ORC report # 3
Below is a review of my ORC experience!
John Nobles panel was quite interesting and funny and was surprised how much I really enjoyed him. I like how he told a different perspective on old crazy Denathor. Even if he did call Faramire a “wuss”! Afterward when I was getting his autograph, I shook his hand said something stupid and inane to him probably, and he was very gracious. He asked me my name and I said Penny. He said he had just met a Penny (Auntie Nu) and his wife was named Penny as well. He goes to shake my hand again and grabs my entire hand in his, even my thumb, so he is shaking my whole hand and I just stand there like a geek getting my hand shook! A very weird feeling.
The other autographs went fine, Sean this year was friendlier. I had him sign his book which I accidentally left home last year. He too asked me my name and personalized the autograph. I had Elijah sign last years ORC pic I had taken with him and I got a pic of his doodle, quite an odd little bunny. The doodle not Elijah!
The Brunch was very nice, pretty good food which was important because we had not been eating well most of the weekend. Creation tends to keep you running from one event to another with little or no time in between to eat.
There were lots of interesting things to bid on, but nothing that really sparked my interest. I wanted to see what Billy was bringing in anyway (not that I would be able to afford anything he brought). After a short while Billy’s things arrived, a autographed blue kimono he got in Japan, a one of only 4 wooden square sake cup that he, Dom and Elijah all drank from and signed, a autographed book from The Snowman complete with his hand written notations he made, a Dom autographed blue t-shirt that Dom had wore the night before, and that old grungy gold leather jacket!! The lining was almost completely ripped out of it and it had several buttons missing, but it was Billy’s!! He said he got the jacket in New Zealand and the lining was already ripped when he bought it. Hmmm, is Billy a thrift shop shopper too I wonder? It ended up going for more than $3,000. rosamundeb,, who after winning it very generously let many people try it on, smell it and have their picture taken in it, including me!
Soon Billy is announced and he comes in and poses for us all! After he gets his food, he sits at he table next to me and I get a wonderful view if him. That man eats like a bird, he only got some small pieces of fruit for breakfast, and in Pittsburgh he only had a few appetizers on his plate. After his wee meal, he strolls up to where the items for auction are. After a while I decide to see what he is up to and I find he is describing a brief bit about each item he brought, which I got most of on video.
Then he started making the rounds to each table. He was a sweetie and spent quite a bit of time at each one. My devious plan to lure him in the chair next to me worked! I put a napkin on the back of the chair with the words “Reserved for Billy” on it! HA! He was quite cute and talkative and we all had a chance for a chat. A girl at our table gave him some gifts; one was a new leather thong for his necklace, which then made him produce his Greenstone for us all from under his shirt! Another girl had him chat on the phone with a friend, which he said he was not supposed to do. So he whispered the entire convo with her! Quite a sexy thing having him sit next to me whispering, I can tell you! He then spots a cute little stain about the size of a dime on his pants, right on his thigh next to me and says to me “Oh well, what can you do?” I somehow was talking to him about the auction items and told him I was hoping he would have brought the pink knickers. He said he DOES have them, so maybe next time! EEEEP! Gonna start saving for that baby now!
Then his handler goes to take the gifts he has been collecting from each table, I only remember seeing a small stuffed dog, a pencil with a Canadian Flag eraser and a wind up penguin toy, but there was more. Billy goes to hand them to the guy and he drops the penguin on the floor. I bend down and put my head under the table right next to Billy’s knee to recover it for him. *G* I could have bitten him!
One of the girls asked him if he can speak any Gaelic or Glasgwegian. He says he switches the channel when any shows on TV are in Gaelic, but he offered us a challenge. He wanted to see if we can understand a Glasgwegian sentence. The sentence is “I am going to get my messages.” I thought maybe it meant getting mail from the post, a few more ideas were thrown in, all wrong. So Billy told us it means “going shopping.” But that term is mainly used by the older folk and it is a term used only in Glasgow.
Billy’s panel, I am sure will be covered by most of fandom who was there, so I am going to mainly just do my perspective and for my memories. I was chiefly in charge of trying to take decent pictures, which I failed miserably at. Not sure why when almost all my Elijah/Sean ones turned out quite well. The only thing I can think was I was using a 10x zoom and Billy moved around almost constantly, the man seems almost hyper on stage. Whereas Sean and Elijah sat or stood almost completely still their whole time. So I am counting on the others to post their great Billy pics!
The highlight for me was when Billy turned around and looked at himself in the giant screen and played with his right ass cheek! I nearly died! He did this for several moments, squeezing his cheek, slowly lifting the flap from his back pants pocket suggestively, softly touching himself! Holy hell! The audience was losing their minds! Then he would stand on the edge of the stage to answer questions and put one hand on the rail and lift his leg up and rest it on the lower rail too. It was quite distracting to say the least.
He starts out “Welcome to Pippin in Pasadena!” and said that he was “quite enjoying this!” He ponders his microphone the large size and how they can also be quite small. So he then asks “Can everything be shrunk and work the same? I guess not.”
He mentions that he favorite place in Scotland is the West coast of Scotland, it has caves that he wants to paint someday.
When asked about his CD, he said he was getting closer. Week after next he is recording, but he doesn’t know if he will put it up for sale. But that he is working on a couple of films this year. He does not want to talk about it because sometimes it does not work out.
When asked what instrument he can play he mentioned the bass, guitar, drums and wished he had learned to play the piano. He advises all 3 year olds to learn it!
His best prank was the Tig on Elijah. “He is just too easy and trusting!”
