (in fact, one of the panels that I missed, they had been talking about how important Scott's work was to them when he walked in, so he made quite the entrance). This panel was no exception. My favorite part was that Doug, Larry and Charles had all mentioned Scott, at some point, and then Mike noticed him and did a very startled, "Scott!." We haven't seen him in many many years, after the panel, when we were talking we figured it was maybe around 15 years, since we'd last seen each other! So it makes sense that it took him a little longer to notice Scott. It was fun to catch up a bit with him, though we didn't get nearly enough time to talk. I did, however, get to chat with Charles for a bit, after the panel, and that was fun.
Ok, this is getting really long, and I am only half way through Saturday. I think I will do this in two parts. So I will finish tomorrow with the rest of Saturday and Sunday. So sorry I am so long winded.
First a pic from Thursday, taken at the Flight booth. Jeff and Scott were visiting.
From left to right is Kean Soo, Kazu Kibuishi, Johane Matte (in front), Jeff Smith (back), Amy Kim Ganter (in front) and Scott (McCloud)(back). There are other Flight type people in the background, but I can't see them well enough to know who. Cameras were flying so lots of shots were taken of this group.
Sky and Kendra will gladly tell you that they had a much better Friday than I did. They went off to Hall H early in the morning and then just stayed there for hours. They saw the WB panel, which was 2.5 hours of big name stars and blockbuster movies with lots of clips. They also got to see the Disney panel that had Hayao Miyazaki and some amazing Disney people, along with clips from many movies that I am dying to see.
I got to the convention center late after having a lovely breakfast and writing my blog post. I hung out with Winter and her friend Amanda for a bit, and then realized that if we went now, maybe we could make it into the Disney panel. HA! I am such a fool. We did not. We waited in the hot sun for a long time, though. After a bit, Winter couldn't take it and went back to the hotel and Amanda and I waited the couple of hours it took to get in. We missed all of Disney but got in in time to see the panel for 9 which looks just as awesome as I thought it would.
After that fairly short panel, we decided that despite having waited two hours to get into the room, we really didn't need to stay past the one panel, so we took off. Amanda went to meet her mom to hang out with her for the rest of the day, and I went to wander the halls.
The reason I should do these reports on the day, is that I no longer have any memory of Friday afternoon, other than hanging around in the Sails Pavilion (where autographing, registering, cool air and a bunch of tables are) with Kathy Li, and Lori and Eric. Almost every day of Con I had a Mrs Fields cookie and a diet Dr. Pepper for lunch (for, I think, $6.25!) and hung out for a few hours there, so they all kinda blur. I know Sky (and Kathy Li) spent a chunk of time making me feel bad for having missed the panels that I missed and they didn't. I wanted to go to at least one panel that afternoon, but I was a bit drained. I'm sorry I didn't go, as I would have gotten to see a bunch of people I like, and never managed to see all Con.
Dinner was our Larry Marder night. Usually our Larry dinners are big things, where Scott is trying to introduce him to lots of people, but this was a nice small dinner, just our gang (sans Amanda who was still with her mom), Larry and Kathy Li at an Indian restaurant. The food was very good, but the evening devolved a bit at the end with us dealing with something last minute that included lots of phone calls, and a trip to an all night pharmacy. Everyone's fine, just one of those things. Mostly what it meant was that none of us got the CBLDF Amanda Palmer show, which I felt a bit guilty about, as Neil had made sure the girls were on the guest list, and was even willing to find a way to get them over there if we couldn't. Nonetheless, I think we all had a fairly good night, and were in bed at a reasonable time, which is odd for Con on Friday night, but probably for the best. And we did get to stay up hanging with Larry for two nights in a row, which is a very good thing.
I got up very early on Saturday morning to get into the center early. There was lots of confusion with where lines were to go, but eventually I figured it all out, and got in line for the panel I was most interested in. Well, not the panel, so much as the guest.
It took forever for the room to fill, there were still seats a few minutes before the panel was to start, but I was in the center of the second row, so I'm very glad I got there early. The panel was for the new show Eastwick, which is a tv show based on the book and movie (borrowing from both) of The Witches of Eastwick. The panel itself was pretty silly. First they showed a slightly cut down version of the pilot (they told us that it was not all there, and there was one or two places where it felt like we missed something, but it was most of the episode, including credits). The panel was in a one hour time slot, and since they make them end ten minutes before the next panel, that means they really only had 50 minutes. I mention this because the episode they showed us was about 35/40 minutes long. After the show was over, they introduced the creator, the director, the three actresses and Paul Gross, who is playing the Devil, and who, frankly, is the reason I was at the panel. After they introduced everyone, someone from the con came up to the moderator to inform him that there was 5 minutes left in the panel. Then they started questions.
