Rise 'n Shine report - Part 1
Okay, done with the first part. Somehow I've got a feeling that this report might again get slightly long. However, I do hope I won't bore you. I've included some pics under the cut as well :)
PLEASE!!! Do not take any of my photos and post them elsewhere without asking me first!
Will spare you from the boring parts of my travel to Cologne. Suffice to say that things didn’t go without a hitch. There were small problems with both of my flights so I was very happy when I actually reached the Cologne airport on schedule and even received my luggage. That was a definite bonus as well :) The trip to town was quite uneventful but I do have to say that I noticed on the trip that the public transport system wasn’t that tourist friendly. If I hadn’t found out before hand which number trains/subways/trams I should take, I would have been totally lost. There weren’t that good signs anywhere. However, made it without getting lost even once. Was happy to notice that my hotel was right across the street from the convention hotel. When I had checked the address from a map it had looked like I might have to go around a little but luckily that wasn’t the case.
My room was pretty small but it wasn’t like I really needed much. The following days proved very well that I didn’t actually need anything special in the room. Took some things out of the luggage and hung them up before going to explore the surroundings a little. I knew I had a few hours before the registration was supposed to start. However, right in the middle of my walk it began to rain a little so I escaped to sit in the lobby of the actual convention hotel since I knew I was supposed to meet another Finnish girl there at some point.
Was sitting there and pretty much doing nothing when I saw the first familiar face. It was wren_kt7oz. We had met when I was in LA to see Gale in Orpheus Descending. We sat there talking about random stuff. A while later the Finnish girl I was supposed to meet arrived as well.
After a while we moved to stand in the queue that was already forming for the registration. At this point it was about 12:50 and the registration was supposed to start at 13:00. In the queue I met some more people who’s names were familiar from LJ, galeandrandy and bigj52. It was finally nice to connect faces to those names.
For quite a while the queue didn’t go anywhere. When it finally started moving about 13:15, it did so veeeeeeeeeery slowly. There had been only about 20-30 people in front of us in the beginning but it took forever for us to be even close to the registration point. And even when we were the first in line, it still took a while before it was my turn. That was also the moment when I found out that actually with my Loft ticket I could have just passed the whole queue. No one had told me that. Wasn’t much use then anymore. Also it had been nice talking with people so I didn’t actually mind. If I had just been standing there by myself, I would have cared more.
Around 14:15 I was finally admitted to get my ticket in order. First they told me that everything was alright and I just needed my badge and that would include everything. However, I wasn’t that trusting and wanted to see what extras they actually had for me since the list I had printed out of their ticketing system looked weird. Had to wait for a while for the guy who handled that side of things to be free. Couldn’t believe they only had one computer and one person available to check the swaps and extras. I guess that was the reason why the queue went so slowly. He gave me a list of things I had and we went through it together. In the end I noticed that there was in deed a few things missing. I showed them my email exchange with Elke which showed what stuff I was supposed to have. They added the missing stuff and printed me another badge.
Then I tried to sort out the merchandise I had bought before hand. I had reserved a teddy bear as well as a T-shirt and agreed that I would pay for them with one of the photo shoots I was supposed to have with Gale. The staff there had no idea what I was talking about. I had already seen Elke once before and introduced myself to her so I decided to look for her again to get things sorted since I was pretty sure she would at least remember what we had agreed. Found her and got the info that she had my stuff put aside somewhere and would get them in a while. Was happy with that.
Thought that everything was now clear and just walked around. Happened upon galeandrandy again and talked about random stuff once more. Then she started asking if my envelope had included all the tickets I was supposed to have. I was all "What envelope?" It came out that they were supposed to give me an envelope that would have all the tickets I’d need to get the extras I had paid for. The registration people had implied that I just needed my badge. So back to the registration I went. Took me a while to get them to understand what I wanted. Got to talk to Elke and she made sure I got my envelope. Quickly went through the contents and noticed that a few tickets were missing. They were obviously the ones that had been missing from my badge as well. Got those sorted and then also received the merchandise I had reserved at the same time.