He was also asked how he got his neck to pulse on that scene with Gandalf. He said he does not have that kind of body control. But he cried when he first read that scene.
When asked what it takes to win his heart, chocolate, not chocolate ice cream. He likes Chocolate and he likes ice cream, just not chocolate ice cream. Anything with nuts, but not walnuts! He said that attraction is biological; you can’t help who you fall in love with. The way she makes me feel, you just fall in love.
Mentions that he does hate cinnamon, and that is the first thing he smalls when he comes into LAX. He talked about going to Six (sounded like he said Sex!) Flags and getting sick after having cinnamon toast for breakfast. That may have had something to do with it he said.
His fav Beatles song is “Something” and “Across the Universe” and most everything by George Harrison. I then remembered that he was George in that Abby Road picture they re-created. Hmmm…
Hi best friend on the set was of course Dom, and Elijah and Orlando. Coming out of Moria was his fav location, so beautiful and quiet and just a few people were up there.
His fav costume was his Gondorian uniform. He said he could walk around the set kick Viggo, knock him off his horse.
He played in a band at school when he was 14, says he has 2 of the guys are still playing with him now. Everyone said “Awwww” he was not sure that was Aww worthy, but one of them does have a kitten!
When the Creation woman gave him a signal that he had 5 minutes left, he thought she was waving at him! He waved back! Then after 5 minutes she made a T with her arms to show Time out. He said “Yes, I would like some tea and two biscuits.”
His fav movies are Peter Sellers, Star Wars and Laural and Hardy. Loves comedies.
At the end, the same woman hands him a pen which also confused him for a moment. They start to play LOTR music, very slow and serious sounding. He slowly walks across the stage with his head down. Stops in the center, and sighs, and continues to the other side to sign the banner.
We wait to get our autographs and are quite near the end. Miranda looked lovely and seemed tired. I got her autograph, took her picture and moved on. I look over and see Billy talking on his cell and I hear him say to the girl whose picture he is signing “Elijah says Hi!” So cool, he was talking to Lij! He called Elijah “mate”!
When it is my turn, I have him sign the Pittsburgh picture of us and I ask him when he can sign the posters. Since we are so close to the end, he asks me if I can wait. I of course say “sure!” and we wait off to the side for him.
When he comes over after a short while, he seems very happy with the posters and I show him the letter from the girls who made them saying how much they love him too. He liked that quite a bit! :D he ends up signing 10 of the 12 posters and wanted to take one of the “normal ones” for himself! So I have 10 posters to put on Ebay for charity now. YAY!
I did manage to talk with him about his band a bit and asked him if they have a name yet, and he said they can’t agree on one yet. I also asked him if he would sing Lilac Wine on his CD and he said that he probably would. So I asked what kind of songs they did mostly and he said rock and funk. He said a guy in his band is a big funk fan.
After the con, and I get the autographs, Brenna and I decide to go to the WWS concert. We had a bit of trouble getting a shuttle from the hotel due to a drunk who was dropped off. But that is another very weird story!
So we get in the shuttle and Sarah and her twin sister, Lauren get in too! Cool! Such sweet girls! So then the driver gets lost, but he finally gets us there and we walk in and the first thing I see is a large window with Elijah standing right in from of the stage surrounded by other fans about 12 feet away from us. He appears to just be another fan himself. He has the most intent, serious, deadsexy look on his face as he is watching Shox sing. Every now and then he would take a picture of him as well. But I cannot get over the look on his face. That man is so beautiful in person. So I grab Brenna’s hand and I squeeze us inside. Once in we are close enough that I can manage a few shots of Elijah and the band. I was attempting to get even closer when Brenna said that Dom was behind us. I said “Where is Billy?” and she said “There too!” And sure enough, there was Billy standing with Dom right behind us in the corner about 6 feet away. Dom was looking quite serious as well watching WWS. Billy was partially covered as he was against the wall behind a big burly guy and Dom. When the show was over, I turned around and saw Billy and Dom laughing and talking to each other. SO SWEEEEEET to see them together again (and in love).
Then Elijah starts making his way out and as he gets to the door way he turns toward Dom and Billy and screams “BIIIIILLLLLYY!” in a real high pitched voice. Then Dom and Billy start making there was out to a small covered type patio to join Elijah. Brenna has time to talk to Dom for a few moments. He mentions that he has quit smoking and he invites her to continue the convo outside. So we also squeeze our way out. Shox and Guy were out there too. I saw Elijah hug Billy, I believe it was the first time he had seen Billy that evening. That is assuming that Dom and Elijah had been there waiting for Billy to finish at the con. Dom took a real cute picture of Billy and Elijah with their arms around each other and both making silly happy faces. And I heard Dom say in a squeely high pitched voice what I imagine was mimicking a fangirl voice, “Oh can I take your picture?”
No Evie, Ali or Pam, so it looked like a boy’s night out and they were behaving very well! The boys did not stay very long after that and Brenna heard Elijah ask Billy and Dom if they wanted to go to his house. I did get a small amount of time saying hello again to Billy. He asked if I was having fun and I told him I was working on it. I also had a small silly conversation with Dom, but Elijah was gone. I got to hug Shox and shake Guy’s hand and tell them both how much I enjoyed the show (what little I managed to see).
All in all it was a great way to end the con and evening. Last year we ended our con experience outside the hotel goofing around alone with Royd and Bruce while waiting for the cab to the airport. That night in the pub was just as much fun! My second con was just as fun as my first, and if I get to go to anymore, I will have to find another suitable fun way to wrap it up too.
Pictures in my next post!