Sadly, the talking about the show was more interesting than the episode. I will likely give it a chance more because Paul is in it than any other reason, and listening to them talk, they seem to have some cool ideas, we just didn't really see it from the first episode (that's my opinion mind you). There were a couple of cool moments, but that was it.
Of the four or five questions that there was time for, there was only one to Paul, and it was a "how's it feel to play someone bad, after playing someone so good like the mountie on due South" type of question, that I think was asked mostly so the girl asking could end with a "thank you kindly" when she was done. I don't remember his answer, it was charming, and I'm sure that people were taping the panel so it's probably YouTubeable.
For me, though, the most important part of the panel happened afterwards. When the panel was over, there was lots of picture taking, so, since I was in the front, I hung out and watched. When it was over, the whole group went behind the curtain to the exit. But this was in one of the smaller rooms, and they were exiting into the same hall we were exiting into. They (the people on the panel) were just sauntering slowly down the hall. Never let it be said that I do not seize opportunities when they arise. So, I followed them. Sped up a bit, and reached Paul just as he was finishing talking to someone. I politely said, "Mr. Gross, excuse me, but I just wanted to thank you; because of you, I am now curling." That took him by surprise, he smiled and with a chuckle, asked, "Really? How are you liking it?", so I told him I was having a blast, then someone asked him for a picture, which he took quickly, so I sheepishly asked if I could get one too. Since I didn't know how to take a picture of myself with my iPhone camera, I had to get one of the Elite guys (convention hall staff all have shirts on that say Elite, I assume it's the name of the company that operates the building, they are different from the Con people) to do it. It took a moment, and someone official tried to pull him away, but he was charming and sweet, and let me get my picture first, then he went off in one direction and I in the other. I didn't bother going to the signing later, as I didn't really care about anyone else, and I had had my moment. It would have been hard to top.
Usually, when I meet someone cool at Con, I have Scott with me, and then I get the added benefit of being the wife of someone whom they (frequently) admire. This time I was just me. Paul Gross has no idea how many of his movies I own, or how much I adore him; he has no idea that I do theatre and how much his performance in Slings and Arrows affected me. He doesn't know that I am married to someone who has likely touched his life in some way (Scott would deny this, but I would argue the point). He only knows that some crazy, overweight, oldish lady with purple hair accosted him. but I got to be a stalker fan and I had a moment. I wish, when the picture was being taken, that I hadn't said that he "made my life," that was a dorky thing to say, and I am embarrassed that I did. He didn't make my life, but he did make my Con. So, thank you Mr. Gross.
Right after that moment, I went off to find Winter and her Amanda who were cosplaying Avatar: The Last Airbender characters. Scott posted pics of them, so I won't do it here. Suffice to say they were adorable, and had a wonderful time meeting people who worked on the show. Amanda's badge got lost sometime right before I got to them, and I had to get her a new one, which took time (and me "pulling rank" which is something that Scott would have not endorsed but got the job done, though I did feel bad about doing it). Because of the time it took, I only got into the end of the "Quick Draw" panel, which Kathy Li has been trying to get me to go to forever. It looked like fun, and next year I will try harder to see it all.
When it was over, I hung out with Maggie Thompson for bit, and then we took in the beginning of the Voices in Animation panel, which was very cool, but when I got my second or third call (that I ignored) I figured it was not meant to be, and went out to make sure that the kids were all ok.
I never made it downstairs Saturday. While I was talking on the phone, Larry came by waiting for his panel, so I waited with him. I had wanted to go to it anyway. The panel was the "One-Panel Panel" and was very awesome. Douglas Wolk moderated, Larry (Marder) Charles Vess, and Michael Allred were the panelists. Hope Larson was supposed to be on the panel, but she wasn't feeling well, and had to skip it so that she was ok for her spotlight later. Scott joined me for the panel, and we sat (as we usually do) in the front row.
Evidently, almost every panel that Scott went to, he got mentioned (in fact, one of the panels that I missed, they had been talking about how important Scott's work was to them when he walked in, so he made quite the entrance). This panel was no exception. My favorite part was that Doug, Larry and Charles had all mentioned Scott, at some point, and then Mike noticed him and did a very startled, "Scott!." We haven't seen him in many many years, after the panel, when we were talking we figured it was maybe around 15 years, since we'd last seen each other! So it makes sense that it took him a little longer to notice Scott. It was fun to catch up a bit with him, though we didn't get nearly enough time to talk. I did, however, get to chat with Charles for a bit, after the panel, and that was fun.
Ok, this is getting really long, and I am only half way through Saturday. I think I will do this in two parts. So I will finish tomorrow with the rest of Saturday and Sunday. So sorry I am so long winded.