Where're you headed
Nowhere special
I can change that
Altogether it took me 2½ hours to get everything sorted out from the moment I joined the queue to the moment when I actually had everything I had paid for. Wasn’t feeling too happy at that moment. It did seem they had some pretty serious technical issues and only one person who actually knew how to use the ticketing system. *facepalm* When I looked at the queue that was still there I had a feeling there was no way they were going to get through them all by the time the registration was supposed to end. Felt sorry for the people who were at the back of the queue.
Made plans to see a few people a bit later at the hotel and escaped to eat something and then to have a rest in my own hotel. Had to wake up way too early so was feeling a bit tired. Knew there was a long evening ahead so wanted to be well rested. Ate in the restaurant next to my hotel and had a few beers. Those beers helped to calm me down after the ordeal that had been the registration.
My plans to rest didn’t work out too well. Was feeling too restless so just ended up rolling in the bed but at least I was laying down and kept my eyes closed. About an hour before I was supposed to meet my friends, I started to get ready. Had some nice clothes planned for the evening.
When I was ready I made my way back to the convention hotel. Did get some weird looks on the way from the people I passed. And also some comments shouted after me but since I don’t speak German, don’t know what it was. I choose to believe that it was something positive *g*
From the convention hotel we took a cab to the club together with wren_kt7oz and that other Finnish girl where the first night’s party was supposed to be held. There was already some queue outside the place when we got there. Joined the end of the queue and began to wait what was going to happen. Some time later they told all Loft ticket holders to move to the head of the queue. I followed instructions and we formed our own queue. However, when they started to let people in, I noticed we were in the wrong queue anyway. However, that was easy to correct. Inside the club we got black wristbands that gave us entry to the VIP area at the club. We were also handed these cards that had the club’s name on them but no one explained what the cards were for.
We were directed straight to the VIP area and I took a seat. The area wasn’t that big and I wondered how they were going to fit all Loft and Diner ticket holders there. Saw that there was another area which was fenced off and guessed that area would be the one where the guests would be if/when they showed up.
The VIP area when it was still empty
Slowly the place filled out. The music was playing really loud and it was difficult to talk with people. When I wondered about the card we had been given someone friendly explained to me that I was supposed to use the card to pay for my drinks and then on my way out to settle the tab. The bars didn’t accept cash at all. I was told that it was quite a normal custom in Germany.
My Friday ensamble
A while later I heard by accident that the Loft ticket holders would actually be let into the other VIP area in a while after they had some more staff there to organize things. At that point I was told that was going to happen in about 30 minutes. After 40 minutes had passed, I moved to stand close to that area so that as soon as we were let in I could go and reserve myself a good seat. In the spirit of the convention was drinking JB. Did try to order for a Cosmopolitan but they didn’t have the ingredients. Found that really weird since I would have imagined they would have been told that Cosmos could be a pretty popular drink that evening.
Finally we were let into the other VIP area. Got a nice seat where I had a good view to the stage. Then we just sat there and tried to talk. It was of course quite difficult with the music being so loud. After what felt like an eternity there was loud cheering heard and it was quite easy to guess what was happening. The guests had finally arrived. Can’t remember the order they came in but they all got really loud cheers when they walked in. Since we were standing in the VIP area where they were lead, we got a pretty good view of them all. Scott came and shook hands with us which was nice. A while later Robert followed suit. The others mainly just waived generally to everyone. The last one to arrive a few minutes later than everyone else was Sharon Gless. She got a huge cheer as well and she looked quite surprised by the reception. She obviously hadn’t known to expect it. She also said hello to some people.
Unfortunately the guests arriving caused a small chaos at the VIP area as well as outside it. Everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. And way too close to the guests sometimes. I saw a few times when someone snapped a picture of Randy so close to his face that he was obviously blinded by the flash and his face showed his displeasure about what was going on. I admit that I had my camera out as well when I noticed that they weren’t telling people to not take photos but I snapped my pictures from a distance and didn’t shove cameras right at their faces. However, most people didn’t have the same thoughts. Some of the guests were practically dragged from photo to photo with different people. In the end I did snap a few pictures of the guests from afar but didn’t even try to get closer since I was afraid of being trampled by the crazies that were surrounding especially Randy. I’m sorry that I’m being a bit mean here but some people really did forget all their manners when the guests arrived. Also it scares me to think what the craziness would have been like if Gale had been there. Somehow I fear it would have been many times worse. Scott, Peter and Robert went along the VIP area for a while and tried to say hello to as many people as possible, also in the other areas.
Some pics I snapped from distance of the guests arriving
When Sharon wandered into our direction I encouraged my mind to go and talk with her a little. My intention was to tell her how bummed I was that I had just missed her play in London last year. However, with the music being so loud in the club she misheard me and thought I had said I had been in to see the play. Decided no to correct her. She mentioned they might be doing a movie based on the play which would be great. She did mention something about possibly having to do nudity if they go through with the movie idea. Asked her to pose for a picture with me as well since it seemed you were allowed to do that after all since none of the staff were telling people not to.
Me with Sharon
Not long after that we were told that they were going to make a small area of the VIP area reserved just for the guests and staff and we needed to move out of that area. It wasn’t said aloud but I have a feeling that we were removed from the area because the guests weren’t given a seconds peace with all the people mobbing them, taking pics and asking them to pose for them. If people had been a bit calmer about it, it could have been that we would have been allowed to stay in that area and get to interact with the guests peacefully. Unfortunately, that move meant that we actually had worse view to the stage and the guests than the "commoners" who had the lower tickets. Also since I had hung back because I didn’t want to mob the guests the same way as some people were doing, I didn’t get to interact with them much that night. I can of course be wrong with my guess but still I do feel like blaming the people who mobbed the guests for them being separated to their own small area.
Then the show started but no one was actually watching it since they just kept snapping pics of the guests even after they were told to turn around towards the stage. Some people obviously thought the rules weren’t for them *g* I did try to see what was going on on the stage but without much success.
It was nice watching the guests interacting with each other. Peter, Scott and Robert were obviously enjoying themselves and they kept dancing around. Of course made people to snap even more pictures of them and ignore the show that was going on. Since we had already been thrown out of the area, I snapped a few candid photos of the guests as well.
Sharon and Hal left pretty quickly. I don’t think Hal let go of his girlfriend’s (wive’s?) hand the whole time he was there. Every time he moved somewhere he pulled her with him. Randy was mainly sitting around and talking with the pretty boys from the staff. Harris did interact with people but didn’t come close to the area where we were so didn’t get to talk to him.
There were several different acts on stage. One of them was a magician who managed to rope Scott into his show. He took Scott’s coat and pretended to burn holes to it with a cigarette. Scott did look slightly worried at times. Then at one point he was asked to perform a magic blow. Of course the magician had meant that Scott should blow at his direction to pretend to put down the cigarette. Instead of doing that, however, Scott got on his knees in front of Peter who just leaned back and pushed his crotch closer. People went crazy over that. Cue a lot of cheering.
One by one the guests started leaving. I think Michelle and Thea were the next ones to leave. Scott, Peter and Robert followed them a while later. Harris and Randy stayed behind. They actually ended up staying longer than I had stamina for. We knew that we had an early wake up the following morning so at some point we called it a night with wren_kt7oz and headed towards the hotel with a cab. I made the small walk from the convention hotel to my own hotel and almost immediately went to bed. However, it did take me a while to fall asleep.
End note: Part of me understands that everyone wanted to talk with the guests when they finally showed up. However, I do feel it did ruin some of it for us since they then had their own area and didn’t interact as much anymore. It might have been good if eg. the Loft tickets would have had a small M&G with the guests before the party so that they could have gotten the first squee out of themselves and might have behaved better towards the guests when they got to the club. Of course can’t know for certain but my experiences the following night support this thought. My opinion might be an unpopular one but I have the right to have it.
Also a small comment about the party itself. It was called a Pub night but it was much closer to a Club night. When the program said Pub night I sort of expected something on the lines of what the performances in Joe’s Pub have been. This was just club music and then some performances thrown there to mix things up a little. I definitely wasn’t wearing my dancing shoes and by the end of the evening my feet were killing me. Ended up sitting on top of the seats at the VIP area since there were no other places to sit in where you could still have a view of the show.
Saturday
PLEASE!!! Do not take any of my photos and post them elsewhere without asking me first!
Will spare you from the boring parts of my travel to Cologne. Suffice to say that things didn’t go without a hitch. There were small problems with both of my flights so I was very happy when I actually reached the Cologne airport on schedule and even received my luggage. That was a definite bonus as well :) The trip to town was quite uneventful but I do have to say that I noticed on the trip that the public transport system wasn’t that tourist friendly. If I hadn’t found out before hand which number trains/subways/trams I should take, I would have been totally lost. There weren’t that good signs anywhere. However, made it without getting lost even once. Was happy to notice that my hotel was right across the street from the convention hotel. When I had checked the address from a map it had looked like I might have to go around a little but luckily that wasn’t the case.
My room was pretty small but it wasn’t like I really needed much. The following days proved very well that I didn’t actually need anything special in the room. Took some things out of the luggage and hung them up before going to explore the surroundings a little. I knew I had a few hours before the registration was supposed to start. However, right in the middle of my walk it began to rain a little so I escaped to sit in the lobby of the actual convention hotel since I knew I was supposed to meet another Finnish girl there at some point.
Was sitting there and pretty much doing nothing when I saw the first familiar face. It was wren_kt7oz. We had met when I was in LA to see Gale in Orpheus Descending. We sat there talking about random stuff. A while later the Finnish girl I was supposed to meet arrived as well.
After a while we moved to stand in the queue that was already forming for the registration. At this point it was about 12:50 and the registration was supposed to start at 13:00. In the queue I met some more people who’s names were familiar from LJ, galeandrandy and bigj52. It was finally nice to connect faces to those names.
For quite a while the queue didn’t go anywhere. When it finally started moving about 13:15, it did so veeeeeeeeeery slowly. There had been only about 20-30 people in front of us in the beginning but it took forever for us to be even close to the registration point. And even when we were the first in line, it still took a while before it was my turn. That was also the moment when I found out that actually with my Loft ticket I could have just passed the whole queue. No one had told me that. Wasn’t much use then anymore. Also it had been nice talking with people so I didn’t actually mind. If I had just been standing there by myself, I would have cared more.
Around 14:15 I was finally admitted to get my ticket in order. First they told me that everything was alright and I just needed my badge and that would include everything. However, I wasn’t that trusting and wanted to see what extras they actually had for me since the list I had printed out of their ticketing system looked weird. Had to wait for a while for the guy who handled that side of things to be free. Couldn’t believe they only had one computer and one person available to check the swaps and extras. I guess that was the reason why the queue went so slowly. He gave me a list of things I had and we went through it together. In the end I noticed that there was in deed a few things missing. I showed them my email exchange with Elke which showed what stuff I was supposed to have. They added the missing stuff and printed me another badge.
Then I tried to sort out the merchandise I had bought before hand. I had reserved a teddy bear as well as a T-shirt and agreed that I would pay for them with one of the photo shoots I was supposed to have with Gale. The staff there had no idea what I was talking about. I had already seen Elke once before and introduced myself to her so I decided to look for her again to get things sorted since I was pretty sure she would at least remember what we had agreed. Found her and got the info that she had my stuff put aside somewhere and would get them in a while. Was happy with that.
Thought that everything was now clear and just walked around. Happened upon galeandrandy again and talked about random stuff once more. Then she started asking if my envelope had included all the tickets I was supposed to have. I was all "What envelope?" It came out that they were supposed to give me an envelope that would have all the tickets I’d need to get the extras I had paid for. The registration people had implied that I just needed my badge. So back to the registration I went. Took me a while to get them to understand what I wanted. Got to talk to Elke and she made sure I got my envelope. Quickly went through the contents and noticed that a few tickets were missing. They were obviously the ones that had been missing from my badge as well. Got those sorted and then also received the merchandise I had reserved at the same time.
Where're you headed
Nowhere special
I can change that
Altogether it took me 2½ hours to get everything sorted out from the moment I joined the queue to the moment when I actually had everything I had paid for. Wasn’t feeling too happy at that moment. It did seem they had some pretty serious technical issues and only one person who actually knew how to use the ticketing system. *facepalm* When I looked at the queue that was still there I had a feeling there was no way they were going to get through them all by the time the registration was supposed to end. Felt sorry for the people who were at the back of the queue.
Made plans to see a few people a bit later at the hotel and escaped to eat something and then to have a rest in my own hotel. Had to wake up way too early so was feeling a bit tired. Knew there was a long evening ahead so wanted to be well rested. Ate in the restaurant next to my hotel and had a few beers. Those beers helped to calm me down after the ordeal that had been the registration.
My plans to rest didn’t work out too well. Was feeling too restless so just ended up rolling in the bed but at least I was laying down and kept my eyes closed. About an hour before I was supposed to meet my friends, I started to get ready. Had some nice clothes planned for the evening.
When I was ready I made my way back to the convention hotel. Did get some weird looks on the way from the people I passed. And also some comments shouted after me but since I don’t speak German, don’t know what it was. I choose to believe that it was something positive *g*
From the convention hotel we took a cab to the club together with wren_kt7oz and that other Finnish girl where the first night’s party was supposed to be held. There was already some queue outside the place when we got there. Joined the end of the queue and began to wait what was going to happen. Some time later they told all Loft ticket holders to move to the head of the queue. I followed instructions and we formed our own queue. However, when they started to let people in, I noticed we were in the wrong queue anyway. However, that was easy to correct. Inside the club we got black wristbands that gave us entry to the VIP area at the club. We were also handed these cards that had the club’s name on them but no one explained what the cards were for.
We were directed straight to the VIP area and I took a seat. The area wasn’t that big and I wondered how they were going to fit all Loft and Diner ticket holders there. Saw that there was another area which was fenced off and guessed that area would be the one where the guests would be if/when they showed up.
The VIP area when it was still empty
Slowly the place filled out. The music was playing really loud and it was difficult to talk with people. When I wondered about the card we had been given someone friendly explained to me that I was supposed to use the card to pay for my drinks and then on my way out to settle the tab. The bars didn’t accept cash at all. I was told that it was quite a normal custom in Germany.
My Friday ensamble
A while later I heard by accident that the Loft ticket holders would actually be let into the other VIP area in a while after they had some more staff there to organize things. At that point I was told that was going to happen in about 30 minutes. After 40 minutes had passed, I moved to stand close to that area so that as soon as we were let in I could go and reserve myself a good seat. In the spirit of the convention was drinking JB. Did try to order for a Cosmopolitan but they didn’t have the ingredients. Found that really weird since I would have imagined they would have been told that Cosmos could be a pretty popular drink that evening.
Finally we were let into the other VIP area. Got a nice seat where I had a good view to the stage. Then we just sat there and tried to talk. It was of course quite difficult with the music being so loud. After what felt like an eternity there was loud cheering heard and it was quite easy to guess what was happening. The guests had finally arrived. Can’t remember the order they came in but they all got really loud cheers when they walked in. Since we were standing in the VIP area where they were lead, we got a pretty good view of them all. Scott came and shook hands with us which was nice. A while later Robert followed suit. The others mainly just waived generally to everyone. The last one to arrive a few minutes later than everyone else was Sharon Gless. She got a huge cheer as well and she looked quite surprised by the reception. She obviously hadn’t known to expect it. She also said hello to some people.
Unfortunately the guests arriving caused a small chaos at the VIP area as well as outside it. Everyone was snapping pictures like crazy. And way too close to the guests sometimes. I saw a few times when someone snapped a picture of Randy so close to his face that he was obviously blinded by the flash and his face showed his displeasure about what was going on. I admit that I had my camera out as well when I noticed that they weren’t telling people to not take photos but I snapped my pictures from a distance and didn’t shove cameras right at their faces. However, most people didn’t have the same thoughts. Some of the guests were practically dragged from photo to photo with different people. In the end I did snap a few pictures of the guests from afar but didn’t even try to get closer since I was afraid of being trampled by the crazies that were surrounding especially Randy. I’m sorry that I’m being a bit mean here but some people really did forget all their manners when the guests arrived. Also it scares me to think what the craziness would have been like if Gale had been there. Somehow I fear it would have been many times worse. Scott, Peter and Robert went along the VIP area for a while and tried to say hello to as many people as possible, also in the other areas.
Some pics I snapped from distance of the guests arriving
When Sharon wandered into our direction I encouraged my mind to go and talk with her a little. My intention was to tell her how bummed I was that I had just missed her play in London last year. However, with the music being so loud in the club she misheard me and thought I had said I had been in to see the play. Decided no to correct her. She mentioned they might be doing a movie based on the play which would be great. She did mention something about possibly having to do nudity if they go through with the movie idea. Asked her to pose for a picture with me as well since it seemed you were allowed to do that after all since none of the staff were telling people not to.
Me with Sharon
Not long after that we were told that they were going to make a small area of the VIP area reserved just for the guests and staff and we needed to move out of that area. It wasn’t said aloud but I have a feeling that we were removed from the area because the guests weren’t given a seconds peace with all the people mobbing them, taking pics and asking them to pose for them. If people had been a bit calmer about it, it could have been that we would have been allowed to stay in that area and get to interact with the guests peacefully. Unfortunately, that move meant that we actually had worse view to the stage and the guests than the "commoners" who had the lower tickets. Also since I had hung back because I didn’t want to mob the guests the same way as some people were doing, I didn’t get to interact with them much that night. I can of course be wrong with my guess but still I do feel like blaming the people who mobbed the guests for them being separated to their own small area.
Then the show started but no one was actually watching it since they just kept snapping pics of the guests even after they were told to turn around towards the stage. Some people obviously thought the rules weren’t for them *g* I did try to see what was going on on the stage but without much success.
It was nice watching the guests interacting with each other. Peter, Scott and Robert were obviously enjoying themselves and they kept dancing around. Of course made people to snap even more pictures of them and ignore the show that was going on. Since we had already been thrown out of the area, I snapped a few candid photos of the guests as well.
Sharon and Hal left pretty quickly. I don’t think Hal let go of his girlfriend’s (wive’s?) hand the whole time he was there. Every time he moved somewhere he pulled her with him. Randy was mainly sitting around and talking with the pretty boys from the staff. Harris did interact with people but didn’t come close to the area where we were so didn’t get to talk to him.
There were several different acts on stage. One of them was a magician who managed to rope Scott into his show. He took Scott’s coat and pretended to burn holes to it with a cigarette. Scott did look slightly worried at times. Then at one point he was asked to perform a magic blow. Of course the magician had meant that Scott should blow at his direction to pretend to put down the cigarette. Instead of doing that, however, Scott got on his knees in front of Peter who just leaned back and pushed his crotch closer. People went crazy over that. Cue a lot of cheering.
One by one the guests started leaving. I think Michelle and Thea were the next ones to leave. Scott, Peter and Robert followed them a while later. Harris and Randy stayed behind. They actually ended up staying longer than I had stamina for. We knew that we had an early wake up the following morning so at some point we called it a night with wren_kt7oz and headed towards the hotel with a cab. I made the small walk from the convention hotel to my own hotel and almost immediately went to bed. However, it did take me a while to fall asleep.
End note: Part of me understands that everyone wanted to talk with the guests when they finally showed up. However, I do feel it did ruin some of it for us since they then had their own area and didn’t interact as much anymore. It might have been good if eg. the Loft tickets would have had a small M&G with the guests before the party so that they could have gotten the first squee out of themselves and might have behaved better towards the guests when they got to the club. Of course can’t know for certain but my experiences the following night support this thought. My opinion might be an unpopular one but I have the right to have it.
Also a small comment about the party itself. It was called a Pub night but it was much closer to a Club night. When the program said Pub night I sort of expected something on the lines of what the performances in Joe’s Pub have been. This was just club music and then some performances thrown there to mix things up a little. I definitely wasn’t wearing my dancing shoes and by the end of the evening my feet were killing me. Ended up sitting on top of the seats at the VIP area since there were no other places to sit in where you could still have a view of the show.
Saturday